Demon's Kiss (24 page)

It had been a great run. She'd danced and jumped and chased her tail, hunted field mice and snatched a butterfly from midair, catching it between her paws. She'd relished her time in the wild, even though it had been brief. She couldn't sustain her fox form for very long anymore, and she wondered if someday she would be unable to shift at all. It seemed to be getting harder.

Her run hadn't helped her to better understand anything, though. Not her own odd feelings, not Seth's. But it helped her to know that none of it mattered. All that mattered was being alive and relishing that life. No matter what it was or what it brought.

And that was what she intended to do.

It got harder, though, as the sun rose, and her eyes grew heavy and the day sleep crept over her. Because she realized that Seth hadn't returned, and a feeling of darkness and hurt came into her heart.

 

The sun set, and Seth rose, stiff and uncomfortable from spending the entire day on the hard concrete floor of the warehouse. Not wanting to explain to his nosy comrades why he wasn't with Vixen after all the preparations they'd seen him making, he'd opted to duck into a hidey-hole he'd found for himself. It was a tiny, unfinished room off the rear of one of the large areas and had probably once been a place to store tools, if the shelves along the walls were anything to go by. It was dark, and it was cold and the floor and walls were hard. Perfect to suit his mood.

He probably needed to think this thing through a bit, but he was damned if he even knew where to begin. What the hell was he supposed to think, anyway? Why hadn't she
told
him? Didn't she think her being part animal was something he would have wanted to know?

He covered his head with his forearms and moaned.

“Seth?”

Lowering the arms, he lifted his head, almost groaning again at the interruption. He'd been getting ready for a full-blown self-pity party. “In here, Reaper.”

Reaper ducked into the tiny room, its doorway, sans door, barely wide enough to admit him. “What the hell are you doing in here?”

“I was sleeping. Now I'm waking.”

Reaper looked him up and down, and Seth could see the questions in his eyes. To Reap's benefit, though, he didn't ask. Instead, he extended a hand. Seth took it, and Reaper tugged him up onto his feet. “Things didn't go so well last night, I take it.”

“I don't want to talk about it.”

“I didn't ask you to. She's, uh, looking for you, though.”

“She can keep looking. What time is it?”

“Almost seven-thirty.”

“And we need to hit that club by nine. Let's focus on that, then. Where's Roxy?”

“She sneaked out for coffee, predawn. Now she's sitting on a tree stump outside, drinking it.”

“I think I'll join her.”

Reaper frowned at him, not understanding.

“Just do me a favor and tell Vixen to get ready for the night, and that we have very little time for…anything else.”

“You want me to buy you some time before you have to talk to her.”

“Bingo.”

“You sure you don't want to talk about this, Seth?”

“With you? Yeah, I'm sure.”

Reaper lifted his brows, looking wounded.

“Well, hell, pal, you're not exactly an expert on women, are you? Much less relationships. Or was that someone else who's been insisting he's a loner since the day I met him?”

Licking his lips, Reaper nodded. “I guess you have a point.” Then he shrugged. “Roxy's probably a much better choice. Go out the front. You'll sense her right away.”

Nodding, Seth clapped his friend—and yes, he realized, he did think of Reaper as a friend, though he doubted Reaper would call
him
one—on the shoulder, and moved past him and through the narrow doorway into the larger room, then crossed it and headed out the front door.

The early evening air hit him with a blast of freshness and floral scents that he hadn't noticed the night before. Of course, it had been nearly dawn then, and he'd been pursuing a half-vampiress, half-
fox
through the grasses.

It was dark enough that the stars were already starting to appear here and there in the sky. He moved a few paces away from the warehouse, then stopped and stood there, scenting the air, feeling for Roxy.

He didn't pick up on her until she cleared her throat to let him know where she was. Then he turned in that direction and spotted her, sitting on a fallen log, not a stump, holding a cup between her palms. He should have smelled that fragrant steam, even if he didn't sense her presence. Damn, he must be even more distracted than he'd thought.

“Don't kick yourself, hon,” Roxy said. “I'm blocking.”

“Doing a hell of a job of it,” he said, walking toward her. “For a mortal.”

She shrugged. “Been perfecting my skills for a long time. And I didn't want to give our position away to the bad guys. Not that they know me from Adam, but a Chosen in the area might be enough to make them curious.”

“Good call.” He reached her, but remained standing, rather than taking a seat beside her on the log.

She stared up at him for a long moment, then nodded sagely. “So you've had time to knock things around in your brain now. About Vixen's secret.”

He pursed his lips, nodded twice.

“Pretty freakin' amazing, isn't it?”

“It's fucking horrifying, is what it is.”

Roxy sipped her coffee, her placid expression never changing as she watched him. He pushed a hand through his hair, paced away from her, paced back again. She sipped and waited.

“I just…I don't know what the hell to make of this. I mean, did I…is she an animal or a human or…what the hell is she?”

Roxy grinned. “Worried you committed bestiality, huh?”

“Don't even joke about that!”

Her smile faded, but the twinkle remained in her eyes. It pissed him off no end that she was amused by his discomfort. “This is serious, Roxy.”

“I know it is—to
you,
because you're making it into a federal case. But it shouldn't be. You need to get the hell over yourself, Seth. So she's a shape-shifter, or was, before she was changed over. Now she's a vampire. Just like you.”

“A vampire who can change into a fox!”

Roxy shrugged. “I've heard of a few who can change into bats, or ravens or wolves. Why not a fox?”

He shot her a look, his eyes wide. “Really? I thought that was just, you know, fiction. Like the crosses and the garlic.”

“Shows just how much you know, Einstein.” She shrugged. “You're just a fledgling. You don't know shit about anything yet. The truly ancient ones, one or two of them, at least, can change their forms.”

He nodded, mulling on that for a moment. “Still,” he said, “those are ordinary vampires. They got older and more powerful until they acquired the ability to change. She's brand-new, just changed over. I think she was shape-shifting before she was ever undead.”

“Well, duh,” Roxy said. “And that makes a difference why?”

“Because I don't know if she's a woman or a fox, that's why.”

“I told you, she's a vampire. Maybe not an ordinary one, but I've never really thought there was any such thing as an ordinary vampire, myself.”

He shook his head. “I don't know what to make of this.”

“Maybe if I kick you in the balls—”

He shot her a look. She bit her lip and started over. “Talk to her, Seth. Talk to her, let her tell you who she is, who she was before and who she is now. She can tell you all you need to know if you'll get off your high horse and listen.”

He clenched his jaw. “I don't know. She should have told me before this.”

“Yeah, maybe. But she's still figuring out what's, well, polite and what's not. I get the feeling she's spent her life avoiding relationships—maybe avoiding other humans altogether. And she hasn't been a vampire all that long. Just yank the stick out of your ass and give her a chance.”

He sighed, stared off into the distance for a long moment, then faced Roxy again. “We should be getting ready to head to the club, for the rendezvous.”

“We?”

“Well, yeah.”

“No, you're wrong, hon. Reaper's going alone, just as Gregor instructed. He's taking Briar along, of course, but no one else. He doesn't want any of us hurt, in case it's a trap.”

Seth forgot his own issues and turned back toward the warehouse. “He can't do that.”

“He already has. Probably left right after he sent you out here to me.”

He ran back inside, flung open the door and shouted for Reaper, but there was no answer, and no sense of him anywhere near. “Dammit.”

Vixen came out of nowhere, hurrying toward him, but stopped a few feet short, seeming uncertain. Her eyes searched his face, full of questions, but aloud she only said, “What's wrong?”

“Reaper went to the rendezvous alone.”

“Oh.” She took two steps closer. “I'm sure he'll be fine.”

“Of course he'll be fine.” Roxy had come inside behind Seth, silent as a cat, and now she sounded as if she were trying to convince herself, even more than them, of what she was saying. “He's been working alone for a long time now.”

“He's got Briar with him,” Seth pointed out, he thought unnecessarily. “Even if Gregor doesn't spring some kind of a death trap on him, that bitch is liable to get him killed.” He turned in a slow circle, then stopped and said, “We have to go after him.”

Roxy was silent. Vixen, though, nodded.

“We should take the van, so there will be room for all of us to get back here,” he said, heading for the next room, where they'd parked the vehicles. Roxy and Vixen followed, but when he opened the door and saw the van sitting there with its back doors open, and the cozy nest of blankets and pillows inside, he remembered the night before, the night with Vixen, and went still.

Roxy moved past him, heading around to the driver's door. “Stow the blankets, close that up and get in.”

Seth took a single step toward the rear of the van, but Vixen stopped him cold with nothing more than a hand on his forearm.

“Where did you sleep?”

He turned slowly, to look at her. “I…we don't have time for this right now, Vixen.”

“Why didn't you wait for me?”

He drew a breath and decided to get it over with. “I followed you when you ran off. I was worried. I…I saw.”

Her eyes widened, and she backed up a step, perhaps involuntarily. “You…
saw?
”

“Yeah. I saw you change, okay? I know what you are.”

“What I am.”

He nodded.

“And just what is it you think I am, Seth?”

He lowered his head, shook it rapidly from side to side. “I don't know, I just know it's not…natural.”

“And being a vampire is?”

“Of course it is. We've existed almost forever.”

“Shape-shifters have existed just as long. Maybe longer. We're just as natural. But I suppose you don't see it that way.”

He didn't answer, couldn't just then. Her words were coming out coarsely, as if her throat was tight, and there was moisture pooling in her eyes.

“You're repulsed by me now, aren't you, Seth?”

Again he didn't answer.

The van's horn sounded, making them both jump.

Vixen turned and climbed into the back of the van, pulling the doors closed behind her. Seth caught them just before they closed all the way. “Look, we need to talk about this. Just not now.”

“Just not ever. If I repulse you, obviously you no longer want me. And it was only sex, after all. If we don't have that, we don't have anything.”

He glimpsed her tears spilling over just before she shoved his hand off the door and yanked it closed.

He felt bad, mean, even sorry. And hurt by her words. But he wasn't so naive that he didn't realize she might be lashing out, returning pain for pain. He'd clearly hurt her, after all.

The front passenger door swung open. Roxy called, “Get in, Romeo.”

Sighing, he obeyed.

“Nice job,” she said, with a nod toward the back, where Vixen was angrily folding blankets and stowing them in the compartments beneath the floor, tears streaming down her face.

He'd never seen her cry before. “Yeah,” he said, “I know.”

R
eaper had taken the Mustang to the meeting place. Briar was in the front seat beside him, and she was tense enough to tell him that she expected trouble.

“So you think it's a legitimate exchange, or a trap?” He asked the question just to see if she would answer honestly.

“What makes you think I would know?”

“Gregor's your man, isn't he? He tells you everything—except how to make drones, that is. Right?”

“He didn't tell me this.” She faced him in the dimness of the dashboard lights. “How do I know
you
haven't got some kind of a trap planned for
him?
”

“You're with me. Do you
see
any signs of a trap?”

She shrugged. “You didn't bring your friends.”

“I don't want to risk them getting killed.”

“Or maybe they're setting up an ambush somewhere.” She leaned back against the headrest, closed her eyes.

He was under no delusion that Briar might just be resting her eyes. He was certain she was speaking to Gregor, telling him they were on the way, who was coming, who was not, asking for instructions to help get Reaper's ass killed.

After a few moments she stirred and opened her eyes. Huge, brown, beautiful eyes. Dangerous, dark, deceitful eyes.

“I hope you said hello for me,” he said.

She smiled, and he thought anyone who didn't know her would think she had the face of an angel. “You can say hello yourself soon. We're nearly there.” She pointed. “There's the club.”

He saw it just ahead. It sat in the center of a city block, a two-story brick building with darkened windows and a solid red metal door, probably lead lined. The only noticeable thing about it was the neon lettering above the door that spelled out The Crypt.

He drove up the block, found a spot to park where he was unlikely to get blocked in, pulled over and stopped the car.

He reached for the door handle. She reached for it, too, sliding her arm over his waist, covering his hand with her own. “It's not nine yet.”

He met her eyes, instantly suspicious. “So?”

“So he said to come at nine.
Precisely
at nine. He can be an asshole about details like that. And since he's agreed to make the exchange even though you haven't brought Vixen, you should do whatever you can to keep him happy.”

“He asked you to stall me. Why, Briar?”

She shrugged. “I'm just trying to make sure this goes off the way it's supposed to. I want to get back to my people. You want Topaz back with you. Let's do this right.”

“I'm not buying it.”

She drew a deep breath, sighed, then reached to the hemline of her blouse and tugged it up, over her head, and tossed it to the floor.

He was caught for a moment by the sight of her naked breasts, large for such a small woman, round and full, creamy and supple, with hard little nipples that aroused him beyond reason.

Then he forced himself to look away. “You
really
want to slow me down, don't you?”

“The exchange won't happen before nine, Reaper. Going in early won't change that. But it might be the last chance for…this.” She trailed her hand over his jeans, over his erection.

He shivered. And he didn't pull away. His aversion to being touched didn't even begin to apply here. He tried to ignore his arousal and opened the car door.

“Kiss me just once,” she said, sliding a palm to his cheek and turning his head toward her. “Just once, and then we'll go inside.”

“Stop with the delaying tactics, Briar. They're not going to work.”

“How can you be so sure that's what they are? Tactics? How do you know I haven't been dying to do this since the first night? You kissed me then. Remember?”

He tried not to.

“Remember how good it was? How I tasted?” Her fingertips brushed his lips, while her other hand stroked him through his jeans, up and down. “Taste me again, Reaper.” She rose up onto her knees on the seat and brushed her lips over his.

Dammit, he was only human. He snapped his arms around her, and he kissed her. His mouth wide, his tongue thrusting, he kissed her hard and deep. His hands twisted in her hair, holding her face to his as he fed from her mouth. And then he jerked her head back, none too gently, and went after those incredible breasts. He didn't take his time or work up to it. He sucked them hard, bit them harder.

And then her hands were fisting in his hair, and she panted and moaned and shivered.

“Stop,” she whispered after a moment. She yanked on his hair, pulling his head away from her. “We have to stop.”

“The hell we do.” He growled the words, the bloodlust giving his vision a thin red haze, the arousal beyond tolerance. “Not now, Briar. No way in hell.”

She tipped her head down, and he saw it in her eyes. The glow, the hunger. She wanted it as much as he did.

“Make it fast,” she told him. She hiked up the short, short skirt she wore. There was nothing underneath it. “Fast and hard and fucking angry.”

He reached for the fly of his jeans, undid them, freed himself. He was so hard he was throbbing. “Not a problem.”

She straddled him, lowered herself, took him all the way in. He lifted his hips from the seat to go deeper, as she bounced up and down, working herself into a frenzy on him. He fed on her nipples again, biting harder than before.

She moved, faster and faster, nails raking his scalp, she whispered, “I'm gonna come.”

“Me, too.”

“Drink me, Reaper. Pierce me and drink me!”

He bit down harder, fangs sinking into her breast as he pumped into her. The blood welled, and he sucked harder, his entire being overtaken by physical pleasure, and the taste and rush of her blood in his mouth, on his tongue. He thought he would explode, it was so incredibly, unbearably good. And then he did, and his entire body climaxed as his brain lost its ability to do anything but feel.

And what he felt was her, shaking so hard it was like a seizure as the orgasm ripped through her. He felt her bending her head, sinking her teeth into his shoulder, drinking, suckling his life from his very flesh.

And he thought maybe she was crying.

 

“You should stay in the van,” Seth told Vixen when they pulled to a stop directly in front of The Crypt. “Actually, you should drive around the block until we come out.”

“What is that expression I've heard your kind use?” she asked. “Oh, yes. I remember. ‘Fuck you.'”

“Play nice, kids,” Roxy chirped. She shut off the engine. “Let's settle this like grown-ups. Vixen, Gregor wants you back. If he
has
set some kind of a trap, he's liable to take you, as well as Briar. That's not what we want here, is it.” She didn't make it a question.

“No.”

“So drive the van around until we come out.”

“I don't know how to drive,” she told Roxy.

Seth sighed. “Just wait here. Lock the damn doors.”

She stared at him, hurt to the core and not liking it. No wonder she'd avoided emotions for so many years. They were absolutely awful.

She turned her gaze to Roxy's. “If you think I should.”

“I do, hon. And Seth is only trying to keep you safe. Idiot that he is, his motives are pure here.”

“I'm not an idiot.”

Roxy rolled her eyes, then met Vixen's. “He's male. Same thing. Climb up here, hon, so I can show you how to unlock it and let us in. And hell, how to make the thing move, just in case you're forced.”

“If forced, I'll get out and run,” Vixen said, but she climbed over the seats until she was in the second row and watched as Roxy told her how to move the van—
just in case.

 

“It's time,” Briar whispered into Reaper's ear, as she climbed off him, righted her skirt and tucked her breasts back into captivity. “You ready?”

He tried to steady his pulse by the sheer force of his will, but it wasn't easy. Briar was acting all business, as if nothing had happened, and he was damned if he could see a hint of anything else in her face. Though he couldn't get her to meet his eyes.

She slid to her own side of the car and opened the door, then got out and started walking along the sidewalk toward the club. Reaper got out and hurried to catch up with her.

“Here we are,” she said when they stopped outside the door. A thrumming beat came from beyond it. She nodded at him. “Well?”

“Well.”

Rolling her eyes, she reached past him, yanked the door open and strode inside. Reaper followed, his senses opening as he got his wits about him. He stepped into a rush of noise, a pounding beat, colored lights pulsing on and off in time with the music. The door slammed behind him, and he turned fast, startled.

Briar stood there, smiling. He saw her turn the lock, and that was when he smelled the blood.

“What the hell?”

He turned again, his eyes scanning the place, and he saw them, bodies, torn and bloodied, lying all over the place. Mortals. Humans. Young ones, barely more than kids, dressed to party. Their blood slickened on the floor.

“For the love of God,” he whispered. “Why? What the hell is this?”

For just a moment he thought she looked as surprised by all the carnage as he was. But then she plastered the hard, cold expression on her face again. “Why do you think I would know?”

He heard movement, felt life, and looked toward the opposite end of the building. “Ah, that will be your friends, coming to join you,” she said. She started to walk away from him, toward the sound, but he gripped her arm and jerked her back toward him.

“What the hell is going on, Briar?”

“I don't know.” She shrugged, and looked him square in the eye. “But I do have a message for you, from Gregor. If your friends are inside, that is.” She turned to look over her shoulder just as Seth and Roxy came around a corner and into sight. Then she looked him squarely in the eyes, and said, “Nightingale.”

And everything went black.

 

Seth and Roxy went in the back door, which was unlocked, but no sooner had they opened it than a hand came from nowhere, shoving them through, yanking the door closed and locking it behind them. Seth heard the lock turn and smelled the death all around him.

“Oh, my God,” Roxy whispered. She was staring, pointing. “Seth, my God.”

He looked. She'd moved a few steps ahead of him, and he joined her, coming around a corner onto what must have been the dance floor and main room of the nightclub, only to see bodies littering the place like fallen leaves. Tables were smashed, broken glass everywhere. Music played, and colored strobes still flashed in time, but there was no other mortal left alive in this place. It had been a massacre.

Roxy turned away, lowering her head, and Seth automatically lifted his arms toward her, but he froze when he glimpsed Reaper across the room and saw Briar leaning close, her lips moving as she said something to him.

And then something changed in his face. It went blank. Lax. Eyes empty. Almost dead. Something made him grab Roxy and move her behind him, just before Reaper released a deep growl and lashed out.

He reached for Briar, one hand gripping her arm, and then hurled her. She shrieked and flew bodily through the air, landing amid the bodies on the floor, sliding in the blood of the innocent. And then she scrambled, trying to get up, but slipping in the slick scarlet mess, falling, whimpering.

Seth moved closer, calling out. “Reap, what the hell? What's going on?”

Reaper didn't answer. He looked toward Seth's voice, reacting as if on some kind of auto-mode. His head turned, his gaze locked on, but there was no recognition, no life, no nothing.

“Reaper?” Seth asked again, uncertainly.

Reaper came toward him, and Seth backed away, unsure what was happening. He heard Roxy shout a warning, but too late. Reaper swung a fist, and it caught Seth in the jaw, launching him until he collided with a wall and crashed to the floor.

He shook himself, and looked up to see Reaper moving toward Roxy as she struggled to get the tranq gun out of her holster and level it on him.

“No!” she cried, but Reaper hurled a chair at her all the same. She blocked it with an arm, and her weapon flew from her grip. “Dammit! Reaper, stop it! I'm your friend!”

He went after her, and Seth scrambled, dove onto Reaper's back.

“What the hell is the meaning of all this?” an unfamiliar voice shouted.

“He doesn't know what he's doing!” Roxy cried.

Seth was holding on for dear life while Reaper swung him in circles, then smashed him against the bar, trying to dislodge him.