Wasteland (2 page)

Another stroke of warmth set me afire. I found myself near the entrance to the dancers, surrounded by soft, fair-skinned females, swaying their arms in my direction.

The glass slid from my hand and crashed to the hardwood floor but I never heard it land over the music. My breath came in short gasps as five women encircled me. My heart couldn’t have pounded harder had I faced seven legions of demons in battle. Lights flashed in my eyes, and my vision tilted. Hyperventilation cinched my lungs.

“Hey, baby.” A woman gyrated against my leg, her silky dress riding up her thighs.

Hands kneaded my backside. “Wanna dance?” another voice breathed.

Slender fingers grazed my chest. Despite the layer of protection my black, cotton t-shirt provided, the touch singed my skin like a branding iron. I snatched the frail wrist and pushed it away. My body stiffened. I leaned sideways to locate Gage. He stood next to the railing, his body convulsing with laughter. If I survived this sea of wicked temptation, I would kill him.

“Excuse me, please, madam,” I said. “Pardon me.”

My voice cracked like those kids in the prepubescent TV shows Master’s minions made me watch on the plane ride from New York to learn the culture. I was four hundred years old. I didn’t need this.

“Please. Let me through, ladies.” I could have ground my molars to dust my jaw clenched so tight. My demon’s nails sliced my chest from inside. Weak from my punishment, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold him at bay.

The circle of women tightened. A curvy body flattened against my back, another to my side. Desire rippled through me, and my body quaked. Something rubbed against the front of my denim jeans. A hand with red-painted fingernails. I moved away, but the wall of blazing, supple bodies blocked my escape.

Curse Master for throwing me into this pit of temptation.

I held my hands up, scared to shove them too hard for fear I’d hurt them, but the demon inside me roared, pulverizing my insides in demand for his pleasures. I bit my cheek hard, the metallic taste of blood oozing into my mouth. I curled my fingers into my palms, preventing the black claws—
his
weapons—from bursting through my fingertips.

“All right, ladies, that’s enough,” a high-pitched voice said. I couldn’t locate the source.

A female grabbed my hand and jerked me through the sea of soft temptation. The fingers clutching my forearm singed my skin as we broke through the human wall.

My gaze followed the hand grasping mine, and I found an arm of smooth, light skin that led to a shoulder over which a thin strap of cranberry-red indented the flesh. My eyes followed the crimson fabric to the ample curves of her breasts. I snapped my focus to her face and shook from her grasp.

The woman I’d watched dancing smiled at me.

Blond hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall. Strands clung to her glistening chest where the dress met her cleavage.

I checked my forearm to make sure I hadn’t been charred.

“You okay? I saw the Jezebels grab you.” The soft voice flowing from her full lips rivaled a harp. Harmonic. Soothing.

I knew then I’d been in solitary much too long. “Ah, yes. Thank you, ma’am.”

“Ma’am?” She raised a pale brow and inched closer. The scent of lilacs washed over me. “Are you for real?”

I shut my eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Pardon me.” I glanced back at the pack of women. They’d found another man to accost, but his smile indicated he appreciated the body bumping. Not that I didn’t, but the feel of their soft bodies crushed against mine was too—

“They do that all the time. They’re regulars.”

I willed myself to stay focused on the woman’s face. She stood five-foot-ten, shoulders back, so we nearly stood at eye level. Such bright, vibrant green emeralds returned my stare. “Regulars?”

“They are.”

“They do that often?” I could not understand what would possess a group of females to act in such an unbecoming manner.

She tilted her head and inhaled. The gesture alone lured my gaze down. Her soft curves, confined by the scarlet fabric taunted me. The demon’s searing hunger for her pierced my chest.

I had to get out of this place. To hell with finding Jessica Hanks. If I gave in to this sudden immersion, I’d never see light again. But if I gave in, I could ravage this woman standing inches from me.

No. I will not.

I’d fought the temptation to turn for four centuries. I wouldn’t break now.

The music’s tempo slowed and transformed into a different, flowing song. Of course the melody was foreign to me, but the crowd fell into a hypnotic sway. Reminded me of standing on a ship at sea. The woman had led me to the dance floor before I realized we’d moved.

Like a dream, a cloud of smoke enveloped us. The lady in red brushed against me, her body igniting a fire not stoked in a quarter millennia. Her hand rested on my chest, and she gazed at me with her sea-green gems.

Muscles along her jaw twitched. Her nostrils flared. “Who—?” She broke eye contact and cleared her throat.

Did she sense the demon scratching at my insides to get to her?

“We’re almost dancing,” she said.

My arms hung like weighted oars at my side, and I inspected the other couples to see what to do with them. Many men had their arms draped around the women’s waists, some had hands on their backsides, slowly stroking.

Too much.
“Excuse me. I must take my leave.”

“You do look a little sick.”

“I detest crowds.”

She removed her hand from my chest. “Then you came to the wrong place, didn’t you?” She winked, flicked her long hair over her shoulder and strode to the bar, weaving through the mass of people like a ballerina.

She leaned over the counter and talked to the barkeep. A tall man came over and rested his palm on the small of her back. She flinched, then a smile creased her face, and she wrapped her arm around his neck. I almost felt her arms on me instead, and the thought left me gasping for air.

A large, longhaired man with onyx eyes appeared before me.

“Getting a nice look, buddy?”

“Excuse me?”

“Time for you to leave,” he shouted over the music as he shoved my shoulder.

I already knew it was long past time to leave, but to be told by an overgrown, arrogant human?
I think not
. I batted his hand away and snatched his fingers. Knuckles popped beneath my grip. Veins in his neck bulged, and his eyes widened.

“You do not tell me when to leave.” The demon scratched at the surface of my heart, begging to be unleashed on this imbecile.

“I know what you are.”

I leaned close. The earthy, foul stench of ale laced his breath. “Oh yeah?”

“Demon,” he said.

“Then you should know better than to come at me like this,
Human
.” I released his hand and backed away. I couldn’t afford a challenge right now. Not while working the woman’s succulent lilac scent out of my system.

The human shook out his hand and stepped forward like he intended to challenge me. A snarl streamed from my mouth, and my nails elongated. I let the talons dig into my palms.

Better mine than his.

He pointed his finger at me. “Stay away from my sister or I’ll end you.”

The tips of my fangs elongated, dipping into my bottom lip. He’d just challenged me, and I never backed down from one. But if I morphed, I would kill him. I would not make my Mark if I was discovered.

And that would land me into solitary
again.

CHAPTER 2

I stormed out of the club unsure where I’d found the strength to back down from a challenge. Although nighttime, the thermal air provided little relief from the blistering-hot blood pulsing through my veins. Two thick-necked bouncers, one standing on either side of the door, watched me with narrowed eyes.

Two short men, holding the hands of equally short women, tugged their girls out of my path as I stomped past. My face must have reflected the agony festering. I stumbled onward, my army boots clapping against the concrete.

My chest constricted, I worked to keep the frenzied demon inside. His bays echoed within my skull. Dormant for so long, while in confinement, he urged for release. He longed for sex and death and havoc with such intensity, the emotions fermenting in my tired brain flamed my blood.

Ahead were the beginnings of darkness. The promise of reduced stimuli propelled me down the side of the club. An alley. Perfect. In this state I might not be able to control my other half if it emerged. I couldn’t allow him out. I squatted against the brick wall. The smell of sour beer and soggy cigarette butts mingled with rotting garbage assaulted my senses.

Have to keep moving.

I hopped up, landing on unsteady legs. Darkness and quiet would help. Honking horns from the adjoining street, and the far-off wail of a siren had me hasten my pace in the direction of darkness. If Gage found me this close to transformation, he would provoke me further.

Like my last babysitter insisted on doing. He had soon experienced what happened when I was provoked.

Deep inside, the beast within me awakened. Somehow, the man in the bar knew what I was, even though my brand was hidden beneath the fabric of my shirt. Not that a human would understand its meaning. The man wasn’t demonic, but somehow he knew.

I hurried toward the darkness, chest heaving, focusing on my human side. Normally I wasn’t so easily triggered, but the overwhelming wave of stimuli weakened my will. I sagged against the wall, jagged edges of brick digging into my flesh. The moon shone bright, but its light soothed my thrashing senses.

I breathed through my nose, then out my mouth. I let the darkness envelop me, hoping it’d calm the churning beast.

Soon, the agony piercing my heart subsided, and my human-half gained control. A flash of the lady-in-red’s face had my pulse skyrocketing again. Soft skin and firm breasts pressed against my body, long cover of hair—everything an effective temptress would have.

Her lilac perfume filtered through my senses even here in a dank alleyway.

I slammed my hand against the wall, the pain refocusing me. “Damn Master for sending me here.”

“He’s already damned, David, as are you and I.”

I straightened at Gage’s voice and opened my eyes. The dim streetlights behind him hooded his features, rendering him nothing but a dark shadow blocking the entryway to the alley.

The demon shifted inside me, raking at my chest again. If he couldn’t get sex, he would settle for a fight.

“Why fight it? You could have ripped that guy’s head off in there. I could tell you wanted to.” Gage moved closer.

I detected the challenge brewing in Gage’s stare and tense jaw.

“Killing innocents in the middle of crowded dance clubs would not aid me on my mission.” I rubbed my hand over my raw knuckles. The unyielding brick I’d pounded left my skin bloody.

Gage propped himself against the wall across from me and folded his thick arms over his chest. Besides his flabby stomach creasing his shirt, he’d remained fairly fit. His biceps tested the stretching limits of the short sleeves. Shaggy, strawberry blond hair drifted over his forehead, casting an ominous shadow over his already dubious eyes.

“True. Well, there’s always later.” Gage’s laughter bounced off the towering walls.

I glanced down the other end of the alley. It intersected with a seven-foot tall brick wall, sealing the end.

“Be gone,” I said.

I didn’t dare tell Gage the man from the bar detected my demonic being. If he figured me out, and I was only
half
demon, he’d easily detect a full-blooded demon like Gage. But Gage would kill him without pause, as my demon half had urged me to do. I only killed if left no other option—
most
of the time.

I stood straight and moved around the menace staring me down. “I shall try for my Mark again tomorrow.”

“You can’t leave.” Gage seized my arm.

“Don’t touch me. I’m on sensory overload as it is.”

His grip intensified.

I stared him in the eye—a direct challenge. He swung. I ducked and planted my palm on his chest. With a quick whirl, I drew my blade from my belt and aimed for his neck. Pinning his body against the wall with one hand pressed to his shoulder, I pricked the skin near his Adam’s apple with the tip of the silver weapon. Darkness beaded and dribbled along the blade’s edge.

“Haven’t lost your touch, I see. Even after all these years, brother.”

“Why do you test me? It will get you killed.” I increased the pressure cinching his neck. “Your two hundred years seniority holds nothing against my strength.”

He’d probably hoped my time in seclusion had weakened me enough so he could kill me. But nothing abated the demonic strength of the contract that turned me into what I was and bound me to Master. I often wished there was. Death would be better than this immortal, indentured life.

Fangs elongated and the tips of the vicious canines dented Gage’s lip. His fair skin reddened, signaling the transformation taking hold. Full demons didn’t have the control over the beast emerging like I did. It was their true nature, after all. The human form was only a mask.

He would be fully morphed in seconds.

“You kill me and it is back to seclusion for you.” The acidic stench of Gage’s fear coated his already foul breath.

“Might be worth it,” I lied.

“I don’t know
why
you’re his favorite.” He glared. The blackness of his pupils bled into the whites of his eyes. “You’re just a half-breed.”

Favorite?
I pushed off him, allowing six feet between us. I would not kill Gage or anyone else if possible. My demon adored the carnage too much.

“Just step into it, David. Imagine the power you could have at your fingertips. The woman, in the red dress, you could have her body like I know you want to. Then it would be done. You would no longer be a half-breed. We would be true brothers.”

Images of the woman flush against me burned my body to the core. I sensed the pleasure she would give me. Then I would be full demon. No remorse. No more struggling.

Thoughts rioted within the confines of my skull. I didn’t want any of this. My fate had been decided by someone else. Before I had even been born.