“Ben.”
“Older, or younger?”
“He’s younger too. They both are.”
“Does he live here in Tucson as well?”
“No.” Thank god. Being there for Lissy is hard enough, I couldn’t still look out for Ben, too. “He’s in Texas. He met a girl there while he was at college, and married her. They have two kids.”
There is a long, long pause and for a moment, I wonder whether Maximus has fallen asleep after all. Then, “Do you think you might want kids someday?”
I stare straight ahead, wondering how loaded that question was. “I don’t know. I think I always assumed I would have at least one. But I never met the right guy yet.”
“Vampires can’t father children,” Maximus says quietly. “I believe that’s something you should be made aware of.”
My mind is racing as I absorb this information. “Thank you.” I don’t know what else to say. What else can I say? “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s probably for the best. We don’t know what they’d be like. What their lives would be like. Can you imagine an entire childhood spent in darkness?”
I can’t even imagine a month of it as an adult, but I just shake my head instead of saying so. “Awful.”
There’s a pause, and I get the feeling he wants to say something else but is wrestling with himself as to whether or not he should. Apparently he decides against it, because instead of speaking, he removes the now empty coffee mug from my hands, sets it down on the nightstand, and presses his lips against mine. “If we hurry,” he growls once we’ve come up for air, “we can go for another round before bedtime.” His hand trails down my belly and cups my pussy. I shudder at the sparks of lust which shoot through my core, and my thighs part automatically.
“I’d be down for that, Sir,” I whisper.
“I wasn’t asking.”
19
Maximus
I slept like shit today. I don’t usually dream while I spend the daylight hours holed up in my vault, but this time I was plagued by nightmares—visions of Caroline being beaten, raped…
Even after all this time, the pain is almost visceral.
Sabina and I are at the club now. It being Saturday night, I’m on duty, but my thoughts are elsewhere. Before we left, she finally showed me the last two text messages that dirty shifter scumbag sent her. The first was essentially more of the same—a warning to stay away from Club Toxic, and reminding her that she’s being watched, that she can’t hide. The second, though…
If I see you with that leech again, you’ll regret it.
Sabina had no idea Zeke was referring to me. How could she? And how could I explain it to her without telling her that her ex-boyfriend is a shifter? I asked her what she thought he meant and she shrugged, saying he liked to get high sometimes. Figures. A shifter and a druggie. I’m surprised he managed to hold on to her for as long as he did. Then again, she did say they only saw each other a couple of times a week.
I wish she’d take the threat more seriously but every time I mention it, she spouts the same irritating line: that she can take care of herself.
Caroline used to say the same thing whenever I lamented that I couldn’t be with her during the day.
Right now, Sabina is over by the public play areas, watching an intense scene unfold with shining eyes. I’m perched on my usual stool beside the booths but I keep glancing over in her direction, partly to keep an eye on her, partly because the dim red light is making her golden hair glow sunset orange. She’s wearing a short, ruffled skirt and a cropped top which leaves her midriff bare. Knee-high boots make her legs appear endless and I close my eyes against the sudden image of them wrapped around my waist as I fuck her up against the wall, right here, claiming her as mine for all to see.
When I open them again, my gaze is still directed at the scene Sabina is watching with such fascination. As Mistress Elvira slides another needle into her slave’s flesh, Sabina licks her pink lips and my cock twitches. I mentally add needles to the list of things I want to do to my little pet.
“Maximus!” Leann is standing in front of me, disheveled, wringing her hands, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Didn’t you hear me?”
I’m off my stool in an instant. “What happened?”
“I was screaming for you!” She lets out a half-hiccup, half-sob. “We were playing but he ignored my safeword. Soon after we started, I felt uncomfortable and changed my mind. I asked him to stop but he—”
“Who?” I interrupt her.
“He’s leaving. That one over there!” She points, and I realize her whole arm is trembling.
Fuck.
“Tiberius is at the bar,” I tell her urgently, gesturing to where my friend is standing. “Go and tell him what happened. Say I sent you, and that he’s to look after you until I get back. I’m going to deal with that asshole.”
The moment I’ve finished speaking, I’m off, blurring between the club attendees, my entire focus narrowed on the back of the guy Leann pointed out. He’s walking swiftly toward the stairs, a touch too fast for someone who’s innocent but not fast enough to appear immediately guilty. He seems familiar, but it isn’t until I reach him and halt his progress with a hand on his shoulder that I realize who he is.
“Hello Ethan,” I snarl. “Didn’t I warn you never to set foot in here again?”
He spins to face me and his eyes flash first with recognition, then loathing. “It’s a free country,” he rasps.
“Outside, it may be. Not in here.”
“Then it’s just as well I was on my way outside.”
“I’ll escort you.”
If he senses the danger he’s in, he doesn’t show it. “There’s no need.”
“Oh, but there’s every need.” I grip his arm just above the elbow, digging the tip of my thumb into the nerve which runs between the muscle and the bone. To the casual observer it looks like I’m merely steering him in the right direction but the pain is intense, especially for one who prefers dishing it out to taking it. Ethan proves that by letting out a pathetic whine.
“Not so hard!”
“Stop bitching.” We’re practically flying up the stairs. I’m taking them two at a time and he has no choice but to keep up. Once we reach the ground floor, instead of taking Ethan to the exit, I steer him past the bar and into the back hallway reserved for employee access only.
“Where are you taking me? I thought we were going outside.”
“You thought wrong.” I punch the code into the keypad and the door to the back stairwell opens. “You think I’m just going to let you go after you violated not one but two guests of this establishment?”
“What do you care? They’re only humans.” Even now, Ethan is being a haughty prick.
Instead of rising to his bait, I rap on the door to Lucius’s office.
“Enter.”
Lucius is sitting behind his enormous desk. He takes one look at Ethan and the way I’m gripping him, and raises a single eyebrow.
“Problem?” he says.
“This prick needs to go,” I tell him, resisting the urge to shake Ethan. “He assaulted a guest last week and I gave him another chance, told him never to come back. He didn’t listen, and went for Leann tonight.”
An expression of cold rage comes over Lucius’s face. He takes Club Toxic’s reputation very seriously. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?” he asks Ethan in a quiet, dangerous voice.
“Fuck you,” Ethan spits. “I don’t know why you’d get your panties in a knot over a couple of pathetic little girls. Both of them agreed to play with me.”
“Both of them were coerced,” I argue, then meet Lucius’s gaze. “Do I have your permission to deal with him?”
“Absolutely.” Lucius opens a drawer, retrieves a stake, then gets up and walks over to us. Suddenly I’m worried that he’s going to do it. I want it so bad I can taste it. This fucker I’m holding assaulted Sabina. I want to make him pay.
“
Please let me do the honors,” I say.
Nothing gets past Lucius. “I get the feeling this is personal,” he says.
“Yep.” There’s no point in lying.
“All right then.” He hands me the stake.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ethan snarls as soon as he realizes what’s about to happen. “You’re actually going to kill me? For a little thrall?”
I don’t bother replying. Instead, I give Lucius a little nod and drag Ethan out of the office and down the stairs. There’s a fire exit in the back hallway and I shove it open with my free hand, the stake clenched in my fist.
“Look,” my captive begins. His previously dismissive tone now has a note of desperation. I think he’s finally realized he’s in serious shit he’s not going to get out of. “Let’s talk about this. I’m sorry, okay? I’ll never do it again. I won’t come back here.”
“You had your second chance. That’s more than some get.” It’s true. Vampires are dangerous. Regardless of what Ethan is promising now, I know he won’t stick to it. And even if he never comes back here, he’ll only go and hurt women somewhere else. I’m doing the world a favor.
We’re outside now, in the private little courtyard which belongs to the club. I drag Ethan between two industrial-sized garbage bins. For the first time, the little fucker really tries to resist me, fighting against my hold on him, trying to wrench his arm free. He’s strong.
I’m stronger.
“Any last words?” I ask him.
“Yes. You’re pathetic. I can’t believe you’d side with some fucking humans when our kind should stick together. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
I slide the stake into his heart with a swift, smooth thrust, remembering the expression of fear on Sabina’s gorgeous face when I first saw her, when she was in this snake’s clutches.
I’ve taken countless lives, but few were ever this satisfying. The light fades from Ethan’s eyes and he goes limp. It never fails to amaze me how easy it really is. For all the effort of turning someone, for all the hundreds or thousands of years a vampire can live, his existence can still be snuffed out within seconds. As soon as I let go of Ethan’s arm, he slumps to the ground in a suited heap.
“You won’t be bothering any guests again now,” I say quietly, turning on my heel and leaving his pathetic form right there. Once the sunlight hits his body, he’ll disintegrate. Nobody will ever know what happened to him.
As I slip back in through the fire escape and make my way down the stairs into the club proper, my thoughts turn to Sabina. She’ll have noticed my absence, no doubt, but that doesn’t worry me. She knows I’m working tonight. I never feel remorse or guilt about killing anymore, but for some reason I wonder what she would think if she knew what I’d just done. I can’t imagine that she’d condone it. Humans seem to have a different attitude than we do when it comes to death.
Although I suppose that’s not surprising, really.
Once I reach the bar, I find Tiberius, who’s still comforting Leann. “I’ve taken care of it,” I tell her. “He won’t be bothering you again.”
She looks up and I feel a stab of guilt at the expression of misery on her tear-streaked face. “Thank you,” she says quietly, but I can almost taste the reproach in her tone. I should have been there. I should have noticed and come to her rescue before it went too far.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Yeah.” She gives a little shrug. “Shit happens. I got away before it got too bad.”
I’m desperate to go and find Sabina but don’t want Leann to feel like I’m abandoning her so soon again after I’ve let her down.
And this, right here, is why I vowed I’d never get involved with anyone. I can’t take care of everyone if I’m focusing all my attention on one person. Sabina is too much of a distraction, and it’s preventing me from doing my job properly.
I just don’t know whether I can let her go.
I certainly know I don’t want to.
20
Sabina
I’ve never tried needles before but after watching that scene unfold, I’ve decided I’d like to someday. Maybe with Maximus. I make a mental note to ask him but it will have to wait. It’s a busy weekend night, and he keeps disappearing from his usual spot on the stool in the corner. Even though I now know this club is full of non-humans, I feel safe here. For one thing, Maximus is never far away, even when he’s working. And for another, Zeke won’t ever set foot in this building.
Truth be told, he’s starting to worry me. I had really thought he would have given up messaging me by now, especially since I never respond. But his showing up at my workplace is freaking me out more, the more I think about it, and while I still don’t believe he’d ever actually hurt me, I’m starting to wonder about what Maximus would do to him if it ever escalated.
Now that I know what happened with Maximus’s wife, I can’t really say I’m surprised about his protective streak, but even so, that was a long time ago, and I’m a different person. I’m not some insipid nineteenth-century maiden who swoons at the sight of blood. I’m strong, independent, modern. I wish Maximus would realize that. Earlier this week, he convinced me to let him install a GPS tracker on my phone. I still can’t believe I let him. My excuse is that I was weak-kneed from our play and feeling tender towards him, and it was just after he told me about Caroline. I figured it wouldn’t hurt—I have nothing to hide, after all—and I thought if he did that, he might worry less and loosen his control on me somewhat. I’ve never met anyone so determined to know about my every movement before. It’s kind of sweet, but also a little intimidating, even now that I know where it’s coming from.
I catch sight of him at the bar, talking intently to one of his colleagues—Tiberius, I think his name is—and a willowy brunette. Almost as if he can feel me watching him, he turns his head and looks at me. I shoot him a grin but he doesn’t return my smile. I wonder if I’ve done something to upset him, or he’s just having a bad night. The brunette certainly doesn’t look too happy.
My bag vibrates at my hip and I close my eyes, well aware that there’s only one person who would message me at this time of night—aside from Maximus, who’s right here with me. Turning around so my back is to the bar and my vampire gladiator (as I’ve taken to calling him in my head), I fish my phone out of my purse and flick the screen on.
Fucking leech whore.
I stare at the letters, trying to make sense of them. This is the second time Zeke has referred to leeches and I wonder what the hell he’s talking about. He likes to smoke a joint on occasion, so the first time he used the term, I figured maybe it was a typo or autocorrect of some kind. Twice, however, is too much of a coincidence.
“Zeke?” Maximus’s voice in my ear makes me jump about three feet into the air.
“Shit, you scared me!” I stammer.
“Language,” he says.
I glare at him, flicking my phone off.
“I asked you a question,” he goes on, his voice taking on that low, forceful tone. “Did you get another message from Zeke?”
“Is that girl okay?” I deflect, indicating the direction of the bar with a lift of my chin. “She looked very upset.”
“She had a nasty encounter with our old friend, Ethan,” Maximus says, and a look of regret flicks over his handsome face.
“Ugh. That slimy creep. He’s a vampire too, isn’t he?”
“Hush, not so loud.” Maximus has explained to me that the majority of club visitors don’t know that not all Toxic employees or guests are human. The existence of so many vampires clustered together in Tucson is a closely guarded secret only shared with trusted regulars and lovers. I wanted to ask him why he’d allowed me to find out so soon after meeting him—especially after he told me that they’re actually able to wipe a person’s mind, essentially removing their memories of a specific event—but if I’m honest, I was afraid of the answer.
“Sorry,” I whis
per. “Did you find him? Bar him from the club?”
There’s a pause. Then, “Let’s just say he won’t assault any more girls.”
A prickle of fear tingles up my spine as his words sink in. “You killed him?” Surely he didn’t. He wouldn’t.
Maximus’s face is grim. “I won’t lie to you, Sabina. Yes, I did.”
The room begins to spin and I wobble. He catches me in a fluid, practiced motion and leads me to the quiet corner where he usually sits. I lean against the wall, trying to process what he’s just told me. Even though I’ve been kind of worried that he’d do the same to Zeke, I don’t think I ever really genuinely thought him capable of it until now. I mean, I know he’s killed before—he was a soldier, for god’s sake—but this is the twenty-first century. You don’t just murder a guy because he hassled two women in a nightclub. If everyone did that, there’d be almost no men left in the world.
“Pet?” Maximus has me by the shoulders, watching me intently. “It had to be done. I did warn him not to come back.”
“I need a drink.” Or five. “Could you please get me something strong? A shot?”
“Only if you sit down while you wait for me.” He drags over a stool and I perch on it obediently. “Don’t move.”
I watch him slink off through the throng of club guests, my mind reeling. This past week has been like a dream: insane chemistry, incredible sex, deep tenderness. And I realize that even though I’ve known what Maximus is for several days now, that knowledge was essentially just theoretical. I romanticized it in my head in order to deal with it. Now, after one simple admission, reality has finally sunk in.
He’s a monster. A real life, genuine, bona fide monster.
I look at my surroundings through fresh eyes. The suited, attractive men who are here luring in unsuspecting victims under the guise of BDSM. The stunning women who go with them willingly, usually with no idea of who their play partners really are.
Her Vampire Addiction (Midnight Doms Book 9) Page 14