Lover's Kiss (6 page)

"Gobble me up?" he repeated.

"Oh yeah, baby, I'm going to drink you dry."

He took another drink and set it on the bar. "Uh, guys, um, I'm gonna—"

"Dude, did she just admit to swallowing?"

Beth turned to friend number one and winked at him. She licked her lips and made a show of swallowing loudly. "Every last drop."

"Fuck me!" Number two said.

Beth turned and tilted her head. She looked him up and down and shrugged. "Maybe next time, but only if Mark doesn't work out. I'm going to do him so good he's never going to want to leave."

Number one clapped Mark on the shoulder. "Get some!"

Mark grinned and nodded. "I can't believe this is happening," he mumbled as he turned to Beth. The lines on his brow softened and a grin forced his lips upward when he looked at her.

Beth licked her lips and winked. "Believe it."

He nodded and reached for her hand. Beth let him take it and helped steer him back out of the bar and out into the cold. She felt him shiver and smiled. Soon he'd be feeling passion and bliss until he felt nothing. Her final kiss was the greatest gift she could give a living person.

Beth pulled him out, turning and wondering where she could find a quiet place to drain him and dispose of his body. The river wasn't that far, but privacy was out of the question. That and fences kept people from getting too close. It was the international border, after all.

She frowned and thought of the parking ramp she'd passed on her way to the bar. She nodded and turned to nibble on his ear. "This way, the parking garage. We can find someplace there."

"A parking ramp?" he asked, his voice almost slurred.

"Mmm," she said. "Do you want me to suck your dick until you fill my belly, or do you want to bend me over the hood of a car and take me?"

"Holy shit," he mumbled. "You sure this isn't going to cost me?"

"Baby, your money's no good to me."

"I think I died and went to heaven!"

"Not yet," Beth promised.

He grinned and turned his head to kiss her. Beth pushed him back after a brief moment and nodded ahead. "Around the corner."

He grunted and led the way, moving fast enough that she would have tripped and fallen in her heels a few weeks before. A lot had changed since then. Not only had she learned how to wear heels, but she'd had a complete overhaul that included stronger ankles and calves.

He pushed open the door to the stairwell that led up to the second floor and tried to pull Beth in after him. Beth glanced around and stopped. She stared down the street, her eyes falling on a pair of policemen that were walking down the sidewalk on the other side of the road. They were headed in the other direction but it was easy for her to identify them.

"Come on, uh, Liz," he urged.

Beth ran her tongue over her teeth and shook her head. "Damn it," she muttered.

He followed her gaze. "Cops? You are a hooker, aren't you?"

"No," Beth snapped. "I know those two. That's all. Not because they arrested me."

"Oh, uh, that's cool. Or did you, um, you know, do this to them too?"

Beth frowned and glanced at him. "What?"

He held his hands up. "It's cool if you did. I don't own you. I just— I mean, I think you're beautiful and cool and I really, really want to get to know you better."

Beth smiled and shook her head. "You're sweet."

He grinned.

"And you're lucky," she added. "We're not going to do this tonight."

"What? That's lucky? But—"

Beth licked her lips and pouted. "I'm sorry, Mark. I really am. You'd thank me though."

"No way, I'd give anything to make love to you."

Beth swallowed and nodded. "I'll remember that. Go home, Mark. Go home and get some rest."

"What, but… um, okay, I guess."

Beth raised an eyebrow at his reaction to her suggestion. She felt bad for the poor guy. Sure, she'd been ready to kill him a minute ago, but now she wished she had a chance to at least give him a blow job. She'd done that a few times back before she'd died. Would she be better at it now? She glanced down the street and saw John and his partner nearing the corner. She didn't have time.

"Sorry, baby, another time I'll make it up to you, I promise," she pulled him down and kissed him hard. She pushed him away when she felt him trying to pull her to him and smiled. "Go home, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry."

Beth smiled and blew him a kiss before she turned away. The cops had disappeared. She cursed and struck out, moving fast in spite of her heels. She had to find them. No, she didn't have to, she wanted to. She wanted to see what John was doing and where he was going. She'd forgotten all about him after the drug user last night. She'd forgotten about the drug user too when she'd seen Mark. Was she really that fickle?

"I'm a woman, I get to change my mind," she said to herself.

"You got that right, sister!"

Beth turned in surprise and saw a black woman in a black fur coat waiting on the side of the curb for a cab. She puffed on a cigarette and smiled at her. Beth smiled back and hurried on. She shook her head, she had to be more careful about what she was doing.

She turned the corner and saw John and his grumpy partner ahead of her and talking to a group of younger black men. She frowned and ducked into the entry of the store she was passing. That's all she needed, those two to be racial profiling and catching her stalking them. She needed to find a safer way to watch them.

Beth glanced across the street and lifted her eyes to the roof of the building. Another night of roof hopping? She followed the roofline to the building next to it and swallowed. It was too far to jump safely. Or unsafely, as far as she was concerned.

"There's not enough heroin in the world," she mumbled and then winced. She looked around to make sure no one was  close enough to hear her. Seeing herself safe she ducked out and turned to cross the road. It was early and busy, she'd have to follow at a distance. John hadn't been the first man to have sex with her, but he was the first one she'd enjoyed. More than enjoyed, for that one final night she'd let herself go and had fallen in love with him.

And now she was stalking him. Like a hunter stalking her prey.

Chapter 9

Beth fell further and further back as the night stretched on. It was a Sunday and there weren't as many people out looking for a good time. John and Officer Nettle, or Officer Smashnose as she called him, had written a few tickets but mostly they just wandered through the streets looking for people doing something wrong. She had to admit, for the most part they weren't being jerks like she'd heard they could be.

The worst part of her chase was waiting whenever they went into a building. She had to wait outside and try to look busy as other people walked by. She'd been hit on twice and propositioned once so far. It was a pity she was do focused on following the policeman, it was practically an all she-could-drink buffet  in spite of the blowing snow and cold.

Speaking of drinking, she was getting thirstier by the minute. The streetlights and signs in the shops and restaurants were dimming while the people walking on the sidewalks and sitting in the warmth of their cozy booths grew brighter. She needed to feed soon, even if that meant losing track of John. If she didn't she'd end up like she was the night before, when nothing mattered except taking the junkie in the alley.

They'd gone into a small restaurant and had been in there a few minutes. Beth held back on the far side of the street at a bus stop, waiting. She studied the two people waiting with her, one was a black man that looked her age. He had a knit cap with a Detroit Lions symbol on it and a fluffy black coat. Ear buds were tucked into his ears, letting him loose himself in his music while he waited.

The other person waiting was a middle aged woman that kept glancing at the black man. She was as far as possible from him as she could be, even going so far as to stand on the other side of Beth. Beth caught her glancing down at her shoes and then up and away.

"Cold night," Beth said and offered a smile.

"Yes," she mumbled. "I hate Michigan in the winter."

"So, move," Beth said when the woman's eyes rounded. "Sorry, that was bitchy. I mean why not move south?"

"Family," she answered. "I've got one son going to Oakland College and my daughter and grandbaby live here. I want to spend as much time with them as I can."

"That's nice," Beth said and used the excuse of conversation to look at her more closely. There was a darkness that spread through the glow radiating from her. Beth studied it, trying to understand more about her. Sickness or disease, maybe?

"How about you? Do you work down here?"

"Yes," Beth said. "No family though, just my partner."

The grandmother's eyes widened. "Oh! Partner?"

Beth smiled. "Business and pleasure."

"Oh!" she said again and fell silent. She rocked back and forth on her feet for a moment, the black man sitting nearby but oblivious to them forgotten. "I almost had a thing with a girl thirty years ago. She was my maid of honor and—"

"Liz? Liz!"

Beth spun away from the woman to see John jogging across the street. She stared at him, her eyes wide. She'd fucked up and lost track of him, now he'd seen her.

"Liz? What's wrong? You— I can't believe you're here. I mean, I thought—"

Beth looked beyond him and saw Smashnose standing on the far side of the street with two paper cups in his hands. Coffee, she assumed.

"Liz?" he repeated. "Say something."

"I'm— um, I'm sorry," Beth said. "I didn't—"

"You look good. Great, really. I mean, I think you do. What with the coat and all. How are you doing? Why haven't you called?"

"Officer, pardon me, but back off," the grandma said. "Give her a chance to answer."

John's eyes widened and he clamped his mouth shut. Beth turned to the middle aged woman and thanked her with a smile. She was older than she'd first thought. Maybe a little more than middle aged, especially if she had a grandchild. She pushed the thoughts away and turned back to John.

"I've been waiting," she explained. "Making sure."

"Making sure? Of what? I was worried sick about you! I tried to dig up more, but I couldn't find anything."

Beth opened her mouth to respond and then turned back to the old woman. "You're sick, aren't you?"

The woman gasped and then shook her head. "What? No, I—"

"Cancer?" Beth guessed.

She clamped her mouth shut but that only let her chin tremble. Moisture welled up in her eyes before she blinked it away.

"I'm sorry," Beth said. "But I might be able to help."

She shook her head. "There's no help. Pancreatic."

"Hang on now," John interrupted. "Liz has, or had, some serious health issues too. She knows some doctors."

Beth shook her head. "That's not the help I can give."

"Then what?" she whispered.

Beth glanced at John and then turned to lean in to the old woman. She whispered in her ear, "Peace and happiness. A blissful passing. No drugs, no pain, just a blessed oblivion."

Beth backed away and looked at the fear in the woman's eyes. The wrinkles in her face eased and she nodded. "That sounds…nice."

"There's a club near here, Paradise Lost," Beth said. "Come and visit me. If I'm not there, ask for me. When you're ready."

The shaken woman nodded. "O— okay."

Beth turned back to John. His brow was furrowed. "Relax, Officer Retkin. Girl talk."

He shook his head. "Liz, we need to talk."

"Sorry John, I can't right now."

"Can't? Why not?"

"It's complicated," Beth said and smiled. She was getting thirsty enough a nice quiet walk in a dark alley with John sounded like a good idea. She pushed the thought away. She couldn't do that. "I'm heading back home right now, I have to meet up with my girlfriend."

He gawked at her. "Your— girlfriend?"

"Yes."

"I— okay, I see."

"No you don't, but I don't have time to explain it," Beth lied. "Next time?"

"Next time I run into you on the streets?" he scoffed.

"I'll find you," Beth promised.

He snorted.

Beth reached out and grabbed his jacket. She pulled him up to her, overpowering his resistance with ease. She pressed her lips to his and kissed him hard. Her throat burned for want of a drink, but she forced herself to keep her fangs away and her lips closed. She let go of the stunned cop and winked at him. "Soon."

He turned and stared at her as she crossed the street between gaps in the traffic. She moved fast without looking back. She still managed to hear the old lady say, "Be careful with that one, Officer, she's something special."

"Yes, yes she is," he agreed.