Netherworld II: Blood Potion No. 9 (13 page)

center of the room. That smile did a
lot for Fizz. She was trampy, but she was cute. Now if she’d just
wear some nice clothes…

“Hi honey!” she greeted Bane, yelling
over the roar of the vacuum cleaner.

“Hey … Fizz?” He sounded
uncertain.

I chortled. “Yeah, like you’d catch me
cleaning your place. Dream on, Deputy Dog.”

“I’ll be done in a minute,” Fizz
called, getting back to the floor.

While she did her cleaning thing, I had
a look around. The furniture wasn’t upscale, but it was okay, the
kind of stuff you’d get from a discount store. Blue plaid sofa and
chair, pressboard tables in the living room. Workout gear in one of
the two bedrooms, a matching cheap bedroom set in the other. I
noted the laptop computer on a bureau, but it was shut off. The
creamy white comforter on the bed was down, nice and soft. The
bathroom was an ode to pure functionality, as was the kitchen,
where Bane sucked down a soda and watched Fizz.

Nothing fancy, just a place to come
home to at the end of a long day of shaking down businessmen and
selling drugs. And really clean, thanks to Fizz. I noted there were
no personal touches. It was as if Bane had no past, no hobbies, no
interests outside of his motorcycle and the Beasts.

The silence that followed Fizz turning
off the vacuum cleaner felt like a blessing. “All done!” she
announced brightly.

Bane waved his soda can at her.
“Thanks, babe. Nice job.”

She glowed under his praise. I rolled
my eyes.

“Sheesh. Got her for cleaning and sex.
Pretty high life, right Bane?” I said.

Fizz came over to him and rested her
face against his big shoulder. “Want a quick blowjob? I gotta leave
for work in about ten minutes.”

He put his arm around her, letting her
snuggle against him with nary a grimace. Good boy. “That’s okay.
I’m tired and I don’t want to hold you up. Hazel’s an asshole if I
keep his best dancer off the stage.”

She preened. “You really like my
dancing?”

He patted her backside and moved away
to fall down on the living room sofa. It screeched a little protest
under all that muscular weight coming down on it so hard. “Of
course I do.”

Fizz pattered after him, perching at
the edge of the couch by his side. She laid a hand on his knee.
“Why don’t you nap? Get your strength back up. When I get off work
tonight, I could get you off too.” She winked and gave him what I
thought might be the emptiest-headed grin I’d ever seen.

“Good heavens,” I groaned. “No wonder
he doesn’t want you. Try acting like a lady once in
awhile.”

Bane only smiled, as if she’d invited
him to a pleasant lunch. “Sure, Fizz. Sounds like a
plan.”

“Maybe I could actually remember what
we do this time. Of all the times to have a blackout!” She pouted,
her pink-slicked lips pooched out childishly.

Enough already. “Hang on Fizz, because
here comes another one.” I shoved my way inside, ignoring the
frightened reaction I felt from her.

I pulled her hand off the werewolf’s
knee. “Okay, Bane, we’ve got some stuff to discuss.”

His face lit with genuine pleasure, and
he sat up straight. “I was hoping you’d show up. Brandilynn,
right?” he added uncertainly.

“That’s me.” I hurried to give Bane the
lowdown, eager to get out of Fizz as fast as possible. “Listen, I
found out C.K. and Hazel are behind the whole thing with the bad
blood supplies. They’re going to go global with it. Not only that,
C.K. is planning to somehow spread the Zoo Flu to humans once he’s
gotten rid of the vampires.”

Bane’s smile faltered. “Holy shit.
You’re sure about this?”

“Yes, and please watch your language
around me. I don’t care for vulgarity.”

He smirked, the big jerk. “You jumped
me in front of the whole Beasts gang, and you’re worried about
profanity?”

I refused to answer him. I simply
stared at him and waited.

To his credit, he took his grin down a
notch. “Yes ma’am. I will wash my mouth out with soap if I utter
another obscenity in your presence,” he vowed.

Back to the business at hand. I asked,
“How are they getting dragon blood into the commercial supplies?
Isn’t all that stuff heavily guarded and regulated?”

“It’s supposed to be. What else you
got?”

I gave him everything I’d learned,
start to finish. When I was done, he thought long and hard. “That’s
great intel, Brandilynn, and I owe you. Unfortunately, I can’t move
on any of it without hard evidence.”

“Where would you get that?”

“It sounds like Hazel’s the one setting
up delivery. I’m betting he’s got a clue or two in his computer at
the strip club. I need to get into it.”

I didn’t see how I could help with
that. “I’ll continue to keep my ears out and tell you what I find,
Bane.”

He considered me, his golden eyes
searching Fizz’s face as if he could find me in there. “Do me a
favor and call me Levi. After what you did for me, we should be on
a real name basis.”

Before I could react, he pulled me into
his lap and kissed me, soft and slow. I wish I could say I
immediately jumped up and slapped him silly for his forwardness,
but it was a really good kiss. I kind of melted against his big,
broad, utterly yummy chest for a second before I came to my
senses.

I pushed against that fabulous wall of
werewolf and got unsteadily to my stiletto feet. Good heavens, I
was nearly on my tippy toes in Fizz’s heels. At least my voice was
firm even if my balance wasn’t.

“That episode of sex at the club was
one-time only, Bane. My boyfriend is very upset with me for what we
did, which was a big mistake on my part.”

He winced at my choice of words. “Wow.
You know how to hurt a guy.”

“You’re telling me,” came a gravelly
voice behind me. I twisted to see Dan standing there. Well, crap on
a stick. I groaned.

“My boyfriend is here,
Bane.”

“Levi,” he insisted. “So he’s a ghost
too? Tell your boyfriend he’s a very lucky man.”

Dan glowered, apparently not feeling so
terribly lucky. “Let’s go, Brandilynn, before I turn poltergeist
and tear up his crappy little trailer.”

I sighed, all filled with unhappiness.
“Be careful, Levi.”

I jumped out of Fizz, and she sagged
for an instant before coming around. Bane had to grab her to keep
her from falling. She blinked to find herself on her feet and in
his arms.

“Damn. It happened again,” she said
uncertainly.

Bane pretended gruff concern. “You kind
of fainted. Maybe you’re getting sick.”

She stared up at him. “Yeah, but I
can’t miss work. Hazel will hurt me if I do.” She looked at the
watch on her wrist and paled. “Oh hell, I’m gonna be
late!”

She brushed a kiss on Bane’s cheek and
rushed out the door. “Bye, honey! See you later!”

Once she was gone and seemingly still
unaware of the goings on, Dan gave me a look that would have made
Hitler cry like a baby. “Library now.” He disappeared.

I gave the silent and brooding Bane a
wistful look. Wishing I could hide behind the big, strong werewolf
cop, I followed Dan.

* * * *

Dan was pacing back and forth when I
arrived. He wasted no time lighting into me.

“So now shifters are on the
menu?”

I stared into his eyes, willing him to
forgive me. “I told him nothing else would happen. I screwed up
Dan, and I won’t do it again.”

His face was a thundercloud. “You liked
that kiss well enough, didn’t you?”

I shook my head, realizing he was going
to be mad no matter what I said. And maybe he had a right to be.
“If you were there to see that, then you also saw I rejected him.
What were you doing there anyway?”

“Looking for you. When I didn’t find
you at the club, I was afraid you were with him at his place. Guess
what? My fears came true.”

The pain in his eyes was so much worse
than his fury. I had to convince him I had no interest in Bane. “I
only went to him so I could tell him what to look for. This is a
big case, Dan. Vampires and humans are going to die if those
maniacs have their way.”

“It’s bad enough sharing you with
Tristan. You have no idea how much it hurts when you’re with him.
And now, to know you were with Bane too—” he shook his
head.

It shook me to realize that for Dan, my
infidelity took precedence over the lives at stake, at least for
the moment. I’d really, really messed up for him to fixate on our
relationship. And short of time traveling to take it back, there
wasn’t a thing I could do to make things right again.

“I’m sorry. If I could undo it, I
would. You know you mean the world to me.”

I saw so much on his face right then.
Anger, despair, and disbelief. “Do I, Brandilynn? Because this
really has me wondering,” he whispered.

It was more than my usual control could
handle. I started to cry, hugging myself because I didn’t dare
touch Dan, not when he would most assuredly pull away. “I want to
take it back. I’d rather be a wraith than hurt you.”

I’d been a wraith before, that terrible
hellish existence of being a ghost of a ghost. I’d never known
anything so horrible until this moment. This was so much
worse.

Dan knows how much I hate to cry. And
he knows I’d rather disappear into oblivion than ever be a wraith
again. At last he relented, letting the anger if not the pain go.
He came close and gathered me in his arms. I cried harder. I’d
honestly been afraid he’d never hold me again.

He sighed into my hair. “I love you so
much. I wish you would get that.”

My arms crept around his neck, and I
buried my face against his shoulder. My “I’m sorry,” was a muffled
groan into his shirt.

Somehow he understood me anyway. “I
know you are. But it’s going to take some time to get over the
anger and hurt.”

“You could punish me,” I
offered.

Dan managed to laugh. His tone lightly
chiding, he said, “You enjoy discipline too much. Stop crying, baby
girl. It kills me to have you so upset.”

He made me tilt my head back, his big
hands on either side of my face. He kissed me, gently at first,
then with a growing urgency. I felt the press of his body’s
response against my crotch, and I slid my hand over him to make him
moan. I rubbed him through his pants, making him big and hard.
Making my dress go away, I felt the soft cotton of his shirt
against my naked breasts.

“Please,” I whispered against his lips
before I slid down to my knees in front of him.

“Yes,” he whispered back. His eyes were
dark with eagerness to mark and reclaim his territory. Sure, I know
how primitive and ugly that sounds, but in certain things we really
aren’t much more than animals. This was one of those
situations.

He didn’t make his clothes disappear,
allowing me to unwrap him like a birthday present. My fingers
trembled with eagerness as I unbuttoned and unzipped his pants,
pulling down until his cock sprang free.

Tristan has a little more length, but
Dan is thicker, and to my eyes, more beautifully formed. His cock
curved a little, perfect for hitting that special spot inside me.
But I wasn’t after my own pleasure this time. I had a lot to make
up to Dan, and if

he wanted me to orally pleasure him
until he shot off into my mouth, leaving me without release, that’s
exactly what he would get.

Besides, I love giving oral sex. Seeing
him so hard and ready for my attention got me excited. Without a
second’s hesitation, I sheathed as much of him as I could get into
my mouth.

His groan filled the library. I held
him that way for a few seconds, my tongue rubbing all over his
shaft, paying special attention to that throbbing vein. I tried
hard not to think the last man in my mouth had been Bane. Thoughts
of other men while I made love to Dan were definitely not
welcome.

His hands dove into my hair, and he
pressed further in, firmly chasing thoughts of big bad werewolves
away. I gagged a little as Dan went into my throat, and he groaned
again. “Good girl.”

He relaxed his hold without taking his
hands off my head. I bobbed back and forth for a few strokes, and
then he pushed me past comfort once more. The sound I made wasn’t
pretty, but Dan likes to hear me fight to accept him. It’s part of
his Dom nature.

He never did it twice in a row,
although as a ghost I’m not about to vomit. The gagging was simply
an involuntary memory, one I could have overcome had I wanted to.
For Dan, I let the reflex remain. I loved his power over me and
eagerly awaited each time he demonstrated it.

After a little while, he took complete
control. Holding my head still, he stroked in and out of my mouth,
still shoving all the way in once in awhile. It felt so good to be
his, and my hands crept down to my wet core, ready to have me join
in the bliss.