Once Bitten (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #1)(51)

Relief washed through me when I saw the empty alley out the backdoor of Lucy’s. Not even a group of smokers lingered nearby.

I was ready for her … or them. I turned so that my back was to the building, and I faced them both head on. I wasn’t afraid, not yet anyway. At this point, I was still more concerned with the mutilated body in the middle of town.

“Catherine, my love, why don’t you and I leave Alexa to enjoy her evening, while the two of us catch up?” Arys wasn’t fooling anybody, but he sure was trying hard.

His charm slid off Cat like water off a duck’s back. I suppose when you’ve danced with the devil for decades, you learn a few of his tricks.

A blast of red light streamed between the two vampires for a split second as she hit him with a shot of power. When it was dancing in the air around us, I could feel the witch magic mixed with her own. So, Cat had stocked up her arsenal before coming here.

I hadn’t sensed it in my office, so the magic had to be a charm or spell of some kind. I learned everything that I know about spells by watching Lena. I was really hoping that she wasn’t hopped up on black magic, the crystal meth of magic, more or less. It didn’t feel that dark, but one can never be too careful.

“Don’t you ever learn when to shut the hell up? I’m not going to play your game, so save us both the embarrassment.” Cat stalked to where Arys sat on his ass, dumbfounded.

She stood over him so that his gaze met her thighs, and he was forced to look up at her. An attack from behind, though good for me, wouldn’t be good for Arys, and I could hear Jez in my head asking why I was hesitating. I was a jumble of nerves, wary of that moment when she would go too far, and I would have to react.

“Did you really believe that I would never live to find you? I thought you knew me better than that.” She shifted slightly, so that he had to lean back to keep from touching her. Arys looked slightly pained, which I attributed to the proximity of her thighs, which were scarcely covered by her short, trendy dress. Despite the gravity of the situation, a nervous laugh broke free of me.

“What are you laughing at, wolf?” Suddenly, she half turned to face me and let loose with another metaphysical attack. I met it with the energy that I held hot and waiting.

The shot ricocheted back to her. A cloud of sparks erupted where the two energies met between us. The force threw her off her feet, to her knees in the dirt, which didn’t do much for her temper. When she got to her feet, her eyes blazed red. I shouldn’t have let her get back up.

A noise beyond the door of the club had me praying that Shaz would stay inside. I knew he wouldn’t have missed the three of us leaving through the back way. If he thought there was trouble, nothing would keep him inside.

“And, to think, I considered sparing you. No, I guess Sindarys can now watch his lover die first,” Catherine spat before another blast caught me off guard. The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back, staring up at the night sky.

“That’s it, bitch,” I said as I leapt to my feet. My body ached where the energy had struck, but I was otherwise unhurt. “I don’t risk my neck every night just so I can deal with psychos like you.” With a nasty look at Arys, I added, “Next time you leave someone for dead, make sure they actually are dead, first.” With great self-restraint, I held back on shooting a slap of power at him.

Catherine gaped open-mouthed at me. “I knew you wouldn’t understand, not until he does it to you. He’ll take all you have to give until nothing remains that isn’t bitter and cold.”

“Only if I let him. Which from the looks of you, isn’t going to happen.” I saw her twitch, and with a snap of my fingers, an energy circle formed around me.

“This is between you and me, Catherine,” Arys spoke up, his tone was furious as he wiped the dirt from his jeans. “If you want to finish this, then I’m ready. Leave Alexa out of this.”

He shocked me by approaching the angry vampiress and grasping her tightly by both upper arms. He shook her hard enough to cause her to stumble into his lean frame.

“She should have goddammed told me!” Catherine’s voice rose into a yell, and she fought to escape his grip.

She had a point. I should have told her that it would be a conflict of interest as soon as I saw his photo. But, I’d been curious, and my personal interests won out.

“Any woman I take to my bed is none of your damn business. It never has been.” Arys’s voice grew in its intensity, and pulsating anger swept through him. I could feel it from where I stood.

“Of course not. That’s so very typical of you, Sindarys. Still very much the womanizing man-whore I see, even consorting with beasts now. I thought you enjoyed your women with a tasty, preferably dead, ending.”

“What I enjoy is a woman who knows how to stay dead, at least in memory anyway.” Arys spit the words into her face.

Even my guts hurt when I saw her face fall. I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach. I took a clumsy step forward as if to break the painfully awkward moment. Unfortunately, it also broke the shield that I’d created.

Catherine’s attack was instant. She didn’t even look at me. Spitting dirt, I was on my feet again in a matter of seconds.

“Well shit, Cat!” I ground dirt between my teeth and lashed out at her simply from sheer spite, but she was ready for it. She escaped Arys with another assault against us both.