In-Between Work and Play (The Jocelyn Frost Series Book 1) (13 page)

Arriving at my
office about ten minutes late has never been an issue.  Arriving at my office
ten minutes late with Inez sitting behind my desk put a lump in the pit of my
stomach.

“Glad you could
come into work today!” she sneered. 

My eyes scanned
the room.  The brownies did an amazing job of putting everything back
together.  “I’m actually early.  Detective Winters said to come in at ten, not
nine.”

“Detective
Winters does not run this department.  I do, and if you intend to come
strolling in here late, you need to let me know in advance.”  She stood up,
spreading her glittery, red wings behind her.  Not one to dress professionally,
Inez’s business attire was a skintight, white halter top with a sweetheart
neckline and a faux brown leather, skater skirt.  If I wore something that
short and revealing, I would have been written up.

“I’m sorry, it
won’t happen again.” I looked down in order to show submission. 

She brushed past
me.  “See that it doesn’t.”  I glanced up, catching the large pile of folders
tucked under her arm.  At least, I wouldn’t have to deliver those to Zack.

I barely got
settled in at my desk before Carmine rushed in.  He closed the door behind him.
“Are you well?  I heard that your office was broken into.”

I leaned back
into my chair. “I’m hanging in there.”

“Do you have any
idea what they were seeking?”  He turned the accent chair in order to sit
across from me.

“I haven’t a
clue.  I have little or nothing of value.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“It’s not like my clients have horrible secrets.  Most of them just complain
about their families or coworkers.”  I hated asking, but I didn’t have much of
a choice at this point.  “What do you think they were after?”

Staring me
straight in the eyes he stated, “You.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

“I’m nobody. 
Why would they be after me?”

“You are the
only one who can answer that question.”  He stood.  “Think about it.  Perhaps
the answer will come to you.”  He left my office, leaving the door slightly
ajar.

I felt like
pulling my hair.  In the span of a couple of days, my life had been turned
upside-down.  Part of me wanted to ignore all the shit that hit the fan, and go
on like nothing happened.  The other part wanted to run home to my mother.  She
moved her practice from New Jersey to Virginia when I was drafted.  Once a month,
I was allowed to use the portal to Earth.  Luckily, it emptied out into a
parking garage located outside of Washington D.C.  It only took me an hour to
drive to her place from there.

No, I could
never risk my mother’s safety.  What if whoever was threatening me followed me
to her?  I’d never have been able to live with myself if that happened.

I had an hour
before my first appointment.  Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I decided I
might as well do some prep work.  I reached over and pulled open my filing
cabinet. The top drawer lay empty.  The second drawer was also empty.

I went through
the files the night before to make sure every single one was there.  Now, they
were all gone, including my Demigoddess Anonymous meeting notes.

Curse that
bitch!  I flipped on my desktop and said about ten silent prayers to each of my
godly relatives, hoping that the electronic copies were still intact.  Come on,
come on…  “No!  Oh, no…”  It wasn’t even my computer.  A foreign screen greeted
me.  I took a deep breath.  It wasn’t the end of the world.  Just the end of my
career. 

I left my office
before losing my nerve.  Just my luck, Inez’s door was closed.  I knocked
anyway.  Waiting a few minutes, I knocked again.  I even tried the doorknob. 
Damn it!  I looked for her in all the usual places.  When I could not find her,
I headed back to my office.

I reached into
my purse and pulled out my keys.  My backup flash drive was the last copy of my
files.  Next time I crossed over to Earth, I’d have to buy another one to make
a double backup copy.  I printed out my schedule, along with the notes I needed
to go over, before my first patient arrived.

When I finished,
I looked around the office, wondering if I should start packing.  Needing a
caffeine fix, I made a pot of coffee.  Steam lifted into the air as bubbling
black awesomeness filled the tiny glass pot.  The printer hummed with strain. 
I swear, I could have rewritten the notes by hand faster than they printed out,
but why stress myself out even more than I already was?

Throwing the
used filter out, I found today’s newspaper in the garbage bin. Freaking Inez
threw out my copy of the Fastness Gazette! How was I supposed to get my
crossword puzzle fix?  Not that I had time to do it today, but hopefully, it
was still salvageable.

The cover story
caught my attention.

Enforcers are stumped

Thursday
morning, the remains of four vampires were found in the Business District. 
They are identified as Albert Gillotti, Tony Sorci, Vinnie Calvo, and Geno
Pelino.  Turned in the early 1930s, these four vampires joined the Clan Sangue
in 1947.  According to Gillotti’s progeny, Lia, “Al was a fair boss that ran a
tight ship.”  The circumstances of their demise remains a mystery. Contact the
Enforcer Department with any information as to their cause of their true death.

A knock on the
door drew my attention away from the paper.  My first client was early and
already in tears.

Declan

“Come on.  Pick
up the phone, Gwen.” 

Banging his head
lightly on the wall in front of him, Hamish’s voice started to sound panicked. 
I dropped my keys and today’s mail on the counter.   “What’s going on?”

“She promised me
that she would call.  She promised me, Dex.  Why hasn’t she called?”

“Maybe she got
sidetracked,” I suggested. 

“Sidetracked? 
Dex, she hasn’t answered my texts.”  The phone was slipped into his back
pocket.

“Maybe her phone
died.”  I gave him a firm pat on the shoulder. 

 He exhaled a
deep breath. “That’s probably it.  Thanks Dex, I’m going to see if she wants to
get some dinner.”

“See you later.”
My attention was drawn to today’s newspaper.  Skimming through the article on
the front page, I couldn’t help but feel a wave of anxiety hitting my nerves. 

Honestly, four
vampires mysteriously meeting their true death should not have been front page
news.  Perhaps it was best that I decided to escort Jocelyn to Erda.  If any of
the Enforcers came sniffing around the house, Hamish could warn me. 

Thinking on it a
bit more, it was probably a good idea to bring Finley with us.  Just in case
the vampires were quick enough to figure out what happened. 

I sent Finley a
quick text to pick up Jocelyn in front of the Archive.  I left the archivist on
duty a note to give Joce, telling her to meet me here, but perhaps, that was a
bad idea.  Royce was a vampire in the Clan Sangre.  It was preferable that she
had little or no contact with him.

Vampires were
truly a nasty lot.  Regretfully, I sought the companionship of a couple of
their females.  That ended now.  The only way I would still be interested in a
vampire is if Jocelyn was turned.  Please, Osiris, prohibit that!

If any of the
vampire covens identified Jocelyn as a demigoddess with light magic
capabilities, they would surely seek her out and enslave her.  Only an idiotic
vampire would be rash enough to turn her.  Jocelyn would have been worth far
more to them as she was. If they did turn her, most of her demigoddess
abilities would have become null and void.  The best case scenario would have
been for her to become a day walker.  Other than that, I couldn’t be sure.

I dug a little
further into the children of Baldur and found only a few references to them in
the Archive database.  Sadly, most of the ones born in Erda seldom reached
adulthood.  The ones born on Earth rarely found out that they were demigods;
and those that did find out about their godly heritage, died before their thirtieth
birthday.

I estimated
Jocelyn to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight.  That did not bode well for
her survival.  I could only postulate that she was drafted in order to protect
her from an early demise. 

Vampires were
not the only creatures of the night that sought the blood of a demigoddess of
light.  There were plenty of unseelie fae who would be weakened by the
consumption of their unique blood.  There were plenty of children of the sun
Watchers, but most vampires and unseelie fae could smell the sun in them.  The
children of Baldur were different.  Their blood did not smell like sunshine. 

A knock at the
back door jarred my attention from the wretched article. 

Don’t
open it!
Dot screeched in
my brain. 

Why
not?  Who is it?

Before she could
answer, the door swung open on its own accord. 

“Well, well,
well.  Hello, lover.”

I felt my
reproductive organs attempting to retract into my body.  Whatever possessed me
to fornicate with this vampire was beyond my current level of comprehension.
“Lia.” 

Dot,
tell the others to hide.

Yes,
Daddy. 
I felt her
shudder. 

The sickly, pale
vampire pouted her cherry red lips. “What’s wrong, Declan?  I know you missed
me.” She strutted into the kitchen like a model on the runway. 

I picked up the
paper. “I was just reading about what happened.  I’m sorry for your loss.”

Her head tilted
to the side. “I’m sure you are.”  A pointy, cherry-red nail tapped the tip of
my nose.  Lia circled around me like a shark circles its prey. 

“Did you come all
this way to invite me to their funeral?”

Distracted, Lia
strutted toward the counter.  “Oh, this brings back memories.”  With a quick
hop, she landed her ass on top of the granite.  “Yes, some very fond memories. 
Don’t you want to make some new memories with me?”  Lying backwards, she ran
her pointy nails between her legs.

Bile churned in
my stomach, ready to surface.  How did I ever find her attractive?  It was
obvious to me now that she was a prostitute, but when I first met her, she was
completely different. 

I was closing
the Archive when she first strutted up to my desk.  Wearing a striped,
button-down shirt with a knee-length skirt, she reminded me of a sexy
librarian.  She seemed so coy and sweet. I was instantly attracted to her. 

This creature masturbating
on my countertop was quite the opposite.  Her black leather, skater skirt was
barely long enough to cover her privates, while her top did little to conceal
her cantaloupe-sized breasts.

“Look, Lia, I
know you must feel vulnerable right now…”

Her hand stopped
rubbing her bare genitals.  Yes, I could see exactly what she was doing.  And
no, I was most definitely not turned on.

“Vulnerable,
does not begin to explain how I feel.  Most importantly, I feel horny, and I
want your cock,” she tapped herself, “right here.”

“Lia, I think
you should leave.”  I couldn’t recant my previous invitation, like they do on
some of those vampire shows, but I did insist that she vacate the premises. 

“What!?”  Her
chest heaved, causing her breasts to bounce.  The effect was lost on me.  I
know the only reason a vampire inhaled was to speak.  Otherwise, their lungs
only required a tenth of the amount of oxygen most other species needed in
order to survive.  “Am I not sexy enough?”  She flashed over to stand in front of
me quicker than the beat of my racing heart.  Her hand reached down, fondling
my soft penis.

“Lia, please
understand that I am not the type of man who gets easily aroused just because
there is a horny female in the room.”  Beads of perspiration dripped down the
side of my face.  The last thing I wanted was for her to castrate me.

Her hand
retracted as if burned by fire.  “No, I suppose not.”  Her nail tapped her
cheek, “I wonder why?”  A giggle erupted from deep inside her chest. “CANNON!”

The ground
shook, causing several glasses drying on the counter to tip over. 

“YES, BOSS
LADY?”  The ugly mug of a demi-giant filled the door. 

“Come inside,
Cannon.”  A wicked smirk crossed her lips.  “My progeny. Handsome, isn’t he? 
Oh, and what a cock!  It’s twice the size of yours.  True, that’s small for his
species, but honestly, I couldn’t stretch any wider without ripping apart. 
Believe me, it’s not a fun experience.  Right, Cannon, your daddy’s cock’s
twice the size of yours.”

If his
pock-marked, Play-Doh-like, round cheeks could have turned red, I’m sure they
would have.  “Bad Daddy made you cry.”

I took the
distraction as an opportunity to unbutton my right cuff sleeve.  My quarter
staff may not have been able to kill them, but it could have caused a lot of
damage if they turned violent.

“What?  You’re
not shocked, Declan.”  Her light brown eyes started to turn red.  “You’re not
surprised that I would fuck a giant?”

“I’m too
confused to be shocked.”

“Confused? Yeah,
right, Mr. Son of Thoth, Egyptian god of wisdom, is hardly ever confused.”  She
snapped her fingers. “Tell me, Declan, what is the normal occupation of a
female vampire working outside of the BCW?  Hmm?”

“Administrative
assistant.”

“Wrong answer. 
Come on, Declan, surely, you know.  No more sarcastic answers.”

I took a deep
breath. “Unless they are very old and one of the founding members of their
enclave, they’re prostitutes.”

“And guess what
I am.”

“You’re very
old.”

Her eyes
narrowed. “Actually, I’m recently turned.”

“My condolences.”

“Oh, fuck you.” 
Her nail poked my chest. “You were one of my first marks.  A test actually.  My
masters were trying to figure out a way to financially bleed you dry, so they
sent me to hook you into our way of death.”

“And you
failed.”

She growled. “I
did not fail!” Her fists balled and then flexed.  “Turns out, those demigods
have a natural immunity to my powers of addiction.”  Her smile returned. “That
being said, my masters decided to collect on the debts my johns owed.  And that
includes you.”  She poked my chest again.

“Me?  I never
agreed to pay you a dime.  Your payment was being allowed to feed from me. 
That’s it.”

“No, that’s
where you are wrong.  You even admitted that the main occupation for a female
vampire is a prostitute.  If you were too blinded by lust to understand that my
enclave was going to come after you for money, you are even more pathetic than
I first realized.”

“Lia, I honestly
don’t know what you expect from me.  For all I know, you work for the BCW.  If
you want some sort of payment, then send me a bill from a lawyer.  Otherwise, I
want you and Cannon to leave.”  I looked over my shoulder for a split second. 
Cannon pranced into the hallway like a little girl performing at her first
ballet recital. In that split second, Lia shoved me against the wall with one
hand on my throat and the other one on my scrotum. 

“Lia!  We gots
us company!”

“I KNOW YOU HAD
SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT, RIVERS!  DON’T DENY IT!”  Lia screamed in my face.

I tried to
speak, but my air was cut off.  When the vampire realized I couldn’t talk, she
dropped me to the floor. “Something to do with what?”

“With their true
deaths,” she hissed, throwing the newspaper in my face.  “They were hunting
down my johns and you were at the top of the list.”  Her hiss turned into a
sing-song type of chant.  “I went to the scene of the crime. I know you were
there.”  With that, her eyes widened.  Before I could move, she flashed deeper
into the house.