Crimson Debt Read online

  Still seething, I turned on my heel and headed for the glowing red exit sign at the back of the club. Unfortunately, to get to it I had to pass the glam booths, which all had glass walls, both for full disclosure as the law demanded and for the flocks of voyeurs that liked to watch someone else get glammed.

  On either side of me I caught glimpses of glam-sex for blood transactions in various stages. Typically the vamp took blood first—payment up front so to speak—before doing the glam session. Of course, before any of that could take place, the human party had to sign a ridiculously long waiver releasing the vampire who was glamming him, as well as the club and its ownership from any liability. You’d think that all the legal mumbo-jumbo you had to go through to have mind-sex with a vamp would take some of the fun out of it but apparently not. Despite the late hour, I knew people were still lined up around the block to get in and most of them had already signed the waiver while they waited.

  “Look into my eyes,” I heard a sultry voice murmur as a female vamp leaned across a small table and took a middle aged, balding businessman by the hands. “We are naked together, just the two of us lying in the middle of a king-sized bed.”

  “Yes,” he breathed, his pupils dilated hugely. “Yes, with black satin sheets. And I’m tied to the bed.”

  “If you wish.” The vamp looked bored. No doubt she heard this same scenario over and over again. “So I understand you have been a very naughty boy and you need to be punished.”

  “Yes!” The bald businessman was sweating now. He leaned forward, clutching her hands eagerly. “Yes, I’m bad. And you have to spank me.”

  “All right. I’m getting my paddle. It’s black leather and it’s full of holes to cut the wind resistance. You’re really going to feel this on your backside, you naughty little boy.”

  Though I had never experienced glam-sex myself, I knew that the man was actually seeing what the vamp was describing. It was kind of like phone sex but with very vivid realistic images to go along with it. A perverted mind-movie so convincing that glam-addicts often couldn’t remember what they had and hadn’t actually done.

  The businessman already had one hand down his pants, wanking himself shamelessly—pathetic. Also unnecessary in some cases. I’d heard that some of the older vamps could actually make you come without a single physical touch—yours, of course, not theirs. Alec Corbin could probably just look at you the right way and give you multiple orgasms. I shut that thought down quickly—he was more than a four-star vamp, he was a four-star asshole and there was no way I was attracted to him and his blatant come-ons.

  “The master says I am to give you this.”

  The smooth, cool voice beside me made me jump. I realized I’d been standing there, watching the sweaty businessman and the bored female vampire have glam-sex as avidly as any of the other dozen or so voyeurs that were wandering up and down the aisle that housed the glam booths.

  “What is it?” I stared at the card the small, curly-haired vampire was holding out to me. He had a lovely, androgynous face and for a moment I wasn’t sure of his sex. Of course, that wouldn’t matter since most vamps are bisexual anyway.

  “His private number,” the androgynous vamp said. “He says that you may call him any time day or night.”

  “Wouldn’t he be asleep during the day?” I demanded, forgetting that I didn’t want to call Corbin no matter what time it was.

  The little vamp shrugged. “My master is old. He requires very little daytime rest anymore.”

  “I see.” I took the card and started to tear it up but somehow, instead, I put it in my pocket.

  “Do you have a message for Master Corbin before you go?” the little vamp asked.

  “No,” I said shortly. “Wait—yes. Tell him if he thinks giving me his private number will inspire me to make a booty call, he’s sadly mistaken.”

  The androgynous vamp gave me a puzzled look. “A booty call? You will call his buttocks on the telephone? I do not understand.”

  I stifled a snicker. “You don’t have to. Basically it means I’m not interested in fucking a vampire.”

  He looked grave. “I am sorry you dislike my kind so much. We were once as you are, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I frowned. “And some of my best friends are vampires—I just don’t like Corbin. Now if you’ll excuse me…” I looked down at my watch. Three AM and time for me to get home. Since I work with vamps I have to be out at night but my shift was finally coming to an end. Thank goodness.

  “I will faithfully repeat your words to Master Corbin,” the little vampire assured me. “Though I am still uncertain about the meaning of this ‘booty call’ you spoke of.”

  “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it—your master will get it even if you don’t.” That was one thing about Corbin, he was surprisingly good with modern slang for an older vampire. Every once in awhile I could hear a soft, Gaelic-sounding burr in his deep voice and he had a tendency not to use many contractions but other than that, he was certainly up on the current century. Which was probably the secret to his longevity.

  Though they are technically immortal, not many vamps are adaptable enough to keep up with the ever changing world. A lot of them just shut down after a couple of centuries, which is a good thing or the world would be overrun with bloodsuckers and we humans would become little more than cattle.

  I headed for the exit more purposefully this time, not allowing myself to be sucked into the various bizarre fetish fantasies I heard being whispered about in the clear glass booths on either side of me. Sick, this whole damn thing was sick and I wished for the umpteenth time that I was in another line of work. Still, the pay was too good to quit, and besides, I had personal reasons for doing what I did. Also, I usually didn’t have to put up with the amount of bullshit I’d endured that night. Most vamps hate and fear me and none of them but Corbin had ever dared to come on to me. I didn’t have to visit Under the Fang again for a whole month so maybe my night was looking up.

  That was what I thought, anyway, until I got out into the parking lot and my cell phone rang.

  Chapter Two

  I groaned when I saw the number on my cell. It was my best friend Taylor and I was already feeling anemic. I hoped she just wanted to talk and wasn’t looking for a midnight snack.

  See, I wasn’t kidding when I said some of my best friends were vampires. Taylor and I have been BFFs since my sophomore year of college and she’s a vamp, though unfortunately not a very good one.

  I answered the phone on the third ring and tried to make my voice light. “Hey roomie, what’s up?”

  “Not too much.” Even in those few words, I could tell Taylor was holding herself back. Her voice had that tight sound you get when you’re trying to talk without crying. “Could, uh, could I come over?” she asked. “Not to eat or anything. Just to talk?”

  “Sure,” I said, repressing a sigh. My day had started almost twenty hours ago with a dawn execution and I was completely worn out. But I couldn’t say no to Taylor—after all, it was my fault she was a vampire in the first place.

  “Okay. I’ll be at your place in twenty.”

  “See you there,” I said, sliding into my car and starting the engine. “I’m on my way from my monthly inspection of Under the Fang.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” Taylor sounded concerned. “Did Alec Corbin give you shit again?”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe.” I sort of regretted telling my best friend about the perverse attraction Corbin seemed to feel for me—mostly because I knew she couldn’t keep secrets from her mistress—the vampire who had made her. But we had always been each other’s confidants and it was a hard habit to break. Besides, I reasoned to myself, what did it matter if other vamps in Tampa knew Corbin seemed to have the hots for me? If anything it would just prove that he was crazy—not that anyone would dare to call him that to his face since he was the most powerful vampire in the state.

  “We can talk about your shit first if you want,�€