Tainted Love

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A Total-E-Bound Publication

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Tainted Love ISBN #978-0-85715-792-8 ©Copyright KS Augustin 2011 Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright October 2011 Edited by Lisa Cox Total-E-Bound Publishing This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing. Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution. The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork. Published in 2011 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Total-e-sizzling and a sexometer of 2

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Cloaks and Daggers

TAINTED LOVE KS Augustin

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Bryce Craven is different but, until he meets Cleo, he doesn’t realise how different he really is. As a serial killer stalks the streets, the city is in terror. People stay home, afraid to venture out in the dark hours lest they too are discovered, murdered and drained of blood. But one person who is not afraid is Bryce Craven. He seeks a woman. A special woman. And he won’t rest until he finds her and she delivers to him his heart’s desire. Only her. Only him. And the blood that courses through both their veins.

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TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

5

Chapter One

The bar wasn’t crowded at all. That didn’t surprise Bryce. The whole city was gripped by fear, a trembling child with a lungful of pent-up breath just waiting, waiting for the opportunity to explode a cloud of spent air. He was only here himself because he was curious. Apart from him, a quick glance showed that there were a mere half a dozen other stalwarts claiming their own private spaces in the semi-darkness. “Hit me, Ray.” “You sure?” The bartender frowned down at him. “Aren’t you supposed to lay off the heavy stuff?” Bryce cocked an eyebrow, annoyed. “Do I look drunk to you?” “C’mon, you know I’m only looking out for you.” “Yeah, I know, but I’m in a reckless mood tonight. Think of it as financial support for your fine establishment.” Ray snorted, mollified, but lines of worry remained on his brow as he scanned the nearempty room. “I wonder how long this is going to last? Another couple of weeks of this kind of business and you’ll have to find another watering hole.” “Business been bad?” He asked the question but, of course, he knew. Business was scraping the bottom of the barrel and still coming up empty. “I know week nights are slow,” Ray replied, “but ever since that killer came to town, every night’s a week night here.” Bryce restrained a smile. “It’s been months, hasn’t it, and the police still haven’t caught the guy.” “Ah, what do the fuzz know? All they seem to be good at are fining people for jaywalking.” He grimaced. “So, what can I get you?” Bryce reached for the wallet that sat on the counter, opened it and pulled out a twenty. He laid it down next to his empty glass. “Scotch on the rocks,” he said. “Make it the good stuff.” Ray turned away, choosing a bottle from the second shelf. www.total-e-bound.com

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“What are you doing here, anyway?” the bartender asked. “Usually you’re only good for one drink then you’re gone.” He swung around again and set the glass down, whisking away the empty with his free hand. Bryce watched the condensation forming on the side of the clear container and the ice cubes as they clinked merrily in a small pool of pale amber liquid. “You waiting for someone?” Ray prodded. “Just wanted to get out for a bit.” Bryce grimaced. “You know how it is. The four walls start closing in and all you can think of doing is escaping.” “I know all about that. In fact, the way things are going, this place is starting to resemble a coffin to me. Same amount of life too.” Bryce chuckled. “Say, would you like something to eat? Pete’s in the back going stir-crazy. Comes in every day like clockwork, but nobody wants to eat anything anymore. Maybe they think it might make them a target or something.” “Not tonight, Ray. I’m not feeling very hungry.” A movement at the corner of his eye caught Bryce’s attention. It was another drinker, male and morose, signalling by waving his hand in the air. “I’ll just sit on this for a while,” Bryce added. “Sure thing, but if you want anything, just holler. And”—Ray looked away for a moment, a bit abashed—“it’s nice to see you back here again.” Bryce raised his glass in a bit of a salute. “Nice to be here again.” He watched as Ray walked away to tend to the other customer. The air felt cold, even though he was wearing a sweater. If he asked, he knew Ray would turn up the thermostat but he was sick of getting preferential treatment from people who’d known him…before. They were just trying to be considerate, but it rankled. It was as if nobody thought he was capable of doing things for himself. He took a sip of his drink, letting the alcohol burn its way to his stomach and set a small inferno deep in his belly. Ten minutes later, while he was tracing lines down his glass with his fingernail, somebody walked in. Bryce stilled as he heard the stranger’s rhythmic tread on the thin vinyl rug that led from the front door. There was a staccato quality to each step, followed by a faint rub of friction on the matting. A woman. And therefore not one of Ray’s regulars. Even with his back to her, he knew when her gaze rested on him, felt it like the slash of a red-hot razor www.total-e-bound.com

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across the nape of his neck. The heat moved away and he assumed that she was eyeing the other drinkers in the bar. Most of them were middle-aged businessmen, grabbing some relaxation at the bottom of a glass before they headed home for the night. Bryce was the youngest customer there tonight, and knew her gaze would come back to him. It did. The heat returned, warming him. From the steadily rising volume of her steps, she was heading in his direction. It was going to be his lucky night. She sidled onto the stool next to him and he finally turned his head to look at her. He made sure his movements were casual, that the only expression on his face indicated a kind of light curiosity. She wasn’t so much beautiful as she was arresting. Her dark hair fell in artful waves to below her shoulders, but some curled into playful ringlets around her face. Her skin was pale, with two rosy slashes along her cheekbones. Bryce didn’t know if the carmine strokes were make-up or part of the natural colour of her skin, but they gave her a spiky, alluring look. Intelligence burnt brightly in her tawny eyes, slanted and cat-like. The dress she wore was burgundy with a deep V-neck and Bryce saw the shadow of her cleavage, pale and full, thrusting against the satin material with carnal promise. His cock kicked in his trousers and he suppressed a smile. It had been too long since he’d held a woman in his arms and he’d never imagined that she—the next one—would be so tempting. It made the night ahead seem more like fate than design. “Buy a girl a drink?” she asked and her voice was a rich contralto, a creamy dark caramel that he longed to devour. “That would be illegal,” he replied with a smile, “but I’d certainly buy a beautiful woman a drink.” He gestured towards the far end of the counter. “A repeat for me, Ray,” he said when the bartender appeared. “And a…” “A Cosmopolitan,” she said. “…for the lady.” “It’s very quiet here,” she remarked, after Ray moved off. “Well, it is a week night.” “So it is.”

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TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

8

Of course he was lying and he was sure she knew it too. The plain truth was, there was a horror loose in the city and people valued their lives too much to be caught on the streets, alone, after dark. Bryce drained his drink and set the glass on the bar with a sharp clunk. “Anyway, I prefer it when this place is quieter. Gives me more time to think.” “You like thinking?” He flashed her a grin. “Beats the alternative.” She smiled at the joke, and it lit up her eyes like cabochons of gold topaz. He thought he could drown in those eyes…before the inevitable happened. “And do you live around here?” she asked. Bingo! To Bryce, it felt like he’d been jiggling a line in the water for a few hours and now he felt a tug against his fingers as his prey bit. He had to move carefully or she might slip off the hook. And if she did that, Bryce knew he would never see her again. “A ten-minute walk away,” he replied. Then added, because he knew it was the polite thing to say, “And you?” A pensive expression flitted across her face so swiftly that, if Bryce had blinked at that moment, he would have missed it. “I live on the other side of town.” “And what brings you so far away from home?” He was genuinely curious, wondering what she would say. She was the equivalent of a different species to him and he was fascinated by the way she moved and spoke, by how she couched her words and what she chose to portray on that expressive face of hers. “Sometimes you need a change,” she said. “Something to shake you up a bit. Know what I mean?” He nodded. “I know exactly what you mean.” Their drinks arrived, his pale and icy, hers the colour of crushed garnets. He held up his glass. “To serendipity,” he toasted. She laughed and gently touched her glass to his. “To happy surprises,” she agreed and took a sip of her drink. Bryce imagined the cool sticky liquid staining her lips. He imagined her draped over his bed, with the contents of the cocktail glass strewn over her pale, naked body. He wanted to lick it all off, suck at her flesh until no trace remained of the drink’s semi-sweet astringency. www.total-e-bound.com

TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

9

Until all that was left was her bare body, blood pulsing beneath her skin, offering itself to him. “Are you part of the military?” she asked, in between delicate sips of her drink. His eyebrows rose. “What makes you say that?” She indicated his head with a nod. “Your hair. Usually only soldiers have it cut so short.” “You’re right,” he said. “In a way. I’ve been through the wars these past few months.” She laid a hand on his wrist and he noticed that she’d painted her nails. They were the exact same colour as her dress, the hard manicured ovals glistening under the small spotlights set high into the ceiling. “Do you want to talk about it?” He shook his head. “What’s done is done,” he said. “Reliving the past doesn’t bring it back. All you can do is move forward.” She moved her hand away and Bryce missed its warmth. “So you’re not an actual soldier but you’ve been in battle.” There was a smile in her voice that he liked. A lot. “What does that make you? One of those high-paid security consultants I keep reading about in the paper?” “I don’t need a job.” He took a mouthful of highland malt and sent an oblique glance her way. “I’m independently wealthy.” “Wow,” she mouthed. “That must be nice. Rich parents?” “Good investments.” “I’ll have to hire you as my advisor then,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not very good with money.” “I’d love to share my expertise with you.” Bryce was enjoying their conversation. On the surface, it was about money, hobbies and interests. But below, it bubbled with flirtation and innuendo. It seethed with passion and adroit verbal duelling. She was solidly trapped on the hook and, as he slowly reeled her in, he savoured each moment, committing them to memory. They were going to have sex that night. He knew it and, from the gleam in her eye, so did she. And as for what came after? Well, that was another matter completely. “What’s your name?” he asked after they’d been drinking for half an hour. He’d finished another whisky and was starting to feel a little light-headed. She’d ordered another www.total-e-bound.com

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cosmopolitan but still appeared in full control of herself. That, he hoped, would change once they were at his place. “Cleo Prentice,” she replied. “And you?” “Bryce Craven.” She frowned. “Bryce Craven,” she repeated slowly. “Why does that name sound familiar?” “It’s not as common as ‘John Smith’,” he told her in a smooth voice, “but I doubt it’s that rare. In a city this big, I’m sure there are a few Bryces around. Not to mention Cravens.” Lines still marred her brow for another minute before clearing. She shook her head and smiled at him with a wry twist of her lips. “I have the memory of a goldfish sometimes,” she told him. “Put that together with my lack of money sense and it’s a wonder I can still afford to live in the city.” “Speaking of living in the city, would you like to come by my place and see my etchings?” She wrinkled her nose and it made her look cute and precocious. “Didn’t that line die out with the dinosaurs?” “It’s making a comeback,” he said with a smile. “Tempted?” She picked up her clutch purse from where it lay on the counter. “I think so. Besides, it’s impossible to get a taxi this time of night.” “That’s right,” he agreed. “Much better to try for one in the morning.”

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TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

11

Chapter Two

They walked back to his place in companionable silence, which was unusual enough. Bryce usually had little patience with others but this was different. This was…nice. The city was still alive at this time of night, but the pace had slowed down to something a bit more manageable, less demanding. He liked it. With fewer distractions and claims on his time, it made thinking easier. Like what had led to this evening’s venture. He had thought it through on previous evenings, planning where would be the best place to visit, reading the papers and ruminating over the pattern the headlines screamed at him, predicting where single women would most likely visit. It seemed like destiny when he arrived at the conclusion that the best place to be was at his local bar. He had been such a lone fixture at Ray’s place at one time that he knew the bartender would be happy to see him visiting again. Ray, and the rest of the drinkers he was on talking terms with, might wonder at what had caused his absence and why he was suddenly keeping such strange hours, but it was nobody’s business but his own. As they walked along, he was surprised by how tall Cleo was. The top of her head almost at the same level with his eyes. Under the guise of looking down at the pavement, he took notice of her shoes. Black. Medium heel. Strappy. She walked with a sinewy grace that a model would have envied and he felt an unwarranted burst of pride at having her by his side. He also liked the fact that, as a couple, most people’s attention would be drawn to her and the tight feline sensuality she wore like a second skin. He would be free to fade into the background, which was just how he liked it. He never liked drawing attention to himself. It wasn’t his style. They approached an old brick building, its façade pitted with age. At street level, its corners had been shorn off, chipped and bruised from generations of careless young delivery men with their out-of-control metal carts and trolleys. Bryce turned and headed down a short alley. Behind him, he heard Cleo’s footsteps falter slightly as they turned off the main street. “This is where you live?” she asked. Uncertainty laced her voice. “This building,” he answered. “But a side entrance. I like my privacy.” www.total-e-bound.com

TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

12

The door was solid metal, scored and covered with graffiti. At one time, he had been meticulous about keeping it clean, even to buying expensive anti-graffiti paint and spending an afternoon carefully covering every square centimetre of steel with thick coats of—as he thought of it—vomit yellow. It was like trying to hold back a relentless tide. Recently, with his new altered perspective on life, he had become more relaxed, viewing the layers of graffiti as an ever-changing art show. He pulled a small ring of keys out of the front pocket of his jeans and unlocked the door. The barrels turned home with reassuring clunks and he pushed the solid panel open. “After you,” he said with an accompanying gesture that was a little old-fashioned. “This all looks a little intimidating,” Cleo said in a soft voice but she entered his home nonetheless. Bryce smiled a small smile of satisfaction as he followed her and turned to see her gaze fixed on the now closed door. “It looks like a complicated lock,” she remarked, watching as his nimble fingers twisted knobs. A faint thud echoed dully through the stairwell as the heavy-duty lock engaged. “Only from the outside,” he assured her. He knew that the entrance to his home was more than a little discomfiting to the casual visitor. The square of space appeared cramped, despite the fact it was painted white—white walls, white floor—and completely bare except for a surveillance camera discreetly bolted high in one corner. The only other splash of colour was from a set of metal and timber stairs that led to the floor above. “It’s much more welcoming upstairs,” he said in an encouraging tone. With a quick, backward glance of reassurance, Cleo began climbing the stairs. Following her, Bryce waited for the inevitable gasp of appreciation. He wasn’t disappointed. “It’s beautiful,” he heard her say. Truth to tell, he was also surprised and gratified every time he entered his own home. He’d had much of the exterior walls demolished so he could have floor-to-ceiling glass panels put in. He had also paid a handsome amount for the thick black-out curtains that were currently pulled against the window edges, the thick cream material forming supple vertical billows that softened the room’s dark angles.

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TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

13

Cleo moved past the low-slung leather sofa and armchairs towards the nearest pane of glass. Directly opposite was another old building, currently used as storage space for a furniture store, but it was only two storeys tall. Above the parapet-styled roof, lights glowed from streets beyond. In the middle distance, an oval of bright pinpoints revealed the position of a large sports stadium. Bryce approached her across the floating timber floor. “The view’s much better from upstairs,” he said, breathing softly into her ear. She shivered, bringing her shoulders forward for a moment then moved away, smiling brightly. “This must have cost a lot of money,” she remarked, looking around. He shrugged. “Like I said, investments that paid off.” “So you weren’t joking when you said you were independently wealthy.” “I’m not one of the richest men in the world, but I do okay.” She cocked her head to one side. “You don’t like drawing attention to yourself, do you?” He smiled. “So you know that much about me already? You’re a good reader of character.” “Hmm.” A frown pleated her brow. “I don’t know. There’s something about you…” “Would you like a drink?” He pointed to the open kitchen with its bank of dark sleek cabinetry behind a long low counter of granite and steel. “We didn’t come back here for a drink, did we?” Her low voice was husky. She walked towards him and lifted her arms, curling them around his neck when they were only centimetres apart. “No, we didn’t,” he murmured, resting his hands on her hips. He bent his head and tasted her lips and the tang of cranberry that lingered on them. “The bedroom’s upstairs,” he said softly. “I thought you’d never ask.” They didn’t speak again for several minutes.

**** They shed most of their clothes on the way up the second flight of stairs, garments decorating the polished hardwood slats like carelessly strewn puddles of paint. The entire www.total-e-bound.com

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top floor was Bryce’s bedroom, with nothing marring the view from one bank of windows to another except for the bathroom, hard up against one solid wall. His bed, king-sized, low and draped in white, was situated off-centre on the floor. He and Cleo tumbled onto it in a tangle of limbs. She was strong, but he had been expecting that. He knew she let him grab both her wrists and hold them above her head while he ripped at her lacy bra with sharp teeth. He only let go when he had succeeded in his task. With one feral swipe of his mouth, he flung the tattered piece of lingerie over the edge of the bed and cupped her breasts, plumping them for his delectation. The night-time glow of yellow light streamed through the windows, illuminating her dark nipples in strokes of light grey. As he caressed her pale flesh, the dark nubs pebbled into tight little erections and he knew his cock was following suit, growing harder against the lush body that writhed against him. She was a drug, maddening him with the heady musk that was the ripe scent of her arousal. He slipped to lie over the side of her body, using one leg to force hers apart and trailing the pads on his palm over her abdomen and down to the triangle of hair that hid her sex. She groaned and clutched at the arm that was nearest to her head, folding her fingers around the lean muscles of his forearm and digging her nails into his skin. She convulsed as he inserted a finger into her slick wetness and he grimaced as her nails dug deeper. She arched her back against him and, with renewed confidence, Bryce started a rhythm of penetration. In then out. A second finger. He worked her until her juices were running over his hand, the smell of her strong in his nostrils. “Your scent is driving me crazy,” he told her, bending down to lick the curve of one pert breast. As if his words were an incantation, he suddenly found himself flung onto his back, looking up into Cleo’s glittering eyes. Yes, he thought. Yes, it would be so much better this way. With animal grace, she bent her body over him, a sensual arch with a tormenting tongue at its end. He felt her lave his own taut nipples, scraping her teeth against the tender flesh and he shuddered, even as his cock grew bigger and heavier, its head bobbing against his stomach with insistent demand. “I want you,” he rasped when she lifted her head. Astride him, she looked like a vengeful angel, the dim illumination picking out the slant of her cheekbones even as the set of her profile darkened her eyes to black. www.total-e-bound.com

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She took him inside her in one long stroke and he closed his eyes in ecstasy. She was exquisite, her sheath tight against his aroused organ, pulsing against him as she squeezed then relaxed. Squeeze. Relax. “Ride me,” he ordered and dug his fingers into her hips, guiding her so she could match her rhythm to his. His body tightened as she obliged, every sensation concentrated in his groin. Her muscles flexed and he felt it. Her breathing changed and he heard it. Drops of sweat gathered on her face and dripped down on his chest, momentarily startling him. Then a splayed hand rested on the spot where the drops had landed and she pushed him into the mattress as she took over, quickening her pace. Bryce felt himself lose control, animal instinct and Cleo conspiring against his rational mind. Her breathing grew more ragged, her groans louder as she rubbed herself against him. Would she come, he wondered, with the last sliver of conscious thinking he could grab. He would be a happy man if she did, if he could watch her in the throes of orgasm, slave to something bigger than him, bigger even than her and her magnificence. It might be the only true moment he’d have of her, before… He was overtaken by primitive compulsion. He had to drive into her, had to push himself as fast and deep into her wet sleekness as she’d allow. And with every stroke, every exhausting wonderful stroke, he felt his own climax lap closer before it engulfed him, spreading outward from his groin and consuming everything in its path. Bryce cried out, straining to be as deep inside Cleo as he could go. He was lost on a wave of pure pleasure, only dimly aware of her weight shifting, her body also convulsing, as her teeth fastened on his throat, broke the flesh, and drank.

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TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

16

Chapter Three

Was he still alive? With his eyes still closed, Bryce took an experimental breath, then let it out. That felt, and sounded, normal. His legs ached as well, which surely they wouldn’t do if he was dead. Propping one eye open, he took a cautious look around, taking in the familiar lines of his bedroom. But something was wrong because he couldn’t move his right arm. Looking across, he saw a tumble of dark hair hiding, he knew, a face of striking features and fierce intelligence. So it hadn’t been a dream. Cleo Prentice was real. Carefully, Bryce moved his arm from under her and got to his feet. He staggered and had to sit on the edge of the bed, his head spinning. Was it from the drinking he did the night before? Or Cleo? Perhaps both. His watch lay on the floor and he reached for it, reading the digits with narrowed eyes. Five-thirty in the morning. That meant it would be morning soon. And with morning came sunlight. Taking a little more care, Bryce got to his feet again, stumbling to a small flat panel set into the wall. He pressed three buttons, one after the other, and the heavy curtains that were drawn to let in a night vista began to glide shut. He sat back on the bed as he watched the darkness close in again, gathering his strength. It had been months since he’d been given the all-clear, but he still felt as weak as a baby. It was the exertions of the night before, of course. He thought he had been building up adequate strength over the past few weeks, utilising the gym equipment that resided in the far corner of the floor, but the effort of having sex had almost defeated him. And he had been so sure… “Too much confidence comes before a fall,” he told himself quietly then got to his feet. He switched the lights to an overall “ambient” setting and walked to the bathroom. It took time to have a shower and he was almost sorry to wash the scent of Cleo off his body, but it had to be done. Since he was still alive, he needed a clear head to deal with the consequences.

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TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

17

Stepping out of the shower, his eye was caught by something. He arched his neck and looked at his reflection in the mirror, and at the two wounds marring his skin. Gingerly, he touched them, expecting small stabs of pain, and was surprised to feel hard scabs under his fingertips. Those two tears were from Cleo’s teeth and they were healing already, closing up over his traumatised flesh. At this rate, they’d be imperceptible within another day or two. He frowned at his reflection—still too thin, still too pale—and decided to leave that mystery to one side for a moment. He walked to a small row of wardrobes and pulled out a clean pair of underwear, khaki trousers and white T-shirt. Combing down his damp hair, he headed back to the bedroom. Cleo hadn’t stirred. Alarmed, he strode to her side, bending down and feeling for her pulse with two fingers. He couldn’t feel a beat. She couldn’t be dead, not after all of this, after all he’d been through. Frowning, he pressed a little harder, holding his breath so he’d be able to pick up the faintest of pulses. And there it was! He kept his fingers on her wrist, consulting his watch in tandem. One, two beats every minute. He wasn’t sure what the normal rate was for someone like her but at least she was still alive. The room was tightly shut against the encroaching dawn and subtly lit. Pools of yellow light cast warm glows on sections of the floor—over the bed, in his office area, above his gymnasium set-up. Downstairs, the morning sun would start throwing its rays in through the tinted panels of glass. The tint softened the sun’s harshness but Bryce doubted it would protect a vampire’s skin. He walked over to his desk and seated himself, switching on his computer then swivelling the chair so he faced the bed. And he waited. He had been waiting for a couple of weeks already. At this point, an hour or so more wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

**** It was late morning when Bryce noticed Cleo stirring. He turned away from the monitor on his desk and edged his chair closer to the bed, not making a sound. It was wonderful watching her wake up, like observing a panther coming out of its slumber.

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TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

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Because she was facing away from him, he noticed the arch of her smooth back first. Her head was still down, as if her curtain of hair was too heavy for her neck to support. She stretched her shoulders, bending them back, and he saw a faint line of muscles crease against her spine. If he hadn’t already known that she was strong, superhumanly so, clear evidence of it was now staring him straight in the face. Then she turned her head, brushing her hair away with a free hand, saw him and froze. He interpreted the expressions sweeping across her face. Puzzlement, then a dawning comprehension, surprise, anger and a trace of anxiety. Her gaze flitted around the floor, taking in the curtains and subdued lighting. It lingered on the alarm clock perched on the bedside table. Her eyes widened as she saw the time, skittered to the stairs where the sun reflected off some of the timber treads— she must have known that she was effectively trapped because her expression became stoic. To her credit, she remained calm as she turned her focus back to him. Her voice was still low and husky but tinged with wary amusement. “What happened?” she asked. “You must have fallen asleep.” One of her eyebrows rose, a silent editorial on his sense of humour. “I didn’t fall asleep,” she countered, her words deliberate in their enunciation. “I fell unconscious.” “Ah. Yes. So you did. But you might find my recollection equally interesting. I remember us having the most wonderful sex. Then you bit me.” He pulled aside the neck of his T-shirt, all the better to show her the pair of scabbedover puncture marks. She had the grace to look abashed, then defiance lit her eyes again. “And then I fainted. That’s never happened before. Did you drug me?” “It took me by surprise as much as it did you.” Now it was his turn to look embarrassed. “I’ve been doing some research while you were, er, unconscious. And I think I’ve come up with an answer for what happened to you.” “Which is?” she prompted, after a long minute of silence. “What did my blood taste like?” he asked suddenly.

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It was useless pretending that they were both normal people. Normal people didn’t bite other people on the neck, causing wounds that healed in a matter of hours. And normal people didn’t cause their vampire attackers to faint. She looked at him, searching his face for something, before she answered. “At first, it was wonderful,” she admitted. “Warm and thick, full of life.” Her eyes sparkled. “But that was only the first mouthful. After that, it was bitter and foul.” She swallowed, as if physically trying to wash the taste away. “I remember pulling away, thinking this was all a trap. I wanted to get up, to run away, to get back out into the night where it was clean and open.” She locked gazes with him again. “Then I must have fainted.” “Did you manage to…turn me?” She laughed and changed position, reclining on the bed as if it was an imperial chaiselongue, entirely shameless in her nakedness. Her long legs, pale and creamy, only served to draw attention to the dark nest of curls at her groin. Bryce thought he could smell her musk again, and focused attention back on her face, concentrating on what she was saying. If someone had told him only a year ago that he’d be alive and talking to a vampire—naked, no less!—he would have had them committed to an asylum. “‘Turning’ a human doesn’t work like that,” she told him. “There has to be intent and a focus of will behind the feeding for anything more significant to occur.” Her features sharpened. “And I was after a meal, not an apprentice.” A grin broke over his face. She was incredible, seducing him with her lush curves while simultaneously cutting him dead with her well-chosen words. “In a way, I think you were drugged,” he finally admitted, “but it was inadvertent.” “It was you!” He saw the lean muscles bunch in her arms, her glorious legs flexing for movement, and held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “No, wait. Let me explain.” She subsided but the wariness remained on her face. “I think you reacted to my treatment,” he said. “Treatment? What treatment? Are you lying to me, human?” “Please.” She must have picked up something in his voice, a request, a demand. With an imperious tilt of her head she stilled, waiting for him to continue. www.total-e-bound.com

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“A year ago,” he said, the words in his head still causing him pain even though the most frightening moment was long past, “at a time that should have been the happiest of my life, I discovered that I had contracted leukaemia. On the one hand, I had just made enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life. On the other”—he mimed two upturned hands in balance and jiggled both of them up and down—“I had just been given a death sentence. “I thought of many things after I was given that initial diagnosis. I considered suicide, I thought of just getting up and walking away from it all. I felt so empty, as if nothing I had done up to that point had any meaning.” He stared at her and through her, relaying his innermost thoughts for the first time to a being that was no longer human, and wondered why he should feel closer to her than to any of his childhood friends. Maybe it was because she didn’t try to interrupt him, to put her own interpretation on what he was saying. She didn’t attempt to somehow compete with his past suffering. Instead, she seemed content to listen to him and take his words as his own personal truth. “You obviously stayed for treatment,” she said, and her tone of voice reminded him of their conversation in the bar the previous night. Do you want to talk about it? Not then, but now. Yes, now, he did want to talk about it because, now, it concerned her as much as it concerned him. “I had the money,” he admitted with a wry smile. “Money enough to afford the best treatment available. And do you know what happened?” She shook her head, slow languorous movements that sent wonderful night-black tresses swaying around her face. A ringlet caught at the edge of her full lips and Bryce resisted the urge to walk across to her and lift it away with a gentle finger. “I survived,” he said. “Of course there were post-treatment treatments. I lost my hair.” He ran his fingers across his stubbly scalp, cut so short that it would appear military-like to someone who didn’t know him or his history. “I’m slowly growing it back again.” She remained silent. Not demanding, just listening, and he appreciated that. “I’m still on a drug treatment and will be for the next two to three years, depending on the test results.” She was smart because she knew what part of the story to hone in on. www.total-e-bound.com

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“What kind of drug treatment?” “Immuno-suppressants.” “It kills blood,” she said. “It stops my white blood cell count from going through the roof again for any reason. I imagine that, to a vampire, all those chemicals coursing through my body must taste pretty bad.” “Before I blacked out, I felt as though the life was being sucked out of me,” she admitted. “In a way it was,” he conceded. “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect that to happen.” She laughed again. “I don’t understand you, Bryce Craven.” She paused. “Is that your real name?” He nodded. “I’m afraid so.” “I still think that name sounds familiar,” she murmured with a frown. He remained silent, content to watch her. She hunted around, searching for something and eventually reached down to the floor for his grey shirt from the evening before, and pulled it over her nakedness with a graceful nonchalance. He thought her movement was less a nod to modesty than to stop him from being constantly distracted by her full and luscious breasts. He’d have to thank her, once he got over his disappointment. “I don’t understand,” she said. “You knew I was a vampire?” “I had an inkling you could be a vampire,” he corrected. “And you knew I would kill you.” He touched a pile of newspapers on the edge of his desk with a finger. “So the news reports tell me.” “And yet you’re apologising to me? Since when does a lamb dinner apologise for outrunning the wolf, human?” “Since the lamb dinner was betting on being eaten.” There, his death wish was out in the open now. She watched him with an assessing gaze. “So,” she asked, watching him closely, “what happens now?”

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Chapter Four

Throughout his life, Bryce had always been a meticulous planner. He had planned the creation of his own computer cryptography firm, working seventy-hour weeks to refine programs, write conference papers and finesse case studies. He planned the steady expansion of the company, from its start in rented accommodation to a modest modern building in the centre of the city. He travelled to every major city in the world to sell his solution as the best available. Then, when the company had got big enough, with an unbeatable reputation, he’d sold it to a large multinational and walked away with a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He thought he had the world at his feet. He had planned to take a year off. Maybe he’d bum around the world in a chartered yacht. Maybe he’d chase the winter season by skiing northern and southern hemispheres for a full twelve months. With his batteries recharged, he was going to start another company, even better than the last. And while he had been planning his sabbatical from the corporate rat race, still unsure of what to do that would consume an entire year, something completely unplanned happened. Leukaemia. If he had felt exhausted, nauseous and weak due to his illness, that was nothing compared to how he had felt during treatment. He was so weak after finishing each series of ‘cures’ that he hardly had the strength to lift a crystal-cut glass of water by himself. Half a year after he’d been declared in complete remission, he still felt exhausted. He was a twentyeight-year-old in an eighty-year-old’s body. The only activity he could carry out for any appreciable length of time was reading. And, in his boredom, that’s how he stumbled across lurid newspaper reports of the Vampire Killer. Normally, the tabloid headlines didn’t catch his attention, but tales of the Vampire Killer had seeped across even to the business-orientated papers he normally read. He couldn’t have ignored the story for long. A serial killer had been loose in the city for the past four months, with a particularly grisly modus operandi. The victims would be lured to one of the many fleapit hotels that dotted the suburbs, have sex then get killed. Then, and this was what gave the killer his or www.total-e-bound.com

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her particular nickname, the body would be drained of blood while it was still warm. Interestingly, the bodies contained no puncture wounds, slashes or cuts to indicate how the blood had been siphoned away. The police were stumped. They collected DNA evidence from every hotel room and ran each instance back to its source. A few juicy political scandals erupted as a result, but a clue to the identity of the killer remained elusive. Man or woman, nobody could definitively say who the authorities were after, least of all the authorities themselves. Closed circuit television footage mysteriously wavered or dissolved into jagged black and white spears the instant the victim and his murderer appeared on screen. Was the killer a woman, reports speculated, or was it a man disguising himself by wearing a long wig? Was the killer wearing flats, heels, stilts? Nobody knew. With nothing else to do with his time, Bryce moved into his newly-renovated warehouse and started digging. His first thought was that the killer had to be a woman. All the victims so far had been young, healthy males. Three of the victims had girlfriends, so it seemed logical that they were lured to a cheap hotel by a woman rather than a man. The fourth victim was divorced. All looked reasonably fit. Average-looking. Normal. The more he thought about it, the more Bryce realised that he was just as much a fit for a potential victim as the other four. More so, since he was solitary by nature. Somehow, that insight sharpened his focus. He bought a huge map of the city, pinned it to a wall and, crossreferencing news reports against each other, plotted where the men had lived, where they were when they’d been last spotted, and where their bodies had been found. And it seemed to him that the Vampire Killer hadn’t struck in the south-west part of the city yet. The part of the city where he lived. Maybe he was being too simplistic in his thinking but, while a full-scale panic gripped the city, emptying restaurants, lounges and bars, Bryce started to frequent one of his old haunts a short stroll away. Ray’s bar. Something, an intuition that had never let him down in the past, told him that the Vampire Killer would appear close by and soon. He would know who it was when he saw her. And, when Cleo Prentice walked through the door, it was as if Bryce had just struck the jackpot again. Just like it had been while he’d been slaving away over a hot bank of computers. Just like it had been before the leukaemia came and robbed him of his self-confidence and reason for living.

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Bryce was also a bit of a gambler. Once he’d targeted Cleo as the killer, he felt he didn’t really have a choice but to see the game through to the end. If she ended up killing him…well, that’s how things went sometimes. And if he ended up surviving… Watching her watching him, Bryce admitted that he hadn’t really thought through every consequence. For starters, he hadn’t bargained on still being alive after the night before. And what did a young, feeble bachelor do with a superhuman killer in his home? So, what happens now? “Are you hungry?” he asked. “Can you survive on anything other than human blood?” “Human is the best,” she admitted, “but raw meat from another animal will also suffice.” Bryce thought about the contents of his freezer. Expecting to be dead, he hadn’t bought in any fresh groceries, but he was sure he had something frozen that might make an adequate meal for a blood-drinker. “Would you like to come downstairs with me?” Her gaze drifted to the top of the stairs, where light bounced off the steps, sending soft beams into the heavily curtained room. “Yes, of course,” he added quickly. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. In that case why don’t you make yourself comfortable. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” It was an effort to get to his feet. As he walked past Cleo, he noticed that the position of her body hid a pool of drying blood on the crumpled white sheets. That would be his blood. Which might also explain his lethargy. Flicking his gaze away, he continued across the floor, down the stairs and into his kitchen. While he hunted around for plates, utensils and food, he heard the sound of a shower upstairs. Strange how he had never thought of vampires as needing to visit the bathroom. Strange too that his first guest ended up being an inhuman creature. Both thoughts made him smile. If only his work colleagues could see him now. By the time he returned to the bedroom, bearing a large tray, Cleo had not only cleaned herself up but also stripped the stained sheets from the bed. “The sheets are soaking in your tub,” she told him. “You have to get the stains out as soon as you can or they’ll set.” He set the tray on his desk, just next to the pile of newspapers he’d been reading and rereading over the past few weeks.

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“Is that the voice of experience talking?” he couldn’t help but ask and heard a slight hiss behind his back. “We can always try something else if you don’t appreciate my advice. Human.” The way she said ‘human’ made it sound like ‘dinner’. He smiled and sat down at his desk chair, easing himself into the chair with relief. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself.” “You have a strange sense of humour,” she remarked, then noticed something resting on the topmost of two plates. Her gaze froze on it and she moved. Bryce marvelled at how fluidly the muscles beneath her skin stretched and flexed. She didn’t approach the tray so much as flowed towards it. “I found some steaks in the freezer,” he explained. “I used the defrost function on my microwave so there might still be some cold patches in the middle. Sorry, it’s the best I could do. I’m not really stocked up for company.” Cleo ignored the stainless steel cutlery that nestled next to a couple of serviettes. Instead, she took the plate and edged back to the bed. When she opened her mouth, Bryce saw a pair of long, sharp canines that he hadn’t noticed during their conversation in the bar. Did she have retractable fangs, he wondered. She lifted the first steak with one hand and bit into it with pleasure. Bryce couldn’t help substituting his throat for the piece of porterhouse she was devouring and shifted uncomfortably, but said nothing. He watched, fascinated, as she finished her meal, demolishing both pieces of meat with dainty savagery. “Would you like something to drink?” he asked when she finished licking her lips. His cock woke up and twitched against his leg as he watched her tongue lave the length of a finger, removing a faint sheen of pink liquid from its tip. “I made some tea.” “How very English of you.” The words were tart but she couldn’t mask the expression of satiation on her face. “No, there was enough liquid in the meat to satisfy me. For the time being.” There was something else in her voice now, something full and suggestive, as if slaking her physical hunger had only reminded her of another one. She looked him full in the face. “You want me, don’t you?” “Yes,” he admitted. “Why do you ask? Can you read minds?” “Not minds but I can sense compulsions. Strong emotions.” www.total-e-bound.com

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He kept his body still. “And you’re reading something like that from me now?” Her laugh was low and full-bodied, tickling along his groin like small nips from tiny sharp kitten teeth. “Even before I noticed you, I picked up on your desire. You say your body is still weak, human, but you have spirit enough to make up for it.” Bryce got to his feet, shamelessly exhibiting the bulge in his trousers that indicated his growing arousal. “I’ll admit it,” he told her. “You’re a very attractive woman and I find you incredibly sexy.” She looked him full in the face and ran a pointed red tongue across her full upper lip. The edges of her mouth twitched upwards in a languid smile. “Then what are you waiting for?” “If you bite me again, you’ll collapse again and I don’t know what two doses of immune-suppressants will do to your system.” The gentlemanly thing to do would be to distract her somehow, ignore her taunt, but the thought of taking her for a second time excited him. He felt his trousers constrict even more around his stiffening dick. “Can you control yourself?” he asked, staring down into the dark burnt topaz of her eyes. “I’ve been exercising control all my life,” she purred, reaching for him. “All my long, long life.” There was no need for pretence, for Cleo to fake being what she wasn’t. With another throaty laugh, she got to her knees, pulled him towards her and ripped the clothes from his body, using her fingers to tear the heavyweight khaki material of his trousers as if they were made of tissue paper. A sharp shock of carnality rocketed through Bryce’s body at the unaccustomed sounds of destruction. Joining her on the bed, he pulled her up to him, holding her face between his hands. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, running his soft, sensitive organ across her teeth, searching for the secret of her fangs, but she intervened, deflecting his enquiries with her own tongue while she slipped her hands beneath the waistband of his underwear, cupping him gently with her long, capable fingers. Bryce groaned and Cleo seemed to breathe his exhalation into her, arching against him as she massaged the length of his cock. She pulled away, kissed the line of his chin and licked his neck. www.total-e-bound.com

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“If I kiss your swollen cock,” she whispered, “it will give you so much pleasure. I will swallow two of your life essences and grow strong on your masculine vitality and you will lose yourself in the best orgasm of your life.” Bryce guided her down to his nipples, willing her to take his taut, aroused flesh in her mouth. Everywhere she touched brought fire, a bright searing pain that swiftly settled to a primitive enticing burn, setting his entire body aflame. He knew it was madness speaking, maybe the vampire’s pheromones reaching his brain and feeding him enticing slices of insanity, but he yearned for the kiss from those bonewhite, razor-sharp fangs, wanted to be conscious while he felt her plunge into his blood and drink from it. He wanted a part of her inside him as much as he wanted to be inside her. Just the thought of it was enough to fill him with a burst of strength. He pushed her back onto the bare mattress, ripped the grey shirt open so he could cup those full breasts in the flesh then entered her in three short strokes, bucking his hips each time to give himself more leverage. Cleo screamed to the ceiling, a cry of surprise and pleasure. Lifting her by her hips, Bryce cradled her up against his groin. The sharp, musky aroma from her sex drove him to a frenzy. The only thought that consumed him was fucking Cleo until he came and that’s what he did. A veil seemed to have dropped in front of his eyes, cocooning him in his own personal universe. He heard Cleo call out, felt her convulsing against him, her hands biting into his forearms, but it felt as if it was happening to another person. Her legs locked behind him and he felt the pressure of them as her heels kicked rhythmically into his back but the sensation was distant. She was so hot and wet and he was nothing but a vestigial brain attached to an exquisitely sensitive, rock-hard dick. The walls of her pussy squeezed against his cock, against his swollen head, and he felt himself explode into her, waves of climax controlling his hips, pushing him, driving him, as he shot streams of spunk into her sodden cunt. Black spots danced before his eyes and he froze for a moment, blinking hard to clear his vision. Then, suddenly, everything returned to normal. The veil lifted and he was aware of the golden downlights brightening patches of the floor, the blue glow from his monitor, and the heavy folds of the curtains. He was aware of the scratchiness of the mattress cover on his knees and the warm languorous weight of a spent woman in his arms. www.total-e-bound.com

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He lowered her hips to the cover as he pulled out of her and collapsed next to her panting body. “There’s something you give off too,” he told her. “Some kind of pheromone that drives me crazy.” “It’s part of my arsenal. My meals always enjoy at least a part of their demise.” Bryce chuckled. And if it wasn’t for his medication, he would have died happy last night as well. Idly, he wondered if there was a vampire survivors’ support group in existence. If the last twenty-four hours was any indication, the tales they could tell would have been wondrous.

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Chapter Five

“How did you become a vampire?” The last hour had been a time of domestic bliss. Bryce had gone down to the kitchen again and defrosted some chicken livers, with the promise that he’d go out and do some shopping soon. Cleo had become surprisingly practical, finding clean sheets with only a little investigation. Together, they made the bed and tidied up the room. It was late afternoon. In as little as three hours, it would be safe enough for Cleo to walk out of his life and back into the deepening night. With sudden insight, Bryce realised he didn’t want this to happen. He didn’t know how it had transpired, but Cleo had unexpectedly become someone important to him. For the first time in months, his interest in life was rekindled. “I wasn’t turned into a vampire, if that’s what you mean. I was born one.” They were still in the bedroom. Although they didn’t mention it, both were waiting for the sun to set. And then what? “Young vampires, born and those turned, are very weak,” she told him. “Most die within twelve months of being born or turned.” Bryce tried to reconcile that snippet with the lithe woman of incredible strength in front of him, and couldn’t. He shook his head. She tsk’ed and pushed her dark hair back in a gesture of unconscious sexuality. Bryce would have tried to seduce her again but he was exhausted. His doctor told him he would be feeling like this for a few more months, if not years. Typical, he thought to himself. I finally find a woman I find completely entrancing and I can hardly get it up any more. “Young vampires are capable of feeding only on vampire blood for the first twelve months,” she explained. “Nothing else, just our blood, twice a day. It takes a lot of…commitment, which vampires are not renowned for.” “That explains why there aren’t many around.” “If it was so easy to make another vampire,” she said with a twist of her lips, “we would have overrun the world by now.” www.total-e-bound.com

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“You keep to yourselves.” She shrugged. “Of course. We don’t crave the limelight. Much better for humans to consider us a legend to ignore than an enemy to hunt down and kill.” “And you have the ability to heal at an unbelievably rapid rate.” Bryce reached up to his neck, to where the scabs of a pair of puncture marks should have still been visible, but weren’t. The pad of his thumb only picked out parts of two faint circular ridges against his throat. Other than that, his skin felt its usual smooth texture. “We can heal only small wounds,” she corrected. “When I feed, I exchange fluids with my”—her eyes flickered—“victim. I take his blood and he takes a bit of vampire within him. That small drop of essence helps close up punctures and tears but, in the absence of sustaining vampire blood, it dies and quickly dissolves in the bloodstream.” “It becomes untraceable.” “So it would seem.” Although Bryce was clearly curious about Cleo and her kind, up till now he’d been keeping the conversation to what he considered to be safe topics. Now that she appeared relaxed and willing to talk, he started steering his questions to more immediate concerns. “So what brings you into the open?” he asked in a casual voice. “The city is terrified of what it calls the Vampire Killer.” “And were you terrified in the bar last night?” He grinned, a lopsided curve of his lips. “Terrified. Aroused. Curious.” “No.” She gazed at him for a handful of seconds. Was it a trick of the light or did Bryce detect a softening in her eyes? “You were nervous,” she said, “but not terrified.” “Maybe I was too stupid to be terrified when I should’ve been.” She inclined her head. “Maybe.” The way she looked at him, steady and unblinking, was unnerving. He wasn’t afraid that she would attack him. It was something else. A yearning. A question. Something he didn’t feel capable of answering. Not yet. Clearing his throat, he brought the conversation back to its original track.

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“Your kind has been very careful in the past,” he said. “You yourself said that you preferred to be regarded as a legend. What happened to change that? Why are you starting to kill humans now?” Her eyes blazed. “The humans started it.” She spat out the words then visibly controlled herself when she saw his confused expression. Clenching fistfuls of clean white bedsheet in her hands, she took a deep breath and tried again. “I am not an innocent,” she admitted, her voice low. “It would be dishonest of me to claim to be otherwise. But, until a few short months ago, neither was I the kind of serial killer your newspapers describe. My family lived in an isolated farmhouse far north of here. Under the guise of being farmers, we raised and slaughtered our own cattle and, a few times a year, went hunting for hikers up in the mountains.” Bryce’s eyes widened. “Hikers?” “Human—you don’t realise how frail you are. Your confidence is something I admire yet, at the same time, you can be weak and stubborn. We always found a handful of unfortunates every season, frozen by the cold or helpless and dying with broken limbs.” She saw his frown and reared up, a mutinous expression on her face. “What did you expect us to do? They were already dead, or nearly so. And we had our hunger. We did what we needed to do in order to survive. A chance that no longer existed for those we found.” He swallowed. “Go on,” he said steadily. “While we were prepared to live out our lives quietly, it appears that some humans weren’t content with our silence.” Pain flashed across her face. “They came to us in the middle of the morning, breaking into our home with axes and sledgehammers. The smell of stale alcohol from their breath filled the house.” And Bryce could tell that she was back there again. Her gaze fixed somewhere over his shoulder as she kept talking, her voice flensed of emotion. “They killed my entire family. Murdered us like diseased animals. They weren’t even quick about it.” “But you’re so strong,” Bryce objected in a quiet voice. “Didn’t you fight back?” She shook her head and a single tear rolled down her cheek. “Too late, we noticed that two of them had climbed the roof before the others entered. They ripped holes in the tiles, www.total-e-bound.com

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letting the sun in. When they captured one of us, they’d drag us into the light and laugh as we died there, screaming in agony.” She focused on Bryce’s face. “Humans can be very cruel when they want to be. Too cunning for a slumbering vampire clan, caught unawares.” “How did you survive?” “Yes,” she murmured, her gaze turning inwards once more. “How did I survive? I survived by hiding. By scurrying like small vermin into the secret parts of our old house, pursued by the screams of my family and the coarse laughter of our murderers. They had managed to injure me, but I crept away, bleeding and hurt, like a shivering mouse. I survived by abandoning my own kind in order to save my skin. I survived…by being a coward. “That was two years ago,” she told him, her voice strengthening. “Years I filled with planning my revenge. Years when I had the hikers to myself. I grew strong once more. And I came down here to the city, to the place where my family’s murderers lived.” “The men you killed, were they part of the group that slaughtered your clan?” Bryce thought he knew the answer to that question and his assumption was confirmed when she shook her head. “No, but what does it matter? There’s no difference between one human and another.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Really?” Something in his head screamed at him. What the hell are you trying to do? You have a fucking serial killer sitting in front of you, replete from a meal of raw steak and chicken livers. Just call the goddamned police and let the authorities deal with her. She may be beautiful but she’s little more than an artfully packaged animal and was content to—hey! Don’t you remember?—kill you last night! He gazed at her steadily. “No difference between, say, me and the thug that dragged one of your people into the sunlight to burn?” She blinked, as if she hadn’t considered that aspect before. When she spoke again, her voice was faltering. “Surely the only difference between you and other humans is that your blood can harm me.” It was half a question, half a statement. “And that is a temporary condition, isn’t it? Due to nothing more than medicine. A cosmetic difference. Underneath all that, you are still a human.”

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“A human that hasn’t turned you into the police,” he added. “A human who extended hospitality to you, despite the fact that you were quite prepared to murder me in my bed last night.” She stilled, a silent acknowledgement of his words, before speaking again. “I hadn’t…thought of it like that before.” Bryce had noticed how Cleo regained her strength over the past few hours. Was it due to the food he’d given her? Or was it because the night was once again returning? Even ensconced behind his panels of concrete and glass, he thought he felt dusk approaching, a scent of a cool evening breeze, fresh with a hint of smoke, blowing its way down the darkening streets. In a shorter time than he believed possible, she would be walking out of his life. He was running out of time to think. What exactly did he want from her? “I want you to stay,” he said. His words hung baldly between them. She frowned and leant back. “If you want an exotic pet,” she told him with a snap to her jaw, once more becoming the implacable inhuman creature that she was, “I suggest something a little safer. A wild Bengali tiger, perhaps?” “I don’t want a pet.” He paused. “I want a partner.” Bryce didn’t realise what he was saying until the words were out of his mouth. And once they were, they sounded right. Despite her words, there was a touching vulnerability about her. Something that appeared more broken than him. Something he thought he could help heal. “You have been searching for justice,” he continued. “Well, ever since the doctors gave me an all-clear, I’ve been searching for a life. Ever since my illness, the things I used to treasure—my work, my pastimes, my favourite hobbies—seem dull and facile to me. When we met in the bar, I didn’t know if I would live or die after a night with you and, to be honest, I didn’t care.” He swallowed. “But I care now.”

**** Yes, he was telling the truth. Cleo knew that as surely as she’d felt the lives of her past four victims trickle into her questing mouth. He wasn’t afraid of her and, in the time they’d spent together, she’d picked up a quickening excitement around him. It was as if something www.total-e-bound.com

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was stimulating him, and he seemed to be enjoying it. At first, she thought that it was her strangeness that was provoking such a reaction. And maybe it was. But it was also something more. He seemed genuinely happy when he was around her…and it didn’t seem to matter to him that she was a vampire. The insight gave her the strangest feeling. Humans had always been afraid of her kind. She had become used to it. While surrounded by her clan, it hadn’t bothered her. After all, what were humans to her but food sources to be judiciously picked off and milked of their essence? Then she’d lost them all, her compatriots, her confidants, the only family she had ever known. And she had felt such crushing loneliness that the only way to assuage it was to fill her heart with vengeance and travel down to the city. She knew she wouldn’t long survive a life of killing humans. They might be weaker than her, but there were many more of them. She didn’t care. Better to kill as many enemies as she could and go down in a glorious death than live like a mangy cur on the outskirts of villages, at the foot of mountains, praying for an unfortunate to pass by the way humans prayed for rains for their crops, or a sunny autumn to harvest by. “What does it mean, a partnership?” she asked. Why was she even contemplating such an arrangement? It was like trying to negotiate with a slab of sirloin. Did she give up her self-respect with the torn and bitter house she’d abandoned? “It means…” And Cleo got the impression that he was thinking through what he was saying even as he said it. She watched him, this human with the longish chin and the quick mind. “…no more random killings.” Even though he was stringy, his jutting shoulder blades indicated that he was naturally of a broad build. It was probably his illness that had reduced him to feeble leanness because his spirit blazed like a bonfire. “I don’t mean that you give up your idea of justice,” he added quickly. She remembered his cock, how thick and hot it was, and how well it filled her. But more than that, she remembered how he hadn’t feared anything, not even at the point of orgasm when he felt her fangs press into his veins to drink deep. All she had felt, besides him thrusting into her, were waves of pure pleasure, and she had wanted to sink into them as much as she had wanted to sink into his throat. www.total-e-bound.com

TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

35

“I just think we should be a bit smarter about how we go about it. Do some research. Find out who was really responsible for the deaths of your clan, how they found out where you lived. That kind of thing.” She had never felt a moment when a human hadn’t been scared of her. Of course, at the beginning, none of them were. But, by the end, they were usually screaming to get away, uselessly pushing against her whipcord arms, trashing within her steel-hard embrace, splashing her flesh with hot tears. All for naught. Always for naught. His words penetrated her reverie. She never thought of it before but he certainly had a point. “You mean, punish the people responsible,” she asked, “instead of all of humanity?” “That would be a good start.” “You make it sound like a business assignment.” She put incredulity in her tone, not because the idea displeased her—it didn’t—but because she was curious about his reaction. He smiled and Cleo realised that all that was missing from his face was a pair of razorsharp bone-white teeth. “That’s because it is,” he said. “There’s an old human proverb that goes—don’t get mad, get even.” She picked at a tiny corner of the sheet before looking up again, pinning him with her gaze. “I will kill them when we find them.” She watched him more closely, waiting for the flicker of distaste to mar his features. Then she would know that he was somehow tricking her, keeping her inside this concrete box while the budding night called to her. She would know then that it was all a trap and she would kill him, but not drink his polluted blood. And she would walk out of his strange square house and continue to hunt men until they managed to kill her. “Considering what they did to you and your family, killing might be too good for them,” he said softly. “But if that’s the best way to go, then you’re free to do it.” “Why do you want to help me hunt down your own kind?” she asked with a frown. “Because humans are not all one big happy tribe, like you seem to think we are,” he told her. “Because you make me feel alive in a way I haven’t been for years. Because sex with you is the best I’ve ever had.” He smiled and lowered his voice. “Because, maybe I like living on a knife edge.”

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TAINTED LOVE

K.S. Augustin

36

“Sex?” She arched an eyebrow as she arrowed in on that one statement. “Is that all you can think about?” “No, but tell me it wasn’t good for you too?” She tried to lie but couldn’t. She remembered the warmth of his body and how it had felt against her chill fingertips. She liked how it remained warm and breathing against her naked flesh, pulsing with life. It was an uncommon sensation and gave her a rare and heady sense of companionship. “I can’t drink your blood while you’re still taking your medication,” she told him, sidestepping the question. “I know.” “But, after that, I might.” “I know.” “In that case, you have only a short reprieve to prove your worth.” “I know.” She licked her lips. It wouldn’t be now but maybe, sometime in the future… Yes, he would definitely look sexier with a pair of vampire fangs. “Do you have anything in mind to seal this new partnership?” she purred. He glanced meaningfully at the bed. “What do you think?” She smelt the approaching night, the darkness calling to her like a siren, but resisted the call. Lying back against the clean sheets, she beckoned to him. And he came.

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When Irish Eyes are Evil Naomi Bellina Released 3rd October

Excerpt Chapter One

Rachel downed her beer and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. Terribly uncouth, yes. Did she care? No. The only thing Rachel cared about at the moment was finding a way to get off this rotten pile of metal, officially known as the World Space Station. Two years—she was doomed to two years on this deep space hell. The judge had given her a choice—come here as a custodian or go to prison on Earth. At the time, the space station had seemed like an easy choice, but now Rachel realised Earth prison might have been the lesser of two evils. At least there she wouldn’t have had to clean up after filthy slobs all day, she might have got a glimpse of the sun once in a while and maybe even a breath of fresh air instead of the stale crap that was pumped through the vents here. The food couldn’t be any worse in Earth prison, either. And while she had more freedom here, just knowing she was so far away from her family and friends made this seem even more confining than barbed wire and prison walls. Her crime had been minor—hacking into the computer files of an insurance company to retrieve a bit of harmless information to sell to a competitor. But, combined with her past history of breaking and entering and other petty crimes and the fact it was an election year, the judge had decided to make an example of her. So here she was, two weeks into her sentence, already looking for a way to escape. Catching the eye of the bartender, Rachel pointed to her glass. The bartender glided over and gave her a charming smile.

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“You look like you could use a little fun tonight. Brody’s the name. I see you in here a lot—it’s time we were introduced. What’s your name?” Rachel wasn’t really in the mood for conversation, but she was curious about this man, who had been tending bar at Orbitz every night she’d been in—which was every night since she’d arrived on the station. Tall and muscular, with dark skin, black hair and just a hint of Irish brogue in his speech, he was friendly, cheerful and quite handsome. Rachel was particularly attracted to his unusual eyes—big and deep green, like a pair of emerald earrings she used to own. Though Rachel tried to avoid direct eye contact as much as possible since it often led to unwanted conversations, she could have sworn she saw a luminous glow coming from Brody’s peepers when she did sneak a glance. He was a favourite among the women and was often propositioned, yet from what Rachel could tell he generally rebuffed their advances and didn’t seem to have an interest in the men, either. Tonight, Rachel met his gaze and held it. Something in those eyes captivated her— looking deep into them, she could swear she saw ancient lands. “My name’s Rachel. What do you have in mind for ‘a little fun’?” she asked. “Come to my quarters after closing time and find out,” Brody said. “You won’t be sorry.” He rested his hand lightly on Rachel’s. Rachel snatched her hand away. “Maybe,” she told him as she slid off the stool. Maybe not, she thought. A little sex might feel good and Rachel was pretty sure that was what Brody had in mind, but even as big as this space station was, Rachel knew relationships in close quarters didn’t always turn out well. Then again, was she going to remain celibate for two whole years? That was a grim thought. And Brody was very charming and sexy. Besides, who said they had to have a relationship? As a bartender, he was probably used to one night stands and hopefully fairly good in bed. It might be worth putting out just to see if she could get a discount on her bar tab, since it looked like she was going to be spending a lot of time in Orbitz.

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About the Author I am a child of the global South. In the past, I have run my own IT consultancy business, bookshop, gym, swimming pool business and martial arts school. So far in my life, I have been a corporate trainer, lecturer, satirist, martial arts instructor, project manager, political essayist, small business owner and am now proud to call myself a fiction writer. Although I love romance, I have to admit my first love is science-fiction and the opportunity to combine both genres was irresistible! I do hope you enjoy reading my stories. Together with my husband, we have lived and worked in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. We adore our two children and tolerate as necessary evils our two grumpy, fur-shedding cats. Email: [email protected] KS loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com.

Also by KS Augustin On Bliss Prime Suspect A Pirate’s Passion His Bodyguard: Guarding His Body Cougars and Cubs: Singapore Sizzle Seeing Stars: Europa, Europa

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