Way of the Wolf: Shifter Legacies 1 (14 page)

I really am crazy.

She glanced at Terry and saw his smile again; it was just a smile not a sneer. Had she even seen it? She was trying to find reasons not to go out with him! “Okay. I like surprises,” she lied.

“That’s good, because you’ll be very surprised tonight.”

Andrew led them toward the door and saw them out. Marie almost stopped and begged off when she saw the look on Andrew’s face, but before she knew it, she was seated in Terry’s car and buckling her seat belt.

“This is going to be great,” Terry said as he drove along the driveway.

Andrew watched from the door until they were out of sight.

They drove into the city, but Marie didn’t enjoy it. Terry drove too fast and she didn’t like the area they were passing through. Not one bit.

“Where are we going?” she said nervously. She glanced out the car window again. “I don’t like the look of this place.”

“Relax,” Terry said with laughter in his voice. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise.”

She tried to smile, but she couldn’t seem to summon one up. They were driving through a part of the city that she had never entered before, let alone after dark. No one with any sense would come here.

“Do you know where we are?”

“Of course I do, sweetheart. I told you we were invited to a party.”

“So you said, but I expected it to be uptown not down here! Please Terry, this place is dangerous—”

“Not for us, sweetheart, I have an invitation.”

Marie subsided. Terry was a mistake; she knew that now. If she were completely honest with herself, she had known it from the first, but she had wanted… what? Someone for herself, she thought wistfully—someone who would love her and listen to her. Someone who would take charge of her.

She scowled into the night.

Did she really want that? Did she really want to be cared for like a child for the rest of her life? What was wrong with her that she would want that? She knew the answer, but she did not like it. Daddy’s girl—that’s what she was. Martin was right.

Tears threatened as she remembered him. Why had he left her? She had loved him so much, and he had loved her. She was sure he had. They had talked about getting married dozens of times, but then one day he just vanished. The police said there was nothing they could do. Even her dad with all his contacts had failed to find him. Something must have happened to him. He would never have left without her.

“Here we go,” Terry said cheerfully.

“You must be joking!” she said in horror. She stared at the club with wide eyes. “We can’t go in there!”

“Sure we can. I’ve been in dozens of times. It’s the best. They don’t allow just anyone in you know.”

“But it’s a club for—”

“Vamps and shifters? Yeah I know. That’s what makes it so great!” Terry said with excitement heavy in his voice. “Come on.”

Terry climbed out and opened the door for her. Marie reluctantly climbed out and walked with him toward the main entrance of the club. She wanted to hide as they walked straight by the queue of hopeful party-goers. Everyone was glaring at her. She felt so exposed.

There were two very large men standing at the doors. Marie was sure they would stop her entering, but they took one look at her and waved Terry inside. They hadn’t even bothered to check the invitations he clutched so tightly as if fearing someone would steal them.

The interior of the club was something of a surprise, though thinking on it she didn’t know why it should be. She was far from experienced where these kinds of clubs were concerned, she didn’t know what normal was, but surely this quiet elegance wasn’t it. The foyer was plushly carpeted and subtly lit. It was completely free from the crowds of debauched revellers she had expected to find. She had heard all kinds of terrible things about non-humans and what they did for entertainment, but she saw none of those things. There were very few people, and as far as she could tell, none of them were monsters.

She watched a couple talking together and thought they looked perfectly human. She would have sworn they were if asked, but then the man noticed her watching him. He scowled and his friend noticed. She turned to see what had drawn his attention.

She gasped. The woman’s eyes were golden, and so beautiful! They shone with an inner light, and looked so exotic, especially combined with her mixed Asian skin tone and subtly almond shaped eyes.

Terry chuckled. “She doesn’t like you, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why not? I thought you liked it.”

“I put up with it, I never
liked
it,” she said angrily. “What is she?”

Terry looked the woman over. “A shifter probably. They like to shock people, you know? Shifters can make grandstanding an art form.”

“I didn’t know they could change just their eye colour like that.”

“The strong ones can. I saw a guy grow a tail once—he was stoned at the time... and that’s another thing—did you know that shifters have to use a ton of the stuff for it to affect them? Can you imagine a shifter with a habit?”

“No,” she said. The thought was too horrible.

“Of course not. They couldn’t afford it!” Terry laughed, but Marie didn’t. He was becoming less funny as time went by.

Terry checked his coat with a woman behind a counter and pocketed the ticket stub she gave him. Marie shook her head at the woman’s enquiring look and kept her shawl, though she didn’t really need it. Holding it in place gave her something to do with her hands.

“He reserved the best seats in the place for us,” Terry said in satisfaction and waving the invites as if fanning himself.

“Who did?”

“A friend of mine.”

“Is he our host?”

“You might say so. It’s his club.”

Marie followed him toward the inner doors and through them. A strikingly handsome man in a white tuxedo met them on the other side. Terry said his name was Charles and that he was the floor manager. He had marvellously blue eyes that held her gaze and trapped it there. She felt much of her tension leave and a smile appeared on her face. He made her feel so comfortable that she had to wonder why she had been so uneasy before.

Terry spoilt the mood when he embarrassed them both by waving their invitations under Charles’ nose. Charles stepped back a pace and lost eye contact with her. Marie suddenly felt chilled. Goose bumps dotted her arms and she shivered. What in the nine hells was that? Why had she been standing there with a silly grin on her face?

Charles looked a little disgruntled for a moment, but he was a professional. He took the cards from Terry. He obviously knew who they were and did not really need them, but he showed them to their table without fuss. He was a professional.

“Enjoy your evening.”

Terry waved Charles away, but Charles wasn’t speaking to him. He had again caught her eyes with his. His words seemed to reverberate in her brain until all she could think about was having a good time.

“Enjoy... evening,” she mumbled and blinked awake. “Thank you, I’m sure I shall.”

Charles inclined his head politely and left smiling.

“Seems like a nice man,” she said watching him going back to his place near the doors.

Terry snorted. “You don’t know anything do you?” Before she could even think of becoming angry at his tone, he went on. “Charles isn’t a man, well not anymore. He’s one of the monsters. You know, a vamp?”

“A
vampire?
” she hissed under her breath. “You led me in here and didn’t warn me? You
bastard!
”

“Calm down. You knew what you would see in here, and if you didn’t, you should have.”

She scowled at him. She
had
known, but the club was so nice that she had begun to forget her fears. They were back now in full measure. Her eyes swept the room trying to see just what she had fallen into.

There was music and singing, quiet conversation between patrons, and men and women enjoying their meals—there seemed nothing to fear. A live band was performing to one side of the stage. They were playing a love song better suited to a nineteen thirties music hall than to a club for non-humans. A very tall woman was singing her heart out. She was wearing a backless evening gown cut low in the front that would have been almost indecent in any other setting. It was soft silver in colour—like platinum, and very simple in its lines. Marie doubted she was wearing anything under it, but the woman made it seem more than ample. Her voice was pure gold. She could have been wearing a sack and no one would have cared so long as she didn’t stop singing.

The table to the right had two couples sitting and laughing together. She paled when she noticed the men both had golden eyes. Their companions looked human, but they surely weren’t. No one, man or woman, could possibly be so complacent as to actually date a shifter. Lycanthropy was hideously contagious.

She looked behind her and found Charles with another couple at the door. He was smiling and staring very intently at the woman. Less than a minute went by and the woman started as if just then realising that she’d been daydreaming. The woman rubbed her arms as if she had a chill, just as she had earlier. Charles indicated that they should follow him and led the way to their table. The woman was still dazed. Her companion put an arm around her shoulders and steered her toward their table.

Terry noticed Marie’s distraction. “It’s his job.”

“What?”

“Charles. Calming the guests is his job.”

“Why didn’t he work his magic on you then?”

Terry shrugged. “I’ve been here before. I didn’t need it. It’s not really magic you know. Clouding minds is part of a vamp’s nature. It’s a kind of a defence mechanism, like those fish that puff up when bigger fish come by. Vamps use it to calm their prey so they can feed in safety.”

She shivered. He’d said prey as if he didn’t care that a vampire’s prey had always been human. Vampires were cannibals when you really analysed them. They denied it of course. They insisted that drinking human blood was not the same as eating human flesh.

Yeah right.

“How come you know so much?”

“I’ve been around. Some of the stuff I’ve seen would turn your hair grey,” he said smugly pleased with himself.

“Terry,” a warm voice said chidingly. “You are frightening my guest.”

And that is a bad thing.

Marie almost said the words aloud. They seemed appropriate to the mood somehow. She turned to see the most exquisitely handsome man she had ever seen approaching her table. Heads turned throughout the club, and conversations trailed off in mid-word as men and women craned their necks to stare. She didn’t blame them.

He wore his jet-black hair long and loose, it flowed onto his shoulders like a waterfall made of night. His skin was pale and smooth like marble. No one was that perfect, it had to be a trick. She pulled her eyes away from his and focused on his hand where it reached for hers. It was just a hand, but she didn’t want to touch him for fear of what she would discover.

One moment he was gliding to her table, the next he was holding her hand. She gasped at this evidence of his otherness. “Who
are
you?” How many vampires were wandering loose in the club?

Terry was standing and she hadn’t seen him rise. “Marie Stirling, this is Stephen Edmonton. He’s the owner of Lost Souls and our host this evening.”

Get out, get out, get out.... RUN!

She stared, paralysed with fear. A better description might be fascinated. She was like a deer frozen in the headlights of an oncoming car. Her mind was shrieking, but her body was completely still as if trying to be as small and unnoticed as possible. It knew a predator when it saw one. This beautiful man, this
thing
, was undeniably a predator.

“Delighted to meet you at last,” Stephen said and lightly brushed her hand with a kiss. “You will not fear me; there is nothing to fear while I am near.”

“Nothing... fear...” she shivered and smiled up at him, but then she caught sight of Terry’s face.

The excitement there was unmistakable and faintly disturbing. His eyes were fevered and a light sheen of sweat gleamed upon his face. She didn’t know what it meant, but he looked as if he’d done something clever and was waiting for his reward like a good dog. She pulled to free her hand, and Stephen allowed it to slip out of his grasp. She had no doubt that had he not allowed it, she would have needed a crowbar to escape. A big one!

She licked her lips. “What are we really doing here?”

Stephen beckoned to a waiter and another chair was brought. He sat as he did everything else—gracefully. “Terry has simply performed a service for me. A favour if you will.”

“A favour? What favour?” She tried to catch Terry’s eyes, but he avoided looking at her. He made to sit, but hesitated when Stephen glanced at him.

“No,” Stephen said simply.

Terry looked confused. “You promised.”

“Leave,” Stephen said without even looking at him. When Terry did not move, he turned and glared. “
Now.
”