Chapter 5 Angelo
CHAPTER 5: ANGELO
They rocked up to the club just before the worst of the crowds, a long queue forming behind them as they waited for the handful of people to be let in ahead. Angelo kept his eyes trained on their surroundings, scanning for threats. Kyan could have people anywhere and there was no telling what the witches working here would do if they discovered Vin was a vampire.
“Look at you going all bodyguard on me,” Vin murmured, placing a teasing hand on his biceps.
Angelo wasn’t fooled. The vampire was keeping just as keen an eye on everyone around them.
The doorman paid more attention to him than Vin when it was their turn to enter, glaring at him and giving a whispered warning that any shifter shit wouldn’t be tolerated. Witches and shifters didn’t get along much better than witches and vamps, but the witches hated the vamps more because they were literally a meal for them.
When they finally stepped inside and made their way up to the unique circular space that housed the club, sensory shock momentarily overwhelmed Angelo. The music hurt his sensitive ears, the flashing lights were enough to give someone a seizure, and the scents of so many sweaty, aroused people mixed together were as nauseating as they were exciting.
Barely dressed men pole-danced on floating transparent circular platforms of different heights suspended by steel cables from the industrial ceiling. He suspected the witch who ran the club had used a little hidden magic in that set-up. Not enough to clue in any oblivious humans, but the overall effect was too perfect to be mundane. The view of the dancers was too enticing. The poles were hollow and transparent, like Perspex, extending down to the floor. Customers on the dance floor could show their appreciation for the performers above by sliding tips into a slot and the money was sucked up the water-filled pipe. The dancers twined and swung around a swirling whirlpool of dollar bills while the water glowed an alluring blue with no sign of any natural illumination. Hex-rated, indeed. Humans were so oblivious. He wondered if the witches used this place for money laundering, too. It’d be a bit on the nose.
Angelo cursed as he realised Vin had disappeared from his side while he was distracted. It took him far longer to find him than it should have because it hadn’t occurred to him that the vampire might head to the bar and buy a cocktail like he was an ordinary human at a club. He had super speed and was invisible to cameras. They could’ve been in and out of here in minutes. They sure as fuck didn’t need?—
“Corpse Revivers! I got one for you, too, sexy,” Vin said, somehow sneaking under his arm while balancing two cocktail glasses as he twisted into Angelo’s body until they were all wrapped up in each other.
The bartender watched on with something between suspicion and concern on his face. He was big for a witch. Despite being classed as part of the supernatural community for their magic, witches had no extra speed, strength, or lifespan compared to humans. This guy wasn’t a lot smaller than Angelo, though, with a broad muscled chest. His long brown hair was tied up in a messy bun and he sported a neatly trimmed beard. The rolled-up sleeves of his collared shirt revealed strong, heavily tattooed forearms that were basically vein porn, and tight curls of chest hair were visible through the top two buttons that were undone.
Angelo couldn’t help but slide his hand up Vin’s body to grasp the back of his neck possessively as he saw the guy checking out the vampire’s ass.
“If he gives you any trouble, you let me know, sweetheart,” the bartender called, flexing his power with a flash of blue at his fingers that was small enough not to be noticed by any humans, but was a clear warning to Angelo.
Water magic. Probably handy for mixing drinks and making those poles work. At least they could exclude him from suspicion over the earth magic that had killed their attacker.
“Awww, Cal. You’re the sweetheart, Sugar,” Vin said, blowing the guy a fucking kiss over his shoulder.
Angelo swallowed down a growl and dug his fingers into Vin a little harder. If this bartender was Calder, he was the owner of the club, which explained his extra level of concern. How often had Vin come here pretending to be human and what had he got up to? Often enough to be on first-name terms with the owner. Although he noted Calder hadn’t called Vin by his name. Even though he knew the vampire wouldn’t have been able to hook up with any supernatural here without risking being found out, jealousy still burned through him.
Several people at the bar were watching the exchange with interest, either because Vin was that beautiful or because that creepy vampire power of his held them captive to his charms. Angelo had no choice but to chill out and take the drink or cause a scene. He’d barely taken a sip before Vin squealed in excitement and grabbed his hand to pull him through the surging throng of people grinding on each other toward the stairs to the VIP area above them.
The room was circular, and the entire space was ringed by a balcony concourse for the city’s elite that overlooked the dancers. It also looked like a smaller circle in the roof could be opened to the sky, likely so they could use the club for larger magical workings when it was closed. Circles were great for magic. Or so he’d heard.
As they made it up to the balcony that circumnavigated the space, Angelo noted the dramatic hex theme was more pronounced than downstairs. Scattered booths of black embossed leather were lit by black skull candles on every table. The outer walls were lined with blood-red velvet curtains that did little to muffle the loud music bouncing around the space and made him nervous about what hid behind them. The rest of the building itself wasn’t round, so at least half the circular wall must be interior, with more rooms behind. Anyone could be waiting out of sight to ambush them. He’d already seen a dishevelled couple pushing a curtain aside and disappearing, presumably to find somewhere more private to continue whatever had led to one guy’s shirt being ripped half off his body.
Vin seemed to know where he was going, sauntering ahead of Angelo and directing them to an empty booth where they had a decent view of both the dance floor and the stairs they’d come up. A subtle check of the curtain behind the booth had him pretty sure they had their backs to a solid wall, at least.
Angelo placed his still-full cocktail on the table and slipped into the flickering, dimly lit shadows of the booth seating, relieved that the table was low and wouldn’t block him in if he needed to get up in a hurry. That escape route was ruined when Vin settled himself on Angelo’s lap instead of sitting beside him.
“What are you doing?” Angelo hissed in his ear, every muscle rigid. And he meant every muscle.
Damn that fucking vampire.
Vin grinned at him and rocked his hips, grinding his ass down onto Angelo’s aching cock. “Maintaining our cover?” he said, eyes wide with false innocence.
Angelo gave him a harsh shove onto the other side of the bench seating, ignoring the way the vampire used his strength to resist the move for a long second before allowing himself to be pushed away.
“Awww, Angel. I love it when you manhandle me,” he said, licking a drop of venom from one fang as he sprawled back with his legs spread towards Angelo.
Angelo rolled his eyes, but something caught his attention near them before he could tell Vin to sit the fuck up. Using the excuse of picking up his drink, he leaned forward to get a better look.
There. A human was being manoeuvred toward one of the hidden doors behind the curtains by a figure he couldn’t quite make out. It was the stray reflection of the lights off the barrel of a gun pressed to his back that he’d noticed, gone so fast no one but a trained supernatural would’ve seen it.
“Who’s caught your eye, Angel? Should I be jealous?” Vin asked, sitting up and following his line of sight.
“That your guy?” Angelo asked.
“Huh. Aren’t you a clever one? Fetch, puppy,” Vin ordered, but he was already standing and moving toward the fast-closing door his mark had disappeared through.
“I’m not a fucking dog,” Angelo snapped, wrapping his hand around the vampire’s throat and pulling him back so he could go through the door ahead of him .
Not because he wanted to protect the irritating vampire. This way would just be easier to catch their quarry’s scent without the smell of Vin’s offensive cologne affecting him. He ignored the smirks of the men from the next table over at their antics.
The corridor they emerged into was curved like the main room of the club they’d just left. As the door slipped closed behind them, all sound from the other space cut off and Angelo breathed a silent sigh of relief as the musical assault on his ears stopped. Did humans really believe this was just good soundproofing? The door was clearly sealed with magic because the space was all but silent other than a rustle of fabric and the sound of another door closing up ahead.
“Did you recognise the guy with the gun?” Angelo asked.
“No. He appeared human as well, don’t you think?” Vin asked.
“Yeah. He could be anyone. Back-up assassin for Kyan, someone cleaning house after the failed bomb, another competitor.” Angelo said as they both slipped silently closer to the room the two men had entered. “You want to do this subtly or just kick the door down?”
“Show me what you got, Angel,” Vin almost purred.
Angelo snorted, inspecting the door. “I can smell the magic on it. The club must have special locks.”
“Allow me.” Vin raised a delicate wrist to his mouth and bit into it. The metallic smell of blood and vampire filled the air as he let the viscous liquid drip onto the door. “Try that.”
Angel raised his eyebrows. He knew vampire blood could counteract some spells, but he’d never seen it in action before. The smell of Vin’s blood set his teeth on edge, both because it was intoxicating and because he wanted to stop him from spilling the precious liquid. Shaking his head to clear it, he gave the door a solid kick with his steel-capped boots that sent it flying off its hinges to smash on the floor .
The scent of blood became overwhelming as soon as the barrier was removed. He’d thought perhaps they’d walk in on the beginning of an interrogation, but that wasn’t what this was. Instead, Vin’s mark, Derek, was slumped on his side on the floor, his hands handcuffed behind his back.
They might have only been there a couple of minutes, but the unknown human who’d been holding the gun was horrifyingly efficient. Derek’s mouth was open in an utterly silent, gasping scream. The gaping wound in his neck that had somehow missed his arteries was no doubt responsible for the lack of noise. Angelo suspected the small pile of unknown human body parts to his left included the man’s larynx. His naked chest was rent with claw marks and he could see the white of ribs showing through, cut to the bone. If he hadn’t seen the glove of metal talons the human was wearing, he would’ve sworn a shifter inflicted the injuries. A faint smell of wolf lingered on the bloody weapon designed to imitate his kind.
The guy took one look at them, lobbed a highly illegal silver nitrate flashbang in their direction and dove straight out the nearest window, smashing it. Vin moved faster than Angelo thought possible, diving onto the grenade and covering it with his body to smother the debilitating light and sound it emitted. The move put him right in the middle of the silver nitrate cloud it released at the same time.
Damn him. He’d tried to save Angelo’s more sensitive ears and nose from the damage.
Cursing, Angelo picked the vampire up by his belt, throwing him bodily toward the nearest window and away from the cloud of noxious gas where he could hopefully get some fresh air. This kind of weapon wasn’t lethal for them, but it would fuck them up for enough time that their quarry might get away. They’d also land themselves in some deep shit with the witches that guarded the club if they didn’t get clear. It wouldn’t be long before this mess drew their attention.
Vin staggered to his feet, lurching to the side as he stumbled the last steps to the window. “I’ll chase Mr. Flashbang. You see if you can stabilise that sack of human filth and get him out as well so we can question him,” he called, sounding hoarse from the poisoned air.
Angelo growled as the vampire launched himself out the window lined with jagged glass. Vin was going to get himself killed. He’d be weak and disoriented from the flashbang. He couldn’t afford to cut himself on the way out as well.
Angelo held his breath to avoid the silver nitrate gas, but his eyes were streaming tears like he’d taken pepper spray to the face. His chest ached from the unexpected need to stop breathing.
Speaking of stopping breathing, a pause in the gurgling breaths near the wall drew his attention back to Derek, and he noted the guy’s chest had stilled. It was a shame he hadn’t hung on long enough to be tortured for the information they needed. Swinging the man over his shoulder, he used his body to clear the last of the daggers of glass from the windowpane before chucking him out into the alleyway two storeys below. No point in leaving him there for his injuries to point the finger at the pack like his killer had clearly intended.
Sadly, he couldn’t hear what would have been the satisfying crunch as Derek’s body hit the pavement. His sensitive ears were still ringing like a fire alarm was going off right next to his head from the damn flashbang. He wished he could shift to help heal the damage faster, but wandering around the city in wolf form was a big no-no. Instead, he clambered out the window carefully, lowering himself until he was hanging from its ledge before dropping lightly to the ground. He didn’t need to add broken ankles to the list of injuries he was healing.
Gasping for breath and with his head still spinning from sensory shock, he took a moment to lean on the nearest wall and reached into his pocket to flick a quick text to his Alpha?—
Angelo
Need an urgent clean-up in the alley behind HR.
They couldn’t risk the clawed corpse being found by the witches. Relationships were tense enough as it was and Vin was more than powerful enough to handle a single human without his help, even with the effects of the stun grenade.
Duty done, he raised his nose to the wind and traced the enticing smell of Vin’s blood out toward the street to his right. The vampire scent was faint, given the bite to his wrist would already have healed. As he reeled forward, still struggling with damage to his inner ear, he noticed patches of fresh human blood scattered among the trash littering the alleyway. The human they hunted had hurt himself jumping out of the window. Angelo bared his teeth in satisfaction, but he couldn’t help but be impressed that the man had survived the drop at all, let alone made it away from the building.
As he reached the quiet street at the end of the alley, Angelo stared around in confusion. He hadn’t taken that long, and both Vin and the man were injured. He should be able to see them even if he still couldn’t hear for shit. Ice clenched at his heart as he noticed a dark van tearing around a corner away from his location in the distance. Looking down, he noticed a tyre burnout nearby, like a vehicle had been waiting there and had left in a hurry.
Fuck. Someone had Vin.
His wolf howled inside him as he flicked another message to his Alpha, burning with the need to chase down whoever had dared to take the vampire from him. Was it Kyan or was it the people trying to frame him? Angelo wasn’t sure which was worse. They both wanted Vin dead. Every cell in his body rejected the possibility. Vin couldn’t die. He just couldn’t. Because Angelo wasn’t sure he’d survive losing someone like that again. Marco’s reply did little to settle him or his wolf?—
Alpha
Stay there. I’ll get Luca to hack the traffic cams and trace them. The clean-up crew will pick you up,
Every second he was forced to wait was agony. The only good thing about the delay was that by the time Angelo made it back to the pack house, he could walk in a straight line and the ringing in his ears was no longer blocking out all sound. He stormed straight to Marco’s office.
“Who has him?” he growled.
Marco raised an eyebrow at his tone, and Angelo instantly bared his throat in submission.
“It was an unmarked coven van,” Luca, Marco’s cousin and their resident tech genius, said from his position hunched over a laptop on one of the couches. Angelo hadn’t even noticed he was there. That was how distracted he was.
“Kyan,” Angelo said, his heart sinking. “I said I’d keep him safe.”
“I can’t be seen to be launching an assault on a coven facility. Not without starting the kind of war between the families that someone seems so keen to incite,” Marco said.
Angelo swallowed hard. “We need to get proof to Kyan that Vin didn’t set that bomb.”
“He’s aware already, not that he’ll admit it. This is internal vampire politics, and he’s not going to back down. It’s not something I can get involved in,” Marco said.
It took every inch of Angelo’s self-control not to bare his fangs in frustration. His Alpha rose to his feet and strode over to him, gripping the scruff of his neck tight in a hold that was both dominance and reassurance.
“I’m sorry, Angelo. There’s no way I can order an extraction team to the shipping container in sector 3F of the docks. Even if that damn vampire has somehow cracked you open and made you feel something when the rest of us have failed for years. I’m going to invite Doc over for a drink. I expect I’ll be busy for a few hours.”
Angelo blinked and then looked up into the ruthless eyes of his Alpha that had just a hint of rueful humour in them. There was only one reason he’d be telling him exactly where Vin could be found and ensuring medical help was on hand.
It wasn’t permission. It couldn’t be. But it was enough.
“Thank you,” Angelo whispered.
“Don’t make me regret it.”