by Jeff Hale
“That’s bullshit. He’s an Alpha, and he was using that to pull your beast to the front, to give it more power over you, so you don’t even feel for a moment like any of that was your fault.” Anger was rising in his voice again and I put my hand on his arm in a calming gesture.
“So should I still go to Reno with him? For whatever this mystery important thing he can’t tell me about is?” If Darien could cause the cat to override me, then maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. I walked to the bathroom and quickly rinsed the blood from my hands. The fingernail marks were almost gone.
“I hate to say it but, yes,” Alex replied, following me. “All I can tell you is there is someone in Reno who needs to speak with you and that person can’t come here for, well, political reasons I guess. You really do need to go. But I’ll be there as a buffer.”
“Thanks, Alex.” I was beginning to feel more myself again and I wanted desperately to get back to Aerick. “When do we need to go?”
“Tonight would be best, so I’m going to try to get us a car since we can’t use the way we got here. Did you get your cell phone back from your mom?”
I nodded; I had already slipped it into my pocket. “Thanks. Again. I’m going to head back now. I guess, go ahead and give me a call on my cell once you guys are ready?” He nodded at me. “And, Alex? Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid, okay?”
“Why you would care…”
“Please?”
“Alright, I will. I’ll see you later.”
I left the hotel, pondering in my own mind why I gave a shit what happened to Darien, wondering why I wasn’t so mad at him that anything untoward happening to him wouldn’t gladden my heart. But try as I could to wish ill on him, the thought of anything happening to him made me want to cry inside.
I checked my own room first, on the off chance that Aerick might be waiting there for me. He wasn’t, so I made my way upstairs to his room, knocking softly on the door before opening it. He wasn’t there either, so I went with guess number three and headed to the bar in the dance room.
Sure enough he was there, several empty shot glasses in front of him, the barmaid, Lily, hovering nearby. She smiled at me as I approached. I knew she had a slight crush on him, but she wasn’t one to steal another girl’s boyfriend, so it didn’t bother me much. Plus, I liked Lily and I was pretty sure she liked me.
I slid into the seat next to Aerick, waiting for him to down the shot Lily had just brought him before leaning and giving him a kiss, needing desperately to erase any feelings Darien had pulled forth in me. I inhaled the smell of the alcohol, felt the burn of it on my tongue as he kissed me back and felt the world solidify under me.
“Going to Reno then, I take it?” he asked as I pulled away, his voice raised slightly to be heard over the thumping music. Nina was in the DJ booth.
I blinked at him. How did he know? “What, are you psychic now?” I asked, sticking my tongue out at him.
“No, a little birdie told me. Well, really, your friend Alex mentioned it, told me it was important for you to go.”
I wondered if Alex had told him why it was so danged important I go to Reno. So I asked him. “Did Alex tell you why?”
He gave me a thoughtful look, one that told me he was trying to decide how to answer me, before finally giving me a barely perceptible nod. “Yeah, he did.”
“Care to tell me?” My curiosity was overly piqued now, and any thoughts in my head of what had happened with Darien were quickly pushed away.
He gave me a sly grin. “Nope, I was asked not to, which well, wouldn’t stop me except I agree with the reasoning behind it.”
I stuck my lip out in a pout and he reached out and tweaked it with his thumb and index finger. “Now, now, none of that. Pouting doesn’t work on me.”
“Really? How unfair.” I glanced out to the dance floor. It was pretty empty, but then again, business had been nothing more than the people who had taken sanctuary at the club after the Barrier had fallen. I tipped my head to the side and chewed my lip. “So. What do you think? Should I go? I won’t go if you don’t want me to.”
He put his hand over mine where it lay on the little table, stroking the back of it with his thumb. “No, you should go. You need to. All I ask is that you be careful. Lucien’s influence doesn’t extend that far.”
“You’re okay with it? You won’t be mad?”
He smiled at me. “You worry too much. Yes, I’m okay with it. I trust you.”
I trust you.
I felt my gut clench, felt sudden heat in my face as I remembered how badly my body had wanted Darien to continue to do what he had been doing, how much the cat had been trying to force me to give over to it. He might trust me, but I didn’t trust me.
“Why don’t we get something to eat?” he suggested, catching Lily’s attention with a wave of his hand. “I know I’m hungry, which must mean you’re starving.” I was; I had just been too preoccupied previously to really notice it.
So we had dinner while I waited for that phone call, not talking much other than for me to shoo Aerick out of my French fries. We had finished and were out on the dance floor burning some of it off when the phone in my pocket vibrated. I mouthed the word ‘phone’ to Aerick, before scurrying off the dance floor and out into the restaurant area away from the noise. He followed not far on my heels.
It was Alex. They’d finally been able to get hold of a car, which meant a four to five hour trip. We’d get there between midnight and one a.m. And they wanted to leave within the next fifteen minutes. I wondered again what was so important that it couldn’t wait until morning.
Four to five hours stuck in a car with Darien. That ought to make my nerves want to snap.
I told Aerick that I needed to go, but that I needed to collect a few things first. He trailed me back down to my new room where I gathered up the CD player he had given me and a few of his CDs, plus a small bag with an extra change of clothes in it. I wasn’t exactly sure how long we’d be there. Aerick gave me a goodbye kiss that made me want to change my mind, but he told me again that I needed to go and walked me out the front door.
There was a sleek black sedan waiting in the valet pickup of the club. The windows were tinted so I couldn’t see inside, but as we came out, the back passenger door opened and Alex stuck his head out.
“Nice ride,” I said, wondering why they had gotten something so flashy. It was one of those sedans that was almost like a small limousine.
“Not my choice.” He laughed. “But the people we’re going to see, well, it’s their dime and they paid for it.”
“I see.” Hoity toity then, a rich crowd. Even more so than my stepfather’s. He had had a lot of money, but not the kind to throw at renting fancy cars all the time. Or least, if he had, he hadn’t done it.
I turned to give Aerick a last kiss, knowing that if Darien was in the car he would see, but not really caring. Maybe it would help get things through his thick skull. Then I got in the car, sliding onto a cushy bench seat next to Alex. He reached past me to pull the door shut, and I felt the car begin to move as it pulled away from the curb.
Alex and I had the large back seat to ourselves. I could see the back of Darien’s head over the top of the front seat, on the other side of the privacy glass. He was sitting in the passenger seat; the car came with its own driver it seemed. He hadn’t even turned to look at me or acknowledge my presence and I wasn’t sure if that was fine with me or made me feel hurt. Either way, I was on edge and wasn’t sure how well I would be able to relax on the trip.
The back came equipped with a small bar and a television DVD player combo, as well as a tiny fridge. Alex had already helped himself to the alcohol.
“There’s soda and water in the fridge if you’re thirsty, Katie,” he said, pulling the door open of the appliance to show me what was inside.
I looked at Alex, remembering the last time that we had been in a car together, just over a week ago, and it didn’t help the tension I was feeling at all.
Alex noticed my gaze, and he must have guessed what I was thinking, or at least partially, because a blush crept across his cheeks. It didn’t make me feel any better and I knew that neither water nor soda was going to do the trick, and with my shifter metabolism, I wasn’t even sure the alcohol would.
I plucked the clear glass of whatever it was he was drinking from his fingers and slammed it. Maybe it would help. It burned going down and a blaze of fuzzy warmth went to my head briefly. I gave the empty glass back to him, ignoring his open mouthed stare. “Thanks. I’m not thirsty though, we just had dinner before you called. And you know, I’m a bit tired and it’s a long trip, so do you mind if I just zone out with my headphones? Maybe get a little sleep before we get there?” I was tired. The stress from earlier had taken a lot out of me.
He blinked at me a couple times, then gave me an indulgent smile. “Sure, go ahead. I might just join you since Mister Antisocial is up there on his own.”
I chuckled, but I was slightly worried about Darien’s behavior. He was pulling away from me, away from both of us, and I wasn’t sure that was a good thing. I settled down with the CD player and an Evanescence CD and got comfy on the seat in case I fell asleep. I was out before the third song had finished playing.
The car coming to a halt woke me. The CD was on the second song again. I had put it on repeat on the chance of falling asleep. I had no idea how many times it had played through. I opened my eyes, hastily closing them to a squint as the inside lights came on. I heard the front door open and turned my head to see Darien getting out of the car.
Alex was asleep as well, and using my left thigh as a pillow, his face turned away from my body, his legs and feet dangling off the seat. I pulled my headphones off, then put my hand on his head, rubbing my fingers in his hair.
“Wake up, sleepyhead, I think we’re here,” I said, wiggling my leg a little to get his attention.
“I’m already awake,” he mumbled against the denim of my jeans. “Just comfortable and don’t want to move.” There were several loud thumps on the door of the car as Darien banged on it. Alex sighed and lifted his head, yawning. “Never mind then.”
I put the CD player and CDs into my overnight bag, then ran my brush through my hair quickly. Alex was already opening the door and crawling out, and I followed him as soon as I stashed my brush. Darien was waiting at the end of a long concrete walkway that led to a set of double doors on the lower floor of a huge multi-winged house.
Ours was not the only car on the property. The house boasted a long, wide, horseshoe shaped drive that led back to a tall wrought metal gate before heading out to the road. The drive was full of parked cars, leaving just enough room for a single car of any type to pull out and circle around if it needed to before leaving.
The main house was three storied, with a wing on either end the same height, and painted a deep navy, with white trim. The front boasted a sprawling yard, dotted with the occasional tree, and I could tell that the property extended for quite a ways beyond the back of the house, although in the dark I couldn’t see anything else. It seemed intact, as though it had weathered the fall of the Barrier untouched.
The tall double doors at the end of the walkway were made of dark, rich wood, glossy and otherwise unadorned. Darien did his best to stay as far away from me as possible, putting Alex between us, still quiet and refusing to meet my eyes. I knew that what he had done, what he had tried to do to me, was eating him up inside, and I wanted to comfort him, tell him that it was okay, while at the same time I wanted to yell and scream at him that he damned well better feel like shit for trying to force me.
The door opened as we approached and a woman stood there, the look in her cold green eyes blatantly curious. She had midnight black hair, that kind with blue sheens in it if it caught the light just right, short in the front and spiked up, long in the back, dangling well past her shoulders. Her skin was a beautiful alabaster white, her lips a bright scarlet red and I thought to myself that this eerily ethereal beauty could have easily played Snow White.
If Snow White had been a prostitute.
She was decked out in black leather straps that covered strategic portions of her body, barely, and left the rest on public display. Knee high black leather platform boots with a minimum five inch heel graced her feet.
But it was her other adornments that gave me pause: in contradiction to the rest of her clothing, she wore an antique pearl rosary complete with crucifix, long dangling earrings in the shape of crosses, as well as a stylized crucifix tattoo on her upper left arm. She had other jewelry, piercings, in her lip, eyebrows, ears, nose. And then she smiled at me, at my assessment, and I could see pointy teeth peeking over her lips.
She was a vampire.
Darien and Alex had brought me to Reno to a house of vampires? Fear slithered down my spine and I put out a supporting hand toward Alex. I wasn’t sure I had made the right decision after all, and I wondered what could be so important that they would bring me here. Other than Matt, I had only met ten other vampires, and those ten had been trying to end my life. I gave Darien a questioning look.
“Is she like Matt? Both?” I asked him, not sure if he would answer me.
“A bat?” The question came from the vampire and was full of scorn. “Please don’t insult me.” She leaned in towards me, her movement quick, and I stifled a screech. “Not that I have anything personally against you shifters, especially pretty ones.”
She ran her tongue across my cheek while I stood there frozen like a deer, unsure whether to bolt or play dead, the cat trying to claw its way to the surface as it sensed my terror. She drew back, a satisfied and somewhat malicious smile on her face.
“But I wouldn’t turn you for any price.” She wrapped her fingers around the crucifix on her rosary, and brought it to her lips, placing a quick kiss on it before letting it drop. “Come with me. They are still in conference and will be with you shortly. I’ll take you to where you may wait.” She turned her back on us and strode away. I could see piercings at regular intervals down her spine, small hoops of gleaming metal that went all the way down to the narrow thong of leather that formed the back of her outfit.
It took most of my willpower to follow her; the rest was keeping my cat at bay. She led us into a two storied entryway with a double set of grand staircases that led up to second floor balconies. The décor was done in expensive silks and marble, white and navy and silver. Paintings lined the walls, some very old, some newer, all of people with pale dead skin and cold eyes.
We followed her up one of the staircases and down the railed balcony until we hit a wide door. She opened it and ushered us inside. There was a fireplace in the room, with one of those fake fires burning in it. The floor was done in dark hardwood, and there were two blue damask upholstered couches at angles to the fireplace. Display tables lined the walls, topped with antiques and ancient relics and weapons. I hoped she would leave us alone then, but she came into the room with us and shut the door behind her.
“I’ve never met a shifter before, a live one anyway.” She sidled up to Darien and pressed herself against his side, running her hand over his chest and bringing one knee up slowly along the front of his leg until she was standing on one foot, her thigh and knee resting against Darien’s groin. Her hand snaked its way up to his neck, caressing the skin there. His eyes were closed, hands loose at his sides, trying his best to ignore her, until she began to rub at him with her knee.
His eyes snapped open, dark with anger. He pushed her knee down with one hand, while his other darted up to wrap around her throat, gripping her neck and pushing her backwards until she was bent back at the waist.
“I don’t take kindly to being mauled without permission, vampire.” He spit the words out at her.
Now you know how I felt. My thought was snide.
Her head fell back, the tips of her hair brushing the floor as the only thing that kept her from falling was Darien’s grip on her throat. Her mouth was open and she
was moaning, her fangs stark against her lips. They were moans of pleasure.
Darien let her go, a look of disgust crossing his face, and she tumbled to the floor. She pushed herself up with her hands, her legs stretched out on the floor to one side, and looked up at Darien with ill-concealed hunger.
“Unlike you, I find being touched against my will a turn on… shifter.” She ran her tongue over her lips and a laugh bubbled up from her throat that made the hair on my arms stand on end. “Care to abuse me some more?” She turned her gaze toward Alex. “How about you? It’s been awhile since I had something warm. They usually don’t survive my… foreplay… and end up being a snack instead. But you three… I could have fun with any one of you… or all of you at once, if you preferred.”
She slunk over to Alex, chuckling when he moved away from her, before coming over to me and putting an arm over my shoulders. “So tell me, honey,” she began in a conspiratorial tone, winking at me, “which one of them is better in bed?”
I felt my face flame, pushing away the panic that her touch was rousing, and I yanked away from her. “Get off me, bitch!”
She laughed and gave me a sultry look. “Oh, I like you. Feisty.” Then she moved so fast that my eyes didn’t even register it. I just knew that she had me in her grip, my head tilted painfully to once side while her teeth grazed against the skin there. Dread pulsed through me and I closed my eyes, concentrating on keeping the cat from taking over and forcing me to shift.
“Do I scare you?” she asked quietly, her breath a chill against my throat. “Just remember that my kind are the monsters that roam the dark, the horrors that make little children huddle in their beds, the evils that make humans pray to their gods for salvation.” Her voice was low and sinister and dropped to a whisper. “I am one of God’s executioners. How strong is your faith, little shifter?”