Wicked Pleasure

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  For Curt Groff

  Berkley Sensation books by Nina Bangs

  WICKED NIGHTS

  WICKED PLEASURE

  For Curt Groff

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Copyright © 2006 by Nina Bangs.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  BERKLEY SENSATION is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. The “B” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Bangs, Nina.

  p. cm.

  ISBN : 978-1-101-53965-1

  1. Vampires—Fiction. 2. Brothers—Fiction. 3. Amusement parks—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3602.A636W54 2006

  813’.6—dc22

  2006003159

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  1

  Throbthrobthrob. “You can vibrate all night, Fo, but I don’t feeeeel you.” Kim ignored the frantic pulsing going on in her jacket pocket and concentrated on the Castle of Dark Dreams.

  The castle was definitely male. Sensory ripples of overpowering sexuality, danger, and frightening secrets glided over her exposed skin. She smiled. Perfect for a castle, but everything she didn’t want in a man.

  Kim still couldn’t believe she’d gotten the job. Her family would go ballistic if they found out she’d broken her promise, but a little sneakiness and lots of creative lying should guarantee they’d never find out. They thought she’d come here to hunt demons. She was really here to live her dream.

  Kim pulled the collar of her jacket over her ears. Galveston might not be freezing in March, but a drizzly night could still be miserable and chilly.

  “Take me out, Kimmie. I’m your partner, your electronic identifier of all things demonic.”

  Kim glanced at her pocket. Fo could express any emotion that suited her annoying little self, and right now she was into an irritating mix of wheedling and whiny.

  “Uh-uh. Isn’t going to happen. Your success rate in fingering demons is in single digits, Fo. Remember the White House? The president? Can we say humiliating? Our nation’s commander in chief wasn’t amused. Don’t think we’ll be getting an invite to the Oval Office anytime soon.”

  Kim continued to admire the castle’s exterior. She had the gut feeling that the Castle of Dark Dreams only came alive when night shadows enveloped it. Words like threatening and brooding came to mind. Even though spotlights bathed it in a brilliant glow, she’d bet its heart still lived in darkness.

  Threatening, brooding. Suddenly she felt uneasy. Nothing physical. Just a faint tap on the door of her consciousness, a warning that anger and desperation waited outside. More disturbing was the darkly erotic flow of something she sensed hiding behind these emotions. An uninvited visitor.

  Erotic flow? Okay, so she hadn’t been with a man for a while, but this didn’t feel like a playful, gotta-have-some-great-lovin’ moment. This wasn’t ordinary need. It was a compulsion. Not something she’d feel or want to feel. Angry and desperate? Nooo. Sure Dad ticked her off by assuming she’d want to spend the rest of her life in the family business, but that didn’t come anywhere near desperate.

  Kim took a deep breath. She was probably way too deep into the castle’s mood. A few in her family were still intuitive to a certain degree, not enough to recognize demons as their ancestors did, but enough to sense things. And yeah, she had a vivid imagination. Still, she’d never experienced this kind of feeling before. For once, she was relieved when Fo spoke.

  “Fine, so I made one little mistake. The president forgave you. Besides, all of those cameras and mikes confused my sensors. But this time I’m right. I detect all kinds of supernatural activity here. You need me.” Fo sounded positive about that.

  Right. Like she needed a big fat wart on her nose. Kim had passed up the more technologically advanced versions of the Vaughn family’s demon detectors exactly because they, well, detected demons. She hated the family business, so she’d chosen Fo, short for First One, specifically because Fo couldn’t find a demon even if the devil drop-kicked her into hell. This was a good thing. The fewer demons detected, the less demon destroying Kim had to do. And Kim was all about avoiding her destiny.

  A brief pause for conscience-appeasing justifications. Unlike the rest of her family, she hadn’t swallowed whole the belief that every entity identified by her ancestors as evil was a demon. Back when her family used their enhanced sensitivity to root out demonic beings, the Vaughns hadn’t always come down on the side of goodness and light.

  She’d found proof in the family’s record books that the accused “demon” was sometimes a very human enemy destroyed under the guise of ridding mankind of evil. Besides, in ancient times all entities painted with the name “demon” weren’t considered wicked or minions of Satan. Her family chose to ignore that fact.

  “Kimmie, I sense demons dead ahead. Umm, if you take me out right now I can be ready to destroy the soul-sucking slime buckets with no muss and no fuss. Then you can just kick their ashes into the grass.”

  “Not now, Fo.” Lately, a disturbing trend in the demon-hunting business had further alienated her from her family and relatives. Family heads had decided that the current crop of detectors was behind the curve, that some demons had found a way to circumvent their sensors. The more dedicated hunters hated the saf
ety feature that made it impossible to destroy anything the detectors didn’t identify as demonic. Fail-safe devices were a pain in the butt.

  “The demons are really close, Kimmie. I bet they’re close enough for you to smell their disgusting sulfur breath. What are you going to do?”

  “Give them a breath mint.” And so, a few of the far-flung members of the demon-hunting Vaughn family had decided to destroy “evil entities” in the old way, by lopping off their heads with a sword, even if the detectors didn’t agree.

  Now this is where things got sticky. If the demon was manifesting in its true form, no problem. But if the demon had possessed a human, then lopping off a head sort of did permanent damage to the innocent vessel. Some of the Vaughns, though, had no patience with drawn-out exorcisms. What the hey, it was worth some collateral damage to rid the world of evil entities. It was all good to the fanatical few.

  “You’ll be sorry you didn’t take me out, Kimmie. While they’re kicking your sorry behind all over the courtyard, I’ll be stuck in your pocket.”

  “Uh-huh. Then you’ll be able to lay an I-told-you-so on me as I eat dirt.” Kim wasn’t a destroyer. She was a builder. If she came across something truly evil, and she had proof that it was a malevolent spirit, she’d destroy it. But she wouldn’t make demon destroying the driving force in her life. There were enough obsessed hunters in her family to more than make up for her lack of enthusiasm. Besides, she intended to have a husband and children someday. She refused to put them in danger from a bunch of ticked-off malevolent spirits.

  “Just take me out for a minute so I can see everything. How would you like it if someone stuck you in their pocket and forgot about you?” Fo knew how to play the guilt card.

  The only flaw in Fo’s reasoning was that she never let Kim forget about her. Surrendering to the inevitable, Kim reached into her pocket, pulled Fo out, and flipped her open. To anyone who didn’t know better, Fo looked like a camera phone. Only Kim knew that Fo’s true function in life was to be a little pain in the butt.

  Fo’s small screen lit up, and her huge purple eyes outlined in neon pink blinked open. Fo was not into subtle.

  “You know, the whole goal in demon hunting is to sneak up on the demons. We’re talking low-key here. Cell phones don’t have eyes.” Kim had allowed Fo to have eyes and choose her own eye color. Fine, so she’d said okay to the eyes because she felt conflicted about her demon detector.

  The rest of Kim’s family treated their detectors as necessary pieces of technology like their computers. No angst over the true nature of their demon-hunting tools. But Kim had to constantly hum loudly over an inner voice that tried to whisper “AI” in her ear.

  Everyone in her family had cracked up the one time she’d mentioned the words “artificial intelligence” in relation to Fo. They’d agreed between guffaws that, yeah, Fo was AI all right—Absolutely Ineffectual. Offended for Fo—who of course had no feelings to hurt, who was just the creation of an inept programmer—Kim had never again voiced any doubts about the detector to her family.

  “Forget it, Kimmie. I like my eyes.” Fo paused almost as though she was actually . . . thinking.

  Kim rushed to assure herself that Fo wasn’t thinking. Any pause was due to the detector’s flawed innards.

  “Look at it from my point of view. I don’t have a body. I don’t have one single physical thing that can express my personality, my individuality. Just my eyes. So purple and pink is who I am.”

  Fo was wrong. Her voice was always expressing something. Fo should’ve put a mouth on her screen instead of eyes. Better yet, Kim would feel a lot more comfortable if Fo looked like all of the other demon detectors—no human features, just a screen filled with technical info pertinent to the evil entity in question.

  “Be quiet now so I can concentrate on the castle, get a feel for it, absorb its essence.” Okay, so all Kim really wanted to do was wallow in the joy of her first job as an architect.

  When Holgarth—not Holgarth Jones or Bob Holgarth, just Holgarth—had written to express the owner’s desire that she be the one to make a few changes to the castle, she’d been thrilled but cautious. When something seemed too good to be true, it often was. So she’d done some investigating and found the offer was legit. Holgarth explained that the owner, whose name he never mentioned, was looking for new and enthusiastic as opposed to experienced and jaded. Well, Kim was certainly new and could out-enthuse anyone. This was a breathtaking opportunity to start her career with a bang.

  She turned the screen toward the castle so Fo could see it, too. As theme park attractions went, this one was awesome. Live the Fantasy Theme Park advertised that it was a place where adults could role-play their fantasies, childhood or otherwise. From the pirate ship to the Wild West street scene, it invited customers to throw away their inhibitions and play.

  But the Castle of Dark Dreams was something more. It looked as authentic as everything else in the park—a keep with four square towers, a curtain wall, moat, and drawbridge—but the white walls that imitated the lime-washed color of ancient castles didn’t fool her. This was no Magic Kingdom castle. Its master planner had captured a spirit of danger and mystery in every sharp angle and blunt line. Wonderful. Of course, whatever she did would have to maintain that ominous aura.

  “Ooooh! Scary.” Fo was happy again. “I’ll have to do a scan of my systems to make sure I’m ready to off dozens of demons. I like it here.”

  Oh, jeez. “Look, Fo, you can’t keep seeing demons behind every bush. I mean, I can’t believe you shouted demon at that woman in the shop we just left. Sparkle Stardust isn’t a demon. She’s just a nice lady who owns a candy store. Sure, her name’s a little strange, but hey, lots of people have unusual names. That doesn’t make them demons.”

  She held up her hand to forestall Fo’s interruption. “I know, I know. So my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Ozzlehoot, was a demon. But he was an exception. And Mom took care of him at the first parent-teacher conference. I don’t sense mobs of demons hanging around this castle. Loads of atmosphere but no demons.” Maybe a little too much atmosphere. Kim walked across the drawbridge, through the open gates, and into the courtyard. She paused to look back at the gates. “The castle needs a gatehouse.”

  This time when the emotions hit her, they were strong enough to make her gasp—fury, hopelessness, and sexual hunger that wasn’t about pleasure. What the hell . . . ? They weren’t her emotions. And they couldn’t be someone else’s because she was the quintessential ordinary person, other than her job, of course. Ordinary people didn’t get slammed with unexplained emotions. Kim gloried in her ordinariness. She had no psychic abilities. Thank God. She pushed the emotions aside to be taken out later and examined from every angle and then reasoned away.

  Fo laughed, a light trill of amusement. “You couldn’t sense a demon even if it tattooed the words Malevolent Spirit across its forehead.” Pause. “You know, that would be a lot to get on a forehead, but if it had a really wide forehead—”

  “Drifting off topic, Fo.” Kim’s reminder was automatic. Fo jumped from subject to subject like the frenetic zigzagging of a water beetle.

  Fo blinked. “Oh, yeah. Anyway, over the centuries, your whole family has lost its ability to sense demons. That’s why you need a demon detector. And Sparkle is a demon, a very old and evil one.”

  Kim didn’t bother arguing with Fo. It wouldn’t do any good. Besides, Fo was right about one thing. Kim couldn’t sense demons, didn’t want to sense demons. During her short career as a demon destroyer, she’d used Fo to zap a measly five of the evil entities. And that was only because they’d been really dumb. Even she couldn’t miss a demon when it attacked her in its true disgustingly gross form. Ugh.

  Besides, before they’d attacked her, four of them had given her indisputable proof of their demon status. They’d mooned her. Together. And there on all of their repulsive bare butts, she’d seen the imprint of a small bat.

  For the last six hundred years or so, d
emons had taken to imprinting an animal shape somewhere on their bodies, usually on a spot normally covered by clothing. They picked an animal with ambiguous symbolism, one that throughout history had both good and evil connotations, as a representation of their ability to confuse humans. The bat was a sign of good fortune in the East, but it represented demons and spirits in medieval Europe. The animal thing was a stupid affectation because it was just one more way for destroyers to identify them. But then, demons weren’t the brightest sparks in the fire.

  “You know, your heart isn’t in this business, Kimmie. Why don’t you quit? You can build big beautiful houses, and I can be your interior design consultant.” Fo blinked her large purple eyes. “I’m great with color.”

  “Can’t do it.” Kim shuddered at the concept of Fo as interior designer. “I made a deal with Dad. I stay in the family business until I marry. Then I’m gone.” She continued walking toward the massive doors leading into the great hall. Holgarth had overnighted the castle’s blueprints to her, and she’d seen photos on the Web, so she felt she knew every inch of it now. But studying blueprints and looking at photos hadn’t prepared her for the total impact of the place. It was WOW on a gigantic scale.

  “Humph! At the rate you’re going, you won’t find Mr. Right or even Mr. Sort-of-Okay until you’re a card-carrying AARP member. Not that AARP isn’t a great organization. It gives its members—”

  “Floating off course again.” Kim fixed her attention on the grotesque gargoyles protecting the castle’s doors. Very effective details. But would they really keep evil from entering the castle? Her ancestors thought so.

  Only a short distance now and she’d be inside and hopefully safe from random attacks by weird emotions.