– Keria –
Yeah, that kiss. That was mean. Well, sweet and mean. Equal parts, I guess.
It feels very much like a “me problem,” but it’s a uniquely uncomfortable (and simultaneously amazing) feeling to be lying in mud, amped up at the prospect of staking one of the oldest vampires in the world, and suddenly turned on enough that you want to forget all about the undead and just fuuuuuuuuuuck.
But that’s what Nyx does to me. Over and over again.
✦ ✦ ✦
We had a job a couple of years back tracking and taking down a rogue werewolf. He was a real pain in the ass. Smarter than most evil doggos, he made sure he was in relative seclusion a few nights before a full moon. When he went all wolfie, his collateral damage was limited to a handful of human lives.
Yay for that, right? Wrong. It made him a nightmare to locate. He spread out his killing sprees enough to ensure local law enforcement wouldn’t easily link the deaths.
We’re talking hundreds of miles between each episode of furry carnage.
So we finally located him, and we were hiding in this cramp little deer stand overlooking the field where he was camping. It was late afternoon, the day of the full moon. I desperately needed to pee, but there was no way to relieve myself without risking alerting him. Werewolves have insane hearing, even in human form.
We’re lying there, and I’m trying not to think about any kind of fluid when Nyx leans over and whispers, “Are you wet right now?”
I ignored her. Her hand found my ass, which she squeezed. Then she ran two fingers down one cheek, nuzzling them between my legs. She likes contrast. She followed this very forward advance with something painfully subtle. She rubbed, ever so lightly, up and down with only slight pressure.
Despite myself, a soft moan escaped me.
“How about now?” she asked.
I remember shaking my head. She knew the answer. She wanted to hear me say it. Instead, I bit my lip and closed my eyes, breathing deep.
“I bet you are,” she continued. “I bet your panties are soaked. What do you think will happen if I just keep doing this? Will you need to pee even worse, or will you forget all about that ache? Can I replace one urge with another?”
“Sweet baby Jesus,” I said.
“I love it when you get all religious.”
“Fucking hell,” I managed in response.
“Yup,” she said. “Just like that.”
I honestly don’t know how I made it to dusk. She teased me for more than an hour while I struggled to stay still, afraid the deer stand would make noise if I squirmed too much. I almost peed my pants.
But in the end, we took the werewolf down. Silver bullets just after sunset. It’s best to kill them in wolf form. It makes ditching the body much easier. Slice and dice, then bury. If anyone finds a part, they’ll assume it was just an animal.
And later that night, she fucked my brains out.
✦ ✦ ✦
Our position outside the castle gave her the same kind of access to my most tease-worthy parts. I expected her hand to roam after the kiss, my head swimming in a bizarre mix of emotions and hormones, but she didn’t advance. Instead, she went back to her binoculars.
I exhaled, partly in relief and partly in disappointment. Mostly in relief, to be honest. What we were about to do was a whole lot riskier (and crazier) than stalking the wandering werewolf.
We needed to focus.
I turned my attention back to the castle. My binoculars were in my pack. That way, she could zoom in on details, and I could keep an eye on the big picture.
As my eyes settled back on the guards along the wall, I noticed something odd.
“Do they … have masks on?” I asked.
“Mhm,” Nyx said. “They just put them on. Valentine must be close.”
“Why the fuck are they wearing masks?”
She shrugged and said, “Vamps like to think they’re way more mysterious than they are. I’ve heard about this sort of thing before. When a powerful, old vampire makes an appearance, it’s a common practice. I assume it’s just for the vibe, but I don’t really know.”
I thought about it for a moment. “It’s a little on the nose, though, isn’t it? Leaning very literally into some kind of ‘Vampire: The Masquerade’ trope and all.”
“They’re fucking weird,” she said by way of explanation. She wasn’t wrong.
Vampires live long enough that it becomes a real struggle to evolve with cultural trends. I suspect it’s one of the reasons the older ones keep to themselves so much. They don’t know how to blend in. Their mystique would be completely broken by their antiquated ways if they tried to mingle with the normies.
The things about their ways they think are mysterious—masked gatherings, clan castles, in-home blood dolls, shit like that—are the most cliché things about them. I find random stuff, like the fact that they rarely use contractions when they speak, to be way weirder.
Whatever. We weren’t snuggling in leaves and mud to study their social patterns. We were there to kill them. And to deliver a gift.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nyx handles the vast majority of our interactions with clients. I didn’t know thing one about whoever hired us for this little outing. I only knew the two requirements for completing the job.
Requirement Number One: Kill Valentine, Ambrose, Montague, and Rosina. Other members of the clan were incidental—stake or let scatter. Except for Araminta. We were supposed to let her go.
Nyx and I hadn’t talked about that detail, but I’m pretty sure neither of us planned to honor it if given the chance to take her out discreetly.
Requirement Number Two: Leave a small, gift-wrapped package in the great hall. The size of a Funko Pop box, we had no idea what was in it. It was stowed in Nyx’s pack.
If the job hadn’t been a rush (we only had a week to prep) and if it didn’t pay so fucking much (seven figures, folks), I would have pushed back on the second requirement. I didn’t like the idea that we were working as some kind of vampy Instacart.
But one of the things that’s always made our partnership work is that Nyx and I both prefer to act on opportunities and ask questions later.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It won’t be long now,” Nyx said. “Valentine should be here soon.”
“Yay,” I said with absolutely no enthusiasm.
Nyx smirked. “You’ll have fun once the killing starts.”
That made me smile. “I do like the way they hiss when you stake them.”
“That’s my girl,” Nyx said. “Do you need to pee before we get started?”
Oh, fuck her.
“Shut up,” I said. “And yes.”
She laughed quietly while I crawled backward from the ridge of the hilltop in search of a suitable spot.