Crimson Debt: Book 1 in the Born to Darkness series (2 page)

“You want me to bring you in for threatening
an officer?”

“Not threatening.
Offering.
You seem
so tense—I just want to help you unwind.”

“Because being torn limb from limb by a
lust-crazed vamp is
so
relaxing. Thanks but no thanks,
Corbin.”

He waved my words away with a languid
gesture. “That kind of outcome is strictly the result of an
underage vampire who doesn’t know how to control him or herself. As
we age, we gain finesse. I assure you, Addison, I could pleasure
you both very thoroughly and very gently. You would come over and
over.”

I shook my head, sure that my cheeks were as
red as my hair by now. That’s the thing with dealing with the older
vamps—they have no social mores left and they don’t care if they
violate conversational taboos. Corbin was offering me sex as
casually as he might offer me a free drink from his bar and the sad
thing was, it was the best offer I’d had in over a year. Or rather,
the only offer. But there was no way I was letting him know
that.

“Stick with mind-fucking your regulars,” I
told him. “I’m not interested.”

He shrugged, his broad shoulders rippling.
“Suit yourself. But you ought to do something to relax. You are
wound so tightly it makes me wonder when you’ll snap.”

“I do yoga three times a week,” I said, stung
into revealing a personal detail. “That keeps me plenty relaxed,
thank you very much.”

Corbin looked interested. “If you’re able to
open yourself enough to do that kind of exercise, you should be
able to let down your shields enough to let me glamour you. I could
give you much pleasure without even touching you—since you fear my
strength.”

“I’d be stupid if I didn’t fear it,” I said
bluntly. “I’d as soon take a python to bed as a vampire—you’re both
cold blooded predators but I bet the snake is a hell of a lot more
cuddly.”

“I can be cuddly.” Corbin’s voice dropped and
his eyes were hooded. “And tender, and gentle, and passionate.
Come, Addison, I can feel your need—it throbs through me more
strongly each time we meet. How long has it been since a man
touched you and gave you pleasure?”

“You’re feeling your own ego, buddy,” I
snapped, angry that he seemed to know about my dry spell. “And if
you keep coming on to me, I’m going to site you so fast it’ll make
your undead head spin.”

“Very well.” He held up his hands in a ‘don’t
shoot’ gesture and retracted his fangs. “I wouldn’t want to get on
the wrong side of the law. Just know that my offer is open if you
should change your mind. I find myself strongly attracted to you
and I would welcome the chance to know you more intimately—mentally
or physically. Or both.”

“You’re wasting your time. Find somebody else
to be your blood bank—it’s never going to happen with me.”

“Is that so?” His hand shot out faster than
my eye could track and caught me by the arm. Before I could stop
him, he had pushed the sleeve of my gray suit jacket up, baring the
scars on my wrist. “You claim to hate vampires and yet you are
feeding one of our number, Addison. Who is the lucky
recipient?”

“Let me go,” I said, but I didn’t
struggle—what would be the point? I could yank my arm out of its
socket more easily than I could break his light grip. “What I do on
my own time is none of your fucking business,” I told him.

“Whoever it is, they are not very
experienced. I could heal these for you, you know.” His thumb
glided over the scarred inside of my wrist with a touch so gentle I
could barely feel it. Yet it seemed to send electrical tingles
through my entire body.

“I said
let me go.”
I was breathing
hard—from anger, obviously.

Finally Corbin released me. “Very well.”

“That’s it.” I began to scribble on my pad as
soon as I got my arm back. “You can expect a summons. I know they
didn’t have sexual harassment seminars back when you were made or
spawned or whatever the hell you call it…”

“Born to darkness,” he said, watching as I
wrote. “Or brought over. That is what we call it when we are first
made.”

“Whatever.” I tore off the slip and handed
him the ticket. “The point is, I came in to inspect your club and
interview your employees—not put up with your bullshit.”

Corbin looked surprised. “I wouldn’t have
offered you sexual favors if it wasn’t so blindingly obvious that
you need them, Addison. Or if I didn’t find you so bewitchingly
beautiful.”

I threw up my hands in disgust. “Nothing gets
through to you, does it? At the very least you’re going to be
paying a hefty fine but you just keep on talking trash. How many
ways can I say this?
I’m not interested.
”

Corbin smiled, showing fang again. “I will
believe what you are saying when your body agrees with your words.
In the meantime, consider my offer open—for both the sex and the
scars. Good evening, Addison.”

He glided away, leaving me fuming. “The name
is Officer Godwin to you,” I said under my breath, knowing he could
still hear me even across the crowded room and the thumping bass
beat of the music from the dance floor. Sure enough, he smiled at
me and sketched a little salute. Damn him. I hoped the judge
sentenced him to double the usual fine—triple. Unfortunately that
wouldn’t teach him a lesson—Corbin was loaded, even with the hefty
insurance premiums he was paying to run a glam-sex club. Whatever
fine he wound up with would be a drop in the bucket compared to the
take at
Under the Fang
for even a single night.

Still seething, I turned on my heel and
headed for the glowing red exit sign at the back of the club.
Unfortunately, to get to it I had to pass the glam booths, which
all had glass walls, both for full disclosure as the law demanded
and for the flocks of voyeurs that liked to watch someone else get
glammed.

On either side of me I caught glimpses of
glam-sex for blood transactions in various stages. Typically the
vamp took blood first—payment up front so to speak—before doing the
glam session. Of course, before any of that could take place, the
human party had to sign a ridiculously long waiver releasing the
vampire who was glamming him, as well as the club and its ownership
from any liability. You’d think that all the legal mumbo-jumbo you
had to go through to have mind-sex with a vamp would take some of
the fun out of it but apparently not. Despite the late hour, I knew
people were still lined up around the block to get in and most of
them had already signed the waiver while they waited.

“Look into my eyes,” I heard a sultry voice
murmur as a female vamp leaned across a small table and took a
middle aged, balding businessman by the hands. “We are naked
together, just the two of us lying in the middle of a king-sized
bed.”

“Yes,” he breathed, his pupils dilated
hugely. “Yes, with black satin sheets. And I’m tied to the
bed.”

“If you wish.” The vamp looked bored. No
doubt she heard this same scenario over and over again. “So I
understand you have been a very naughty boy and you need to be
punished.”

“Yes!” The bald businessman was sweating now.
He leaned forward, clutching her hands eagerly. “Yes, I’m bad. And
you have to spank me.”

“All right. I’m getting my paddle. It’s black
leather and it’s full of holes to cut the wind resistance. You’re
really going to feel this on your backside, you naughty little
boy.”

Though I had never experienced glam-sex
myself, I knew that the man was actually seeing what the vamp was
describing. It was kind of like phone sex but with very vivid
realistic images to go along with it. A perverted mind-movie so
convincing that glam-addicts often couldn’t remember what they had
and hadn’t actually done.

The businessman already had one hand down his
pants, wanking himself shamelessly—pathetic. Also unnecessary in
some cases. I’d heard that some of the older vamps could actually
make you come without a single physical touch—yours, of course, not
theirs. Alec Corbin could probably just
look
at you the
right way and give you multiple orgasms. I shut that thought down
quickly—he was more than a four-star vamp, he was a four-star
asshole and there was no way I was attracted to him and his blatant
come-ons.

“The master says I am to give you this.”

The smooth, cool voice beside me made me
jump. I realized I’d been standing there, watching the sweaty
businessman and the bored female vampire have glam-sex as avidly as
any of the other dozen or so voyeurs that were wandering up and
down the aisle that housed the glam booths.

“What is it?” I stared at the card the small,
curly-haired vampire was holding out to me. He had a lovely,
androgynous face and for a moment I wasn’t sure of his sex. Of
course, that wouldn’t matter since most vamps are bisexual
anyway.

“His private number,” the androgynous vamp
said. “He says that you may call him any time day or night.”

“Wouldn’t he be asleep during the day?” I
demanded, forgetting that I didn’t want to call Corbin no matter
what time it was.

The little vamp shrugged. “My master is old.
He requires very little daytime rest anymore.”

“I see.” I took the card and started to tear
it up but somehow, instead, I put it in my pocket.

“Do you have a message for Master Corbin
before you go?” the little vamp asked.

“No,” I said shortly. “Wait—yes. Tell him if
he thinks giving me his private number will inspire me to make a
booty call, he’s sadly mistaken.”

The androgynous vamp gave me a puzzled look.
“A
booty
call? You will call his buttocks on the telephone?
I do not understand.”

I stifled a snicker. “You don’t have to.
Basically it means I’m not interested in fucking a vampire.”

He looked grave. “I am sorry you dislike my
kind so much. We were once as you are, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” I frowned. “And some of my
best friends are vampires—I just don’t like Corbin. Now if you’ll
excuse me…” I looked down at my watch. Three AM and time for me to
get home. Since I work with vamps I have to be out at night but my
shift was finally coming to an end. Thank goodness.

“I will faithfully repeat your words to
Master Corbin,” the little vampire assured me. “Though I am still
uncertain about the meaning of this ‘booty call’ you spoke of.”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about
it—your master will get it even if you don’t.” That was one thing
about Corbin, he was surprisingly good with modern slang for an
older vampire. Every once in awhile I could hear a soft,
Gaelic-sounding burr in his deep voice and he had a tendency not to
use many contractions but other than that, he was certainly up on
the current century. Which was probably the secret to his
longevity.

Though they are technically immortal, not
many vamps are adaptable enough to keep up with the ever changing
world. A lot of them just shut down after a couple of centuries,
which is a good thing or the world would be overrun with
bloodsuckers and we humans would become little more than
cattle.

I headed for the exit more purposefully this
time, not allowing myself to be sucked into the various bizarre
fetish fantasies I heard being whispered about in the clear glass
booths on either side of me. Sick, this whole damn thing was sick
and I wished for the umpteenth time that I was in another line of
work. Still, the pay was too good to quit, and besides, I had
personal reasons for doing what I did. Also, I usually didn’t have
to put up with the amount of bullshit I’d endured that night. Most
vamps hate and fear me and none of them but Corbin had ever dared
to come on to me. I didn’t have to visit
Under the Fang
again for a whole month so maybe my night was looking up.

That was what I thought, anyway, until I got
out into the parking lot and my cell phone rang.

I groaned when I saw the number on my cell.
It was my best friend Taylor and I was already feeling anemic. I
hoped she just wanted to talk and wasn’t looking for a midnight
snack.

See, I wasn’t kidding when I said some of my
best friends were vampires. Taylor and I have been BFFs since my
sophomore year of college and she’s a vamp, though unfortunately
not a very good one.

I answered the phone on the third ring and
tried to make my voice light. “Hey roomie, what’s up?”

“Not too much.” Even in those few words, I
could tell Taylor was holding herself back. Her voice had that
tight sound you get when you’re trying to talk without crying.
“Could, uh, could I come over?” she asked. “Not to eat or anything.
Just to talk?”

“Sure,” I said, repressing a sigh. My day had
started almost twenty hours ago with a dawn execution and I was
completely worn out. But I couldn’t say no to Taylor—after all, it
was my fault she was a vampire in the first place.

“Okay. I’ll be at your place in twenty.”

“See you there,” I said, sliding into my car
and starting the engine. “I’m on my way from my monthly inspection
of
Under the Fang.
”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Taylor sounded concerned.
“Did Alec Corbin give you shit again?”

“Like you wouldn’t
believe
.” I sort of
regretted telling my best friend about the perverse attraction
Corbin seemed to feel for me—mostly because I knew she couldn’t
keep secrets from her mistress—the vampire who had made her. But we
had always been each other’s confidants and it was a hard habit to
break. Besides, I reasoned to myself, what did it matter if other
vamps in Tampa knew Corbin seemed to have the hots for me? If
anything it would just prove that he was crazy—not that anyone
would dare to call him that to his face since he was the most
powerful vampire in the state.

“We can talk about your shit first if you
want,” she offered, breaking my train of thought.