by Paige Tyler
“What are you talking about?” Alyssa said. “Why can’t we be here? We’re not breaking the law.”
The woman flipped her long hair over her shoulder and turned her gaze on Alyssa, looking at her like she was an idiot. “I’m not saying you can’t be in here. I’m talking about them.” She jerked her thumb at him and Jake. “It’s a death sentence for those two.”
Zane opened his mouth to ask what she meant by that, but Jake cut him off.
“Holy shit. There they are.”
Zane followed his gaze to see Zoe and Chloe working their way through the packed dance floor. Bloody hell, the twins were there. The strobe lights bounced off their platinum hair and pale skin, making it seem like they were glowing. Dammit, he’d told them to stay at the hotel!
The woman with the cobalt hair cursed. “There are more of you? What the hell was my idiot daughter thinking letting you all in at the same time they decided to pay me a visit?”
Zane couldn’t miss the emphasis on the word they. He suddenly got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that the woman with the blue hair, the twins, the weird smells, and Stefan’s presence here was all connected. How, he wasn’t sure yet.
“Oh crap,” Alyssa muttered. “Stefan’s on the far side of the dance floor and he’s locked on Zoe and Chloe.”
Zane scanned the lower level until he found Stefan. The wanker was flanked by a crew of oversize security goons.
“Rachel. Diego. Get your asses back to the main room we first walked into,” he said urgently into his mic, his gut telling him this situation was about to go to hell in a carpetbag fast. “You’ll find an archway near the back of the dance floor. And hurry up. Stefan’s found his next targets, and they’re Zoe and Chloe. It’s about to get ugly.”
He and Alyssa brushed past the woman with the blue hair and were already starting down the stairs after Jake when a stench so overwhelming hit him that he almost gagged. It was a combination of old blood and dirt mixed with the odor of something long dead. He swung his gaze around the dance floor, trying to see where the horrible smell was coming from even as the woman with the unusual lavender eyes shouted something about damn werewolves getting them all killed.
Zane ignored her, still searching for the source of the odor. It was coming from three of the men with Stefan. They were standing so far back in the shadows behind Stefan that Zane wouldn’t have seen them if he didn’t have such keen vision. Dressed all in black, they weren’t heavily muscled, but they were tall and put off a vibe that made anyone who wasn’t in Stefan’s immediate group steer clear of them. Despite how crowded the club was, there wasn’t a person within five paces of them. Even as he watched, people stumbled over themselves in an effort to keep their distance.
The tallest of the three men moved forward to stand beside Stefan, and Zane did a double take as he stepped out of the shadows. His eyes were so black and lifeless they seemed to swallow the light. They reminded Zane of a shark—or a corpse.
Lifeless gaze locked on the twin werewolves in the middle of the dance floor, the man nodded.
As one, Stefan’s crew waded into the crowd, some of them pulling their weapons out as they began shoving people aside in order to reach their targets.
Zoe and Chloe must have realized they were in trouble because they latched on to each other’s hands and backed away. But there wasn’t anywhere for them to go on the crowded dance floor.
Before he realized what he was doing, Zane gripped the railing with his good arm, intending to vault over it, when a deep growl ripped through the air, followed by a shout of pain as Jake engaged with one of Stefan’s men on the floor below. The sounds were loud enough to be heard over the blaring techno music, and for a fraction of a second, everyone froze. Then the shooting started, and the club lost its collective mind as the crowd below erupted and people started crawling over each other in an attempt to get away.
Zane felt the muscles in his legs and arms twist and spasm as his body began to partially shift. At the same time, his claws and fangs extended, the tangy taste of blood filling his mouth as the bones of his jaw cracked to make room for all the long, sharp teeth. He knew it was a terrible idea to shift in a room full of people, but he couldn’t stop it. Alyssa was already on the dance floor, inundated by the tidal wave of terrified people and cold-blooded killers. If she didn’t get shot by Stefan’s men, she’d be trampled by the crowd.
Fear tore through Zane at the thought. He tightened his grip on the railing and vaulted over it. He had to save her, even if it meant revealing what he was.
Chapter 9
Alyssa tried to tell herself she’d imagined the terrifying growl she’d heard right before everything went to hell in a shopping cart. Maybe she’d heard someone shout and mistaken it for a growl. But as more of the sounds echoed around the dance floor, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, she was forced to admit she hadn’t imagined anything. There was something scary out there on the dance floor, and everyone in the club knew it.
She was reminded of that fact when a big guy with long, curly hair slammed into her on the way to the exit, nearly knocking her down. She spun out of his way just in time, but then barely avoided the next panicked person shoving past. Okay, in retrospect, maybe venturing into the middle of the dance floor hadn’t been the best idea. But it wasn’t like she’d had an option. When she’d seen the terror on the twins’ faces as Stefan’s Neanderthals closed in on them, she knew she had to do something. So, she followed her instincts and charged into danger. As crazy as it sounded, that was what she did for a living.
Alyssa directed people to the stairs even as she tried to work her way toward the last place on the floor she’d seen Zoe and Chloe. Why the hell hadn’t they stayed at the hotel like they were supposed to?
She pulled up short as one of the Neanderthals stepped in front of her. She had a split second to realize he was one of the guys from the other night in the alley before he lifted his weapon and pointed it at her. Alyssa’s training kicked in and she darted to the side, lifting her gun at the same time. But she already knew it was too late. She wouldn’t be able to get her shot off before he did.
Another one of those deep growls reverberated in the air as someone flew from above, smashing the man with the gun to the floor. More growls followed, and she caught a glimpse of impossibly long fangs and claws as her rescuer straightened to his full height and tossed the man’s broken body aside like a toy.
Alyssa blinked, recognizing Zane from the way his injured arm hung at his side even before he turned to look at her. The strobe lights made it difficult to see his face clearly, but it was hard to miss the sharp fangs extending beyond his lower lip or the glowing, yellow-gold eyes.
Chest tight, she opened her mouth to say something—though she wasn’t sure what—but he was moving again, fighting his way through the rapidly thinning crowd to take on another one of Stefan’s men. She stared after him, not sure if she wanted to consider the possibilities of what she’d just seen. But then the sounds of fighting pierced the fog surrounding her, forcing her to stop thinking and go after Zane.
She’d barely taken two steps before realizing Zane had followed Jake to help protect the twins, but it already seemed too late. Some of Stefan’s men had the girls corralled and were herding them toward the far end of the dance floor, violently shoving aside anyone who got in their way. The rest of his Neanderthals forced Zane and Jake back in Alyssa’s direction. One of the assholes lifted his .45 and pulled the trigger. There was a bright muzzle flash and a deafening boom. Zane staggered back a step.
Alyssa’s heart seized in her chest. Even though she couldn’t tell exactly where Zane had been hit, she knew it was bad. Any wound from a weapon of that caliber would be. Eyes filling with tears, she ran across the now-empty floor toward him, only to halt in her tracks when Zane let out a terrifying snarl. She watched in disbelief as he grabbed the wrist of the man with the .45 and snapped it like a twig, then quickly slashed the guy’s throat
with his claws, cutting off any sound he might have made.
The man hadn’t even hit the floor before Zane was moving again, this time into the middle of the remaining Neanderthals, snarling, punching, and tearing apart anyone unfortunate enough to be close to him. Jake fell in beside him, claws and fangs flashing. Together, the two of them were more violent and unrelenting than anything Alyssa had ever witnessed—or even imagined.
If there’d been time, she might have been terrified by what Zane was doing and how he was doing it, but then one of Stefan’s men rushed at her. She lifted her weapon and fired, not thinking anymore as the man went down and another took his place.
Alyssa started to pull the trigger again, but then hesitated when she realized the second man wasn’t carrying a weapon. Hair as dark as pitch and skin unnaturally pale, he wasn’t dressed in a suit like Stefan’s other muscle. Instead, he wore dress slacks and an expensive silk button-down. He walked toward her almost casually, his expression amused. Even though he didn’t look like he posed a threat, something told her he was far more dangerous than the armed Neanderthal she’d just shot. She’d seen enough weird over the past year to make her tighten her grip on her gun and aim for the center of the man’s chest.
“Don’t come another step closer or I will shoot you!” she shouted.
The man didn’t slow. Flat, dark eyes locked on her, his lips pulling up in a snarl, revealing two long fangs. A shiver of fear ran down her back, leaving her short of breath. Forcing herself to ignore it, she focused her attention on the sights of her weapon and squeezed the trigger before the damn thing got any closer to her.
The first 9 mm round tagged the man in the left shoulder but didn’t slow him down. Worse, it didn’t even knock that creepy snarl off his face. Instead, the damn freak’s mouth opened even wider, exposing an entire mouth of razor-sharp teeth. Shaking in revulsion, she put five more rounds directly through the center of the thing’s chest.
The silk shirt he wore shredded as each bullet hit, yet he still kept coming.
Alyssa emptied the rest of her magazine into the man from less than five feet away, then quickly backpedaled, trying to give herself room to reload, even though she knew it wasn’t going to help. She’d dropped an entire mag in the thing from point-blank range, and it hadn’t even fazed him.
She slammed her second clip home and thumbed the slide release, bringing the weapon up for a head shot when a blur of movement crossed her vision and someone fast and growly kicked the bullet-ridden thing with fangs squarely in the chest, sending him flying a good fifteen feet across the dance floor. Zane had come to her rescue again. He was still all fangs, claws, and animal snarls, but it was him.
Before Alyssa had a chance to sigh in relief, another man in dress slacks and a silk shirt appeared from the darkness and charged forward. Zane slashed the thing across the throat with his claws, causing horrific damage, but the creature barely slowed as the wounds immediately healed, leaving behind little more than dark-red smears.
Alyssa brought up her weapon, intending to shoot the thing in the head, only to freeze when it let out a high-pitch screech. The primitive sound tore through the club, turning her muscles to jelly.
Before she could squeeze the trigger, the thing leaped at Zane. The creature was faster, inflicting five wounds for every one that Zane got in. But Zane was more powerful. When he landed a blow, it was devastating.
But then, without warning, the thing lunged forward, going for Zane’s exposed neck with its sharp teeth.
Zane grunted in pain as he got his left arm up to protect himself, and while Alyssa knew it had hurt him to move his injured arm, that was nothing compared to the howl he let out when the creature’s fangs sank into his forearm.
She held her breath, expecting the monster to go for Zane’s throat again, but instead, it immediately released him, shrieking in pain as it fell to the floor. The skin around its mouth and along its jaw bubbled and hissed, like someone had thrown acid on it.
Alyssa didn’t hesitate this time. Lifting her weapon, she took aim and shot the thing in the head.
The creature paid no attention to the hole in the center of its forehead, but instead frantically wiped at its half-melted face, and Alyssa watched in shock as the bullet wound slowly healed itself.
“You can’t kill vampires that way!” someone shouted from the floor above them. Alyssa snapped her head around to see the woman who’d accosted them earlier on the stairs. “You have to rip out their hearts or tear off their heads!”
Vampires?
Time staggered to a standstill as Alyssa’s mind attempted to process the word she’d just heard. In the past year and half, she’d dealt with dozens of horrible creatures, including several that drank human blood. But none of them had come close to fitting the stereotypical vampire image that Bram Stoker and Hollywood had put into the collective human mind. Hell, most of them hadn’t even looked human. Which was why she’d come to accept that the whole vampire mythology was nothing more than a grain or two of truth mixed in with an overactive imagination.
Apparently, she’d been wrong.
She barely saw Zane move he was so fast. One second, he seemed as stunned as she was, and the next, he was on top of the vampire, right arm around the monster’s head. The vampire let out another one of those screeches as Zane ripped its head off.
All at once, the blaring techno music stopped, and the lights came on. The harsh glow was unexpected and overwhelming, and it took a few moments before Alyssa could see anything at all. When she finally was able, she wasn’t sure she wanted to because it was an image she knew she’d never be able to forget.
Zane stood in front of her, almost unrecognizable in his current form. The muscles of his shoulders, chest, arms, and legs had twisted, somehow becoming larger and thicker than they’d been before. Two-inch-long claws tipped each finger, blood dripping off them onto the floor. She knew he’d killed those vampires to protect her and everyone else in the club. Still, it was difficult not to heave at the evidence of the violence he was capable of.
She lifted her gaze to his face, flinching when she saw that his nose was pushed outward a little, making his features seem more animal-like. His upper and lower jaw were wider, too, and the fangs hanging down over his lower lip had to be as long as her fingers and razor sharp.
But it wasn’t until Alyssa saw his eyes that she finally realized how different Zane had become. They were striking, glowing yellow gold even in the bright light of the club. But the eyes staring at her then didn’t seem to possess any of the humanity she’d seen when they’d glinted earlier while they’d been making love. Those eyes had been filled with hunger and desire. Now, they seemed to be filled with rage and loathing.
Alyssa was vaguely aware of Jake saying the twins were missing, and Rachel and Diego announcing that Stefan, some of his guards, and one of the vampires had gotten away, but she paid no attention. Unable to take the contempt in Zane’s eyes anymore, she looked away. She needed to get some space to think—and breathe.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the woman with the blue hair hurrying down the steps, yelling about never letting werewolves in her club again and that they’d never get the place cleaned up before the police showed.
Werewolves?
Oh God. She’d known Zane was different before tonight but a werewolf?
That’s when Alyssa started to hyperventilate.
* * *
Zane could tell that Alyssa was freaking out, and the urge to comfort her was overwhelming. But all it took was one look at her face for him to realize there was no way she was going to let him get anywhere near her. He’d known she’d find out at some point, but even so, something inside him died then because he realized whatever had been between them was over.
Confusion, anger, disappointment, regret, disgust, revulsion—it seemed like dozens of emotions flitted across her face in those agonizing moments before she turned away from him. It was eerie how closely Alyssa’s expression resembl
ed Sienna’s the night his former fiancée had walked out of his life. It was something Zane never thought he’d have to experience even once in his life. Now, it had happened for the second time. Only this time, it hurt even more. It felt like someone was ripping his guts out with a piece of razor wire.
He wished he could think of something to say to her to get her to understand how incredibly sorry he was for not telling her the truth sooner. But he couldn’t. She might be The One for him, but she was going to walk away from him anyway, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could say or do to stop her. He locked eyes with her for a moment, but as he opened his mouth to say something—anything—that would explain what she’d just seen, Diego ran toward them from one of the side entrances.
“Stefan took the twins. Rachel and that other alpha are still chasing after them, but I knew we’d need help if there are any more of those things outside.” Diego was breathing as hard as if he’d run a marathon, and blood dripped from a dozen lacerations across his chest and arms. “They were heading for the back loading dock when I left to come find you.”
Cursing, Zane threw a quick glance at Alyssa before following his pack mate into the darkened corridors of the club, the stench of those things easy to track. Alyssa wordlessly followed, her heart pounding like a drum. He wished there was time to stop and talk to her, but there simply wasn’t. They couldn’t let Stefan and those vampires get away with Zoe and Chloe. The thought of what those wankers might do to the twins worried the hell out of Zane.
He moved after Diego quickly, zigging and zagging through the club’s twisting passageways and dimly lit storerooms. They ran into a handful of terrified people along the way, crouching behind boxes and hiding in dark corners. He couldn’t imagine what they were thinking after what they’d seen tonight.
Vampires.
He didn’t want to believe the creatures were possible. That was silly, considering he was a werewolf. He was bloody living proof of the existence of the supernatural. But in the end, he couldn’t deny what he’d seen. That thing he’d fought had smelled like a grave, and though it had made a mess when he’d pulled its head off, the lack of blood spray made it obvious the creature wasn’t alive—at least not in the normal sense. He guessed that made it a vampire.
