by Sarra Cannon
“He's hot,” she whispered.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, biting my lip. Yes, he was hot, but he was also mysterious and way out of my league.
“Don’t you dare leave me here by myself,” she said with a nervous laugh.
“I won’t,” I said. She should have known better.
She squeezed my arm and went back to dancing with the guy beside her. I hadn't noticed him before and wondered if he had appeared on the dance floor at the same time the bartender had.
“She’ll be fine,” the bartender said. He was still holding onto my hand. “That guy’s a friend of mine. I told him to keep an eye on her.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he tugged on my hand, pulling me through the crowd. People seemed to part for him with ease, letting us pass. A few of the people smiled, but many of them lowered their gaze as he moved by, stepping back to give him plenty of space.
Who was this guy? I certainly couldn’t just call him the bartender all night. Especially not after he’d had his hands all over me.
I followed him to the edge of the dance floor, past the bar and into the shadows at the back of the room. He finally stopped in a dark corner. Hadn't the girl out front made me promise not to go into any shadowy placed with a stranger?
A shiver traveled down my spine and moved into my stomach, making me feel jittery and unsettled. The alcohol in my system wouldn't let me think clearly. All I could concentrate on was how I felt. And how his hands felt on me.
He finally released my hand, but the warmth of his skin lingered on mine. I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans and leaned against the wall, hoping I looked casual instead of completely and utterly affected by his presence.
“Let me see it,” he said. He had this way of giving orders that made me both angry and aroused.
“See what?”
“The invitation.”
“Oh,” I said. So not what I thought he meant. I reached deeper into my pocket and found the folded piece of red paper.
Before he’d even touched it or read a word of it, his face turned almost pale. I held it out to him, but he hesitated, just staring at the paper as if it were made of thorns.
He drew in a loud breath, then reached out for the red invitation. He unfolded it and stared at it for a second. I knew he was reading the words I’d seen this morning when it had arrived with the mysterious black roses.
Happy Birthday, Little Bird
The address to the club was typed in neat letters at the bottom of the paper.
The bartender crumpled the invitation in his fist, squeezing it down into a small ball. His lips were pressed tight and his shoulders were tensed.
“Where did you get this?”
“Hold on just a second,” I said. “You haven’t even told me who you are or why you care. I’m not going to tell you everything if you aren’t going to talk to me first. You said you’d explain what was going on.”
He stuffed my invitation into his back pocket, then ran a tense hand through his hair. “What do you want to know?”
“Your name would be good for starters,” I said.
“Rend.” His eyes followed someone walking past us, then moved back to my face. Every time his eyes met mine, it sent a warm rush of desire through my body. “Now will you tell me where you got this invitation?”
Rend. An unusual name for a very unusual man.
“What’s going on in this place?” I asked, determined to get some answers while I still had the upper hand. “Why did you say people don’t typically come here on accident? And what was up with that Red Dragon stuff your friend gave us when we first got here? Why did it make me feel good and make my friend feel like crap?”
He raised an eyebrow again. That seemed to be his signature look. “Anything else? You sure you don’t want to ask me a few more questions?”
I didn’t humor him with a response. I just stared at him until he started talking. I didn’t owe him anything, so if he wanted me to talk, he’d better start answering my questions, too.
“You don’t give up, do you?” he asked. “Look. None of those are easy questions to answer. You’ve walked into something here you couldn’t possibly understand, and I’m trying to protect you. You have to believe that.”
“I don’t have to believe anything,” I said. “This whole night has been incredibly strange and not at all what I expected.”
“What you expected? So you did have some idea who might have sent this?”
“No,” I said. “I don't know. Not really. I thought there was some small possibility it might have come from my mother, but then, why would she send me black roses? None of this makes any sense.”
His eyes flashed almost silver in the darkness, which was impossible right? Had I imagined it?
“Black roses?” He ran a hand across his face. “Did you touch them?”
I shrugged. What kind of question was that? “Of course. I put them in a vase with some water.”
His shoulders relaxed.
This conversation was getting stranger with every word. He’d seemed worried about the roses. I’ll admit, black roses are a weird choice, but they were strangely beautiful. Exotic.
“Listen, if you ever get another box of black roses, just throw them in the trash. Don’t even touch them with your bare hands, okay? Promise me.”
“I don’t understand you,” I said, anger growing in my voice. I was sick of people telling me to promise them things when they refused to explain why. “You come out of nowhere and tell me you know someone is watching me. You touch me like you have some kind of claim on me. I can’t wrap my head around it. What do you think I owe you? What is going on? Stop talking in circles and just come out with it. I’m not some stupid little girl who doesn’t know how to take care of herself. I’ve been through shit, okay? I can handle it. Just tell me what you think you know about that invitation and the roses. Tell me who was watching me out there.”
Anger flashed in his eyes again and he gripped both my arms and lifted me off the ground. He moved me into the corner and pushed my back against the wall.
“An attitude like that will get you killed in a place like this,” he said, almost growling. His face was so close to mine, I could feel his breath against my cheek. “I’ve only seen red paper of that quality one time before in my life, and I’m telling you, if the same man who sent that to me also sent this invitation to you this morning, you ought to run as far away from this place as you can.”
He lowered me until my heels touched the ground. Tears stung the corners of my eyes, and I was not the type of girl who cried. Ever. But his outburst had scared me.
He released his grip on my arms and I resisted the urge to rub the spots where his hands had been.
“I’m sorry.” He ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes, taking a moment before he spoke again. “I know you didn’t know what you were getting into by coming here. It’s not your fault, but I really wish you had just thrown that paper away and never walked into this place.”
I wanted to be strong and tell him to leave me alone, but I was frozen to the spot, unable to talk back or argue with him. I had no idea why he was so angry or why he wanted to keep me safe, but I understood now that he honestly believed I was in some kind of danger.
I thought about my mother and how it was exactly three years to the day since she had disappeared from my life. I’d convinced myself that she left of her own will. She’d never been a real mother to me, anyway. I couldn’t remember a single day of my childhood when she wasn’t high or drunk or completely disconnected from life. All she’d ever wanted to do was escape, and the day I turned eighteen and could legally take care of myself, that’s exactly what she had done.
Escaped.
She’d left me alone without even bothering with goodbye.
That was the real reason why those words on the invitation haunted me. Those two words were the real reason I had come.
Little Bird.
Standing there with Rend, I f
inally admitted to myself that in some strange way, I had hoped I would find her here. In some secret, hidden part of my heart, I had hoped those roses were from her and that she would be here, waiting with open arms and ready to apologize for all those years of heartache.
I should have known better. This whole thing was stupid.
“I shouldn’t have come,” I said. I cursed the teary sound of my voice. I was stronger than that, even if this guy didn’t know me well enough to understand what I’d been through. What I’d overcome to get this far.
“No,” he said. “You shouldn’t have. You should go. Get out and forget you ever came here.”
I breathed through the threat of tears, reaching deep down to find the strength I knew I had. I refused to let a single tear hit my cheek.
I looked up into his eyes, no longer feeling weak-kneed. What I felt instead was a mix of anger and regret and disappointment.
Disappointment that the first man who had actually made me feel something was mixed up in something dangerous and untouchable. It wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t I have met someone like him under different circumstances?
But my mother had always told me I had a personality meant for trouble and that I was no good. Maybe that’s why I was so attracted to him. The scent of danger rolled off him like cologne. On one hand, I wished I’d never met him. On the other, I wished I didn’t have to walk away and never see him again.
“Want to get out of my way so I can leave? Or are you planning to hold me prisoner back here in the shadows?” My voice was strong again despite the queasiness in my stomach.
His eyes widened and that secret smile tugged at his lips as he moved to the side.
I held his gaze for a second longer, then walked back toward the crowd on the dance floor.
Chapter 10
Blood-Thirsty
I needed to find Katy and get the hell out of this place.
The dance floor had only become more crowded in the past few minutes. The later it got, the more people poured into the club, even on a Wednesday night.
I found her dancing with the same blond-haired guy as before, and I could tell by the way their bodies were pressed close together that she wasn’t going to be happy about me dragging her away from him. Still, if he was a good friend of Rend's, I was doing her a favor. Hopefully they hadn’t thought to exchange numbers. If we were lucky, we would both be able to walk away and forget this night ever happened.
I had to wade through the sea of people to get to her. They didn’t part for me now that Rend wasn’t leading the way. When I’d almost reached her, a strange sensation pricked at my heart. I stopped cold and looked around.
This was different from earlier when I had felt someone watching me. This was more like a familiar presence. It reached inside my chest and squeezed my heart until it stopped beating.
I looked up just in time to see her long black braid and the shadowed profile of her face.
My mother.
I couldn’t breathe. She was really here. After all this time. It was like seeing a ghost.
All of the heat in my body dissipated and I shivered, clutching my arms close to my chest.
She was with three men I didn’t recognize. They were dressed in long black cloaks even though it was still late summer and warm out.
All I caught was that flash of her before she opened a door and disappeared through it. The men followed her, then closed the door behind them.
I couldn’t move at first. I couldn’t think. Part of me wanted to grab Katy and run away, like Rend had told me to. My mother never cared about me, so why did I even want to see her? It had taken me a long time to get over the heartbreak of her disappearance. Did I really want to relive that?
But another part of me—a stronger part—knew I couldn’t walk away.
I had to follow her. Even if just to get the chance to tell her how much I hated her. How much she had broken me.
I pushed my way through the throng and sprinted for the door.
With both hands, I pushed it open and felt the humid night air wash over me. It led into another back alley. I stepped out and the door slammed shut behind me, the music now muffled and distant.
There were no lights out here and I struggled to see in the darkness. I thought I saw a pair of red eyes turn toward me, then giant black wings rose up into the sky. I fell back in surprise, shielding my face with my hand, and when I looked up again, the bird was flying off overhead. It looked to be a normal size, and I wondered if my eyes had been playing tricks on me.
I caught my breath, then looked again for my mother.
But she wasn’t out there.
Instead, the three men who had followed her were standing side-by-side, their eyes locked on me. Hungry smiles marred their faces.
“Well, well, what have we here?” the tallest one said. He moved one step closer to me.
I reached back and tugged on the door handle to get back inside, but it was locked.
“A juicy little treat,” another one said. There was laughter in his tone. “Perhaps the night is not lost after all.”
The third one, a man with broad shoulders and pale skin, moved toward me so fast, his body was a blur of shadows.
I gasped as he ran a jagged fingernail across my cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned forward to smell my hair. I pulled away, but his hand darted out to grab me. He held on so tightly, I whimpered in pain. That was going to leave a bruise.
“Do you smell that?” he asked. “It’s been a long time since I tasted one so powerful and pure.”
The tall one rubbed his hands together and took a few more steps toward me.
Bile rose into the back of my throat, tasting faintly of cinnamon and scotch.
What did he mean by taste?
I didn’t want to stay here and find out, but there were three of them and only one of me. It didn’t look good, but I wasn’t going down without a fight.
“I don’t know what you guys think you’re doing, but you’d better get your freaking hands off me.”
I lifted my knee and stomped the heel of my shoe down on the guy’s foot as hard as I could. He loosened his grip for a split second, and I wrenched my arm away.
I darted around him and ran toward the lights of the main street, but before I could get more than a few steps, the tall one was in front of me. It was as if he’d just materialized out of thin air.
He made a clicking noise with his tongue. “Bad little witch,” he said. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be or we’ll make this a very unpleasant experience for you.”
“As if you ever had any intention of making it pleasant,” I muttered, clenching my jaw and backing away.
He smiled and my stomach turned.
Two large fangs protruded from his mouth.
I shook my head and stared at those fangs, unable to believe what I was seeing.
Vampires weren't real, yet I could swear that's exactly what I saw standing in front of me. I screamed and turned to run the other way, but it was no use. The three of them had me surrounded now.
And all three of them had fangs.
Suddenly the word taste took on a whole new meaning.
“We’re going to be the strongest demons in this world after this meal,” the pale one said.
He opened his mouth and reached for me. In my panic, I must have summoned up some kind of superhuman strength because I kicked him in the chest so hard, he nearly flew back several feet until his back hit the brick wall behind him.
Shock registered on his face, followed by an insane fury that literally turned his eyes red with hatred.
A hand gripped my shoulder, and I threw my elbow back with all my might, hitting the tall one in the gut. He let go of me and doubled over with a grunt.
I spun around toward the smaller one, my body buzzing with adrenaline.
He blocked my way toward the main street, but I knew I needed to get past him fast before his two friends recovered and came back for vengeance.
I ran toward him, a strange energy gathering in my fist. I reared back and punched him in the face as hard as I could. A horrible crack echoed in the alley and blood splattered through the air. I didn’t even take the time to wonder how the hell I’d been strong enough to do that. I just ran, kicking off my heels as I went.
But it wasn’t enough. Again, the biggest of the three materialized in front of me, this time not bothering to smile or make some snide remark about how tasty I smelled.
Instead, he grabbed the front of my white shirt and twisted, lifting me off the ground so that my bare feet dangled in the air.
I screamed again, terror pumping through my veins. I kicked and scratched, but soon his buddies joined him, holding my arms.
There were no smiles. Just blood-thirsty vengeance.
“You’re going to pay for that, witch.”
The pale one pulled me to him, his fangs shining white as he opened his mouth wide toward my neck.
I closed my eyes.
Chapter 11
Stronger Than She Looks
“Put her down.”
The vampire’s fangs brushed against the bare skin of my neck. I felt the pressure of his bite against my flesh, but he froze at the sound of the voice behind me.
My eyes snapped open as he pulled away. He did not, however, put me down.
I turned my head, but couldn’t see the newcomer. I recognized his voice, though. That rough, deep bass sounded different without the thumping of the music to cover it, but I knew it was Rend.
I wanted to tell him to go back inside. That these guys were too strong. Too dangerous. Too completely unbelievable to be real.
But considering the fact that his presence had just saved my life for the moment, I kept my damned mouth shut.
“I said put her down. Don’t make me ask a third time, or you’ll wish you’d never set eyes on this girl.” He chuckled. “From the looks of it she already put up a good fight on her own.”
I couldn’t see the other two, but my eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to see the pale, broad-shouldered vampire in front of me. He looked pissed, to say the least.
I expected him to tell Rend to get lost, but instead, like some miracle, he opened his fist. I fell to the pavement like some ragdoll. Both of my hands went down on instinct to protect my fall, and I ended up scraping the hell out of both palms and my elbow as I hit. I felt the blood trickle against my skin.
