“Mmm, maybe,” Wilhelmina paused. “But perhaps, you could say you have some information to pass along and you do.”
She nodded. “The angel thing.”
“Yes.”
“They’d laugh in my face.”
“I don’t think anyone would dare,” Wilhelmina offered with a straight face.
Thalya smiled. “True. Maybe I’ll tell them the truth, slightly stretched. I’ll tell them I’ve been to see Adam and am delivering a message. That might get their attention. Get them talking.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Samuel agreed.
“Do they still hang out over at 21st?” Thalya asked.
Wilhelmina nodded. “Yes.”
Samuel stood up. “Come on let’s go.” He held out his hand to her.
She glanced at it before placing hers in his. She couldn’t remember the last time a man offered his hand to her simply because he wanted to do so. Samuel seemed to want to all the time.
“Thanks for your help,” Samuel said to Wilhelmina, leading the way back down the stairs and to the alley door where they said goodbye.
No ticket graced the windshield of Samuel’s car. He opened the car door on his side and Thalya climbed into her seat before telling him the address of the club. “You know, of course, you can’t walk in with me.”
“Why not?”
She looked at him, knowing full well he could see her raised eyebrows in the car. “You know exactly why. You’re a hunter. One look at you and they’d clam up or disappear. For another thing, it’s called Hallow Souls. Soulless and friends only.”
He shook his head slowly at her. “I’m not letting you go into that bar by yourself.”
“Oooh, that’s so sweet, but babe I’ve been doing just fine by myself long before you came along.”
He frowned. “How old are you anyway?”
“You have no idea.” She grinned.
They drove past the club. A line about fifty people long began outside a single solid black door with a black canopy above it proclaiming the name of the club, Hallow Souls, in red letters. The club entrance stood about twenty feet away from the main glass door entrance of the building housing the club. It looked like the club took up most of the first floor of an office building. The offices were closed while the club remained open. On the other side of the street, there were a couple restaurant bars.
“How about I drop you off here and go park,” Samuel offered. “I know that line won’t be a problem for you. I’ll go to the bar right across the street, so I can keep an eye on the place. I’ll give you some time, then I’ll come in. That way we won’t immediately be seen together.”
She nodded. “Okay, that’ll work. But what about the soulless that you fought the other night? What if he’s in there?”
He turned to look at her quickly. “I’m kinda hoping he is. I want to know why he followed us to begin with.”
Thalya shrugged. “I thought that was obvious. To kill you.”
“How do you know he wasn’t after you?” Samuel asked.
She frowned. “Me? No way. He wasn’t following me. He was tailing you.”
“Maybe.” He pulled over beside a parked car. “Okay, be careful. I’ll be right across the street and will be in, in a few.”
Thalya stepped out of the car, but before she shut the door, she bent down to look at him. “The club takes up three levels. Only the first floor is above ground. The other two are underground. Try not to get stuck on the first floor or cause a scene on the second. I’ll be on the third level.” She blew Samuel a kiss and sashayed toward the entrance.
Chapter Twelve
Thalya glided right past the line. The bouncers at the door didn’t even glance at her as she went by. They were human and well trained. The soulless waited in line for no one. The ones standing in line were all human. Human prey as well as provider, depending on one’s point of view. The one rule to this club, anything goes short of death. Yet, many of the humans who entered here after they left might have wished for death. But like addicts, they kept coming back.
She’d been here only once before, long enough for her to know, not her kind of place. Oh yes, plenty of depression in the rooms here. Her senses were awash with it, but of the kind preyed upon. The soulless present encouraged the emotion, not drained it, as she did. In fact, the soulless encouraged more than just depression and kept the humans returning time and time again. However, she also disliked the place because she had no desire for blood. Crimson and black dominated the décor for a reason.
She bypassed the first and second levels, the His floor and the Her floor of the place, and heading straight for the lowest level. The His combined with Hers. The domain of the soulless. The deeper the level, the greater the sensation of descending into the bowels of Hell. An effect the club owners encouraged with the dark lighting and smoky atmosphere. She moved between Grecian-style stone columns gracing the top of the stairs with the face of Cerberus chiseled into the sides and made her way to the bottom. There were low tables and long black S-shaped leather couches scattered throughout the room. Most were occupied, but she found an empty table and sat down with her back to the padded leather wall and waited.
She didn’t have to wait long.
An ebony skinned, dreadlocked male named Damian glided onto the seat on her left. She recognized him as part owner of the club. He raised his arm and placed it on the back of the sofa, in touching distance of her hair. They’d met a time or two, and he knew better than to touch her without her permission. He didn’t usually take blood, oh no, but his emotion of choice was love. Specifically, making love, not just sex.
Like all their kind, his looks drew humans to him. He preferred the less picture perfect girls, the last ones asked to dance, if at all. The ones left at home on Saturday nights. He invested time in them. He waited until they were deep into the relationship, the woman ripe and he ravenous, and then he pounced. Draining every ounce of love from them. Leaving them an empty shell of their former selves. There’d been a few suicides in his past. So no. He didn’t take blood, but he stole lives. If Thalya could hate, she’d hate him for what he did to those women. But she needed him, his connections. Damian knew everyone.
She turned to look at the second man who sat down on her other side right after Damian. He appeared young, for a soulless, younger even than Samuel. He hadn’t been around the first and only time she’d been there. He sat with his long legs sprawled out in front of him and placed his hands on his thighs. Since he appeared to be with Damian, he would not be someone she’d want to spend any time with either. She looked back and forth between the two men. They made a striking pair—one dark, the other light. The second man could have been the poster child for Nordic beauty. One word described him, pale, from his skin to his hair. Then she understood. They worked in tandem. Feeding off opposite emotions. Something not uncommon among the soulless, this working in pairs.
“Thalya, darling,” Damian greeted. “I’m shocked to see you here. But very happy you’ve decided to come hang out with us.” He angled his head toward the other man. “This is Hilo, my business partner.” The man gave her a nod, then grinned by lifting one side of his mouth.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Hilo said.
She turned to look at him. “I’ll just bet you have.”
“Yes. You’re one of the oldens among us. What can we do for you, beautiful lady? Your wish, our command.”
“Hmm, oh really?” She raised one eyebrow in warning, which the fool ignored.
“Would you like us one at a time, or both together?” Hilo queried. “Either way, I want to do you first. I promise you won’t be disappointed. You might not need Damian at all.”
“Now, Hilo. None of that,” Damian interrupted. “Let’s hear what the lady wants.”
Thalya glanced around the dimly lit room, but no one paid them any attention. All the soulless were occupied with their chosen humans for the evening. “I came to tell you all something, something to pass alon
g. It came straight from Adam.”
“Adam.” All of a sudden, Hilo stopped grinning and leaned forward, twisting his body toward her more. “You’ve seen the first man? I hear sightings of him are rare.”
Damian tensed before moving his arm off the sofa back and rested his hand beside his leg. Adam’s name had a tendency to make the soulless concerned. “So, what did Adam have to say?” he asked.
She allowed herself a brief grin. “Brace yourselves. Do either of you know our origins?”
“What are you talking about origins? We just are,” Damian said.
“Yes,” Hilo agreed, then his forehead crinkled. “Although at times, I remember something about my beginning, but whenever I follow the thought it ends.”
“You haven’t been around very long have you?” she asked.
Damian waved his hand at her question as though it were of no significance. “I’ve known Hilo here for about four hundred years.”
Hilo nodded. “Yes, and I don’t think I’ve existed for much longer than that.”
“Well gentlemen, the reason you can’t quite remember is because Adam took away our memories,” Thalya told them.
“What?” Both men said in unison.
She shrugged. “According to him, we were going crazy remembering, even crazier than we can sometimes become now. Brace yourselves guys. We were once angels who were banished from heaven.”
Silence greeted her declaration, for only a second. Then both men erupted into laughter so loud, several heads turned in their direction. No joy echoed in the sound.
“Laugh all you want, it’s the truth,” she said, turning her stone cold eyes on the faces watching them until they found something else to do with their eyes.
Damian twisted his head, looking over both shoulders.
“What are you doing?” Thalya asked.
He turned to face her. “Looking for my fucking wings, what else,” he said with a serious expression on his face. Then the laughing began again, but this time only Damian laughed.
Damian hadn’t even noticed his friend had stopped.
Hilo wore a stunned expression on his face. “My wings…my wings were bound.”
Damian stopped laughing and looked at his friend. “Man, say what?”
“I—I think she’s telling us the truth. We were once angels.”
“Whatda…”
“Don’t say it,” Thalya said. “I’m telling you what Adam told me. You don’t like it, go take it up with him.”
Damian put his hand under his chin. “So, what the hell happened?” he demanded.
“Well, we certainly didn’t end up there,” Thalya offered.
Damian sneered. “No, we just brought it along with us to earth.”
“Actually, there’s more. We were banished here to redeem ourselves.”
Hilo snorted. “Well, we’re sure doing a hell of a job.”
Thalya shrugged. “Once word spreads, Adam said we’ll begin to remember some of it, but we’ll never be what we once were.”
Damian shook his dark dreads. “Well, that’s the truth. Cause Angels…we ain’t.”
“So, why is Adam telling us all this now?” Hilo asked.
“He’s gotten wind of soulless amassing for a major strike. He wants it stopped or those responsible won’t like the consequences.”
This time, Hilo’s laughter came out as more of a snort. “Yeah. And what’s he gonna do? Clip our wings? Banish us?”
“Hilo, shut the fuck up.” Damian’s hand sliced the air to stop further argument. “You have no idea what Adam can really do. Hell, the man took our memories, an entire race. He wiped out our memories.”
“And clipped or bound our wings. Now that’s power,” Thalya chimed in.
“Well, we’re not involved,” Damian said. “Those are the ones that like to take their emotion through violence tainted blood.”
“We prefer more mutually pleasurable ways,” Hilo said, with his long blond lashes at half- mast, making it clear what those ways were.
“Hmm, I’m sure. But you know who’s involved. Point me in the right direction.”
Damian moved his head, causing his dreads to swing from side to side again. “Don’t know if we can, Thalya. Might be bad for business. These guys know they can come here and find willing providers, but they can’t kill them on the premises. What happens after they leave here is none of our business.”
Thalya stilled, unable to respond immediately. The quickening in her stomach held her mute.
Samuel made his way across the room to the wide staircase on the far side, which should take him down to the next level of this hellhole. In all of his years walking the earth, he’d seen a lot. But he’d never seen anything like this. Bodies gyrating to the heavy beat of too-loud music in the imitation of the sex act. Or maybe not just imitating, he thought, after catching a glimpse of male flesh sliding up under a short skirt. He also made out shadows of twos or threes in darkened corners of the already darkened room and had no interest in seeing anything more. Granted, mostly humans partied on the first two floors, and it might be too dark for them to see whatever went on below the neck. The lighting there appeared strategically placed to only illuminate from the neck up. His enhanced senses provided him with a much better view.
He clamped down on those senses, not wanting to know for sure what occurred in those corners and kept his gaze on the path he needed to navigate through the crowd. As long as no one got killed, not his business. These were consenting adults who acted as sex and blood donors. He shuddered. He already knew these people came here of their own free will. At least, as much will as an addict would have. He hadn’t taken many steps before being approached by both men and women, all inviting him into one of those corners.
After the third approached, he started projecting a powerful suggestion to all those eyeing him to back the fuck off. He made it to the stairs unhindered. When he got to the second level, he projected the thought ahead of him and no one bothered him. By the time he got to the last level, he dropped the suggestion. He wouldn’t need it here. This floor housed the domain of the dozen or so soulless he could sense. Once the humans were primed, they’d be invited down here. How his hunters hadn’t even been aware of this place before remained a mystery.
This floor seemed just like the others, but the music didn’t beat against his brain. Even the lighting appeared less harsh. There were no flashing, mind-numbing lights. Not like the show on the others levels, drumming a headache into your very marrow. The music here lulled you, bade you to relax and stay awhile. He spotted Thalya in a corner flanked by two soulless. He stifled a growl and headed straight for them, ignoring the looks he got from the other soulless in the room. No one tried to stop him. Too bad. He could use a good fight.
Thalya’s gaze held his, but both men turned their heads when he came to a stop on the other side of the table in front of them. He sat in the remaining empty chair at the table, all the while contemplating tactical moves. The low-laying table separating them would prove no protection to the soulless if he decided to leap across it and rip out either man’s throat for sitting so close to Thalya.
“Hey, baby,” he said by way of greeting and leaned lazily back in the chair, his arms hanging loosely at his sides, his legs bent at the knees but feet planted firmly on the floor ready for pushing off.
The men looked at him.
He stared back.
“Who the fuck?” the one with dreads said.
“What the fuck?” the blond asked.
“Gentlemen, this is the other reason Adam sent me. Meet Samuel. He’s a hunter,” Thalya said.
Both men scooted back to rise but before they could, Thalya leaned forward and momentarily touched their knees. They settled back down, but remained rigid and ready for anything.
“Easy, boys. Play nice.”
“I’m not hunting right now,” Samuel offered with a grin, not liking the fact she had to touch the men.
“Samuel, this is Damian.” She
inclined her head indicating the man with the dreads. “And this is his partner, Hilo.”
“You kill our kind,” Damian hissed. “Why shouldn’t we take you down right here, right now?”
Samuel raised his eyebrows. “You could try.”
Thalya tsked. “Boys, behave. Make nice.”
“We know who he is,” Damian seethed. “We’ve heard all about him. The one who leads the hunters and who isn’t quite human. We’re just not sure what he is or what the hell he’s doing here.”
“He’s with me. We’ve been given a task by Adam.”
Damian jerked his head up and demanded, “Why the fuck would Adam give him a task?”
“Because I’m a discriminating kind of guy. I only kill those soulless who deserve to be killed.”
“And who named you God?” Hilo spat.
“Look, this testosterone showing is getting us nowhere,” Thalya stated. “Don’t let me have to start bashing heads to get your attention.” After no one said anything for a second she continued, “Samuel is half one of us, and…half human.”
Neither soulless had taken their eyes off Samuel since he sat down, but their eyes narrowed in shock and both men stared at Thalya. “No freaking way,” Hilo cried.
Samuel grinned again, amused this time. “Way.”
“So. The rumors are true,” Damian stated thoughtfully, looking at Samuel again.
“What rumors?” Samuel asked.
“That you’re one of us and there are others like you. But you’re not exactly like us. And yet, you’re one of us, but you have a soul. I can feel it.”
Samuel focused his reply to Damian. “Yes, that’s correct. My mother was human.”
“No. Not possible,” Damian stated, his hands balling into fists.
“While we can screw humans,” Hilo said bluntly, “We can’t impregnate one. We’re shooting blanks. I should know.” Hilo winked. “I’ve done enough of them.”
“But you didn’t give a shit about any,” Damian said, a thoughtful frown on his face as he watched Samuel. “After your father met your mother, did he…did he regain his soul?”
“Yes.”
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