Awakened Abyss (Firebird Uncaged Book 2)

by Erin Embly

  The skin on my neck and shoulders was beginning to feel hot under my hair, and I lifted my arms to adjust my curls as I attempted to move my hips in a seductive manner. There was no pole in here, so I didn’t have to pretend to be wobbly. With nothing to hold on to, I was sure I looked like an uncoordinated baby deer—this predator’s favorite snack.

  “Chin up, please,” Soma said, and I lifted my head to look at him. Involuntary fear coursed through me when our eyes met, but it was quickly overtaken by confusion as he smiled and then broke into mirthful laughter.

  I didn’t get a chance to ask what was so funny, because another vampire pounced on me in the same moment. In these shoes, I couldn’t brace myself for the impact, so we were both knocked to the ground where he attempted to pin me underneath him.

  Batty fucking hell, this was awful. The lacy lingerie might have been comfortable for dancing or lounging with a drink in my hand, but it was the last thing I wanted to be wearing in a fight. Too much of my bare skin was pressed up against the cold, gritty floor, and the thin strips of lace pulled and shifted and cut me in all the wrong places. I was sure this bloodsucker was getting a free show of something or other, although I couldn’t tell specifically what.

  Vampires were fast fuckers, and I only managed a quick hit to this one’s face with my free hand before he grabbed it and pinned it to the ground along my side. With the weight of his legs on mine, I couldn’t move much except my head, which I turned to avoid the blood that threatened to drip from his nose onto my face.

  My right arm stretched under his grasp until my fingers reached the chalice at my thigh, which I’d thankfully strapped on with the base up. The small blade slipped out easily into my fingers, and I brought my forearm up behind his to slice him in the elbow—the only place I could reach.

  He snarled in surprise and loosened his grip on my arm for a moment, just enough time for me to lift the blade and shove it up between his ribs. It might have pierced his heart if the blade were longer than a couple inches and if I’d been able to aim properly. But with the limited leverage I had in this position, it hit too low and went in too easily.

  He coughed up blood almost immediately, his face now dripping red from more than one place. But he only licked his lips with a smile, staring down at me like a cat who’d just been squeaked at too loudly by a mouse. I’d only pierced his lung, which wouldn’t hurt him.

  There was no way I could kill him with this knife, even if I’d managed to get his heart, since vampires needed to be decapitated or burned to really die. But so much of their power came from blood that I could have at least incapacitated this one for a while by messing with his heart. Lungs were nothing more than vestigial organs on a vampire.

  Maybe I couldn’t kill him, but I wasn’t going to give in. I made a fist and swung it hard at the elbow of his arm that was still pinning mine. It gave a nice, satisfying crack and before he could react, I hooked my arm under his shoulder and yanked him forward.

  With his weight off my thighs, I could finally bend my knees to plant my heels on the ground and lift my hips. I was just about to flip him over when he lifted up off me of his own accord.

  I blinked in confusion. Was this motherfucker levitating? I didn’t think that was a real thing vampires could do. Scrambling to sit up, I saw Soma standing next to us, holding the vampire up by the back of his neck as if he were a naughty kitten.

  “That wasn’t necessary, Ellis,” Soma said. “Darcy won’t hurt me. We’re old friends.” With a flick of his wrist, he threw my attacker at the wall, which he smacked into before sliding down to a heap on the ground.

  Lifting his head, Ellis muttered, “That’s the Guardian who was charged with Senator Drake.”

  “I know, I know,” said Soma, still looking at me. “But she didn’t kill him, and she won’t kill me. Like I said—old friends.”

  I swallowed and slowly stood up, resisting the urge to adjust my outfit. Doing so would let him know I was uncomfortable, and I wasn’t sure that was a good idea anymore. I had no idea why Soma was acting like he knew me when we’d never met, but off the top of my head it didn’t point to anything good.

  “Darcy,” he said. “I see you’ve found a new calling. Or did you just miss me? You could have picked up the phone instead of going through all this trouble . . .” He gestured at my torn and twisted getup, and I took the opportunity to adjust it. I did so decisively, only moving the fabric enough to make sure the important bits were covered, and I didn’t look away from Soma while I did it.

  It at least gave me a chance to think, which I needed because I was absolutely baffled. I couldn’t think of any reason a vampire this powerful, both physically and socially, would have to pretend he and I had a history. There was no one in the room with us but his guard, so if this was a show then who was the audience?

  “Not that I’m complaining,” Soma continued when I failed to answer him. “I’d always wondered what you looked like under those unflattering suits.” He chuckled to himself and then tilted his head, his expression far too friendly. “You know I would never touch you, though. Simeon may be gone, but you’ll always be his.”

  My heart jumped into my throat unexpectedly at his words. It was real. He wasn’t pretending. No one could have known about my relationship with Simeon if they’d never met me. We had hid it well, since I would have been fired just for that if I hadn’t let him get killed first.

  And the way this man said it—it was what Simeon had loved to say to me, that I would always be his, in a tone that forced me to believe it even though it made no damn sense. Hearing it now, it terrified me how much I still believed it. How unerringly true it sounded coming out of this stranger’s mouth. Soma had to know me . . .

  The real mystery was why I didn’t know him.

  6

  “It’s been too long,” Soma said as he watched me, sitting up straight with his hands entwined around his knee. His legs were crossed, slacks lifting just slightly around his ankle to reveal socks with a pattern I couldn’t quite make out.

  I sat across from him and stuffed a cracker with decadently soft cheese into my mouth, then washed it down with a mouthful of floral white wine. Walking in these heels all night had been hard work, and if this guy wanted to sit me down and feed me instead of watching me attempt to dance, I wasn’t above enjoying it. “I have to be honest,” I said once I’d finished chewing. “I don’t remember you at all. If we met while I was working for the senator, well . . . I don’t think I was myself at the time.”

  “You don’t seem much different now.” Soma’s cheeks lifted, and his eyes gleamed a little too brightly. “Except for the outfit, of course.”

  I nodded my head in conceit, shifting involuntarily. Despite how comfortable this getup actually was, I suspected it would take a long time for me to get used to the feeling of a plush sofa squished against my nearly bare ass.

  “I don’t like it.” Soma snapped his fingers in the air.

  The vampire who had attacked me appeared at his side obediently.

  “Give the lady your jacket, Ellis,” Soma commanded.

  He did as he was told, although he didn’t look happy about it. His nose still had smears of crusted blood lingering beneath it, and the crooked angle indicated I might have broken it. It would heal—vampires always healed, unless you cut off their heads—but bones took longer than flesh wounds, and he would still need to get it reset. That wouldn’t be fun.

  I stood to wrap his jacket around myself, then sat back down, not sure a stranger’s dress coat was an improvement when it came to something pressing against my ass. Soma looked more comfortable, though.

  “Much better,” he said.

  I almost laughed. “Do I look that bad in lace?”

  “Not at all. But you belong to another, and it isn’t appropriate for me to see you in such a state.”

  Gag me with a bloody chalice. That kind of attitude would have made me sick even if Simeon were still alive and we were outright married. It wa
s bad enough for men to act like any of them could claim ownership of my body in any circumstance. But in this case, it was even worse. Soma was giving off a strong vibe that the only appropriate course of action would have been to bury me with my dead master.

  His use of the present tense did not go unnoticed. The only way to still “belong” to a dead person was to follow them in death.

  “I don’t belong to anyone.” I intentionally let the jacket fall open to comfortably expose my skin underneath. Taking a gamble that he would appreciate it despite his words, I picked up another cracker, spread it with the delectable soft cheese, and leaned back as I munched on it.

  “You are exactly as I remember,” he said, averting his eyes. “Bold, to the point of stupidity. You might have been able to kill Ellis had I not stopped you, but you would stand no chance against me.”

  I couldn’t let him see just how much I believed him. I would play the perfect little demure widow if I had no choice, but my goal here was to establish an ongoing relationship. Become someone he confided in—or someone he let close enough to sneak around when he wasn’t looking. Allowing him to categorize me as the untouchable property of a dead friend was not likely to get me there.

  “And yet you antagonize me,” he said. “Is that why you’re here? To provoke me to kill you so you can be with him again?”

  I froze for a moment, struck by the idea. It made no sense, of course. I knew dying wouldn’t bring me back to Simeon, or to any of the people I’d lost. But on some deep, primal level, it sounded appealing. I could almost feel the tingling warmth in my bones that I’d always felt whenever Simeon had held me, when we’d slip out of our public roles at the end of the day and into his sheets. The feeling that I could truly relax, leaving all my responsibilities in the light of the day and becoming someone different—someone I liked better.

  That feeling was the reason he was dead, though. The reason I hadn’t been doing my job properly when his killer had come for him. And it was probably the reason I’d been raised to never turn off my phone, even when I was sleeping. When your responsibilities were of the life-and-death variety, you couldn’t shed them with your bra at night and expect everything to be okay.

  “No,” I said. “I have no interest in dying. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use your mind tricks on me.” The emotions I was feeling were grounded in my past experiences, but it wasn’t only his words that had triggered them. I was far too good at burying useless feelings like this to be caught off guard by them now. No, he was doing what Simeon had always done, playing my insides like a musical instrument without my consent.

  He cocked his head and the feeling subsided, that alluring suicidal pull vanishing to leave a chill in my bones instead. I fought the urge to wrap the jacket tighter around me.

  “I’m here because I’ve taken up a new career path. I’m the operations manager for a club in Old Town, and I’m trying to learn from the best.” I gestured around us with a nod of my head, figuring a compliment might take the edge off my disobedience.

  “Well . . .” He poured a little more wine into my glass while letting the silence linger. “That is a shame.”

  I tensed, chewing at the inside of my cheek. I didn’t think he was going to kill me, but it was a real possibility. You never really knew when it came to vampires outside of the public eye.

  “If you were still working in security, I might have a job to offer you,” he said instead. “You did good work for the senator, before . . .” He smiled and held his hands out in a gesture that seemed to say what’s done is done.

  I swallowed, unable to put my finger on what sort of game he was playing. It made no sense for anyone to want to hire me for that. To work for yet another vampire in the same role I’d failed in so badly . . . I was, quite literally, the worst possible person for a job like that.

  I understood why the Guardians had wanted me to work for them again in a different capacity, because my outcast status made me uniquely qualified for covert work. But this? Soma was either insane or just toying with me.

  “Before I let him die on my watch,” I said. “Yes, before that, I was great at following him around everywhere looking menacing. You’d be better off hiring an actress if that’s what you want.” I knew I shouldn’t have said it as soon as the words left my mouth. It was tough to remember that I wanted any job he was offering me—that this wasn’t a damn therapy session. It wasn’t about me; it was about finding the missing kids and stopping whoever had been taking them. But his presence alone was like a drug, making all my emotions more volatile even if he wasn’t doing it consciously.

  He surprised me again, leaning forward with softness in his eyes and touching my arm gently. “Darcy . . . you did do great work for him. No one could have saved him; it was simply his time, and you know that.”

  No, I didn’t know that. Did I? Soma was looking into my eyes with such genuine care and such determination that again, I was inclined to believe him even though it made no sense.

  He must be able to see how shaken I felt, because he leaned back again with a smile. Part of me wondered if this whole conversation had been an act to knock my confidence and make me into the meek, nervous creature Gary had told me Soma had a thing for.

  But then he reached into his pocket and drew out a card, which he handed to me. “Report to this address at dusk tomorrow if you’d like the job. I hope you will, because you really aren’t suited for this one.” He gestured around us and then clapped his hands. “Please leave now. It was wonderful to see you, but I’m here for a reason and you are not my type.”

  I stood in a bit of a daze, almost slipping his card into a pocket before I remembered the jacket wasn’t mine. Instead, the card went into my bra and I shrugged off the jacket as I walked across the room.

  Ellis met me at the door, holding out a thick bundle of cash. Gary hadn’t been wrong about this being worth my time. I traded the jacket for the cash, ignoring the look of disdain on Ellis’s broken face and not looking back as I walked out the door into the busy club.

  Taking a breath, I tried to compose myself. I had come here tonight with a clear mission, and with Soma’s baffling job offer I had apparently accomplished that mission. So why did I feel so completely in over my head?

  The fact that Simeon had fucked with my mind wasn’t news to me, but the extent of it was. That I’d just walked into a room with a stranger I had no memory of at all only to discover he knew me quite well . . . this was beyond what I’d expected, and it was beyond reasonable. Even worse, he seemed to think I knew more about Simeon’s death—that I should know somehow that it wasn’t my fault.

  I couldn’t continue to live like this. Never knowing how much of my memories were accurate, how much was missing, how much might be entirely fabricated.

  I needed to get to the bottom of it, and fast.

  I marched back down the stairs to the main floor of the club, gritting my teeth against the pain that was beginning to worsen in my feet. Gary wasn’t around—probably off finding Soma a more appropriate snack—but I spotted Adrian and Miriam sitting at a table in a corner of the room, a little too conspicuously watching the other patrons rather than the dancers on display. I’d accuse them of cramping my style, but after what had just happened I wasn’t sure I should be throwing stones.

  I approached them from behind, and Adrian jumped a little when I leaned over him to let my hair brush against his smooth cheek. I bit my lip and moved in closer to whisper in his ear, “Hey sweetheart.”

  I didn’t even care that I was taking advantage of the opportunity to flirt with him when we both knew I was only playing a role. Getting out of that room with Soma had made my fears about Adrian feel insignificant.

  This play-acting felt safe somehow, just like when I’d teased him at my bar when we’d first met, and I relished the shock in his eyes and the catch in his breath at my words. I knew things would go back to normal as soon as we were out of this place and in different clothes, that I would go back to
my cowardly avoidance and him his resigned distance—but for tonight, I was in control and unafraid.

  “What are you—” he started involuntarily and then stopped, probably remembering where he was.

  I walked around the chair to face him and bent over again, resting my hand on the plush surface behind him. “Do you know what I would love?”

  “What?” It came out as a whisper almost, his whole body tensing as I hovered above him.

  “Some time alone with your wife.” I winked, trying to resist the urge to tap him lightly on the cheek. “Why don’t you go sit at the stage for a while so us girls can have fun?”

  It took him a moment to process my words, and then he looked down where I was discretely holding out part of the wad of cash I’d earned during my strange encounter with Soma. If Adrian was going to be here, he should be spending, and I knew he and Miriam couldn’t have much of a budget for this kind of thing.

  It hurt my soul to give away money when I’d been struggling so hard to pay my bills, but I wasn’t doing it for him; I was doing it for the other dancers who didn’t deserve to be shorted by his cheap cop ass.

  He let out a sigh and took the cash from me. “Yeah, okay. But you need to let me up first.”

  “Of course.” I obediently stood tall and then enjoyed the view again when he stood next to me, not towering over me like he usually did.

  I took his seat once he was gone, finding the warmth of the chair oddly comforting despite the fact that I was still sitting on plush furniture with bare skin. “Hello beautiful,” I said, smiling at Miriam. “Would you like to buy me a drink?”

  Miriam adjusted her glasses as she waved over a cocktail waitress, who took my order of orange juice and soda water before leaving us.

  “What’s your name, dear?” Miriam asked me, only really looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

  “Birdie.”

  “Well, Birdie, I’m not really in the mood for talking at the moment.”