Hotter Blood: More Tales of Erotic Horror

Lieutenant Bergstrom stopped by the bar around the corner from the station. He needed a drink — desperately. Hell, he didn't need just a drink. He needed a whole damned bottle.

'Heard you had another one tonight,' Earl Danzig said, sidling up to the stool next to Ralph's and signaling the bartender for a Scotch. 'Same MO?'

'The same,' Bergstrom confirmed.

'Still no leads?'

'None.'

'Christ,' Danzig said, taking a sip of his fresh Scotch. 'What kind of woman is she? Some sort of siren out of Greek mythology? I still can't believe she's real.'

'She's real, all right,' Ralph said.

'I don't know. Those guys might have made her up.'

'All of them?'

'Maybe some kind of mass psychosis. Isn't that what lawyers say when they cop insanity pleas for perps?'

'Look, Earl, I don't want to talk about it. I came here to have a drink and forget.'

'Well, if she's real, I'd sure like to meet her. Sounds like every man's wet dream, doesn't she?'

'Shut up, Earl. Shut your fat face.'

'Hey. Don't get sore, Ralph. I know you just got married. But that doesn't mean you can't have wet dreams like the rest of us poor slobs. Does it?'

Bergstrom picked up his drink and moved to the other end of the bar — as far away from Danzig as he could get.

Danzig ordered another Scotch. And followed.

'Just think about it, Ralph,' Danzig continued, almost drooling. 'Here's this gorgeous blonde, built like a brick outhouse, and everyone says she fucks like a mink — never gets enough, always wants more. Don't tell me you wouldn't take a piece of that if you had a chance.'

'Get out of my face, Earl. I'm too tired to think about it.'

'You getting old, Ralph? That new wife of yours wearing you out? If you can't handle it, old man, just say the word. I'd be willing to help you out in the sack…'

Ralph's fist flew straight for Earl's face. Earl blocked the blow and countered with a quick kick to Ralph's groin.

'Break it up!' the bartender yelled, rushing from behind the bar with a baseball bat in his hands. 'Take it outside if you have a score to settle.'

' 'S awright,' Ralph gasped. 'Fight's… over.'

'What the fuck got into you?' Earl demanded. 'Can't even take a joke anymore, can you? Jesus Christ, Bergstrom. Maybe you are getting old. You okay?'

'Wind… knocked… out.'

'Didn't bust your nuts, did I?'

'Hurts…'

'C'mon. I'll take you to the hospital.'

'No… hospital.'

'Look, Ralph, I'm sorry. I saw your fist coming at me and I overreacted. Let me give you a ride home, at least. You don't look in any condition to drive, and it's all my fault.'

'Forget… it.'

'No. If I can't take you to a hospital, then I'm driving you home.'

'Won't… let… you…'

Earl laughed. 'Think you can stop me?'

Before Ralph could protest again, Earl bent his back and snatched the injured man up in a fireman's carry.

And headed out the door.

'We used to be best friends,' Earl said as he drove. 'We were partners for four whole years, back when you worked the burglary division. Then you got promoted, transferred to homicide, and now we're like strangers, trying to kill each other in a barroom brawl. What the hell happened, Ralph? What changed you?'

Ralph didn't answer.

'You used to be a real card, you know that? Life of the party. Real skirt chaser, too. Suddenly you turned serious. And now you can't even take a good-natured ribbing.'

'Getting old,' Ralph mumbled. 'Slowing down.'

'No, you're not. I just called you old to get your goat, make you react. I shouldn't have done that, Ralph. I'm sorry.'

'Forget it.'

'I guess I was sore that you got married and didn't ask me to be best man. Hell, you didn't even invite me to the goddamned wedding. Come to think of it, you've never introduced me to that new wife of yours, have you?'

'No.'

'Least you could do is tell me her name.'

'Helen,' Ralph said.

'I hear she's a lot younger than you. That true?'

'No. Actually, she's older.'

'Real looker, though. Right?'

'Right.'

'So. You gonna introduce us?' Earl pulled into the driveway and parked next to Ralph's back door. 'Gonna invite me in for a beer and satisfy my curiosity?'

'Some other time,' Ralph said. He opened the passenger door and got out.

And fell flat on his face.

'Jesus Christ! You okay?'

Ralph retched and copious vomit spewed through his clenched teeth.

Earl left the car and walked to where Ralph lay on the lawn.

'Delayed reaction to a kick in the gut,' Earl said knowingly. 'You won't be able to walk right for a week.'

Suddenly the porch light came on and the back door opened. 'Ralph?' a woman's voice called from the house. 'That you?'

Ralph tried to answer, but bile still clogged his throat and made his body convulse with dry heaves.

'It's all right, Mrs. Bergstrom,' Earl said. 'I'm Sergeant Danzig. Ralph isn't feeling well. If you hold the door open for us, I'll help get him inside.'

Ralph tried to resist, but Earl — two inches taller, fifty pounds heavier, and five years younger — managed to lift him and move his struggling body toward the door. In the eerie glow from a mercury vapor porchlight, Ralph's face looked pale, drained of blood. Spittle clung to the stub of five o'clock shadow that dotted his chin.

Then they were inside the house and moving into the bedroom. Earl heard Mrs. Bergstrom's footsteps two steps behind his own.

'What happened?' she asked.

Earl laid the resisting Ralph down on a king-size water bed. 'Nothing serious,' he said. 'We were practicing hand-to-hand combat and Ralph got hit in the gut by accident. He'll recover in a day or two.'

She said something he didn't catch. So he turned around to face her.

And then Earl saw her for the first time.

Oh.

God.

She was gorgeous.

Wearing a black-silk kimono that barely hid her voluptuous body from his prying eyes, she was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen in his entire life. Twin mounds pushed seductively against their silk sheath, and the thin