Page 75 of Fanged Embrace
I led River all the way to the back of the dinghy building, then up a flight of crumbling stairs to the second floor which was just as crowded as the first. A perpetual cloud of smoke hung over the collection of writhing bodies on the dance floor.
It was then that River paused, her hand tightening around mine, before she jutted her chin at the bar in the far corner. “There. Woman with the purple streak in her hair. She smells different.”
I craned my neck to see where she was looking, and sure enough, I recognized the pale, spindly woman leaning languidly against the bar counter. Thin as a fishing line and donning a scowl that contorted her fine features into something slightly ghoulish. Valma? Valerie? Her name fluttered just out of reach, the memories of my conversation with her buried too deep to retrieve, but I recognized her face.
I swallowed the rising bile in my throat, squashing down the flicker of guilt and shame, and started through the crowd with River’s hand gripped tightly in my own. “That’s her. Come on.”
I elbowed through the crowd until I reached the bar’s edge. “Val? Uh—Valerie?”Please God, tell me I got the name right.
The woman looked up from a neon cocktail and blinked, once. “Well, my eyes are surely deceiving me.” A grin spread across her gaunt face, exposing delicate fangs. Not quite human, not quite vampire, but somewhere in between. “It’syou, little Miss Independent. We figured you’d be dead by now.”
I winced. “Nice to see you too.” I tugged River forward by yanking at her hand, trying to keep the faint red flush from my features. “This is River. We need to talk.”
Val’s gaze slid over River, scanning her from top to toe. “Mmm. Fancy.”
River didn’t seem too rattled by the scrutiny. She flashed Valerie a fanged smile of her own, one hand dug casually in the pocket of her overcoat. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“Anyway,” I cut in between them, and Val’s gaze drifted back to me with a slight note of distaste in her expression. I tried not to fizzle to dust under the judgment in her eyes. “Uh—we need your help. You and the rest of your crew.”
Val stirred a straw around in her cocktail, a humorless smile tugging at her lips. “Why on earth would you want our help now, Montgomery? I thought you were perfectly fine working all by yourself?”
I winced again at hearing my own brazen words thrown back at me. When I’d first met Valerie and her crew, and they asked me to join their ranks, I’d been more than a little standoffish. I’d been downright rude, snippy and sarcastic, laughing off their offers of assistance and insisting that I had no need for allies, hybrid or otherwise. Now my early snark was coming back to bite me.
“I–yeah… Look, I know I wasn’t very friendly the first time around and I’m—I’m sorry for that.” It killed me to have to stoop to pleading but I’d come too far to let my pride get the better of me now. “But this is serious. I—we—River and I, are working with a coven of vampires here in the city. They’re gearing up to hit the organization, every single one of their facilities, in one night.”
I shot a glance at River who gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. Then I dragged my gaze back to Valerie. The smallaction did not go unnoticed—her eyes flicked from me to River and back again, some kind of smug realization dawning on her face.
I tried to ignore it and steadied my voice. “We need all the help we can get.”
Valerie was quiet for a while, narrowing her eyes at me, before she straightened up abruptly and waved a beckoning hand at someone in the crowd. A lean hybrid, a half-vampire with silvery spider veins webbed under his skin, sauntered over through the mass of bodies.
This guy I recognized too: Leo. Valerie’s second in command, and from what I could recall, an all round asshole and a massive jerk.
“Lorelai.” He preened, leaning an elbow on the bar with an unnecessarily sultry smirk. “Fancy seeing you here.”
I bristled internally, but fought to keep my expression placid. “Leo.”
It was an effort not to kick him in the shin for no reason other than the obnoxious smile on his face—and the strange, devious way he was looking at River. He turned his smirk up to eleven, sizing her up like she was a particularly tasty-looking morsel. “Who’s your friend?”
River returned a polite half-smile, dipping her chin just enough to count as flirtatious. “River. Second in command of the Leyore coven.” Her tone was velvet smooth, matching his sultry expression. “Lovely to meet you, Mr.…?”
“Leo works,” he purred, straightening up slightly. “But for you, I’d answer to anything.” He propped a palm on the bar, conveniently flexing every sinewy muscle in his forearm. “Can I offer you a drink? We keep our own potent supply in the back.”
I felt my eye twitch.
River, to her credit, only laughed softly. “Tempting, but I’m working tonight.” She flipped a lock of hair over her shoulder—was that really necessary?—and added, “Maybe after you help us topple a certain secret organization.”
Heat flooded my cheeks, tightened my jaw.Was that… irritation I was feeling?
Leo’s grin widened. “Then I shall consider it a date, revolution permitting.”
Definitely irritation.I cleared my throat—loudly. “Anyway.” I turned back to Valerie, eager to get the conversation over with before Leo took off his shirt to show off his pecs or something equally appalling. “Will you help us?”
Valerie glanced at Leo, who shrugged, and then looked back at me. “Say we do decide to lend a hand—what’s in it for us?”
I don’t punch your second in command in the mouth. I didn’t say that out loud, but God did I want to. Leo’s smug, pretty face practically invited violence. Instead, I pointedly tightened my grip on River’s hand, making damn sure Leo saw the motion, and offered Valerie something she couldn’t possibly refuse.
“If you help us, if we succeed with this strike, the organization will be wiped out entirely. Gone for good.” I lifted my chin, holding her stare. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? An end to all of this? No more experiments, no more innocent lives wrecked beyond repair.”
