Want (Vampire Beloved Book One)

by R. E. Butler

  “And it’s two vampires?” Arissa asked as she tipped her head back and looked at Brone.

  “Yes.”

  Arissa hummed and looked at Angie with a smile. “I think you and Alli should make a circuit of the dance floor first and see if you feel any connections. If not, then you can head up to the family room and hang out for a bit. You’ll have a bird’s eye view of the club without the ear-pounding music. The night is young, the club’s only been open for a little bit so your truemates might show up at any point.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  Arissa and Brone continued further down the hall, leaving Angie and Alli.

  “I need to know what your plans are,” Alli said when Angie faced her.

  “For what?”

  “For when you find your mates.”

  “If.”

  “Be positive, girl.”

  Angie smiled. “Okay, when. But what do you mean what are my plans?”

  “I’m your ride. I promised Arissa and Cinder that I wouldn’t leave without you.”

  “Oh, right. I guess I don’t have a plan at the moment. I don’t know what it will be like to finally find them. I honestly haven’t thought that far in advance.”

  She’d only been focusing on finding them.

  “Tell you what,” Alli said. “When you find them, you can figure out your plans and let me know. But I absolutely will stay here until you’re ready to go back to my apartment.”

  Angie appreciated her willingness to watch out for her. “Thanks.”

  “Hey, when I make a promise, I stick to it. Now, are you ready to go out onto the dance floor?”

  “Yes.”

  They walked side by side back down the hall, past the coat check, and through an archway that led into the club. Immediately Angie’s ears ached at the deep throbbing bass and the loud music, and she winced for a moment before she grew accustomed to it. Although the club hadn’t been open long, it was already packed. Strobe lights and lasers danced across the crowd. Milling among the dancers were males and females wearing white tops with red ribbons on their necks and wrists.

  She and Alli made a slow circuit around the dance floor. Angie watched the crowd, her senses on alert as her wolf yipped hopefully in her mind. Her skin tingled and she stopped, staring into the crowd. Alli continued walking, seemingly unaware that Angie had frozen in place.

  Her gaze latched onto a set of stairs that led to a glass-enclosed room. There were people inside the space, and she suspected it was what Arissa had referred to as the family room, although what she meant by family eluded Angie.

  Someone spun Angie around suddenly and she gasped as she faced several males.

  One of them smiled, flashing fangs at her as he sniffed the air. “You smell delicious, wolf.”

  She took a step back, but he tightened his grip on her arm as the two with him surrounded her. Immediately she scanned the area for Alli but didn’t see her. Her wolf’s hackles rose and she let out a growl.

  “Let go. I’m not here for any of you.”

  “So feisty,” one of the other males said. “I bet you taste as good as you smell.”

  Angie swallowed hard, wishing she hadn’t stopped and abandoned her walk with Alli.

  Chapter 4

  Rage woke up Saturday before sunset, his nerves fried and his fangs on edge. He stared up at the carved ceiling of his room and wondered if he was truly just finally going crazy with need for his mate. There was really no other explanation for the slow descent into madness. He wanted his mate. He’d never wanted anyone as badly as her, and he wished to fuck he knew where she was.

  The dream had come to him again that morning while he slept and left him hungry and wanting for his female. As he showered and dressed for the night, he replayed the dream in his mind, wondering if there was some secret clue to her location or identity that he’d missed. The dreams were always the same, her face shrouded in mist and nothing more of the scenery than woods that appeared as generic as any he’d ever seen. Ohio was covered with wooded areas, so that offered little help.

  He left his room and nearly collided with Vex.

  “You had the dream?” Vex asked.

  “Yeah. You?”

  Vex grunted and rolled his neck. “I’m about to go batshit crazy, no lie.”

  “You and me both, brother.”

  They walked down the hall, passing the closed doors of the family’s private rooms, and Rage pressed the button for the elevator.

  “I don’t fucking want to work tonight,” Vex said.

  “Me either.”

  The bell rang and the doors slid open. Rage pressed the button for the first floor. “Let’s go into the club tonight.”

  Vex eyed him curiously. “You feeling psychic or something?”

  “I don’t know. I’m walking a razor’s edge right now, and I absolutely cannot sit in the office and stare at a computer for the rest of the night. Maybe tonight’s the night.”

  “One can hope.”

  On a normal evening, they would spend a couple of hours going through the security feeds for the coven businesses and preparing reports that detailed any issues or concerns. The thought of sitting at the desk and watching video footage set Rage’s teeth on edge.

  When they passed by the employee cafeteria, they found Arissa and Brone sitting at a table. She had a plate of food in front of her and Brone held a mug of SyBl.

  “Instead of doing the reports first tonight, we’d like to walk the club,” Vex said.

  Arissa glanced at Brone and then asked, “Everything okay?”

  “We just need to get out for a bit,” Rage said.

  “That’s acceptable,” Brone said.

  “Brone and I will be up in the family room later. Maybe you can stop by.”

  “Sure,” Rage said.

  They walked away and headed toward the reception desk. Cella was seated at the desk on the phone. She waved at them as they passed by. The closer they got to the interior of the club, the more Rage’s intention to find their mate grew. The music blasted them as they reached the dance floor, pounding at his skin like something alive. As they walked around the perimeter of the dancers, he didn’t take his eyes off the crowd. He was certain he’d know her on sight even though he couldn’t say what she looked like.

  They reached the stairs to the family room after making two circuits, and he followed Vex up. Something pricked at the back of his neck, a strange feeling of fear and anger that tickled his spine. He froze midway up the stairs and turned to look at the crowd, inhaling and sorting through the scents. He could smell blood from the human food who were being fed from, the perfumes and colognes that coated skin, and the sweat and heat of bodies writhing together in dance.

  And underneath all that was the smell of something wild, like trees in the fall when their leaves were changing and the earth was preparing to sleep for the winter. His gaze lighted on a dark-haired female at the edge of the dance floor who was attempting to pull away from a small group of vampire males. Everything within him quieted and roared at the same moment. It was her and she was in danger.

  “Vex,” he barked, rushing down the stairs. He moved as fast as he could, a blur to the humans he shoved out of the way to make it to their mate.

  At the same moment that he and Vex reached the female, a blonde with a furious glare appeared and jerked one of the males away, sending him crashing into the nearby wall. Vex and Rage dispatched the other males swiftly, and then Rage grabbed their mate around the waist and hauled her off the floor to the safety of an alcove.

  “Are you hurt?” he demanded, lifting her hands and running his fingers along her arms. She was bruised where she’d been manhandled, but as a shifter she’d heal quickly.

  When she didn’t say anything, he lifted his gaze and found her staring in mute surprise.

  Rage cupped her face. “Sweet female, are you okay?”

  She let out a gasp and then threw herself at them, latching her arms around both their necks and hol
ding herself close to them. The moment he put his arm around her waist, he felt the connection to her bloom within him.

  “It’s you,” she said hoarsely.

  Before their female could answer, the blonde joined them.

  “What the hell happened, Angie? I looked behind me and you were gone.”

  Their mate leaned back and looked at the female. “Sorry. I thought I felt something, so I stopped.”

  Vex said, “It’s too noisy to talk out here, let’s go up to the family room where it’s quieter.”

  Rage nodded. “Come with us, beautiful.”

  She nodded.

  “I’m coming, too,” the blonde said.

  “Of course,” Vex said.

  It took only a few minutes to reach the family room at the top of the guarded stairs. It was empty save for the bartender.

  “Give us the room,” Rage said.

  He nodded and left swiftly, leaving the four of them alone in the glass-walled room.

  Rage cleared his throat. “I’m Rage.”

  He couldn’t stop touching her, linking their hands and feeling the sweet connection between them.

  “I’m his twin, Vex.”

  “I’m Angie Beaumont.”

  “I’m Alli, not that anyone cares,” the blonde said. “I’m also her guardian for the night.”

  “It’s okay, Alli,” Angie said. “You don’t have to stay; I’m with my truemates.”

  Rage wanted to shout to the rooftops how happy he was that she recognized immediately what they were to each other.

  “I made a promise that you’d be home before dawn,” the female said, her eyes bright with determination.

  Rage inhaled silently and sorted through the scents, finding their female was most definitely a wolf and the blonde was a fallen angel. He’d only ever met one other fallen angel in his lifetime, and the male worked for Brone as a guard for Arissa.

  Vex looked at Alli. “She’s our mate. We would rather die than harm her.”

  Alli folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “I get that, guys, really, but I’m responsible for her. I’m just saying that I’ll be sticking around and she will most definitely be leaving with me prior to sunrise so that she can get home before her family wakes up.”

  Angie let out a growling sigh. “She’s not wrong. I didn’t tell anyone I was coming here except my sister-in-law, Cinder.”

  Dawning struck Rage. “Your brother is the alpha wolf. That’s why your last name sounds familiar.”

  “Yep. Cinder reached out to Arissa who arranged for me to come here with Alli so that I’d have someone to watch over me in case I got into trouble. Which I so freaking did! Those vampires scented me and...” Her voice trailed off and she shivered.

  Rage and Vex both snarled. “They got off easy. If they’d done more than touch you, they’d be dead.”

  “I did throw that one guy into the wall, though,” Alli said.

  Angie grinned. “I appreciate that. Thank you for coming to help me. They cornered me so fast.”

  Alli nodded. “I’ll go find Arissa and hang out with her. When do you want to meet up?”

  Rage was disappointed that their time would be cut short, but he didn’t want to start their mating by pissing off her family.

  “Three thirty,” Angie said.

  “Take good care of my friend,” she said. “And have fun.”

  The blonde disappeared out of the room and down the stairs. When the door shut slowly and they were alone once more, Rage turned his attention to his mate.

  He opened his mouth to ask her to join them on the couch when she rose onto her toes and kissed him. He felt her growl rumbling in her chest as her body pressed against his, soft curves to solid muscle. She was warm in his hold, and the sweet taste of her kiss made everything within him riot in sensation. He cupped her face and deepened the kiss, careful to not nick her with his fangs. He knew that just one taste of her blood and he’d be unable to stop from mating and marking her immediately.

  Easing from the kiss with a sigh, she smiled at him and then turned to Vex. As his brother and their mate kissed, Rage settled on one of the comfortable couches. A few moments later, and Angie was sitting between them. Her eyes were a beautiful icy blue color, occasionally flashing to amber which he suspected was from her wolf. She held their hands and leaned back, her gaze tripping between them.

  “I can’t believe I’m finally here,” she said.

  “Trust us, sweet female,” Vex said, “we can’t believe it either. We were going crazy with want for you.”

  “Me, too,” she said. “How long did you have the dreams?”

  “A year,” Rage answered, bringing her hand to his lips and running them over her knuckles.

  She shivered, her eyes flashing. “I had them for a few years. Not frequently, at first, but recently they were every night.”

  “I wonder why you had the dreams longer than we did,” Vex said.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Maybe because you’re a shifter?” Rage asked. “Vampires don’t generally mate-dream.”

  “I’m not so sure that wolves do either, actually, but Cinder said that our connection must be unique for it to happen. She also told me that vampires don’t traditionally share mates.”

  Rage glanced at his brother. “It’s unusual. Vampires are territorial when it comes to mates. But Vex and I are twins, and that’s rare.”

  She leaned back against the couch and squeezed their hands. “You’re not natural vampires, right? I don’t know a whole lot about your kind, but I did learn that if a vampire has permanent fangs, then it means he was made and not born.”

  “Right,” Vex said. “We were born human and turned when we were twenty-four.”

  “You were turned by the same person?”

  Rage nodded. “It was our older brother, Sarhin. He was turned by a female. Our parents were gone by then, and he said that the coven was like a family and he wanted us to be part of it with him. He turned us both on the same night and the master of the coven welcomed us.”

  “Was it like a family?”

  “Yes and no,” Vex said. “In some ways we were closer than a family, but it was three hundred years ago and there was a tremendous amount of fighting within the race for resources. We weren’t known to the general population, so we had to live and feed in hiding, which made things difficult.”

  “Where is Sarhin now?”

  “He was killed in a coven battle ten years after we joined. The master of our coven wanted the territory and resources of all the covens in the area, so we were constantly fighting,” Rage said. It had been a dark time in the coven. They’d been fighting one battle after the other as the master attempted to become the largest coven in the area. What they hadn’t known was that one of the masters had aligned himself to a wiccan who was mated to the leader of a panther clan. The panthers had been vicious fighters and Sarhin had fallen protecting his mate. When the bloody battle was over, Vex and Rage left the coven and wandered for many years until they met Mishka who was heading to America to start a coven because he was tired of the European covens and their governing council.

  “I’m sorry that Sarhin died. Is his mate still alive?”

  “No. A few years after we left, the coven was fighting for territory again and she died in the fight,” Vex said.

  She placed her warm hand on Rage’s cheek, her eyes bright and flickering from icy blue to amber. He pressed his hand against hers, nuzzling her palm and inhaling her wild scent. “We wish you didn’t have to leave.”

  “Me, too. But I didn’t tell anyone except Cinder about the dreams and I swore her to secrecy. I can’t just not show up at home when the sun comes up, my family would worry. This is something I need to tell them in person, anyway.”

  “We understand,” Vex said.

  “Do you think they’ll object to you mating us?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. “I hope they’ll be happy for me, but the truth is I don’t know. It
matters to me that they accept you, but even if they don’t it doesn’t change what we are. Speaking of...” – her voice dropped lower, silky and enticing – “can we go somewhere more private?”

  “We can go to one of our chambers,” Rage said. He stood and pulled her to her feet. “But first we need to speak with Mishka.”

  She smiled up at him, her petite, curvy form a full foot shorter than him. “Mishka, the master of the coven?”

  Vex nodded. “He knows about the dreams. He and his mate, Harmony, will be happy for us.”

  “He’s like the alpha, right?”

  “Yes,” Rage said.

  “Will it matter to him that I’m a wolf shifter?”

  “Why would it matter?”

  “I don’t know. He’s a vampire. You’re vampires.” She shrugged. “Judging by those three guys who tried to snatch some of my blood, I’m guessing you don’t get a whole lot of shifters hanging around here.”

  “That’s true,” Vex said. “Your blood is more powerful than a human’s because you’re a shifter. You smell incredible to me and Rage because you’re our mate, but in general, shifter blood smells better to vampires than human blood. Richer, more decadent. The difference between a thousand-dollar bottle of wine and the sort that comes in a box at the grocery.”

  She twisted her wrists around and looked at the thin blue veins that ran under the skin. “I never really thought about my blood being anything but what it is. It’s strange to think of it as being a magnet.”

  “Not all vampires behave like those males earlier,” Rage said. “There are shifters who work for Brone and help guard Arissa. To my knowledge they’ve never been surrounded and accosted the way you were.”

  “Maybe because I’m female they thought I was an easier target.”

  “We can teach you to defend yourself in those situations,” Vex said. “But once we’re mated fully, your scent will change in a way that will be recognizable to other vampires. You’ll smell like you’re mated and off-limits.”

  She hummed and looked past him to the glass walls and the club below. “We have a lot to talk about.”