Blade looked at me warmly, like he’d just brought me to orgasm and was admiring my body shuddering as it came back down. There wasn’t much difference between the two. His eyes were a perfect, unattainable blue—the cool place that offered sanctuary.
“I could rip open my wrist and let the flames drip onto your tongue. Feed you with the energy that was inside you,” he said.
I would not beg him for it. I would not.
“But I won’t.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “You may have noticed I’ve got some trust issues. I won’t give you the one thing I have that you can use to destroy me.”
He walked toward the club, and disappeared past the doorman. Blade still had work to do that night.
“I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO that,” Rainey rambled as she drove away from the club. “It’s not that I didn’t want to kiss you, I always want to kiss you, but it was like spoon feeding Blade. Ugh. Like it wasn’t bad enough he can get the best of you. He got me, too.”
I couldn’t stop trembling. It wasn’t cold, they were sex aftershocks, even though he only penetrated me with his fangs. “I never give him the best of me.”
The stoplight bathed her face in the same red light Blade’s eyes projected when he was on the brink of madness, ready to ignite. The place that made my heart break, yet exactly where I needed him to be. Rainey frowned at my Blade-induced haze. “He takes it whether you want him to or not.”
“The problem is I don’t know who the fire belonged to. Him or me. Did you feel it?”
“No.” Rainey’s concentration was back on the road. “If I hadn’t kissed you, I wouldn’t have been able to breathe. Between the wind and the smoke, we were our own little ecosystem.”
“That’s it. That’s exactly what we are.” I bounced in my seat, excited by this revelation. I knew there was something, but the power of a witch, a vampire, and someone who was an equal split of the two was a force to be reckoned with.
“You’ve never burned me. All the times you experimented with the fire, or when you get mad and spit sparks, they never hurt me.” It sounded more like one of her visions than a statement.
“Then what happened?” Because I needed to recreate it approximately five nights a week as soon as Tristan Trevosier got his shit together to open the show.
“Either he drew fire out of you, or he ignited and wants to make you think the two of you caused some sort of reaction.” So she had no idea.
“We need to practice bringing my fire to the surface even more than I need to practice my routines.” Anyone with a little bit of rhythm could do them. No one came to the show to see me dance. “Because I only have that feeling when I touch you both.”
Rainey groaned. I realized we were nowhere near home. “Where are you going?” I asked.
She blinked rapidly like she fought off sleep. “I meant to go home. But something is pulling me to Embrace.”
Chapter Eighteen
I WAS A GLUTTON FOR punishment. Something was strong enough to have that kind of pull over Rainey—who had the power in her own right to transform herself into other people. I should’ve been shaken to my core and grabbed the wheel, even if it meant we’d spin out of control into traffic. But instead, I was excited that we had someone’s attention. Evil didn’t have the same stranglehold over Rainey as it did on me.
Our unexpected run-in with Blade left us with more questions than answers. I hadn’t meant to play my hand so soon with him, but he had a way of making me lay it all on the line, whether I wanted to or not. My head spun; it was possible I was under the same spell that entranced Rainey. There was no way to tell if I was in better or worse shape than I was at the beginning of the night.
The fire existed in some form. If I didn’t consider that good news, I’d drive myself insane.
“Are you having a vision?” I asked. Blade had left us both compromised.
“I’d never drive during a vision.” But she was driving way too fast, weaving through side streets to get us to Embrace. “I hear someone whispering in my ear. I can’t make it out, they’re too far away.”
“Don’t kill us before we get to the club.” I laughed nervously. She wasn’t acting like herself. Worse, she knew it and she couldn’t stop it. “Whoever it is can wait the thirty seconds it takes to stop at a stop sign.”
Rainey didn’t agree. I closed my eyes and braced for the impact that thankfully didn’t come.
“Pull the car over,” I demanded.
“No. I’m fine.” She knew she wasn’t fine.
“Pull over. I’ll bring you to Embrace.” I couldn’t believe we were arguing about going to Embrace, of all places. A week ago we would’ve doused the place with holy water and called it a night. “Whoever is talking to you is distracting you. You’re having a vision.”
Or a nervous breakdown. It was hard to tell.
“I’m not having a vision,” she muttered, but she pulled over, glaring at me before she got out of the car.
We met in front of the hood, and I had to push my luck. Playing it safe got me nowhere, and if this night had taught me anything, it was that I had to break my dependence on Blade. No matter how much it hurt to rip away from him.
I startled Rainey when I grabbed her and kissed her. I took advantage of her mouth, opened to protest, but she was weak. My heart cracked at the worn points where it was held together by scar tissue, but scars were tough, and so were we. She gave into the kiss, her groans turned to whimpers, turned to sighs. The headlights turned her urgent breaths to fog when we separated.
“Where are we?” She sounded like she’d just woken up again.
The good news was I’d broken a spell. But the bad news was twofold—there had been a spell, and not a single spark fell while we kissed by the light of the car in a strange neighborhood. A dog barked in the distance, probably agitated by the magic.
I tilted her chin up and kissed her again. “We’re headed to Embrace.”
Her eyes widened. “Why?”
She had been in Sight, or something even stronger. Her visions scared me when they took over her nervous system, and she was able to do nothing else while the message transmitted to her. As far as I knew, this was the first time it had happened while she was driving. But the worst part was she didn’t know it was a vision. Or she wouldn’t admit to having one. I wasn’t letting her behind the wheel, near a hot stove, or giving her control of the remote until we figured out what foreign being took over her body and cast a spell.
“Somebody there wants to see you.” I expected her to wrinkle her nose in confusion. “Do you remember your vision?”
“I don’t.” She leaned against the hood and looked at the sky. We’d have to drive forever to be able to see the stars. One night we needed to do that so we could reach up and try to touch them. She wiped her hand over her face. “I don’t even remember leaving the last club.”
Shit. Now I was scared for an entirely different reason. Something had got its hooks into Rainey, and it was strong enough to wipe her memory clean. I wondered if it had been aiming for me and missed. Either way, this was not good.
“Do you remember the flames?”
She shook her head. I wanted to shake her, to see if it would make her snap out of it. Or better yet, kiss her with the intensity she’d kissed me in the parking lot. But there was no reason for Rainey to lie to me.
Shit. Blade had never copped to any powers beside the fire.
She wrinkled her nose. “But now that you mention it, I can smell it on you.”
Good. It happened. I picked up her hand and ran it over my neck. “You kissed me while Blade sucked my blood.” I expected the look of complete horror, too. “And we ignited. Can you feel the marks?”
That was more for me than her. I needed proof.
“Yeah, there’s two little raised bumps.”
I chose my words carefully, not to alarm her. “Someone cast a spell over you, and you were driving like a maniac toward Embrace. I’ll bring us there—”
“Holly, it’s not safe.” She pulled me back as I rounded the side of the car. “That’s never happened to me before.”
How do you know was on the tip of my tongue, but we had enough problems already without an argument. Nothing was safe. “We know people there. Lennon won’t let anything bad happen.” I prayed she was working.
“I feel like something was taken from me.” Rainey looked lost. I hated this.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world.” I hugged her. “But you’ll get it back.”
Neither of us said anything the rest of the drive. So many things swirled around my head, and none of them were good. Had Rainey had been spelled before Blade got to us? Or did it have something to do with him? If something inside Embrace had pulled Rainey to them, I was terrified.
The parking lot was packed, cars parked on the sidewalk, people walking from the lot across the street. I circled a few times, parking in the corner of a well-lit strip mall, and clutched Rainey’s hand for dear life as we walked toward the club.
A line formed outside the door. Embrace had never had doormen or bouncers, at least the few times I’d been there. We walked by the waiting crowd on our way to the back of the line. I thought Rainey would break my fingers.
“They’re all vampires,” she whispered. “How many of them are there?”
“Apparently too many to fit in this club.” Whispering was useless, all the vampires we didn’t want to hear us had supersonic hearing.
The line moved quickly, the guards only gave everyone a quick pat down before entering. It should’ve comforted me, but it didn’t. They were looking for something—weapons, potions, or contraband. Vampire clubs usually didn’t bother with pat downs; it meant someone had done something terrible.
“Two bottles of water.” I wanted to kiss Lennon when she finally made it over to us. There were no open seats at the bar.
“Didn’t expect to see you here.” Lennon lingered, scanning the room over our heads. “It’s getting nuts.”
“Anything new?” No one was on the catwalk yet, and no donors were in sight. I led my beautiful, non-vamp girlfriend into a hungry lion’s den. Her beating heart was the next best thing to a bullseye. I needed my head examined.
Lennon hopped up on the bar and the vampires surrounding us cheered in approval as she swung her legs over and slid down to the floor. She was barely dressed, in a bikini top and booty shorts. A hungry vampire could mistake her for a donor, but her skin was perfect, milky-smooth. Bloodless.
“The meat market, that’s what they’re actually calling it until they come up with an official name.” She shook her head in disgust. “It’s taking on a life of its own. The show should start any minute. We’ve had people on the catwalk, the vampires can’t get enough. The other night...never mind.”
“No. Tell me what happened.” I grabbed her arm and she froze under my grip. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, I’ve been on edge lately. Everyone has.” She shook it off, scanning the crowd around us and narrowing her eyes at someone behind me. I turned, but everyone looked like trouble. “The vampires can’t get enough blood. It’s not the blood that feeds them, it’s the energy. And a full house of cranky vampires who skipped breakfast isn’t what they’re looking for.”
“Did someone get hurt?” Rainey asked.
The light extinguished from Lennon’s eyes. “The other night, right before sunrise, there weren’t many vampires left. But we’ve had a lot of unfamiliar faces in here. A couple of donors were still on stage—only a few of them can make it until the very end. They’re drained. Literally. But the vampires hadn’t had enough, and they panicked. Two of them got in a fight over one of the donors, and things got ugly.”
“How?” My stomach roiled in anticipation.
“They ripped him limb from limb. Dug his insides out with their fingers.” Lennon shuddered. “We had to pull them away, and a couple of the guards got attacked. That’s why there’s more security. We’ve never dealt with anything like this before. It was always a chill social place, not a supper club.”
“Was Blade here when it happened?” His show had backfired. He wanted Embrace to be the place for vampires to come to recharge their depleted energy reserves, and they were already at war with one another. He thought his ‘show’ would cancel the need for another show at Sin City Vampire Club, but he hadn’t realized how much vampires relied on humans, whether they wanted to admit it or not.
Lennon nodded. “He was the only one who could get them apart.”
Rainey nudged me, but only mouthed the word later when she got my attention.
“I gotta get back to work. Whatever you do, do not go into the middle of that crowd. It’s too unpredictable, and not safe for anyone who’s not all vamp. No offense, ladies. Stick by the bar and let me know when you’ve had enough. I’ll get a guard to escort you out.” Lennon swung her legs over the bar and was pouring a drink before her feet hit the ground.
I had a theory, and we’d have to stay at least a little while to test it out. We wouldn’t be able to talk about this until we got home. Lennon was right, it wasn’t safe. Tension ran through the room like an electric current.
Rainey held onto my shoulder as she went up on her tiptoes to scan the crowd. I didn’t have to ask her who she was looking for. “Do you still hear the voices?”
“Loud and clear.” She looked back at me and frowned. “And it’s not a man. It’s a woman.”
Chapter Nineteen
VAMPIRE SURPRISES WERE the absolute worst. Even though they were more like a kick to a gut than an unexpected party in my honor, I remained optimistic. There could be more females like Rainey. But the cold, hard lump in the pit of my stomach told me that wasn’t the lady whispering sweet nothings in her ear.
Whoever she was, I already hated the bitch for taking control of my girlfriend like that. That spell could’ve gotten us killed.
Rainey sighed as she readjusted her grip on my arm. “It’s not a vision. It’s not a spell. It’s someone speaking directly to me in my head and I want it to stop.”
Which made me think it had never happened before. Rainey usually considered the voices in her head to be friendly.
“You’re awfully calm.” My skin crawled under her touch at the thought of that kind of violation. Only certain people were worthy of coming inside. Forced entry was violence, no matter how it was done.
She turned back to me, grim determination steeled on her face. “I refuse to show fear.”
That’s my girl. I kissed her forehead.
Opening my eyes with my lips still on her skin, I caught sight of someone capable of the carnage Lennon had described. Someone who helped destroy my father, who sanctioned my humiliation in front of a rapt audience, and most importantly, who stole my fire.
Rachel.
“What the fuck?” I whispered against Rainey’s hair as she approached.
“You got my message. Good.” Rachel’s grin was anything but welcoming. She looked unassuming, with mousey brown hair that she’d attempted to jazz up with a stripe of blonde dye. In jeans and a T-shirt and minimal makeup, she stuck out in the crowd for being far more casual than the rest of the vampires. Rainey tensed under my grip as she turned to face her. “First time I tried that on someone who wasn’t expecting it. Isn’t it cool?”
“No.” Rainey spit out the word. “You almost got us killed.”
Rachel raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t apologize. “It was important that I talk to you.”
“We have phones. We could’ve met you for coffee, or Venom, or whatever.” I hated this bitch so much.
“Or blood.” She grinned, motioning to the rowdy crowd behind her. “I’ve always admired Blade. He doesn’t care about what people expect him to do, and he doesn’t put up with anyone’s shit. When I heard about what he put together here, I needed to be a part of it.”
Learning that Rachel and Blade had teamed up was a slap in the face. I wondered if they tracked us down like hunted animals to execute
their planned attack. Rainey didn’t remember anything in the parking lot with Blade, and there was no way under normal circumstances she would’ve kissed me while Blade sucked my blood. Had she been lucid, she would’ve ripped him away from me.
I jerked my head in Lennon’s direction. “Your creation says it’s the ultimate shit show.”
Rachel shook her head. “There are two kinds of vampires in this city. Probably the world, but I stick to what I know. There are the ones like Tristan, Callie, and Lennon, who are content to follow the rules that Talis put forth. And there are the rest of us who question that logic. Think about it, before she came into the picture, what were the rules? Vampires didn’t always whore themselves out to humans. We’re the superior race. We’re stronger, we have more abilities, and we’re more in tune with the universe. There’s no need for us to tiptoe around human laws, or to exist solely to provide them with pleasure. It should be the other way around.”
It was unclear what the vampire order that Rachel proposed meant for supernatural creatures that weren’t vampires. Panic rose from the same place that fueled my flames, but instead of encouraging it, I tamped it down. Easier said than done. I was as rusty at that as I was with my dance routines.
“Will you keep the show here, or do you have bigger plans for it?” I asked. Blade had a plan, but I had a feeling all roads went through Rachel. She didn’t seem to have a firm grip on her powers, yet, but she knew she had them in spades. She was surprised that she overpowered me, but she liked it. Sibling rivalry. Things had changed since that night at the Soul Divider show. She gunned for Rainey, confident that she’d be able to rope her in. And she recruited Blade, my weakness, to help her with that.
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