Immortal Craving (Dark Dynasties) (29 page)

A song she liked began to thrum and throb onto the dance floor at the far end of the cavernous room. Bay eyed Tasmin speculatively.

“Tell you what. I’ll do this once, and then I’ll teach
you
something great about the twenty-first century. Deal?”

He looked bemused… and wary.

“I suppose.”

She grinned at him, and he relaxed. Slightly. Bay looked around for likely targets, noticed a big, brawny lowblood chatting up what looked like a pampered Empusa, and decided she’d try to give the situation a push.

Bay closed her eyes and tried to think of the most clichéd sexiness she could. She came up with a room with
wood paneling, shag carpeting, and a water bed. Barry White was playing on the stereo, and through the window, she could see a van with a wizard painted on the outside of it.

It was the least sexy thing ever.

And damn it, she wanted to go dance.

“Whatever. Shazam,” she muttered, and tried to push the image in her mind toward the couple-in-progress. She saw a faint gold flicker around herself, but that was it. For a moment, she didn’t think any part of the illusion had hit the two, but then she noticed the dazed look in their eyes. After a moment, each of them blinked, gave one another the side eye, and slunk away from one another as fast as they could manage. Both looked slightly nauseous.

Tasmin was staring at her.

“Was that what you were trying to do?” he asked.

Bay stood and held out her hand. “Yes. They obviously weren’t right for each other. Come on.”

He followed, albeit a little reluctantly, as she led him to the dance floor. Bay craned her neck around as they went, fascinated by the atmosphere. There was a lot of dark, heavy wood, but the walls were lined with floor-length mirrors in ornate frames. She’d been glad not to lose her reflection—one of the many untruths enshrined in vampire legend. Just like she’d been glad not to lose the sun. Her tolerance for sunlight got stronger every day, impressing even Tasmin with how fast she was adjusting. But then, she wasn’t sure even he understood how badly she still craved the light. Here, as at Vlad’s, the only light was from dozens of flickering candles. They cast a spooky, romantic glow over everything.

When they hit the dance floor, Bay immediately got
her groove on, swaying her hips, wiggling sinuously in time to the music. She had closed her eyes, losing herself for just a few seconds in the beat. But when she opened her eyes, her dance partner looked like he wasn’t sure whether to drag her out of the club or throw her on the floor right there and have her.

Nor was he moving.

Bay grabbed his hand and pulled him the couple of steps it took to close the distance between them, feeling a familiar heat beginning to curl through her at the look in his eyes. She put her hands on his hips, swallowing hard.

Maybe this hadn’t been such a great idea. The point had been to get out, not to run right back home. And they’d never had a real date, for all the time they’d spent together. Just once, she wanted to do something normal with him.

“Look,” Bay said, rising up so she could speak in his ear. “You just kind of sway to the music. With me.”

She tried to budge him, but most of what she got was a stiff back and forth. Frustrated, she wound her arms around his neck and slid against him, trying to dance for two.

“This sort of dancing is for the bedroom,” Tasmin growled in her ear. “Or the woods.”

“Or for every other fully clothed couple out here except you and me,” Bay said, pulling back to look at him. His breath fanned her face, and his eyes were all light and heat. She could just imagine running through the woods with him, Tasmin in hot pursuit… and what he would do when he caught her.

Bay let out a shaking breath and pulled away.

“Maybe no dancing right now.”

He whispered in her ear as they walked back to the table, “I now have some ideas for later, however.”

She was startled to see two familiar faces sitting at their table as they made their way back. Lily and Ty had been locked in one meeting or another almost since the moment they’d gotten here. It seemed like even they had needed a break.

“Hey,” Bay said, genuinely glad to see her friends. “Now it’s a party.”

Ty looked both severe and handsome in all black tonight, while Lily was elegant in a jade-green silk shell and a pair of skinny black pants. They were a striking couple, and Bay could see that their presence hadn’t gone unnoticed. There was plenty of whispering and staring.

Lily gave her a tired smile. “Ty was threatening to drag me here in my sweatpants, so I figured I could at least put some effort into it.” She looked around. “What do you think of it? They managed to make it look almost exactly the same as before.”

“Before…” Her eyes widened. “Oh, God, this is the club Damien tried to burn down with you in it, right?”

“I think Anura would still like to light
him
on fire.” Ty chuckled. He looked at his wife, and his silver eyes glittered in the candlelight. “I remember how you danced with that Ptolemy ass so I could talk to Anura.”

Lily grinned. “And I remember being disappointed I never got to dance with you.”

“We’re going to fix that tonight.”

Bay looked between them, then at Tasmin. She decided it was an excellent time to try her first telepathic communication with another Rakshasa.

SEE? IT’S NOT KINKY!

Tasmin winced and pressed a hand against his ear.

Ty frowned and looked around. “Is someone shouting?”

Bay slouched in her seat and fiddled with the stirring straw in her cocktail.

It was a relief to spot the dark-haired beauty making her way toward them from her office, which was tucked behind one of the mirrors. Bay slid off the stool, determined to meet Anura halfway. She wanted to check on the progress with putting together the ritual… and to ask whether there were any other resources she could begin checking into just in case.

“Be right back,” Bay said, flashing a smile at Tasmin. Lily looked between the two men, then at Bay and Anura, and hit the ground as well.

“Have fun bonding,” she said, and walked away.

Tasmin watched the women go, his eyes lingering on the sway of Bailey’s hips.

The woman was trying to kill him, and at this rate she’d manage it long before the demon. He wanted her all the time. If she wasn’t making him laugh, she was making him hot… but it was usually both.

He would have given a great deal to know what she’d been thinking of when she’d managed to send the potential couple running away from one another so quickly. She would learn, he knew. It would just take time.

All he could do was give her the basics now and hope she caught on quickly. Teaching her how to embrace what she was had become a welcome distraction from what was going on around them. But he knew it was just that—a distraction.

Ty’s voice pulled him back to the present. The silver-eyed
vampire was watching him with interest. He’d been watching him stare at Bailey, Tasmin realized.

“She’s a lovely thing,” Ty commented, picking up a glass of spiked blood the waitress brought him and taking a sip.

Tasmin shifted uncomfortably. Ty’s seeming belief in him over the night of Bailey’s siring had been welcome… but he wasn’t quite sure what to say now.

A great deal had changed since their first meeting at Bailey’s.

“She is,” Tasmin finally said, letting his eyes drift back to where Bailey now stood with the other women. She looked beautiful tonight, in a simple pair of slim black pants and a royal blue top that clung to her curves.

He heard Ty’s amused chuckle, and redirected his attention again.

“They’re fighters, these women,” Ty said. “You think they need saving, and then they go and save your ass anyway. It’s bollocks at first, but you get used to it.”

Tasmin’s mouth curved up, and he tried to picture Bailey containing her sloppy bun with one hand and brandishing a sword with the other.

“I would rather protect her,” Tasmin said, thinking about all that could happen if he wasn’t incredibly vigilant, if he didn’t run from her the instant he felt the demon start to stir. What could she do about any of that?

But Ty just shook his head. “What you’d rather do and what happens, at least with Lily and Bay, are two different things most of the time. Keeps life interesting. And beautiful.”

Tasmin saw the way Ty looked at his wife, the slow-burning warmth in it, and felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach.

Not for you
, whispered the demon, chuckling. A warning.

Still, he couldn’t help but imagine, once in a while, what it might be like. And from the look on his face, Ty understood more than he would ever let on.

It surprised Tasmin to feel Ty’s hand clap on his shoulder.

“To destiny, brother.” He lifted his glass to Tasmin. “Can’t fight it. Might as well toast it.”

“Destiny,” Tasmin murmured, raising the glass he could only pretend to drink out of lest the blood tempt the demon too much.

“Cheers,” Ty said, with a curious, sympathetic look, and drained his glass.

B
AY HEADED DOWN THE MAIN STAIRCASE
at Vlad’s, her bare feet noiseless on the wood, looking curiously around for the sight of black, wavy hair and cinnamon skin. She and Tasmin had slept for the better part of the day. He’d awakened her at some point and made love to her until she couldn’t move, at which point she’d passed back out again. That she remembered, Bay thought with a smile as she lifted her head a little, trying to see if she could pick his scent out of all the ones in the mansion right now.

He must have slipped out before she’d awakened.

It didn’t surprise her. He’d proven to be a restless sleeper, up at odd hours, appearing in and disappearing from the bed she preferred to stay in for a solid block of hours when she was tired.

Still, every time she awakened to find him gone, there was a cold burst of fear that he was gone permanently, taken by the thing he refused to believe he could fight.
She wished she didn’t have the terrible feeling that the clock was winding down with every passing night.

Pushing the thoughts from her head for the umpteenth time, Bay breathed in and tried to do as Tasmin had explained. Block everything else out. Think of each separate scent as a thread, and try to pick each of them out one at a time, following it to its source. Some would wind together again; some would diverge. All would become familiar.

And man, did she still suck at this.

Bay opened her eyes, irritated, and descended the stairs the rest of the way. She kept following the same scent trail to a werewolf eating a cheeseburger. Medium rare, with onion straws, Swiss cheese, and barbecue sauce.

Old habits died hard, apparently.

“Well, well. Bailey Harper. What on earth bit you?”

The familiar, cultured tones of the voice had her turning to see an impossibly handsome, sandy-haired vampire grinning at her as he strolled from one of the drawing rooms, looking like he’d just stepped out of the pages of a magazine. Bay was surprised to find herself returning his smile as she crossed the entrance hall to meet him. Damien Tremaine, though a friend of Lily and Ty, had always been as intimidating to her as he was bitingly funny. Now, though, the sight of a familiar face was welcome. And somehow, everything about him, from the smirk he wore to the tone in his voice, held a playfulness she’d always missed before.

More changes. Still, this one was welcome.

“Damien! What are you doing here? I don’t think anyone here needs stabbing, and if jewelry starts disappearing everyone will know it was you.”

“Darling,” he said, arching an eyebrow, “most vampires need to be stabbed occasionally. It builds character.” His cool blue eyes looked her over from head to toe, frankly assessing. Bay waited, unsurprised by the scrutiny. Sizing people up was what Damien did, after all.

Despite his mouth, Damien Tremaine was an intense presence, having spent centuries working for the most prominent guild of thieves and assassins in the vampire world, the House of Shadows. He’d renewed his friendship with Ty after spending some time trying to kill him and Lily last year, and had recently been promoted to… well, Bay wasn’t sure exactly what, but he didn’t seem to be killing as many people anymore.

His new mate had been good for him, according to absolutely everyone. He could still be a charming asshole, but Ariane had softened a lot of his hard edges. And he no longer just looked amused at everyone else’s expense. He looked happy.

“I like it,” Damien finally said. “I always had a feeling vampirism would look good on you. I can’t say I care for the fact that your cat form is now bigger than mine, but as they say, it’s not the size, it’s how you use it.”

She smacked him. “Pig. Where’s your better half?”

“I left her as she was rolling around on the floor with your big slobbery dog,” he said, then looked down at one of the cuffs of his button-down shirt. It was, Bay noted, rather damp.

“The Grimm missed me, I think. I only barely escaped being awash in his particular brand of affection. It would be an interesting strategy to defeat the Ptolemy. Just unleash your dog on them. Even if he doesn’t manage to
drown them, the drool should slow them down enough so we can pick them off easily.”

“Funny.” Bay smirked, then looked past him, distracted by a glimpse of dark hair. It wasn’t Tasmin, though. Ludo, Vlad’s right-hand man, waved in greeting as he headed toward the ballroom. She sighed.

“Looking for your man?”

Bay nodded, returning her attention to Damien. He was watching her with a curious mixture of sympathy and keen interest. She wasn’t sure she liked it. It was the same look she’d been getting from almost everyone here all week. It was one of the less appealing aspects of vampire society. Everyone knew everyone else’s business.

“He was gone when I woke up. I figured he’d be down here somewhere. Have you seen him?”

Damien shook his head. “No, and I’ve been hoping to. I’ve never actually met a Rakshasa.” He leaned in closer, dropping his voice. “Ty told me what’s been going on. I have to say, I’m surprised Anura is dragging her feet like this. I would have thought she’d be beside herself trying to save him, impending war be damned. You know she has a soft spot for his kind.”