Lover's Kiss Page 3

  "Jesus!" Candy breathed as the kiss developed.

  Beth wondered if she could pull Penny away. She was really enjoying herself but it wasn't like it used to be. A kiss as hot as this would have had her ready to tear off her clothes and leap on her partner before. Now it was intimate and erotic, but without the hormones racing through her body she remained in control.

  A rich male voice chuckled and said, "I was going to ask what it takes to get some service, but I think this is worth the wait."

  "I want them," a sultry female voice said. "Both of them!"

  Penny stiffened in Beth's arms. Beth held on tighter but Penny pulled away and turned to face them. She studied them for a moment. "Hunter and Tiffany. Welcome back to Paradise Lost. Can I show you to a table?"

  Hunter laughed. "You're amazing! Your self control is the stuff of legends."

  "If you kissed me like that I'd gobble you up," Tiffany said, her eyes ravaging Beth's body without apology. She snapped her teeth together for effect and then smiled. "Want to find out?"

  Beth shook her head bit her lip. Her plan to slip away with Penny had failed so badly she thought it might hurt less to stake herself out on the roof at high sun. "I'm good, thanks."

  Tiffany stepped forward, her shimmering navy blue dress clinging to her curves and sliding enough to suggest that in the right light she might be exposing herself. She lifted her hand smoothly and brushed her thumb against Beth's lip before pulling it back. "Smeared your lipstick," she said before popping her finger in her mouth and making a show of sucking it off.

  "I'm sorry," Penny said. "We were having a private conversation."

  "The customer comes first," Hunter said and earned a laugh from the seductress clinging to his arm.

  "Indeed, which is why I offered to seat you."

  "Can she seat us?" Tiffany asked and stared at Beth.

  "I—"

  "She's stayed past her scheduled time," Penny interrupted. "It's late and we're closing in a little over half an hour. I'd be happy to offer free drinks for the inconvenience."

  Beth's eyes widened. Was Penny going to slip her blood into their drinks? Would that work? From what she remembered Crystal telling her, everything about being a werewolf was in the blood. The difference was, they were still alive. Beth and Penny weren't. Well, not alive in the sense of living, breathing people.

  "Yeah, I need some fresh air," Beth said. Any other time she'd have laughed at the absurdity of it. She had a hell of a time remembering to breathe so she could talk. "I'll, uh, I'll see you later."

  "Are you okay?" Penny asked.

  Beth smiled and nodded. "I'm great. Better than great," she added. She leaned in and gave Penny a quick peck on the lips. She hesitated and then flicked her tongue out to some of the Penny's smeared lipstick. She winked at Penny before turning to Tiffany and saying, "You're right, that is good."

  She heard Tiffany gasp as she walked around the back of the bar and grabbed her coat from where Candy had taken it into the staff's small break room. She took a few minutes, replaying the scene in her head and smiling. She tried to laugh once but forgot to breathe first, causing a weak rasping noise that was somehow even funnier to her.

  Beth slipped her coat on and made her way back through the club. Candy grinned and flashed her a thumbs up on her way out. Beth paused, spotting Penny in the back checking the private booths where Peaches had disappeared some time ago. Peaches had some regular clients that would spend a lot of time, and money, on her. It also meant that from time to time she needed to be rescued from an overly arduous customer.

  Beth turned and walked towards the entrance, maintaining the illusion for the sake of the two wolves in the club. She hesitated when she heard Tiffany's voice during a lull in the music. "We've got to have her, baby. I want her and I know you do to!"

  Beth pushed herself out the door before she could hear any more. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know what, exactly, they wanted her for. A steamy night of raw animal sex or did they want to turn her into an animal just like they were.

  She shuddered and walked past Trevor with barely a nod. She didn't need the air and she didn't need to go in the front of the building instead of the elevator inside the club, but she could use some time to herself.

  Chapter 5

  Beth walked down the sidewalk outside the bars and restaurants trying to offer last call. Crowds of partiers, most of them drunk or well on their way, got in her way. She moved through them, sidestepping or avoiding the worst while she ignored the rest. She wasn't here for them, she was here for the isolation. Surrounded by dozens of people, she knew she was alone.

  Her thoughts traveled back to Penny and the two werewolves. Penny must have known what they were, she kept trying to keep Beth away from them. Protecting her. Penny knew her past, she'd spent an entire night telling Penny her life story before her mentor offered her the gift of eternal life.

  And then Beth turned her down.

  She'd been scared and confused. The story of her life, really. Beth was always scared and confused. She wanted what she couldn't have. The same as everybody, except she never seemed to learn from it. She just got more and more bitter every time what she thought she wanted was snatched away from her. Stupid toys and friends as a kid, then Crystal, her best friend that she'd have been willing to do anything for.

  She followed that up with the first guy that showed an interest in her only wanting to use her to get to Crystal, and he used her and abused her, but it almost worked. After him came Colin, the next guy she was willing to give a chance tricked her into getting drunk and horny and tried to let his frat brothers rape her. Penny saved her from that.

  And that was when she knew she had to stop wanting the next best thing. She had to grab onto something and go with it, for once. Waiting for something better only made it worse every time. Crystal wouldn't let her be a werewolf with her pack, she'd said she was protecting her because it was dangerous. Beth wondered if that was it, or if it was because she wanted to be the special one.

  Now it didn't matter, Beth found something else. Something better, as far as she was concerned. So Crystal could turn into a wolf. Big deal. She could turn into anything she wanted. Well, someday, when she learned how.

  Crystal would live for a long time, maybe even hundreds of years. Beth would live thousands of years, if not more. Penny was over two thousand years old and she was magnificent. Strong, beautiful, intelligent, and powerful. Beth couldn't think of anyone better to spend the rest of her life with.

  Her thoughts were stopped as she rounded a corner and saw the flow of pedestrians curving and bending around something. She walked closer and saw a man bent over a puddle of vomit. A woman stood beside him talking to two police officers.

  Beth froze. She stared, her lips parted in a breathless gasp. The cop nearest to her turned his head in slow motion. She watched as his profile against the slush covered street became recognizable. He kept turning, sensing her unusual lack of movement. Beth knew who he was before he saw her. She knew he couldn't see her, she was dead. He'd been there at the end. Her last hurrah. Her one and only love in life that could have meant something real.

  Beth fled. She slipped back and darted between people, moving so fast that they cried out in surprise or just stopped and stared as a blur moved past them. She rounded the corner and ducked into an alley. She glanced around, afraid John would follow her, and saw a fire escape twenty feet up the side of the building on her right.

  Beth glanced back over her shoulder. People were walking by the alley but no one did more than glance down it. She looked up again and bit her lip. She nodded, she could do this. She'd been making herself stronger and learning how to do amazing tricks. Things she'd never thought possible until she met Penny.

  She crouched down, bending her knees, and then leapt at the wall of the building on her left. Her left hand and foot hit the bricks at the same time and she pushed against them, springing away from it and catching the bottom rail of the fire escape in
her right hand. She swung on it and had to kick out to stop herself from slamming into the building. She grabbed on with her left hand and pulled herself up, hand over hand, until she rolled over the railing and landed on all fours on the walkway between stairs.

  Beth stayed still and silent, watching the alley opening until she saw John step into view. He stopped and glanced down the alley. The badge on his black police jacket reflected a passing light from a car. His hesitation was over a minute later. He turned and hurried on, trying to find her.

  Beth relaxed and rolled to sit on the fire escape. Had he seen her, or had he seen someone running away? Was her secret safe, or did he think she was still alive. That their doomed romance might still live on.

  She'd vowed that she wanted him. She was going to make him hers. Not a slave forced to love her by the magic of her blood, but an equal. A peer. A vampire, like her. Even though Penny said it was forbidden for a male vampire to be made. They'd all been hunted and killed hundreds of years ago. Not because the women were man-hating lesbians, but because the men couldn't behave. They weren't careful enough to keep humans from learning about them and hunting them down. As powerful as they were, they were helpless during the day.

  Beth rolled back to her knees and climbed to her feet. She'd kept herself busy so she couldn't dwell on her past. Penny hadn't given her time to make any mistakes like trying to visit her old friends or family again either. At least not since she tried the one time before she died.

  So what was different now? Did seeing John change things? And if it did, why?

  Beth drew in a full breath and held it so long she would have passed out if her body still craved fresh air. She let it out, a reminder that she was different now. Changed. Better. She was immortal. She didn't need air and she didn't need a stupid cop that put everything aside to treat her like the most important thing in the world for one magical night.

  Beth snarled and leapt over the rail of the walkway. She landed off balance and slammed her palms and knees into the pavement. She heard bones crack and break and felt both arms jerk and give out before her chin hit the concrete.

  Beth rolled onto her side and tried to grimace. Her jaw was broken and she felt teeth rolling around in her mouth. She tasted traces of her own blood as she tried to straighten her legs. Her left knee had shattered and refused to budge.

  Beth stared at the wall and squeezed her eyes shut. She was stunned and in shock, but not from pain. Her body was broken, shattered really, but there was no pain. She felt the breaks and torn flesh, but it felt like it was someone else's body and not hers. Just like cutting her palm with the bottle cap, she experienced the sensation without the crippling agony.

  Beth pushed her fears away and concentrated on her body. She had to close her eyes to focus on one injury after another, starting with her mouth and shifting her jaw back in place and healing the scrapes in her chin and cheek. Next came her right hand and then her left. Her muscles and tendons restored themselves and pushed the bones back in place where they could reattach themselves and mend together.

  Beth kept going, fixing her shattered knee and then encouraging her heart to beat to push fresh blood through her body and continue restoring the damages her clumsy landing had caused. Penny had claimed she could drop from nearly a hundred feet. Beth had broken herself at only twenty. She had a lot to learn.

  She opened her eyes and blinked a few times. The blinking didn't help, everything remained dark. Beth rolled onto her belly and looked around, fighting through the stiffness that plagued her. She'd fixed her broken bones but they still felt numb and swollen. Her eyes fell on the mouth of the alley where the road was lit by streetlights and cars. What really lit up the entrance were the people walking by.

  Beth's vision throbbed. She snarled and felt her fangs lengthen. She moved her tongue to trace them, excited at how sharp and vicious they felt. She felt something else and twisted her tongue until she could get the hard object on top of it. She reached up and plucked it from her tongue and glanced at it. One of her teeth from the fall. She'd regrown them all without realizing one had been busted free.

  Beth rose on her hands and knees and put a foot down. She put the toes of one foot on the ground, her eyes focused on the people walking by. She was thirsty, the act of healing herself had consumed what she'd drank earlier. She wanted— no, needed— to feed. She rose up and lifted her other foot, only to lose her balance and stumbled backwards. She tumbled and fell, slamming her shoulder onto the ground and bouncing her head on the pavement.

  Beth scowled and flipped herself up onto her side so she could look down. Whatever had tripped her was about to have its throat ripped out!

  Instead of some tiny gremlin that was cackling at the joke it had pulled, she saw the heel on her right boot had snapped off. She looked around but the alley was too dark for her to find the broken heel anywhere. Disgusted, she reached down and yanked the broken boot off and then did the same with the undamaged one. She scowled before tossing them on the ground. Ruining them was almost worse than smashing her face into the pavement, she'd really liked those boots!

  A scuff against pavement and a hushed gasp drew Beth's attention. She glared down the dark alley and saw the glow of life coming from a pile of refuse. Bags and scattered trash hid the person huddled inside of it.

  Beth crept forward, her hands and toes spread to let her crawl forward and stay close to the ground. Her jacket fell open and she felt her breasts fall free with the pull of gravity. She didn't care, what mattered was the glow of life down the alley. Whoever it was had seen her. They knew she'd fallen and was fine. Drunk or drugged up, whoever it was couldn't share what they'd seen.

  The fact that Beth felt a thirst almost as powerful as the night she had risen from the grave only made it easier.

  Chapter 6

  Beth rose to her feet again and dusted herself off. She felt different. Almost loose. She looked down and saw that not only was her jacket torn and dirty, but her shirt had come untied. The red and white plaid top was torn at the seams and had some specks of her blood on it. She retied it under her breasts and tucked everything back in place. The failing seams left her breasts unsupported and ready to fall out with the slightest jiggle. She shook her head and pulled her jacket around her.

  She stared down at the body of the dead junky. The heroin in the dead girl's veins was now in Beth's body. She laughed at her own joke. The blood in the dead girl's veins was in another dead girl's veins. She giggled and stumbled when she tried to take a step. That's right, her boots were gone. She'd thrown them away. She shrugged. Not a big deal, she could buy more.

  The problem was the girl. Or the girl's body. The two holes in her neck were an obvious cause of death. Obvious, and terrifying. Beth giggled at the thought of John or another cop doing an examination. It would be funny to watch. Funny, but Penny would be pissed. That was the kind of thing that the male vampires had been killed for.

  Beth sighed. She had to take care of the body. The problem was she couldn't fly. Couldn't even jump worth a damn. Dragging a dead homeless girl through the crowded streets would be funny, but also something that would draw attention.

  She frowned. She had to get going, why did this dumb bitch have to make things hard for her? She frowned and looked around the alley. It was brighter now, not from light but because she'd fed. She'd learned to match her heartbeat to the beat of her victim's, spreading the blood through her body with each swallow. It felt romantic, one person giving their life so that she might live.

  Now the romance was over. The stupid bitch was dead weight. Literally. Beth scowled and looked back down at her. She couldn't move her and dump her in the river or find a place to burn her up. That meant she needed to do something else. But what? There were no doors on the buildings. A few windows, but those were twenty feet up on the fire escape. She could reach it on her own, but not carrying another person.

  That left one option. She had to hide the cause of death. An autopsy would reveal the woman had b
een drained dry, but would anyone spend the money finding cause of death on a homeless drug addict? She probably had a record for theft and prostitution, on top of drug charges. Beth nodded. The cops wouldn't think twice about her. They probably figured it was just a matter of time until her body showed up.

  So how could she hide the wound and keep people from wondering what happened? Two small holes, near each other but not close enough. Beth frowned. She was immortal, damn it! Why should a stupid problem like this slow her down?

  Beth tilted her head and smiled. It was vicious and gruesome, but it would hide the wound. She lifted her hand and stared at it, willing her fingernails to lengthen and grow stronger. She twisted her hand, admiring the sharp points, and then had them darken to black, the same as she'd seen Penny's at one time. She grinned. It was a good look on her.

  Beth grabbed the dead girl's greasy hair and lifted her off the ground. She wrapped her other hand around her throat and then pushed her razor edged nails into the pliant flesh. She twisted and sawed, tearing the flesh until she'd reduced the corpse's throat to ribbons of near bloodless flesh. She crushed her spine and severed the ligaments and muscles holding it together, letting the body fall to a heap.

  Beth lifted the head and stared into the unseeing eyes. She tilted her head and then giggled. Stupid druggy. She tossed the head on the pile of trash and reached down to wipe the gore off her hand on the corpse's dirty clothes. She stood and looked both ways, making sure that both ends of the alley were unoccupied. She smiled and glanced up. The crowds were growing smaller, but walking without shoes would draw attention, even if her new home was only a few blocks away. She needed to not be seen.

  Beth leapt up, grabbing the walkway again and flipping herself up and onto it with ease now that she knew how. She jogged up the stairs, winding back and forth until she'd reached the fourth floor. The roof was another ten feet up, but that was an easy jump. She landed on her feet and slipped on the ice and snow covering the roof. She caught herself on the lip at the edge and straightened before peering over the side. A twenty foot drop had broken bones. A fifty plus foot drop would leave her helpless.