Page 2 of Never Run from an Immortal

“You have good taste for a human,” the Vampire said smoothly, pulling the glass of rikoli towards him.

Goddess save her. The triple Goddess: Maiden, Mother, and Crone, because Rae needed all the help she could get with this one. It was the same every night. Every Vampire was just as predictable as the last, regarding humans as if they were simply the bottom of the food chain. For Vampires, that held a modicum of truth, but it was the way they treated humans like nothing that made Rae’s skin crawl; the way they used them, manipulated them, and then threw them away when they were bored. Even though it was humans who brought technology to Demesia and humans who elevated the city to capital status all those years ago.

Rae held his gaze through her lashes as she took a sip of her drink. He was what most humans might consider handsome—strong cheekbones and sharp features matched with his disarming blue eyes. The subtle points to his ears—a feature all Vampires shared—were each pierced with tiny loops from lobe to tip. He was a Gerentis if she had to guess, though she’d been caught out too many times to put money on it.

“Dance with me?” she asked, draining her glass and slipping off the stool, angling her body just enough to brush her breasts against the Vampire’s torso as she did so. It was all too easy.

She didn’t glance back as she stepped out into the crowd, snaking past writhing bodies and Vampires getting their fill of humans in the middle of the dance floor for all to see. Arms raised above her head, Rae swayed to the music, eyes closed until she felt his warmth.

“You smell good,” she murmured, turning to look at him over her shoulder as they danced. Every Vampire she’d ever met had an over-inflated ego. She had no doubt this one would be the same. He merely hummed his agreement, and Rae resisted the urge to pull her dagger from her boot and poke a few holes into him for good measure.

Patience, she told herself. At least the music was half decent tonight, and for once, she found herself letting the beat wash over her, let it block out the lights flickering over the sweat-slicked bodies dancing around them.

Rae didn’t ask Blue’s name. She knew he wasn’t interested in hers, but she’d be damned if she’d give him so much as a drop of her blood. As his arms came around her waist and his teeth grazed the exposed skin of her neck, she spun around to face him, one hand fisted in the front of his shirt as if she couldn’t get enough of his touch.

His gaze slid down to track the movement, a dazzling grin revealing two pointed canines. But Rae still had time. Vampires loved the chase. The hunt. By her estimation, she had another few minutes before he grew tired of waiting to taste her. She already knew he kept his money in his top left trouser pocket, but if she brushed his dick when she reached for it, she was at risk of bringing up that last drink all over his white shirt, so she gave herself a minute to mentally prepare.

“I haven’t seen you in here before,” her Vampire said as he moved with her.

Rae hummed as he had, feigning interest in his words. If it wasn’t for the half-decent song, she’d have already taken what she needed.

Movement at the far side of the crowd caught her attention. Her true mark was on the move, several others flanking him. A frown creased Rae’s brow, but she shut it down before her dance partner could notice. They were all Providents, and it was an effort not to let her body tense as she moved. The Providents were the mystics, the mind readers, the telepaths. The Vampires who could speak through thoughts, could alter feelings, and conjure illusions of the mind to trick humans into trusting them. Supposedly some could heal, though Rae had never seen any evidence of such a thing. With powers like that, it was no wonder the Providents held the highest positions amongst the Vampires. Their Lord was no exception.

Nine followed him—no doubt his councillors—towards the staircase to the upper level that housed the VIP area, power rippling from all of them. The Vampire Lord was desperate, Rae knew; she’d been watching him for months. What she did at Rush was pocket change in comparison to the wealth he had access to. She didn’t want to involve herself in the affairs of Vampires, but this meeting was the first opportunity she’d had to get close to him in weeks.

Blue had said something, Rae reminded herself, and Vampires didn’t like to be ignored. “I hadn’t worked up the courage until tonight,” she finally told him, eyelashes fluttering as she smiled. He wouldn’t recognise her, even though she’d stolen from him twice already this week. A few quickly murmured spells to change her hair, her eyes, a few different shades of makeup and a change of clothes were all it took to deceive a bloodsucker; most of them only ever looked at the vein in her neck anyway.

He noticed the Providents on the move a few seconds after she did. He wasn’t important if he remained there with her, but he was still of use. All she needed was his money. Rae toyed with his shirt, fingers dipping closer to the waistband of his trousers, praying to the Goddess her gag reflex was on her side tonight.

She had no interest in sleeping with a Vampire. They were always assholes, so in love with their own reflection, walking around Demesia every night like they owned the place. Sometimes Rae prayed the Fae would just wipe the fuckers out and be done with it, but who was the lesser of the two evils? The feud between Vampires and Fae had gone on for so long that none were left who could remember a time of peace. And when you lived amongst immortals, that was saying a lot.

Unlike the Vampires, the different types of Fae were a lot easier to spot. There were those that for the most part looked human, despite their finely pointed ears and their preternatural beauty marking them asother. There were the Shifters, the Sirens, the Wings, the Horns, and the Hooves, though none would stoop as low as to walk into Rush—it was the wrong part of the city for Fae. Though most aligned themselves with either the Royalist or Liberalist courts through lineage, many wished for no such association. Rae shared the sentiment.

That left the Witches and the humans, who were much harder to tell apart, and one great big fucking mess. The Witch king was reported to be dead, and good fucking riddance. He’d been nothing but a waste of space and had done little to help those the Vampires had taken, allegedly. It was no surprise Witches had become so secretive and cut off from the rest of the continent.

Blue began to get handsy, long, thin fingers roving over the swell of her ass like he was considering which part to sink his fangs into first. Rae knew it was probably a piss-poor attempt at fluffing his own ego after seeing the Providents moving throughthe club, a reminder that he would never be one of them and that at least the female in his arms was something he could control.

But not this one. Not tonight. Something was happening, and not the way Rae had hoped. The Vampire Lord was bound to be less accessible if he was preoccupied.

The music drifted into another track and Rae twisted out of her Vampire’s arms like she was lost to it, swaying to the new beat and bumping into the human behind her a little harder than necessary.

“Watch it, bitch,” the girl muttered, words slurring together. The human’s Vampire, predictably, was instantly in Blue’s face, harsh words spoken too quietly for Rae to hear. Not that she cared. She bit back her smirk as they snarled at each other like wild dogs fighting over a carcass.

Perfect. Let the beasties fight it out.

Rae slipped through the crowd, the Vampire’s money already stashed away in her bag, her sights set on a far greater prize.

Chapter two

Aidan despised Rush. It was everything that was wrong with his kind. From the disturbing choice of decoration the Somniators had chosen for the interior to the way Vampires from each of the houses played with their humans like children with bad table manners.

Though there were once five Vampire houses, only four remained. The Thaumas—the alterationists who could alter physical reality at their will—were long gone, and the story of how their greed got the better of them was often told to Vampire young as a cautionary tale. None of his ilk seemed to heed it, Aidan observed as he surveyed the club from his position at the bar.

A human served him a short glass of visk, the amber liquid calling to him as soon as she set it down on the smooth black surface of the bar. Aidan didn’t touch it. He didn’t pay for it either. Something he was still adjusting to.

He dragged his eyes over the clientele seated around him. Vampires, none he recognised, and their doting humans but no slaves. A few bar stools were occupied by unattached humans who at least attempted to hide their desperation like the female opposite him. She ordered two drinks as she spoke into her PAD, the glow of the screen lighting up her face. Full lips with dark red lipstick, eyes shadowed with kohl, her form-fitting clothes revealing every swell and curve of her body. An intentional look, no doubt, to tempt any of the Vampires arriving alone to leave with her on their arm.

At almost two hundred years old, Aidan was yet to understand what humans saw in Vampires. Given his position, some might have considered that sentiment to be an issue. At least the human seemed to have a lick of sense; she’d shielded her mind sufficiently, and though it wouldn’t take much pressing from him, the usual tedious thoughts about which Vampire she hoped paid her attention were of no interest to him.

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