GABRIEL

I ended the call and slid my cell phone into my back pocket. “Xavier says he’s on his way. They’ll be on the next flight to Reno.”

Mikah leaned back against the wall and peeked around the corner to where the curtain had been replaced over the mirrored door, and then he shifted back to face me. “Xavier had better get here soon. Cali has been with Greyson in the Fae world for a while now…”

Wasn’t that the truth. The Fae weren’t exactly known for being warm and welcoming, as evidenced by the human couple who’d just been shoved through what I could only assume was a portal to the Fae world. Greyson was probably powerful and capable of holding his own, but Cali? I wasn’t so sure. Cali and Greyson had been gone for days now—who knew what they were facing? What they may have already had to face? If they were even still alive.

I brushed the thought away. No, I wouldn’t consider that possibility. One, there was nothing I could do—even if they had ended up in some Fae’s stew or whatever the hell happened to outsiders in the Fae realm—and two, if something bad had happened to Cali while with Greyson, Xavier would absolutely lose his shit.

At least, more so than he already had. Which was a truly terrifying thought.

Everything had already gotten so out of hand, and now there was a pack of werewolves on the way, led by a volatile hot-head hellbent on bringing his mate back. The Chop Shop nightclub already seemed like a completely crazy place, even by my standards. It was like a giant labyrinth, so much bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. There were rooms that looked like closets from the doorway, but were giant dance floors once you stepped inside. How was that even possible? Give me a dingy nightclub any day, but add this Fae bullshit on top if it all—let’s just say it’s hard to work a room if you think you’re about to fall into some extra dimensional hellscape.

And it seemed like there were more than enough Fae, goblins, demons and whatever the fuck else the cat had dragged in protecting the portal. What chance did a gang of werewolves stand against all that? And how quickly would Xavier do something recklessly stupid in his desperation to find Cali?

Yeah, I didn’t want to think about that either…my bet was ten seconds or less.

All it would take was one wrong turn, one rash movement, tipping off the wrong guard—there were about a million ways for this to blow up in our faces. And the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed that we’d even be able to get to the door, much less through it.

“Hey.” Mikah nudged me, and I jolted a bit, his touch leaving warmth where we’d been skin to skin. He looked annoyed. Had he been talking to me while I’d quietly been freaking out? Smooth. “Get out of your head,” he snapped. “We’ve got a situation to deal with here.”

I rolled my eyes. “No shit. You got any other amazing insights, Sherlock?”

Mikah didn’t take the bait. He was just no fun at all. “What’s the game plan?” he asked. “How do we sneak everyone down here when they arrive? I don’t like lingering in this place. There are too many possible threats, and even with that pack of yours, we’re beyond outmatched. Goblins fight dirty, so I do not want to meet the owner of this place. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

I huffed out a breath, my lips curling into a snarl. He’d clearly been running through the same possible scenarios as me and had come to a similar conclusion. Only instead of worrying about how we’d get the group through the portal, he was already looking for an opportunity to cut and run. “Leaving so soon?”

Mikah frowned. “No, it’s just—”

“Why the rush? Are you just here to look for your next job?” My eyes narrowed, taking in every movement in the vampire’s face. “Why did you even come here with me if you don’t care about Cali and Xavier?”

He held his hands up in self-defense. “Hey, I didn’t say that. But, yeah, I do like to think ahead. There’s no crime in that.”

“Always the opportunist,” I spat. “Guess that’s why you blood suckers live so long, huh?”

Why the hell had I agreed to bring this vampire with me? What the hell had I been thinking? Giving him the benefit of the doubt when he clearly didn’t give two shits about anyone except himself. It made him more a liability to the mission, to the safety of Xavier’s pack, than anything else. He’d probably betray us all in half a second if it benefitted him.

I hadn’t needed to bring him along. I could have done this myself. I should have done this myself. Mikah was just a cold-blooded asshole vampire who was only out for himself and his next job. Pot, meet kettle. Okay, maybe there were some similarities, but this wasn’t just a job for me. This was for Xavier. Not many things ran deeper than money for me, but he was one of them. Hell, I was a Rogue, but that didn’t mean I didn’t understand what a pack meant. Xavier wasn’t my Alpha, but he was as close as I ever thought about getting to one. We were friends. Brothers even. Mikah was different. He wasn’t a merc, not even a werewolf. A vampire just wouldn’t get it.

I’d even given him my blood, for god’s sake! What kind of a werewolf would willingly allow a vampire to drink his blood? It had seemed like the logical, easiest decision at the time. It hadn’t even hurt, really. I glanced at Mikah, who was glaring at me with his eyes narrowed, his full lips twisted in displeasure. I could see just a flash of a white fang under those dark lips. A small shock of heat shivered through me. You’re staring, idiot.

I’d given him the benefit of the doubt at almost every turn. Even when he’d threatened to kill Xavier, when he’d actually attacked us in his bloodlust. I’d acted like it was no big deal, and then when I’d offered my wrist…

I glanced at those lips again, my skin suddenly feeling hot. It hadn’t seemed like a violent act at the time, as if he was draining my lifeblood like the parasite he actually was. If anything, it had felt… intimate to be connected that way. His lips, teeth, and tongue working against the inside of my wrist. His mouth had been a firm pressure, and even the blood loss hadn’t seemed scary. I didn’t know if there were something in a vampire’s fangs that sedated their victims, or if it was the combination of our clashing biology, or if my experience could be attributed simply to being down a pint, but allowing Mikah to drink my blood had been kind of relaxing. It took off an edge I hadn’t even known I’d been feeling, and it had soothed the raw edges of Mikah’s bloodlust, too.

I pressed my fingertips against the inside of my opposite wrist, the one from which Mikah had drank. It was sensitive to the slightest touch, and a shiver ran down my spine. Not a bad one, either.

Fuck. I shouldn’t have been thinking about that, especially right at that very moment, when we were literally a few feet away from getting caught by a bunch of Fae or goblins who would make the indent of Mikah’s teeth in my skin seem like a mosquito bite. I couldn’t think about Mikah like that. Not now. Not ever. If I thought about him at all, it only should have been to focus on how we could get the hell through the shitshow we were in and then go our separate ways.

That’s not what you were thinking about back in Vancouver.

Helpful, brain, real helpful. I shook the invasive thoughts aside.

“Gabe—” Mikah began, his voice somewhat softer than it had been before.

“Hey!” A voice shouted from down the hallway, near the curtain that hid the mirrored door.

My head snapped up, focusing on the demon guard, and Mikah spun around to face him.

“What are you two doing here?” the guard demanded. “You’re not supposed to be down here!”

There was a shink as Mikah pulled out a switchblade. Guess he wasn’t gonna cut and run on me just yet.

I eyed the demon as he advanced, my eyes skipping between him and Mikah. Fighting a demon was the absolute last thing on my list, especially since I had no clue what kind of demon he was or what his powers could be. At least with the Fae, you could run them through with iron.

No, fighting wasn’t our move. Not yet. Not if we could avoid it.

“Hey, man!” I called, letting my voice slip into a loose and unbothered cadence. “We’re just here to have a good time. We’re looking for where the real party’s at. Maybe you can point us in the right direction?”

I grabbed Mikah by the shoulders, spun him around, and slammed him against the wall with my body, my chest pressed firmly against his. He didn’t retract his switchblade. I could feel the light pressure of its tip against the side of my thigh, but it didn’t cut through.

He was probably going to hate me for what I was about to do, but I didn’t have any better ideas. If we could avoid a fight with a demon and whatever else he might call down on us if an alarm were sounded, Mikah’s anger would be worth it.

I cupped Mikah’s face in my hands, carefully avoiding his eyes, and pressed my lips against his.