The Marion Hotel was a one-star hotel. The stars were a human thing, they said it showed the quality of the hotel, although they always forgot to mention the more stars one had the more expensive it would be. The Marion had one star and that was just fine for me; I had spent time here several times before.
I greeted the clerk and he threw me a key; I always took the same room. Instead of walking to the elevator I approached the front desk. “Hey Clive, there will be a girl over soon looking for me: blue eyes, probably dressed a bit like me. Send her to my room,” I told him.
He nodded and as I walked off he yelled at me, “Talk over breakfast tomorrow?”
It was a tradition between us, so I turned around after hitting the button to the elevator, and nodded. “Sure thing.” Room 1513 was nice enough for my needs. The window looked out over the black parts of the city, while the rooms at the other end of the hotel looked out over the bright part of town, neon lights shining throughout the night. I sat down on the bed and lay back on the sheets.
I wanted to scream and trash the room. Victor was right: the case was getting to me. It drove me to a silent madness; not the type the voices drove me to, but a new one, one that could not be slowed by pepper leaf or anything else.
I got up as I heard a knock on the door. I walked over and opened it, but there was no one there, just a room service cart with a bottle of wine in an ice bucket and one of those covered platter things humans used in expensive restaurants. Also on the cart was a note: “Have a nice dinner. Clive.”
I smiled and shook my head. Clive was a nice person for an elf, probably because he had been raised in the poorest part of the elvish territory. I pushed the cart into the room and closed the door. I wasn’t all that hungry yet, so sat back down on the bed without touching the food or wine. There was another knock on the door.
I grunted as I got up and walked to the door again, opening it to find Kendra standing there. I almost didn’t recognize her. She looked unusually girly; she had lipstick on, earrings in, her hair braided and pinned up, and wore a long black dress. “Going to a vampric party, Kendra?” I asked her as she entered the room. She smelled of lilacs and roses.
She blushed and nodded. “Something like that, yes,” she replied.
I sat back down on the bed. “Well, you sure look amazing like that. I can almost tell you’re a girl,” I said jokingly.
Kendra walked to the cart, took the bottle of wine from the ice bucket and appraised it. “Good year,” she said as she took the cork from the neck and poured two glasses. She handed me one and sat down next to me. “That man called and said you wanted to meet me here,” she said as she sipped the wine. I nodded. “If I had known you had plans I would have told him to call tomorrow.”
She blushed. “It’s alright. So why did you want to see me?” she asked, as she we both sipped the wine.
I looked at her and sighed. “This case I am on is breaking me down. I want you to handle it for a while; I need to relax and think about what I will do next.”
She refilled my glass as well as hers. “Why do you want me to take the case? If you can’t handle it, how do you expect me to handle it?”
I sighed. I hadn’t thought about it like that; I had been selfish to even consider it. If I handed her this case I would be plunging her into something she wasn’t ready for. In the time we’d worked together, even fairly minor cases had gotten to her; this case would devour her.
“I am sorry Kendra. It was selfish of me to drag you here and try to palm this case off to you.”
I got up and put my glass of wine down. Kendra got up too, and rubbed my arm. “It’s okay, you just have a lot going on right now,” she said soothingly.
I looked into her bright blue eyes and nodded. “I’ll let you go to your party,” I said taking her hand. Kendra didn’t move as I tried to walk away, and pulled me back to face her. “Already there,” she said, then kissed me.
I should have stopped her there. I should have told her to stop kissing me, but instead I kissed her back and ran my hands over her back as I opened my mouth to meet her tongue. I reached for the straps of her dress and slid them over her shoulders so it fell to the floor. My hands reached for her breasts as I kissed her.
Kendra’s hands reached for my pants and opened them, sliding them down my legs. I kissed her neck as she moaned softly and brushed my hair. I kissed down her collar bone to her breasts and slowly started suckling on her nipple. She moaned in pleasure as she opened my blouse and unhooked my bra. Neither of us spoke as we kissed and each explored the other’s body. It was a moment of total bliss when we fell to the bed and kept kissing; hands roamed as we kissed and licked. She raked her teeth over my neck between kisses. We spent several hours kissing and exploring until we both finally fell asleep.  

Next Chapter: Regret