Pool of Crimson (20 page)

“What?” Jade jumped at my outburst.

“New moon. On the calendar in Marlboro Man’s office. The square with new moon was circled with a T. Dean crossed out.”

“I haven’t heard anything about a Dean,” she said as she relaxed back against the sofa.

My conversation with Danny flashed through my mind. The realization gave me a sinking feeling.

“I have,” I said softly as I met her eyes. “The werewolf Alpha’s name is Dean. They’re going to use the demon to kill the werewolf Alpha.”

“So what do we do now?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that I’m tired of running and the Marlboro Man can’t summon anything or lock me in a box if he’s dead,” I said with the conviction of knowing that I could kill him. I might end up dead, too, but I sure as hell would take him with me.

“What are you going to do?” Jade asked, the first quiver of fear in her voice.

“I’m going hunting.”

Chapter 15

Crimson
may have been neutral territory for the preternatural community but it was like shooting fish in a barrel for me. I stood outside in line, waiting for the bouncer to let some of us in. I had slim hopes for myself. I was standing in line with thirty or forty super thin women with more skin showing than fabric. Not one of them was older than 24. I wore an easy and comfortable halter jersey dress that flowed freely from my hips to several inches above my knee. The silky fabric easily covered the garter strapped around my thigh filled with stakes and the sheath on my other thigh encasing my knife. I wore a black cardigan over the electric blue dress. It was freakin’ cold outside. It was October for Christ’s sakes. As the 24-year-olds stood in line shivering, I was comfortable.

At around 10:30 p.m., I finally got inside. The house techno music hit me like a freight train, thumping in time with my heart. Did I mention I hate dance clubs?

I pushed through the crowd clustered around the entrance. The music wasn’t the only thing that hit me. Power and magic pulsed through the building like electricity, humming in my brain and tingling like an icy burn across my skin. There were so many vampires and God only knew what else in the club that I couldn’t pick one out from another. All their power blended together to make a pungent cocktail of static that prickled against my skin, making the hair on my arms stand on end. The closer I got to someone, the easier it was to pick out their power signature from the next. I walked, sifting through them as I went.

I made my way to the bar and got a five-dollar bottle of water. The crowd closed in around me, surrounding me with body heat as sweaty bodies touched my skin and their energy clung to me like lint. I couldn’t take the press of bodies. I stepped on someone’s open-toed shoes and ignored the screech of pain as I fought to get out of the throng. I jabbed people in the ribs, extracting grunts of discomfort, as I made my way to the far side of the club. The space was a decent size, crammed full. It was probably
way
over the fire code allowance.

Red neon lights jutted out from the ceiling haphazardly with no real sense of symmetry, like slashes of blood in the dark.

A familiar cool push of power caressed against my skin and tickled down my spine, making my fingers tingle. “I don’t need this shit,” I said to myself. It was time to move. I pushed through the people again and away from the seclusion of the corner. I wasn’t sure where I was going, just away. A cool hand grasped my arm from behind, and I turned quickly. I knew who it was before I met his dark gaze. I’d know the feel of his power anywhere.

Patrick stood much too close. I had to look up to see his eyes. If I took a deep breath, I would’ve been pressed against him.

Don’t take that deep breath.
Dear God, don’t take that breath.

“We should stop meeting like this,” I said with a clear, calm tone that surprised even me. I hardened the look in my eyes and stiffened my muscles against his grip. “We should stop meeting period,” I finished flatly.

“I don’t like that option,” he said with a smile that almost brought me to my knees.

“I don’t really care what you like,” I said defiantly. See, I could be a big bad ass. I tried to pull my arm away from him, but his grip tightened, almost painfully, around my bicep. He pulled me to him in a violent motion that brought me colliding into his chest. Air left my lungs in a rush with the impact, and I gasped. “Jesus,” I breathed as I tried to yank my arm out of his grasp again.

“I think you do care,” he said, his lips desperately close to mine. They were full and kissable as they curved up into a knowing smile. His cool breath brushed across my lips like a kiss.

Around us, I felt the odd sensation of being consumed in a fog of a cool November morning, thick and blinding for miles. I shook my head to try and clear the fog from my brain. The strange power pushed over and around Patrick’s consistent chilled pressure, as if feeling me out but never overpowering him. This vampire was old, really old but not stronger. The power tasted feminine, almost delicate.

I peered over Patrick’s shoulder and saw her. She was short, so short I almost missed her in the crowd. She was beautiful, breathtaking actually. She was Hispanic, with dark penetrating eyes that met mine with a naughty smile, like she knew what I tasted like without my panties. Her hair was bright yellow in a strategically tousled mess. She walked on and disappeared into the crowd.

I looked back up into Patrick’s eyes and found him watching me closely. His free hand closed around my other bicep quickly. He lifted me from the ground and he slammed me into the wall a few feet behind me. My feet dangled above the floor. The air rushed from my lungs again as my back slammed into the cold, brick wall.

“You can feel us,” he said with a furrowed brow. He locked onto my gaze in confusion as his dark eyes narrowed on me. “
Who
are you?” he asked as if he didn’t really want to me answer. “
What
are you?” he breathed against me.

How could I answer a question I didn’t know the answer to myself? I struggled against him. I couldn’t defend myself but what worried me was that I was starting to like it.

“Let me go,” I begged. I couldn’t say another word. His lips crashed down on mine. I opened my mouth to him and slipped my tongue between his teeth, wrapping my legs around his waist as he held me against the wall before I realized that I had done it.

He let go of my bicep and slipped his hand underneath my ass, holding me up. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him to me. His hand was cool against my bare skin as his fingers dug into the fleshy meat of my ass. I clutched him to me. I didn’t want any space between us. His other hand released my bicep and traveled over my shoulder, up my neck, to my face. He cupped my cheek as the kiss changed to something more tender, more intimate.

His lips were full and soft against mine, his tongue sweet and tenacious, and his hands possessive as he seemed to consume me. The hunger in his kiss made my heart race and flutter, but I wanted the tenderness his lips promised. He inched away slowly, as if relishing every last taste. I’d never been kissed like that, not by Danny, not by anyone.

My chest heaved as desire and fear raced through my system, forcing my lungs to demand more and more air and my stomach to twist into fluttering anxious knots. That soft fog of power brushed over me again as I finally caught my breath. “She’s coming back,” I whispered in soft warning. “We’re about to be discovered.”

“That was supposed to cure me of you,” he whispered hoarsely against my cheek.

I completely understood. I wanted him to kiss me again; wanted it, needed it, dreaded it.

“How’d that work out for you?” I asked with a smirk. He stepped back from the wall, loosening his hold on me. I released the grip I had on him with my thighs and slid my legs down the length of his body until my feet hit the floor on wobbly legs. The hard embodiment of his desire pressed against my pelvis as I regained my balance and relearned how to walk.

He took my hand in his and started through the crowd. I stumbled behind him as I tripped on toes, got a few random hands on my ass and a disgruntled “hey” or two before we made it through the crowd. The chill of fresh air hit my face and cleared my senses. His grip on my hand never slackened. I stepped out onto the sidewalk. A black stretch limo pulled up to the curb. The door opened before I understood that the limo waited for Patrick. He pushed me before him and into the limo.

I’d never been in a limo before. It was surprisingly cramped. Seats lined the walls but there wasn’t a whole lot of empty space. Patrick followed me, in then closed the door behind him.

What am I doing?

I was trapped in a car with a vampire. The look in Patrick’s eyes was hungry and dangerous, but I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. He wanted me. Hunger radiated off of him in waves and my own heat pulsed in response.

“Drive,” he barked to the driver.

“Where to?” the driver asked obediently.

“I don’t care, just don’t stop until I tell you,” Patrick said as he hit a button over his head, raising the privacy wall between us and the driver. I sat back against the seat, suddenly very self-conscious.

What am I doing here? I must have lost my mind ...

Patrick crawled toward me, the muscles in his shoulders seeming to work independently from the rest of his body like a giant cat. I knew then that he was the predator. I was definitely his prey, and I didn’t care.

He reached out and caressed my leg, running his fingers smoothly up my thigh like silk. He pushed the fabric of my dress higher and higher, revealing the edges of my stockings and my garters. I trembled at his touch. His fingers were chilled, desire igniting up my leg straight to my hot, wet sex. I released a quaking breath as his lips brushed my knee, then the inside of my thigh. I threw my head back and grabbed a clump of his hair in each hand. It was coarse and thick between my fingers.

His other hand ran up the inside of my other leg, pushing my thighs apart. He stopped momentarily as his hand brushed over the garter strapped to my thigh with six stakes secured snugly around my leg. I heard a soft growl of want as he licked a path up my thigh, ignoring the garter with the stakes and the sheath on my other thigh. The chill of his nose pressed against the warmth between my legs, sending a shiver through me.

The sound of the sharp tear of threads filled the limo as Patrick’s finger slipped underneath my panties and tugged. The cotton was tight against my skin, pinching as the thin fabric tore. His fingers were chilly against my warm body. The longer he touched me, the warmer his skin became, as if he were stealing my warmth. He jerked on my panties hard, ripping them from my pelvis like they were made of tissue paper.

His tongue flicked lightly against my throbbing warmth. Shudders ripped through me. My entire being quivered with pleasure as his tongue lapped at me. I bit my bottom lip and arched my back, waiting for more. God, I wanted more. He kissed me in a deep open-mouthed kiss as his tongue thrust inside of me. I couldn’t help or stop the moan that escaped my throat. Patrick languorously licked his tongue over my clitoris again and again, in a steady sultry rhythm that sent electric shocks of heat through me.

Pressure built from deep inside me as he continued to glide his tongue, which was like raw silk over my engorged nub. He slid his first two fingers inside me and curled them ever so slightly. He moved them in and out in time with his tongue.

“OH ... MY ... GOD,” I said with a heavy, heaving breath as I clutched at his hair. My eyes rolled back in my head as pleasure overwhelmed me and my body convulsed. I tried to cry out as the orgasm took me but I’d been holding my breath in surprise. I had no air to scream. My legs shook with the release. Everything I’d been holding so tightly, anxiety, stress, desire and especially fear, vanished in that glorious moment.

Patrick shifted, and the sound of his zipper falling filled the confinement of the limo over the soft hum of the engine. I wanted to watch him enter me. I wanted to be able to think clearly. I wanted him to touch me again, no matter what it cost me.

He knelt on the seat, his body solid and sculpted, like he’d been chiseled out of pale white marble. His midnight black shirt was unbuttoned, open, framing his beautiful alabaster body. I wanted to reach out and touch him. Every muscle covering his chest and stomach rippled with magnificence. I looked down. He was hard, large, and ready.

Patrick’s face was calm, but serious, as he grabbed my arm and urged my hips up to meet him, pressing my breasts firmly against his rock hard chest. I wrapped my legs around him tightly. He anchored me with his arm under my ass. I could feel his cock rub against the inside of my thigh and the wetness free flowing from me. As he slid inside of me, I realized I’d needed this and that I’d needed him. We melded together perfectly as he began his slow, controlled and titillating rhythm in and out of me. I writhed against him as he thrust.

He kissed me in a deep, lingering kiss that tasted of me. My body heat migrated to him as he absorbed my excess. The transference tingled of magic as my skin pressed against his. I liked that I could make his cheeks blush with the heat from my body.

Patrick held my gaze as he pushed himself deep inside of me. The pressure built again as he pumped, again and again. I couldn’t hold back. I was going to come. He stared at me hard as if he were trying to read my mind. I knew what he wanted. At that moment, I wanted every bit of him inside of me that I could get. I tilted my head back as the climax overwhelmed me, exposing my neck and shoulder.

He sank his teeth into me in a sharp prick of pleasure as his climax burst out of him. He pushed the pain into pleasure in a rush of orgasm after rippling orgasm as he lapped at my neck, sucking and tugging at my flesh as he drank. The air swarmed around me with the cool tingle of his power and a mix of something else that I couldn’t place. I’d never felt anything like it. The entire limo stank of magic and sex. I collapsed in his arms, completely spent of energy.

A rush of wind whipped against my back as the endorphins of the orgasm started to fade, swirling around me like I was stuck in the middle of a cyclone. It became difficult to breathe. Patrick’s arms tightened around me as his mouth suckled at my neck. My mind went dark as power slammed into me, like I’d been hit with an air bag on all sides. I heard my own grunt as my body froze without my consent.