Jack-O-Lantern: Dark Desire Read online

  Jack-O-Lantern: Dark Desire

  Lacey Savage

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright ©2006 Lacey Savage

  No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file copying or sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Changeling Press LLC. Willful violation of this policy will result in suspension of account privileges and will lead to prosecution.

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  ISBN (10) 1-59596-537-8

  ISBN (13) 978-1-59596-537-0

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  HTML, Adobe PDF,

  MobiPocket, Microsoft Reader

  Publisher:

  Changeling Press LLC

  PO Box 1046

  Martinsburg, WV 25402-1046

  www.ChangelingPress.com

  Editor: Maryam Salim

  Cover Artist: Bryan Keller

  This e-book file contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language which some may find offensive and which is not appropriate for a young audience. Changeling Press E-Books are for sale to adults, only, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

  Chapter One

  “Magic isn’t an intangible power that should be feared or avoided. It’s powerful, yes, but it’s as real as I am.”

  The magician’s low-pitched, sexy drawl sent a shudder down Heidi Cole’s spine. A deep-seeded longing started low in her belly and swirled lower still, culminating in a pulsing heat at the apex of her thighs.

  Though he wore a silly vampire cape and obviously fake teeth, “handsome” didn’t even begin to describe the man. There hadn’t been a picture in the local paper, and the journalist who’d written the glowing review of Luke Howard’s Too Hot To Handle Magic Show had said nothing about the thick, silky brown hair falling over his forehead and bordering the proud jut of cheekbones, the straight angle of his nose, the beautiful mouth that curved slightly at the corners when he spoke.

  As if all that proof of virile masculinity wasn’t enough, the man was at least six foot two and built more like a solid, lean cowboy than a willowy magician.

  It wasn’t fair. The article should have come with a warning to all women who came within a hundred feet of the stage: Warning! Attending this magic show will result in heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and an unmistakable slickness between your thighs.

  As it happened, Heidi stood perhaps five feet away, which meant she was definitely in serious danger of creaming her panties.

  A peal of thunder echoed from beyond the building’s walls, loud enough to shake the ground beneath Heidi’s feet. The magician chuckled, the sensual sound of his laugh sliding down her skin like a silky, tantalizing aphrodisiac. Heidi nearly groaned.

  “Yes, folks. That is magic you’re hearing. And not only can you hear it, but you can smell it, taste it…”

  “I’d like to taste a piece of him,” Bianca, Heidi’s oversexed sister, whispered in her ear. Heidi gritted her teeth to keep from agreeing with her.

  “…and of course, you can also see it,” Luke finished. He clapped his hands together once, and the resulting boom was louder even than the thunder had been.

  A gasp shot up from the audience as a flash of bright light lit the stage, focusing on the elegant and sleek shape of a snake. A darkly golden snake with glittering scales and broad, crimson wings.

  The creature rose high up in the air and then swept down over the crowd, its wingspan almost as wide across as the entire room. With a crude, low-pitched hiss, it swerved around and headed back for the stage, where it bore down on Luke.

  “Samantha is a little temperamental, but don’t let her frighten you.” Luke beamed a brilliant smile at those assembled and extended a lean, tanned hand. “Come here, girl.”

  Instead of coiling around his arm, the snake-thing fluttered its massive wings, gave another screaming hiss that revealed a deep red forked tongue, and then shattered into a million dazzling golden sparkles that floated over the audience.

  The silence that drifted down along with the specks of glitter was all-encompassing.

  Heidi’s hand tightened around the wet material of her sister’s soft blue cotton sweater. Although they’d been out of the storm for over ten minutes, their clothes were still drenched, and were likely to remain that way for the rest of the night.

  “Are you sure we should be here?” Heidi murmured as softly as she could manage.

  Bianca waved her concern away with a flick of her hand. “We bought a ticket just like everyone else.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think that covered being backstage.” She stepped closer to the billowing black curtain that hid her from view of anyone who happened to pass by. So far, she’d only seen one man fiddling with some electronic equipment against the back wall, and a woman carrying an armload of costumes. Neither had spotted them.

  “You heard what the ticket guy said. It’s a full house tonight. Standing room only.”

  A violent gust of wind swept through the dark theater, as sudden and unexpected as the rain had been when it began to pour from a clear sky fifteen minutes earlier. The breeze gathered up the sparkling specks of golden dust and whipped them into a frenzy around the magician.

  Luke remained standing at the center of the stage, his arms outstretched, as though welcoming the swirling mass of glittering sparkles. He beckoned it closer, then swept his fingertips over the edges of the whirling vortex. Slowly, a figure emerged from within, unmistakably female.

  As the last of the breeze quieted and the sparkles disappeared, a woman dressed in a skintight golden bodysuit pirouetted on her toes and took a bow toward the cheering audience.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, please give a hand to the lovely Samantha!” Luke beamed a smile at the woman and Heidi stiffened, her fingers closing around the thick material of the curtain.

  “Easy, there. You’re going to pull the whole thing down if you keep that up,” Bianca whispered. “What’s gotten into you, anyway?”

  Heidi shook her head and drew her lower lip between her teeth, relinquishing the death grip on the curtain. In truth, she had absolutely no idea. She normally didn’t even like magic!

  “If we get caught back here, it’s all your fault,” Heidi told her sister, anxiety etching into her tone.

  Bianca rolled her eyes, but Heidi meant every word. Anything that messed with the comfort of her ordered, sensible existence was always, without a doubt, Bianca’s fault.

  Tonight had started off harmlessly enough. Since Heidi had been placed on an extended leave of absence from her demanding job as an ER surgeon due to her broken arm, she hadn’t been fit company to anyone. Least of all to her too-cheerful, adventurous sister.

  Yet when Bianca had offered to take her out for the hundredth time, Heidi couldn’t think up another viable excuse that wouldn’t sound like the avoidance technique that it was. Besides, the evening had sounded manageable enough. Dinner at her favorite Italian restaurant. Ice cream afterward, and a short walk home. That was it.

  The only hitch in the perfect plan had occurred when the skies had opened and a torrential downpour had forced them to seek shelter. The theater in which Luke Howard was performing his Too Hot To Handle Magic Show had been the nearest building into which they could duck. They’d barely made it under the wide canopy before Bianca had gotten that look in her eyes, that one that said she’d found something that would make her older sister squirm.

  If only Heidi had known that the only squirming she’d be doing involved crossing her legs and trying to keep the pulsing rush of heat from sen
ding another stream of hot, sticky cream to dampen her panties, she might have protested louder against going inside.

  “We’re leaving.” Heidi grabbed Bianca’s hand and began pulling her toward the exit.

  “What? Why?” Bianca shrieked.

  Heidi grimaced and cast a desperate look around. They were much too close to the stage, and her sister’s shrill voice carried. They had to get out of here, fast.

  “This next magic trick, like all the ones before it, is no trick at all. Normally, it involves an audience member.”

  Luke’s voice sounded close. Too close. Heidi glanced behind her and willed her feet to move faster, but it was too late. Much too late.

  Luke had pushed aside the black curtain and was heading right for them. Heidi gritted her teeth. Just a minute more and they’d have been safely out of here. Now the man was probably going to have them arrested for being backstage without a pass.

  “I’m sorry,” Heidi began, but Luke grabbed her hand, curled his long fingers around hers, and pulled her forward.

  Bianca grinned and gave Heidi a nudge. “Go!”

  Before she knew what was happening, Luke had stepped back on to the stage, bringing Heidi with him. Bianca’s cheery smile made Heidi’s insides twist with foreboding.

  For tonight’s Halloween show, the stage had been decorated to fit the holiday atmosphere. The scenery depicted a ghoulish array of dark shadows swathed in flickering candlelight. White gauze fell from the ceiling, imitating giant spider webs. A barely-visible strand tickled her cheek, and she brushed it off, apprehension slithering down her spine.

  “This one’s an audience favorite,” he whispered in an intimate tone, though the microphone clipped to his collar amplified his voice and sent it booming through the theater. “The vanishing woman!”

  Many female audience members rose to their feet, cheering loudly. “Pick me!” someone yelled.

  “I already have my volunteer for the evening,” Luke said, tugging Heidi closer to him. “What’s your name, sweetheart?” His hand was warm in hers, and the skin-to-skin contact ripped a moan from Heidi’s throat.

  Alarmed, she darted a quick look around, praying no one had noticed. Most of the women in the crowd were still screaming wildly, their excitement blocking out every other sound, but the sly wink Luke tossed her way made it perfectly clear that if she’d hoped to be discreet, she’d failed miserably.

  “Heidi,” she croaked out in a strangled voice, trying to yank her hand free. “But you’ve got the wrong person. I didn’t volunteer.”

  Luke ignored her. “Bring out the coffin!” His voice thundered across the stage, and Heidi’s blood turned to ice.

  A bubble of near-hysterical laughter worked its way from her throat. “The… coffin?” she asked desperately, hoping she’d misheard. “What coffin?”

  A moment later, two men wheeled a metal table on stage. It wobbled on thin legs under the weight of the massive casket that lay on top of it.

  Heidi’s body went rigid. Bigger than any casket she’d ever seen, the black coffin shone with a sleek luminescence and dominated most of the stage.

  Not releasing her hand, Luke lifted the lid. Heidi shrank back, unable to stifle a gasp. She half expected a decomposed corpse to pop its grotesque head out and cackle at her.

  She tried to blow out a deep breath, telling herself she’d been watching too many late-night horror movies. Inside, the red velvet-lined casket was empty. A matching silk pillow waited, already hollowed by the indent of someone’s head.

  She swallowed jerkily and shook her head. “Nope. Nah-uh. I’m not going in there.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, our volunteer is a little apprehensive. Let’s give her a round of applause, shall we?”

  The audience did more than that. As Heidi watched, they rose to their feet and gave her a standing ovation. Their shouts and fierce clapping almost drowned out the frantic beating of her heart. Almost.

  She gritted her teeth and, with Luke’s help, clambered up the small step-ladder in front of the coffin. Her breath came in shallow, ragged gasps and she cradled her broken arm in front of her like a protective shield.

  She hated enclosed spaces. Ever since she was a child, she’d been afraid of the dark, terrified of being left alone, trapped inside a small space from which she couldn’t free herself.

  Yet the sound of all those people encouraging her kept her moving. She thought of Bianca, grinning backstage as she gleefully watched her older sister’s discomfort. Well, Heidi would show her. Sure she wasn’t as outgoing or adventurous as Bianca, but that didn’t mean she was terrified of her own shadow.

  Swallowing hard, Heidi lay down in the coffin, her head cradled on the silk pillow. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest.

  Luke moved to stand in front of her. Placing both hands on her shoulders, he peered intently down at her. His full lips curved into a smile. A private smile -- just for her.

  For a moment, Heidi’s breath halted in her throat. Dark eyelashes fringed his slate-gray eyes. Sincere eyes. Eyes that told her she’d be safe, that he’d never let anything happen to her.

  Although the rational part of her brain screamed that she was being foolish and that trusting a man who tricked people for a living was completely irrational, Heidi spontaneously smiled back.

  Fighting the incredible temptation to sweep her fingertips over his lips, Heidi allowed her eyes to drift closed. The image of his bright gaze remained imprinted in her mind as the lid of the coffin snapped shut.

  In the span of a heartbeat, the world disappeared.

  Heidi’s eyelids twitched to a darkness deeper than the blackest night. The audience’s cheerful shrieks had faded into nothingness, and the sound of blood rushing in her ears seemed absurdly loud in the intense silence.

  Her stomach clenched in a tight, cold knot. She was utterly and completely alone.

  One Mississippi. Two Mississippi.

  This wouldn’t take long. Whatever Luke intended to do, she knew he’d do it quickly. There were at least three hundred people waiting for her to disappear and, hopefully, to reappear.

  And then there was Bianca. Her brazen sister wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

  Three Mississippi.

  A fleeting, wispy breeze caressed her leg. Heidi shivered. Reaching down to adjust her soaked skirt, she shifted against the velvet lining. The soft, sweeping texture sent another rush of fierce and forceful longing to her pussy. She remembered the way Luke smiled at her, that smoldering look in his gray eyes, and her nipples stiffened in instinctual response.

  A sharp pain pierced her breast, as though someone had just tweaked the hard bud of a nipple between thumb and forefinger. Gasping, Heidi’s good hand shot out. She felt the space between herself and the lid of the coffin, but it remained as empty as she’d expected it to be.

  Trembling, she willed her breathing to return to normal and swallowed past a painful lump in her throat.

  Four Mississippi.

  Something grazed her leg, sweeping up her inner thigh. This time, there was no denying the force that pressed against the soaked crotch of her panties, insistent and demanding.

  “Hello?” Heidi whimpered, feeling foolish. A grave panic swept in and closed around her throat, threatening to choke her. “Is anyone there?”

  Chapter Two

  Luke snapped his fingers. “Lock it.”

  He stood close to the coffin as the men who’d wheeled it in used a thick length of chain to bind the casket’s lid tightly closed, then padlocked it with a dozen heavy, metal locks.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, there is nowhere for Heidi to go.” He swept his hand beneath the tabletop to prove it was indeed empty. “And yet, she will, in fact, disappear. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s about to meet her destiny. She’s about to meet… the beast!”

  The last two words were ripped from his throat as his heart pounded painfully against his ribcage. At a flick from his wrist, claws shot out through the wooden surf
ace of the casket. Long and black, they wiggled as though waving at the assembled crowd. A gasp went up from the audience as the claws raked the top of the coffin, leaving deep scores in their wake.

  “The beast is hungry tonight,” Luke roared. “And it won’t be satisfied until it’s fed.”

  Closing his eyes, Luke raised his hands to the ceiling. Floodlights heated his skin. A trickle of sweat coursed down his temple. Gods, but the stupid vampire outfit his manager had made him wear tonight was hotter than Hades. He gritted his teeth, trying to concentrate.

  Though the spell was a relatively simple one, he needed to make it look as theatrical as possible. The audience had to fully believe in the illusion, and the drama of the act was at least half the reason they came to see the show in the first place.

  If only they knew how much rode on the success of this bit of magic. They thought Heidi was safe, locked within the coffin until he snapped his fingers and made her vanish and reappear, safe and sound. Oh, how he wished it were that simple.

  But it wasn’t. There’d been nothing simple about his act since twelve months ago tonight, when he’d made a deal with a demon that changed the course of his life forever -- and cost eleven women theirs.

  Luke had been the subject of speculation and investigation ever since. The police were still sniffing around; they were probably in the audience tonight. Each time they’d come after him, though, they’d found it impossible to prove he had anything to do with the disappearances. A few hundred witnesses vouching for the fact that the women did, in fact, reappear made all the difference in the world.

  Illusionary magic had its advantages. Making sure the audience saw the volunteer re-appear from the depths of the coffin, crate, box, or whatever container he was using that particular night was a breeze. He could easily conjure up an exact replica of the woman, just as he’d conjured up Samantha, his slithering snake-dragon.

  Living with the knowledge of what he’d helped to do, however, wasn’t nearly as easy.