by Dannika Dark
He bent forward to eye level. “For your information, I’m not about to pay for all that Mexican food you shoved into your facehole earlier, nor am I paying for the bottle of Dom the waitress is searching for in the back. This bet’s going to go on all night if it has to, but your hat is coming off before mine.”
We couldn’t remove the other’s hat, but we hadn’t set rules beyond that. I didn’t have the money to pay for all this—not after my shopping spree—so I wasn’t about to give up.
A chair sailed by and clipped Christian on the back. He spat out a curse that was so buried in his Irish accent that I barely understood him. “Someone’s telling the manager that a Vampire’s dining on his customers.”
“I suppose you’re the Vampire?”
“Do me a favor and watch my back.”
He turned around, and I stared at his back. “You want me to look at your—”
“Jaysus wept! Turn your back and gird your loins. They’re coming for us.”
“Us?” I exclaimed. “I’m not the Vampire in this scenario.”
“Is that so?” he said over his shoulder, reminding me that I was, in fact, half Vampire. Not that anyone in the bar knew, but sometimes when I got riled up, my fangs appeared.
I ran my tongue across my teeth and realized they’d slid down halfway and I hadn’t even noticed. Yep, I was about to find out what it felt like to be target practice.
Three men approached our table from the side, each holding a piece of wood. I couldn’t tell if it was the kind of wood that would paralyze a Vampire, but I knew regardless it was going to hurt like a bitch if they decided to overlook my gender. I could sense their Mage light as they advanced, which meant I couldn’t use mine on them as a weapon.
I lost my balance when I lifted my leg to retrieve the dagger strapped beneath my pants. Christian gripped my arm to keep me from falling off the table while I pulled it out.
“Why don’t you do a dance for them?” he said with derision.
Never ask a drunken girl to dance. Even in jest.
There we were—a Vampire and a crossbreed—standing on a table in the middle of a bar fight with the most outlandish hats on top of our heads.
I snaked my hips and squatted on the table, giving the men a seductive lick of my lips. I rose back up to my feet, caressing my body as the music continued to thump on the speakers and the table teetered. Two of the men hesitated, distracted by sex. Some men couldn’t bring themselves to hurt a woman, so I did my best not to look like a killer. I retracted my fangs and flared my energy to make them believe I was a Mage.
One of them smiled, and I edged around to face them, forcing Christian to move with me. I could feel him kicking and punching people, but I just concentrated on not falling off the table while I kept my dagger concealed behind me.
“I’ll inform Viktor you’re turning in your resignation for a life of debauchery,” Christian blurted out.
I taunted him with a laugh. “If only you could see what I’m doing. Do me a favor and watch my back.”
“What?”
I leapt off the table and collided with the biggest man. When he spun around to regain his balance, I drunkenly kicked one of his friends in the face, knocking him onto a pathetically small table that buckled beneath his weight.
The more he spun, the more I felt like I might throw up. I raised my arm and drove the stunner into his shoulder, feeling his entire body tense, sway, and then finally fall backward across the lap of a Chitah. When someone grabbed my ankle, I screamed. Not because I was afraid, but the more men I had to fight, the greater the chances of my hat falling off, and I wasn’t about to lose this bet.
The Chitah catapulted out of his chair and charged after the man, who flashed across the bar with the Chitah hot on his heels. My impaled assailant had dropped to the floor with me on top, glass shattering all around us amid the mayhem.
I haven’t had this much fun in ages!
I patted the guy’s cheek and leaned in close so he could hear me over all the noise. “Sorry to disturb your nap, but I need my knife back. If you come after me, I’m going to make a shish kabob out of your balls. Ready? On the count of three—it’s like ripping a Band-Aid off. One, two…”
When I yanked out the knife, he thrust his hands against my chest. The air whooshed out of my lungs, and I landed on my back.
Dazed from hitting the back of my head, I briefly forgot where I was.
“Give me your hand.”
I opened my eyes and gazed up. Christian stood astride me and offered me his hand. When I took it, his grip was soft for a brief moment before he pulled me to my feet. I swayed, and he held my shoulders and steadied me.
“Let’s go, scavenger. You’ve caused enough trouble for one night.”
He kept hold of my hand and started to lead me away, but I resisted.
“Not until you pay the bill.”
Christian let go, his voice going up an octave. “Do you see this hat sitting firmly atop my head? I’m not paying for a bloody thing.”
“I don’t steal food.”
He ducked when a chair flew by. “I suppose you want to stick around for dessert? Well then, have a seat.” Christian dramatically pulled out a chair.
I turned the grip of the dagger in my hand, contemplating on how to resolve this situation. Christian and I were both headstrong and could end up being here all night.
The waitress sauntered up to the table as if nothing was happening around us and handed the bottle of champagne to Christian. “Is this all?” she shouted over the noise. “If so, it’ll be six hundred.”
His brows arched. “The total bill?”
She laughed. “No, silly. That’s just for the bubbly. I’ll be right back with your bill.”
After reading the label on the bottle, Christian stared daggers at me. “Well, isn’t that just grand.”
I took the bottle and curled it in my arms like a newborn baby. “Put on your coat, and we’ll split the bill.”
“Don’t be daft. You don’t have a dime in your pocket.” He lifted his jacket off the floor and shook it out.
“I’m new here. They can start a weekly or monthly tab for me like everyone else. I’ll pay them later.”
After he put on his coat, he lifted the collar. “You started a riot in here to win your bet. Why the sudden change of heart?”
“My head feels like it’s in an oven, this bra is too tight, and I don’t think I can spend another hour watching you stroke your chest as if it were the eighth wonder.”
He slowly opened his coat, a look of mischief in his eyes. “Would you like to touch it yourself? You might discover how magnificent it is—like placing your hands on a Greek god or anointing them with holy water.”
I sputtered with laughter. “The only thing holy about your chest is your sweater collection. You might think about dropping a few mothballs in your drawers.”
I froze in terror when a white panther rubbed his entire body against my legs. It wasn’t uncommon in a fight for Shifters to morph to animal form, and that was one reason I’d always preferred hanging out in human bars.
Christian eyed the animal as it lapped its sandpaper tongue against the palm of my hand. “Do you two need a room?”
A growl resonated deep within the animal’s chest. When he rubbed his body against mine again, Christian lunged and squeezed the panther’s neck. Two wild creatures faced off for what seemed like an eternity, the animal swiping his razor-sharp claws. Christian got up and straddled him, the animal’s head in a viselike grip.
“I can snap your neck,” Christian growled between clenched teeth. “Do that again, and I will. Now feck off.”
The panther roared, exposing his deadly fangs. When Christian shoved him away, the animal reluctantly stalked off.
My heart skipped a few beats as the room closed in on me. All the noise, the action, the energy—it was giving me sensory overload.
“I need to get out of here,” I whispered.
I was already heading toward the
door when the waitress snagged my arm. “Wait a minute. You didn’t pay.”
Damn. When I looked back at the table, I caught the most spectacular moment of the evening. A Chitah knocked Christian’s hat off, and it sailed across the room like a bird in flight.
“See Adonis over there with the glum look on his face?” I asked, nodding at Christian. “He’s picking up the tab.”
Chapter 7
Neither Christian nor I was in any condition to drive his Ducati Scrambler back home. We decided to get a couple of rooms at the hotel across the street and sleep off the alcohol. If anything new developed in the case, Viktor would send a message to Christian’s phone. Since I didn’t have one yet, we’d have to stick together.
My legs dangled from the roof of the five-story hotel, the heels of my boots tapping against the brick wall. At night the city came alive, and it was my favorite time to be out. The twinkling lights stretched across a thin veil of fog, casting imperfect halos of light as far as the eye could see. A kid with bright-orange shoes was spraying graffiti on one of the walls in an alleyway, and two lovers stood beneath a yellow streetlamp, lost in a kiss. I took a deep breath and gazed upward. The air was somehow cleaner up here and didn’t smell of exhaust fumes, pizza, or wet garbage scattered in the gutters. I’d forgotten how much I missed the city at night.
“Thought I might find you up here.”
I peered over my shoulder, recognizing the familiar Irish accent. “Did you bring my hat? My ears are cold.”
“Why don’t you come away from the ledge.” It wasn’t a question.
“Why don’t you sit beside me?”
“You’re drunk. You might tumble to your death, and I didn’t bring my shovel to scrape you off the street.”
I sighed and faced the city. “I’m not drunk anymore. I just needed a place to think.”
His shoes crunched against the roof as he closed the distance between us. “Well, come away just the same.”
I glanced over my shoulder. “Are you afraid of heights?”
Christian shook his head. “Don’t be daft. I’ll not stand here and watch you slip off the edge.”
I swung my legs over, deciding there was no sense arguing. Christian shook out of his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders. I slid my arms in the armholes, noting how remarkably warm the inside lining was. I’d always imagined Vampires as cold creatures, like walking pieces of marble.
He lifted the champagne bottle and a glass from the ledge and set it on the ground before he took a seat. I came off the ledge and sat facing him, my back against the low wall.
Christian filled the glass halfway and then draped his arm over his bent knee. “I was never a fan of the bubbly. It’s a pretentious drink masquerading as something it’s not.”
“Let’s play a game. Truth or drink.”
He raked his fingers through his unkempt hair. “Why do I get the feeling I’m going to lose this game?”
“I ask a question, and you can either answer the truth or take a drink. It’s up to you how much you want to tell me.”
He tilted his head to the side, eyes fixed on the low clouds overhead. “Aye, I’ll play your game as long as the same rules apply to you.”
“Fair enough. What color eyes did you have before you were a Vampire?”
His expression softened. “Always full of surprises. I expected you to be asking about my sexual liaisons.”
I winked. “I’m working up to that.”
“They were blue. Not as light as your blue eye, but like the Celtic Sea on a sunny day. Some of the older ladies thought them fetching.”
“And the younger ones?”
A smile touched his lips. “That’s two questions. My turn. Tell me about your maker.”
I reached for the glass and downed it, letting out a small belch. “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” I poured a little more champagne in the glass. “What’s your biggest regret in your human life?”
He jerked his head back. “You astonish me with such an intimate question. Am I going to be pouring out my heart on a silver platter, or will there be any reciprocation on your end?”
“I promise to answer any question as long as it’s not about my origin.”
He scratched his whiskers and frowned. “That’s a long way back to remember. There weren’t many choices I made that changed my life, except for the obvious one, but I suppose I regret leaving my sister behind in Ireland. We were poor, and there were all these rumors of opportunities and land in America.”
“Was it home you missed?”
“At first I was homesick, but my brothers were with me. I’d never seen such a filthy place as New York. You don’t know a thing about squalor until you’ve seen overcrowded slums where disease and desperation prevails. Sometimes I’d lie in bed and shut my eyes, remembering the green smell and rolling hills near my home. You never saw such a lush shade of green—as if God himself had rolled his carpet beneath our feet. Cassie was too young to be traveling around the world, and there was no one left to care for her except for my da. I used to wonder what happened to her after he died. Now it doesn’t matter.”
“You don’t know?”
“We didn’t exactly have instant messenger back then, and my father was illiterate.”
“Your sister could have read the letters.”
He gave me a peevish glance. “She was blind. That would have been a blessed miracle.”
I lowered my eyes. “Sorry. It must have been hard having to say good-bye.”
I thought about leaving my own father behind, but unlike Christian, I never had the chance to say good-bye. I simply left. I wondered what happened to his sister after his father died. Who would have married a blind woman in those days? Did they have institutions back then? Would she have been cast into the streets to become a beggar? I could imagine how those questions would have haunted him all these years, the same way I wondered if my own disappearance had turned my father back to the bottle.
“I’m sure Cassie was happy knowing her brother was living a good life, even if she didn’t know the truth.”
He looked down at his hands and wrung them. “I couldn’t have cared for her anyhow. She would have been used up on the streets, and I would have had to cut ties once I became a Vampire. Better she didn’t see her brother grow up to become a thief and a murderer.”
“I thought you were also a bodyguard?”
His dark eyes rose to meet mine, and there was absence in them. “Aye, but I’ve taken more lives than I’ve saved.”
“Is that why you’re here with Keystone? Redemption?”
He blinked rapidly, as if waking up from a dream, and tipped his head to the side. “My turn. Blood is knowledge to a Vampire, and it can be addictive. I already know how much you loathe it, but what’s it like when you drink blood? What does it do to you?”
I dipped my finger in the glass and sucked off the alcohol. “Blood doesn’t taste like gourmet chocolate, that’s for sure. It tastes like blood, except thicker and dense with…” I searched for the right words.
“Go on.”
I shivered and pulled the coat tighter. “It’s as if their soul is in the blood. When I drink from evil men, a part of them is inside me the same way it is with dark Mage light. I can taste their evil thoughts, and I know about their crimes. I know what turns them on in that moment, and what makes them afraid.”
“That’s part of it, you know. Blood is knowledge, and if you know how to read it like a book, then it’s something you can use to your advantage in the right situations. It seems your problem is that you’re illiterate. It’s probably for the best that you find it repulsive. Although, I just can’t imagine.” He ended with a chuckle.
A snowflake danced by, and I looked up until our eyes met. “Does Vampire blood taste different than other blood?”
“To be sure,” he said darkly.
I was curious if it would be the same for me, but not curious enough. “Did you come to Keystone directl
y from your last job?”
He leaned back on his hands. “No. I piddled around for a little while, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I was at a crossroads in my life. Viktor heard about my situation through sources, and he approached me with an offer. Had he not, I might be taking jobs as a hitman.”
My brows arched. “Are you serious?”
He shrugged indifferently. “That’s where the money is, and there are plenty of shitebags who have it coming. You get paid more to kill a man than to protect him. Where’s the sense in that?”
I stood up and flung his jacket at him. The glass tipped over, wetting the ground with expensive champagne. I’d had enough to drink, and all I wanted to do was get as far away from him as possible before I said something regrettable. I stalked toward the door, anger on my heels.
“Why is it that women are always running away from their problems?”
I whirled around, my voice calm but firm. “I’m not running away from anything. And maybe that’s why you can’t stand me, because I’ve stayed put and ruined your plans to work solo. You’ve been judging me from the moment I walked in the door for what I’ve done. Yet you’ve killed more men and seem pretty blasé about making it into a career. I suppose you think there’s more honor in what you did.”
“Perhaps there was.” He threw his jacket at the door. “I didn’t drag my victims into a bathroom and drain them for kicks.”
“But you would for money,” I pointed out. “You just admitted it.”
He blinked, short of a comeback.
“When someone pays you to kill a man, how do you really know if they’re innocent or not? At least I knew. Murder is murder, so don’t try to dress it up.” I leaned against the door, my arms folded. “Sometimes I feel like a part of them is still inside me—infused with my blood like a virus. Don’t you ever feel that way, or is it just me?”
He averted his gaze skyward. “I don’t like to give it much thought.”
“Maybe you should. Mage light eventually leaves my body, but when I drink blood, it feels like something’s left behind. What if it’s changing who I am?”
“You just want to blame everything on Vampires, don’t ya?”
