by Tijan
I was moving along one of the back hallways, going from the second-floor bar to the third level when suddenly that black energy from outside engulfed me.
A hand gripped my arm.
I had a moment’s notice to give a squeak, see my drink splash, and I was dragged into a room.
Not good. Not good at all.
5
Who’s The Big Bad?
“What are you doing here?”
I recognized Nik’s hiss, and relaxed. Fuck, I thought the Big Bad had gotten me.
We were in a janitor’s closet, and I felt for the light switch. Turning it on, I looked down first.
My drink was okay. I only lost a little bit of it.
I looked and saw my best friend in full demon mode.
“Whoa.”
I hadn’t seen her like this, ever.
“What?” She retracted her hand and stepped back. She began patting herself. “What?’
“You got your horns out.”
“What?!” Her hands flew to her head and she began feeling through her hair.
I was tempted to watch her keep feeling around before she figured it out, but also, she should know. The horns aren’t literal, but the shadows of the demon’s horn show when they’re feeling all-demony.
I’d never seen her horns’ shadows come out to play.
She kept patting, panicked, and I took pity.
“Stop.” I reached for her hand, pulling it down. “You know just the shadows show. You don’t actually grow horns while you’re up here.”
“Oh, yeah.” Her relief was audible. “Thank Go—I mean. Whatever.” She growled, remembering. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for you.”
“Why?”
“Why?! Are you kidding?”
The black energy was attached to her, and it rose upwards, moving to her face.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. A shiver went down my spine. Why did I get a feeling the energy was staring at me, like it could actually see me? That had never happened.
I broke out into a cold sweat.
“You’ve got the Big Bad’s energy all around you.” I paused, watching her to see her reaction.
There was no shock. She only eased away from me an inch. Her eyebrows dipped down. “So? I’m working the room that he’s in.”
He. I’d been right.
Also, I had a fifty-fifty shot there, so I didn’t know why I was rejoicing.
She eased away even farther, crossing her arms over her chest. “You shouldn’t be here, especially tonight.”
“Yeah, I’ve been told that a time or two on my way here. I’ll leave if you leave with me.”
“I’m working. This is my job.”
Alarm was racing up and down my back, intertwining with those shivers like little snakes.
“You can get off work, and you know it.”
All I needed was to call Benji. He’d let her off in a second if I asked.
“Benji’s not here.” She must’ve been reading my thoughts.
“Why? What do you mean?”
“He was fired last week.”
“What?”
This was a whole new level of apocalypse. Benji fired? He was my go-to with all things Bass. After him, I had no connections here. Nikki and Terath didn’t have any managerial power. Not that I normally cared about that stuff, but all the alarms going off in me were for something.
“I don’t know. There’s a lot of staff changes around here, and I don’t get involved. It's a hazard to me.”
My eyeballs almost popped out of my head at that. “Right there. That’s a good enough reason. Come with me.”
She laughed, easing away even more. As she did, the black energy doubled in size.
I was losing her.
She said, “I’m good. You’re seeing something that’s not there.”
That was my daily life. Hello.
But that energy was swirling more and more around her. The same metallic sparkly undertones were there too. It was almost mesmerizing to watch. Under normal circumstances, I’d think it was beautiful to see. Not under these circumstances. And definitely not on Halloween.
“Nik, please.”
“No.” She was sharper this time. “Go home, Cale. You hate Halloween anyway.”
I’d left my boyfriend of four years tonight, and I was pleading with her to leave with me. She wasn’t acknowledging any of this. This was so not my Nik. No way, but I couldn’t make her leave.
Well.
I could.
She just wouldn’t be happy about it, and it wouldn’t be permanent.
I could poof her somewhere. Then I’d have to try to knock her out.
But she was a demon, and Nik was strong.
I’d have to tie her up somewhere, I guess.
How could I tie her up where she couldn’t just teleport out? I got it.
There were ropes I could use. They were used for angels, so…it’d do the job, but it would hella hurt.
Oh man. I didn’t know what to do.
I feel like Ralph would know what to do.
“Who’s the Big Bad?”
“What?”
“The Big Bad. Who is it?”
Her eyes flashed black again. The horns came out, and the whole room shook.
A weird sensation took root in my gut, and it began to build.
I wondered…
Fuck it.
I had to try. I had to know.
I grabbed her neck, my hand wrapping around it, and I shoved her up against the wall behind her. My movement was fast and violent, and I had a second before she’d rally back. I closed my eyes, head down, and I sensed into her energy.
I sensed everywhere.
In all circles of her energy. The Big Bad’s energy.
Even the energy inside of her, and that’s when I felt her. The real Nik.
She was there.
She was sleeping.
She wasn’t in control of her body.
Suddenly, a whoosh happened and I was flung backwards.
I opened my eyes in time to see we were in mid-air. Nik’s body was being thrown back against the wall. I was moving away from her, in the air, and I’d be crashing against the door any second. The energy had swirled up, becoming a solid force around her.
I heard its snarling.
I felt its anger.
But I also felt its power, and more importantly, I felt branded by it.
I knew in that moment I’d never feel anything more powerful.
Then, everything went dark.
6
The Big Bad
I woke up in a blue velvet room.
I was on a blue velvet couch. The walls were blue velvet. The ceiling. I couldn’t find a door, so I’m sure that was blue velvet too. There were other chairs around the room, blue velvet on the arm rests. The floor was dark paneling, with blue and gold accents.
I lifted my head, and the whole room started spinning around.
I laid back down and took a second.
There’d be no escape action happening if I couldn’t even stand.
Okay.
I waited, eyes open, and slowly the room stopped around me.
Scooting my legs over the edge, I sat up and waited. Holding my breath.
The room stayed put. Thankfully.
A low chuckle came from the dark corner of the room. “For an energist, you bounce back remarkably fast.”
My eyes almost popped out. Again.
All the shivers and warnings from earlier slammed back into my body as if they’d been there and had been trapped, the lid just now being lifted up. They filled every inch of my body, and I had a hard time staying upright.
I couldn’t see him—holy shitballs, I couldn’t see him!
His energy wasn’t in the room.
Who could do that?
I mean, other than a Big Bad?
Okay. Could I get an energy concussion? Maybe that was it, I was now wondering. This was new
territory for me. I ran when guys like him showed up, not that I’d come across anyone as powerful as him before, but still, I ran.
I was rambling.
I had to stop.
“Who are you?”
He stood from a chair. He was still in the shadows, but he was tall. Over six feet. And he was coming toward me.
My internal alarm was rising, rising. I felt it starting to choke me.
“You’re unschooled for your power. That’s a very stupid thing to do.”
Oh. Fuck him. Lecturing me?
He stepped out of the shadows and all my words and snarky replies dried up.
Thought left me.
I—I was stunned speechless at the same time as an inferno was lit instead. It engulfed everything else. A full bonfire was raging in me. Flames and smoke must’ve been coming out of my head because this guy was like no one I’d ever seen. In movies or real life.
He was beautiful.
Almost too beautiful.
A five o’clock shadow peppered his face, and that jaw was the definition of a square jaw. His eyes were dark and smoldering. He had a dimpled chin. His mouth—I licked my lips, my gaze going there and lingering and I was already daydreaming about nipping at his lips. They were perfect. He had a rectangular-shaped face, where there was a faint line from his cheeks dipping all the way to his jawline.
His hair was black, and it was short on the sides and there was enough on the top to have a good wave through it. A small lock fell down over his forehead, and I couldn’t decide if it was either the hottest thing I’d seen or the most adorable.
With how he looked, though, I was leaning more toward dead sexy.
That phrase took on a whole different meaning for me, and I wasn’t human. That said a lot.
He had broad shoulders, and a tapered waist. He was lean except for his chest and shoulders. There was something animal-like about how he moved toward me.
He was a shifter.
Not all shifters had the innate vibe he was giving out. It was exuding off him.
All authority and danger.
Power.
This guy, whoever he was, could snap his fingers and I’d be dust. I knew that without a doubt.
I also knew that this was the Big Bad.
“Who are you?”
Those eyes never wavered from mine, only narrowed, and he gave a small chuckle. The sound reverberated inside of me, warming and rubbing up against all of my organs at once.
“You come to my club. You accost my customers. And you try to get one of my employees fired. I believe you’re in the wrong position here.” He paused, his eyes becoming even more fierce. “You don’t get to interrogate me.”
That blaze in me sparked again, this time from irritation.
I liked to drink, spend time with my best friend, mostly avoid my family, and every now and then show up at my own job. What I didn’t like was being told what not to do from someone I didn’t know, and especially someone who was wreaking havoc with all of my senses.
I narrowed my eyes right back at him. “You don’t feel like a demon.”
It felt like I had to pull my gaze from cement as I took in the rest of him. He wore a business suit, tie off, top two buttons undone. The ends were pulled out of his pants, and he looked as if he’d raked his hand through his hair a couple times. It was messed up on top. As I was studying him, he took off the suit jacket and tossed it aside.
I watched in slow motion the whole muscle ripple effect that happened across his shoulders and chest.
That freaking frog was back in my throat.
He looked back at me.
I felt his disapproval in the air, almost singeing me, and I stomped down a growl.
I was getting tired of the ping-pong match of emotions and everything happening with this guy. He was too much for me. His power was coming off him in waves, even though he had checked his energy so it wasn’t in the room with him. And how he did that, I had no clue. I’d never met anyone who could control their energy.
The way he was affecting me was overwhelming.
He only smirked. No answer.
“This is a demon bar.”
He raised an eyebrow, his hand going to undo one of his cufflinks.
The other cufflink.
Holy.
I never knew I could be attracted to hands.
But I was. His.
They were man hands. Strong. Masculine. Firm.
“So that would make you a demon.”
I was guessing here, hoping he’d confirm or deny.
Once both cufflinks were undone, he began rolling up the sleeves, showing a good length of masculine arms.
I was dying. Dying!
I’d never reacted like this to anyone.
Someone could roast marshmallows on my skin.
Wait.
Nik!
I forgot about Nik.
“Where’s my friend?”
He paused at my question, his eyes unblinking for a moment before he turned, and now I was getting a bird’s-eye view of the back of him. My mouth dried up all over again. The frog was dead. Evaporated. He was still rolling up those sleeves, causing the shirt to tighten over his back muscles. I was seeing the move and glide of all of those inches of man right before me.
Nik.
I needed to stay on track.
“My friend.” My voice was a lot more authoritarian. “If you’ve harmed her—”
“What?” He turned at that. “What will you do if I’ve harmed your friend?”
I had to think.
The buzzing emanating off him was still so loud and so much of a distraction. I fought through, focusing. What would I do?
My power was energy, and he had none around him.
My Lord. That’s why he didn’t have his energy in here.
I was completely helpless to him.
When I didn’t say anything, he turned back. “That’s what I thought—”
He didn’t finish that statement, and now I was pissed.
I stood, intending to go right for the door. I was looking all around and still hadn’t found the exit, but I was hoping to pull off a miracle somehow when he looked back at me again.
An unseeing force slammed me against the wall.
I was raised in the air and held there, suspended. Helpless.
My arms were splayed out. Even my fingers were spread wide. My legs apart.
I was totally and completely vulnerable.
He asked, his tone mocking again, “What did you say you’d do?”
7
Ribbit!
You’re an asshole.
Yes. I am. His voice came to me in my head, and I jerked at the intruder, shocked.
I mean, I couldn’t jerk far, but my head did move a centimeter to the side.
His head was lowered, and the whole smoldering bedroom effect was happening with his eyes.
He spoke again in my head. I’ve been sensing you, and I can’t discern what you are.
I’m an energy sensor. Duh.
No.
I froze. I mean, I froze more, or I would’ve if I could’ve moved.
What do you mean?
I can taste your fear.
That’s disgusting.
You’re scared of your own power. That intrigues me.
He moved closer to me, his head cocked to the side and his eyes turned almost soft. This was why I was reacting so much to him. He was inside of me, sensing me, studying me, dissecting me.
I felt violated. And not in a good way.
You’re more than just an energy sensor. You have a unique taste that other energist’s don’t.
That blew wide open a whole new level of uncomfortableness. He was tasting me?
There’s an ancient power in you. Maybe you don’t even realize it, but I do.
Abruptly, as if he discovered something he didn’t like, he withdrew. Everything. My insides were no longer cast in a throbbing inferno, and I fell from the wall. Landing, I caught mysel
f, my elbow banging into the wall.
Damn. It was the same elbow I chafed at Nikki’s too.
I felt way more orientated now and not as embarrassed.
I glared at him. “You didn’t have to do all of that.”
He gave me a cocky quirk of his top lip, but his eyes were cold. “You are in a building that is filled with demons on a dissension night where four of the six masters are rising.”
Cold dread started to trickle in, filling the void that had been left by him.
I gulped.
I hadn’t known it was a dissension night. They only happened once every six years.
He kept on, “Your kind has a long history of being taken as personal weapons…or worse. I would be very careful about how many insults you cast my way because your friend is gone. The demon has taken hold of her tonight, and I am the only thing powerful enough to get you out of here. Alive.”
Dissension night was a night where the full moon was directly above us. And he was right. Every single demon lost their humanity, but what was worse was that it was also the night their masters surfaced and were given presents by their servants.
Every single demon had a master. There were six total, and the type of presents given?
There was a reason this place was filled with humans.
RIBBIT!
The frog was back, and the frog was shitting itself.
“Why would you help me?”
He was the Big Bad. That went against all universal and species’ laws.
He gave me another scornful look, and I thought I saw him flick his eyes upwards. Actually, I was sure I did.
I had no idea.
I felt like he did.
I would’ve if I were him.
But his face was back to the same stoic mask from when he’d been analyzing me only moments ago.
“Do you have any other option right now?”
“You could be lying.” I raised my chin up. “I could call your bluff, walk out there, and there’s no dissension happening.”
“Your friend would still be sleeping inside of her body.”
Right.
Because that happened before he showed up on the scene.
Damn.
“What’s the plan, Jeeves?”