Eternal Pleasure

by Nina Bangs

  Ty bit his lip to keep from laughing at Kelly’s panicked expression. His need to laugh vanished though as he realized exactly what Neva had said. “I can take care of Kelly. She doesn’t need a bodyguard.” He and Kelly were on the same page about that.

  His glare didn’t intimidate Neva. “No one’s saying you’re not the biggest badass on the block, but Macario told me how Travis was able to drag Kelly off when you were fighting the red wolves. What if that happened again?”

  What if it did? She was right. And that made him even madder. Ty didn’t know what he would have said if Q hadn’t joined them.

  “Fin said he’s going to have to get me another driver.” Q’s glance slipped and slid from Neva’s bright red hair down over her many curves highlighted by the sparkly dress and ending at her long, long legs. He smiled.

  “Neva’s found her soul mate. Macario.” Ty admitted his meanness to himself. He was in a rotten mood on a lot of different levels, so he wanted to take away Q’s fun. Did he feel guilty? Hell, no.

  Q grunted at him as he led the way down the stairs and out to the SUV. Once on their way, Ty filled them all in on what Jude had said.

  “He lost two more vampires last night. Found their bodies down by Buffalo Bayou just before dawn. Heads were missing. Didn’t look like they were killed there. Word is in the wind that the number of humans dying each night is increasing too. He thinks if we lean on the right people, someone will talk. I’m not sure that’s going to happen.” Ty glanced at Kelly, but her gaze was fixed on the road. What was she thinking? Was she wishing she’d never laid eyes on him? That was probably a big freaking yes.

  “Why not? If Nine’s expanding his operation in Houston, someone is bound to know something. And there’re always people willing to talk.” Q grinned. “If you give them the right motivation.”

  “I don’t know.” Ty hoped he was wrong. “From what Fin has said, I can’t picture this Nine letting anyone put his organization at risk. If you kill enough people and scare the crap out of the rest, there’s no one left who’ll take a chance on talking.”

  Great. He’d doused everyone’s party spirit. Not that there’d been much to begin with. No one said anything until they got to the club. They parked the car behind Eternal Pleasure this time. And as he walked into the place, Ty wondered if the same woman would be singing. That might raise Q’s spirits.

  Kelly was ready to go back to the apartment. Since leaving Eternal Pleasure, they’d hit enough clubs to leave her wishing to be any place not filled with loud music and people. Sure, the “people” had been entertaining. Just knowing most of them weren’t human had given her a rush. For a while. Now she was just tired. She was glad she’d decided not to lug the flute case into the clubs with her. What were the chances she’d bump into Nine in one of these places?

  They were standing in front of still another club, The Full Moon, waiting for the vampires. Jude and his ever-present henchmen, or to be technically correct two henchmen and a henchwoman, were in a separate car. Jude said the two cars were necessary to lower the risk of all of them being wiped out in a single attack. Kelly thought his real reason was that he wouldn’t be caught dead or undead in a SUV.

  Without warning, the vampires materialized out of the darkness. Kelly hated when they did that.

  Jude didn’t waste time on small talk. He nodded toward the club. “Let’s go. This place is owned by one of Macario’s pack, so you might meet a few friends, Neva.”

  Neva looked fresh enough to hit a dozen more clubs and still be good to go. If she was an emotional wreck from her sudden lifestyle change, she was hiding it well. “This has been a blast. I was feeling a little down that I wouldn’t be able to see my sweetie until after work, but all this has perked me right up.”

  Kelly smiled as Ty took her hand, and they followed the others into the club. Sweetie wasn’t exactly the word she’d use to describe the pack leader.

  Once inside, Kelly separated from everyone except her faithful bodyguard. Neva was taking her new job way too seriously. Hovering nearby, she shot glares at any man who even looked like he might be dangerous. And no amount of pleading or threatening by Kelly would keep Neva from her appointed duties. She was superglued to Kelly.

  It got worse. Every time the crowd parted, she spotted Ty, his gaze fixed on her. Why didn’t they just pack her in bubble wrap and be done with it?

  Ignoring both Ty and Neva, she went into mingling mode, trying to pick up pieces of helpful conversations. And because the nature of the club beast was to hook up with others, she endured the requisite number of semi-drunk men. Although she had to admit that nonhumans seemed to hold their liquor better than their human counterparts. Even though a guy’s eyes might look glassy, he usually didn’t show any other signs of being drunk. Not so her. That was why she only bought one drink at each club and then just took a few sips.

  They’d been at this club an hour, and so far nothing. Ty was hanging near the door, watching her from half-closed eyes. Wait. Someone was missing from the picture. Where was her bodyguard?

  Kelly had just finished dancing with a guy who’d filled her ears with whispers of how much he loved humans. He’d left her with the impression that his love extended only as far as her neck.

  Looking around, she spotted Neva by the bar talking to another woman. Kelly looked closer. Yvette? That surprised Kelly. Not that Yvette was here, because a werewolf owned the club, but that Neva would be talking to the alpha female after last night. It was a relief, though, to have one less layer of bubble wrap.

  Sighing, she moved on to more mingling. This routine didn’t seem to be getting them anywhere, though. Evidently Nine didn’t choose people with loose lips.

  After another half hour, Ty approached her. “We’re leaving. Jude has only one other club he wants to hit. Hear anything?”

  “Nothing.” She walked with him to where Q and the others stood. “Everyone’s here but Neva.”

  Jude frowned. He nodded at one of his men. “Ed, go find her.”

  The vampire returned a few minutes later. “She’s gone.”

  Something that felt a lot like fear tugged at Kelly. “Last I saw she was talking to Yvette, one of Macario’s wolves.”

  “Would she go off with this Yvette without telling anyone?” Jude scanned the room.

  “Never.” Kelly might not know Neva well, but her bodyguard couldn’t be that stupid.

  “Fin hired her to be your bodyguard, so what was she doing talking to someone?” Ty’s face was a thundercloud of disapproval.

  “Uh, she’s the victim here, Ty. Besides, I begged her to leave me alone. So she did. And weren’t you the one who said I didn’t need a bodyguard because I had you?” Kelly was building up lots of outrage on Neva’s behalf.

  Ty recognized her warning signals and didn’t say anything.

  “Let’s search the place.” Jude turned and disappeared into the crowd. Everyone else followed his lead. Ty stayed with her as she peered into corners, back rooms, and the parking lot. But she was too worried about Neva to complain. Ten minutes later they regrouped.

  “We didn’t see Neva or Yvette. Ty picked up their scents together in the parking lot, but they dead-ended at an empty parking space.” Kelly glanced at the others.

  One by one they shook their heads.

  “Then we can assume she’s gone.” Ty got that intense expression on his face that made Kelly think he was talking to Fin.

  Jude looked about as dangerous as she thought any vampire could look. “I talked to the manager. Nothing.”

  Ty nodded. “Let’s get out of here.” He glanced at his watch. “Neva was meeting Macario after work. He’ll probably be at her apartment when we get there, but if not I need his number.”

  Jude looked at his I’m-too-cute-to-hurt-anyone bodyguard, and she immediately produced a PDA that she handed to him. He found what he wanted. “Here’s Macario’s cell number.”

  Kelly wasn’t paying close attention. She was terrified for Neva. If
Neva were with Yvette, that had to be bad news for Neva. She didn’t for a minute believe Yvette was anything but a vicious bitch. She glanced at Ty. His expression said he thought the same thing.

  While Ty and Q talked about possibilities all the way home, Kelly thought about Neva. Was she even still alive? Was she terrified or just plain pissed? Neva seemed like a survivor. They had to reach her in time.

  As Kelly pulled into the parking lot of their building, she saw Macario get out of his car. Parking the SUV next to him, she grabbed her purse and flute before climbing out.

  She let Ty tell the story. As she watched Macario’s face, she wondered how anyone could ever mistake him for anything other than the alpha wolf he was. Aggression rolled off him in waves.

  “No one touches my chosen mate.”

  After just one night? Well, that told Kelly where Neva stood in his affections. She didn’t think Yvette would be rejoining the pack anytime soon.

  “I’m calling the pack together. We’ll start searching places Yvette might take her. And when we find Yvette…” He didn’t finish.

  “Why don’t you call the police?” She suggested. “It wouldn’t hurt to have more people searching.”

  “This is pack business. We take care of our own.” Then he got into his car and left with a squeal of tires.

  No one said anything as they climbed the stairs.

  “If anything new comes up, call me.” Q turned away and went into his apartment.

  Ty and Kelly stood in the hall between their two doors.

  “Tired?” Ty looked worried.

  “Yeah.” She pushed her hair away from her face. “But I can’t sleep until I get some word about Neva. I should’ve gone over when I saw her talking to Yvette. I should’ve been there for her.”

  He evidently made a decision, because he unlocked his door, pushed it open, and stood aside. “We might as well wait together.”

  No use playing games with herself. She wanted to be with him. Walking past Ty, she entered his apartment.

  He closed the door, pulled off his jacket, and strode past her into the kitchen. “Want something to drink?”

  “Water’s fine.” She set her purse and flute on the coffee table.

  Ty returned with two bottles of water. He handed one to her before dropping onto the couch beside her and letting the silence gather around them.

  They could talk about Neva, but Kelly knew that would achieve nothing except to increase her feelings of guilt and helplessness. But the silence was suffocating her.

  So taking a deep breath, she tiptoed out onto thin ice and asked the question her subconscious had known she wanted to ask all along. “When you get rid of Nine, you’ll be moving on to another city, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Will you be taking anyone from Houston with you?” Did she want to pursue this? Was she hinting at what she thought she was hinting?

  “I think Fin wants to take Shen and Greer with us.” He grinned. “We’d all pitch in to keep Greer. He grills a mean steak.”

  There was nowhere to go with this conversation that wouldn’t send her crashing through the ice, so she tiptoed back to shore.

  “I guess you’ll go back to school and the zoo when we leave.” Something in his voice sounded almost angry about that.

  “Probably.” She thought about her future, really thought about it. “But, you know, as scary as most of this has been, I’ve never felt so alive in my whole life. The threat of death will do that, I suppose.”

  He went to the window and stood staring out. “What’re we really talking about, Kelly?”

  She never had a chance to decide what she’d say because his cell phone rang.

  Impatiently, she waited through the conversation, which consisted of a bunch of “yeahs” interspersed with long silences on his end. Finally he shoved the phone back into his pocket.

  “Let’s go.” He put on his jacket.

  “Where?”

  “Fin’s place. I’ll explain on the way.”

  “Aren’t we taking Q?” She picked up her purse and flute, thinking that dragging it around could get old fast.

  “Not this time. He gets to sit this one out.”

  As she drove out of the parking lot, Ty filled her in.

  “That was Fin. He’s conserving power to throw at Zero, so he used the phone. He thinks we’re close to finding Nine, and he wants to keep Zero occupied so he doesn’t pay much attention to what’s happening in Houston.”

  “What did Fin want?”

  “Macario called him. That card I gave Macario had Fin’s number on it. He found someone in his pack who was close friends with Yvette. The friend said Yvette had been trying to get her to go to some club where they had great fights. She didn’t know the name of the club, but she did say Yvette told her they could eat at a restaurant near the club.”

  “What restaurant?”

  “Brady’s Landing. Macario said it was by the Ship Channel’s turning basin. Know it?”

  She nodded.

  “Macario is bringing his whole pack. Fin notified Jude. He’s coming with some of his vampires. Fin says even if we find the club and Neva’s there, we probably won’t find Nine. He thinks chances are good that both Jude and Macario have spies in their midst. If so, someone will warn Nine. Both leaders refuse to believe it. So this is strictly a mission to rescue Neva. Fin is sending Shen and Lio with us. That’s who we’re picking up.”

  “Why Shen? And who’s Lio?”

  Ty shrugged. “I guess Shen will have to explain why he’s coming. Lio’s one of the Eleven. You haven’t met him yet.”

  When Kelly pulled up in front of Fin’s condo, two men were waiting for them. Shen grinned at her as he climbed into the back of the SUV. The second man was just as gorgeous as all the Eleven were, but there was a stark difference about him.

  He looked like he belonged in a corner office. His great-looking brown hair had definitely known a stylist’s touch. Expensive pants, expensive shirt, and expensive suede jacket. She glanced at his shoes before he got into the car. Expensive. He could have stepped off the pages of GQ.

  When she smiled at him, he didn’t smile back. He stared at her from cold dark eyes. Well, if he didn’t want to be friendly, that was okay by her.

  “You know Shen, and the one with the great attitude is Lio.” Ty grinned back at Lio. “And this is Kelly.”

  The other man acknowledged the dig with a chilly smile, but he didn’t say anything.

  Kelly rose to the challenge. “So what are you, Lio, and why does Fin think you’d be useful?”

  There was such a long silence before Lio answered that Kelly thought he was going to ignore her.

  When he did respond, it was in a surprisingly deep voice. “I’m a Liopleurodon.”

  Kelly mentally ran through her list of known dinosaurs. “Never heard of you.”

  “Naturally.” His tone suggested that she was one dumb duck. “I was the prehistoric equivalent of a great white shark.”

  Wow, he’d managed to surprise her. “How big?”

  “Eighty feet long. Eight-inch-long teeth.”

  She could see him fighting the desire to brag. He lost.

  “I read a book that said I was the biggest known flesheating vertebrate.”

  “Did you cut the article out and paste it in your scrapbook?”

  “Yes.”

  She laughed. Kelly wouldn’t have pegged him as having a sense of humor. She looked in the rearview mirror. He wasn’t laughing. Oops.

  Kelly decided to leave Mr. Gorgeous and Grumpy alone. She turned her attention to Shen. “Why did Fin send you, Shen?”

  Shen made up for what Lio lacked in good humor. “I’m the official spy. I sneak into places and check them out.”

  “How do you do that?”

  He was quiet for a moment. When she glanced in the mirror, he avoided meeting her gaze. “I guess I just have a knack for getting in and out of places.”

  Kelly didn’t waste time wondering wh
y he’d sidestepped a direct answer. She had other things to think about.

  I’ve never felt so alive in my whole life. Her comment to Ty had been replaying in her subconscious since she’d made it.

  Amazing where revelations struck. This one hit her on a dark road heading toward the Houston Ship Channel.

  It wasn’t the threat of death that made her feel alive. It was Ty.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “We have a full house tonight, Mr. Wyatt.” Thadeus didn’t quite smile, but the sorcerer looked a little less sour than usual.

  “I find the paranormal community’s love of violence eminently satisfying. In fact, after a few more nights I think we’ll be ready to move to a larger venue for our final event. I want it to be a major happening that Houston will never forget.”

  He studied the two wolves stalking each other in Thadeus’s circle. Yvette, the large gray, would probably make quick work of the smaller red wolf. But one never knew with werewolves. He’d held up the fight until he made sure the red wolf, Neva, understood exactly what was at stake. That hadn’t made Yvette happy. But even though she was one of his most popular fighters, Yvette had to understand he was a businessman. The audience got no enjoyment out of a quick kill. And he was all about keeping his audience happy. An unhappy audience was far less receptive to his sales pitch afterward.

  He rubbed at a tiny spot on the sleeve of his gray silk jacket. That spot would nag at him all night. “Have you found a place large enough to hold all our Houston recruits?”

  “I’ve found the perfect building, Mr. Wyatt. Big, empty, and centrally located. We’ll be meeting late at night, so the area will be free of humans. I can take care of any security people who come nosing around. After everyone is inside, I’ll ward the entrances.”

  He nodded absently as the fight engaged his attention. “This might not be over as quickly as I feared. Neva seems highly motivated.”

  Thadeus shrugged. “Neva was furious when Yvette dragged her in here. She was screaming about being tired of all this shit. I saw lots of rage.”

  “Ah, yes, rage. Lovely, lovely rage.” Blood was already flowing from both animals, but he noticed something that warmed his heart. “Neva fights dirty. I like that in a combatant.” He believed that no trick was too underhanded when dealing with an enemy. All that mattered was who remained standing at the end.