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  Natalie studied herself in the wall-sized mirror in her bedroom. The dark green dress perfectly complimented her olive skin and black hair. She’d always been the sporty type, and even though she didn’t have time to work out, she watched what she ate and always got to stretch her feet at work. The dress hugged her curves, sexy without being too sexy. It showed off her assets but stayed classy.

  It was perfect for a first date.

  Satisfied with her choice, she waited for Todd to pick her up. As promised, he rolled up in his black BMW at seven o’clock sharp, and she met him in the driveway of her apartment building. She hadn’t told him about her ten-year-old son yet. Kids were deal breakers for many guys, especially handsome, charming guys like Todd who drove BMWs.

  The mom in Natalie needed to come clean. But the woman starved for a little romance and excitement in her life held back. She just wanted to have a good time without making things complicated and messy right out of the gate.

  Fortunately, the evening got off to a fantastic start. Todd proved himself the perfect gentleman as he opened the car door for her and let her pick the music as they drove to the restaurant.

  Once there, he continued to impress. He took off her coat and helped her get seated.

  The restaurant was glamorous and romantic all at once. Sconces offered muted lighting, creating an intimate setting further heightened by the abundance of plants, soft colors, and classic art. Not the fake, mass-produced stuff at The Godmother but real paintings. This was the sort of fancy place where the chef came to the table to check on his guests and where a sommelier went into elaborate detail about their expensive wine selection. The final check would probably run higher than what she earned during a shift.

  Natalie felt a little like Cinderella.

  She didn’t require an expensive meal to have fun, but every girl likes being wooed from time to time, and she was enjoying every second of the experience. It didn’t hurt either that the man doing the wooing was attentive, curious, and sexy as all hell.

  Little did Natalie suspect that it was all an act, a carefully crafted masquerade designed to lure her into his web. The figure watching them from across the dining room floor wasn’t so easily fooled.

  Natalie noticed the stranger staring at their table about mid-way through her meal. His burning gaze made her shiver.

  Like Todd on the night she first ran into him, this man was having dinner by himself. He was handsome in a different, more dangerous way. A brooding gaze dominated the weathered, grizzled features. While Todd flaunted stylish hipster attire, which consisted of expensive jeans and an even more costly brown lamb-skin leather jacket, this man was decked out all in black, a tattered leather trench wrapped around his tall frame. Todd’s face was tanned and clean-shaven, while the stranger’s was pale and stubbled.

  The stranger wasn’t dressed for a nice restaurant like this. He didn’t look like he belonged here. No wonder the guy’s probing gaze set off alarm bells in her head.

  Todd must have noticed her disconcerted expression, because he stopped talking, leaned closer, and squeezed her hand.

  “Everything okay? Would you like another drink?” Todd nodded at Natalie’s empty wine glass and the bottle of Chardonnay chilling in the ice bucket.

  “Sure,” she said with a smile, making herself focus on her date instead of the stranger. She wasn’t used to being treated this well. Todd was a different breed from David, her son’s father, whose idea of a classy night involved getting loaded at a dive while shooting pool. Back in college, that had been cool—until she was pregnant and had to drop out, while David was still hitting up the old haunts and drinking his meager earnings away.

  Todd topped off her glass, and Natalie took a deep sip. She risked another glance at the stranger, but he was gone.

  Don’t let some weirdo ruin your night, she told herself.

  She tried to relax and enjoy herself, but instead her unease deepened over the course of the evening. She enjoyed Todd’s company, but something was beginning to feel a little off. She couldn’t even put her finger on it. Todd smiled and said all the right things, so what was her problem?

  Perhaps he was too perfect. Almost as if every question and joke and smile was part of a well-rehearsed routine. And even though he kept the evening light and fun, he also dodged all personal questions. Was he hiding something from her?

  Was he perhaps married and hoping to fool around?

  Stop it, girl, she admonished herself. Ever since her little staring contest with the disquieting stranger, her paranoia had kicked into overdrive.

  You’re just afraid to be happy, she told herself. Have a good time and stop obsessing.

  And with this thought, Natalie gave herself an internal push and cast all her doubts aside. Throwing caution to the wind, she smiled at her date and allowed him to pour her another glass of wine.

  All too soon, Natalie would wish she’d listened to her instincts.

  Chapter Four

  The Hexecutioner froze. Natalie was looking right at him. She’d spotted him despite his cloaking spell.

  As soon as she’d averted her gaze, Weylock drew a circle in the air and once again, turned invisible to all human senses. Hopefully the cloak would hold this time.

  What had happened?

  He usually kept a low profile while on a stakeout, the demon’s magic allowing him to blend in with any crowd. But something had broken his focus and the magic had dispersed. There was only one explanation for such an occurrence. Todd’s two-faced brand of evil was affecting him on an emotional level and stirring up a lot of old shit he’d thought he put behind him when he accepted the mantle of the Hexecutioner.

  Weylock detested all forms of betrayal and deception.

  And Todd was a master at this dark game.

  The Familiar presented himself as the perfect gentleman, every woman’s dream guy. Todd sought out lonely women, beautiful but overlooked. The kind who were grateful for the attention. They let down their guard around him and, before they knew what was happening, they fell for the slick con artist. Believing themselves to be in love, they overlooked all the red flags. But once the time came to consummate the whirlwind romance, the mask would come off, and the poor woman would learn the horrifying truth.

  The Familiar’s affectations were nothing but a carefully crafted masquerade—a web of deceit designed to draw her in.

  Why the elaborate charade? Weylock wondered. Why play on Natalie’s emotions if the Familiar planned to hand her over to his undead masters? Why drag out this game and make her fall in love with him?

  The dead once again provided the answer which was as simple as it was horrifying. All these feelings of betrayal and heartbreak would simply make Natalie taste better to Todd’s vampire masters. It was the same reason the vampires demanded single mothers. The emotional distress they experienced during their final moments was amplified by the knowledge that their offspring would grow up as orphans. The release of all those maternal stress hormones during their final moments made them a true delicacy.

  Of all people, a Hexecutioner should be steeled to such heartless evil. From personal experience, Weylock knew that killing the body wasn’t enough for most creatures of the night; they lived to crush the spirits and souls of their victims. Monsters feed on negative emotions as much as flesh or blood.

  Todd wanted poor Natalie to break once the moment of truth arrived.

  Her anguish would season the meat, sweeten the blood.

  The asshole was basting the turkey, nothing more and nothing less.

  His inhuman masters would be pleased.

  Happy vampires, happy Familiar. Todd would be one step closer to that which he desired the most—immortality.

  Weylock’s heart throbbed with rage. The Hexecutioner wanted to unleash the demon’s power and incinerate Todd in a sizzling magical fireball right then and there.

  Weylock resisted the impulse.

  Barely.

  Todd’s time would come. And when it did
, the punishment would fit the bastard’s despicable crimes.

  Chapter Five

  Natalie enjoyed the balmy night breeze as Todd drove them back to her apartment complex. The convertible’s roof was down, wind tussling her hair and caressing her skin. She must’ve finished more than half of the bottle of wine Todd had ordered, and she was approaching a blissful state of utter relaxation. It was almost as if the phantom hands of some invisible masseur had loosened all the knots in her tight shoulders.

  And thinking of hands, she suddenly wondered what Todd’s strong hands would feel like on her body.

  Get your mind out of the gutter, slut, she told herself jokingly, but the thought lingered.

  She hadn’t felt this comfortable and at ease with a guy in a long time. Todd was almost too good to be true.

  The thought made Natalie’s guard go up again, remembering the last time she’d given in to a whirlwind romance, and it hadn’t ended so well.

  Here we go again. Any time you meet someone you like, you get scared and try to run away.

  No, this time would be different. This time she wasn’t going to close the door on a possible relationship without even giving it a chance.

  Besides, she was getting way ahead of herself here. They were on a first date, nothing more. Natalie hadn’t even told him about Sean.

  Todd eased the car into the driveway of her apartment complex and put the vehicle in park.

  Natalie’s heartbeat kicked up a notch. She mentally rehearsed the words she needed to say before things went any further.

  So, Todd, you’re a great guy. And I’ll be honest. I had a fantastic time. But before this goes any further, there is one thing you need to know about me.

  I’m a mom. My kid is my world. He will always come first. If that’s a deal-breaker, I get it. But we need to be on the same page here….

  All these thoughts were racing through Natalie’s mind, but she couldn’t quite make herself say the words out loud. If she did, it might ruin this magical evening. Instead, she continued to stare into space, her eyes wandering to the dark windows of her second-floor unit, almost expecting her son to be waving at her even though her mom would have tucked him in for the night by now.

  Didn’t she deserve to be a princess in her own little fairy tale for once? She wasn’t quite ready for her golden carriage to turn into a pumpkin yet.

  “So, Natalie, I hope we can do this again real soon,” Todd said.

  “I’d like that,” she said, feeling heat flood her cheeks. “I had a great time tonight.”

  He leaned forward. His fingers traced the contours of Natalie’s jaw before he kissed her on the cheek. His warm lips prickled her skin, and she sighed with pleasure.

  “You’re so beautiful.”

  And with these words, Todd kissed her full on the lips. Natalie returned the kiss with a passion that surprised her.

  Todd would find out about Sean soon enough. Tonight was hers alone. Motherhood was the most important aspect of her life, and she wouldn’t trade her son for anything in the world, but she was also a woman. A relatively young woman who hadn’t been laid in far longer than she liked to think about.

  Natalie gave in to the kiss, but she was disappointed when Todd pulled back from her. She wanted more but appreciated that her date was taking things slow. Todd was a gentleman.

  “I’ll call you. Is that all right?”

  Natalie nodded in response, dizzy from the wine and the brief make-out session.

  Almost reluctantly, Natalie got out of the car and headed for her apartment. She beamed at Todd before she entered the front lobby and blew him a kiss for the road.

  Todd remained in her driveway, ensuring she was safely inside the front lobby before pulling out of the building’s driveway.

  I hope he calls soon, she thought, and then her blood turned to ice. In the dark, she’d spotted a lone figure lurking in the shadows across the street from her building. It was the magnetic stranger first glimpsed inside the restaurant—the same guy who’d pulled off a sudden disappearing trick during dinner. She was absolutely sure of it.

  He stood there for a beat as her pulse throbbed in her ears. His tattered leather trench coat danced around his tall form in the wind. And then the shadows swallowed the mysterious figure, as if he’d never been more than a figment of her imagination.

  Shivering with fear, Natalie headed to her apartment with a newfound urgency in her step. Only once she was in her home, and she heard the lock snapping into place, did she take a deep, steadying breath.

  What the fuck was going on?

  Chapter Six

  Weylock was asking himself the same damn question as he cursed inwardly. For a second time, he’d allowed his emotions to break his concentration, and his cloaking spell had momentarily failed him.

  Why was this case affecting him on such a deep level? The diabolical nature of the game Todd was playing had touched a raw nerve inside of him and was stirring emotions he’d long tried to keep under lock and key.

  It had to be the betrayal at the center of this twisted game that bothered Weylock so much. Whenever he tried to imagine Natalie’s face in the moment she finally realized her new boyfriend was a servant of evil, he only saw his wife’s horrified features. Another woman who’d died with the chilling realization that the man she loved wasn’t who she thought he was. That the object of her affections was a monster.

  The Hexecutioner shook all over, and deep inside of him, his demon laughed at his pain and guilt. Avery’s last moments would haunt him for the rest of his days on this Earth.

  Weylock closed his eyes, almost as if the act could erase his dead wife’s face. His jaw tight, he willed his thoughts back to the man he was hunting.

  Attaining immortality was all that mattered to the Familiar. Todd didn’t care that he was orphaning a little boy or that his shot at eternal life would come at the expense of countless innocent lives. He only gave a shit about being one step closer to becoming a monster on the outside to match the one he was already on the inside.

  So, you like monsters, don’t you now? Well, there’s one monster I know who’s very much looking forward to meeting you.

  A dark smile slashed across Weylock’s face, and somewhere deep inside of him the demon roared in hungry anticipation.

  Chapter Seven

  Todd hummed along to the latest Lady Gaga song blasting from his car stereo.

  The waitress was falling for him in record time, and he was more than pleased with himself.

  Deep down, all women believed that there was a magic prince out there who one day would appear out of the blue and whisk them up, up, and away from the crappy mess of their unfulfilled lives.

  Todd knew all too well that some fairy tales were true. But not this one.

  Most of his victims required a more delicate touch—multiple dates, significant gifts, proof that he wasn’t just another player out for a quick lay. So many single ladies walked through life with their guard up, as they should. They were smart to be wary. There were predators about, after all.

  Natalie was different. She was almost too easy. The poor woman had been away from the game for too long. She was beautiful, strong, and athletic, but silly putty on the inside, starved for affection and love.

  Todd found her attractive, but then again, he found many women attractive. There were a lot of fish in the sea. It wasn’t like he didn’t believe in love. He did. Perhaps Natalie’s simple charms didn’t work on him because his heart belonged to someone else.

  Todd was madly in love with himself.

  When he regarded his handsome face in the mirror or admired the perfect tan and six-pack abs he worked so hard for, he experienced real love. Life had shown Todd that there was only one person in the world you could trust and rely on, and that person was yourself. A pretty face, a round ass, or a perky pair of tits were nice but couldn’t compete with the striking image of perfection looking back at him from the mirror.

  Unfortunately, the enemy of per
fection was time.

  Time destroyed all beautiful things. In a world caught in the constant throes of entropy, nothing could last. It chiseled away at great architecture and art in the same systematic matter as it attacked the flesh. The sun damaged the skin; the years turned muscle to fat, eroded bone. And before you knew, you were paying plastic surgeons a fortune so you could look like the wax figure version of yourself.

  Todd was in his thirties. The signs of aging were subtle, especially compared to most of his peers, but to his observant eye, the assaults on his face and body were far too many to ignore. There was a small cluster of grey hairs near his crown, a hint of a receding hairline, the first touch of crow’s feet. No matter how well he took care of himself, time marched on even for him.

  Nothing could truly stop the clock. Even Todd’s masters succumbed to time, albeit at a much slower pace. They looked like pale, grotesque mummies; monsters dependent on a Familiar to lure victims into their lair so they could feed and cling to whatever unnatural life they had left.

  But they’d bought themselves countless millennia of vitality before reaching their current decrepit state. Todd would do anything to attain this state of near eternal life. He’d seduce, betray and kill anyone to reach this goal.

  After all, he was doing it out of love.

  He knew his masters were eagerly anticipating their next kill, but Natalie wasn’t ready yet.

  Patience, my friends, Todd thought. The wait will soon be over.

  Todd required one or two more dates to twist the knife deeper. The harder Natalie fell for him, the sharper her sense of betrayal when she discovered the truth.

  There was no doubt in Todd’s mind that his masters would be more than pleased with the final results.