by Bella Jacobs
My cheeks heat, embarrassment and awareness dumping into my bloodstream as Leo moves around to my other side. They’re hard enough to handle one at a time. Having both of them this close is likely to do lasting damage.
My face may never return to its normal color.
“I’ve got tea for Eliza. Ginger and turmeric with extra honey to help calm her stomach.” Leerie sets the tea on our yellow daisy tablecloth and pulls out a chair. “The shifts still making you nauseated?”
“A little.” I motion toward the bathroom. “I’ll change out of Leo’s shirt and be right back.”
“I’m sure there’s no rush.” Leerie casts a disinterested look at Leo’s chiseled ten-pack. “He doesn’t feel the cold. Do you, Leo?”
Leo shakes his head but doesn’t say a word, his jaw still locked tight the way it was the entire dash home through streets echoing with the cries of wolves out for blood. My blood. And probably Rourke and Leo’s, too. I don’t know much about these Kin Born maniacs, but they seem like the kind who would take out their target’s friends first and ask questions never.
“There are reasons for wanting clothes, aside from warmth,” I say, moving deeper into our cozy home. “Not all of us are shameless exhibitionists like you and Rourke.”
“Skinny dipping is a time-honored tradition among my people,” Leerie says in a prim voice at odds with her words. “And swimming is more fun when you’re naked.”
“Almost everything is more fun when you’re naked,” Rourke seconds with a wink. “Except boxing. You want something to keep the wangle from dangling in a fight.”
I roll my eyes, flustered, but not so flustered I miss the relief in Leo’s expression. I meet his gaze, warmth spreading through me when he nods a silent “thank you.” I want to tell him that he has absolutely nothing to thank me for—I owe him my life and what’s left of my dignity for sparing me a naked, post-shift walk of shame all the way home—but decide that’s better left to another time.
A time when Leo and I might be alone…
But of course, we’re never alone. It’s a crazy thought. He comes to see Leerie, and he always comes with Rourke. They’ve made it clear from the moment they first started courting Leerie almost a year ago that they’re a package deal. Some poor woman is going to have to learn to put up with both of them.
Both of them in her life, in her heart.
In her bed…
Face flaming all over again, I flee to the bathroom before anyone reads my mind. Leerie doesn’t have telepathic powers, and neither do vampires, but it takes no supernatural ability to read me. I wear my heart on my sleeve and my thoughts on my face.
After I’ve changed, I take an extra moment at the sink, meeting my hazel eyes in the mirror, willing them to keep my secrets for another thirty minutes, or however long Leerie and my saviors intend to socialize, and then I head back into the kitchen.
I find Leerie sitting quietly in the chair next to my steaming mug, her face pale and a worry wrinkle check-marking her smooth forehead.
“You scared her,” I accuse the men on the other side of the table.
“She asked how close the Kin Born got to you tonight, and we don’t make a habit of lying,” Leo says. “If we’d left even a minute later, there’s a chance we wouldn’t have made it back here alive.”
“But you didn’t have to tell her that.” I toss Leo’s shirt at him, refusing to acknowledge the way my pulse leaps as he catches it with a flash of his powerful arm.
“She needs to know,” Rourke says in a gentle voice that does nothing to soften his next words. “She could be in danger, too. If those bastards know where you work and the route you take home, sooner or later they’re going to figure out where you live. Neither of you is safe here.”
“No, I’ll make it safe.” I slide into the seat beside Leerie, patting her knee under the table. “I promise. I’ll quit my job, find another one on the other side of town, and be sure never to take the same way home twice. And, hopefully, shifter-hate won’t be an issue for much longer. Eugene is going to change me back soon. He has to.”
Leerie turns to me, her pale green eyes cloudy with a chance of rain. “But what if he doesn’t, Eliza? I haven’t wanted to cross that bridge, but there’s a chance he’ll refuse to do the right thing.”
“Or that he won’t be able to do the right thing,” Leo adds, bringing the mood in our usually bright and cheery kitchen down another notch. “Some genetic modifications are too extensive to reverse completely. I don’t know where a rhinoceros lands on the spectrum, but it seems fairly extreme.”
I shake my head. “No, he wouldn’t do something he couldn’t take back,” I insist, ignoring the tiny voice inside that says Eugene seemed pretty ready to let the Kin Born do something he couldn’t take back to me tonight. I have to believe this will get better. I can’t give in to despair or let rhino become my new reality without a fight. “He can fix this, and he will. He just wants to make sure I suffer first.”
“Or die,” Leerie adds in a whisper, echoing my own dire thoughts. “He had to have known the Kin Born would find you, honey. It’s not like he made you a rabbit or a mouse or something that’s easy to hide. He made sure you would stand out. Attract attention.”
“The wrong kind of attention.” Rourke sets his now-empty wine tumbler down with a sharp thunk. “I swear, I could kill the bastard. Skin him alive, inch by inch.”
“That might be an option we consider down the road, but for now we need to think more realistically,” Leerie says, surprisingly unfazed by the mention of bloodshed. She’s usually a hardcore pacifist. But that’s how much she loves me—enough to want the blood of my enemies to flow in the streets.
It’s special.
Stomach-turning and scary, but special.
“I love you.” I squeeze her hand. “Seriously. Thank you for sticking by me through this. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“And you’ll never have to learn,” she says, pulling me in for a hug.
“We’re here for you, too,” Rourke says. “For as long as you need us. We’re not going to let you girls face this alone.”
“We’re not girls.” Leerie sniffs as we pull apart, brushing her wild hair back behind her shoulders. “We’re capable and clever women. But seeing as neither of us has much experience with violent predators, your assistance would be appreciated.”
I nod. “It would. I hate to be a bother, but—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Leo says. “You were betrayed by someone who claimed to love you, and you’re in mortal danger as a result. The last thing you should be worried about is whether or not you’re a bother.”
“He didn’t, though,” I find myself confessing.
“Didn’t what?” Leo asks, confusion in his eyes.
“Love me. He didn’t love me.” Shame sends my heart sinking like an anchor tossed overboard, even though I know it’s ridiculous.
I didn’t love Eugene, either.
But still… I would never have put his life in danger.
What’s wrong with me that I fail to inspire basic human decency in the men I date, let alone lasting affection?
“It doesn’t matter,” Leo says after a beat. “You gave him your trust. He should have honored it. And you should have higher standards in men going forward.”
I blink, but before I can decide whether I want to defend myself or admit he’s right and that my standards have been perilously low, Rourke cuts in.
“What he’s trying to say is that you’re the wounded party here, sunshine. And you shouldn’t have to apologize for needing help. Especially help we’re happy to give.” Rourke nudges Leo in the ribs. “Isn’t that right, Crankypants?”
Leo arches a brow at the moniker, but the tightness fades from his expression. “That’s correct. And we should start by arranging alternative housing for the both of you. My shiver owns rental property throughout the city and surrounding countryside. I’m sure we can get you set up with something suitable
.”
“Shiver?” I ask.
“A shiver is a group of vampires,” Leerie whispers. “Like a flock of birds. Or a crash of rhinos.”
“No rhino jokes,” I mutter before shifting my attention back to Leo and Rourke, beginning to realize how little I know about their lives when they aren’t kicking it human style with Leerie and me. I have no idea where they live or what they do for work or what other social obligations might be part of their lives.
A shiver doesn’t sound like a very warm place to belong, but words can be deceiving. Family, for example, sounds lovely until you zoom in and take a closer look at the dysfunction. Both Leerie and I know that from experience. I’m barely talking to my mother, and she and hers have been giving each other the deep freeze for half a century.
“Maybe a building near downtown,” Leo continues, “with a doorman and twenty-four-hour security.”
“Thank you,” I say. “That sounds smart. At least for a little while. If it isn’t too much trouble.”
“It’s just the right amount of trouble.” Rourke winks. “Especially if we can get you two in a building with a rooftop pool. It’s almost skinny-dipping season, you know.”
“I’m not getting in the water until at least June, and surely we’ll be home by then.” Leerie sighs. “Guess I’ll go pack.” She pushes her chair back but pauses to point a warning finger at the opposite side of the table. “But no funny business, all right? You find a safe place for Eliza and me to stay—together—and I’ll happily pay whatever we owe in rent. This is not your chance to get me alone and attempt to pester me into marrying you.”
“There’s a thin line between pestering and seduction, darling girl,” Rourke says, but his heart doesn’t seem in it, and when I look his way, I find his attention on me, not Leerie. He looks away so quickly I can’t be sure I wasn’t imagining things, but the damage is done.
My thoughts are already racing, and my foolish heart is wondering things it shouldn’t be wondering about my roommate’s would-be boyfriend.
“We’ll find a location that will accommodate both of you,” Leo assures Leerie. “And Rourke and I will be on our best behavior.”
“Best behavior,” Rourke echoes, holding up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
“You were never anything close to a Boy Scout, Reagan O’Rourke,” Leerie says with a good-natured roll of her eyes. “But you’ve been a dear friend, and I’m grateful for your help. Though, if you make me regret trusting you with Eliza’s safety, you’re going to regret the day you decided courting me was a good waste of your time.”
“Your safety will be our top priority.” Leo rises from his chair with his usual grace. “But we should go. Gloria turns in early, and the night isn’t getting any younger. There’s no need to pack. We can provide anything you need during your stay. Our staff specializes in making shiver guests comfortable.” He cocks his head, studying my face in silence for a moment. “And I’ve got something that might make you more comfortable, Eliza. Help you manage your shifts, give you some control until this is all sorted out.”
“That would be wonderful.” I stand beside Leerie, the still-warm teacup clutched tight. “Clearly, I need all the help I can get, being a hopeless shifter failure and all.”
“You’re not a failure,” Leo says. “You’re new to it. There’s a difference.”
“And you’re not hopeless.” Rourke leans back in his chair with a grin. “You’re a right lovely little rhino. At least as far as I can tell. Having an aversion to animals in captivity, I haven’t seen many rhinos up close, but I’d swing your way at a petting zoo.”
“Rhinoceroses aren’t petting zoo material,” Leerie says, crossing to claim her jacket from the hook by the door. “Neither is Eliza. And just FYI, hitting on my roommate is another excellent way to make sure I never get anywhere close to an altar with either of you.”
“You’re never going to get close to an altar with either of us, anyway.” Rourke glides out of his chair, claiming my hand and pressing a kiss to the back with one graceful movement. “But I apologize, dear ’Liza,” he murmurs, his lips moving against my skin, sending inappropriate tingling sensations tickling up my arm. “Can you ever forgive me?”
“Of course,” I say with a breathy laugh. “I know you were just joking.”
Rourke winks. “Of course, I was.” And then he kisses my hand again, leaving me even more flustered than I was before.
Thankfully, Leerie is too busy turning off the lights and grabbing our purses and keys to notice the kiss, but when I glance to where Leo waits by the door, he’s shooting Rourke a none-too-subtle glare.
Leo isn’t a fan of Rourke’s forbidden flirting either, apparently.
I wish I wasn’t. Or that I could blame this crush on Leerie’s suitors on my scrambled DNA.
But I’ve had a thing for Leo and Rourke since the moment I met them, the day they showed up on our porch nearly a year ago, bearing gifts and flowers and a letter formally announcing their intention to court Leerie’s favor, as required by fairy law. It would be a political and magically motivated union, not a love match, but it doesn’t matter. These men are 100 percent off-limits.
So I’m an awful person, as well as a terrible shifter. But at least one of those problems is under my control.
Vowing not to think another impure thought about Leo or Rourke—no matter how handsome and sexy and charming and irresistible they are—I follow Leerie out the door and down the porch steps, leaving our sweet cottage to fend for itself as we head for the vampire-ordered limo idling at the end of the drive.
Chapter 5
The Decadence Lounge isn’t anything like the vampire clubs I’ve heard rumors about—dark, creepy, drug-den type places that keep people chained up like anemic cattle to assuage the unholy thirst of the establishments’ fanged patrons.
It’s more like a 1920s speakeasy, tucked away in a nondescript brick building on the West Side with nothing but a pair of imposing bouncers to hint that it’s anything but another abandoned dockside eatery. The speakeasy vibe is solidified as Leo leads us to the back of the warmly lit—and bustling—bar to a vintage cigarette machine. He pulls two handles at once, and a knob appears in the bricks to the right, followed by the outline of a large door.
“Cool,” I murmur, unable to keep a grin from my face.
Leo smiles. “Thank you. It’s my design.”
“Very cool,” I repeat, earning a jab in the ribs from Leerie. “What?” I lift my hands in open-armed, nothing-to-see-here innocence. “It is. Who doesn’t love a secret passage?”
“Don’t encourage him. His head is big enough already,” Leerie says, before adding in a faux whisper, “Leo is also the one who invented the internet. He just can’t take credit for it, since he was supposed to have been dead and all.”
“Impressive.” I nod, brows climbing.
“Not as impressive as the fact that Gloria’s agreed to see us on such short notice.” Rourke opens the secret door, releasing a puff of sweetly-smoky air from the other side. “So let’s get moving, lovelies. Don’t want to keep the Shiver Master waiting.”
“Is that like the queen?” I ask Leerie as we follow Leo through the door and up a flight of stairs.
“Yes,” she whispers back. “Each shiver has a line of succession based on bloodline, but a vampire can only stay in power if the group continues to support them in a reasonably democratic way.”
“Reasonably?” I arch a brow.
“Sometimes we cast ballots to keep a master on for another quarter century, sometimes the master and a challenger fight to the death,” Rourke pipes up from behind us, his voice pleasant considering the subject matter. “But our shivers haven’t had a bloody battle for power in centuries. Seeing as we’re currently unable to create new vampires, we’ve become protective of the ones still living. We can’t let our numbers get too low, or we risk being absorbed by a larger shiver out to get their fangs on what’s ours.”
Questions race throu
gh my head—Why can’t they make any new vampires? How many shivers are there in Seattle? Why hasn’t Leerie filled me in on all this delicious backstory before now?—but it’s too late to ask them.
We’re here. In the queen’s lair.
Or, rather, her office.
It’s a really nice office, with a long mahogany board table and twelve chairs to the left, a lounging area with sofas and a flat-screen at the far side of the room, and an adorable art deco bar with crystal decanters filled with the red stuff to my right. But it’s still an office, as evidenced by the massive desk that dominates the center of the room.
To say it isn’t the romantic, gothic, black-silk-and-red-satin den of sin I was expecting is an understatement.
Gloria isn’t at all what I pictured, either.
She’s a tiny woman with curly blondish-gray hair and inch-thick glasses that make her already large brown eyes appear owlish as she glances up from the laptop on her desk. She blinks once, twice—as if she has no idea why she’s been interrupted—before her lips curve in a big smile and she shouts in a heavy New York accent, “Leo! My baby. My boy, what treasures have you brought me? Such beautiful ladies.” She rises from her chair, bustling around the desk with her thin arms outstretched. “Princess Aleerie Nessa the third. Such a pleasure to have you as our guest. Your mother is a dear friend. Can’t wait to see her next Solstice.”
“Say hello to her for me,” Leerie says, leaning down to accept a peck on each cheek. “We’re not currently on speaking terms, but I hear she’s well.”
Gloria’s brow furrows, sending her glasses bobbing higher on her nose. “Family trouble, eh?”
Leerie smiles. “Mothers and daughters. Never as easy as one would think.”
“Ain’t that the truth. Ain’t that the truth.” Gloria pats Leerie on the shoulder, sending a puff of lavender and rose perfume wafting pleasantly through the air. “Well, at least you’ve got time to sort it out. One of the benefits of being immortal—you can hold a grudge for a couple hundred years and still have plenty of time to live happily ever after.” She cackles at her own joke before abruptly sobering as she turns to me. “No offense to the mortal, sweetheart. I admire you guys. You have to figure yourselves out so much faster. I salute you for it, I really do.”
