by Amelia Elias
That was better. She uncrossed her arms and took her time walking to his side. “You’re not usually a bastard,” she said when she stopped beside him. “Want to tell me what crawled up your ass and died, or do I get to guess?”
Finally he met her eyes again and she was relieved to see the old Orion looking down at her. He shook his head at her language but she was sure she saw the hint of a smile at the edge of his mouth. “I should know better than to bully you,” he admitted. “Let’s just get out of here first. We can talk outside.”
“Whatever.” But this time she followed when he started down the stairs.
The bass beat still hammered, getting progressively louder the closer they got to the bottom. The already faint light dimmed further, then was replaced by black lights. Orion surprised her by taking her hand when they turned the final corner.
They emerged into chaos.
Even when she’d dated Barrett, Kira had never been inside Club Nighthawk. Now she knew why both men had warned her away from it. A seething, writhing mass of humanity filled the huge club, surging to the beat of the heavy metal band on the stage. Every dark corner held a couple -- or more -- and the scent of blood and sex was heavy in the humid air. Without understanding how she knew it, she sensed the presence of vampires throughout the crowd, inciting the humans’ desires, feeding their own bloodlust and taking what they wanted without the slightest regard for mortal life.
People would die here tonight. The certainty of death was as clear as the pounding beat of the music. The only uncertainties were how, and whom.
Orion squeezed her hand in reassurance as she involuntarily cringed. “Have no fear,” he murmured, his words clear to her despite the raucous music. “No one will bother you, Kira. Come, the exit’s just over here.”
She held tight to him as he made his way effortlessly through the crowd. People parted before him like magic. She supposed it probably was magic. Fixing her eyes on Orion’s back to avoid the enthralled, already-dead gazes of the dancing humans around her, she’d never been so glad to see anything in her life as she was to see the double doors of the exit before them.
Just as they reached them, a pair of vampires stepped from the shadows and blocked their path. Orion stiffened as they stepped into the dim glow of one of the few lights. One fair and one dark, they practically oozed menace.
“Leaving so soon, Orion?” the blond vamp said, giving them a feral little smile. “You haven’t asked your Master’s permission to leave.”
“I don’t have a Master,” he growled.
“Don’t you? I don’t recall freeing you,” the dark-skinned one replied, and although he spoke second, there was no doubt in her mind that here was the real power in the room. This was Gregori, the Master of Clan Nighthawk. His gaze raked over Kira’s body with wicked interest and she felt the tension in Orion’s body coiling yet tighter. “We thought you’d make more of your long-overdue homecoming. You have fed, but your pretty little fledgling hasn’t tasted the pleasures of her Clan yet. She hungers -- surely you feel it. Would you deny her the chance to drink her fill before you take her away?”
Kira’s mind reeled. Orion was a Nighthawk?
His hand was the only thing that kept her from swaying with shock. She heard his snarl an instant before his reply. “She is an outsider’s offspring, of no interest to you or your Clan. Now move aside or I’ll move you myself.”
“You presume to decide where my interests fall?”
Orion shifted slightly, hiding her still further behind his shoulder. “Why should a Clan Master bother himself with a mere fledgling?” he returned, everything in his manner polite as he radiated distrust and hate. She could practically see the undercurrents flowing between them and hardly dared to breathe.
“She must be worth the bother or you wouldn’t have turned her,” Gregori replied. “I can recall another that didn’t merit such attention from you. I’d be a fool not to be interested by a woman who shows such promise.”
That was the last straw. Orion snarled, dropping the façade of civility entirely. Rage and power rolled from him in waves, a tsunami of aggression. Even knowing Orion as she did, his strength and power astounded her. “This one won’t be corrupted,” he growled, every muscle primed to fight. "Not even by you."
Gregori smiled and spread his hands in a gesture of peace. She didn’t trust it one bit. “Corrupt? I’d never suggest such a thing,” he demurred smoothly. “All Nighthawks are free to find their own path within the Clan. No vampire is forced to do anything they do not wish.”
Then his eyes met hers and she just barely stopped the shudder that wanted to make her look away. Gregori’s eyes were black as ice, but it wasn’t the lack of color that made them terrifying. Those eyes were cold and dead and yet they danced with a hideous light. There was power in this man, awesome power. Even new as she was, her vampire senses vibrated with awareness of his strength and age.
This was not a man to take lightly.
“Aren’t you hungry, young one?” Gregori asked. The concern in his voice sounded as genuine as his motion of peace. “I offer you a feast. Come, partake.”
Orion’s grip on her hand was almost painful. ”No!”
“You will not let her decide for herself, then? Perhaps you are not as sure of her as you claim.” Gregori raised an eyebrow, still looking at Kira. She refused to be the first one to break eye contact. “And what say you, little girl? Do you wish to live as an outsider, without the protection and benefit of your Clan? Has he even told you what you’ll forfeit should you turn your back on your own blood, as he has? Will you allow him to make this decision for you, or will you speak for yourself?”
Orion started to lunge for him but Kira wrapped her free arm around his waist and held him back. I can handle this. Don’t give him the satisfaction of making you lose your temper, Orion. Trust me.
When he went still, Kira released him and stepped out from behind him. Two steps brought her almost nose-to-nose with Gregori. “I can speak for myself,” she said, her voice as calm as his had been. His power rolled over her and it was all she could do to pretend she didn’t feel it, that it didn’t intimidate the hell out of her. “I don’t want your feast, Gregori. I may be a vampire now, but I will never forget what it is to be human. Killing them like cattle holds no appeal for me.”
“Ahh, but you haven’t tasted the pleasures you so easily dismiss,” Gregori replied. “Won’t you give us this one night to show you what you’re missing?”
Kira shook her head firmly. “I don’t need to dance with the devil to recognize his evil. Hearing the music is enough for me.”
He shook his head, sending his waist-length dreadlocks swaying. “What a pity,” he murmured. He held her eyes for another long minute before stepping aside with a little bow. “Should you wish to embrace your Clan, little girl, we will welcome you with arms open wide. I call you kin, not outsider, not outcast. But, go now. Go with the outsider and taste the life he can give you. When you tire of running and the stale, tasteless bags of blood your sire provides, return to us.” He gave her a wink and grinned, displaying his fangs. “I’ll be happy to train you myself.”
She longed to shout that she’d never submit to such a thing, but now that the exit was clear, she didn’t dare rock the boat. “I’ll… keep that in mind,” she said instead, and let Orion pull her out the door.
Chapter Four
The cold night air was a welcome relief after the saturated atmosphere of the club and she drank it in gratefully. Orion didn’t slow as he led her down the alley and out onto the busy street. “What the hell were you thinking?” he snarled, dragging her along. “You practically challenged him, Kira! Gregori is not someone you want to fuck with, and you throw down the gauntlet without so much as --”
“Well, it might’ve helped had I known you were a Nighthawk before five minutes ago!” she snapped back, matching his fury. “How was I supposed to react? You’ve warned me about them time and time again, and now I find out
I’m tied to them through your blood!”
That stopped him in his tracks. She ran into his back, so abrupt was his stop. “I am not a Nighthawk,” he growled. “And neither are you. Never say that again. I forbid you to --”
“Fuck your ‘forbid’, and fuck you too,” she cut him off, returning his growl just as fiercely. She shoved his shoulder until he turned to face her. “I didn’t appreciate going into that blind, Orion. I want an explanation from you and I want it now. Start talking or I swear to God I’ll walk back there and get my answers from Gregori.”
His jaw clenched and his eyes blazed, but she hadn’t let Gregori stare her down, and damn it, she wasn’t going to let Orion do it, either. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited, matching him scowl for scowl.
Finally he drove a hand through his hair and dropped his eyes. “Not here,” he said stiffly. “Let’s go to --”
“Here and now, fang-boy. You had your chance to explain in private before we left that room.”
His eyes flashed red. “I’m getting tired of you interrupting me, fledgling.”
“And I’m getting tired of listening to you dance around my questions, sire,” she shot back. “I died for you and trusted you enough to give up my humanity for you. The least you can do in return is answer one fucking question.”
“Fine.” She could hear his teeth grinding as he growled through them. “Gregori is my sire. He made me four hundred years ago. It was nothing like your change, Kira -- I knew what he was and I asked for it. I wanted the power of it. Yes, I lived with the Nighthawks, and I participated in their blood feasts. I spent two hundred and fifty years in utter depravity, no different from them. I murdered, I fucked, I took what I wanted and didn’t bother to ask permission or forgiveness. Does it please you to hear me say it? Is that what you wanted to hear?”
She held his tortured gaze steadily, this time refusing to react to his anger. “And what changed you?”
His fists clenched and she knew it cost him an effort to answer her. “A human,” he ground out. “A human, a mere mortal, showed me what I’d become.”
Unexpected jealousy shivered through her thoughts. Kira forced it aside. “Who was she?” There was no doubt in her mind that the human had been a woman, that she’d been his lover instead of his prey.
She hadn’t expected the knowledge that he’d loved another woman to hurt like this, though. Get real, Kira, she told herself fiercely. She lived and died long before you were ever born, and you have no claim on him now, either.
His eyes were closed now, and if any of her thoughts had shown on her face, he’d missed it. “I saw her first and knew the others would want her. I’d shared often enough, but something about her made me want her to myself. I hid her at my lair, a place the Nighthawks didn’t know I had,” he said, his voice softening with memory. “Rather than fearing me, feeding my bloodlust with her terror, she spoke to me. Told me of her family and her life. I couldn’t kill her, though I fed from her. I… I came to care for her.”
Then his eyes opened and she flinched from the fury in their depths. “Gregori took her from me,” he snarled. “Used one of his bloodslaves to take her during the day when I couldn’t help her. By the time I found her, she was already turned.” His voice hardened with a hate so strong it made her shudder to hear it. “He’d turned her and already forced her to make her first kill. She was his creature, laughing when I offered to save her from him. One night, Kira. One night with him was all it took to kill her soul and leave her addicted to the pleasures he gave her.”
She reached out and took one fisted hand in hers. “How did she die?”
He laughed bitterly. “What makes you think she’s dead?”
She just stared. There was no answer she could give.
Finally, he spoke again. “I couldn’t stay with them after that,” he said, his voice low and harsh. “I renounced my Clan, my sire, every tie I’d ever had to the vampire world. That night I swore I would never again kill my prey. I vowed that I wouldn’t forget what Ellyra taught me, even if she had.”
Kira reached out and touched his shoulder. The muscle was rock-hard beneath her hesitant hand. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“So am I.”
This time she didn’t protest when he started walking away, only hurried her steps to keep up with him. Her thoughts spun so wildly she didn’t even pay attention to where he led her. Wherever he took her, it was away from the Nighthawks, and that was good enough for her.
They hadn’t even gone a full block when a woman fell smoothly into step beside them.
Orion’s head snapped to the side. “Well, well, well,” he drawled coldly. “You know what they say about speaking of the devil.”
Kira stared at the newcomer in shock. Tall and graceful with fiery curls cascading down her back, she was the kind of woman that made every other female fade into the background. “Ellyra?” she gasped, because who else could it be?
Completely ignoring Kira, the woman gave Orion a tight smile that exposed straight white teeth without a hint of fangs. “There is little time,” Ellyra murmured. “You are being followed.”
“I’d expect nothing less.”
“You need help. I’m offering it.”
Orion laughed. “I need nothing from you.”
She raised an eyebrow at his flat statement. “Don’t be a fool,” she said. “Your pride will not help your young one any more than it helped me. Come with me. I have a safe place for you and your fledgling to stay, and blood to restore her strength.”
Kira had taken just about all she could stand of being ignored. “And just why are you helping us, if that really is what you’re doing?” she snapped, unable to keep silent any longer. “You made your choice a long time ago, and you didn’t choose Orion. What’s changed?”
Ellyra’s smile faded altogether. “This time Gregori has taken my lover,” she hissed.
“Are you certain it wasn’t your lover’s choice?” Kira shot back. “After all, you didn’t hesitate to fuck yours over when Gregori crooked his finger at you.”
Her eyes flashed with red flames. “I discovered the body in his chambers,” she snarled. “Not in his bed. Gregori did not attain what he sought, and he kills those who tell him no.”
Kira started to speak again, not trusting this pronouncement one bit, but Orion squeezed her hand and overrode her. “Tell us where you would have us go,” he said, “and perhaps we’ll follow you.”
We have no safe haven. I can feel Ellyra’s pain and anger. I don’t believe she’s lying, but even if she is, we really have no better choices right now.
I don’t like it, she replied, still eyeing Ellyra.
Neither do I. But if she does have a safe hideout, I can always kill her and take it for my own. Don’t underestimate me, Kira. Right now I am a cornered animal and I’ll fight for anything we need.
Ellyra paused beneath a streetlamp, ignoring their silence. “I’ve taken the penthouse suite at the Ritz-Carlton,” she replied, answering Orion’s question.
She turned and signaled toward the street, thankfully missing the dumbfounded expression Kira couldn’t suppress no matter how hard she tried. It was only when a black limousine pulled to the curb that she found her voice again. “That’s your hideout? The fucking Ritz-Carlton?”
Ellyra gave her a cold smile. “You have an objection, fledgling?”
A uniformed chauffeur got out and walked around the car, making her suddenly conscious that people were staring at them. She couldn’t blame them -- a beautiful woman in a dress that probably cost more than what most people made in a year had flagged down her personal limo for a couple in jeans and sweaters? “For Christ’s sake,” she hissed as the chauffeur opened the door for them, “This is your idea of keeping a low profile?”
“No, Kira, she’s right,” Orion answered before Ellyra could speak again. “Gregori already knows we can’t go far tonight -- you don’t have the strength for a long run -- and I’d be very surprised if h
e didn’t know that Ellyra has defected as well. It’s not about keeping a low profile at this point. It’s about finding a place that even Gregori would think twice about attacking.”
Much as she hated to admit it, Kira had to concede the point. She climbed into the limo, scowling. Shameless and brazen as they were in their own club, even the Nighthawks were careful to keep their existence a secret from humans. Attacking a five-star hotel and murdering or kidnapping guests from the penthouse would bring attention the Clan could ill afford.
The ride passed in uncomfortable silence. Kira made no attempt to converse with either of them, instead staring out the window and watching the traffic so she wouldn’t have to see Orion look at the woman who had reawakened his heart, only to break it.
The chauffeur opened the door when they arrived at the hotel. Kira ignored the hand he offered to help her climb out, taking Orion’s instead. She pretended not to see Ellyra’s amused glance.
“Come, Carlo,” she murmured. “I have a use for you.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
The chauffeur tossed the limo’s keys to a surprised valet and followed them into the lobby. Orion didn’t reply to Kira's mental questions and she finally gave up. Carlo stood too close to her in the elevator, his spicy aftershave tickling her senses, teasing the never-quiet bloodlust. When Orion draped his arm around her shoulders and glared at the chauffeur, she leaned against him and closed her eyes, comforted by his possessiveness.
I’m hungry again, she told him. I never noticed you needing blood this often. What’s wrong with me?
But it was Ellyra who answered her, not Orion. “You are merely young,” she said. “Have no fear, fledgling. Carlo will provide for you.”
Her eyes flew open and her spine went rigid. How the hell was Ellyra eavesdropping on her mental communication with Orion? But then her words sank in and Kira stared at the chauffeur standing motionless beside her. He looked straight ahead, showing no reaction to the fact that his blood had just been offered to her so blithely. “Excuse me?”
