Chapter One

The birds on the balcony never woke up; every day at five a.m. they’d squawk their heads off, but not today. The dogs on the floor below never once yipped, a feat I never thought possible. What was going on? The whole apartment had a gloomy feel. Poking my head out the sliding door, ten stories above the busy streets, I found the robin and her babies bunkered down as if for winter. No matter how much noise I made the dogs downstairs didn’t bark, when usually they yapped at the sound of a squeaky floor board two flights up. Was I missing an important memo? I’d heard once animals could predict a lot of things. Was the end of the world coming? A bad storm? Nothing but sun outside; I turned to the news channel on the television just in case.

Maybe what it was already passed. It was past noon; I was always a late sleeper. Working the clubs all night was exhausting but if a girl wants to stay in shape she needs to find a man and get some exercise. Days were normal, nights were hectic; that’s how I lived since, well, forever.

So how come today was different?

Come to think of it there was an eerie feeling in the air. Something I felt before yet couldn’t quite put my finger on.

I pushed the feeling to the back of my mind as I left the apartment to check my mail like always, except animals didn’t scurry or try to attack as I passed their doors. They always were a bit sensitive to my presence. Something was definitely wrong here.

Surprisingly I had a letter that wasn’t a bill. I pulled it out of the steel box before locking it again. My hand tingled with electricity. The letter was the cause of the discomfort for the entire complex. I looked at the normal starch white paper, feeling there was no harm if it was cursed, to look who sent it to me.

No.

I ran back to my apartment, tripping twice on the stairs, and slammed the door with trembling hands trying to work the locks. Inconspicuous letter? Of course I could never get normal mail like a normal person. Never! I had to get out. There had to be a late flight or a train—I’d pay a taxi to drive two states away if it would do me any good! Of course it was no use to even try and run. They would always find me.

Okay, deep breath Bella. Only a few can teleport. She is not one of them. Relax and see what the letter says—maybe their checking up on you?

Why try to fool myself? I already knew what it said. I pressed my back to the door as I watched the envelope on the entry table. It seemed to grow bigger and bigger the longer I stared. It would consume the complex at this rate. I reached a hand for it, that electric current running through my fingertips again, and brought it closer. The dreadful feeling over my head, the animals’ reactions, suddenly made sense. It was oozing with her power.

I extracted the parchment to find her elegant script scattered on the page almost like she couldn’t get her thoughts straight. It was a small update on her life, talk of how she missed me. It had been a long time since we last saw each other. Thirty years? That sounded right. And at the bottom, almost so small I didn’t see it, I found the reason I woke up dreading today.

I can’t wait to see you, she wrote.

I tore up the letter. She can’t teleport! She cannot teleport! It was a mantra in my head as I checked the doors and windows. Locked. Secure. Safe.

She was coming to kill me, I just knew it. I wasn’t keeping up my end of the bargain. Was the board threatening her? Why did I have to be so stupid and accept that contract?

My legs wobbled as I went for the couch. What would I do? If I didn’t let her in she’d never go away and call for back up. She’d get the big one to strong arm me. My mind was a jumbled mess of scenarios, most ending with my death. I couldn’t handle that, not now.

A warm ocean wave rippled down my back. She’s here. I definitely couldn’t this! Maybe if I pretend I’m not here—but I don’t know how to hide myself! No one taught me how to mask my energy. With my panic she would know for sure I was here.

It was only a matter of seconds until she stood outside my door, the world quiet enough to hear a pin drop from China. Her energy was calm—she was probably hiding her shock that I didn’t try to run this time—as she knocked on the door. It was the only energy I could trace, that I could really feel, probably because we had a connection; sometimes I didn’t mind. She always felt like ocean waves, she always smelled like ocean air without the rotting fish. I didn’t mind her personally but I knew this visit was business related.

She knocked again, three quick raps. I heard her tapping her foot. I couldn’t get my legs to work. “I know you’re in there,” she called. “Let’s not make a scene.”

With a steadying breath I found my feet and moved from the sofa. She was already threatening me. Great. The locks slowly came undone and I forced a smile on my face before I opened it.

“Bella!” she squealed happily, my chest hit with a black bullet. She changed bodies? Imps could shape-shift? Here I was expecting the tall blond Amazon.

“How are you doing, Alice?” I asked with some kindness. “You look great. Did you do something with your hair?”

Alice backed up to finger her cute black pixie cut. She barely cleared my chest so that had to make her at least five feet, but I still had to severely crane my neck to look down at her. It was a cute petite body; perfect triangle face, thin lips, wide green doe eyes.

“I think change is a good thing. Unlike you! Same boring face, same boring features! Where’s the girl who changed skins ten times a day?”

“Vanity isn’t everything, Alice,” I replied curtly while closing the door. No reason to bring up the past. And there was nothing boring about me! I was a sex goddess.

Alice laughed delightedly. “ ‘Vanity isn’t everything?’ From my Bella? This is a real treat. Well, it has been so long! Make some tea and fill me in, will you?”

I passed the kitchen to sit in the living room. I didn’t exactly feel like being a good hostess after her boring comment. “As if you don’t already know. Has there been any paperwork going across your desk with my name on it?”

“Nope,” she answered with a coy smile.

“There. You are officially caught up.”

Her little body plopped next to me on the sofa. “But you look fabulous! It’s been almost thirty years since I last saw you. If you haven’t fed for that long and still look this good you have to be doing something right.”

I averted my gaze to the rambling television. “Not exactly.”

“Unless, of course, you’re sleeping with men with no strings attached—in which case you are in violation of your contract. Do you need to read the fine print again?”

“No Alice, I have it memorized. I just don’t see why I need to steal their souls. They’re all great guys.”

Alice narrowed her eyes and I felt a suffocating wave rise around me. “You steal their souls because that is what you signed up for. You wanted everyone to love you, I made them love you. You wanted to be pretty, I gave you the power to shape-shift. All I ask, my little succubus, is that you convert the souls of men for me. Is that so hard to ask?”

I shook my head in compliance so she would quit choking me. I knew entering a contract with an imp would only get me in trouble I just didn’t care at the time. I wanted men to fawn over me. Now, unless I needed a hit, I wanted them to go away.

Alice withdrew her power and grinned at the sound of my gasp. “Bella, you and I, we’re friends. And friends look out for each other. Do you know what I came for, friend?”

“I haven’t converted anyone.”

“That’s right. Even a little kiss will steal ten minutes from their life and a dash of their soul; it’s how you keep energized, living off the souls of your lovers. Why not have a kissing booth? Whatever you do, do it fast. I am in trouble of losing my job—and I like being an imp! You’d think with all my other contracts I’d be safe but the board doesn’t appreciate you skipping on the deal.” She sighed. “You’re so far behind I don’t know if it’s possible to make it all up. They might just kill you.”

“Would the kissing booth idea work?” I asked quickly.

Alice smacked my arm. I grimaced as I rubbed the red spot; stupid imp would leave a bruise. “No it would not! According to the board you have to get fifty-thousand men in three months or we’re both done!”

“Three months?” I squeaked. Fifty-thousand men? I’d have to take multiple a day! I wasn’t even sure there were fifty-thousand men in the city. The thought of it made me sick. Fifty-thousand strangers.

Alice sighed again and threw her head back. Her fingers twirled a lock of my hair absently as her face concentrated in thought. “I proposed the idea of one man worth that many souls.”

I swallowed around my dry throat. “What did they say?”

“They laughed. Finally they started joking about it. If you could seduce the President of the United States and an heir to a throne, any throne, they’d let us off the hook.”

I groaned. “We’re sunk.”

So maybe it was wrong of me to skip on the contract. I didn’t feel the need to condemn the men I nearly killed every few nights. I wanted to be desirable, not suck the life out of the man! How did Alice ever decide I wanted to be a succubus? Why couldn’t I have been a vampire? Then I wouldn’t be in this situation. Actually, no, I wouldn’t be in this situation if my imp, my guardian, would drop in sooner than every thirty years and tell me the repercussions! There was absolutely no way I could make up all the souls. I didn’t want to die but I knew a worthless cause when I saw one. At least no one would miss me. Everyone I knew died so long ago.

Alice rested her head on my shoulder with a sigh. “At least I’ve had a good life. So many people happy, so many dead. Hopefully my contracts go to someone nice when I’m gone, someone who will look after them.”

I laid my head on hers like we were friends; in this moment I could believe it. Two friends ready to die. “Does this mean I have three months to live?”

“I don’t know. Probably. Unless I tell them you refuse.”

“I’ll take three months.”

“Me too.”

We were silent in our worlds as the TV continued to provide white noise. What could I do in three months? Steal a fashion line from Paris without even touching it? Travel to the Bahamas? Test if I could get drunk? Have my first lesbian experience? Oh the possibilities. I could explore unknown wonders of the world before I died.

But what would I do without my noisy robins and yapping dogs? Without my neighbors on the floor above who played loud music? Without all the unknown faces in the crowds I loved to watch at the malls? And what about me? Where would I go? I was a damned creature. So did that mean—

“Hey Bella?” Alice chirped, sitting up sharply.

“What?” I groaned.

“Who is that?” She pointed at the television screen. I reached for the remote to hear what the man on screen was talking about.

The banner at the bottom of the screen said his name was Edward Masen. He had a firm strong jaw with full bow-shaped lips curved into a smile as he spoke. Even through cameras his eyes were extremely bright, a green grass emerald color, and a disarray of bronze hair on his head. Oh my, sex hair. It was working for him. The banner on screen flipped to reveal his occupation.

Heir to Masen fortune? The Masen fortune? One of the wealthiest, most influential names in history? And now they were funding some kind of medical research. Alice gasped and twittered with delight as she gave me her devilish smile.

I gasped. “No way, Alice! There is no possible way!”

“Isabella Swan you will do this not only for me but for your life as well!” she snapped. “Don’t make me force you to do it.”

“You seriously think he’s worth fifty-thousand?”

“Maybe fifty billion,” she replied. “This is what they’ve been waiting for, Bella! Not only would the board control a powerful name but they get the money, too. You could bring this guy down for sure.”

“The board said heir to a throne—”

“Any throne! The Masen name is a throne, that is an heir, you just saved your life.”

I shook my head and crossed my arms under my breasts. “I can’t, no, I won’t do this. It’s suicide! If something goes wrong there’s so much at stake. I’d mess it up.”

Alice gripped my arm. “Do you want to live or not? One man for fifty thousand. And he’s not bad looking, he’s actually really handsome. Think about it, out of all those men you could sleep with, they could be ugly and stinky. Come on, Bella. One sex god to your goddess compared to all those doofuses!”

I could only shake my head. This was too big. This wasn’t some sleaze in a bar. It was Edward Masen, heir, basically the closest thing to a prince on this coast. I would screw it up. The board would definitely dispose of me then.

“Have some faith this one time, please,” Alice insisted to my internal struggle.

I have been able to convert monks—what was Edward Masen to that? He’s a huge name, that’s what! If I even attempted it word would surface in the media. Something would slip. I made it one hundred twenty years with no friends, no outside contact, if I get into the spotlight now it would no doubt burn me right up.

Alice pouted at me in a childish attempt to make me concede. And it was working. She was mumbling about all the things she wanted to do with her life, how scared her contracts would be without her, how she’d die without shopping. I couldn’t stand up to her whether she used her powers or girlish charms. I caved.

“Fine,” I whined. “I’ll try it. There’s no guarantee I can do it so you better get writing your will.”

She squealed with joy and hugged my tightly. “I knew you were my best friend. If I could, I’d include you on the will but, well you know. I have a phone call to make. Where is your guest room?”

“What?”

“I’ll be staying here to help you so I need to call for my things.” She pursed her lips and tapped them with her finger. “Might want to call Emmett, too. Let him know there’s been a change of plans.” I turned to watch her skip towards the back of the apartment.

“Wait, Alice!” I yelled after her.

“Trust me Bella, it’s always nice to have friends in low places.”