by Morgan Wylie
Mai, having returned to catch the tail end of Rylen’s speech, backed out as usual, preferring to find release in her martial arts and magic instead. Vi and Lola said they were in, and Rylen looked between the boys. “One of you stays. You decide. Meet by the door in fifteen minutes.” Rylen stalked out of the room, heading toward the elevator to change in his room.
When he got to the elevator, Lacy was standing there looking like she had nothing better to do than wait around for him. Layered loose tank tops cut with a deep “V” accentuated her cleavage, which was further defined by long jewelry draping between and around her breasts. Her black leather pants clung to her shapely legs and directed the Rylen’s eyes right to her red velvet “fuck me” stilettos. Fixated on the damn shoes, Rylen was practically drooling but kept it to himself.
“Lacy,” Rylen acknowledged coolly as he pushed the button.
“When do I get to be in the inner circle for meetings, Rylen?” she whined and stuck out her lip in a seductive pout.
“When I say you’re ready.”
“You’ve been in my inner-most circle.” She teased the edge of his t-shirt by his bicep with her fingers as she crept closer and pushed her body near his. “I think it’s only fair I get to be in yours,” she whispered seductively close to his ear.
He slammed her up against the wall next to the elevator—not hard enough to hurt her, but hard enough that she liked it. His arms caged her in as he leaned into the space between her neck and her shoulder. His breath tickled her neck. She giggled and tried to move in for a kiss as she maneuvered her thigh to press in between his strong, tense legs.
“I don’t think you’ve earned that spot yet,” Rylen whispered low as he stroked her neck with his nose, teasing her with phantom kisses. He licked her neck from the base all the way up to her jawline.
The elevator doors opened and Rylen slipped inside, leaving Lacy still against the wall breathing deeply, her breasts heaving, straining against the material of her tops, longing to be released and pleasured. He wanted nothing more than to rip them off. Just before the doors shut, his hand slid through the sliver of an opening and stopped them from closing. He grabbed her wrist and jerked her into the elevator with him, allowing the doors to close behind her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Twenty minutes later, Rylen met Lola, Vi, Enock, and Luc at the tunnel entrance leading to the garage. Vi turned back toward the elevator where Lacy was slinking off in the other direction.
“Lacy, you wanna come out with us?” Vi asked.
She shook her head. “I’m good. I’m going to stay here,” she said as she continued down the hall.
“Oh, I bet you’re good,” Lola replied sarcastically with a smirk in Rylen’s direction. He shrugged and hit the buttons necessary to open the door leading them into the garage. Lola shook her head. “That one’s gonna come back and bite you in the ass, Rylen.”
Rylen looked at Lola and honestly said, “Probably, but I might not mind a bite in the ass before it all goes down.” He winked at her and Lola rolled her eyes.
“Where’s Mather?” Vi asked.
“He’s going to stay behind with Gracie and the Lair, plus he’s real pissy tonight,” Enock informed her. “Now, let’s go blow off some steam!”
They all filed through the doorway and loaded up in the Denali.
The Black Hole wasn’t that far from downtown, maybe a ten minute drive, but as they drove, Rylen kept looking in the rear view mirror with a scowl on his face.
“What’s wrong, man? You’ve been checking behind us almost the entire way,” Enock asked as he turned to look.
“It’s probably nothing, but there’s a car that has been with us since we left,” Rylen explained.
“We’ll keep our eyes open, but it’s probably just somebody headed in the same direction,” Enock rebutted.
“Get the make and license if you can,” Lucius said as if it should be no problem on a four lane freeway with cars weaving in and out above the speed limit.
“It’s the gray one. I’m kinda driving here, Luc, maybe you can see it with your falcon eyes,” Rylen replied with an edge.
Lucius turned around briefly and narrowed his eyes, then turned back to face front. “Got it.”
“That wasn’t so hard now was it, buddy?” Enock taunted him from behind Luc’s front seat. Lucius ignored him as usual.
“Hey Lucius?” He didn’t acknowledge Vi, but she kept talking anyway. “We were wondering—you know since you are so large in your bird form—if you could actually carry a person. Can you?”
“Never tried,” he replied bored.
“I bet Gracie would like to take a ride,” Lola muttered under breath, struggling not to laugh but ended up snorting. Vi and Mai giggled to themselves as well.
Lucius turned his piercing gold stare on them, obviously not finding what she said with humor. “What? She talks about wanting to fly someday.” Lola responded to Rylen’s glare in the rear-view mirror and rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders, but Vi grumbled from the far back seat, “Well this should be fun.”
“I think it will,” stated Lola. “There’s free dance tonight,” she said as she swayed in her seat.
“I feel bad going out when we don’t know where Poppy is,” Vi sighed. The atmosphere in the car took a nose dive into despair and stress.
“I know, Vi, me too,” Lola voiced quietly. Her face fell from the enthusiastic expression moments ago to one now flooded with guilt. She played lightly with the bar going through her eyebrow.
“We won’t be here long. Any word on Poppy comes straight to me and we’re out. I have a feeling that I need to be here tonight though,” Rylen said.
“Did Gracie see something?” Lucius perked up, unexpectedly curious about the conversation in the car.
“No. It’s just a feeling I have. I’ve learned to trust my gut. Tonight it says to go to the supernatural hot spot in Seattle.” Lucius gave Rylen a nod understanding what he meant by trusting his gut. Sometimes that’s all you had, and lessons learned: you don’t ignore your gut.
“What do you think we are looking for?” Vi asked.
“Vi, I don’t know. So just keep eyes and ears open, all of you,” Rylen finished as he parked the car in a mostly full parking lot by some unfinished buildings. They all got out and looked around. Enock was staring up at the tower of empty shells in the building.
“We should get a condo here, Ry. We’d be so close to the Black Hole and wouldn’t need to drive home. It would be awesome!” Enock excitedly pointed out.
Rylen looked up at the building and around at the area. “Maybe we should. If for nothing else, maybe a safe house. Let’s keep an eye on it as it develops and call that number on the sign. Get a price.” As they walked around the block to the back of another building, the sounds of water from the nearby bay slapped a retaining wall. In the daylight the bay was beautiful, but at night the water was an abyss of darkness except for the few specks of light from boats or buoys. The few piers that dotted this part of the bay had strung lights on them to create a magical atmosphere, little did they know how much magic was practically right next door. They approached a glossy black door with no handle and no number on it. In the dark of the surrounding area, it would be hard to see unless you knew it was there, unless you were of the kind to be able to approach it. Rylen knocked one solid knock and waited. A voice spoke clearly through the door as if they were standing on the same side.
“Do you belong here?” the voice said.
“The darkness running in my veins permits me to be here,” Rylen said exasperated that they don’t come up with a more technological way to screen the Black Hole’s guests. Now granted, if he had lied, they would not be able to walk through the now hazy door that had dissolved into the veil of a vortex. It led them directly into a large underground club. Rylen had his suspicions that the club was not actually underground, but with all the magic that teamed together to create it, he believed it to be on another dimensional plan
e altogether. One way in and one way out. Only those with “special” gifts were allowed in. No humans.
It was dark, yet strategically placed lights lit certain aspects of the room. There were lights on the ceiling arranged to look like stars that winked in an out at random. A purple light twisted all around the room like a snake empowered by magic, coiling to the beat. The hypnotic and harsh tones of the music thumped within their chests, and a fine mist of smoke or fog floated around the room. Where they entered, they were high on a landing platform, looking out on the scene below them. Stairs led down to the main concrete floor where the large bar and the main dance floor were. Another set of metal stairs led up to another level that held hung out over the floor below and had an additional smaller bar. Looking out over the rail, additional sets of stairs could be seen scattered up the sides of the room at varied heights, leading to nowhere but little private covered landings for dancing or chilling or whatever people were willing to do in public.
“Let’s go down!” Lola yelled. Her eyes, glammed up dark and intense, sparkled with excitement. Purple and black locks tied up chaotically on her head bounced as she started to head down the stairs. Ready to dance and have fun, Lola wore a simple sleeveless white shirt with some grunge band printed on it accompanied by an extensive collection of bracelets and various tied things around her wrists, some chunky necklaces, a short black leather skirt and her customary fishnet stockings. Her knee-high combat boots clomped on the metal staircase. She grooved to the intense beat as she moved further down, at home in this environment, her bracelets jangling as she went.
“Wait for us, Lo,” Vi shouted with exasperation behind her. Vi liked to have fun too, but she felt better when they went to the human bars. At least there, she knew they were the monsters and could handle whatever anyone tried, but here among their own kind… she never quite felt like she could let her defenses down like Lola did. There were some real creepers in both worlds, but when they had magic or supernatural strength, they thought they were invincible. They thought they could get away with anything. But not tonight. Tonight, she knew that no one would mess with them since Lucius, Rylen, and Enock were with them. Even still, her cautious side won out and she remained alert. Vi knew she got stares, she could feel eyes sliding over her sexy skin-tight blue jeans that accentuated her ass. Her dark purple booties matched her off-the-shoulder purple tunic. Holding her head high, she couldn’t care less what they thought of her. She too, wore her makeup dark and smoky, and the sharp asymmetrical cut of her dark brown hair added to her air of deterrence.
The boys followed behind them, checking out the scene. Each were dressed casually. Enock’s tight white t-shirt, fitted jeans and cowboy boots lent to his casual nature. Conversely, Lucius’ untucked black long-sleeved button up shirt, dark jeans and Zota grey leather dress shoes brought him a cut above casual. Rylen was most comfortable in his black skinny jeans with a partially untucked navy t-shirt covered by a black jacket and Naot dress shoes. The blue of his shirt ignited the green and grey color of each of his eyes. Here at the Black Hole, he didn’t hide who he was but carried himself with restrained authority. Part of it was he was more comfortable, but part of it was because he knew it unnerved people.
At the bottom floor, a cacophony of loud music and writhing bodies welcomed them as they skirted along the outer edge of the invisible boundaries of the dance floor. Lola was itching to get further onto the floor, but Vi kept a hold of her arm as she followed Enock to a table that emptied as soon as they got close. She was pretty sure the people sitting there weren’t finished, but their walking in as they did looked like some kind of entourage. People tended to move out of their way and it worked in their favor. As soon as they sat and Vi made sure Lola knew where their table was, Lola was off throwing herself into the middle of the sweaty bodies gyrating to the music. She had no problem dancing with whoever was close by and let her join. When she was in the middle of the floor, she felt the energy and lost herself in the music.
“Come on, Vi, I’ll dance with you,” Enock said as he held his hand out to her. She took it and he dragged her onto the dance floor. The direction he headed was where Lola had just gone even though they couldn’t see her any longer. It was a busy night at the Hole.
Rylen and Lucius sat at the table, looking relaxed though they were anything but. Lucius looked bored, but he watched everything. The lights in the club bothered his falcon eyes with their spastic movements, so he squinted a lot, adding to his already intimidating appearance. Rylen watched and waited for something. He didn’t even know what, but he could feel it. Something he needed to see or do was here tonight. He was antsy and scowled, instead of showing discomfort. Sometimes he danced, but with how high strung he felt, he thought he might start something he would regret later if someone got too close to him. In the Hole it was hard for someone to not get too close.
A waitress with gorgeously perky, and artificial, boobs barely squeezed into her uniform top approached them with her short skirt and high heeled boots. Everything about her oozed “fake.” Rylen took a moment to look at her, giving her false hope of a potential rendezvous. What he saw was magic shimmering all around her. She was a shape shifter. They used similar magic to the animal shifters but they only shifted into different forms of people. They were very rare. Their lovely waitress was actually a very homely and scrawny little man. Rylen didn’t know how he did it. He had never heard of another magic user that could see someone’s true form, but he could. He attributed it to his mixed shifter blood and particular magic.
After the waitress took their drink orders, he leaned over and whispered under his breath to Lucius, “She’s a dude. Shifter.” Lucius lifted an eyebrow but didn’t comment.
Surprisingly, Rylen felt something stir his magic. He scanned the room. He could see Enock and Vi dancing amidst the hordes of people. It took him a minute but he spotted Lola dancing with another girl and a short stocky guy. They seemed to be lost in the music not even caring that it looked like they could be having a three way for all the grinding that was involved. Lola was a free spirit and Rylen encouraged her as long as she felt comfortable. He kept scanning, but wasn’t seeing anyone or anything that should be setting off his radar. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. There was something tugging on his magic; a scent that was pulling at his memory.
There. On the edge of the dance floor, concealed in a small shadow of darkness, was Alana. Rylen made a sound in the back of his throat that alerted Lucius to his tension.
“What?” Lucius asked on point.
“In the shadows. The girl from the heist and the stake out, the girl who lives with the members of the Fairfax group, the girl who seems to continually be in the same places I am.” Rylen frowned as he looked in her direction. Apparently, she saw him because she started to move up the stairs. “What does she want?”
“I think a better question might be: How did she get in here? She’s human. Right?” Lucius scowled in her direction.
Rylen growled. “Good question.” He stood and began to hunt his prey for the night. “Stay here. Watch the others. I’ll signal if I need you, but I think I can handle one little girl,” Rylen smirked with an evil glint in his eyes. He weaved through the throngs of people mingling and dancing all over the lower floor. It would have been obvious if he had gone straight to her. He made his way around the outer edge of the floor from the opposite direction never once taking his sight off of her. The closer he got, the more he could feel her nerves and scent her fear, even though she pretended not to notice him. He knew then, she wanted to be found.
CHAPTER NINE
Rylen stalked around the room making sure Alana saw him moving closer and closer to her. He climbed one of the metal staircases that would bring him in proximity to where she waited in one of the private “caves.”
The girl—the woman—before him with her back to him was slender, but as she looked over the edge of the railing searching for him most likely, he appreciated the curves of her ass. Sensi
ng his sudden appearance, her body froze then she pushed back from the ledge. His presence could be overwhelming, especially when he radiated even the slightest hint of magic. She didn’t turn, but he could smell her fear mixed with an undertone of desire. Alana steadied her breath.
“How did you do that?” she asked him.
Rylen didn’t answer her. Standing directly behind her, she couldn’t see his eyes lit with fury. His breathing was deep but controlled as he waited for her.
Alana slowly turned around to face him. Her breath caught. Her eyes were wide, not expecting him to allow his animal to shine through his eyes. In her surprise, she took a step back but was pressed up against the railing. Her mistake. A rumble came out of his chest. It wasn’t quite a growl but something akin to it. He took a step toward her but to the side away from the stairs, offering her a way out.
“What do you want—Alana, is it?” Rylen addressed pointedly. He knew her name, in fact, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.
She cleared her throat and nodded. Putting her hand on the railing for balance, she stood tall. Alana raised her chin to him and looked him in the eye.
“Bold. Good,” Rylen said with approval. “Go on, talk.”
She turned her body toward his, away from the stairs. Everything she did was symbolic to him, and he had the feeling she did it purposefully, which only confused him more.
“I come in peace,” she started.
“Did Fairfax send you here? To follow us?” he asked with some heat. He clenched his fists tight, breathing through his nose to keep his calm.
“No! No, I swear it. Not that you’d take my word, but they don’t know where I am,” she looked out away from him, maybe in shame. “I just wanted to know what it was like to be here.” She gestured out with her hands at the Black Hole. “Well, not necessarily here in this place, but just… outside of what I know.”
“It was you that was following us from downtown. In the little gray car,” Rylen said piecing it together. Again she nodded, this time a bit sheepishly. “That means you know where we live.”
