Kiss of the Succubus Ch. 05

She passed a sign reading "PRISON AREA: DO NOT PICKUP HITCHHIKERS" and lamented how much worse her luck could possibly get.

Thoughts of Kayla raced through her mind. She told Kayla to stay put; she knew Kayla would, but for how long? How long before the frightened preschooler decided to leave?

Please stay put, Kayla; Grace said to herself as she ran faster down the road. For the love of God, please just stay where you are.

* * * * *

"So you actually spoke to Detective Harker?" Lukas asked, as he pulled out of the gas station. Bethany sat in the passenger seat of his station wagon, while Neil sat directly behind Balko, with his Beretta aimed at the supposed detective's back and ready to fire the moment things went south.

"Not for-" "Well we-" Bethany and Neil answered simultaneously.

"One at a time, please," Lukas said, amused. He turned to Bethany, prompting her to answer first.

"Yes, we did," Bethany said. "We just struck up a conversation with her while we- I mean, she- was filling up. And she mentioned she was staying at the Shady Woods."

They'd told Lukas their pickup had broken down, and they'd arrived at the station on foot when Grace was at the pump.

"Did Harker suspect you were tracking her?" Lukas asked.

Bethany shook her head.

"No, we actually started talking before I saw her on that sign."

"Well, isn't that fortunate?" Lukas remarked. "Did she happen to say where she was headed? After staying at this motel?"

"We didn't talk long," Neil answered quickly, before Bethany could get a word out. She was starting to worry what Neil might say to her once they were alone, and decided she should refrain from talking to the detective much more.

She looked around the vehicle, and noticed the rear view and side mirrors had been removed. Lukas drove with his eyes focused on the road in front of him, only occasionally averting his gaze to look at her. He turned the wheel with expert precision, keeping the car in the center of the lane and never once drifting to the left or right, even an inch.

"Detective, do you have a bandage?" Bethany asked, holding up her cut finger.

Lukas took one glance at Bethany's bleeding finger, and nearly drove off the road. He gripped the steering wheel and scrambled to turn the car back on course, panting heavily.

"What's the matter? You don't like blood?" Neil asked. Lukas coughed.

"It- makes me- queasy," Lukas said, sweat dripping from his forehead. He looked at Bethany, with her low cut top and her tight jeans. Her full cleavage peeked out of her tank top invitingly. A small rip in her jeans revealed just a few inches of bare thigh. She would be a delicious feast; that was for certain.

No, he said to himself. He was here for Harker. Everyone else could wait; the next woman he killed had to be Harker.

Lukas got a hold of himself, and his vehicle, and pulled into the parking lot of the Shady Woods. He looked around the half-empty lot, making a note of all the cars he could see.

"I don't see Harker's Chrysler here," he said.

"Maybe she's just not back yet?" Bethany suggested innocently.

"Perhaps. Let's have a talk with the motel staff," Lukas said. He stepped out of his car and Neil and Bethany followed him into the main office. Neil holstered his weapon as he exited the car, and pulled his jacket forward to conceal it.

Haley Farough was at the front desk, with headphones on her ears blasting loud music while she worked on her calculus homework. She didn't look up when Lukas walked in. Lukas tapped on the desk and got her attention, and she quickly removed her headphones.

"Oh, hi! Sorry I didn't hear you. Can I help you?" Haley asked.

"I hope so," Lukas said, taking Pratt's badge from his pocket and showing it to her. "I'm Detective Joseph Pratt, of the San Amaury police. I'm looking for this woman, have you seen her?"

Lukas removed a photograph of Grace from his suit jacket and showed it to her. Haley gasped.

"Yes, she's staying here now!"

"Wonderful. Could you give me access to her room?"

"Of course, I- is she dangerous?"

Lukas shook her head.

"No, not at all. But it is very important that I find her immediately."

Haley got up from her seat and removed a key from a rack on the wall. She handed the key to Lukas.

"She's in room 12. Second floor, last room on the end."

"Thank you kindly," Lukas said. He smiled at Haley, admiring the young woman's shapely figure. He considered also paying this young woman a visit after Harker was dead if he was still hungry.

He left the office, and Neil and Bethany followed.

"So, you think we can get that reward money?" Neil asked.

"In due time, in due time," Lukas said. "First let's see if Detective Harker is indeed in her room."

They ascended the steps and walked down the balcony, stopping when they finally arrived at room 12.

"You think she'll be here?" Bethany asked.

"Let's find out," Lukas said, and unlocked the door.

He flipped on a light switch, and looked around the room. Grace's travel bag still lay on one of the beds. There was no sign of anyone.

Bethany peeked under each of the beds. As she stood up, Lukas faced her. She stopped.

"Well?" he asked.

"What?" she asked, nervously.

"Is she hiding under the bed?" Lukas asked. Bethany shook her head. Lukas smiled, and looked under each of the beds himself. Both beds were empty underneath. Bethany felt a cold chill as he stood up again.

Neil opened the closets and checked inside, while Bethany looked in the bathroom. Neil shoved past her and pulled back the shower curtain, revealing an empty tub.

Lukas waited outside the bathroom while Neil and Bethany searched inside. He found it nearly impossible to concentrate with the aroma of Bethany's blood filling his nostrils. He could kill her now. Neil wouldn't be able to stop him.

"There ain't nobody here," Neil said, walking out of the bathroom.

"Quite all right," Lukas said. "I'll tell you what I'll do. You two have been immensely helpful, so I'll give you half of the reward money right now. I'll give you the other half after I find Detective Harker."

Lukas removed ten 100 dollar bills from his pocket, and Neil snatched them from his hand.

"Come on, Beth, our guy is waiting." He took Bethany by the arm and led her out of the room. Lukas watched the pair hurry down the balcony, and he looked out to the main road that passed by the motel. He knew Grace was out there; he could sense her. It wouldn't be long now.

Lukas shut the motel room door, and turned out the lights. He sat down onto the bed, and waited.

* * * * *

Grace was almost out of breath when she spotted the motel in the distance. The neon VACANCY sign flickered in the night, and she felt a wave of relief. A layer of sweat formed across her body, causing her to shiver as her pace slowed, so she ran faster again. Squeezing the motel room key in her fist, she scampered across the grass, avoiding passing by the main office and feeling relief from having her bare feet slam against the hard concrete any longer.

"Please be here Kayla, please still be here," she said to herself. The grounds outside the motel were deserted, and Grace breathed a sigh of relief that no one would see her before she could make it back into her room. She rounded the pool area, and as she approached the stairs to the second level, she came to a stop. A small brown teddy bear lay on the ground. Grace picked it up. It was Bernie, Kayla's bear.

"No, no, Kayla, you didn't!" Grace cursed. She looked all around, not seeing a sign of her daughter anywhere.

"KAYLA!" she screamed, no longer caring who might see her. She spun around, looking to the main office, and briefly considering running inside and asking if anyone had seen a little girl. She didn't. She could at least return to her room first. Get some clothes on, and see if Kayla went back there.

Grace hurried up the steps with the teddy bear and the room key in her hands. When she reached the second floor, she paused. Something felt wrong. An oncoming sense of dread overtook her. She suddenly wanted to leave, to get as far away from this motel as she could. But she couldn't. Not without Kayla.

Ignoring her gut instincts, Grace hurried down the balcony, hearing voices coming from behind and beneath her. It sounded as though some motel guests on the first level might be exiting their room.

"Woah, check it out!" a voice said.

Grace turned around to see two young men on the ground level looking up at her.

"Hey sexy!" one of the men shouted. "Lose something?"

Grace covered her breasts and privates with her arms and hurried down the balcony. One of the men took out his cell phone and quickly snapped a photo of Grace's bare behind as she ran down the balcony. She heard the men laugh and walk away.

Grace quickly unlocked the door to her room and let herself inside.

The room was completely dark. Grace felt around for a light switch, feeling all along the wall trying to find it. She brushed her palms up and down the wallpaper until she finally felt the switch and flipped it.

The room was empty. He travel bag was still on the bed. There was no one in sight.

Grace immediately looked under the bed, and saw Kayla was gone.

"Damn it, Kayla!" Grace cursed. She fished a T-shirt out of her travel bag and quickly slid it on. She grabbed a pair of underwear and put it on as well, when she suddenly heard a knocking at the door. Grace peered through the peephole and saw no one.

"Who's there?" she shouted. No answer.

She knew it was a bad idea. She knew opening the door to a stranger tonight was the worst possible thing she could do on a night like tonight, but at this point, she had nothing left to lose. Grace opened the door. It was Kayla.

"Kayla! Where the hell were you?"

Kayla burst into tears.

"I waited for you and waited and you never came back so went to look for you and I got scared so I came back but I couldn't get inside!"

Grace wrapped her arms around her crying daughter and took her inside.

"I'm sorry, Mommy I was so scared! Please don't be mad at me!"

"It's okay sweetie, it's okay, I just didn't know where you were!" Grace suppressed her own tears, not wanting Kayla to see her crying.

"I couldn't get inside so I hid by the corner!"

Grace hugged her tightly, tighter than she had in her entire life.

"Listen Kayla, I don't think we can stay here tonight. It's just not safe here anymore."

"Where are we gonna go?" Kayla squealed. It was a fair question. Grace had no car, and no money. But she couldn't risk Neil and Bethany coming back. And she couldn't risk the possibility that Neil and Bethany would get caught driving a stolen car tonight. That might lead the authorities back to her.

Grace looked out the motel room door, checking to see if the peeping toms had left yet. She didn't see anyone, but could hear voices coming from the office.

"So, you think we can get that reward money?"

Grace froze. It was Neil Corliss' voice. He'd come back.

"In due time, in due time. First let's see if Detective Harker is indeed in her room."

The panic in Grace's heart magnified tenfold. It couldn't be. It couldn't be him.

"Kayla we have to go NOW!" Grace hissed, and snatched Kayla up from the floor. There was no time to grab her travel bag.

Grace switched off the lights and hurried out the motel room, shutting the door behind her. Lukas, Neil and Bethany were making their way up the stairway. The only stairway up to the second level. Grace rounded the corner, and found the balcony came to an end after just a few feet. There was a safety rail guarding her from a twenty-foot drop to the ground below. Grace backed against the wall and held Kayla in her arms.

"Kayla. Don't. Make. A. Sound," Grace whispered. Kayla whimpered, prompting Grace to wrap her hand around her daughter's mouth.

"You think she'll be here?" she heard Bethany ask.

"Let's find out," Lukas said. She heard him unlock the motel room door and the three of them went inside.

Grace wrapped her palm across Kayla's mouth tighter than a bear trap, and her heart shattered as she felt her daughter's tears dribble down the back of her hand.

"It'll be okay. Just be quiet, and I promise it will be okay," Grace whispered into her ear. Kayla squeezed both her bear and her mother's legs.

She could hear them through the wall rummaging around her room, and Grace wondered if now was the time to make a run for it. They would likely not see her as she and Kayla ran past the door. But would she make it across the balcony, down the stairs, and off the motel grounds before Balko and his new friends left that room? Grace was filled with too much doubt to consider moving from where she stood.

The motel room door opened, and Grace went stiff. She prayed they would not hear her heart pounding. She heard at least two pairs of footsteps walking across the balcony and down the stairs. She heard the motel room door close.

Grace waited.

Two were gone. One was left. And she had a good idea of which one was still here.

She wondered if Balko knew she was here. If he was just waiting, torturing her, loving the thrill of the chase. She listened, and heard nothing.

Grace released her grip on Kayla's mouth, and Kayla let out a quiet whimper.

"I'm sorry," Grace whispered. Carefully, she peered around the corner, bracing herself to find Lukas' grinning visage in her face.

There was nothing. She could see Neil and Bethany at the far end of the parking lot, making their way down the road on foot. Lukas must still be in the room. She couldn't risk checking to find out. Grace took Kayla by the hand, and they quietly tiptoed down the balcony, hurried down the stairs, and made their way behind the motel.

"We can't take the roads," Grace said, more to herself than to Kayla. She looked at the foreboding forest behind the motel. "We have to go through the woods."

"No, Mommy, I don't want to go in the woods!" Kayla cried.

Grace hugged her daughter.

"I'm sorry. I wish there were another way, but there isn't. We have to go. We have to walk for as long as we can, or they'll find us. You'll have to be really brave for me, okay? Can you do that?"

Sobbing, Kayla nodded.

Grace took Kayla by the hand, and together, the two barefoot females disappeared into the pitch-black forest.

* * * * *

"I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it."

Joe Pratt mumbled to himself and he downed his fifth whiskey- or was it his sixth? - and slammed the empty shot glass onto the bar.

"Yeah, I got it," the bartender said. "You aren't gonna do it. You've been telling me all night you aren't gonna do it."

She was in her forties, auburn-haired, and looked as though she might have been hot in her day, but had been a bartender for more years than she would have liked. She wiped a spill off the counter top with a rag.

"She wants me to do that? She's fucking crazy. I'm not giving into that bitch." Joe grabbed onto the bar, feeling as though it might float away if he didn't keep a firm grip on it.

"Buddy, take my advice. Leave the whore. You're not doing yourself any favors putting up with that."

"Oh, I would if I could," Joe mumbled at the bartender, but not looking directly at her. "Gimme another."

"I think you've had enough."

"Gimme another or I'll-" Joe reached into his jacket to remove his badge, but found it was missing. The events of the day played back to him and he lowered his arm, depressed.

"Damn it. She took it," he groaned. He looked up at the bartender. "Gimme another drink."

She walked away, shaking her head. Joe looked around the room; half expecting to see Gabby seated somewhere nearby, chuckling at him. Instead he saw a group of women, so many sexy women. His dick throbbed inside its prison. He touched the barstool next to him, and felt something in his hand. A pair of black panties. He groaned; remembering the opportunity he'd just missed.

He'd just arrived at the bar of the Blue Lion Hotel when an attractive blonde had begun flirting with him. Even though Joe was a handsome man, and it was not terribly unusual for women to flirt with him, Joe had felt especially lucky that this young fox had appeared to have eyes for him. He'd bought her two drinks before she excused herself, and Joe decided it was just as well, being as he wasn't going to be having much fun with anyone given the metal prison on his penis.

To his surprise, the blonde returned a few minutes later, and dropped her panties on the bar in front of him. Smiling sweetly, she then slipped her hotel room key into his jacket pocket. She winked and walked away, and Joe could do nothing but watch as she wiggled her tight ass inside her even tighter black dress as she walked out of the bar.

She'd been willing to fuck him. Joe thought of all of the vile, perverted things she would likely have done for him in that hotel room, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. He wondered if Gabby had somehow put the woman up to it, just to torture him, and he realized she likely hadn't. If Gabby wanted to torture him like that, she would have simply done it herself.

Joe could do nothing but set the panties onto the stool next to him and begin drinking shot after shot, and that's what he did for the next two hours. He wanted out of that cock cage more than he wanted to breathe. But Gabby's condition for releasing him was out of the question. Joe would sooner die.

"Time to call you a cab?" the bartender asked.

Joe shook his head.

"Nah. I got a room," he said, holding up the blonde's room key.

He stumbled out of the bar; tossing the room key into a potted plant in the hotel lobby, and made his way out to his car. He got it unlocked on his third try, and once he was inside, he immediately passed out. He lay sprawled across the driver's and passenger seats, sound asleep.

He dreamed of Gabby.

* * * * *

Music blasted over the speakers while Neil slouched on the motel bed with the neck of a beer bottle on his lips. He took a swig as he watched Bethany dance on the table, wearing nothing but her high heels. Her hips swayed gently back and forth to the beat of the music, and she danced facing the window since she knew how much Neil loved watching her shake her ass.

Neil was certainly enjoying the view. He was only in his boxers, and he'd been sporting a stiffy ever since Bethany climbed onto the table and her clothes started coming off. He leaned over the nightstand, where he'd used the silver dagger to spread an ounce of cocaine into several thin rows. He took a rolled up bill and snorted one line of the fine powder and inhaled deeply.

"You know, I'm thinking about keeping this thing," Neil said, admiring the silver blade in his hand. It certainly was useful, both for spreading coke and intimidating sellers into giving him a better price. He slammed the blade point down onto the nightstand and grabbed a cigar, which he'd also purchased with his reward money.

"How about letting me have a hit?" Bethany asked.

"Get your ass down here if you want some," Neil said, lighting his cigar.

Bethany stepped down from the table, her large breasts jiggling as she did. She had a light tan across her entire body except for her bikini area, where she was still quite pale. She had naturally large, full breasts which contributed heavily to her success as an exotic dancer until the day she ran off with Neil.

She wore a metal stud in each nipple as well as one in her belly button and clitoris. She was only eighteen when her brother's best friend convinced her to let him pierce her clit himself. She liked what he'd done and got the rest of her piercings done by a professional a few months later. When she started stripping, she found the piercings were an attractive bit of flair. After dropping her panties, she liked to lift one leg above her head so her clit stud would shimmer at the guys seated at the very back of the bar, inviting them to come closer. More often than not they would, and she'd get a few bills stuffed in her garter for the trouble.