by Jill Myles
I thought about his question for a moment, then leaned in. “Boredom?” It seemed a good enough answer as any. “It’s been a dull week. I needed a rush. My friend suggested we come here.”
“She suggested right,” he whispered against my neck. He looked like he was about to fling me down onto the table and have at me in front of all these people. He inhaled sharply, and then stiffened. “You smell like—” His eyes widened, flaring to full-blown red.
My heart hammered as I put a finger to his lips. “Shhh. Didn’t I tell you who my friend is? She let me borrow her clothes.” I put my fingers under his chin and tilted his gaze toward the bar, where Remy sat, surrounded by vampire admirers.
“Ah.” He inhaled deeply against my neck again, licking at my skin. “You smell amazing.” He sniffed again, and I remembered. Like catnip to their kind, I had joked, and it certainly seemed to be true. He’d forgotten all about his beer, and the friend who he’d pissed off. “Why don’t you sit in my lap?”
The Itch was turning into a full-on throb despite the sizzling on my forehead, and I obligingly slid onto his lap, straddling him and pressing my breasts against his chest. I could feel the hardness in his pants against the junction of my legs under my skirt, and the realization made me smile with arch delight. “How’s that?” I let my long curtain of hair fall over his face, shielding the two of us from any onlookers.
“Perfect,” he said, his voice hoarse. His hands gripped my hips and ground them against his cock. “You’re a smokin’ little number, Colette.”
“I like to think so,” I bragged, and the angel kiss flared again, instantly quelling any desire my charged hormones felt for this guy. Instead, I was reminded that I was grinding down on an oversexed vampire in a public bar full of the type. And I needed to pick his brain.
He ground my hips down on his again and I took that moment to kiss him, hoping I could avoid fangs. Sleep, I thought, and a weird sensation flooded through me, my nerves tingling.
It worked almost too well. Adam became instantly limp, and I had to close my lips over his again to muffle a snore. Well, that was a neat trick, but now what? It wasn’t like I could go up and ask Remy what to do. If someone found out what I was up to, I’d be toast. Going on instinct, I pressed my forehead to his and tried to see what was going on in there.
I was immediately thrust into a series of images in his mind, some cloudy, some distinct and fully formed. It was like wandering into someone’s cluttered bedroom, seeing all their stuff spread out over their furniture. Everything I needed and more was here, if I knew where to look.
I was temporarily distracted when I noticed my dream-self straddling Adam’s dream-self on the dreambed. My head was thrown back and he was grabbing my hair like I was the pony and he was my rider. Dream-Adam was pumping into me as hard and fast as he could, and Dream-me was squealing like a stuck pig.
Real-me made a face and hands went to my hips. “Oh, that is so typical.”
Dream-Adam opened his eyes and looked over at Real-me, standing in the middle of his psychic bedroom. Every thought he’d had this evening was scattered in random fashion around the messy bedroom—I guess Adam still hadn’t grown up. Girly mags were strewn in one corner, a video game system in the far end of the room, and bouncing, red-haired succubus in the middle. Confusion settled over his lust-smeared face. “Two of you?”
Suddenly a second Dream-me popped into the room and started mauling down on him, licking his jawline.
“Oh, ew. If I sit on your face in this dream, you are in so much trouble.” I made a face and began to pick my way into the room, looking at the objects there for hints. I passed a half-eaten container of chicken wings and hoped that didn’t have any hidden meanings.
“What are you doing here?” He was coherent enough to ask that between moaning and slurping noises, and I tried not to look over there.
“Nothing. Go back to boinking the two of me. I’m just shopping around.” I picked through a stack of magazines slopped onto the floor, wondering what I was looking for.
“You’re so hot,” he moaned, sounding like a brain-dead surfer, and I looked over to see Me-Two jerk his head backward and stick her tongue down his throat.
Ugh. I moved over to Adam and pushed one of the slut-puppy versions of me out of the way. “Hey, I’ll turn this into a group effort if you share a little something with me.”
His eyes bugged out. “Oh yeah.”
I felt bad for about a nanosecond, then realized he was doing lewd and disgusting things with me in his dreams. “What’s your little gang of friends up to lately that would make the angels nervous?”
“Hmm?”
I had to pry Me-Two off him again. Damn, that bitch had a tongue like a heat-seeking missile. “You guys are up to something, and it’s making the other guys—you know, the ones with wings—a bit antsy.”
“I’m not doing anything,” Adam said, giving me a lazy smile. “You can climb on top now.”
A halo flickered into existence over his head, and I flicked his nose with my fingernail. “You’re a bad liar.”
“Ow!”
“I’m serious here,” I said, getting irritated with this man’s dream. “Are you guys plotting to take over the world? Stealing something? Burning down a church?”
He rubbed his nose and glared at me. “You’re mean.”
Maybe I was going about this the wrong way. I trailed my finger over his lips and played with his fangs, and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head at the pleasure of it. “Why don’t you just tell me what sort of super-spy stuff you’re up to and I’ll let you go back to playtime, hmm?”
“Ex-ex-expedishn,” he said around my finger, sucking on the tip of it like some gigantic leech.
“Expi-what?” I pulled my finger out of his mouth and resisted the urge to wipe it on my dream-skirt.
“Expedition. Queen wants the halo.”
Huh. I’d thought he was just trying to be clever with the halo gimmick. “Got anything more than that?” I trailed my finger across his chin, staring at the glowing circle over his head. It looked … like a plain old halo. “Any other tidbits to tell me?”
“I love you,” he said, a dreamy look on his face as he stared up at my breasts.
Just then my corset top vanished, and I cursed as my breasts nearly bounced into his face. I’d be willing to guess that I was just about to lose control of this dream, and I jerked myself free.
I shivered back into my body, feeling the way a wet dog does when he shakes his coat free of water, and found myself straddling a horny, snoring vampire. Drool slithered down one of his cheeks and I backed away, slowly extricating myself from his lap and hoping no one noticed what we were up to.
A quick glance around the room showed that I was safe. Remy’s crowd of paramours at the bar hadn’t budged an inch, but I noticed her flick a look over at me. I got the hint and slid back down in my seat, trying to push my skirt back down. I poked Adam in the side, trying to look casual. “Wake up. You’re drooling all over the table.”
He didn’t wake up.
I poked him again, harder. The first stirrings of fear swirled in my mind and I pinched his side. Adam smacked his lips, smiled, and slumped against me. A snore erupted from his mouth and I froze, hoping nobody else heard it.
But not two seconds passed before Mr. Hideous Joel was back, scowling at me with suspicious eyes.
I tried to deflect him by cuddling up against Adam’s side and looking like the happy couple. “Mind leaving us for a bit? We’re just getting cozy.”
Another snore punctured the silence, and my lie burst like a bubble right in my face. Damn. I forced myself to keep the fake smile pasted on.
A hand snarled in my hair and dragged me out of the booth and across the floor. The room had become deathly silent, except for the sounds of my panicked breathing and the soft snores coming from Adam. My head was a mass of pain, my eyes squeezed shut to try to take the edge off it.
“Hey,” I protested, my han
ds clamping around his wrist to relieve the agonizing pressure on my scalp. It was a wonder my hair hadn’t ripped out of my head. “What’s the big idea?”
Joel hauled me to my feet and stared me in the eye. “Is there something you want to tell us, missy?”
I winced and tried to disentangle his fingers from my hair with my own. “Um, I’m a Scorpio and I like long walks on the beach?”
The next moment, I was kissing floor as my face slammed into the marble tile. It took me a moment to recover my breath, and I rolled over slowly, turning to find myself eye to heel with Remy’s stilettos. I followed the shoe upward and found her staring down at me, a chagrined look on her face. Two overly muscled vampires had her by the arms.
Joel hauled me up again by the hair, and I screamed in protest. “Ow! Lay off of the hair pulling! What did I do to you?”
I struggled to pull myself free without much luck. Succubi got the short end of the stick when it came to supernatural strength, and the vamps got it all.
Joel held me pinned against him, his lip pulled up in a snarl. “What did you do to Adam?” He shot a look over at Remy. “Did you have anything to do with this?”
Remy put her hands in the air, denying his words. “We just came down here to get a drink. You’re getting carried away. Is all this really necessary?”
He tilted my head back, exposing my neck, and pure panic shot through me. “Can’t we talk about this?” When I saw his head disappear under my chin, I squeaked in a last-ditch effort, “I’m positive for hepatitis, you know.” My eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the worst.
The feel of a warm, slimy tongue rasped against my neck and I shuddered with distaste. “I thought so,” Joel rumbled, then dumped me to the floor at Remy’s feet.
I rubbed my scalp, staring up at the people surrounding me, my panic threatening to turn into full-on crisis. “Thought what?”
“You’re like her.” He scowled at the circle of vampires standing a little too close for my comfort. “Colette here’s a succubus.”
“Colette?” The rich, coffee-smooth voice rolled over me and I got to my feet as the crowd parted, letting Zane in. “My my,” he said, looking me over like a buffet. “This just gets more and more interesting, doesn’t it? I had no idea that you were a succubus. What brings you to our little club?” The twinkle in his dark black eyes was amused. He was having fun at my expense; he knew darn good and well who and what I was.
Before I could protest, Joel broke in again. “She’s put Adam to sleep,” he said, the look on his face grave.
My stomach fluttered when I noticed Zane’s smile fade as he turned back to me. One dark eyebrow arched. “You put him to sleep?” He flipped out his cell phone and started dialing. “Wake him up, will you? The queen’s going to be mighty pissed when she hears about this.”
Remy paled and struggled in the arms of her guards. “Do you really think that’s necessary? We’ll leave immediately.”
Zane looked me up and down, his dark eyes unreadable. “No can do, my dears. The queen would have my head if I didn’t let her know you two were here, nosing around. Rather poor taste, don’t you think, Remy?” He gave her a half smile and walked away, sliding the cell phone to his ear. “This is Zane. Is the queen awake?”
Remy struggled forward and grabbed my arm, leaning in to hiss into my ear, “Are you crazy?”
I scowled at her panicked face. “I don’t know. I’m in the basement of a club with a porn star and a bazillion vampires, and we’re waiting for their queen. You tell me if I’m crazy.”
She forced me to step into the corner of the room. Our new friends followed us, naturally, not saying a word. The silence was more disturbing than anything they could have said. I heard the soft mumble of Zane’s voice in the background as he discussed our appearance at the nightclub with someone.
“Do you realize how much shit we’re in?” Remy asked.
I rubbed my forehead, glancing over at the happily sleeping Adam. “No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.”
Remy made a sound of frustration, then I heard her exhale as she tried to calm herself. She whispered, “All I can tell you is to play it cool with the queen and try to avoid eye contact. Okay?”
Well, that sounded scary as all hell. “Got it,” I said, hating the quaver in my voice.
Zane returned, flipping his phone shut with a click. “I’m afraid that the queen is on her way, ladies, and she has requested your presence.” He smiled over at me, all charm and ease again. “It seems you’ll be our guests for a bit longer, yes?”
Remy crossed her arms over her chest and tossed her ponytail. “I wasn’t aware that we had a choice, Zane.”
His dark eyes fixed on me. “You don’t.”
I was silent. Hell, I’d already ruined the evening. I didn’t need to say anything else.
Zane glanced over at Adam, who was still asleep in the booth. He stilled, turning to fix his gaze on me, and his fangs extended a bit in a veiled threat. “Didn’t I tell you to wake him up?”
“You did,” I agreed, putting my hands on my hips.
“Well?”
I raked a strand of hair off my forehead in a nervous reaction. “Teeny problem.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. A rather broad, leather-covered, delicious chest. “And what’s that?”
“Well, I don’t know how to wake him up.” I gave him my brightest smile. “New girl on the block and all.”
Zane swore.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The next half hour was the longest one of my life. Waiting for the vampire queen was akin to waiting in the dentist’s office, without the benefit of knowing that you’d get Novocain. I sat in the booth next to my sleeping buddy Adam and twiddled my thumbs. Remy was kept separated from me by about a dozen pissedoff vampires. I could hear her repeating from across the room, “Look, I don’t know how to wake him up. The only one who can do that is the succubus who put him under in the first place.”
Which was me. Ignorant, ignorant me.
Zane sat across from me, an indifferent look on his face as he regarded my fidgeting.
Adam still snored peacefully. I’d attempted waking him up a few times but to no avail; I simply didn’t know how to flip the switch now that I’d turned it off. Kissing him hadn’t worked; poking, prodding, screaming … I’d tried it all without success.
When I started popping my knuckles for the ninth time, Zane reached out and placed his hands over mine. They were very warm, with a hint of manly callus, and brushed over mine with a seductive touch. My brain unfocused. “Do you mind?” The edge of a teasing grin tugged at his lips.
“No, actually,” I shook off his hands and punctuated each word with an obnoxious pop. “I don’t mind at all.”
Zane inclined his head toward Sleeping Beauty. “The queen might be more lenient with you if you wake our little friend up.” He leaned back in the booth in a casual slouch that made my hormones pitter-patter, and his teeth bared in a fanged smile, reminding me of who he was. “Or is it your plan to drive her to anger?”
“Yeah, and don’t you think it’s working swell? I have you just where I want you.” I rolled my eyes at him. “Look, you don’t think I’ve tried waking him up? I have, and I don’t know how. New here, remember?” I lowered my voice so the other vampires wouldn’t hear my dirty secret. “Remy’s not exactly the best teacher to have. She forgot to tell me all the pertinent stuff—like the dreams and the constant need for sex, and a few other perks of the job.” I couldn’t mask the disgruntlement in my voice.
“Speaking of,” Zane drawled, his accent more pronounced. “How do you feel about the urges you get? I know Remy has adapted to them quite well over the years. You must be struggling.” His gaze roamed over me for longer than necessary. “From what I’ve heard, it takes several months for the needs to settle into a regulated pattern. The first few weeks are the worst.”
“Are they?” I tried to keep my tone bright and cheerful. “It must affect everyone differ
ently, because I’m just fine. Fine and dandy.” I batted my eyelashes at him.
“You do seem to be acclimating rather well,” he agreed, amusement rumbling in his throat. I felt an answering tingle down my spine and the angel kiss quelled the urge. Like it or not, there was something fascinating about the vampire seated across from me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, though I suspected that it was the utter menace under the indolence of his pose. “It almost makes me wonder if you’re a different sort of creature from Remy.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled. Was that a backhanded compliment or an insult? Unsure, I replied, “We’re not much alike, she and I. Don’t let the clothing fool you.”
“Miss Summore is very basic in her needs,” he agreed. “You seem like you want something different than her hedonistic lifestyle. It surprises me.” One black brow arched as he studied me, reaching for his beer and taking a long swig.
Pigeonholed. Now that smarted. “Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Fanged, that I might have had a job and a life I was happy with before everyone started messing with me? I liked my world safe and normal and neat. I even liked being respected for my brain and not how well I fill out a bra. That all changed when your kind started fucking with me.”
I took the beer from his hand and swigged the rest of it myself. Pissed wasn’t the word for how I felt at the moment. On fire with angry self-righteousness, maybe. They’d come into my life and turned it upside down, and now had the nerve to be irritated at me?
He laughed in my face and let me have the beer. “I can’t imagine your life was so wonderful that it couldn’t use a bit of improving.”
Anger fired through all my synapses, and I saw red. “Where do you get off, buddy?”
“The blood bank,” he said calmly, responding with another sly smile. “And judging from the noise upstairs, you have about two minutes to wake Adam up before the queen gets here.”
Oh, crap.
I turned to Adam with a sudden desperation and pressed my forehead against his again. The slither of my mind leaving my body shuddered through me, and within moments all was black and dark as night as the world lost focus.