Page 7 of Secret of the Vampire
I smiled as she poured us another shot.
Chapter 3
Kenya
Alex and I stood in front of the locked door of the club. I had my shoes on, my coat on, and my keys out, ready to lock it up behind us and run for our lives. The strap of my bag crossed my body so I wouldn’t lose it if it came down to that. We had about 30 minutes to get me home and inside before the sun rose over the horizon, and I offered up a quick prayer that he was right and his plan would work.
Beside me, the warlock was strangely calm.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered. It was a complete and utter lie. I wasn’t ready at all.
He shrugged his coat on, the muscles in his chest and arms flexing beneath his thin shirt. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Taking an unsteady breath, I unlocked the door and rushed outside in vamp speed, shocked when Alex appeared beside me the moment I stopped.
How did he do that? Was it a witch thing? A magic thing? I’d never seen a witch move that fast.
But there was no time for questions now. Locking the club while Alex scanned the surrounding area, I waited for him to give the okay before we moved away from the warded building, just in case we had to hightail it back inside.
Whatever it was that had come after me earlier, its presence wasn’t nearly as strong as it had been the first time I’d stepped outside. Either it had just left, or it was still here, but far enough away so as not to be an immediate threat.
Alex grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”
Without thinking too much about it, I gripped his large palm and followed. I still didn’t fully trust this male, even though there was no reason that I shouldn’t. Not really. I mean, he’d saved my life, but that had been a deal struck between Killian and Judy, the High Priestess. The witch coven had agreed to help us that one time, and as agreed, they’d done everything they could to save me. Which meant allowing Alex to use his magic on me.
But this time was different.
Now he was acting on his own, coming into our territory without his coven’s knowledge, without the consent of Judy or Killian.
I came up with many reasons why he would do what he was doing, and discarded them just as quickly as they appeared. None of it made sense. Why would he take such a risk?
I know what he’d told me the first night he’d come to check on me. And I know what he’d told me tonight. But although I was trusting him with my life, I just had a hard time believing he didn’t have some kind of ulterior motive.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He still held my hand with an iron grip. Strong, even for a human. Luckily, the chances were super slim any of the guys would still be out and about this close to sunrise. As a younger vampire—at least compared to the rest of the group—I didn’t have the authority to give Alex permission to be alone with me. And I didn’t have the power to challenge Killian over his right to be here if we were caught together.
Alex walked with his eyes straight ahead, looking neither right nor left, seemingly unconcerned. But I wasn’t fooled. I could feel the magic surrounding him. Felt it slithering over my hair and skin as it probed the air around us, searching for anything out of the ordinary.
I shivered, and Alex glanced over at me, his brows lowered and his eyes concerned. I gave him a tight smile but said nothing.
He was right. What he’d said before. His magic was different from the others. Darker or something. It frightened me, if I was being honest. Not that all magic wasn’t scary when it was on the defensive, but the aura emitting from Alex was like nothing I’d ever experienced before.
Yet, still. Something drew me to him. Something I couldn’t explain.
My cell phone buzzed in my pocket. Releasing Alex’s hand, I pulled it out without slowing my pace. It was Killian. I showed the screen to Alex and answered the call. “Hey, Killian…Yeah, I’m heading that way right now. Yup. I’m hurrying. See you in a few.” Disconnecting the call, I put my phone back into my pocket.
Without a word between us, we gripped each other’s hand again and picked up the pace.
New Orleans was just starting to wake up, and I came to the conclusion that Alex must’ve been right when he’d said the people would keep away the threat. Although The Quarter wasn’t near as crowded as it was at night, the humans who lived here year round still needed to work their day jobs and were beginning to fill the streets, even at this early hour.
When we got to within a block of the two-story house I shared with the other vampires, I pulled Alex into a doorway. With a hand against his chest, I kept him there. “You shouldn’t come any closer. Killian is still awake. He might see you. And even if he doesn’t, he’ll sense you.”
“Watching out the window like an overbearing father?” Although his tone was teasing, his expression was almost…angry.
I didn’t understand what it was about this situation that would make him feel like that. He’d been around us vampires long enough to know how it worked. Killian created me. He was the master of the coven. And we stuck around as long as he would have us, because as a master vampire, he had power far exceeding any of ours. We watched out for him and gave him a family, and he protected us and gave us a home. It was a win-win situation. “He very well might be.”
I kept my own tone light. But when he didn’t seem amused, I sighed. My skin was prickling with the oncoming sunrise. I didn’t have time for this. “I have to get inside,” I told him.
