The Darkening (Immortals)

by Robin T. Popp

Lexi actually felt a stab of disappointment that there was no greater significance for why she was the one he’d appeared to, but before she could respond, a fight broke out across the bar between several male vampires. The crowd cleared from around them, like ripples in the water’s surface after a stone has been dropped into a still pond.

  The four vampires squared off, fangs bared and eyes glowing with an unnatural light. As if by unspoken command, they rushed each other at once, and it wasn’t long before Lexi caught the faint odor of blood in the air.

  “You should leave,” Darius said abruptly. “It’s not safe for you here.”

  Lexi had never been one to take orders, especially from those who thought to protect her. “I’m not ready to leave. I came here to have a good time, and I’m not leaving until I do.”

  Darius looked across the room at the dance floor, where the music still played and couples, oblivious to the fight, danced on. “Fine.” He grabbed her hand firmly and pulled her into the crowd.

  The colored lights gleamed off the sweaty bodies of the people pressing against them, pressing them together. Determined to ignore Darius and his chauvinistic attitude, Lexi let the throbbing music wash over her. She closed her eyes, raised her arms above her head and surrendered herself to the primal beat.

  Then she felt his hand on her waist, felt it fan up over her ribs until his knuckles lightly skimmed the underside of her breast.

  “You are incredible,” he whispered. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen.” The briefest touch of his tongue on the shell of her ear made her body pulse in a way that had nothing to do with the music.

  She tried to put a little space between them, but he refused to allow it, molding his body against hers so close that she could feel the hardness of his erection through his leather pants and the thin Lycra of her dress.

  The room was suddenly too crowded and her emotions too raw. Pulling away, she melded into the crowd without a word. She didn’t even bother looking for Mai. They rarely left clubs together.

  Compared to the stuffy warmth inside, the fresh night air was cool and refreshing. It went a long way toward soothing her emotions, but did little to help ease the ache inside her. There was only one cure for that, and she’d walked out on it. So she opted for the next best thing.

  A short cab ride later, she walked into Ricco’s bar, made her way to the back rooms and found the party hostess.

  “Hi, Lexi,” the woman said. “I’ll see if he’s in.” She knew perfectly well Lexi only showed up when she needed to see Ricco.

  Of course Ricco was in—though he was currently occupied with someone else. Lexi didn’t care. When he was finished with his current client, he’d still be able to see to her needs. One of the nice things about vampires—they could literally go all night. They also couldn’t contract or spread sexually transmitted diseases. Nor could Ricco ever get her pregnant. And when she’d had enough, she could walk out and not call or see him until she needed to again—in four weeks. In her book, that made him the perfect partner.

  Lexi pointed into the outer room. “I’ll wait in the lounge.”

  The hostess nodded. “I’ll send someone for you when he’s ready.”

  “Thanks.” Lexi walked off. If this had been any other night, she might have gone home. She didn’t like waiting and she was tired, but that damn Immortal had her wound so tight, she wanted to scream.

  Walking into the small lounge, she looked around. There was a couch running along the wall where a number of others were sitting. This area wasn’t part of the rest of the bar; it was specifically for people waiting for a back room.

  She was searching for a place to sit when she heard a familiar voice. “Hello, Lexi—how are you?”

  “Derrick.” She nodded to her brother-in-law, who was sitting on the couch. “What are you doing here?” When he didn’t immediately answer, she realized how stupid the question was. “Sorry,” she continued. “It’s none of my business anyway.”

  He made room for her to join him and she sat, feeling very uncomfortable. She’d only seen him a handful of times since her sister’s funeral, and it occurred to her how difficult it must be for him to even be near her. She and her sister had been identical twins. Every time he looked at her, he had to see the wife he’d killed.

  She shifted on the seat, unconsciously moving farther away from him. She hadn’t meant for him to notice, but he did—she heard him sigh.

  “When are you going to stop blaming me for what happened?” he asked under his breath. “If I’d been in a position to stop her, I would have. Bev was the most important person in my life.”

  Lexi heard the heartache and bitterness in his voice and vowed—again—to never fall in love.

  A year ago, Derrick had been in a horrible car accident. He’d sustained considerable internal injuries, including the loss of both kidneys. Neither magic nor modern medicine could repair them, but they could be replaced. A new experimental procedure developed by a foreign wizard made it possible to modify the genetic makeup of any donor organ to make it compatible with the recipient. Time was of the essence, so to save Derrick’s life, Lexi’s sister, Bev, had insisted they give the experimental procedure a try—using herself as the donor.

  The surgery had gone well, until the end. One of Bev’s kidneys had been removed and successfully transplanted into Derrick. He had been wheeled into the recovery room when Bev started having problems. Her heart started failing before the doctors and nurses could even figure out what was happening.

  An autopsy revealed that traces of silver had flecked off the magically enhanced surgical instruments and entered her bloodstream. From there, they had lodged in her heart—her half-lupine heart. It couldn’t have killed her any more effectively had they shot her with a silver bullet.

  What made the whole thing worse for Lexi was finding out that her sister had been aware of the risks prior to going into the surgery. The doctor had pointed them out to her. Bev had ignored them and insisted on proceeding to save her husband’s life. By the time Derrick had regained consciousness enough to understand what was happening, his wife was dead.

  Lexi couldn’t understand the kind of emotion that had driven her sister to make the decision she had—to be willing to risk her life. If Bev had stopped to think about it logically, Lexi knew her sister would have made a different decision. She might have even found a way to save her husband without risking her own life. But now they’d never know.

  Lexi never wanted to be so in love that she’d be willing to die for someone else; she didn’t want her emotions to have that much control over her.

  It was one of the reasons why she came to Ricco for her monthly sex fix. She was in no fear of losing her heart to him.

  However, when she looked into the future, she saw a long progression of sexually satisfying but emotionally empty nights ahead of her. It was more than a little depressing.

  “I can’t do this,” she muttered to herself, standing up. “Good night, Derrick.” She walked out of the lounge and out of the club, not stopping until she got home.

  Darius looked around, wishing Lexi hadn’t left the bar the way she had. It had been over an hour, and his body still burned with the need to possess her. He tried to convince himself that it was a natural male reaction to a female in heat. A female werewolf in heat. That alone should have been enough to keep him away from her, but it only intrigued him more.

  He looked about the room, finding it curious how the vampires barely seemed to notice him. Considering that drinking Immortal blood vastly increased their strength, he would have thought the minute he stepped into the room, they’d be all over him. Instead, it was like his aura was no different from anyone else’s. Like he wasn’t an Immortal.

  It was yet another mystery waiting to be solved—but not tonight.

  “Are you looking for someone in particular?” a sultry female voice asked beside him. “Or just looking for someone?”

  He looked down into the face of a petite woman with spiky neon
-pink hair. Darius was having a hard time reading her magical aura and thought she looked enough like a pixie to be one. A very attractive pixie, at that.

  As much as he wanted Lexi, he wasn’t going to chase her down and beg. He smiled at the woman in front of him. “I was looking for you,” he said, purposely letting his gaze run over her appreciatively. “Would you like to dance?”

  She stepped closer and laid a hand against his chest. “I was thinking we could skip the preliminaries and find a nice private room in the back.”

  He cocked his head to one side and gave her a knowing smile. “By all means—lead the way.”

  She gave a delicate little laugh and, taking his hand in hers, led him through the crowd to the back of the club. He followed her through a bright red door. On the other side was a long hallway lined with doors—some closed, some open. The pixie stopped at the first available room and, giving him a seductive smile, stepped inside. Darius followed somewhat cautiously, glancing back when he heard the red door to the bar open. He watched a couple walk through, but they didn’t spare him a second glance as they moved directly into an open room and closed the door.

  He turned back to follow the pixie and found her waiting inside the room, her eyes alight with desire. It fueled his own eagerness.

  “I’m Daphne,” she said, moving toward him with a seductive swaying of her hips.

  “Darius,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist when she was near enough for him to pull her close. He kissed her, but it wasn’t as exhilarating as kissing Lexi. He tried not to think about it.

  “I love these tattoos,” she said, tracing the outlines of several, sending shivers across his skin. She slipped her hands across his shoulders, easing off his duster. He needed no further urging and quickly undressed.

  By the time Darius was naked, he looked up and saw that she’d already slipped out of her clothes. For a full second, Darius stood in stunned silence. It had been so long since he’d laid eyes on a nude female form that, for a minute, all he wanted to do was drink in the sight of her.

  The young pixie, however, had different ideas. When she pressed her supple body against his, Darius lost all capacity for rational thought. The next several minutes were spent in a tangle of limbs until Darius, barely able to control himself, picked her up and carried her to the only piece of furniture in the room—a bed.

  As soon as he laid her down, she opened her legs and pulled him to her. He entered her in a single thrust, nearly groaning aloud from the sheer pleasure of being buried deep inside her.

  “You feel so good,” she sighed, running her hands over his chest. Then she trailed her fingers through his hair, and he closed his eyes, tipping his head back, enjoying the feel of it.

  The first prickle of power almost went undetected. It started at the tip of her fingers where they touched his head, and spread slowly down through the rest of his body until every nerve tingled as if on fire. A ringing started in his ears, and he was vaguely aware of the woman talking, though he felt no compulsion to listen.

  Pain and pleasure rode him—just as he rode the woman beneath him. As his climax drew closer, the ringing in his head grew worse and his heart started racing faster than his exertions warranted. So much so that he thought it might burst from his chest.

  His climax was nearly upon him when he finally recognized what was wrong.

  He knew he should break contact, but even as he tried to find the strength to do it, she tightened the muscles sheathing his member. His orgasm ripped through him, tearing a roar from his very depths. A thousand tiny bright lights burst in his head.

  And then everything went blank.

  In the wee hours of the morning, well before dawn, Daphne began her journey through the tunnels beneath the Crypt. The evening had been a surprising success.

  She thought back to the tattooed man full of untapped energy and smiled. He’d been oh, so talented in bed. If she’d been human, there would have been no keeping up with him. Fortunately, that hadn’t been a problem, and the experience had been rewarding in more ways than one. Glancing at her hand, she saw the way it glowed, lit from within by the living magic she’d siphoned off the man.

  Amadja would be pleased. Perhaps there would be even more sex in it for her. The thought carried her through the remaining tunnels to the set of heavy double doors at the other end.

  Upon her approach, two vampire sentries opened the doors and she went inside to where the great demon lord sat on his throne. He was impeccably dressed all in black. It drew attention to his golden eyes and ebony hair, perfectly combed back. Daphne found Amadja sinfully handsome, but she couldn’t help a little frown at the sight of Tain, who sat sullen and preoccupied beside the demon. It wasn’t that the redhead was ugly, for he was, in fact, very good-looking. But Tain was an Immortal and not to be trusted.

  As she approached the throne, she glanced to the side at the large collection pool set into the floor. It was filled with a brilliant opalescent substance that was neither liquid nor gas. Living magic.

  The pool dimensions were six-foot-by-ten-foot, and it was nearly half full of the shimmering stuff. She had been collecting it over the past several months—at Amadja’s request. It was hard work, not that she’d thought to refuse. She owed him her life. It seemed an eternity ago that the Mother Goddess had locked her away in a little-known dimension. If Amadja hadn’t found her and set her free, she’d be there still—not alive, but unable to die.

  “Hello, love,” she purred as she stepped carefully onto the dais on which the throne sat. She made sure the slit in her long skirt fell open, revealing her shapely bare leg. She saw Amadja’s gaze drop and knew she’d caught his attention. “I have something special for you tonight.”

  She trailed her hand lightly up his arm until he noticed the glow of her skin and snatched up her hand to examine it.

  “What’s this?” Awe filled his voice as he looked up into her face.

  “I thought you’d like it.” She pulled her hand from his grasp and crossed to the collection pool, moving her hips in deliberate invitation. When she reached the edge of the pool, she dragged her fingers down the length of her arm, letting the magic collect around her fingertips like cotton candy. When she had a handful, she held her hand over the pool and let the magic slide off.

  She repeated this over and over, alternating arms. Her usual yield was four or five scrapings. By her eighth, Amadja rose from his throne and came to her. She flushed with pleasure under his scrutiny.

  “What manner of creature did you take this magic from?” Amadja demanded.

  “I don’t know, exactly,” she admitted. “At first, I thought he was human, but when I felt his energy, I knew he couldn’t be. Then I thought…” She let the words die because what she’d thought still didn’t make sense.

  “Did you kill him?”

  Daphne gave the demon lord a sharp look. “Of course not. Do you think I would destroy my best source of magic? He passed out after we finished, so I left him to sleep it off. When he wakes, he’s going to be so high on life, he’ll be back for more.”

  She dragged her hand down her arm again for another scraping and was about to let the magic slip into the pool when a hand grabbed her arm from behind. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled when she realized it was Tain. She shivered as he ran his hand along her arm. Everyone knew Tain was insane. She had no idea what he’d do to her.

  But he merely rubbed the magic between his fingers. Immediately the substance seeped into his skin, giving his complexion a healthy glow. Even the wild light in his eyes seemed to calm. It was as if he’d been lit with an inner vitality and strength.

  “It can’t be,” he muttered to himself before addressing her. “Describe the man.”

  She glared at him. Despite her fear, she had no intention of taking orders from him.

  “Lilith, please,” Amadja said in his velvety smooth voice. “This is important.”

  She turned to him, hating the way his voice made her want to
do as he asked. “It’s not Lilith anymore,” she said defiantly. “It’s Daphne.” Lilith was the name she used before she’d been imprisoned, and she needed no more reminders of that time.

  “Daphne,” he corrected. “Please describe the man.”

  She spoke to Amadja, but it was Tain who reacted. “Darius.”

  She quickly turned to him, surprised. “Do you know him?”

  “He’s my brother.”

  Daphne felt her jaw fall open and quickly closed it. “An Immortal. I saw the pentacle tattoo on the back of his neck, but even with all the living magic, he didn’t feel as strong as an Immortal.”

  “Are you sure, Tain?” Amadja asked, clearly concerned.

  “Positive,” the Immortal said, rubbing his fingers together again as if he still felt the magic there. “I recognize his essence. If he’s here, the others could be here as well.”

  Amadja clenched his hands into fists, clearly not pleased. “Impossible. We stopped that spell.”

  Tain looked nonplussed. “Obviously not.”

  Amadja heaved a sigh. “We’ll have to step up our plans, unless…” He turned to Daphne. “Did you say you left Darius sleeping in one of the back rooms at the club?”

  She nodded.

  “Take us to him.” He turned to Tain. “Maybe we can take care of him here and now.”

  Confused, but unwilling to ask for explanations, Daphne led the men back down the tunnels and to the room where she had left Darius.

  “He was here,” she exclaimed when she found the room empty. “There’s no way he could have slept it off that quickly.”

  “He could if he was an Immortal,” Tain said. He didn’t seem surprised that his brother was gone.

  Amadja sighed. “It doesn’t matter. If he suspects we’re here, he’ll be back, and we’ll deal with him then.” He glanced at Daphne. “Do you think you can handle that, pet?”

  She gave Amadja her most seductive smile. “You know I can.”

  Amadja’s soft chuckle filled the room as he came to her and pulled her into his arms. “Tain, leave us,” he ordered, his attention fixed on Daphne’s face.