But when I turned to see what had caught Kael's notice, I found that it was another guy.
"Sorry," said Kael.
"No problem. Wouldn't have picked him as your type." Although, if he was Kael's type, then I could see why; this new guy was as gorgeous as Kael.
"He's a friend," Kael explained. "In fact, I should probably go say hi to him. I won't be a minute. You don't mind, do you?"
I minded like hell. However much I had wanted to pull away from him a bit, however much I had made up my mind not to get close and that I didn't want a relationship, I also didn't like being ignored in favor of a guy who walked in off the street. If you are willing to leave the girl you are with to 'say hi' to a friend, then that's a sign the girl is not holding your attention - bad news for the girl.
But what I said was, "Yeah, of course. Go for it."
"Thanks."
He got up and walked away from me without looking back - which seemed to me like a deliberate attempt to add insult to injury.
Naturally, I wasn't about to stare after him like some lovesick teenager - I was more than three centuries too old for that. Instead, I looked up at the mirror that hung behind the bar so I could watch them. A lot of people still think that vampires don't have reflections, but it's not true - how would we ever get our hair done? I remember thinking about it one time while I was having sex with a human, doggie style, in front of a mirror - how weird would that have looked if I didn't have a reflection? But I digress; my original point was that, although the reflection thing is bogus, I could still tell that the guy Kael was now engaged in a fairly heated discussion with, was not a vamp. That was odd. There were several humans in the room, but all the others were there with vampires. Those who had entered alone had hooked up fast - humans who wanted to be bled to get that rush of the near-death experience never had to look hard for a vamp who was willing to help. This friend of Kael's seemed not to be with anyone or looking for anyone. That was odd. They were definitely arguing about something, and that seemed odd to me, as well - why would Kael have been so keen to go talk to a 'friend' if they were pissed at each other?
Kael returned as his friend went to get himself a drink, still showing no interest in any vamp.
"Okay?" I asked, as casually as I could, like I hadn't just been watching his private conversation in the mirror.
"Yeah."
"What was all that about?" I said with what I hoped was an innocent smile.
He pretended he didn’t hear me and turned his attention to the row of gem-colored bottles on the shelf behind the bar. "You want another drink?"
"Now who's avoiding questions?"
"I figure it's my turn. Drink?" he repeated.
But if it was suddenly his turn to be all cagey and evasive about my questions, then it was now my turn to be distracted by someone else in the bar.
Colt Harris had just walked in.
Now, I had to try to play it cool because Harris knew me. He and Layla had been casual acquaintances through Tyler, a relationship Harris had wanted to foster because he liked the lifestyle…being bled, being seen around our kind. He got a buzz out of it.
This should have been where Kael came in useful as my cover. If it looked like I was here on a date and not hunting down anyone who had ever been close to Layla, then hopefully Harris wouldn't get spooked. But now, as I turned my head to bat my eyelashes flirtatiously at my 'date', Kael's phone made a 'bing' and he looked down at it.
"Damn it. Really sorry if I'm starting to seem rude, but I got to make a call."
For a man who had initially seemed like he wanted this to be a real date, Kael was seriously dropping the ball. Finding me less interesting than his friend, and now a phone call, were things that would usually have had me heading out the door - if I dated, which I tend not to. Tonight, of course, that wasn't an option as I was here on business, so I was arguably as guilty as he was. Still, Kael had been my cover, and without him, then I was bound to look a bit suspicious to Harris. I looked about the room for another man who would be a suitable cover. It actually went a little against the grain - for some reason I didn't want Kael to think that I would just pick someone else up. Was I actually starting to like him?
Wrong time to be asking that question. Focus.
I scanned the room but, as ever, The Dark Bar was not a place for people on their own - people came with an attachment or became attached as soon as they could. The only person I could see on his own was Kael's friend. That really wasn't an ideal solution - what the hell would Kael think I was doing? - but I wasn't overloaded with options.
"Hi."
The guy looked up at me from his drink as I slid up against him. "Hi. I'm really just here for a drink."
Tonight was not good for my ego. "One dance won't kill you. I might, but a dance won't."
He half-smiled. "How can I say no to that. But aren't you here with Kael?"
"You see him?"
I dragged the guy towards the dance floor. He was able to resist more effectively than I had expected - he must have been as strong as Kael - but when I wanted a man to go somewhere, then he went. I pulled him flush up against me, using him as a human shield to prevent me from being spotted. He was tall enough that I could hide my face against his chest, and with his body up against mine, I could feel his muscles moving through his clothes. The guy was impressive. As I cast a hasty glance up at his face, and found his sky blue eyes looking down into mine, I also noticed again just how good-looking he was - even better looking than I had initially thought. His hair was a tousled mop of blonde locks, his jaw was square, and his expressive mouth was currently somewhere between pleased and baffled - he didn't know what was happening but he was enjoying it.
"You're a very beautiful woman."
"No talking." I had to focus on what I was doing and that would be easier if he didn't speak. I angled him so we danced in Harris's direction.
The man shrugged. "Dancing it is."
Perhaps I should have let him talk, because this guy could say plenty with his body, and he said it in the most eloquent ways. His hands moved across me like liquid fire, his hips ground against me in the rhythm of the music, and I found my own body involuntarily answering his. I knew that from time to time I gave off an impression of someone who never has fun, but dammit, I did love to dance, and dancing with someone who knew what he was doing was like foreplay set to music. Tonight, it seemed to go further than foreplay. Our faces were tilted towards each other, our eyes locked as a heat sizzled between us.
Every now and then I managed to tear my eyes away from his to check on Harris, who was begging vamps for attention in his odious, weasel fashion. He wasn't going anywhere. Nor was I.
I felt a hand slide from my hip, up my side and across my shoulder blade to stroke my hair. He applied a gentle pressure and I allowed him to guide my head, moving always to the throbbing rhythm of the beat. Our bodies moved sinuously, locked by the twin pivots of our eyes and hips, which remained always together. As the song came to an end, I felt like I should be lying back and lighting up a cigarette.
I glanced across to Harris.
He wasn't there.
Panicked, I looked wildly about the room, but he was nowhere to be seen. He had gone. I'd been so caught up in the dance that I had let him get away.
"Something wrong?" asked my dance partner.
"I said no talking."
"Sorry. Drink?"
"You're still talking."
I broke away from him without a second glance. I might have been caught up in a hot moment there for a bit, but now I was focused. It was like I had been doused in ice water and I only wished that it had come sooner. As I looked back to the corner where Harris had been, I saw that the person he had been talking to had gone as well. Harris had found himself a partner - someone willing to give him the bleeding he so craved.
They wouldn't have gone far, an addict like Harris would want his need sated as soon as possible. I hurried out the door. The Dark Bar seemed to hav
e been deliberately positioned at the center of a whole bunch of quiet alleyways so its patrons would have somewhere nearby to go to satisfy their cravings and could then come back for another drink afterwards.
It didn't take me long to find Harris. The scent of blood on the night breeze led me right to him. Or to what was left of him. His neck was a mass of tattered flesh, shredded skin and broken bone, his face ashen white, speckled with vivid red droplets.
Any neck wound guaranteed that the police would hold vampires responsible, but the more I looked, the less it said vamp to me. Vampires had more control than this. And they don't waste blood. This looked like a set-up.
As I stooped to look closer, I heard a sound and realized that I wasn't alone. It was a set-up, and I was the victim.
Chapter 6
Three masked figures appeared from the shadows in front of me.
If it hadn't been for the overwhelming smell of Harris's blood, I would have known they were there. They ran straight at me, presumably not knowing what I was, something they learned as soon as the first of them reached me, a knife in his outstretched arm, on the blade of which I could still sense the blood of the late Colt Harris. I grabbed my attacker's arm, twisting until he screamed and dropped the knife. Then I slammed his body into the wall with bruising rather than lethal force - with Harris dead, I needed at least one of these guys left alive. Being attacked wouldn't be so bad if it got me a better informant than Harris. The next two had the smarts to attack together, and I felt a sharp thrill as I fought them off. It had been a long time since I'd been in a proper fight. Maybe I needed this.
But I definitely didn't need what happened next. The three weren't alone. More masked men appeared, coming to the aid of their comrades. From the corner of my eye, I saw two of them helping the man I had taken out. I should have killed him when I had the chance. But I had little time for regretting that or for thinking about keeping any of these guys alive as a possible source. I moved like lightning between them, kicking, slashing with the knife I had taken, snarling as my attackers encircled me. Then, I felt the bite of a blade cutting into my arm and I howled as it burned like cold fire. I staggered back from my attackers in shock, clutching at the wound. That hadn't been just steel, that had been blessed silver, and if they all had weapons like that, then I could be in serious shit. Blessed silver was used to torture vampires in the bad old days; just the touch of it stung, being cut by it was almost unbearable.
But I wasn't going down without a fight.
"Alright then, which of you assholes wants a piece of me?" I've never been good at backing down when I'm in danger.
A throwing knife whirled through the air and I dodged, moving like quicksilver, feeling the blade pass through my hair as I went. I lashed out in the direction from which it had come, more in anger than in expectation that I might hit someone, but the men shifted back and the circle closed in from the other side. Now, they had me trapped like they were baiting an animal. One lunged forward, stabbing his blessed silver blade into my back then ducking back before I could grab him. When I made for one of them, those on the other side of the circle darted in, wounding me again, so I was almost blinded with agony. The pain seethed in my veins as blood soaked my clothes and I felt my legs start to give beneath me. I swung my knife around in a circle of steel, managing to drive them back for a moment. But right now, all it seemed I was doing was buying a few more moments of pain. The bastards had me.
I roared out my defiant anger at them, and the circle closed in again, edging forward for the kill.
Suddenly, my roar was answered by another. From the far end of the alleyway, Kael and his friend charged like a pair of rampaging bulls, scattering my attackers from around me. One made a wild slash for Kael, who dodged the blade, grabbed the man by the collar, and hurled him bodily back into his comrades like a chef tossing pizza dough. Not to be left out, the other guy - my dance partner - laid into the pack, moving between them with a speed I could barely credit to a human. They were grossly outnumbered and yet the masked men seemed unable to get near them. Whenever the masked men stabbed, the dancer was no longer there; on the rare occasions they landed a blow of their own, Kael's came back with interest.
Though my senses were clouded by pain and blood loss, I was lucid enough to know that no human could fight like that. They were too quick and too strong. And yet, they were human. I knew it, I could smell it, and if I needed further proof, then it came when a blessed silver blade grazed Kael and he barely noticed - no vamp could have stood that.
With Kael and friend making life difficult for them, the masked men didn't stick around long. They ran off into the night before any of them got seriously hurt. Kael instantly returned to me.
"You alright?"
"I'll live," I grimaced. "As much as ever."
"Glad to hear it. This is my buddy, and roommate, Milo."
"Pleased to meet you," I said to the dancer, who smiled at me as he came over. "And I really do mean pleased."
"You alright?" asked Milo.
"People keep asking that. I'm fine." I pushed myself up off the wall against which I had been leaning, and almost fell down.
"You don't look fine," observed Milo.
It's easiest to think of blessed steel like vampire Kryptonite - it doesn't just hurt like a living hell, it drains our strength, too. It wasn't easy to come by, as it was that double whammy of illegal and expensive. Those masked men had been armed by someone who knew about vampires, had money to throw about, and didn't care about the law. Just the sort of enemies I really didn't need.
"How'd you find me?" I asked.
"Milo said you'd run out," said Kael. "Then I just followed the screaming. Figured that had to be you. I hear I missed the dance."
"You had a call," I said, snidely.
"He can't dance like me anyway," put in Milo.
"Not many people can," I acknowledged.
My legs started to buckle and I used the wall to prop myself up.
"You're coming home with us," said Kael.
"The hell I am."
"It's close to sun up and you're nowhere near your home."
Perhaps I should have been surprised he knew where I lived, but after he had learned my name and number without any help from me, I was done being surprised by what Kael knew. That said, I did want to know how he knew. I was also curious about who these guys were, what these guys were, and what their angle was.
"Okay, fair enough. I'll stay one day." Hopefully, that would be long enough to answer some of my questions.
"Good," smiled Milo. "It'll be nice to have company. What about him?" He indicated the body of Colt Harris, whom I had more or less forgotten.
I shrugged. "You can bring him along if you want, but I don't think he's getting up again."
"Who was he?"
"Nobody of any importance."
Kael looked down at the corpse. "Somebody thought he was important enough to kill."
I didn't like the way he stressed the word 'somebody'. "Look, I didn't kill him if that's what you're suggesting."
"I wasn't. But you did follow him out, didn't you?"
"I'd rather not talk about it."
There was a moment when I wondered what their play was going to be, but Kael's face softened as he relented. "Okay. You've had a hard night and we need to get you home, but I hope one day you will trust us enough to tell us."
"That's up to you," I said, hinting that I wasn't the only one keeping secrets.
"We did save your life."
"And I said thank you."
"Actually, you didn't," said Milo.
"It was implied."
I kept playing the bad ass a bit, but the truth was, that I was grateful. I was grateful they had saved my life, I was grateful they were giving me a place to crash, and I was grateful that they weren't pushing me on what I knew about Harris and how he wound up dead in an alleyway. In my current state, and with their impressive strength, they could have pressed a hell of a lot harder. May
be I didn't trust them yet, but I was actually finding it hard to maintain that suspicion.
Kael and Milo lived not far from The Dark Bar, in a district usually favored by vamps. That raised more questions. Despite my intense encounter with Kael last night, they didn't strike me as vamp lovers. They didn't have the track marks on their neck left by fangs that addicts get. Some vamp lovers, of course, prefer to keep it strictly sexual, but they don't get a lot of say in the matter when a vampire is hungry, and strong though this pair were, no human gets between a vampire and a vein.
The apartment they shared was nice and definitely not cheap, which sparked yet more questions. Maybe I could use those less probing questions as a gateway to the ones I really wanted to ask.
"This place is incredible. What do you guys do?"
"We work in security," said Kael, casually.
"Like, bouncers?" I suggested. "Like, really well-paid bouncers?"
"We're in management," smiled Milo.
"Too bad. You'd make good bouncers."
"Thanks. I guess."
"I just meant," I came around to my point, "you guys are strong. Like, way strong. And don't act like you don't know what I mean."
"We hit the gym most days," acknowledged Milo.
"Don't bullshit me, Milo. I may be weak but I can still kick your human ass."
He raised an eyebrow. "You reckon?"
I genuinely didn't know - with him inhumanly strong and me uncharacteristically weak, maybe it could have gone either way.
"You're not vampires," I went on. "I'd know if you were. But you're almost as strong. No weight training gets you like that - I don't care if you're doing reps in your sleep. So... what the fuck are you?" Sometimes the direct approach is best.
"I said we work in security," Kael replied. "We actually own a high-tech security firm, specializing in bio-enhancement. And we are the best adverts of our product."
"Walking billboards," added Milo, flexing unnecessarily but impressively.
Her Deadly Harem Page 4