by Hailey Storm
I gripped the pole behind me and tipped my head back as I lifted my legs one at a time. I pointed my toes before wrapping my legs around the base of the pole behind me. My back arched, accentuating my full chest. Gabe’s heated gaze intensified, I could feel it across my skin. His desire for me was consuming him. It saturated the air, tasting different than what stemmed from the others watching. There was something familiar to me about Gabe’s desire. Something comforting. I enjoyed the sensation of it washing over me as the threat of him exploding on the guy beside him evaporated. Thank goodness. How I’d forgotten how protective of me he could be I wasn’t sure. Asking him to come here might not have been the best idea if I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself or the club. Once attention was drawn to this place, I had no doubt Cole would send his wolves to get me.
I couldn’t let that happen. Not now. Not ever. I refused to go back to Cole.
I slid down the pole, pushing all thoughts of Cole from my mind and chose to focus on the sensation of Gabe’s eyes slipping across my exposed skin and the lyrics to my favorite song instead. My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I arched my back and trailed my fingertips down my neck until I skimmed the top of my breasts. Gabe had always loved my breasts. I wondered if he still adored them now. His eyes grew dark, reminding of me the few times I’d seen him lose control of his wolf. Was he about to lose control now? It seemed as if he might. While I knew it would be a bad thing, I couldn’t help the side of me that found excitement in the prospect.
My eyes locked with his as I reached around to unclasp my bra. I slung my head in a way that moved all my curls to one side and excited every man in the room to an all-new level. The movement affected Gabe too. His chest rose and fell at a faster pace than before. His heart pounded in sync with the drumline to my song, and I swore I noticed his upper lip tremble. His wolf didn’t like the idea of other men watching me undress.
My poor wolf.
With my head lowered so that I was looking at him from under my lashes, I slipped my bra straps off my shoulders and allowed the scrap of lacy material to fall to the stage. The air cool air against my nipples made them harden, as did the fire I caught igniting through Gabe’s eyes. It had me hungering for more. I folded onto all fours in one swift movement and crawled to the edge of the stage, ready to make him want me so badly it hurt.
Gabe had no idea what he’d gotten himself into by coming here tonight, but I was about to show him. After all, we only had until the sun. After that, I would be nothing besides a pile of ashes.
Chill bumps erupted across my skin as the chorus to the song I’d chosen kicked up tempo again. Did Gabe realize the message hidden for him inside the song? From the intense look in his eyes and the fast, erratic pace of his heart I doubted he did. He never understood my fascination with dark lyrics. Each song I chose held a meaning. Music was an expression of emotions. It meant something.
Did he remember?
I ground my hips against the stage and lifted my curls off my neck while keeping my eyes locked on Gabe’s. Fire liquefied his icy eyes as his jaw worked and the muscles of his body stiffened. He was at war with himself. Or maybe with his wolf. Was he holding himself back from his desires to touch me?
I slipped off stage and situated myself in his lap, eager to fulfill my own desires. His erection pulsed against my center. Satisfaction slithered through me as my hands trailed along his shoulders and hard biceps. His warm skin seeped through his thin long John shirt, scorching my chilly flesh. My nerve endings stirred to life as they tingled. Even now, when I was part of the cold, undead world vampires dwelled in, Gabe could still make me feel warm and safe.
I’d thought I wanted to tease him into a seductive form of submission tonight. I’d thought it would be needed, that his desires for me from so long ago would be buried, but I was surprised to see they hadn’t been. An ember for me still burned inside of him and tonight I was flaming it to new levels.
Just before the song ended, I pressed my lips against Gabe’s ear and whispered, “Give me a couple of minutes to gather my things from the back.”
He nodded but didn’t speak. Gabe never had been a man of many words. Instead, he was a man of action.
As the music faded out and the whistles and claps filled the air from the men applauding my performance, I slipped off Gabe’s lap and made my way back onstage. Money was tossed at me like confetti, but I didn’t pause to gather it. I’d compelled the young guy who worked the fog machines and lighting to do so on my first night dancing.
As I made my way off stage Gabe’s eyes followed me. I could feel the heat of them trailing along my spine and the curvature of my buttocks. They made their way down my legs and had just started to travel up my body again when I slipped out of his view. Coldness swallowed me whole again and the sensation I’d been ripped away from the very thing that kept me breathing and gave me life flowed through me. A single tear slipped down my cheek and for the first time since crafting my plan to end everything I began to doubt my decision.
It was all because of Gabe.
Seeing him had made me feel more than I’d ever thought possible in this new form. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen. Being close to him again was supposed to feel good—it was supposed to be my selfish indulgence before stepping into the sun—but it wasn’t supposed to feel this good. It wasn’t supposed to make me doubt my decision.
Tonight was Christmas Eve, and I would spend it with Gabe exactly as I had planned, regardless of how strong my feelings for him still were. He would be mine and I would be his…until the sun. End of story.
Chapter Three
Gabe
The lyrics to the song lingered in the air around me, brushing against my skin like kisses and promises from Ava even though I didn’t know what those promises were. Ava had always been a music lover. And as she walked away, climbing back on stage and disappearing into the shadows I attempted to decipher what message she was trying to get across with this particular one.
It was dark and hunting, exactly what I thought of when I envisioned her soul. She wasn’t evil, but she did harbor a dark sense of humor and a bleak outlook on life. I blamed it on her father and so did she.
A few sentences from the chorus shifted through my mind. There was something there for me, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. I should have focused on the lyrics to the song and less on Ava, but she’d made it impossible when she’d sat on my lap. Images of her full lips twisting into that wicked grin that always turned me on filled my head. Her perky tits and hardened nipples came next. It had taken all my willpower not to dip my mouth to them and tease her with my tongue.
The song. I needed to focus on it.
Wasn’t there something about killing someone? My breath stilled in my chest. Did Ava want me to kill her?
Every muscle in my body tensed at the thought. My inner wolf snarled his disapproval and worked my jaw back and forth. There had to be another portion of the song she’d intended me to gain something from, because that couldn’t be it. Ava couldn’t have come to me after so long only to ask if I would kill her.
My wolf snapped at me because we both knew that was a lie. She would seek me out just to have me be the one to end her life. She’d find some sort of sick beauty in it.
I wouldn’t do it though. Not even if she begged. She had to know that.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I twisted around to face them, expecting to see another of the girls working, but instead found Ava standing behind me. I smoothed my hands across my face. I was off my game tonight. This was generally the case when Ava was around. It always had been. The woman mesmerized me.
“Did I scare you?” she asked. Her violet eyes sparkled with mischief and I couldn’t help the smirk that stretched across my face at the sight.
“Not in the slightest,” I said as I stood.
God, I’d missed her. I crammed my hands into the front pockets of my jeans in an effort to keep them off her. It took everything I had.
The desire to hold her again in my arms burned through my veins. My wolf paced back and forth, ready to do more than hold her now that she was within reach again.
Ava hoisted her duffle bag over her shoulder. She took a step back and I wondered if she’d somehow sensed what I’d been thinking. Maybe she had. It wasn’t unheard of for vampires to harbor special gifts such as mind reading. While I wasn’t positive any in Cole’s coven had special powers of that nature it wasn’t impossible. In retrospect I should have paid more attention to the inner workings of his coven, but I’d decided early on not to. The less I knew about them the better. It made it easier to walk away.
Vampires had never been my thing. Until now, apparently.
I swallowed hard. Ava wasn’t supposed to be a vampire, though. She was supposed to be mine. My wolf and I were supposed to have claimed her. I’d screwed up though, and Ava was a vampire now because of it. I’d went against Cole. I’d told him he could kiss my ass when I denied his offering of a position on his guard. All because I didn’t like the idea of someone telling me what to do.
Guilt ate away at my insides as I stared into the eyes of my consequences for those actions.
Ava didn’t blink. She didn’t move. She stood eerily still and allowed me to stare almost as though she knew I was working shit out in my head.
Why the hell had she sought me out after all this time? Why was I here? What could she possibly want with me?
My eyes raked over her beautiful face. A large part of me was overjoyed that she’d found me, but I didn’t deserve to feel it. Ava was no longer human because of me. I stared into her violet eyes. There was something different about her. It didn’t take me long to figure out what.
Ava was more broken now than ever.
A thickness built in the back of my throat. What could have happened to her in the last ten years that would’ve broken her more than the horrible things her father had done to her as a child?
“Stop,” she whispered as she ripped her gaze from mine. “I can see the guilt eating at you. Don’t go there, okay? Not tonight. Just enjoy this night with me.”
I reached out and gripped her chin, forcing her gaze to mine again. “Only if you tell me what you’re doing here—how you’re here—because I don’t understand.”
Her eyes closed as she leaned into my touch. “I’m here for this, for you.”
“How?”
I needed to know. The last time I’d seen her, Cole had wrapped his arms around her waist and then disappeared into a thick puff of smoke and bats taking her along with him. I’d searched for her every day, but she’d disappeared without a trace. Granted, Cole’s coven wasn’t the type to settle in one place for long, but I still should have been able to find her. Even with all of their bouncing around there should have at least been a trail. Unfortunately, Cole had learned to cover his tracks well. Or at the very least he’d found a guard who could.
The asshole.
I hated him with a vengeance. Always had and always would. While some in the Midnight Pack felt it was an honor to be a guard for one of Cole’s coven, I didn’t see any honor in having to clean up someone’s mess each time they made one.
“I ran,” Ava muttered.
Too many questions formed in my mind at once, but only one made its way past my lips. “You know he’ll come for you, right?”
I left out the part about what he would do to her once he found her, because I was positive she knew the answer. No one ran from Cole without consequences. No one ever denied him anything without consequences either. Ava being taken from me was proof.
“I know he will,” she said, her eyes never wavering from mine. That same sense of brokenness festered inside them, tearing my heart to shreds. “It won’t matter though, because when he finds me there’ll be nothing left.”
My heart dipped to my stomach. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Let’s get out of here.” She ignored my question and tugged on the sleeve of my shirt as she started to walk away. I followed her because what else could I do?
Ava had stepped back into my life. She’d somehow been able to find me when I’d tried so damn hard to find her but couldn’t. There was no way in hell I’d let this woman out of my sight again.
“I’d like to know what you mean too, Princess,” a familiar voice said.
There was a lone figure to my right occupying one of the tables. I shifted to face him. Dusty cowboy boots were propped on the table top and beside them sat an empty glass that reeked of whiskey.
“They’ve found me,” Ava whispered, her fear saturating the air. I reached for her hand, and interlaced my fingers within hers.
“Hello, Tex. How long have you been here?” My gaze drifted around the club, checking to see if I’d missed any others from the Midnight Pack.
How I’d missed him, I wasn’t sure. Tex had a strong presence about him. I should’ve been able to smell his familiar scent anywhere, even inside a place as saturated in cheap perfume and arousal as Estelle’s, but I hadn’t. Ava blinded me to my surroundings. She always had. Every time I was with her she consumed every aspect of me.
It was both a blessing and a curse.
“Long enough to see Princess dance.” Tex lifted his cowboy hat so he could meet my stare. His gaze drifted to Ava as a slow smirk spread across his face. “Nice tits, by the way. I always figured you had a decent rack.”
My wolf grumbled in protest to his words. I fought hard to hold him back. Losing control wouldn’t help the situation. I needed to remain level-headed.
“Where you been hiding, boy?” Tex asked, his attention having shifted back to me.
“I haven’t been hiding anywhere.”
“Right. Okay, so where you been then?”
“Here. Why the hell does it matter to you?”
A crooked grin formed on his face. “Still defensive as hell I see.”
I didn’t reply. Instead I continued to stare him down. Tex had been like an older brother to me growing up inside the pack. He’d slipped me my first dirty magazine for my twelfth birthday, talked his girlfriend into flashing me for my fourteenth, and given me my first taste of whiskey for my sixteenth. We went way back. He was a friend, but it was clear with the way he was looking at me that wasn’t the case any longer. Too much time had passed. There were too many rules and too much at stake. He’d been sent to retrieve Ava for Cole, which was something I couldn’t allow him to do.
Tex removed his dusty boots from the table one at a time, his eyes never leaving me. “Look, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. If I still know you as well as I think I do, it’s guaranteed you’re gonna want pick the hard way but I’m here to tell you it isn’t going to be pretty. I gotta take her back to Cole. You know I do. It’s why I’m here. Now you can either let me have her, or you can fight me. I’m down for whatever, but I’m gonna say I ain’t leaving without her.”
“And neither am I.” I moved Ava behind me. It was a protective stance she didn’t need being what she was now, but I’d done it out of habit.
“I’m not going back to him, Tex,” Ava insisted. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”
“Darlin’, I know.” He exhaled a long sigh. “But on the same note, you know I can’t go back unless I’ve got you with me. He’s claimed you as his, Ava. You’re his property. The exchange was made when Gabe decided to forgo his place in the pack. My hands are tied. There’s nothing I can do.”
Ava was Cole’s property? What the hell did that mean? My wolf picked up on the fear rippling from her and something inside of me snapped. The only thought that propelled through my mind was one of protecting Ava, of keeping her by my side.
I struck out, landing a blow to the side of Tex’s jaw. Adrenaline kicked in and I found myself caught somewhere between a wolf and a man. I knew my eyes probably looked scary as fuck and if I opened my mouth canines was all that would be seen. Tex didn’t budge, though. The guy was solid. Always had been. When my fist darted out a second tim
e, he saw it coming and was able to block the blow by catching it midair.
“Dammit, Gabe,” he seethed through clenched teeth. “I didn’t want to have to go this route with you. Why do you always have to go about shit the hard way?”
He twisted my arm too swiftly for me to counteract. A cracking noise made its way to my ears as pain sliced through my arm. Bones broke. Tendons tore. A red haze drifted over me as he continued to twist my arm, pulling it from its socket. Screams filled my ears as the girls of the club noticed us fighting. My knee came up to connect with Tex’s gut. All the breath whooshed from his lungs and his grip on me loosened enough so that I was able to wiggle myself free from his grasp. I landed another punch to his cheekbone, causing him to wobble on his feet. The sight of his weakness had my wolf howling with wickedness and the red haze I’d fallen under intensifying. My fist pounded on Tex as my knee continued to connect with his stomach in a dance choreographed by my anger and a need to see Ava to a safe place.
Cool hands gripped my shoulders, pulling me away from Tex. “Gabe, stop!”
I could make her words out—and understood what they meant—but I couldn’t force myself to listen. My fist connected with the side of Tex’s face repeatedly.
“I said stop it! You’re going to kill him, Gabe!” Ava pulled me off backward and wrapped her strong arms around my torso, pinning my arms to my sides. She was stronger than I remembered. Then again, she was a vampire now. “We need to leave. Now.”
My chest heaved as I struggled to catch my breath while wiping sweat from my upper lip. Tex lay on the tile floor, his face bruised and bloodied. My knuckles throbbed as I held my fist in my hand. I was sure I’d broken a couple fingers, but they’d heal soon. The shoulder he’d popped out of place already was.