Cresting Tide (12 page)

Darla Jane was crossing the wooden planks that were set into the mud to act as walkways and gave her a wave. Kira watched her cream colored glow as she approached. Darla’s emotions were never readable in her aura but she always seemed friendly enough.

“Howdy ‘dare Kira, Will I be see’n you over ‘da hall for some sup before the boys get back?” The plump cook stopped in front of her. If nothing else, Darla always tried to get her to eat. It was just too bad she didn’t serve up what Kira was really hungry for.

“Not tonight Darla, I’ve eaten already today.” Kira gave her a smile.

“Ye too think girlie,” Darla chuckled, “Be need’n more meat on those bones.” Darla reached out to take Kira’s arm between her fingers and pressed them together. “See? I can all but feel me own fingers!” Darla let go and laughed. “You’ll wither away I tell ya!” She shook her head and walked on down the planks toward the slop house.

Nay was coming out of the swinging door when she turned to head inside. He gave her a smile and a nod while holding it open for her. Once inside it was only slightly cooler than it had been standing on the planks along the front of the brothel. She walked to the bar where Beatrice was just finishing up the nightly water down of the whisky. The stuff was too expensive to sell straight up but Betrice made sure she didn’t water the alcohol right out of the booze.

She slid a shot of the amber liquid over to Kira who promptly tilted her head back and swallowed it down. Kira knew some of the other girls hated that she could always afford a drink at the start of the night. Betrice didn’t give anything away for free but Kira had no problem meeting the costs of business that the madam placed on them. Kira was one of the most popular whores among the miners and if she happened to screw one to death from time to time… well most figured the mean bastard deserved it and didn’t care.

She was just setting her glass back on the bar when the first of the miners began to come in. If she was lucky, she would find a meal this night. Kira saw several of her regulars and smiled at them, enjoying the soft glows of the auras they kicked off. They were not what she was hungry for but she didn’t turn any of them away when they sought the pleasure of her company upstairs. They were all dirty men from trying to coax the gold from the earth but Kira always made sure to have water in her room so she could wash them up a bit before they began. It was this extra attention, she was sure, that was the reason she always made more than the other girls. Little did they know she wasn’t doing it for them, but for herself.

Kira was just turning toward the door when she caught the sight of what she had been hoping to see all day. The dark red color of an aura shinning thought all of the rest. Kira wasted no time walking over to the miner that was playing poker at one of the tables. As she saddled up next to him, she ignored how he physically looked. Her hunger was spiking and all she could see was his delicious red aura.

“Now here’s the one you want, Sammy. This here is Kira and she be the best damn time in all of Shasta!” One of the younger men at the table announced and she graced them all with a seductive smile.

“You better grab her Sammy before one of us does! The cards ain’t goin’ no where.” Another of the miners piped in.

At this point Kira just stood close. Most of the other girls would try to talk their men into taking them upstairs but Kira let his friends do that for her.

“Well, this hand was shit anyway. Come on whore; let’s see if I am luckier with you than the damned cards.” Sammy threw his cards down onto the table and stood.

Kira heard the young miner who first recommended her mutter what a rude bastard Sammy was as she followed the man up the stairs. At the top, she stepped in front of him and led him to her room. No sooner had the door closed than the man was pawing away at her skirts.

“Would you like to wash first? I’d be happy to give you my special.” Kira said to him as he was pushing her toward the rickety bed.

“The only thing special you have that I want is right here.” He stuck his hands between her legs and roughly grouped her.

Okay... it was going to be like that then. Kira just lay back on her bed and raised her skirts. Sammy couldn’t get his nasty pants down fast enough before he climbed on top of her. He was already thrusting before he was anywhere near his target and the rate he was going, would climax without even entering her. Which as it happened was more than fine by her. He finally slipped his small cock into her and with a few quick thrusts of his hips was beginning to orgasm.

Kira locked her hands on the side of his shaggy haired head and brought her lips close to his, He was too far gone to fight her hold and the minute he tipped over into orgasm, she inhaled deeply and fed on his delicious red aura. As his body slumped onto her, she rode the high that came with feeding and ignored his dead weight. As her high began to grow fainter, she rolled the corpse from her body and stood. She didn’t even bother to look at Sammy as she left her room to tell Beatrice that “she done it again.”

~*~*~

Read on for a sneak peek of When Beasts Bite…

2011

Tampa, Florida

The night club Shadows was conveniently located off 7th avenue on Ybor’s party row. The name fit the club perfectly and even when the house lights were up, shadows still filled the place. The walls were painted black with Escher murals interspersed around the club. Most of the clubs customers only noticed the four that ran along the bar wall: Verbum, Liberation, Circle Limit IV, and Bond of Union. It was anybody’s guess why the owner, Alec, bothered to put the other murals up. They couldn’t be seen when the club was sheathed in darkness.

A long mahogany bar ran the length of the south wall under the murals and was strategically placed to be on the left when customers came in after paying the cover. At any given time there were two or three bartenders working behind the bar and on the weekends sometimes even that didn’t seem like enough. At the end of the bar under the staircase that led to the owner’s loft, was the owner’s office and the door to storage room and the cooler.

Alcoves were built into the north and west walls that provided additional shadowy privacy for patrons. The rest of the club was filled in a maze-like pattern with booths that were concealed under black sheer fabric that cascaded down from iron rings hung from the ceiling. Under the DJ booth, bench seats ran along the east wall at the edge of the dance floor. The dance floor was the only area that was almost shadow-free with the combination of lights and lasers muted by the mist machine when the club was open.

Jordy nodded to Roni, the head bartender, as he made his way to the storage area. Both of them had come with Alec when he moved to Tampa to open the club. Jordy had known the life-drinker for almost twenty years and was used to moving around the globe with him. Since Alec didn’t age, and Jordy’s own aging process was severely slowed compared to the humans, they couldn’t stay in one place for very long without attracting suspicion. Jordy remembered when Roni had joined their traveling band.

She was a changer and even though changers could be male or female, depending on their desire, Roni typically changed into female forms. Jordy still considered Roni a ‘her’ even when she was in the guise of a male bartender. She had been a regular customer at one of their clubs in L.A. Jordy was taking trash out the back of the club after closing one night when he spied some prick trying to rough her up in the back alley. But before he could intervene, Roni changed into a male the size of a pro wrestler and proceeded to kick the guy’s ass... dead. She turned next on Jordy, he supposed because she couldn’t have a ‘norm’ know about her. He wasted no time in shifting into his panther form as she closed the gap between them.

There they stood, a few feet from one another: a pro wrestler sized changer and a three hundred pound black panther garoul. Jordy waited to see what she would do but he wasn’t ready to let his guard down. He relaxed when Roni changed back into the form he knew and spoke.

“My, aren’t you a pretty kitty,” she grinned at him, “seems we both have secrets to hide.”

Jordy resumed his human form and just grinned back at her, “seems we do.”

That was the beginning of their friendship and soon after that first encounter, Jordy convinced Alec to hire her on. Roni was like a little sister to him and he was sure she felt like he was a brother. She had no family as far as he knew and she never spoke of her past before the time they met in L.A. That was fine by Jordy since he didn’t share his personal information either.

He paused at the back room door to ask, “Boss been down yet?”

“Yeah. He took Kira to breakfast,” Roni replied as she continued to wipe down the bottles of booze behind the bar.

Jordy smiled at the information. His boss, Alec, had met the woman not that long ago and it was clear to Jordy that they were deeply in love with one another. He knew Kira wasn’t a ‘norm’ from the one time he heard a commotion in Alec’s office. Jordy had no idea what she was but that was one scene he never wanted to see again.

“Okay. I’ll be in the basement fixing that plumbing leak if you need me.” Jordy said as he started to back to the storage room door.

“Hey! Nick called and said to call him back.”

Jordy didn’t turn back to Roni and only nodded his head to indicate he heard her as he disappeared into the back of the club. Nick was Jordy’s best friend or at least had been until lately. Jordy had been avoiding Nick like the plague since the last time they hung out. He knew he wasn’t being fair to the guy but until he figured out what was what, he was going to keep the distance.

Jordy crossed the back room and checked the cooler temperature out of habit as he went by. It was right where it was supposed to be. He opened the basement door and hit the light switch before heading down the stairs. The basement to Shadows was laid in an eight pack of cubed rooms with a hall running down the center to allow access to each. The rooms had no doors and the walls were concrete. Jordy stopped in the first room on the right where Alec had set up a small workshop. Jordy did most of the clubs minor repairs, including anything electrical or plumbing related so he knew where everything was. He grabbed his tool box and opened it on the work bench to change out some of his tools. The last work he’d done had been to fix a short in the bar lights. He pulled out his electrical tools and replaced them with the plumbing tools he thought he would need. Jordy closed his toolbox and made his way out of the workshop and to the other end of the basement.

The plumbing ran down from the club and entered into the basement in the last room on the right. Jordy moved two toilets, a spare and one that was busted, out of the way and set the extra urinal on the wall opposite the pipes. The room contained an assortment of other bathroom related items: a counter top, two large mirrors, two extra coin fed dispenser boxes and some extra plumbing PVC. Jordy cleared everything away and made room to work as he set down his tool box and knelt by the leaking pipe. With one last look around the area he cleared, he was satisfied that he had the room he needed. He turned off the water and got to work.

^+^ ^+^

Nick was dressed in dark slacks and a gray polo as he sat across from Mrs. Thompson, Life Lines Genealogy newest client. The elderly woman appeared to be in her late seventies or early eighties but was still sharp as a tack. He was recording the family history that she could recall so that Kira could do further research for the woman.

Kira had hired Nick on part time since he did so well keeping her business running when she and Alec had their car accident a few months back. He only worked a few mornings and afternoons a week which worked out fine since his other line of work generally had him keeping night time hours. The work was easy for his level of intelligence and he enjoyed meeting the clients that came in to search for their roots. Nick tried not to think of himself as a secretary but in reality, that was what he was: a very large and handsome secretary who looked like he should be a body guard. But instead, he took phone calls, made appointments, scheduled Kira’s genealogy seminars, and helped clients like Mrs. Thompson fill out the initial family information forms over hot tea and crumpets. 

Kira’s office was almost like a museum with all of the old items and photographs she had on display. Her clients tended to linger over their tea long after the forms were finished being filled out so that they could discuss the items or share memories that certain time frame items helped them recall. Nick didn’t mind and never rushed the clients out. He had the impression that many of the elderly customers did not have anyone else to share their fond memories with and he was happy to listen as they took their stroll down memory lane.

Mrs. Thompson was just finishing telling Nick about how she occupied her time while her husband was in the war when the office phone rang.

“Excuse me ma’am,” Nick set his porcelain tea cup and saucer down on the desk that was between them and rose to answer the phone. A few moments later and his full attention was back to Mrs. Thompson.

Mrs. Thompson set her own cup and saucer down on the table and stood stiffly. “These old bones aren’t what they used to be,” she smiled at Nick. “Don’t get old; it’s no fun!” She shook and arthritic finger playfully in his direction.

“I’ll try not to ma’am,” Nick smiled back at her and offered his arm to escort her to the door.

“Thank you for everything, Nick. It was a wonderful way to spend a Tuesday morning.” Mrs. Thompson said when they reached the door.

“My pleasure Mrs. Thompson,” Nick patted her wrinkled hand before he disengaged it from the crook of his arm. “I’ll see you next month.”

“Yes, until then, farewell.”

Nick watched until Mrs. Thompson entered the elevators to the parking garage across the street. He was not overly concerned for her safety as Channelside was practically deserted during day time hours. He stood for a moment longer until his cell phone vibrated in his pocket then he turned and made his way to the desk. Before sitting he removed the phone and looked at the caller ID. It wasn’t Jordy so he let it go to voice mail.