“Karina is expecting us,” he said to the bouncer.
The bouncer pulled back a red chain blocking them from going down the stairs. How well does he know this Karina? She wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to that question. There were already too many women in his life as far as she was concerned. His desire for her was obvious, no matter how much he tried to distance himself from her, but she wanted more than just his desire.
Why? It’s not like you love him. You could be mates and still never come to love him.
Sometimes her little inner voice made good points, even if they were bleak and depressing.
At the bottom of the stairs, the door opened to reveal a hallway that was dark as night beyond. If she’d been human, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to see the walls surrounding her as they made their way down it. Music thumped in the distance, it was a melody that didn’t suit the enthusiastic dancing she’d always seen in clubs before. This melody brought to mind X-rated porn, and she hoped they weren’t walking into some kind of vampire/human orgy.
The hall opened into a small room. Brian stopped at the coat check and took hold of the shoulders of her coat to help her remove it. Her fingers momentarily clenched on it before she let it go. It had been one thing to strut around brazenly in front of him in her scant outfit, but it would be an entirely different thing to do it in front of a group of strangers.
He couldn’t know she didn’t dress like this every time she went out though, and she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her balk now. With a confidence she didn’t feel, she shrugged free of the coat. Hunger blazed to life in his eyes again, his gaze remained locked on her as he leaned over her to hand it to the coat check girl.
The movement caused his chest to press against hers. His thick muscles rippled beneath his body-hugging shirt when he came into contact with her. Of their own volition, Abby’s hands came up to rest against his chest. She inhaled his evergreen scent, and her eyes closed as pleasure slid over her body.
Vicky! She forcefully had to remind herself of her sister and their current mission in order to get her legs to step back from him. As she moved further away, his gaze reminded her of a lion stalking his prey.
He took hold of her arm again, leading her down another dim hallway to the room beyond. Abby gawked when the hallway opened to reveal a large, black-and-red-painted room. Cages hung from the ceiling, men and women, wearing far less than she was, danced within them. Bite marks on their necks, wrists, and inner thighs marred their pale skin.
“They have bites on them,” she whispered.
“All part of the show, or at least that’s what the humans believe,” he replied as he studied the room.
The musky smell of sex permeated the air as many of the occupants didn’t wait to get home, but went into the back rooms Karina had established. The more acrid scent of drugs was beneath the aroma of arousal and gratification. Karina didn’t allow drugs to be peddled in her club, but people still smuggled them in or took them before arriving.
Red lights swirled over the dance floor, not in a pulse-pounding fashion, but in a sensual one. Humans and vampires ground eagerly against each other. He pulled Abby closer against his side, wrapping his arm protectively around her waist as he shot a look at an overeager human coming toward her. The murderous look had the human slinking back into the crowd. A woman tried to touch his chest, but he grabbed hold of her hand and thrust it away from him.
“Is it open season in here?” Abby inquired.
“I told you not to wear that.”
She stomped on his foot. It had been childish, but she hated the, I told you so. He scowled at her, but she refused to back down from him. “I think I could be wearing a burka and these people would still be leering at me.”
“At least with a burka there would be something left to the imagination,” he snapped back, irritated by the lecherous stares following her through the crowd.
He could practically see the images bursting through the men’s heads as they gazed at her and adjusted themselves. He was certain many of those same images had run through his mind since meeting her again. These men would have her bent over the closest table if she gave them any indication she would let them.
“You’re a dick,” she grumbled.
“I hope you’re not just realizing that,” he muttered and pushed back a human who bounded up to her.
“No, I’ve known,” she replied flippantly. She thrust her shoulders back and tried to maneuver away from him, but he refused to release her.
“Would you like to dance?” the human asked as his eyes ran over her.
Brian stepped toward the man who stumbled away from them. “Back off!” he spat.
The human turned and fled through the crowd. “You can’t do that!” she protested, though she couldn’t deny she enjoyed his protective manner. Still, he had no right to try to control anything in her life. “You’re not my family, and you’re not my boyfriend or husband! You have no say in my life.”
He could never be any of those things to her, could never be any of those things to anyone again, but he’d enjoy tearing the heads off every oversexed man in this place. She was fresh, delectable meat and they were the salivating wolves looking for a chance to pounce.
“If you would like to see someone die tonight, then by all means, dance with them,” he growled. Her delectable mouth parted as she gazed at him. “I may not be any of those things to you, but as long as you’re with me and under my protection, I’m not going to allow any man to molest you.”
Unless it’s me, but he kept those words to himself.
“Dancing isn’t molesting,” she replied.
“It is in this place.”
He stiff-armed his way through the rest of the crowd with her warm body snugged close against his side. The feel of her did nothing to ease his lust for her, but at least the urge to kill one of these men was making his erection go away. At the other end of the room, behind the massive bar, was a set of roped off stairs. Another vampire stood at the bottom of the steps with his arms folded firmly over his barrel chest.
“No one goes up,” the man told him in a high-pitched, squeaky voice completely out of place with his massive size.
“Karina is expecting me,” Brian replied.
The man’s brown eyes skimmed over him before his attention shifted to Abby. A small flicker ran over his face, the man’s only outward reaction, but Brian sensed his interest in her. Brian wrapped his other arm around her, ignoring the fact her hands went between them to try and push him away.
“Get her,” Brian commanded the bouncer with far more antagonism than he normally would have used to deal with this situation.
“I don’t take orders from you,” the man replied.
“Easy, Ruben,” a voice purred from the shadows behind him. “Allow them up.”
Brian glanced at Abby. Her gaze was riveted on the dance floor as the music changed beat and the occupants pushed closer and ground more determinedly against each other. The coppery scent of blood permeated the air as a vampire in the corner fed from a man whose mind she’d taken control of. He couldn’t tell if Abby was fascinated or repulsed as she wore both emotions on her expressive face.
“It’s going to be worse up there,” he said quietly to her.
Her attention came back to him. The lights of the club danced over her face, giving her an ethereal quality he found enchanting. Her lips pursed before she gave a brief nod. Brian didn’t bother to look at Ruben again as he removed one of his arms from her and led her past the bouncer. He kept his other arm around her waist to make it clear to everyone above that she was under his protection and off limits.
Chapter Ten
Abby couldn’t control the frantic beat of her heart as Brian led her up the stairs. She couldn’t get the image of what was happening below out of her mind. She’d been to clubs with her brothers and plenty more with her college friends. Never had she seen anything like this place.
Part of her wa
nted to run from here as fast as her boots would take her; the other part was completely fascinated by their freedom with their sexuality. What would it be like to be on that dance floor with Brian? Maybe not in a corner like some of the others, but to be dancing with him, in his arms, feeling his body grinding against hers as he fed from her.
She shuddered at the prospect, her fingers curling into his shirt. His eyes deepened in color when he glanced down at her. Images of his hand sliding over her thigh and rubbing against her core in the cab assailed her. She ached to feel those fingers moving inside of her.
“Well now, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” a woman said in a raspy voice.
Abby’s gaze was torn away from Brian when a sultry woman glided toward them. The woman moved with the confidence of someone who knew she could have anyone she chose. Her hips swayed in a way that screamed sex, and her black hair shone with blue highlights in the dim red lanterns hanging from the walls.
Abby recognized the voice of the woman who had spoken to the bouncer from the shadows of the stairwell. She also recognized a woman she’d like to punch in the face as she stopped before Brian and ran her hand sensually down the front of his shirt. Her fingers fiddled with one of his buttons as her hand paused in the center of his chest.
“I thought you’d forgotten all about us, Brian,” she pouted.
“I could never forget about you, Karina,” he replied smoothly and winked.
Abby’s hands fisted as she fought the urge to hit them both. Karina smiled and batted her sweeping black lashes as she pressed closer, not at all caring Abby was standing right there. This simpering, overt bitch was really pissing her off, and Brian was lapping it up like a dog getting a belly rub.
Her teeth ground together as a barely clad Karina purred low in her throat and all but licked him under his chin. Would they screw right here or at least have the decency to go into a back room? She might kill him if he did, and she’d definitely kill Karina.
Brian’s arm tensed around Abby’s waist when she trembled beside him. Her eyes shimmered with red as she stared at Karina with a look meant to kill. He was afraid she would leap on Karina and ruin any chances they had of getting her to cooperate with them.
He couldn’t deny her anger toward Karina amused and pleased him. There were many who wished to share his bed, it was nothing new in his life, but this possessiveness was new for him, and he liked that he wasn’t the only one of them who felt it.
Bending low, he nuzzled her silken hair with his lips and murmured in her ear. “I told you it would be worse up here, behave.”
If looks could kill, she would have had him buried six feet under in a concrete tomb right then. He suppressed a chuckle, knowing it might send her over the edge, and as a purebred, she was a force to be reckoned with, even if she didn’t know the full extent of her abilities yet. She was young, but she could still do a lot of damage, especially if pushed. As she aged, she’d become one of the most powerful beings to walk this earth.
“Perhaps I should leave you two,” she replied.
She moved to spin out of his arms, but he jerked her back, securing her against him. Her head tipped back and her eyes narrowed, but he kept her pinned. She may be powerful, but he was more so, and she would learn his will was stronger than hers.
“And who is this?” Karina inquired with a sly edge to her tone.
“She’s mine, Karina. Off limits to everyone here,” he told her as he tore his attention away from an irate Abby to focus on the stunning woman across from him.
“Too bad,” Karina murmured as her gaze raked hungrily over Abby. “She’s got an innocence about her that would drive the men here crazy. Perhaps you would consider not being selfish and sharing her, Brian?”
“No.”
“Oh well, come along,” Karina replied with a flick of her black nails and a brush of her raven locks over her shoulder.
Abby walked with him past the vampires and humans gathered within the booths. Her fangs pricked and tingled when she spotted the vamps openly feeding from the humans in one booth. Blissful sighs escaped the humans as their heads tilted back and the vamps bit deeper.
She’d fed from a human boy before, but he’d had no idea what she was doing at the time, and she’d taken the memory from him afterward. He may have enjoyed it, but he certainly hadn’t reveled in it like these humans were. She also hadn’t been having sex with the boy like half of those gathered in here were.
Heat burned her face when she spotted the couples going at it. She wasn’t a prude, but she’d never seen anything like this place, and she had no idea how to react to it.
Is that what it’s like to feed from someone who knows what’s happening, and wants it? She’d never wanted to be fed from before, but if it caused that same look on her own face, she’d happily do it, especially if it was Brian feasting on her blood and pleasuring her body.
She hastily looked away before her thirst was aroused too much. Some of the vampires watched them as they passed, and a few men slid to the end of their booths to get a better look at her. Brian growled at one who leaned too close to her. The man slid back when Brian flashed his fangs at him.
“I’ll castrate you before you can blink,” he snarled and pulled her away from the questing hand of another male vampire.
He’d be lucky if he made it out of here tonight without killing one of them. Her hands dug into his shirt as they continued onward. A woman walked toward him, but he never even glanced in her direction as he kept shooting lethal glares at the men ogling Abby.
They entered a long hallway lined with doors. As they passed each door, she could hear the sensual sounds of couples, and sometimes more than a couple, having sex. Brian’s fingers caressed the flesh of her exposed midriff. It had been a gesture meant to relax her, but instead it only enhanced her conflicting urges to either run from here or press herself closer against him.
“Here we are,” Karina said, and swung open a door at the end of the hall.
Brian hurried Abby through the door of Karina’s office and waited until she closed it behind them. Abby’s growing distress and arousal beat against him, making it difficult for him to concentrate on anything when all he could think about was dragging her into one of those side rooms and sinking every hard inch of him into her.
Her family would kill him, but right now, he’d happily embrace death to ease the need of both of their bodies. Karina’s brown eyes slid back and forth between them. Abby grasped his shirt tighter and kept her head bowed so her pale hair shielded her delicate features.
It didn’t matter what she said, or how much she fought him on it, he was never going to bring her into a place like this again. She didn’t know what to make of it or how to handle it. Yes, she was in college and had older siblings, but she was still very innocent in so many ways. She was mostly unaware of what their kind was capable of.
Karina lifted a sleek, black eyebrow when he wrapped his hand around Abby’s head to shelter her further by cradling it against his chest. He ran his hand over her hair comfortingly, letting the strands slide through his fingers.
“What can I do for you, Brian?” Karina inquired.
“You know a lot of what goes on in this city,” he said.
Karina grinned at him as she perched on the corner of her desk. Her dress rode up to reveal the edge of her lacy black underwear, a move she’d made on purpose. He’d never slept with Karina, not for a lack of trying on her part, but simply because he knew it would be a tangled web he refused to get ensnared in.
Though striking, Karina was also manipulative, cold, and would run her own mother over to get what she wanted. There was actually a rumor that she had killed her mother after being turned into a vampire.
“I know everything that goes on in this city,” she replied, and slid further back on her desk to reveal almost all of her lacy panties that did nothing to shield her sex from view.
Abby lifted her head from his chest. He felt the ripple of shock that went through
her before her eyes turned the color of rubies. Karina chuckled and leaned forward to expose some of her ample cleavage.
“Enough!” he barked at Karina. He pushed Abby a little behind him as he turned to face Karina. “You can play with every other person in this place, leave her be.”
“Or what?” She nonchalantly studied her nails, which she had filed into lethally sharp talons.
“You’re a hundred years old, Karina. You know how I got my power. You are no match for me, and I will drain you dry if you so much as look at her again.”
Dead silence followed his statement. Karina’s eyes shot up from her nails, her mouth parted and her eyes widened. Abby’s breath froze as she gazed between the two of them, waiting to see what would happen. She didn’t think Karina was one who took being threatened lightly, no matter who was doing the threatening.
Karina spun suddenly, lunging for something at the front of her desk. Abby hadn’t seen Brian move, yet he was grabbing hold of Karina’s wrist and slamming it onto her desk. Karina cried out and a stake tumbled from her grasp to land a few feet away from her. Abby jumped forward and snagged the weapon off the ground.
Brian leaned over the top of Karina, using his size to keep her pinned against the desk. Within one of his hands, he held both her wrists down as he fought to control his bloodlust. He’d come here with no intention of fighting, but Karina had dared to pull a weapon with Abby in the room. He relied on Karina’s help too often to be able to kill her, but it was taking everything he had to keep himself restrained from doing so.
“Don’t fuck with me on this, Karina,” he warned. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will.”
“Then let me go!” she cried.
“Brian—” Abby started as Karina’s breasts heaved with her rapid inhalations.
“Tell me what you know about the drug dens popping up again,” Brian said, over the top of Abby.
“What drug dens?” Karina replied, her lower lip quivering as she thrust it out.
Abby’s grip on the stake tightened as she fought the impulse to stake the woman for that contrived, pathetic look.
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 123