Blonde & Blue (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #4)(31)

Ky’s hand on my wrist stopped me in my tracks. “Wait! Give him a chance.”

Like the gentleman that I knew him to be, Shaz grabbed her hand and stopped her mid-motion. He shook his head. I could see his lips moving. She looked amused. Maybe he felt the weight of my stare or perhaps he had caught my scent, but he turned abruptly, meeting my eyes. With barely a word to the vampiress, Shaz made his way through the crowd toward me. She was unaffected. Like any vampire, she simply moved on to another potential playmate.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my pounding heart. The territorial urge to cut that bitch’s head off was tough to combat. My wolf raged at the thought of another woman all over my mate. I stopped and considered how much stronger Shaz must be than I am, to put up with Arys.

“I thought you ladies were going out dancing.” Shaz took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “What brings you all here?”

“Didn’t expect me, huh?” I nodded in the general direction he’d just come from. “I can see that.”

“What? No. It’s not like that, Lex. She’s a vampire looking for some action. You know how they are. I told her I wasn’t interested.” Lifting my chin with a soft touch, he kissed me lightly. “Would you have thought the same thing if that had been a male vampire? Because you know those bastards are just as bad.”

I fought back the urge to pout openly. “Don’t tell me you don’t like the attention.”

He laughed and ran a hand through his perfect hair. “Of course I do. I’m a hot-blooded man. I’m not dead.” He grinned and kissed me again.

I changed the subject entirely. I was embarrassed by my reaction. “Actually, we’re meeting Kale here. He’s cleaning up a little mishap for us. Zoey killed a man outside a dance club. I panicked and called Kale.”

Shaz frowned and glanced at Zoey. I could see him thinking something similar to what I had. She was a loose cannon. “You’re sure nobody saw anything?”

I nodded and sighed. I was ready for the night to end. “Pretty sure. As soon as Kale gets back here with Ky’s truck, I think I’m heading home.”

“Want me to come with you?”

I inclined my head toward the feeding vampire at the next table. “I’ll be fine. Someone has to make sure there isn’t too much of that going on. You know, I’m starting to consider selling this place to Starbucks or something.”

“I doubt that would change a damn thing.” Shaz chuckled and pulled me in for a warm hug. I sank into his embrace, wishing I could block out the sights, sounds and smells of my environment.

He was probably right. This place was never going to be anything but a vampire den of sex and blood. Thinking I could change it had been ridiculous. At this point I felt like I was merely trying to survive it. That belief was confirmed when a scream rang out and a loud crash followed. I scowled and closed my eyes, counting backwards from ten.

“That’s my cue. Come say goodbye before you leave.” Shaz was gone, a blur of blond hair and black attire.

“Is it always like this?” Kylarai was incredulous. “How do you put up with it? It’s so … skeevy.”

“It really is,” Jez chimed in. “If you’re not here for fangs or f**king, then it really has little to offer.”

It shouldn’t have surprised me when Zoey shrugged and said, “It doesn’t seem so bad to me.”

If she thought for one minute that she was going to delve deeper into the strange world of The Wicked Kiss, she had another thing coming. That would be enough for me to break out the ass-kicking all over her.

“Well, as long as I’m here I’m going to check this place out.” Zoey abandoned her chair and perused the crowd eagerly.

I opened my mouth to argue when Jez fell into step beside her. She waved off my protest. “I’ll go with her. It’s all good.”

As I watched the two of them disappear into the mass of people, I officially gave up. Fuck it. Zoey was a grown woman. If she wanted to play with vampires, who was I to stop her? However, the next time she lost her mind and slaughtered someone, I wasn’t doing a damn thing to help her.

I took a seat at the table with Kylarai and focused on conversation with her rather than the circus going on around us. I could only imagine what she was thinking. By the time Kale arrived about twenty minutes later, I’d worked myself into a nice frenzy. I couldn’t recall ever being so ecstatic to see him.

He too was accosted by women as he passed through the throngs of humans trotting back and forth to the bar. The difference was that his women were human. Kylarai watched the blood whores with their bitten necks and barely-there outfits, and I could see her grow cold. I don’t think she ever realized what Kale was really up to when he was here. Now she was seeing it with her own eyes, and I felt like she was judging all of us. She definitely didn’t need to know he was killing again.

After shaking off more than a few admirers, Kale reached our table. My, wasn’t he a popular choice among the ladies? I flushed hot at the memory of his bite; I knew one reason why they liked him so much.

He hesitated before taking a seat next to me. I had to quell the instinctive urge to lean away from him.

Placing Ky’s car keys in the center of the table, he greeted us both with a smile. “No worries. It’s dealt with. But, there is an ugly bloodstain on the floor in the back that’s going to need new carpet.”