by Leia Stone
Once we made it inside, I was assaulted with loud music and flashing lights. The bass thumped across my chest as a frantic rhythm echoed across the dancefloor and we beelined it for the VIP section. Because of vampires’ super sensitive hearing, I had to talk to Liv in code.
“If I find a guy and you can’t find me, just meet me at home, okay?”
That meant if shit hit the fan or something went wrong and we were split up, we would meet back at the society.
She nodded and we both glanced at our watches, complete with GPS tracking. I was now synced with her in case we split up. I could find her via the watch.
We stepped up to the VIP bouncer, a tall vampire with white-blond hair who was barely moving. I could not only smell the coppery scent wafting off of him but see what he was by his too-pretty features and pale skin.
Demon.
I sent up a quick prayer to God to help me pretend to be normal in front of this foul abomination, all in an effort to serve the greater good. Like taking down Luka Drake.
I rolled my shoulders back, sticking my boobs out to catch his gaze. “I hear downstairs is more fun. Can we come play?” I purred and bit my bottom lip for effect. I was wearing my long black wig, the fake hair touching my lower back. I was constantly having to change my appearance in order to not be recognized, as hunters were well known within this club.
Liv slapped my butt and I yelped, glaring at her.
The vamp grinned, pulling back the rope to allow us entry into the sordid feeding pit. As we walked past him, he inhaled my scent and it took everything within me not to punch him in the balls and take his head to Maz.
Focus on Luka. Luka is the mark, I had to tell myself.
Sashaying my hips back and forth, I led Liv and I downstairs. The smell of blood was thick in the air and it made my adrenaline spike, as well as my anger. When I’d started my training for the society at twelve years old, I underwent three voluntary genetic modifications. One for enhanced smell, one for enhanced speed, and the final for enhanced strength. I was nowhere near as fast and strong as a vampire, but I could hold my own. We had some of the brightest scientists and doctors in our organization, and a simple gene editing treatment with a few injections before puberty was all it took.
The cocktail waitresses on these lower levels were all vampires. One of them walked over to us now, lips tinged slightly red. “Hello, ladies, can I get you a drink?”
I absentmindedly ordered two drinks for us while my gaze searched the space, mentally flipping through images in my head of the entire Drake royal family. The king was murdered last year by a werewolf, and the queen rarely left Magic City. The ones who lived here in the human world only left their secretive lair for a night of debauchery, leaving human bodies in their wake.
My mind flew to Morgana Drake, sister to the late king and aunt to my mark Luka. The Drakes had a farm somewhere north of here where they popped out babies in their human form and then changed them to vampires in order to keep their DNA pure and living forever. If I ever learned where the Drake farm was, I’d drop a bomb on it and never look back. Those people were sick.
“Have fun, babe!” Liv called out, gyrating her pelvis as she let a male vampire take her hand and lead her onto the dancefloor.
That was our public code for Happy Hunting. If I wanted to find Luka, I needed to mingle.
I grinned. “Have fun.”
I’d been hunting with Liv since we were fifteen. Maz adopted us into the society from a local orphanage in Idaho when we were merely babies, so we hunted together well.
Split up and get immersed in the vibe, do whatever it takes to get close to the mark and then kill him swiftly before escaping with his head.
I’d been so lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed the vampire approach me.
“Care to dance?” His smooth buttery voice called in my ear from behind me.
I spun, and my heart skittered in my chest as I came face to face with Luka Drake.
Holy bloodsucker.
I swallowed hard as I let my gaze rake over him slowly. His dark hair was slicked back, showcasing his strong jaw and entrancing eyes, which were buttery yellow right now with black at the edges. A human might think it was a trick of the light, but I knew better. He was hungry.
His tight green t-shirt hugged his muscles like a second skin and I couldn’t help but gawk at the tattoos covering his neck, arms and the tops of his hands. It seemed his face was the only surface area unmarked by the artwork.
I tried to control my features, letting go of the surprise I felt that my mark had come right to me. Luka was the eldest son of the late Marcus Drake, and if my information was correct, Queen Drake’s hated little nephew—felon, black sheep of the family, and devastatingly handsome.
Vampire or not.
Luka flashed me a smile that would melt the panties off any normal girl, but instead my stomach roiled. These demons were sexier than sin, and I had to constantly remind myself that they were bloodsucking monsters, and pray that I didn’t fall into their trap of sensual appeal. He’d drain me and leave my body for dead without a second’s thought.
Focus.
“Sure let’s dance.” I grinned, playing the role. My gaze flicked to the dancefloor. Holy crap, Thorin Drake was here. Three members of the royal family were here tonight. That meant something big was going on. They never congregated together in public for fear of an attack that could wipe a large number of them out.
Luka gently took my hand and led me to the dancefloor and I eyed my exits. The VIP lounge was in the basement. The only exit was back past the bouncer or through a tiny vent window in the bathroom. I wouldn’t be able to kill him here in public and get away with it, but I could if I lured him to a feeder room, or even the bathroom under the premise of a sexual encounter…
We smooshed against dancing bodies until we found an opening and then Luka placed his hands on my hips. “Is this okay?” he asked, leaning in to whisper into my ear as I felt him inhale my scent.
Hah! He was asking consent to touch my hips? That was hilarious considering he’d drained a girl and killed her. What a two-faced douchebag. I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I just nodded and pressed myself closer to him, hoping to lure him into a feeding room soon so I didn’t have to pretend to like him much longer. I started to dance, raising my hands in the air and thrusting my hips in a circular motion against him, all the while planning my attack once we were alone.
I peered over his shoulder and noticed Liv dancing with Thorin now. As far as I knew, Thorin wasn’t on any hit list, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to kill him. It just meant she wouldn’t be paid for it. Any vampire who wasn’t living either in Magic City or in Delphi, a secret campus for banished magical rejects here in Spokane, was fair game.
If Liv and I could kill both Thorin and Luka, that would be unreal. Two less Drakes in the world was a better world to live in.
Luka looked down at me from behind long dark lashes and I couldn’t help but remark at how utterly good looking he was. Like… whoa.
“I like these.” He trailed a finger up the outer edge of my thigh where my rose tattoos were and my body responded, sending a pool of warmth between my legs.
No. Resist the devil’s charms.
Leaning forward, I gave him a sweet smile, and changed the topic. “Are you here with friends?”
He licked his lips, eyeing mine sensually, and nodded. “Family actually.”
Okay, maybe this idiot would talk. “Cool! Me too! My sister,” I lied and pointed to Liv, who was grinding on Thorin, Luka’s three-hundred-year-old uncle who looked twenty-five.
Luka looked at Liv, slight confusion at my sister comment, probably comparing our different skin tones, and nodded. “Would you girls like to come back into the VIP party room? Free food and drinks all night.”
Yes! That was the feeding room.
“Sure! I thought this was VIP.” I giggled, trying to act like a dumb chick.
He grinned, and holy h
ell he was gorgeous. I inspected his neck covered in tattoos, and the words “Five Crew” were scrawled across his collarbone in black ink, causing me to wonder what it meant. I wouldn’t lie, grinding against his hard toned body was having an effect on me I wasn’t proud of.
This demon’s magic was strong. I was getting distracted.
“It is, but this is a little more exclusive.” Luka winked and my stomach involuntarily warmed.
“Cool.” I reached out and laced my fingers through his, cold to the touch, and then we walked over to Liv and Thorin. I tapped Liv on the shoulder, waving for her to follow us.
Luka and Thorin shared a look and nodded.
Once we got back there, I’d have to find a private, curtained feeding room and kill him quickly and quietly. Technically, Liv could kill him too, it didn’t matter which one of us took him down. But I’d already partnered off with him, so she could take Thorin and we’d both go down in hunter history. Two Drakes in one night!
Luka led me to the far back wall with a black curtain covering the entrance and two huge beefy vamps standing before it. They took one look at their prince and nodded, opening the curtain without a word. I’d never been back here before, but a few other society members had. From what they reported, there were little closed-off curtain rooms for feeding and a private bar to keep the humans nice and inebriated. I’d been fed on just one other time, for a few seconds before I’d managed to kill the bastard, and the weirdest part was that it felt good. The vampires injected a small amount of something akin to a mild narcotic into your blood to make you more pliable. It was similar to a Vicodin and it kept you wanting more. I was willing to be fed on again if it meant getting the job done, but I prayed it wouldn’t come to that.
We ascended two levels of stairs, which I estimated now put us at a secret top floor level, and Thorin pulled Liv off into the direction of a red-curtained room. She and I shared a look that needed no words. We’d kill both of these assholes quickly and meet back at my car for a quick getaway. Luka led me down a hallway and into a main room with a bar in the center, dozens of curtained rooms at the perimeter. Liv must have gone into a different, smaller feeding area…
“Nephew!” a deep, raspy voice called out behind me and I spun.
Dear God, give me strength.
My hand tightened in Luka’s involuntarily as I stared at Keres Drake, the mad king. I … thought he was dead. Keres was unseated from his position as king by Drucilla Drake, the current queen. All because he’d lost his mind. He was over two thousand years old, and at that kind of age, the immortal just craved an end. I stared at the open socket where his left eye used to be and swallowed hard.
Rumor had it that he went so crazy he yanked out his own eye in a fit and then … ate it, all before he killed his own wife and daughter, leading Drucilla to challenge his ability to lead. He was absolutely the most horrifying vampire I’d ever laid eyes on.
Even though he sort of looked about thirty years old, there were cracks in his skin that just weren’t natural, like his flesh was diseased. His eyes ran up and down my body in a hungry gaze and he grinned, teeth bloodstained. “What do you have here, dear boy? A homecoming present?”
I involuntarily turned into Luka for protection as he pulled me toward his body, laying a protective hand around my hip.
“Hello, Uncle,” Luka ground out, tension thick in his voice. He was clearly not in favor of this vampire.
That was interesting.
“And who are you?” His one eye snapped to me as he wet his lips again and I forced myself not to recoil.
“I’m Amelia.” I threw out a fake name, my voice betraying some of the fear I felt.
Keres stuck his hand out, like he expected me to kiss it. Against everything inside of me, I reached out my hand and grasped his fingers lightly, shaking his cold dead hand like I was yanking a dry, brittle, wooden stick.
Keres’ nostrils flared, and I thought he was taking in my scent, then alarm registered in his single widened eye.
“The Shadow Bloods,” he hissed, and Luka threw me to the ground so quickly I could barely register what was happening.
My chest slammed into the tile floor as I lay flat as a pancake beneath Luka’s body, who hovered over me.
Did he say Shadow Bloods?
The Shadow Bloods were vampire mercenaries, even more lethal than we were, but they didn’t do it for God and country. They were vampires who worked for mafia families that had beef with royalty. If they were here, it meant Thorin, Keres, and Luka were all about to die. They would kill Liv and I too, just for fun. They hated hunters, we were competition. Luka’s weight suddenly left me and I growled from my place on the floor. Popping up to my feet, I stood just behind Luka. No way were these bloodsucking thugs taking my mark!
Reaching into my boot, I pulled out my silver stake. I would kill him now and use the Shadow Bloods as a distraction.
Luka was in a fighting stance, eyes pinned on the door, waiting for the Shadow Bloods to burst in any moment. Keres bolted for the exit. I lunged forward, ready to stab this stake right into Luka’s back and through his heart. I only needed to weaken him enough to get him to drop to his knees, then I could take his head. The tips of all my weapons, including this stake, were laced with the potion that would preserve a vampire’s body for a day so we could take the heads and it would look like a normal murder to human police. Chief Baker took it from there.
I lunged forward, ready to make the kill, when Luka, faster than I’d ever seen a vampire move, blurred before me and caught my arm midair, just as the door behind him blew off its hinges.
“Hunter?” Luka hissed, looking at me wide-eyed, confused and … hurt? Grabbing my lower back with one hand while keeping my stake hand pinned between both of our chests, one jump and we were airborne, flying up into the exposed ductwork ceiling. This portion of the VIP room wasn’t in the basement. We’d gone up to the attic, and the ceiling was a good twenty feet high, with exposed rafters and steel beams.
My stomach lurched and I had to fight to keep from screaming. What the hell was he doing? He’d just identified me as a hunter. I was holding a freaking stake! And now he was what, kidnapping me?
He had to make a split-second decision then: drop the one hand holding me to him, or drop the hand keeping me from stabbing him in the chest with my pointy silver stake I tensed, preparing to be dropped right on top of the Shadow Bloods, but he chose the latter. Keeping my body pressed to his, hand firmly around my waist, he released the pressure on my stake hand and used his free arm to snake out and hold on to a metal rafter, pulling us onto a skinny beam. The metal groaned but held, as he used his leg to pull us deeper up onto the beam.
He knew I was a hunter and he didn’t drop me? He hadn’t killed me yet? Why? I was completely frozen in shock, unsure what to do.
The small beam Luka had rolled us onto was right next to a large duct, and a perfect hiding spot from the Shadow Bloods. He pivoted our bodies so that I was smooshed between him and the metal ducting at my back.
I was essentially trapped underneath his body, my stake arm free to do some stabbing, but I paused. My heart hammered against my chest as his hips pressed into mine to keep him from falling backward. His buttery yellow eyes burned into mine as my chest heaved, pressing my breasts against him. In all the struggle, my black wig slipped halfway off and he stared at my bright red hair which had come loose and spread across my arm.
A male’s bloodcurdling scream rang out below then. Was that Thorin?
Liv!
I jerked upright, but Luka’s hand came down on my shoulder, slamming me back onto the platform.
He shook his head, warning me not to move. All I could do was breathe and watch the golden flecks in his eyes while I wondered why he’d chosen not to drop me. He could have left me for dead … or killed me himself.
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let Liv just be killed by the Shadow Bloods. They would end her life without a second’s thought. I craned my n
eck, having to move closer to Luka in order to do it, and looked down. My throat went dry at the sight of at least six Shadow Blood mercenaries who had entered the feeding room. They had Thorin on his knees, sword at his throat.
I didn’t see Liv. I searched frantically until I remembered my watch. Wriggling my arm free, I pulled my watch up, attracting the attention of Luka. Liv’s little GPS dot was moving away from the club, and I sagged in relief against him.
Thank God. She got away.
Luka looked at my watch and then at me, eyes slitted as anger—no, rage—played out behind his features, and his gaze flicked from my watch to my wig, to the stake in my hand. Guilt wormed through me for half a second until I remembered I was literally feeling bad for betraying a blood-drinking demon from hell!
I mentally recited my favorite Hunter Scriptures verse, the one that kept me fighting the darkness every single day even if I wanted to quit: “For we, as ambassadors of heaven, fight not our fellow humans, but against the foul demons of this world. Demons who feed on the life blood of humanity.”
“Where is the prince!?” the Shadow Bloods below questioned Thorin.
The vampire stayed silent, and my gaze flicked up to Luka’s face. He was … wrestling with something. He wouldn’t … give himself up … to save his douchebag uncle, would he? He pulled himself up and over me, trying to get some leverage, his back against the ceiling.
Was he going to jump down? I shimmied under him, leaving the silver stake on my chest, and reached my hands out, latching on to his forearms with an iron, vise-like grip. He looked down at me incredulously and I shook my head.
Don’t do it, you idiot.
Six freaking Shadow Bloods would murder us all. They were highly trained vampires with backup plans upon backup plans. His first instinct—to hide—was the right one. Six inside this room meant a dozen outside on the VIP floor. This was a well-planned assault. One I’d gotten myself stuck in the middle of.