Magic After Dark Boxed Set (Six Book Bundle)

by Deanna Chase

  “Hey, baby, I’m so thirsty. Would you mind going to the bar and getting me a drink?”

  “Sure,” he agreed quickly, only wanting to please me, “what would you like?”

  “Sex on the beach,” I said, delighting in his quick intake of breath and just to be doubly mean, I pulled him in for a rough, searing kiss. The kind that said you’re-so-gonna-nail-me-tonight, except poor Adrian was gonna have a serious case of blue balls. This was one girl he wouldn’t be bangin’. Oh boo hoo, what a shame. I giggled nastily, watching him wind his way through the throng of people toward the bar.

  Once he was gone I shook my head and made off in the opposite direction.

  I walked up the flight of steps that led to the second landing of the club. It was the same as the first. Dance floor, disco ball, pulsing black light and bodies dancing and gyrating, and yes, some were even screwing, right there out in the open without an ounce of shame. To the side, deep in the back, was a table with several heads bent down, either giving blow jobs or snorting coke. I couldn’t be certain which.

  Sanguinary looked to be little more than a modern day Club 54.

  I frowned. This couldn’t be it. The vamps wouldn’t have tempted fate simply because they wanted a hot venue to shake their buns in. It made no sense. I turned and walked up the third flight of stairs, but when I got there it was the same thing.

  Vamps walking about selecting prey from the throng and taking them into private booths for a game of blood play. Aside from that, they were the consummate hosts. Drinking a little blood, fondling and cooing, then sending the prey along their merry way, none the wiser that they’d donated a baggie of blood to the first national bank of parasite.

  What the hell? I had to be missing something.

  I walked to the railing and stared down at the first floor. Adrian was carrying a drink and calling out loudly, looking lost and confused. I really needed to break him from the thrall, but a little while longer wasn’t gonna kill him.

  I closed my eyes and focused, not on the music but on the ‘feel’ of the place.

  Waves of excitement emanated from the clubbers. I heard the pounding rhythm of feet and bodies, felt the electric slide of para press against my skin and then...I strained harder...something else.

  I struggled to feel it over the thrum of the cacophony. It was one of those sensations that could easily be overlooked if you weren’t aware it was there. It was like trying to hear a butterfly take off.

  I licked my lips, stood on tiptoe and leaned as far over the railing as I could and as I focused sound spilled away from my consciousness. Out slipped the music, the noise of chatter, the beat of dancers. I could feel it, could sense it with every fiber of my being and yet, I couldn’t place it.

  I gripped the rail, stomach burning with impotent rage. Dammit. Something was wrong. I couldn’t simply ‘feel’ it; I could taste it like bitter bile on the back of my tongue. Sanguinary was too perfect, too clean. Every gut instinct in me screamed this was illusion. A clever ruse meant to keep questing minds at bay.

  I studied the club from top to bottom one last time and then shook my head. Whatever I was looking for, whatever the truth was, it wasn’t here. That I knew.

  Grinding my jaw, I made my way down the winding stairs as fast as my four inch heels would allow and headed toward the exit. It was well past two in the morning, my muscles ached and my eyes burned from the smoke. All I wanted now was the comfort of my bed and maybe the presence of a warm body in it.

  Grace was gonna be pissed, I was as useless as one of her humans. I could sense the danger, but what good was that when you couldn’t see it in time to stop yourself from being ripped apart by it?

  I headed out the front door of the club and paused. Adrian called my name. I’d forgotten to break him from the thrall. It wasn’t like keeping him thralled for so long was dangerous. I likened it to getting piss poor, sloppy drunk. You’d wake up with a ferocious hangover the next morning and little to no memory of the night before. But I’d toyed with him long enough. I could be vindictive, but I wasn’t cruel.

  I was getting ready to go back inside when something outside caught my eye and made me forget all about poor Adrian.

  Walking down the nearly deserted sidewalk was a big-eyed, beautiful girl, no more than five or six. She was dressed all in pink, from her shiny patent leather shoes, to the bows in her glossy black hair.

  She looked up with an adoring and trusting smile into the face of a handsome man walking by her side. He smiled back at her, patted the crown of her head, glanced around the street then headed toward the rear of the club and disappeared.

  I frowned, a creepy vibe of ick lurched through my stomach. It wasn’t what the guy had done, but it was the way he’d smiled that made me run. You know weird when you see it and that went way beyond.

  I bumped into several late night stragglers, ignoring the outraged protests as I stealthily ran toward where I’d last seen them. There weren’t many people outside at this time of night, but what there was thinned out the farther I drew away from the main entrance. The club was a massive structure and it took me a while to even get to the edge of the building. Running like this was wasting valuable time. I desperately wanted to port, but knew I couldn’t do it and keep up my disguise.

  I grit my teeth, heart hammering with the fear that I might lose them. Then I got to the edge and I glanced around, looking for any signs of movement in the oppressive black veil. Finally, I saw them.

  They were so deep in shadow that I couldn’t make out much more than a small figure walking alongside a larger one. The large shape kept looking around and behind his shoulder, then they stopped and the man knocked on the door, the sound loud and repetitious in my ears.

  Tap. Tap. Taptaptap. Tap.

  Heavily rusted hinges reverberated through the empty street. A large steel doorway cracked open. Misty blue fog escaped through the darkened slit. A mumble of words were exchanged, I closed my eyes and tried to make it out.

  “...Mo...sac...”

  I couldn’t hear anything here. I growled, crouched down on hands and knees and crawled toward them, trying to hide my broader body the best I could and still keep silent. A dark head poked out the door and goose bumps rode my skin. I stopped, heart pounding violently in my chest and willed the vamp not to look at me. I didn’t dare breathe when it turned my way.

  Satisfied, it nodded. I took a deep breath, the muscles in my thighs trembled with adrenaline.

  “Did you bring it?” he asked the taller shape.

  “Yes.” The man’s voice was cultured and eloquent but with a thread of dark intent laced throughout, it reminded me of the late Vincent Price.

  A formerly dormant Lust perked up and I mentally hissed at her.

  Then the tall man grabbed the girl’s arm and walked her out from behind him. The pale blue light highlighted the worry lining her chubby face.

  “Good,” the figure inside the building said, barely suppressed excitement dangling in the air from that one word.

  I shivered and licked my lips.

  “Come.” He opened the door wider, stood to the side and ushered them in.

  “I want to go home,” the little girl said, voice warbling with the first threads of anxiety. “I want my Momma and Daddy.”

  “Ssh, angel.” The tall man patted her head again. “You’ll be home before you know it.” Then he pulled her into his arms and carried her inside.

  Sometimes you know something’s wrong. Like seeing a lone man walking a park, staring too intently at a playground when he’s got no dog and no kid and has no business being there? That’s what this was.

  I shook with rage, feeling that child’s fear as if it were my own.

  Lust might care less what happened to the girl, not me. I brimmed with the sudden and violent urge to kill. My body twisted and morphed. My nails grew, fire crawled up my face settling in my eyes until they burned and I knew they were turning molten.

  “No.” My voice echoed with a g
uttural snarl.

  I scrabbled to my feet, desperate to get inside before they bolted the door shut. I was almost there, within an inch of shoving it open and yanking the girl out. So focused on what was before me, I didn’t see the figure that jumped out of the shadow until it was too late.

  It slammed into me with such force I fell to the ground, scraping the skin off at my knees and face. Enraged, I roared. The need for violence rode me hard so that I didn’t think, but simply reacted. I hooked my arm around its neck, pinning it to the ground, then I yanked off one of my stiletto pumps and slammed it down with every ounce of strength I had in me.

  It grunted and I smiled, licking my lips as I watched the crimson bloom spread over a pale shirt like blood on fresh snow.

  “Pretty,” I heard Lust murmur as I reached out to try and touch it, then it punched me. I bared my fangs and punched back. I was more demon than human now. I caught the jaw and heard an oomph. I slammed my palm into the nose and felt it crumple.

  It growled, grabbed my forearms and rolled over me, laying its long body along mine. I wrenched my hand free and tried to yank out the shoe still poking out of its chest.

  “Neph.”

  I heard it like a distant memory. I tried to figure out who it was, but Lust was more in control than I was.

  Then it sat on me, grabbed my hands and slammed them over and over onto the concrete. I howled, bucking and grunting.

  I screamed, “Get off. Get off.”

  “Listen to me. Listen.”

  “No.” I tossed my head from side to side, jerking and shoving, kneeing the bastard in the liver.

  There was a muffled grunt. “Don’t make me do this,” it said, squeezing harder.

  Lust didn’t like being restrained, she yowled and a new surge of strength filled my bones. I head butted it, grinning at the bone jarring impact.

  “Demons,” it hissed, then slapped me. The blow ricocheted through my jaw with the force of a lightning strike. Pain exploded in my brain as my teeth sank deep into the soft flesh of my cheek. Blood pooled on my tongue. The ferocity of the attack spurred my demon on.

  I laughed. The sound crazed and half insane.

  “Woman,” it barked, “you’re gonna ruin everything.” It shook me. “I won’t let that happen, you hear me?” Knees squeezed my waist tighter.

  My ribs protested, I gasped for air. A red haze crossed my line of vision as madness yawned. I yanked my wrist out of its grasp and was able to grab a hold of the neck and start squeezing.

  It grabbed my hand and slammed it back down, but not before I’d managed to hook my finger around something cold and pull it free.

  There was a growl, followed by a terse, “Pandora.” Then the hands moved off my wrists, cupped the back of my head and brought me to a supine position. Lips slammed against mine. At first I fought it and bit down, raked my nails down the cheeks. A rumble vibrated through its throat and the spill of that sound shivered down my spine.

  Desire built like a coil, tightening in on itself until it strained against the pressure of wanting to snap. The madness started to roll away, slowly at first, like a ball gaining momentum down a hill. I gripped strong shoulders, bunching bloody fabric in my fingers. Frantic hands grabbed the side of my face and the kiss deepened. I moaned, opened my mouth wider and accepted the tongue that dueled with my own. I tasted blood, but it wasn’t mine.

  My nipples hardened, my legs grew wet with need. Desperate for more, I raked my claws down its back until I heard a hiss. But the kiss didn’t stop. Instead it grew more feverish and frenzied.

  I held onto that hard frame like a woman half dead crawling slowly out of the darkness and back to the light. I sighed, I whimpered, drowning in the glorious sensation of a man who smelled of...sandalwood.

  Billy.

  I jerked, as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water on my face. My blood ran cold, then I pushed him off me and jumped to my feet. He was covered in blood, his face looked worse than mine the first night we’d met, but his eyes glittered with a feral light.

  “What are you doing here?” I snapped, my pulse beating so fast I felt my heart might explode from the shock.

  “You stabbed me,” he said, voice low and menacing, ignoring my question.

  I narrowed my eyes and glanced at his chest, shocked to see my pretty shoe poking out of it. It didn’t look real, more like a movie prop. But as I thought it, I grew increasingly aware of the cold blacktop against my naked foot. Vaguely the memory of Lust stabbing him came back and with it an overriding anger.

  I hated being startled, demons don’t handle it well.

  I planted my aching hands on my hips, wondering what he’d done to them and glowered back. “Doesn’t feel good does it?”

  He spit, and it was crimson streaked.

  I smiled, emotions still zooming a mile a millisecond. “I want my shoe back.”

  He snarled, grabbed the hilt and yanked it out, then threw it at my feet.

  I stooped to pick it up when the metallic glint of metal caught my eye. It was a chain with a silver medallion. I scooped it and my shoe up, wrapped the necklace around my wrist and studied the blood soaked heel. I wiped it off, then noticed it’d snapped in half, the other piece of it probably still inside him.

  “Serves you right. I hope it punctured a lung,” I muttered. First my boots, which I still hadn’t found, and now this. Mad as a polecat, I stomped toward the door. It was barred shut and without the password I had no way inside that wouldn’t compromise the mission.

  My chest ached thinking about the little girl and in a moment of supreme frustration I slammed my fist into the brick wall, then ported to the woods around my trailer and screamed into the night.

  Chapter 17

  Early the next morning, before the sun had even begun to rise—sporting a monster headache—I put on three layers of wool socks, got dressed, poured myself a thermos of coffee, grabbed a granola bar and stuffed them into my book bag, then headed out toward the solitude of the mountain.

  I wanted to think, and the unspoiled beauty of nature always helped ground me. I took a path I hadn’t used before, wanting to explore and exert myself.

  The day was blistery cold, the smell of snow hung heavy in the air. Stinging slaps of wind buffeted my cheeks; I brushed the hair out of my face and walked.

  I hiked with no destination in mind other than to get as far away from camp as I could. I’d toyed with the idea of porting to Rome or the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, my two favorite spots in the world, but it would take too long and I had to call Grace, and hopefully make it to the library at some point today.

  I slipped on a loose sheet of gravel and had to latch onto the branch of a pine tree poking up out of a large gray slab of stone.

  Curling my lip, I wiped the sticky sap off on my pant leg then turned to study the layout of my surroundings. Several clicks to my right perched a rocky outcropping of large, smooth boulders. An ideal place to sit, drink and think. I moved. If I was lucky I might even get there in time to watch the sun rise.

  Tightening my hold on my book bag, I jogged. Reveling in the wild thrill of muscles bunching and gathering, the wind rushing through my ears, my heart beating steadily in my chest and the scent of grass and damp earth all around me. Moments like these helped remind me why living was worth it.

  Finally I found the perfect spot. I stopped, threw my bag atop the ten foot boulder—it landed with a heavy thud—and I jumped up, landing with the grace like reflex of a cat. Ten feet is about my jumping limit.

  Stretching my arms high above my head, I smiled, sucking in air and looked out at the black silhouette of trees and outcroppings on the cusp of dawn.

  Vivid streaks of purple and orange slashed through the blue canopy of night. Gray wispy clouds rolled lazily by, bringing with them the promise of snow I’d smelled. Aside from the constant sound of wind, the world was silent. No birds, no bugs, no animals. Only me and the dawn.

  Tension drained from my body, leaving me exhauste
d, but more alert than being confined in my home with nothing but books and music to keep me company. I sat down, pulled my thermos and granola out and ate.

  No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about the little girl. What’d happened to her? Why had Billy stopped me from going inside and rescuing her? Was he part of this? Was that why he hadn’t killed me yet? Because his plan was bigger than me?

  And speaking of Billy, my stomach dived, how had his kiss broken me from going feral? Not even Luc could drive the demon out of me with a simple kiss.

  Butterflies crowded my insides. To call the kiss simple was wrong. It had been heart pounding and primal. I wanted him with a ferocity that was frankly, terrifying.

  Something cold and wet touched the tip of my nose. I looked up and saw the first flakes of snow. I held out my hand, watching as one landed and then melted on my palm. Was it really true that each flake was different? Each as unique as a fingerprint?

  I don’t know why, but the thought comforted me. If someone went out of their way to take such a simple thing as a snowflake and make it the only one of its kind, then maybe I mattered too.

  I sighed, took a final sip of coffee, polished off the bar and then set the thermos and wrapper aside.

  The stone I sat on was colder than steel in the morning, but the wool socks were doing the trick, I felt fine. Invigorated even. Maybe I’d start sleeping outdoors for a while.

  I laid down, crossed my arms behind my head and closed my eyes. Snow kissed my skin. Imagining that this peaceful moment, and not the death threats, not the craziness of vamps and neph’s and conspiracies, was my life.

  I don’t know how long I laid like that, I think I may have even snoozed off for a second, when I heard a twig snap and a gentle voice whisper, “Pandora.”

  I opened my eyes, to find Luc sitting next to me, blond hair whipping in the strong breeze. Blue eyes filled with worry. He traced my cheek with his finger, beautiful full lips pulled down in a tight frown. He’d obviously been following me. Made me wonder how long, since last night, this morning?