Chapter 19

Once inside, and simply out of spite, I made Adrian introduce me to his friends as the best orgasm he’d ever had. They looked on in horror, especially the little one with the crush. I winked at her and said a few cheeseburgers and fries and he’d be her man. Then I grabbed Adrian, drilled him with another mind-bending kiss, and dragged him to the floor.

The club was packed, all three floors of it. Every single molecule of space seemed to be taken up. Dancers bumped into us. I stepped on something sticky. I’m not sure what it was and really didn’t want to look, hoping it was liquor and not bodily fluid. But with the way everyone was bumping and grinding, I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised.

I slapped at Adrian’s hand attempting to snake down the front of my dress. He frowned, still deep in the throes of thrall. 

“Get a room,” someone called. 

I plastered on a tight smile, aggravation riding me hard, and turned toward Adrian. “Now, now, play nice. You don’t want to make Mama mad, trust me.” I tweaked his nose. The man was entirely too touchy-feely. I’d liked him earlier, until he’d pissed me off. Now he was a nuisance I was trying my best to ignore while I studied the room. 

There were many vamps, all of varying ages and power. Some recently turned, others long in the tooth. The urge to pounce on one and rip its heart out scraped my nerves raw.

Adrian dug his fingers into my waist and rode my bootylicious backside with his crotch. “Oh, baby, I want to lather you up with baby oil and tap this juicy thing all night long.” 

Eww. Seriously? Juicy? There are so many adjectives I could use to describe booty, juicy wasn’t one of them. “I bet you say that to all the girls.” I gave my best air-headed, I’m-such-a-lucky-girl giggle.

“But now I really mean it,” he said, leaning his head on my shoulder and nuzzling my neck. 

It probably wasn’t nice of me to leave him thralled so long, but I never pretended to be a Girl Scout. He was going to hate himself come morning. Was it wrong that I was seriously enjoying this?

I turned and draped my arms over his shoulder. “Mmm, really. And maybe if you’re a good boy, I’ll let you tie me up and spank me.”

His pupils dilated. You can always peg the S&M junkies. Takes one to know one, I suppose.

“Can I shove a gag ball in your mouth?” His words came out in a heated rush. His skin grew flush. 

“Sure, doll, whatever you want,” I said dryly. Now that I was turned, I could keep this form up on my own for a few hours. I needed to scout out the place without leech boy groping me every point five seconds. 

“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 boohoo, 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 gritted 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 was 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 guttural 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 to 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 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 dragged 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 on to 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.