Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(53)
Joana nodded, though the wariness in her eyes didn’t diminish. “Do we have an agreement, vampire?”
Warin nodded once. “We do.” He glanced at me. “Thank you for your aid, Liv. I believe, if the Priestess agrees, the rest of this meeting will be best conducted with minimal participation.”
“Time for me to shoo,” I agreed, feeling slightly guilty at the rush of relief. As much as I wanted to be kept in the loop, the tension in the room was killing my buzz. If Warin wanted to hammer out the details of their truce alone, it was a-okay with me. “See you in a bit.”
I got up, grabbed the remainder of my drink and motioned for Raven to come with me with a finger. “Let’s leave the important people to their talk.”
She snorted, but after a quick look at Joana followed me out the door. We’d only made it a few yards down the corridor before the door opened again and Kevin—looking sullen as all hell—stepped out too.
“No extra seat at the grown-up table, huh?” I asked him, and received an elbow to the ribs from Raven as a thank-you.
Kevin huffed and strode down the hallway toward the nightclub. We heard the sound of pulsing music and loud chatter followed by a slam of the door closing shortly after.
“He’s not a people-person, is he?” I asked my friend as I rubbed at my ribs.
“You don’t even know the half of it,” Raven sighed. “He didn’t even want us to help you, let alone meet with the vampire. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m keen, either, but I get that it’s the smartest move for us. Kevin… not so much.”
“Well, hopefully he’ll be more cheerful about it once Warin’s gotten rid of the skinwalkers for all of us.” I gulped down the final bit of my drink and wiped my mouth with the back of my arm, like a lady. “Come one—there’s nothing we can do one way or the other, so I say for us lowly minions, it’s dancy time!”
Raven laughed as she followed me into the club. “You’re awfully relaxed for someone who’s got skinwalkers on her ass, Liv.”
I shrugged as I shimmied through the throng of people to the bar for another drink. The barman spotted me instantly and had my Jack and Coke ready by the time I made it to the bar. “I know it’s probably weird to you, but I trust Warin with everything I am. Now that we have you guys on our side, I know I’ll be safe.”
“I hope you’re right—if there is a skinwalker pack in Chicago, it’s gonna be all ‘hide yo kids, hide yo wives’ up in here until they’re dealt with. Did you know they rape witches to force-reincarnate souls in their wombs?” She shuddered and grabbed the beer the barman slid her way with a, “Thanks, Fred.” Apparently, it wasn’t the first time Isla played host to this coven.
I grimaced. “I’m sorry—force-reincarnate? You can… force someone to reincarnate?”
“Well, I can’t. It takes some seriously pitch-black magic to do the kind of shit the skinwalkers do. To even be able to take on another form, they have to kill first. And in pretty fucking gruesome ways.” Raven shuddered again before she put the beer bottle to her lips and downed it in four long gulps. “I’ll spare you the details, but I can tell you I haven’t been able to look at dogs or birds the same since I found out. Now, come on—finish up your drink. You said you wanted to dance, didn’t you?”
* * *
It didn’t take us long to get caught up in the music and atmosphere of the club, and—in my case—forget all about the tense meeting in the backroom. I tended to spend most of my nights home on the couch, so when I finally went out to dance, I wasn’t about to let an impending supernatural war kill my buzz.
Which was probably why when Raven twirled me a bit too hard and I went stumbling into a tall man next to us, I only managed a giggled, “Oops!”
“Oops, indeed.” The auburn-haired stranger grasped me lightly by the elbows to break my fall. The coldness of his fingers against my skin made me look up—and up—until my eyes connected with his. They were bright blue and adorning a face so ruthlessly handsome I’d only ever seen one man more gorgeous in my life—Warin.
“Does your daddy know you’re giving every man in a one-mile radius a hard-on while he’s off attending to business?” His deep voice was practically a purr.
Maybe I should have been disturbed by the crudeness of his taunt, but a shock of recognition sparked through my drunk brain before I could. “You’re his brother!” I chirped, a wide smile pulling on my lips as I looked up at the vampire who’d ensured Warin’s other vampire friends didn’t turn me into dinner in his foyer. “Aleric, right?”
“Indeed,” he said, releasing my left shoulder so he could nudge my chin up with his finger. “I see he’s let you keep your memories, little mouse. And if his second-in-command is to be believed, you’re also responsible for this little witchy meeting tonight? I find that… ever so curious.”
“Oh?” was my intelligent response. I couldn’t quite grasp what he was fishing for, but the predatory spark at the back of his eyes made some faraway fight=or-flight instincts rise through my drunken haze.
“My brother’s not the type to let a pretty little mortal get herself all tangled up in his business.” Aleric snuck an arm around me as he dipped his head low, letting his cool lips brush over the shell of my ear. “I hear he spends most of his nights with you. And I can’t help but wonder… what’s so special about you, little mouse, to have enthralled an Ancient so?”