1

"No." Donna Nolan's word-flavor of the day. She'd been saying it ever since she landed at Bush International. She'd said it all the way to the Houston radio station, and the word hadn't lost its popularity during the drive to Galveston.

"So are you still getting calls from listeners about their fun-filled nights with lust-crazed creatures of the night?" Franco, her technical engineer from the Houston affiliate, took his eyes from the road long enough to grin at her.

"No." At least not since Donna's station decided to screen her calls. She had mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, she wanted to be in control of all aspects of her show, but she sure didn't want to go through another attack of the pod women.

"Hey, let's hear the story. I don't stay up late enough to catch your program." Ken, her show producer for the week, sat behind her in the station's van. He didn't try to hide his amusement.

Donna didn't believe him. He knew the story, but he'd probably get some kind of twisted kick from listening to her tell it. She wouldn't bite.

"No." She stared out the van's window as Franco drove across the causeway linking Galveston Island with the mainland.

"What about the Castle of Dark Dreams? Think you'll find any lust-crazed creatures there?" Franco again.

"No." Donna gritted her teeth. They were like a gnat tag team. She'd swat one question away only to find another one whizzing at her.

"You're a real disappointment, sweetheart." Ken tried for sincere, but his chuckle ruined the effect. "You're New York smart and host a program heard by millions. I expected tough gritty insights into the world of lust-crazed things that go chomp in the night."

They drove in silence for a few minutes. Donna closed her eyes, then sighed. Okay, she was tired from the trip and worried about her family, but that didn't mean she had to take it out on Franco and Ken. She'd only be working with them for a week. If she didn't chuck her bad attitude soon, she'd leave Texas with a bitch-from-hell reputation.

She waited until Franco finished pointing out the seawall and beyond it the Gulf of Mexico. "Look, here's the story. I'm only telling it once so you'd better listen up." She continued to stare out the window. "Two weeks ago I got a call from a woman, Linda, who claimed that every night for the past month a pod of nonhuman whatevers had whisked her from her bedroom. Each night a different one seduced her, and she'd have crazy sex with him until dawn. One night it might be a vampire and the next a werewolf. The pod was an equal-opportunity group."

"Pod? Like in killer whales?" Franco drove along Seawall Boulevard with its panoramic view of the Gulf.

"Right. Anyway, some women have no stamina. All that sensual gratification exhausted her, and by the time she got home each morning she was zonked."

Franco looked as though he was giving her story some deep thought. "That's rough. How do you handle someone who calls in with that kind of yarn?"

Good question. Donna could've cut the woman off the air, but she always respected callers no matter how out there they sounded. "When I first started Donna till Dawn, I told my listeners I'd always be open to what they had to say. All of them. But this?" She flung her hands into the air. "I mean, hello? Why me? Ms. Night-Creature Magnet should've been out having crazy sex with fang-guy number thirty-two instead of calling my program. I passed on my usual in-depth questions, but the damage was already done."

"Uh, did she mention any lust-crazed female creatures?" Ken sounded serious.

Sheesh. "No."

Undeterred, Ken forged on. "You decided to broadcast your program from the Castle of Dark Dreams for a week because of this woman? Why?"

Night was falling, and Donna paused for a moment to stare at the brilliantly lit entrance to Live the Fantasy Theme Park that dominated the skyline. Like it or not—and she was leaning toward not—she'd be stuck at the Castle of Dark Dreams, one of the park's major attractions, until Friday.

"After that first call, the next few nights were disasters. Each night I fielded dozens of calls about the pod. According to callers, the pod was on a mission to drain the sexual energy from every woman in Texas." She smiled, but it felt strained.

Copyright © 2005 by Nina Bangs