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  Curfew

  by Samantha Stone

  Published by L&L Dreamspell

  Spring, Texas

  Copyright 2009 by Samantha Stone

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright holder, except for brief quotations used in a review.

  This is a work of fiction, and is produced from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real people is a coincidence. Places and things mentioned in this novel are used in a fictional manner.

  ISBN- 978-0-9787723-9-0

  Published by L & L Dreamspell

  Produced in the United States of America

  Visit us on the web at www.lldreamspell.com

  ONE

  The streets hissed at me with rustling leaves and fluttering trash as I left the doorway—a warning to go back inside. I ignored the admonition and eased into the false tranquility of the night. The city appeared deserted, but I expected this past curfew. No human with a functioning brain would venture forth after sunset, but yet, here I am standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Nervous sweat soaked my sports bra, a rank dampness beneath my heaving breasts. I have to do this. My family needs the money and I know how to make a great deal of it, in one night.

  To hell with the curfew.

  The Elite live in the middle of town though they have spread their tentacles in every direction over the last fifteen years. I need not search long to find one of them interested in my wares as long as I venture forth at night. I still remember how vivacious things were before the Elite came to our city, our bustling metropolis so dependent on the oil companies for our livelihood. No more, our busy town reduced to the city of the dead after nightfall. I jogged toward the center of the city, watching the shadows with trepidation. If I got caught alone at night, the consequences could prove to be fatal…or worse.

  A patrol car! Frantic, I looked around for a place to hide, anything to crouch behind until he passed. Nothing. There, a few buildings down, I spied a deep doorway that would allow me to hide in the shadows. Breaking into a run, I put all my energy toward reaching that arch before the cop made it to this block. I hope he didn’t see my wild dash for the small alcove. Crouched in the far back, I folded myself into the smallest size possible and ducked my head inside my shirt, holding my breath in fear.

  Our laws are very strict as we as humans, the most numerous race, try to maintain control of our destiny. The Elite may have the bulk of the money, but our laws still stand firm. One of the lucky ones to have a real job, my last boyfriend worked on the police force. Alex told me that anyone caught violating curfew is dealt with severely and thought of as a traitor to their race.

  The car rolled past, so very slow that I ran out of air and had to take another breath. My body pumped out sweat as if I stood in the noonday sun in the middle of the desert. The tangy odor filled the air, shimmering there to taunt the predators of the night.

  The cruiser stopped.

  SHIT.

  Gears clunked as the Sheriff put his car into reverse and rolled back to park right outside my little safe zone, which of course, was not really safe at all. I watched him through the thin fabric of my shirt, still not certain that he could see anything in this darkness. The driver’s side window down, he leaned his head out and sniffed the air.

  “Come on out honey. I can see you there.” His deep voice floated to me on a ribbon of authority that wrapped itself around my throat and pulled me to my feet.

  He remained seated in the car instead of getting out with handcuffs dangling from his hands, so hope flared in my soul that he would send me home with a simple warning. As I stepped away from the meager cover of the arch, he reached to open his door. Adrenaline exploded in my chest, and I took off, desperation driving the larger muscles to explode into action. Maybe he wouldn’t give chase since he would have to turn his car around to do so.

  One house, two houses, three darkened homes…the distance grew…feet converted into wings, this pigeon had flown. I would get away!

  His weight slammed into my back and flattened me on the damp ground. He said nothing as he laid there on me and I couldn’t protest since he had knocked the air from my lungs. Arms and legs flailed for freedom, but his solid mass wouldn’t budge. He held me as secure with his body as any restraints could manage. Huge powerful hands grasped my wrists and held them to the ground. The warmth of his breath tickled the back of my neck and the heat from his body covered every inch of me.

  “So young lady, what’re you doing out after curfew?”

  His question shocked me. I expected to be arrested and tossed in the back seat of his car. I tried to squirm into a more comfortable position beneath the Sheriff’s bulk. He had to know I couldn’t answer him with my face pressed into the lawn. I squirmed some more, pressing my knees into the ground and lifting my hips. Something hard poked into the back of my thigh and then he did move, but only to grind that hardness into my flesh and push me back flat onto the ground.

  “Stop squirming or I’ll be forced to cuff you.”

  I groaned in response.

  “What?” He rose from my back so that I could get my face out of the grass and speak to him.

  “Please let me go. We need to stick together, you know.”

  “Do we?” He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth and jumped up to flip me over on my back. I saw the handcuffs hanging from his thick belt and couldn’t believe the wetness that sight caused between my legs. The extreme good looks of the Sheriff didn’t hurt either.

  Stunned into silence by my own wanton thoughts, I lay there as calm as possible, watching him as he, in turn, watched me. My eyes drifted to those gleaming handcuffs again. Alex and I had played with his handcuffs many times before he dumped me for a woman with a factory job. The bastard. Apparently love and a great kinky sex life mean nothing in this monetary society. This officer was not Alex though and he had caught me out after curfew.

  My stomach twisted into a knot, and then crawled up my throat, choking me.

  “You understand that there are rogues out at night, searching for feeders to add to their stables, right? Why do you think we enforce the curfew, Miss?”

  I nodded to let him know I understood but my voice seemed to have vanished as I stared into his exquisite face. Dark glasses perched on a hawkish nose and his high cheekbones and powerful chin appeared to be chiseled from milky white marble. He cocked his head as he looked into my eyes and I could almost see him thinking.

  “What are you doing out past curfew?” This time when he asked, his words dipped into my brain and pulled the answer out. I tried to push back, using all my mental strength, but too late. He’d already found his answer.

  “You’re looking for one of the Elite?” His eyebrows drew together like my mission angered him. The breath caught in my throat as he bowed his head, bringing his face mere inches from mine. Glaring at me, he wet his lips with the tip of his tongue and spoke to me in a raspy whisper.

  “The Elite also take humans as feeders, foolish woman. Why the hell would you seek those that think of you as merely food?”

  Foolish woman? Ha. He had no idea. I had no intention of giving away my secret to this officer, but I couldn’t stop myself. “I have something that they want and they want it bad. What I have in my possession can’t be found anywhere.” My boast dried up in my throat when his lips spread into a smirk. My eyes dropped to his nameplate pinned above the pocket of his uniform. Mironescu.

  My filthy mind wandered to my twisted sexual adventures with Alex. I traded Sheriff Mironescu’s face for Alex’s as he bent over me, snapping handcuffs on my wrists. Th
at was long ago. Hmmm. Maybe this officer would like to play too. I would remember his strange name, his face, and his magnificent, hard body no matter what happened tonight.

  He shook his head as I checked out his physical attributes.

  “You are a danger to yourself.” He reached for those glistening handcuffs.

  “What? Hey. No.”

  Ignoring my exclamations, he slipped the cold metal rings on my wrists, snapping them shut. At least he allowed me to have my hands in front of my body instead of twisted painfully behind my back. His powerful grip on my bicep tightened and with one arm, he lifted me to my feet. The bottle fell from my pocket and hit the ground between us.

  Sheriff Mironescu snatched up my liquid gold in a flash of movement that made me dizzy. “Sunscreen?”

  He laughed at me. I stomped my foot and curled my lips into a sneer. “The Elite will pay good money for sunscreen and since it is illegal, it can’t be found anywhere.”

  He laughed again and pointed to his badge, watching my face for my reaction. “Illegal you say?” He tapped his shield and reached for my arm, guiding me toward his patrol car.

  “You don’t understand how much we need the money.” I dug in my heels but he scooped me up and carried me as if he had just picked up a docile little kitten. The heat from his body seared into me everywhere he touched. A strange throb in my gut spread like melted butter down to my sex.

  “Is this your usual method for arresting a criminal?” Never before had I seen an officer of the law carry anyone in this manner, not even my Alex.

  “You are my first.” He swung my legs out of his arms and allowed me to stand but kept one hand on the short chain between my cuffed wrists. With an exaggerated sweep of his long fingers, he removed his dark glasses.

  I gasped when I saw the glowing golden eyes belonging to a member of the Elite staring down at me with undisguised hunger.

  Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

  A sly smile lifted the corners of his sensuous mouth and he allowed the tiny fang teeth to rest on his lower lip.

  “Yes, you are my first. My very first feeder.”

  TWO

  My heart stopped, my chest still, crushed by fear. Surely he joked with me, tried to scare me for being out past curfew. But no, his expression never wavered and those golden eyes glowed brighter as they left my face to travel down my body. His gaze burned the skin on my throat and my stalled heart jumped into action once more, pounding with enough power to overwhelm my quaking organs. His smile grew wider still as my knees wobbled and he tugged on the handcuffs to draw me closer to him.

  His spicy, wild scent filled my nostrils, enticing me to move closer on my own accord. So masculine, so warm. I never dreamed that one of the Elite could be so—human. But no, not human. He wanted to feed off me—use me.

  “My family will be looking for me.” He ignored my cry.

  “Do I not have a choice?” How embarrassing that my voice came out sounding like it belonged to a scared, five-year-old little girl.

  “A choice?” His sultry baritone rumble caressed me with its resonance. “You want a choice, hmmm.” He stepped back, gazing into my face again. “Yes of course, you have a choice. I am an officer of the law, after all.” He drew out the word choice and as he repeated that same word, it seemed he stretched it out longer each time, his hissing ‘sssss’ meant to intimidate, to frighten.

  Hope flared in my soul. I stared into his handsome face searching for that tiny ingot of something other than hunger. The sheriff watched me and seemed to be weighing something in his mind but then he snapped his fingers and turned to lead me to his patrol car. Opening the back door, he motioned toward the seat and smiled.

  “Your choice, my dear. You can go to jail, or take your chances with me.” I balked when he tried to place me in the car, but he pressed down on my head, sliding his other hand down my arm. He guided me into the seat with ease, as if I cherished this trip and jumped at the chance to crawl in his cruiser. His touch, though brief, sent a rash of goose flesh across my skin and I pushed my arms against my breasts to hide the hardened nipples protruding through my sports bra. How could I be attracted to this sheriff? My gosh, instead of taking me out to dinner, he planned to have me for dinner.

  The sheriff slammed my door and eased his bulk into the front seat. He invaded my senses, his essence spiraling around me as he stared into the rear view mirror and met my eyes.

  “What is your name?” His question dripped honey and warmth, but I refused to speak. Why would he need to know the name of his next meal anyway? He clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and shook his head back and forth.

  “You know that I can pull what I want to know right out of your head…but it would be easier for us both if you just told me.” I still would not answer. To hell with his mind reading power. In the mirror, I saw his eyebrows draw together, small lines appearing on his forehead as he grimaced at me.

  “I ask again, what is your name?” This time his words pierced my brain with a burning spear of pain. I moaned and cupped my face in my bound hands, pressing my fingers to my temples in an impotent attempt to staunch the ache. His torture intensified until a trickle formed in my ear.

  “Sandy. My name is Sandy.” I choked out between my clenched jaws.

  The pain faded away and a cool mist washed over my head. Like ice on a sunburn, it felt wonderful.

  “It would be better to just answer don’t you think?” His mocking words grated on my already frazzled nerves but at least I no longer wanted to tear his pants off and ride him into oblivion.

  Dropping my hands, I lifted my head to see him watching me again. What did he want this time? Oh, another question.

  “No sir, I mean yes sir.” I babbled trying to get the words out before he caused more pain in my tender head. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” Shithead.

  I almost swallowed my tongue when the sheriff burst into laughter. I leaned forward to stare at him. No man should look that gorgeous. It’s just not fair. He rested his forehead on the steering wheel, wiping his eyes as he stopped laughing. It seemed that he could hear my thoughts and thank goodness he appeared to have a good sense of humor. I should pay attention to what popped into my mind. But then again, I know he can’t hear all of the things that flit through my head. He couldn’t know that even though he is one of the hated Elite, I found him very attractive and so sexy that he made the heat rise in my panties.

  He started the car, putting it into gear, then glanced over his shoulder at me and my face flamed because I pictured him naked at that very moment.

  “So, where to?”

  “What?” My mind raced, sweeping my naughty images away as I tried to figure out his question.

  “Your decision, Sandy. Do I take you downtown to the jail frequented by criminals and hungry members of my kind or do I take you home with me?”

  I gulped, the air so thick that I couldn’t get any into my lungs. “What kind of choice is that? I die either way.”

  He put the car back into park and turned all the way around in his seat to face me. Oh, those shining gold eyes. Sheriff Mironescu ran his tongue over his full bottom lip and allowed the corner of his mouth to lift, just a bit.

  “I am starving, yes, but I intend to treat you well and keep you alive as long as possible. I do have an ample supply of food in my refrigerator that can sustain me and has until now been my only sustenance. You should feel honored to be my first.”

  I snorted before considering the consequences. “You’ll just have to forgive me for not feeling honored—Sheriff.” Shit. I hadn’t meant for my words to come out so offensive, but there they were, dangling between us.

  “None of this would have happened if you obeyed the curfew.”

  Deadly calm, his voice. Without another word, he turned away and slammed the gears into drive, squealing away from the curb as he pulled into the street.

  Another pang of fear clutched me with talons of steel. I didn’t want to go to jail. So
many horror stories about the jails, especially for those imprisoned for violating curfew. Now that I knew members of the Elite infiltrated the police force, my anxiety doubled, my guts twisting into painful gassy knots.

  Our small family could not afford to lose another member. After Dad died and the economy took a nosedive, we had to scramble for jobs, for food, for our very existence as the Elite took over the larger corporations and built refineries to produce ethanol for pennies. The few of us that managed to get jobs at the factories still prospered, but for those that refused to work for the vampires, we had to take what we could find. The Elite were few, but they controlled most of the money in our society now and that made things difficult for the humans.

  There were even those unfortunates that sold their children as feeders. My four siblings and I knew we were safe. Mom would never sell us to the underground blood slave market. But, we had to have money. We had to have food. I offered to sell myself so that the others could eat. I thought Mom would beat me for saying such a thing. For years we lived this way, like vermin scrambling for crumbs. I was twenty-five years old, no job, no future—two sisters left at home and my elderly mother too. And now as of last month, even our government assistance had dried up. Shit.

  And the damn Elite have infested our police force. I had to get back home somehow, but I had no chance at all unless…

  “I choose you.” Even though I spoke at a volume anyone with ears could hear, he gave no indication that I existed. Hell if he could read my mind then he knew I would not choose jail even if he represented the alternative to that sentence.

  Staring at the back of his head, I longed to touch his silken dark hair. Could it feel as baby soft as it appeared? He wore it long, too long for a cop. The ends went over his starched collar to hang in a fine black fringe on his shoulders. Mmmmm. His hair would feel divine tickling the insides of my thighs. An idea formed in my rattled mind. I would offer myself to him, yes, but in a different manner—one that would not lead to my inevitable death.