by Casey Lane
The queue inched forward. Skye watched a couple of girls be turned away at the door. No ID, she supposed, though they didn’t look particularly young. They moved out of the alley, arguing heatedly but in voices too low to hear.
She watched more people go inside, seeing there were stairs inside the building leading up a level. Paranoia set in as the queue got closer and closer to the door. She checked for her ID, making sure she had it, even though every inch they moved forward had her wishing they were just going to their usual club in town, The Basement. Mostly because it had a door that faced out onto a main street, and the thought of going inside didn’t make her weirdly nervous. She shivered, staring ahead as they waited for the group of women in front of them to get past the bouncer.
The guy was pretty grim-faced, he didn’t seem like a smiler. He looked the group over and nodded them inside. No ID checks. They were next. Skye was sure her nerves were showing in her expression as the guy turned his serious eyes on them. She glanced at her friend.
Anna smiled at the bouncer, her flirty side-smile and elevator glance combo, and he shook his head slowly.
“Sorry, ladies, the club’s full.”
Skye let out a sigh of relief. She grabbed Anna’s arm. “Okay, come on. The Basement awaits.”
“But… but…” Anna glanced back at the queue behind them.
Skye made a move and a warm hand landed on her shoulder. She turned to find a hands-down gorgeous guy with dark hair close behind her. He smiled at the bouncer.
“They’re with me.” Three magic words, apparently.
The bouncer stepped back. “Good to see you, Brody. Have a nice night.”
Skye raised an eyebrow at him as he ushered them inside. “Um, what was that about?”
“Sam’s just kind of pissy,” the guy told her. “He doesn’t get out much, which is pretty funny when you think about the job he does.”
Anna giggled, her face flushing when Skye turned her stare on her friend.
“Uh, yeah. Okay. Whatever,” Skye said, wondering who the guy was and what he wanted from them. Most people didn’t just do nice things for nothing. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe he’d gotten them in out of the kindness of his heart.
“Well, I need to get going, but you ladies have fun,” Brody told them, walking away as they got into the main room. Skye watched him go, seeing him head into a staff door by the side of the bar.
“He was sooo…” Anna started, and Skye could tell she was ready to full on gush over the guy.
“Bar tenders are so full of themselves,” Skye cut her friend off. “Come on, I need a drink.”
She headed to the bar. Her glass of wine had worn off on the walk over. She needed more alcohol to get rid of the shitty, monotonous working week she’d had. It had been a little worse than most. Her boss was a total pervert, and he’d implied she might lose her job if she didn’t go to the next weekend conference with him. She’d already heard the horror stories of the last girl who’d blindly agreed to that. Even if she hadn’t, she was too jaded to not be suspicious about why he’d picked a member of his admin team instead of one of his salesmen to attend a conference aimed at building customer client-bases. Not to mention how his stare always made her want to claw her skin off. She shuddered just thinking about it.
The bar tender who approached was female. She realized she had no idea what she wanted when the girl asked her for her order.
“Um… A cocktail. Something with rum in it.” She needed to get drunk, and fast. “Make it two.”
Anna was already dancing a little beside her, enjoying the unfamiliar music. It didn’t seem like chart stuff, more kind of rocky. Skye didn’t care what the music was like, she could, and would, dance to anything once she’d washed the day away with enough alcohol to set the building on fire.
The bar tender didn’t speak as she fixed their drinks. The green and pink end result almost looked too pretty to drink. Anna took a second to admire hers before she took a sip. Skye pulled the straw out, sank it quickly, and asked for another as she passed the girl money.
“Someone’s got the thirst,” Anna said, eyebrows rising.
Skye shrugged. “We were standing in that queue forever. I lost my buzz.”
“Where did all the hot guys get to?” Anna’s roving gaze was drifting across the bar to the dance floor.
Skye followed her friend’s gaze once she had another drink in her hand. She paced herself with this one. The drinks weren’t overpriced, but they didn’t seem to be super cheap either. Just another reason to miss their usual haunt. Student prices couldn’t be touched in any of the other clubs in town. She seriously needed to keep things cheap, especially since she wasn’t sure how serious her sleazy manager had been about the stability of her job if she wasn’t keen to ‘show her enthusiasm’ and ‘learn a thing or two’ from him. She was about to suggest leaving when she saw the guy who’d gotten them in at the other end of the bar. What was his name again? Brody, she remembered, smiling. His gaze caught hers, and she felt her stomach flip. She looked away quickly, telling herself she wasn’t the slightest bit attracted to him. The lie wouldn’t work for much longer, but she had to at least try. A few months without a man in her life was just about enough to make her fall into bed with the next one who gave her the right look.
“There’s a table over there,” Anna said, pulling at her wrist.
She moved with her friend, refusing to look back. She told herself they were out tonight to drink and dance. That was all. A new man didn’t need to be a part of that.
They sat with their strange, sweet drinks and Skye still couldn’t shake the thought that the guy was watching her. She was being stupid. He was exactly the kind of guy who could get any girl he wanted. He wouldn’t waste time on one who wasn’t interested. She just had to make sure she didn’t give him any signals, mixed or otherwise.
“This drink is amazing,” Anna said, her speech already slurring. She was a lightweight. Made for a cheap round.
Skye wished she could say the same about herself. Binge drinking was the only way she could get drunk and tonight she seriously needed to get shitfaced. It was going to take at least eight glasses of the sugary-sweet concoction. It wasn’t light on booze, either. The measures were sizable; she’d watched the bartender pour them.
“It’s okay,” Skye said, brushing her hair back from her face. The new style was taking time to get used to. Her hair had been long. Her ex had liked it that way. She’d cut it before she dumped him. He’d been sleeping with one of her so-called friends and she’d found out when she went home sick from work. She’d rushed out right then, before they could notice. The haircut had been done while she was still reeling from what she’d seen and heard, and doped up on antibiotics and painkillers for a throat infection. She hadn’t regretted it, not really, but she wasn’t used to the now shoulder-length version of her hair. Kicking her boyfriend out of her flat had been the hard part, and mostly because she could barely speak. Screaming at him to leave didn’t have quite the same effect when her voice was a weak little whisper.
She stirred the drink with her straw. Men were idiots. They always did things they weren’t supposed to and then expected to be forgiven for it. She’d never been the forgiving type. Forgetting and moving on, that was her MO. There was no point getting stuck in the past. A few months were more than enough to make her forget. She gazed across the room and didn’t bother trying to lie to herself this time. Getting tangled up with another idiot soon was probably on the cards, and she wasn’t going to beat herself up about it.
Within an hour, she was being asked to dance and being bought drinks by good looking guys she wasn’t sure she was interested in yet. She hadn’t forgotten about Brody, but she didn’t see him again until her blood-alcohol level was ‘hammered’.
He smiled at her, his hand catching hers on the dance floor. “Let me buy you a drink.”
She should have said no, but her resistance had thoroughly worn away. Following him to th
e bar, she waited to be asked what she wanted. He turned and passed her a drink that looked like a chocolate milkshake.
She frowned at him. “Is this a joke?”
“It’s a Mud Slide. Haven’s specialty. Try it.” He didn’t need to do much to sound convincing. His voice was like honey. His smile warming as if the sun was beating down on her skin.
“Well, okay then,” she said, taking a sip. It was amazingly good, but this close to being passed-out drunk meant her sense of taste was not to be entirely relied upon. It went down easy as she drained the glass empty.
He watched her in amusement. “Another?”
She shrugged as she passed the glass back to him. “Depends.”
“Depends?” His lips quirked at the corners. “On what?”
She leaned in, and whispered in his ear, “On how soon you want to leave this place.”
Saying it out loud only confirmed her own suspicions that she’d had more than enough to drink for one night. His slow smile made her wonder if this was it. If they were about to leave together she should find Anna and let her know. Or she could text her, if her phone even had any battery left.
He turned to the bar, and she frowned. Talk about mixed signals. He placed another drink in her hand and she sipped at it, trying to figure out her next tactic. He didn’t seem shy, but her uninhibited brain had probably jumped a step or two. Dragging him home without giving him the chance to chat her up properly first was probably kind of slutty, and she wasn’t even sure if he was a one night stand kind of guy. Presumptuous much, Skye? She rolled her eyes as she drank. When she was done, she passed him the glass back and grabbed his hand. The surprised expression he gave her made her smile. She pulled him towards the dance floor and the music pounded through her. They moved together slowly and just when she was sure he was going to kiss her, something else happened.
He said something before the room got brighter. “Theo’s going to love you.”
She fought to keep hold of the memory, to see more, but it faded too quickly. Brody had never kissed her. He’d brought her here for another reason, and she was starting to wonder if that reason was as awful as she’d first assumed.
The room was dark, her gaze still trying to adjust as she reached out across the bed. Theo wasn’t next to her. She sat up, suddenly wary. Why was it so dark? She bit at her lip, remembering a lamp near the bed and reaching out to try and switch it on. Her clumsy fingers fumbled with the bedside table, knocking over the phone in her haste. The noise made her wince.
“The bulb blew,” Theo’s voice pierced the silence and made her draw in a sharp breath.
“Shit!” She swore, trying to pull herself together. She needed to think. Her hangover had finally cleared. The haze had lifted and everything that had happened hit her full force. She’d been kidnapped. Whatever the reason, that was one truth she could cling to. As for the other…
She swallowed as she tried to remember where the broken glass from the mirror had been dropped. She could feel little pains on her soles when she flexed her feet. The shards had gotten everywhere. She’d cut her feet up when she’d walked back through to shower while her head was still fuzzy.
“You’re a vampire,” she said, feeling around the surface of the bedside table. There hadn’t been a weapon there before and one hadn’t magically appeared, no matter how hard she wished for it to. Her heart started to pound rapidly as she realized she was trapped in the dark with someone she’d been cherry picked to be given to if her memory was to be relied on.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
She laughed. “You already bit me, so it’s too late to start lying about that.”
“That wasn’t…” he stopped, and she could hear him curse lightly under his breath before he cleared his throat and tried again, “I don’t want to hurt you. I won’t. You just need to listen to me.”
What kind of game was he playing? She pushed the covers off her legs and got ready to move. Her shitty week was not about to be capped off by being murdered.
“Listening,” she said, her sight beginning to adjust to the dark.
“I wanted to be left alone. I haven’t been feeding lately. It’s why I couldn’t control myself when you got close.”
Her panic spiked. He sounded distressed and that made it a million times worse. Game or not, she was freaking out right now.
“I want out.”
“They won’t let you out.”
She slid across the bed, feeling for the sliver of glass she’d threatened him with before he’d disarmed her.
“Oh, yeah? Who’s they?” Like she gave a damn. But keeping him talking was better than the alternative. When the conversation ended, who knew how long she’d survive?
He sighed, making her spine straighten. He was closer now. Why the hell was it so damned dark in here? She found the edge of the bed and wondered about swinging her legs over. If only imaginary monsters underneath were all she had to worry about. If only she’d known the creatures she’d feared as a child weren’t so far from the truth.
“My friends. They mean well, but they don’t understand.”
“Nice friends.” She laughed bitterly as she got up from the bed. The creak of the mattress made her wince.
“It would be better if you stayed on the bed.”
She froze in place. It sounded like he was right next to her. Her hand itched to reach out and touch that cold, hard body. Without a weapon, it would be foolish. She refrained, but she couldn’t quite convince herself to move away.
“Why would it be better?”
Another sigh. “You’re too much of a temptation.”
She gasped as the glow of inhuman amber eyes lit his pale, angular face. He was right beside her, closer now as he moved to face her. He leaned in and inhaled at her shoulder.
“I’ve been starved,” he told her. “And I already know how good you taste.”
She shivered. His voice was so low and infused with need that her body started to react to him even as she told it to stop. “Well, back up because I’m not ready to die and I won’t let it happen like this.” She raised her hand as if to slap him but hooked her fingers and clawed harshly at his face with her nails instead.
He didn’t blink. She didn’t even break his skin. He just kept right on staring at her.
“I’m not going to kill you.”
Hope filled her for a moment before it fled. Of course, he would say that. She already knew this was some kind of game. Staying sharp might be a problem, but she was damn well going to win.
“Then what are you going to do?” She let a little bit of her anger out in her tone, unable to stay calm under the circumstances.
“I’m going to put you back to sleep,” he said, his hand touching her face.
Her instinct was to move into his touch, not to pull away. His cool fingers were gentle with her. His glowing gaze pulled her in.
“I don’t want to go to sleep.” Her voice trembled at the thought of it. He had complete control over her. He’d forced her to sleep before. What else could he force her to do?
He hesitated, the glow fading slightly. “You don’t?”
She shook her head. “Can’t we do something else?”
She did have one secret weapon. It wasn’t one she’d used before, but the moment it occurred to her she knew she’d be a fool not to. Disarming a man through sex was manipulative, but this was a vampire and she was severely limited in how much she could harm him. She seriously doubted she could match him for strength.
Her hand moved over his arm and down his chest, heat sparking in her at the uncompromising contours of his body. He was built. If this was meeting a guy under any other circumstance…
“You’re still under my thrall,” he murmured, catching her hand and placing it back against her own chest.
She frowned as he withdrew. Her chance was flying away. She had to grab it.
Taking a step forward, she moved swiftly to plant her lips on his. He stiffened under her touch. His co
ol skin felt tingly against her warmth. His lips parted quickly as her arms wound around his neck. His cold hands pulled her in close. He relaxed into her embrace quickly, she felt it happen as his tongue slipped into her mouth. Now was her chance. Options cycled slowly through her muddled brain as his touch cooled her skin and enflamed her body at the same time. It felt too good to consider ruining with an attempt to kill him. She so had to get her head straight. Now she knew why she’d never used sex as a weapon before.
The growing bulge in his trousers rubbed against her stomach as his ravenous kiss stole her breath. This was how her night should have ended, not with abduction, but with a hot new guy she could spend hours in bed with. She knew she should thrust her knee into his crotch or pull away to bite a chunk out of his throat. She could make herself do neither. Desire swelled through her as she allowed herself to be pulled deeper into the embrace. Her hands began to wander, to explore his incredible body. A thrill shot through her as he did the same.
She moved back slightly to catch her breath and his head dipped to her neck. She stiffened, unable to relax as his lips trailed kisses down over her collarbone to her shoulder.
He noticed her tension and backed off, his eyes no longer glowing. She could see him well enough now without that illumination. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. He was attractive in a brooding kind of way, definitely sexy, even if he didn’t also have the body of a god.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded, not quite able to trust herself to speak. What she was doing right now was completely crazy, and she didn’t think she could justify it if she did too much thinking. What if this was all part of his plan? What if she was making it easier for him to kill her?
The thoughts rushed through her head as his lips moved back to hers. The feeling killed her doubts. She wanted this. She needed to feel wanted again and he was making her feel that way, lie or not. It had been so long she didn’t care what this was. She’d worry about escaping later. He broke the kiss with a sigh.