The Wild Side: Urban Fantasy with an Erotic Edge Read Free Page A

anger under control before she looked up. “I can see why you asked.”
    “And?”
    “I’ll look into it.”
    He had a small scar on his inner thigh where she’d gotten a bit enthusiastic and a puckered ridge across one shoulder where she’d shot him, accidentally, in another life. He met her gaze, not fearlessly because Mike Celluci was no fool, but in the full and certain knowledge that he was in no personal danger. “A man died, Vicki, I’ll be looking into it too. You share what you find.”
    Oh, she knew what she was going to find and she knew where to find it.
    Mike sighed as the edge of the table cracked under her grip. He lifted his arm, then let it fall back, clearly reconsidering reaching out for her. “Vicki?”
    “When I know something . . .” He wouldn’t believe a smile so she didn’t try one. “. . . you’ll know something.”
    * * *
    Mike sat at the kitchen table listening to Vicki’s car pull out of the driveway, his hands curled into fists. She’d always been a terrible liar. She was better now than she used to be, but then her condition gave her plenty of opportunity to practice.
    Sometimes she forgot that while he couldn’t hear blood moving under the delicate skin of her wrist, he wasn’t deaf. He’d heard the crash when she opened the packing case. Heard the way she moved as she showered and dressed. She’d been furious from the moment the sunset had wakened her. Furious and trying to hide it from him.
    Why?
    She’d have told him if she’d known there was another vampire hunting in her territory.
    What else could have gotten her so angry?
    Vicki could have . . . was capable of . . .
    He forced his hands flat on the kitchen table.
    . . . was physically capable of doing the damage, all the damage, Droege Shipping and its employees had suffered last night.
    * * *
    Millennium Ten opened at nine. At eight-forty, Vicki ripped the lock off the back door, snarled, “Forget you saw me,” at the young man stacking cases of empties at the bottom of the stairs in the back hall, and made her way down the corridor to Lorelei’s dressing room. She could hear a familiar heartbeat, smell the sea, and had reached nearly full speed when she charged through the open door.
    Only to be stopped by a single note that hung in the air like an invisible wall.
    “Why so angry, Nightwalker? Didn’t you enjoy yourself?” Lorelei sat in the chair combing her hair. Same position she’d been sitting in the night before. Same comb. Same languid movements. The cuffs of her jeans were wet, the denim dark against the pale skin of her feet.
    Vicki threw herself against the barrier. The seawater smell was stronger up against it. “A man died!”
    “And you’re surprised?” Her brows rose. “Oh, don’t tell me; you’re one of those good vampires. Tortured. Tormented. Misunderstood. Sparkly. You’d have given that young man in the club last night a choice.”
    “He’d made his choice,” Vicki growled, her eyes silvering.
    “Did he know what he was choosing?” She laughed, unaffected by the Hunger as Vicki struggled to get closer. “You killed because that’s what you are. All I sent you to do was destroy the office.”
    “Of Droege Shipping.”
    “Yes.”
    “What’s your connection to a shipping company?”
    “It’s a long story.”
    “I’ve got time.”
    She paused the constant motion of the comb. “I suppose you do. Well, all right then. A long, long time ago . . .”
    “How long?” Vicki demanded. She knew she should just let the woman talk but anger made it hard to keep silent.
    Lorelei met Vicki’s gaze and Vicki found herself sinking into blue-green depths. Deeper. Deeper. This sea was confined but no less deadly for all of that. Anyone else would have drowned, but Vicki had the Hunger to pull her back to the surface.
    “That long?”
    “That long.” Lorelei’s grip tightened on the comb, her knuckles white. “Year after year after interminable year.” She drew in a deep breath