by Tijan
Damn.
“What’s the plan, Jeeves?”
He frowned. “Don’t call me Jeeves.”
“What’s your name? I could call you that.”
His eyes narrowed at me. They were pretty much staying that way.
He gave me one more long and measured look before there was a beep behind him. He walked to a panel in the wall and pressed it. A back door swung open (that was where it was! It was covered in blue velvet so it was camouflaged. Also, there was no doorknob.) and a female walked in who could’ve been a supermodel. Long legs. Thin body. High cheekbones. Disdainful eyes.
Vampire.
(The ones who look that beautiful and that disdainful were always vampires.)
They were staring at each other, and I knew she was telepathically reporting on something.
He gave a small nod, and she turned right back around. I got the coldest glance ever before she was through the velvet door. It swung shut right behind her, and before my eyes, the blue velvet smoothed over. The door completely blended in again.
“You had a witch do that.”
After he pulled out his phone and was looking at the screen, he glanced up at me as I moved closer to inspect where the wall had been.
That was when I realized the room we’d been in was large. I’d been so focused on him that I hadn’t even noticed my surroundings save for all the blue velvet.
He’d been clear across it for most of our little interrogation, until now.
I closed the space and was within five feet of him to look for the door the vampire had just exited.
Trying to focus on the door, I couldn’t. I was assaulted by waves of his power. It was exuding from him, over and over again. Like it was pulsating from him, but wait. I turned and trained my eyes and my mind to look at him in a different way.
His power was pulsating from him.
Over and over again.
That’s how he was shifting so his energy was never on him, but I could see the waves now, and it was as if I could suddenly see what was normally invisible even to me. There was a small layer of energy sparking right next to his skin.
If he had that there, then I had power.
“Don’t.”
My eyes snapped to his.
We were staring at each other in another challenge.
He didn’t get it.
I didn’t have any other choice.
I went for his energy.
I was in before he could stop me, and whoa.
Whoa!
I was sucked in, but I was all the way in now, not just partially.
I—it was like I was in another dimension.
There was darkness everywhere.
An echo.
Like I was in a cave.
I smelled water.
I could hear the rush of a waterfall next.
I was at an opening, and I was airborne.
I was flying.
The wind was startling, whipping into me.
I tried screaming, but no sound came out.
I was up and around. I was dipping.
I was soaring.
I was free, but I was terrified at the same time.
A shadow was underneath me, not my own. I was going over the ocean.
We rotated, the shadow and I…and I started struggling.
There were large wings.
They spread out as far as I could see.
I felt a rumbling behind me. Inside me.
Then heat. So much heat.
It was unbearable.
It felt like I was in a volcano.
More rumbling.
It was growing. Building.
Something was happening.
I didn’t want what was going to happen, to happen.
No, no, no.
A voracious roar and there was fire everywhere.
The earth was being scorched beneath us. The air around us.
Embers were falling everywhere.
I was in a vacuum.
—I came back to the room.
I looked up.
He had his hand wrapped around my wrist, his eyes blazing. I saw the same embers there and knew that’d been him.
A wave of his fury hit me, actually physically slamming into me, and—I heard a muffled curse—then nothing.
8
Ohmygod!
I woke and I was moving.
We were moving, and I was lying down as he was sitting across from me.
We were in the back of a vehicle.
I sat up, slowly. My head was still groggy, but I looked around. The windows were tinted and we were moving out of the city.
"Where are we going?"
"To a place."
Nik!
"No. We have to go back." Also, "What happened to you being my only shot to get out of there alive?" I said it with such disdain, I could've been a vamp.
“It’s a lot easier to move you when you’re unconscious.”
He had a good point.
“Seriously. When are we turning around?”
He kept staring at his phone, swiping over the screen. “We’re not.”
“My frie—”
His head lifted, and his eyes were blazing. “—is a demon. She is surrounded by her kind. Contrary to all the shitty things about demons, they’re a dying breed. They don’t immediately harm one another. Your friend is young, good-looking, and fertile. Nothing will happen to her.”
Gross. Just, so gross.
“Fine. Drop me off and I’ll—”
“What is your deal?”
Gah. His eyes were so piercing.
I wished he’d go back to looking at his phone.
Feeling my body heat rise, I shifted uncomfortably on the seat. “What do you mean?”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
That didn’t feel right.
“Is tonight not the night that’s meant for partying among the youth?”
I laid my arms on my lap.
That wasn’t better.
“Huh?” I wasn’t following him.
Maybe my arms could go under my legs? I could wedge them just underneath.
“You. Tonight. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to this hemisphere, but Halloween is known as a party night? At least over the last century.”
Century?
Power increases with age, so knowing this guy was really old was a whole different level of power when he talked about centuries.
I gulped. “What hemisphere do you usually acquaint?”
There I was, sounding all adult-like, or ancient-like.
Also, score another point for me for using ‘acquaint’ in a full sentence.
“Why are you spending this night chasing a friend who doesn’t need to be chased?” His eyes narrowed. “What are you distracting yourself from?”
Oh.
Damn.
The frog was back in my throat, and just doubled in size.
Damn.
I had to sit there a bit and blink. I—was that what I was doing?
“What’s your name?”
I shot him a look, cocking an eyebrow up. “Now you ask? Aren’t we a tad bit late for those formalities?”
Another point for ‘formalities.’
His gaze just turned more heated, if that was an option.
“What is your name?”
I waited a beat, though I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t like being called by my full name, but that was my only hang-up with my name.
“I could find out.”
Now I flicked my eyes upwards. “I’m sure you could. Who are you, hmm? Want to know my name, I’d like yours first.”
He said almost on the same breath as I ended my sentence, “Kieran Raoul.”
Kieran—I choked.
Correction.
I was choking.
That name. No way.
I snorted, laughing. “Yeah, right.”
He only looked at me.
He was serious.
I jerked forwar
d. “No way!”
Kieran Raoul was a story told to us non-humans. A bedtime book to scare us into behaving and not going out to kill humans. He was as ancient as they came, knowing the origins of the vampire species, even the werewolves. It was whispered that the demon masters came to the surface to pay him homage, to give him presents. That the messengers above swept down to meet with him personally.
No one knew what he was, but he wasn’t supposed to be real.
Or alive.
He was a mythical creature to the mythical creatures.
And I was officially lightheaded again.
My voice was so faint, even to my ears. “Legend says that you rule the Eastern Hemisphere.”
“I do.”
His tone was so monotone, matter-of-fact.
I—I was freaking.
My pulse skyrocketed.
I was feverish, sweating buckets.
My legs took on the definition of a hyperactive kid with restless leg syndrome on steroids.
I had to get out of there.
He was the Big Bad. Like the OG Big Bad.
He could kill me with a thought, or the blink of an eye.
Panic rose up, swirling around and around in me as I tried again to look for a door within jumping distance, or a window I thought I could break.
Kieran Raoul was a killer, above all else.
We had rules to live by, and if anyone broke one, they were instantly incinerated in his hemisphere. At least that was the story we were told when we were younger. The ruler of our hemisphere was Matron Epux, the most earth-like an angel could get to being an archangel, and they were super powerful. But Kieran was something else entirely. He wasn’t rumored to be from evil or saint-like roots.
“You’re not joking?” I was whispering at this point. “Are you?”
Holding my gaze, he shook his head.
You cannot escape me, so stop looking for a way out. It’s insulting.
My breath left me at the same time. I was, once again, left lightheaded, this time for a completely different reason
I couldn’t process this. At all.
How did I get here?
I only meant to think that to myself, not directed at him.
Energists do not come out on dissension nights. I sensed you, and then took you. Coincidences rarely happen. You were there on purpose.
I wasn’t.
I could tell he didn’t believe me.
I tried again. I didn’t wake up and think, “I bet that super powerful badass that I don’t think exists is going to be at Nik’s club tonight.” I snorted more to myself than him, and glanced out the window. “Especially on the same day I left my boyfriend after I found him mid-thrust in a girl I know.”
I was still looking out the window, not really noticing the passing scenery, but at least looking anywhere but at him.
Instantly, I was back there, going into our apartment and hearing the moans, the groans. The roar right as I opened the door.
“He came as you walked in?”
My heart paused at the same time I whipped my head to his.
He could—he could see what I was seeing!
Holy invasion of all invasions!
GET OUT OF MY HEAD, YOU MONSTER ASSHOLE!
He winced, but I felt him withdrawing, and I gotta admit, that was a different sensation too. I wasn’t sure if I Iiked it, or was relieved, or disappointed.
That’d be for pondering later, a lot later, preferably a drunk me later.
“What are you planning for me again?”
His eyebrows lowered. “Why?” He blinked a few times, and I was thinking he needed to get that same visualization out of his head now.
Maybe I should invite him back in? I could go through the entire scene.
And the fork. I didn’t think I’d ever forget what I did with the fork.
Well. I threw it. At her vagina, then I had a strong urge to get the fuck out of there.
“What are the chances we could stop at a liquor store?”
He tilted his head forward, then blinked. “You were in dire straits to save your demon best friend, and now you’re asking if we can pull over to a liquor store?”
I sighed, slouching down in the vehicle. “I’m resigned to my fate. You’re right. Nik’s probably going to be fine. It’s dissension night, she usually avoids those like the plague, but she’s old enough where she’s supposed to be paying homage, so I get it. Which brings me back to my original plan for the night: getting drunk. Can we stop at a store?” I thought about it. “Can I owe you too? I didn’t bring my wallet with me.”
Which goes to show how drunk I was when I first left, or how blessed I am that I wouldn’t need my wallet getting to a nightclub, inside the club, and also with a free drink. I felt like that was all kinds of points owed me.
I grinned. “I’m in ‘dire straits’ to get liquored up if that’s any consolation.”
Another point for using ‘dire straits.’
He stared at me for ten more seconds before he released the slightest amount of air. He put his phone in his pocket at the same time as he hit a button overhead. “The nearest liquor store, Leon.”
“Yes, sire.”
Sire. Jeez.
I had no idea how to use that word in a sentence without sounding lame.
“Is there anything else you’d like? Lobster? A fresh human to feed off their energy?”
“Gross. I don’t do that.”
He was pulling his phone back out as it was buzzing, and he swiped the screen as he responded, “Of course you do, you’re an energy sensor.”
“Yeah. I sense energy. I don’t eat it.”
I felt the air shift in the car. Or the energy.
It was suddenly very, very tense, and I held my breath, noting the changes that came over him. His phone was ignored as his gaze was locked on me. I was pinned in place.
“You don’t eat energy?”
“No. That’s disgusting and a huge violation. Who am I to take their energy from them?”
“A relief to some, sexual to others.”
“Huh?”
I’d heard that wrong. Right?
“Where did you grow up?”
“Here.”
“You were not taught the proper way to be an energist?”
I grinned. “No, Sire Big Bad Ass. Apparently, I got no clue how to be an energist, which is what I’ve been all my life.”
So many points for me. I got ‘energist’ in there, on top of sire.
“You cannot be an energist and still be alive if you don’t eat energy.”
“That’s really gross. Can we stop talking about eating and energy? I don’t want to eat anyone’s energy. That’s emotion, and other things, and ew. All sorts of ew going on here.”
“You’re not human.”
He made that sound like it was an accusation. “You’re not either.”
“Psychics are humans who can feel energy, see energy, see auras. That’s what you do, but you are not human. You’re telling me you eat like a normal human? Their food and all?”
“Yes. What do you eat?” WAIT! “I don’t want to know that. Don’t tell me that.” Ohmygod! “Unless you’re going to eat me? Are you going to eat me?!” My voice hitched on a high note at the end.
I winced, hearing it.
We all did things we weren’t proud of.
“I’m not planning on eating you.”
I sank back in my chair. “That’s a relief.”
“I have a different use for you.”
He opened the door and got out.
I looked. We’d arrived outside of Harry Bahls’ Liquors.
9
Sire Bad Ass
Five minutes later, another whiskey bottle in hand, and I was happy.
I asked if I could put on some music. Sire Bad Ass (more points for me) said yes, and twenty minutes later I was now a whole new level of buzzed. A rap song by BRASAH featuring Koda was filling the air, and the whiskey was barely a burn by now.
“Do you know the language this song is in?”
I shook my head. “Not a clue. It came up as a recommended song on my Spotify.” I gave him a tipsy grin. “Do you?”
His eyes darkened. “Yes.”
Oh. Well, I wasn’t curious enough to ask what the song was about. The title said “Blue Jeans” so I had a good guess what it was about.
“So where are we going now?”
He looked at me, at the whiskey, and I could swear a flash of envy flashed there. Then it was gone, but so was his phone. He stuffed it into his pocket and swiped my booze.
“Hey!” I started to sit up, but he motioned to me.
“Sit down.”
I watched as he took a drink, and nothing. The corners of that impossibly pretty mouth of his turned down at the ends. “It’s been a century since I’ve drunk like a normal human. I forgot what something like this tasted like.” He handed it back. “I can see why I forgot it.”
I glared at him, swiping it and cradling it like it was a baby to my chest. I stroked the neck. “Don’t listen to the Big Bad. He’s too worldly to appreciate what we lower beings worship.”
His head turned to view the outside, but the edge of his mouth lifted. “Maybe. I’m used to power blasting me. Envy. Greed. Hate. Ruthlessness. Deadliness. I wade among the best of the best, the most dangerous in your eyes, and I’m one of them, and yet,” he paused, that corner of his mouth curving higher as a wry tone left him, “I find myself enjoying this car ride more than I’ve enjoyed anything else in the last hundred years.” Those very penetrating and probing eyes came to me, and if it were possible, they softened. “You have indeed entertained me.”
“It’s the rap.”
He barked out a laugh, then stopped, his eyes widening.
I had a hunch he couldn’t remember the last time he laughed either.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure. Why not?” I knew he was teasing me, but I ignored it.
I asked, “Where are we going? For real.”
“For real?” That slightly admonishing tone was back, but his eyes had warmed. “I’m not familiar with that phrase.”
“It means be real with me.”
“We’re going to see someone.”
Some of my buzz started to lessen. “That doesn’t sound fun.”
“Because it won’t be, for you.”