Scarlet Masquerade (14 page)

Selene threw the phone into the trunk, watching it shatter into pieces. She grabbed the back of her car to steady herself as she felt her body react from the flood of energy from her feeding. Twisting her head around, she tried to pop the kink out of her neck. She hadn’t expected the attack from Brax and, because of that, he had been able to stab her easily. She reached up and rubbed the stab wound in her shoulder. She could feel it starting to heal already, but it would take a few days to completely heal and a few weeks for her to be back to her normal fighting self. The adrenaline Brax had in his blood had given her even more energy than she’d expected. It was rare that she could feed off a vampire, very rare, and one who was in full transition was even rarer. He had fought her with everything he had but, like most men, he had underestimated her.
As usual
, she thought pulling the tarp off the other guy she had stashed in her trunk.

“Geez, what am I gonna do with two dead vampires?” she said to the dead body in the trunk. “You got any ideas buddy? No, I don’t suppose you do.” Slamming the trunk shut, she started to walk up the hill. “They don’t pay me enough to deal with this shit. Maybe I need to find a new line of work.” Snapping the tarp in front of her to open it up, she mumbled to herself again, “Naw, then I might have to get a real job or something. What would I do with all my free time?”

Continuing up the hill, something caught her eye. She acted as if she hadn’t seen the movement. Laying the tarp down by the dead body, she made her way back down around to the movement in the brush and then stopped.

“Hello A.J.” Selene saw A.J. visibly flinch and then stand-up. “Look, don’t do anything stupid. I’m not in the mood for it.” Selene raised her hands and shrugged her shoulders, “But if you want to go a round or two, I think I can manage it.”

“Hello Selene. It’s been a while.” A.J. raised her hands in a defensive posture in response to Selene’s. Selene’s body still vibrated with energy and knew A.J. could feel it flowing off her in waves. Obviously, A.J. had seen the whole thing; it all made sense to Selene now. She had felt another vampire in the area, but was too busy with her fellow combatant to look around.

“So, let me guess. You’re either the one that hired me, or you’re the one that wanted this lady dead. Which one is it?”

“I hired you.”

Selene shook her head and swung her fist at A.J. connecting with her jaw. The punch sent A.J. reeling backwards.

“I owe you that for the last time we met. Remember?” Selene rubbed her knuckles and eyed A.J. as she picked herself up from the ground.

“Yeah, I remember.” A.J. rubbed her jaw and spit blood on the ground. A.J. remembered their shared past as if it were yesterday. A woman. It was always a woman with them. But this time, A.J. got the girl and Selene didn’t. She had known that this one was special to Selene. In fact, Selene had told A.J. she wanted to bond with her, making their relationship permanent. Bonding occurred when two vampires, who loved each other, fed until orgasming. Biting while having sex wasn’t unusual between vampires. But add love and it was considered a connection that outlived time. It was a bond that could rarely be broken unless…well, A.J. didn’t want to think what it took to break that connection. The woman had seduced A.J., but she didn’t have the heart at the time to tell Selene the truth. So, she let Selene think she had run the woman off, telling Selene the woman had gotten cold feet when she found out what Selene intended.

“Good, I would hate to have to remind you what an asshole you are. Now, if you don’t mind, why don’t you explain what the fuck is going on around here?” Selene said, pointing to the dead body just up the hill from them.

“Okay.” Pointing to Brax’s body, “He’s mine, or was supposed to be working for me. The guy in the trunk, I have no idea. Your guess is as good as mine and her…” Pointing up to house, “She’s none of your business.”

Selene rubbed her chin looking over at Brax. “Did he know I was working for you?” Selene watched A.J.’s eyes. She could tell when someone was lying. It’s what she did and if A.J. was lying, Selene would kill her. Because that meant she wanted Selene dead, too, and had sent Brax to do the job.

“Nope. Brax was supposed to be watching the dead guy in your trunk. He was AWOL and we couldn’t find him. Brax wasn’t returning Kevin’s phone calls, nothing.”

“And?” The question hung in the air like wet laundry.

“And you stumbled on spooky dude over there…” A.J. pointed in the direction of Selene’s car, “and he…” pointing to Brax, “jumps you after you kill spooky dude.”

“I saw someone drive by this guy’s car earlier and they looked like they were writing down his license plate, or I assumed they were writing down his license plate. But maybe it was this guy...” Selene pointed at Brax, “making sure he...” Selene pointed to the trunk, “was doing his job and killing the girl.” Selene pointed to the house on the hill.

“I don’t know.”

Selene watched as a puzzled look made its way across A.J.’s face, which was then replaced with frustration.

“Okay, well we need to get out of here before someone sees us and starts asking questions. I have two dead bodies that I have to dispose of so.” Selene motioned with her head towards Brax. As A.J. turned to leave, Selene grabbed her arm. “By the way, where does Kevin fit into all of this?”

“I don’t know. Nowhere I hope, but I can’t be sure now.”

Selene looked at the confused woman and wondered if she was worried for her friend or if A.J. really knew what was going on. A.J. never struck Selene as an idiot, but time had a way of changing people, even vampires, and rarely for the good.

“Well, while you try and figure that out, I need to clean up this mess.” Selene tossed the tarp over Brax and rolled him in it. Dragging him down the hill, she looked back at A.J. “I’ll stay on the girl. Call me if anything changes.”

“We need to talk, Selene.”

“I know.” Selene knew that they would eventually need to clear the air, but she wasn’t ready to deal with A.J. now, if ever. Some business just needed to stay unfinished.

Clarissa gently slid the door open and squeezed through the small opening. She didn’t want to draw any attention from the vampire that was left standing. After placing the gun on the counter, she rubbed her hands on her sweats. She could still smell the blood, the scent lingering in her nostrils. She had come so close to joining the woman in her feeding frenzy. It wasn’t just any woman, though. It was Selene. She hadn’t seen Selene in years. Their last meeting ended in a night of passionate love making on a couch in a non-descript bondage club, in a city she didn’t even remember. That was a different time in her life and she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back there again. How ironic that she had just relived that very memory earlier, and here Selene was killing not one, but two men in her own backyard. But why?

Clarissa washed her hands and braced herself against the sink. Her body pulsed with tension, her skin tingled, and tendrils of pleasure washed through her body. Her sweats felt like they were rubbing her nipples and clit raw, so she stripped and tossed the blood stained clothes in the garbage. Without thinking she ran her hand down her body and touched herself, first one stroke and then another, and another and suddenly she was moaning as she orgasmed.

“Fuck, Fuck.” Clarissa’s body vibrated as she climaxed again. The memory of Selene’s body as she arched over her victim tonight clouded Clarissa’s thoughts. The moonlight reflecting off Selene’s hard body, muscled arms and shoulders exuded power, and danger. Remembering how Selene’s body throbbed with sexual energy as she fed had almost caused Clarissa to join her, uninvited. The blood pounding in Clarissa’s body pushed her closer and closer to another orgasm and finally pushed Clarissa over the edge and she relished the long, hard orgasm. Clarissa retreated into her thoughts trying to control herself once again, but clearly the night’s events had taken their toll. She relinquished her hold on reality long enough to lose herself in the moment. It had been so long since Clarissa had a strong lover and tonight reminded her of why she didn’t mingle with her own kind. She could easily cross over to the dark side, her multiple orgasms and urge to feed tonight a violent reminder of that.

Clarissa’s body jerked one last time releasing the breath she was holding. She laid her head against the wall and slid down sitting motionless on the floor.
How had things spiraled so out of control
? she asked herself. It was a rhetorical question and she knew the answer. She had tried to be normal, human. Her slow change over the years, from a night stalker to a day walker allowed her to fit in. She had changed her eating habits, she changed the way she lived and she had assimilated to the point where she had lost her edge.
“You are who you are, Clarissa.” She remembered, De Marcus telling her one day when she tried to open a window in their home in England.

“You will never be free of me and you will never walk in the daylight anymore. So you should just accept your fate and get on with your life,” he said, shutting the curtains and smiling at her.

“What life? This isn’t a life. What you have given me is a walking death.” Clarissa covered her face, the slight burns from the sunlight reminding her of her hopeless plight.

“Please don’t be so dramatic, my dear. It just takes time to adjust. Look at me. I’ve been alive one hundred and fifty years and I’ve seen civilizations fade into the memories of time. Some gradually and some with the fervor of a spectacular bonfire.”

“You aren’t alive, you live off of life.” Clarissa suddenly felt her neck squeezed, gasping for breath.

“You’re an ungrateful bitch. Enjoy the gift, I have given you. As easily as it was given, it can be taken away just as easily.”

Clarissa rubbed her throat at the harsh memory of her torturer. De Marcus still had an effect on her. She wondered when she would be able to relegate her past to exactly that, the past. Perhaps he was right. She was who she was, a vampire. Standing, the smell of blood lingered around her. She needed to shower and try to get the stench of the night off of her and she needed to think about what her next move would be. The hot water coursed over her body as she lingered under the shower, trying to clear her mind. She felt numb thinking about what could have happened tonight. She was clearly the object of whoever Selene had killed. She kept nothing of value at the house, she didn’t know people in power and she held no one’s secrets. So why was she being targeted for death? Turning the water off, she toweled herself dry and slipped into clean sweats. Something didn’t make sense.

Suddenly, Clarissa started to panic. She wasn’t safe here anymore. She needed to get out of the house and fast. Clarissa ran to her room and pulled two suitcases out and started packing them. When she had finished with them she packed up her school work into her briefcase and tossed the bags into her car. Clarissa looked around her house and wondered if she would ever be back.

Looking at the mementos, pictures and things she had collected over the years, a realization started to set in. She could run or she could stand up and fight and protect herself. She hadn’t lived this long being a victim. That was what was wrong with society today. Everyone was a victim. She had lived for centuries and had faced other vampires and survived. Hell, she had survived De Marcus, and, if she could survive him, she could survive anything. Seekers were everywhere. She needed to tune in and maybe, just maybe, this was her wake-up call. At least she wanted to look at it that way.

No, she wasn’t going to run. She was going to find out what the hell was going on around her and face it head on. Trying to replay the night’s events, she tried to remember what Selene had said on the phone when her feeding had been interrupted. Her brain had been in such a fog because of the thirst she felt watching Selene. What had she said?
Think, think, think.

Now she remembered,
“Look that isn’t my problem. He jumped me and before I could ask him any questions he ended up dead. I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when you explain this to your boss. By the way, this is gonna cost you more. I wasn’t hired to kill anyone, just protect the girl.”

Selene was there to protect her? From what? From whom?
Selene referred to me as “the girl”, so does that mean Selene doesn’t know it’s me? Obviously, or she would have said my name.
Pulling her suitcases back out of the car, she headed back into the house and picked up the phone. She knew what she wanted to do, but she knew what she needed to do too. She punched in the number she knew by heart and waited.

“Hey, it’s me. I need a favor….”

A.J. sat motionless in her car watching Selene dump Brax’s body in the trunk, joining the other assassin’s lifeless corpse. A quick wave over her shoulder at A.J. and Selene was gone. A cool breeze drifted through the open window, finally clearing the odor of stale blood from her nostrils. The beast coiled in her waiting to be released. Its tendrils ached throughout her body. She had watched Clarissa as Selene fed and she knew Clarissa would need to be released, too. Would she hunt or had she learned to control it as A.J. had? Tonight the ache was like no other time in her life. She burned with both hatred and hunger. She had no way to exorcise either option so she popped two more pills. Another deep breath and A.J. knew what she had to do, confront Kevin. Someone in her organization was a traitor and she only had one person close enough that knew her secrets.

Strumming her fingers on the steering wheel, A.J.’s heart battled with her mind. Her heart wanted to go to Clarissa. To feel Clarissa’s soft skin as it slid against her naked body. She wanted to immerse herself in Clarissa’s essence and relish their reconnection. But A.J.’s head wanted revenge. Not the sweet savory taste of revenge, served cold and heartless, but the bitter, spicy type that made you relinquish yourself to that darkness. A.J. knew that kind of revenge would slice a piece of her soul as payment to the devil that waited for his remittance. Trying to calm herself, she slowly realized that maybe right now wasn’t the time to confront Kevin. If he knew she suspected him, he might run and then she wouldn’t know who was trying to kill Clarissa. No, she needed a plan and with the masquerade ball only a week away she needed to keep Clarissa safe and Kevin close. A.J. hit Kevin’s number on speed dial and tapped her ear piece.