Enslave (2 page)

Javier finished his message, stood and slipped his phone into the pocket of his tailored black trousers. “I’m going down to speak with Antoine and Snow.”

Andreu nodded. “I’ll keep looking from up here. Be careful.”

Javier’s expression was grim as he nodded and placed his hand on Andreu’s shoulder, squeezing it through his black suit jacket. “You too.”

Perhaps taking his brother out for a much-needed night on the town would have to wait. Whatever had just entered the theatre showed no sign of leaving and they needed to know what they were dealing with, just in case it turned out to be something dangerous. Vampires were powerful, stronger than most creatures, but there were some out there that made his species look as frail as human babies.

Andreu stood and clutched the carved edge of the private box. He scanned the crowd below him, catching his brother crossing the strip of red carpet between the front row of seats and the black stage out of the corner of his eye. His senses touched on everyone and each came back as a vampire. Where was their uninvited guest?

He leaned forwards, trying to see all the boxes on his side of the theatre. He couldn’t see into any of them.

Andreu looked down at Javier as he joined Antoine and the female vampire still held protectively in his arms. Snow was gone. Andreu found him closer to the back of the theatre, staring across at the boxes around Andreu. Looking for their intruder. If they were on Andreu’s side of the theatre, Snow would find them. Andreu focused on scanning the boxes opposite him again, one by one this time, studying each of the occupants. Every single one of them was a vampire.

Was it possible they were mistaken?

The feeling at the nape of his neck and deep in his gut said it wasn’t. Someone was here, something dark and powerful, and dangerous.

Andreu went to look down at his brother. His gaze froze on a beautiful woman with jagged jaw-length dark hair and a strapless bodice, short skirt and over-knee stockings combo that set his blood pounding. There was something unusual about her and it wasn’t just the fact that she was perched on the wall of an otherwise empty private box at the front of the middle tier, nearest the stage, one hand on it between her booted feet to hold her steady.

She seemed engrossed but as he stared at her, she slowly turned her head and her eyes met his across the theatre. The whole world shrank between them until he swore he could see the incredible colours of her eyes and a million volts ran through him, setting every nerve ending alight. His heart exploded into action and his blood boiled like liquid fire in his veins.

“Dios,” Andreu breathed, lost in a haze that came over him and veiled everything other than her. She was bright in the centre of so much darkness, a shining colourful light that drew him to her. A dazzling jewel like no other. A jewel he wanted to possess. He placed one foot up on the low wall surrounding his box, intent on crossing the theatre to her.

She disappeared.

The theatre popped back into existence and Andreu wobbled on the wall. His eyes shot down to the thirty-foot drop to the stalls below. He stumbled backwards and collapsed into the soft velvet seat behind him, breathing hard to settle the panic that had instantly chilled the heat in his blood.

“Cristo,” Andreu whispered and stared wide-eyed across the theatre to the box where the woman had been.

And was now gone.

Disappeared.

He panted, his heart still thumping against his chest and shivers still skittering over his skin.

Whatever she was, she wasn’t a vampire.

Whatever she was, he wanted her.

He would find her, and when he did, he would have her.

CHAPTER 2

V
arya had made a terrible mistake. The delightful show had captured her attention so completely that she had revealed herself. Her tutors back home at her clan would be angry with her for making such a rookie error. Always keep one part of your mind on the glamour. Never allow anyone to see you before you are ready. They had drummed those lessons into her head and she had always managed to remember, had never unintentionally shown herself to anyone in her three centuries of life.

Damn it. What had gone wrong this time?

She perched on the wall of the box still, the theatre shimmering around her. That should have been her clue. Whenever she used a glamour to hide her presence, the world around her distorted, as though she viewed it through a dense heat-haze. The show had caught her off guard, so deliciously wicked and debauched that she had lost her focus. She had never seen anything like it in the human clubs she frequented across Europe. Not even the werewolves had shows that could compare with this one. Vampires certainly knew how to indulge their sinful and carnal nature. She had heard as much from another of her clan, a woman who had been exiled shortly afterwards for breaking clan law.

Varya’s stomach clenched. Had that law been one regarding the vampires? They were dangerous to her kind. Their senses could detect things their eyes could not. Varya had known that, so when she had found the courage to enter the building and see for herself what happened inside its walls, she had tried her best glamour, a spell so intense that it had taken several feedings for her to gain enough strength to perform it.

She could have gained the required amount of energy from only one or two feeds had she resorted to sex, but intercourse awakened her darkest hungers and resulted in her losing control and her host losing his life. It took a strong male to survive sex with her, and she feared all of them had long since left this land. Two centuries of killing her hosts had left her bored of taking that route when feeding off a weaker male. The clean up was a hassle and the sexual energy she gained left her with a bitter aftertaste. Her closest friends in the clan had told her that it was a phase all succubi went through at one time or another and that she would get over it. She hoped she did, but even then, she wasn’t sure she could recapture the enthusiasm for sex she had felt in her youth. A century of watching human and non-human couples engaging in sexual relations had caused her to wonder at the vibrancy and intensity of the passionate moments they shared, and the emotional connection that often came with them.

But that was something beyond her reach.

And it was something that made her experiences of sex seem hollow, lacking a vital ingredient that would always be denied her and left her drifting through life stealing kisses and watching others enjoy pleasure that she could never taste.

Varya sighed and then growled at herself. Her species were one of the most powerful in the fae world and the most feared, and they hadn’t gained their reputation by brooding and living on a kiss-only diet.

Her tutors scolded her enough as it was because of that. If they heard about what had happened tonight, she would be receiving lashes like the cute male in the show.

She had thought she had stolen enough energy from kissing and taking things to a safe yet very naughty level with her hosts over the past few days that she could hold the strong glamour needed to veil her tonight. It wasn’t her fault. It had drained her faster than she had anticipated and she had been so entranced by the show that she hadn’t realised her spell had slipped.

The vampire had seen her.

He still sat in his box, staring across the theatre, a puzzled look on his dark handsome face.

He was dangerous.

Varya tried to ignore him and settled her focus back on the show. Her stomach rumbled and her tongue swept across her lips, eager for a taste of what was happening on the stage below her. She groaned as sexual energy danced around her, intoxicating and enticing. She would have to leave soon to track down a suitable male host. There was a club a few blocks away, one she had visited before, full of easy feeds and even easier fucks if she really had to go down that path to replenish her energy. Maybe her excitement from watching the show would make sex fun again, at least for tonight.

Her gaze slid back across the theatre to the vampire and she shivered, hot all over and burning up inside.

When he had looked at her, the strangest feeling had come over her, an unsettling sensation of need and a hunger so intense that she had almost growled. One thought had pounded through her head in the all too brief seconds that she had held his inquisitive and passionate gaze.

Hers.

He was hers.

It couldn’t be.

His aura made that clear and she had known it the moment she had seen him, before she had accidentally revealed herself. He wore shadows. Shadows were a bad sign. Clan law forbade interaction with males who wore them and pursuing him would be a grave mistake.

Her tutors had said that men shrouded in shadows were forbidden because they tasted foul and were not an easy target. Many of her kind had fallen at their hands, lured to and destroyed by such men.

Varya had no desire to die, only a desire to live, so why was she still staring across the theatre at him? Why did she want to reveal herself again so she could see the look that had blazed in his eyes, a look that had contradicted his aura, revealing passion and desire? Was it purely the allure of the challenge he represented?

Or was there more to the need pounding deep in her veins?

He rose from his seat and walked away, disappearing through a red curtain. Varya keenly felt the loss of his beauty in her soul and dragged her eyes back to the stage. There was nothing of interest there now. The female vampire was drinking from the vein of one of the males. The other stood at the foot of the bed, obedient and docile. Varya eyed him. Could she teleport there and take the male before the female vampire saw and attacked?

She was so hungry.

She rubbed her strapless purple bodice over her stomach. She needed to get out of this place and feed before she weakened further and was forced to bed a male to replenish her energy and stop herself from becoming vulnerable.

Her gaze caught on the shadowed male vampire as he crossed the theatre, his dark hair and black suit causing him to blend into the darkness. He headed towards a small group below her and pointed up to her. She instinctively leaned backwards and dropped down from the wall, landing silently despite her heavy boots. She crept forwards and peered over the edge, her desire to see him again and see what was happening too great to ignore. The image of him shimmered as he spoke to the other vampires.

What was he saying?

There were three males with him, and the one with white hair looked up to where she hid. She ducked backwards out of sight. Her glamour wouldn’t completely work on him. He was too old and would be able to sense her if he set eyes on her. She wasn’t sure if he would be able to see her, but she wasn’t about to risk it.

Varya peeked over the wall and found the white-haired male talking to the group again. She focused on him and the others in the group until their auras shimmered into being, creating a glow around their bodies several inches deep. An aura revealed a lot about a person’s emotions and her kind used them as a type of aid when hunting, so they knew what approach to take with a male or whether to avoid him completely and try an easier target.

The audience began to file out and another male entered from below her, joining the small group.

Varya hid now, barely peeking over the curved wall.

The blond spiky-haired newcomer would easily spot her. The strongest glamour couldn’t hide her from his eyes. She sneered and bared her small sharp canines at him even though he couldn’t see the threat and didn’t seem to have even noticed her.

Cobalt blue surrounded him, tinged with gold in places. That aura frightened her more than the black one of his companion.

The female in the group had an aura bathed in shades of red, pink and gold. She looked like a sunset, a beautiful sight, as did the man holding her with her back against his chest. Love. The man who looked similar to the one who had seen her had the same colours in his aura. He smiled as he spoke to the couple, radiating warmth and affection. The white-haired male who now prowled the theatre away from the others had the aura of a beast, all shades of green and icy blue. He was old, ancient, and her fae magic wouldn’t work on him.

The one who had seen her…

Varya leaned her forearms along the top of the wall, settled her chin on them and stared down at him.

The cold edge to his aura at times, tinting it purple in places, was bad enough, a sign of an empty heart. That didn’t bother her kind. Love was an emotion that she couldn’t experience. It was the shimmering dark shades that clung to him like black smoke that warned her away. Forbidden. When she had looked at him, and he at her, those curling ribbons of darkness hadn’t changed to show signs of passion or desire, but his eyes had revealed such carnal hungers. Why couldn’t she read it in his aura? Was that why shadowed males were dangerous? Did his aura hide his true emotions?

She had never seen such a man before tonight.

Curiosity kept her gaze fixed on him, had her remaining even though hunger gnawed at her insides, pushing her to feed.

She didn’t want to leave.

She wanted to know why he was so dangerous that he was forbidden.

She wanted a taste of that fruit.

He said something to the man who was similar to him. A brother? The two seemed close and the other male showed signs of affection in his aura whenever he spoke to her vampire.

Her vampire?

He was just a target.

A host.

She would have her taste and then she would leave this place and never return.

The group below broke apart. The female remained with the male who was clearly her lover, a pale-eyed man with dark hair who seemed close to the white-haired dangerous one. They crossed the theatre to the other side and he held the door for her. The beast stalked away in the opposite direction, heading back out of the door he had entered through. Her vampire and the one she had decided was his brother split up and combed the stalls before disappearing through the rear exits.

The blond vampire remained standing below her long after everyone had left the theatre.