Sweet Reckoning (The Sweet Trilogy, #3)(78)

My heart pounded.

Marek was the son of Shax—known for clever tricks of thievery. He would know ways to hide things in shoes. How could Kaidan stand there acting so cool? My body was going crazy and I could hardly stay still. I watched as Marek’s fingers ran along the edge of the thick heel, right where the secret compartment lay. His movements seemed to slow, then pause, and I watched Kaidan’s jaw clench. Holding my breath, I felt like the wait dragged on forever.

Then Marek stood abruptly and gave Kai a nod, moving past him to begin running the wand over the son of Thamuz. All the breath left my lungs. Kaidan put his boots back on and joined me. His arm brushed against mine and I wanted to sing. Three knives between us weren’t much compared to the guns we knew the Dukes had, but at least they were something.

At the end of the hall we went through another set of doors and down more steps into a gigantic, dark room blaring techno music. The loud sound seemed to cause all my senses to open up. I could smell the bodies—a mix of sweat and skin and perfumes. I smelled alcohol everywhere, fresh and in the cracks of every surface, and marijuana somewhere nearby. My body buzzed.

Kaidan’s hand touched my lower back to urge me forward, and I sucked in a ragged breath at the wonderful feeling of the contact. He glanced at me with wide eyes, his badge giving a spin, and I realized even my sense of touch had been let loose. I needed to reign it all in. I focused, forcing every sense back to normal except my night vision, and moved forward.

We were in a warehouse-sized underground club already packed with people. To the left was a DJ booth, which made me think of Jay with a pang. I hoped with all I had that he was okay. And Patti. It brought me joy to think that after tonight they might never have to hide again.

A long bar stretched the entire length of the room, with bartenders flipping bottles and shaking tumblers. Thamuz’s two sons slithered straight to the bar, telling us the Dukes would get us when it was time, and telling Kaidan to watch me. They didn’t seem to feel the need to babysit us anymore—probably because the entrance and exit were covered.

I peered around for other exits. It was hard to see exactly how high the ceiling was because every surface in the club was painted black. The black ceiling and walls were dotted with tiny twinkling lights in an exact replica of the galaxy, like a planetarium.

“Where are we meeting?” I dared to ask Kaidan, having to shout.

“The VIP room,” he said.

I nodded. We walked farther in, following where our friends had gone. When we were surrounded by people, I saw Kaidan stealthily bend down and mess with something. I glanced, trying not to be obvious, and saw him lifting the flaps in the soles of his boots and taking out the blades that had been hidden. I felt one being slipped into my pocket and I pressed my lips together to hold back a smile. We kept moving until we met up with our group, clustered by the bar. They all stared around the room, appearing calm, but on guard. I looked around, too.

Almost the entire room was a dance floor. I hadn’t noticed at first, but along the walls, giant black cages hung from the ceiling with females inside—cage dancers—who used the bars to flip expertly or hang upside down before landing gracefully and dancing perfected individual routines.

As I watched, the already dimmed lighting seemed to waver in the room.

“Legionnaires,” Marna murmured next to me.

Hundreds of demons swarmed above us. I held my breath, feeling helpless and ill at the sight of their attack on the room. Every few seconds one of the spirits would dart down and whisper in an unsuspecting ear. Within one minute there were more people flocking to the bar, and the dancing was steamier. Two guys got into a fight on the dance floor, and bouncers ran to break it up while people around them screamed.

Ginger and Marna looked at Kaidan and me, staring purposefully back and forth between the two of us—at our bond. Crap! Kaidan moved away from me and went straight to the bar. I gave the twins a nod to thank them for the heads-up, then turned when someone bumped me.

A girl, no older than twenty-one, staggered by and after she passed us she bent over and vomited. People around her screamed. Her puke splattered up on the heels of the couple nearest her, and they spun to face her. The offended woman’s aura was dark with rage, worsened by a whisperer pouring its vile message into her head. She poured her drink over the girl’s back, causing her to stumble to one knee. A demon swooped down on the man, who lifted his beer bottle as if to throw it at the girl.

“Don’t!” I yelled.

The man looked up at me with haunted eyes.

“Don’t you dare,” I said breathlessly, going to the girl’s side. The man slowly lowered his arm, seeing Kopano and Blake watching and not wanting to chance it.

I helped her up by the arm. Yes, it was stupid of me, but my secret had already been revealed. I was working for the other team, so these demons could just kiss my heavenly ass.

“Donna?” the drunken girl mumbled.

“No. Do you have a friend here named Donna?”

She looked around, bleary-eyed, without responding. I led her to the end of the bar, half carrying her, and reached over to take napkins from a pile. I wiped her face and dabbed at her hair. Another girl her age ran up to us, out of breath.

“Oh my gawd! There you are, you stupid hooch! I thought you were going to the bathroom. Rob keeps asking about you. He bought us another round. Come on.”

“Are you Donna?” I asked.