A Glimpse of the Dark Side: Adult Paranormal Erotic Romance Collection (10 page)

"No! Don't do that! If someone's watching me, it
will be obvious that I know it."

"So? If they see that you're aware of it, maybe
they will stop doing it!"

"It's not that simple, Mari. This is different
somehow. I can feel this level of intensity that's like nothing
I've ever experienced."

"Well, then what do you think it means?"

"I wish I knew. I'm kind of uneasy, but not
terrified. Does that make sense?"

"If you were anyone else, girl, I would say you
need therapy.."

"I noticed twice earlier today. Once, when I was
letting a client in, and then again, on my way to the car to come
meet you. I was really happy that my car started so I could get out
of there."

"Wow! Okay, well, what will you do tonight? Do
you want to stay with me?"

"You know, I might take you up on that. I don't
have any clients until after noon, tomorrow. But, I'll see how I
feel later. So far, I haven't felt any true danger or anything.
It's just that I'm not too thrilled with being stared at like this.
It's a pretty strong feeling."

"Well, if it's like that, I'm positive it's not
any of these bozos that keep hitting on us here."

"Oh yeah, me too! None of them have that kind of
energy..."

"Ahhh, so you checked?" Marielle teased.

"Of course I checked!" Secret replied. "I wanted
to be sure that we were both safe, after all. If it was one of
these guys, I would tell Neil and let him remove the problem, so to
speak."

Secret had the ability to crawl into someone's
mind and see what was in there. If she had felt that any of those
guys had the potential of being a stalker, all she had to do was
psychically snake into his head. There were a few that seemed to
have a harder time taking no for an answer than the rest, and she
had performed a little check on them. But the only thing she found
in their brains was immature, frat boy intelligence.

She was sure that they were safe from those
guys. What bothered her was whether or not they were safe from the
actual watcher. There was no clear way of knowing this without
being able to identify who it was.

"At any rate, it's gone now."

"What's gone?"

"The feeling," Secret replied. "I don't think
I'm being watched anymore."

"That's good, right?" Marielle asked.

"It might be. I'm not sure," Secret said,
hesitantly.

"Why wouldn't it be good?"

"Whoever it was might have just pulled back a
little. I'm starting to wonder if this is someone who also has some
abilities. If that's the case, I may not always know when I'm being
watched."

"Well, that sucks! I wouldn't be comfortable
with that at all!" Marielle exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm not, trust me! But it is something that
I need to consider."

Secret was still casting her eyes around the bar
to see if anyone unusual caught her attention. She kept being drawn
to a certain booth in the back of the bar on the opposite side of
the room.

Marielle noticed.

"Do you see something?" she asked.

"I don't know... No, don't turn around! There's
a booth back there, but no one is in it. I see an unfinished glass
of wine, though. Someone was obviously sitting there until very
recently. You know how fast the staff here is about cleaning up the
tables."

"Why don't you go ask Neil? He'll know if
someone was sitting there and, knowing him, he'll probably be able
to tell you who it was."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll go up and get us more
drinks and talk to him while I'm there. I'll be right back."

Secret rose from the booth and fought her way
through the crowd to get to the bar.

"Hey, Neil!" she called.

He looked up from a couple of drinks he was
setting up, saw it was Secret, and smiled brightly.

"Hey, girl," he called back. "Be there in just a
sec!"

True to his word, Neil was with her in under a
minute.

"What can I get for you, beautiful?" he
asked.

"Marielle and I would like refills," she said,
giving him her sweetest smile. "Also, can you tell me who was
sitting in that booth back there? The one with the unfinished glass
of wine?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Neil said as he worked to make
their drinks. "That was some dude. Pretty nice, really. Tall, black
hair, weird eyes. Kind of intense. How come?"

"Oh, I just wondered. Marielle thought she saw
someone there that she knew, but clearly it wasn't who she thought.
Thanks, Neil."

Gathering up their drinks, Secret returned to
the booth.

"Well, we were right about there being someone
in that booth. Neil said he was tall, with black hair and weird
eyes. Not sure what that meant and he was so busy that I really
didn't want to tie him up any longer. Oh, and he said that the guy
was kind of intense."

"That certainly bears some looking into,"
Marielle said, as she sipped her drink.

"I agree, but we can't be sure who he was or why
he was watching, if he actually was."

The women sat there, sipping their drinks, as
they contemplated what they should or would do next. In the end,
they couldn't come up with anything constructive.

"Maybe I'll talk to Neil at some point, if I
keep having these feelings. He's met the man sitting at that booth.
If I push a little, he'll probably answer any questions I ask."

"Are you kidding?" Marielle exclaimed. "Neil
would walk across hot coals for you! So yeah, I'm pretty sure you
could get him to answer a question or two."

Dramatically rolling her mossy green eyes,
Marielle tipped her glass up, draining the rest of its
contents.

Secret looked at her friend wryly.

"Why do you always say things like that?" she
asked. "When have I ever done anything to make you, or Neil for
that matter, think that I've got a thing for him?"

"That doesn't matter," Marielle replied. "It's
all right there in the way he looks at you. I swear, his whole face
just lights up when you come in here. You're just not seeing from
my viewpoint."

Secret shook her head at the total idiocy of it
all. Neil flirted with all of the women who came into the bar.
Hell, he even flirted with some of the gay men! He was a bartender
and tips were a huge part of his income. Making nice with the
patrons served to net him quite a nice little bankroll by the time
he got off work.

"I refuse to discuss this with you because it's
simply not worth the effort. I do, however, have some real issues
going on and I need to figure them out."

"Okay, okay," Marielle said as she held up her
hands in surrender. "So do you want to stay at my place
tonight?"

"You know, I think I will," Secret agreed. "It's
not that I'm really scared or anything like that, but I do need a
good night's sleep. Being nervous and on the lookout for a possible
stalker isn't conducive of decent sleep."

"I do believe you're right," Marielle said in
mock seriousness. "One more and then we hit the road?"

"Sure," Secret said as she nodded.

FROM THE SECOND floor roof of the building
housing the bar, Kane watched as the two women made their way
carefully down the crowded sidewalks to where they had parked their
cars. His keen hearing already alerted him to the fact that Secret
was staying with her friend for the night.

Well, that's alright,
he thought. It
wasn't quite time to introduce himself anyway.

He hadn't yet figured out exactly how he would
handle that little detail; but he had to do it, and soon. Secret
Lavalle played a very important part in his future and he would not
let her get away; not after he had waited so many lifetimes to find
her.

So, he moved deftly from rooftop to rooftop as
he tracked Secret and Marielle.

SECRET FOLLOWED MARIELLE in her car on the short
drive to her friend's condo. It was conveniently located in the
Marigny part of New Orleans. She had found a great deal on the
place considering the location. Three bedrooms and two baths were
almost impossible to attain, unless you had quite a bit of money to
sink into the place. But Marielle had found exactly what she was
looking for by acting as her own realtor.

It was a gorgeous place, with a very nice garden
in the back, off of her patio. She had furnished the place in an
eclectic fashion that worked perfectly with her personality. Secret
always loved coming here. She preferred her own house, but
Marielle's was a great second home.

Since it was pretty late, the women said
goodnight and went to bed.

Normally, Secret slept very well when she was at
Marielle's; but tonight, she couldn't shake the feeling that
someone was more interested in her than they should be. It wasn't
so much that she still felt that sensation of being watched, but
more the frequency lately, especially today. Now she knew it wasn't
her imagination.

When she finally did doze off into a fitful
sleep, dreams of men in long black coats and red eyes plagued
her... In fact, red seemed to be the dominant color in her dreams.
Deep red, the color of blood, was splashed everywhere. Someone was
chasing her and she couldn't seem to run fast enough to get away.
It was a man, yet he could fly. Hovering over her as she ran, his
huge black wings covered her with their shadow. Just as his
talon-like fingers reached down to pluck her up, she awoke with a
scream in her throat.

At first, she wasn't sure if she had actually
made any sound at all. When Marielle didn't come bursting through
the door, she assumed that the scream was only in her dreams.

Glancing at the windows, she could tell that the
sun was up. Picking up her phone, she noted that the time was
8:45AM. Even though she didn't have to worry about any appointments
until 1:00 this afternoon, she decided to get up. It wasn't like
she was actually going to get any more sleep anyway.

She showered, brushed her teeth, put on a small
amount of makeup, and brushed out her hair. Lured by the aroma of
fresh-brewed coffee, she put on the dress that she had worn the
night before and headed to the kitchen. There, she found Marielle
dressed for the day.

As a book illustrator, Marielle worked from home
more often than not, unless she had to meet with a client or visit
a publisher's office. Apparently, she didn't need to go anywhere
today, since she was wearing a pair of comfortable jeans and a
bright pink tank shirt. Her red hair was pulled back into a
ponytail and her face was free of makeup. Even completely natural,
she still looked quite stunning.

Looking up from the newspaper she was reading,
Marielle gave Secret a smile and saluted her with the cup of coffee
she was holding.

"Good morning! Help yourself to some
coffee."

"Thank you, I believe I will. It smells
amazing!"

Secret walked to the counter, where a mug and
coffee awaited her. Adding a tablespoon of honey and a hefty dose
of French Vanilla creamer, she stirred it all together. Carrying it
with her, she joined Marielle at the breakfast bar to see what was
so interesting in the paper today.

"So, it seems that there's been another murder,"
Marielle said, as Secret settled herself into the bar chair.

"Seriously? How many does that make now?"

"They're saying that this is the eighth one in
the last three months," Marielle said, as she scanned the article.
"The police don't seem to have any leads as of yet."

"That's too bad," Secret said, as she sipped her
coffee. "It's also kind of scary knowing that there's such a
monster out on the street."

"Yeah," Marielle agreed. "Oh, but they do have a
name for him now!"

"A name? Really? Naming these aberrations only
makes them more determined to keep killing, doesn't it?"

"Possibly, since most of them love the
attention. Want to hear what the name is?"

"I'm not sure, but I guess I'll have to. So what
is it?" Secret asked with a cringe.

"They're calling him, The Blood Drinker."

"Oh, my God! How awful!" Secret cried. "Why are
they calling him that?"

"It's pretty simple," Marielle started to
explain. "All of the victims have been found with two puncture
wounds to their throats and their bodies completely drained of
blood. Apparently, there was once a murderer called, The Vampire
Killer, so they didn't feel that they could duplicate that
name."

"Ugh!"

"Right? Anyway, they don't have a single lead
because this guy doesn't leave any evidence behind."

Both women were silent as they continued to sip
their coffee, lost in their own thoughts.

"How about something to eat?" Marielle asked, as
she got up from the chair and headed to the refrigerator.

"I'm not sure if I'm hungry now or not," Secret
laughed.

"Oh, sure you are! I'll make pancakes and bacon.
You always like my cooking!"

"Okay, okay," Secret agreed. "Just don't serve
anything with tomatoes or tomato sauce. That includes tomato juice,
too!"

PROMPTLY, AT 1:00 PM, Secret's first client of
the day arrived.

Mrs. Harriett Bennington was dressed as if she
were attending a formal afternoon tea. She wore a flowered print
dress with stockings and sensible heels. Her ensemble was complete
with a sunhat and gloves. Her age could have been anywhere from
fifty to seventy, but it wasn't easy to nail down with such a
flawless makeup application over perfectly sculpted, plastic facial
features.

Once Secret escorted Mrs. Bennington to the
reading room, they both sat on opposite sides of the round,
cloth-covered table where the readings took place. Since she had
never read for Mrs. Bennington before, she let her spider senses
reach out to see what they would pick up from the woman. Almost
instantly, she hit on the one thing that Mrs. Bennington would do
almost anything to keep hidden.