He had a point. She could feel the fire bubbling to the surface, and she wasn’t sure if it was her surroundings or the sexual tension that was making it so hard to keep it leashed. Either way, she had to take it down a notch otherwise these humans were going to see more of her than they bargained for. The bartender returned with their drinks, and Bast paid the man.
“Keep the change.” The barman nodded and produced a lopsided grin that would have melted the heart and dropped the panties of any girl in the room. Well, if he wasn’t standing beside Bast. Everyone paled in comparison. It was like a candle standing next to the sun. “I’m looking for Lila.”
The bartender pointed to a hallway that was to the left of the bar. It was roped off as well, and two burly bouncers manned the entrance. Bast sauntered up to them as if he owned the place and Azar shuffled along awkwardly in his wake. He said something to the biggest bouncer in a low voice that she couldn’t hear, and the big man opened the velvet rope as quickly as the bouncer at the front.
They treated Bast as if he was some kind of VIP in the club. The idea of Bast attending a Ghul fetish club every night made her stomach turn. Bast waved her forward, and then held her elbow gently as if she was made of crystal.
The hallway they walked down had little cubby holes with sheer curtains, so you got a vague impression of what the occupants were doing. Azar’s cheeks had turned red and she’d gotten a very thorough sexual education by the time they made it to the end of the hall. The end room was three times the size of the cubby holes and had heavy curtains to ward off unwanted eyes. Bast slipped between the curtains, pulling Azar along with him.
The sight that greeted her had her stunned. The room was packed with bodies, some having sex against the wall, or on the floor, others perched on couches. What was really weird was the naked woman licking the foot of a man whose head was thrown back in ecstasy. She wasn’t the only one. Two other men were doing the same to one woman in the corner, each held a foot and lapped at the soles as if they were made of ice cream.
“What the fuck?” she whispered.
At least she thought she whispered it, but every eye in the room suddenly swiveled to her. Well, except one couple in the corner who were still going at it like wild monkeys. She doubted anything could have gotten their attention at this point. Bast rolled his eyes at her and led her further into the room, standing slightly in front of her.
It’s a little too late for that now buddy, Azar thought, as she grimaced at his broad shoulders.
All three Ghul’s had stopped what they were doing, and their conquests looked distraught. Azar wanted to tell them to go home and take an iron supplement, but she resisted. The foot-licking woman sauntered over to them, without putting on any clothes, and stood in front of Bast. Her smile was that of someone who knew a person intimately and Azar wondered if she and Bast had been lovers. The idea made her stomach curdle. She guessed they’d found the infamous Lila.
“Bast! To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure? Not that pleasure with you is ever unexpected,” she purred.
Bast leaned down so that she could kiss each of his cheeks. Lila pressed her body sinuously against his, her hands rubbing his shoulders and simultaneously pulling him closer. The man whose foot she had just been licking shot Bast a look that could kill. Bast untangled himself from her groping hands and her beautiful visage turned into that of a sulky child.
“I’m not here to rekindle anything, Lila. I’m here with a warning for the Ghul.”
Lila turned back towards the bodies lying around the room and snapped her fingers once, waving them out the door. They jumped up like good little lap dogs, even the monkey sex couple who had apparently finished the deed.
Bast waited until the last one had left the room before he continued. “There is a Rogue Ifrit trying to create a fire pledge in the city. He’s already completed the Marid, Jann and Sila tributes. We believe he’ll complete the remaining three before Azerasr.” Lila’s fellow Ghul were now standing on either side of her, eyeing Azar suspiciously.
Lila’s eyes flicked to Azar, her upper lip curling with distaste. Azar wasn’t sure if her disgust was because she was half human, or if it was her Ifrit side that had her non-existent panties in a twist.. “Is this the little trouble maker? I do hate the Ifrit. Always so bad tempered. They never know how to have a little fun. But maybe this one does? Is she your new pet, Bast? A little on the plain side, and far too tall. Not to mention a half blood.”
Azar ground her teeth, her hands flexing at her sides. She’d like to smack the blood-sucking little Barbie doll back into the rotting grave she crawled out of.
Bast rested his hand on her arm as if he could read her thoughts. “Azar just happened to be the first to read the signs. She has nothing to do with the fire pledge. I don’t need to tell you how bad the return of Balraka would be for all of the Djinn. I’m fairly sure you had a club similar to this one in San Francisco when the Rogue Elziah successfully completed the pledge. A lot of Djinn were lost during that fire, as well as humans.” Lila’s companions were nodding in unison, matching frowns marring their otherwise attractive faces. If anything they looked confused. Obviously neither one of them was the brains behind the Ghul. That left Lila as the mouthpiece.
Lila was still staring at Azar with a face that made the pretty Ghul look as if she’d eaten something sour. Annoyed, Azar leaned towards Bast and ran a hand over his broad shoulders and down his arm, pressing herself slightly closer as if they were lovers. Sure, it was a petty thing to do, and she guessed that made her a bit of a tease, but it was totally worth it to see the little blonde jerks face harden. Bast looked down at her, his face not changing but there was an amusement in his eyes and perhaps a hint of promise, which made Azar’s pulse race. She was probably going to regret her impulsive move, but it was still worth it. Lila stood ramrod straight, the smirk no longer gracing her too perfect face.
“The Ghul thank you for the warning Bast and I’ll pass it on to the Council Sitter. But I don’t think we’ll have that kind of problem here. We have good security, and Lemar out the front is a Were. We usually have a strict policy of no non-Ghul Djinn in the club and he can smell them a mile away. We like to keep out the riff raff, and I don’t like to share. But I have always made an exception for you, as you know. You are welcome here anytime.” Her tone implied that Azar was not. The look Lila gave her could have laid waste to an entire city.
Azar just jutted out her bottom lip in a fake pout and then smirked. Like she would ever come to this place for fun. That being said, she was going to stay out of this side of town for a while, and well away from any darkened car parks.
Bast sighed and shook his head. “I thank you for that Lila but this really is a serious threat. You need to warn the other clans…” Bast’s voice faded out, like someone turning down the sound on an old AM radio, as an unfamiliar chill ran up her spine.
It was like something tugging at her, trying to draw her in while simultaneously trying to get her to throw up her lunch onto Lila’s crimson carpet. It was like the feel of the fire, if the fire was doused in oil. She turned and headed back down the hallway to the bar. It could only be one thing.
“He’s here.”
She didn’t know if Bast had followed her or not. She could feel where the Rogue was in the room, feel his fire tugging at hers challengingly, and she was helpless to resist. She started to run, her heels wobbling awkwardly on the plush carpet, and a disembodied part of her mind hoped that she didn’t break an ankle.
She rushed past the barman and pushed her way through the sweaty bodies that were grinding against each other on the dance floor, limbs and bodies so entangled that moving through them was like wading through molasses. Dread washed over her in waves, as she fought the warring desires to draw closer and flee.
A scream pierced through the music, and Azar knew she’d been too slow. She threw the last few people out of the way, not even trying to mask her inhuman abilities. What she saw on the other side of
the crowd stopped her in her tracks.
A few seconds seemed like minutes as her brain processed the human torch in front of her. To the left was a dark haired man with cold eyes and a humorless smile. He pointed to her, and she could feel the chill running through her body.
Finally, her training overrode her shock. She tackled the women who was encased in fire to the ground and smothered the flames with her own body. The woman’s pain filled shrieks echoed through the club and the smell of burned flesh and hair was pungent in the air. Bast was soon on her too, helping to bat out the flames with his jacket. Azar yelled to anyone who would listen that she needed a wet bed sheet from one of the private rooms.
The burned woman’s blue eyes rolled around her head, standing out against the raw burnt skin of her face. Far too long later, someone handed Azar the sheet she'd asked for and she laid it over the woman’s body, making soothing noises that were drowned out by the victim's moans of pain. Suddenly, Lila was there with the paramedics and Azar moved away so they could work. She got to her feet and turned around, looking for Bast. What she found was four of the FDNY’s finest firemen with their mouths open and a very angry looking Keenan Reilly.
Chapter 6
Fortunately, the firemen recovered first. “Holy shit. Is that you, Nazemi? What are you doing here?” That was Hal, a married lieutenant from the 52nd fire house. The FDNY was a close knit group, so to her horror she knew every man there, and they sure as hell knew her. Female fire fighters weren’t that common, even in an equal opportunity society.
God, she was never going to live this down. Men could be as gossipy as woman, arguably more so, and by the time she went to work tomorrow, every firehouse in the city of New York would know that Azar Nazemi had been at a fetish club, wearing basically nothing. Some of the other guys looked at her approvingly, grinning like idiots.
Their smiles made the look on Keenan’s face significantly more ominous. Bast came to stand next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Keenan’s face grew darker, and he strode past them towards the victim. He gave out orders to the uniforms doing crowd control as the paramedics wheeled the woman to the ambulance. Hal seemed to have recovered from the shock of seeing her in the club and was directing his crew to evacuate the building and check for spot fires and accelerants. Bast guided her towards the exit.
“Don’t leave yet, Nazemi. I need your statement,” Keenan yelled from the other side of the room. Azar sighed. She knew he was going to make her wait until he’d interviewed every other person who'd been in the club. It was going to be a long night. She plopped down on a nearby chair and settled in to wait. Bast sat opposite her, his face grim.
He cleared his throat, the way boyfriends do when they are about to give you the ‘let’s be friends’ speech and Azar went on instant high alert. Nothing good ever came from an uncomfortable clearing of the throat, especially when the person doing the clearing was as self-assured Bast.
“When you were putting out that girl, I saw something I probably shouldn’t have.” Azar blushed, unconsciously tugging on the hem of her skirt. She was pretty sure the whole club saw something that they shouldn’t have. Bast was shaking his head. “Not that. Well yes, I saw that too, but I meant something else, something not nearly as delightful and far more problematic. On your back.”
Azar eyes widened. He’d seen her slave mark.
Another Djinn, who was duty bound to hand her over to the Council, had seen her slave mark. Her eyes darted towards the door. She could run. She had passports and cash saved up; she could go to Australia or South America. She eyed Bast. She wouldn’t be able to overpower him, but she could probably outrun him. She slipped her high heels off under the table. She poised to stand, eyeing the exit, but Bast reached over and put his hand firmly on her arm.
“I’m not going to turn you in Azar. There is no love lost between the Council and I, and I’m fairly sure that Lila and her posse didn’t see. My own slavery was less than… pleasant, and I am in no hurry to inflict such a punishment on you. I just wanted you to know that your secret is safe with me.” His eyes hardened at his last statement, and she shuddered to think what could make such a calm person tense up until he resembled stone. “Also, if that mark was stopping you from taking our friendship further, well, everything is out in the open now.” One side of his mouth turned up in a lazy half grin. Damn, he was sexy.
She knew she should still run, but she wanted to trust Bast and she really, really, wanted to stay.
A mumbled, “thank you” was all Azar could manage without tripping over her words and they sat in silence. She turned the night over and over in her mind; meeting Lila, briefly seeing the Rogue Ifrit, the girl's screams, Bast knowing she hadn’t served her compulsory servitude. It was too much for one girl to take.
She slumped forward, resting her head on her folded arms. She let the picture reel of the night's events spin over and over in her mind until she somehow went to sleep.
Loud voices brought her out of her troubled slumber. She opened one eye and saw that it was Bast and Keenan arguing over who knew what. Their voices were hushed yells, which was kind of redundant because it meant that they were talking to each other at a normal volume, but with a bit more palpable tension.
“I don’t care what the hell you are, you hurt one hair on Azar’s head and I’ll find a way to stuff you back into whatever rusty tincan you came out of.” Keenan’s voice took on even more of an Irish lilt when he was angry. She tried to hold in a smile and failed. It really was quite a sweet thing for Keenan to say, no matter how misguided.
She slid her open eye to Bast. His smile was amused and a little condescending. “I have no intention of doing any harm to Azar. I know about her little predicament and I can promise you that her secret is safe with me. She knows that, and now you do too.” He turned and looked at her, a mysterious smile spread across his face that made her heart stutter in her chest. “Good morning Sleeping Beauty.”
Oops, busted.
She struggled to get her stiff muscles into a sitting position. She looked at the time on her phone. It was 2 a.m..
“Can we get this show on the road? I have a shift tomorrow and I’d rather not fall asleep on the job.”
Keenan glared once more at Bast and then sat down opposite Azar. He pulled out a notepad and pen and sighed. “Start from when you arrived at the club and try to leave out anything that might get me sent to the department psychologist when they read my report.”
It was forty five more minutes before Azar finally stumbled up to the door of her apartment. Bast stood behind her. She thought he and Keenan were going to come to blows over who got to drive her home. Keenan eventually gave in. He had to go back to the station to complete a mountain of paperwork and chase up the results from the techs. However, Azar could tell that he hated watching Bast help her into the passenger seat of his fancy European car. The smug look on Bast’s face probably didn’t help either.
Now she was pressed between the door and Bast’s hard chest. The irony wasn’t lost on her. How a person ends up in this position twice in one week, with two very different but equally as incredibly delicious guys, was completely beyond her. But she wasn’t going to fall in the same trap twice. She quickly slipped her key in the door and unlocked it, keeping the doorway blocked with her body. She turned back towards Bast, looking up into his incredible golden eyes and his white smile and her willpower began to falter.
No girl, you are a mess, her better judgment argued. Your life is a mess, your sex life has gone from non-existent to complicated in the blink of an eye, so the last thing you need to do is add this two hundred odd pound hunk of trouble into the mix. She nodded to the sensible voice in her head.
“Thank you for driving me home, Bast. I’ve got it from here. No need to come in.” Bast just continued to smile as if he could read her mind. Hell, he probably could. The thought sent a blush directly to her cheeks. He leaned down and lightly brushed a kiss across her parted lips.
�
�It was my pleasure. Anytime you want me to take you home, day or night, for whatever reason, you let me know.” His grin was pure wickedness. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow night. We have a few more people to warn.” He gave her another whisper of a kiss on the corner of her mouth, turned and sauntered away. Azar just stood there, gaping at his back, hoping her legs would solidify enough to help carry her inside her apartment.
Her shift the next day was wonderfully mundane. They had the usual traffic accidents and trash can fires coupled with in-house equipment maintenance checklists to fill out. The simple routine helped Azar unwind a bit, keeping her mind occupied enough that she didn’t worry herself to death over New York City’s impending doom.
She picked up a pizza on the way home and sat down to devour it with a couple of fingers of scotch in front of the TV. She was halfway through her first slice when there was a loud knock at the door. Azar sighed. She knew that her good vibe couldn’t last all night, but she was hoping she’d have a couple of more scotches under her belt before reality set in. She threw the other half of her pepperoni pizza slice back in the box and opened the door. Keenan was standing on the other side, his usual stony cop glare gracing his otherwise beautiful features.
“Reilly, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Like she didn’t already know, but old habits died hard and she couldn’t resist needling him a little.
He quirked an eyebrow and she let a small smile curl her lips. She turned and walked back into the living room before he had time to give her some smart ass answer. She flopped down on the couch and picked up her half eaten slice of pizza. “Want some?” Keenan eyed the couch like it was covered in fungus but he eventually sighed and sat down beside her, picking up a slice of pizza and demolishing it in half a bite.
“Eating like that is going to give you indigestion,” she chastised.
The Azar Omnibus: The Complete Azar Trilogy (The Azar Trilogy Book 0) Page 7