I snort and laugh before I take another drink. My power is keeping me sober, thank fuck, because I haven’t been drunk in fifteen years and tonight is not the night to try that again.
“It’s good,” I say. “You’re trying to impress me.”
Jakob’s smile doesn’t waver, but the corners of his eyes tighten. “What if I am?”
“I told you what I wanted.”
“A gentleman.”
I sway towards him. My hand lands on his thigh, which goes still under my touch. It would be heady, except he’s making my skin crawl, and I don’t want to be this close to him. Jakob touches my chin, tilting my head up.
“So you won’t be coming home with me tonight, I assume?”
And risk being stuck there for the day? A bad move even if he wasn’t a major creep.
“Not tonight.”
The implication makes him smile again and softens his touch on my chin.
“What do I get tonight, then? I shared blood with you, little bird. That’s important.”
Is it? Vlad’s never mentioned it, and neither has Jeremiah or Maurice. Just another ploy, I guess, but I bite my lip like I’m thinking it over. When I gently move my head back, out of Jakob’s grip, he frowns.
I lean closer so my mouth is almost pressed against his ear. My hand hasn’t moved from his thigh, and I brush my thumb over the fabric of his trousers now, listening to the shaky exhale he lets out in response.
“Tonight,” I whisper, “you can think about what it might be like when I’m moaning your name. Begging for it.”
His hand snaps out and grabs my wrist. I huff and lean back.
“I need your permission for that, do I?” His eyes spark dangerously. I grin, still keeping my expressions loose and easy, before I let out a laugh.
“Who else would you get it from?”
It startles him enough that he lets go and I blow him a kiss as I get to my feet. The bodyguard steps aside and I only look back once as I reach the threshold of the room. Jakob is still watching me. He looks hungry. Angry. The shiver I feel in response has nothing to do with desire.
I leave quickly. Vlad will be behind me soon enough, and I trust that no matter what complicated feelings he seems to have about me being on this job with him, he won’t do anything that might compromise the whole thing.
There’s an alley a few buildings up, one I didn’t think about last night, but as I walk past it tonight, I hear something within. Quiet. A woman, I think.
I pause, tilting my head to one side. I can see well enough in the dark, but the alley is long, the shadows deep. My power has been unruly all night, disliking Jakob as much as I do, and now it spirals out of me, picking up the vague energy of two humans.
I hear the woman again. A moan, but not the good kind. She sounds hurt, and I don’t know who the other person is who’sdown there with her, but thereissomeone else and they don’t seem to be helping. I glance back. Vlad isn’t here yet.
Whatever. What’s a human going to do to me?
I take a couple of steps into the alley. “Hello? Everything okay?”
The woman comes thundering out of the darkness far faster than I’m expecting, and the shock of it gives her the upper hand. She shoves me up against the brick wall and I growl when I feel the press of something—a stake? A knife?—against my chest.
“You need to get the fuck out of here,” she growls. She’s in her late thirties, maybe, broad-shouldered and half a foot shorter than me. The other person moves closer—another woman, who lets out a sudden gasp—but I can’t pay attention to her when this woman is more of a threat.
Not that I’m super worried now that she’s saidleaverather than jumped to staking me.
“I was leaving.”
“No, get the fuck out of Margate. We don’t want any more fucking vampires here.”
Well, shit. That’s not good. But before I can say it, the bond between me and Vlad lights up and he appears as a blur, grabs the other woman, and pulls her back against him, a hand around her throat.
