Revelations: Book One of the Lalassu (13 page)

Chapter Twenty

“That’s your daughter? How old is she?” Michael asked Ruby, gesturing to a picture of a tiny blond girl grinning at the camera. Dani failed to hide a smile as she flicked through a rack of sequined costumes off to one side. When she’d first rushed him backstage, he hadn’t been sure where to look as costumes changed in a flurry of glitter and pasties. Her earlier accusations still stung. He didn’t consider himself a prude or judgmental, but preconceptions about exotic dancing had definitely taken root in his mind. His solidly middle-class parents never would have dreamed of venturing into any kind of club, and he’d simply absorbed it as something good people did not do. Now, though, he’d begun to talk to the dancers, seeing past their stage personas to the women beneath.

“Three going on thirteen,” the petite blond dancer answered as she painted on her dramatic stage makeup. “My sister watches her while I’m here.”

“It must make for rough mornings, being up so late,” he guessed.

“She’s just so darn adorable when she comes running into my room at five in the morning, chirping, ‘Good morning, Mommy,’ as if it were the best part of her day. Good thing it gets me going.” Ruby laughed.

His preconceptions were slowly smothering under the weight of truth. He wasn’t so naïve as to believe it could be like this everywhere. There were reasons people assumed the worst. He’d seen some of the darkness himself, women trapped by drugs or desperation, young girls with no sense of self-worth. That wasn’t what he found here, though. Ruby was a single mother who’d found a lucrative way to support herself and her daughter when her ex-boyfriend vanished during the pregnancy. She could be home during the day for her child and earned enough to support them. Opal was putting herself through nursing school. Neither of them had any history of physical, drug, or alcohol abuse, and both had made deliberate choices to work here.

Opal put it bluntly when he asked her.
I could bust my butt for forty hours a week, trying to sell jeans or hamburgers or answering phones somewhere
.
Or I can make money off guys watching me dance and still have enough time to study.

He watched as Dani pinned up her dark curls, trying to understand.
So many layers.
He’d seen her protective and gentle side with George and with her fellow dancers. She’d been frantically worried after he’d touched the fabric in Vapor’s apartment. But at the same time, she seemed to enjoy shattering preconceptions and shocking people, like Kristen and Brianna at Different Ways. She could be terribly cynical and practical with a core of steel. She accepted the world for how it was, or at least how she believed it was, and she used what she had to get what she wanted. She wasn’t anyone he would have imagined being in his life, but now that she was, he had trouble imagining it without her.

Her actions might not be heroic, but she didn’t pretend to be a hero. She was gifted, but she didn’t feel any obligation to make the world a better place. Her focus was finding and helping her family. Was it really so wrong? He still believed in the classic Spider-Man message, “With great power comes great responsibility,” and he’d done his best to live by it. But should everyone have to? The thought unsettled him.

He shifted to one side to let a woman covered in row upon row of inflated balloons pass. His mother taught him to hide in plain sight as a child.
Never let anyone suspect what you can do. Don’t draw attention to yourself. Don’t give anyone a reason to think twice
. Only invisibility could provide protection.

He’d believed she was wrong until the day he told his father what he could do and found himself on the wrong end of his father’s religious beliefs. Only some quick verbal work and months of grounding convinced his father he’d been lying to show off.

But even though he’d cloaked himself in conformity, he’d always thought of it as a disguise, a secret identity. Now he wondered if he’d allowed his talent to dictate too much of his life.

“Earth to Professor. Your brain is about to overheat from thinking so hard,” Dani interrupted, moving to stand beside him.

“You’ve been giving me a lot to think about,” he answered honestly. “We were both taught to hide, but you haven’t let it define you. You put yourself out there.”

“Easiest way to fool someone. People don’t ask questions when they already have answers.” Dani shrugged and then batted her inch-long fake eyelashes. “No one takes a dancer seriously. Especially not one who takes off her clothes.”

“I won’t make that mistake again,” he promised. Sitting so close, he could catch hints of her emotions. He felt her go quiet, studying the flurry around her. It would have taken Sherlock Holmes to catch the slowing of her pulse, the softening of her features as she allowed her mask to slip. Everyone else probably thought she was teasing him but he picked up the subtle signs of relaxation.

“I half expected you to stammer and blush at the floor when I brought you back here,” she admitted quietly. “You impressed me, Professor.”

She kissed him. It wasn’t a subtle brush of his lips or a shy peck. Her mouth opened, demanding a reaction as her tongue teased his lips.

Part of him knew he should pull away, put up a boundary. They should be focused on Bernie and her brothers. But that part was stomped on and shoved into a closet by the rest of him. Deliberately forgetting all the reasons it wouldn’t work, he reached up and cupped her neck, sliding his fingers into the stiffened curls of her hair as he straightened, taking advantage of his greater height. The rest of the dancers, the audience chattering only a few feet away, all of it faded and all he cared about was the heat of her body against his. Her arms and legs were hard with muscles, throwing the soft pliability of her lips and curves into exquisite contrast. He could feel the depth of her fiery lust through the contact, and it sharpened the urgency coursing through his veins and hardening his groin. He deepened the kiss, his masculinity rising to the primal challenge of her femininity.

She answered his bid for dominance, knotting her fists in his shirt and pulling him close. Her internal strength blazed brightly, demanding he be as strong, if not stronger. A jarring thread of dissonance interrupted the perfection of their union. She wasn’t sure if he could match her.

He pulled her closer—he wasn’t intimidated. Rather than making the kiss into a display of combat, he found a balance, allowing them to overlap like architecture, building and enhancing the other to become more. His mouth and hands shared in her exultation, rejoicing in the sweetness of mutual exploration as partners.

Partners?
It wasn’t a proper thought, as such, and it wasn’t Dani’s. It was something cold and alien awakening in her depths.

He became aware of it in a split second, something powerful, hungry, and completely amoral. It coiled in the shadows, preparing to strike. His first instinct was to push Dani behind him so that he could protect her, but he couldn’t stand between her and something lurking within her.

Dani jerked away from him, her chest heaving as she struggled to control her breath. Her eyes were wide with fear, and tiny flecks of red glinted at the outer edges of her irises. Something had gone terribly wrong. Michael tensed, unsure what was needed but prepared to do whatever would help her.

“Damn, girlfriend!” Opal hollered, her grin glittering against her mocha skin.

“Never thought I’d see the Stone Maiden fall,” Tanisha said.

Most of the performers were grinning and clapping.

Dani’s face settled into a mask, hiding the fear. “Ha-ha. Don’t you people have work to do?”

Michael settled in to watch the show from backstage. After a lifetime of being shown everyone’s most horrible secrets, it was difficult to shock him. Whatever was in Dani came close, though. He might not know what happened, but he was willing to bet Dani did. This time, he wasn’t going to let her evade his questions.

Dani was in trouble. Sensual energy crackled through her veins and snapped through her skin. Danger signals flashed all around. The people in the club were more animated, skin flushed and eyes dark. More than one would get lucky tonight in wild, no-holds-barred stranger-sex. Tips were going to be through the roof. It might be good business for the show, but desire and high emotions were not a good mix. Riots started in less tension than what charged this atmosphere.
I have to bleed it off, but where? When?

She hadn’t faced this level of energy since her teens, and everyone here was an adult—there were no virgins to fuzzy up the fantasies playing out.
This could be a bigger fucking disaster than prom.
She’d gone overseas to lie low until the media stories played out.

It shouldn’t be happening. She’d just Hunted a few days ago. But the Huntress had awakened and demanded satisfaction. She could feel the psychic poison leaching out of her pores like a tangible mist and half expected to see the contaminating coils circulating through the club from her backstage perch.

She threw a kiss to the crowd, and her lips tingled, remembering the taste of Michael’s lips. Kissing him had been an impulse, a spur-of-the-moment decision. His mouth had been so tempting, so close, the scent of apples and clean woodsmoke stirring more than one appetite. It was more than any girl could resist. She’d half convinced herself it would be awkward. Every girl knew a bad first kiss was the best way to end a blossoming crush.

But it hadn’t been bad. It had been amazing. A kiss—just a simple, everyday kiss, and her body buzzed like a swarm of bees. She could still taste the tempting, clean sweetness on her lips. Could the rest of him taste that delicious, too? The thought of finding out sent her buzz ratcheting higher.

She glanced at Michael as she went onstage. His brows were furrowed and he’d bitten his lip in concern
. Damn it.
There was nothing “everyday” about what they’d shared, and then the Huntress ruined it by waking up to seek out prey.

Had he felt it, or had she moved away quickly enough? Her hands and body knew the dance routine, performing the steps while her mind chewed through the ramifications of the kiss. If she gave in to the desire flooding her body, the Huntress might devour Michael whole and spit out the pieces. Her hands shook at the thought, fumbling with the fastenings of her corset. If she let the energy level continue to build, next time she might not be able to step away, and the Huntress would still strip away his mind and soul. There were other people to consider, too—no one out in the club had come in asking to get stirred up into a violent frenzy tonight.

The idea of Hunting repulsed her. She didn’t want a stranger to paw at her—she wanted Michael’s hands on her, Michael’s body inside hers. Tanisha was right: the Stone Maiden had fallen and shattered.

Drawing a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down.
Just get through the performance.
Then they could get on with finding her brothers and his girl. Then he would be gone from her life, safe from the monster inside.

“Dani? Are you okay?” Becca asked quietly as they stepped offstage.

“Yeah. Guess I have the jitters.” Dani tried to brush off any concerns.

“He’s cute.”

“Yeah. He is.” She nodded as Michael helped one of the part-timers hold her headdress steady while she pinned it in place. Her Professor had come a long way.

“And he likes you a lot.” Tanisha joined them.

He won’t.
The realization sharpened her tongue. “This is starting to sound like fucking high school.”

“He’s a good man,” Tanisha said.

“Which is why he won’t be around long.” Dani bit hard on her lip to keep from snapping. “We have other things to worry about. Either of you spot Redneck Whiskey tonight?”

“I thought I saw him, but when I looked again he was gone,” Tanisha said with evident relief.

“Maybe he finally left town,” Becca said, patting Tanisha’s shoulder.

“We can only hope.” Tanisha’s shoulders and jaw were tight. She’d spent too long being afraid to be reassured by a single evening.

“Too bad. I’m in the mood to deliver a spectacular ass kicking right about now,” Dani muttered as they took their places for the next performance.

Karan stood in the shadows. No waitress approached to ask if he wanted a drink. No patron tried to muscle past him to get a better view. No one even looked at him. Their eyes slid over his particular patch of the floor without pause.