Chapter 8 #2
As the warm, salty air swept over me, I closed my eyes and sighed, letting the ocean breeze carry my troubles away.
We need a proper vacation. But I had to focus on my task and not the roar of waves in the distance or the way the warmth wrapped around me like a hug.
We need to move The Emerald to the Caribbean.
If I just find a great taco place, I could make a pitch.
When my feet sank into powdery sand, I opened my eyes and looked around.
The Siren Resort was crowded. The massive pool stretched off into several fjords with little islands in the middle.
A DJ was playing music from the middle island and flashing neon lights across the pool area.
The pool was full of humans, their golden auras vibrant with their rowdy energy.
But in and around the human crowd were the namesake of this resort: the Siren.
One of the Siren King’s many daughters opened up this resort last year, picking a location right across from their hidden siren island that humans couldn’t see.
It was their way of letting sirens be out and about without the humans freaking out—and for them to make money.
It was brilliant, honestly. The humans all assumed the sirens hanging with them were other humans in special-made skirts, when in reality each and every one of them was an actual siren shifter.
They even advertised that their guests could swim in the ocean with sirens.
That was how they let the sirens swim to and from work without anyone knowing.
They were literally just out there vibing with the humans.
It was beautiful to see . . . If only the humans could handle magic people in reality.
“Sweetheart, damn.” An unfamiliar male voice rumbled just behind me.
When I turned, I found a middle-aged man with a beer belly and more chest hair than a grizzly bear looking at me like I was a piece of steak.
He bit his knuckles and made disgusting noises.
“Baby, you could be my dominatrix in all that leather.”
I frowned, then realized what had happened. My leather clothes blended in with New York in November, but in the Bahamas, I stuck out like a weirdo. I probably needed to change, especially as there were already beads of sweat rolling down my spine. But the ogre was still ogling me.
With an arch of my eyebrow, I reached out and fisted his chest hair, then used it to drag him toward me. “That’s mistress to you.”
He whimpered with excitement and his whole body trembled. “Y-yes, m-mistress.”
“It’s hot in all this leather.” I pushed him off hard enough to make him stumble and fall onto a pool chair. “Fetch me a strawberry daiquiri.”
His eyes were wide and bright. His cheeks flushed. “Yes, mistress. Coming right up.”
Then he was gone. I chuckled and shook my head. The resort didn’t do frozen drinks on party nights. It slowed the bar service down too much. By the time he realized that, I would be long gone. He’d wonder if he’d imagined me.
Though, he had helped me out. My leather outfit and combat boots really made me stand out in a bad way here when everyone else wore only swimwear.
If I wanted to catch this Christopher, then I needed to look like one of these bikini babes so he wouldn’t notice who I was until it was too late—like Kaso.
My face warmed. I cursed and hurried into a cabana with most of its curtains closed.
Being a Virtue meant we had a few tricks to help us do our jobs effectively.
One of those tricks came in extra handy even off the clock.
I peeked around the edge of the curtain and spotted the closest female in a bikini, then I wiggled my fingers in the air.
In the shadow of the cabana, the glow of my pink magic shined like a beacon, but I was quick.
In the blink of an eye, my black leather attire had been swapped out with the tiniest piece of Lycra I’d ever seen.
Dammit. We had the ability to use our magic to change our appearance to whatever we wanted, but the catch was we had to be looking at the appearance we wanted.
So I couldn’t just picture my favorite bikini in my head and then suddenly be wearing it.
No, I had to look at someone in front of me and then copy theirs.
I peeked back around the edge of the cabana curtain, searching for a single female with more than strings on when the Serenity rolled like a wave in front of me.
I frowned and followed the energy right to the darkening I’d spotted from New York.
And then I saw him.
Christopher Thompson.
The blue-eyed blond was sitting on the ledge of a hot tub with only his shins and feet in the water.
There had to be six sirens huddled around him, giggling and batting their eyelashes up at him.
Not that I blamed them. The guy was definitely handsome, obviously rich, and those fangs were just visible enough to let these sirens know he wasn’t human.
Supernaturals tended to flock together. Normally the sirens only casually flirted with human guests, but supernatural guests were fair game.
Some of them were husband-hunting. I balled my hands into fists so hard my knuckles cracked.
I was hunting him before I realized I’d moved at all.
Every part of me wanted to use my water magic and walk across the pool to grab him, but there were far, far too many humans around to witness it.
Zuriel would be furious at that clean-up.
And Zuriel’s wrath was the only one I avoided, especially in the last century.
Instead, I had to follow the perimeter of the pool like all the humans did.
But I didn’t take my eyes off Christopher as I stalked toward him.
He hadn’t spotted me yet. He wasn’t smart enough.
That was how he’d been caught so many times.
That was why he’d hired the mob to help him.
About twenty feet from the hot tub, the path forced everyone down fifteen steps and then back up another fifteen to come out on the other side of the slide.
I hurried up the steps, then slipped through the stretch of trees blocking the hot tub from the pathway. I leapt out from the trees—and froze.
Christopher was gone.
In his place sat Kaso.
My breath left me in a rush. I glanced around but Christopher was nowhere in sight.
What the fuck? HOW? I turned back to the hot tub, ready to arrest Kaso right then and there.
But my body was locked in place. Frozen, figuratively speaking.
My blood had turned to lava running through my veins.
My breaths came faster and shorter. Kaso sat there in the exact spot Christopher had just been in, leaning back on his hands with his legs dangling in the hot tub.
His white button-down shirt was rolled up past his elbows but it hung wide open in the front, revealing more tanned skin than my body seemed to know how to process.
“Careful, mistress. Stare any longer and I’ll have to charge,” Kaso purred.
Rage exploded inside of me. “You,” I growled.
He gave me that cocky sideways grin. “I think we’ve covered that one.”
The six sirens in the hot tub giggled and slid closer to him, clinging to his legs or rubbing his shoulders. I snarled and glared at each of their hands, imagining a world where I was allowed to break each and every finger one by one. Fuck up . . . just one time. Let me break something.
“Where is Christopher?”
He ran his tongue over the sharp, elongated tips of his fangs. “Never heard of him.”
I clenched my teeth tight and breathed through my nose, trying to rein in the anger so I didn’t make a scene or commit a crime. “Cut the shit, cheesepuff—”
“Cheesepuff?” His dark eyebrows shot up. “That’s the cheese I remind you of?”
“If the shoe fits.” I shrugged, my gaze locked on his.
Those golden eyes flashed bright. He stood up, his feet in the hot tub, and gestured to his chiseled abs on perfect display.
My gaze slid over that lethal V-cut and down muscular legs.
My legs felt like Jell-O. He’d ditched the black trousers for a pair of very modern black boxer-briefs that left little to the imagination.
It was like he’d dropped his pants and stepped right in.
“Insult me all you want, Rapunzel . . .” He took a step forward—and was suddenly right in front of me.
He still stood on the bench inside the hot tub, but with his long body his face reached to just under my chest. His golden eyes were blazing like the sun as he looked up at me through those thick, dark eyelashes.
He licked his lips, then smirked. “But never lie to me.”
His breath swept over my bare stomach, sending goosebumps across my skin.
My body was betraying me more and more with every interaction with this vampire, something his heated gaze had not missed as he looked up at me like I was dinner and dessert.
But I saw the way his pupils dilated and the way his fangs grew longer, both betraying his own attraction to me.
Two can play this game. I flicked my wrist and forced the water in the hot tub to lift him up higher so we were eye-to-eye . . . lip-to-lip—no! Focus Chanel. He’s a bad, bad, bad boy. I lowered him back down so I still had the high ground.
“So you can let down your hair,” he whispered, his breath hot on my lips. “Go ahead. I’ll give you another chance.”
I arched one eyebrow and subtly rolled my upper body in such a way that it forced the fabric of my bikini to graze his chin. His cheeks flushed and those eyes flashed.
“You remind me of that nacho cheese you pump out of the tin at gas stations onto stale chips—”
His fangs dropped lower. “You’re anything but stale, princess.”
I gasped. Heat rushed through me. “That’s not—Where’s Christopher?”
He chuckled softly, then without taking his eyes off mine, he ran the tip of his middle finger down the middle of my stomach until he reached the edge of my bikini bottom.
My mouth parted. We hadn’t broken eye contact.
I felt his fingertips slide between the spandex and my skin, sending hot shivers down my spine.
And then I felt paper slide into my bikini bottom.
I opened my mouth—
“Here you are, mistress!”
I jumped and spun to my left only to find Mr. Beer Belly with a domme kink standing next to the hot tub carrying two strawberry daiquiris and a puppy dog grin on his face. What the—how? I turned back to yell at Kaso, but he was gone.
Vanished.
I cursed and stomped my foot like a petulant child. “Where’d he go?” I snarled at all the sirens.
Half of them pointed to the left. The other half pointed to the right.
I sighed. Dammit. I looked down and wanted to scream.
A piece of white paper was tucked into my bikini bottom.
With a nasty curse, I yanked it out and practically ripped it open.
There on the white paper, written in an elegant black scroll, was a note that read: ‘Sorry I stumbled upon another one of your kinks, mistress. You almost had me.’
A little scream ripped up my throat and through my clenched teeth.
I balled the note up in my hand and seethed like a fire-breathing dragon.
Wait a second. mistress. He said mistress.
That’s what I called myself to Mr. Beer Belly.
I narrowed my eyes on him and gripped his chest hair again.
“Did that man hire you to come up to me? To watch for me and stop me?”
He nodded his head. “Yes, mistress.”
“Nel?”
I gasped and spun around to find Regan standing three feet behind me still dressed in her black leather hunting gear that was currently sprinkled with snow. Her sandy-blonde hair was tied back and her eyes were wide. She looked down at my bikini, then to Mr. Beer Belly in front of me.
“Oh my God,” Mr Beer Belly breathed. “There’s two of you.”
I turned back to him, grabbed the drinks from his hands, then snapped, “Go.”
“Yes, mistress.” He bit his bottom lip, then turned and scurried away.
“What . . . Ya know what? I have too many questions right now.”
I groaned and held one of the frozen drinks out to her, which she took immediately. “Me too.”
When she held the drink up to her mouth, I noticed her knuckles were bloodied. Then I realized she had a bruise forming around her eye and a split bottom lip.
My jaw dropped. “What the hell happened to you?”
She growled. “Got there right as that son of a bitch was writing us a note, so I beat his ass for answers.”
“Is he dead?”
“NO.” She threw her hands up. “He liked it. Giggled the whole time.”
“So you fought him?”
“Crackers got cracked, let me tell you. And then he just fucking vanished. He didn’t even take a swing at me.” She huffed and shook her head, then held up a little folded-up piece of white paper. “He left a note saying, should’ve gone with door number two. Better luck next time.”
I frowned. “So you met Andreas then. What did he look like?”
She threw her hands up. “Tall, dark, and stupid? I don’t know. He wore glasses.”
I nodded. “Ah, there it is.”
“There what is?”
“He got away, right?” I shrugged. “I was trying to figure out how a target got away from you once you bloodied him . . . but there it is.”
She narrowed her blue eyes at me in a fierce glare. “I will strangle you with his suspenders.”
I threw my head back and groaned. “He wasn’t wearing them tonight—”
“You saw him? The Cheese?” Then she gasped. “And he got away?”
I held my hands up. “Look, what had happened was—Wait. Door number two? Son of a bitch stick . . . They set us up. Christopher was here but he got away before I could grab him. This whole thing was arranged, and we fell for it!”
She spotted the note balled-up in my hand and snagged it. With quick fingers she unballed it to read his note, her eyebrows sinking lower with every word she read. Finally, she turned her pointed glare back to me. “What the fuck is going on with you two, Chanel?”