Crave (Tainted Angels Book 1) (10 page)

“Take a seat, Dex.”

Dex rolled his eyes but shrugged and planted himself next to Sadie, his wide grin on her making me chuckle.

Another man, smaller and a little older than Rax, nodded to me. “Hey, Seraph.”

“Jaron,” I greeted quietly. I’d had dealings with him before, and they hadn’t been too friendly.

Holding up his hands as if surrendering, he smiled. “The past is in the past, Willa.”

Accepting his truce, I nodded but it didn’t mean I would let my guard down around Damon Torres’ second in command.

Another guy, his dark hair shaved close to his head and the whole right side of his face covered in sinister tattoos, nodded to me. I peered at him. He was vaguely familiar but I couldn’t pinpoint where I knew him from.

“That’s Zak,” Rax told me. “Doesn’t speak.”

“You have some … unique friends,” I whispered back.

Rax’s lips curled in amusement. “How are you feeling? And where’s your new friend?”

I gathered he was talking about Delilah and I huffed. “I’m not sure it works like that, Rax. She only seems to present herself when I’m in trouble.”

“And here was me thinking of getting you a gun,” he mumbled.

“I don’t want to think about Delilah. I don’t have the energy to sort through this shit right now.”

He nodded in understanding. “In that case, let’s get drunk, talk random shit and just have some damn fun.”

I liked the sound of that. So shouting an order to Bobby for seven glasses and a bottle of tequila, we all did exactly that.

I lowered my face to hide the grin that made my cheeks ache. Marie blinked then lined up her shot again, trying in vain to hit the black ball. Aiming the cue, she pulled back her arm and took a shot. Of course, she missed yet again.

“What the hell?” she mumbled.

Jaron and Rax chuckled and I looked back at Marie, shaking my head in amusement.

“Right, this time it’s mine,” Marie said adamantly, pulling her shoulders back and rolling her head around as if it would help her to focus in her drunken state.

I leaned on my cue and looked around the room as Marie tried and tried again to take her shot. Sadie was deep in conversation with Dexter, both their heads together as they spoke quietly. Frannie was staring at Zak and him at her, their eyes conversing but their mouths silent. Bobby had locked the doors hours ago and was playing bloody Candy Crush, a game that had seemed to take over the damn human population, while watching us play pool.

I blinked to myself. Last week this scenario would have seemed impossible; Empyreans and Gehenna having a night out – becoming friends. It was a little surreal, but if I was honest, it was also nice.

Once again my friend lined up, her eyes narrowed on the ball when she softly spoke to it. “Come on, baby. Slide into that hole for me.”

Just before the tip of her cue touched the ball, in a quick flash it seemed to jump a couple of inches to the left. Marie frowned then moved her aim. Again, just as she went to hit it, it jumped to the right a couple of inches. Eventually, Marie got up, replaced her cue in the rack and turned to the boys with a sullen look. “Looks like you win. I’m too pissed to focus.”

Jaron nodded slowly with a fake considerate expression. “I understand.”

“Uhh,” I spoke up. “We haven’t finished. I’m still here.”

Rax rolled his eyes. “You think you can take Jaron and me on by yourself, sweet thing?”

I hid my grin and shrugged. “Well it can’t hurt to try.”

He swept his arm over the table. “Give it your best shot, Seraph.”

Stepping up to the table, I stared at the black ball. Hiding my smirk, my eyes zeroed in and I moved my gaze to the top right hand pocket. Of course, it did my bidding and rolled into the hole – all by its little self.

Rax and Jaron stared at me, their mouths as wide as their eyes. “You can’t do that!”

“Aww.” I pouted. “Don’t like the taste of your own medicine, huh?”

“Dunno what you’re talking about,” Rax scoffed.

I stared at him, my brows high. “Really?”

He couldn’t help but grin, the sight of it doing things to my belly that I wasn’t sure I liked. “Okay, not as dumb as you look.”

My jaw dropped. “I take offence to that!”

“You should.” He laughed as he poked me with the tip of his cue. “It wasn’t a compliment.”

He grabbed me around the waist when I went to slap him, locking my arms behind my back. His mouth dropped to my ear. “Be careful, sweet thing. Fights make my cock hard.”

My whole body trembled with need when he buried his face in my neck, inhaling deeply at my scent as a growl rumbled deep in his chest. “Rax,” I warned, but my voice belied my admonishment. “You can’t.”

“Does that mean you want to,”
he whispered in my head.
“Or am I reading you all wrong?”

Debating his question for a while, my acceptance arguing with my morals, I eventually nodded.
“Yes. If I knew it wouldn’t kill you then I’d give it all, every drop …”
I quietened when I felt him pull out of my head and stiffen. He was reluctant to pull away from me, I felt it, but he did.

Looking at him, I found him staring over my shoulder with narrow eyes. I turned to look what had caught his attention and I was met with the most stunning woman I’d ever laid my eyes on. Her tall body was lean, her breasts large. She wore a tight red dress that appeared to have been sprayed on to her stunning figure. Her long chestnut hair was straight and shiny, her striking face made up to perfection, her highlighted cheekbones high, and her full lips painted a deep red.

“What are you doing here, Tabitha?” Rax asked, his voice low and angry. I noticed the relaxed atmosphere in the room had dropped to a chilly quality, each of Rax’s friends watching their exchange carefully. Blinking when Zak’s eyes narrowed on me, possibly waiting for a reaction to the hot goddess, I shivered and swallowed back the apprehension that curled deep inside me.

Disregarding his fury, Tabitha’s emerald eyes slowly slid to me. Her head tipped to the side as she perused me, her lip curling in distaste as she took a step towards me. “Aren’t you going to introduce us, baby?”

Baby?

My top teeth sank into my bottom lip as I tried to disguise the hurt that I didn’t want to feel in the pit of my stomach. Not sure I had managed to hide it when Tabitha grinned sickly at me, I smiled as casually as I possibly could and held out my hand. “Hi, I’m Willa.”

Her gaze dropped to my hand but she didn’t offer me hers. Instead, her cold stare moved back to Rax, her snub hurting me more than it should have. “You’re wanted.”

“Wanted?” he asked as he came to stand in front of me defensively.

Angry, I stepped to the side. No way was this bitch making me feel awkward in
my
drinking joint.

“Your father.” Her eyes slid around the room and she grimaced. “Really, Rax? A human back street slum?”

“Excuse me?” I hissed, stepping forward. Fred’s was welcoming and cosy, the relaxed atmosphere I always managed to find here the best part about it. It granted me a separation from all the shit back home, and I loved this place as much as my own home. Her disrespect riled me.

She quirked a perfectly manicured eyebrow my way, heating my temper even more. “I’m sorry,” she drawled. “Were you speaking to me, halfbreed?”

I gasped when my body jerked, and I stared up at a furious Delilah when she stepped out from behind me. She curled a lip at Tabitha and dragged her eyes down her in contempt. Her head tipped to the side as she worshipped her long leather whip with her fingers. “You wanna play with
me
, bitch?”

Oh, how I loved Delilah!

Tabitha gawped, her wide eyes making me smile to myself when she stepped back, her neck bent back as she stared in amazement at my minion. Realising she was being watched, Tabitha cleared her throat and stepped forwards. “You don’t want to make an enemy of me.”

Delilah laughed loudly, her head tipped back as she cackled brashly.

Suddenly Rax grabbed Tabitha’s hand. “You shouldn’t have come here.” He turned to me, his expression wary. “Sorry, sweet thing.” Then a marbling in the air to my left appeared and he pulled Tabitha through it with him, his friends following suit and stepping through their own hatches.

“Well, hell!” Bobby said. “That was … different.” He grinned up at Delilah. “By the way, I never got a chance to thank you for saving my life the other day.”

She purred at him, a smile on her face as she ran a long fingernail down his cheek. “Any time, honey.” Then she disappeared, leaving me with a shiver when my soul housed its mate once again.

“What a bitch!” Sadie murmured, snapping me out of my thoughts about exactly who Tabitha was to Rax.

“You okay?” Frannie asked, nudging me gently when she caught on to my wounded pride. I hated to admit to myself that I had wanted things to progress with Rax and me, even if we were complete opposites, and not just in race. I had even thought about sharing blood with him. How fucking stupid I had been – yet again.

“Yeah,” I replied with a forced smile before turning to Bobby. “You ran out of tequila?”

Shaking his head firmly, he vaulted easily over the bar and lifted a new bottle. “Never! Bobby never runs out!”

“Good job!” I answered, forcing the hurt back and gesturing for him to fill my glass to the top. “Who needs men!” I toasted to my friends. “No offence, Bobby.”

“None taken,” he replied as he tipped his own drink back.

“You okay?”
Rax whispered.

Ignoring him, I locked up my mind, shut him out, and drank myself into Utopia.

“W
HAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” Father bellowed, his hot breath slamming into my face with his closeness.

Wiping his spit from my eye, I sighed. “Tabitha been telling tales again?”

He shook his head, his skin puce as he stepped closer. I hissed when a tightness gripped my throat, even though his hands were by his side. “I warned you, Rax. I asked you if you had any association with her.” The constriction increased. “YOU ARE NOT GOD HERE YET!”

Swallowing the saliva in my mouth, I licked my lips. “She can help. She’s our only chance!”

“You fool!” he spat, his grip on my neck disappearing when he spun around. Raking his hands through his hair, he sighed heavily. “Sit down!” he ordered as he took his usual seat by the fire.

Doing as charged, I took the only other seat in the room and watched him warily. For a long time he was silent. I could see his inner turmoil but eventually he narrowed his eyes on me. “Have you drunk from her?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “If I had we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation.”

He regarded me for a second then nodded. “Has she offered to?” His voice was quiet, apprehensive, greedy even, and I paused when the answer to his question seemed important – to him anyway.

“No.” He wasn’t to know the truth. He didn’t
need
to know the truth.

He looked both relieved and disappointed. His query made every one of my senses prickle. “Be honest with me, Father. What is the big deal with the seraph?”

His fury ghosted once more over his pale skin, the red hue to his eyes back again. “Other than she’s Empyrean?” he barked out, leaning forwards, as if that simple fact should have answered my enquiry. “She’s out of bounds, Rax.”