Consume (The Devoured Series) (12 page)

Eli bolted from the stairs and searched the room quickly for me. Once his eyes found me he tried to act like he hadn't just been searching frantically for me. It almost warmed my heart. Almost. I couldn’t remember being so pissed before. My insides were fighting for the forefront. I wanted to just forgive him. He probably had a reason, he always did, but there was another part of me that wanted to just be angry.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yep."

"We've got to take a taxi."

"I figured."

He sighed and led the way. He held the door open for me and then a taxi pulled into the driveway. I looked at him in question. This wasn't exactly New York where taxies jumped on the curb to give you a ride.

"I called them while I was getting you a drink," he advised as he swung his arm for me to enter the cab first.

I hopped in, attempting to keep my skirt covering everything as I did so. Eli explained to the cabbie where we wanted to go before turning to me. He reached out and took my fingers in his hand slowly. "I didn't get a chance to tell you how great you look."

"You were busy, I guess, making sure everything was thoroughly handled, right?"

His eyes went wide. "I just gave you a compliment, love. How can you possibly be mad at me?"

I huffed and turned to stare out the window. I felt him caressing my promise ring with his thumb. It burned at his touch. I jerked my hand back in aggravation.

Then the next words out of his mouth were the dumbest words any human male could utter, but then, he wasn't human, was he? "Did we forget to bring some medication for you? Is it that time of the month? Because I am completely confused right now."

I felt my face flush with heat. I wasn't embarrassed, I was just about to go ape-crap on him. I looked at him slowly, but before I could say anything, the cabbie beat me to it.

"Ah, man, you're such an idiot," he said and chuckled in that
you're-so-gonna-get-it way.

I decided to not say anything and watched as the scenery flew by out my window. If I spoke, I wasn't sure what would come out of my mouth. Eli stayed silent, too, on his side of the car. When we arrived at the club, I wasn't impressed, but I could feel a weird hum around me. I knew it was the place.

We were at the Consumed Club, Eli had asked his 'friend'- who he knew hated me- to kiss me for a test of some sort, his brother hated me, too, and was here as well. Eli rejected my advances, my skirt was ruined, I was dressed like a hooker, Eli was on my crap list, and the only one who seemed to be on my side was the freaking cabbie.

Eleven

The air was teeming with energy, smoke and all sorts of creatures I never knew existed.

Eli had pulled me from the cab and said he didn't understand what I was so upset about, but he needed to lay down some ground rules. I wasn't supposed to have 'the sight', which was being able to see how things really were instead of what was being glamoured for me to see. He said just to try not to stare at anybody or anything and, even though I was mad, I had to stick to his side.

He said we couldn't stay too long because the Elves smoked and the smoke was intoxicating, especially to humans. It made you be crazy, he said. I was barely listening to him. I was just ready to go in.

There was no doorman and the building looked heinous from the outside. No one would ever think to go there for a party, but once Eli opened the back door in the alley, the low light and smoke hit us. I sucked in a startled breath at the burn in my lungs. And the music pounded when moments ago, I could hear not a sound outside. It didn't make sense, but I guess that was the point.

Eli held my hand as we entered the room. Our long sleeves covered our wrists and he was right. The lights were so low, you could barely see anything. But what I could see scared the hebedejebedees out of me. There were Witches, Elves, and all sorts of other creatures. And the only way I knew what they were is because it looked like Halloween was in full swing.

The Witches were short, stocky and ugly. Their noses were long and over pronounced, just like cartoons made them out to be. The Elves were tall and too slim, their ears pointy and large. They smiled, showing teeth that were big and white as they guffawed over a card game. The others, I wasn't sure what they were, but you could tell something was off.

And then the humans were easy to spot.

The girls were skinny and pretty, or you could tell that they used to be. And Enoch and Finn had been correct in that they were all dressed in barely-there clothing. The human men were the same, wearing no shirts or just tanks and jeans. They clung to their Devourers like lovesick animals who couldn't be separated, hanging on their every word, even when they weren't speaking to them.

I cringed and knew that I was supposed to be acting that way or people, and I used that term really loosely, would be suspicious soon. Eli stopped at the bar and ordered us waters. I draped my arm around his neck and let our chests touch. Eli looked at me with a dull expression as his hands went to my hips loosely. So he understood what I was doing. He knew I wasn't over my fit yet, and he apparently was a little peeved himself.

Good.

The bartender gave us our waters and when he spoke, he hissed like a snake with his words. "Six dollars, Devourer."

And then a long, snake like tongue emerged from his mouth. I gripped Eli tighter as he paid, not turning away from me. I tried not to look at the snake man. I didn't know if I was supposed to be able to see that or not. Eli, ever the gentleman even if he was mad, opened my water bottle for me and rubbed a soothing hand down my arm to tell me it was all right.

I took a big sip, letting the cool take some of the edge of the heat off. The room was stifling and crowded. I closed my eyes and enjoyed a moment's peace, but Eli stopped me. "Don't do that."

"What?"

"Don't give them the opportunity to drag you into a reverie. Some Devourers who like to cause trouble would do it just to start a fight with me."

He nodded to a group of Devourers in the corner. They watched the room, circling it with their eyes.

"Oh." I cleared my throat. "Ok. Now what?"

"Now we find a Witch who'll give us a stone."

"What do we have to do for it?"

"That's what we need to find out." He slipped an arm around my waist and pressed his face into my neck. "I'm going to have to treat you like I would my mate. They don't always play nice, but it's just an act. I want to make that perfectly clear. I'm not doing this because we're in a spat. I need them all to believe and if they don't, even for a second, we're in trouble. So you can't be obstinate to me, not even a little. You have to act as though you want me like nothing else, even if that's not actually true right now. Do you understand?"

I leaned back and smiled coyly. I rose up to kiss his neck and let him know without words that I heard him loud and clear. He tried not to respond, but he didn't last long. He sighed raggedly, pulling me closer, and murmuring something I couldn't hear over the depressing music. I leaned back to see him and saw how torn he was about everything. I was bumped by someone who came to the bar. She grinned at the bartender and asked for something in a different language. She leaned over the bar to flirt with him and I saw it. She had a tail.

Eli turned us away from the bar and I tried to remind myself not to notice these things. We spotted Enoch and Finn in the back chatting up some others there. They were laughing and carrying on about something. Finn had a girl in his lap, but she was not human. Her ears and chin were too pointy, and her skin was too white. She laughed, throwing her head back and wiggling solicitously on his lap. It was then I saw her fangs. I turned to Eli's chest and stared at it.

This was impossible. How was I supposed to pretend not to see any of this? "Let's find a Witch and get out of here."

"Doesn't work like that," he said dully. Then he looked at me and noticed my paleness, my general fright and want to be anywhere but there. His face visibly softened. "We have to play the part, Clara. No one comes to a Consumed Club for five minutes. And whatever the Witch wants as payment will probably be an act, not a possession."

"Like what?"

He shook his head. "We'll see. In the mean time," he let his sentence drift off as he inched closer. I knew I couldn’t stop him from kissing me and so did he. I narrowed my eyes a little to let him know that I knew what he was doing. He kept coming and touched my lips so gently with his. His hands gripped me tightly and passionately, but his lips were feather light and sweet. He was putting on a show.

I kissed him back. Mad or not, those lips would not be denied. I let my arm - the unbonded one - encircle his neck and he lifted me against him for a moment before putting my feet back to the ground and releasing me. He stopped kissing me so quickly I almost stumbled. I looked up to him to see him looking bored around the room. Oh, right. He was supposed to treat me like he wanted me one second and like crap the next. Check.

I draped myself on his arm and tried to mimic what I saw from the other mates. It was infuriating and pathetic. They looked sick and drugged…and then I saw them doing drugs. Or at least I thought they were drugs. One Devourer held a baggie with one little purple pill inside it over her head and made her beg for it, like a dog. Then he opened it and placed it on her tongue. She swallowed it easily and kissed his feet before standing and dancing around him. He watched joyfully, a sniveling smile on his lips. She made her way back to his front and trailed her hand down his chest. He snatched her to him and kissed her roughly, but she sighed, sinking into him with needy desperation. They danced together and others joined in.

The music was something I'd never heard before, but it's what I imagined Devourers would listen to. It was grungy, screaming voices, banging drums and guitars with no rhyme or reason. And the dancing was dirty.

I'd seen Dirty Dancing and crushed on Patrick Swayze like every other girl in America, but this was so much dirtier than that. I had to look away to keep myself from blushing. But then Eli began to move against me and I realized we had been standing in the middle of the dance floor the whole time.

I didn't want to dance, but didn't see a way out of it. So I let Eli sling my arm around his neck and kept the other one attached to his. He tilted my head back, kissing my throat and then biting my skin in playful teasing for all to see.

A girl with green hair and cat eyes was suddenly pressing herself to Eli's back. Her arms snaked around his back to his front and she licked his ear. I waited for him to push her off, but he actually grinned at her over his shoulder. I felt a stab of not just anger, but red hot, boiling jealousy blare through me.

Then I felt an extra set of hands on my hips and a face nuzzling my hair from behind. I tried to turn to see who or what it was, but it was too crowded and he was behind me. But he was dancing in rhythm to me and if Eli wanted to play along, then fine. I started moving with him and felt a smidge of triumph when Eli glared at the man over my shoulder. What was good for the gander was good for the goose, wasn't it?

Apparently not.

"Beat it," Eli growled.

I turned as he turned away without another word and saw that he was a half man-half beast…thing. He had animal legs. I quickly set my gaze back on Eli, who was now alone with me and the gyrating bodies around us. Green hair was gone and it was a good thing; I was in no mood to be polite anymore.

"What? Upset that my hands are the only ones left now?" he asked hotly.

"No. Are you upset that I'm the only one pressed against you?"

"No," he growled and leaned close so no one could hear us. "I thought I explained all of this-"

"You didn't explain that you were going to let other girls lick you," I shot back in a hiss.

"We do things like that, Clara. We all dance together."

"That's what I was doing, too, but you sent him away."

"Mates don't flirt with anyone else."

I huffed. "But it's ok for Devourers?"

He shrugged. "Yes. It is. I told you that this wasn't going to be fun. I told you that this was a mission for us, not a party."