“Someone here is going to try and kill me.”
Wulf doesn’t like that comment. He snarls, and his eyes glow as he lets his wolf come to the surface. “How do you know?”
“How do I do any of the things I do?” I glare at him, but it’s mostly my anxiety making me lose control. “I just know. I can feel it.”
Wulf shoves me behind him and glares at the crowd around us. “Who? Where?”
“I don’t know. It’s only a warning.”
“Well, that’s helpful.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
He harrumphs and pulls out his cell phone, ignoring all the annoyed customers shouting for drinks. “I’m texting Terrance. Tell me if you see anyone suspicious.”
I’m in a club full of supernatural monsters. Right now, they all look suspicious. It’s especially impossible to tell if anyone means me harm right now, because both Wulf and I have stopped serving drinks and people are starting to get pissed.
“Come on.” Wulf grunts, gruffly grabbing my arm and dragging me toward the end of the bar. “Terrance says to take you to his private suite. It doubles as a panic room.”
He refuses to let go of me as he drags me away from the bar, yelling at his other bartender to hold down the fort until he gets back. We push through the crowd toward the back of the club, where a stairway leads to a set of rooms on the second floor. The hallway is open to the large room, but Terrance’s suite is toward the end of the row.
I can’t help feeling like heading upstairs is a mistake. The dread in my stomach is getting heavier, not lighter. “Are you sure we should be going upstairs? Have you ever seen a horror movie, Wulf?”
“It’s a panic room, Nora. It’s the safest place for you in the club while Terrance and I figure out who wants to hurt you.”
“You’re going to leave me alone, too? You really don’t watch horror.”
“You’ll be fine.”
We reach Terrance’s office, and as Wulf pulls out his keys, a tall, skinny woman arrives out of nowhere and grabs Wulf’s face. “Go back to the bar,” she says, staring into his eyes. “Nora is fine.”
Oh. Nora is so not fine. The woman is a vampire, and she’s just compelled Wulf. He actually smiles as he passes me, heading back for the stairs. I scream his name and grab his arm, but he keeps walking. I try to run after him, but the vampire lady grabs me. I scream Terrance’s name at the top of my lungs, while the woman drags me into the nearest room and throws me to the ground.
Stars burst in my vision as my head hits the ground, but the woman slams my head again for good measure. “Shut up!” she hisses.
When I scream for Terrance again, she hits me so hard across the mouth that my jaw shatters. Pain explodes through me like roaring fire. I can’t scream now. I whimper, and tears leak from the corners of my eyes.
“I don’t know how you bewitched my sire,” she says, “but I’m going to save him from your wretched curse.”
The woman is a stranger to me, but I know she’s talking about Henry Stadther. Henry is the master of the largest vampire clan in Michigan. He’s also completely obsessed with me. The FUA warned him to leave me alone, but he doesn’t do a good job of it. I guess his vampire whores are getting as tired of his infatuation as I am.
This crazy vamp-bitch is out for blood. Her eyes are red, and her fangs are on full display. Hopefully Terrance heard me and gets up here fast, otherwise I’m dead.
“I used to be Henry’s favorite, you know. He was mine until you came along, and now he doesn’t even remember I exist. All he cares about is his precious Nora.” She gives me an evil smile. “We’ll see how long he cares about you once you’re dead. I’m going to enjoy drinking you dry.”
“NNNOOOORRRAAA!” Terrance bellows, shaking the entire club. His voice is completely guttural. I’ve only heard it like that once before—when I’d been kidnapped and he found me chained and bleeding on a sorcerer’s altar. He’s totally in raging troll mode.
I can’t speak, or smirk, so I narrow my eyes at the shocked woman. That’s right, bitch. You’ve done it now. I’m his clan, and you’re a dead woman.
As if she can see the smugness in my eyes, the woman growls at me. “I was planning to make you hurt for a bit first, but I guess I’ll just have to make this quick.” She lifts my wrist but pauses before biting me and smiles again. “Still. I can make you suffer a little.” She looks into my eyes and whispers, “Fear me.”
Immediately, I’m overcome with terror so strong I can’t breathe or think. I try to squirm and thrash to escape, even though every move causes my jaw more pain. I get one more command before she begins to drink. “You will feel pain instead of pleasure.”
Agony tears through my whole body when her fangs pierce my skin, and she begins to pull the blood from me one swallow at a time. I’m on fire from the inside out. I thrash, but it does me no good. Pain and fear, that’s all I know. It’s all I feel. There is nothing else.
I can’t tell how long it goes on. It feels like an eternity. And then it stops. Just as my vision fades, my massive angry troll friend rips the woman away from me. He grabs her and tears her head from her body. Blood flies everywhere, splattering us both, and that’s the last thing I remember.
. . . . .
When I come to, my mind is foggy, but not enough that I don’t remember what happened. I’m still lying on the floor where I passed out, and I’m still a bloody mess. My jaw is healed but really stiff, and I know I must have been drained nearly dry of blood because I’m so weak I can’t move.
The shaman kneeling over me is one I recognize. He’s a freelance healer that is usually on call for the FUA. He’s healed me several times before. “Enzo,” I croak. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”
He gives me a pained smile. “Just lie still, Miss Nora.”
I pass out again, and I’m kind of glad, because I still hurt like a bitch.
When I wake up the second time, I feel a lot better—weak still, but not like I’m on death’s door. I’m also not still lying on the floor splattered in vamp blood, which is nice. I’ve been moved to a large, comfortable bed in a smallish but lavishly decorated room. I’ve also been wiped down, and someone has changed my clothes. Enzo is sitting by my side in a folding chair, looking pale as a ghost and exhausted, but he smiles when he notices I’m awake. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better. Thank you.”
I try to sit up and quickly rethink that decision. “Okay, only a little better. But still, thank you.”
He gives me a humble bow. “You’re welcome, Miss Nora. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”
Is he kidding? “Hey. I’m alive. I’m sure that’s thanks to you. You are, once again, my favorite underworlder.”
I love making him blush. It’s so easy.
Over half a dozen other faces cram into the room when they hear us talking. Wulf, my best friend Oliver, Nick Gorgeous, Parker, Cecile, two unfamiliar men, and Terrance all crowd into the small room, hovering behind Enzo with worried expressions.
Terrance pushes everyone out of the way and crashes to his knees beside my bed with a thump that rattles the room. “Hey,” I say softly, recognizing that while he might not still be lost to his rage, he’s not entirely calm yet, either. “You saved my life. Thanks, T-man.”
Terrance grumbles something unintelligible while he rakes his thick fingers through my hair.
“I’m okay now, Terrance. Promise.”
He grunts and walks out of the room to resume his furious pacing in the hall. So…he’s going to brood a while, then. “All right. Where am I?” I ask everyone else in the room. “Whose clothes are these? Please tell me Cecile changed me. And what are you all doing here?”
Cecile flashes me a smile. “You’re still in the club. This is my private suite. Those are my clothes, and don’t worry, I cleaned you up and changed you. I even kicked all the men out first—Terrance excluded. I couldn’t get him to go anywhere, but he turned his back.”