by R. E. Butler
After she looked at the wine list, she ordered a glass of red and then handed the menu to Mishka. On the back page was a list of blood varieties available.
“I’ll take a glass of SyBl,” he said, closing the menu and handing it to the waiter.
He nodded and disappeared to place their order.
“Why didn’t you order real blood?” she asked, turning slightly in the booth to look at him.
He rested his arm on the back of the booth and wrapped a lock of her hair around his finger. “I have you.”
“And?”
“I don’t want anyone else’s real blood except yours.”
Her brow furrowed for a brief moment, and then she leaned forward and kissed him. “You’re so sweet.”
“I’m just honest.” He wasn’t sure that anyone else’s blood would even taste right to him. The synthetic blood nourished his body, and that was all he needed. He used to chase after vintage bloods, wanting to try everything he could. One of his coven guards, a fallen angel named Darian, had hunted rare blood for him.
After the glasses of blood and red wine were dropped off, along with a basket of sliced bread, Harmony said, “You don’t allow the family to bring their food to their chambers.”
“Correct.”
“Even the people the club pays to donate their blood?”
“We perform extensive background checks for food, but the family’s chambers are very private. In order to bring someone to their chamber, they would need to bring that person under-the-fang.”
Harmony pursed her lips for a moment, her left eye closing slightly as she thought. She looked adorable.
“I’m searching through our memories,” she said. “Do I look weird when I do that? I feel like I look weird.”
“Not at all, my heart.”
She snorted delicately. “Under-the-fang is permanent food, but not a mate.”
He nodded. Taking a human or shifter under-the-fang was akin to what humans called going steady. It was a serious relationship, one that involved the food moving into the vampire’s chamber. Only trusted food would be taken under-the-fang.
“Remind me why we needed to leave the club?”
He chuckled and lifted her hand, placing a kiss on it. “Because I want to treat you properly.”
“You’re possibly the most proper person I’ve ever met in my life.”
“Old habits die hard.”
Her meal arrived, and she made a humming sound of pleasure as she looked over the meal she’d chosen. His SyBl was in a black glass so that the obvious color and contents were obscured.
She lifted her glass of red wine, and he lifted his SyBl. “What should we toast to?”
“Us,” he said.
“And the future.”
Their rims touched with a soft tinkling sound, and they both took a sip. She put her glass down on the table and lifted her fork. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m starving. There was this sexy guy in my bed who kept me up half the day.”
“I can’t help it that you’re irresistible.”
“I wasn’t complaining,” she said with a wink.
* * *
When the meal was finished, Rage came to the table and said with a low voice, “We need to leave through the back. There’s a huge crowd out front.”
Harmony’s brow raised. “Why?”
Vex joined them and pressed a button on his cell, and then he turned it around to face them. A local news station’s website was streaming a video of Mishka and Harmony entering the restaurant. The heading of the video displayed, “Master of the City’s New Female.”
Harmony leaned back in the booth with a sigh and lifted her nearly empty glass of wine. “New female? It makes me sound like one in a long line of many.”
Vex shook his head with a laugh. “I checked in with Cella, and she said that all the news stations have been calling for comments. For now she’s saying no comment, but you know you’ll need to make a comment eventually.”
Mishka nodded. “Tell Cella to draft one for us. I’ll look it over when we get home.”
After sliding out of the booth, he held out his hand for Harmony. She set her empty glass of wine on the table, grabbed his hand, and joined him. “Was this a bad idea?”
“What?”
“Us going out in public. We’re on the news, for gracious sake.”
Before he could answer, Finn said, “You’re the beloved of the most powerful vampire in the Midwest. It was only a matter of time before your relationship was leaked to the public.”
Mishka slipped his arm around Harmony. “We’ll leave as we did before, with the limo first and then the town car.”
Vex nodded and left to speak with the other guards.
Mishka directed his gaze to Rage. “It won’t take long for it to become known that Harmony is the lead singer of the band. Vigilance will be key for the nights when she performs with the band.”
He nodded. “Vex and I were discussing increasing security at the club while you were eating.”
Harmony tipped her face up to Mishka, and he met her gaze. “With the news that I’m your beloved, there are going to be a lot of broken-hearted females in Cleveland tonight.”
Mishka grinned. “I’m sure your fans will be sad that you’re off the market as well, my heart.”
Ten minutes later they were in the town car. Harmony sat next to him, and Vex and Rage sat in the front. The limo pulled away from the restaurant with the plan to lead any followers on another wild goose chase. Harmony pressed her hand to Mishka’s cheek, and he turned his head to look down at her. The alley was dark, as was the interior of the vehicle, but he didn’t need to have lights to know exactly what she looked like.
“I wish we were home right now,” she whispered.
He brushed his lips against hers. “Do you?”
She hummed softly, sliding her heeled foot over his calf. “I liked our date, but now we’re stuck waiting for a crowd to disperse instead of rushing home to the chamber.”
He played his fingers over her knee and up the outside of her thigh. There was no partition that separated the front and back of the town car, so they had no real privacy. What he wanted to do was lay her down on the seat and ravage her, but he knew she valued their privacy.
“Our date isn’t over yet,” he said.
“Oh?”
“I want to dance with you.”
“Out in the club?”
“There’s a private viewing room. We’ll be in the club but not part of the crowd.”
“Sounds perfect.”
She wrapped his ponytail around her hand and kissed him, a soft purr in her throat. He gripped her thigh, stilling the urge to find out how wet she was from just a kiss, and sucked on her tongue. The car moved slowly, creeping forward as Vex and Rage watched for trouble. The vehicle accelerated as they cleared the alley and moved swiftly away from the restaurant.
“This is not fair,” she whispered against his mouth. “Wouldn’t we have privacy in the limo?”
“Tomorrow this car will be as private as our chamber.”
“Promise?” she asked with a laugh.
“Definitely. I’m also thinking about building a restaurant next to the club.”
“Can we have our own private booth so we never have to make reservations?”
“Whatever you like.”
“Now that’s a dangerous promise. I like a lot of things about you.”
He opened his mouth to tell her just how many things he liked about her – loved about her – when the sound of several vehicles accelerating filled the air along with Rage’s snarl and Vex’s curse.
Mishka pulled Harmony to the center of the bench seat and covered her body with his own seconds before the town car was rammed. She screamed and gripped him tightly as the car spun in a circle and then was rammed a second time by another vehicle. The impact jarred his bones, but he managed to sink his fingers into the seat to ensure that Harmony was kept safe in his embrace.
“We’v
e got incoming,” Vex shouted.
Both back doors of the town car had been crushed. Mishka watched as Rage launched himself from the front seat with a growl loud enough to rattle the car’s windows.
“You both okay?” Vex asked. A cut was already healing on his forehead where he’d hit the steering wheel.
“Who hit us?” Mishka demanded as he released his hold on Harmony and cracked his knuckles.
“Humans. Church members, I’m sure,” Vex said.
He disappeared, and Mishka listened as a fight raged outside of the vehicle. He glanced at Harmony; protective feelings for her surged inside him like a tidal wave.
“Kill a couple for me,” she whispered. “Put this threat down for good.”
He kissed her swiftly and twisted in the seat, slamming his feet against the door. It wrenched open, and he bolted out, stopping only long enough to slam it shut to keep Harmony safe. As he turned to face the fight, he heard a gun cock, and he darted forward, crushing the barrel of the gun and then the hand of the male holding it. The man screamed, and Mishka grabbed his throat, sinking his fingers into his skin and pulling out a chunk of his flesh.
Tossing the dying male aside, Mishka scanned the intersection and saw the limo arriving. The doors opened as the other guards joined the melee. Discarding his jacket, Mishka headed into the fray, intent to secure his beloved’s safety in every way.
Chapter 10
Harmony was both freaked out and turned on by the battle outside. She’d seen her bandmates break up the odd fight over the years, but what Mishka and his guards were doing to the humans who’d engineered the accident was nothing short of terrifying. The vampires moved so fast that she had trouble tracking them. One minute Mishka was tearing the throat out of a human and the next he had broken another’s neck. He was beautiful in his rage. She could feel his emotions through their connection as beloveds, and she knew that every move he made he did with her in mind. He was securing her safety above all else, and he would kill a thousand vampire-hating humans to do it.
She gripped the door handle, her thoughts on helping her mate and her people, but she knew if she opened the door, she’d embrace the dark side of her power. She’d never used her powers to kill someone, and even though she knew she was powerful enough to do it, she was afraid to lose herself, afraid to taste the darkness and not be able to come back from it.
The door creaked open suddenly, and Mishka, with his white dress shirt splashed with the blood of their enemies, snarled, his fangs glinting in the streetlights.
“Are you okay?” he demanded. His golden eyes were so bright they looked like shiny coins.
“I’m good. You?”
He gripped the collar of his shirt with both hands and ripped it off, tossing the tattered remnants to the street. “Not my blood.”
In the distance, police sirens sounded. “We need to get out of here before the human police show up,” Vex said as he joined them.
She pointed to the streetlight overhead. “There’s a traffic cam up there; they already know we were here.”
“I texted Temple, and he hacked the camera system. Rage and the others are sticking around to deal with the cops. The master and mistress of the city cannot be the subject of a police investigation where a dozen humans died.”
Mishka climbed into the car. “Get us home,” he said just a moment before the door shut.
Vex pulled away from the curb, driving in the opposite direction of the sirens. Harmony was surprised that the car could even drive, but Mishka assured her that it was built to take a beating and still get the occupants to safety.
The silence in the car was stifling. Deciding to try for a little humor, she turned to Mishka and said, “So this is the most exciting first date I’ve ever had. How about you?”
For a long moment, no one said anything, and then Mishka laughed, followed by Vex. Settling back against Mishka, she listened as he told her about a first date he had with a fallen angel in the 1700s.
* * *
Mishka hustled her through the garage and into the club while Vex stayed with the vehicle to wait for a coven mechanic who was going to tow it to a nearby garage. She wasn’t surprised that there was a mechanic in the coven who owned a coven-friendly repair shop. Mishka had ensured that the coven had everything they would need for their day-to-day lives, from car repair to SyBl delivery.
“Will Rage and the others be okay?” she asked, holding Mishka’s hand tightly as they hurried through the hall toward the elevator.
“The coven’s lawyers are already heading to the scene. If the police want to detain the guards, the lawyers will ensure they’re out well before dawn,” he said.
“Is it dangerous to be at the police station after dawn?”
They stopped in front of the elevator, and he pushed the call button. The gears whirred inside the shaft as the elevator moved.
“Not necessarily, but since our kind are vulnerable to sunlight, it’s best for our people to be home so they can be safe instead of at the mercy of someone who may not have their best interests in mind.”
She shivered. “Would a cop really leave a vampire in a cell where he would get burned?”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, and she looked up at him to find him frowning. “It’s not happened since I’ve been master of the city, but I have heard of it happening in other places from time to time. When you’ve been around as long as I have, you tend to see the best and worst that humanity has to offer.”
The elevator opened, and they stepped inside. “I wish I could have been more helpful tonight,” she said, leaning heavily against Mishka.
He snarled, his arms tightening around her. “I wouldn’t want you to have been out in that mess, my heart.”
“I don’t know what would possess them to attack us like that, or how they even knew it was us. They went after the town car.”
“I suspect that they realized the limo was a decoy. All the humans who attacked us are dead; otherwise we could get some answers.”
She shivered. “The church is watching you.”
“Watching the club. I’ll have Brone do an exterior sweep to make sure they haven’t found a way to sneak cameras anywhere.”
“It would be nice if the leader was among the dead.”
“He wasn’t, but I suspect he was watching from a safe distance.”
The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out into the hallway and headed toward the chamber. “Why can’t the local police make them pack up? They’re a terror.”
“Because on the surface they hide behind their religion and appear to be harmless – just humans who don’t like vampires.”
When they were inside the chamber, with the door locked and the shower heating, she turned and leaned against the counter. “I thought about stepping out and using my power to help.”
He dropped to one knee and lifted her foot, undoing the thin strap of her heel.
“How would singing to make them happy have helped that situation?”
She snorted. “Not the pure part of my power, but the darker side.”
When her other heel was in his hand, he looked up at her, his golden gaze searching. “Dark side?”
“Muse power, like most supernatural powers, has both light and dark aspects. I can use my power to take away negative emotions from people, so I can sing and clear out doubt and fear and worry and sadness and allow happier emotions to take their places. The dark side of that power would be to focus on the negative emotions and amplify them. I could conceivably make a person kill himself, or cause a person’s stress levels to go so high from fear that he has a heart attack.”
They stripped and climbed into the shower. As he lathered a bar of soap in his hands and rubbed his soapy fingers over her shoulders, he asked, “Why wouldn’t you want to do that? Why wouldn’t you want to save yourself?”
“It’s dangerous.”
“How?”
“The dark side of muse power is addictive. A muse who taps into the
darkness can get lost in it, unable to control who falls under her power.”
“You worry you’ll lose yourself?”
“Or hurt someone I love.”
He cupped her chin and tilted her face until she was looking into his eyes. “I would never let you lose yourself. I will always find you.”
She settled her hands on his waist, rubbing her thumbs along the front of his chiseled stomach. “I hope I never have to even brush up against the darkness.”
“Me too, my heart.”
* * *
On Thursday night, Harmony stood offstage with Mishka, Vex, Rage, her guards, and her bandmates. Mishka wore a pair of black leather trousers that fit him like a second skin and a black, silk dress shirt open at the neck. His hair, like always, was caught back at the nape of his neck. She reached for his hair and slowly tugged the tie out, sliding her fingers through the silky locks. “Will you stay up here while I sing?”
“I’ll be back in time for your show,” he said, lifting her hands to his lips to kiss them. “I have to check in with the family upstairs.”
He disappeared, along with Vex and Rage, and she turned back to watch the crowd as they danced to music from the sound system. Grabbing a lock of her hair, she inspected the strands. The blue color was there, but it was fading. She’d sung to Mishka days earlier, and it had kept her power well sated, but she was looking forward to getting a boost from the crowd and helping them to have a good night. Having a house band with a musical muse as the lead singer would be a boon to the club and would draw larger crowds as they realized what her powers could do.
“Looks like a good crowd tonight,” Wyst said.
“I’m sure it will be great,” she said.
Her gaze moved around the club, from the entrance and coat check, to the multiple bars that served every kind of drink imaginable, to the dance floor where people writhed to the beat like they were possessed. She saw Mishka and his guards ascend a flight of stairs to the area known as the family room, which was a private, glass-enclosed room where the family gathered for drinks.