Einar left the shadows and strode over to her, muscles shifting in entrancing ways with each step, reminding her of just how good he had looked naked and just how much she still wanted him.
Perhaps there were other reasons it was a mistake to bring him to Cloud Nine.
Seeing all the people in the club having a good time, letting go of their inhibitions and embracing a world without consequence, a night of madness and fun, and indulging in their fantasies, would push her to the limit with Einar.
She would want him again.
Hell, she already wanted him again. Stepping into the club with him would only compound that desire into an irresistible urge.
Taking a deep breath, she swept her hair back over her shoulder, tilted her chin up and took the leap. She led him into the club, shaking her hands the whole time to try to ease the tension gradually building inside her as she waited for someone to notice him.
The patrons crowding the expansive dark room near the door were all human. Nothing for her to worry about.
She walked deeper, towards the long curved black bar to her right. Brightly lit bottles in a myriad of colours lined the wall behind it and spotlights above the bar changed from white to blue to purple to red, highlighting the patrons near it and those tending bar.
She nodded to one of the bartenders, a young female demon who wore human skin that would entice any man into flirting with her and leaving a good tip. She was pretty and innocent looking. Her wide dark eyes held a smile for every customer, male or female.
Taylor had met her in the field once or twice, and each time had ended up protecting her. Low-level demons like her were a tragedy waiting to happen. It was why Taylor had got her a job at the club where she would fall under the protection of the boss. No one bothered her now.
The woman slid her two shots of vodka. “On the house.”
Taylor took them with a smile and turned to Einar.
She sensed the moment the first demon noticed him. It ran through the room like a current and every demon nearby turned their way, stopping in their tracks. The humans continued to dance, amongst other more sordid things, oblivious to what sort of creatures surrounded them.
Taylor knocked back the shot and held the other one out to Einar. He waved his hand in a silent refusal and she shrugged and then emptied the glass herself. Either alcohol was still a forbidden item for angels, one that would gain them instant punishment, or he didn’t drink. Either way it was more for her and she needed it right now.
She ignored the demons that were looking their way. They were weak and of no concern to her, but she had to go deeper still into the club to find the boss, and she could sense stronger demons between her and her destination.
She tiptoed as she leaned back from the bar, looking over the heads of the throng of people to her left.
Dancers flickered in the strobe lights beyond those near her, writhing against each other, filling the room with the heavy scent of desire and the heat of their bodies.
She tried to take her eyes away, telling herself that she wasn’t interested in the way they moved against each other, hands cupping and teasing, mouths fused together, bare flesh on show, but they wouldn’t leave the dancers. It was erotic, sensual, and her temperature soared at just the sight of them.
They were oblivious to their onlookers. Or maybe they weren’t. Maybe being watched was all part of their fun.
Her gaze lingered on one couple in particular, a male human and a female demon. They moved against each other, his naked chest brushing her barely concealed breasts as he skimmed his hands over her body. She turned in the his embrace, still dancing with him, grinding her backside against his groin. A smile curved both the man and the woman’s lips when a second man joined in, palming the woman’s breasts and kissing her as the first man kissed her shoulder and caressed her hips.
Taylor tore her gaze away, her heart fluttering and pulse racing. This sort of thing shouldn’t be legal. The entire dance floor was bordering on becoming an orgy, alcohol and glamour fuelled, dangerous any way she looked at it.
Some demons weren’t just here for a good night and a session of dirty dancing. There were those more sinister prowling the club, ones who were a deadly threat to the innocent humans.
She scanned the crowd and settled on a group of five male vampires leaning against the other end of the bar.
They were easy to spot for what they were.
Sharply dressed in black shirts and trousers, handsome and cool as they watched the crowd getting off on each other, they caught every woman’s eye. Vampire charm was impenetrable, even for another demon. She couldn’t see through their glamour. It was strong and it needed to be. It hid an ugly side best left for the kill rather than the hunt.
Taylor’s attention stopped on one dark-haired vampire in particular when he leaned forwards and said something to one of the others.
She wasn’t immune to their looks either. She had fallen for his handsomeness and toothy smile, and the promise of not being alone during the daylight hours. It had been good for a while. He had been more of a gentleman to her than most humans she had dated. He hadn’t even bitten her until she had given him permission, and then he had chosen to sink his fangs into a place that ensured she had never forgotten him.
Her hand hovered over the spot on her inner thigh.
The vampire’s pale gaze slid to her, as though she had called out to him by touching the marks.
His sensual dusky lips bowed into a smile and her heart fluttered, crimson touching her cheeks, until he said something to his four colleagues. They all looked her way, hungry intent in their pale eyes, a reminder of why things never would have worked between her and their leader.
Vampires were seducers by nature, addicted to the hunt and the kill. They were players. That wasn’t the sort of man she wanted in her life.
“Do you know him?” The sound of Einar’s bass voice, close to her ear, reassured her and soothed her tension.
Taylor nodded and then looked down when he touched her left arm, a jolt of surprise rocking her. The demons nearby stared. She didn’t care. She looked over her shoulder and into his eyes.
His hard expression slowly changed to one of concern again and he slid his hand downwards. Her eyes briefly closed when his fingers tangled with hers and her heart beat harder. His touch was so comforting that she lost track of their surroundings.
It was only when she sensed danger that she snapped back to reality. She turned quickly, her right hand going for the blade strapped to her ribs beneath her jacket, and stopped with her hand on the hilt.
The vampire had come to see them.
CHAPTER 9
“Is he bothering you?” the vampire said, his smile masking the darkness Taylor could feel in him.
“I could ask the same thing.” Einar pulled her closer to him.
The feathers of his wings tickled her arm when he brought it further back, so her hand was near his hip.
His sword.
He guided her hand to the hilt and she wrapped her fingers around it, following his silent instruction. It wouldn’t come to a fight, but it was comforting to know that they were prepared for one nonetheless.
“Not at all. It’s not like you to be jealous, Villandry.” She shot the vampire a sweet smile.
Villandry cast his darkening gaze over her and then fixed it on Einar. Dark crimson ringed his irises, turning scarlet whenever the bar spotlights switched to red. His short neat hair turned as black as midnight and his pale skin looked even whiter when the lights switched to blue, as cold as his glare, but even that couldn’t detract from his masculine beauty.
Women passing by stared at him and Taylor wondered if she had looked as hungry as them once, all those months ago, when she had fallen for Villandry’s charm and beguiling smile. She shook away the memories of his slim toned physique and replaced them with images of how good Einar had looked naked, his broad muscled body bronzed and sexy. It was Einar who had the attention of her heart now,
not Villandry. She wasn’t going to fall for his glamour again.
His appearance was nothing but a lie. She had witnessed his true face before, the one he hadn’t been able to hide in the heat of the moment when he had bitten her. He wasn’t beautiful at all.
“What are you doing, Taylor, bringing one of their kind here? I take it you are not out to bring him to his knees?” Villandry’s irises switched completely, burning scarlet, and his pupils narrowed and stretched, becoming cat-like.
She shook her head and her fingers flexed around Einar’s sword. Villandry wouldn’t see the action. Einar’s tawny left wing obscured their hands. To Villandry, it would look as though Einar was holding her back.
Villandry sneered, flashing a hint of fang. “What business does he have here?”
“We have come for information.” Einar’s deep voice sent a shiver down her spine and her eyes widened slightly when he stepped into her, the full length of his body pressing against her back.
He placed his hand on her shoulder and then shifted it closer to her neck.
Closer to her blade.
Did he really think Villandry would be stupid enough to attack them in the club?
He had more class and sense than that. He was more likely to wait for them to finish their business and then track them when they left.
No matter how much they courted public attention, one thing would never change about vampires.
They liked to kill in private.
It was the reason they lived so long.
“I hardly thought you had come to partake in the party.” Villandry ran his sharp gaze over them and settled it on her. “I am surprised the boss let you in with him. You know they are not to be trusted, Tay. Vile creatures. Take him away, Tay.”
She hated that pet name of his. She had a perfectly good name, and she wasn’t his to command, and he would do well to remember that.
She drew the shortest of her knives and had the tip of it against Villandry’s throat before he could move. He didn’t even tense. He calmly raised an eyebrow and looked down at her hand. The blade was small enough that most wouldn’t notice it, barely the length of her thumb.
“We’re just here for information. We’ll be gone in a few minutes. Don’t make this any more difficult than it already is, Villandry.” She pressed the blade to his throat and the crimson bled from his eyes as he stared into hers. “And quit calling me Tay. It’s been over a long time. Let it go.”
“You wear my marks.” Villandry’s tone was as cold as ice as his gaze drilled into hers, black with the fury she could sense rising inside of him.
“It doesn’t mean you own me. You can fool yourself if you like, but I’m not anyone’s possession.” Taylor pressed forward with the blade and then lowered her hand.
A thin dark line marked Villandry’s throat.
She hadn’t meant to cut him but perhaps it would help drive her point home without things turning violent. Nobody owned her. The marks on her thigh were just a scar now, regardless of how another vampire or Villandry might see them. They were just another memory.
“Taylor... I never thought you would turn out this way.” Villandry touched his throat and then stared at the blood on his fingertips. He smeared it across them with his thumb, thoughtful and distant. She kept her guard up, unwilling to give him a chance to hurt her. His eyes met hers again and his expression hardened. He smiled and gave a short laugh, and then shook his head a fraction. “You think this story will have a happy ending? You are more of a fool than I had thought. It is one thing to work with such a vile creature, and another thing entirely to believe in anything it would say. Guard yourself, Taylor. The only thing you are heading for is a fall, and as you say, I do not own you, and therefore I will not be there this time to pick up the pieces.”
Villandry disappeared.
She hated it when he did that.
She stepped forwards, out of the now cloying touch of Einar, and scanned the club for the vampire.
Einar placed his hand on her shoulder,
She rolled it, shirking his grip, and tiptoed, scouring the heaving room as she clenched her fists at her sides and gritted her teeth.
Bastard vampire.
Her heart slammed against her chest and stammered with the heavy beat of the music. Villandry had fired her up on purpose and then fled.
How dare he try to shake her faith in Einar?
She muttered a long string of obscenities that were blacker than Hell.
She sheathed her small knife against her ribs beneath her leather jacket, jamming it into the holster, rage pounding in her veins and demanding to be sated. Normally she would go out and find something to beat into oblivion when such a dark mood struck her. She couldn’t do that with Einar in tow. Hell only knew what he thought of her now or how close he was to discovering secrets about her that she was desperate to keep hidden and fears she didn’t want to face.
Villandry was right. She knew it deep in her heart. What she was doing with Einar was a mistake and it was going to go horribly wrong, and she couldn’t see any way out of the impending disaster.
He was going to find out.
And then he was going to leave and break her heart.
And this time Villandry wouldn’t be there.
She cursed again.
Einar touched her shoulder and she didn’t shrug out of his grip this time. She let him touch her because she needed to feel his hands on her, feel him close to her, so she could fool herself into believing that Villandry was wrong. Einar wasn’t going to hurt her.
“You slept with him?” There was darkness in his tone.
It carried his voice deep into her head and her heart over the music and she turned and raised her gaze to his. His eyes were black in the strobe light, no trace of gold in them now. Fury and a craving for violence trickled into her where his hand rested on her shoulder, the feeling creeping over her skin and warning her that making Einar jealous right now would be a very bad idea. She didn’t know him well enough to judge what he might do, but the look in his eyes said that he would start by massacring the four vampires that Villandry had left behind.
“Once or twice, a long time ago.” She placed her hand over his. “Don’t tell me I have to use the ‘let it go’ speech on you too?”
The darkness in his eyes didn’t shift.
She risked it and curled her fingers around his hand, holding it, and stepped closer to him. She didn’t care if the demons were watching. Einar was too important to her for her to pretend that he meant nothing just so the demons wouldn’t bother them. She wouldn’t push him away like that, no matter what the consequences were. She couldn’t.
“What’s this all about, Taylor?” The high snappy tone of the woman’s voice jolted her and she instantly released Einar’s hand, her heart leaping into her throat.
She spun on her heel to face the woman.
The boss swept the short strands of her blonde hair from her dark eyes and locked gazes with her, looked so deep into them Taylor felt as though the boss was trying to probe her mind for the answer.
“Did you send a halfwit demon after us?” Taylor held her gaze, unflinching under the woman’s scrutiny.
The boss’s attention shifted to Einar.
And lingered.
Taylor frowned, a spear of jealousy lancing her chest, and was one step away from moving into the boss’s line of sight when the woman looked back at her. Her expression turned harsh. Taylor had always thought the boss was pretty when she smiled. When she scowled, she was as ugly as sin and a flicker of her true appearance shifted over her skin, scaly and grotesque.
“Not after you. I was after those bastards.” The boss waved a hand at a male bartender and before a minute had passed, he was handing her a tall dark drink.
Blood.
It wasn’t just vampires that needed iron in their food.
The boss was a blood-drinker too and normally it came fresh from the vein. Taylor hoped that it hadn’t tonight. She was sure that th
e boss had more sense than to have a human on tap when there was an angel in the room.
“No offence, Taylor, but what the fuck are you doing bringing one of his kind into my club?” the boss snapped, a flicker of fire in her eyes.
“Common purpose,” Taylor blurted, feeling like a schoolkid all over again, afraid of her teacher’s wrath. “We both want rid of these demons. It makes sense to work together.”
“What you were doing a moment ago looked pretty damn far from just working together. I don’t have to remind you how quickly this sort of shit goes bad.” She swirled her glass of blood and lifted it to her nose, inhaled it as if savouring a fine wine, and then fixed a glare on Einar.
Taylor forced a smile. The boss certainly didn’t have to remind her about the consequences of choosing Mr. Wrong, and Taylor suspected that she’d had her fair share of heartbreak too.
But it was different this time.
At least she hoped it was.
The last guy to break Taylor’s heart had been one of Hell’s guardians. The demon equivalent of an angel. That thought shook her. What if the good sort of angel broke her heart too? She wasn’t sure which would hurt more—being jilted by one of her own kind, or by Einar.
“Just give me a break for a second and answer a few questions, and we’ll be out of here.” She placed her hands on her hips, gunning for confident and in control, and desperate to divert the course of their conversation.
She was tired of everyone telling her that she was heading for heartbreak when it was none of their business. She was certain that what she had with Einar wasn’t going to backfire on her.
Well. Maybe seventy percent certain.
Fifty.
Whatever.
It didn’t matter right now. She just needed answers from the boss about what had happened to the demon, any information that the woman had, and then she would be gone. When they were alone again, she was going to have a conversation with Einar, and at some point during it, she was going to find the courage to mention that one of her parents hadn’t been human.
And hopefully he wouldn’t send her to Heaven for questioning too.
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