by Lela Grayce
“This whiskey sour must be for you,” I said, leaning down to offer the glass to the boss.
His nice smile revealed perfect white teeth but something about it was unnatural. His attention was on me now, I saw the moment his eyes contracted. Unlike his buddies who were fascinated with my boobs, legs, or butt, he couldn’t keep his eyes off my hair. His nostrils flared slightly. He wouldn’t smell any deception on me. Sure, I was wearing a wig but it was made from my own hair so even though it was dyed and permed, the scent was all me.
“Ah, thank you for delivering my drink to me.” His voice was accented heavily like he had only just learned the language. I couldn’t place my finger where the accent originated from.
“It’s my pleasure.” I leaned forward letting him get an eye full of push-up-bra boobs. “I love your accent. There’s nothing more sexy in my opinion.”
His eyes dilated further at my whispered words and his grin turned wolffish. My ability radar was working to get the answers but it was taking longer than usual. “Is there anything else I can get you?”
“No, but you can sit and rest your feet.” He patted the couch cushion beside him as the half witch guy scooted away.
“I only just started my shift and already my feet are killing me.” I placed the tray on the table then perched my butt on the cushion he had indicated.
He angled his body toward me as I looked around at his companions. They were sipping their drinks or talking quietly, all making an effort not to look at me or the man to my right. I frowned because they had all been entranced only moments ago.
Fingers fluttered on my thigh and the contact made my skin prickle. Heat rose inside me again but this wasn’t a sudden rush like it was when I healed. No, this was slow, almost sensual. It wiggled and gyrated like it was dancing, showing off what we had. This had never happened before.
I turned back trying to mask the sudden heat I was feeling. Licking my lips, I forced my eyes back to the immaculate man beside me still not able to get a read on him.
“You smell… divine.” His face drew closer, twirling a lock of my red hair around his finger.
Heat roared inside me centered at my core and I gasped. I wanted to simultaneously slide my leg over his lap so I could straddle him and explore what this all meant and the other half wanted to run far away. I had never had such a reaction to a stranger before. I was burning from the inside and terrified, but I also enjoyed it.
His hand slid up my opposite thigh coaxing gently until it had slid over his lap and I was straddling him. My thoughts were foggy, completely consumed by the heat I was feeling inside. It burned right on the edge between pleasure and pain. I ran my hands up his hard, broad chest, loving the prickling feeling on my skin as I did so. My eyes found his lips and I wanted them on my skin, coaxing the heat higher until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I wanted him with a sudden intensity that I thought I might burst into flame right there.
His hands were under the hem of my dress, fingers digging into my flesh. It felt so good. Nearly panting with desire, I tried to regain some semblance of control over myself but whatever was happening, I was not the one calling the shots. He sat up leaning closer yet and I moaned at the delicious friction. Eyes blazing with equal fire, the boss drew closer, his lips aiming for my throat. I leaned my head back in submission. A part of me screamed that I should not let his mouth touch me no matter what but I was too wrapped up in the desire for that to happen. I almost ignored it. Years of trusting my instincts kicked in and my head stopped teetering on the edge. I stared into the eyes of the predator that held me in a position that I hated.
I fought whatever this magic was, but before I could decide on how best to extricate myself from the situation the boss’s eyes blinked. Then again with a second set of eyelids, like a lizard. I felt my own eyes widen, as I gasped. His rounded pupils contracted into slits and a split second later his cool lips were on the hot skin of my throat, tasting, then biting.
My internal radar went off as his teeth pierced the delicate area and the force was hard enough that if he hadn’t been holding me so tightly, I swear I would have been flung away.
The creature sucking on my neck was a dragon.
My head swam as the knowledge of what he was and what he was doing to me coalesced and I thought I might black out. He sucked but it wasn’t how I thought it would feel to have my blood drunk. Another pull and I realized that he wasn’t drinking my blood, he was drawing on something else.
The heat inside was being tugged out of me by his mouth. I gagged and tried to push him away but whatever he was doing happened too fast. I couldn’t hold it and as it slipped away so did my strength. I slumped, having nothing to hold myself upright any longer. Three more long draws and my body started to shiver.
My teeth clacked together, and I began to panic. Before it could fully take hold, I had a thought that had warmth coursing over my skin thawing me enough so I could think through the cold. This was my heat, my fire. It didn’t belong to him. It belonged to me and whoever I chose to share it with. He couldn’t take it.
Wrenching myself out of his firm grasp, I raised my hands and pushed his face away from my neck. Blood dripped from his lips and his once attractive eyes were now bright gold and reptilian. Bile rose up and I thought I might throw up all over him. It would serve the asshole right. This sort of act was wrong in all sorts of ways, but the main one that shook me to my core was that I wasn’t in control of myself enough to get away.
He smiled, his teeth stained red and I wretched.
“What are you?” he asked, licking his lips like an evil psychopath.
I clapped a hand on my neck, expecting to feel blood or a wound. All I found was tender skin that didn’t feel anything like I had just had my throat bitten into. Stumbling on my feet, I collapsed to the floor, struggling to scoot my body away from this evil creature. The boss stood and stalked after me. I scurried faster but by his leisurely gait, I knew I wasn’t going nearly as fast as I needed too.
He loomed over me, his hands now tipped with glittery claws. I whimpered because I saw my death in his unnaturally hungry eyes that raged with fire. Whatever he wanted, I had, and he was nearly foaming at the mouth to get at it.
The dark-skinned witch stepped between us blocking the boss's view of me. He spoke but I couldn’t make out a word he said so I took advantage of the distraction. I turned over and crawled to the top of the stairs. The guard was there preventing anyone from going in, not from coming out. I was on the threshold about to cross the invisible line of the soundproof spell when a roar sounded behind me and I nearly wet myself. Footsteps pounded after me so I rolled through the haze, bumped into the guard who stepped to the side letting me roll onto the steps.
Before I made it down three steps, strong arms wrapped around me and I was aware that I was moving very fast but had no idea who held me or where I was being carried to. The thought that it was the dragon boss nearly had me sobbing. My panicked inhale brought with it a scent that I knew. Kreed had me and I had never been so thankful for having that pain in the ass in my life. Except Lyndee, of course.
Kreed opened a door and stepped into somewhere dark and less noisy. I exhaled, thankful that I only had to endure a couple seconds of pounding music and flashing lights.
“Hey, you can’t be back here,” a voice called, then squeaked as Kreed turned to face the person.
“Get Gavin. Now,” he snarled.
Normally I would reprimand him for being rude, but I really didn’t care. I just wanted to take a super, strong sleeping drought and fall asleep in a well-lit room and forget about everything that had occurred to me.
“What happened?” Gavin’s voice asked, a door clicking shut as he entered.
“If she’s hurt in any way, I’ll kill you for endangering her,” Kreed barked, squeezing me closer.
“She’s shivering. Nik, what happened?” Gavin asked.
I coudn’t answer.
“Do you have someplace secure and defenda
ble?” Kreed asked, his voice just slightly below a growl.
“Yes but…”
“Do not speak another word until we are someplace safe. I cannot defend her when she is vulnerable. Now move!”
It was sorta hot how protective he was being. It was on the edge of possessiveness but I wasn’t about to point that out. Besides, it was freaking cold in this joint.
“Blanket,” I mumbled through my chattering teeth. “Hot chocolate.”
“You must be okay if you're making demands,” Gavin remarked as we started moving.
“Suggestions.”
“You will get whatever you need even if I have to procure it all myself,” Kreed whispered, rushing after my ex, his body stiff with tension.
“So,” I stuttered, trying to get my mouth to work without biting my tongue, “if I asked for a pony you’d get me one?”
“If you absolutely needed a pony, I would find you one,” Kreed confirmed kicking something and I hoped he wasn’t imagining kicking the pony I was going to need very soon.
“We’re going to the basement,” Gavin announced, pushing a door open and I suppressed a shutter. Barely.
I hated the basement for obvious reasons, such as it was dark and creepy things like rats and spiders liked the dark.
“Jed, we’re heading to the basement,” Gavin said. It would have been odd but I knew he was talking into his earpiece. “You saw what happened, so I need you to meet us there. Also grab Gwenna, if she hasn’t left already, we may need her.”
“Who’s Gwenna?” I asked, hating the twinge of jealousy and guilt I was feeling.
Gavin and I had parted on good terms, each agreeing this was best for us but it still hurt hearing him ask for another girl. I missed what we used to be, but I knew we would never be that again. It was hard going from deeply in love to barely friends. We had been inseparable at one time, and now we counted down the minutes until we could leave the others company. Why were break ups so weird?
The air became cooler the further down we went, which was only one story, but it felt like fifty. I really didn’t like the basement.
The squeak of a heavy, metal door swinging on its hinges echoed off the red brick walls. Kreed hustled into the room where a small table with two chairs sat, a dusty old couch, and a wall of monitors that were currently blank.
“What is this place?” I asked. Kreed lowered me onto the sofa then spread a blanket over my chilled body. Seeing these two working together was so strange.
“This is basically a panic room,” Gavin said. “We suspected that things would get dicey eventually so we made a secure room that we could hide in if there was ever a raid or if we were under attack. We can monitor from here while we called for backup.”
It was a good idea. Best to be prepared because who knew what could happen in this world of supes, when we were all just trying to survive.
While Gavin talked, Kreed grabbed a chair from the table and drug it over to the couch. He positioned it so he could view the whole room including the monitors. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that he had done this before.
“What happened in there, Nik?” Kreed spoke softly like he was trying to calm a frightened animal.
My thoughts turned to what I had just experienced and then I felt like a terrified animal. The image of my blood dripping from his lips and how he had taken a portion of my inner heat. I felt empty without that familiar burn and that shook me more than anything I had seen or heard. My radar ability had never been wrong, and I knew it was right in this. The new boss of the Unseen was a dragon. He had seemed to be more vampiric, though.
“That was the strangest room of supes I have ever encountered.” Which was saying something. My whole life I had always had this ability to know exactly what a person was. It had never failed me. I had even encountered a Pure human from afar and I knew in my gut that she had been completely human, not a drop of any of the races in her genes. It was different reading her. She had been a unicorn in a world that had become nearly unrecognizable.
“Start from the beginning,” Gavin suggested, pulling the other chair over and sitting down. He looked uncomfortable and concerned at the same time.
“I walked into the room and it felt like every other time. I studied the room’s layout, then began handing out drinks and… reading each of them.” Why did it sound so weird to say that?
“What do you mean read them?” Kreed asked, throwing his hood down off of his head. It took me a second to process his question.
“Right, you don’t know,” I sighed, because explaining this ability was hard and always ended with skepticism. “So, I have this ability that I know exactly what a supe is.”
“What do you mean ‘what they are’?” Kreed asked, his brow furrowed. I waited for the heat inside me to rise, but all I got was a slow warm trickle. Nothing like the fire I had felt in that other room when we were alone.
“She means that she reads everyone, Mutts and full race, and knows which they are. She can even widdle it down to percentages, if she has enough time.”
“Well that's… different,” Kreed murmured. It was probably the nicest reaction I had ever received. “How does it work?”
“I come into contact with a person and I just know,” I shrugged because it really was that simple.
“So, you knew what I was.”
“As soon as you walked in. Sorta.” I nodded. “I had never encountered one of you before your father, so it was more like a ping in my head like ‘hey, this guy is just like the other guy’. I didn’t have a name for your species until I spoke to Ruvaen.”
“Who’s Ruvaen?” Gavin asked. “And what exactly are they?” He flicked his head toward Kreed. It wasn’t every day that you discovered that there was another supernatural species that came to earth with the dragons.
“We are called Zavarian. The closest your human history has of us are called elves,” Kreed explained.
“You mean there were others that came through during the surge?”
Kreed nodded. “Our numbers are small enough that you would call us endangered. Few came through and even fewer have survived life here.”
“Whoa.” Gavin’s eyes widened.
Before anything more could be said a series of knocks sounded on the metal door. It sounded like a pattern, but I had no idea if it was the right one. Sudden fear gripped me as my mind told me that it was the boss, and he was here to finish sucking the heat right out of me.
As if sensing my fear, Kreed was suddenly on his feet. A long katana was in his right hand and a shorter one gripped in the other. He went from concerned to killer in a split second. If I was being honest with myself, which I hardly ever was, it was totally hot.
Gavin rushed to the wall of monitors and after pressing a few random buttons, a screen lit up and showed the basement on the other side of the door. The hallway was empty, except for Jed, his head turned toward the camera so we could see his face.
The tension of my fear dissipated and I relaxed. Kreed did the same as if he took cues from me. He was way more than I thought he was. I wanted to know what made him tick but I knew that once I did there would be no going back. Plus, he had been an ass thus far and hadn’t proved that he had my well-being as a priority.
Gavin opened the door after disengaging a lock that made some very scary sounds like metal bars being pulled through more metal. It was like a giant safe.
I snorted on a laugh as Jed walked through the door, an eyebrow raised at me in question.
“The door sounded like a safe opening,” I said giggling.
“I don’t understand what’s so funny,” Kreed said, his serious face back on as he glanced down at me.
“We’re in a safe to keep safe I’m assuming,” Gavin said with a small smile spreading on his lips.
“It’s a play on words and it’s hilarious.” I looked from Kreed’s face to Jed’s face but no one appreciated my humor. Tough crowd.
Another knock came from the door and we all turned towa
rd the monitors. A tall, willowy woman with long hair stood looking at the door like she could make it open with just her stare.
Gavin went back to the door and began the process of opening the safe door again. I snickered but was able to restrain my laughter this time.
The vault opened and Gavin gestured for the woman to come in. She was younger than I expected but with supes it was really hard to tell their true age. Her silvery hair hung about her shoulders and I noticed that it had a very light hue of purple. Her skin was alabaster, as most witches were with milky light purple-silver eyes. She was gorgeous and I wanted to look just like her when I got old.
She nodded at Gavin then turned her eyes toward me. I gulped as my ability told me that she was equal parts Fae and Witch, just like the dark-skinned man with the dragon. She was an anomaly just like that man was and I should count myself lucky to have met two of them in one night, or rather, unfortunate.
“Nik, my name is Gwenna and I’ve been anxious to meet you.” She smiled and made her way to the couch.
I watched her warily, I didn’t know jack about her. She seemed to know me, though, and that was a problem. Me and my abilities were supposed to be top secret, especially my role with the Faceless.
“Um, I wish I could say the same.” I flinched, realizing how rude that sounded.
She smiled wider as she grabbed Kreed’s vacated chair and scooted it around so she was facing me.
“No need to watch your words around me. Nothing you could say would surprise me.” She winked, letting me know that she could see the future. “I’ve heard rumors of your power, but you have exceeded my expectations, which is pretty difficult to do.” She tapped her head. “On a normal occasion, I would test your range, but we aren’t here for that so let’s get on with it. What happened in the VIP room?”
“You’ve heard rumors about me?” My eyes were wide as I turned them to Gavin. He knew how important it was to keep my ability secret.