Page 33 of Secret of the Vampire
Heat crawled up my chest and throat. I knew exactly what he was talking about.
I want to see you.
I shook my head, realized Alex couldn’t see me, and tapped out a quick reply.
We can’t.
As much as a part of me wanted to see him, a shiver ran up my spine when I remembered how it felt to have his sorcery wrapped around me. I couldn’t forget that Alex was part djinn, and there would always be that part of him that I would never be able to feel comfortable around.
But he was not to be so easily deterred.
Meet me at St. Louis #1. I’ll wait for you.
I really couldn’t. We’d just be asking for trouble…
I just want to talk.
I snorted out loud at that one. Famous last words if I’d ever heard them. Glancing around, I saw Brogan—in nothing but his G-string now, muscular ass flexing with every step—leading the lucky lady off the stage and toward the back room, a wad of cash in her hand. Dae came out from the back right on time, jogging toward the stage in tight blue jeans and a white tank top as the music changed. It was only the two of them tonight, Jamal and Elias had the night off. And Killian didn’t dance as much now that he had Lizzy.
As Dae was getting into position, women rushed the bar, eager to refill their glasses before he got to “the good part.”
Fine, I responded, then put my phone back into my pocket.
I smiled at my first customer, getting her order and the woman’s next to her. Careful to stay at human speed, I filled mugs and mixed shots. I didn’t allow myself to think too much about what I’d just agreed to. But maybe I should text Jamal and let him know where I would be, just in case.
As I worked on my last order of the rush, I looked up to find Killian watching me from the office doorway with a strange expression on his face. I felt a nervous flutter in my stomach, but quickly quashed it. There was no reason for it. There’s no way he could know about my conversation with Alex. Maybe I’d just forgotten where I was for a second and had done something that could’ve tipped off a customer that we weren’t exactly the type of club they really wanted to frequent.
I gave him a little wave, finished the drink I was working on, gave it to the customer, and rang it up on her tab. When I looked over again, Killian was gone.
Quickly, I pulled out my phone and deleted our messages, feeling like a teenage girl who’d been caught texting the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. The one her father had forbidden her to see. However, my situation was a hell of a lot more serious than that. If caught, it wasn’t like I’d get grounded to my room for the weekend with my phone taken away. I was no young girl, and this wasn’t your ordinary forbidden romance.
No, if it was discovered Alex and I had been meeting secretly, it could cause a war between his people and mine. A war some may not survive if tempers became heated.
I wondered if the mating between Killian and Lizzy might eventually change things, especially now that Lizzy was actually taking part in the witch’s coven, unlike when she’d first arrived in the city. Even hosting meetings in her voodoo shop that she ran strictly for tourists—Ancient Magicks. She didn’t talk about witch business much to Killian, and not at all to anyone else in our house. I had to respect her for that. It couldn’t be easy dividing your loyalties between your aunt—the High Priestess—and your mate.
But nothing had been officially decided that I knew of. Not that it mattered. Alex had always had something edgy about him. And now, knowing what he was…well, it frightened me, if I were to be honest with myself. And I’d had enough of that in my human life, being tossed from one foster home to the next, never knowing if the people who were supposed to care for me would love me or beat me. If I was really lucky, they collected the money for my care and ignored me completely.
Until Killian found me.
I sighed. It’s not that I perceived myself to be a weak female. I didn’t. I wasn’t. Especially not now. For the sake of the gods, I was a vampire, albeit not a very good one. Not many things could harm me. But I now had a family that consisted of five overprotective brothers and a new sister-in-law. I had consistency in my life. I had security. We even had an old dog to love, thanks to Lizzy. And all of that was not something I ever wanted to give up.
Yeah. Alex and I definitely needed to talk.
The rest of the night passed by with little fanfare. Killian left right after last call, only stopping by the bar to tell me he was heading out. Brogan was back on the stage entertaining what remained of the crowd. And Dae was in the back room having his dinner.
I made sure the bar was clean and stocked for the following night, turned off the open sign, and locked the door before I went back to the office to tally up the cash. The guys would let the last, lingering customers out when they were done with them.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed a brunette woman in a red dress that matched her lipstick sitting to one side of the stage. She appeared to be finishing her drink. But her eyes weren’t on Brogan, they were on the curtain that blocked the customer’s view from the private performances that happened there, where Dae was now feeding.
It seemed like I’d seen her here before tonight. Maybe she was a local? Not the majority of our clientele, but not unheard of. We just had to be more careful around those customers. They tended to be less enthusiastic with their alcohol than the tourists, and therefore not as easily swayed. With a mental shrug, I took the cashbox into the office and locked the door behind me.
I was just finishing up when Brogan knocked on the door. “Hey, girl. You about ready?”
Shit. I forgot about my nightly escorts. Ever since the night I’d told Killian about the djinn lurking around outside—not knowing what it was at the time—he had added his orders to Alex’s (unbeknownst to him) that I wasn’t to be on the streets alone.
I needed to get rid of Brogan, but how?
The answer came in the form of the brunette woman. She was standing just down the block from the club when we came out, her red dress covered with a black, leather jacket. But what was weird? She stood right in the middle of the sidewalk, brazen as could be, not trying at all to be inconspicuous.
