Pool of Crimson (18 page)

Jade’s car door closed behind me. The soft rumble of the Italian engine came to life behind me.

I yanked Smarmy from the wall and turned him quickly in my grasp. I pulled his back against me as I pressed the knife to his throat. The Ebony Goddess took a pensive step toward me as she plucked the stake from her shoulder like it was a splinter.

“You don’t want to do that,” Ebony Goddess said, as if talking a crazy person back from the ledge.

“I
really
do,” I responded through clenched teeth. I took another step back, tugging Smarmy with me at knifepoint. If I could get into the public eye, I could avoid blood. The breeze of Jade’s car flowed over us as I took another step toward civilization. The street noise got closer, and the soft yellow light from the street lamps made the night seem less daunting. I was almost there.

“We can talk about this,” Ebony Goddess said with a placating smile that set my teeth on edge. I pushed the knife against Smarmy’s flesh just a bit harder, just as she’d done to me. He gasped as the blade broke his greasy skin. A small stream of warm blood oozed down the blade, dripping from the hilt to the ground.

“STOP!” Smarmy screamed frantically at the Ebony Goddess, who froze at his plea. She must have heard the fear quivering in his voice. “She’ll do it, Dom. Please stop.”

“Don’t. . .” The Ebony Goddess froze, palms out.

The first twitch of a smile pulled the corners of my mouth up. I was in control. One more step and I could see the stop light at the corner. I grabbed a handful of his greasy hair in my hand and yanked his head back, exposing more of his neck to my blade.

“UGH,” he grunted as I dragged him with me another step toward freedom. Just one more step, and I’d be out of the shadows.

“Another night, another time,” I whispered against his ear. I pushed him as hard as I could into the Ebony Goddess, dragging my blade against his skin and drawing more blood. I stepped back into the light of the street lamp and the safety of the bustling street and watched as the Ebony Goddess examined Smarmy’s wound.

Smarmy pressed his hand against his neck to staunch the bleeding while I slipped the knife back in my boot. I didn’t want anyone to catch a glance of my weapon. Ebony Goddess glared back at me with hatred in her eyes and the promise of vengeance in her scowl.

I smirked back at her with contempt. It was two and a half blocks to my front door. I ran without looking back.

I rounded the corner of my street and saw a familiar car parked out in front of my house. There were several Volvos, a couple of SUVs and an Audi or two but nothing as rich as the Maserati, looking horribly out of place in front of my modest two-story Arts & Crafts home. I stepped onto my walk, and Jade rose from the wicker sofa on my front porch.

“Took your sweet time, didn’t you?” she asked, accusation ringing in her words. She crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight to her left side. She was mad. Fuming actually, and her eyes burned into me like green fire.

“I ran into some problems,” I said as I climbed the four stairs to the porch. I dug in my bag for my keys and heard a distant jingle from the bottom of my bag as I rooted around.

“I’ll say.”

I fished my keys out and fumbled with them as I spoke. “You have no idea.” I turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open as the shrill beeping from the alarm sounded from the kitchen. Jade followed me in and waited until I’d hit the code before she said anything else.

“You stabbed that woman with a stick,” she said, eyes wide in lingering disbelief, her hands planted firmly on her hips.

“Technically, yes,” I said as I threw my bag on the couch and started checking the windows and doors in my usual nightly routine. Lock everything down. I didn’t want anything getting in my house that didn’t already belong there.

“You pulled a knife from your boot and held that guy at knife point.” Tears hitched her voice as her words caught in the back of her throat.

“Yes,” I said flatly as I turned to her and waited.

“That woman, had fangs,” she said finally as the first tear streamed down her bronzed cheek, followed by another, and then another. It was like watching her entire world collapse around her and a new one being born. Everything she thought she knew was wrong. Everything she thought didn’t exist, did, and she was trying her damnedest to come to grips with that.

“Yes, she did,” I said finally.

“What’s going on here?” she asked, defeated, as she plopped down on my sofa and dropped her head in her hands.

“She was a vampire,” I said in a clear, unquestioning voice. “As I said.”

Jade turned appalled vibrant green eyes up to meet mine with horror etched on her face. “You’re joking,” she accused as she grimaced and placed her head back in her hands.

“What you saw was no joke. They would’ve killed me and you, too.” I added, mostly for dramatic effect. It worked. The look she gave me was filled with terror. “Researching demons didn’t seem to bother you,” I said.

“I thought it was about some group of wackos worshiping this thing, not that it was real,” she said, almost screaming at me.

“It’s all real. All those things that we believed as children, vampires, werewolves, witches, demons, ghosts and ghouls. They’re all real,” I said with conviction. I’d never known a time when the preternatural world didn’t exist. I’d always known that there were other things out there that could hurt me.

“Shit,” she said with a heavy exhale.

“I know this is a lot to take in. If you want to back out, I understand,” I said, moving toward my front door. I liked her; she’d become a friend without my realizing it, and she was a damned good researcher. I didn’t want to lose her, but I would let her walk away to keep her safe. It was the least I could do.

“Hold on a sec,” she said quickly. “Just let me get my head around this.”

The smallest sliver of a hopeful smile turned the corners of my mouth up. She wanted to stay.

“Okay,” I said cautiously, waiting for her to say something.

“What about you?” she said finally.

I looked at her, surprised. “What about me?”

“What are you?”

“Well, that’s the $64,000 question at the moment. I don’t know,” I said with a quick shrug of my shoulders. “No one seems to know. Danny told me I smelled like old magic, but I don’t know what that means. Neither did he.”

“Danny? Do I want to know?” she asked, dread in her voice.

“Werewolf,” I said flatly.

“Right.” She shook her head in the same manner a child would clear an etch-a-sketch. “So what do we do now?”

“We keep looking,” I said. “The vampires don’t want me dead anymore. Which I suppose is a bonus. They do, however, want me for something else. That frightens me more than the dead part,” I said, sarcasm filling my tone. “At least dead, I know what I’m in for.”

“Maybe they want your hot body,” Jade said with the faintest hint of a smile.

“Asshole,” I said stiffly. She didn’t know how close she’d come to the mark with at least one vampires.

“I have to do what I’m good at,” she said, finally smiling at me fully.

“You’re good at research. Let’s get down to that,” I said sharply.

“If you say so.” she said, wiping the remnants of the tears from her cheeks. “Let’s get to work.”

A sigh of relief escaped my lips. I wasn’t sure I could trust myself anymore. I was glad that there was someone I could
trust
who would look out for me.

No matter how attracted I was to him, Patrick was a vampire.

He was
Dead. D. E. A. D. An abomination of God.

I couldn’t let him touch me again. No matter how much I wanted him to.

“Let’s get started.”

Chapter 14

“What’re we doing here?” I screamed in Danny’s ear as the music from the speakers across the dance floor thumped in my chest.

I hate dance clubs.

Danny pulled me along behind him through the crowd with determination, pushing smaller, less burly people out of our way. They didn’t dare give him the dirty looks they gave me.

“I have a quick meeting, and then we can leave,” he screamed back into my ear with an apologetic smile. “Just hang out here by the bar. I shouldn’t be too long,” he said. He leaned in and brushed my lips with his in a quick, heat-filled kiss. As his lips touched mine, a flutter rippled through my stomach. He pulled away with a quick reassuring squeeze of my hand. I couldn’t help but worry. I needed to lay low and Crimson was too public, too dark, and one of the business cards that had been on the Marlboro Man’s desk.

The entire place was brimming with power, hot, cold, and everything in between. The dance floor was littered with vampires and werewolves. There was no way I was under the radar here. My concern must have shown on my face. Danny reached over and stroked a gentle line across my cheek.

“Don’t worry,” he said with a smile. “Crimson’s neutral territory. Nothing can happen here.”

Something can happen anywhere, and neutral for him wasn’t neutral for me.

“I don’t like this,” I snapped. I scanned the crowd over his shoulder and then mine.

“Don’t worry so much. You’re safe here. We’re all safe here.”

His assurances didn’t rid me of my anxiety.

“I won’t be long,” he said as he let go of my hand and disappeared into the crowd. I lost him in the hoard of people for a split second until a side door opened on the other end of the dance floor. The open door flooded the room with harsh fluorescent lights for a brief moment, illuminating Danny in the open door. Then, he was gone.

I started to move, at least to get out of easy reach. There were plenty of dark corners to hide in, and I headed toward the first one I saw. I told myself I was safe in the shadows, less exposed, especially with walls on either side of me. My skin crawled with the idea that all eyes were on me. Vampires stalked around me on all sides. The piercing, painful chill of their power made my skin tingle as their magic scratched and scraped against me. I knew one of those signatures well as it caressed me and glided against my skin like a cold rush of water. Patrick was out there somewhere in the crowd. His chill tingled across my skin. It was familiar and oddly comforting.

“Please just pass me by,” I whispered to myself into the darkness. “Please.” His power pulsed like a cold caress against my face, as if it recognized me.

His power couldn’t do that ... could it?

I couldn’t see anyone or anything any further than three heads directly in front of me but I could feel him approach me, feel his power lick my skin as if he could taste me.

“Shit!” I swore loud enough for the people around me to finally notice me.

His dark hair emerged first from the sea of people, followed by his dark eyes, reflecting what little light was actually in the dance club. I leaned up against the wall and casually placed the foot with my knife in my boot flat against the wall.

He stood motionless before me in the shadows, the light from the DJ booth flashed across his face and jet-black hair in rainbow waves of yellow, red, and blue. His face and eyes were empty, like blank slates in the darkness.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, caged fury tightening his voice.

“I’m touched by your concern,” I replied sarcastically. He wasn’t going to tell me what to do. Not if I had a say in it. The last time I checked, I was the only one who had a say.

“Daniel should know better,” he snarled. He looked around the crowd, scanning for ... something or someone.

“How do you know who I’m here with?” I asked sharply, offended by the accusation in his tone. His eyes narrowed on me and in the blink of an eye he was close enough to touch, to kiss, or to kill.

“I know where you are at all times,” he said, leaning in to me and taking a deep breath. His nose skimmed my neck lightly, setting every nerve ending in my body ablaze with need. I slid my hand down my calf, independent of thought. My fingers wrapped tightly around the handle of the knife hidden in my boot. The familiar feel of the handle in my hand calmed my pounding heart.

“I can smell him on you. I don’t like it,” he growled.

God, that’s hot.

“I’m afraid you have no say,” I forced out. I stood still, so still that I could feel the pulse of power shift around people in the club. I could feel the beat of the techno music pulse in my blood, and I could feel the Earth move on its axis. It was as if the world stood still with me, waiting to breathe.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said, a satisfied smile in his voice.

I pulled my knife quicker than I’d ever pulled it before, forcing the tip of it underneath his chin.

“
I
would go that far,” I said in almost a whisper, pushing the tip of my bowie knife just a bit deeper until the skin underneath his chin indented from the pressure.

“I never knew how alluring a dangerous woman could be,” he said as he pulled his head back and away from the knife, exposing his throat to me. He placed a hand on either side of me on the wall. I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to be afraid or turned on. The problem was I felt both.

My pulse picked up at the thought of him touching me. I knew that I should just finish it. I should just shove the knife up and be done with the whole thing and finally be rid of him and this unnatural desire that pulled me to him. Something deep in my being stopped me. I smelled the pungent scent of burning flesh as the silver of my blade burned his skin. He didn’t move. He never took his eyes from mine.

“As much as I’m enjoying this, the situation ... has changed.”

“Changed? How?” I asked, my voice unsteady. Fear and anxiety reverberated tension through my body like shockwaves.

“Ethan wants you and I don’t know why. You may question my intentions but never my motives.
I
want you,” he said with clarity. “I want you for myself. I won’t let him have you.” Anger filled his expression. “Ever.” The push of power caressed my skin, sending chills up my spine and warmth coursing between my thighs.

A soft crackle of power behind him pushed against me. It was close and getting closer. I cast my eyes instinctually over his shoulder. The vampire approached silently, with sunken shoulders and down-turned eyes. She stood without a word, waiting. She was a little on the chunky side with flabby arms that were exposed through the fishnet sleeves of her shirt. She wore matching fishnet hose and combat boots under a fluffy pink tool skirt. I wanted to tell her that that look went out with 1995 but I kept my mouth shut.