“He’s now settled in Arizona. But he still holds California,” Eagle says.
“Maybe we call him and ask him if he wants to hold New York, too,” Jake says. “Pit them against each other.”
“And owe another leech a favor? No. When Thaddeus reached out, what did he say?” Brick asks. He runs a soothing hand up my back. I’m not the one who needs soothing-he is. And I’m not entirely sure why. Why do vampires make him so upset?
“He’s invited you to an official audience,” Billy says.
“There’s no way I’m bringing my mate to that club,” Brick snarls.
“Wait, why? He just wants us to visit?” I say. “That doesn’t sound like a big deal.” I mean, it sounds formal and stuffy, something out of Regency England, but this guy does call himself a king.
“No,” Brick grits out. “No way.” His eyes are bright, and so are everyone else’s. Their wolves are close to the surface. My heart speeds up as my body reacts to being in a room full of predators. I force myself to take a deep breath. I want to remain calm.
“Maybe we can kill him,” Vance mutters.
“No, we need him,” Eagle says, and the room erupts with arguments.
“Why?” I ask.
“The devil you know-“
“They’re all crazy. At least Thaddeus is crazy in a way we understand.”
“We need to remain in good standing with him.”
Brick remains silent, glowering at nothing. He’s far away, in a place I don’t understand.
I don’t like it. We’re supposed to be a team.
I’ve had enough of this.
“Oi!” I shout over the cacophony of voices. “Whistle.” I don’t even have to pull my weapon out of my pocket. They all wince and shut up.
“Tell me what the big deal is. Why can’t we just go meet with him and get this over with?”
“Other than the fact that we don’t kowtow to a leech. Even a king,” Billy says.
“We can spin it as a friendly meeting. We’ll just avoid inviting him for dinner and drinks,” I joke, but no one laughs.
“It’s not that simple,” Nickel says. “Thaddeus is eccentric-“
“All vampires are eccentric,” Vance puts in.
“He is eccentric even for a vampire,” Nickel amends. “The more powerful they are… the weirder they get…”
There’s something they’re not telling me here. If I ever want to derail these guys’ conversation, I’ll bring up vampires. This conversation is like herding cats.
I whirl to face Brick. “Talk to me.”
“He owns a club,” Brick says.
“Like a nightclub?”
“Not that sort of club,” Billy says. “It’s called Twilight.”
“Seriously? You’re joking.” Their somber faces tell me they’re not. “Like the books?”
“What books?” They all look at me blankly.
“You guys really have to get a handle on popular culture,” I sigh. “Moving on. So we go, and we meet this king and get it over with. What’s the big deal?
“He doesn’t just want a meeting,” Nickel says. “That’s not what he means by ‘audience.’ He wants you to provide…” -Nickel clears his throat- “entertainment for the entire club.”
“Like karaoke?” I deadpan.
Vance and Jake laugh at this, but Brick looks more serious than ever. “No. It’s not just a nightclub. It’s a BDSM club. The king wants us to scene in public.”
Brick
“I still don’t get it,” Madi says. We’re alone in our penthouse, and she’s curled up on the couch. “This vampire says you owe him a favor, even though you really don’t, and, therefore, we have to visit a sex club and…act out some sort of BDSM farce?”
“It’s a power move. He’s making us dance for him.” I pace in front of the windows. My wolf is too wound up to sit and relax. “I don’t like it.”
She picks up her stylus and presses it to her tablet as if she were taking notes. “Well, what does it take to kill a vampire?”
“Don’t tempt me,” I say, even as my wolf surges with excitement. He’d love to hunt Thaddeus and make him pay for even trying to toy with us and my mate. “Nickel and Eagle are right. As annoying as this is, dealing with Thaddeus’ replacement would be an equal pain. Another powerful vampire might be more hostile to wolves. Or worse, a lot of vampires flock to the area and fight each other for territories. Thaddeus is pretty strong. I doubt any one other single vampire would be able to hold Manhattan. They’ll break up the city into smaller fiefdoms and feeding grounds.”
“Feeding…on humans?”
“Yeah. And a bigger group of vampires, hunting humans without a king to enforce strict rules…it’ll be a feeding frenzy.
It happened in London in the late 1800s. It was total chaos until a vampire king took over and made his subjects clean up after themselves. By clean up, I mean mindwipe or erase people’s memories. Even then, there were so many unexplained deaths, the vampire king had to leak tips to the media to make the humans think some of the deaths were the work of a serial killer.”
“Oh my God.” She drops the stylus but doesn’t seem to notice. “Are you saying some serial killers are really vampires?”
“Yes.” I head to the couch and crouch to pick up her stylus. The move puts our heads on the same level, so I stay there, crowding into her space.
“Okay. That would not be good.” She nibbles her lip, and I’m distracted for a moment, imagining doing the same. “So we better play politics with this Thaddeus guy. Appease him.”
She’s right. But I don’t have to like it.
“There’s this whole other world, one humans don’t know about.” She wrinkles her nose. She doesn’t smell scared. Only intrigued. Of course, thinking through these nuances is what she’s good at. “What would a scene for a vampire king even entail?”
A growl rumbles in my chest. I don’t want to talk about leeches and their sex clubs. “That would be for us to decide. But we better get it right. The more entertaining, the more pleased he’ll be. Otherwise, he won’t agree that the favor is complete.”
“And then what?”
“He might ask for something more. Like to drink from you.”
She shudders, and I rise as if to ward off any monster lurking in the shadows.
“I wouldn’t allow it. Before that happens, I’d allow him to drink from me.”
“I’m not going to allow that, either.” She tugs me down to sit and puts her arms around my neck. “No one bites you but me. I’m guessing the biting has a sexual element to it?”
I nod. Anything involving vampires sickens me.
Her fingers dance over my beard and brush my lips. Normally I’d snap at them, playfully, but I’m still preoccupied.
“What’s wrong?” she murmurs.
“I put you in danger. Again.”
“I chose this. I chose you. And we can do anything, remember? We can defeat any odds. As long as we do it together.” She threads a hand through my hair, and I press my head into her palm. I never thought I’d like to be petted, and I don’t unless it’s her. “I might not know about paranormal politics, but I do know what it’s like to navigate around guys with big egos. And big…other things.” She gives me a wicked smile.
Now this is more like it. She parts her legs, and I get a whiff of her scent. It’s pulling me off-topic, and I’m willing, but she’s still dissecting things. “He named his club Twilight. Like the movies. I bet that’s a clue to all this.”
“Don’t try to understand a vampire.”
“Visiting a sex club might be fun. I mean… We play kinky games all the time.” She raises her leg and rubs it against mine.
“Aubrey and I once filled out a checklist of kinks. I probably have it somewhere.”
“Sounds good.” I lower my head to nuzzle against her breast, and she stops me.
“One more thing. It might be a good idea to hire a media consultant to work on your image. The vampires are getting much better media representation than werewolves. Just saying.”
“Fucking leeches,” I mumble, and she laughs and pulls me close for a kiss.
Madi
Mornings in the office are some of my favorite times. I still get the thrill of being part of a big company, only now I’m now in charge.
Between learning how to run my grandmother’s empire and learning about my role as pack luna, my days and nights are beyond full.
I texted Aubrey about getting together tonight, but she said she’s up to her ears in schoolwork. I’m guessing it’s true, but it still disappointed me.
Even when we were busy before, we’d see each other in passing as roommates. And before that, as building mates. Now I just plain miss her. Not that I can talk to her about what’s really going on in my life, which is getting weirder by the day. I’m getting a Ph.D. in pack politics, with a minor in paranormal culture.
And then there’s this new crash course on vampires. I wish I could call Aubrey and lay it out, get her perspective. Telling a human about all this would be betrayal that endangers my mate and everyone in his life, but I’m still tempted.
“Knock, knock,” a bright voice singsongs. Ruby sails into my office, looking smart in a red blazer dress. I close my laptop and head out from behind my desk to give her an air kiss.
Adapting to Brick’s world has been challenging, but I have a secret weapon. My soon-to-be sister-in-law is as insightful about shifter life as she is irreverent. Her mom Catherine has been a great advisor, but since Ruby is closer to Brick and closer to my age, she’s more of a confidante.
I still miss Aubrey, though.
“Hungry?” I ask. “I think Emerson got us steak salads. Yours has extra steak.”
“Excellent.” She lets me lead her to a side conference room where our food waits. “I love that we’re doing this regularly. With Scarlett at school, I miss having sister time.”
A thrill goes through me. “I’ve always wanted a sister.”
“Careful what you wish for.” She piles steak onto the baguette that came with our salads to make a giant sandwich. “Once you obliterate a boundary, it’s hard to get back. Scarlett and I are the same shoe size, and the number of times I’ve been looking through my closet for a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s only to find her wearing them…so, of course, I do the same to her.”
“I think I can deal. I have more clothes now than I know what to do with.”
“You can always have more,” she speaks through a mouthful, holding a hand up in front of her face. I wave away her concern and let her eat. Shifter appetites are no joke. Their wolf makes their metabolism rev like crazy.
I wait until she’s polished off a sandwich to ask, “What can you tell me about vampires?”
She laughs. “This is about Thaddeus, right?”
“Yes,” I rise to check the door to make sure it’s locked. “Thaddeus, the vampire king of Manhattan.”
“He’s so pompous.” She rolls her eyes. “You gonna eat that?” She points to my baguette, and I slide it over to her.
“You seem a lot more relaxed talking about vampires than the others.”
“Thaddeus is much more charming to she-wolves than he-wolves.”
“Wait, you’ve met him?”
“Can you keep a secret?” she lowers her voice playfully. “I snuck out and visited Twilight once before I was mated.”
“So you’ve been to his club.”
“It’s something we shifters dare each other to do, like teenagers standing on railroad tracks when a train is coming. Stupid. A thrill.”
“What was it like?”
“Dark. Lots of red velvet and black leather. Hanging cages for dancers. Private rooms in the back for…play.”
“There’s something I don’t understand. Why does a vampire own a sex club?”
“It’s a vampire thing. From what I hear, drinking blood is incredibly erotic, especially for the victim.” She waggles her brows. “And some vampires like to toy with submissive partners, especially the masochists. It said that the pain releases endorphins and makes the blood sweeter.”
I narrow my eyes. “Because of the neurochemicals in the bloodstream?”
“Exactly.”
I’m starting to understand why dealing with a vampire is so complicated. There’s an air of mystery, a deadly allure.
“Did you ever… let him bite you?”
“No,” she wrinkles her nose, and I make a mental note: flirting with danger is fun, but actual power exchange isn’t appealing. “Oh, we flirted for a night. He knew who I was, instantly, but he was a perfect gentleman. He gave me a prime seat and put on the floor show himself.”
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