by Hazel Gower
She must have drifted off as she woke to Savron carrying her. “Hey. What time is it?”
“Late. Sorry, gorgeous. I had a situation.” He placed her on the bed and as he caught the light of the bathroom she gasped.
“What the hell happened?” She touched the scratch marks on his face.
“Let’s just say that there were more vampires than we thought.”
“Vampires? As in ‘I’m going to suck your blood’ vampires.”
Savron chuckled at her lame attempt at Dracula’s voice.
“Yes, vampires, and not the sparkly we’ll-love-you-forever ones.”
Sasha’s sat up and hugged her legs to her chest. “Holy shit, what else exists?”
Savron sighed loudly as he got in bed next to her. “I can’t put off telling you anymore.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Well you know about leprechauns, and now vampires, but there are a couple of other nasty things out there. Trolls, giants, and what we call boogie-men. Trolls are much like the myth. They feel a bridge or a busy gateway is theirs, and if you don’t get their riddles or pay their toll you die. Giants are destructive creatures. Not only are they huge, but they have a—I guess you would call it a sonic boom that topples buildings and structures.”
Sasha stared at him, shocked at what she was hearing. He reached over and pulled her to cuddle him. Savron’s arms came around her, and he stroked her back.
“Vampires, they suck the life out of you. It’s how they stay alive. When they take your blood they absorb years of your life, and, yes, they hate the sun. Lastly there are the boogie-men.” He shuddered against her. “If you ever find a man or woman who is breathtakingly beautiful back away slowly and get away from them. Boogie-men or women, I think are the worst. They can control your mind and get you to do terrible things. They also have the same powers as vampires by taking your life, but unlike vampires they can keep you alive for years and are not killed by or scared of the sun. They’re also conniving and get the other creatures to work together and trap and kill shifters. Some humans call them demons, but I know some decent demons, and I wouldn’t insult them like that.”
Wow. What was she supposed to say after what she’d just been told? “What do you mean you know some demons?”
She felt his shoulders move up and down. “I and most shifters feel they are misjudged. I would call a demon a sin-eater. They take away your sins.” He rubbed his hands up and down her back.
Sasha’s brain felt like it was about to explode. She also felt guilty as she hadn’t asked about any others creatures sooner. She’d been too scared after learning about the leprechauns.
She didn’t know how long she sat in his arms trying to process the information. One minute her eyes were wide open, and the next thing she knew she was being kissed and told by Savron to get up for school.
Getting out of bed she got in the shower in a daze. She was really finding it hard to come to terms with what she’d learned last night.
The shower door opened as she put her vanilla shower body wash in her hands and lathered herself up. Savron’s arms came around her pressing her back against his hard chest.
“Why don’t you have the day off today? You learned about some pretty heavy stuff. I’ll join you. We can lie in bed, and you can ask me anything you want.”
Sasha leaned back against Savron and closed her eyes as he rubbed the body wash into her skin. There was nothing more she wanted to do than stay home with Savron and find out more, but she had to go to school. “I can’t miss any school. I have an assignment I need to have done by Friday, two days away, and I need to have at least half of a book read for English. Then next week I’m going to be even busier. I have a big dancing competition on the weekend, so I’ll be practicing every night for at least an hour. I’ll have Friday off for a rest and good night’s sleep. I also help out the drama club to get ready for their Sleeping Beauty production and normal homework on top of all that.”
She sighed and moved more under the spray rinsing the body wash off. Sasha got out of the shower leaving Savron to finish cleaning himself.
Going to the bedroom she put her uniform on with thick tights, as it was starting to get cooler, and knee high black boots. Glancing at the clock she yelled, “Why didn’t you wake me earlier? I don’t have even enough time to do my hair and I’ll have to do my make-up in the car.”
She heard the shower turn off, and Savron come out toweling himself dry. Crap, even stressed at everything she’d learned and had going on, the sight of Savron’s body turned her on instantly. Sasha watched as a water droplet fell from his hair to his shoulder and slowly slid down his chest and over his magnificent abs.
“You’re going to be a lot later if you keep looking at me like that,” Savron growled.
Licking her suddenly dry lips she tore her eyes from his body and looked up into his golden gaze. “Um, let’s go. I mean get dressed and we’ll go. I’ll do what I can in the car.”
She groaned when he didn’t listen to her and went to her pulling her to him. Savron undid her messy bun and backed her to the bed where she fell back onto it.
Savron’s body came over hers. “I think you can be late,” he murmured against her lips before they pressed to hers, and he kissed her. His hands eased under her shirt, and she heard the buttons on her jacket pop.
Moaning, she pushed at Savron’s chest. “I wish I had time to do this, but I have to go to school.”
His chest rumbled, and he got off her. “Fine. I’m taking tonight off, so I intend to finish what we started then.”
Sitting up she took her jacket off and got up and went and put a new one on. “I look forward to it.” She smiled as she realized she did.
****
Savron was pissed off. He was supposed to have had a couple of night off, but each time he’d dropped Sasha off at dance practice something had happened and he’d gotten called in. The only thing that’d stopped him from going crazy was that when he got home he got to see his mate even if she was asleep.
He was going crazy missing her. With her schedule and his work he barely saw her, and he felt bad most nights for only spending dinner and watching TV for an hour or so before he left for work.
Tonight he’d picked her up from dance practice, and they now sat in his office at The Edge, the biggest night club and most successful one his family owned. Sasha sat on the sofa in his office as he went through ledgers and invoices from suppliers before he went out hunting.
“So this is the club you exclusively manage?”
Savron looked around at his office at the cream room with the red feature wall and a side devoted to his books and one to diplomas and art. His desk had a laptop and papers scattered over it, and a picture of his family sat in the corner. “Yes. This is the one I spend most of my time at. It’s the biggest with the different themed rooms and so on.”
“Come show me the club.”
Sasha grabbed his hand and tried to pull him up. Savron looked at his watch. Ten-thirty. It was only early, and there wouldn’t be much of a crowd yet as they’d only opened at eight, but Sasha was only eighteen. He knew she had a fake ID and that she’d been in night clubs before, but it was different as The Edge was his. Savron liked to think he was strict on his age policy, that his bouncers were good at spotting the difference and with all being shifters they could smell a lie.
He didn’t want to get caught with someone underage in his club. It was bad enough he’d snuck her into his office because she was too young. Crap, he had three years here in America until she could drink or legally come into his club or any of his family’s clubs. What the hell was fate thinking?
“Don’t worry about it, Savron. I forget that it’s twenty-one in America.” Sasha interrupted his thoughts.
Sasha let go of his hand, walked to her bag and got her phone out. She ignored him as he got up and went to her. Sasha typed a message into her phone, put the phone back in her bag, and sat on the sofa against the feature wall.
Sasha wa
s angry with him. It was like she knew his thoughts. Her arms were crossed over her chest. Her back was straight, and her mouth was in a thin straight line and her eyebrows furrowed.
Savron sat next to Sasha and reached for her to pull her onto his lap. She pushed at him.
“No. Go finish your work. I’m fine sitting right here.”
Savron didn’t believe her, and she moved away from as he reached for her again. He gave up after a couple of minutes and sat next to her, just watching and waiting for her to say something.
After minutes passed and she still sat rigid, he growled, “You’re angry with me?”
She let out a loud drawn out sigh. “No, Savron. I’ve been sitting here for almost an hour and a half now watching you work. You’ve been saying since we got here that you’re almost done and we will go in a minute. I have work I could be doing. If I knew I’d be sitting here this long doing nothing I would have brought it with me.”
Sasha closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the sofa. “I know you have to work. I’m fine with that. Truly I am.” She opened her eyes and straightened her shoulders. “I also know you want to spend time with me, but the thing is I like spending time with you but not here like this.” Her phone beeped, and she stood. “Look, work tonight. Get everything done, and I’ll go out with my friends.”
Sasha kissed him on the cheek and walked to the door. “Travis, Jess, and Zeck are here. I’ll see you when you get home.” She opened the door and walked out.
He did not understand what had just happened. Had they just had their first fight, or was Sasha just unhappy and wanted different company? Had he done something wrong? It took him a moment to shake himself and go after her.
The two bouncers that guarded the door to the stairs to his office were panther shifters. All his bouncers and most of their employees were shifters. They grinned as he ran after Sasha as she maneuvered through the already growing crowd.
Woman threw themselves at him to get his attention as he tried to get to Sasha, and he excused himself many times until he lost sight of Sasha and she left out the doors. His lion came out, and he snarled at anyone in his path. The lion wanted its mate, and she was going. With the doors in sight he yelled to Dylan and Nathan not to let his mate go.
Dylan grabbed her arm as she got in a late nineties model Volvo. Savron slowed his pace and walked honing in to listen to what was said.
“Let me go now,” Sasha snarled.
“You know I can’t. Your mate is coming now.”
He watched as she gave a death stare to Dylan then turned to Nathan. “Can you please tell him to let me go?”
Nathan shook his head.
Savron chuckled as he got to the doors, and she growled tugging on her arm. He came to her and took Dylan’s place and pulled her to him.
“Thanks, we had a little tiff.”
Sasha groaned and held up two fingers to the car before she said to him. “I said I’d see you at home later. I’m underage, remember? I can’t be here.”
He winced. The way he felt right now he didn’t want to be reminded. Sasha elbowed him and got out of his hold. He went for her again, but she turned on him as she opened the car door.
“Leave me be tonight, Savron. Right know I hate bloody America. Twenty-one, that just sucks. Why does this country have to be different? For Christ’s sake Canada is eighteen. So is all of Europe, but no, America is twenty-one. Age seems to matter to you so much, so why don’t you spend the night with people in the age group you like.” With that she got in her friend’s car and drive off.
He stayed at his club and finished catching up on his paper work so he could spend all day with Sasha tomorrow. He tried not to think about what she said and what she thought. He hoped when he saw her tomorrow she would have calmed down.
****
Sasha was pissed. She could see by the expression on Savron’s face and the way the he acted that he still wasn’t comfortable with her age and their age difference. She’d watched when she’d asked for a tour of the club, and she could see on his face that he didn’t want to show her. He didn’t want to get to into trouble by having an underage woman in his club. He was annoyed with what fate had given him, that he had been given a mate ten years younger than he was. A woman who was still at school. A woman who was busy dancing and studying.
Sasha had moved in with Savron so they could spend more time together, to help them to get to know one another. But she was busy with school and dancing, and Savron had the club and saving the world from all the bad creatures.
Tonight when Savron had picked her up from dancing and taken her to one of his club Sasha had been excited. She thought he was going to show her a part of his world, a part that didn’t matter if she was human or not. At the night club she couldn’t get hurt by the bad creatures.
Sasha felt like she was inferior. She looked out the back seat window as Zeck drove out of Vegas city and to the suburbs. Savron hadn’t shown her anything of his life outside of his family and house. Sure he’d explained the vampires, boogie-men, trolls, and leprechauns, but he hadn’t said how he fought them or how the creatures got here and many other things. The other night when Savron had come home with a deep scratch on his face he’d told her hardly anything. She should have asked more questions, but deep down she really wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Sasha’s view of the world and life in general had already changed, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for any more changes.
Sasha told herself he was looking after her. Savron didn’t tell her much about what he did because he didn’t want her to worry about things, and she was fine at the moment with that, but she wanted to know about his other job of helping run the night clubs his family owned. Sasha knew she was underage, but what would it have hurt Savron for him to show her around the club? She wasn’t asking him to buy her an alcoholic drink.
“Where should we go? Emily Roderson is having a party. Do you all want to go?” Zeck yelled over the music that was blasting.
Shaking herself from her thoughts, Sasha looked over at Jess, who sat next to her staring at her.
“Are you okay?” Jess asked as she patted her leg.
“Argh, yeah.” Sasha forced a smile to her face and placed her hand over Jess’s. She looked up at Travis, who’d turned around to see what their choice would be.
“Let’s go to the party. Isn’t that what normal eighteen-year-olds do in America since you can’t get into clubs?” She cringed as even she heard the bitterness in her voice.
Jess squeezed her hand, and Travis winked at her.
“Australia is eighteen like Europe and Canada?” Travis asked.
Sasha nodded. “Yes. Although I’ve had a fake ID since I was sixteen.”
“Cool. Have you used it in the clubs here?” Zeck asked.
“Sure, a couple of times. I went out a couple of weeks ago with some of my dance friends.” She grit her teeth as images from that night came back to her, and she suddenly didn’t feel very social. “Do any of you three have fake IDs?”
Jess shook her head, and Travis turned back to face the front. “Um, no. We’ve never really felt the need for one. Do you like the night clubs, ‘cos I could totally get one?”
Sasha grinned. “Travis, you don’t need to get one. Night clubs aren’t all that. They’re not much different from a packed house party. Well, there is less dancing room and a lot more drunk people, and you spend a lot more on alcohol, but other than that not much different.”
Jess giggled. “I don’t believe you, but thanks for not making us feel like losers.”
“Don’t talk stupid. You’re not losers. If you’re losers then that means I am, and I’m not.”
The car parked to the side of the street. Up ahead Sasha could hear loud music and see the people milling around out the front.
“Come on. Let’s go have some fun.”
Sasha got out of the car and grabbed Travis and Jess, dragging them to the party. “Come on. Losers don’t go to fun parties like thi
s. Let’s go have some fun.”
Sasha arrived at the house party and told herself she was going to have fun. She wasn’t going to worry about school, homework, dancing, and all the other crazy stuff in her life. Sasha would have a Savron-free night. A carefree night.
Chapter Eight
Sasha groaned as sunlight splashed onto her face. She rolled over only to squeal at the sight on her other side. Zeck lay on the bed staring at her. She sat up and gasped as she stared down at herself in her bra and undies. She looked around the room to see it wasn’t hers and Savron’s either.
She covered herself with the sheet. “Where am I?”
“You’re at my place. You were too drunk last night to tell me the directions to your house. You also told me three different addresses.”
Sasha nodded. She remembered most of last night, even though she wished she didn’t.
“Why didn’t you just use my phone to call Savron? He would have come and picked me up.”
Zeck turned a light shade of pink. “Um, I didn’t think of that. I brought you back to my house.”
She clutched the sheet to her tighter. “Was I clothed when you helped me into your bed? This is your bed, isn’t it?
“Yes, it’s my bed. And yes, you were clothed. You took your cl—”
A banging on the door interrupted him. “Zeck, honey. A phone in your girlfriend’s bag has been ringing all morning. Why don’t you two come down for breakfast? I made pancakes, and your girlfriend can call back the people who are trying to contact her.”
Sasha groaned and told herself that it couldn’t possible get any worse, and she should look on the bright side. At least she kept her bra and undies on and didn’t sleep naked like she had since she’d met Savron.
“Thanks, Mum. Give us a couple of minutes, and we’ll be down.”
Closing her eyes, she hoped it would stop the throbbing pain in her head. She flinched when she felt Zeck’s hands on her arm. Getting out of bed she wrapped the sheet around herself and gasped at the sight of his morning boner.
