I still planned to meet with Tristan and Callie to discuss my own show. Blade thought he had all the answers. Maybe he did for his own selfish needs, but I wouldn’t rely on his solution to satisfy me.
“Leave it,” I whispered to Rainey when she tried to wipe my brand away from her cheek. I turned to Blade. He could barely stand being in the same room with Rainey and me. I understood. The three of us in a tiny space caused a chemical reaction, making it hard to breathe. It was only a matter of time until we caused it to combust. “What’s the plan tonight?”
Blade coughed. “The two most beautiful ladies in Las Vegas are my guests of honor for my new show.”
Bullshit. Minutes before he’d tried to get me to ditch Rainey. What he didn’t understand was she saved my life, while he threatened my existence.
“That’s it? What can we expect from this club?” Rainey asked, not at all oblivious to the power play. Or the fact that she had the upper hand.
“It caters to vampires, without any regard for human niceties. Everything that you’re accustomed to goes out the window when you step in that door.” His shoulders relaxed, and he was thinking about something that made him happy. Or he’d lost his mind, smiling at nothing. I hoped for the former. “It’s easier for me to be there than on the outside now. Although, I like coming here. Neither of you are human. I don’t have to play games.”
“You’re welcome here anytime, Blade. As long as we’re both interested in helping Holly get back to where she was before the attack.” Rainey didn’t miss the chance for a jab.
His eyes darkened. “I was attacked that night, too. Thrown into Hell. Vampires don’t atone for their sins. They hone them to a fine art.”
“Okay, let’s get going. I assume we’re fashionably late enough.” I put my hand on Rainey’s arm and reached for Blade. I had no interest in watching the two of them rip each other apart, or threaten each other. No one was more surprised than me when he took my other hand.
The power that flowed through my body while touching them both was indescribable. Heat rose from someplace deeper than my core, and lava spilled into my veins.
Rainey and Blade were a step ahead of me, and I was rooted in place, stricken by the feeling they’d given me. Letting myself enjoy the buzz. It filled places deep inside that I’d forgotten about since I burned. I’d taken them for granted. I opened my eyes, expecting to see flames dripping from my fingers, and choked back a sob when it remained only a dream.
“Holly, what’s wrong?” Rainey asked.
“Nothing.” I gripped them both tighter, terrified that the feeling would fade before it had a chance to brand itself into my memory. I hadn’t even broken a sweat. “Nothing. Let’s go.”
Rainey drove. I had no idea how Blade got to our house last night, and he wore the same clothes he arrived in. It hadn’t been his original intention to stay with us. No one said much on the ride over. Rainey didn’t even put the radio on. She must have been as terrified as I was, and Blade sat in the back seat, lapping the fear up like an ice cream cone on a hot afternoon.
It was fair to assume he was scared, too. He made it sound like jealousy wasn’t the only reason he wanted to bring me to Embrace alone. If anyone in there hurt Rainey...there would be hell to pay. I’d make sure of it.
Lines had to be drawn, and I was all too aware of the one that I crossed by entering the club.
Blade’s description was spot on. It was like no other place I’d ever been before. White and silver walls and furniture were bathed in blue light. That was on purpose. I took a quick scan of the room, and I couldn’t tell who was human and who was immortal. And I had a hard time caring. The part of me that was vampire finally felt like it belonged somewhere. But the hair on my arms stood at attention.
Lies. It was all lies.
“We’re early.” Blade squeezed my hand and came in closer so Rainey could hear him over the throbbing sound system. “Grab a drink at the bar, and I’ll make sure we have the best seats in the house. The show is new, so we don’t have reservations yet.”
It occurred to me Blade had orchestrated a hostile takeover of Embrace, but I didn’t care. He belonged here. If he could have his own little bastion of Hell on Earth, he could possibly keep his evil contained. I wondered if it was possible to satisfy Blade Bennett in the afterlife. For him to get what he wanted. It wasn’t a greedy wish—I wanted his happiness because it meant others wouldn’t suffer.
The heat that I craved so much faded as he let go of my hand and disappeared into the undulating crowd.
“We have to get our own drinks?” Rainey rolled her eyes, unimpressed with Blade’s hospitality. “You’re not getting Venom.”
“Why not?” I was willing to flirt with disaster.
“Because it probably has vampire roofies in it.” She climbed on a bar stool and I forgot about the rest of the room when her skirt fell away from her sparkly thigh. I needed ice water.
“It doesn’t.” I turned toward the bar and gasped when I saw my own face staring back at me. Lennon waited to take my order.
Cash had confused her with the reincarnation of my mother and wanted to make her pay. In another lifetime, she’d cared for him at Bethlem Royal Hospital and walked away from him, with me in her womb. She took his chance to have a family, and to live a normal life. He tried to get it back, and failed. Instead, Lennon got the forever that had been stolen from him.
In this life, she didn’t feel a connection to me like I did to her. It scarred my heart.
“What are you doing here, doll?” She put two napkins down in front of us. “Didn’t expect to see you behind enemy lines.”
“I’m here with Blade.” I swallowed hard. The bar was crowded. It could always be this way, or it was in anticipation of the show. “Can I have a glass of water, and a shot of Venom?”
“Holly.” Rainey nudged me with one of those almost bare legs. “I’ll have a White Russian.”
“Lennon won’t hurt us,” I said when she walked away to make our drinks. “I’m glad she’s here, it gives us an ally.”
Rainey frowned. “She’s in with Callie. What do you think is the first thing she’ll say when she gets home at the end of her shift? ‘Guess who I saw at the bar tonight? With Blade.’ Being here could totally screw up your chances of working with Tristan.”
“If she’s here, Blade can’t get too out of control because it will go right back to The Mistress. And she can put in a good word for me.”
I had no idea how etiquette worked in Vampirelandia. If my encounter with Callie on New Years’ Eve had been like a date, and I should wait three days before sending a follow-up text; or if it was a business meeting, and in that case I had to get my thank you email sent. Manners seemed to be a shortcoming of all vampires I’d encountered.
Lennon returned with our drinks. Mine was rimmed with sugar and a lime. Guess Lennon thought I couldn’t handle the truth. I licked the edge of the glass and downed a healthy sip.
Focus, before everything got fuzzy around the edges. I should’ve listened to Rainey. “Have you seen Blade’s show yet?”
Lennon’s lip curled into sneer; it was possible we wore the same shade of lipstick. “Yes, unfortunately. It opened to rave reviews. We’re packed tonight, because it’s the first night without an Immortal Dilemma show and every vamp in town woke up feeling like they got kicked in the skull.”
“Why don’t you like it? Weren’t there always donors here?”
She drummed her fingers on the edge of the bar, thinking about her answer. “It messes the energy in the room. Embrace has always been a social club. Everyone could come here and feel safe. If this is the only place vampires can feed, that will disappear. Hungry vampires won’t play nice.”
“Don’t I know it.” I wondered if Lennon knew I went to Immortal Dilemma last night, or if The Mistress thought I was important enough to gossip about.
“How are you?” I asked. I couldn’t make my visit about me, yet.
The last time I tal
ked to Lennon she’d been sulking in the backroom of Callie and Tristan’s penthouse, looking for a place she belonged. Lennon had been a part of the clan long before she was turned. Rachel created Lennon to save her life, then left her hanging with no guidance. I knew exactly how she felt. My Aunt Lucille couldn’t even tell me she was really my grandmother for three hundred or so years—and she still hadn’t gotten around to explaining my powers to me. So maybe Rachel would come around in a decade or two. So far, she hadn’t been keen on sharing the powers she stole from me with her fledgling.
I hated that bitch. Both of those bitches—Rachel and Lucille.
Lennon’s shoulders tensed. Something was making her uncomfortable, and it could be me. “Getting there. But it’s different for me than you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m usually not shy about breaking rules, but in this case, I can follow them to a T, if you know what I mean. I know what the vampires do. I’ve worked here for years. Good thing I like it.” She nodded to a customer.
“I’m not breaking any rules.” Maybe Callie did mention me. Lennon raised her eyebrows, either in warning or to get her point across. I took another sip of Venom.
“Never said you were, but they don’t suit you. That was one of the things Cash used to gush about. Holly makes her own rules. He loved that. To him, you existed in a place above us all.” Her eyes widened like a vision she fought so hard to forget flashed before her. Sorry didn’t begin to heal the pain my father caused her.
I took on the monumental task of lightening the moment. My cares slipped away with every sip. “I get my own set of rules. I’m not all vampire.” And it occurred to me Lennon might not be either if she really was my mother.
If my fire didn’t come from Cash, it had to come from the other side of the family. My mother. Our gazes locked, and she couldn’t deny the connection. It hadn’t been her easy-going personality or her pinup girl good looks that made her such a good fit at Embrace. No. Lennon had the one thing no one else—besides me and Blade—had.
Fire.
Chapter Ten
NO MATTER WHAT RAINEY said, I’d forever thank Venom for giving me the lady balls to ask Lennon about the things that terrified me. What everyone had refused to tell me my entire life. “Have your powers developed yet?”
Lennon bristled. Apparently, that was bad form. She just acknowledged that I danced to the beat of my own drum, usually while swinging from a pole. And she couldn’t deduct points for bad etiquette in a place where Blade reigned supreme. The next thing I knew, she was sitting next to me, on the stool that hadn’t been empty before. “Answer your question?”
It took a minute for my eyes to adjust. I had to play it cool before I lost all control. “I thought all vampires could move fast.”
“Not everyone can do that.” She frowned. “That’s all I’ve got so far. That and the ability to make the best Venomtini in Vegas three years running.”
I eyed my drink. “Is that what you gave me?”
“You’re not full vamp. Straight Venom would kill you. And you’ve got enough on your plate right now, especially here. Let me show you the ropes. I feel responsible for you now that Cash is gone.” She put her hand on my back.
“You have no idea what that means to me.” I guzzled more of my drink, trying to find the courage to tell Lennon... well, everything. “I spent my whole life, two hundred thirty-four years, looking for my mother. Trying to figure out why you, I mean she, had abandoned me. My grandmother told me she didn’t want me. I was able to time travel to Bethlem Royal Hospital. I shouldn’t have gone. It was too dangerous. But I had to see her. And she told me to go back to Hell. I’ve lived in my own personal version of it, unwanted—”
“Everybody wanted you, sugar.”
“Lusted after me, maybe. But not loved. Even Rainey can’t totally understand me.” The last time I approached Lennon about the possibility this wasn’t her first go ‘round, she dismissed it. She hadn’t meant it as a rejection, but I was still licking those wounds. For her to feel anything for me was an enormous victory.
I put my hand on her arm and squeezed it. Heat from her body radiated into mine, filling the emptiest part of me. My heart. This night felt like a dream, to finally have her acknowledge me. Lennon winked at me, and the corners of her mouth quivered with an emotion that would overwhelm us both.
“Have you ever tried time travel?” I asked. It was an easy place to start. I’d work up the courage to ask about fire eventually. “Moved so fast the rest of the world had to catch up with you?”
She acknowledged someone waiting for a drink. My time was almost up, but she didn’t let go of my hand. “I haven’t done more than what I just showed you. That’s the only trick I know.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. It’s one of my favorite things to do.” I didn’t mention that was past tense. I did have the ability. Muscles had memory. And most importantly, I had a newly formed plan. “Maybe I could teach you a couple tricks.”
What I really wanted to do was study her, if she was able to do it. See if I could apply what she did to getting my power back.
Her face lit up and she bit her lip. “I’d like that.”
“Unless you’ve been working with Rachel. I’d never interfere with your creator,” I added. Nepotism and incest ran deep in the Vegas clan. Not to mention Rachel had a mean streak I didn’t want to get up close and personal with ever again.
“No,” was all she said. A crowd gathered at the bar, but that wasn’t what made Lennon uncomfortable. “I have to take care of them. Don’t go anywhere.”
Besides Rainey and Blade, depending on the day, I had no friends in Las Vegas. I licked the sugar from the rim of my glass—I enjoyed it more than the actual drink. A group of men commanded Lennon’s attention, but one of them eyed me. I had never seen him before, which meant nothing—my social circle was practically non-existent. I was pretty sure they weren’t vampires. They didn’t seem intent on ruining my life. All the men in the group were huge, with wide shoulders and bulging biceps straining against their tight T-shirts. They dressed all in gray, with loose cargo pants and army boots, but they had long hair and unshaven faces. They were beautiful in the most unrefined way.
I didn’t look away. Things were different at Embrace. We weren’t coming on to each other, but we understood we were the things that didn’t belong.
He nodded in Lennon’s direction, but his gaze never left mine. “You two sisters?”
I hid my laugh in my Venomtini. “No.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” Whistling low, he offered his hand. “Gabriel.”
“Holly.”
Rainey gripped my arm. “We have to go.”
“What? We haven’t seen the show. What’s bothering you?” I followed her wide-eyed gaze to the man who just introduced himself as Gabriel. He didn’t care about me anymore. The corners of his lips twitched as he drank in Rainey’s reaction. He stayed stoic, neither comforting her nor confirming her fear.
I should’ve done something, but I wasn’t sure what.
Lennon brought their drinks, and her eyes narrowed, breaking the spell. I sat up straighter and looked down at my hands. She had this motherly thing down whether she knew it or not. Rainey hadn’t loosened her grip on me. Beautiful, burly Gabriel, who scared my Rainey, disappeared with his friends somewhere in the crowd.
“Be careful with them.” Lennon pursed her lips, staring into the crowd. “I don’t know what they are.”
I didn’t understand the threat. She didn’t know what she was, either. Neither of them scared me, even though they freaked Rainey out. It was possible she was having a vision. Not the disadvantage I expected. I steered the subject back to things I was familiar with. I was getting somewhere with Lennon before a bunch of weird Viking looking dudes interrupted us. “I’m serious about showing you some tricks. I want to help you.”
Lennon’s scowl faded to a look that I’d longed to see from her—acceptance. “I can’t
wait, doll.”
First vampire rule broken. And it felt good.
“WHY DID GABRIEL SCARE you?” I stayed close to Rainey as I scanned the room. No more Venom for me. Rainey tended to cry wolf when it came to vampires, but those guys weren’t vampires, and I’d been up close and personal too many times with real fear. There was no mistaking it. It made her tug of war with Blade look like child’s play.
Rainey took a big gulp of her drink and pushed the glass to Lennon, nodding for another. I’d be driving home tonight. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Do you know them? Have they hurt you?” I’d kill them if they had. If I couldn’t put the nail in their proverbial coffins, we were in the room full of blood-thirsty immortals who would be more than happy to help a sister out, whether they liked me or not. Blood was blood.
“It was a vision. That’s all.” She let out a breath she’d been holding since she grabbed me.
Gabriel and his friends definitely weren’t vampires if Rainey Saw them. Vampires were metaphysical black space for her.
“Tell me about it when we get home.” I didn’t believe she was telling me the truth, but I did think she’d be more forthcoming in a safe place. I smoothed her hair away from her cheek and kissed her softly on the lips. She relaxed under my touch. For once I was glad to do for her what she’d done for me so many times.
Blade had the worst timing of anyone on Earth, immortal or human. No wonder he was so angry all the time. “I got a table for us.” He held out his hand for me, and I took it eagerly, anxious to get our trifecta of power back. We needed it now more than ever.
No such luck.
We sat at the end of the catwalk. I went for the middle seat, to keep Rainey and Blade from clawing each other’s eyes out during intermission. And I wanted to keep touching both of them.
“I’ll sit in the middle.” Blade put his hands on my waist and moved me to the side. “I want to be close to Rainey.”
She didn’t protest. Odd. “Since when?” I asked.
Sin City Vampire Club Page 5
