by L. E. Wilson
The kettle whistled and Judy got up to get our tea. “Honestly, I don’t know much about him either, other than the fact that he broke your mother’s heart.” I waited for her to come back to the table and sit down before I asked her to go on, but she only said, “I’m sorry, honey. Your mom showed up here shortly after me and Lizzy’s mom came down here from Washington. She was in tears and pregnant with you and your sister. She wouldn’t talk about it much, and at first we were scared that something terrible had happened to our sister after we’d abandoned her on that damn mountain. But, after a while, we figured out that wasn’t the case at all. She was heartbroken though, until you two were born.”
“So, no one knows anything about him?”
“Not that I know of. But that brings me around to the part of the story I wanted to tell you about. Which is the reason we left our home and moved way down here to Louisiana.”
I’d already guessed. “Marcus.”
She nodded, then sipped at her tea. “He came back. This was in the early 1980s. He killed your great-grandparents and took over the coven. Shortly after, a large group of us escaped, scattering all over the world. Your mom didn’t want to come with us, and I didn’t understand why at first, until she showed up here in the condition she was in.”
“Why did you pick New Orleans?” I asked out of curiosity.
She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. I always had a thing for Cajun food, so there was that. And, at the time, I figured there wasn’t much chance of vampires settling here what with the hot summers and sunshine and that.” She laughed quietly. “Imagine my surprise to find them already here when we got here.”
“It’s not the 1800s anymore,” I teased her. “We have technology now.”
“Oh, hush.” Her mouth twisted and she rolled her eyes as I laughed. Listening to me, she got serious again. “I haven’t heard you laugh like that in a long time.”
She was right. For the last few years, I’d felt more angry than joyful. But I was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t anger at all, but just me trying to deal with this shit inside of me that had finally grown tired of lying dormant. At least, it had been until I’d shoved it into Kenya to remove the curse. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now,” I admitted.
Judy’s eyes met mine. “I think you’ve done all you can, honey. I imagine the reason you were in The Quarter tonight was to warn Kenya about Marcus?”
I nodded.
“And did she believe you?”
“Yeah, she believed me. But that’s not what I was talking about.”
She sat up in her chair and wrapped her hands around her cup. “Oh. That.”
I leaned forward, setting my own rapidly cooling tea to the side. “Tell me what I should do,” I pleaded. Because I honestly didn’t know. I felt like I was standing at the end of a road that veered off in two different directions, and I had no idea which fork I should choose because either one of them would take me away from this life I knew now, one way or the other.
“The first thing you need to do is stay away from the vampires, Alex.”
“I don’t think I can do that.”
“You must. If Killian catches you sniffing around Kenya—”
“I’m not ‘sniffing around’ her,” I argued. “I’m trying to save her life.”
“You already did that.”
“And yet, he came back.”
She sat back, studying me. However, I could tell she wasn’t seeing me at all. “I don’t think he’s after her at all,” she finally said. “And we don’t know that it was him who tried to kill her in the first place.”
“It was him,” I told her.
“You can’t know that.”
I shook my head. She was wrong. I did know that. “Who the hell else would it have been? Unless there are djinn just running amok in this world and nobody bothered to tell any of us?”
I waited for her to say that was exactly what was happening, but she didn’t. “No,” she said.
“I felt him, Aunt Jude. When I was inside of Kenya, I felt the magic…the, the…the power. And I felt that same power when he confronted me. The exact same thing. It was him. I’m absolutely positive about that.”
She stared down at the table, her forehead wrinkled in thought. “I just don’t get it, though. Why would he go after someone like Kenya?”
“I don’t know. But I won’t let him get to her again.” I paused, waiting for her to look at me. “I can’t,” I emphasized. “Do you understand?”
My aunt’s blue eyes were sharp, her expression anguished. “Oh, Alex.”
Chapter 12
Kenya
I was standing behind the bar, my eyes on Brogan, who was down to almost nothing but his unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and tiny G-string.
He really had a thing for those shirts. And as far as I knew, he’d never been to Hawaii.
We had a full house tonight, and he was showing them one hell of a good time, which meant no one was asking for drinks. Instead, they were all surrounding the stage, pushing each other out of the way to stick their hard-earned dollars down their bras for him to fetch with his teeth. Just one of the many things Brogan was known for.
But my mind was far away from The Purple Fang and my good-looking friend stripping on stage. Entirely too far. Wandering away to things it really shouldn’t be thinking about at all.
Actually, just one “thing” in particular.
I couldn’t sort out how I felt about Alex. I was having a hard time reconciling the fact that the same man who was so caring and protective, the man who could kiss me senseless and make my blood burn in my veins, was from the same breed as the thing that had tried to kill me. Fear and desire warred within me, unable to come to any kind of balance, and it was making me itch.
Though we were all familiar with each other, the vampires and the witches, something had happened that night he’d saved me from the curse. Something I couldn’t explain. I felt linked to him now somehow. I missed him when he wasn’t around—the sound of his voice, the quirk of his lips, the smell of his blood. And the more time that passed, the more I watched the door, hoping he would walk in, even though I knew it was ridiculous to expect him to just come waltzing into the club, like he wasn’t a warlock and I, a vampire.
But in that same vein, I also knew I couldn’t trust him.
As though he somehow knew I was thinking about him, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I pulled it out and saw that I had a text from a number with no name. A number I was coming to recognize. My heart sped up as I swiped open my screen.
Hey.
I glanced up at Brogan, who was flashing his “fake” fangs and humping a lucky guest who’d paid to get into the “Bite Me” chair on stage (another $20 and she’d get a private bite in the back room), then toward the back office where Killian was talking to Dae-Jung. The office door was closed. I hadn’t told him yet that we knew who it was who had cursed me. I planned to do it tonight after closing time.
When I looked down, there was another text.
I lied to you. I’m not sorry at all.
Heat crawled up my chest and throat. I knew exactly what he was talking about.
I want to see you.
I shook my head, realized Alex couldn’t see me, and tapped out a quick reply.
We can’t.
As much as a part of me wanted to see him, a shiver ran up my spine when I remembered how it felt to have his sorcery wrapped around me. I couldn’t forget that Alex was part djinn, and there would always be that part of him that I would never be able to feel comfortable around.
But he was not to be so easily deterred.
Meet me at St. Louis #1. I’ll wait for you.
I really couldn’t. We’d just be asking for trouble…
I just want to talk.
I snorted out loud at that one. Famous last words if I’d ever heard them. Glancing around, I saw Brogan—in nothing but his G-string now, muscular ass flexing with every step—leading the lucky lady off the sta
ge and toward the back room, a wad of cash in her hand. Dae came out from the back right on time, jogging toward the stage in tight blue jeans and a white tank top as the music changed. It was only the two of them tonight, Jamal and Elias had the night off. And Killian didn’t dance as much now that he had Lizzy.
As Dae was getting into position, women rushed the bar, eager to refill their glasses before he got to “the good part.”
Fine, I responded, then put my phone back into my pocket.
I smiled at my first customer, getting her order and the woman’s next to her. Careful to stay at human speed, I filled mugs and mixed shots. I didn’t allow myself to think too much about what I’d just agreed to. But maybe I should text Jamal and let him know where I would be, just in case.
As I worked on my last order of the rush, I looked up to find Killian watching me from the office doorway with a strange expression on his face. I felt a nervous flutter in my stomach, but quickly quashed it. There was no reason for it. There’s no way he could know about my conversation with Alex. Maybe I’d just forgotten where I was for a second and had done something that could’ve tipped off a customer that we weren’t exactly the type of club they really wanted to frequent.
I gave him a little wave, finished the drink I was working on, gave it to the customer, and rang it up on her tab. When I looked over again, Killian was gone.
Quickly, I pulled out my phone and deleted our messages, feeling like a teenage girl who’d been caught texting the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. The one her father had forbidden her to see. However, my situation was a hell of a lot more serious than that. If caught, it wasn’t like I’d get grounded to my room for the weekend with my phone taken away. I was no young girl, and this wasn’t your ordinary forbidden romance.
No, if it was discovered Alex and I had been meeting secretly, it could cause a war between his people and mine. A war some may not survive if tempers became heated.
I wondered if the mating between Killian and Lizzy might eventually change things, especially now that Lizzy was actually taking part in the witch’s coven, unlike when she’d first arrived in the city. Even hosting meetings in her voodoo shop that she ran strictly for tourists—Ancient Magicks. She didn’t talk about witch business much to Killian, and not at all to anyone else in our house. I had to respect her for that. It couldn’t be easy dividing your loyalties between your aunt—the High Priestess—and your mate.
But nothing had been officially decided that I knew of. Not that it mattered. Alex had always had something edgy about him. And now, knowing what he was…well, it frightened me, if I were to be honest with myself. And I’d had enough of that in my human life, being tossed from one foster home to the next, never knowing if the people who were supposed to care for me would love me or beat me. If I was really lucky, they collected the money for my care and ignored me completely.
Until Killian found me.
I sighed. It’s not that I perceived myself to be a weak female. I didn’t. I wasn’t. Especially not now. For the sake of the gods, I was a vampire, albeit not a very good one. Not many things could harm me. But I now had a family that consisted of five overprotective brothers and a new sister-in-law. I had consistency in my life. I had security. We even had an old dog to love, thanks to Lizzy. And all of that was not something I ever wanted to give up.
Yeah. Alex and I definitely needed to talk.
The rest of the night passed by with little fanfare. Killian left right after last call, only stopping by the bar to tell me he was heading out. Brogan was back on the stage entertaining what remained of the crowd. And Dae was in the back room having his dinner.
I made sure the bar was clean and stocked for the following night, turned off the open sign, and locked the door before I went back to the office to tally up the cash. The guys would let the last, lingering customers out when they were done with them.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed a brunette woman in a red dress that matched her lipstick sitting to one side of the stage. She appeared to be finishing her drink. But her eyes weren’t on Brogan, they were on the curtain that blocked the customer’s view from the private performances that happened there, where Dae was now feeding.
It seemed like I’d seen her here before tonight. Maybe she was a local? Not the majority of our clientele, but not unheard of. We just had to be more careful around those customers. They tended to be less enthusiastic with their alcohol than the tourists, and therefore not as easily swayed. With a mental shrug, I took the cashbox into the office and locked the door behind me.
I was just finishing up when Brogan knocked on the door. “Hey, girl. You about ready?”
Shit. I forgot about my nightly escorts. Ever since the night I’d told Killian about the djinn lurking around outside—not knowing what it was at the time—he had added his orders to Alex’s (unbeknownst to him) that I wasn’t to be on the streets alone.
I needed to get rid of Brogan, but how?
The answer came in the form of the brunette woman. She was standing just down the block from the club when we came out, her red dress covered with a black, leather jacket. But what was weird? She stood right in the middle of the sidewalk, brazen as could be, not trying at all to be inconspicuous.
“Fuck me,” Brogan muttered as I locked the door.
I glanced over at the woman again. “What does she want?” I asked him. I wasn’t overly concerned. It wasn’t the first time a customer had waited outside for us to close and the dancers to come out. And anyway, I had my own problem waiting for me to worry about.
“Not what you think,” he told me.
“Do you need to go handle that?”
He glanced down at me. “No. I’m supposed to stay with you. She can wait.”
We started walking in the opposite direction toward the house. I was thinking I’d just have to let him walk me home and then sneak out when I noticed him looking back over his shoulder. I did the same.
The woman was still there. Same spot. Hadn’t moved an inch.
I looked up at Brogan and saw his jaw clench. “Brogan, really. If you need to go handle that, go ahead. The house is only a few blocks away and there’s still quite a few people out tonight. I’ll be okay.”
He just shook his head without looking at me.
“Look,” I told him. “I’ll call Jamal. Have him meet me along the way.”
I saw a hint of uncertainty in his green eyes, but he finally agreed. “I won’t be long.”
“It’s okay. Go take care of…whatever you need to take care of.” I smiled and pulled my phone out of my pocket, acting like I was getting ready to text Jamal.
“All right.” Wrapping one large hand around the side of my head, he pulled me toward him and dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “Be careful.”
“Will do,” I promised, and watched him walk away without a backward glance.
My heart began to pound, and my mouth went dry with that strange mixture of fear and excitement I felt every time Alex was anywhere near me. At least now I knew why.
The closer I drew to Basin Street where the cemetery was located, the faster my steps became, even as my mind screamed at me to turn around, to go home, to tell him this was a bad idea and that he needed to stay away from me. And really mean it this time.
But it wasn’t until the stone wall that surrounded the cemetery appeared that I hesitated at all.
What the hell am I doing?
With a quick glance around, I continued down St. Louis Street. There was an apartment building across from the cemetery, and just past the apartments was a parking lot. I waited until I was to the lot before, with one last look around, I easily leapt the wall and landed in a crouch on the other side. The cemetery was dark, the aboveground tombs casting long shadows in the faint light of the streetlights.
Due to the famous graves within, the cemetery had been subject to a lot of vandalism over the years, and so the city finally closed it to the public except for guided tours. Why humans a
lways had to ruin everything, I would never know. However, this suited our purpose tonight just fine. And as I spotted Alex standing next to an impressive tomb with a cross on the top near the center of the graveyard, I was glad there was no one there to see how I stopped and stared.
His feet were braced apart, his hands in the front pockets of his jeans, his coat open, and his eyes on the ground in front of him. He appeared lost in thought and hadn’t seen me yet. As I watched, he gave his head a little shake, like he was shaking away ugly thoughts, and pulled out his phone and checked the screen, then shoved it back into his pocket.
I wondered how long he’d been waiting for me. And as I watched him, I couldn’t fight the response I had to his nearness. His scent came to me on the breeze, and I closed my eyes briefly as the bloodlust hit me hard, my fangs shooting down before it spiraled through me, mixing with my hunger to feel his hardness against me, his mouth on mine and his hands on my skin. Desire clenched the muscles deep in my womb, so sharp I gasped out loud.
His head suddenly lifted and snapped around, his eyes pegging me where I stood. In the darkness, they glowed a dark gold for a moment before they dimmed, blending into the shadows of his features.
Pulling his hands from his pockets, he started walking toward me and I did the same, meeting him somewhere in the middle. I wasn’t sure what I expected. That he would grab me in his arms and kiss me senseless? Or at the very least, greet me in some manner that told me he’d missed me.
But he didn’t do any of that. He drew to a stop just out of my reach. Taking his cue, I stopped also.
His eyes grew hard as they travelled over my face. “You’re afraid.”
I took a steadying breath. He was right. Beneath my need for him was still a lingering fear. “I am.”
His expression never changed, but I heard the hesitation in his voice when he asked, “Do you want to leave?”
