Aiden whirled around to face his second attacker just in time to watch his younger brother, Troy, deliver the same death by dust to the other vamp.
Troy’s light blue eyes lifted to Aiden’s, glinting with the odd blue crystal they’d reflected for over a year now, since Troy’s long black hair had also turned blonde. Since a werewolf had attacked him, he had not been the same. A wolf created by a virus that turned a human into a killer wolf, that as a vampire, Troy should have been immune to and unexplainably was not.
“So much for conversation,” Aiden said, shoving his knife under a leather coat that worked for hunting, but pretty much sucked on a hot Texas night. “Clearly, our plan to find out what the local bloodsucking population knew about the recent murders isn’t going as planned.”
“I wasn’t in the mood to talk anyway,” Troy said, pushing to his feet and inserting his blade inside a strap under his leather pants at his ankle. “And how about a ‘thank you’ for showing up when I did? I just saved your ass.”
“You were supposed to be here an hour ago,” Aiden reminded him. “What the hell happened?”
“I was hunting,” he said tightly. “That’s what we do. We’re Wardens. We hunt.”
“We aren’t hunting werewolves,” Aiden reminded him. He knew good and damn well that Troy was not only pissed off about being sent here, and being pulled off the hunt for Andres—a wolf with unique abilities, that Troy hoped to also held answers he sought. He was also the wolf that had all but killed their older brother, Evan’s, new wife.
“What if I told you that Andres is here, in Austin?”
“I’d say you’re so eager to find the bastard that you’re seeing him where he isn’t.”
“It’s his blood,” Troy said. “That’s what creates the drug these women are taking, or rather being forced to take. Andres’s blood mixed with a vampire’s. It’s an aphrodisiac, by loosely defined terms. It causes pain in the absence of pleasure. Word is that the vamps are paying big money for this cocktail and then holding orgies. And when the pain and pleasure cause a few of the women to stroke out, the vamps figure—what the hell?—and they drain them dry.”
“Holy shit,” Aiden said, scrubbing his jaw. “How sure are you about this?””
“As sure as the three vamps I was interrogating knew I’d kill them.”
Aiden’s cell phone buzzed on his belt and he looked down to see he had a voice mail. The instant he saw the local number, he grabbed it and punched his voice mail button. He listened to the soft, nervous voice of Kelly and then cursed.
“We’re headed a block over to fifth street,” he told Troy. “To a place called “Twilight”.”
***
“Buy you another one?”
The question was a shout, the only way to be heard over the thrumming beat of the Twilight club music. Kelly looked up from the cocktail on her small corner table, wanting to say no, but knowing she had to say yes.
“Thank you,” she beamed, batting her lashes flirtatiously and not missing the way the men scoped out her cleavage. God, she was too old for this.
One of the men ordered her a drink. The other moved around to her side of the table. She turned to face him. “I’m Alex,” he said.
“Kelly,” she told him.
He slid her drink closer to her. “Drink up. Another is on the way.”
She grabbed the glass and sipped it, seeing no way out of it. “Thank you,” she said, smiling over the rim of the glass and then downing it. She had to look like a desperate lonely female if she was going to attract the right people and get her drug sample.
He leaned on the table, somehow closer to her now. So close. Too close. The other man came up behind her, his body pressed to hers, his hand on her waist. She wanted to shove him away, but she didn’t dare. This wasn’t about her discomfort. It was about saving lives. The man behind her slid her empty glass away and replaced it with a new one, then leaned in near her ear, his breath warm on her neck. “Enjoy.”
A shiver of unease, much like what she’d felt inside the lab with Derek, rushed down her spine. The first man—Alex—leaned an elbow on the table, close as well. She was sandwiched between them and wondering why she had thought this was a good idea.
“What brings a pretty girl like you to a bar by herself?”
“Boyfriend fucked my best friend,” she said flatly, not sure where the words came from, because she didn’t speak like that. Yet she had now. The words, the piece of her past, had come to her easily—too easily, helped along, no doubt, by alcohol. “She’s my dorm mate. I don’t want to stay there tonight.”
He arched a brow. The man behind her slid his hands to her waist. “Drink that drink. It’ll make you forget.”
She could already feel the buzz of downing the other drink. She studied Alex, cast him a pleading look. “Sometimes a drink isn’t enough.” She grabbed his hand, desperate to avoid letting herself slip into a deeper haze of the booze she knew she couldn’t handle. “Let’s dance.”
He wrapped his arm around her and spun her so that her back was against the wall, pressing up close to her. “Kiss me first,” he said.
“Get the fuck off of her,” came a familiar male voice that Kelly couldn’t quite place.
Alex turned sharply but he didn’t say anything. He stepped to the left, away from her and Kelly was shocked to see Detective Wright standing in front of her. Slowly his lips curved into a sardonic smile, before he grabbed her and pulled her against him, sliding his hand in her hair. “I knew you’d come.”
She blinked. “What?”
He lowered his mouth just above hers. “I got you your sample from your two boyfriends. Their dealers, you know? I told them my girlfriend wanted to ride me long and hard tonight so you better convince them I meant it.” He tugged her mouth to his and kissed her. It was all she could do not to push him away, not to bite his tongue when it slid into her mouth. And when his hand slid over her breast, she barely contained a scream of fury. Somehow though, she reminded herself that he had a sample of the drug she sought, he’d gotten what she needed to help save lives. She’d endure, she’d survive. Suddenly he released her mouth and grabbed her hand. “Come with me.”
He all but dragged her until they were alone and in a hallway behind the bathrooms. He shoved her against the wall. “Enough with the role playing!” she objected.
His hand slid roughly into her hair and then he buried his face in her neck. A sudden piercing sensation shocked her breath from her. As quickly as the sensation started, he was gone, jerked away from her. She flattened against the wall, her heart pounding so hard she thought it would explode from her chest. She blinked Aiden into focus at the same moment he shoved Detective Wright at another tall, blond male and growled, “Get him the fuck out of here and make him talk.”
Her fingers went to her neck, instantly wet. What had he done to her?