Playing With Vampires - An Izzy Cooper Novel

Playing with Vampires

An Izzy Cooper Novel

by

Kendra Ashe

Copyrigh
tÓ
2015 Kendra Ashe

All Rights Reserved

Lavine Press 2015

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

Join the Kendra Ashe mailing list to get updates on new releases and special deals.
http://eepurl.com/bbxLLr

Izzy Cooper Mysteries

Kissing the Werewolf

“Don’t do it Izzy,” Annabelle warned. “He is nothing but a toxic wasteland.”

That was the understatement of the year.

She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, but I had to give credit where credit was due. If there was one thing my sister knew, it was men. Annabelle was almost never wrong when it came to men.

Instead of running the Sandbar Pub, she should have gone into business screening the potential boyfriends of clueless women, such as myself.

Annabelle didn’t lack for experience in the romance and sex department. This was most likely because men flocked around her like buzzards fighting over a delectable bit of road kill.

Yes, the thought was morbid, but morbid thoughts about men were all part of my psych these days. I was of the opinion that most men were parasites sent from hell. They were here on a mission, and that mission was to destroy Izzy Cooper. That would be me.

With her long red auburn hair and sea green eyes, Annabelle could dazzle even the most evil of parasites.

I always felt drab standing next to Annabelle. Here I was in my sexiest, little black dress, and I still couldn’t hold a candle to her, though she wasn’t wearing anything all that spectacular, just her usual work attire of tight blue jeans and a tank top.

Annabelle scoffed at the whole idea. She claimed it was all in the way I perceived myself.

This might be true, but it didn’t really bother me all that much. I would just as soon not have the parasite problems anyway.

Leaning against the bar next to me, Annabelle lifted the shot glass she was holding and downed it like it was water.

Apparently my sister also had a gut made of steel.

“I’ll never understand you Izzy. After everything he’s done … why would you agree to meet him?”

The
him
she was referring to, was my ex fiancé, Jasper Redding. He was my ex on account of me catching him in a compromising position with the wedding planner. He was also indirectly responsible for my current status as a fallen angel.

If I hadn’t have been checking my text messages, I wouldn’t have stepped in front of that truck, and if I hadn’t been run over by that truck, I wouldn’t have been killed. It was the getting killed part that put me in a position to make a choice between going to hell, or coming back as a fallen angel to earn my salvation.

I couldn’t let a wrong like that go unanswered. Of course revenge would put my salvation in serious jeopardy, but it couldn’t be helped.

Jasper was going to pay, and he was going to pay big time.

“I have a plan,” I whispered under my breath.

There it was again. That skeptical look she always wore whenever I let her in on one of my plans.

Turning to the bar so that my back was facing Jasper, I slipped a hand into my little black purse and pulled out a plastic bag.

Annabelle glared at me with those cat-like eyes of hers. “What’s that?”

“It’s crushed garlic,” I whispered, as I was slipping a small amount into one of the two margaritas sitting on the bar.

Annabelle’s mouth fell open.

“You wouldn’t dare,” she gasped. “FBI agents don’t commit murder!”

“Technically, it isn’t murder. He’s a vampire, and vampires are already dead,” I reminded her.

The part about Jasper being a vampire was a bit of intelligence I’d gotten from Julius, whom I liked to refer to as my guardian demon. Now with Julius being a demon, I was fairly sure he’d be in a position to know if Jasper was a vampire.

“That’s only if Julius is right and he is a vampire. Why you would trust what a demon says is beyond me.” Annabelle said, shaking her head in dismay.

“Well if he isn’t a vampire, it won’t kill him.”

“Unless it chokes him to death,” she pointed out.

“That will be murder by accident.” I shrugged.

Still shaking her head, Annabelle turned to walk away.

“Where are you going?” I asked, not too sure I wanted to go through with my plan if Annabelle wasn’t going to be around.

If it didn’t kill him, he might vamp out on me. If that happened, I just might be put in the position to need my sister’s witchy power.

There was a time when I had my own witchy power, but I had to give that up when I came back from the dead as a fallen angel.

“I’m going to go open the safe and make sure we have enough money to cover your bail.” Annabelle tossed the words over her shoulder, but kept her voice low enough that only a few people heard her.

Jeez! Talk about a lack of confidence. The least she could have done was wish me luck.

Turning back to the bar, my eyes strayed to the small mirror that hung on the wall, just below the neon Miller Draft sign. The reflection I saw in the mirror almost knocked me off my feet.

It was me, but it wasn’t.

The woman in the mirror had the same dark hair, but she also had a set of wings extending from between her shoulder blades.

So fallen angels have black wings, but mine were on fire.

These wings were invisible to anyone but me, so the black wings didn’t surprise me all that much. I saw them every morning when I stood in front of the bathroom mirror to brush my teeth, but this was the first time I’d seen them on fire.

What the hell could that mean?

I came to the conclusion fairly quick that someone downstairs was aware of my murderous plan, and was lighting my wings up with hellfire.

That made me hesitate, but only briefly.

I figured if I could get used to seeing black wings in the mirror, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get used to seeing those wings on fire. On the bright side, it would certainly light up my bathroom mirror better.

With a drink in each hand, I turned toward the table where Jasper was waiting for me.

The smile on his face was meant to convey patience, but if I knew Jasper, he was probably fuming inside.

He hated to be kept waiting.

To think at one time I’d thought he was the hottest guy to ever walk the earth.

True, with his boyish charm and millionaire status, he would appear to be a good catch, but that was only until you got to know him. The real Jasper Redding was a textbook example of Narcistic Personality Disorder.

How could I have ever believed I was in love with him?

Julius had to be right. There was no way I could have missed Jasper’s flaws unless I’d been compelled, and it was my theory that only a vampire could have done that.

Pasting a smile on my face, I set his glass on the table in front of him. “I had Annabelle make it exactly the way you like it … with an extra coating of salt on the rim,” I purred.

The frown he’d been wearing a second before, disappeared completely. “You were always so good at anticipating my needs.”

My technique had worked. He was placated, and trusted me completely.

What a big mistake.

“I’m just so happy that you reconsidered your position,” I said, totally lying through my teeth.

If I were going to tell him the truth, I would tell him that my only regret was that I’d wasted a single moment of my time on him, and that in my opinion, he should have been the one that was run over by a truck.

I kept my mouth shut. For my plan to work, I would have to feign submission.

My plan had to work. This might be the only opportunity I would get.

For the last couple of weeks, he’d been bugging me relentlessly to see him. It was then that my plan for revenge began to take shape.

But I was no fool. As soon as he realized I knew the truth, I’d never get another chance like this.

Reaching across the little round table, he grabbed my hand and squeezed. “How could you ever believe that twit meant anything to me? She was just an amusement … that’s all.”

Fighting the urge to explode demon all over the place, I forced a smile. “How silly of me to let something as insignificant as infidelity, come between us.”

That’s when it dawned on me that something was wrong.

His touch was warm.

If he were a vampire, his skin would be chilled, like Marty the ghost hunter’s. Though
Marty was the first vampire I’d ever met, as soon as I shook his hand, I’d known exactly what he was. Come to think of it, when I was still with Jasper, I’d never noticed his skin being particularly cold.

Julius had to be mistaken.

But now that I had my memory back, I clearly remembered that it had been Jasper. I was sure it he’d been the one to compel me to forget Elias.

There was no doubt in my mind. It had been Jasper.

But maybe he wasn’t a vampire. A witch could also steal someone’s memory. It wouldn’t have been easy. That was back before I lost my witch power.

It was difficult for a witch to be witched, but not impossible.

So if he weren’t a vampire, the garlic wasn’t going to do anything but choke him, just like Annabelle said.

What else could I slip into his drink to poison him?

Cyanide might work, or maybe arsenic.

Just as I was trying to come up with an excuse to slip into the storage room and grab some of the rat poison that was kept back there, my sister leaned down to whisper something in my ear.

“Ayden called the house phone. He needs you to meet him out front in five … and that you should attract as little attention as possible.”

Nodding, I turned to Jasper. “Annabelle has a new drink she’d like you to try.”

Without waiting for a reply, I snatched up his drink and handed it to my sister. “I think Jasper would really like your Sea Breeze house special.”

Annabelle got the message loud and clear. “Of course. I’ll be right out with a Sea Breeze. I hope you like blueberry margaritas.”

When Annabelle was gone, I slid my drink over to him. “You can drink mine while you wait for your Sea Breeze. I have to be going. Granny isn’t feeling well and I need to check on her.”

It was a lame excuse, but the best I could come up with on short notice.

“I’ll call you,” he promised.

I nodded, though I had no intention of answering his calls, at least not until I came up with another plan for revenge.

As soon as I walked away from the table, I put Jasper completely out of my mind. I had more important things to think about, such as why my boss was out and about so late, and why on earth he was so worried about me drawing attention?

It had to be a new case.

I worked with the ACMU, also known as the Atypical Crimes Management Unit. The ACMU was a top-secret black cell unit of the FBI. That was a lot to say, so mostly we referred to our unit as the Monster Squad.

If we had a new case, it couldn’t be good.