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Though he didn’t react to her sudden presence in his bedroom, he was quite aware that she stood just outside the range of the mirror. Taking his time, he smoothly spread cream on his face and neck. Wiping his hands with a tissue, he turned finally acknowledging her.
She wore a long black leather dress that plunged deeply in the front. Her breast were so firm and perfect, he guessed they had to be fakes, now that he looked at her she didn’t seem real, more like a wax figure.
“What the hell do you want?” He balled the tissue, tossed it into the waste basket near the dresser.
“What do I want?” Celeste flashed with a bit of heat. “This entire time vampire, here I was thinking it was all about you.” She waltzed over to the huge bed and sat purposely with her bare back to him.
“Why are you here? I didn’t summon you.”
“Jerome, you summon demons. I am a woman, you ask for the pleasure of my company. I thought we were clear on that.”
“Again, why are you here?” Especially, in his private rooms.
“I think it is time you delivered to me what I want.”
“Demons to serve you?”
“We made a deal. You don’t need to be asking questions.”
“Celeste, you aren’t planning anything on your own?”
“Of course, I am! I want two demons right now!”
“An incubus and a succubus?” Jerome wondered what was going on in that perfectly shaped head of hers. Sex demons were dangerous, they didn’t really serve anyone. They merely allowed themselves to be used. And they were about the strongest demons he ever encountered.
“Well, Jerome?”
“In due time, Celeste. I don’t keep demons here. We’ll set something up in the next few days.”
“Fine, I’ll be back in the next few days. I’ll tell you what is happening with Velvet in a few days.”
“You haven’t forgotten the crone?”
“She was insane. I wonder how you failed to see that.”
“I didn’t care.”
“Oh that’s right, vampires hate witches.” She began to laugh. “But let’s see, not all vampires feel that way though. Your own father seems to love at least one of us! Too bad for him she likes the big dogs better.”
“Big dogs?”
“The bigger the better.”
“Who?” She grinned and he seized her by the shoulders digging his nails into her flesh. “Who?”
“You know who!” She screamed in his face, pushing him off her. His nails tore her skin. “Son of a bitch!”
“I don’t believe it. She wouldn’t dare.”
“Velvet Washington doesn’t care. She’ll do anything she wants because she can and thinks everyone has to take it.”
“When did this happen?”
“Right after she blocked the sun.”
“That long? And you are just now telling me?”
“Maybe, if you told me what you wanted to hear. How was I to know Troy meant so much to you?”
“Is that all? You think that bit of old news is worth two demons?”
“Did you know Wilder tried to kill Troy?”
“What for? Why would he-” Oh this bitch! Teasing him with a just a little at a time, making him eager for more so she could up the value. Smart and stupid. “Why would he do that?”
“Because they spent the whole day together and wanted to rub his nose in it. Wilder just wasn’t having it. He went after Troy with a sword and ran his hump through, almost got his heart. And then he told Velvet what was what. Only, she is waiting for another opportunity to go behind his back again to pay him back.”
Jerome went to the dresser and stared hard at his blurred reflection in the mirror. Snarling, he knocked toiletries to the side then pushed the whole dresser across the room to crash into the wall. How dare she turn Troy’s mind around from him, just to have him before he could? “That bitch.” What was worse was that she treated Wilder like a toy she was tired of and put him on the shelf while she went to explore new things.
“Oh God!” It was just more than he wanted to take!
“God?” Celeste laughed clapping her hands at the spectacle Jerome was making of himself. She laughed louder when he turned to her, fangs dripping with spit. “Oh, calm down. It’s just sex. That wolf man was really missing his wife and Velvet hadn’t had any since-”
Jerome was on her with his hands around her neck, choking her back on the bed. He put his knee in her sternum and pinned her down. Without her breath, she could not defend herself with magic or even her light power. The tears in her eyes and the terrified look on her face, fueled his insane murderous rage, as he knew she realized she was about to die in this very moment. He sank his teeth into her throat, tore and pulled her flesh away from the bone. He didn’t even want to taste her blood.
He backed off watching her bleed. Healer she might be, but there was nothing she could do for the pitiful life she was losing, because he had crushed her windpipe and torn her jugular veins. He went to the bathroom to wash his face and hands.
Drying his face, he went back to look at Celeste’s broken and torn body. He sat beside her, waiting for her form to change. Her appearance had to be the result of some glamour. What had the kids called her? Night Life Barbie? With an impatient snort, he rose from beside her, deciding he didn’t care to wait to see anything the whore might revert back into. A dead witch was simply a dead witch.