MIKAH

I really shouldn’t have been surprised anymore. Every single floor of this infernal club seemed focused on sex, drugs, or mind-altering magic. Whatever had been done to the food we’d eaten probably hadn’t been done with any ill intent. Mind-altered states were literally what people were paying for when they entered the club.

Still, the small comfort that we likely hadn’t been singled out was fleeting as I drifted further into a psychedelic trip. The world around me was spinning so fast that I thought I was going to throw up everything I’d eaten, and then some. The music playing on the floor’s sound system began to warble, going in and out like a broken record.

I felt like…I felt exactly as high as I’d been at Lottie’s weed farm—when Gabe and I had dreamily made out, and at some point, I’d turned into a very stoned bat. Not again!

I tried to turn toward Gabe, my limbs slow and clumsy. My tongue felt like a ten-ton weight in my mouth, too heavy and big for me to form words with it. When I finally managed to twist myself around, it wasn’t Gabe sitting next to me. I wasn’t even in the club anymore.

Suddenly, I was in an old Victorian mansion with my arms around a beautiful woman as we waltzed around the parlor. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, washing everything in a soothing, golden light, and that same warbling music played in the background. Still, we kept blissfully dancing, and the woman smiled up at me, a sweet blush warming her cheeks. I found myself smiling back at her, leaning down—

And then the mansion disappeared around me. I was still mid-step in the waltz, but suddenly I was unexpectedly in Singapore. Disoriented, I looked around for traces of the mansion, wondering how I’d gotten here. A beautiful man dropped a handful of poker chips into my outstretched hand and pulled me over to a table. Lights flashed around us, slot machines whirred, and the scent of cigarette smoke filled the room. We were in a casino. This was familiar… I’d been here before, although I couldn’t remember how or when. Details were fuzzy, but I knew something good had happened here, or that something good would happen here. A waitress passed by with a tray of drinks, from which the man whisked a martini in a chilled glass and passed it to me. He pressed a kiss against my cheek, his lips warm, and murmured, “You’re my good luck charm.”

Then, before I could reciprocate—before I could sip the martini, place a bet, or do anything but stand there, gawking—the scene shifted again.

I was in the living room of my childhood home in Spain, listening to my older sister sing. The house was decorated for the holidays with my mother’s antique glass ornaments on the tree, our cherished angel at its top. My family was clustered around me while my sister sang on, her voice warbling gibberish at varying volumes just like the music in the club.

Turning my head, I caught my reflection in the mirror on the wall. I wasn’t a grown man anymore, a vampire. I was a boy. Maybe ten years old. Relief flooded my system at the realization that I was home, where I belonged, young again with my natural human life ahead of me.

Not dead.

“Mikah.”

I looked back at my sister, soaking in the feeling of belonging, the comfort of love and safety and connection, and she smiled at me—

“MIKAH!”

I shot forward, breathing heavily. I wasn’t in Spain anymore. Or Singapore, or in any of my other memories. I was in the demon night club, splayed out across a couch and staring up at the ceiling. Next to me, that human girl Tabitha was calling my name.

My vision came into focus, and the first person I saw was Gabriel. He was surrounded by a bright aura as he stared down at me. God, he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. The memories of everything I had seen kept coalescing in my mind, flickering in and out to the woman, to the man, back to Gabe. It was like I was and was not myself. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Gabe’s face. It grounded me, slightly. Like a lifeline in a stormy sea. I watched his pupils dilate as he hovered over me, and I licked my lips.

His eyes zeroed in on the gesture. His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard, and—

Tabitha reached between us and snapped her fingers. “Dude, wake the fuck up!”

I startled and sat up. Gabe and Tabitha backed away a bit to give me space, but I couldn’t help noticing Gabe was still watching me with that intense, almost hungry expression still on his face. Heat rushed through me, coiling low in my belly. I was hungry too, but not for food.

Tabitha groaned. “You two need to snap out of it.”

Right. Yeah. She was right. We couldn’t give in to...whatever was happening between us. I rubbed my face. “That was no normal food. Not even normal Fae food.”

Gabe remained silent, his eyes on me, practically burning me with the smoldering heat in his gaze. But Tabitha rolled her eyes at the werewolf. “What do you mean?” she asked me.

I swallowed and forced my gaze away from Gabe. Tabitha was officially the only safe destination for my eyes. “There are some dark Fae foods that can make a person relive their fondest memories,” I explained. I left it there without elaborating. No need to delve into my trip down memory lane.

I glanced over at Gabe then with a question forming in my mind. What was that feeling just now when I’d woken up and saw his face?

“Hey!” Tabitha clapped her hands loudly at me, and I winced. My heightened vampire senses weren’t equipped to deal with a loud, obnoxious human. “Come on, you two. There’s a restroom over there. Let’s get you out of here so you can snap out of it.”

She took each of us by the hand and led us to the unisex bathroom. It was a good idea, and it got us away from prying eyes for a moment. But Tabitha likely hadn’t counted on the way Gabe’s scent would fill the small space, amplified partially by her body heat, since she was wearing his jacket.

My pulse quickened as I stared at him. He looked fucking delicious—

Tabitha grabbed my head and shoved it into the sink, which was full of very cold water. I spluttered and staggered back. When the hell had she had time to fill the sink? How long—

“I didn’t hire you guys to watch you eye-fuck each other!” she snapped. “Pull yourselves together!”

I nodded and wiped the ice-cold water from my face, avoiding Gabe’s eyes. How the hell had I allowed myself to be drugged a second time? I knew better than this! I’d come here for a reason—get Xavier to the Fae world—and I couldn’t let myself get distracted from doing what I needed to do. Especially now that Tabitha wanted help to find her sister.

Gabe was on her payroll now, and that was sure to help things at least in terms of his attitude, but he wasn’t exactly the most reliable person—not even when money was on the line.

No, it had to be me. I had to step up and be the responsible one here. To get us through this. I rubbed my face again and cleared my throat. “Okay, so let’s take stock for a minute. The goblin knows there’s a breach in the security, and Xavier is going to be here soon. We need to get him through the portal to find Cali. What’s the game plan? What are we—”

Gabe put a hand on my shoulder. “Stop. It’s fine. We’re going to work it out.”

All the tension I felt tightening in my chest suddenly released. Maybe it was the drugs that were still in my system, but Gabe’s hand felt unrealistically good just resting on my shoulder. A light pressure that was almost pleasurable. The sensation was keeping me grounded and calm when I felt like I was moments away from spiraling out of control.

Except, how could that be? It wasn’t like Gabe had never touched me before. He’d never hesitated to push my buttons, but this felt different. I met his eyes, my mouth dry. Whatever sensation I was feeling, it looked like Gabe was feeling the same way. He looked almost blissed out, and he jerked his hand away suddenly, an unmistakable blush creeping into his cheeks.

It was all I could do to not reach out and grab his hand back.

“Who’s Cali?” Tabitha asked. “She sounds annoying.”

The door to the bathroom swung open, and the demon guard I’d knocked out earlier stormed in. He stopped short, his swollen, bruised face splitting into a feral snarl when he saw the three of us gathered at the sink. He pointed a claw at me with murder clear in his eyes. “You!”

I braced myself for another fight, and Gabe tucked Tabitha behind both our bodies. I’d never been less prepared for a fight, mentally or physically, but it didn’t look like I had a choice.

Gabe shot me a look, and I knew what he was thinking without him saying a word: you should have killed him when you had the chance.

Sometimes being a pacifist was really inconvenient.

The guard’s body tensed as he prepared to lunge at us, and I reared back, not at all prepared to block his attack.

That’s when the lights went out.

I froze, listening as a scuffle went down mere feet away, though I could feel Tabitha still pressed up against my back and Gabe at my side. He was bristling with unspent adrenaline. In the dark his wolf eyes reflected what little light there still was as he tried to get a handle on the situation. The darkness didn’t bother me. I could see the shapes and silhouettes and was braced for the attack that never came.

There was a groan, the smack of flesh on flesh, and then a resounding thud. Then the lights came back on to reveal the demon guard on the floor, knocked out cold once again.

Above him stood a strikingly beautiful dark Fae man, and my stomach sank. The familiar scent from before…that strange sensation of familiarity...oh shit.

The man smiled. “Well, well, well, Mikah. Funny running into you here.”