by Kaia Bennett
“Lovely. Really, Jesse, she’s like a flower with fangs.” Sundara inhaled deep. “Mmm. She smells forbidden. Like something too decadent to have existed in quite some time. Damn near a thousand years even. Leave it to an Oldman to turn a witch. You have planet-sized balls, my love, just like your papa. Maybe bigger.”
The proprietor of Asylum cast a shadowy glance over her tan shoulder, her human eyes the same rich bourbon Liam’s had been. She didn’t look nearly as self-satisfied as I thought she would after figuring out my secret. In fact she looked sympathetic. Impressed, maybe. The power in that gaze unnerved me as much as Masilda tugging an invisible thread buried in my heart.
What else do you know? What aren’t you saying?
I tried to mask my shock at how easily she’d called Evie’s nature, but there were no secrets here. Sundara traded in secrets among a species born in darkness. If you didn’t give them willingly, she could carve them out with a deft touch, a hard fuck, a sharp edge. She dipped her hands in the thick black goo of our underworld, savoring the power rolling between her fingers.
“If your father knew, she’d be dead.”
“Ha.” Vaughn’s deadpan laugh drew a grin from Sundara. “If only. The bitch has a knack for survival. It’s annoying as fuck.”
“Wait. He knows?” Sundara’s voice went near shrill as she processed Vaughn’s words.
“No, not quite.” I tried a nonchalant shrug on for size and shook the creepy weight of Sundara’s gaze off my shoulder. “She’s an empath. He found out about her and told me to take care of the problem, and… well, I had an accident with my venom.”
The gorgeous vampire barked out a laugh. The bawdy sound made me smile in spite of the flip in my gut. “That must be the understatement of my lifetime. Your father doesn’t know, and you want to keep it that way, yes?”
I nodded. She turned her attention to Evie’s wide eyes, which wavered before Evie ventured a glance at me. Fear. Up until now, she and Stark assumed I would never tell my father. But could Sundara be trusted to do the same?
“Like I said, I like to make sure everyone leaves happy. Bad for business if I turn into a gossip. I’ll keep it to myself.” She waved a dismissive hand at us, rings twinkling in the dim lights as she revealed she knew Evie to be my mate. Not just turned, but joined to me. I opened my mouth, but Evie’s voice stole my words.
“How could you possibly know what I am?” Evie shuddered and clenched her jaw when the vampire’s perfectly manicured fingertips trailed down her hair and over a delicate collarbone.
“I was alive when your kind died out. I fucked a bond witch once, a threesome with him and his mate. Definitely in my top five.”
Evie hissed at a thin scratch made by one of Sundara’s sharp nails. Our true born host gathered up a drop of Evie’s blood and sucked her fingertip. My own mouth watered as the wound healed, even as my fists clenched with the desire to drag my old friend away from Evie. I shoved my fists into my jeans instead.
We need her. I need to remember that.
“You taste as good as you smell. I’m getting wet just thinking about opening up one of your gorgeous veins. I bet you put up one helluva fight—”
She turned to Stark then, who had taken a step closer to his charge. His lip curled and a growl tumbled from between glistening teeth. The office crackled with aggression, the tiny hairs on my arms standing up at Stark’s warning. Maybe she’d snap his neck and save me the trouble of doing so later.
“What’s your name, wolf?”
“Detective Stark.”
She laughed, and swayed like a snake, as she took a step away to peruse the full length of him. “Oh, I do have a soft spot for authority figures.”
We’re not a subtle species when we see something we like, and Sundara as a true born woman and former queen had even less need to dissemble.
“You smell like alpha stock, pup. I’d love to have you on my rack and bleed you, just to confirm it.”
Stark, to my amusement, swallowed. Audibly. Vaughn propped an arm and covered his mouth, but his shoulders shook with humor.
“We don’t have time to play, Sundara. I need to get them settled. My meeting is Sunday. Then I leave town again, but my free run ends in January. I promise, once I’m in the area again, I’ll pay you bac—”
“No.”
The steel edge of finality in her silky voice, ancient and dominating, silenced me.
“No excuses, boy. Your meeting is Sunday, but Saturday night you’ll make yourselves available to me. I’m performing and I’ve decided to trade in my lovely assistant for something a bit more raw. Untouched, even.”
She stared between Evie and Stark. Evie retreated a step. I stalked forward to guard her.
“Relax. Tasty as your mate is, it’s not her I want.” Sundara crowded Stark’s space and craned her neck. “I want the wolf.” Her voice deepened with promises of lust and pain.
“What?” Stark and I exclaimed in unison.
Evie breathed a sigh of relief and immediately recovered enough to shoot a troubled gaze at Stark.
Vaughn guffawed. “I got no clue what a lovely assistant does, but I’m fucking stoked to find out.”
He looked between Sundara and Stark’s staring contest, then to me with a quirked eyebrow. I didn’t elaborate, because I couldn’t. Every show Sundara put on was different, a one-time experience with an elite guest list. But, I knew if Stark refused, we’d be fucked. My scowl made Vaughn raise both of his eyebrows, then adjust his dick. I wondered if he could sense a fellow sadist choosing her meal.
“Sundara. I can’t give you something that isn’t mine to give. I’m sure Stark would be honored to be in one of your shows but—”
“He should be. I fully expect to make a grown man cry tonight when I tell him he’s no longer on the menu.”
Sundara circled Stark, a predator assessing prey. Stark didn’t take kindly to this. A low growl filled the room, the insult crackling the air with palpable aggression as the former queen molded herself to Stark’s back. To move meant submission, to stay meant being assaulted by a true born queen’s perfume, the spicy scent of a desert flower and wet pussy.
“You won’t refuse me. You’d never abandon your charge to danger, would you, detective? Not if you can help it. You’ll be my pretty toy for the night, won’t you? You big,” she reached around to fondle his stomach, “Bad. Wolf.”
A breathy gasp from Sundara’s blood red lips drew a tremble from Stark. His entire body seemed to clench for a fight he couldn’t start, let alone win, and Sundara purred with excitement.
She cupped his hardening flesh through his jeans, squeezing and pulling along his clothed shaft. Only the shallow flexing of Stark’s abs and the brick hiding in his pants gave away his arousal.
“I’m going to enjoy breaking you.”
Stark smiled and glanced over his shoulder at his tormentor-to-be.
“I’m going to enjoy watching your ancient face droop with disappointment. You can fuck me, but you can’t break me. I’m the son of a great alpha. I don’t understand the meaning of the word broken.”
“I believe you.” Sundara giggled, the sound bubbling on the air like a delicious scream. “That’s why this’ll be so much fun!”
Sundara stepped away from Stark, as if dismissing him. “Your gorgeous turned friend is invited. Consider yourself lucky, sport, your ilk don’t usually make it onto the guest list.”
“Charmed and shit.” Vaughn gave her a smile like cracked ice.
“Nothing personal, Blondie. Even true born have to drop a pretty penny to see me naked. I’m guessing your mate doesn’t have proper attire, Jesse? Being on the lam usually limits the quality of available frocks.” Sundara smacked her lips and flicked the hem of Evie’s pink T-shirt.
“I’m not interested in whatever vampires call a ‘show’.” Evie scoffed. “I doubt you’re talking vaudeville. Josh, you don’t have to do this. We can drive ahead and leave Jesse behind.”
“Evie, shut up.
” She swiveled to stare daggers at me as Sundara spun and glided to her desk. My mate’s eyes bled black as if readying for a fight. But the damage had been done.
“Yes, Josh does have to do this, and you have to watch, Evie.” All of the mirth drained from Sundara’s face. She took a seat and crossed her hands on the slick black surface of her desk. “That is, if you want the keys to the new property I acquired last month, and you don’t want Papa Oldman to find out what Baby Oldman did on his summer vacation.”
“You’d threaten a friend just to make us watch some creepy vampire performance?”
The sharp precision of Sundara’s smile commanded silence, like a whet stone on a killing blade as prey looked on.
“You haven’t been a vampire long, I take it. Still holding onto all of those pillow-soft witch ethics. So allow me to school you, one man-eater to another.”
The vixen winked at me and I shut my eyes at the dig. Of course, to Sundara’s mind, Evie had conquered me. “At the end of the day, little girl, I’m a business woman and a true born bitch of the highest order. I get what I want. Always. But, since I’m such a generous spirit, everyone walks away with a gift bag when I’m done. Case in point, this new property.”
Sundara switched gears, abandoning her tongue lashing to type on her black laptop.
“Not only can you get to the apartment using my personal tunnels completely undetected, but it’s a veritable treasure trove of the witch variety.”
Evie stared at me, looking as confused as I felt.
“Oh, the property belonged to a witch before he was—” Sundara tilted her head, thinking. “—evicted. He’s got quite the stash of artifacts and books, the sort of thing a vampire would never get their hands on under normal circumstances.”
She reached beneath the surface of her desk. I heard the hiss of a high-tech security lock opening. The scent of rich blood hit the air like an unfurling flower. She must’ve locked the desk with her blood and fingerprint, making whatever else she had in that drawer damn near priceless. My father had done the same in one of his offices. Sundara opened the desk drawer and sifted carefully before her eyes lit with success. She lifted an ornate wrought-iron key. A red ribbon dangled from the bow.
Evie stared up at the ceiling like her sanity had been plastered up there, several emotions warring within her and pinging off my psyche like a pinball. Anger, curiosity, fatigue. I counted her measured breaths, breathing in the same rhythm.
“Another tip from an old pro, Evie. Feeding curbs the mood swings. She needs a good hunt, I’d wager.” Sundara’s quip sped Evie’s heart and the bond witch stared at her shoes in defeat. Stark’s hand at her shoulder blades soothed her enough to melt tension from her shoulders.
I bared my fangs on instinct.
“She’s right.” Stark’s low voice made Evie look up. “Remember what Masilda said. Gotta keep up your strength.”
Well, fuck. The knight in shining wolf fur agrees, huh?
“There!” Sundara finished scanning her screen and pinned me with a stare. I snatched the key she tossed out of the air. “I’ve got your lovely mate scheduled for an appointment for tomorrow. You’ll send her and the wolf to me at seven. I’ll pretty her up, start the show at eight, and voila. Debt repaid in just one night of debauchery.”
I raised an eyebrow. She had a habit of stretching a night of debauchery into several, and I doubted the wolf would be fully recovered by the end of the weekend.
Sundara grinned. “You all should get some rest tonight. Make sure you have a nice big meal, alpha stock. You’re gonna use a lot of protein tomorrow.”
Now that she’d finally fed, Evie needed to learn how to hunt. I hadn’t seen her eat anything human either, so maybe as the priestess said, her vampire side had taken over now.
I nodded at my manipulative savior and stuffed the key in my pocket. “Thanks, Sundara.”
“No torn jeans and T-shirts with holes in them for you and Gorgeous.” She nodded at Vaughn. “I love seeing you in a suit.”
I grinned, recalling the past, the layers we’d unraveled and bloodied, the laughs we’d shared.
“I’ve got a name, princess. It’s Vaughn. Not hard to remember, even easier to scream.”
“If only you were staying in town longer.” Sundara chuckled as she stood and motioned for us to follow her, a ruby sparkling in the dim light.
Behind her desk a recessed door that required another DNA code unlocked. We followed Sundara through the other side, the orgiastic second level still unfurling below.
Her private elevator loomed at the end of the black walkway. She held out a piece of paper and Vaughn marched forward to take the sheet, stroking the proprietor’s fingers as he did so. Sundara’s signature smile teased her lips. The woman had always been a sinister promise, a Venus fly trap even hardened vamps begged to dissolve them.
“The tunnels will lead you to the library extension under Bryant Park. Another tunnel connects to the library on 42nd Street. Once you’re inside, take the stairs to the apartment in the attic. Do not,”—she gave Vaughn a warning look before pointing a finger in my face—“feed in my pretty new property. There’s plenty of fresh food outside. I plan to catalogue what’s in there before I decide if I want to keep it.”
I huffed at the minor complication. “Since we can’t order in, how do we get out to hunt?”
“There’s a fire escape beside the fountain in Bryant Park. Burn that map when you’re done, Vaughn. I don’t want anyone using my personal tunnels.”
Vaughn winked and gave Sundara his most eloquent ‘I’d fuck you raw’ look. “You’re the boss.”
As the rest of the crew filed into the elevator I gave her a kiss.
“If I’d known you’d go and get yourself hitched, I’d have played with you a little longer, Jesse.”
I tilted her chin. “Take a rain check, baby. Once me and the witch get cosmically divorced, I’ll be back to play.”
Her eyes widened. A shocked huff escaped her lips and she shook her head.
“You’re gonna try and undo your mate bond?”
I stared directly into Evie’s eyes. She didn’t flinch from my gaze.
“I’m gonna fix a mistake. Yeah.”
Sundara stroked my face. Her thumb swiped red lipstick off my bottom lip, and left the tang of her blood behind.
“So arrogant. Just like your papa.”
15
Vaughn burned the map in the furnace, the glow of fire in the pot-bellied stove another little trip down memory lane. Humans had come a long way, from huddling by a fire to central heat and air. My kind were never so ambitious, nor so delicately made.
“Jesus, look at all of this.” Evie ran her fingers over the bookshelf in the living room. She snatched a book off the shelf, flipped through, then palmed another. “Masilda had a library in the farmhouse, but most of it was Romani journals or hidden medical texts from the Dark Ages. This shit is labeled by continent.” She piled on another book and tossed a frown over her shoulder.
“I don’t suppose any of you read Sanskrit or,”—she glanced at the contents of another book—“Ancient. Egyptian. Jesus, there’s translations in here.”
Evie settled cross-legged onto a couch and began reading a journal.
I snatched the journal out of her hands and tossed her books into a haphazard pile on the other side of the couch. Loose pages fluttered and scattered to the floor where they weren’t glued into the spine. “We’re going out.”
“Why?”
I ignored her and turned to Vaughn. “Go to my apartment and grab us two suits. Come right here after. Meaning, don’t take any detours.”
“But, I’m hungry.”
I sighed. “Reach down and grab a pair. I told Cai I’d be here in a few days, but for all I know, he’s still keeping tabs. I just want to make sure he’s not skulking around my place waiting to follow me.”
“That don’t make no sense. He’s gonna see you in a few days. He thinks she’s fish food. He’s not t
racking you, and even if he is, so what? What does it matter if he’s watching your place, he’s never gonna find her here.”
I gritted my teeth. I wanted to agree to his logic and relax, but I couldn’t. “Safest thing to do is to go get the suits, then slip into the tunnels. You see anything else we need, go on and pack it.”
I dumped the contents of my pack in an armchair and tossed the bag at his chest. Noticing my patience had worn thin, Vaughn reached for the cigarettes and lighter in his jacket pocket with a humorless grumble. He popped the filterless stick into his mouth, but didn’t light up.
“If you’re being followed, call me. If not, drop our shit off, and then, go get something to eat. So simple, even you can do it.”
“Whatever.” With a huff, Vaughn headed for the stairs. “I’ll be happy when you cut the bitch loose. I’m tired of this incognito shit. I haven’t killed anything in days, Jesse. Days! Just little sips of blood while I got my dick wet.”
The rest of his grouses were swallowed after, “Feel like a goddamn Puritan.”
“Hey!” He spun at my call, pausing with the attic exit propped open. “Be careful. Keep an eye out for V-Sep. Don’t just feed without checking.”
“Sniff test. Listen to the lungs. If they got the sniffles, pass.” He gave me a two fingered salute and disappeared into the stairwell.
The old apartment creaked and moaned in protest from the wind. I inhaled and confirmed the scent of city life, and below that, the wet chill of coming snow. I took a calming breath and ran my fingers through my hair before pulling on my jacket.
“Grab a coat.” I pointed to her sparse luggage. “We need to blend and it’s gonna snow.”
“I’m not hungry.”
She’d pulled some small leather-bound journal off the shelf by her head, and now nervously caressed the cover, while Stark checked the view from the window.
I didn’t bother arguing with her lie, if she wanted someone to coddle her, like the priestess, she’d picked the wrong man.
“Not a debate. I need food. You need food. ‘Bout time you learned how to hunt.”