"Leave us," Darius growled, placing his hands possessively on her shoulders.
Josh's smile faded, and he didn't look as confident as he had a few seconds earlier. "Wait just a damn minute," he started, but the rest of his sentence died in his throat when Darius gently but firmly moved Lexi to one side so he could take a step closer. "It was nice meeting you," Josh said hurriedly before practically falling over himself to get away.
Lexi turned on Darius. "You have no right to come in here and-"
"Do you know that man?" Darius interrupted.
She knew exactly where he was headed with this and stared up at him defiantly. "No-not that it's any of your business."
Darius gave her a disgusted look. "But you'd have sex with him." He gestured to the room at large. "That's the only reason anyone comes to this place, isn't it?"
Rather than answer his question, she asked her own. "Is that why you're here?"
He gave her a lascivious smile. "If the gods are willing."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm surprised you aren't already in the back rooms. What's the matter? Lose your touch with the women?"
He frowned and took her gently by the elbow off to the side where they could stand and talk in greater privacy. "The Calling spell is supposed to summon us to where we're most needed, where death-magic forces are greatest. So why did I end up in New York City and not Seattle?" He paused to give her time to draw the obvious conclusion.
"Because the demon is here?"
"That's what I wanted to find out. When I focused on finding the strongest concentration of death magic, I ended up at this club."
Lexi looked around, studying the faces around her, doing her best to sense an underlying evil. It was there, of course, everywhere she looked; vampires and demons luring humans and living-magic creatures into the back rooms. The vampires used glamour on their human companions to make them eager sexual partners, while the demons fed off the life force of their partners, leaving them with a high that was dangerously addictive. But these things were part of the thrill of coming to clubs like the Crypt and Blood Club. What Darius was talking about was something different. Something more powerful-and far more dangerous.
"Rest assured, if the demon is here, I'll find him His gaze raked over her, making her conscious of just how snug and short her dress was. "Right now, I'm more interested in solving another mystery. Out of all the people in this city, why did the Calling spell bring me to
you?"
Lexi wasn't sure there was any big mystery to it. "Probably because I helped with the spell."
"Were you the only witch from this area?"
"No, of course not. There were about three or four of us.
He nodded. "So why you?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I'm not the source of evil you're looking for, if that's what you're thinking. Maybe you appeared to me because I saw you during the Calling."
"I never left Ravenscroft-how could you see me?"
"Your face appeared in my scrying flame."
"You command fire." It was more a statement than a question, but she nodded anyway. "It makes sense," Darius continued. "Fire is Sekhmet's element to command also, so it runs in my blood. It's only natural that the spell would deliver me to a witch who commands it."
Lexi actually felt a stab of disappointment that there was no greater significance for why she was the one he'd appeared to, but before she could respond, a fight broke out across the bar between several male vampires. The crowd cleared from around them, like ripples in the water's surface after a stone has been dropped into a still pond.
The four vampires squared off, fangs bared and eyes glowing with an unnatural light. As if by unspoken command, they rushed each other at once, and it wasn't long before Lexi caught the faint odor of blood in the air.
"You should leave," Darius said abruptly. "It's not safe for you here."
Lexi had never been one to take orders, especially from those who thought to protect her. "I'm not ready to leave. I came here to have a good time, and I'm not leaving until I do."
Darius looked across the room at the dance floor, where the music still played and couples, oblivious to the fight, danced on. "Fine." He grabbed her hand firmly and pulled her into the crowd.
The colored lights gleamed off the sweaty bodies of the people pressing against them, pressing them to gether. Determined to ignore Darius and his chauvinistic attitude, Lexi let the throbbing music wash over her. She closed her eyes, raised her arms above her head and surrendered herself to the primal beat.
Then she felt his hand on her waist, felt it fan up over her ribs until his knuckles lightly skimmed the underside of her breast.
"You are incredible," he whispered. "Like nothing I've ever seen." The briefest touch of his tongue on the shell of her ear made her body pulse in a way that had nothing to do with the music.
She tried to put a little space between them, but he refused to allow it, molding his body against hers so close that she could feel the hardness of his erection through his leather pants and the thin Lycra of her dress.
The room was suddenly too crowded and her emotions too raw. Pulling away, she melded into the crowd without a word. She didn't even bother looking for Mai. They rarely left clubs together.
Compared to the stuffy warmth inside, the fresh night air was cool and refreshing. It went a long way toward soothing her emotions, but did little to help ease the ache inside her. There was only one cure for that, and she'd walked out on it. So she opted for the next best thing.
A short cab ride later, she walked into Ricco's bar, made her way to the back rooms and found the party hostess.
"Hi, Lexi," the woman said. "I'll see if he's in." She knew perfectly well Lexi only showed up when she needed to see Ricco.
Of course Ricco was in-though he was currently occupied with someone else. Lexi didn't care. When he was finished with his current client, he'd still be able to see to her needs. One of the nice things about vampires-they could literally go all night. They also couldn't contract or spread sexually transmitted diseases. Nor could Ricco ever get her pregnant. And when she'd had enough, she could walk out and not call or see him until she needed to again-in four weeks. In her book, that made him the perfect partner.
Lexi pointed into the outer room. "I'll wait in the lounge."
The hostess nodded. "I'll send someone for you when he's ready"
"Thanks." Lexi walked off. If this had been any other night, she might have gone home. She didn't like waiting and she was tired, but that damn Immortal had her wound so tight, she wanted to scream.
Walking into the small lounge, she looked around. There was a couch running along the wall where a number of others were sitting. This area wasn't part of the rest of the bar; it was specifically for people waiting for a back room.
She was searching for a place to sit when she heard a familiar voice. "Hello, Lexi-how are you?"
"Derrick." She nodded to her brother-in-law, who was sitting on the couch. "What are you doing here?" When he didn't immediately answer, she realized how stupid the question was. "Sorry," she continued. "It's none of my business anyway."
He made room for her to join him and she sat, feeling very uncomfortable. She'd only seen him a handful of times since her sister's funeral, and it occurred to her how difficult it must be for him to even be near her. She and her sister had been identical twins. Every time he looked at her, he had to see the wife he'd killed.
She shifted on the seat, unconsciously moving farther away from him. She hadn't meant for him to notice, but he did she heard him sigh.
"When are you going to stop blaming me for what happened?" he asked under his breath. "If I'd been in a position to stop her, I would have. Bev was the most important person in my life."
Lexi heard the heartache and bitterness in his voice and vowed-again-to never fall in love.
A year ago, Derrick had been in a horrible car accident. He'd sustained considerable internal injuries, including the loss of both kidneys. Neither magic nor modern medicine could repair them, but they could be replaced. A new experimental procedure developed by a foreign wizard made it possible to modify the genetic makeup of any donor organ to make it compatible with the recipient. Time was of the essence, so to save Derrick's life, Lexi's sister, Bev, had insisted they give the experimental procedure a try-using herself as the donor.
The surgery had gone well, until the end. One of Bev's kidneys had been removed and successfully transplanted into Derrick. He had been wheeled into the recovery room when Bev started having problems. Her heart started failing before the doctors and nurses could even figure out what was happening.
An autopsy revealed that traces of silver had flecked off the magically enhanced surgical instruments and entered her bloodstream. From there, they had lodged in her heart-her half-lupine heart. It couldn't have killed her any more effectively had they shot her with a silver bullet.
What made the whole thing worse for Lexi was finding out that her sister had been aware of the risks prior to going into the surgery. The doctor had pointed them out to her. Bev had ignored them and insisted on proceeding to save her husband's life. By the time Derrick had regained consciousness enough to understand what was happening, his wife was dead.
Lexi couldn't understand the kind of emotion that had driven her sister to make the decision she had-to be willing to risk her life. If Bev had stopped to think about it logically, Lexi knew her sister would have made a different decision. She might have even found a way to save her husband without risking her own life. But now they'd never know.
Lexi never wanted to be so in love that she'd be willing to die for someone else; she didn't want her emotions to have that much control over her.
It was one of the reasons why she came to Ricco for her monthly sex fix. She was in no fear of losing her heart to him.
However, when she looked into the future, she saw a long progression of sexually satisfying but emotionally empty nights ahead of her. It was more than a little depressing.
"I can't do this," she muttered to herself, standing up. "Good night, Derrick." She walked out of the lounge and out of the club, not stopping until she got home.
Darius looked around, wishing Lexi hadn't left the bar the way she had. It had been over an hour, and his body still burned with the need to possess her. He tried to convince himself that it was a natural male reaction to a female in heat. A female
werewolf
in heat.
That alone should have been enough to keep him away from her, but it only intrigued him more.
He looked about the room, finding it curious how the vampires barely seemed to notice him. Considering that drinking Immortal blood vastly increased their strength, he would have thought the minute he stepped into the room, they'd be all over him. Instead, it was like his aura was no different from anyone else's. Like he wasn't an Immortal.
It was yet another mystery waiting to be solved-but not tonight.
"Are you looking for someone in particular?" a sultry female voice asked beside him. "Or just looking for someone?"
He looked down into the face of a petite woman with spiky neon-pink hair. Darius was having a hard time reading her magical aura and thought she looked enough like a pixie to be one. A very attractive pixie, at that.
As much as he wanted Lexi, he wasn't going to chase her down and beg. He smiled at the woman in front of him. "I was looking for you," he said, purposely letting his gaze run over her appreciatively. "Would you like to dance?"
She stepped closer and laid a hand against his chest. "I was thinking we could skip the preliminaries and find a nice private room in the back."
He cocked his head to one side and gave her a knowing smile. "By all means-lead the way."
She gave a delicate little laugh and, taking his hand in hers, led him through the crowd to the back of the club. He followed her through a bright red door. On the other side was a long hallway lined with doors-
some closed, some open. The pixie stopped at the first available room and, giving him a seductive smile, stepped inside. Darius followed somewhat cautiously, glancing back when he heard the red door to the bar open. He watched a couple walk through, but they didn't spare him a second glance as they moved directly into an open room and closed the door.
He turned back to follow the pixie and found her waiting inside the room, her eyes alight with desire. It fueled his own eagerness.
"I'm Daphne," she said, moving toward him with a seductive swaying of her hips.
"Darius," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist when she was near enough for him to pull her close. He kissed her, but it wasn't as exhilarating as kissing Lexi. He tried not to think about it.
"I love these tattoos," she said, tracing the outlines of several, sending shivers across his skin. She slipped her hands across his shoulders, easing off his duster. He needed no further urging and quickly undressed.
By the time Darius was naked, he looked up and saw that she'd already slipped out of her clothes. For a full second, Darius stood in stunned silence. It had been so long since he'd laid eyes on a nude female form that, for a minute, all he wanted to do was drink in the sight of her.
The young pixie, however, had different ideas. When she pressed her supple body against his, Darius lost all capacity for rational thought. The next several minutes were spent in a tangle of limbs until Darius, barely able to control himself, picked her up and carried her to the only piece of furniture in the room-a bed.