The Bend-Bite-Shift Box Set Read online

  “They won’t hurt her, will they?” Jill murmured. She didn’t like that her voice sounded worried and fragile. “What I mean is, I won’t let them.”

  The smile Devan flashed at her was a mixture of friendship and sisterly affection. “Let’s get back to the original question. Can I hire Nicky and Gerry or not? We have to get the children away from their owners.”

  Kent shrugged. “I guess there’s no any way of knowing until they get here. Nicky drives a hard bargain.”

  “He may not this time,” Langston mused thoughtfully, though he didn’t expound on the reason for those words.

  Jill waited a moment, hoping he would continue, but he began munching carefully on one of his own muffins. She recognized that he was finished speaking for the moment. The entire room turned quiet as each of them withdrew into their own thoughts. In resignation she turned to Devan as she stood and began toward the bedroom door.

  “This is my time to rest,” she announced, though her eyes remained on her friends. “The day is yours, the night is mine. See you guys later.”

  Devan didn’t miss the cue. She stood too and the both of them left the room. Before she closed the bedroom door, Jill saw Langston give her a knowing smile. She smiled back and rolled her eyes. This wasn't the first time she wondered how he always read everyone's mind.

  “What’s wrong?” Devan asked as soon as they were alone, “Are you all right?”

  Jill shrugged, busying herself by piddling with the bedspread while she considered her words. “Nothing’s wrong, Devan. I just wanted you to know, since I can see you’re trying to figure it out, that Langston and I are just friends. There’s nothing going on between us.”

  Devan nodded then plopped onto the bed with a deep sigh. “Okay, but you know I wouldn’t care if there was something. You have the right, I just wouldn’t have expected it.”

  Laughing wryly, Jill began changing into fleece pajamas decorated with little, lovable kitties. She winked when she saw the exasperated look her friend gave her. Her assortment of “jammies” had long ago been a source of mirth between the two of them.

  “Well, quite an interesting few days... don’t you think?” Jill asked.

  “You could say that. For you too. You did what you needed to do, right? With your sire I mean. He’s gone now?”

  Jill nodded, furrowed her brow, and closed her eyes. Yes, thanks to Langston’s magic, she was free now. She no longer belonged to anyone. So why didn’t she feel like she was really liberated?

  “Do you think I was right?” Devan asked after a moment.

  The words snapped Jill from her own thoughts. She knew exactly what Devan meant and she approached her friend with a little smile. “Yes, you were right. I’ll admit I thought you would kill him, but you were right. Knowing what I know about Robbie, what you did by taking away his powers was worse than death.”

  “Were you working with them, the Org I mean?” Devan asked slowly, almost as if she was afraid of the answer.

  “It’s complicated. I belonged to them because I belonged to my sire. So in a way, I was working with them. But Doc and Charlie and I–” She sighed heavily. “I guess it’s time to tell you how this happened. I want you to know and I want you to understand.” She stopped again and smiled sadly, her mind lingering in a faraway time and place.

  The Past – Dancing Past the Barriers

  Jill cocked her head to the side and examined her work with a critical eye. Her lips pressed into a straight line as she used her left hand to brush her bangs back from her eyes. Looking down at her fingers she laughed as she realized they were covered with blue paint and she’d probably just smeared it onto her face.

  It was Wednesday and she’d been in Doc’s hospital for two days now. He’d avoided her most of the time, checking on her randomly and always at night. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be doing here since he obviously didn’t need or want companionship. She still hadn’t figured out what the hell a “companion” was anyway.

  If anyone but Robbie had set her up with this gig she’d have worried about being sold into sex slavery and shipped off to a foreign country. She’d heard about such things. At the least she figured she was probably being paid to be the pretty gal on the arm of some terribly unattractive guy who couldn’t pick up girls for him self. Maybe he needed to impress his family or something. With all her imaginings, she never thought she’d be cooped up in an old hospital with little or no companionship of her own.

  She’d found boredom almost as horrible a condition as anything else she could have imagined when she took the job of being a companion. Desperate for any task to occupy herself, she’d located an entire storage closet filled with an assortment of paints. For a canvas she chose one of the walls in her own quarters, previously a patient room.

  The hospital was almost sad in its decrepit state and just a straight coat of paint would have done any of the rooms well. But Jill found as soon as she took those brushes in her hands that they itched to “create” something again and not just by adding a desperately needed coat of touch-up paint to the walls. As a child she’d been quite the talented artist. As it were, art wasn’t an easy way to make a good living. If she were to provide for herself a comfortable living she would have to complete college.

  Doc’s shadow in the doorway didn’t become visible to her until she turned toward the bathroom to clean out her brushes. She had a boombox blaring music from the corner of the room and the loud tunes drowned out his approach. There was a look akin to awe on his face as he studied the flourishes of color in her artwork.

  She’d painted an abstract sort of horizon at sunrise, flashes of orange, purple and red streaking across a blue heaven. Instead of creating a simple flat mural, she’d chosen the wall with a single window in the center. In combination with the dark starry sky beyond the window, it created a surreal double-sky image.

  “Whadya think?” she asked with exaggerated enthusiasm, hoping he wouldn’t mind the liberties she’d taken with his home. She hadn’t meant to be so presumptuous, but instead thought this might be a nice surprise for him. Now that he was standing there examining her handiwork, she began to think he probably wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed surprises.

  Waiting for his response, she hit the off button on the radio and proceeded to head in the direction of the sink again.

  Now that the music was off, the silence of the room was obvious enough she could almost hear it. Busying herself, she turned on the water and began to run the brushes under the water. She rinsed each one until the water ran clean then tapped them against an old towel to remove the excess. Her task now finished, Jill turned around to bore her lavender eyes into his.

  Doc shrugged, his expression non-committal, “I could get more paint.”

  She beamed a glowing smile at him. “Yep, you could. I’ll have this hospital bursting with so much color you’ll need to wear sunglasses at night.” After just a moment’s hesitation she burst into laughter, tickled by her own joking reference to the Corey Hart song.

  Doc remained stoic, and her cheerfulness was dimmed just a bit. As she licked her still upturned lips, she sensed a softening of his features; a sudden bit of ease in the set of his shoulders. His blue eyes drilled into her for just a moment and she felt like she was falling into a pool of black. All lights faded in the room until she could only see his face. Her surroundings began to spin but she felt if she could just keep connection with Doc’s eyes then the rest of the world could go missing and she would still be alright in his gaze.

  When he quickly turned and walked away Jill found herself reaching for the bathroom door frame for support. Another moment passed and she recovered enough to walk back into the room to examine her artwork again. She decided it wasn’t bad for someone who’d been on a very long hiatus from using a paintbrush.

  A half empty glass of wine was perched on the table beside the boombox and she lifted it to her lips before turning the music back on. She’d found an unopened bottle of cha
rdonnay in one of her bags, a gift from Robbie.

  The note that came along with the wine was proof enough that sex may not be required, but was encouraged. Jill had firmly told Robbie that if he expected her to sleep with the man to whom she was to be a companion to, that he was hiring the wrong woman. Truth be told, Doc was yummy enough that she might not have minded going to bed with him.

  Jill knew her looks attracted men, always had, but she was selective when it came to bedroom matters. Just because her mother had a different man in her bed almost every few weeks while she was growing up, didn’t mean Jill would. She refused to be “easy” and only a select few found their way under the sheets with her. Still something about Doc turned her insides liquid way down deep.

  The smooth easy sound of “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” by Sophie B. Hawkins poured from the radio speakers and a smile oozed onto Jill’s face. “Oooo! Great song and how apropos!” She closed her eyes and gyrated her hips back and forth while she danced around the room. If she couldn’t have Doc as a lover, she and Sophie could at least sing together about all the sexy things they wished could happen.

  The knowledge that she was here made it nearly impossible for Doc to concentrate on his research. Jill was just so completely intoxicating. Every nuance of her heightened his senses. He wanted to gaze at her youthful beauty, to inhale the sweet scent of her essence, to nibble her very kissable pink lips. When she was away, his entire awareness yearned to have her near again.

  There was no reason to worry about locking the doors in the hospital. For one they were completely isolated. For another he never opened the exit doors down this hallway and so there was no reason for them to ever be unlocked. Still he told himself he should check them. Jill might not realize he was doing it, but this was just one of many contrived opportunities he’d used to be near her over the last several days.

  He was just walking past her room again when his eye caught sight of her.

  He slipped back inside without making a sound and placed a hand against the door frame to watch. She had rhythm and although he didn’t know the song, it was apparent she did because she didn’t miss a word nor an inflection. Her voice wasn’t spectacular, and was certainly not what was attracting his attention. Her enthusiasm, her zest, her complete abandonment of inhibition were what had him captivated.

  If it were possible his body might have overheated in that moment. Being a vampire his blood always ran cold, but still he could feel his body react to the seductive blonde girl. He was drawn to her in a way he’d never before experienced and the need to taste her in every way possible was overwhelming.

  “Hey!” she exclaimed when she turned and saw him standing just inside the room. She stopped her movements but grinned like a Cheshire cat. “You caught me.”

  Doc waited before answering, gathering himself by taking a few deep breaths. A sobering voice inside him insisted he should turn and leave again. Ignoring the voice he stepped deeper into the room before he spoke. “You realize that isn’t music, don’t you?”

  Jill’s grin broadened. “Oh and what passes for music in your book Mr. Know-it-all?”

  He went straight past her for the radio and began turning the knob. Garbled sounds spurted from the speakers and Doc bent his knees to crouch low so that he could find the station he wanted. Finally he slowed the turn of the dial as the static cleared and music emerged once again.

  When Doc turned back to her he wasn’t smiling, but his crystal eyes were lighter, with a touch of joy in their depths. He jogged his head from side-to-side to the rhythm of “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” the original version by Big Joe Turner.

  “Well, Doctor Massey are you in for a surprise,” Jill advised as she swung her head down to tousle and fluff her golden locks. “This ditsy blonde does know a few things about music.”

  Doc felt something well up in his throat when she slowly rolled herself upright, awarding him the briefest glimpse of the tops of her breasts. He had the urge to take a step backwards when she started to approach him, but the opposite need overtook him and he met her halfway across the floor.

  “Let’s jitter this bug,” she laughed and they began the classic dance that had only changed a little with each generation. Pushing and pulling, attracting, retracting, turning, twirling, over and under; they both knew the dance well.

  She was a good dancer but even more impressive was the movement of her lips showing that she knew the words as well too. He could remember a time years ago when he would take a gal onto the floor and work them both breathless with song after song on the dance floor. He didn’t get easily winded now that he was vampire, but the attraction he felt for this girl had his blood pounding in his ears just the way it used to before he was a vampire.

  “How am I doing, Doc?” she inquired, tossing her head and winking at him at the same time.

  “Not bad considering those god-awful moves you were displaying earlier. I wouldn’t have thought one could appreciate this music after listening to that.”

  She wasn’t the least bit offended by his words and stuck her tongue out at him, all the while keeping in step with the music. Doc wondered if she had any idea how tempting that little pink tongue was to him and how much he wanted to taste her. He swallowed hard and willed the dance to end.

  It did, but he wasn’t awarded the break for which he’d hoped. Instead of an announcer or a commercial, the sound of Joe Turner blended right into Elvis Presley’s syrupy and seductive voice. He felt his blonde companion ooze in against him and the two of them began slowly moving, bodies as one, to the song “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

  Jill felt her breath catch as Doc slipped a hand around her waist. His cold fingers gripped the small of her back and held her tight against him. Clutching her hand in his, he turned it gently to rest against his chest. She could feel the pounding of his heart and knew her own pulse matched the heightened beat of his.

  The words of the song hypnotized her and she rested her head against his shoulder, any separation of their bodies disappeared with their languid dancing. A deep breath released a stream of warm, moist breath against his cold fingers and Doc inched his hand toward her cheek, caressing her face but all the while keeping their fingers entwined.

  “Doc,” she murmured, “I’m…”

  He waited for her to continue, but whatever words had been on her tongue seemed to fall away and instead she just brushed her cheek against him and tucked herself tighter to his body. When the song ended they both stopped, frozen in time, but still clinging to each other. The sound of the announcer in the background was white noise to them and the overwhelming intimacy of the moment overtook them.

  Doc mustered the courage to speak first. “Jill, what did Robbie tell you about this? I mean, what did he tell you that your task here would be?” He paused and took a shaky breath, realizing he was muddling the real question he was trying to ask her. “Did he tell you to be intimate with me?” Doc finally asked.

  The blonde jerked away, stepped back and glared at him with a blazing look before shrieking. “I’m not that kind of girl!”

  Doc sighed long and deep before he nodded tersely. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have suggested that.”

  “Shit... sure you should have.” In the awkward moment as she realized his question was valid, she turned to search frantically for her glass of wine. Seeing it empty, she poured herself another and took a long, deep gulp. “What the hell else are you supposed to think? I’m here, right?”

  With two long strides, Doc closed the space between them and made eye contact again. He took her face in both hands, clutched her tightly and pressed his lips hard against hers. He wanted to kiss her deeper, to plunge his tongue inside and sample her warmth, but he forced his face back so that he could look down at her.

  Jill was drawn to him and actually fought to maintain contact with his lips, but when she realized he wouldn’t relent, she opened her eyes with a flutter to look up at him quizzically. “Why’d you do that?” she asked when
he had finally pulled away.

  “I’m generally a very good judge of character, Jill. I read you the first day I saw you and I knew you wouldn’t sell your body for money. You might sell your time and your companionship if you were desperate enough, but never yourself.”

  “’Kay, so why’d you ask then?”

  For the first time since she’d met him, he smiled. It wasn’t really a smile, but just a slight upturn of one side of his lips. Still it warmed his expression and she felt her insides shimmy in response.

  “I didn’t want you to believe I expected you to sleep with me. That’s why.”

  She frowned, a confused expression on her face. Exasperation quickly replaced that bewilderment. “You don’t want to sleep with me, then?”

  He kissed her again and this time she didn’t give his conscience a choice as to whether or not he should thrust his tongue in her mouth. She made the choice for him by opening her mouth to run her tongue across his lower lip. He groaned as he shifted the two hands that were still clasping her cheeks to use them to fully pull her against him. He pressed himself into her until their hips pressed tight together.

  In the very next moment, Doc released her as fast as he’d taken hold of her and stepped back a few paces. “It would be wrong, Jill. I could take you now and make you all right with everything I’d do to you, but it would be wrong. Oh yes, I want you and I’d make you want me just as badly, but–I can’t.” Jill immediately wanted to scream when he left her standing alone while her body throbbed with need. Frustrated beyond words, she reached for the glass of wine and emptied it. She promptly poured herself another.

  The Present – A Trove of Treasure

  Eden Stowe didn’t particularly look the way Jill remembered him. He was older now, what hair was left on his head completely white. The wrinkles embedded in the skin of his face were deep and many. He looked like a man resigned to his fate.

  Jill thought Devan looked confident, as if she knew he wasn’t really quite so defeated.