Wanted: A Blood Courtesans Novel (11 page)

Corynne

“You look funny.” I tugged on the sleeve of Nash’s polo shirt. Paired with jeans and sneakers, he looked so young. He never dressed this casually. But tonight he had one of his biggest missions in his almost seven hundred years on Earth, and he had to look the part.

I’d brought him to meet my family.

“They’ll never take me seriously like this.” He looked his outfit when he got out of the car, shaking his legs like he could magically make his dress pants appear.

“They’d freak out if I brought home a guy in a suit. In this outfit, you look like a college kid.” I straightened his collar and snuck a kiss. The motion lights had come on in the yard, and everyone would be out here any second. If my heart still beat, it would be pounding with excitement. But I should probably make formal introductions before my parents caught me with my tongue in a vampire’s mouth. “Talk to them with that sexy accent, and they’ll buy whatever you’re selling.”

“What about you?” He stole the kiss back.

“Always.”

My transformation wasn’t easy. It took me almost a week to awaken. Sierra and Olivia told me that Nash hadn’t left my side while the changes took hold. He was the first thing I saw when I woke, even more beautiful in this realm than he’d been when I was human. And he tasted even sweeter, like his favorite red wine. My mouth watered just thinking about it.

“Don’t worry. They’ll love you,” I whispered before we reached the walkway. I wished I could take my own advice, not to worry. A thousand things could go wrong tonight. My parents’ house seemed so huge now. Before it had just been home, and I’d never appreciated what I had because I wasn’t able to see it through the misery.

“Andrea!” My little sister bounded toward us, leaping as soon as she had a good shot at me. “You’re here!”

I lifted her high in the air, trying to push back the tears. “I am. I missed you so much.” Screw the tears, I let them fall, giving her a huge hug. She was in her pajamas, and I knew she got to stay up past her bedtime to see us.

“Is that your boyfriend?” she whispered loudly in my ear, in that super smooth way that only a seven-year-old could pull off.

“He is.” I wouldn’t get technical with her. He was my Lord and I was his Lady, but for this visit, boyfriend worked just fine. “Addie, this is Nash.”

“Hey, Addie. I brought you a present.” Yeah, the accent worked every time. Nash offered her the little stuffed bunny he’d held by his side, and she squealed as she accepted it.

Before she got down she showed us her newly missing teeth, and bragged about her haul from the tooth fairy. She ran toward the house, yelling to my parents that I was here. They waited for us on the porch, and I was so nervous. Kind of like when I’d come home after something bad happened that I had no explanation for.

Now that I saw them, I knew this was the exact opposite. Only good things could would come of this. I wanted my parents to be a part of my new life with Nash.

Mom hugged me tight. “You look beautiful,” she whispered in my hair.

I pulled away from her. “Is it that different?” I hadn’t seen anyone from my old life since I transformed. I hadn’t been ready to be around people right away, and the coven had taken extra precautions with me since so many horrible things had happened around me as a human. Nash’s theory held so far. The negative energy had yet to follow me to the afterlife.

Almost every night, we lay together in front of the fire, and Nash would ask me what I was thinking. Good or bad, I told him everything. It helped, not having to hold everything inside anymore. It never had a chance to fester and infect everything in its reach with its poison.

Mom shook her head, her eyes shining with tears. They were happy ones, just like mine. “You were always beautiful, silly. The difference is you’re happy, so now everyone can actually see it.”

I glanced over at Nash, who was talking to Dad. At the coven, authority dripped from everything Nash did. But this was a first for him. I loved getting a chance to introduce him to something new. He’d never had to meet his girlfriend’s parents before.

“Come on, let’s get in the house.” Mom ushered us all off the porch and into the living room. It was so good to be home. I thought I’d never be here again.

I sunk into the couch, Nash sat beside me, and Addie was in my lap immediately.

“What’s the coven like?” Mom asked as soon as she sat down. “All the years we made up stories about what happened inside there. I’m dying to know.”

“I’m still learning my new skills, so that’s how I spend most of my nights.” Talking wasn’t the only thing we did to harness my power. We worked on the metaphysical stuff too. The little things I could still do—move objects and light fires. I had yet to master more than that. Driving by the forest tonight was a reminder that we needed to do everything we could to keep our coven safe.

Mom’s eyes were huge, and she leaned forward. “Like what?”

“Eating, for one.” I didn’t elaborate. No need to tell her about coven feuds on my first visit.

Addie wrinkled her nose. “Do you drink blood?” I nodded. “Eewwww.”

Dad turned to Nash. “How long have you been at the…with the…”

Nash laughed. “I’ve been in New York City since the Second World War. I was turned into a vampire in 1349.” That was met with silence. “I was twenty-five at the time.”

My parents looked at each other, and I knew they wanted to protest. I could already hear it.
He’s too old for you.
I wanted to laugh. Age didn’t matter in this realm. I didn’t blame them, I was having a hard time, too—seeing my old life through a new lens. Even though I was thrilled to be here, I didn’t miss who I used to be.

“What do you do? At the…in the…coven.” Dad was an attorney and I’d never seen him at a loss for words before, even when I was at my absolute worst.

“I protect the interests of the coven, from both humans and other covens.” Nash took the inquisition in stride. “We’d had problems with the vampires in the forest behind your house for decades.”

“What’s happening with the investigation?” One of my assignments tonight was to use glamour. My parents and Addie would know they’d seen me and that I was safe, but they wouldn’t tell anyone about our visit. Time would be the only measure if it worked. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, Andrea Davis was still missing. And for the most part, it was true.

“Things have quieted, on all fronts.” Mom frowned. “The case went cold. You vanished without a trace. The police assume you didn’t make it out of the woods that first night. We thought the same thing.” Her voice broke on the last part.

“It’s best that way,” Nash said softly. “You know the truth, and the forest coven is on the police’s radar. They have brought humans to the forest. Cor… Andrea was lucky she wasn’t captured by them. As long as the police have an eye on them, others will be kept safe.”

“They’re trying to connect other missing person’s cases to the forest,” Dad added. “But so far, they haven’t found anything.”

“They probably won’t.” Nash was pleased with this information. I could read his emotions, I hadn’t worked up to his thoughts yet. “Andrea is safe with us, I can assure you that.” When he said
Andrea
, I had a hard time remembering he was talking about me.

“Can we come visit you?” Mom asked. “I’d love to see where you and Nash live.”

“It’s probably better that we come here.” Only human courtesans were allowed in the building. Her face fell, but she didn’t fight it.

Addie yawned in my lap, one of those huge ones little kids did when they were fighting the inevitable.

Mom didn’t miss it. “Time for someone to go to bed.”

“No!” Addie protested, sitting straight up, blinking rapidly. But she couldn’t hold off the next yawn. I followed her lead, vampires weren’t immune to yawning when someone else did. “I want to see Andrea.”

“I have an idea.” I tugged on her ponytail. “How about I read you a story?”

“I’d take her up on it, Addie,” Dad said. “We don’t know the next time she’ll be able to come visit.”

“Okay.” Addie was reluctant, but she slid off my lap.

I followed her upstairs, standing in my old bedroom while she brushed what teeth she had left. I’d done the best I could with this place, but it wasn’t me. It never was. I’d found the place I belonged.

“Ready?” Addie appeared in the doorway.

“Did you pick a book?” She nodded. “Okay, get into bed and I’ll read it to you.”

“He’s cute,” Addie said when she settled under her blankets. Tonight her new bunny joined her favorite teddy bear. I tried not to laugh. Nash was a lot of things, but cute wasn’t one of them. To my little sister, cute was the equivalent to
sexy as sin
.

“He is.” I looked down at the book. She’d picked one with a princess who moved into her new castle. We both knew the story by heart. I read to her until she couldn’t keep her eyes open.

“Andrea.” She could barely get the word out, she was so sleepy. “What’s it really like to be a vampire?”

I put the book down and kissed her forehead. I didn’t want to make it sound too good; Addie still had a chance at a happy, normal life. And now so didn’t I. “It’s knowing that no one can ever hurt you.”

She nodded, satisfied with that answer, and drifted off to sleep, clutching her new bunny with a smile on her face. This time, it didn’t break my heart to leave her.

Thank you!

I hope you loved Nash and Corynne’s story! There’s a lot more to this shadow world of vampires and blood courtesans. Don’t miss the rest of the Blood Courtesans collection!

Available May 24
Michelle Fox Reborn

Available June 7
Gwen Knight
Marked
Kim Faulks Bitten

Available June 28
Rebecca Rivard Ensnared
Ever Coming Needed

Available July 12
Selena Kitt Hooked

Visit
www.bloodcourtesans.com
for more information!

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If you’d like to read more of my vampires, keep reading for the first chapter of Because the Night, which is book one in The Night Songs Collection. We’re headed to Las Vegas for a little sex, blood, and rock n’ roll—enjoy the trip!

Because the Night Chapter One

Everywhere I looked along the Las Vegas Strip, Tristan’s eyes smoldered back at me. On billboards, taxi toppers, and the T-shirts of devoted fans on their way to the Sin City Vampire Club to see him play in Immortal Dilemma. All those women hoped to get a little closer to him, to fulfill their fantasies.

Seeing Tristan like this, larger than life, made it too easy to forget he’d walked out of my life to become the rock star. Tonight, I set out find out why.

As soon as I walked into the Alta Vista hotel with my cousin, Keisha, I knew this was so much more than it seemed on TV. The sleek silver and purple lobby buzzed with anticipation. Groups of girls decked out in black baby doll dresses and combat boots clogged the walkways, giggling and screaming. I knew how they felt. Just being here made everything inside me jump and tingle.

Venomtini bars and Immortal Dilemma slot machines dotted the walkway leading to The Sin City Vampire Club. Keisha and I held hands not to get separated in the crowd.

“You must be so excited, Callie!”

“I’m nervous.” Excited, nauseated—you name it, I felt it.

“Why?”

“I just don’t want to be disappointed.”

So many more people had already staked out their place in the ticket line at the box office. Were we even going to get in? The crowd inside the theater roared, and I was dying to know what I was missing.

“Two tickets, please.”

“Sorry, this window is for online orders only. Tonight’s show is sold out. All the shows sell out weeks in advance.” Seriously? And to make it worse, this woman gave approximately zero fucks that she pretty much just ruined my vacation.

“No thanks.” Now what?

“Told you.” Keisha never had high hopes for this plan. She put her arm around me as I deflated. “We’ll figure this out.” Everyone else in the room seemed to be having the time of their life.

“Ladies!” a man called out. I turned toward him, raising an eyebrow.

“Do you need tickets?” he asked hopefully. He was a skinny black guy with a baseball cap and an oversized plaid jacket. He looked as out of place as we did here.

I brightened. “We do.”

“Eighty each.”

“Can’t you do better than that? The show’s about to start.” Even in this time of crisis, Keisha could never resist negotiating.

He checked the time on his cell phone. “Alright. Sixty each. They’re usually a hundred, but you ladies are cute and the show is going to start soon. I’ve got to get rid of these things.”

“We’ll take them.” I pulled three twenties from my wallet, and Keisha did the same.

He pocketed the money and handed over the tickets. “Here you go. Where you ladies from?”

“Here.”

Keisha’s eyes widened but she didn’t correct me.

“Don’t you know what kind of show this is?” He raised an eyebrow at me. I didn’t look like the rest of the girls here in my eyelet tank top and tie dyed skirt. “You know you have to be twenty-one to get in, right?” This was the first time I had a chance to try out the license someone had left behind at my mother’s restaurant. If someone looked at it quickly, they might think it was me.

“Thanks. We’ve got it all under control.” I assured him—and myself—as we walked away.

“Nice work!” Keisha high fived me.

My hands trembled as I examined the ticket in my hand. I walked straight into some lady and muttered an apology. I couldn’t believe I was here.

The usher glanced at my ID, ripped my ticket, and stepped aside.

We were in.

A group of girls next to us jumped up and down and squealed. I was doing the same thing on the inside.

The Sin City Vampire Club looked like a modernized Victorian theater. A giant chandelier twinkled above a grand staircase. Fans perched on red velvet Victorian couches and chairs, ornate silver metalwork hung on the dark wood walls, alternating with large gruesome paintings of sacrificial rituals or something like that. Built in curios housed skulls and jars full of gross things suspended in goo. Tinny, haunting music from an antique Victrola piped in over the PA system. We headed upstairs to our seats. An off white and faded red striped curtain hid the stage.

I’d never expected to see so many velvet and lace jackets and gauzy tutu skirts in one place. Some wore fangs, others had their faces painted like skeletons, and still others had fake blood dripping from their mouths.

Keisha started talking to the girls next to us, a dark-haired girl with too much black makeup with her perfectly put together red-headed friend. “Have been to the show before?”

“We come all the time,” the redhead gushed. “First time here?”

Keisha nodded, her head on a swivel. This was so not her thing. She’d rather be out dancing. “It is.”

“The TV show does it no justice. It’s like pure sex.” The redhead licked her lips.

Some fans considered their attraction to the band to be a paranormal connection they referred to as Bloodlust, but I never believed it. They liked the music, the guys were hot. They could hide behind all the supernatural garbage they wanted to try to justify their obsession, but they couldn’t feel what I felt. After all, Tristan was the first guy I ever kissed.

A ballerina came on to the stage with no fanfare. The curtain didn’t rise and the lights didn’t dim.

She moved so delicately, she could have been dancing on a cloud. Her severe bun had been powdered, and her ribs showed through the plain white leotard. As she spun around, trapeze artists flipped above her. Two other performers peddled on tricycles with giant front wheels. The music became more and more frenzied and the spotlights pulsed and strobed on each performer.

So entranced by the ballerina, I didn’t notice the man step from the shadows until the music stopped. The other performers had disappeared. With one arm clamped around the ballerina’s waist, he pulled her head back to the side, exposing her neck. She held still, graceful, even under siege. Then, almost too quickly for me to see, he pressed his mouth to her neck until her body went limp.

The house lights fell and the crowd went wild. Everyone around me rose to their feet, screaming and crying, jumping up and down. Emotion pulsed and throbbed through the room like the lights overhead.

The beat of the drums ripped through room like fireworks. Heat exploded through the theater, burning my skin even back in these crappy seats. The rest of the band rose up through the floor on giant pedestals, and the whole place shook with the crowd’s screaming.

Tristan commanded the left side of the stage. His long, dark hair flowed free, and he’d painted his face in some sort of elaborate skeleton design that was almost pretty. Under the guitar he wore a red fuzzy coat, open, no shirt underneath, and black shiny pants that must have been poured around the shape of his body. Standing on the pedestal, he played his guitar with his head tipped back, his eyes closed, swaying to the beat. Eerie, peaceful, yet somehow still beautiful, drenched in red light.

The pedestals lowered and Tristan sprang onto the stage. Roaming like a predator and whipping his hair around, he teased the fans by leaning over them with his guitar but staying just out of reach. He smiled wide, showing those horrible, horrible fangs. I hated that part of his costume.

I forced myself to tear my eyes away from Tristan. The singer strutted around the stage, his spiky hair sticking out above old fashioned goggles. He danced with the burlesque dancers on the riser, singing to them and running his fingers down their bare, bloody arms. They shimmied in front of huge screens playing old horror movies. The bassist painted himself silver, and he moved like a robot.

All the songs all sounded the same to me. As much as I tried to like them, Immortal Dilemma just wasn’t my thing. Too heavy. Tristan was my thing. When the singer stopped and hoisted his microphone stand over the audience, the crowd screamed out every word.

A single, red spotlight framed Tristan as he began his guitar solo. He shed his jacket and an audible gasp escaped from the audience. A sleeve of brightly colored tattoos decorated his left arm. That was new. I wanted to trace my finger along each line, to understand its story.

I needed more. So much more.

He plucked and pushed the guitar strings, almost making it cry. A hush fell over the crowd when his solo came to its finish. He walked up to the microphone and paused.

“I’ve waited so long to see you again.”

I swear that’s what he said, even with the echo
again…again...again…
rolled through the theater like a wave. The crowd swooned. I couldn’t breathe. My imagination had to be playing tricks on me. There was no way he could know I was here. Impossible.

Keisha grabbed my arm so hard she bruised it. She heard it, too.

It had to be a coincidence.

The rest of the band came back out for the encore. I stood there in my Tristan-induced daze until the band took its final bow.

“What did you think?” the dark haired girl asked, jarring me from my trance.

“It was amazing.” My voice sounded as far away as the rest of me was.

“You girls should totally come hang out with us.” Her friend grabbed my hand, way too familiar. “We’re headed to an after party. There will be all sorts of hot vampire guys there.”

“You really think they’re vampires?” Keisha barely got the words out without laughing.

“We know they are.”

“Okay.” Keisha turned to me and rolled her eyes.

“I think that sounds great.” I needed to move fast to make my plan work. Whether or not the hot guys were really vampires, these girls might know how I could find Tristan.

“Are you sure, Callie? You don’t want to stick around here?” Keisha didn’t seem convinced.

“Why would we want to hang around with a bunch of tourists?” I extended my hand to our new friends. “I’m Callie, and this is my cousin Keisha.”

“I’m Amanda.” The redhead squeezed my hand again. “And this is Janelle.”

“When you say hot vampire guys,” I ignored Keisha elbowing me in the ribs. “Do you mean Immortal Dilemma will be there?”

I mean, how many
vampires
could there possible be?

“Yeah, Callie’s hoping to spend some quality time with Tristan,” Keisha added, now it was my turn to elbow her.

Both Janelle and Amanda laughed. “Aren’t we all?”

Continue reading Because the Night!