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  Beware

  Quarter Life #4

  Adrian J. Smith

  Supposed Crimes LLC

  Matthews, North Carolina

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2022 Adrian J. Smith

  Published in the United States

  ISBN: 978-1-952150-85-2

  Chapter One

  They heavy beat of the music pounded in Faye’s chest making her heart thrum right along with it. The lights had all been changed since the last time she was down there, the ethereal glow no longer. The bar had become dingy and harder, less sanctuary and more club. It had been a long time since she’d been in a club proper, but it was freeing.

  Faye stepped out onto the moss covered floor, dragging Joel with her. She’d insisted on dressing him, shucking his normal plaid over-shirt in favor of an edgier look. She herself had gone to the nines to blend in that night. Faye gripped Joel’s hips and dragged his front to her ass, grinding against him like she had not a care in the world.

  The last few months had been the best in her life. She and Molly had figured some of their shit out, and she was back on the friendship wagon with Joel and Ben, making an effort to get to know Joel better and outside of his normal duties at the house.

  Faye lifted her arms over her head, rocking her hips back and forth against Joel, who finally loosened up enough to move with her. The beat of the music thrummed through her to the point that she was pretty sure if Joel bent his head to speak, she wouldn’t hear him.

  The light changed. It became harsher and more vibrant. It was like a high without the drugs, and Faye reveled in it. They had changed so much since she’d been in there last. The entire atmosphere of the bar in the sewers had become something else, Faye was pretty sure she would have enjoyed it either way—she had multiple times—but this new ambiance was far more to her style than it had been before.

  Wrapping her arms behind Joel’s neck, Faye gave over to the beat of the bass. She closed her eyes, feeling everything as it moved through her. She wished Molly would have joined, just to see her dancing like this, but Faye knew that would never happen. Molly was far too uptight for something like that.

  Faye turned in Joel’s arms and slid one thigh between his, grinding against his leg. Pleasure shot through her body, and she bit her lip as she looked up at him with a hooded gaze. In another time and in another place, she may have once thought about it, may have once debated whether or not to entice him out the door and into the back room somewhere where she could sink her teeth into him. Joel was cute, he was young, he had a mess of dirty blond hair and bright blue eyes that stared into everyone’s soul. Empaths often had that look about them, she’d found, but Joel was more than just a quick fuck or an energy feed. He was fast becoming one of her best friends.

  The songs never stopped. Her head spun, and she needed more liquor to bolster herself for the upcoming night, not that liquor made too much of a dent in her life lately. No, she was too well juiced up on pure witch blood for that.

  When Faye felt she couldn’t take grinding against him any longer, she dug her dull nails into his side and moved up to whisper into his ear at a scream level. “Let’s take a break.”

  Joel nodded at her and followed when she took his hand and headed for the bar area. There were no stools to sit on, so Faye leaned into the edge of the hard, gnarly wood that clearly an elf had made. It was smooth from years of use, but sturdy and perfect for what was needed.

  “Aliya,” Faye whispered. “Give us your pleasure.”

  Aliya, a young and spritely bartender and most likely a faerie of some sort, though Faye wasn’t quite sure, smiled at her. Faye’s heart melted a little more, and she wondered briefly when she had become so soft. Joel squeezed her hand, sending her comfort through their physical connection. Swallowing, Faye turned on him and grinned.

  “Who would have ever thought I could get you to come down here?”

  He chuckled. “Who would have thought you’d want to come with me?”

  Faye trailed a finger up Joel’s chest. “I’ve always liked you.”

  Leaning in, Joel’s lips were against her ear. “Not true, but I’ll let it slide.”

  Aliya handed them both over a drink and pressed her forearms into the hard wood of the counter and stared Faye down. “Did you want anything else?”

  Normal Faye would have asked for something a little harder than alcohol, but she’d been sober from heroin since she’d returned from Colorado with Molly. Months without the stuff and only Molly’s blood to sustain her had been a surprise but her blood was a much better drug anyway. Faye shook her head. It would take so much for her to get high anyway with the blood coursing through her veins that it wouldn’t be worth it.

  “We’ve got something new to try,” Aliya’s voice lowered.

  “Oh?” Faye leaned in, curious as to where this was going. Drugs weren’t strictly forbidden from the establishment, but they also weren’t normally doled out so freely. While Faye had been sober for the better part of four months, she was still interested, as she always was, in new drugs out there. “What’s it like?”

  “I haven’t tried it yet.” Aliya traced a finger on the table. “I just got some in tonight, but I know you have a preference for the harder stuff.”

  Faye slid a glance to Joel who shook his head at her, reminding her why she hadn’t done drugs in forever and a day, but Faye was still curious. But more than curious, she was tempted. Joel put a hand on her back, the pressure enough to bring her focus to him and off Aliya.

  “Faye, let’s dance again.”

  “Sure.” She chugged her drink, glad for its sour flavor as it hit the back of her tongue. When Joel didn’t touch his, she downed it as well and went out to the moss covered dance floor with him again, the music far louder in that area of the club than over by Aliya—done magically no doubt.

  As Faye turned and ground her ass into Joel’s front, she stared at Aliya, her mind spinning about the drug. She’d get some. If only to have on hand for when she had a moment to try it. It was her first night off in months, her first night out without Molly insisting on being with her, and she wanted to relax, wanted to be free, wanted time to lose herself in whatever escape she could find.

  Joel’s lips against her ear startled her. “Remember, Faye, I’m an empath. I know what you’re feeling.”

  She smiled seductively, twisting to face him and wrapping her arms around his neck as she danced with him. “Then you know why we’re here instead of out on the creature capture with Molly and Ben.”

  He nodded. “Yes, but no drugs.”

  “Spoil sport,” she said with a chuckle. Sliding her hand down his side in a forward movement, she knew they would never do anything, but she could push her limits with him. She always pushed with him. “What harm would a little dip do?”

  “It could do a lot. Remember last year?”

  How could Faye forget. Nearly a year before she’d been so intoxicated with getting high and escaping she had done anything for heroin. Stealing thousands of dollars from Molly, not that it’d made a dent in Molly’s fortunes, and sneaking heroin at all times of the day and night just to find release and escape. It had been necessary then. She hadn’t wanted to think about what had happened in Colombia and Molly had been useless in helping her come to terms with rape and kidnapping.

  Faye pressed her lips against Joel’s neck, smelling the blood flowing through his veins. Blood was her true sustainer, and Molly’s blood far more than anyone else’s. It had taken two years for Molly to finally admit why Faye cr
aved her blood more than anyone else’s, why they would likely be forever linked together. Faye still wasn’t sure how she felt about fate’s twist there, but she could live with it if the sex was hot and the blood sustaining.

  Faye caught sight of her two favorite bouncers coming toward her. They would give Joel a good lesson in what it meant to be a lover. Smirking and waving them over behind Joel’s back, the snake-like twins caught sight of her and joined on the dance floor. Faye spun around, the three of them paying her body as much attention as she could possibly stand before the twins no doubt became far more interested in Joel himself.

  Slipping away, Faye made her way back to Aliya. She leaned onto the bar, her lips brushing Aliya’s cheek like they had many times as she whispered, “Give me some to try.”

  “Anything for you.” Aliya’s mouth pressed against Faye’s, dragging her in close. Her hand skimmed the front of Faye’s body, dipping below the line of Faye’s clothes. The small plastic baggie of whatever it was deposited right where no one would see it. Aliya pulled back with a smirk. “First is free.”

  “And the second? You know it takes a lot for me.”

  “This should do it.”

  Faye hummed and carded her thumb across Aliya’s high cheekbone that had either a natural shimmer to it or some kind of makeup she slathered on—Faye could never tell. “And the second?”

  “Tell me what you think of this first.”

  “All right.”

  Joel was at her back, hands on her hips. “Don’t leave me with them again.”

  Laughing, Faye rolled her eyes at Aliya and dragged Joel back to the dance floor with the snake-twins, making sure to give everyone as good at time as they were willing to have.

  ###

  Molly breathed heavily, her back against the stone wall of the bridge. She stared across the way at the troll frozen in time in front of her, the torturous prison she had put him in. He didn’t move to speak to her, although she was fairly sure he was amused by the scenario she found herself in. Molly turned to look down at her youngest employee, Benjamin, the man she had partially raised and was still working on some of that as he came into his own Tainted side.

  “Where is it, boss?”

  She let out a sigh and glanced around the small bridge with the road running right through it. “I don’t know.”

  They’d tracked the creature there that night and risked going out to get it just the two of them. Benjamin had barely any experience in the field, although the last few months he had stepped up his game in that area. Molly adored watching him grow and explore everything he could and would be.

  Listening carefully, Molly waited to see if she could find it. The tranquilizer gun was pressed firmly into her hand and Ben had one with a net on it. Their goal was for her to shoot first and put the beast to sleep and then Ben to finish the capture, but they had yet to find it in a state where Molly could get a proper shot off.

  The tension in her chest rose as she waited for it to show face again, but she had a feeling it was already gone. The creature was unlike anything she had ever seen before, which was odd considering she had lived nearly three-hundred years and had been ensconced in the creature capturing world for the better part of that.

  This one, however, looked like a cross between a centipede, scorpion, with a man’s head covered in a fine layer of sheer slimy material. Every muscle in her body tensed as a vehicle drove under the bridge and she had to press herself to the wall to not be seen by the headlights.

  She had promised Faye and Joel the night off, and she wanted to stick to that. They both deserved the break—Joel for everything he had done while Molly was under the curse and Faye because she needed to learn how to be a part of their team again and rekindle those connections after being thrust from the house.

  “Any signs of it?” she asked Ben, risking a glance to where he stood next to her before she made sure to look around again.

  “None.”

  “Your tracker?”

  “Oh right.” Ben pulled out a small sleek device and stared down at it.

  Once again, Molly looked down at it and knew before Ben said anything that it was gone. They were going to have to do some research on what kind of creature it was and how best to capture it once they had more information because with they way it looked, Molly was sure the damage it had done was going to be catastrophic if they didn’t put an end to its reign.

  “It’s gone.”

  “All right,” she whispered. “Let’s get home, and see if we can find some other ways to track it down or perhaps it’ll resurface in that time.”

  Molly stared at the troll across from them under the other half of the bridge, anger burning in her chest. She’d seen him since that fated night over twenty-five years before, yet none of the anger and hate she had felt for him had subsided since that twisted and cruel night.

  “Molly?”

  “Yeah?” She turned to Benjamin, surely with a look of utter disdain before she corrected it so he could know she wasn’t mad at him.

  “We going?”

  “Yes.” Straightening her back and pushing off the wall, Molly stepped out toward the troll. His features looked exactly the same, but she had frozen him in time in a prison that could only be released by herself—perhaps her entire fold. The pain it caused him every second he was in there was no substitute for the pain he caused her.

  “Molly?”

  Once again she had been caught lost to her own memories. Shaking her head, Molly put the weapon down to her side and focused on Ben as best she could. “My apologies, Benjamin. I have seem to have lost my concentration.”

  “It’s okay.” He reached up and brushed fingers down the side of her arm before walking in front of her. “We’ll catch him next time.”

  “Right.”

  Molly followed Ben to their van they had parked six blocks away when they’d originally tried to capture the creature. Molly wasn’t sure if it was her failure or not, but it certainly wasn’t Ben’s. He was so new into embracing his Tainted side that he still hadn’t worked out how to be in tune with all of his abilities.

  Ben drove them home, and as soon as they entered the iron gates to the small white-washed house that had been her main home for the better part of a century, relief washed over her. Calm seeped into her bones, and she relaxed as he drove the long winding driveway to the garage. As soon as they were parked, she cleaned up their equipment after sending him to do some research and put everything in its proper spot. The rhythm of cleaning eased her left over nerves of standing there with the troll, wondering just what he saw when he looked at her other than an old wretched crow who had put him in a prison. He’d probably think rather unjustly, but Molly knew better.

  Molly walked through the upper floors of the house, checking on the rooms. Faye and Joel were still gone, which was no surprise to her, but everything else was quiet and just as it should be. Still unable to ease the ache in her heart, Molly took the elevator to the lower floors of her house, those underground, that housed every creature she had captured and more, those that were hidden from the public eye above who only saw a small white-washed house with large grounds in the middle of the old downtown area which was run down and hardly worth a second look.

  She’d owned the property for two centuries, and when she’d bought it, she’d never thought it would become as much a home as it had, but Molly wouldn’t give up the memories the halls held for her. She walked through the long hallways of the lower levels, checking on each of the creatures she had living with her. Her heart stopped when she saw him standing at the other end of the hall, staring at her.

  For whatever reason, Molly could not understand why Malek was still there, still living in her house, why he hadn’t up and run and left already as he was best at doing. Clenching her jaw, she walked toward him, his shock of blond hair perfectly combed on his head, the preppy polo shirt he always seemed to wear perfectly pressed and without a wrinkle. She felt like a dirty whore standing next to him
covered in soot from under the bridge, her hair a mess.

  “Malek,” she stated, hoping he would open the floor to the conversation for the questions she had yet to ask him in the four months since he’d taken up residence in one of the rooms on the lower levels of her house.

  He smiled at her, eyes lighting as he raked his gaze up and down her body. No matter what she did, Molly couldn’t stop the swell in her chest and the shiver down her spine every time he did that, but she had zero desire to rekindle their liaison.

  “I take it you failed.”

  The word hit her hard. Molly refused to move her gaze from him as she stepped in closer, daring him to try and put her down. Staring in his eyes, she saw the lust in them she knew would be there. “A failed capture is never a complete failure.”

  Without another word, Molly spun on her toes and left him standing there in the wake of her anger.

  Chapter Two

  Ben’s heart ached. He’d been the one to lose the centivalk, not Molly. She’d been on top of it until he had failed to help her keep track. Sitting at his work bench in the basement of the house, where he spent the majority of his time, Ben shoved his hands through his hair and let out a sigh. He felt awful.

  The cool metal of the table against his elbows reminded him where he was, why he was there, but he’d never been able to master that side of himself. He’d always avoided it, to the point of taking medication to make sure he didn’t shift into something he didn’t want to be, someone who wasn’t him. But Ben wasn’t going to lie, that skill would have been massively helpful when trying to track the centivalk.

  Rubbing his hands over his face, Ben turned up to look at his computers. Well, he’d been off his medication for a total of two months now after weaning off it and nothing had happened yet. Not even an inkling of shifting or feeling like he could shift.

  He clenched his jaw and opened up his computer, transferring the data from the tracking device he’d brought with him on the capture. He wanted to work through the last chunk of their capture and see if he could figure out where the centivalk had gone. Then perhaps he could right his wrong.