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“Hey, what’s the big deal?” The human was too inebriated to realize the danger he was in.
The strange music continued to tug on her. Ignoring the surrounding commotion, Gabby stepped up to the door.
“Hey, you can’t—” one of the guards started but shut up when Nikolas shot him a look. For a moment, Nikolas loosened the leash on his power, reminding Gabby of his strength. He was several centuries older than her. She was only the head of their House because he didn’t want to be. If he ever had any ambition, he could be a member of the Council.
The guards weren’t stupid. Their expressions changed to a mixture of respect and wariness. One opened the door while his partner blocked the frenzy of humans waiting in line.
Gabby gave the man a nod of thanks before stepping inside. The music was unbearably loud, even to her muffled senses. Her eyes adjusted to the indoor lighting when the door closed. The inside was pitch black other than the strobes of lights on the ceiling that changed colors, one second red, then green, then purple, back to red again. On and on it changed.
It gave Gabby a headache.
She’d never had a headache before as a vampire. Cravings, yes, thirst that made her want to claw out her own stomach, but not a headache.
She stopped breathing. With the music, and the lights, she couldn’t deal with another sense being overpowered and overwhelmed.
Four cages dangled from the ceiling, each with a naked woman gyrating her body seductively to the tune of the music. A mass of bodies danced below the cages, people touching and rubbing up on each other sensually. Even without her sense of smell, it was impossible to ignore the sexual energy.
Gabby’s heart sped up. She forged on, for no reason other than a simple sense of curiosity. This world was new to her. No matter how much Nikolas explained to her or showed her on video, nothing could compare to real life experience.
She walked past booths and chairs with tables in front of them. Most of them were occupied with both vampires and humans. Gabby’s cheeks heated when she saw a vampire feeding from a woman’s neck, his hand under her skirt, while another woman was on her knees before him, her mouth around his cock.
“What is this place?” she asked, shock and arousal battling for supremacy. A part of her wanted to breathe again, to soak in the utter decadence.
There was too much. Her fangs itched. The urge to feed hit her hard and fast. Along with lust that made her thighs clench tight with need.
“This is where humans’ wildest dreams come true.”
Gabby froze at the sound of the smooth velvet voice.
Felix.
In the back of her mind, she’d sensed him closing the distance between them, ever since they’d stopped here. She’d ignored it, because she’d gotten used to ignoring him. Perhaps it was her own fault for allowing their first meeting in six hundred years to occur in such a place.
He stood not five feet away from her. After so long, her knees threatened to buckle.
During their years apart, he’d haunted her thoughts and dreams like a poltergeist, until she thought she might go insane. It was the reason she’d gone aground. She recalled every detail of his face, his body, the way her heart turned over at his slightest smile, yet nothing could have prepared her for the sight of him again.
Time slowed down. The rest of the world slid away until they were the only ones in existence.
A searing ache started in the center of her chest and spread to the rest of her. Joy. Sorrow. Anger. Fear. Betrayal. Hatred. The emotions overwhelmed her. Only the strength Nikolas sent her way prevented her from crumbling to pieces.
Stricken with trepidation, Gabby studied him, hoping all her churning emotions wouldn’t show on the outside.
He was beautiful, his face made of sharp edges and angles with blade-like cheekbones, high forehead, and a patrician nose. His lips, the bottom one a little fuller than the top, were made for intoxicating kisses, and were the only soft part in his marble countenance. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a trim waist, his fencer’s body was hard like steel.
There was something else, though, something different. It took her another few seconds to pinpoint it. There was a tad more world-weariness in his forest-colored eyes than her memories. Or perhaps it had always existed, and she’d never been astute enough to notice.
He took a step toward her, his nostrils flaring, stark need written across his features. Her insides quivered, and every instinct screamed at her to go to him.
To feel the heat of him. To inhale his scent. All those memories she’d long buried—the feel of his skin rubbing against her, his fingers working their magic on her body—returned to her in a blissful rush.
He stopped inches away, leaving only a small space between their aching bodies. She could hear his erratic heartbeat despite the raucous music, a beat that matched her own runaway heart. Her hands itched to trace the strong bones of his face, to bury themselves in his midnight locks.
“Interesting place you chose.” His voice was pure sin. Tendrils of seduction wrapped themselves around her. “I didn’t know your taste has changed so much in our time apart.”
Her cheeks heated, and she dug her nails into her skin, drawing strength from the pain to resist him.
“There are a lot of things you do not know about me.” She jutted her chin out in defiance of the sensual spell he weaved. “Though I am not surprised to find you here.”
