Body Count Read online

  “No, I won’t, cousin. Just enough so she feels a slight sting.”

  She moaned when Maximillian lifted her from Hugh’s thighs.

  Hugh grinned. “I will enjoy watching this.” He leaned upwards, took her face between his two large golden hands and kissed her soundly. “Then I will take care of you, my sweet. I will satisfy the desire Maximillian stirs between your legs when he lays his hand across your bottom.”

  Maximillian sat down on the edge of the bed and patted his thighs. “Come Marta. Lay across my lap.”

  For just a second, she hesitated. She had been unsure all her life. Hiding behind her body and her wants and desires.

  No more!

  She inched toward him, then bent down and settled herself across his thighs, her only view the floor below.

  Maximillian ran a hand across her backside. “I will only spank you enough so that it stings.”

  She held her breath, waiting for the first slap.

  It didn’t come.

  Maximillian positioned her so that her behind rose straight up in the air, his arm across the small of her back. Her legs left the floor—she dangled precariously across his thighs, her world tipping on its axis.

  “I want you off balance; I want you to only know the feel of my hand on your bottom.” Again, he ran a hand over her backside, his finger skimming the cleft.

  SMACK!

  She sucked in a breath when heat spread across her skin.

  SMACK!

  Her clit pulsed.

  SMACK!

  Gripping Maximillian’s leg, she felt the sting of his palm.

  SMACK!

  Her pussy throbbed with need. She squirmed on his lap.

  SMACK!

  Maximillian eased her from his thighs, steadying her as she stood on trembling legs.

  Hugh rose from his chair and eased her down on the bed, facedown. He smoothed back the hair from her face and whispered, “Now, un jolie?”

  She managed a nod.

  “I will help ease your lust, for I’m sure the fire Maximillian wrought on your poor little ass has swept to your cunt.”

  His wicked words enflamed her more.

  She pulled him down next to her and kissed his face, nipping his mouth, drawing blood.

  “Ouch!” His golden eyes darkened. “Maybe I should spank you, too.”

  Maximillian stood off to the side, his head thrown back in laughter.

  “She got you, cousin. Our Marta is quick.”

  “Not as quick as me!”

  He flipped her on her back, lifting her stinging bottom with both hands cradling her cheeks. Then he slipped inside her and brought her to passion, his cock stroking her pussy repeatedly until she tossed her head from side to side.

  Marta threw her arms around his neck and clung to him when her orgasm hit, crying out, “Hugh!”

  He spent himself inside her, panting, but didn’t pull away.

  Hugh leaned down and kissed her, a deep, drugging kiss that she felt clear down to her toes.

  “How is your backside?” he whispered.

  She glanced at Maximillian and reached out a hand to him. He clasped hers in his own, lifting it to kiss the back of it.

  “It’s just fine.” She smiled. “Just fine.”

  Chapter Five

  That evening, she managed to sit at the small table in the kitchen off the laboratory, Hugh and Maximillian across from her.

  She sliced off another piece of the succulent steak, savoring the crispy, salty taste of the spice mixture Hugh had sprinkled on it before running it under the broiler. Then she dug into the fluffy baked potato loaded with butter. Her eyes crossed when she sampled the flesh of the potato.

  “All you had in your ice box was that yogurt.” Hugh screwed up his face. “Do you not eat anything else?”

  She took a sip of water. “I’m always dieting.”

  “I’m glad I found that steak in your freezer. And one lonely potato in your ice box.”

  Maximillian’s dark brows rose. He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “Why do you not eat more?”

  She sighed. “Because, I’m fat. FAT. F-A-T.” Glancing at a magazine on a nearby chair, she rose from the table and snatched it, throwing it into Maximillian’s lap. “Go on. Read it. The cover has a picture of a mile-high chocolate cake, and then inside, it gives you fifty diet tips for losing ten pounds in a hurry. Talk about self-defeating.”

  Hugh shook his head. “Ridiculous, this diet of yours. You are beautiful, cherie. Your body is a temple for us to worship. There is no need for you to lose weight.”

  Okay, so she wasn’t above flattery…

  “All my life, I’ve had a ‘fat voice’ in my head. I’ve always tried to silence it through dieting and losing weight, but you,” she grabbed Hugh’s hand, “and you,” she grabbed Maximillian’s, “have shown me that I don’t have to listen to these stupid magazines that tell you how to lose weight and drool over the size two women modeling the clothes.”

  Maximillian turned the pages and scowled. Then he tossed the magazine on the table. “Nothing has changed in three hundred years. Women in our time cinched their waists until they couldn’t breathe. I never understood it. Hugh and I always like full-figured women.” He smiled. “We adore you, cherie. We like you this way. Don’t ever change.”

  She plunked down in a seat.

  “If I see you eat one of these,” Hugh held up a container of low fat yogurt. “It will be I who spanks you in earnest, un jolie.”

  She grabbed the container of yogurt from Hugh and threw it in the garbage can.

  Both men cheered.

  She felt elated.

  “I just wish that you could both enjoy human things, too.”

  “Some day, perhaps, but until we can free ourselves of this curse, we shall have the pleasure of watching you enjoy food,” Hugh told her.

  “And we’ll also have the pleasure of…you.” Maximillian kissed her.

  She shut her eyes and savored it.

  Marta opened them. “I-I almost forgot to tell you something.”

  “What?” They asked in unison.

  “Come with me.” She walked into the laboratory and sat down by her computer.

  “Do you know what this machine is?”

  Maximillian shook his head. “No. But we’ve seen quite a few.”

  “It is a computer. And my notes, about you two, are on it.”

  Hugh raised a brow. “So?”

  “Watch this.” She pressed a key and opened the file marked ‘Night Feeders.’ “You see this key that says, ‘delete?’”

  The both nodded.

  She pressed the key. The filed disappeared from the screen. “All my notes are now gone.”

  Hugh eased his tall frame into a chair. “But why, Marta? Why did you erase these notes?”

  She reached for his hand and brought it to his cheek. “I don’t care what you are or what your past is.” She glanced at Maximillian. “All I know is I love the two of you very much.”

  A lone tear slipped down Hugh’s face.

  She caught the golden drop, mesmerized while she watched it shimmer then dry up on the tip of her finger.

  Maximillian cleared his throat. “You could have made much money from your discovery.”

  “I don’t want money. I want the two of you,” she replied, her voice soft.

  Hugh sighed. “Merci.”

  Maximillian nodded his head. “Are you ready, Hugh? If we leave now, we can be back soon.” He smiled at Marta. “And make love to our woman.”

  “Ready for what?” she asked, trying to concentrate on something other than Maximillian and Hugh's lovemaking.

  “We are going out to the field of corpses to feed.”

  She rose from her chair. “Then I’ll go with you.”

  Maximillian eased her back down. “No. You will stay here. We don’t want a repeat of what happened yesterday.”

  Hugh got up from his chair and shrugged into his long, dark coat
.

  “But, I can’t let you go out there alone! We have to find out who attacked me, and maybe, if we all go back out there we can catch the person. You need all the help you can get.”

  Maximillian frowned. “Which we are more than capable of providing for ourselves.”

  Marta folded her arms across her chest. “Oh, I get it. This is the male ego thing surfacing, isn’t it?”

  Hugh raised a brow. “What ‘male ego thing?’”

  “This is where you turn all macho on me, isn’t it?”

  “This is where we protect you, cherie. Even if it is from ourselves. We cannot, we will not allow any more harm to come to you. We will feed, and then come back to you soon.”

  Maximillian grabbed her shoulders and drew her forward, kissing the top of her head.

  She slapped him away. “I’m not a child. And I know how to use a gun.”

  “A gun is little use against a wizard like Balthazar.” Hugh told her.

  “You can’t be sure it’s him. Maybe someone else knows what you’re doing. It could even be the police watching you. Why—”

  “No more foolish talk, cherie. Stay here. Stay safe. We will be back soon.”

  In the next instant, they disappeared.

  “That was a cheap trick!” Marta said, to no one.

  She left he kitchen and grabbed her jacket from the coat rack in the hallway. Marching into the small room off the kitchen, she took a rifle from the gun case and some bullets. She loaded them into the rifle then cocked it once.

  She’d be damned if she’d let them shut her out.

  And she had to know who was out there last night. If they came back, she’d be ready for them.

  She just wasn’t sure if she’d be ready for Hugh and Maximillian’s reactions when they found out she hadn’t paid their warnings one iota of attention.

  Fear coursed through her as she made her way through the night to the field of corpses along side the body farm.

  Fear…and a strange feeling of anticipation.

  The night held secrets.

  Marta was determined to discover them…

  No matter what.

  * * * *

  When she neared the field of fresh corpses, Marta watched Hugh and Maximillian feed, careful lest she disturb them. She held the rifle across her lap while she sank down onto a tree stump, the full moon bracketing both men as they drank blood from one of the newly dead.

  A movement in the trees caught her attention. She watched the branches sway, even though there wasn’t a breeze that night.

  Hugh and Maximillian swiveled their heads in that direction, too.

  “I’m here, Marta. Right behind you!”

  Her eyes widened upon hearing the same eerie voice again. She lifted the rifle with shaking hands and aimed it at a shadowy figure standing in some bushes. For just a second, the moon’s light shone down on a man dressed in long flowing robes. Marta pulled the trigger on the rifle, sending a bullet in his direction.

  “Hah! Your puny gun is no defense against me.”

  She cocked the gun and fired again, but in the next instant, some unknown force wrenched it from her hands.

  Marta screamed once as a heavy weight descended on her.

  * * * *

  Hugh and Maximillian lifted their heads the minute they heard the gunshot and Marta’s scream of terror.

  They flew out of the copse of trees where they had been feeding to see Marta scrambling to her feet and running.

  No one else was in sight.

  That they could see…

  But they felt Balthazar’s presence all around them.

  The minute they moved their feet, he tripped them, his laugh coarse.

  Still, they could not see him.

  “Fools. You think I’ll let her get away?”

  Maximillian growled low in his throat, his fangs visible and bloody. He lashed out at the unseen specter, his nails long, sharp and claw-like.

  “Hah, hah! You’ve never outsmarted me in three hundred years; you think you can do that now?”

  “I think you are afraid!” Hugh shouted. “Afraid that for once, we may actually have a chance at breaking your curse.”

  It became quiet, the only sound wind through the trees. Soon, the wind picked up, and blew with such force, that many of the trees bowed to its violent intensity. It lasted for a few seconds then all was quiet again.

  “He’s gone.” Maximillian sighed. “Damn it!” He ran a hand through his hair.

  “Where is Marta?” Hugh looked around, his eyes wild with fear. “Marta!” Hugh shouted.

  No answer.

  They ran through the trees then took flight, leaping high into the air, landing near the farmhouse. They settled on her doorstep.

  “Marta!” Maximillian shouted. “Marta!”

  She came running through the bushes, stopping in her tracks when she saw them.

  Her face was dirty, leaves and small twigs stuck out at odd angles in her air.

  For Hugh and Maximillian, she was a welcome sight.

  She ran to them, throwing her arms around them both, laughing and crying at the same time.

  “Ah cherie.” Hugh hugged her tight.

  Maximillian did the same.

  Then he gazed down at her, his eyes blazing with anger.

  “You are going to get the spanking of your life!” his voice boomed.

  Hugh glanced around, his eyes darting everywhere. “We cannot stay out here. You can spank her inside.”

  He shoved the two of them forward.

  Marta ran inside the farmhouse with them following close behind. Once inside, she locked the door.

  “Look, I can explain.”

  Maximillian advanced, his steps wide and purposeful. “You will, after I make sure you do not sit for a week.”

  She tried to dart past him, but he snagged her arm. They were nose-to-nose. “Why did you not heed our warnings to stay here?”

  She shrugged out of his hold. “That’s the thanks I get for saving your hides?”

  “It is your hide, cherie, that you should be concerned about.”

  She angled her chin. “I distracted him from the two of you.” Her voice shook with anger.

  Hugh ran a hand through his hair. “It was Balthazar.” He dropped his hand to his side. “Our night feeding brought him out. He was probably waiting, knowing that Marta would be with us.” Hugh glanced at Maximillian. “But I think you may have wounded him with your claws.”

  Marta’s eyes widened. “Claws?”

  “Just one more trick we have up our sleeves.” Maximillian glanced out the windows. “Come upstairs. I think we’ll be safer up there.”

  He placed a hand on the small of Marta’s back. She felt herded, as though she had no choice but to go where Maximillian led her.

  They entered the small room. Maximillian walked to the windows and drew the blinds.

  “We must not go out there to feed again.”

  Marta pulled away from Hugh. “But how will you survive? You must feed!” She swiped the tears from her face.

  “No, we cannot. It is too dangerous. He’s counting on us coming out there…and you, too, un jolie.” Hugh said. “I agree with Maximillian.”

  “Balthazar enjoys making his victims squirm. He’ll make us crazy with fear, wondering when he’ll strike, but he won’t come in this house unless he’s invited. And once he is asked, he’ll never leave, unless we outsmart him.”

  Timothy’s words, the ones he uttered when he stopped by, rang in her ears...

  How about letting me in?

  Foolish. Why should she think about him now? She shook her head to clear it of her crazy thoughts.

  “I-I could get a body, b-bring it here, inside the farmhouse. That way, you could still feed.” She told them.

  “And risk your boss finding out? No, we must leave.”

  Her heart felt as though it were breaking in two.

  “Where will you go?”

  Hugh shrugged. “I-I don’t kn
ow.”

  “Balthazar will find you, no matter where you are.”

  Maximillian sat down on the bed. He looked at Marta and took her hands in his, running his thumbs over the backs. “If we leave, you are in danger. He may come after you again and knowing we are not here, he will make you easy prey. If we stay…”

  “He may come after her anyway.”

  He glanced at Hugh. “You are right, cousin.”

  Hugh shrugged. ““We are damned if we stay, damned if we go.”

  “Then let’s fight him. You have powers. That little disappearing trick you do, for one.”

  “A puny trick compared to Balthazar’s.”

  She shook her head. “There must be something we can do.”

  Maximillian held out his arms. She came into them willingly. “Just love us.” He told her.

  Hugh stood beside them. “Stay with us,” his voice held soft, deep notes. “Until the end. If we cannot feed, I know it will come soon.”

  Marta didn’t know what to do. All her life, she’d been able to make sense of things, to find solutions to the most overwhelming criminal cases using forensics.

  But this?

  How was she to fight pure evil?

  Just love us…

  She stripped the clothes from her body and stood before them. Soon they shed their clothing, too. In a bold move, Marta pushed them both back onto the bed. Fueled by fear, adrenaline coursing through her veins, she knelt on the bed and took Maximillian’s large cock into her mouth. She heard his sharp intake of breath as she suckled him. Her tongue laved the tip of his penis, where she noticed one tiny drop of his semen.

  She turned her attention to Hugh. She reached for his cock, gently taking it in her hand, running her fingers up and down his distended shaft. With the pad of her thumb, she gently swirled it around the tip of his penis, eliciting a low moan from him.

  Soon, their hands were all over her, touching, stroking, kneading…soothing.

  She needed their touch, craved their touch, just as they needed blood to survive.

  Marta rolled onto her side. Maximillian took her from behind, and Hugh entered her from the front, their rhythm perfectly matched as they brought her to the height of passion.

  Her orgasm brought blessed relief from fear.

  That night, as she cuddled between them, she slept.