by Michelle M Pillow & Mandy M Roth
Vampire Ball Part I
Garmor couldn’t hide his scowl as he listened to
Pavel, the elder to the cat shifters, state his case. He’d heard enough
about Conner being an innocent victim in Muir’s plan to salvage something of
Michelle and Mandy’s past. “Enough!”
Pavel sighed. “It would be wrong to punish Conner.”
The man was clearly a moron if he thought Garmor could
punish any of those involved. That damn meddlesome pixie, Tru, had seen to
it that the elders could not interfere the way he normally would
have—killing Muir, Armando, Dimitri and Conner. Hell, for good measure he
would have issued the order to kill that other shifter, Mike, as well.
A knock on his chamber room door sounded and Garmor
inclined his head. “Enter.”
One of his servants hustled into the room, keeping her
gaze on the floor, knowing better than to meet his gaze head on. She held
something in her hand that looked oddly like a paper coffin. He took it and
instantly saw red. “That bitch has gone too far!”
Pavel and the servant jerked back slightly. It was
Pavel who was brave enough to approach Garmor once more. “What is it?”
He flicked the invitation to a Halloween party across
the floor and let it skid to a halt all on its own. “Tru is throwing a
party. It’s a vampire’s ball.”
Arching a brow, Pavel seemed to weigh the significance
of this. “But Armando is a vampire. Is she trying to push Mandy and Armando
together by means of a party?”
The thought of striking Pavel dead on the spot to save
mankind from the man’s stupidity did occur to Garmor but he held back. It
was difficult. “Precisely.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“We were invited to a party. It would be rude
not to attend.”
~*****~
Michelle stared at the invitation once more, still
unable to believe what she was seeing. “Mandy, the thing has real hinges on
the coffin.”
“Yep,” her friend said, rifling through her walk-in
closest. Mandy had gone into the closet with a mission to find them
something perfect to wear to Tru’s party over an hour ago and had not been
seen since.
“Is it safe to say we need a search party for you now
or should I hold off on the rescue dogs?”
A tiny, muffled laugh was the only response she got.
Sighing, Michelle rolled onto her back and stared at Mandy’s ceiling. The
woman had spent months painting a mural on it and the thing was downright
spooky. Only Mandy would enjoy sleeping under something that looked to be
depicting a legion of demons rising up from hell to claim souls. No, she
didn’t expect her friend to paint daisies above her bed but she did think
the various paintings framed on the walls were more Mandy’s speed. Each
showed a couple in the act of sex. Different positions, angles, and some
downright impossible-looking poses graced each canvas. Now that was what she
thought of when she thought of paintings in Mandy’s room. The woman had no
off switch when it came to sex and as of late, neither did Michelle.
If she wasn’t sharing her bed with Conner, she was
daydreaming about the all too arrogant guy down the street—Dimitri. Twice
already she’d had to jerk herself out of thinking of him while Conner was
kissing her body, caressing her slowly.
It had taken Michelle a good deal of time to allow
Conner’s seductions to come to fruition and they were all he promised they’d
be but for some reason, she couldn’t stop thinking about Dimitri.
Tru’s invitation fell to the floor and Michelle
wondered if Dimitri would be there. Conner was out of town for the weekend
on business and had insisted she spend time with Mandy and enjoy herself.
“Oh, how about this one?” Mandy asked, appearing from
the black hole of clothing and holding up a long, black dress. The sleeves
went to the floor as did the dress itself. That wasn’t the shocking part.
The shocking part was the fact the dress dipped down in the front and would
no doubt leave most of Mandy’s breasts showing as well as her navel.
“Umm, the dress is gorgeous but are you planning on
taping it to you to keep it in place?”
“Oh, it’s not for me. I’m wearing the red one I showed
you earlier. This one is for you.” A wicked grin spread over Mandy’s face.
“For me?” Michelle gulped and felt her cheeks
flushing.
“I’ve got a black wig somewhere around here that would
look great with it. I’m sure I’ve got an extra pair of fishnet stockings as
well. You need to grab a pair of black heels and a black thong.” She bit her
lower lip. “You do own heels and a thong, right?”
Michelle groaned. “Yes. You buy me thongs for every
birthday and I’m pretty sure you’re the reason I have black heels.”
Mandy beamed. “You’re the reason I stopped sleeping
naked every night.”“Okay, I’ll bite. Why am I the reason you stopped?”
“Because for my birthday’s you get me flannel pajama
bottoms. I realized when they began overflowing in my draw that I should
probably see what the appeal to them is.” Mandy shrugged. “I’ve got to
admit, they’re damn comfy.”
~*****~
Garmor stood glaring at the pink Victorian home
decorated to look like a haunted mansion. “I cannot believe the nerve of
that woman.”
Pavel snickered and quickly tried to cover it with a
cough. “The invitation did state that costumes were required.”
It took everything in Garmor not to hit Pavel. “Yes,
Tru made that abundantly clear when she refused to allow us to enter.”
“We could always zap ourselves into a costume. We are
all mighty you know.”
He glared at his long time friend. “Did you miss the
stipulations associated with Michelle and Mandy? We are not permitted to use
our powers to interfere. Tru would get us on a technicality and bind our
hands permanently.” Garmor glanced around and took a calming breath. “No, we
will do as humans would.”
“And what would humans do?”
Garmor’s gaze landed on the neighbor’s house. Long
sheets hung from the front porch. Each was spray painted with a number and
“Go Team!” He nodded more to himself than anyone else. “Come.”
~*****~
Michelle held the bottom of her dress up enough so as
not to trip. The idea of moving too fast in any direction terrified her.
She’d no doubt pop right out of the thing and flash the entire room in the
process. Mandy had been nice enough to use double-sided tape to help keep
the dress in place but it wasn’t something that would hold up should strong
winds come. Thankfully, Tru was holding the party indoors.
She eyed the room and did her best not to laugh. Leave
it to Tru to go all out. Not an ounce of the place was left untouched by
artificial cobwebs. Michelle’s gaze landed on Dimitri. He was dressed in a
tux and had a long cape on. He was also staring at her like she was on the
menu.
Her breathing grew shallow and she decided to flee
instead of acknowledge him. Turning, she ran smack dab into someone wearing
a sheet over their head. If they were aiming at being a ghost, they were
sadly off course.
Mandy moved up next to her and laughed. “I didn’t
realize the haunted pep squad was coming too. Nice costume.”
Whoever was under the sheet growled and said something
under his breath. Michelle couldn’t help but laugh as another ‘pep squad
ghost’ walked in. It only took Mandy a second to jump on that one.
“Ohmygod, they travel in packs.” She grinned as she
poked the first one in what Michelle could only hope was his ribs. “Did you
miss the fact this is a vampire ball?”
The man grunted. Mandy ignored him and turned Michelle
to face her. “Looks like someone here really likes your dress.” She tossed a
glance over her shoulder at Dimitri and smiled wide. “Go talk to him,
Michelle.”
“Umm, uhh.”
Rolling her eyes, Mandy snorted and took Michelle by
the arm. “Come on. I’ll pick his jaw up and do my best to help you stop
stuttering. Beyond that, the two of you are on your own.”
~*****~
Dimitri loosened his collar and silently cursed Armando
for insisting on the cape. Sure it was a vampire ball but his vampire best
friend forgot to take into account Michelle. The minute Dimitri had spotted
her in that all too revealing dress, his cock had hardened and the
temperature in the room jumped dramatically. It now bordered on stiflingly
hot.
His eyes widened as he watched Mandy leading Michelle
towards him. Mandy had proven to be quite the little matchmaker and didn’t
seem all too fond of the ultra-blond dumbass in Michelle’s life. That made
Mandy all right by him.
Mandy thrust Michelle forward and Dimitri instinctively
reached out to steady Michelle. His hands glided over her waist and his
thumbs touched her bare skin. Instantly, his dick throbbed with need and he
thought he might burst.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
“Take the heels off before you kill yourself,” he bit
out. It wasn’t what he wanted to say but had fallen out all the same.
Clearly he was tossing up walls in an attempt to protect himself from the
minx before him.
She jerked back and glared at him. “Excuse me.” With
that, she stormed off.
Mandy moved up next to him and tapped his shoulder.
“Smooth. Real smooth.”
He shook his head. “The dress was your idea, huh?”
“How’d you guess?”
“You seem to get a kick out of torturing me.”
Mandy winked and moved to follow Michelle. “The night’s
young, Dimitri. Find her and tell her you’re an asshole. Since she knows
it’s true but still seems to be able to look past it, I think she’ll forgive
you.”
“Was that a pep talk?” he asked, doing his best not to
laugh.
“No.” She pointed towards two figures wearing sheets.
“For that you’ll have to ask number twenty-three and number forty-four.”
