Into Death's Arms (3 page)

 
 
She hit the radio button again, and we blasted toward Deception
. I resist
ed
the urge to shudder
and pushed myself back into the soft leather seat,
but
my best friend was
happy.

 
 
 
When w
e pulled up in
front of Deception, I grimaced
I
couldn
’t help it.
I mean real
ly, how many Goth wanna be's could be
try
ing
to get into the same place
at the same time
?
 
“This place is awesome,
” Laurna said happil
y
as she
 
parked. Yeah
awesome
,
just fricken fantastic,
I thought.
She practically skipped to the line.
Yes,
let’s
frolic to the
Vamp
ire
club
,
and later we can beg for our lives together
. I
t’ll be fun
!
I thought bitterly.

    The big building was
made of dark brick.
To me
,
it looked l
ike blood
had seeped into the very foundation
of the building.
It lurked
there
in the dark as if it were
crouched down
,
stalking the other taller brighter buildings around it. Th
e neon sign with the word Deception
printed in a gothic font sat on the front of the building
,
like bright
glowing malignant
eyes watching us in the night. Yeah, that pretty much summed up my
feelings toward
this place
,
and
its
owner
, Dayton Tameron
.

   
We waited about fifteen minutes before one of the
Bouncer
s noticed how go
rgeous Laurna was
,
and how l
ow cut the top
she decided to wear
that night
was
.
She leaned toward him and licked her lips for good measure.
I almost laughed
. S
he could be such a tramp
. S
he knew
what she liked
. Sometimes
,
I
envied
her
. I mean most days I would give almost anything to be as confident, as sensual as she was
,
but
I didn’t feel that way
just then
. The
Bouncer
smiled like she’d just promised to make his night.
Hell, he could read her mind maybe she had.
Ewe,
I
wanted to tell her the truth about him
,
but
I knew i
t
wasn’t
allowed
.
I kept the secret. I always kept
the secret. I didn
’t always want to.
S
ometimes
I felt just sick
about it.
He led us in.
His lime green eyes didn’t waiver from her while he walked
. Stalked.
Lumbered. Lurked.
Walked.
W
hatever
. I took a deep calming breath.
He was terrifying
at
6’
6
”
,
he
had to be
260 pounds
of pure muscle. His brown
hair was chopped in the front, and
it hung down around
his eyes
and chin.
It almost looked like he’d gotten board and hacked it off with a knife instead of going to see a professional.  His face was all hard lines.
I swear somebody could have chiseled him out of marble
;
his features were so sharp. Laurna smiled encouragingly at him.
The only good thing about gigantor was how he smell
ed, Dolce
and Gabbana
mmm…
I have to say I love
d
that stuff
.  T
he cedar type smell.
Hell, I wasn’t just sniffing him was I?
Ehh yeah
,
I was.
Yuck, I felt sick
, again
.
Oh
yeah
,
he was a
Vamp
ire
. A
s far as faults went
,
that one was huge
.

 
 
 
 
Laurna
trailed her hand along his stomach
, smiling like an angel,
he growled kind of
low
while he asked
for her phone number.
He radiated m
e
nace
. H
ow she didn’t feel it
,
I’d
never know.

  
No sense of self-preservation
,
I guess.

  
He was scaring the crap out of me
,
and she was eating it up. I know the whole dangerous thing is
supposed
to be hot
,
bu
t the
‘
he’s proba
bly considering where to hide her-
body
-thing’
just
didn’t do it for me.
S
he gave it up
easy. Damn it
,
I’d have to get her phone and
block him later.
 
We went inside.
At least he let us go without a struggle
,
apparently having her phon
e number was good enough for him.  “He was cute,” s
he giggled
at me.

       I gave her my
(
are you nuts
?)
face and said, “He was a little to
o
serial killer just
before
a rampage for me but if you’re into that sort of thing
,
I guess
,
yeah, cute.” 
I shrugged my shoulders at her
and rolled my eyes
.

    
As we went inside scary
Vamp
ire
guy was temporarily forgotten
,
ah G
od
,
the music in the
place
I could
have just
lay
down
on the floor and float
ed
away
.
Except eww have  you ever seen the floor of a club when it was empty? So gross!  The music
thrummed through my senses I could feel it
through the soles of my boots. Unfortunately, t
he room was
also
a cacophony of smells. Liquor, cologne, perfume, soap, leather, and the smell of too many people in one place filled the room like
a tangible thing. You know
normal for a nightclub.
My sense of smell wa
s sensitive
.
I didn’t like being in a crowd.

   
Laurna must have seen the face I made because s
he hit me in the arm and stuck her tongue out at me.
“Spoiled sport,” she accused
. I
f only she knew.
“I’m getting a drink,” she
sang
and waved her driver’s
license
because it now
said she was old enough
to drink
. I looked down at the stupid under
twenty-one
bracelet they
had
made me wear.
It sucked, mostly it sucked because she could buy drinks and I couldn
’t, but what the hell in thirty years she would be settled with two point whatever it was kids
in college,
aging gracefully and I would still look like I was twenty-one
so I guess
ed she could have the day
.
I smiled I couldn’t help it.
She helped
me feel alive, less scared.
I spent
too much time afraid.
She was happy
.
When she was
happy,
I felt happy too.
She got a drink and found some boy
to dance with. He was normal I was good with that. I like
d
normal.

    
I found someone normal to dance with too.
He wore jeans and a t-
shirt, which I liked,
I’m not big into
men who dress better than I do and it’s not hard to
dress better than me. I worried that I would run into another one of the
nightclubs
less desirable denizens.
The
Shadow-born
ar
e kind of drawn to the Ao.
It’s genetic
,
just like human’s are drawn to
Vamp
ires
, the
Vamp
ires
were drawn to us. The predator drew in the prey.
Most of the time
,
I just thought of myself as a supernatural bug zapper
,
only my zap wasn’t so tough yet. 
I seriously couldn’t wait to turn up the voltage.

  
Normal guy decided he wanted to try and slid
e
his hand up my shirt. I pinched down hard on the pressure point
in his hand
. “Not happenin
g,
” I
ground out as I
glared at him. He glared
back
at me
for a minute then
went to find somebody a little more cooperative or drunk
, whichever.
Laurna had switched partners too. This guy wasn’t so normal but he moved away kind of quick
.
I noticed the
giant
Bouncer
giving him the stink eye. Go, s
cary
Bouncer
guy
,
a
t least I didn’t have to do it. Laurna mo
ved on quick, s
he was
real resilient
that way
.
Course when you look like glam Barbie it’s easy to get over rejection.

 
    
We had been there about an hour when my phone rang.
It was my dad’s number it wasn’t midnight yet so I was surprised by the call.
“Mace,” I answered.

 
 
 
“Home, now
,” he
ordered
,
then
hung up. Crap, t
hat wasn’t
good.
He wa
s always abrupt
,
but usually I got some kind of explanation.
No explanation was bad, real bad.

 
 
 
I went to Laurna who was dancing with some
kid;
all the rings in his face made me want to laugh
not because I have a problem with facial peircings some guys were seriously hot but because this guy couldn’t be one hundred and forty pounds soaking wet and at least a pound of that was stuck in his face
.
He might have been over
twenty-one
as he
was not sporting the minor bracelet
like I was but he l
ooked like he was maybe fourteen slim
in a prepubescent kind of way
.
He was glaring at the world in general.
He did have nice eyes blue lined with black eyeliner. Thick black eyelashes women paid for.
But that look ruined the effect y
ou kno
w one of those people who wants to think
he’s tougher than everybody else. I wondered what he’d do if he knew that at t
hat moment in time a very large, very
hungry looking
Vamp
ire
was watching him very closely. I leaned in to whisper to her.
 
“Hey
babe
.
”
She paused looking quizzical.
She didn’t mind me interruptin
g, g
ood because what I was going say next was going
piss her off.
“We gotta go. Somethin’s got my dad all wound.”
I shrugged that was about all I could do ask I didn’t know what had him wound.