Chapter Fifteen
Piled into Gabe’s heavily tinted black SUV, they zipped out of an underground garage and onto the road leading into the city. Reyna drank in the sights around her. It had been so long since she had seen much of anything of interest. The sensation was like being dunked into a cold pool.
Her eyes flitted over the large building they had just exited from, and she nearly choked when she realized where she was. Her hand flew to her chest as she all but craned her head out the window to get a better look.
Gabe glanced at her. “What’s up?”
“That building,” she breathed.
“Yeah? Didn’t you see it on your way in?”
Reyna shook her head, but it was Jodie who spoke. “They blindfolded us.”
“Oh yeah. Shit,” he muttered as if he’d forgotten protocol. “Well, if either of you is a Visage spy, then I’m fucked.”
“What is that building?” Reyna asked.
“That’s our front. The building is home to a popular real estate company, but we live underneath it. Gives us cover to move above during the day if we have to, and no one looks too closely at what’s below, since the place is legit.”
Reyna sat back heavily in her seat. That building was the front for Elle. She couldn’t believe it. And yet, it made perfect sense.
It was the very building that Beckham had taken Reyna to the night they’d snapped photographs of Visage from the rooftop.
After they’d had a long talk about the two factions of vampires—those who thought of humans as equals and those who thought of humans as food.
Even then, he had been showing her this other world, trying to draw her into it, and she had never suspected.
Her heart panged at the memory. Where was he now? And how had their relationship disintegrated so completely, like sand through her fingers?
She faced forward, putting the Elle headquarters and longing for Beckham behind her.
Gabe drove through the city until he came to a stop in an open spot next to a graffitied park.
Reyna rolled her shoulders and hopped out of the car, looking cautiously out into the darkness.
They were not in the best part of town, and she was glad for her casual jeans-and-T-shirt combo, but it was also fucking freezing.
Gabe popped the trunk. He tossed Jodie a long-sleeve flannel shirt. “This is the best I can do.”
Jodie wrapped it tightly around herself. Gabe passed Reyna the leather jacket off his back. She slid into it, and it seemed to swallow her whole.
“What about you?” she asked. He was in just a white T-shirt.
“I’ll live.” He handed both of them a baseball cap. “Put this on, too.”
“This is never going to fit over my hair.” Jodie pointed at the mass of curls on her head.
“Best I can do.”
Jodie muttered obscenities under her breath before trying to mash her curls down to get the cap on her head.
“You’ll need these, too.” He produced two dull black bracelets.
“What the fuck is that?” Jodie asked.
But Reyna knew. “ID bracelets.”
“Yeah. They’re required in the city now for basically everything. These aren’t programmed to you, and there shouldn’t be any cops nearby, but it’s for appearances.”
Reyna slipped hers on and felt the weight like a shackle. Jodie irritably added hers to her wrist.
“What happened to curfew?” Reyna asked. There had been one citywide after the fires. The curfew and the bracelets had both come with the start of the Blood Census.
“The old mayor lifted it. Said it was only temporary, but the bracelets stayed. So, we’re straight.
” Gabe nodded his head toward the stairs, and they followed.
“Now this place, it’s a vamp-free zone. So you should be safe, but stick close to me at all times, and remember, don’t be seen.
The last thing we want is for Harrington’s people to swoop back in and try to abduct you, okay?
I can protect you from a lot, but I don’t know what I’d do if that happened. So let’s not let it.”
“We don’t want to go back. Don’t worry. We’ll stay close,” Reyna said.
It was only when they turned the corner and Reyna got a good look at the building they were about to enter that she started to sweat.
“We’re going to Five Points?”
Gabe’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “You’ve been here before?”
“Yeah. I saw you fight once.”
“Yeah?” he asked, beaming.
“You’re a fighter?” Jodie asked, eyeing his body corded with muscle. He was only about average height, but he looked scrappy.
“Yeah. I dabble here and there.”
“Why are you bringing us here?” Reyna groaned.
“I have some business. Plus, this place is as safe as it gets as far as you’re concerned.”
“The last time I was here, there was a riot.”
“That almost never happens.”
Reyna tried to calm her racing heart. Just because there had been a riot the first time she came to Five Points didn’t mean it was going to happen again. Except she couldn’t shake the feeling that she usually found trouble wherever it was lurking.
An enormous bouncer loaded with weapons grunted at them as they approached. “Gabe.”
“Brought some strays,” Gabe said with a fierce grin.
“They’re not your usual.”
“Nah. Have to keep them fresh.”
“No fangs, right?”
“No guns. No fangs. No trouble.” Gabe quoted the motto for Five Points back at the bouncer. The guy nodded, and the door popped open for them. He gestured for Jodie and Reyna to go in first.
“You frequently bring girls here?” Jodie asked.
“Easy cover.”
“I’m sure,” Jodie drawled.
Reyna stopped short in the doorway. When she was last at Five Points, it had been a fighting ring. Now it was completely bedecked in flashing red lights, grinding on the dance floor, and club music.
“What the hell,” she muttered.
“You like?” Gabe asked, running a hand back through his russet hair.
“I thought it was a fighting house.”
“Yeah. It cleans up pretty nicely when it wants to.” He reached out for her hand, and she pulled back hastily. “Just to get us through the crowd.”
Reyna took his hand. Jodie slapped her palm into Reyna’s, and as a trio they snaked across the room.
She kept her head low, but it didn’t seem to matter much anyway.
The room was dark enough that Reyna could hardly make out more than a couple of feet in front of her.
She didn’t think anyone was going to be checking under her baseball cap.
“This is amazing,” Jodie cried behind her. “I cannot wait to get out on that dance floor!”
“Jodie, we shouldn’t.”
“This is our one night of freedom. I am not squandering it. Plus I’m an excellent dancer. I took ballet classes back…before.”
She could imagine Jodie with her long, lean limbs being a graceful dancer. Reyna loved to dance, too, and hated that Visage was making her scared of her own shadow.
Gabe spoke to the bartender, a blond woman who seemed to be familiar with him. Jodie lifted her arms in the air and swung her hips to the rhythm. Reyna waited for Gabe’s interaction to be over.
Gabe slipped an arm around Reyna’s waist, drew her close, and said into her ear, “I have to meet up with a contact. You two can dance. Just stay near the bar and out of the lights. I need to be able to find you. I’ll be back in ten minutes.
Sonya is the bartender. She can locate me if you need me before then. ”
“Okay.”
“Chin up, babe.” He knocked her chin playfully with his fist and then winked before he disappeared again.
Jodie had found a group to dance with and reached her hand out to Reyna, who obediently moved toward her friend.
They danced and tried to forget everything but this moment.
Jodie turned to face a sexy Latino man with biceps that popped out of his shirt.
Reyna closed her eyes and melded into the crowd.
Jodie tugged her close, and their bodies moved in perfect harmony.
Hips against hips. Gyrating movements. Heated skin. The temperature spiked, and Reyna slid Gabe’s leather jacket off her shoulders. She tied it low around her waist while Jodie threw his long-sleeve shirt around Reyna’s shoulders and used it to drag her in closer.
“This is the best,” Jodie cried.
And it was. Now that her limbs had awakened and her brain had quieted to the techno beat, she remembered what it was like to be young and carefree.
One of the guys Jodie had been dancing with disappeared for a minute and returned with a tray of shots. He tried to pass one to Reyna, but she shook her head. No way was she going to drink during all of this madness.
“Oh, come on, Rey,” Jodie grumbled, shoving the shot into her hand. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“We already know the answer to that.” Reyna placed her shot back on the tray.
Jodie tipped her own shot back and shook out her curls. “Phew, that’s the stuff.” Then she grabbed Reyna’s shot and hit that one back, too.
The guys around her cheered. She flashed them her teeth as she took in their hungry expressions. Maybe one drink wouldn’t kill her. Reyna reached for the tray of shots, but then Jodie tilted wildly into Reyna. She dropped the shot, and it splashed on her feet, but Reyna was beyond caring.
“Hey. Hey,” Reyna said, reaching out for her. “Are you okay?”
“I feel fucking amazing.”
But when Reyna looked into her friend’s eyes, her pupils were dilated and she sure didn’t look fine. “What was that shot?” Reyna asked the nearest guy.
“It’s a new shot. Like a Hot Damn, but we call it an Oh Shit,” the guy said.
“What the hell was in it?”
“Whiskey, rum, vodka, and orange juice,” the guy said.
“And a dropper of that new vamp drug,” another guy said with a laugh.
Reyna’s stomach dropped out. “What vamp drug?”
“Don’t worry, baby. It’s not dangerous. It comes from their bite or something. It loosens you right up.”
Venom. Fucking fantastic.
Venom was addictive in most people. The more a person had, the worse it got. Reyna may not have succumbed to it completely, but Jodie, it seemed, definitely had.
“We need to get you home,” Reyna said.
Just a touch of venom made you feel like you were on cloud nine.
Like the whole world was at your feet. It lowered inhibitions and boosted the endorphins in the body.
It was supposed to kick the fight-or-flight signals in your body into gear, telling you to get the fuck out of there.
Right now, it was clear all Jodie wanted to do was live up the night.
Fuck.
Reyna reached for Jodie, frantic. Where the hell was Gabe? This was bad. The guys were still leering at them. They’d known what they were doing when they gave them those shots.
“Come on, baby,” one of the guys said.
Reyna shot him a threatening glare. “No.”
Adrenaline flooded her system for all new reasons as she held her ground. She latched onto Jodie’s arm and all but dragged her back toward the bar.
Luckily, the guys didn’t follow. Maybe they were really just out here to have a good time; they had said that drink was on the regular menu. She had reacted on instinct—save Jodie, get the hell out of there.
She shoved Jodie onto the first available bar stool and flagged down Sonya. She sauntered down to them. “What’ll ya have?” she asked in a thick northern accent.
“She needs a water. Have you heard from Gabe?”
“Here you go, honey.” Sonya filled a glass with ice water and then slid it over to Jodie. “He’s still upstairs. You can go on up with your friend if she can walk.”
Reyna looked Jodie over. She couldn’t.
Jodie brought the water to her lips. Reyna wanted to go upstairs and find out what was taking Gabe so long, but she wouldn’t leave Jodie’s side. She would just have to wait.
When Gabe finally returned, he found Jodie’s head down on the bar. “Come on. Got to go.”
“I need your help. Some guys dosed Jodie with vamp venom.”
“Venom?” Gabe asked.
“Vampire saliva. They’re using it as a drug that they drop in drinks,” Reyna explained.
“Here?” he asked.
“The guys said it was on the menu.”
“Not in my fucking club.”
Reyna blinked at him. “Five Points is your bar?”
Gabe shot her a smirk. “Forgot to mention that, huh?” He snapped his fingers at Sonya, and after a heated conversation, the word got out that vamp venom was a no go. It didn’t fix what had happened with Jodie, but at least some other girl wasn’t going to get dosed.
Gabe slipped an arm around Jodie’s shoulders. She sagged into him, and he nodded his head at the exit for Reyna to follow.
They staggered together through the crowd.
About halfway through, Gabe gritted his teeth and lifted Jodie into his arms as if she weighed nothing at all.
Reyna kept glancing over her shoulder, tilting her baseball cap up a smidge so that she could check her surroundings one more time before they left the dance floor.
No one.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being followed, but no one was there. She breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she was just acting paranoid.
When she turned around to catch up with Gabe, she careened right into a guy. She put her hands out to stop herself from falling.
“Sorry,” she said. She tried to move around him, but his hand was still on the leather jacket she’d slipped back onto her shoulders.
“I thought that was you.”
Reyna’s eyes slowly dragged up to the guy’s face. Her stomach hit the floor.
“Everett?”