by Dee Carney
He drew back, but she suddenly had a strength that belied her size. Locked in her embrace, Victor’s heart began to race, cold fear snaking down his spine.
“One last kiss...” she whispered before twin pricks of pain filled him.
Chapter Sixteen
Lucy walked into the bar, this time very well aware for whom she was looking. She’d dressed ready for a confrontation in loose jeans, T-shirt and running shoes. A tactical folding knife had been tucked into her back left pocket. Beneath the workout jacket, she had easy access to two ash stakes.
Hair down, she moved deeper inside, her gaze trained to find his bulk. Her tongue had the texture of wool, but she forced herself to take concentrated breaths. There was no way to tell what kind of reception she’d get from Victor after leaving yesterday evening the way she had. He’d given her no choice.
Hell, even now she didn’t know if the other vampires would attack her the same way he’d come after her. Unlike last time, her glyph stayed hidden beneath the fall of her hair. She needed all the protection she could get and didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances.
As she strolled between tables, she kept one hand casually tucked next to the knife. With every step, she released her tension in fractions, as no one could be bothered to lift their heads to watch her progress. Halfway through the room, she stopped caressing the knife and let her hand drop to her side.
She ached more today than she had over the last few weeks. Every step a jolt of pain, like tiny fractures creeping through her bones. Her chest hurt more than it had in the past too. Sipping on air helped, but if she took a deep breath, her body was racked with coughing.
The good news was that the vampires in the room ignoring her meant whatever happened in her blood had a half-life. Now they knew for certain that sex initiated the insane bloodlust Victor couldn’t break free of. She’d also learned that a raging vampire wouldn’t be held by a simple steel chain.
The very bad news seemed to be how her illness had returned with a vengeance. What did that mean for her projected lifespan? Had they somehow shortened the amount of time she had left on this earth?
Looking back on yesterday, she could have kicked herself for waiting so long to get out of there. Some insane part of her had insisted she could talk him out of biting her again. It had said she just needed to try a little harder. Be loyal to her friend.
“You looking for someone in particular?” a swarthy vampire asked her, pulling her back to the present. He stood maybe an inch taller than her with sensual, full lips designed for kissing. Gelled-back hair, glittering black eyes and an accent to his speech made him a walking dream for most women. Exposed to the beautiful her entire life, Lucy could appreciate his physical sensuality, but not lose herself in it.
“Actually, I am,” she said, dismissing him by turning her attention toward the room’s perimeter.
“So let’s talk—”
Fucker had the nerve to grab her arm.
Lucy had learned how to handle herself from a vampire mercenary.
She twisted until she could grab his wrist, and then pushed, using his own arm as a lever. Unless he wanted her to snap the bone, he was forced to back away from her when she rushed him, his outstretched arm separating them.
He flashed his teeth as if that should scare her. Little did the vampire know, it served to fuel her response. Maybe it was a cry for help from the others around him, but Lucy glanced at the others, and no one seemed to care what was transpiring a few feet away. Vampires who were in the middle of feeding continued to feed. Those who were imbibing continued to get drunk.
She shoved him away, settling her weight on her back leg, ready to rumble if that was what this came to, although it wasn’t part of her plans. “I just want to be left alone so I can find my friend.”
“Bitch, that’s all you had to say.” He bared his teeth at her one last time and walked away, rubbing the arm she’d almost broken.
Lucy sighed in relief by the time he disappeared into the crowd. Pinpricks of pain dotted along her chest, a reminder from her body that she needed to conserve her strength for a critical moment. Not just for showing off. She wanted to locate Victor and get the hell out of here. The last few days on the farm had spoiled her. They had made her stronger too.
She felt his presence without turning to see him. It was as if the room had grown smaller while she stood in the center of it and Victor burned away all of the oxygen, leaving her with just a thimbleful that she’d best know how to hoard.
He said from behind her in a voice full of menace, “I could have killed you for the way you left me last night. I wanted you, and you ran.”
“You told me to,” she whispered, a tremor in her voice. They’d made a deal.
“You ran,” he repeated. He stood so close that their bodies brushed each other, and the contact was electric. It took a strength of will to stay in place, despite screaming instincts urging her to flee him again.
Yet, at the same time, Lucy reacted as if they were still alone in the house, naked and in bed together. Her pussy squeezed hard, mouth going drier as she anticipated him touching her more forcefully. Even after yesterday’s scare, she wanted the feeling of his strong hands grazing over her skin.
Through shallow breaths she waited for him to wrap his arm around her waist and pull her to him. Despite everything, she’d become an addict to his strength and his raw menace.
“If I had stayed, you would have killed me. Running was my only option. And I’ll do it again if I have to.”
Victor made a rough noise, a sound of agreement mingled with frustration. “I believe you would,” he said coarsely then growled. “Don’t just stand there. Follow me.”
Lucy took a shuddering breath but did as he asked. She could feel the anger radiating from him. He still seemed to be suffering from being stripped of the chance to bite her. If suffering was the right word.
She was on edge too, her failing body somehow yearning to complete what he’d started. Her mind teased her with the remembrance of what it felt like for his thick cock to claim her. The phantom trail of his mouth whispering over her belly and then delving between her thighs made her knees weak. He hadn’t been the only one affected by their tumble yesterday.
Victor planted himself in a chair, his back to the wall. It croaked beneath his weight, the air around him going still as if waiting to see if the chair would hold or shatter. Victor ignored it all, the stony look in his eyes defiant. His foot shot out to kick the chair next to him, his way of holding it out for her.
Yeah, he was definitely still pissed. He’d been denied and didn’t know how to deal with the rejection. Poor spoiled vampire.
Lucy kept her back straight as she lowered herself into it. A month ago, she might have leaned back and crossed her legs. Today, she stayed on alert. Some part of her remained poised to bolt. The other relished the idea of a brawl, even with Victor.
He said, “At least I think we’ve solved the mystery of what’s going on with you. Vampires cranked you up so you would be the ultimate high. A compulsion. Putting yourself in danger that you couldn’t possibly understand.”
“What do you mean that I couldn’t possibly understand? You think I don’t understand how close I came to being drained by you because you couldn’t control yourself?”
He slammed a meaty fist on the table, the napkin holder clanking against the wood when it fell. “I have never attacked a human. Never. And what you did to me is unconscionable.”
“What I did? Are you kidding me—”
He held up a hand. “Let me finish. What you did was unconscionable, and even worse because you had no control over it. If Sage is really behind this type of abomination, then he has to be stopped. Can you imagine if news of what spice does when ingested by humans got out? It’s easily obtainable. Everybody knows at least one addict, which also means everybody knows at least one source for getting some. If vampires learn that they can experience a high never before seen without worrying about
the addiction for themselves, why wouldn’t they start feeding it to humans? We will decimate the human population in no time. And that’s one of the reasons the Council was formed. To provide us with rules to prevent something like that from happening.”
“I don’t know that I ever really thought that you believed me. Not until now.” Something unfurled deep inside of her, easing her rough breathing a fraction. “Thank you.”
Victor leaned back in the chair, his eyes searching the room. His gaze lingered on a bearded man running his hand up and down the sleeve of a blonde. She looked unaffected by his attention, her focus moving around the room and essentially ignoring her companion. They weren’t vampires, lacking the ethereal beauty, but she did tilt her head up when the man began to nuzzle her neck. It seemed to be what the woman needed, because she curved her fingers around the back of his head and slanted her mouth over his.
Victor dragged his gaze away from them once the floor show started. Shoving a hand through his hair, he shook his head. “How do we stop it? Who do we go to?”
“That can’t be my problem. I’m after Sage.”
“Shit.” He looked away, scanning the crowd again, for what she couldn’t begin to guess. It seemed like he wanted to keep inventory of everyone around him. Or maybe he was looking for inspiration on how to handle their discovery. Thing was, she didn’t expect him to.
Nothing changed about the way she felt about Sage. She wanted him dead, and she needed Victor to help her dispatch him. If anything, making her an addiction—for lack of a better word—drove her even harder. Hell, Sage had taken away sexual pleasure from her during her final days.
“Listen...” Victor threw his head back, his gaze hardening. Then he lowered that gaze to her, brown eyes intense. “Sage is untouchable. He’s got guards surrounding him at all times. He’s an elder vampire, with a lot of money and a lot of power behind him.”
“You think I don’t know this?”
“Just—I’m trying to tell you something. Hear me out...I know about Sage. He’s got a price on his head, and not just by you. Those guys have to have guards, because old vampires get bored. They do some really heinous things and—”
“What? What are you trying to tell me? We’ve had this conversation before. I know firsthand what kind of shit he’s capable of doing. I’m walking, living proof.” They’d both kept their voices down the entire time they’d been seated. Her frustration mounting, Lucy found herself leaning forward and getting louder. The damned vampires could probably hear her when she whispered anyway. “You had a theory. You proved it right. Let’s get on with making him pay for all of it.”
“You don’t understand. There’s something bigger than you happening around Sage, and it means we have to tread very carefully.”
She took a deep, but fractured, breath. “You’ve been so reluctant to do anything about Sage and you’ve never told me why. Do you have some kind of relationship—” Lucy glanced up as someone approached the table. Her hand went to the stake at her back, but the moment she realized it was the bearded man and the blonde—not vampires—she wished she’d gone for the knife instead.
“Collins,” the woman said to Victor. “You’re late for an appointment.”
“Ain’t got the time for you or your kind. You tell Locke we’ll settle our business when I have something to give him.”
“Not good enough. You had your deadline and you blew past it. Need you to come with us now.”
Lucy didn’t know whether to relax or get ready for trouble. She slid her gaze toward Victor, prepared to follow his lead. His eyes glowed, his teeth extending. The sharp lines of his face had become fine edges, an incredible severity making him now seem every bit the supernatural creature he was.
She knew him well enough by now to understand that Victor felt backed into a corner.
And a cornered Victor would come out swinging.
This was the second time he’d allowed Lucy to distract him from doing what he knew best.
When Victor came into the bar, he should have scoped its patrons before locating a table where he could observe everyone around him. Instead, his hunger still surging, a shade better than under control, had driven him to head straight to her.
At first sight, his mouth watered, the memory of her arousing scent punching his senses. Whatever Sage had done to her was beyond lethal. How she’d managed to escape the aftermath of spice was some part luck—no, complete and utter luck. She should be dead.
He’d known the werewolves for what they were from the moment he’d spotted them. When they’d ignored him for more amorous pursuits, he’d thought he’d gotten away scot-free. Silly him.
“You don’t want to do this. Not here and especially not now. Locke and I have a deal, and I don’t go back on my deals.” A burning desire for Lucy still hummed in his veins. Getting in between him and her would rain down a world of hurt on them.
The woman said, “You’re a mercenary, available to the highest bidder. We certainly don’t expect you to keep up your end of a bargain unless you’re being paid.”
Well, they had him pegged. He had to admit to that.
A passing waitress balancing beer steins on a small tray leaned toward them. Vampire. “Hey! This is a neutral zone. Open to everyone. Take your business outside if there’s going to be trouble.” She’d kept her voice low, no doubt shielding any ignorant humans of their goings on. “You don’t want Al getting with your leaders about you guys over a stupid bar brawl.”
One of the strictest rules upheld by the Council was keeping the human population ignorant of vampires. Let them see their kind as a figment of imagination. The panic that could ensue over discovering a species actually drank their blood for sustenance and could kill humans for fun kept most vampires in line. Apparently the lycans must have had similar laws, although Victor couldn’t speak to whatever they did or thought. He’d had more interaction with lycans in the past week than possibly in the past hundred years. As far as he was concerned, today would be the last day he saw them for a very, very long time.
The bearded man grabbed his companion’s arm. The bitch didn’t seem to like that. She snarled at him, a low rumble coming from her throat. She turned blazing eyes on Victor and Lucy. “Watch your back, merc.”
Together he and Lucy followed the lycans’ progress out of the bar. Neither looked back. By the time they hit the front door, Victor had no doubts reinforcements would be surrounding the bar within minutes. If he expected to make it out alive, they had to go. Now.
“What kind of weapons do you have on you?”
She scanned the room before speaking in a hushed voice. “Knives. Stakes.” Lucy’s gaze came to rest on his, her face pale. “But those weren’t vampires, were they?”
“No. Werewolves. You’ll need a gun and you’ll need to be fast. I don’t want you to fight them. You’re not ready for anything like that. But I do need to know that you can get away without me having to worry about you.”
“Hey! You haven’t been teaching me nothing. I know a few things.”
He liked that she didn’t so much as blink after being told about what had to be a new-to-her species. “You know how to get yourself killed with these people. I promise you that dancing with Sage is only slightly harder than dancing with these guys. I’m not going to argue with you, but I am going to arm you. Do as I say and run.”
“Because that worked so well for you yesterday,” she muttered.
Ignoring the remark, he pulled a gun from the holster. He passed it to her beneath the table, their fingers brushing. “Don’t do anything stupid, because I’m giving you a very valuable piece of hardware. And I will buy you as much time as I possibly can. They’ll be keeping their focus on me, so you should be able to get away.”
“What about you?”
Minus one gun, he didn’t think he stood a chance of making it out unscathed. Having broken away from Locke once before, they wouldn’t be giving him a second chance. “No time to get into this. We leave now bef
ore their numbers swell.”
He rose to standing, nodding with satisfaction when she followed suit, tucking the gun at her side. They’d only gone over rudimentaries of gun handling, but she’d absorbed everything he’d ever told her like a sponge.
He drank in the sight of her, needing it to last. He wished more than anything that he could have spent last night making love to her, instead of trying out the stupid experiment about spice. If they couldn’t have done anything else, he would have touched her naked body all over, tasted her all over, until the sun rose and she tired from his attentions.
Fuck. He hated this.
Not knowing what else to do, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close. Even the lightning-fast move didn’t shove fear into her the way it should have. Instead, with her head tilted back, a casual hand resting on his chest, Lucy watched him.
The rest of the bar, all of its patrons and furniture, faded. Insignificant.
Victor dipped down to caress her mouth, sliding his tongue inside to taste her once more. She was pliant, bowing beneath the force of his kiss. A couple of weeks ago, he wouldn’t have dared to move her lips with his. Tonight, he couldn’t imagine a world where he’d never been gifted with the chance.
“Be careful. No matter what happens, you get out of here,” he whispered to her.
“Don’t make this sound like the last time I’ll ever see you.” Lucy’s chin lifted, a defiant glint in her eyes. There hadn’t been an ounce of tenderness in her directive, all of it instead filled with certainty as if she knew the future.
He wouldn’t lie to her, so Victor righted her without saying anything more and got ready to do whatever it took to make sure the lycans focused on him.
Although it was only a few minutes past nine, he pulled out the gun still in his possession. The door swung into the night air after he shoved it with a foot, uncaring if he someone got hurt by the brute force. Fists and bullets were about to fly, so they needed to get their asses out of there anyway. He’d do what he could to keep it away from the humans but couldn’t make any promises to anyone but Lucy.