Axel relaxed in his chair, picking up the two cards. Fanning them between his fingers he silently cursed, his hand shaking. It was slight, probably unnoticed by his brothers. “I just need to grab a drink,” he said, putting the cards face down before sliding his chair back.
“What? Now?” Sythe whined. “We’ve only just started.”
Titus’s gaze burned; cards bent as he held on to them too tightly.
“I fold.” Reaching over, he tossed the cards onto the pile of chips. “I’ll be a few minutes, I’ll play the next one.”
Not waiting for anymore objections, he quickly made his way back into the main room, the music a cover he wanted to wrap himself up in. Looking down he checked his hands, the tremor worse as lightning shocked down his arms. He was out of pills, and only had a single smoke. If he didn’t get something, anything into his system soon he was going to break.
“Get the fuck out of the bar.”
Axel’s head snapped up at Sam’s snarl, spotting him in the centre of the dance floor.
“We have zero tolerance for drugs and gobshites who don’t understand consent.”
Axel turned towards the man that held Sam’s attention, his beast pressuring the forefront of his mind, a growling mess as it sensed something wrong. Something Daemonic. Yet there were no Daemons, or Shadow-Veyn or even possessions on the property. Well, except Lucy.
Their beasts would have sensed something, and yet the man definitely had a dark aura that set him on edge. There was a second of tension, and Axel was already parting the crowd as the man launched himself at Sam. The leopard twisted at the last second, sending the assailant careening into a tall table, shattering the glasses on top.
He was up in an instant, but before his knuckles reached Sam, Axel had caught them in a fist. Rage overpowered the pain along his skin, the crunch of bone beneath his fingers satisfying as the man howled in pain. He knew they were drawing stares, but he didn’t care as he took out his pain on the worthless piece of shit.
He couldn’t speak, and Sam’s biting anger was a caress against his senses as he pulled the man towards the front entrance. He took pleasure in shoving him to the cobbled stones, crouching down so they were both the same height.
“You’re banned,” he said, surprisingly calm compared to the internal turmoil that raged in his chest. “If I find you inside again, you won’t be walking out of here on your own two feet.”
Sam was an intense presence at his side, but Axel dared look at him. “He’s wrecked, leave him.”
Axel continued, his voice closer to a growl. “Understand?”
The man grimaced, a red line around swollen pupils.
What have you taken?Axel thought.
The man’s teeth were clenched, the skin on his hand already darkening with a bruise. “Fuck you!”
A pressure on Axel’s shoulder, the warmth from the single touch seeping beneath his bloody and ripped t-shirt. The pain noticeably lessened, the noise inside his head decreasing to a gentle, manageable hum. He wanted to moan, to bury himself into Sam until all he felt was his heat, his skin and lips. It was his mother’s succubus instincts, that’s what the weird sexual chemistry was and nothing more. Nothing real. So, instead of giving in he rolled his shoulder, dislodging the connection.
“I’ll deal with this piece of shit,” Axel said as he stood, stepping away.
“Hey, you’re hurt.” Sam closed the distance, a frown marring his brows as he knelt. “What happened?”
Axel froze, breath quickening at Sam on his knees. “I’m fine,” he managed to get out through clenched teeth. “It’s fine.”
“Aye, fine he says.” A warmth against his stomach, Sam’s fingers pressing gently around the wound. “You have a fucking hole where there isn’t supposed to be one.”
Axel swallowed his groan, trying desperately to ignore Sam brushing along his abs, even though the fabric of his t-shirt. Squeezing his eyes shut he called on his beast, but the fucker was just as infatuated with the caressing touch.
Closing his eyes was the worst decision, because now he had nothing to distract himself from the connection, and all his imagination could conjure up was of Sam. He had moved like liquid silk, such feline grace in a human body.
Fuck!He needed to get away before he did something he couldn’t take back. Like dragging Sam back up so he could taste those lips again.
Tension twisted between them like an abrasion, a rope wrapping around his throat until there was no air.
“I said I’m fine,” he bit out, hoping his eyes were as hard as his tone when he steadied his gaze on Sam. “I don’t need your help.”
Sam’s own eyes glowed, his leopard apparent in the tension along his shoulders. He said nothing as he stood, jaw clenched. The space between them grew, and before long the pain was once again stinging along his skin. There should have been hours before he needed narcotics to numb his discomfort, and yet there he was about to crumble.
Weak. Pathetic. Broken.
