Ecstasy in Darkness

They were snaking themselves around the blonde, who was also human in appearance. She had short, pale hair, her eyes heavy-lidded, her lips parted. She wore a white halter top and a short black skirt. Flaming red high heels revealed black-painted toenails. One man was in front of her, the other behind her, and both licked at her neck.

Ava debated what to do, how best to lure them outside. Before a single solution presented itself, one of the guys clasped the woman’s hand, tugging her from the dance floor. She willingly followed, perhaps in a trance as Ava had been. The second one stayed close on her heels.

There was only one thing she could do, Ava realized. Stupid or not, she chased after them. Would have been nice if they’d headed toward the back door instead of the front, but no.

They quickened their steps, and she did the same, her heart pounding wildly. When she reached them, she grabbed the one closest to her, stopping him. McKell, McKell, McKell, she thought, as the vampire’s gaze whipped to her. Black eyes, so deep, like a pit, only insanity waited at the bottom. Contacts? And why hadn’t she noticed before?

He had a beautiful face … so beautiful … those eyes didn’t promise insanity, no, no, how wrong she’d been, they promised—McKell, McKell, McKell. She continued her study. The vampire had high cheekbones, lush lips, like McKell’s, but the arm she held lacked sizzle.

“Don’t speak,” she said. McKell. “Just head outside with me. To the back of the club. I’ll make you happier than you’ve ever been.”

The vampire barked something over his shoulder, speaking in a language she didn’t understand and had never heard before. Her brain fogged—until she wondered if McKell spoke that language, too. The fog cleared.

The other guy stopped and honed in on her, as well. The moment their eyes locked, she knew she was dinner. He nodded. The blonde had stopped, too, and trailed the new direction of his focus. Her eyes narrowed; she might have hissed.

McKell. Ava offered both vampires a fake, drunken smile. “Let’s all be quiet, go outside, and have sex.” Too obvious?

“You changed your mind.” His voice was cultured, his tone melodious.

McKell. “I did? I don’t remember.” McKell. “All I can think about is the fact that I want to be with you.”

His smile was slow and wicked. “Come, then.”

“But what about me?” the girl pouted.

His gaze never strayed from Ava. “Go away. This one was our first choice, you a distant second.”

McKell. “Outside?” She pointed to the front door, then shook her head. “Too many people that way. Let’s go that way.” Now she pointed to the back door. Where McKell waited.

He shook his head, dark hair swaying. “The alley reeks of garbage.”

She’d been out there and had noticed a slight smell, but recalled the way McKell had cringed. Just how acute were vampire senses? “And the front reeks of car exhaust.”

“That’s why we’re going to a new location. So, are you in or out, beautiful?” The second vampire, the one closest to her, leaned down and whispered, “I hope you say in. The things I’ll do to you …”

Though the fog remained at bay, she barely restrained herself from leaning into him. McKell was out there, waiting, but if she protested any more, these men would leave her behind.

“All right,” she said. “Let’s go outside.” The moment they cleared the building, and were distanced from possible hostages, she would scream for McKell. He would come running, and hopefully catch them.

Rather than lead her out, both men stiffened, sniffed the air.

“Is there a problem?” she asked.

“McKell,” one of them whispered.

McKell was here? Thank you, thank you, thank you. She scanned the crowd … searching … there. She experienced a starburst of giddy relief. He’d come inside.

He spotted her, as if attuned to her, and scowled. And then, heaven save them all then, he stalked toward her, deadly intent in his gaze.

The man she held tried to tug from her grip, but she dug in her nails, holding tight. At the same time, she swung her free hand into his nose, smacking the cartilage with the heel of her palm.

Blood spurted, and he yelped, his knees buckling. The other leapt into a run, leaving his injured friend behind. McKell was too far away to reach him, so Ava sprinted after him, pushing through humans and otherworlders, hearing their curses but paying them no heed.

Except, when she next blinked, she found herself outside—though she’d never reached the double doors. Another blink, and she was in front of her car—AIR issued and a loan from Mia. A scowling McKell was beside her, a vampire hanging from each of his arms.

He was manipulating time, she realized, and relaxed.

“Program my voice into the car,” he commanded.

She did, a process that took a minute, maybe two, and in another blink she was inside the car, in the driver’s seat. She looked to her right. McKell now sat in the passenger seat, watching her expectantly. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, with dread.

Moonlight caressed him, golden and creamy, just as it had in the forest, as if every ray searched until finding him, just to stroke him lovingly. His violet eyes were bright, his lips redder than usual. One of the vampires had punched him, she was sure.

Speaking of, “Where are the vampires?”

He blinked in surprise, the dread a rising deluge, then motioned to the backseat with a tilt of his chin. Had he expected her to balk about the time manipulation? Probably. She’d tried to make him promise not to do it, after all. As dire as the circumstances had been, she wasn’t going to chastise him. She was grateful.

She turned, gasped. Sure enough, both vampires were unconscious and slumped over each other. Gold star, McKell. He’d done what she hadn’t. Won.

“Thank you for coming to get me,” she said, facing him.

“You’re … welcome?” A question, not a statement. “Is this a trick? I didn’t trust in your ability to protect yourself. I caved to worry. I—”

She chuckled, cutting him off. “No trick, I swear. I was dying in there.”

“Dying?” A menacing whisper, the intent to cause suffering in the undertone. He leaned toward her, grabbed onto her, gaze raking her, probing for injury. “I will murder—”

“Not literally dying,” she assured him. “They were walking all over me, making me forget my purpose.” My morals. She didn’t think she would have let the bastards touch her, though. Or that she would have touched them. In the end, she would have snapped to her senses. Surely.

McKell eased off her, and smoothed his T-shirt with practiced strokes. “Understandable. The dark-haired one, the one you were groping, can talk people into anything, even things they don’t want to do. Well, humans. And he can do so better than most. The other, his brother, can hypnotize.”

The one she was groping? “If you consider breaking his nose groping, I feel sorry for you.”

“We sent them topside a few years ago, on a hunting raid for food,” he continued blithely. “Only they never returned, and I never caught word of their defection, so we assumed they were dead.”

Two years. In all that time, they would have found a way to live here, blending in, perhaps venturing out unharmed during the day, if there were a way to do so. Exactly the kind of answers McKell had been wanting. So. Her first day on the job? Perfection. Tomorrow, she could take him into AIR.

Ava ignored the twinge of regret in her chest. He’d promised. They’d bargained. She’d helped him capture a few vampires—two equaled “a few”—so all that was left was for him to turn himself into AIR for questioning. Or whatever else they had planned for him.

She no longer feared that Mia would want to kill him. Not with his potent vampire blood, his ability to scent out the Schön queen, and his kinda sorta willingness to help.

“So where do you want to take them?” she asked, thumb jabbing toward their unconscious bounty.

A moment passed while McKell considered their options. Finally, “Our place.”

Wait. What? Our place? Our place? No, no, no. That was wrong on so many levels—because she actually liked the sound of it. “One, we’re not taking them anywhere near my place.” Calm. “Two, a little fact about me: I like my stuff without blood spatter. And you do plan to beat the answers out of them, yes?”

“Yes.” McKell could have been carved from granite, so hard was his expression. “Fine. Let’s take them to Noelle’s place.”

Ava nodded, breathing in more of that calm. He hadn’t fought her about the apartment being hers and only hers. And that was good. Very good. That was not disappointing.

“Noelle’s it is.” She programmed the car, and the engine roared to life. A few seconds later they were on the road and headed toward the wealthy side of town. She switched the car’s phone on and said, “Noelle Tremain.” A pause, a crackle of static, and then the number was being dialed.

Noelle answered on the fourth ring. “What?”

“It’s Ava?”

A smack of gum. “This your new number?”

“Nah. Just borrowed a car from AIR. Listen, we’re on our way to your house. You there?”

“Nope, but I can be there in ten. Who’s we?”

“Me and McKell. We’ll be there in fifteen, so that works.”

“What’s on the menu?”

“We found two vampires.”

“I found them,” he piped in. Or rather, growled. “Ava made out with them.”

“I did not make out with them! They mind-raped me, and I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Noelle laughed. “This is going to be a fun night. I can tell.”

“Anyway. We need to interrogate them,” Ava said. “Broken bones might be involved. Spilled guts, too.”

“Awesome. I’ll get the torture chamber ready.” Click.

She wasn’t kidding, either. Chez Tremain did indeed have a torture chamber. They’d snuck down there a few times during their high school days, just for funsies and to prove their bravery. Noelle had never told her why the upstanding Tremains had one, but Ava had guessed it had something to do with the girl’s dad. He was dead now, but she suspected he’d been with the secret service or some shit, because he’d always been traveling, and on the rare times he’d been home, odd characters had been in and out of the compound at all hours of the day and night.

She’d found it very sexy at the time.

Maybe she was still that awed little high school crush-waiting-to-happen at heart, because the thought of McKell in that dungeon, throwing his strength around, probably flexing, maybe doing some cutting … sexiest image evah.

Shivering, she glanced over at him, intending to give him a good eye-fucking, but saw that he was glaring at her. Why?

No way she’d ask him. Too needy.

“Let’s stargaze,” she suggested as a distraction. Without waiting for his reply, she opened the solar panel on the roof, leaned her seat back as far as the shield-armor separating the front and back of the car allowed, then peered up at the night sky. So pretty, the pinpricks of light whizzing past, blurring together.

The perfect romantic backdrop for making out.

Damn it. New distraction. “So,” she said, trampling the silence.

“You’re determined to irritate me tonight, aren’t you?”

Irritation. Good. She could work with that. Maybe. “Don’t I do that every night?”

“Tonight you outdid yourself.”

“Well, I’m a good agent.” In training.

“That wasn’t a compliment! But of course you wouldn’t realize that. You’re clueless. First, you smell too good, but you won’t let me have another taste. Second, you touched him. I never told you to touch anyone. I told you to lure vampires outside. Outside. Without touching.”

Another jealous fit. Soothing, after the other-woman suspicion she’d harbored after their kiss, and then again while she’d waited for him to return to her apartment. She took pity on him, though, because every dark word out of his mouth made her awareness of him electrify.

“Look, he was getting away from me, and touching him was the only way to stop him. There was nothing sexual about it. I’m not going to be with anyone else while we’re … involved.” No gagging on her part. “I agreed to your rule eleven.”

“Good. I won’t be with anyone else, either,” he said, and this time, thank you God, this time, he sounded confident. “I only want you.” He grabbed her by the forearms and hauled her into his lap, forcing her to straddle him. “And by God I’ll have you.”

She stared down at him for several heartbeats of time, silent, hands balled on his shoulders, suddenly panting, remembering the way he’d rushed in to save her, how easily he’d done it, the way she’d had to think of him to stay sane, and how easy it had been to think of him at all. How she craved him constantly, how he’d moved in with her, and that wasn’t as repugnant as she’d always feared, how he belonged to her and she belonged to him, and they’d just admitted it.

How, just then, she couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do than lose herself in his kiss.

“We never sealed our bargain,” she rasped.

He cupped her cheeks, his thumbs brushing the corners of her lips. “Then we had best do so.”

Their mouths met in the middle.

Seventeen

Dallas knew someone had broken into his apartment before he saw the front door was slightly ajar. Not because of a psychic vision, but because a break-in was the perfect ending to his shit-infested day. Oh, and he smelled roses and gunpowder in the hallway. No one in this wing could afford fresh flowers, and gunpowder was only used by street gangs who managed to get their hands on old weapons.