One Late Night Read online

  One Late Night

  Ashley Shayne

  Sammy’s pissed. It’s late, she’s tired and her lousy boyfriend cancelled on her again, forcing her to walk home through a dangerous part of town by herself. But little does Sammy know, she’s not alone in the dark. Monsters are real and so are vampires. Fortunately, not all things that go bump in the night are ugly and evil. In fact, some are even quite attractive. Who’s Sammy to let the little detail of a relentless enemy get in the way of earth-shattering pleasure?

  Reader Advisory: This story has graphic sexual language and scenes—no closed bedroom doors (or other rooms) here!

  An adult paranormal romance from Ellora’s Cave

  One Late Night

  Ashley Shayne

  Chapter One

  I picked up my pace, hurrying through the silent, dark streets and cursing my boyfriend Alex for calling at the last minute and telling me he had to cancel our date and wouldn’t be able to pick me up tonight. I worked nights at a gas station and usually got off at 2:00 a.m. As if working the graveyard shift all alone wasn’t bad enough, Alex knew I hated walking home by myself. It was always late and dark and my route took me through a rough patch of town that flat-out scared me. The area was a mix of industrial and residential buildings and was made up of big, empty warehouses and lots with large blocks of cheap apartments thrown in around the edges. There was rarely anyone around and the people I did see were rough and scary-looking. Usually, when I knew Alex wouldn’t be coming to meet me, I either arranged with my brother to pick me up or I took a cab home. But my brother wasn’t answering his phone and payday was two days from now. My budget was way too tight to justify a cab home tonight.

  I told myself I’d be fine—my usual mantra when I got stuck walking alone—and tried not to hurry too obviously. I always felt that if I started running, I would look like a ready-made victim and anything coming after me would get the thrill of the chase as an added bonus. I clattered along as fast as I dared, wishing I hadn’t worn high heels tonight. I’d been expecting a nice evening with my boyfriend and had taken time with my appearance. I was wearing a pretty, wraparound blue skirt that flowed out around my hips and stopped just above my knees, and a white silk tank top. A white bag and white pumps completed my outfit. Though it was a warm evening, I’d have brought a sweater if I’d known I’d be walking home alone.

  I cursed softly as I went. This was typical of my life. Everything was boring or stressful. Nothing at all was any good. My friends were moving on with their lives and having families. That wasn’t in the cards anytime soon for me and I had no interest in intruding on their busy lives too much. I found myself wishing, as I often had been lately, that I could just up and leave my life. Move somewhere exotic. Do something different. Meet someone new. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to leave and no one new ever came here. Or if they did, I never met them. And something exotic? Fat chance.

  My heels tapped on the pavement with every step I took and were basically announcing my presence to anyone who might be interested in a woman walking alone at night. The wind tugged at my long, dark hair, tangling it around my face as I went, and I wished I was home already, tucked up in a blanket on the couch, watching a feel-good movie and trying to ignore how hurt I was that Alex had cancelled. Again. The second time he’d done so this week alone and he must have cancelled at least a dozen other dates with me in the last two months. I didn’t understand what his issue was. If he wanted to get rid of me, all he had to do was say something. And to make things even more confusing, he was acting like his usual sweet self when I saw him. When he showed up at all, that was. I wondered if he’d met someone else and was just stringing me along until he decided who he wanted. Alex had a selfish side and I was dismayed to discover that it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn he’d been cheating on me.

  As I hurried past a dark, narrow alley, I heard an odd sound. Sort of a wheezing, snorting, cough kind of noise. I froze. What the hell was that? It sounded like the sort of sound you’d hear in a zoo or a tropical jungle, not the urban jungle of Manhattan. As I stood there listening, uncertain and beginning to feel a little fearful, I heard the noise again, a little closer this time. I backed away from the alley as quietly as I could, staying on my tiptoes to stop my heels from tapping on the pavement. I backed far enough away that I’d have a small head start if something came out of the alley, and then spun on my heels and ran for it.

  I ran three straight blocks before my lungs forced me to stop to pant and recover myself. I leaned against a wall and tried not to pant too audibly. Large, solid, empty buildings rose around me, and there was no movement in sight. A thin fog had rolled in and I could only see for a block or so down the road. It was incredibly eerie, and as I looked around me I realized I didn’t know where I was. I’d run in a different direction than the one I normally took when I walked home and I hadn’t read a single corner street sign, paid no attention to where I was going. Great. Not only had I freaked out because I’d heard what had to have been a dog, now I was lost in a bad part of town late at night.

  Suddenly, as I panted and sagged against the wall, I heard a skittering noise. It sounded as if someone had kicked a rock down the pavement. I flattened myself against the wall and tried to breathe as quietly as possible. In the silence, I heard the snuffling sound again. Pure terror gripped me as I watched a shape slowly grow in the fog. It looked like something impossibly large was coming down the road toward me.

  I sank into a ball against the wall and stared in shock as the shape entered the street behind me. It was huge and shaggy and moved oddly, in a shuffling, disjointed sort of way. As though its legs and arms didn’t work like a normal person’s would. They swung out at odd angles as it moved, and the whuffling noise came again as it waved its head over the ground. The thing looked as if it was sniffing the ground…tracking something. Trying not to entirely freak out, I told myself that whatever it was tracking was probably not me. It had to be something else, someone or something that meant something to that beast. Not just some random human. I tried desperately to ignore the small, fatalistic voice in the back of my head that was screaming that it might just be hungry, and I hoped it would ignore me.

  It snuffled again and its head swung toward me. Tears started running down my cheeks as it approached. I thought about trying to run again but something told me it was futile. Even if I managed to sneak past the thing, it had shown up incredibly quickly after I’d run three blocks away from where I’d first heard it. Either there were more of these creatures around or this one was fast enough to follow me with no effort. Either way, I was probably doomed.

  I thought about my mom and my little brother and wished I’d called them before I left for work today. I thought about Alex and decided our relationship was over if I lived through this. Then I just squeezed my eyes shut and waited to die.

  Through my catchy, uneven breathing, I heard the creature shuffle closer to me and then a gust of wind blew against my face and my eyes flew open as a tremendous crash echoed through the street. What I saw astonished me. The creature was lying in a heap across the road and it didn’t seem to be moving at all. A tall, dark man was standing over it, looking down and seeming somehow thoughtful.

  I stared at him in shock and tried not to move or draw attention to myself. Suddenly the figure started laughing, a deep, wholehearted chuckle that was so surprising to me in my present state that I gasped. He turned casually at the sound and glanced over his shoulder at me.

  He was gorgeous. If my eyes could have gotten wider, they would have. He had jet-black hair cut in a short, messy style that fell over his forehead, and a straight, perfect nose. His lips, wide and sensuous, were curled in an amused smile and his bright-blue eyes seemed to look into my so
ul. He must have been six feet tall and was lean and muscular under his tight black tank top and jeans. At any other time and place, I would have been too intimidated by his beauty to even look at him for long, but right now I was too shaken to do more than feel a momentary breathlessness at his godlike attractiveness before the fear took over again.

  The amusement in his eyes changed to appreciation as he took me in. I’ve been told I’m hot—though both my body and my features are too irregular to ever be described as “beautiful”—and from the unmistakable look in his eyes, it seemed he found me attractive too. Even while huddled in a corner of an alley in terror, apparently. He smiled slowly at me, a full smile this time, and came toward me. He crouched down in front of me and I noticed that his teeth weren’t human. The incisors came to points. Very sharp points.

  Oh my God! He’s a vampire! I followed this thought with a choked-off laugh and a mental slap upside my head. Of course he wasn’t a vampire. Vampires aren’t real, I told myself sharply. Almost unwillingly, I looked across the road at the crumpled shape lying there and back to the man kneeling in front of me. At least, I thought they weren’t real. After the last five minutes, I wasn’t so sure.

  “Are you all right?” he asked me softly. His voice was soothingly melodic, deep and gentle. “I’m Adin. Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.”

  Stunned, I managed to nod. He opened his mouth to continue and I heard the soft snorting noise again. I made a sound I can only describe as a squeak and Adin’s head whipped around toward the noise. For several seconds, he appeared to listen intently. I thought I heard a sound come from the direction opposite to the one the odd noise came from and heard myself start to take short, harsh, ragged breaths as terror flowed through me. Adin looked back to me and I stared into his eyes in desperation. I was suddenly certain those things would kill me if they found me. I was equally sure only he could save me and I really, really hoped he was going to. It would be so easy to just leave me here for the monsters.

  “Please don’t leave me,” I begged, grabbing one of his hands and looking into his eyes fearfully.

  He stared back at me for a moment and then seemed to come to a decision.

  “I won’t leave you. This is my fault. You shouldn’t have been caught up in this. Come.”

  In one quick motion, he rose from his kneeling position and swept me up into his strong arms. He told me to hold on and then swiftly started running for an alley I hadn’t noticed, which ran behind what looked like an abandoned plant. I tightened my arms around his neck as we sped down the alley. We were going much faster than any unburdened man could possibly run, much less one who was carrying a full-grown woman in his arms. The wind whipped the hair back from my face and my skirt out around my legs. I turned my face into his chest to help me breathe in the strong wind and thought again that whatever Adin was, it wasn’t just plain old human.

  We rounded a corner and Adin skidded to a halt so suddenly he almost dropped me. Not one but two more of the monstrosities were waiting for us in the alley. They snuffled and both their heads snapped up. I assumed they smelled us on the wind. One roared, a terrifying sound I was sure I would hear in my worst moments for years to come, and Adin quickly put me down and thrust me behind him.

  “Sorry about this,” he told me ruefully. “Stay behind me. Pay attention and try to run if you can.”

  And with that, he leaped at the nearest of the two creatures. He moved almost faster than I could see and I heard a bellow of pain from the beast he’d targeted. It staggered back and fell but before Adin could follow up, the other beast was on him. Quick as a flash it backhanded him into a wall and he slid down the rough brick surface to land propped up on the alley floor. He shook his head and seemed dazed and I had a moment of terrified despair.

  The second creature advanced on him and I cursed silently to myself. I thought about running but it seemed pointless. My death would be mere moments behind Adin’s, of that I was sure. Desperately I cast my gaze around the alley, looking for a weapon. I spotted a steel pipe lying on the ground and snatched it up. The pipe was hard and solid and I thought it was better than nothing. Tears running down my face, I crept up behind the beast that stood over Adin, reaching toward him with claw-tipped, paw-like hands. With as much power as I could muster and the strength of the fear and adrenaline coursing through my system, I brought the pipe up over my head with both arms and then down on the beast’s skull.

  I was nowhere near strong enough to actually hurt it but it staggered and roared in surprise, turning toward me. I scrambled back in terror as it advanced and I fell to the pavement, sure I had just signed my death warrant.

  Suddenly a pair of white hands appeared on either side of the beast’s neck. With a swift wrench and a horrible cracking noise, the creature’s head twisted to the right and it fell to the ground. Adin stood behind it, staring down at me. He gave me an unreadable look before grabbing the pipe from my hand and leaping to bring it down on the head of the first creature, which had managed to get to its feet. It crumpled to the ground and the alley was suddenly and shockingly silent.

  Adin moved toward me slowly as I sagged in relief and I tried not to recoil from him as he did so. He had certainly just saved my life and despite the fact he wasn’t human, a fact of which I was now sure, he deserved gratitude and courtesy from me. No matter what he was.

  I took a deep breath. “Thank you for saving my life,” I told him quietly and sincerely before I started shivering uncontrollably.

  He looked at me, his eyebrows tilted in surprise. “I suspect I should thank you for saving mine. I thought you would run. You should have.” He eyed me intently. “What’s your name, anyway?”

  “Samantha,” I replied, still shaking. “My friends call me Sammy.”

  “Well, despite the circumstances, it’s nice to meet you,” he told me wryly. “You’re cold. Come, it’s still not safe here.”

  I looked around in horror and he stepped closer and gathered me into his arms. He was much warmer than I’d expected him to be.

  I always thought vampires were cold, I thought to myself in a slightly detached way. There was no more doubt in my mind. Only a vampire could do what he’d done. I just didn’t know what parts of the legends were true. For instance, Adin was warm. Maybe even warmer than a normal person. I huddled against him as the wind of our passage pressed against me. I didn’t know where we were going but I was sure I didn’t want to stay in that section of town.

  We sped down narrow alleys and along darkened streets until we reached a sort of old, grain silo-type structure. I thought we’d rush past like we had countless other buildings before it but Adin made directly for a small concrete door in its base and, after pulling out a small key attached to a chain around his neck, he unlocked the door. He entered swiftly with me still in his arms and pulled the door quickly shut behind us. He put me down carefully and hit a light switch on the wall.

  A soft glow flooded the tower and I stared around me in awe. A thin, wood, spiral staircase ran up to what looked like several levels of loft space. The concrete walls were covered with thick tapestries and hanging wool pieces in a riot of colors. What looked like outdoor space heaters covered with intricate wrought iron frames hung on hooks throughout the structure and it was very warm. The light seemed to be coming from a series of bulbs in delicate, rose-tinted glass lanterns that were hung throughout the tower. It felt incredibly cozy.

  Adin smiled at my startled reaction. “Just because I have to hide doesn’t mean I don’t like comfortable surroundings,” he told me. “This took a fair amount of work, believe me. Do you like it?”

  He was leading me up the stairs as he spoke and we entered onto the first level of loft space. The room held a comfortable-looking, deep-green leather chair and had a wall of bookshelves overflowing with books lined against the tower wall. I loved reading and felt a rush of pleasure at the sight of them. There was a small side table with a lovely orange lamp, and a shelf on the wall held a delicate sta
tue of what appeared to be a Greek goddess. I could only nod at Adin in response as I looked around me. The décor looked like something one might find in a tower of a medieval castle, not in an old, abandoned, concrete grain silo in a dodgy part of Manhattan.

  We continued up to the next level, which contained a wide double bed made out of a dark wood with brown silk sheets, and I blushed slightly as I thought about the fact that we were in his bedroom. There was a makeshift open wardrobe, made out of what looked like a department store rack, or would have, were it not made out of more of the same intricately wrought metal as the heat lamps. Dark clothes, including what I believed were a couple of expensive Italian suits, filled the rack. The last level above us was based around a concrete platform that appeared to be part of the original silo. An old, cast iron tub—the type you would stand up in—stood on the platform. A large, old kettle, a porcelain basin and an industrial-strength hotplate shared space on a small, carved wood table.

  Adin gestured to his bed before going up the stairs and filling the kettle from a tap coming out from the wall. He set it to boil and washed his hands and face quickly in the cold water from the tap. I sat awkwardly on his bed and looked around me at the tapestries on the walls, feeling somewhat dazed. My shivering was easing as the warmth of the tower crept into me.

  Adin turned off the kettle, poured some warm water into a beautiful, deep-blue bowl and grabbed a hand towel before returning to me. He set the bowl down on the floor. As he leaned in closer to me, his eyes widened and he inhaled sharply.

  “You’re bleeding,” he told me, worry and a hint of something I suspected was excitement flaring in his eyes.

  I looked down at myself in surprise. Sure enough, there was a shallow scrape down the side of my left thigh. I had no memory at all of getting it. The wound was sluggishly oozing blood. Adin leaned in even closer and I felt the heat of him and smelled a scent coming off him—a metallic scent, strongly compelling. I inhaled deeply without meaning to, breathing the smell of him. I felt a flutter in my pulse and he inhaled softly. I was suddenly sure he’d noticed my heart rate had sped up, and my breath became shallow as he gently reached out and pulled my skirt up, exposing the length of the scrape. His warm fingers fluttered on my thigh and my heartbeat increased.