My Merlin Awakening (18 page)

CHAPTER 9
A DARK DANCE

It took me two moves to shove the girl off Vane. One look at my face and she slinked away without argument. I turned to Vane. He pulled me hard against him before I could blink.

“Got your attention?” he shouted into my ear, past the thumping music.

The wind blew out of my sails. He had me and he knew it. I had snuck out without him. I said with a pout, “You would have stopped us.”

“Probably.” He started to pull me back into the dance crowd.

“What are you doing?”

His lips grazed my neck. “Taking advantage.” 

 I had to bite back a gasp when he caught my hips and started moving us to the music. The pulsating rhythm tightened around every nerve I possessed until my body was a mass of taut strings for his body to strum. Pretty soon, I couldn’t form a coherent thought. My front plastered to his, we swam in the dark waves of the night. I looked up at Vane. Roving strobe lights emphasized the harsh lines of his face, giving it a dangerous slant.

He looked down at me and whatever he saw caused him to take a bracing breath. Without waiting for the song to end, he pulled me out of the crowd.

“What?” I protested. My body wanted to stay attached to the oblivion of the dance.

Vane took me past the crowded floor. I spotted Blake and Gia dancing at the edge of the crowd. Blake glanced up and saw me. He pointed questioningly to Vane. I shook my head at him. In a corner, barely visible past the bar, a bouncer guarded a doorway. Vane said a few words to him that I couldn’t hear past the beating music. The bouncer paled at whatever Vane said and rushed to open the rope.

Vane led me past him into a darkened room lined with low booths. All the empty ones had a light directly above them. Vane led us to a corner booth hidden in the shadows. He thumped his hand on the table to get the attention of two lip-locked strangers with only half their clothes on. He barked, his voice distorted by magic, “Move.”

The boy nodded and got out of the booth. Refastening his shirt, he walked off.

“Hey!” The girl stared after the boy. Vane’s eyes locked on her. She soon scrambled out of her seat, as well.

“What was that?” I asked Vane.

“Persuasion,” he said without apology. Sliding onto the seat, he held out his hand.

I eyed the booth.
Did I really know what he was asking?
The draw of the night mixed with the heavy bass of the music made it hard to care. My fingers trembled a little as I took his hand.

He yanked me into the booth, which had been expertly designed for maximum privacy. A deep seat extended behind a half-moon table that served as a barrier between the room and us. Vane’s hands slid through my pink hair.

“Nice color,” he remarked.

“You can’t even see it,” I said.

“I can see enough.”

I was pretty sure he wasn’t talking about hair. His lips took mine, and lost in the kiss, I barely felt my sweater being removed. My knees were on the seat and I put my hands around the strong muscles of Vane’s neck. His hands went under my tank and up my back. The tank slid up. I gasped when a palm clasped over an exposed breast and squeezed.

With a wet needy moan, I closed my eyes.

My mind awoke.

“Ryan.”
Matt’s voice sounded in my head. It had a desperate edge to it. His presence washed over me.

Vane’s lips grazed my neck, sending little shocks of pleasure down my spine. A hand skimmed up the back of my knee, my thigh, and slowly slid up under my skirt.

“Ryan.”
Matt groaned.

For a second, Matt’s body seemed to superimpose over Vane’s and I felt him touching me as well. My eyes snapped open. I tore my lips from Vane’s. I yanked my tank back down.

Vane frowned. “What?”

“Matt,” I backed away. “He… sees us. I don’t know how to shut him out.”

Vane cursed. “He can’t have you, so neither can I?”

I frowned. “It’s not like that.”

“He’s blocked me from the amulet. From you. He wants you for himself. To keep his hooks in you.” Vane tugged me back to him. His finger traced the chain until he came to the amulet. He squeezed the gemstone in his palm, pulling it out as far as it would go from my neck. He said roughly, “I think it’s time you took off the amulet, don’t you? I’ll make you another one. It may not be as powerful, but you’ll be free of him.”

“I c-can’t,” I said.

The tiger behind the eyes stirred. “Can’t? Or don’t want to?”

I didn’t. Want. I’d been drawn to the amulet ever since the first time I’d seen it. I knew that Matt was right. Something inside me needed it. It’s why I hadn’t taken it off the first time I found out about Matt’s spying. My answer must have shone on my face, because Vane’s expression hardened.

I pleaded, “Vane.”

His fingers tangled in my hair. He pulled the strands with enough force to make me wince. “Why?”

“It saved our lives back on the plane. It saved mine twice more.”

“There are other ways. It is your choice.” A glimmer of the predator colored his eyes.

My spine stiffened. I leaned away from him and repeated, “I can’t.”

He ground his teeth. “That thing is supposed to protect you. The minute I think it is not doing just that, I won’t ask. I’ll simply take it off.”

“You’re not my keeper.” The words tumbled out before I could stop them.

“If required, I can be.”

Trust Vane not to water down anything. “I guess I know where you stand.”

He picked up my sweater from the table and held it out to me. “I wish I could say the same.”

***

Gia waved at me frantically as soon as I came out of the back room. I waved back with a sense of relief. Behind me, Vane followed in eerie silence. Not happy was an understatement. Our fight left me jittery, but I was right and I didn’t want to back down. If I did, Vane would have walked all over me.

Gia practically ran to me. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere.”

Luckily, she didn’t seem to require an actual answer to the question.

She pulled me toward a second set of stairs a little past where we stood that led down to the next floor. “We have to get downstairs. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”

I let her lead me. Halfway down the stairs, I understood her panic. The music still blared but instead of a dance crowd, a circle of people surrounded two boys who were trying their best to kill each other.

One was Grey. I spotted the red-haired girl he’d gone off with watching at the front of the crowd. She said something to the giant of man who pummeled my brother.

Grey gave his opponent a hard kick to the stomach and sent the giant stumbling back. Grey pounced on him. Bones crunched when his hand connected with the giant’s jaw.

Vane stood beside me. I gave him a little push. “Help him.”

“He’s been asking for a fight. May as well let him work it out,” Vane said. The giant’s face changed as he lost control. His forehead protruded. Fangs sprouted.
Gargoyle.

I made a sound of frustration and started down toward Grey myself.

Vane grabbed my elbow to stop. “Do you see where we are?”

He pointed at the crowd.  A few people stared at the gargoyle in shock, retreating to the back of the room. However, most remained in place and encouraged the gargoyle by yelling their support. I wondered how many of them were also gargoyles. Bouncers gathered the ones who obviously had never seen a gargoyle before, the regulars, and threw some kind of spell with a green-aura on them.

“Forgetting spell,” Vane said in my ear.

Still, about a hundred or so people watched the fight.

“They’re all gargoyles?” I said, aghast. “We need to get him out of here.”

Below us, the giant punched Grey in the stomach. Grey doubled over. The giant got him in a headlock and started to choke him. Grey slipped out of the hold and punched the giant in the face. The giant stumbled back.

“You see,” Vane said. “He’s a Candidate. He’ll be fine.”

Another gargoyle stepped inside the crowd’s circle. He looked ready to join the fight. Blake came out of nowhere and ran at the newcomer with a loud yell.

“This is getting out of hand,” Gia cried.

I tore away from Vane. Gia and I ran downstairs. I made it to the edge before Vane caught me from behind by the waist. He stopped Gia too. Muttering a spell, he froze me in place.

“Keep her safe,” he ordered Gia. He slapped her hand on mine.

She tugged her hand and found she couldn’t move it. “You bastard! I’m stuck too!”

Ignoring her, Vane touched my face. “I could use a good fight.”

The reckless edge in his eyes left me uneasy. I tried to speak, but no sound came out. He dove into the crowd. As short as I was, I couldn’t see anything past the forest of people who cheered and booed alternately. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on using the amulet to break me free.

I didn’t get the chance. The crowd parted in front of me. The giant gargoyle came flying backwards. He landed at my feet. The crowd hollered with drunken enthusiasm. Vane sauntered out of the middle, toward me. Behind him, I could see Grey and Blake fighting with two other gargoyles. Another gargoyle jumped out of the crowd. Vane didn’t flinch. It took him about three moves to send the giant sprawling to the floor. The giant got up slowly. He drew a knife behind his back so it was barely visible.

I tried to yell a warning, but nothing came out. I looked at Gia. She was watching Blake and Grey, who seemed to be winning against the gargoyles they fought.

“Matt!”
I cried. “
Help!”

I had an image of Matt standing next to a pillar.

He leaned against it for support. He said, “
Concentrate, Ryan. You can do this.”

The amulet surged with power. A faint sheen of blue spread out from the gemstone, dissipating Vane’s freeze spell as it grew. While not as powerful as Merlin, Vane wasn’t an ordinary wizard, and the spell still held a great deal of strength. As I struggled with it, the giant waited for Vane.

When Vane got close, the giant jumped up and slashed Vane in a clumsy movement across the chest. Vane hissed as the knife cut into his skin, but injuring the tiger only made it more lethal. The giant was obviously not a trained fighter, and Vane certainly was. He ducked under the giant to get up against his chest and grabbed the giant’s wrist. The giant howled in pain as Vane crushed the bones. The knife started to fall. Vane caught it with his free hand. He stabbed the giant in the stomach and then ran the knife all the way up to the gargoyle’s neck in one brutal thrust.

I went cold.

My amulet surged with power again. In one burst, it threw off Vane’s spell. My throat released, I yelled, “Vane, stop!”

Vane’s eyes met mine. He didn’t want to listen. Around us, the crowd seemed to still. They had watched it all, growing quieter as the fight turned sinister. His expression almost detached, Vane scrutinized the bleeding gargoyle. The giant wasn’t dead, but with one quick correct slash of the knife he could be.

The rest of the freeze spell fell away. I didn’t move. I didn’t dare. Any sudden movement and I feared Vane would go over the edge. “Vane, please,” I said. “Let him go.”

Vane looked at me. I don’t know what he saw, but he seemed to remember himself. He dropped the giant.

The red-haired girl ran out of the crowd to kneel down on the floor beside the fallen gargoyle. She touched the gaping wound that covered half the giant’s body with trembling fingers. “You monster! How do you live with yourself?”

Vane didn’t answer her. He walked toward me. The crowd remained quiet, watching Vane warily. Grey and Blake came stumbling forward. Vane didn’t stop when he reached me. He walked straight past to the stairs.

 “What the hell was that?” Gia said beside me.

“Our cue to leave,” I replied.

***

I stared at Vane in the taxi. Gia and Blake sat on one side in the back. Grey rode up front and I had been squeezed in the middle, next to Vane.

He gave me an irritated look. “He’s a gargoyle. He’ll be fine.”

“He wasn’t a fighter. You could have ended it at anytime,” I said. “You were… playing with him.”

“Need I remind you that he pulled the knife? I taught him a lesson.”

“Makes sense,” Gia mumbled. “If you’re psychotic.”

Beside me, Vane stilled. I elbowed Gia and put my hand on Vane before he did something we’d all regret. He slowly relaxed. An uneasy silence fell over the cab. I stared out of the window.

We went into a green section of the city. Tall trees swayed in the dark. It was the park that led to the Parthenon. An image clicked in my mind, and I straightened in my seat.

I grabbed the driver’s sleeve. “Stop, right now!”

The driver mumbled something and kept driving.

“Vane, it’s Matt.” I pointed to the tall iron gates visible by spotlights placed just behind the trees. “When we were in… the back room… I saw him. He’s there right now.”