Deagan opened his mouth. Closed it. He blinked and his eyes unfocused. A frown creased his forehead, and he looked to the left, likely in an attempt to reorient himself. Before the vampire could return his attention to him, Jared vanished.
23
Something was wrong.
Nora hadn’t heard from Jared since she left the lake house on Sunday. He hadn’t replied Monday when she told him Blake stopped by her town house or Wednesday when she wrote that her meeting had gone well. She refused to send a third text, so when the full moon Gathering broke after midnight, instead of running with the pack through the woods, she cut her own path back toward the small clearing where she had left her car.
She shifted back to her human form, dressed, then climbed behind the wheel. She and Jared had plans to meet at Swirl. If he wasn’t there, one of his vampires would be.
An hour later, she parked in the small lot across the street. As soon as she opened her car door, violence rolled out in waves from the wine bar. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and her wolf stiffened in her mind. Blood. Sex. Ecstasy. It was a bouquet of raw nature savage enough to provoke any paranorm.
She drew in deep, controlled breaths, allowing the scent to fill her lungs, then exit her body when it would have curled into feral tendrils and stayed. It took so much focus to maintain her human form that she didn’t notice the person lingering in the shadows to the left of the entrance. Not until he pushed off the wall.
“He’s not himself.” The man’s voice was smooth, deep, and calm, an impressive combination considering how gold-rimmed her eyes must be.
“You’re one of his people?”
He stood with his hands loose at his sides. The brown jacket he wore hung more heavily than it should have, and the fit was relaxed. He was hiding something inside it. A weapon?
“No,” he said, “but I’ve been watching him. The man inside this bar isn’t the same one who sat there a week ago.”
“You’ve been watching him?” She let out a short laugh. “You’re either crazy or have a death wish.”
He gave her an undaunted smile. “My name’s Christian.”
That centered her focus. She’d heard of him. He was the Rains’ friend. Her father had wolves researching his past, trying to find out exactly who he was and why Sarah and Derrick had allowed him into an inner circle that had, for years, consisted only of the two of them. Even their daughter, Kennedy, they kept at a distance these days.
“Why are you here?” she demanded.
“I thought you might show up. I wanted to warn you and give you this.” He took a small, black business card out of his pocket and handed it to her. “If you need help, contact me.”
Nora was very rarely taken by surprise, but his ridiculous words made her choke on a response. She would never need help from someone like him.
“Good luck.” He stuck his hands into his jeans pockets and crossed the street behind her. He didn’t act at all like he was worried about turning his back on a werewolf. He should be. She could slash his gut open in seconds if she chose to.
It wasn’t worth the effort.
She slipped the stupid business card into her pocket, braced herself, then walked into the bar.
The place was darker than she remembered. That wasn’t entirely because of the dimmed lighting, which draped harsh shadows over every nook and table in the place. The expressions on the faces of the vampires and the few humans who remained were… Well, they were dark. Ominous. These weren’t good people. They weren’t college students and businessmen and women gathering for drinks after long days. They were here for the debauchery.
A primal part of her yearned to join in, but it was a part she had been taming since birth. She kept her wolf under control and scanned the main room, her gaze quickly shifting from one entangled couple to another to another. No sign of Jared yet, and the only vampire she recognized was Laila, who met her gaze rather stiffly from behind the bar.
Nora cut a path through the tables. “Where is he?”
“You should leave,” Laila said.
The blood and lust permeating the air made patience impossible. “I didn’t ask for your opinion. I asked you a question. Answer it.”
Laila gave her a smile that barely concealed her fangs. “I am being patient because of your past with him, but—”
“Or because you don’t want me to rip your head off and display on that wall in between your most expensive bottles of wine.”
Laila’s jaw clenched. Probably her fists too, but they were hidden behind the bar. “I’m not trying to be a bitch. You really need to—”
Nora’s hand shot out, grabbing the front of Laila’s shirt. She yanked her forward, intending to pull her over the bar so she could pulverize her face, but strong fingers wrapped around her wrist. A hard chest pressed against her back.
“Good evening, Nora.” Jared’s presence, his aura, his unusually potent and earthy scent, soaked into her. It was disconcerting how much she had missed him. She didn’t tend to find comfort in the arms of her lovers, but she wanted to curl into his warmth. She wanted deep indulgent kisses, sharp piercing teeth, and rough pounding sex, all at the same time.
