Coming to rest in the alley behind the hotel, he reversed the transformation and eagerly shifted himself back into his normal vampire shape. The sensation of reforming into the physical was as unpleasant for him as the opposite had been, but not exactly painful, because he couldn’t experience pain. He was too old for that, except, of course, the kind of pain that would come from having his head chopped off or his heart extracted. If he could get through the night without having those experiences, he was probably going to be pain-free.
Standing in the alley, na**d, in the midst of a once-in-a-century blizzard, he searched for the temporarily-stunned bodies of the bloodsuckerswho’d dived out of the window after him. In the short time it had taken him to descend as fog, the snow had covered over the motionless stooges. Since Malveaux hadn’t paid much attention to the storm, discovering that the snow had already hidden the vampires was an unexpected bonus.
In fact, as he noticed the faintest lightening of the eastern sky, it occurred to him that the pitiful oafs probably wouldn’t survive to terrorize the city another night. The sun would exact revenge enough, even if it was obscured by storm clouds.
And if he didn’t want to become a pile of ashes in the snow himself, he’d better get his na**d ass under cover, and he’d be damned if he’d leave without his car. His leather was one thing, but his silver baby was quite another.
Normally, he wouldn’t parade around nude in downtownDetroit , but the blizzard had driven everyone indoors, and if he did happen to encounter anyone, he’d just suggest that they’d never seen him. He had to admit that his ability to control minds was one aspect of being a vampire he really loved. Oh, the joy of never arguing with anyone.
He jogged up the alley toward the hotel’s main entrance, assuming the parking garage would be close.
Reaching the corner of the hotel, he stopped to make sure the street was empty. Finding that was the case, he stepped out onto the snow-buried sidewalk and navigated toward the driveway into the hotel’s underground area.
Sensing only one stream of human thoughts and emotions nearby, he moved with vampire speed into the parking garage and found the human attendant sleeping in his booth. He sent a suggestion to deepen the man’s sleep and found his keys immediately on a hook near the drooling human’s head. His were the only keys with a little coffin dangling from the ring.
Pressing the button to raise the gate at the exit,Malveaux left the man snoozing in the warm booth and headed toward his Jaguar. If he hadn’t had so much of Tempest’s delicious blood earlier, he might have been tempted to slake his thirst with the man, but drinking any more would be for habit’s sake rather than out of true hunger. He didn’t have any more time to waste; he could feel the sun rising.
Clicking the alarm off, he unlocked his door and pressed the button on his key ring to start the car.
Sliding into the soft leather seat, he revved the motor, put the car in first gear, and rolled out into the pounding blizzard.
* * * * *
He’d lied to Tempest about his residence being far away.
Rolling silently along the empty streets, he reached his temporary accommodations within moments of leaving the hotel’s parking garage. His employer thoughtMalveaux would appreciate the unique isolation of the “housing” the organization provided. He was right.
Malveauxturned down one ofDetroit ’s oldest streets, one of the few remaining paved in actual bricks. A hundred years ago,St. Clair Boulevard was the main thoroughfare in the wealthiest part of the city. Then, majestic gated mansions lined the street instead of the graffiti fouled ruins crumbling behind rusty fences he observed today.
One of the dilapidated buildings shared land withDetroit ’s oldest cemetery, which had fallen into the same apathetic disrepair as the rest of the area.
Turning into the entryway ofWoodwardCemetery ,Malveaux drove through the permanently open wrought iron gates, and cruised silently through the untouched snow, heading toward the most desolate portion of the graveyard. He almost wished the myth about vampires and holy ground was true, because having his body burst into flames would definitely make for a memorable evening.
As the Jaguar rolled through the deep snow, its windshield wipers barely able to keep pace with the constant build-up ofwinter’s best,Malveaux let the otherworldly energy of the cemetery trickle through his aura. The feeling was almost intoxicating.So much death. He’d never taken the time to sort out the various aspects he’d always sensed around graveyards, but he had to admit to a fascination with the things that whispered to him in the darkness.Things that touched him with icy spirit fingers. Graveyards were often magnets for others of his kind, as well as the mysterious beings -- embodied and otherwise --
who’d remained, addicted to the scent of death.
Malveauxpumped the brakes, slowing the car as it neared the end of the road. Looming directly ahead was a large gothic-style building, still in remarkably good shape. It had been built more than a century ago as a memorial to a wealthy man’s mistress. Seems she’d died under mysterious circumstances.
Studying the structure,Malveaux suspected the historical landmark had escaped the fate of the homes he’d passed earlier, both because it belonged to his short-tempered employer and because this particular graveyard was considered to be the most haunted in theMidwest . Even the most ardent juvenile delinquents had a healthy respect for superstition.
Picking up the remote door opener he’d left in the passenger’s seat,Malveaux clicked the button and waited while a large square of stone slid to the right, leaving a car-sized opening in the structure. He drove through the unofficial garage door and followed the dirt driveway that angled sharply down, ending in an underground chamber, deep beneath the house above.
As he descended, he clicked the device again and heard the heavy stone slide back across the entrance, blocking his hideaway from view. Another click turned on the soft electric lights that masqueraded as torches spaced regularly along the stone walls.
Although perfect for his needs, he knew his employer hadn’t created this place withMalveaux in mind.
Even without his enhanced senses, he’d have been able to smell the various illegal items that had been stored here over the years: alcohol during Prohibition, guns, drugs, and the subtle scent of blood, no doubt a byproduct of some of the nasty little activities inner city humans liked to participate in. He smiled, thinking how considerate his employer was to provide his favorite fragrance.
He reached his hand toward the door handle, and his fingers brushed against his cock, which was still thick and rigid, pointing northward like a fleshy compass. In all the excitement withQuade’s henchmen, he’d forgotten about the state of his erection, temporarily becoming too distracted to obsess about Tempest and his missed opportunity. He stared down at his belligerently unyielding c*ck and knew he’d have to take matters in hand if he was to get any day rest at all. He’d learned that mast**bation couldn’t do more than take the edge off his need, but he’d settle for even a brief respite from the tension.
Stepping out of the car, he sensed the sun break free of the horizon, and even though he was underground and safe from the solar rays, he felt the familiar pressure building, rather like a weight on his chest. Moving quickly to the steel-reinforced door leading to his sleeping quarters, he entered, locked it from the inside, and stalked toward the extra-large silver coffin resting on a pedestal against the far wall.
The coffin was either evidence of his employer’s sense of humor, or his ignorance.Malveaux would have preferred a comfortable bed, but had no problem with his current accommodations.
After making sure the coffin lid was still upright as he’d left it, and the interior of his resting place was to his liking, he climbed in. Settling himself, he pulled the lid down with one hand and grasped his c*ck in the other. He smiled, thinking of his evening with Tempest, and what was yet to come. No pun intended.
Chapter Six
Tempest gasped, and her eyes flew open. Something had startled her out of a pleasant, very arousing dream. She didn’t know if she’d heard, felt or imagined whatever had jolted her into wakefulness, but now that she was awake, where the hell was she?
Wherever she was, it was pitch black, and it smelled like fresh paint.
Instinctively, she tried to lift her arms to investigate, and realized they were pinned against her sides, held in place by some kind of soft fabric in which she was apparently wrapped.
“What the f**k?”
She wiggled furiously, shifting from side to side, trying to dislodge whatever was holding her prisoner, and managed to kick her legs free. More jostling loosened what she now realized was a blanket and released her arms. She sat up slowly, not sure how much space she had above her body, and tentatively stretched her arms out to explore the darkness.
Her left hand quickly connected with a wall, and she leaned to the right, reaching to discover if there was another wall on the other side. There was. Pushing the blanket completely off her na**d body, she felt along the floor, sliding her hand over the carpeting.
She took a deep breath and ran her hands over her skin. “Okay, Tempest. We don’t know what the f**k’s going on here, but we seem to be in one piece.” She’d gotten in the habit of talking to herself out loud during her lonely childhood. Whenever scary things happened, she’d imagine all the parts of herself gathering in a group, waiting for the fearless part to take charge. Fearless hadn’t let them down yet.
Her eyes had finally adjusted to the dark, and she noticed a crack of light at the bottom of the wall to her left. She shifted onto her side and rested her head on the floor near the thin line of brightness shining from a light source outside the wall.
“Fuckin’ A!This is a goddamn door!”
She remained on the floor for a few seconds, listening for any sounds that would give her a clue about her situation, but there was only silence. She rose up onto her knees and moved her hands along the flat surface until she found what she was looking for: a doorknob. “Yes!” She grabbed the knob, ready to burst out of the weird cubbyholesomebody’d put her in, then she stopped, plopping her ass down on her heels.
“Hmmm. Wait.Let’s just think about this. The last thing I remember is being with the pretty boy in the fancy hotel. We’d been screwing…no wait, we’d finished screwing, andMalveaux’d gotten up for some reason. Yeah, there was somebody at the door.” She grasped the sides of her head in her hands. “Why the hell am I so fuzzy? I don’t remember drinking anything tonight. Did the bastard drug me?” She shook her head, hoping to clear the fog. “I said he was lying about being in the mob, and then -- f**k! Then what? What’s the matter with my brain?” She shook her head again.
Tempest had seen enough mob and gang violence in her life to know that just being safe for the moment didn’t mean dick. She had no illusions about false security. Anything -- and anyone -- could be outside that door, but she couldn’t just sit there. She’d learned long ago that the fantasy of a knight in shining armor coming to rescue her was a pitiful hallucination. Her imaginary savior had obviously gotten horse-jacked by the local Bloods andCrips and was now ameth addict, selling teenage girls into white slavery to get his fix. Nobody had ever rescued her. She was definitely on her own.
“Suck it up, Tempest.”
Sliding her hand along the wood, she found the doorknob again and turned it gently, pushing against the door to create a sliver of eyeball space. There didn’t seem to be any activity nearby, so she opened the door enough to stick her head out and scan the area.
She was in a bedroom. Was it the bedroom she’d had sex withMalveaux in? If it was, why was the bed made? She looked around. No. It wasn’t the same room. The furniture was arranged differently.
Opposite. Then she remembered;Malveaux had rented a suite. Somehow she’d ended up in the spare room, in africkin ’ closet.
As she opened the door wider to crawl out, a burst of cold air shocked her. She dragged the blanket out of the closet, wrapped it around herself and stood, listening. Tiptoeing toward the doorway to the well lit living room area, she felt the temperature plunge. She pulled the blanket tighter around her. Her teeth chattered.
She’d seen a lot of things in her thirty years, but nothing quite matched the scene in front of her.
The room was trashed. A huge portion of one of the floor-to-ceiling windows was missing, shards of glass glistened around the floor, like a sharp-edged minefield. The blizzard still raged outside and had found its way inside. Snow angled in through the gaping hole, the wind sculpting snow drifts throughout the room.
The stark white of the snow was shot through with vibrant reds and pinks. She recognized the look and smell of blood and stood stunned. Blood was everywhere. It pooled on the expensive furniture and on the white carpet. It dripped down the gold etched wallpaper like a Stephen King horror movie.
It looked like a bomb had gone off, or something had crashed through the window. Had she slept through a terrorist attack? Was there a mob hit? Had they checked into the Overlook Hotel?
Her mind was spinning. Where the f**k wasMalveaux ? How did she get into the closet? Why was she still alive? Why didn’t the hotel send anybody up? Surely the place wasn’t that soundproofed?
She could either stand there, freezing, trying to make sense of the madness in the room, or she could get the hell out. Questions could wait. Being street smart had kept her alive so far. There was no reason to abandon her instincts now. She was a believer in luck. Not wanting to jinx it, she ran into the bedroom she’d shared with the sex stud, and searched for her clothes.Malveaux’s leather pants and boots were still there.
She stood, shaking her head and staring down at what she thought wereMalveaux’s last remains.