The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

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An hour before sunrise . . .

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“Hey Mel,” Sadie said as she bounced over to the desk while Vlad parked the car. She’d had a good evening overall, and was somewhat back to her perky self. “Got a sec?”

Mel looked up at her from the stack of expense vouchers and tried to look passive. At work, the goth chick was trying desperately to cling to the aloof and deadpan image that she had cultivated for years before Sadie had shown up, but it wasn’t easy for her. “For what?”

“Got a puzzle I need your help with,” Sadie said, much more quietly this time.

Melissa was intrigued. “Private?”

“Private.”

The two of them sauntered over to the computer lab and shut the door behind them. Sadie pulled the folded papers out and handed them to her. “Got a tip from Terrence,” she said, her voice calm and serious. “Listen, I heard a voice at the warehouse the other night and I was pretty sure it was Dazza. Terrence heard Dazza and Frost talking and it pretty much confirmed that they were both involved.”

“Why?” Mel asked worriedly, looking over the papers. “What would Frost have to gain?”

“I don’t know. From the sound of it, they did it just because they wanted to. Right now, we’d have Terrence’s word and mine against Frost’s and Dazza’s. That would be enough for me to arrest him, but I want a conviction.” She looked puzzled. “This stuff was hidden in Frost’s desk. There’s a bunch of stuff planned from Halloween to New Years, and we need to figure out what it is. And I need to find out what he’s doing with that land in West End.”

“Graveyard,” Melissa muttered, shuffling through the notes she’d been handed.

“What?”

“I read in the paper that he’s going to make it into a graveyard.”

“Then why is he having a big celebration there on Halloween? Never mind. Vampires are weird.”

“You ARE a vampire,” Mel grinned.

“See? My point exactly.”

Mel’s eyes shot up. “Shit, I forgot to tell you. Devlin’s been assigned to some special detail for the mayor. That’s what that call was about.”

“Detail for the mayor? What is it?”This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

“Don’t know, but he’s going to be there for the next two weeks.”

“You mean –”

The two girls’ eyes met. “Until Halloween?”

Sadie’s good mood was quickly evaporating. “I think I may need to have a talk with the mayor and Lord Frost. We can’t have them pulling street cops for personal crap without a damn good reason. Meantime, think you can try and figure out what all this crap is for?”

“Do my best. I’ll work on it from home. Most of my good hacking software is there. It’ll take some time to enter it into a spreadsheet then find the right algorithm, but I think I can come up with some guesses for you. It’s not complicated looking.”

“You going to Mary’s today?” Sadie asked, trying to get happy again.

“Not tonight. She wanted me to take a couple of days and think about her offer, so –”

“What offer?”

Mel blushed. “She said that she prefers ‘live in’ help.”

Sadie’s eyes blasted open. “She wants you to move in?! After one day?!”

“It was a very, very, very good day.” Melissa was practically beaming with glee, though she tried not to show it.

Sadie smiled and hugged her friend. “I’m so happy for you. Just be careful. You’re moving pretty fast.”

“Says the girl who jumped my bones the first chance she got,” Mel replied. “I know, I know. It’s a little rushed. But I’m not immortal, so I gotta take my chances while I can. I feel good about this though. I really do.”

“Then for what it’s worth, I support you. Now get that cute ass of yours in gear, and I’ll talk to you this evening.”

The two of them left, giggling and enjoying each other’s friendship. Neither of them saw the demon standing in the shadows down the hall from the computer lab. Neither of them heard Bart when he muttered, “Interesting.” He had heard almost the entire conversation. The question was, what to do with that information.

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Several nights later . . .

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Terrence was sitting on Sadie’s partially completed porch when she got home from work. She’d convinced Mary that she was quite capable of driving her truck, so she didn’t have to worry about Mel chauffeuring her around.

“Wa’as up handsome?” she said.

“Not much. Just wanted to see if you’d made any headway in figuring out what those papers meant.”

“Not yet. I’ve got a friend working on them. Heard anything else?”

“Not especially. Frost has been spending a lot of time with officer Devlin, but I’m still not sure why he’s even there. All I know is that Saturday is a week from Halloween and Frost is going to be making an announcement at a party over at the mayor’s house. He’s going to try and get you there.”

“Tough shit. I’m meeting with the pack of the Northwestern Territory on Saturday. I’ve already met all the vampires around here, so guess which invitation I’m going to accept?”

Terrence shook his head. “You just live to annoy him don’t you?”

“Actually, it’s more of a hobby. Believe it or not, I’d rather just do my job. Frost just seems to want to keep distracting me from it.” She sat down next to him. “Need to get this deck finished. You wanna help?”

“Sorry. I know you say Mary’s cool and all, but wraiths just make me freak.”

“She’s a good person and she deserves a chance,” Sadie said, irritation seeping up into her words.

“Woah,” Terrence said, throwing his hands up. “Not disparaging her character in any way.”

Sadie stood up angrily. She knew she shouldn’t get mad at Terrence, since darkworlder distrust of wraiths was almost instinctual, but she couldn’t think about how lonely Mary had been all those years.

Terrence got to his feet and put a hand on her good shoulder. “Listen, once we get Halloween behind us and I’m able to find a new job, I’ll make an effort to meet her. Okay? I’ve just got a lot of stuff to think about as it is.”

The Arbiter walked over to the part of her railing that was complete and leaned against it. The wind had a good, distinct chill in it that snapped across her skin and into her nostrils. She loved cold air . . . it made her feel so awake and aware of everything. “Sorry,” she said at last. She turned around. “Promise me you won’t end up like them.”

“Like who?”

“Like the rest of the vampires and the elves and the high-level witches and wizards and sorcerers. Don’t turn into a self-righteous jerk with delusions of grandeur.”

“Hey hey hey!” Terrence said. “I know a lot of really cool people from all those groups, you included. Whatever Frost and his crew are up to, I don’t think you should condemn the entire race.”

‘I already did,’ she thought morosely. ‘Damn, I need to get my mind off of Frost and all this political crap.’ She glanced over Terrence from top to toes, and she though she knew just the way to do it.

“Uhm, why are you looking at me like a prime rib?” Terrence said. He could see a growing hunger in her eyes . . . hell, he could practically feel it. It was like someone just flipped a switch inside of her.

“Let’s see,” she said demurely, walking towards him with an almost ominous sway to her hips, “I’ve been shot, burnt, been spoken down to, and had all of my Guiness and cupcakes stolen. I think it’s time that I got something I actually wanted, and you happen to be in the right place at the right time.”

“How romantic.” Terrence actually felt a little slighted. He used to think that might wind up being more than just a convenient booty call, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Not that he really minded being a booty call, seeing as Sadie was still the hottest thing this side of hell. “Aren’t you a little injured to play that kind of game?”

She reached up and ripped his shirt off with her good arm. “THAT . . . was a stupid question,” she growled. “Got any more?”

“Nothing comes to mind.”

“Good.” She got the door open and then drug Terrence inside by the front of his pants, having every intention of getting into them as quickly as possible. But she struggled a bit getting her own vest off due to the discomfort of her shoulder.

Terrence moved to her assistance, taking no small delight in loosening Sadie’s vest enough that she was able to slide it off one shoulder. She had to remove her sling in order to get completely undressed, though she put it back on afterward. Terrence stood behind her, kissing her on the side of her face and down to her neck, but made no move to extend his fangs. He would never do that without an invitation, which Sadie didn’t seem ready to give.

“No biting,” she confirmed with a moan, “but the kissing . . . that can stay.”