And then satisfy it.
Over and over…
It was, at last, the realization that his chair was coated in a layer of ice that forced him to squash the erotic images that flooded through his mind and concentrate on the reason they were at the club.
“We need your help,” he told Viper.
Viper sprawled back in his chair. “I have endless talents. What do you require?”
Xi once again glanced toward Brigette, silently urging her to reveal why they’d traveled to the club. Her jaw tightened, as if she was preparing herself for Viper’s disgust.
“Maryam sent me here to spread my infection.”
Viper looked confused. “Infection?”
“The darkness of the Beast,” Brigette clarified.
The silver-haired vampire froze, his eyes narrowing. “You can do that?”
“Not anymore.”
“But Maryam believes she still has the power,” Xi told Viper.
“Ah.” Viper nodded. “That’s why you were invited to join the rebels.”
“It wasn’t my charming personality,” Brigette said in dry tones.
Viper flashed a wicked smile toward Xi. “She’s feisty.”
Brigette growled low in her throat. “Feisty?”
“I have a plan,” Xi intruded into the brewing argument.
“You always do.” Viper waved a slender hand. “Tell me.”
“We need to convince Maryam that your club has been infected.” Xi told his companion. “How many customers are here this evening?”
Viper glanced over the bronze railing to the crowd below. “It’s a slow night. Less than a hundred.”
“How many do you trust to keep a secret?”
“Five.” Viper considered for a second, as if running through a mental list of his various employees. “Maybe six.”
“Any witches?”
Viper narrowed his eyes. “For the right price.”
“Good.”
Viper abruptly leaned forward. “Tell me your plan.”
Xi was a master tactician. He could plot out a full battle strategy with a dozen contingency plans in less than an hour. Or discover a means of overpowering an enemy even with inferior troops. But he rarely had to devise diversionary tactics. He was a warrior, not a magician.
“You pay the witch to create a cloud of darkness, then have the demons that you trust begin a stampede to send the others into a panic,” Xi said as he revealed his hastily concocted scheme. “Then you lock down this place as if it’s been hit by the plague.”
Viper stared at him for a long moment. “Let me see if I have this right,” he finally said. “You want me to pay a witch an obscene amount of money to terrify my customers into fleeing from my club. Then I lock the doors for some unspecified length of time?”
“Yes.”
Viper appeared genuinely horrified. “Do you have any idea how much money that’s going to cost me?”
“Less than it will cost you if Maryam isn’t convinced that the evil has been spread. She’s determined to hurt Styx and cause as much destruction as possible,” Xi reminded him. “The next attempt might destroy you.”
Viper scowled. “I hate when people are reasonable.”
“And right,” Xi added.
“I’m sending the bill to Styx.” Viper muttered, lifting his hand to gesture toward some unseen creature on a balcony across the club.
Xi’s lips twitched as he imagined Styx’s reaction to receiving a bill. The Anasso was a dedicated, loyal, ruthlessly fair leader, but he was notoriously tightfisted with his massive fortune. It would be easier to capture a unicorn than to get him to open his treasure box.
“It’s your death warrant,” Xi murmured.
Viper didn’t bother to answer as a tall, bone-thin vampire stepped onto the balcony. The female was stunningly gorgeous, with thick black hair that tumbled over her shoulders and a pale face dominated by brown eyes the precise shade of aged cognac. She was wearing a red satin gown that clung like a second skin, stopping just short of her ankles and shoes with four-inch heels. Xi, however, wasn’t interested in her physical appearance. He was judging the power that throbbed around her with a physical force.
He hadn’t seen her around Chicago before, and she had the strength of a clan chief. So why was she working for Viper? An intriguing lesson for later.
“Ah, Satin,” Viper drawled. “I need you to discretely locate any clan members in the club and ask them to come to the office.”
Satin appeared curious, but, obviously accustomed to odd requests from her employer, she merely nodded.
“Oh, and find the most powerful witch in the place,” Viper continued. “If there is one here.”
“There is.”
“Good. Bring her to see me.”
Satin waited a second; then, when it was clear that Viper was done, she bowed her head and turned to leave as silently as she had arrived.
Viper leaned back in his chair and reached for his brandy. “All I want is a few decades of peace. Is that so much to ask?”
Xi offered a rueful smile. “You have been blessed to live in interesting times.”
Viper swallowed the brandy in one gulp. “Blessed or cursed?”
Chapter 8
Levet wrinkled his snout at the pungent scent of mold that coated the floor and walls of the underground passages.
The lair wasn’t like many of the caves and tunnels vampires usually preferred. It was paved with cobblestones, and the walls were coated with a stucco that was peeling in weird patches. Like a snake shedding its skin. Plus there were large rooms with heavy wooden furniture that had provided a comfortable place to gather, along with several smaller chambers for each vampire to have their own space. This hadn’t been a temporary lair. The previous Anasso had created a home.
Unfortunately, time hadn’t been particularly kind.
“Tell me again why we’re strolling through these nasty tunnels instead of enjoying the many delights that London has to offer?” Troy drawled.
The oversized imp had left his feathered cape in the bar, revealing the poison-green spandex jumpsuit he was wearing beneath it. The feathers had been awful. The spandex was enough to blind a poor gargoyle.
“I told you. I am searching for clues,” Levet snapped.
“Like Scooby Doo?”