All Hallows Eve: A Krewe of Hunters Novella (1001 Dark Nights) Read Free

them.
     

Chapter 1
    “There?” Sam Hall asked.
    “Oh, yes. Yes. Touch me there. Right there,” Jenna Duffy moaned in return.
    “Right here? I can touch and touch and—”
    “Ohhhh yes. That’s it.”
    Jenna rolled over and looked up at him, eyes soft, smile beautiful. He’d been straddled over her spine carefully balancing his weight as he worked his magic. Now he towered over her front.
    “I think,” she said, reaching up to stroke his cheek, her eyes filled with wonder, “that you missed your calling. The hell with the law. The hell with the FBI. You could have been an amazing masseuse. My shoulders feel so much better.”
    “You shouldn’t spend so many hours reading without taking a break and walking around.”
    Jenna nodded. “I don’t know how Angela does it. She has such an eye for the cases and requests, when we’re really needed. I’ve read them over and over.”
    She was referring to Special Agent Angela Hawkins, case facilitator for the Krewe of Hunters at their main offices—and wife of Jackson Crow, their acting field director. Both he and Jenna loved their work. When they weren’t in the field, he maintained his bar licensing in several states by working Krewe legal matters. Jenna assisted Angela in reading between the lines, determining where the team was most needed. The requests for Krewe help were growing in number; and while new agents came on all the time, it was still a race to keep up.
    “We have tomorrow,” he said. “Then vacation.”
    “Sun, sea, and tanning oils for exotic massages,” Jenna said, laughing.
    He stared down into her eyes—greener than the richest forest—and marveled at the way he loved her. Her hair, a deep and blazing red, spread out across the pillows in waves. It seemed incredible that this remarkable, beautiful, sensual woman could feel the same for him. That they could lie together so naturally, that laughter could combine with passion, and that they could live and work together.
    And still be closer each year.
    He smiled and kissed her.
    Her fingers ran down his spine with a teasing caress, finding his midriff, then venturing lower.
    “What are you thinking about?” she asked.
    He groaned softly.
    “Pardon?”
    “Sex. Here, now,” he said. “The perfect place. In bed—both of us on it.”
    She frowned.
    “And you weren’t?”
    She smiled and caressed him in one of her most erotic and sensual ways. “There?” she whispered teasingly.
    “Oh, yes. Right there.”
    “I can touch and touch and touch.”
    He kissed her lips, then her collarbone and her breast, moving lower. He loved her so much, truly loved her, and every time they made love, it seemed sweeter and sweeter. Her skin was satin, her hair the fall of silk, and her movements—
    Those were the best.
    They slept after, entangled in one another’s arms, and he thought about heading to Atlantis and how he’d planned to ask her then if they shouldn’t begin to think about a wedding in the near future.
    What a beautiful night.
    But in the morning everything changed.
    With the phone call.
     
    * * * *
     
    A wickedly big and warty witch atop a broomstick rode above a sign that advertised “Best Halloween Ball Bash in the Nor’East.”
    New England. Halloween.
    Nothing went better together.
    And the holiday decorations would just increase as they neared Salem, Massachusetts, the days ticking off closer and closer to the hallowed day. Costume shops abounded, as if they’d sprouted from seeds of alien pods tossed down by a space ship. But people everywhere liked to party.
    Unfortunately, this was not going to be a vacation in the Bahamas. Sadly, Sam thought about the tickets he and Jenna had changed and the rooms in the fantasy casino they’d canceled. He didn’t mind. If Jenna needed to do something else, that was fine. As long as he was with her.
    And he was.
    “So,” he said, frowning slightly as he glanced over at Jenna before looking back at the road. “Talk to me. We’re