Page 53 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood
“Someone challenged him,” she explained when Ruby answered. “Axel. Something official. He doesn’t want me going, but when I insisted, he said to talk to you.” She blew out a breath. “He suggested I ask if you’ll come with me, but I’m guessing he’s hoping you’ll talk me out of going.”
Ruby sighed. “Let me make a phone call. If Marco will be there, it’ll likely be safe for us. Not pleasant, but we should make it out alive and unadulterated.”
The last word sent little frissons of fear through Aury’s gut, so she had to make a joke. “I’m not sure you’ve been unadulterated since we were sixteen.”
Ruby laughed. “Possibly fourteen, if you count all the warm-up-games before the big event. I’ll call you back. Hold tight.”
Axel had walked to the street, and he telepathed her as she neared, so she merely had to stop long enough for him to slideinto the passenger seat, without turning into the parking lot again.
“Do you have time to explain anything?” Aury asked. “Or do you just need me to be quiet and pay attention?”
“It’s been centuries, Aury. He hates me, and for good reason. I own something he wants, but he turned down my offer of truce in exchange for it — perhaps once I follow through on the challenge…” He sighed. “Or maybe he’ll be even more angry with me after I trounce him.”
“I know this isn’t a chess match, but if you’re thinking long-term over short, he might be more amenable to a truce if you let him win the challenge.”
He shook his head. “It isn’t a to-the-death challenge, but it’s still…” He exhaled slowly. “Losing to him would cause more problems than it would fix.”
“Okay then, try to beat him without humiliating him, but trounce him if you must.”
“Did you call Ruby?”
“I did, and I told her I figured you were probably hoping she’d talk me out of going.”
Another sigh. “Which means she’s making some phone calls and will get back to you.”
The phone rang, and she said, “You’re on speakerphone, and Axel’s with me.”
“Marco will preside, so it should be safe for us. You need to stop by here and change clothes. Jeans and a turtleneck. Hair down, but not sexy hair. Plain hair.” She sighed. “You aren’t going to like this, but we both need to smell like Axel. Sex isn’t necessary, but enough skin-to-skin contact, we’re scent marked.”
Aury ran through the possible strategy at play. “He needs to walk in with two women rather than one, so people will think it’s a sex fling, rather than him caring too much about one of us.”
“It isn’t a terrible idea,” Axel said, “but it isn’t worth possibly causing problems between you and I, or between you and your friend.”
“Ruby and I are good no matter what, and I understand the strategy, so you and I will be fine, too.”
Speaking of strategy. “The turtleneck, is that to keep from showing my neck off to a bunch of—”
“Yeah,” Ruby interrupted. “Not on the phone. We’ll talk when you get here.”
Nearly two hours later, they drove through impressive gates onto an exclusive golf course with mansions littering a gorgeous bluff overlooking the Tennessee River, and pulled into the driveway of a house that didn’t look terribly different from the others. Mountain stone around the entrance, dozens of rooflines, lots of windows.
Axel told them their phones had to stay in the car, and then he walked them down and into an already crowded room. Everyone stepped back, to give them space, except one tall, attractive man who walked to them without smiling.
They’d walked through an extensive underground, but this room had to be under the yard rather than the house, because it wasat leasthalf the size of a football field.
“I am Venom,” the vampire told Ruby and Aury. “I’m responsible for your safety tonight. You will lean against the wall, and you will not lose contact with it.”
He frowned at Aury. “You’re human. That should’ve worked.”
Had he tried to put a suggestion in? “It doesn’t, but if you tell me to stay put, I will.”
He looked at Axel, who told him, “Strong-willed would be an understatement, but if she gives her word, she’ll keep it.”
Axel looked to her. “If you step away from the wall, someone will physically stop you from moving near me. It’s important you stay put.”
“Then I will.”
He nodded to her, turned, and left.
