Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) (40 page)

We finally step up to the doorman in front of Club Sirup, and I hand him our IDs. “She’s eighteen,” I say, sprinkling in enough Sanjam to get the guy to let Brooke in, but not enough for anyone to think the better of it.

He opens the door to stale cigarette smoke and puts his hand out for me to give him our cover charge.

I give him the kunas and place my hand on the small of Brooke’s back as we walk inside. I’m not trying to get frisky with her, but I don’t want anyone else to, either.

The white, padded walls of the tight curving hallway are lit with evenly placed neon blue LEDs. The walls mold into arched ceilings, giving the hall an intimate flair. We’re not even to the main area of the club yet and already it’s an experience.

We check our coats at the end of the hall.

“It’s cold,” Brooke says after we walk away from the coat check.

“It’ll get warmer once we’re surrounded by the body heat on the main floor.”

The thumping music vibrates beneath our feet before we reach the stairs. Lights are everywhere, serving as the primary focus of the club’s décor. Strategically placed lights run along the walls, down the stairs, along the bar and DJ booth, and along the ceiling. Pink, blue, and orange are the base colors with green and yellow lasers shooting across the crowded room. 

“Wow!” Brooke yells over the music. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” She’s bouncing her shoulders and hips to the tempo as we make our way along the wall over to the bar.

I keep her close while searching the faces for the one we’re looking for.

We wait behind a group of people ordering drinks. I get a good look at each of them as they pass, and then it’s our turn. “Two colas,” I tell the bartender in Croatian.

As soon as he gives us our drinks, I’m clearing a path through the thumping crowd to the other side of the room.

Brooke looks at me a couple of times and steps in front of me to get me to dance with her. A part of me wants to, but we’re here for more than that, and I need to stay focused. She has a way of making me forget everything else around us. Especially when she rocks her hips and shakes her ass like that.

Brooke gets more and more frustrated throughout the night. But not for the same reasons I am.

I’m wearing white pants
and a black zip-up sweater. It hugs my chest and shoulders, but is loose around the waist and hips. Brooke’s been appreciating it all night. Plus, I won’t dance with her. I know she’s feeling awkward because we’re not dancing. According to her, we’re standing around like “a couple of weirdoes.”

Other guys are looking at her, and I’m keyed up enough to want to break their necks. I should’ve switched with Ace and brought Kaitlynn. At least with her, I wouldn’t feel ready to punch out every guy for being a guy.

Brooke gets fed up and walks over to the tall man with the goatee who’s been ogling her for the past ten minutes.

What the hell is she doing?

Goatee smiles when she approaches him. “I was starting to lose hope that you’d notice me.”

“Well, my friend over there won’t dance with me.” She pouts and points over at me.

I clench my jaw and shake my head, slow and exaggerated, in warning to her. 

Goatee turns to me and then looks back at Brooke. “His loss,” he says. His accent is thick, but he speaks English well. The guy offers her his hand and she fucking takes it.

I can’t believe this shit.

He leads her out to the dance floor and grabs her hip.

I can’t hold back anymore. I storm over there and pull her out of the guy’s reach. “Keep walking,” I growl.

“Hey!” Goatee yells and steps after us.

I turn and glare at him. “Go home,” I snarl because if he doesn’t, I’ll kill the bastard, and he won’t know what he did wrong.

Goatee stares back at me like he forgot what he was about to do and then turns and walks out of the bar. He doesn’t stop to pick up his coat off his chair.

I saved his ass. From myself. I’m quite proud even if I feel like I’m losing my shit over something stupid. I place my palm on Brooke’s shoulder, leading her toward the back of the club.

We reach a back exit and I slap the handle, pushing the door open and whipping us in the face with cold air. She takes the brunt since she’s in the front.

The door leads out to a slender, cobblestone road, not wide enough for a car, with a building three feet away made of similar stone as this one.

She turns around once the door shuts behind us. I don’t know if she’s pissed because I embarrassed her or because she embarrassed herself. “You don’t have to be a jerk!” she yells.

I guess it’s me.

“I’m a jerk?” I get in her face and she has no option but to step backward. I am closer with every step back she takes, so I keep stepping until her back hits the opposite wall. “I have never once done anything to intentionally hurt you.”

She leans into my face. We’re so close we’re breathing the same air. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you! I was trying to get you to dance with me.”

I jolt my head back. “Oh, and because I didn’t, you turn around and go to the guy next in line? That’s low, Brooke.”

“What the hell? I’ve risked my relationship with my dad, with Kaitlynn, Jaren, and so much more to be with you.”

I narrow my eyes at her and lower my voice. “And I didn’t? Every moment I spend with you is another moment I’m risking my
life
.”

My emotions break through every barrier I’ve managed to hide them behind. I’m raw. If she touches me right now, it’ll burn. “I love you so damn much, Brooke. I waited around for you when you couldn’t realize Jaren was an idiot and you belonged with me. I’ve stood by your side through everything. I’ve risked my life for you and all I’ve asked is that you let me love you!”

“I have! I want you to.”

“No, telling me to leave is the opposite of letting me love you. You promised me. I don’t care that you did it to try to protect me. I don’t need that. I protect you, remember? I would’ve found a way around leaving you.”

She drops some of her defensiveness. “Yeah, fighting Vasek or my dad wasn’t going to be it, and that was where things were heading. He made it clear that if we didn’t stop, he’d kill you. What was I supposed to do? What would you have done if you were me?”

I tear at the zipper on my sweater and expose my bare chest to her in emphasis. She doesn’t get it. “I’ve bared my soul to you. I’ve given you my heart.” I slap my chest. “And the first time we feel some real heat, you break your promise—you abandon me. Abandon us, and ask me to leave.”

“You know why I had to do that.”

“I know why you felt you had to, but I told you not to say it, and you did anyway.” And that’s what hurts the most. She broke her word and didn’t trust me.

“Remember when you
lied
to me?” Brooke throws back.

“That’s not even on the same level as how you hurt me.” I glare at her.

“Maybe to you. But both of them are areas of trust that hurt the other. However well intended we were.”

I knew that would bite me in the ass one day.

“Mirko, I’m sorry. Okay? I couldn’t let him hurt you! You’d do the same thing if the situation were reversed.” She pushes me in the chest.

I grab her wrists and pin her against the building, her hands above her head, scraping my knuckles against the textured old stone.

But really, what am I thinking? Trying to keep myself from her, trying to give her up hurts as bad or more than what she did to me.

More. A life without loving Brooke when she’s here to let me has got to be the stupidest damn thing I’ve ever attempted.

I pierce her with my eyes, my jaw set. My breaths come loud and quick. Chest to chest, my heart beats against the top of her breasts. Her heart’s pounding too. “Do you want me to leave now?” I grate between my teeth.

Her body responds to me; her breath quickens, matching the tempo of mine. “No.” She yanks her hands, but there’s no give there. “I didn’t want you to go then, either. Well, I did. But only because I didn’t want my dad to hurt you. I didn’t want you to go,” she finally says more convincingly.

I slowly drop my head close to her ear. “Do you want me to leave now?”

“No.” She jerks her arms, trying again to loosen them. “I said I don’t want you to leave.”

“Show me,” I whisper in her ear. The words are hot as they leave my mouth and mix with the cold night air.

She shivers and arches her chest, pushing her body against mine.

She strokes her cheek along mine tentatively, like she’s not sure how to do what we both want her to do next.

I reposition her hands so I’m holding them to the wall with only one of mine and cup her cheek.

She kisses me. She kisses me so hard and deep, I feel something of mine bulge against her hip.

It excites her. She sucks my tongue.

I push my chest tighter against hers and grind my hips into her.

She lets go of my tongue and dances with it. I slowly let her hands drop. Once they’re free, she wraps her arms around my neck, pushing some of my weight off her. She jumps, wrapping her legs around me.

I’m about to reach up her dress when scuffling and a sob comes from around the corner. I jerk my head to the left and see a group of people chasing a woman into the alley.

Shit!

I pull Brooke away from the wall enough to slide farther away, but there’s nowhere to hide. I push her tight against the wall as the gang of Zao Duhs beat the woman with a crowbar until she drops to the ground. They pile on top of her and feed.

I’d run, but Brooke squirms, trying to get away and help the woman. I push Brooke tighter against the wall and try to wiggle her in the opposite direction.

“We can’t leave her,” she hisses. “They’ll kill her.”

She flexes out of my control and over to the feeding Zao Duhs. She grabs one by the neck and throws him to the side. She reaches for the next one, but the one she tossed is back up and going for her.

“Dammit, Brooke!” I run to get her out of the crazed Zao Duh’s reach. I push her and take the punch the guy cocked for Brooke’s head.

It hits my shoulder and jostles me sideways.

I bound back and punch him in the jaw, knocking him out. He drops to the ground, and in great timing because now I have to intervene between Brooke and another thug.

I grab him by the collar of his sweater and swing him around, meeting my fist with his nose. His face was already a bloody mess, but now his blood mixes with his victim’s.

Brooke’s not smart enough to stop, either. Every time I take over someone from her, she goes to the next one. “Let’s go!” I order and kick the punk she’s facing off with in the knee.

He falls, but now the others are standing up and facing us.

Brooke peers down at the girl, now fully exposed, as everyone prepares to come at us. She looks back at me and nods.

Oh, so now she realizes we’ve done all we can do?

Son of a bitch.

We turn and run like hell.

Footsteps pound on the cobblestones behind us. “Flex out of here.”

Brooke’s still beside me.

“Now!”

“No!” She keeps pumping her little arms as fast as she can while running in her dress shoes.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I recognize some of these guys, so they sure as hell have to recognize me.

We turn a corner when hands grab us and pull us into a dark alcove.

I reach for the person’s throat.

“Shh, Mirko, it’s me,” a familiar voice whispers.

Andric?

Yes! I pull Brooke tighter between Andric and me and cover her mouth.

She finally realizes we’re okay and relaxes.

Pounding of many feet pass us and continue on.

When Andric feels they’re far enough away, he leads us across the street and a few doors over before he opens one and hustles us inside.