JARHARIS (7 page)

A hand appeared suddenly on his arm, grasping his coat sleeve. He paused, looking first at the hand then following the arm up to a naked shoulder. His gaze traversed to a pair of fleshy tits poking seductively against the filmy bodice of a slinky evening gown. Pert nipples peaked from the fabric tauntingly. He smiled as his gaze raised upward, following a most enticing throat and finally rising to view an exquisite female face.

“Like what you see?”

Her voice was soft and sultry.
Jarharis
smiled wider and covered her hand with his. She was the first female vampire he had seen in a long time. The chill of her hand pressed into his palm, warning of her undead state. He locked gazes with her.

Does she know I’m undead?
Or does she know that I’ve identified her?

A female vampire often sets her sites on mortal man—thus her attachment to
Jarharis
seemed puzzling. She was, perhaps, a new turn, or was she trying to set a trap for him? He decided to give her a few minutes of his time and see if he could find out what she was up to.
“Very much.”

“Want to buy me a drink?”

His eyebrows quirked upward.
Vampires didn’t often consume liquor, not to his knowledge. Perhaps she was merely trying to get him alone with her little ploy.

“Sure.” He led the way to an empty table near the rear of the room and held a chair for her. Almost on cue, a waitress arrived and the woman ordered a mixed drink.
Jarharis
slid into a chair across the table and pinned his eyes on the female. Did she belong to Aston—as his other encounter in a nightclub had? He resisted the urge to ask the question.

“I haven’t seen you around. You must be new in town.” She stared at him, her red lips pursed, her lacquered nails toying with the stem of her glass.

“I haven’t seen you around either,”
Jarharis
countered, leaning forward and placing his hands on the table before him. “Do you come here often?”

“Only after I’ve fed.”

He leaned back in his chair and smiled across the table at her.
Well, she certainly wasn’t setting a trap for him—else she wouldn’t have confessed to being a vampire so soon.

“Who are you?”

“I could ask you the same question.”

She stared at him, her lips pressed together. “My name is Tanya Sills.” She pulled in a long breath. “Until last week, I was happy being a newspaper reporter. Then I met Aston and the bastard ruined my life.”

A look of sorrow and hatred filled her dark eyes.
Jarharis
suddenly identified with her on a different level. He glanced over his shoulder as the music ebbed then ended, leaving the room in virtual quiet despite the mass populating the interior.

“Why are you telling me this? I can’t be of any help to you.”

She shrugged both shoulders. “I guess I just need someone to talk to. I saw you come in the bar and thought—” Her words broke off and she stared at
Jarharis
, imploring.

Jarharis
shook his head. “I know who Aston is, but other than that I have no association with him. I’m not one of his lackeys.”

“He has many who serve him.”

Perhaps she could shed some light on where he might find Aston. But before he could ask the question, she admitted her lack of knowledge about the vampire.

“I only know that he travels with a great many. Once he boasted of lying in a crypt that was hidden from all eyes. I don’t know what he meant—except that he boasts also of having allegiance with the dark one.” She sighed. “If only I could find a way to destroy him.”

Jarharis
listened to the woman and drew his own conclusions about Aston. He would be difficult, if not impossible to find on his own and perhaps it would be easier to lay a trap for him of his own making and let him fall into it in his own time.

“I sensed that you were different from the others.”

“I do not kill my victims.”
How many times have I professed to that truth?

She reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. “I sense that there is another in your life as well. You can hardly wait to be with her.”

“You’re quite perceptive.”
Or do you smell Selena’s scent on my body?
He halted the surge of want rising inside him. Had he not stopped in the bar, perhaps he would be lying with Selena now, feeling her body against his, her mouth pressing his lips.

“Your love, she is not one of us.”

He stared at her, not answering for fear of disclosing Selena’s identity.

“Beware, mortals are fickle. To fall in love with one, is to have your heart broken.”

He didn’t like having his suspicions confirmed about his feelings for Selena. Was he that transparent? Or was the sultry vampire just that perceptive in her observation of him?

“I hoped you could help me.” She pulled her hands away and leaned back in her chair. “Is the end inevitable? Am I cursed for evermore?” Her brows knitted together, her chin trembled with emotion. “You can’t possibly imagine the things he makes me do.”

“You could leave
Brooklyn
. You could go abroad.”

“He would find me.” She raised her eyes to his face. “My only salvation is to see his end.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

The conversation with Tanya Sills stuck in
Jarharis’s
mind. She had sought to ask him for help, but when she learned that he was involved with another, decided that she had no chance of becoming close to him. They parted in the club and he watched her disappear in the throng of people.

He considered whether to search further for Aston or to give in to his lust and go visit Selena. Just the thought of being with her made his cock rise. He swept one hand across his jeans. His fly bulged with his growing erection.

The decision made, he
shapeshifted
into a bird and took to the air. The night was growing short and his lust was rapidly taking control of his emotions. He flew directly to Selena’s apartment and hovered near the bedroom window. Disappointment filtered through his insides when he saw no lights were on. Selena was out.

Distress suddenly gripped his insides.

Damn that vampire club!
Refusing to believe the worse—that she was out stalking would-be vampires in the dead of night in some isolated area—he turned his thoughts to where he might find her. He winged his way to the cemetery across town where he had followed her that first night. From memory, he recalled that the graveyard was a favored hunting place for the little club.

If they only knew that vampires didn’t take up residence in local cemeteries.
Should I tell Selena so?

No. His divulging such information would only entice her to question him further and the more she knew about vampires—real vampires—the more danger she would be putting herself in. He turned his direction toward the outskirts of the city, the parks and recreation areas he remembered seeing as he tried to get a feel for the city on his first night there. Watching carefully for signs of small groups milling about, he found nothing more than pairs of young lovers out for late night strolls.

He tried to connect with Selena mentally, issuing a call to her conscious state in hopes of garnering her attention. But little success came of his plan. She just simply wasn’t his soul mate—a fact that he had been hoping wasn’t true since the first moment he laid eyes on her. Alas, he felt rejection well up inside him.

He was on the verge of becoming overwhelmed with frustration, deciding that he needed to feed again in order to clear his mind, when he spied a group of five on the ground near a housing complex. He heard the loud ruckus even as he chose a place to perch and realized that one in the group was the male that he had tried to make his first victim when Selena kicked him in the ass. He perched in a tree and took assessment of the gathering.

A solitary figure stood in a circle formed by the other four. The figure appeared to be a male—tall, very thin with extremely long arms and legs. He appeared almost emaciated. His body leaned forward from the waist, a mop of long hair hung about his head and shoulders, obscuring his face.

The four surrounding males made charging attempts to knock him off his feet, swinging long bats and yelling orders to each other. The figure in the circle staggered and veered, almost succumbed to one blow, but regained his footing and began railing his arms at his attackers.

“Stab the fucker, Reece!”

“Knock him to the ground, for Pete’s sake,
Merrick
! I’m not a fucking magician! I can’t stab him if you don’t do your part!”

Jarharis
realized the group had a vampire trapped and was attempting to kill him. He considered whether to become involved or merely sit and watch. So far, the group had little to show for their efforts. The creature in the circle was doing quite well in fending them off, even landing some blows of his own as he flailed his long arms at his attackers.

Jarharis
sensed that the creature was weakened from lack of blood, having been accosted by the club members before he had managed to feed. Nevertheless, he was an amiable opponent. He decided not to help the club or the vampire, but to watch instead and perhaps draw his own conclusions as to the
hunters
abilities. So far they had done little aside from taunting the vampire and exchanging curses with their own kind.

“Kill the mother-fucker!”

The female voice cut into
Jarharis’s
mind like a sharp razor. He jerked his head to the side, spying Selena sprinting across the grass as fast as her legs would carry her. The silver dagger she kept hidden in her boot gleamed brightly as she waved it in her right hand.

“Don’t let him get away!”

Crap!
Of all the insane things—
Jarharis
hurried to lift off from the branch of the tree and bounded to the ground beneath. A moment’s thought, and he was transformed into his vampire physique. He stepped from behind the tree just in time to see Selena penetrate the circle of hunters and lunge recklessly at the vampire standing in the center. The damning blow she aimed at him missed by a mile when the creature glimpsed her charging him and simply turned out of her path. She cursed and slid on the grass, falling on her butt.

Jarharis
leapt from his hiding place and quickly closed in on the group, appearing inside the circle as Selena got to her feet and began another assault on their captive.
Jarharis
reached one hand out to grasp the vampire by the coat front, savagely lifting him into the air as Selena lunged in for the kill. She whisk past in a flurry of brutal stabs with the dagger, only to find herself completely out of range of the vampire.
Jarharis
bellowed his discord and slammed the weakened body of the vampire to the ground, holding his chest to the solid earth with one foot.

All amount of savagery broke loose among the hunters as they rushed the poor victim in mass. One hunter positioned a wooden cross against his chest while another wildly swung a mallet, slamming its pointed end into the helpless chest. Blood spurted upward and fell to the dark clothing. The vampire cried out in anguish.

Jarharis
took leave quickly, transforming into a black mist and vaporizing into the darkness.
Momentarily he
shapeshifted
into his bird state and returned to the tree where he had previously perched.

The males in the group hovered around the dying vampire on the ground, continuing to slam the wooden stake into his chest with the mallet, refusing to believe that his life was ended. Selena stood near the edge of the group, her eyes searching the darkness overhead, transfixed as though not believing her eyes. He watched her, trying to decide whether to go to her or not. Surely she had seen him. And now she was trying to believe what she had witnessed.

He watched from his perch, his emotions mixed. The hunters could clearly claim now that they had killed a vampire. And his suspicions were confirmed about Selena. She was, indeed, a woman to be reckoned with. She took vampire hunting seriously. And she wasn’t afraid to use her silver dagger—if she could get close enough to land a blow—or aim correctly.

He smiled in spite of circumstances. The little club could use his help. They were amateurs to say the least. But would they turn on him should he offer to join them?

Hell yes! They profess to hunt vampires—not befriend them.
The truth almost made him wretch. He pushed off from his perch. He needed fresh blood to revive his spirits. He flew toward the city. It didn’t matter whether he found a willing victim who he could control or one he had to subdue by other means. He would drink his fill—then he would consider his actions of the night—and his growing feelings for Selena.

He swooped down amid a group of people as they were emerging from a theater. He fell into step with a man and woman that seemed intent on discussing the show they had just seen, oblivious to his presence as they headed across the street to a parked car.
Jarharis
followed them, his steps undetected. When the man ushered the woman into the car,
Jarharis
gave him a push, sending him tumbling inside atop the woman. A high-pitched scream sounded as the heavy body of the man fell across her lap then laughter as she thought her husband had merely taken a spill. By the time they both realized someone else was in their midst,
Jarharis
had made his way into their car. He quickly subdued the pair, placing each in a trance and proceeded to take his time feeding.

He felt strengthened by the time he left the pair, revived enough to risk a tongue lashing from Selena. He transformed and rose into the night sky, his course being Selena’s apartment.

She was home by the time he arrived. He landed on the windowsill of her bedroom and peered through the window. She was pacing back and forth across the room, her arms folded across her chest. He watched her breasts jiggle, growing aroused as he imagined the fleshy mounds
bare
and filling his hands.

He was growing complacent, almost to the point of transforming and slipping beneath the window frame when he saw someone in the room with Selena. He leaned closer to the window as Tanya Sills rose from a chair beside the bed and came forward, halting Selena and taking hold of her upper arms.

Surprise filtered through his insides. Tanya Sills had not mentioned she knew Selena earlier in the evening when he met her in the nightclub. And why was she in Selena’s bedroom?

He reached a decision suddenly. He called forth the magic and vaporized, seeping beneath the window frame in a fine black mist. Falling to the carpet beneath the window, the mass rapidly grew and formed until he stood at the edge of the room watching the two women.

He shifted his stance, calling attention to himself and summoning a scream from Selena. She jumped back then, seeing it was
Jarharis
, rushed forward to stand before him.

Anger shown in her blue eyes.
She raised both hands to her hips. “And just how in hell did you know that the hunters had a vampire cornered? And why didn’t you stay around and take credit for his killing?”

He glanced at Tanya Sills.
Satisfaction shown across her face.
No doubt his aiding the hunters had played right into her plans to annihilate Aston. He shrugged his shoulders and strode into the room. “I didn’t kill the vampire. The hunters drove the stake through his heart.”

“They couldn’t have done it without your help,
Jarharis
.”

He pinned her with his gaze. “Your little band of hunters is playing with deadly consequences, Selena. You’re unaware of who you’re dealing with.”

“Who
are we dealing with
Jarharis
?”

He combed one hand through his hair. What could he say? He was new in the city. He didn’t know how many vampires were lurking about. He turned his gaze on Tanya Sills. “Why didn’t you mention that you knew Selena?”

Tanya shrugged her shoulders. “I had no way of knowing that you had bedded Selena.”

Selena jerked her head round. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Are you aware that you’ve been fucking a vampire?”

“Yes. But that’s none of your business, Tanya. What I do in my personal life is private.”

Tanya smiled and pushed her hair off one shoulder. She raised one eyebrow in speculation as she stared at
Jarharis
. “Shouldn’t you fuck your own kind,
Jarharis
? Do you have to include mortals in your sex games?”

“That’s what this is about?” Selena shouted turning an angry face to Tanya. “You’re jealous because I’m mortal!”

Tanya shrank against the bedroom wall.

Jarharis
stepped between the women.
There’s
enough of me to go around.
He chided himself for having such a thought. He glanced from Selena to Tanya and back to Selena. If he could choose, he would most definitely pick Selena—but in the absence of commonsense, Tanya would do in a pinch. He combed one hand through his hair. His thoughts seemed to be muddled. Perhaps he shouldn’t have drunk from the last two victims he encountered.

Woe with me.
Trying to live in the present was proving to be quite an ordeal. So far he had managed to find a woman who he wanted to claim and now there was an enticing she-vampire that had set her sights on him. He groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. And then there was the little fairy he had encountered inside his safe haven—how did she fit into the mix?

I’m being presumptuous.
“Enough!” he declared. He turned toward Tanya. “Do the other members of the vampire club know about you?”

She shook her head. “I used to work with Selena.”

“You’re a newspaper reporter?”
Jarharis
asked Selena.

“Yes. Aston turned Tanya and ever since, she’s been feeding the club information on his activities.”

Jarharis
studied the two women. Apparently the club’s lack of success in destroying Aston and his cohorts had prompted Tanya to ask him for help. Suddenly it became clear how she had known to approach him. “So you make a habit of peering through bedroom windows, do you?”

Tanya glanced about, clearly embarrassed by
Jarharis’s
accusation.