Midnight Craving: Midnight Vice, Book 1 (3 page)

a hand through his unkempt black hair and made another pensive sound.

“Well?” Jace’s anxiety was palpable from across the room. Arms crossed, he leaned against the wall and

chewed on the tip of his thumb. Isla couldn’t remember his blue eyes ever looking quite so dark with

concern. Or his lips ever looking so kissable…

Isla closed her eyes and tried not to think of how much she wanted him right now. Like earlier in the

bathroom, that coil of desire tightened in her lower belly. She’d always secretly had the hots for Jace. Who

wouldn’t? Ruggedly handsome, good with his hands, smart, respected—he was everything she’d ever

wanted in a man. She’d sensed his hesitation from the beginning of their acquaintance and had left it alone.

Where she derived great pleasure from breaking rules, Jace rigidly adhered to them. She could have

ratcheted up the temptation and seduced him into her bed months ago but to do so would force him to

break the covenants keeping his line pure and ever so righteous. Putting him in such an ugly position,

making him vulnerable to the harshest of punishments? Well that was something she’d simply refused to do

—until tonight.

Rather than focusing on Mr. Right, she’d contented herself with Mr. Right Now. It was just easier that

way. Men—human and not—found it incredibly difficult to resist her succubus pull. Sooner or later, they

wised up to her lack of real affection. Lust could only be confused for love for so long before it became

tiresome.

But—oh God—resisting her attraction to Jace was quickly approaching impossible. Isla squirmed as

memories of his cock filling her, stretching her, flooded her mind.

“What are you feeling right now, Isla?” Laszlo’s eyes narrowed.

“I’m horny as hell,” she admitted rather frankly.

“For Jace?”

Isla’s face flamed. Her reply was soft. “Yes.”

Laszlo hummed again. He gripped her hands and helped her sit up on the exam table. Isla avoided

Jace’s burning gaze. She could actually feet the heat of his stare against her face.

“Look at me, Isla,” Laszlo instructed. She focused on him and suddenly all the lustful feelings vanished.

“You don’t feel anything for me, do you?”

She pulled an apologetic face and shook her head. “Sorry.”

Laughing, Laszlo smiled. “I’m not at all offended. I’m more relieved actually.”

“Relieved?” Jace chimed in from behind them. “Clue me in, Laz.”

Laszlo moved away from her and hopped onto his desk. “It’s a compulsion curse. Very old and

extremely powerful.”

Isla’s chest tightened with fear. Her education at the hand of her succubus mother had never been

completed, but she’d learned enough to know compulsion was very dangerous juju. This was beyond bad.

“Compulsion?” Jace frowned. “So what? You’re saying Isla’s compelled to have sex?”

“With you.” Laszlo turned to Isla. “Was his face the first you saw after Renata cursed you?”

Isla nodded. “I imprinted on him, didn’t I?”

“Seems so.” Laszlo sighed and rubbed his face. “You know how bad this is, right?”

“Yes.” Isla’s solemn tone caught Jace’s attention.

He held her gaze. “Isla?”

“There’s no anti-curse, Jace. Unless we kill Renata, I’ll continue to have these nympho urges more and

more frequently. If I’m not sated by you, I’ll literally overheat.”

Laszlo jumped in at that point. “The brain fever will cause seizures, and she’ll die. It won’t be pretty.”

“Okay,” Jace said calmly. He seemed to be thinking out the problem. “So you’ll come home with me

and I’ll…well…you know…until the team can neutralize Renata.”

“Doesn’t work like that, Jace,” Laszlo interjected. “Either you or Isla has to kill Renata. It’s the only way

to reverse the curse. If she’s killed by someone else, Isla’s—”

“Fucked,” she interrupted.

“Pretty much,” Laszlo said. “By the looks of the curse’s progression through your aura, I don’t think

you’ve got a lot of time either.”

That got Jace’s attention. “How little time are we talking?”

“Isla’s demonic blood has allowed the curse to take a much stronger hold than we’d normally see in this

kind of case. It’s sort of like the flu killing healthy people because their immune systems put up too much

of a fight.”

“Laz,” Jace said, “how much time?”

“If you don’t neutralize Renata… Midnight.”

The room went deathly silent. Isla tried to process Laszlo’s doom-and-gloom prognosis. Jace, however,

leapt into action. He glanced at his watch and then at her. “Twenty-two hours. Plenty of time.”

Even as he spoke so confidently, Isla noticed the tic in his jaw. He was lying—for her. That he was

trying to protect her even in the face of certain death confirmed what she’d always thought about him. He

was one hell of a standup guy.

Jace held out his hand. “Come on. We’ve got work to do.”

Trusting her life in his hands, Isla wrapped her fingers around Jace’s and followed him out of the

office.

***

Legs crossed, Isla rested against the slatted back of the chair and tried to ignore the growing desire

welling in the pit of her tummy. Swallowing hard, she hid her trembling fingers beneath her thighs and

stared at the various maps and laptop screens spread out across Jace’s dining room table. The scattered

remnants of a late-night drive-thru stop were piled on one end. Isla’s empty soda cans stood in a pyramid

of sorts just behind a carafe holding a sliver of Jace’s lukewarm coffee.

For the last few hours, they’d been working hard on their game plan. A psychic dragnet around

Houston had been set up within minutes of the club bust so there was no chance of Renata moving out of

the area. Midnight Vice’s surveillance teams were already out on the streets, pounding pavement and

working their contacts for any hint of her movements. Isla had suggested sifting through their intel files on

Renata.

“I say we hit this safe house in Bellaire first.” Jace tapped a laptop screen. “And then move north on the

610 loop.”

Desperate for any diversion, Isla followed his proposed path. In the last few weeks, the Extermination

Unit of Midnight Vice had cleared all vampire safe houses in the eastern and southern portions of the

Greater Houston area. Only a single quadrant west of Highway 59 and north of the 610 loop remained

unchecked. Without a doubt, Renata would seek shelter in one of those remaining houses. She’d need her

native soil to regenerate after taking that fireball to the face and draining her power with such a hellacious

curse. The EU had located four of the five known stockpiles of Hungarian soil. That left them one more

box among those eight houses.

“Works for me.”

“Great.” Jace picked up his phone and started texting. “I’ll make sure the surveillance team keeps us

updated. If she pops up on the radar, we’ll know.”

“Sounds good,” Isla replied, voice tight. Her clit pulsed suddenly. Her toes curled and thighs clenched.

She needed Jace like right now but the thought of begging him to fuck her again felt wrong. Men using

women disgusted her, and doing the same to Jace put a bad taste in her mouth. But what could she do?

“People are going to find out about this, about us.” She ignored the lust bubbling in the pit of her

tummy and motioned between them. “Your people are fairly clear about their stance on nephilim and

cambion relations. What are we going to do?”

Jace set aside his phone. He rubbed his temple and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m sure I can plead my

case before my elders. They’ll likely frown on this thing between us but will understand it couldn’t be

avoided.”

Her gut clenched at his tone. “I didn’t realize having sex with me was such a chore.”

His gaze snapped to her face. “That’s not what I meant, Isla. They won’t fault me for being with you to

save your life. It’s not the same as choosing to be with you, of falling prey to your succubus allure.”

Her jaw hardened. “Wow. You want to keep digging or should I jerk the shovel from your hands now?”

Jace rolled his eyes and practically growled with frustration. “You’re twisting my words. I’m not trying

to insult you. I’m just trying to be pragmatic. If I don’t want to lose my wings, so to speak, I have to be

careful in the way I’ll plead my case. I have to make them see that allowing you to die wasn’t acceptable.

There aren’t that many of your kind willing to help us keep a lid on the shit storm night siders enjoy

creating.”

She tamped down her annoyance and tried to be reasonable. “Obviously I don’t want you to be hurt by

this, Jace. I’d never forgive myself if you lost your powers because of me. You’re the most important tool

Midnight Vice has to keep the night side at bay.” She squirmed as her clit throbbed. Wetness trickled from

her core. It took every ounce of her control to continue talking and not touch herself. She forced a playful

smile. “But could you maybe not make it sound like having sex with me was so horrible. I do have a

reputation to maintain.”

Jace snorted with amusement. “I’ll try.”

His boyish grin only increased her discomfort. Maybe a little hands-on attention would bring some

relief. It was worth a try. She stood up, surprising Jace with her sudden movement. “I need a shower.”

He made an odd face. “All right. In my bedroom, door to the right.” He motioned toward the open

doorway at the end of the hall. “Towels in the linen closet.”

Wordlessly, Isla scurried from the dining room, pausing just long enough to snatch her hastily packed

suitcase from a couch in the living room. She plunked the suitcase on the bathroom counter and shut the

door behind her. Yanking back the curtain, she bent down and played with the knobs until she found just

the right water temperature. She peeled off her dress and thong and dropped them on the slate floor.

The kiss of cool water against her skin melted some of the heat and tension constricting her body. Face

into the spray, Isla tried to wrap her mind around everything that had occurred in the last few hours. Her

life was spiraling out of control. Nothing had gone as she’d expected tonight. Seeing Renata again after all

those years hadn’t been quite as terrifying as she’d thought it would be. Isla had fully expected freezing up

or worse, but she’d experienced only hatred for the vampiress.

Facing her own mortality should have scared the shit of her, but she’d already stared death in face and

won. Shaking her head, she cleared those disturbing childhood memories from her thoughts. She couldn’t

think about that tonight. Right now, she needed to concentrate on surviving. Deep down inside, she

believed somehow, some way, Jace would come through for her. As far as she knew, he’d never failed a

friend before, and she doubted she’d be the first. She figured luck was on his side—if not divine

intervention, considering his lineage. She had to believe they’d make it through, otherwise she didn’t know

if she could muster the energy to put up the good fight.

No, it was the forced sex and the roiling emotions attached to their coupling that were driving her mad.

She wanted Jace—just not like this. Earlier in the club bathroom, after their minds had cleared, he’d said

she hadn’t forced him to do anything he didn’t want, but she knew Jace too well. He’d have said anything

to make her feel less guilty for taking advantage of him. If she made it through the next nineteen hours, she

wasn’t certain she could stand facing Jace night after night at work knowing he’d only been with her to

satisfy the curse.

And he would cut her loose. There was no doubt about that. He would skirt the edges of the agreements

guiding his personal conduct to save her, but the second she was free of the curse he’d shove her aside to

protect himself from his elders. She wouldn’t blame him if he asked to have her transferred out of Houston.

Now that he’d had a taste of her, it would be incredibly difficult for him to resist her in the future. She

honestly wasn’t sure she could even trust herself to keep her hands off of him either.

The shower curtain moved. Startled, Isla glanced over her shoulder. Lust blossomed in her belly at the

sight of Jace’s chiseled abs and the smattering of dark hair across his chest. She couldn’t help but lower her

gaze even farther to his sizeable package. Her fingers itched to stroke and fondle him.

Jace stepped into the tub. “Shit, this water is cold!”

“Sorry.” Isla quickly adjusted the temp to a more normal heat even though it made her fever feel even

worse.

He reached for her. She shivered as his arms settled around her waist.

“You’re burning up again! Why didn’t you tell me you needed me?” Jace sounded hurt as he caressed

her back. Isla hid her face, uncertain how to answer. The water rushed down over their bodies. He placed

his cheek against hers, his chin on her shoulder. “Please don’t be embarrassed to ask me for relief, Isla.”

She smiled wryly and looked up at him. “Easier said than done.”