Netherworld II: Blood Potion No. 9 Read online

  “I can’t let you get Bane killed. We’re going to have to come to an understanding about that,” I said.

  Still nothing. I think she might have been pouting. Fine. I’d have to find another way to keep Fizz out of commission.

  I started the car and kicked off the stilettos to make driving easier. After acquainting myself with the basic controls, I headed to Bane’s trailer. He would have to put Fizz ‘on ice’ or whatever the terminology for it was.

  Chapter 8

  I pulled the Nissan into Bane’s drive, and he came out on the front step almost immediately. He seemed casual, wearing his obligatory vest with all the Beasts patches, his hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans. His watchful eyes told me he was looking for a certain ghost to be inhabiting his sort-of girlfriend.

  “It’s me,” I said as I hurried unsteadily across his stepping stones in Fizz’s heels.

  “I can see, Fizz.” His eyes darted momentarily over my shoulder. Uh oh. We were being watched. I nodded to let him know the message had been received.

  He held the door open for me. Wow, there might actually be a gentleman under all that tough guy persona. Then he ruined the effect by saying, “Come on in, and make your pappy happy.”

  Utterly gross. I sighed, ready to give Bane up as a lost cause as I went into his trailer. Some guys you just can’t help, I guess. Bane shut the door behind us. I inhaled the nice clean scents of Carpet Fresh, furniture polish, and window cleaner. I had a moment of pity for poor Fizz, cleaning the place in hopes of making Bane happy with her.

  “So you’re being spied on now?”

  He walked past me. “Yeah. C.K. is one paranoid son of a –”

  “Ahem.”

  Bane dropped onto the couch. “That’s right. You have a thing about foul language.” He patted the seat next to his thigh. “Come here, baby. Let’s get snuggly.”

  I planted my hands on my hips and glared. “I told you, I have a boyfriend.” Or two. And it didn’t matter how the combined sunshine and lamplight turned his skin all golden or how much that chiseled chest begged to have my hands rub it. I wasn’t going to get into anymore trouble with my guys.

  He grinned. “Boyfriend or not, the guy C.K. sicced on me has binoculars and is watching us through the window.”

  “So let’s close the curtains.”

  “We’re far enough off the road that casual passersby would never see anything. Therefore, closing the curtains would look suspicious.”

  His leer was really getting on my nerves. A look at his crotch told me Bane wasn’t adverse to playing his part as Fizz’s owner right now.

  “I have stuff to tell you.” All Business Brandilynn. That’s me.

  He patted the seat again with more emphasis. A growl snuck into his voice. “So sit down and we’ll talk.”

  “You’re a real jerk. You know that, right?”

  Bane’s look was positively evil. “And you’re giving off a lot of attitude for a mere piece of property. Don’t think our guest doesn’t see that.”

  Darn him. I had a happy little vision of kicking him in the goodies for putting me in yet another position of disadvantage. He so deserved it.

  Instead, I wobbled across the room and sat stiffly a good two feet away. Bane immediately grabbed me, pulled me close, engulfed me in those big, muscled arms and planted a tonsil-searching smooch on me.

  Good grief, the man could kiss. Fireworks lit my belly, and it took all I had to twist my face away from his. “Stop, dang you!”

  “Just giving the man the show he expects to see.” Bane nuzzled my neck, his teeth gently nipping my skin. My nipples were hard enough to cut diamonds, I was so turned on. Stupid, sexy werewolf.

  But I knew what would cool his jets and salvage my monogamy. Or was it duogamy? What the heck do you call it when you’re faithful to two men?

  Stop stalling. You’re enjoying Bane a little too much for comfort here.

  Grabbing handfuls of his hair (jeez, it was so soft), knowing it would look like passion but making sure to pull it so he’d get plenty of pain, I said, “Fizz remembers. She’s ready to bust you.”

  That did it. Bane froze, his face still buried in my neck. His breath warmed my skin. “That’s not good,” he finally said.

  Well, duh. “Your people can make her disappear, right? Like in the Witness Protection Program or something?”

  Bane’s hand stroked up and down my ribcage, apparently still pretending to be getting romantic. “Fizz disappears, that’s going to look bad on me. Very suspicious.”

  He moved fast, almost vampire fast. I gasped to find myself flat on my back on the couch with him on top of me. Despite the concern on his face, other parts of Bane were not unhappy to be there. I started to squirm then thought better of it when ‘little Bane’ jerked a warning.

  For all his lower part’s lascivious leanings, Bane was keeping his mind on the bigger problem. “Can you keep possession of her, sweetheart?”

  I shook my head emphatically. “I already brought that up with Tristan. He doesn’t want me to, and my boyfriend Dan would be furious. Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

  Bane’s hand was working between us, undoing the button of my jeans. The zipper purred open. “We can’t be having sex with your pants on. Relax. I’ll keep my stuff to myself, and it’s not your body I’m looking at.”

  Crap, crap, crap. This was going to destroy the little bit ground I’d recovered with Dan if he decided to check on me. But what the heck was I supposed to do? Jump out of Fizz and leave Bane to deal with her? Yeah, that was probably what needed to happen. But C.K. and Hazel were poised to kill the vampires. I couldn’t allow it.

  “You are going to get me in so much trouble,” I snarled at the shifter taking my pants off. Jeez, Fizz didn’t wear panties today. Didn’t that just figure.

  At least Bane only pretended to unleash his cock from his pants. He moved against me, hauling my legs up to wrap around his hips and simulating sex. I tried to ignore the rhythmic pressure on my clit. It was like trying to ignore a Rottweiler chewing on your butt. I was getting hot in a hurry.

  Bane’s mouth was at my ear, his warm, whispering breath fit to give me extra gooseflesh. “Look, we’re close to blowing this case wide open now that we know C.K. and Hazel are the ones bringing the bad blood into the States. I need you to keep Fizz quiet.”

  He was so hard, and his rigid length was rubbing directly on the best part. I gasped as I answered, “I don’t know that I can. There’s nothing you can do to get her out of the way?”

  “I can drug her from time to time to give you a break, but this is bad, Brandilynn. You’ve got to keep her under wraps for me.”

  Darn it, I couldn’t think of how to argue with him with him dry humping me like this. The roughness of his jeans was amazing friction on my clit, and my guts were starting to seize up. I would get off if he didn’t quit pronto. “Stop, Bane,” I ordered.

  “Levi. My name is Levi when we’re alone.” He looked me in the face, and a slow smile spread his lips wide. “Does it feel good, sugar? Right there?”

  The big jerk quickened his pace, and I yelped as a surge of white-hot heat seized my lower parts. Oh, there was no stopping it now, it was stampeding through me, and I clutched his very nice butt with my calves even as I begged him to stop.

  “No. No! Oh! My! God!”

  Incredible warmth burst all through me. I groaned as my womb flexed, relaxed, flexed, relaxed, flexed and relaxed again. Bane growled his approval as I convulsed beneath him, his avid gaze taking in my fluttering eyelids and wide-open mouth. Then he groaned too, and he stopped moving.

  When our breath calmed, the shifter pressed a very gentle kiss on my lips. “That was nice, little lady.”

  “I hate you,” I mumbled.

  He chuckled and kissed me again. “I wonder what you look like. The real you.”

  I forced my lax limbs to move, to push against him. “Never you mind what I look like. Get off me.”

 
“Yes ma’am.”

  He sat up, and I grabbed Fizz’s jeans off the floor. I slid the tight, uncomfortable fabric over my legs as the undercover agent contemplated the dark wet spot on the crotch of his jeans.

  “I wonder if that’s more me or you?” he mused.

  I sucked in to button my pants. Jeez, why did she have to wear such tight clothes? “I really do hate you. I don’t like you even one little teensy bit.”

  He smiled up at me. “Well, I know I like you. Once you get past my rough edges, your feelings for me will change.”

  I stomped over to sit on the recliner, as far from him as I could get. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  Bane looked at me until I shifted uncomfortably. The slight smile that continued to play over his lips (his yummy, too-kissable lips, darn him) irritated me.

  I scowled. “Look, you need to drug Fizz so I can report to Tristan what’s going on. Unless you want him to send a contingent of vampires to the Beasts club searching for me. He’ll do it too.”

  “All right. Let me go visit the dealer.” He finally stopped staring at me. He stood and made his way to the front door, sliding his feet into thong flip flops lying there. “I’ll be back in about half an hour. Beer’s in the fridge.”

  He walked out, leaving me to fume and worry. No doubt getting my jollies with Bane, even without his cock slipping into anything, counted as cheating. Darn it, how did I keep getting myself into these situations?

  I wished I had stuck to playing ghost at the Sanderson Cottage. This spy stuff had turned into one big cluster-eff.

  There was nothing to do but wait for Bane to return. I went to the refrigerator and was happy to see a diet soda in addition to the beer. I figured I should feed Fizz’s body, but my nose wrinkled at the leftover takeout pizza and Thai food. I found a frozen meal, and though the thought of overly processed salisbury steak wasn’t the most appetizing thing I could think of, it was what I had to work with.

  I moseyed back into the living room with my freshly microwaved culinary masterpiece and settled down to watch some TV. I surfed the channels, noting Fizz’s heightened interest in a talk show where the guests regularly devolved into fisticuffs. I snorted and changed the station, finally settling on the History Channel and a nice, instructive show on the suffragette movement.

  Swallowing a grainy mouthful of instant mashed potatoes, I told Fizz, “You need to expand your mind, girl. You know, being someone’s property when they don’t really love you is as low as you can get.”

  There was a sense of pouting and withdrawal. Okay, so she didn’t want unsolicited advice. I could live with that.

  Dan suddenly popped into the room between me and the television. I jumped a little, splattering gray gravy on the coffee table. Really, why was the gravy gray? No, I don’t want to know.

  “Hi Dan,” I said, wiping the table with a napkin.

  “What are you doing in there?”

  This wasn’t going to go well. I resigned myself to another blow up. “Fizz remembered everything Bane and I discussed about the case and was about to report him to C.K.”

  Dan didn’t say a word. The fury in his chocolate brown eyes spoke volumes.

  I waved a forkful of scary meat at him. “What was I supposed to do, Dan?”

  For a wonder, he didn’t have an answer to that. Thank goodness. I was tired of feeling stupid.

  He finally declared, “Well, you can’t stay in her indefinitely.”

  “I’m not. Bane is pretty sure he can have this thing wrapped up in a few days. In the meantime, we’ll drug Fizz’s body when we can so I can meet with you and Tristan. Unless you have some idea of how I can get out of this?” I added hopefully.

  “I thought you wanted to take up residence anyway until the case was closed.” His expression stated loud and clear he thought I’d done this on purpose just to spite him and Tristan.

  I grimaced at my plastic tray of food. “I’ve reconsidered.”

  “Government doesn’t wrap anything up within a few days.” Dan huffed a breath, rubbing the back of his neck as he considered the situation. “I guess you’re stuck for now. Come to the library as soon as you can.”

  “I will.” I pushed the half-eaten dinner away. If I’d had any appetite before, it was long gone now.

  Dan’s brows beetled together as he looked at me. He was angry all over again. “And don’t sleep with Bane, no matter what the situation is. I mean it, Brandilynn. We’re over if I find out you’ve been with him again.”

  I swallowed, thinking that my little dry-humping episode with the agent was going to be a deep, dark secret for the rest of my death. Both to myself and Dan I vowed, “It won’t happen. I promise.”

  Dan nodded and disappeared without saying he loved me. I put my face in my hands and fought off tears of regret.

  * * * *

  Bane finally got back. The instant he walked in I said, “That was much longer than half an hour.”

  He kicked off his flip flops. “Hello to you too, princess.”

  “Did you get it?” God, I sounded like an addict.

  He pulled a prescription bottle out of his vest pocket and shook it at me, producing a cheerful rattling sound. “Brandilynn’s little helper.”

  Impatient to get the heck out of here and away from Bane, I held out my hand, and he deposited the bottle in my palm. “How much do I take?” I asked, worried over the lack of a label.

  “Just one should knock Fizz on her–” My warning look was greeted with an indulgent chuckle. “—keester,” he finished.

  I started to take a pill with my warm soda. I could feel Fizz paying attention with a mixture of anticipation and dread, and I paused. “This stuff isn’t addictive, is it? I don’t want to make her life worse than it already is.”

  Fizz vibrated with surprise at my concern for her. I stomped my rising sympathy down. She would have seen Bane dead. I only wanted to do what was right, not feel sorry for her. Sorry could lower my defenses and allow her to make trouble. I had to stay on my toes.

  Bane answered, “It’s addictive, but hopefully we’ll have this case over and you out of there before any damage is done.”

  Crap. I did not want to be responsible for Fizz getting hooked on drugs again, but I wasn’t seeing any choice in the matter. I couldn’t stay in her nonstop. With an unhappy sigh, I downed the pill.

  Bane watched me, his expression unreadable. “From what you told me, C.K. and Hazel plan to move on this delivery soon. I hope to get into Hazel’s computer at the strip club, see what I can find out about any shipments due in from England.”

  “Maybe I can help.”

  “Maybe. Fizz is scheduled to work tonight.”

  Something sank in the pit of my stomach. “You mean strip? Oh crap. I don’t know the first thing about that.”

  Bane shrugged. “You’ll be taking off your clothes. Who cares how you dance when you’re getting naked?”

  I caught a wave of disdain from Fizz. Apparently she thought there was a gift to effective stripping, but I was kind of with Bane on the matter of talent and disrobing.

  “Men are incredibly easy to please,” I agreed, taking delight in giving him my less than stellar opinion of his gender.

  He snorted at me. “Cute, Brandilynn. What color is your hair?”

  I started at the change of topic. He had that musing look on his face again that told me his thoughts were not on work where they should be. I folded my arms over my chest, being my most unfriendly. “What does it matter?”

  He gave me a half-smile that was both a little shy and a lot charming. Handsome man-wolf … and definite trouble. “I’m curious. Come on, give me something to work with. Or maybe I can do an Internet search on you. What’s your last name?”

  I knew he had a laptop, and I could have directed him to the news stories from when I was murdered seven months prior. The picture they’d run had been stunning, a glamour shot used by the escort service I’d worked for to lure in prospective clients. The stories thems
elves told the more lurid story of how I’d slept with some of those clients for extra money, important names in Fulton Falls society. The furor against some of those men, the movers and shakers in our little town, continued to this day. One man even faced trial because he’d used county funds to entertain me. Ugly stuff, stuff I wasn’t in any hurry for Bane to find out.

  I’d done some unethical things in my life. I even thought I’d been doing them for good reasons at the time. I wasn’t terribly proud of myself, and I tend to be a little sensitive about the life I’d led.