Chapter Four

According to my cell phone, I returned to the club at two-thirty in the morning, three hours before sunlight. The hardened regulars had gone home, save for a couple of stragglers sitting at the bar talking to one of the human servers as she cleaned up. I jerked my head toward the door, and the patrons and the wait staff scrambled to their feet and hauled ass. Fiona looked up from her sweeping as I approached and tilted her head almost imperceptibly towards the dance floor.

The first thing I noticed was the stench--a cross between a wet dog, pine-scented Lysol, and animal musk. The stink only meant one thing. If Fiona hadn't pointed them out, only a blind idiot would have missed the group of enormous men standing by the dance floor. They looked like pissed off linebackers from hell. They did not look like they wanted to boogie. 

I scanned my immediate area and found Ryder picking up chairs and setting them upside-down on top of the tables. He was doing his best to ignore the pack of werewolves standing a few feet from him. He was an old vampire, which made him extremely powerful, but he alone couldn't take on four large, testosterone-laden Warriors and survive. We're talking about a bloodbath, but not exactly in his favor. He sensed me looking at him and raised his eyes to me. With a chagrined shrug, he went back to carefully stacking the chairs.

"Ah, Yanmei, my favorite murdering sociopath," growled a deep sardonic voice somewhere behind me. 

In one smooth move, I swooped down and snatched both Glocks from the holster on my ankles, then turned around to face the source of the voice. A man about a few inches shy of seven feet with long green hair that went halfway down his back and a diamond stud piercing his lower lip stared at me with enough animosity to force a lesser being to her knees.

"Hello, Garret." I pointed both Glocks at his chest. "How are you tonight?"

The Were laughed harshly, and the sound felt like razor blades on my skin. I resisted the urge to check my arms for actual cuts and kept my eyes on him. He was drunk. Since a Were-animal metabolized alcohol ten times faster than an average human, that meant he had consumed enough hard liquor to knock down a grizzly bear.

"We have a score to settle," he said in a menacingly soft voice.

If he weren't dressed like a biker rocker from hell in his black leather pants and black Judas Priest t-shirt, he still wouldn't be a man a girl took home to her mother. The dude was a large, imposing specimen who would have looked frightening in pink lacy lingerie. Especially in pink lacy underwear. I mean, what kind of werewolf warrior frolicked about in pink lacy knickers and didn't give a shit what anyone had to say? I told myself to stop it and concentrate.

"And what score would that be?" I infused my voice with boredom.

I was pretending to be ignorant of what he was talking about to taunt him. I was the one who decapitated his mate with a samurai sword just a few months ago. She had been the Queen's favorite courtier, a woman she had treated as a daughter. The Queen raged when she found out Lorena had been running around with the enemy's Enforcer. She took it as a personal betrayal, as she considered the wolves to be our inferior, and ordered her death. There was no joy in my heart when I raised the sword over my head and brought it down over Lorena's pretty neck. I kind of liked her. She was pleasant... for a vampire, anyway.

"A little bird told me you let a human fuck you tonight," he disclosed conversationally. "Did you like it, Huntress? Did you two fall in love?" He chuckled, but it was a rough, grating sound. "Shall I drag him in here and tear his throat out as you watch?"

One of his hench-wolves stuck his nose in my hair and sniffed. "The whore smells like him, too."

Garret sneered at this bit of information. "You better shower before you head on home, then. You wouldn't want your Dear Queen to smell him on your skin and order a death sentence for you, do you?"

I decided not to tell him that the Queen wouldn't care. Hell, she would probably clap her hands in glee if she found out. She was known to indulge herself in a tumble or two with her humans before drinking from them. I knew this because I was the one who erased their memories and dropped them off at street corners. She sometimes joked I should try a roll in the hay with a human myself.

"It would serve you right, wouldn't it, if I made it my personal mission to find this human and torture him in front of you?" Garret taunted, his face only inches from mine. "Or would you even give a shit? God knows you're the most heartless, meanest she-bitch who ever existed."

"And don't you forget it." I tapped the barrel of the Glock against his chest. "Remind me again what silver bullets do to your kind?"

With a bellow of rage, he ripped his shirt in the middle like it was a piece of paper and shoved his bare chest against the gun. "Do it, then!" he screamed. "Shoot a bullet into my heart and end my misery."

"Don't be melodramatic, Garret." I jammed my gun right under his ribcage. He could easily morph into his wolf form and tear out my throat in his current state of mind. Without looking away from him, I swung my other gun hand and thrust it in the face of the wolf who had sniffed my hair. "Now, get over there and act like good little doggies."

Garret retreated, and his hench-wolves moved with him as I kept both guns trained on them. At that moment, Fiona and Ryder must have realized that four against one weren't very sporting odds, so they joined the melee and stood behind me like my posse. Fiona held a sawed-off twelve-gauge shotgun that Tyger usually kept behind the bar, while Ryder clutched an aluminum baseball bat with every intention of swinging. Vampires were notoriously self-centered creatures by nature and usually wouldn't lift a finger to help a fellow vampire, but Fiona and Ryder were my friends. Besides, they probably didn't want the responsibility of telling the Queen that her new favorite courtier was mauled by a pack of werewolves.

Fiona cocked her shotgun and targeted the biggest one, who was making a deep, growling noise in his throat. "The management of Tyger's Lounge reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, and I think it's past time that you sniveling puppies got the hell out of here."

There was a moment when I thought the wolves would spring and attack for sure, but Garret snapped his fingers, and his hench-wolves relaxed from their fighting stance. The tension, which smelled like burning hair, eased out of the room.

"We're not finished, Huntress, not by a long shot," Garret said, snatching his black leather duster from one of his hench-wolves and slipping it on. "And if I were you, I'd keep an eye on that human."

After snapping his fingers, he and his wolf buddies left the club, accompanied by some theatrical jacket swishing and chairs toppling from the tabletops. Minutes later, the rush of adrenaline drained from my body and I nearly collapsed from the strain of holding it together. I allowed myself to relax and returned my guns to the respective holsters.

"Wow, that guy should stop watching Sergio Leone movies," Fiona muttered. She stalked toward the bar to put the shotgun back in its hiding place. "Anyone up for a shot or twenty of tequila?"

"Give me five," I said with a sigh, turning over a chair for me to sit on.

Fiona came over with two brand-new bottles of Jose Cuervo and three shot glasses. She immediately poured me one and two more for herself and Ryder. We clinked our shot glasses and downed them like pros.

"And here I thought the night was going to be a bore," Ryder remarked, pulling up chairs for him and Fiona. He poured another shot down his throat, then regarded me thoughtfully. "You look sated and rosy. You fed on that human?"

A colorful image of my body intertwined with Sebastian's as I fed from his neck flashed before my eyes. "A girl's gotta eat," I said with a shrug.

"Don't give me that shit," Fiona teased, punching me playfully on the shoulder. "You eyed that boy like a piece of meat as soon as he walked in the room." She nudged me with a hand holding a shot glass full of tequila. "Is it true about what they say about human boys? I was a virgin when I was turned, but I hear that they really give it to you when they give it to you. You know what I mean?"

Ryder stared at her with disgust. "A gaggle of nuns would know what you mean. And for your information, I'm a better lover now than when I was a human man."

"With two hundred years of practice, I should hope so," I replied with a sniff. Fiona snickered, but the bald man glared. I held up my hands in mock surrender. With the Were crisis temporarily averted, I was able to enjoy myself with my friends. I had forgotten how pleasant it was to just sit around and shoot the shit with them. It was a luxury I could rarely afford and often took for granted.

"So, Yanmei, are you and the blond studmuffin going to... umm... date now?" Fiona asked with a leer.

I accepted the shot glass Ryder had pressed into my hand and stared at it for a moment. "No." I lifted my head to see the two of them waiting for my response. "I erased his memory of me."

"That's too bad. I would have liked to see the famous ass-kicking Huntress prance about with a human boyfriend," said Ryder.

"Yeah, I would pay top dollar to see that," Fiona agreed with a grin. "He looked kind of sweet, like the type who would send his human girlfriend a whole field of roses if he fucked up or something." She took my chin in her hand and forced me to face her. "The human mind is a funny thing, you know. You can remove a memory, but the mind will remember. He'll pass by this club, experience a sense of déjà vu, then before you know it, he'll be looking for you."

"But you'll tell him you don't know me," I murmured. "I did it for his own good. I didn't want him to be following me around like a puppy."

"I've had to do it myself a couple of times," Ryder admitted. "Erase someone's memory, I mean. I always feel sleazy afterward, like I robbed them of something, but it's something we have to do. We can never share this burden with humans. They'll never understand the cross we bear."

My friends and I sat quietly for a moment, our chairs turned toward each other. Ryder reached over and rubbed my shoulders to remove the knots from my muscles, and for a second, I let myself relax against him. The events of the evening finally caught up with me, and my bones became leaden with cement. For once in my two thousand years, I wanted to just break away, walk the earth like Cain, and hide where no one--not even the Queen--could find me. With a deep sigh, I eased away from him and took another shot of good ole Jose.

"If he never comes back, then Garret will never find him," Fiona added after a while. "Right?"

I nodded. It was for the best that the mortal and I never saw each other again. I couldn't afford the distraction, and Sebastian didn't need the danger that dogged my step wherever I went. I had no great feelings for him--the idea itself was ridiculous--but I couldn't stand the thought of him being hurt. It made my stomach turn.

"Yeah, he seemed like a nice kid," Ryder said. "Will you keep him safe?"

If I had never met him, and he was just another human to me, I would have said no. I couldn't care less if the rest of his species went to hell, but this human deserved to live. "Yes," I told Ryder. "I will keep an eye on him."

"Garret will find him somehow," Fiona said. "He and Lorena were madly in love. You just met this guy, and already you care for him. If Garret finds out, nothing will stop him from hunting him down."

"Thanks for pointing out what's already out there in pink neon lights."

"God's honest truth, girl, I'm not going to lie to you."

I buried my hands in my hair and closed my eyes. My life was in perfect order just last week. Of course, I occasionally thought of cutting off my own head out of sheer boredom, but mostly, everything was fine. I run across one blond human with an angel's face and pretty blue eyes, and I'm suddenly playing Kevin Costner to his Whitney Houston.

It was almost five when I passed through the massive iron gates of the Queen's mansion. As I parked my motorcycle in the Queen's garage that housed fifteen of her cars, I sensed the sun about to make its grand entrance. I preferred to be indoors before that happened. Even though a vampire did not spontaneously combust in the rays of the sun--only a new vampire did that--I still did not like being out in the open in daylight. My skin could only take about a few hours of it before it stung and blistered. The sun at high noon? Forget it. On cloudy or rainy days, I stayed out a little longer. There were some vampires, however, who regularly walked around in it with barely noticeable damage. It was a rare skill and a mark of a formidable vampire.

I trudged up the staircase that only the servants used and lumbered like a zombie to my windowless room. After shoving the deadbolt on my heavy oak door into place, I shed all my clothes and collapsed on my four-poster, heavenly soft Cal-King bed. In response, the bed embraced me like a lover and held me against its silky body. Usually, I would have instantly passed out and slept like the proverbial death, but slumber remained elusive to me.

I could still feel his hands all over me, and his scent seemed to have tattooed itself on my skin. Remembering the sensation of his lips lavishing every inch of my body with feather-soft kisses, I shivered deliciously. Would I truly stay away from him? Could I watch over him like I told Ryder, but stop myself from leaping across the room and latching onto his legs like a monkey?

A flash of Garret's angry face reminded me I must. I couldn't let the Weres get to him, not if I had to kill them all to do it. I would do anything short of disobeying the Queen herself to protect him. Whether I liked it or not, he was my responsibility now, mine to defend and keep from harm.

Eventually, I drifted to sleep. I dreamt of a naked blond angel with laughing azure eyes and washboard abs.

                                                                                   ******

My internal body clock told me it was about sixteen hundred in the afternoon when I finally swam back up to consciousness. I didn't mean to sleep so deeply and was, in fact, still wide awake at seven AM. Without my permission, I must have slipped into vampire-coma and lay motionless for almost nine hours. That only happened when my body decided that I needed intensive healing. As I didn't get physically injured last night, I wondered what it was I was healing from.

Quentin sat on the foot of my bed, leaning against one post. He had his favorite throwing blade in his hand and was using it to clean his nails. "Oh, hullo, you're awake."

I sat up on my mattress and stretched my arms over my head. I was trying to shake the lethargic feeling I woke up with. Vampires had two modes: Conscious and Unconscious. There was no "waking up." There was no "let me drink some coffee first." Vampires hit the ground running. While returning to consciousness this time, I had to slog through mud to get to the surface. A little weird and a cause for concern. "How did you get in? My door has a deadbolt."

Quentin scoffed. Another sign that told me my mind wasn't in working order. Quentin's special power was teleportation. Not for long distances, but within a hundred-yard-radius of his original location. He could go through walls unless it was into a human's home since he would still need permission. I'd heard tales of much older vampires who could travel from one side of the world to another. 

"How are you doing, Mei?" His handsome face revealed no emotion, and his tone was bland, as though he were merely asking about the weather.

“I'm... I'm fine. What are you doing in my room, Quentin?" I had no doubt that the Queen already knew I was with Sebastian last night. She had eyes and ears everywhere who regularly reported to her. Did she send Quentin to check on me? 

The vampire at the foot of my bed slithered up the mattress and lay down next to me. "You're my favorite vamp, Mei, you know that. There's no one else in this mansion I'd rather hang out with than you. I had nothing else to do, so I came to see you."

I stared into his eyes to search for the truth, but they remained as serene as blue pools of water. "No, really. Why are you here?"

He propped his elbow on my pillow and rested his auburn-haired head on his palm. "Calidora heard about your skirmish with Garret and sent me to find out if you're okay."

I snorted and climbed out of my bed to put some space between Quentin and me. I didn't want him reading my mind. Oh yeah, that's one of his talents, too. "Yes. As you can see, I am unharmed." I picked up a hairbrush and began to run it through my hair. 

Contrary to popular belief, vampires needed maintenance, too. Not of all of us rolled out of our tombs at dusk with everything in place. "Why are you really here?" I asked Quentin over my shoulder.

"You killed Lorena, Mei. She may have been a vampire, but Garret had declared her as his Luna before she died. Your fight is not just with Garret, but with his entire pack." Quentin's blue eyes glittered like sapphires, even in the dimness of my room.

"Wait." I spun around to face Quentin again. "How does Garret get a Luna when he's not even the pack's Alpha? And how could he make a vampire his Luna when she wouldn't have been able to spawn puppies for him?"

Quentin shrugged with gallic indifference. "Rumors had it she had a bairn in her belly when you cut off her head." 

"A child born out of a vampire mother and a lycanthrope father?" My head spun with the ramifications of having extinguished a rare creature before it was even born. Did the council know about it? Did Calidora? Maybe that was the reason I was dispatched to off Lorena. By killing her, I terminated her child. “Did Garret know?”

Quentin’s facial features shifted and displayed a modicum of concern. “Of course, Garret knew. He’s gunning for you, Mei.” He sat up in one smooth motion. “I hope you’re not too attached to that human of yours, my dearest. Otherwise, you’ve given Garret an easy target.”

A cold metal hand seized my guts and squeezed. I refused to get involved with anyone for a reason. I never want to be emotionally compromised. But I couldn’t let Quentin know that Sebastian meant anything to me. If he knew, the Queen would know. They wouldn’t hesitate to use Sebastian as a weapon against me. “You’re talking out of your ass, Quentin. You know me. You know how I operate.”

Quentin laughed, and the sound felt like cat scratches along my arm. “I do know you, Mei. You’re smart. More than that, you’re cold. That’s what makes you an efficient killer.”

I put my hairbrush down. That handle was made of silver and hidden within the brush was a stiletto. Nothing short of decapitation killed a full-blooded vampire, especially a powerful one like Quentin, but silver through the heart would still hurt and take weeks to heal. “And you better believe it. I’m not a silly schoolgirl, Quentin. I’m not yearning for some meatpuppet.”

The other vampire smiled and his canines flashed like polished porcelain. “I know that, Yanmei. That’s why I told Calidora she has nothing to worry about.”

I put up the strongest mental block that I could by picturing a giant metal safe chained up and padlocked. Frost formed at the base of my spine and was creeping up toward my neck. “Why should she worry?” My voice had no inflection at all. Point for me.

“Garret won’t relent until he kills you, Yanmei. One on one fight, you can take him, no problem. But if Garret had a bargaining chip, something important to you, Calidora worries you might not make the best decisions.” He slid his blade into a sheath hidden in his boot.

I concentrated to keep my breathing level and my pulse at a slow, steady beat. Quentin must not find out how much his message shook me. “In the five hundred years I’ve served her, have I ever allowed my emotions affect my actions? I’ll answer that for you. No.”

Quentin’s hand sprang up and gripped my arm. “I care about you, Mei. That’s why I want you to watch yourself. You slept with a human. For you, that’s very unusual. It worries me, too.”

I resisted the urge to pry his fingers off my arm. “You never have to worry about me, Q. I always take care of myself.”