by Michele Hauf
Time to party, indeed.
* * *
Zen did as Trouble demanded after he’d roughly shoved her into the pickup. Sit. Do not come out. No matter what.
Demons had been everywhere inside the club. But they’d initially all appeared human to her. No horns. No glowing red eyes. She was glad to be out of there, and hugged herself as she pulled her legs up and settled into the truck seat. Hitting the door lock provided added security. Felt like it anyway.
And yet, when she had spied the fiery red oval glowing in the middle of the dance floor she had been compelled to walk up to it. It had pulsed. Hummed, actually, a tune that had felt more to her like heartbeats than the raucous dance music that had boomed from the speakers. It had also felt warm, as if it was a sun. Or even a hug. She’d wanted to walk through to see what would happen. To answer the silvery whispers slithering through her veins that had beckoned her forth.
Now, removed from the craziness inside, her senses reset and she wondered: If she had walked through the red glow might she have never returned?
“Oh, no.” The marks on the inside of her elbows had brightened to a creamy glow against her light brown skin. And she felt them pulse, and realized that must have been what she’d felt when inside. Was it a calling? From demons?
So what did that mean?
She rubbed her skin. The marks were definitely not something she had put there herself, nor were they going to fade. They glowed. Demonic? Surely there must be someone who could tell her about them. Wasn’t there a friendly demon in the area?
Her arm felt warm, and that warmth moved through her blood, softening her muscles and relaxing her tension. And Zen felt...wanted. Needed, actually.
“I should go back inside. They need me.”
Just as she opened the truck door, a black wolf raced up to the door and yipped at her. She retreated, and then saw the winged man. His black-and-silver wings were immense, and tipped in deadly points. Demonic in appearance. Yet she knew better. He was vampire with faery blood coursing through his veins.
She glanced toward the mansion. It was dark, as it had been when they’d first arrived. None of the demons had followed their retreat outside.
The wolf propped his front legs on the truck frame and sniffed toward the backpack that was shoved behind the seat. Zen pulled it out and shuffled through it. Men’s clothing inside.
“I get it. If you shift back to your human form, you’ll be naked.” She tossed the backpack out onto the ground.
Blade held vigil twenty feet away, observing the mansion, his wings erect and ready as if he expected the rage of demons within to come at them any moment.
Zen rubbed her arms and shivered. “Blade?”
“Turn away,” he said, nodding toward his brother. “He’ll shift with you watching, but I’d prefer you not.”
She nodded, and shuffled back into the passenger seat, focusing on the mansion. “Right. I won’t look.” But knowing that the strapping man was shifting, totally naked, just outside the truck, made it very difficult not to twist her head and peek.
Of course, she had no interest in Trouble. It was Blade, who apparently had but to put away his wings to shift back to the regular form, who enticed her. But he no longer stood in view. Had he gone back into the mansion?
The driver’s door opened and Blade slid in, sans wings. He wore jeans and no shirt, though he stuffed a wad of gray shirt between his thigh and the seat. Bringing out the wings must be hell on his wardrobe. She didn’t even want to consider how many torn seams occurred when shifting to werewolf.
“You okay?” He didn’t look at her, but fired up the engine. “Hurry, Trouble!”
The other brother popped in with a pair of jeans on and no shirt. “You are a size smaller than me, bro.” He sat awkwardly on the seat, plucking unsuccessfully at the denim wrapping his thigh. “These suckers are tight.”
“Be thankful I had an extra pair.” He turned the truck around and spun out onto the dark gravel road. “That was a trap, I’m sure of it. Why the hell do demons want you?”
Zen realized he’d asked her that. The tension in the cab was tight, and she felt as if she dangled by her fingers from a tightrope between the two brothers.
“You didn’t notice the demons?” Trouble asked as he eased a hand over his crotch.
“Not until you two arrived,” she said. “Everyone looked human when I walked in. And I was distracted by the...”
“The portal?” Blade asked.
“You think that’s what it was? Where do you think it leads to?”
“Hell if I know. You were going to step into it.”
“I was,” she said softly, then sank against the seat and pulled up her legs before her chest. She felt so small, being rescued from something that could have been disastrous to both men. They could have been hurt. And she may very well have entered a portal to a place even her curiosity couldn’t have fathomed.
She’d sought a night of dancing and mindless fun. Instead, she’d gotten something far more dangerous.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I should have stayed at the inn. Or found a quiet place in town to distract me. Like more shopping.”
“Not your fault,” Blade said briskly. “The guy who told you about the club. He was in on it, I’m sure.”
“He said I was cool and only the cool people were invited.”
“Ha! Remember when you wanted to be cool in high school?” Trouble asked Blade.
“I was cool.”
“No way, man. I was the cool one. The rest of you guys were pussies. But what was that portal thing?” Trouble asked. “And since when do demons gather in Tangle Lake?”
“Since never,” Blade said on a hiss. “The last time was...” He shifted roughly, and the truck stirred them into a rumble down the road.
“The last time?” Zen asked.
“Never mind,” Blade muttered.
They passed her parked car on the road and Trouble promised he’d drive out with their brother Kelyn and a gas can in the morning. Kelyn could drive the Mini back to the big red cock. He chuckled and rapped his knuckles on the door window.
Zen could but smirk. The brothers did like to work that joke.
“Thank you,” she said to Trouble when Blade pulled up to his house and he hopped out.
“You just stay out of demon clubs,” Trouble said. “And give my brother a break. He’s skittish,” he said. “About women and, uh, demons in general.”
“Trouble!” Blade growled.
“See ya!” The elder brother winked at Zen and loped off.
Blade pulled away and drove back toward town. He drove past the inn, and Zen didn’t bother to ask him why. She recognized the road he was taking. It led to the highway and eventually his place.
He must feel he had to protect her. And in truth, she felt in need of that protection. If he would allow her to stay with him tonight, she would be grateful. Because who knew if she might wake to find a pair of red eyes staring at her?
“Your cat will be pissed,” she said after he’d parked and they strode up to the barn.
“He’ll survive,” Blade offered. “You can sleep in my bed. Oogie and I will take the couch.”
“I don’t want to put you out. Oh.” Even in the darkness, she noticed the cut on his neck. It had scabbed and had probably bled quite a bit for the dried blood crusted on his skin. “Your faery is so valiant. And the wings.”
“I’m all vampire even when my wings come out. The faery is sort of...seasoning.”
“Okay.” Was there something about his faery he didn’t like to claim? She wouldn’t press.
“I don’t like to kill, Zen.” And with that he strode inside, leaving the door open for her to enter if she wished.
He’d had to kill to protect her. That had been her fault. It cut into her heart to know she’d been the cause of his angst. Probably even pain. What man could kill so freely and not take some of the consequences of such a terrible act into his soul with every swing
of blade or halo?
Squeezing her arm, she remembered the glowing design.
Zen rushed after Blade and only caught up to him at the top of the stairs. “I think you should see this.” She thrust out her arms, inner elbows facing upward. “I only noticed it after Trouble brought me out to the truck.”
He hissed when he saw the still-glowing marks. “They’re getting brighter, more defined.”
She nodded. “Do you think they are demon marks?”
“Demonic marks are usually darker. And like I said, they don’t look like my brother Kelyn’s marks.”
“What about you? As part faery, don’t you have them?”
“No, just the wings and a touch of ichor in my blood. Do they hurt? Or feel different?”
“They feel kind of good, actually. Makes my blood warm and my whole body sort of relaxes. But as well...” She turned and looked down the stairs. The club was miles away. Yet she could feel the beckon. “I wonder about that portal. It couldn’t have been so bad. I was compelled toward it. I feel as if I should have at least peeked through it. Maybe someone inside needed me.”
“Needed you?” Blade tilted her chin up with an abrupt move. “That’s demon magic luring you toward something you don’t want to know about, Zen. Trust me. Nothing good comes from associating with demons.”
“Because of the last time they were in Tangle Lake?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“You said something in the truck about the last time demons were in town. When I asked you about it, you dismissed it.”
“There’s nothing to say.” He stroked a thumb over her arm and the marks actually stopped glowing. “You see that? What’s that about?”
“I’m not sure. My skin is cooling fast, too. Huh. Your touch stopped the good feeling. What’s this?” She lifted the hem of her T-shirt. Black blood spattered the white fabric.
Blade tilted his head and his hair fell over one eye. And then Zen noticed the fang peeking between his lips. “What’s wrong?”
He stepped back, putting up his hands.
“Your vampire,” she guessed, “likes demon blood?”
“I’m not talking about this anymore, Zen. You know where the bedroom is. You can use the shower. Pull a shirt out of my drawer to sleep in. I’m racked and need to get some sleep.”
“You shower first, then, before I take over the bedroom.”
“Fine.” He strode past her, whisking up a breeze in his haste that chilled her to the core.
Zen pulled the wet hem away from her skin. He had been eying the blood fiercely. He was closed about so much. It was as if the man wanted to hide things, or even forget things, about himself.
“About demons,” she whispered.
Whatever nightmare he fled, she had just led him back toward it.
* * *
While Zen was in the shower, Blade picked up the clothes from his bedroom floor and straightened up the room. In the kitchen he pulled out the full trash and he and Oogie went out into the night. He tossed the trash bag in the can outside the barn.
The night was dark for the clouds that shielded the moon. A scuffle in the grass that edged the Darkwood sent Oogie scrambling inside the barn. Smelled like a fox. Must have been chasing a mouse. That cat was skittish lately.
He turned to go back inside. But when his skin prickled from neck to wrist, he lifted his head and closed his eyes. Spreading his arms and opening his hands, he felt the presence on the air. Someone stood behind him. It was the absence of scent that informed him who that was. “Sim.”
“You in now, Saint-Pierre?”
The creature who had asked him to help slay the demons in Tangle Lake. He wasn’t sure what Sim was, but that didn’t matter. Blade didn’t have to think more than a few seconds to give an answer. “Yeah. I’m in.”
“Excellent. I see you’ve already begun. Keep it up. I’ll be watching.”
“I don’t understand. I don’t know how you expect that I can take out all—”
Blade turned but no one stood behind him. The crickets chirped. And the red fox ran across the grass with a mouse hanging from its maw.
* * *
Zen showered, and after she’d dried off, found a long soft T-shirt in one of the dresser drawers. Swimming in the shirt, she tugged at the hem and climbed into Blade’s bed. The well-worn black sheets were cozy. They smelled like him, which was an indefinable woodsy scent with a hard edge of steel. She wanted nothing more than to lay her head on his pillow and inhale his essence. To dream about what the man might be like if only his rules didn’t exist to push her away.
After lying there an hour, she realized she couldn’t sleep alone in this dark room with the crickets chirping outside the window he’d left cracked open. She was still unnerved from the club disaster. A trip to the bathroom to splash water on her face, and she returned to pace before the bed. She thought of Blade lying out on the couch with the ugly naked cat sleeping on his chest.
If she sneaked out there and curled up in the chair, would the cat hiss and throw a fuss? She didn’t want to be alone. She needed to feel another beating heart in the same room with her. To somehow anesthetize the still pulsing vibrations in her skin that induced images of the weird portal in her thoughts.
And to know Blade was close should a pair of wicked red eyes peek through the window in search of her.
Navigating the darkness proved easy for the lack of furniture in the loft. Zen sneaked through the living room, homing in on the soft snores that came from the couch. Moonlight spilled through the cathedral windows and glistened in Blade’s blue hair. A dark blue that was black, but not. Like the folds in azure velvet, she decided. Rich and luxurious. She longed to run her fingers through it and just...fall into him.
The cat crept along the front of the couch like a demon’s golem. But it didn’t hiss at her. Instead, when she approached, it skedaddled toward the kitchen.
The man didn’t have a blanket. The evening was warm. A big fan at the top of the high, curved ceiling rotated slowly. Torso bared, spare moonlight etched his muscles.
Daringly, she lay on the edge of the couch in front of him, using his arm as a pillow. He’d didn’t stir, and so she thought she was safe from discovery.
And then he did. His arm moved over her torso and his hand clasped across her stomach, pulling her up against his chest.
Smiling, Zen closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.
Chapter 14
Around two in the morning Blade stirred, his body tilting to turn over, but he sensed a warm presence lay close and under his arm. The wings between his shoulder blades tingled, seeking to unfurl, to feel her skin against the gossamer sheen of them. His entire body shivered, a sexual thrill that shimmied from ears to chest, to cock, to toes.
And then the vampire lifted its head. Her blood scent was exotic, yet dark and perhaps even dangerous. A marked change from when he’d originally scented her as merely human. To bite her would bring immense pleasure, perhaps even a moment of ecstasy. To taste an angel’s blood...
Blade pushed down the desire. He wasn’t stupid. No moment of pleasure was worth death.
Yawning, he curled his hand tighter, bringing Zen’s back close against his bare chest. This felt right, and almost too good to be real. He didn’t deserve to touch such innocence.
Yet was she innocent?
With that troubling thought stirring through his muggy brain, he drifted into reverie.
* * *
She slept like a log. Though Blade wasn’t exactly sure how logs slept. It was a phrase his father had used often to describe his eldest brother Trouble’s sleep habits when they had been kids.
Standing before the stove in comfy loose jeans that hung low on his hips, Blade stirred the scrambled eggs and turned the burner to simmer for the final finishing minutes. He wasn’t much of an eater, but when he did consume food he stuck to plants and the occasional egg. Or, okay, burgers fed some weird craving for salt, or something like that.
&nbs
p; Glancing to the couch he saw movement. Zen’s arms stretched up and she twisted her spine to work out the kinks.
He’d been surprised to wake this morning and find her still snuggled up against him, and had to cautiously work himself out over the back of the couch without waking her. He’d quickly pulled on a shirt to hide his back, while she had continued to snore. So he had stared at her. The T-shirt she wore had ridden up high on her thighs but not high enough to satisfy his curiosity. And then he recalled the weird dream of wanting to have sex with her while his wings were out.
His vampire might be the more sexually voracious of his two halves, as well as wicked and demanding, but his faery was pure pleasure. When his wings were out while having sex every touch was magnified tenfold. And if Zen were faery? The sex could be incredible. Or so he guessed. He’d never been with a faery.
He’d only the pleasure of having sex with his wings out with a woman once. And that had been a brief yet deliriously blissful joining. And to think of her now brought no pleasure whatsoever.
Fuck, he hated demons.
“Hungry?” he asked over a shoulder, and to redirect his darkening thoughts.
Zen sat up, shrugging her fingers through her fluff of copper hair. “Very. That smells great.” She scampered across the room.
He dished up eggs and toast for her and then a small portion of fluffy eggs for himself and sat beside her at the kitchen counter. She tilted back a whole glass of orange juice before turning to him and smiling.
“I hope you don’t mind me stealing the snuggle last night. Your room was so dark and lonely. Everything is black in there.”
“We vampires appreciate the darkness.”
“Yeah? But no coffin, eh?”
“A coffin? If you know so much about the world, how come you don’t know that vamps and coffins are a fictional trope?”
“Really? Seems like it would be the perfect, snuggly, dark rest.”
He hadn’t thought much about it. And okay, so he had heard about some vamps who did sleep in coffins. He didn’t have claustrophobia, but wedging his wide shoulders into a narrow box and pulling the lid down? Nope.
