Playing with Monsters (11 page)

“Need help?” he asked as his silver gaze slid over me and came back to mine with banked heat in the melted platinum beauty. “Or you plan on just staring a bit longer? I don’t mind it, take your time.”

“I’m sorry,” I stammered quickly. “I’m being rude,” I explained. “I need Sex in the Driveway.”

“I’m more than willing to help you out with that,” he teased with laughter in his sexy eyes. “Please don’t say it’s the drink, and that you really want me.”

I laughed, and shook my head. What the hell was wrong with me? I hadn’t seen this many hot guys in one place in like…Ever. Now, I couldn’t even freaking talk. I was all schoolgirl giggles.

“The special, so I can sell it tonight,” I said and watched as his hand moved to his heart and he emphatically shook his head.

“Say it isn’t so,” he grumbled good-naturedly as he winked and started pulling out liquor bottles. Bane watched him and gave me a curious look before turning to look up at where Lucian watched us all with a scowl on his face. “Why is it the pretty ones are always taken?” the bartender asked as his eyes moved between Bane, myself, and Lucian. 

“I’m not with him,” I said hurriedly.

“I just had the strangest case of déjà vu,” he replied softly with a cocky grin lifting his full lips.

He pushed the drink over to me after slipping the straws in and I pushed them aside as I took a small sip, and then pushed it back towards him. Bane grabbed it and tossed the straws out while he held the bartender’s gaze.

“Vlad, Lucian will want to see you after the club closes for the night. Not sure why you’re here, but I’m pretty sure it’s not because you thought you’d be welcome,” Bane said with a chilling look. I looked at Bane, then Lucian, and back to where Vlad stood, wondering what the strange turn in Bane’s demeanor was. One minute he’d been thrilled with the help, and the next he turned cold against the guy. Bane looked like he was considering tossing the guy out on his ass, even though it was apparent they needed his help behind the bar.

“Vlad? Did your parents not like you?” I asked, as I smiled and scrunched up my nose.

“It’s an old name, kinda like yours, Magdalena,” Vlad replied as he moved back to where the bottles were positioned lining the wall, and started making himself acquainted with them.  “Names meant something once upon a time, passed through families like jewels with pride.”

“Mine was passed down,” I mumbled; it
was
an old name. So old you rarely came across it these days.

I saw a group seating themselves at one of the many tables and moved over to take their drink order. It was Dexter and Kat and I groaned as they turned and watched me move in their direction.

Okay, so it was a little embarrassing to be taking orders when I should have been included with the ones who were drinking. I knew it was supposed to be, so I let the emotions flow through me and pushed them down as I smiled.

“What can I get for you guys?” I asked.

They looked uncomfortable but eventually they ordered.

“Hey,” Kat said as I turned to head to the bar to fill the orders. “Can I talk to you, maybe later tonight?”

“For?” I asked, wanting to know why she wanted to talk since she hadn’t returned any of my calls.

“Look, I know we’ve been dodging you since you got back, and we want to make it up to you,” she said softly as she frowned, as if she thought I’d tell her where to stick it.

Maybe I should have, but it wasn’t me. I wasn’t that kind of person and I hadn’t taken it personally, but I did deserve an explanation. I told her as much and headed back to the bar to get the drinks, feeling a little light on my feet as I did so. It almost felt normal to be back serving cocktails.

Lucian was at the bar, his back to it, with a hooded look as he watched me make my way to him. He leveled those midnight eyes on me and my lady parts took notice, even though I urged them to behave. This guy wasn’t for me, never would be.

Grandpa used simple logic when it came to dating. If the branch was too high, you didn’t jump for it. Either it bent, or you were stuck jumping in the air looking like an idiot while you tried to reach it. Lucian was that branch, and I wasn’t about to start jumping.

“Pick up the pace,” he barked when I stopped in front of him and I turned my own heated gaze in his direction.

“I’m doing fine,” I replied flippantly.

“You took ten minutes to take an order.”

“And you came down from your lofty observation post to tell me that?” I asked as I handed the order off to Vlad without missing his smirk.

Lucian’s eyes moved over me, and I shivered from the heat banked in their inky depths. I looked right at him and smiled. “You could have just shouted it down; you do own the place.”

“I don’t shout, Lena.”

“Maybe you should. Let go, live a little,” I suggested with a soft smile, which only seemed to piss him off more. Something was up his ass, and it bothered me.

I was about to comment on it when I felt Kendra, and my eyes moved to the crowd that was entering the club. Kendra was with her friends, and I had to remind myself that I’d been gone a while.

She was graceful, unlike me. Her smile was second nature, where I had to remind myself to do it, and often. My sister exuded confidence; where I had it, she owned it. She controlled it and made it work for her, which drew men to her. Her hair was pulled back, sleek, not a single hair out of place; unlike my quick updo, she’d spent time taming hers. Her make-up was done perfectly, her skin soft and smooth without blemishes.

There’d been no standing in front of the mirror for five minutes and slipping on just a little to highlight her features; she’d used make-up that made her eyes pop, and her lips matched the crimson dress that fit her like a second skin. It hugged her curves, defining them to every lustful eye that watched as she moved into the club.

I turned to find Lucian studying me as I’d studied her. Unlike the others in the club, his eyes had remained on me. I smiled and looked over his shoulder to where Vlad had my drinks ready to go. I reached over the bar and grabbed the tray when the lights went out, and neon lights flooded the place.

A hand curled around my arm and I turned and looked at Lucian, who continued to watch me, until a brighter light started up the wall, highlighting the runes that covered the clubs high ceiling. Lucian’s hand slipped and then he was moving away from me.

I swallowed a smidge of regret at the loss as I watched him move in the direction of those who had just come in, including my sister. His men followed him as well. I blinked at the way they moved, as if time and space held no meaning. My eyes strained to follow them, and couldn’t.

They disappeared right before they reached my sister and her friends. I was so busy blinking, waiting for my eyes to adjust, or do something, that I jumped when Vlad fingers gently tried to shut my mouth which was obviously hanging open.

“Did you
see
that?” I asked in a hushed whisper of shock, mixed with what the hell was in that drink he gave me? Acid? I looked at him accusingly.

“See what?” he asked as he watched me closely.

“Lucian just disappeared, like vanished. Poof, he’s gone. Not there anymore…”

“He’s right there,” he nodded to the left, and I turned my head and he was. Right in the spot he’d been in before, leaning all sexy as fuck against the bar.

“What the hell was in that drink you gave me?” I whispered as my heart raced.

“Nothing,” he said as his eyes moved to Lucian’s, and then back at me.

I grabbed the tray and moved through the growing crowd, placing distance between myself and Lucian. I know what I’d just seen; all of his men just moved in an impossible way, which I’d just witnessed. Or I was pretty sure I had.

I made it to the table where Kat and Dexter were sitting, and placed the drinks on the table. Something was off; I could feel it. The moment I saw Lucian move as he did, something inside of me poked its head out and screamed danger. As witches, we’re told to listen to that little voice inside, the one most people so stupidly ignored.

I couldn’t hear a word Kat or Dexter said to me as my eyes continued to watch Lucian. As if he would move again, and I’d catch him. His eyes consumed, commanded, and made normally bright girls turn into idiots. Point in case, me.

I moved to another table, so busy staring at Lucian that I bumped into Cassidy and the bitch squad from high school without meaning to.

“Bitch,” Cassidy snapped as her drink spilled in her lap.

My eyes went wide and I set the tray down as I reached for cocktail napkins to clean her silk dress. “I’m sorry,” I said absently.

“You did it on purpose!” she screamed and picked up Natalie’s drink, and splashed in in my face. I wiped the fruity drink from my face and glared at her.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. I said I’m sorry. Can I get you another, or do you plan to throw that in my face too?” I growled.

“Why don’t you just leave town? Nobody wants you or your loser ass family here anyway,” she purred, venom dripping from every word. “Just run away like you always do, bitch.”

“We were here first, Cassidy. I belong here. You want to move? No one is stopping you,” I retorted.

“You think you’re so special, Magdalena, but you’re not. You’ll see,” she continued.

“You really need some new lines, Cassidy. You’ve used them all before.”

“You think you can just come back here and take whatever you want; you can’t. My mother will see to it that you’re given exactly who you deserve,” she snapped.

“Who
I
deserve? Tell me, Cass, how can your mother manage that one? Money isn’t supposed to hold sway with the elders, let alone the ancestors. She can’t decide my fate either; she’s not that high up on the council. No one but the ancestors can decide who we end up with anyway; not you, not me.”

“I’ve already proved I have the power to take from you,” she seethed.

“Because you took Todd?” I asked pointedly, my heart thudding in my chest as anger seethed from my pores. “You probably saved me from making a huge mistake. Hate to say it, Cass, but I actually need to thank you for that one.”

“And our dad?” she smiled icily.

I paused, and blinked. Holy fucking shit balls.
She
was
my
sister
…Oh hell no. Not accepting it. I took a deep breath and filed that one in the folder in my brain and labeled it ‘Oh to the fucking hell no she isn’t,’ and glared.

“He made a choice,” I snapped, hating that she was burrowing under my skin to piss me off.

“Yes, he chose us,” she smiled.

“He chose money,” I replied easily. “That’s not a win, and I know how you love to keep tally of who wins between us. Grow up, get a fucking life, Cassidy, and leave me alone. High school is over; we’re adults now.”

I moved from the table before she could dig deeper, and pushed past Lucian who I hadn’t even realized had been behind me. I needed distance between myself and that vindictive bitch before I ended up doing something stupid. I felt my sister before I saw her, knowing she was sensing my emotions through the bond, and heading to the bar to intercept me.

“Shit, double my pleasure, there’s two of you beauties,” Vlad laughed.

“Kendra,” I said as my sister joined us.

“What the hell just pissed you off?” she asked with a frown.

“I’m fine,” I sighed as I looked her over. “You look stunning tonight.”

“Shut it, and spill. I felt it, the overwhelming urge to club a baby seal? I almost slapped Todd it was so strong.  Something or someone pissed you off.”

“Cassidy was just explaining how I should get lost,” I mumbled and handed the next order to Vlad, who looked a little too interested in the conversation.

“Don’t listen to her, she’s just bitter,” Kendra said softly as she placed her hand on my cheek.

“She was just being her peachy self and tallying up her wins, ya know, being the sweet Cassidy we all love,” I growled and frowned at the sound of it.

Okay, I was more pissed off about what she’d said than I realized. The fact that she thought she was better than us was surprising too. Still, after all this time and knowing she wasn’t part of the original coven, she and her mother fought tooth and nail to take it over because they thought they were above us.

“She’s just jealous, you know that,” she replied with a worried frown. “She’s trying to get a rise out of you. Don’t let her win, Lena.”

“That’s the problem, Kendra. It’s not a freaking game anymore. It’s like she’s still in high school.”

“Cassidy never left high school. She’s still the self-absorbed pretty little rich girl she’s always been. You have what she can’t buy, though, and that feeds her anger and jealousy.”

“I know that, but if you haven’t noticed, her mother is firmly planted in the elders’ circle. Since when does an outsider dish out punishments? Her mother’s been doing it since I was in high school. She may not have the bloodline, but she has power,” I mumbled.

“She must have bought a seat on the council; our mother earned hers,” she retorted with a wicked smile.

Lucian was at the end of the bar, watching me. Kat and Dexter moved in behind us. I gave them a small smile and looked around the club, which had filled up. The music was pumping out of the speakers, seductive and alluring with the slow tempo of the song that played.

I knew I should be taking more drink orders, but I needed a moment. If it was even possible after my encounter with Cassidy, I needed to find my inner Zen place. I blamed her mother’s money. It had probably ruined any chance of her being remotely human.

“Hey, this needs to go out to that table,” Vlad said, briefly motioning to a table before handing me a tray with a few drinks on it. I smiled politely and accepted the drink tray, turned around, and the music stopped. I moved forward a few steps, and stopped cold as a familiar voice sounded from the stage.

“This one is dedicated to my
sisters
,” Joshua’s voice said, and I felt my stomach drop. The tray smashed to the floor, and all blood left my face.

“
No
,” I whispered horrified by the familiar voice.

“Joshua!” Kendra screamed and the entire club went silent as the witches around us paused, and finally caught on to what had just happened.

“No, Kendra,” I warned as I swung around, dodging glass to get to her. I pushed her back as she moved forward. “He’s dead; Joshua is buried. That…whatever that is, isn’t our brother.” There wasn’t any way that could be Joshua. “I need you to keep her here,” I pleaded to Dexter and Kat, and watched for anyone heading away from the stage through the large crowd.

She fought against the emotions; her overwhelming urge to run to Joshua pushed through me. I moved through the crowd.

I paused as he turned to look at me. A perfect replica of my dead brother. Tears blinded me, but I knew better. I’d buried my brother. He started moving through the crowd towards the doors, and I ran to block his exit.