-1Complications…always complications, Mick thought staring at the ceiling.
He took a deep breath, running a shaky hand through the waves of his hair in an agitated motion. Josef was still smiling from ear to ear, staring in the general direction of the stairway.
Beth stood coyly near the edge of the stairs, fumbling with her hands. Deciding the quickest way to end Josef's surprise and unwelcome visit was probably to find out what the hell he wanted, Mick resigned himself to getting on with it.
"Josef, this is Beth Turner," he said reluctantly opting to make the introduction. "Beth, this is my oldest and most annoying friend, Josef Konstan."
Josef glided across the room, unabashedly ignoring the fact that Beth was all but naked, bringing her hand to his mouth and planting a chaste kiss atop it before releasing her.
"I've heard so much about you Beth," Josef said. "I never imagined that our first meeting would be so entertaining."
Beth smiled uncomfortably, shooting Mick a confused look.
"Nice to meet you. I'm, uh, please excuse me for just a minute. I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright," she said as she turned to escape to the safety of Mick's bedroom without looking back.
Looking after her as she went, Josef stuffed his hands in the pockets of his tailored slacks and clucked his tongue.
"Mick, I didn't think you had it in you my friend."
"You have a knack for incredibly bad timing."
"That remains to be seen," Josef said without remorse. "You obviously didn't seal the deal or you wouldn't be so cranky. That much is obvious. Besides, I did you a favor. When you came to your senses, you would have only tortured yourself about it for 50 years or so. I've told you before and I will say it again…it never works with humans."
"I know that Josef. I sure as hell don't need you to lecture me."
Josef put his hands up, feigning innocence.
"Alright, alright. Just don't say that I didn't warn you."
"You're not leaving are you?"
"No."
"Fine," Mick said gritting his teeth as he brushed past him to climb the stairs. "I will be back in a few minutes."
Josef chuckled.
"Take your time."
Mick opened the bedroom door to see Beth standing in the middle of the room searching for her clothes in only her panties, blonde hair spilling down her back in soft curls. Mick's breath caught in his throat as he studied the curve of her waist and the feminine but shapely legs he wanted so badly to be wrapped around him. She was a vision even from behind. He spoke as she slipped on her jeans.
"I'm sorry."
She looked over her shoulder with a smile. It was a nice gesture but he couldn't help but notice that the light didn't reach her eyes.
"He's not leaving is he?" she asked, her voice laced with disappointment.
"Let's not talk about Josef, "Mick said shrugging, as he closed the distance between them.
He leaned down to kiss her, and Beth wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to meet him. Placing his hands on either side of her face, Mick placed a soft, tentative kiss on her swollen lips. It wasn't until she moved her hands to twine in his hair that he deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue into her mouth and moaning at her response.
She giggled as he picked her up and placed her back on the bed, once again pulling her jeans free from her body.
"You are wearing too many clothes gorgeous," he said without hesitation.
What a difference a few hours can make, he thought.
"What about your friend?" Beth asked. "He must have something really important to discuss with you if he didn't get the message when I walked down stairs."
"Were you hoping that he would?"
"That was sort of the point, yeah."
Mick laughed.
"You would have to be intimately acquainted with the mind of a narcissist to understand how Josef works. He's not going to leave until I give him what he wants."
Beth sighed.
"Maybe I should go," she said. "Maybe this isn't meant to happen tonight."
"No," Mick heard himself say a little too desperately. "Please don't go. This is…I've waited too long for this moment to let someone take it from me."
Beth smiled then.
"Stay," he said caressing her cheek, pleading. "Stay the night with me Beth."
Mick heard her heart stop for a moment. Without a word, she wrapped her arms around him, holding him to her as though he were the only comfort in the world. She held him there against her, stroking his hair for a long moment.
"Go talk to him and find out what is so damn important," she finally said.
She trailed the tips of her fingers down the soft cotton of his shirt stopping at the button of his slacks.
"Give the man whatever he wants so you can hurry back and give me what I want," she said with a wicked grin.
Mick smiled softly, brushing the hair away from her face to gently tuck the strays behind one ear.
"What do you want Beth Turner?"
There was a hunger in her eyes that made his heart skip a beat. He never thought this moment was possible and he was convinced that any moment, she would disappear…leaving him with only a memory and the night. That's the funny thing about second thoughts. They pop up when you're the most vulnerable. He needed to hear her say the words.
"You," Beth said simply, resting her forehead against his. "Always…for as long as you will have me…I want you. I will always wait for you."
Mick took both her hands in his, lacing his fingers through hers as he raised their arms to rest above her head.
"Say it again," he demanded.
"I want you Mick," she whispered against his lips. "I'm yours if you will have me."
He growled low in his throat, claiming her lips with what little control he had left, stopping only when he was convinced she needed to breathe. He buried his face in the softness of her neck, content to feel to the sure and steady wash of her pulse.
Damn Josef, he thought. Mick would have to be repay him for this interruption.
Mick hated to pull himself away but he told himself it was only for a few minutes.
"I will be back soon," he said sliding down Beth's body, lingering to place kisses along her stomach and thighs. "Don't go anywhere."
"I will be here," she reassured him.
He stopped at the door to turn and see her lying on the bed once more. In that moment, he knew that things would never be the same between them, for worse or for better. It wasn't always easy to see what was coming, but he hoped that they could beat the odds. He hoped that fate was on their side. Tonight, it was Josef that was keeping them apart.
But Mick knew that there would be other, more serious and sinister entities that would threaten their bond. It was his biggest fear…losing Beth. He knew that they could never have real peace. Not in his world. But, she had promised to wait for him…always, she'd said…and in the end, that's all that he could ask.
Mick gave her one last, crooked half smile and swallowed hard as he gently shut the door behind him.
To Feel the Night
Chapter Five
The shades were opened only slightly, inviting slits of neon warmth into the dimly lit office. Mick sat patiently drumming his fingers along the surface of oak, allowing himself to be transported as he studied the antique desk. He tried to suppress the memory of the person who had gifted it to him so many years ago.
A wedding gift, she'd said. Coraline, for all of her faults had always been a sentimental one. A quality Mick now believed had probably been more for his benefit than anything else. In those days, he'd wanted nothing more than to become a writer…to live out his days happily with the woman he loved and raise a family.
"To start your work you need something to remind you of your purpose and your calling," she had said to him in the foyer of a West L.A. furniture store. "It's the beginning of our life together. When you sit down behind this desk to write your first great novel…I want you to remember how much I believe in you. I love you Mick."
Those words reverberated through the shards of Mick's heart, dredging up emotion that he had tried to deny still existed. Coraline had been dead for years, and Mick still thought about her every day.
How could he not? She was his wife. He had been so in love with her. God, he would have done anything for her. Almost anything. And then she sentenced him to an eternity of death and loneliness.
One lesson Mick seemed to be immune to grasping after all these years was the art of letting go. Life never quite turns out the way that you plan. You start out so full of hope and before you know it you're sitting alone in your apartment wondering what the hell you did wrong.
He had spent so many years drowning in a river of sorrow and guilt. He'd hated Coraline for what she'd done, but couldn't bring himself to let go of her completely. But, when he found Beth in the arms of his ex-wife almost 22 years ago, things changed. He changed. He realized that night, that you have to let go of some things you once loved to get to the other side of that abyss.
It's sad, but sometimes moving on with the rest of your life starts with goodbye.
"Staring off into space again huh? " Josef said from the doorway.
Mick snapped back to the present, remembering why he was sitting behind that fucking desk in the first place.
"You know, if it makes you think about her, you should just get rid of the damn thing," Josef said taking a sip of A positive from a tall glass and settling himself in the chair across from Mick.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" Mick asked.
"What? Read your thoughts?"
"Uh, well…yeah," Mick said shaking his head and rolling his eyes. "It's fucking rude. Stay out of my head."
"You're just jealous because you haven't mastered it yet," Josef said. "It's a useful trick if you would just indulge me a bit. I can teach you what you need to know in about an hour and a half."
"It's a trick I don't care to learn Josef," Mick said through gritted teeth. "Now what the hell do you want?"
"I have a matter that requires prompt attention and some pretty heavy lifting…investigating that is…so I figured you're probably the man to see," Josef said as he pulled a scanned photograph from the pocket of his suit jacket and slid it in front of Mick.
"A woman," Mick said with raised eyebrows. "This is about a woman? I should have known."
Josef didn't bother trying to hide the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"Yes. You should have," he admitted. "But it's a bit more complicated than that."
"I'm waiting," Mick said.
"Her name is Lola. She's probably the oldest living vampire I've ever met, or heard of."
"The one that got away?"
"I need you to help me find her," Josef insisted. "So I can kill her."
Mick was taken aback, although he wasn't sure why. Josef was a lot of things but subtle wasn't one of them.
"Why?"
"There are a number of reasons. The first being that she swindled me out of over five million dollars. The second, she's dangerous. I've been hearing some rumblings about trafficking she's doing. I'm not sure exactly what she's up to, but I have known her long enough to know that it's not good."
"And that's where I come in?"
"Exactly."
"This absolutely had to be addressed this evening because…?"
"I've been looking to find her for probably a year now," Josef said. "But I've had no luck. Now I'm hearing that she's back in L.A. and if I don't find her before she finds me, you won't have to worry about me not returning your key."
"I see," Mick said shaking his head in understanding. "Why do I feel like I'm only getting one side of this story?"
"Because you are," Josef admitted. "I'm not claiming to be an upstanding guy but what I did should not be a death sentence."
"So you're going to get her before she gets you?"
"Essentially, yeah."
Mick let out a deep breath and picked up the photo to examine it more closely.
"Well, she's beautiful I will give you that," he said. "Whatever happened…was it worth it?"
"Absolutly," Josef beamed. "At the time, it was defiantly worth it. Now, I'm growing a little tired of the game, so I'm ending it before she does."
Mick bit his lip and tossed the photo into a file folder as he stood.
"Ok. Fine. I will get on this under one condition."
"What?" Josef asked, pretending not to know what was coming.
Mick walked through the office into the living room where he opened the front door and gestured to the waiting hallway.
"Get the hell out," he said without hesitation.
Josef smiled and sauntered toward the doorway.
"How did I know you were going to say that?" he asked with a smile. "Thanks, man. Really. I need you on this one."
Mick nodded, giving Josef a quick hug.
"No problem," he said. "Now go away."
Josef waved Mick's unrelenting requests for his absence off as he strolled toward the elevator.
"Yeah, yeah," he said without turning around. "Have fun with your human."
Mick watched his friend climb into the elevator and closed the door behind him to lay the file on the living room table and turned his eyes to the stairway. He hadn't heard Beth leave… so she must still be waiting for him. Thank god. Now to get down to business.
Mick turned off all of the lights downstairs, double checking to make sure the front door was secure and without looking back, took the stairs to his bedroom two at a time.