The Hitman's Weakness: Quick & Dirty Paranormal (Vampire Kingdom Book 1) Read online

  The Hitman’s Weakness

  Vampire Kingdom

  Ivy Banks

  Copyright © 2017 by Ivy Banks

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For permission requests, email [email protected]

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events, businesses, companies, institutions, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Because everyone deserves a little ravaging ;)

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  The Temp Series (Sneak Preview)

  Also by Ivy Banks

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Many eons ago, the first vampire came into existence when a great warrior named Atticus was given the gift of immortality from an almighty warlock. But with the gift of eternal life came great responsibility. As Atticus developed a thirst for blood, he knew he had to leverage his powers wisely.

  Over time, immortality became lonely, and Atticus embarked on a quest to form his own family. Choosing his “children” based on strength of character, fortitude and the ability to navigate an ever changing world for millennia upon millennia, Atticus created a clan that would be able to rule over all other vampires, creating order and hierarchy among them.

  The Vampire King gave sixteen worthy humans the gift of everlasting life. The chosen soon became the fifteen princes and sole princess of the vampire world. Together they became the Hanover family.

  From these original sixteen individuals, all vampires in the world were created. Though vampires now cover the Earth as rampantly as man and beast, the original Hanover clan remains the most powerful among them.

  This is the love story of Beckett Hanover.

  Chapter 1

  Two brawny hands gripped Lily’s bare breasts from behind. Her delicate skin perked up as the cool breeze blew across her chest. She guided her own small hands along the taut arms that were snaking their way up her shirt. She reached up and back, running up muscular arms until her fingers laced into the thick, dark hair of the immortal man who stood on the verge of ravaging her.

  He pulled her tighter, pressing his hard, sculpted body against hers, letting her body know what was in store. She felt his erection up against her backside. It was huge, hard, and throbbing. With her head tossed back onto his rock-hard chest, she tried to catch her faltering breath. His slightly sharp fingernails traced figure eights around her nipples, and she felt the light pain of his fangs scrape the naked skin of her exposed neck. Lily let out a quavering sigh of nervous ecstasy.

  “Is this how it’s going to happen?” she barely breathed.

  “Oh no my dear, I have much more in store for you first.” His voice was low and deep, like the fog surrounding the heavy forest of trees around them. “I just want a little taste of you now. Then I’m going to give you a very big taste of me.”

  Lily swallowed hard, her heart racing, but her body pulsating with shameless lust. She swiveled around in his thick arms to face him, but lost her footing and found herself falling, falling into what seemed like an endless hole. Why wasn’t he catching her? Why was she still falling…

  With a thud, Lily’s book hit the sleek wooden floor of her penthouse apartment. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was and where her sexy vampire captor had gone. Lily swallowed the thick lump in her throat, pushing down the unfulfilled sexual desire that was now racking her abruptly awakened body.

  Dammit, she thought. She had been studying for her upcoming exam on popular European folklore when she started fantasizing. Her daydream had brought her deep into a dark, fantastical forest and she must have drifted off. As she sat in the large nook of her oversized window seat, she looked out over the urban landscape and off toward the encompassing lake in the not-too-far-off distance.

  Lily slid her hand into her La Perla panties and rubbed circles, stimulating her core as she imagined what it would be like to be gripped in the seductive thralls of a werewolf or vampire. She rubbed harder and clenched her body, running her free hand into her hair, pretending it was the hand of her captor from moments before taking over. Her body tensed as she let out a stifled groan, collapsing into the window seat, satisfaction coursing through her. She needed that. After the year she’d had, Lily needed any opportunity she could find for a bit of happiness, self-administered or otherwise.

  After her heart rate recovered, she bent down and picked up her textbook. She giggled at the thought of being ravaged by anyone, let alone a mythical monster. Yet, the thought of being pursued and seduced by a man, or creature, so powerful excited her for some reason. Perhaps coming from a powerful family, the idea of being passive and overpowered for once appealed to her.

  Back to work, she chided to herself.

  As she gazed out the floor-to-ceiling window, Lily pulled her long, blonde hair up into a ponytail and took in the morning view of the Chicago skyline from her posh penthouse. She had just lived through a whirlwind year, one more tragic than she wished. She exhaled deeply as she thought about her life’s challenges.

  The prior year, when her father had died unexpectedly, she had inherited his fortune. She was the last surviving member of her family, leaving her a wealthy heiress, but an orphan nonetheless.

  Thinking about her father caused a wave of grief pulse through her, and she took a deep breath trying to ward away the tears. Managing her pain was a struggle, but her father had raised her to be strong and resilient. She knew that she had big shoes to fill when it came to her place in the public eye, especially considering that she was thrust into the position of the company’s chief executive officer upon her father’s death.

  Thankfully, the daily operations of the firm were run by the current president of the company, Jonathan Green. They had discussed Lily’s role and decided that it was more important for her to concentrate on finishing college than jumping straight into a role within the business. She was grateful Jonathan took over because she had not been prepared for her father’s death, and she was definitely not prepared to run a billion-dollar company. Jonathan had served alongside her father for more than twenty years, and she trusted him as much as her father had. Plus, he owned ten percent of the company, so he always had the company’s best interests in mind.

  She glanced back down at her book, trying to get herself back into study mode. A sharp knock at the door startled her and she jumped up; she wasn’t expecting any visitors and the front desk typically called to alert her of anyone coming up. She looked through the peephole and her jaw dropped at the striking guy with ocean-blue eyes and dark brown hair standing outside.

  I hope he’s here for me, Lily thought playfully.

  “Yes?” asked Lily through the speaker, not wanting to answer the door for someone she didn’t know. Her father always told her to be wary of strangers and to always trust her gut.

  “A delivery, ma’am.” The man said in an Irish accent as he held up a bouquet of flowers to the peephole.

  Who could those be from?

  It was probably a condolence bouquet. Word of her father’s death was still traveli
ng far and wide, and she occasionally received the final respects of international work associates of his. She squinted through the peephole again, sizing up the chiseled Irishman, but her instincts told her the man was safe. He was awash in an elegant array of flowers, after all! That put a smile on her face.

  She slowly opened the door interested to see who had sent her such a lovely gift, and via such an attractive delivery man. As she reached for the bouquet, the man forced himself inside the door, pushing her back. Before she could scream, he placed a hand over her mouth and bared a stark-white set of fangs.

  As his eyes set on hers, Lily couldn’t hold back the tears. Moments earlier, she had been fantasizing about an encounter with a vampire, but this was all too real, and not the least bit erotic. Her mind raced in a panic at the reality of the situation.

  The vampire bore down on her, ready to bite into her jugular, but stopped abruptly. He loosened his grip on her, but still held onto her arm with enough power to keep her in place.

  She struggled to break free.

  “It’s no use. I’m much stronger and much faster than you. Don’t try to run. It won’t do any good.” His voice was deep and smooth with an unnerving tone.

  It instantly occurred to her that her instincts had been wrong. Possibly dead wrong.

  “Wh…what are you doing?” said Lily as she choked back tears.

  “I’m here to kill you,” he said matter-of-factly. “But, I… I can’t. You don’t seem like a ruthless killer.” He studied her face, trying to read the truth behind it. He still held her in a way that wouldn’t allow her to get free from his grip, but he seemed open to discussion now.

  “A ruthless killer?” Lily started to relax, but she wasn’t quite ready to let her guard down. Obviously, the man had the wrong person. “It seems like you’re the ruthless killer to me.”

  “I suppose I am,” he said with narrowed eyes and a wicked laugh.

  “Killing people is no laughing matter,” said Lily, still terrified, but obstinate nonetheless.

  His expression remained cold. “Tell me, Lily, did you kill your father?”

  Gasping, a fresh set of tears glistened her lashes. “Kill my father? Of course not! My father was my world! Not a day goes by that I don’t cry over his loss. How could you even insinuate…” A few streaming tears broke lose and her voice went hoarse with her still fresh grief.

  “But you inherited so much money.”

  “Money? I would give up every cent I have, and every material possession I own, for one more hour with my father. How dare you even suggest that I could do something so horrible!”

  The vampire paused for what seemed like an eternity, staring at her and thinking deeply.

  “I believe you.”

  He let go of her arm completely, but warned her with his eyes not to make a move. Lily heeded his warning and remained rooted to the floor.

  “Did someone send you?” asked Lily, suddenly aware that the vampire came to kill her for a reason.

  “Yes.”

  “Who?”

  “I never got his name.”

  “So, that’s your job then? You just kill people?”

  “I’ve always been a killer. Ever since I became this.” He pointed to his fangs. “After thousands of years of needing to feed to survive, the guilt overwhelmed me, so I thought I would put my skills to use. I need blood, so I hunt the rubbish of the world. It feels like a balanced trade-off.”

  “You kill people for money?”

  “I have plenty of money. My family is quite powerful, so it’s not for the money,” he said nonchalantly in his sexy Irish accent. “I kill the murderers, the rapists, and people who hurt children. It’s my way of repenting for the innocent people I killed. And in a way, I feel like I’m fulfilling a need in society.”

  “You believe yourself to be a superhero?” said Lily, trying to suppress a caustic laugh.

  “Much more powerful than a superhero, my dear,” he answered, before swooping over to Lily and crashing his lips against hers.

  His kiss came out of nowhere. Lily wanted to protest, but the intensity of the situation turned her on. She was secretly adrenalized that he acted on the sexual tension that hung in the room. The intense swing of emotion from fear, to anger, to pure carnal attraction took hold of her body and she melted in his arms as he moved his lips from her mouth to her neck.

  She felt a sharp prick, and then felt his tongue brush against the wound he had just made. His mouth settled over the bite marks as he gently sucked. She felt him drink in the liquid trickling from her neck. She wanted to push him back, not wanting to give in, but the sensation made her wet at center of her femininity.

  A loud sigh slipped past her lips, and the vampire pulled back.

  “Please, don’t stop,” whispered Lily.

  He stepped back and wiped the blood from his lips. “That’s enough for now,” he said.

  “You’re just going to leave? You’re not going to follow through?” she asked harshly, the hormones pulsing madly through her body.

  She was disappointed and confused by everything that had just happened, but her longing for him was stronger than anything she’d ever felt.

  “Not now. Not like this,” he said with conviction.

  “Not like what? What do you mean?”

  “You’re too vulnerable right now.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Lily urged, looking up into his sparkling eyes.

  The vampire forcefully pressed his lips to hers once more, backing her up against the wall. His skin felt amazingly cool against her hot body. Fire and ice, she thought, the sensation sending shockwaves down her torso. As the passion claimed her, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him in closer.

  He slowly ran his finger down her cheek, along her neck and over the puncture marks he created. He traced farther down until the tip of his finger reached the top of her cleavage. He pressed her up against the wall more forcefully, closing the gap between them. She felt his cock grow hard as he pressed it into her pelvis and she went to kiss him once more.

  Abruptly, he ended the fury of passion once again.

  Their bodies still crushed together, he drew back and gently cupped her face, peering deeply into her eyes. “One day, I’ll have you Lily. That’s the day you’ll regret you met me.”

  He pulled away and turned to leave. Lily was speechless.

  Before he closed the door behind him, she called out, “Wait, what’s your name?”

  He turned around slowly and said, “Beckett.”

  With that, he was gone.

  Immediately, she called Jonathan Green, the only person left in the world that she trusted. She left out the part about the vampire, but told him that she needed a security team immediately. Jonathan asked if she wanted him to come over. He was worried about her wellbeing and nervous for her to be alone.

  When she declined, he insisted on sending someone right away to protect her. “When he gets there, just let him inside.”

  “Okay. Thank you, Jonathan.”

  She hung up the phone.

  Chapter 2

  Within thirty minutes, a knock at the door made her jump. She went to the peephole and peered out. A tall man with short dark hair dressed in a suit was on the other side.

  “Who is it?”

  “My name is Tom. Jonathan sent me. I’m heading up your security detail.”

  Lily had a strange feeling, as if she shouldn’t let the man inside. She unlocked the door, right at the moment that her phone buzzed, indicating a text. It was Jonathan, but he was texting her from his business phone, not his personal phone.

  My phone was stolen. Whatever you do, don’t open the door for anyone.

  It was too late. With the sound of the lock unlatching, the man pushed in the door and, just like Beckett, immediately bared his fangs.

  A loud swoosh came through the doorway and the suited vampire was pinned against the wall. Beckett held the second vampire up by his neck. His biceps were bulging from benea
th his white t-shirt. Amid her heavy panicked breathing, Lily found it hard not to be taken aback by his incredible strength.

  “You’re going to want to leave,” Beckett demanded to the other vampire as he held him against the wall by his neck.

  The second vampire had a look of recognition in his eyes and he immediately looked fearful. “Beckett, I had no idea she was yours. I was hired. Please, I’m so sorry.”

  “Just get out of here. Put word out that no one else can take this job. Her life is in danger, and I am counting on you to put the others on alert to protect her. Understood?”

  “Yes, Your Highness. You can count on me.”

  Beckett let go of the other vampire, who then rushed from Lily’s penthouse.

  Beckett turned to Lily, almost casually. “Someone really wants you dead.”

  “I… I don’t know why,” she said between sobs.

  She had nearly crumpled into the corner where the suited vampire had left her. Beckett walked over and put an arm around her, helping her over to the couch.

  “Well, I’ll stay here for now to keep you safe. At least until we figure out who’s trying to kill you.”

  “Why?” asked Lily, not understanding why Beckett was so invested in her welfare.

  “You want me to leave?” he asked with raised brows.

  “No! I just don’t understand why you want to help me.”

  “I don’t either,” was all he said.

  They both sat quietly for a few minutes, allowing Lily to release her final tremors of fear and regain her composure.

  “Can I ask you something?” she finally cautioned, but she didn’t wait for him to respond. “Why was he so scared of you?”

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m more powerful than him.”