de Sang: Embrace Your Blood Lust (5 page)

Melanie leaned forward eagerly. "So, do they like, warm it up and serve in a cup?"

"Or a shot glass."

 
Blood from a shot glass. Now that was interesting. Kate glanced around the bar to see if anyone was drinking blood. She only saw normal cocktails. It was a little disappointing.

"Why wouldn't bagged blood work for 'true Sangs'?" she asked, turning to Hail.

He leaned back against the smooth, leather couch, his expression smug. This was obviously a topic he liked to discuss and felt some sort of superiority about. "Well, you have to ask yourself what you need from the blood you're drinking. If you like to drink blood, just to drink it, then I suppose bagged blood is fine. But a
real
Vampire needs blood for the Prana it contains, and blood only possesses that energy when it comes directly from a Donor. Blood is merely a vessel the Prana travels on; it cannot store the living energy. Once blood is cold, meaning it has left the human body, the Prana can only be maintained for a short time before the blood is essentially dead."

"So it is only the Prana Vampires need?" Kate wondered. Who knew being a Human Vampire came with so much theory.

"Not exactly. The desire is two-fold. Sang Vampires crave blood
and
energy."

"As opposed to...?"

"Psychic Vampires."

Melanie was staring at him. "Psychic Vampires? Like they can read your mind?"

"No." His half smile was mildly amused. "They feed off your energy."

"Any true extrovert feeds off another's energy," Kate said. "Good or bad." She glanced toward the bar. The bartender was dumping ice into the well. He definitely didn't look like the kind of guy who used the word "Prana".

"True, but Psy-Vamps literally feed off your energy. They can take it
from
you...if they choose. They can also manipulate the energy around them. An unethical Psychic Vampire is very unpleasant to be around and can be dangerous."

"But bagged blood could satisfy one aspect of the craving, right?" Kate didn't know why his disdain of bagged blood bothered her but it did.

"I suppose," he admitted with a grimace. "But I still don't why anyone would want to. Why masturbate when you can have sex."

His statement made absolutely no sense to her. If one had a true craving for blood but didn't have someone to get it from, bagged blood might be their only option. Or what if they didn't want to get it from the source? Drinking someone's blood seemed like a pretty intimate thing to do. Not everyone was set up that way. Sometimes masturbating was preferable to sex; there wasn't always a suitable partner available. She imagined Hail wasn't all that discriminating when it came to blood
or
sex.

"If Prana is stored in the body and blood is merely a vessel for it, wouldn't there be other, equally good sources of energy for a real Vampire to get the energy they truly need?" Kate pressed. "Assuming, of course, the blood cravings were met elsewhere, like from bagged blood." She was truly more curious than skeptical. Hail might be putting off a bit of a blowhard vibe but she didn't doubt what he was saying.

He grinned. "Sex. Orgasms exude a surplus of energy."

Okay, now Kate was confused. Didn't he just say
Psychic
Vampires fed off energy? Did Blood Vampires feed off energy, too? Kate still wasn't sure what being a Human Vampire actually meant.

It was subtle and Kate wasn't sure Melanie even realized she was doing it, but the curvy girl had leaned close to Hail and was busy playing with an earring. "Really?"

"Absolutely." Hail gave Melanie's pushed up breasts a long once over. "Which is why I prefer to receive my blood during sex, especially during an orgasm." His lids were heavy and his eyes lustful. "Or preferably, multiple orgasms."

"Yeah?" Melanie replied breathily.

"Oh yeah."

While they were busy eye-fucking each other, Kate glanced once again toward the bar. Slade was engaged in what looked like a lighthearted conversation with a man and a woman seated at the bar. He was leaning against the bar, arms splayed wide. His triceps looked like the roots of some massive oak tree, knotted and bulging. From what she could see, the tattoo covering his left arm consisted of skulls and eyeless faces interlaced with a very intricate looking tribal design. She wondered what his back piece was.

When he caught her gaze he winked.

She quickly turned her focus to the full drink in her hand, embarrassed he'd caught her staring. She didn't know why she was even compelled to look his direction. Sure, he was good looking but he was nowhere near her type and an asshole to boot.

Only his stupid comment could be making the desire to check out what he was doing
right that very minute
so strong.

The real deal.
She assumed it meant he was a Human Vampire. That implied he drank blood, but did he drink blood from a person or from a bag? If she asked, would his feelings on the subject be anything like Hail's?

Peering through the ringlet veil of her hair, she risked a quick glance toward the bar again. He was busily mixing drinks and chatting with the couple at the same time. She saw his red eyes flick her direction and she discretely turned her head and pretended to fix her hair.

Curiosity. That's all her interest in him could possibly be.

* * * *

Slade wished Kate would look his direction or better yet, quit nursing her first drink and order another one. He'd really like the opportunity to spar with her again.

God, she was beautiful. Her mass of deep red curls looked like tendrils of flames licking the air and furniture around her. Sitting with her back to the wall, she was turned slightly away from him, offering a great view of a lean thigh as it peeked out from under her short skirt. Her smooth, porcelain skin was the perfect shade of pale only natural redheads could achieve and looked strokably soft. Everything about her lit him on fire. He couldn't keep his eyes off her.

In fact, he could barely peel his gaze from her when Satin, one of
Luxure's
regulars stepped up to the bar. As was her normal uniform, she wore a fetish collar, a shirt announcing she was braless, a pleather waist cincher, a mini skirt, and most likely, no panties.

Satin was what one would call a sexually uninhibited girl, to use a PC term. Part time exotic dancer, part time dominatrix (although he'd heard she was more a sub in bed — hence the collar), she was forever trying to get into Slade's pants.

He had no desire to fuck her. It wasn't that he judged her for her promiscuity or didn't find her attractive. Getting intimate with her would no doubt create a whole shitload of drama he'd rather not step in.

"What can I get you, doll?"

Satin bit her lip, the stark white of her fang inserts contrasting brightly against the blood red lipstick. As she leaned forward on the bar her shirt fell open and gave him a full view of her breasts. They we're nice enough, most likely fake, but certainly attractive. Unfortunately, he didn't have much of an interest to see them.

"Your cock in me would be a start. You can fuck me right here on this bar." She stroked the smooth wood of the bar top seductively. "I wouldn't mind."

Slade laughed. He wasn't sure why, but he always found Satin's aggressive flirtation humorous. It was like the roles were reversed and he was the preyed upon female trudging down Bourbon Street.

"What can I get you to drink?"

"Hmm," she twirled a strand of long black hair in her fingers. "How about your blood?"

"You know I don't Donate."

"Never hurts to ask. Maybe someday you'll change your mind. Take a walk on the other side. It's fucking sexy, you know."

"Whiskey on the rocks then?"

"Of course."

She jumped when Ash walked up behind her and smacked her ass. Sliding his arm around her shoulders, he cozied up next to her at the bar. "You really ought to keep that thing covered," he said. "Do you realize how difficult it was to only
slap
your perfect ass?"

She did a butt wiggle, shimmy thing. "Maybe that's what I was hoping for."

Reaching into her shirt, he pinched an unrestrained nipple. "You're such a little whore," he said fondly, kissing her cheek.

She turned into him, wrapping one hand around his neck and cupping his balls with the other. "You know you love it."

"I wouldn't be much of a man if I didn't." Ash covered her mouth in a rather sloppy, wet kiss.

Until Angel came in and Ash resumed his role as her faithful puppy, Slade would have to watch these two carefully to make sure they weren't having sex on the dance floor. Satin's skirt was short enough, it would be easy for them to do and stay mostly discreet. Regardless, it wouldn't be tolerated. If they snuck into the can, or decided one needed blood and wanted to hit the blood room, Slade might look the other way. As long as the sex stayed quiet.

One look at the couple as they pawed at each other told Slade there's no way that sex would be quiet. Satin was probably a screamer.

Slade glanced toward the back corner table and once again caught Kate's gaze. She was watching the excessive PDA with an expression that was half amused and half disgusted. Slade held up the bar gun and pretended to spray them down. He was pretty sure he caught a smile on her Angelina Jolie lips before she turned away.

He would have been happy to continue staring at the side of her head and imagining what it would be like wrap his fingers in the curtain of red while he mounted her from behind, but Onyx was in the waitress well with a drink order. Fantasies about Miss Kaitlyn Miller would have to wait a little while longer. At some point she'd come to the bar, he was sure of it.

Chapter Five

Kate could not fathom why, but when she watched a woman in a micro skirt lean over the bar to talk to Slade, exposing half her ass to everyone in the process, she felt her stomach clench. When Slade laughed midway through the conversation, her guts twisted into a mass of gnarled tree trunks.

She shouldn't care. No, she didn't care. Of course a guy like Slade would be all over that type of woman. What difference did it make to Kate? They could go into the back room and have sex, or right behind the bar for that matter. She couldn't care less.

It took a bit of effort but she managed to force her attention back to Hail and Melanie. Hail was drawing a circle over Melanie's left grapefruit sized breast with one long, manicured nail. "The Prana concentrated here is especially potent," he said, or rather, purred.

Melanie looked like she might melt. "Would it give you extra powers or something?"

Hail grinned, leaning in and whispering something in Melanie's ear that made her giggle like a twelve-year-old girl.

Kate turned back to the bar. The skank was slobbering all over some guy while Slade watched, an amused expression on his face. When he pretended to spray them down like a couple of dogs in heat, Kate almost laughed out loud.

It was a mistake she quickly covered. It wasn't like he needed the encouragement. She imagined women were constantly fawning all over him, stroking his huge, muscled arms while commenting on how big they were and laughing at all his juvenile jokes...

No. She definitely didn't need to feed his overinflated ego any more than it probably was.

"So, Hail, when you aren't here, what do you do?" she asked the blond man next to her instead.

"He works for me."

Hail practically leapt to his feet. "A-Angel," he stammered, "so wonderful to see you." He tripped over Kate as he scrambled to get from behind the table.

She could understand his anxiety. Angel was quite possibly the most gorgeous woman she'd ever seen. Dressed in a cream colored satin dress leaving little to the imagination, she had a perfect figure and even more perfect face. It was a face even Kate's plastic surgeon father couldn't find fault in.

Angel smiled sympathetically at Hail and winked at Kate. "There's no need to injure your tablemates," she told him. "But I am pleased to see you too."

He flushed a deep pink. "Angel, this is Melancholy and, um…" If he were a fourteen-year-old boy talking to the captain of cheerleading squad he couldn't be any more awkward.

"Kate," Kate finished for him. She thought about seeing how long it would take him to remember her name but realized he probably never would.

"Of course," Hail muttered.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Angel said, giving Kate a knowing look.

"Likewise," Kate said. She wasn't sure how to take Angel. Growing up with a father who carved beauty into women and a mother who never had a hair out of place, Kate shied away from what traditional society deemed beautiful. Because she didn't fit the ideals set by her family, she knew it was merely a defense mechanism. It didn't matter. More often than not, she found she had a hard time trusting, or being comfortable around, a
classic
beauty. She should be intimidated and threatened by Angel. Instead, Kate felt instantly at ease with the other woman. Angel seemed to ooze a calming air.

"So what do you do that Hail works for you?"

"He performs with me."

"Oh yeah? What type of performance do you do?" Angel looked like she might be a singer or something. Kate could imagine her in a sexy piano bar, seducing men with a husky voice.

Angel pursed her lips. "Some things are better seen than described." She smiled gently at Hail and gave him a barely perceptible nod. "It was wonderful meeting you ladies. Hopefully, I'll see you tomorrow."

Watching Angel slink toward the bar, Kate was reminded of the beauty pageants her mother entered her in as a child. No matter how much makeup, hairspray, glitter and satin her mom layered on her, she never won a single crown. In fact, usually she'd trip during the beauty phase or forget whatever silly dance routine she'd spent weeks practicing.

At first, she didn't hate the pageants. It was like playing dress up. But by the time she was eight she despised them, and finally, her mother quit trying to mold her into a beauty queen. Luckily, her sister Amber was a natural. In fact, she was a Miss Texas runner up.

Kate sighed inwardly. It was just one more piece of evidence proving she didn't fit in with her family.

She turned back to Hail and Melanie.

"What's going on tomorrow?" Melanie wondered.

He licked his lips. "The Forever Dark Vampire Ball."

Melanie wagged her eyebrows at Kate. "Sounds awesome."

It did sound intriguing. She wondered if Lohr Varius would be there.

"It's sold out but I can get you ladies in." Kate was pretty sure it would be Angel getting them in, but she could play along anyway.

"Oh my God, really?" Melanie chirped.

"Yeah, that would be amazing," Kate added. "We'd love to go."

"I'll put you on the list." As Hail gave Melanie the address, Kate couldn't resist and glanced once more toward the bar. Slade was vigorously shaking a Martini shaker while Angel and the dark-haired skinny man who'd so recently been sucking face with Skank Girl, waited. Scrawny's posture reminded Kate of a scolded dog, and if he had a tail, it would surely be between his legs.

* * * *

All right, if Miss Kate didn't order another drink soon, Slade was going to march over to her table and replace that watered down nastiness she was sipping with something actually drinkable. He needed an excuse to talk to her and, if she wasn't going to come to him, he'd find a reason to go to her.

He couldn't come up with anything fast enough. When the front door suddenly crashed open and three pissed off guys stampeded in, dragging a very drunk girl behind them, the entire bar seemed to pause. Two more women who obviously made up a bachelorette party cautiously followed. They all had a little drunken glaze to their eyes and Slade had a bad feeling about where it was heading.

The night was turning out to be way more action packed than he'd anticipated or cared to experience.

The guy in the front had the most deranged expression of them all and Slade could only guess he was the drunken girl's boyfriend or husband.

Slade met them before they could get to the bar. "Can I help you?" He made sure to expand his chest as he asked the question, and although he felt like a puffed up rooster, or an arching, hissing cat, he knew the gesture helped remind drunkards he could probably pop their heads like giant zits.

Unfortunately, boyfriend was too pissed to notice or care. Or maybe he felt overconfident because his buddies were bringing up the rear.

Although…

Slade quickly glanced around the bar. The guy might have something to feel confident about after all. It wasn't like Slade had a whole lot of backup tonight. Kindle was off and with Armand out, Slade's muscle was seriously compromised. Maybe he could call on Red. That spitfire could probably take out the lot of them.

The thought made him smile.

Boyfriend jerked the girl around and yanked her head back, exposing her neck and two, blood encrusted circles to Slade. "Wanna tell me which one of you weirdoes did this to my girlfriend?"

"Wanna ease up on your girl?" Slade replied as the girl twisted in the guy's grasp, whimpering as his fingers dug into her flesh.

"What I really want to know is why some sick freak decided to sink his teeth into her?"

Slade recognized the marks on her neck. They weren't made from teeth, but that was probably a moot point.

"Jake, let me go!"

"Yeah Jake, you might want to let her go."

Jake only increased his grip on her. "You're going to tell me who did this."

Slade was trying to decide if his fist against Jake's jaw would get him to release the girl or not when one of her girlfriends pleaded, "Jake please, I don't see the guy here."

Finally, Jake tossed the blonde aside. It was Angel who caught her. "What does he look like?" Jake demanded.

The friend flinched when Jake turned to her. The guy obviously had a mean streak. Slade was ready to give him a taste of his
own
mean streak.

"Tall and skinny, with a Mohawk."

Darus. Of fucking course. No one else was as fond of street Donors as Darus.

Slade's exasperation must have shown on his face, because Jake was suddenly inches from him, a pointed finger millimeters from Slade's nose.

"Where you hiding your friend? If I have to kick your ass to get to him I will." Jake's friends had flanked him and were obviously chomping at the bit for an opportunity to fight.

Slade smiled. "Definitely not here."

"Listen asshole," Jake started, jabbing his finger at Slade and spitting on him at the same time.

All right, he'd had enough.

While Jake rattled off some more insults, Slade wiped the spittle from his cheek and then, in one swift motion, grabbed Jake's hand and twisted it behind his back.

"Time to go," he said.

The friend on the right took a swing at Slade, which he anticipated and avoided by ducking. The missed swing sent the guy staggering into the wall. Jerking Jake's wrist higher until his elbow twisted unnaturally and he cried out, Slade caught the fist of the third friend and spun him around. Drunk people were extremely predictable.

There was about to be some more bar brawling, when Angel's clear voice brought it to an abrupt halt. "Gentlemen," she said softly but firmly, sliding her curves between friend number three and Slade. "There's no reason to fight."

Angel had this uncanny ability to manipulate the energy in a room. Ash would tell him it was because of her heightened Sang senses, or that she was a powerful Psychic Vampire. Slade preferred to think it was her beauty that encouraged people to follow her will, even though he could sense the energy in the room had changed. It felt like warm pudding had seeped into his veins.

He shook it off.

Angel gently placed a pale hand on guy number three's cheek. "Your anger is displaced," she told him before lightly trailing her fingers over his jaw and turning to Jake. "There is no enemy here."

With her skyscraper heels, Angel stood eye to eye with Slade and the man in his grasp. Her brown eyes were intense as they bored into Jake. "Amy is unharmed," she said quietly.

The bitten blonde must be Amy. Only Angel would catch the girl as she fell and then become her best friend in less than thirty seconds.

"You call two puncture wounds unharmed?" It was guy number two who spoke. Jake was too busy being mesmerized by Angel.

She turned slowly to him, letting the effect of her lithe movements wash over him before replying, "They will heal." She turned back to Jake. "I am sorry one of our comrades made friends with your girlfriend without your permission. It was very rude." She leaned forward. "But there is nothing to fear, Jake," she whispered in his ear. "No need for anger." Slade felt the guy relax and even slump a little as the air around them became thick with the calm oozing from Angel's body.

Okay, maybe there was something to her ability to manipulate energy.

"It is only pleasure we share." Jake melted, and instead of immobilizing him, Slade was suddenly stabilizing him. Angel's deep brown eyes flicked up to meet his own and she grinned.

Whatever Angel had done, it was effective because Jake said, "You can let me go. We're leaving."

Slade wasn't about to let down all his guard but he did release Jake's arm, keeping a hand firmly on his shoulder as he guided him toward the door. The two girlfriends had already darted outside.

"C'mon Amy," Jake said to the blonde.

Amy glanced at Angel, who now stood beside her, an arm draped softly around Amy's shoulder.

"It's up to you," Angel told her. "I think he'll be fine but if you feel unsafe, don't leave."

Slade really didn't want Darus' most recent Doll hanging around the bar, but he wasn't as convinced as Angel that Jake was suddenly cured of his assholeness. "She's not leaving with you," Slade said to him. "We'll call her a cab."

"Amy..." Jake pleaded.

"I'll see you at the hotel," she replied, false confidence making her voice unnaturally high.

"Amy!"

Slade pushed him into the courtyard. "Relax, man. We'll get her home safely. Look, if I see you hanging around out here I won't hesitate to kick your ass and then call the cops. Trust me, you don't want to spend your vacation in a New Orleans jail cell. The rats are big down here and don't get me started on the nutria."

Jake didn't respond and Slade followed the unwelcome group down the archway, waiting until they disappeared onto Royal before returning to the bar.

* * * *

Kate watched the entire ordeal with a sort of fascinated enthrallment. Slade had this confident power even she couldn't deny was sexy. He dealt with the assailants with amused assertiveness. And then when Angel stepped in, the entire game changed. It was like seeing a fantasy novel unfold.