What Happens in Vegas…After Dark

by Jodi Lynn Copeland, Anya Bast, Lauren Dane

  Oh, gods, he was back in his old life!

  His attention snapped to his open hand, where he tried to spindle a little magic. It didn’t come. He didn’t even get a tingle. Nothing. It was gone.

  Had it ever been real?

  Horror tightened a cold fist in his stomach. Was he trapped back here? Was he destined to relive this part of his life over? Was that his test? If so, maybe he wouldn’t be inducted this time and he’d be forced to live his life as a round peg trying to valiantly fit into a square hole.

  Even more horrifying was the notion that perhaps Darkness, Elena, and the fae didn’t exist at all. Maybe he’d dreamed it as a reaction to wedding stress. Maybe he had a brain tumor. Maybe he was in a coma and his body was lying in some hospital bed right now while he dreamed all this!

  Delusion. That was the only possible explanation. Or a psychotic break.

  “Why are you staring at your hand?” Cassidy asked, linking her arm with his. “And why do you look so disturbed all of a sudden?”

  “Uh.” What had he just been thinking about? All of a sudden everything having to do with Elena and Darkness…the fae, it all seemed so hazy and unreal. Like a dream. Fading…

  Gone.

  “Damian…Damian?” Cassidy shook his shoulder. “You’re starting to freak me out. Why the hell are you staring at your palm?”

  Yes, why was he looking at his palm? And what had he just been thinking about? He frowned, and then shook his head. “I think I’m going crazy. I can’t remember the last two minutes of my life.”

  Cassidy laughed. “You had too much to drink last night, is all. Come on, we’ll be late clocking in if we don’t hurry.”

  Oh, yeah, that’s right. They’d been out with James and their friends last night, down at a bar on the Strip. They had drunk a lot and he did have a bit of a headache. Maybe that accounted for stopping like an imbecile in the middle of the casino and staring at his palm for a full minute.

  They clocked in. They worked their shifts. It was a day like any other day.

  And then, after he and Cassidy had clocked out, he saw her.

  Damian stopped short and stared at a woman sitting at one of the casino bars with a man. She seemed so familiar, so…beloved. How strange. The way she tipped her head to the side and smiled, her long dark hair cascading over her shoulder, it reminded him of something. What was it about her that resonated in his blood? It was almost as if he could remember what her creamy skin tasted like, how it felt under his lips and hands.

  “Damian.”

  He snapped out of the second daze he’d found himself that day. “Sorry.” Damian shook his head and laughed. “Me and Jack Daniel’s have parted ways for good. I better never drink again. Tonight I’m going straight home to sleep.”

  “That’s good, since tomorrow is all about wedding planning. You said you’d come over so we could decide some stuff, remember?”

  The wedding. Yes. It never fully left his mind. Cassidy was a wonderful woman, perfect. Beautiful, intelligent, funny. He had absolutely no reason to want to break it off with her. Hell, that’s how he’d ended up proposing to her. They’d reached that part in their relationship where The Question had been the only place to go and he’d had no concrete reason to end the relationship.

  Maybe he feared being alone. Maybe that was the real reason he’d asked her to marry him. And yet, it wasn’t fair to Cassidy. He didn’t love her like he should.

  That had been on his mind a lot lately. What if there was a man out there who could love her better? Cassidy needed that.

  Cassidy deserved that.

  Damian stopped in the hallway of the casino and let the truth of that crash into him. There was no denying it. He was doing Cassidy, and himself, wrong.

  It was time to make things right.

  “The wedding, yes.” He took her hand and walked toward the door of the casino. “Do you have time to talk?”

  She tipped her head to the side and smiled. “Sure.”

  “Great.”

  This was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done.

  “What if I told you that marrying me would be the biggest mistake you’d ever make?”

  Cassidy tipped her head to the side, the warm evening breeze playing with tendrils of the blond hair curling around her pretty face. She smiled a little sadly. “I’d say you were being silly.” Her voice was a little tight.

  Tread carefully.

  “You may think I’m being silly now, from this vantage point, but what if a year from now you meet a man who is far more suitable than I am, Cassidy? Someone you’d be happier with, who would love you better than I ever could?”

  Cassidy stared hard at him. “Are you breaking up with me, Damian?”

  Damian swallowed the lump in his throat. His fear rose. God, he didn’t want to hurt Cassidy. Maybe it would be better to just go on the way they had been. After all, he had no concrete reason to not want to spend his life with her. Any man would—should—be thrilled to have Cassidy as his wife.

  Any man but him.

  Oh, sure, there could be a comfortable, lukewarm marriage. They would be happy, but not deliriously so. He wouldn’t be alone. But that would be selfish of him, no matter how painful doing this now might be.

  He had to do this. So, maybe it was better to do it fast, like pulling off a Band-Aid. She’d heal and be the stronger for it in the long run.

  “I am, Cassidy.”

  Her eyes went wide and her face pale. Damian’s heart lurched in his chest. He plunged ahead. “I know you won’t believe me, but I’m breaking up with you because I care about you. I want you to have a man who’s right for you. I want you to have a strong and everlasting love. I know that person is out there somewhere for you, Cassidy. I can feel it in this odd intuitive way.” He paused. “That person is not me.”

  “You care about me, but you don’t love me?” She sounded completely shocked.

  “I do love you, Cassidy. I just don’t love you enough.”

  She stared at him in stunned horror for several seconds, then she simply turned and stalked off down the sidewalk.

  Damian watched her go. A vise of misery slowly constricted around his chest. In a way, he was relieved. He’d known he’d had to do that and now it was done. At the same time, now he was alone.

  He shifted his gaze to the Strip, where cars and buses whizzed by. Damn it. He’d done the right thing for Cassidy, even though she didn’t see it that way right now. But had he done the right thing for himself?

  The doors of the casino opened and the woman from the bar exited. Damian watched her, frowning and trying to figure out why she seemed so familiar. Something about her drew him so strongly, almost as if like called to like. Fuck, he was stupid. He’d just broken off his engagement. Now was hardly the time to be watching other women.

  The lady stepped out into the street to hail a cab…right in front of a bus.

  Damian didn’t think about it, he just acted. Somewhere deep in his heart, he knew he couldn’t watch this woman die, no matter what it cost him. He dove from the sidewalk and into the street, crashing into her and pushing her forward hard, out of the way of the bus.

  Damian hit the asphalt. Tires screeched. The grill of the bus came toward him.

  Searing pain. Breaking bones. Exploding organs.

  Blackness.

  Damian’s eyes came open. He lay on his back in the grass, staring up at the night sky. His breathing came shallow as memory flooded his mind. He wasn’t dead. He’d just been tested.

  “What…the…fuck?” he shouted.

  Near him someone moaned. Elena.

  He turned on his side and saw her lying about four feet away. His arms ached to hold her. It was all he could think of. He crawled to her and took her into his arms. She fought him for a moment, seemingly disoriented, then recognized him and tucked herself against him, nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck.

  Damian closed his eyes and sighed in absolute relief. Thank God it hadn’t bee
n real. Thank God he wasn’t stuck back in the past, his memory erased…without Elena.

  Someone was clapping.

  He and Elena disentangled themselves to find the queen standing over them. She smiled widely. “Congratulations, you both passed.”

  Damian collapsed back to the grass.

  “Elena, I am so proud of you for standing up to your father. I’ve wanted to see you do that your whole life.”

  “Thank you, Mother.”

  The queen fixed her gaze on Damian. “You have proven your heart is worthy of our daughter. Her hand is yours if you still desire it.”

  “I do.”

  The queen’s smile widened. “The king will be so…pleased.”

  Damian propped himself up on his elbows. “That wasn’t real, was it? It was just illusion…faery magic. I didn’t really go back into my past and right a wrong, did I?”

  “No, Damian,” answered the queen. “We don’t have the power to change the past. You still jilted your fiancée at the altar. Believe me, try something like that with Elena and you’ll find yourself in an illusory hell you’ll never break from.”

  Damian swallowed hard.

  “But,” continued the queen, “you showed that if you were given a second chance, you would do the right thing. Also, you knowingly sacrificed your life for Elena’s, proving you value her more than yourself. Reynolds would have failed that test.” The queen smiled warmly. “That’s enough for me to welcome you to our family, Damian. It should be enough for the king, as well.”

  Elena’s gaze had snapped to him and held as soon as the words sacrificed your life for Elena’s had been uttered.

  “What would have happened if I’d failed the test?” Damian asked.

  The queen’s smile faded. “Somehow the bus would have hit you and you never would have regained consciousness here on the hill. You’d have died.”

  “Ah.”

  “You sacrificed your life for me?” asked Elena, stunned pleasure on her face.

  “Painfully, yes.” He paused, thinking. “Hey, you didn’t have to sacrifice your life for me during your test?”

  “No.”

  “What?” Damian looked at the queen. “How come she didn’t have to be hit by a bus for me?”

  The queen just laughed, snapped her fingers and disappeared.

  Elena laughed and tackled him, covering his face with kisses. “I would throw—” smack “—myself—” smack, smack “—in front of a bus—” smack “—any day for you.”

  Damian rolled her over and kissed her, his tongue sliding between her lush lips to find hot, sweet heaven.

  Damian pulled Elena back against him and kissed her bare shoulder and neck as his hands played over her body. Her breath came fast and heavy. Around them the rain slowed to a light drizzle.

  She wasn’t cold, not at all, not with Damian’s strong arms around her. In that moment, she fully gave herself over to the wonderfulness of it. He made her feel so cherished and protected. She knew that—unlike so much in the world of the fae—what they shared was no illusion. Damian loved her; he would die for her.

  “I’m so happy right now, I feel like I could burst,” she murmured.

  “Mmm…” He nuzzled the nape of her neck. “Don’t do that, it would be messy.”

  She chuckled and turned to face him.

  He stared at her with intense love in his eyes, then kissed her slowly. “I know what you mean,” he whispered against her lips. “During the test I lost my memory of Darkness, the fae…even you. In contrast, I can’t believe how unhappy I was before I met you, Elena.” He paused and closed his eyes. “You are everything to me.” His voice shook with emotion.

  She smiled and tears pricked her eyes. “Ditto.”

  “Will you marry me, fae-style? With the removable floating church and the demons and all that?”

  Elena laughed. “I’ll marry you any style.”

  He kissed her again. “Okay, now let’s go home. I’m getting pruny out here in the rain.” Damian stood, helped her up and they dressed.

  Elena pulled her shirt over her head. “Hey, that begs the question, where are we going to live? Your place or mine?”

  He shot her a look of incredulity. “Mine, of course.”

  “Yours?” She hopped on one foot while she slipped on a boot. “Mine is a million times nicer. Your magic isn’t strong enough to create adequate housing.”

  He gaped for a moment in mock offense. “I resent that implication, even if it’s true. The female always goes to live in the male’s home.”

  She swatted him with her other boot. “That’s totally ridiculous and chauvinistic.”

  “Is not.”

  “Is, too!”

  They argued all the way to the door. Right before they opened it, Damian pulled Elena to him and kissed the top of her head. “I was just yanking your chain. I’m coming to live at your place, my love. I already came home a long time ago. That happened the day I met you.”

  WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS…AFTER DARK

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3223-9

  Copyright © 2009 by Spice Books.

  The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:

  HOT FOR REVENGE

  Copyright © 2009 by Jodi Lynn Copeland.

  SENSUAL MAGIC

  Copyright © 2009 by Lauren Dane.

  DIVINE DESIRES

  Copyright © 2009 by Kit Tunstall.

  THE PROMISE

  Copyright © 2009 by Anya Bast.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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