With a clap of his hands, his demeanor softened, and he turned his attention to Sean. “Welcome to The Red Veil,” he drawled, addressing Sean directly while his eyes swept the alpha’s big frame as if accessing his worth. The man inclined his head in an almost courtly manner, picking up a stack of reservation cards, and tapping them lightly on the desk. “May we take your coats?”
His facial pallor and the map of chalky blue veins ribboning his hands, wrists and throat made it clear he was a vampire. He held out a stark white hand, patiently waiting while Sean gathered everyone’s jackets. “I’m afraid you’re quite early. We weren’t expecting you until midnight.”
Sean ignored Lily’s mental ‘I told you so’, instead pasting a polite smile on his lips. “I’m aware of that… please convey my apologies. As we are unfamiliar with the ebb and flow of the city’s traffic, we didn’t want to risk being late.”
The man didn’t comment, but his smug expression spoke volumes, despite his outward courtesy. He made no pretext that Sean’s excuse was a complete fabrication. The alpha had given the devil his due, as was expected, so it was all good.
The gentleman took the jackets from Sean, and handed them off to the remaining hostess. “Natasha will have your coats ready for you here at the end of your visit. In the meantime, I have been instructed to give you the choice of either waiting at the bar…” he gestured to a sumptuous lounge visible through a set of double doors to the right, “…or you are invited to partake of the V.I.P. activities downstairs. Like Disney, The Red Veil offers our own version of extra magic hours for special guests.” The man’s tone made it clear ‘special’ was a relative term.
The maître d’ stood waiting for an answer, and though he stood quietly, his nostrils flared and his tongue darted from his mouth to lick his lips. Sean felt Lily’s body stiffen in a wave of answering hostility through their shared mind path. He gave her a swift mental knuckle rap, warning her to relax. With a polite smile, he inclined his head toward the man mimicking his courtly style. “I think it’s best if we wait in the bar until summoned.”
The corner of the man’s lips twitched in truculent approval, giving them a swift hint of fang in the process. Now it was Sean’s turn to stiffen. Respect was a two way street. He was the Alpha of the Brethren, the Were equivalent of the vampire’s master, and he refused to be intimidated. It was way too early to play this game, and he certainly wasn’t playing it with a vamp lackey.
“Please tell your masters, that while I understand having to wait, due to our early arrival, as Alpha of the Brethren, I do not expect to be kept waiting past our agreed upon time.” Sean made sure his underlying censure was heard and understood, before turning on his heel and walking across the shiny marble floor toward the bar.
***
“Don’t just stand there like an idiot, Jack, follow him.” Lily’s voice was insistent as it floated across the common Were thread. For some reason, the younger wolf was bolted to the floor, and it took everything she had not to whack him upside the head. “Sean’s halfway to the bar, what’s the matter with you? Show of solidarity and governance, remember?”
With a quiet exhale, she brushed past Jack giving him a subtle elbow, finally waking him up.
“What the hell was that? Did the maître d’ glamor you or something?” she murmured under her breath, when they were far enough away from prying ears. Not that the vamp couldn’t hear them from the other side of the street, let alone the other side of the room.
The corners of Jack’s mouth pulled down, and he glanced back over his shoulder as they walked toward the bar. “No. Forget it.”
“Jack, we just got here. If you’re going to freeze up, maybe you’d better take off now before things get, well, however they may get.”
He grabbed her arm pulling her to a standstill, the differences in their height and body size making the move nothing short of intimidating. “Don’t forget whose bitch you are. You might be able to pull that crap with Sean, but not with me.” His tone was clipped and ugly, but now was neither the time nor the place to make a big deal out of it, and Lily just shot him a warning look.
With a quiet sigh, he glanced up at the ceiling, and when his eyes met hers again, they were softer. “Look, joking around is one thing, but you forget I’m a full Were, and I’m a hunter. If I pause because I sense something, don’t interrupt me, and never assume I hesitate out of fear.”
A wash of guilt sent heat flooding into her cheeks. He was right. She shouldn’t have assumed. Lily put her hands on her hips, careful to keep her voice low. “Did you sense something?”
“Perhaps.”
She exhaled, her eyes taking in his face and eyes. He was being evasive again, but she wasn’t going to push the issue. “Something disturbed you back there, and it wasn’t just my mouth. I can feel it. If you don’t want to tell me, fine, but I think you’d better tell Sean.”
His mouth puckered. “I plan to, when I have more to tell him. In the meantime, remember what I said.” Jack pushed past her, and walked into the bar.
She trailed in after, skimming the room for Sean. The place was photo-shoot worthy, with its intimate booths and polished pub tables. Club chairs were situated in groups of two beneath the tall windows, the paned glass draped in translucent veils of varying shades of crimson. Flocking damask in the same cerise hues covered the chairs, their patterns harkening back more than a century, like the heavy dark woods and rich accents throughout the place.
Lily slid into the booth at the farthest back corner beside Sean, while Jack chose to belly up to the bar.
“Everything okay?” Sean asked, cocking his head suspiciously.
She nodded her answer, not trusting herself to open her mouth. Jack said he would tell Sean when he had more to say, and she’d take him at his word.
“You sure?”
She nodded again, drawing in a quick breath through her nose. “Yeah, I’m good. You know how I get when I have to wait.” She flashed him a quick smile, hoping it would be enough for him not to press the issue.
Sean picked up one of the menus from the table. “Hmmm,” he murmured, glancing at the specialty drinks on the cover. “You do know this is all about finesse and diplomacy, right?” He eyed her over the top this is all about finesse and diplomacy, right?” He eyed her over the top of the laminated cardboard.
She nodded.
“Good. Just because I put the vamp behind the desk in his place doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to do the same.” He eyed her knowingly. “If the maître d’s elders learned of his blatant disrespect, he’d be...”
“…a very sorry vampire?” Lily interrupted.
Sean shook his head. “No. He’d be a very dead vampire. Jack was right when he said vamps are all about respect for hierarchy and protocol. The maître d’ needed to be reminded of that, and just the same way an apology was expected over us being early, a wrist slap was necessary to let him know I mean business. If I hadn’t done so, it would have been viewed as a weakness—in their eyes, anyway.”
Jack came back from the bar with three coronas and dish of sliced limes. “I figured we’d stick with what we started with earlier.”
Sean nodded. “One beer each acknowledges their hospitality, but any more compromises us in more than just the obvious way.”
The three of them clinked bottles then settled in to wait. The bar itself was packed four people deep, but there were still a few tables left open. A young waitress approached, carrying a half liter wine bottle and two long stemmed glasses on her tray. “I’ll be with you in a sec,” she said, as she passed to place the wine on the table next to theirs. Pad in hand, she turned on her heel, placing a bowl of fancy vegetable chips on their table along with a few napkins. “Are you guys all set, or can I get you something else from the bar?”
“We’re good for now, thanks,” Sean replied with a smile.
She nodded once. “Great. Just give me a shout if you want anything.” With a tip-worthy smile plastered on her face, she
turned to head toward the bar.
A couple in their mid-twenties had just sat down at one of the high-top pub tables not far from their booth. The woman was a stunning brunette, with long silky hair swept back off her face and fastened with a glittering clip at the nape of her neck. Her black dress barely whispered across the top of her thighs and plunged to her navel at both the front and the back, leaving almost nothing to the imagination.
Her escort was what New York fashion magazines would call a metrosexual, a man with taste and chic style, who knows about fashion, art and culture. They were a typical A-list wannabe couple, as alien as two people could be, to the two Weres sitting at the booth with Lily.
The woman struck a pose, crossing her long bare legs. Jack eyes were glued to her, his beer poised halfway to his lips.
“Wipe your mouth, Jack.” Lily said, tapping the corner of her own. “You’ve got a little doggie drool going on there.”
Sean smirked, taking a sip from his corona, the little slice of lime bobbing up and down in the amber liquid as he tilted the bottle up to his mouth. “Can’t say as I blame him.”
“Ha. And I’ll lay dollars to donut she knows it too,” Lily added, taking a purple chip from the bowl at the center of the table.
Jack wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, glancing once more at the woman. “What can I say; it’s been a long, dry week.” He tipped his bottle back, giving Lily a wink. All was forgiven between them, and she blew him a kiss.
Lily munched on what she could only guess was a taro chip. Not that she knew one vegetable from the next in this mix, but they had a salty crunch and were perfect with the beer. Condensation dripped down either side of her hand as she took a sip from her bottle, her thumb absently running up and down the blue and gold label.
Her hand was cold and wet, but an odd sensation crawled up her arm and settled in a weedy tingle at the back of her neck. She reached behind to rub at the spot, twisting her head back and forth, but it only worsened. Dull needles and pins pricked her skin, sending numb fingers stabbing across the base of her skull.
“What’s the matter?” Sean asked, watching her oddly.
“I don’t know. Just a weird feeling at the back of my neck.”
“Weird how? Like a pinched nerve?” Sean slid in closer, but Lily dropped her head backwards and arched her back as the prickling turned into a stabbing sensation. In her mind she heard someone chuckle, and then the feeling stopped.
“The wolf can’t protect you forever…”
Lily head snapped up, and she froze.
“You sought your revenge, now I wait for mine.”
A new wave of angry thought tore through her and she clenched her teeth, jamming her fingers into her temples. “Get out of my head!” she hissed low and fierce.
Grabbing her shoulders, Sean turned her around to face him. Without warning or permission he merged his mind with hers, and she whimpered at the assaultive sensation. “Who are you and what do you want?” His defensive presence snarled with menace along their breached mind path, but the voice just laughed.
“Be warned, wolf. Not all is as it seems, and I am waiting…”
At the oily feel of the voice in his own head, Sean’s eyes turned from blue to yellow and a savage snarl escaped his throat, turning heads in the bar.
Jack slipped around the table to flank Lily’s other side while he scanned the room, staring down the prying eyes.
Lily slumped forward, dropping her forehead into her hands. The voice and its evil chuckle faded, along with all trace of whoever it belonged to. Sean skimmed his hand across the center of her back, gently massaging the space between her shoulder blades.
“Can you tell me what the hell just happened? One minute she’s eating a chip; next she looks like the chick from the exorcist,” Jack said out of the side of his mouth, while staring at people to mind their own business.
“Someone or something just invaded Lily’s mind. It threatened her. And me,” Sean answered, not taking his eyes or his hand from Lily.
Jack dropped back down into his seat across from them, and grabbed his beer, taking a long pull. “Jesus. Any idea who? What did they say, exactly?”
Lily took a ragged breath, leaning up on her elbows. “They said the wolves couldn’t protect me, and that they wanted revenge.”
“Revenge? For what?”
She pressed her fingers to her temples and rubbed in a gentle circular motion. “I don’t know. All I do know is that it wasn’t human. Terry warned me about my practice runs; maybe whoever it was wanted retribution for someone I killed last fall.” She sat up, her gaze and her hands dropping to her lap. “It’s not like I’ve been keeping my presence here on the down low.”
Sean shook his head. “No. Whoever it was knows about us,” he said, gesturing to himself and Jack. “They know you’re under my protection, and that means this could be another of Parr’s tactics.”
She looked up, her eyes rising to meet Sean’s. “Could he be tracking us?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him. He’d never soil his own hands doing the work himself, but he’s certainly convinced enough Weres to follow him that anything’s possible. Plus, he’s skilled enough to cloak himself telepathically.”
“You said Parr was backing off. Why would he risk something so outright?” Jack asked, distractedly rolling the base of his bottle between his palms.
“Because it wasn’t outright. Parr could deny it, claiming it could be anyone connected to the trail of bodies Lily left in her wake before she even got to the compound.”
Lily made a face. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a trail, and each one was popped while attacking a human.”
Sean slid his hand the rest of the way around her shoulders. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter. Still, whoever this is, made a huge miscalculation and all we need to do is tighten the hold. He thinks his threats will panic us, but all he’s done is put us on alert and ruined his chances at a surprise attack.”
“Gee thanks, that’s a comforting thought,” she hmmphed. “Like we don’t have enough to worry about already.”
Jack didn’t interject. Instead, the younger wolf’s nostrils flared, and he jerked his head to the side, his gaze tracking across to the man sitting at the high-top table with the brunette. She was practically in his lap, and he had one hand shoved up her skirt and the other curved around her waist.
“You’re bordering on stalker, Jack. Leave them be.” She was still shaken, and his adolescent attention span only served to irritate her more.
Jack waved her off, his eyes riveted as the man’s tongue licked the brunette’s throat from her cleavage straight up to the base of her ear. The woman moaned, and as she did, he sank a pair of small, razor sharp fangs into her jugular, his hand sliding up from her waist to unclip her hair. It fell forward in a curtain of brown silk, obscuring his activities from prying eyes.
“No fucking way!” Jack’s words were no more than a breath, but their harsh undertone matched the look on his face. “This place is just about as fucked up as it can get.”
“What?” Sean asked, his body language broadcasting his alert level at DEFCON 1.
“Them.” Jack jerked his head toward the couple. “The Dapper Fanger and his happy meal.”
Both Lily and Sean turned, but there was nothing to see, that is, until the vampire pushed the girl’s hair back off her shoulder, giving them a close up view of his blood-stained teeth piercing her exposed flesh.
Sean’s grip on Lily’s shoulders tightened, and a low growl rumbled from the back of his throat.
With an arrogant sneer the vampire released the woman scraping his finger across his lips and licking it clean, before doing the same to her throat. The woman’s eyes seemed almost drugged as she glanced across her shoulder at them. “Don’t knock it till you try it.” Her words and her body were no more than a languid murmur as she slid off the barstool into the vampire’s waiting arms. The woman practically purred as the two walked past on their way to th
e door.
“Ugh. This whole evening… Don’t vampires fear anything? I mean, jeez, this is a public place,” Lily grimaced. “If they’re supposed to be all about respect, then don’t they have rules about indecent exposure or something? But I suppose consensual feeding doesn’t count, huh?”
Sean’s shoulders rose and fell. “Respect is a big deal to them, or at least it is to their elders. Perhaps the undead are going through their own version of a civil war regarding tradition and law.”
“Okay, so rogue vamps and rule breakers aside, what about natural enemies? Don’t all creatures have competitors?”
Jack huffed. “I can tell you what they fear. A sharp stake and high noon,” he said, peeling bits of label from his bottle of corona. “Those little numbers you have hidden in your kitchen drawer would make any one of them shit their pants. That is, if they could take a shit.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, Jack. Everything on this earth has a natural enemy. It doesn’t make sense for them not to, as well. There has to be some other species that pits against them to maintain checks and balances. Or are they completely outside the natural order?”
Sean nodded but didn’t elaborate.
Her brows knit together as she ran the possibilities, despite the hedgy look on Sean’s face. It wasn’t that he was hiding anything. She knew, without a doubt, whenever that was the case. This had to be something extraordinary for him to doubt her skills.
“Okay…give. Either you nodded because I’m right, or you don’t have a clue either. I think I’m right, but nothing I can think of fits the bill, so it must be something I’m unaware of.”
Both perplexed and annoyed, Lily let out a sharp breath, but Sean’s gaze said he got no satisfaction in stumping her this time. The answer to her question was no laughing matter, and one he clearly didn’t relish talking about.
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