Blood Pool

converging. Raven stood while he pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and left it on the table.

The car ride back to Raven’s home was quiet, with the exception of a few indiscriminate moans. They could barely keep their hands still for a single moment. Each caressed the other. Bo couldn’t tear his gaze from the woman who’d stolen his heart many years ago. Which made it challenging to drive.

He’d always thought she wanted nothing more than to marry him. But he also worried. How would the clan of shape shifters feel about their coupling? Would Raven question his ability to cope when the wild blood that surged through his veins called out for him and he disappeared, again without a word? Not to mention that Bethany would still be in the pack.

As they entered her house, their urgency grew. Only their desire existed in the dark. In one long stride, Bo moved toward her, his arms outstretched, but Raven backed away.

She tossed her jacket onto the chair nearby, walking backward toward the bedroom. He followed, flicking one button of his shirt after the other. Raven followed suit, taking off her blouse just before releasing her breasts from the lacey bra. Bo watched as she dropped it to the floor. Her breasts shone like polished ivory in the moonlight which glided through the windows.

She seductively bit her full lower lip, wiped the drop of blood that dripped onto her finger and offered it to Bo. He seized her wrist and pulled her close to him. His mouth covered hers and he tasted her blood, causing his craving to overtake them both.

Finally separating, she unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them off. She guided him to the edge of the bed and sat him down as she slowly removed the rest of his clothes. Then she proceeded, methodically, to strip for his eyes only.

She slithered out of her navy pencil skirt, kicking it over to where he sat. She ran her hands up to her breasts and cupped them, offering a taste. As he leaned forward, she pulled back.

“I’m not finished yet,” she whispered, her voice husky.

Her finger trailed around her nipple, and he gasped as her slender digit slid down to her red lace panty. She took the elastic and ran her hand around her waist, sliding one side down, then the other. Bo’s breath was ragged, his body taut with anticipation.

Bit by bit, she wiggled out and caught the red garment on the edge of her painted toe before flicking it into his face. He smiled and breathed in her essence, moaning with delight. She stood before him in only her open-toed pumps, an ivory goddess.

His sex was hard, and she knelt before him, taking a taste.

“Lose the shoes, my love,” he whispered, moaning with the pleasure she provided between her lips. She kicked them off as she held his penis, kissing the tip then traveling up his chest with hungry lips. She nicked a spot and sucked out a bit of his blood. His hands worked their way from her bottom to her breasts, finally taking one at a time inside his mouth, playfully teasing and tasting. He felt her go limp and grabbed her. With one swift move, Bo had her on her back in bed.

He leaned, poised, ready to enter her. “What do you want from me, my love? Tell me and I’ll do it-whatever it is.”

“Love me, always, meu dragoste,” she panted, holding him as close as she possibly could.

“You never called me that before. I do love you. I want you to be mine, always. Marry me, bear my children, be my mate.”

A smile reached across Raven’s face. “I’ve always been yours. Take me. Don’t ever leave me,” she murmured, pushing him deep inside her, pushing herself upward to meet him in rapture and delight. Despite the fact she was half Lamai, he felt her warmth as he joined with her. He couldn’t imagine his life without her in it.

They tussled between the blankets of Raven’s bed, trying desperately to merge with each other completely.

“I want us to work this time, cante skuye. Promise me we’ll make it work,” he murmured in her ear as he plunged deeper inside her. Her eyes were taking on the silver hue that indicated she was near orgasm.

“You know I’m yours,” she moaned.

She licked at the spot on his chest where she’d extracted some of his blood. His hunger for Raven surpassed all other feelings.

He took her head gently between his hands and delved into the seat of her soul with his spirit. Their gazes locked onto each other, soul to soul, they united.

“Why did you want to be with that other man, then? At Blood Pool, I felt your emotions.” His heart went cold as he thought about the way she’d acted.

“You felt only my hunger, meu dragoste,” she confessed.

“Hunger for me and only me,” he said, half-pleading, half-demanding, and then he kissed her. He covered every part of her with his energy possessing her. His lips traveled across her neck and down to her breasts. As his tongue flicked at her hardened nipples, she arched backward, her fangs extended onto his exposed neck.

“Do it,” he commanded.

“I’m afraid.” She ground her hips feverishly into his. A tear escaped her eye. Her lips were swollen from the force of passion that raced between them as they nibbled and kissed.

“Now, Raven,” he pleaded.

She bit down into his neck. His body spasmed and his life force poured into her.

“You’ve always been my love, since the beginning,” Bo crooned. “Marry me.”

She swallowed his blood. “I will,” she answered.

Raven merged with him so that there could be no doubt. Her soul entered his heart. At the point of climax, there was only love.

The phone rang, breaking the silence of the early morning.

“I hate to bother you again, Doc. We have another body. Looks to be the same situation as yesterday. No outward sign of trauma, but he is dead. Davis picked him up early this morning,” Bianca reported as Raven wiped the sleep from her eyes.

She propped her head in her hand as she lay on her side. “Are you certain he’s dead?”

“Well, Davis pronounced him at the site. By the way, it was at The Bed and Brew this time.”

Shock coursed through her. Someone was trying desperately to send her a message. It had to be-first Blood Pool, and then The Bed and Brew. Both were places where Raven and Bo had been earlier in the evening.

Raven sat up in bed as Bo’s arm encircled her waist, pulling her toward him. She felt his erection hard and ready for her.

“I’ll be right there.” Raven hung up the phone.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he murmured, grasping her bottom.

She grabbed the edge of the bed with one hand and held herself steady with the other as he entered her from behind. His hair tickled her back while he nipped at her neck. The urgency of his lovemaking showed her how he wanted to claim her.

She abandoned all thought, hurtling down the road to ecstasy once more with him.

Davis put the final few stitches into the John Doe as Raven typed up the autopsy report. John had lost approximately four liters of blood. How? Well, that question wouldn’t be so easy to answer. Raven noticed a puncture mark by the femoral artery and noted it in the autopsy report. Whatever happened, whoever did it went right for a main artery. It was a single puncture mark, not a bite mark.

Detective Joe Menendez witnessed the autopsy.

“Let’s get an I.D.,” Raven said. “Fingerprints and dental records, please.”

Tracy ordered a full tox screen, and Raven and Davis reviewed the x-rays numerous times. No trauma caused this death-at least, no visible external or internal trauma. It had taken five hours to perform the routine autopsy. Raven had supervised Davis.

“Good night, all,” Raven said as she made her way out into the late afternoon sun. She wanted to stop at the farm stand before heading home. She craved a caramel apple pie, and Nigella’s Herbary and Farm Stand made the best. Nigella was a dear childhood friend who knew all of Raven’s secrets. Nigella also happened to be Bianca’s sister.

Raven started her car, a cherry-red Nissan Altima, and adjusted the rearview mirror after quickly applying a coat of mascara. Something was off. Making her alterations to seat positioning and mirror placement, Raven suddenly noticed she had company, and he was hungry.

Blue eyes stared her down. “Drive, okay? I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice was scratchy and unsteady.

She chuckled. “Me? You’re not going to hurt me?” Her incisors were sharp and long at this point, the adrenaline rush causing them to extend. Her eyes turned platinum. Raven looked back at him. She realized the identity of the man hunched over in her back seat. Adonis.

“Oh, gods! Derrick! What happened to you?”

“I was hoping you could explain it to me.” He wiped his palms on his pants, but he kept perspiring. “I don’t know. We have to go somewhere safe so I can talk to you. Not your place-your boyfriend will be there.” His eyes darted back and forth, and he kept looking behind himself, as if expecting to see someone following. The handsome man from the other night had disappeared, replaced with this pale and anxious one.

She thought of Bo’s schedule for the coming week. “Bo’s working tonight,” she said, gazing back at him through the mirror. He looked awful. His skin was pasty and discolored. The whites of his eyes were yellowed and bloodshot.

“No, he’s supposed to be at work, but he’s not… That little psychic talent I had has improved vastly since we last saw each other,” Derrick said, rubbing his red-rimmed eyes.

Raven drove to the water’s edge by Three Maidens Marina and parked at the end of the lot. She shut off the engine and turned. His aura was blotchy and grey. “Okay, here we are. Talk.”

He became suddenly still. “Am I…like you now? I thought I was dead. I don’t remember much of anything.”

Her heart went out to him. She’d witnessed only a few humans transform into Lamai. It did not appear to be a pleasant change.

“What does your spidey sense tell you?” she asked.

He looked at Raven with an odd expression. She’d aimed for humor and missed by a long shot.

“My psychic sense is telling me I’m in deep shit. Evil shit. You’re somehow involved, but I don’t know any more than that. I wanted to talk to you the other night. I had a dream about you, and it wasn’t good. You were in trouble, big trouble, life-and-death trouble,” Derrick rambled on. “Now, I can’t remember much of anything.”

“Me? Life-and-death? That’s kinda hard. You see I-I can’t die.” Raven pursed her lips and shook her head, hoping to convince him she was an immortal.