Chapter 13
LEAH
“Moody fucker, isn’t he?” Karina sets our drinks down at the end of the wooden bar, where we have a view of the room.
“Like you wouldn’t believe. We didn’t even speak on the ride over.” At Karina’s look, I make a face. “I know. If you asked me that four days ago, I would have said of course we didn’t talk. I was too busy staking him in the heart.”
“Are you planning to after all this is over?”
I sip my drink and watch Marcus move through the bar, silent and predatory, while he hunts for his dinner. Several heads track his movement, either because they want to be dinner or because they wonder who the new vampire is in their midst.
We’re in Silver Fall’s busiest bar, Good Intentions, as in the road to hell is paved with them. The magical sign over the door sparkles faintly, reminding us of the bar’s motto. Every so often it sparks and shows either a crude joke about witches or tonight’s drink specials.
Good Intentions is frequented entirely by the supernatural population.
The bar itself is in the town, but the tree-lined side street appears to be a dead end if you’re a human.
The magical population is letting loose, like we do every Friday.
Karina’s cousins are in the corner doing shots of something flaming and shooting sparks from their fingertips every time they make a joke.
Dean and his pack members are here, claiming stools like they own them and laughing too loudly.
“No,” I say finally. “He isn’t evil. I don’t go around staking random vampires. Just the homicidal maniacs.”
At her skeptical look, I shrug. “He’s not evil. Just—an asshole sometimes.”
Her smile is sly. “So no biting? You sent the poor guy out for takeout instead of providing him a home-cooked meal.”
I flick her in the arm, and she snort-laughs into her drink before taking a long, appreciative swallow.
“What is it tonight?” The bartender is a sorcerer with a crush on Karina’s aunt, and he always gives her a little something extra.
She takes another sip. “Dancing Queen.”
I sigh. “Good one.” Dancing Queen gives you moves on the dance floor but only when ABBA is on. “I think I got Lucky Number Nine.”
“Buy one of those human lotto tickets on the way home.” She wiggles her fingers. “And maybe you’ll get lucky with someone here.”
I make a face. “I’m not bringing someone home while the vampire is in my bed.”
Her jaw drops. “In your bed?” She kicks me under the bar. “You’ve been holding out.” Another kick.
I swallow a pained grunt, and Marcus’s head whips around. He glares at me and I give him the finger. “Your shoes are pointy. Simmer the fuck down before he comes over and I’m forced to stab him with a cocktail skewer.”
She wriggles happily on the chair. “I’m sensing a vibe between you two.”
Karina doesn’t get out enough. “Yes, the vibe is called mortal enemies with a temporary truce.”
She raises both her brows as she sips the neon pink cocktail. “Truces famously call for you to sleep in the same bed.”
“It’s tactical.”
“Tactically—”
“Don’t.”
She snort-laughs again, shoulders shaking.
I swallow more of my green drink and watch Marcus make conversation with a were-panther who looks eager for a good fanging.
The vampire isn’t making much of an effort, from what I can see, but maybe he doesn’t need to.
He’s large and muscular and so handsome it hurts to look at him.
Controlled violence simmers in his gaze, which is enough to get half the supernatural population hard.
Sleeping with him would be—don’t even go there, Leah.
“Don’t look now, but your favorite person just walked in.”
I tilt my head toward the door. “Ugh.”
“I said not to look.”
Dawn swans through the room, and half the male population stands at attention. Her hair shimmers like spun silver, and her dress trails behind her on the floor. Her delicately pointed ears are pierced with small diamond studs.
“You should kill her,” Karina mutters. “She wouldn’t be able to put up a fight.”
Dawn is a siren. She literally doesn’t know how to fight. “I think that’s why they like it so much.”
Karina’s snort says what she thinks of that. “There’s no accounting for taste.”
I shrug, but my shoulders are tight. Dawn was my high school bully, and she usually avoids Good Intentions. It’s as close to my space as anything in the town is, and I don’t like having her here.
She is beelining directly for Marcus. I take another long swallow of my drink.
“What is it about vampires?” I mutter.
Karina leans forward, watching the two of them greet each other with obvious interest. My question is rhetorical, but my friend muses, “I think it’s the teeth. Or the power.”
One vampire is enough to take on ten of anyone in this bar. They’re also secretive and beautiful and usually wealthy. Supernaturals crave power more than anything else, and Marcus is brimming with it.
“He’s a novelty. Sirens love novelty. He’s the only vampire who’s stuck around.”
“Because I’ve encouraged them to leave.”
Vampires are more likely than any other supernatural to be evil and unhinged. Age changes them, and death always follows. I’ve politely and not-so-politely chased away any curious vampires that have come sniffing around. I’m not sharing Silver Falls with one of them.
“He looks like he wouldn’t mind staying,” Karina muses. “Claiming the area, perhaps.”
Vampires are territorial, with domains extending a hundred miles or more.
Regrettably, I could picture Marcus staking a claim here.
He looks regal, surrounded by admirers who both fear and want him.
Dawn strokes a finger down his arm, and he angles his head toward her, interest clear in his wintry silver eyes.
Something pinches in my stomach, and I look away.
Even with my attention elsewhere, I still feel his presence at the back of my mind.
Karina blows out an admiring breath. I know how she feels and I wish I didn’t.
“Karina, can the bond cause me to be attracted to him?”
“Bond? What bond?”
“The spell. He said it created a link between us.”
Her eyes widen. “It shouldn’t do that.”
I frown. “I can feel him. And he can feel me too.”
She shakes her head. “That’s definitely not supposed to happen. What does it feel like?”
I prod mentally at the space where he exists. His head whips around. I make a shooing motion, and he responds with a narrow-eyed glare.
“He’s just there. We’re connected. And—” The breath catches in my throat as his presence heats. As the tether between us sends off sparks. “I think it’s getting stronger.”
“Shit,” she mutters. “I need to look into that. This spell is new to me. Sorry, Leah.”
My gaze is on Marcus. Something is roiling in my veins, getting stronger the longer I’m here. Maybe it’s the alcohol, but I don’t think it is. Dawn tilts her head in clear invitation, and the bond flares hot again.
“Shit,” I whisper. “I know what I feel. It’s hunger.”
Karina’s head whips toward the vampire. “He’s going to feed right here?”
I imagine some back-room orgy at the bar with my most hated enemy and my high school bully at the center of it and decide I want no part of this.
“You’re going to feel it.” Karina sounds both horrified and intrigued.
“Not if I have anything to say about it.”