And this demon thought I wasdone?
I was on a hot streak—no way was I bowing out now.
I waited until he finished up with his other customers, then tapped my empty glass. “Still needing that second drink, friend.”
He watched me for a beat, then muttered something inaudible before clearing away the empty glass and reaching for another. “Shall I start a tab, then?”
“I’m not staying long enough for that.” I opened up the black hole otherwise known as my purse, emptying its contents onto the bar as I searched for my money.
Cell phone, lipstick, lip gloss, a vial of shifter blood.
Hand sanitizer, emergency tampons, emergency black tourmaline, breath mints.
Three vampire fangs, black eyeliner, a stun potion leftover from the Blackmoon Bay fight, Melantha’s portal spell, a hair tie, and…
Aha!Sweet, shiny credit card of questionable remaining balance. After today’s shopping spree in the Big Easy, I wasn’t too sure how much farther it would get me, but hey. Hope sprang eternal.
“Let’s give this one a whirl.” I held out the card, but the demon didn’t take it.
His gaze was on the glass vial from the goddess, utterly transfixed. The blood-red smoke roiled inside, its black and gold threads shimmering.
He glanced up at me again, and I braced for another argument. A brush-off. Anything but what flashed through that stone-cold eye.
Recognition.
The demonknewthat particular magick. Which meant…
Holy shit.Had he been to Midnight too? Was that how he knew Elian?
He reached across the bar and covered the vial with his hand, his voice turning dark. “Put it out of sight. Now.”
I did as he asked, too stunned to do anything else.
“Wait here,” he said in that same deadly tone. “Donotleave this bar.”
“Okay, but what about my—”Damn. He was already gone. “Drink,” I said with a sigh. I was just about to hop behind the bar and make something myself when the vertigo hit me again, this wave so strong it nearly knocked me off my barstool.
I fisted my stake and palmed the stun potion, slowly turning to face the newcomers—three of them this time.
My wounded bird was flanked by two of his friends, each one more despicable than the last. Whatever supernatural genetics made most vampires hot as fuck and impossible to resist? Clearly skipped this lot.
A quick scan of my surroundings and my heart sunk. No sign of the demon, and the other patrons in the vicinity were too wrapped up in their own flirtations and petty skirmishes to pay any attention to mine.
Shit.
“Sorry, boys,” I said as the vampires crowded in close. “You reallyaren’ton the guest list.”
“It’s not pussy we’re after tonight, witch,” my original stalker said, ever the romantic. His hand hung limp at his side, the skin black and blistering. “We’re here for—”
I shoved the stake into his chest, taking him down for the count, then hurled the stun potion at the second vamp’s feet. It exploded in a bright yellow starburst, freezing him on contact, but the third one wasn’t close enough to the blast to feel its effects. I tried to reach for one of my daggers, but he was too fast, too strong, and too smart.
He was on me in a heartbeat, hauling me out of the stool and locking me in a vise grip, my back against his chest.
“Got any more tricks, witch?” he growled in my ear.
I struggled against his hold, but it was no use. My arms were pinned at my sides, my feet no longer touching the ground, and I had maybe a minute before the stun potion wore off on the other vamp. “Let me go and I’ll show you allsortsof magick.”
“I don’t think so, pretty girl.” With a sick groan of pleasure, he clamped down hard on my neck, fangs piercing the skin. Before I could even cry out, he’d drained enough blood to make my world spin.
