The smile fell from her face and she swallowed, her head falling forward as she looked down at her phone again. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just…” Taking a deep breath, she lifted her chin and met my eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t make it a habit to invade the personal thoughts of others. I…slipped.”
I exhaled and gave her a nod. But just in case she “slipped” again, I raised my shields. It was stupid of me to forget they could do that. “Don’t call Killian. I’ll get you home safe before the sun comes up.”
She paused, thumbs poised over the screen. She didn’t seem to believe me. “Are you sure? What if whoever—or whatever—that is, comes after us?”
I looked down at the floor, opening myself up to the power on the other side of these walls. It was still there, hovering like a caged animal, but otherwise making no moves to test the ward I’d placed. “I don’t think it will.”
“It’s not gone,” she said.
“No,” I confirmed. I was quickly learning a vampire’s instincts were nothing to mess around with. She could feel threats as well as I could. Not the small nuances, I would imagine, but just that it was there. “No, it’s not gone. But it’s also not trying to get in. It’s watching.”
“Because of the ward around the club,” she said, but her tone was unsure.
I shook my head. “No. It barely even tested it. Honestly, I think it was just surprised that it was there.” I started to prowl back and forth on the other side of the bar, hands linked behind my back and my head down as I contemplated our situation and how I would go about keeping my word to Kenya if that…thing, or whatever it was…decided to camp out on the street until we were forced to leave.
And what if I was wrong? What if I took her from the safety of the club and it was waiting for us? Would I be able to fend it off?
Maybe I should call the rest of the coven. Or at least Angel. She knows how to keep her mouth shut, if I can manage to hunt her down in time. I would call Alice too, but unfortunately, I can’t say the same for my sister. Her loyalty to the High Priestess comes before all else with her.
Even her own brother.
No. I was on my own in this. It was better this way. I’m the one who broke the rules and got involved with a vampire. I should be the only one to deal with the consequences of my actions.
Decision made, I joined Kenya at the bar. Putting my elbows on the smooth service, I leaned in toward her and kept my voice low in case it was listening. “We’ll wait until right before sunrise. The city will be coming awake and more people will be out on the streets. I don’t think it wants to be seen.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t. Not really. It’s just a feeling.”
“You’re betting our lives on a feeling?”
I smiled, trying to reassure her. “This thing doesn’t know what it’s fucking with.”
“Or maybeyoudon’t know whatyou’refucking with.”
“Ye of such little faith,” I teased.
My words didn’t bring the smile back to her face as I’d hoped they would. Reaching across the bar, I covered one of her small hands with mine. “Besides, as you yourself said, Killian would kill me—piece by piece—if I allowed anything to happen to you. And then he would turn me just so he could kill me again.”
“You would never allow him that close to you.”
She had a point. “It would be harder to hold back five vampires. Especially if Judith gives me over to them.”
Kenya looked down at her hand, still covered with mine, but made no move to remove it. “I find that hard to believe. She’s your auntie.”
“And she would happily sacrifice me to keep the peace between our two covens.” I honestly didn’t know if this was true or not, but if it would help me convince Kenya…
Her eyes clashed with mine and I caught a flash of her fangs before she remembered herself. My cock, which had just started to behave itself, perked up with renewed interest. Apparently, it wasn’t afraid of a little danger. And I had no doubt I’d just caught a glimpse of a side to this vampire I would not want to meet alone on a darkened street.
Willing my sex to calm the fuck down, I watched her response. It was an interesting reaction, to say the least, from a vampire who had, just a few minutes before, implied she cared nothing about me as a man.
Stashing this little memory away for later, I focused on the problem at hand. “We’ll leave just before dawn, but in plenty of time to get you to shelter before the sun rises.” I tightened my fingers on hers. “You can trust me, Kenya.”
For a moment, she just stared at me. “Looks like I’m gonna have to,” she finally said. Then she pulled her hand from mine, stashed her cell back under the bar, and grabbed a bottle of expensive vodka from the shelf behind her. She poured two shots, sliding one over to me. “But if we’re gonna die, we might as well go out in style.”
I clinked my glass to hers and downed the shot. The alcohol burned, distracting me from the pretty bartender. But not nearly enough. “We’re not going to die.”
“But if I do, I’m haunting you and your family.”
