Deep Deliverance: The Deep Series, Book 3 (14 page)

“Uh. Not really. Jaguars will do that. They have the jaws for it. They bite through the skull.”

“Tuan uses a sword.”

“His human does. His leopard is far more deadly than his human.”

“I see.” No wonder Tuan said he didn’t need a sword to fight.

“Tigers pretty much knock their prey down and then go for the neck. It’s not as quick, but it’s way more fun.”

Adin didn’t think it sounded fun for the prey.

“Don’t worry. I won’t shift.” He slammed the hatch of the SUV and dusted off his hands. “There’s no point. I’ll have to be in human form to go to a club.”

“We’re going for coffee,” Adin insisted.

“All right.” Barrett gave him a look that was neither innocent nor difficult to understand. “You want coffee? I have just the place.”

All Adin’s internal alarm bells rang. All of them. He was in a stranger’s car, in the middle of the night, in a city he didn’t know well, in a body he couldn’t always control—at least as far as his hunger went.

He checked his phone. No messages from Donte. Which was a good thing.

Or maybe it wasn’t a good thing. Maybe Donte was pacing the floors, trying to
trust
him. Maybe he was waiting by the phone.

He was probably eyeing the door and checking the view out the window, not that he could pick Adin out among all the people one could see from the high floor their room was on. On the other hand, maybe he
could
see that well, and he was watching and waiting…

Adin glanced over at Barrett. “Maybe I should just go back to the hotel now.”

“I drove you all the way to the storage place and I helped you carry my dad’s stupid boxes. The least you could do is have coffee with me.” Barrett shot him a put-upon frown. “God. It’s like you don’t even like me unless you want something.”

Adin’s head fell back against the headrest. He really should have said no in the first place. He really should have called Sean, fed, and gone back to bed with his oh-so-enticing lover.

He really should have stayed home in Colorado where he couldn’t get into any trouble at all.

But by the same token, he wasn’t Charles. He wasn’t a man who used people and just dropped them when he didn’t need them anymore. He didn’t use people at all.

He wasn’t
that kind
of predator.

“All right. Coffee. Sounds good. You can tell me more about your family.”

He really should have known better.

Chapter Nineteen

The dance club Barrett drove them to—a trendy place called Scratch—was probably closing in an hour or so but it was jam-packed with the eighteen and over crowd and filled with so much noise Adin would rather have peeled off all his skin than go inside.

Once they got out of the car, Barrett caught his hand and dragged him to the door, where he paid the cover for both of them.

“You said we were going to a coffee place,” Adin yelled over the noise.

“They have coffee here.” Barrett grinned at him. “I’ll go get some. Wait here.”

A swimmy, hyper-stimulating fifteen minutes passed while Adin adjusted to the manic lighting and electronic dance music.

“Here,” Barrett said as he pushed through the throngs with drinks.

Real drinks, whiskey, neat. A pretty nice peaty blend, actually. Pricey, but good.

Adin took a couple sips and let the burn warm him. He had to shout to be heard over the music. “How did you buy this?”

Barrett grinned. “Are you kidding?”

“No?” Adin shouted again. This was going to get so old, so fast. He was going to lose his voice for days. If there was anything he didn’t miss from his younger days, it was clubbing.

Plus, he wasn’t dressed for this, obviously. No one was even looking at him. He looked like a high school teacher, for God’s sake.

“Fake ID, c’mon.” Barrett hauled him along through the crowd until they found a place by the wall, away from the speakers. Adin’s disorientation made it easy to lead him. Barrett probably knew that. Maybe Barrett had planned that.

“I don’t like this.” Nerves in Adin’s neck prickled. “We should go.”

“Oh, c’mon. It’s not so bad. Drink, and then we can dance.”

“It’s too loud.”

“Don’t be an old guy.”

Adin hated this. “I’m not an old guy. I’m just too old for this kind of thing.”

“Not too old for me though.” Barrett flashed him that smile again.

“I’m with someone.” Adin closed his eyes and prayed for patience. That’s when he noticed how delicious everything—everyone—smelled. Every flavor was there—salty, sweaty, bitter, pungent, spicy, unctuous. The scent of youth and sex and blood made him dizzy with desire. The place was a fucking cruise ship
buffet
, a three-Michelin-star-quality feast for the senses. And that didn’t even count the visuals… How had he not noticed how many of the boys had their shirts off…?

Somehow, his senses had sharpened even more. Was he hungry? No. It wasn’t that. The overwhelming sense disorientation Adin had been experiencing seemed to fall away, and like an opening into another dimension, there was a breathtaking, heart-stopping new world around him. An entirely different world than anything he’d ever seen before.

Colors had
flavor
. Light and noise became one. Individual people were so vivid it was hard to look at them. Some had auras, yellow, red, blue, and indigo. Some glowed like beacons, like they had lights inside their skin that gave them white silhouettes against the blackness of the club around them.

What the hell
is
that?

“Dude,” Barrett shouted into the skin of Donte’s neck. His hot breath coated Adin’s shoulder like honey, making his dick twitch. “Relax. You look like you’ve never been to a club before.”

“I—” His tongue was too thick to talk.

What. The. Hell?

Barrett was too close. Way too close. Barrett was one of the red ones who glowed like the lanterns in the windows of the
Rossebuurt
. Adin flinched away because Barrett throbbed and glowed, and seriously, no good could ever come of something like that.

“I think we should go.” Adin glanced back toward the door, but between him and the outside, there were about five million people, dancing and writhing and dry-humping.

They were so pretty. So goddamned colorful. Glowing with health.

And they smelled so goddamn good—

“Come on. You owe me at least one dance.” Barrett pulled Adin into the center of the mass of bodies. Adin didn’t fight him too hard. Every little thing about this strange new dimension Barrett had drawn him into called to him. The club kids seemed like a strange new species. They wore too-tight clothes and vivid hair colors. They had sinewy dance moves that made them seem like they all knew something, like they were all part of something he didn’t understand anymore.

He didn’t bother mimicking their moves. The crowd was so massive it didn’t matter if he moved at all, he would simply be buffeted this way and that, like a pinball, coming into contact with other pinballs, going whatever direction momentum and velocity dictated. Then Barrett wrapped his hands around Adin’s hips from behind, both steadying and alarming him at the same time.

Barrett’s hands glowed red, but they didn’t tighten painfully. Barrett might have been grinding on him, or he might not…someone was, though…

Adin had lost the ability to tell.

Some other kid, an Asian boy who didn’t look much older than Barrett, danced in front of him for a while, then drifted past. Then another appeared, and then Barrett was there again, red and glowing, smiling happily.

“Not so bad after all, is it? The music is great here.”

Adin didn’t have the strength to say anything, and mostly he didn’t want to. He was busy trying to let the throbbing bass fill him all the way up to the top, inside, and he wondered how come he’d never known how hollow he was?

At some point he truly believed the music could restart his heart, that it would make this vampire thing go away.

It would go away, wouldn’t it? If his heart started again?

He had the strangest feeling that if he could just open himself up wide enough to the music—

“Adin?” Barrett’s voice was too close again. “Talk to me, dude.”

“You’re one of the red ones, Barrett.” Adin smiled at him. “I’m starting to wonder if you’d taste red.”

“Okay. Wow.” Barrett caught Adin’s hand again. “You should probably come with me.”

Adin fought to keep his eyes open as Barrett yanked him through the crowd. The boys there were so polite. There were plenty of girls too, Adin noticed. They were all so sweet. They parted like the Red Sea so Barrett could help him go outside and get a breath of fresh air. They were all being so nice Adin didn’t even tell them he didn’t need to breathe.

“Here, drink some water.” Barrett handed him a bottle of water once they’d burst out into the crisp evening air. Where had he gotten that?

“The people out here have colors too.” Adin glanced around in wonder. “How come I never noticed people glow?”

“Water, Adin.”

“You’re so nice.” Barrett was such a great kid. Adin loved him. He didn’t even mind that he was constantly having to remove his hand or push him back. “I just wish we could hug, you know? That we could just hold each other without it being sexual or anything, Barrett. Because I really, really love you. But you’re too young for me and your hands are totally creeping me out.”

“Take a deep breath, Adin.”

Adin leaned over to whisper, “You do know I don’t have to breathe, right? There’s no point, unless I need to talk. I guess I can take a breath since I’m talking anyway. Wait—”

“Jesus, Adin.” Barrett wrapped his hand around his glowing red neck and dug at the ground with the toe of his pricey Italian leather shoe. “I have—um—a little confession to make.”

“Oh my God. I’m not a priest, am I?” Desperately, Adin tried to remember if he’d ever been a priest. He’d been in an awful lot of churches. “I don’t think it’s kosher if you confess to me. It doesn’t count if I’m not a priest.”

Barrett rubbed his face with both hands. Red tracers swelled away from the motion.

“Wow. Friction has color too.” Adin leaned closer. “Smells like…rum and Coke.”

“That’s me you smell. That’s what I was drinking. It was way watered down, though.” When another group staggered past them into the parking lot, Barrett pushed Adin out of the way. Since most of the group glowed blue and yellow, Adin wanted to follow, just to see what they smelled like. He started after them, but Barrett’s already firm grip clamped down hard on his arm. “I guess this was a really bad idea.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Adin turned to him, surprised by how glum his expression was. “It wasn’t a bad idea at all. Maybe I can find out what the blue and yellow ones taste like.”

“No, Adin.” Barrett’s tone removed all doubt he meant the words, so Adin stayed where he was. After all. Barrett
was
a red one. He smelled like rum and Coke, but Adin didn’t have any idea what he tasted like, and suddenly, he very much wanted to know.

His body stilled. Angry bees buzzed inside his head, telling him what he wanted in no uncertain terms. He felt his fangs elongate, smelled the red one’s blood, heard his blood song, thrum, thrum, thrum…

Barrett’s hand came up and
crack
, slapped him, open-palmed, across the face.

Shocked, Adin put a hand to his fiery cheek. “Why the fuck did you do that?”

“Why do you think?” Impatiently, Barrett jerked Adin along at his side. He used the remote to open the passenger door of his SUV and waited for Adin to get the message. “
Get in
. You were vamping out there for a minute.”

“You can tell?” Adin’s cheek still burned where Barrett had struck it, but after he got into the car the cool leather seats curved around him, cushioned and comfortable as hell. He was tired all of a sudden. He let his head loll against the headrest. “Was I really?”

Barrett got in on the other side. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not the kind of guy who eats the people I’m dancing with.”

“Pshhhht.” Adin waved those words away. “I wasn’t going to
eat
anyone. They looked like Skittles, Barrett. I wanted to taste the rainbow.”

“I’m going to smack you again if you vamp out, so be cool while I get your seatbelt—” Barrett reached over and dragged the band across Adin’s chest, “—hooked up. I swear to God. Vampires never do what you think they will.”

“I thought you said tigers and vampires are like cowmen and shepherds.”

Barrett gave him a blank stare. “Huh?”

“What do they teach instead of American history these days? Ranchers and sheep herders fight for the same resources, namely, grazing and water rights. Wars were—”

“Okay, you’re kind of hot when you go all teach-y, but seriously. Give it a rest. I’m going to take you for coffee now, and then I’ll take you back to the hotel.”

“I don’t really need any coffee.” Even as he said it, his head started to hurt. Dizziness followed when the car got moving. “I think I just need to go to sleep now.”

“Don’t go to sleep, Adin. I need you to be able to walk.”

Adin blinked. “That may be more than I can handle right now.”

“That’s why you need coffee.”

“You’re awfully nice.” Adin turned his head and gave Barrett his widest smile. Barrett was being so kind. He’d taken him to get his dad’s laptop and books, and stopped him from eating the children. “You’re such a good friend.”

“So you’ll have coffee?”

“My head hurts like a bitch. Coffee might help.” Adin let his gaze drift to the people on the sidewalk. Blue, blue, violet, white. There was an occasional man or woman who didn’t glow at all. No color. No light. Adin didn’t have time to wonder why before they pulled into the parking lot of a well-lit coffee shop. It wasn’t a big chain place, but one of those hipster hangouts. Every other kid was typing furiously on a laptop. Either they were close to a school or they were all writing screenplays.

Barrett parked the car and turned to him. “I think it would be best if you stay here. I’ll go inside, get some coffee to go, and then I’ll bring it back. What would you like?”

“I would love an enormous shaken sweet tea. Iced. The biggest they’ve got. Trenta.” Adin’s mouth watered. He still craved sugar sometimes. He couldn’t handle the chai anymore because of the milk—couldn’t even handle soy milk—but the sweet tea…That was good. Like alcohol, tea and black coffee didn’t seem to go down poorly. Not like food. God. Just the thought of food made him want to hurl. “I don’t feel so well.”

“All right. I’ll get you that tea then. Stay. Here.” Barrett frowned at him to emphasize the words. “Stay put. I mean it. Don’t get out of the car. Don’t go anywhere.”

“All right, already. Where would I go?”

After Barrett left, Adin realized he’d forgotten to ask for the keys. He could have listened to the radio. Too bad. Silence was nice though. That damned dance music still rang in his ears.

From where he was sitting, he could watch the people walk by…

Blue. A cluster of reds. A yellow, a yellow, and then one of those mysterious no-color ones. Adin looked closer. There didn’t seem to be anything unusual about her. She was dressed for clubbing. Carried a delicate, expensive purse.

She was probably one of the college kids from the area, judging by her age, but she didn’t light up like the others. He couldn’t see her face at all. He watched a few more people go by. Young men with beards. A LOT of beards. It was like…fucking biblical, the number of men with beards. They looked like Victorian businessmen, except they were dressed all wrong.

Adin blinked again while he let another little parade of pretty colors pass.

A van pulled up, and another group got out. More colors. Mostly red, like Barrett. As Adin watched, they passed Barrett’s SUV all swagger, as if they owned the world. They were big and buff, with thick necks and broad shoulders. They might have been gym rats or football players. The last one out caught Adin’s attention. He alone among the group was dark. Unlit. There was no color, no light coming from him at all.

Before he could think what he was doing, Adin got out of the car.

Like a small school of fish, the red ones turned to him as one.

“Are you kidding me?” one of them said. “Isn’t that Barrett’s car?”

“Yeah.” Another spat on the ground with disgust. “Why the fuck did he bring that here?”

Adin glanced behind him. Were they referring to the SUV? It wasn’t a beater or anything.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face around here, corpsepuppet.”