Dirty Little Misery (Miss Misery) (14 page)

I meant, if dog collars and leashes were your thing, knock yourself out. Fishnet? Rock it. Women who wanted to go around with nothing but electrical tape over their nipples? I’d cringe when they danced, but whatever. However, the overweight guy in nothing but a leather thong and boots? My eyes—they bled.

I turned away from ball-bagger guy and circled the main room, swaying to the music and eyeing anyone who gave me a second glance. Lust, anger and general angst were thick in the air, along with the reek of alcohol and sweat. Vinyl and latex, though stylish in some circles, were not the most breathable clothes for dancing.

When I’d made it back to the main bar, I wormed my way through the crowd and ordered a drink. I didn’t need the alcohol, but a woman drinking was more likely to be approached than one who wasn’t, and I needed to appear available and potentially interested to a dealer.

And approached I was, although not by dealers yet. First, it was by a woman whose hair reminded me of Mace-head’s, then by a guy who wanted to show me what his tongue piercings could do for me.

I chatted up everyone who came my way and danced with a few people too, drawing energy from the potent buffet of unfulfilled desire that swirled around me like smoke from the machines. On the balcony, hired dancers set each other’s nipples on fire, and on the dance floor, a woman in full dominatrix gear slung her whip salaciously over people, smacking the backsides of those who asked for it.

As ball-bagger guy inched his way toward me, I begged off another dance and headed toward the bar because I’d seen my target. A woman with a white-blonde pixie haircut was talking to group after group of people. She was a lust addict, and if she was approaching tables, there was good chance I’d found an F dealer.

The bar area had gotten crowded as the club’s numbers swelled, and it was a struggle to get close. She was heading toward one of the stairwells that led to the balcony and the VIP room.

I signaled her with a wave of my finger. “Hey, you got something?”

“You alone?” Her gaze lingered on me, and I flung my hair around, trying to act like I was drunk.

I smiled coyly. “Yeah, but not looking to leave that way.”

She ran a finger down my arm, her gaze ending lightly on my lips. As a lust addict, the only person who could satisfy her needs was the satyr who’d addicted her, yet she was simultaneously doomed to suffer from a hellacious sex drive. It was the satyrs’ version of the double punch to the soul that all addicts had to live with. And it had to suck.

The dealer pulled herself together. “Twenty bucks will make two people happy.”

“That’s all I’m looking for.”

“All right, then. I’m out. Hang around the bar and I’ll find you soon.”

“Okay.” I melted back into the shadows as she climbed the stairs.

Once she reached the top, I followed. Unfortunately, as I suspected she might, she turned right, heading toward the VIP room. The bouncer obviously recognized her because he lifted the velvet rope without a word, and then she was gone down a dimly lit hallway.

Damn it. Leaning against the balcony, I reached out with my gift toward the bouncer. Under his stoic expression, he was bored and somewhat irritated. That was more than I needed to know. So long as he was a nonaddict human, not a satyr in disguise, this chase wasn’t over yet.

I sauntered over to the guy with a flirty smile, and his I-get-this-from-a-hundred-girls-a-night-and-I’m-not-impressed scowl faded as I exhaled my gift on him. “You want to move the rope for me.”

His eyelids drooped slightly, and his brain emptied. A salty caramel sweetness washed over my tongue. All lust tasted good to me, but the particular type my gift could arouse was the best by far.

The bouncer lost most of his coordination as he reached for the rope. His eyes were plastered on my breasts. “Anything for you, doll.”

I squeezed his arm in thanks as I slipped through, and he inhaled sharply.

Then another male voice stopped me cold. “Who are you?”

I glanced over my shoulder. A second bouncer had arrived.

One disadvantage of my gift, compared to a full-blooded pred’s, was that I wasn’t able to use my power to seduce more than one person at a time. Although in this case, I quickly realized it wasn’t going to matter. As soon as I took a read on Bouncer Number Two, I discovered nothing. No emotions at all. Since he wasn’t an addict that meant one thing—he was a satyr, probably using a cheap disguise charm to hide his horns.

Shit. I wracked my brain for an explanation.

That, apparently, was also in vain. Satyr bouncer could tell I’d worked my gift on his coworker, and he scratched his head, looking between me and the human. “What did you do to him?”

“Uh, nothing?”

The hallway into the VIP room was lined with blue and purple lights like guide lines. I didn’t suppose making a run for it would help. My F dealer was probably talking to her contact this second, and I was missing everything.

Cautiously, I took a step farther inside. “Do you mind?”

“Actually, I do.” That voice was familiar—a faint British accent tinged with cocky sarcasm.

Double shit.

Giving up, I turned all the way around, taking in the two new people who’d joined the satyr bouncer. One was unknown to me. The other was Devon.

He, too, was wearing a charm to disguise his horns. But unlike the others, he didn’t seem the slightest bit confused about what I’d done to the first bouncer. No surprise. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who the human with the satyr’s power had to be even if she was flaunting someone else’s face.

Devon wore the expression of an exasperated parent staring down an unruly child. “Jess, nice hair. Now, kindly release my employee from your thrall, and next time, if you’re going to work your way into the pants of anyone here, feel free to start with mine.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I cut the bond that attached me to the human bouncer, and he shook himself.

“What the…?” The guy stepped away from me, his caramel lust evaporating, replaced by tangerine fear. As though I were the biggest threat here. It was almost funny.

Devon whispered something to his companion, and the other satyr disappeared. “You’ll be fine,” he said to the human bouncer. “Jess, come with me.”

“That’s okay. I’m leaving.”

“I said, come with me.” Devon’s tone, and the way the satyr bouncer moved closer, made my decision easy.

“Right. Happy to.”

Devon took my arm, although I didn’t think he was afraid of me dashing toward the exit. With Devon, it was all part of the game—outwardly friendly but asserting control.

“What am I going to do with you?” he mused as the elevator took us to the third, and private, floor.

“Well, to start, you could tell me everything I need to know to crack the case I’m working on. I’d stop bothering you then.”

He laughed once. “No, really. Finding you snooping about my club is becoming old. This is the third time in how many weeks?”

“I was being serious.”

The elevator door opened, dumping us in his office. To the left, the wall of one-way glass provided a sweeping view of the crowded main dance floor. The rest of the office was more businesslike, with several sofas and a large, ornate desk.

Lucrezia sat at the desk, doing something on the computer. “Was wondering where you’d gone to. We need to finish that conversation about the—” She finally deigned to look our way. “Who is that?”

Devon let go of my arm. “It’s Jess.”

I faked a grin. “Hi.”

“What are you doing here?” Lucrezia pursed her bright red lips. “And why the disguise?”

“Good question.” Since it was no longer useful, I began removing the glamour from my face. I kind of liked the red hair, though, and decided to leave it a bit longer. “Why am I here, Devon?”

Devon sat on one of the sofa arms. “That’s what you should be telling us. You and your Gryphon friends already did a thorough search of this place, if you’ll recall.”

“Can’t a girl want to go dancing?”

Their expressions said “no” quite clearly.

Lucrezia slipped off the chair and joined Devon on the sofa. Tucked away in the office, she hadn’t bothered hiding her horns, and her bright skirt and strappy heels made her look as out of place around the club as I felt. At least Devon was dressed in all black. Side by side, though, Dezzi’s number one and two were formidable. I needed to talk myself out of this somehow. Not only had I lost my best lead, I might be pushing my luck entirely.

Lucrezia crossed her legs. “Well, pet? Would someone please explain to me what’s going on?”

I stalled, strolling over to the window. Lying would get me nowhere. There had to be a way of bending the truth enough that they wouldn’t detect my deception and I wouldn’t spill my actual plan. After all, I maintained hope of trying again. Next time with Andre to watch my back.

“What’s that?” I shifted a couple steps to the right, squinting for a better look. Some sort of commotion had broken out on the far edge of the dance floor. My angle sucked, and the flashing light show didn’t help, but I could see that the problem was spreading. People had gathered around, and the mob shifted and swayed. Then a woman shoved her way through the chaos, clearly shouting though her words were lost on me in Devon’s soundproof room.

Devon silently joined me, his face alarmed.

“Is that a fight?” All the times I’d come here, I’d never seen a fight break out. Purgatory attracted a less than mainstream crowd, but not a violent one.

Lucrezia was also at the window now, frowning. As I watched, relieved for the distraction, several bouncers worked their way across the floor.

People scattered, revealing that the actual source of the commotion wasn’t on the dance floor at all, but off to the side. Seconds passed. The backs of the bouncers were swallowed in the mass of gawkers. Then, finally, they emerged from the melee. Each was manhandling one person, each squirming person only half dressed.

My first impression was that the bouncers were hurting the people, but I quickly changed my mind. Those people weren’t struggling. If anything, they were trying to hump the bouncers. Or each other. Or anything else unlucky enough to get close to them.

What the hell?

From what I could see, the bouncers were as confused as I was and distressed too. They were having a hard time containing the humans despite the woman in the group being drastically smaller than the man who held her. She and the others writhed like people possessed.

Concentrating over the distance between us, I stretched out my gift toward the woman because she was the easiest to focus on. No sooner than I’d touched her mind, her lust and anguish rocked me so hard I almost fell backward.

Damn. And that was with all the satyrs in the club who were sucking up the strongest emotions before I could.

This wasn’t just weird. This was freaky. If my read of the woman was correct, then she was desperately craving sex even though she didn’t want it. Even though she was tired and unhappy, and embarrassed to be caught this way in public.

Yet she was unable to stop.

This wasn’t a matter of being overpowered by satyr magic. This was more like bad drugs—the sort whose charming effects I’d witnessed the aftermath of before. In Newton.

Chapter Fourteen

I spun toward Devon, and he caught my eye. Judging from the panic I saw there, he’d had the same epiphany.

His face tightened. He’d gotten on the phone with his security staff and was finishing up the conversation. “Put them in the Blue Room and tie them down if you have to.”

“What is wrong with them?” Lucrezia asked.

“It’s the F,” I said. “It’s probably the same thing that happened in Newton. You want to give me some more BS about how you know nothing?”

Devon hung up and strode over to the elevator. “If people are taking F while they’re here, it’s none of my business or my responsibility.”

“And if four people end up dead here, then what?”

“Then nothing. We make sure that doesn’t happen.” He stepped into the elevator. “Coming?”

I wasn’t sure if he was asking me or Lucrezia, but I jumped in with her.

The Blue Room turned out to be a private lounge located next to the VIP room, so called because it was painted blue. A large table, laden down with partially eaten food and half-empty glasses of champagne, had been pushed against the wall. The occupants had been kicked out by the time we arrived.

New occupants had replaced them. The bouncers had taken Devon’s instructions literally, although I supposed they hadn’t seen many other options. The four people—three men and the one woman—had each been tied to one table leg where they struggled helplessly, less in anger than in pain. As far as I could sense, they were lost in that erotically excruciating point between pleasure and torture. The one that’s bliss for a little while before climax but would become unbearable if you were left there for too long. Like an itch left unscratched.

I could feel their suffering along with their lust, and with two such strong and potent emotions, it was difficult for me to control myself. My head and muscles buzzed with energy. I longed to be able to turn off my gift like never before.

Even Devon and Lucrezia looked queasy, as though they were being force-fed a meal that was too rich and too plentiful.

“What do we do now?” one of the bouncers asked, wiping sweat from his forehead. He was the same satyr who’d stopped me from entering the VIP room.

Devon threw a glance my way. “If it’s F, they’ll come off it soon enough. Keep them hydrated until they do. I don’t need them exhausting themselves and dying of heart failure.”

“I need to get a blood sample from them,” I said. “And there’s got to be more that can be done to help them. Something to counteract the effects. A sleep charm or a sedative or something.”

Devon ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t exactly carry those sorts of thing around with me, Jess. It’s a club, not an infirmary.”

I reached into my waistband for my phone. “You don’t have to. I’m calling for help.”

Lucrezia snatched my wrist. “Oh no, you’re not.”

I yanked my arm away, so jacked up on all the heavy emotions I sent her flying a couple steps backward with the force. “The Gryphons are going to find out about this one way or another. I am not letting any more people die.”

I was so intent on facing down Lucrezia that I didn’t notice Devon come up behind me until it was too late. I held my phone in a loose grip, and he pried it away easily.

He dodged me just as smoothly when I lunged for it. “Jess, stop a second. Lucrezia, take a couple people and go calm everybody down. Free drinks or whatever you have to do to help them get over it.”

“Whatever you have to do? You’re going to put compulsions on everyone, aren’t you?” I grabbed fruitlessly for my phone.

Lucrezia pointed at me. “What about her? I think I should—”

“I think you’ll do what I ordered you to do,” he snapped.

Lucrezia’s eyes flashed, but Devon outranked her, so she vented her annoyance by barking orders at the bouncers.

I started to protest again, and Devon grabbed my arm. “Jess, we’re going back to my office.”

He dragged me into the elevator, and I huddled against the opposite wall when he released me. Devon sagged slightly. I’d never seen him so frazzled. Not even during the middle of the crisis with the sylphs.

He caught me looking. “There can be too much of a good thing. Even for us.”

“This isn’t a good thing.” I held out my hand for my phone, but he ignored the gesture. The elevator doors opened, and I stormed after him into his office. “Lucrezia’s going to put compulsions on everyone, isn’t she?”

“No, she’s not. That kind of spell requires far too much preparation. She’s probably going to do exactly what I said, hand out free drinks and try to convince people it was part of an act.” He stuck my phone in his pocket. “You can have this back later when I know you’re not going to do anything I’ll regret.”

I stuck my hands on my hips. “If you want to make this difficult, I can make it difficult. Who do you think the Gryphons are going to believe if I file charges against you?”

“You’re not going to do that because if you want to get to the bottom of this, you need our cooperation.”

I laughed. “What cooperation? I want blood samples from those people, and I want the Gryphons here to help them. You don’t know if the drug wearing off will be enough. The drug itself could be what kills them.”

“If this has something to do with F, then this is
my
business. Not yours. Not the Gryphons. If you want credit for solving the problem with the Gryphons when we work it out, it can be arranged. But you need to let us handle the problem so you don’t get hurt.”

“You know, this is the second time you said that today. Are you concerned, or are you threatening me?”

“I’m warning you. As a friend.”

“Warn someone who cares. I’m not afraid of you or any pred.”

Devon stared at me a second, his brow furrowed, then the next thing I knew he pinned me against the desk. I swallowed. His eyes were as bright as Lucen’s could get when he was angry, and power leaked off him the same way. I could feel it spilling over my skin and rousing my nerve endings, just as I could feel Devon probing about in my head.

I breathed in, ready for a fight. Devon’s satyr pheromones smelled of cloves. Why hadn’t I ever noticed that before? My body awakened with desire, skin alight and mouth tingling. I could stretch forward and touch my lips to his, imagine their salty taste, the scratch of his day-old stubble on my chin.

Never mind that whole fight-or-flight response. With satyrs, it was totally a fight-or-fuck response. And damn, I knew which one I wanted. I slid my hands around Devon’s waist, down his hips, into his pockets, pulling him closer.

His body responded easily. I could feel his desire pressing against me, see the heavy rise and fall of his chest. He leaned in closer, his gaze so intense I was surprised I wasn’t starting to steam. Every breath he exhaled brushed my skin like a caress, urging my eyes to close and my lips to part.

Then he backed away, confusion replacing his smoldering look, and the poking in my head stopped. My own lust evaporated. Being stared at like a lab rat must have that effect on a person.

“No, you’re not afraid,” he said. “But you used to be. What changed?”

What
had
changed? I wished I knew. Why was his power affecting me when no one else’s did except for Lucen’s?

But that wasn’t what Devon had been asking, and I wasn’t about to explain how I no longer feared addiction. So in response, I simply dialed the Gryphons’ emergency number with the phone I’d retrieved from his pocket.

Devon’s mouth fell open, and instead of trying to swipe the phone from me again, he backed farther away with an incredulous laugh.

“A lot of things seem to have changed,” I told him. And wasn’t that the truth?

I’d been on my feet way too long, and they were letting me know it. Though I’d like to assume the nurses were giving me odd looks simply because I’d hobbled by their station carrying my third cup of coffee, being dressed in leather pants and a barely there tank top probably had more to do with it.

“It’s impolite to judge,” I muttered to myself, savoring the coffee aroma.

Andre tucked his phone away as I approached. “You say something?”

I handed him one of the two cups I was carrying. “I think the nurses are wondering what a call girl is doing hanging out with a bunch of Gryphons.”

He snorted. “They’re jealous. You won’t sue me for sexual harassment if I say those pants look damn good on you, will you?”

“Might depend on how you say it. If it’s sarcastically, I make no promises.”

Andre yawned. “It’s one in the morning. I’m too tired for sarcasm.”

The Gryphons had descended upon Purgatory in record time. I swore, they must concoct some magic in their labs that could make Boston traffic poof into smoke when they wanted it to.

Alas, their unnatural speed aside, since I had no power to order people around or secure the scene or whatever it was an authorized Gryphon could have done in my place, I wasn’t sure how much useful evidence they found by the time they arrived.

What I did know was this: The four drugged humans had been taken to the nearest hospital where they were met by Gryphons who specialized in healing magic and doctors who could monitor their vitals. Other Gryphons had been left to deal with the situation at Purgatory. And Andre and I had headed to the hospital as soon as we’d gotten word the victims had stabilized.

Also, while I didn’t know it for sure, it was a pretty safe bet that I was in deep shit with the satyrs. Naturally, Devon was giving the Gryphons polite lip service, but he’d called the group’s lawyer faster than I could say addict.

The Gryphon healer came out of the hospital room, rubbing bloodshot eyes. Obviously I was the only one around here used to such late nights. “You’re fine to go talk to her. The magic from the F appears to be almost entirely out of her system.”

“Wait, does that suggest she’s got magic other than F in her?” I asked.

The healer shrugged. “Girl’s got a veritable charm lab in her blood. A lot of it’s probably nothing more than the effect of being around satyrs at the club. Other than that, I can’t tell you without a full scan. She’s exhausted, but should be okay for questioning.”

“Who isn’t exhausted?” Andre said. “You’ll have those blood samples sent to the lab?”

“Attention Anna Scott, yeah, I can handle that.” The other Gryphon eyed our coffee, his emotions salty with jealousy. “Go do your detective thing. I’ve got three other patients to check up on.”

Andre motioned to me. “After you, call girl.”

Our first and only female victim sat on the bed with her knees pulled to her chest. The pink hair she’d sported at the club must have been a wig because she tucked black hair behind her ears as we entered the room. Considering her complexion, I doubted that was her natural color either.

She didn’t look healthy, although I had no clue whether the tainted F was the cause. Her eyes were a pale gray, her pallor ghostly white, and she sported a bunch of minor cuts and scratches from her ordeal. At least she had pants again though. She hadn’t had any on when the bouncers had gotten to her at Purgatory, but someone must have retrieved her clothes. Not that they covered much.

And not that I was in a position to talk.

Andre double-checked the driver’s license we’d found on her. “You are Natalie English of Marblehead, Mass?”

She nibbled at a fingernail. “Am I in trouble?”

“I don’t know. Are you?” Andre sat on one of the two chairs and pulled the other closer for me. “We know you took F at the club tonight. What can you tell me about it?”

Natalie groaned and rubbed the exposed skin on her hip. I thought she was massaging another cut, but on closer inspection it appeared to be some faded tribal tattoo. “You’re gonna bust me for F?”

“No, actually.” Andre suppressed a yawn. “Right now I don’t care if you indulge in F to celebrate Fridays. I want to know where you got the F you had tonight. You remember what happened after you took it?”

Natalie made a funny face. “Sort of, but not really. It was intense—way too intense—but a lot of it’s blurry.”

She should probably be thankful for that. Although given that what went down was likely to show up on YouTube by tomorrow—if it hadn’t already—she wasn’t going to be allowed to forget.

“I don’t usually do F,” Natalie said, her twitchy hands now playing with her shirt. “It’s not like this is a regular thing for me, I swear. Jake thought it’d be kind of fun tonight ’cause he had some extra cash, and… Shit.”

Andre cleared his throat as he made some notes. “Like I said, I don’t care that you did F. I care about what was in the F you bought. You heard about those people who died in Newton last Friday? Someone put something in their F too, or so we think. You could have been this week’s them. Understood?”

Natalie’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, shit. For real? The dead people? I am never listening to Jake again.”

“For real. So Jake bought the F?”

She nodded.

“Were you with him?”

Another nod.

“Do you remember how the sale went down?”

“Yeah, course.”

A dull pause filled the room. I pressed the coffee cup to my forehead, willing greater potency to it. “Will you enlighten us?”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Natalie rested her head against the pillows. “Um, a dealer approached us and asked if we wanted to buy some. That’s pretty much all. We didn’t have to search anyone out or nothing.”

“Can you describe the dealer?” Andre asked.

“Yeah, sure…” Her mouth hung open, then she snapped her jaw shut. “It’s just… That’s weird, I totally could have until you asked. Now it’s like a blank. There’s nothing there.”

My eyes closed in anger and frustration, and I held my tongue, which was loaded with curses and the taste of Andre’s emotions. They matched my own foul ones.

Someone had gotten to Natalie and screwed with her head. No doubt that accounted for part of the magic the Gryphon healer had noticed in her blood. So much for Devon’s assertion about how compulsions took time. Damn him.

“I should have stayed with her.” I shoved my empty coffee cup in the trash after we left Natalie’s room, wanting to punch something. “As soon as I saw what was going on, I should have stayed. Instead I let Devon drag me out of the room, and someone came in and put a charm on her.”