Page 106 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

A rattle of knuckles hitting the door jarred me.

“Ready?” Jayla yelled, and I silently thanked her for giving me privacy by not entering the bathroom.

Because the answer was no.

Blinking in beat with the loud music vibrating through the soles of my sneakers, I pushed away from the sink, my steps following the sway of music. With the best fake smile I could muster plastered on my face, I opened the door. “Yes. Let’s do it.”

I spun between the tables, did my best not to mess up the orders, and somehow managed to make a few cocktails Ryn, the bartender for the night, approved. I laughed at the jokes groupsof our customers made, mostly at the expense of Zion sulking in the corner, and flirted with willing tables not far from him.

Him watching me without a break, the beer bottle on his table untouched, told me he was about to murder everyone, including me.

It was the most fun night I’d ever had.

35

ZION

“You want me to do what?”

Now this was a first. Gedeon usually prohibited me from playing with our people, not allowed oraskedfor it.

“I need you to take them to the underground. Scare them for a day or two, but their blood has to stay in their bodies,” he said, then added, “All of it.” He raised his empty glass as Kali passed our table, dressed in a black t-shirt with Vice embroidered in white thread above her chest.

She was so happy to receive it from Jayla this morning, having officially completed her full two weeks of training, that instead of grimacing at me lounging in my corner at Vice, she’d ran over to me, kissedmynose, grinned, and later brought me a beer and a sandwich, all before the bar opened at nightfall.

The sweet curl of her smile and the sound of her laugh had liquefied me. And that, in addition to the need to tug her into my lap and taste her, smell her, feel her, was overpowering. Every time her perky ass swayed as she weaved between the tables, I had to bite my fist—only that prick of pain alleviated the need to chase after her.

Gedeon’s rule forbidding me from taking it further until she had the tattoo inked on her was scrambling my brain. Despitethe multitude of cold showers or endless sessions of getting myself off thinking about her or them together, I craved more. Her whimpers were as intricate and fine as the rest of her. It took everything in me not to tie him up beside her in my underground and have my way with both of them.

“Here you go. Anything else?” Kali set a new glass on the table for Gedeon and scrutinized my expression for what felt like not enough time of her exploring me. “What did you do to him?” she asked Gedeon. “This”—she motioned at what was visible above the wobbly table we occupied—“is not right. He looks too calm. It’s disquieting.”

There she was in her utter perfection. Her plump lips wrinkling, ready to spit arrows, those perky breasts I’d yet to taste propped up by her folded arms, the dip of her waist leading to the swell of her hips.

“We’re proud of you,” Gedeon said, looking at her like that black-as-a-night kitten used to do to him. “You have worked hard these past weeks.”

“Yep, this is freaking me out. I don’t know what has come over you two, but it’s freaky.” She shook her head, and the black cloud of her hair whooshed around the mistrust creasing the angles of her face. “I’m out.” Twisting on her heel, she strode off to the round table with a group of five customers three rows from us.

I didn’t notice I was rising out of my chair until Gedeon’s hand on my forearm stopped me. “Sit down.”

“I’m fucking one of you and I don’t care which,” I snarled, loud enough for him to hear over the rumbling music that coaxed my…needsout.

My patience was non-existent at this point. For the life of me, I was starving. Thinking about hauling someone to my bed or bending them over the table or taking them outside for all to see gnawed the back of my head incessantly, pestering me for it to beone of them and pinching ferociously if a thought about another had the courage to cross my mind.

“Five days,” he said, carefully, his voice controlled.

I blinked. “What?”

“Her.” Gedeon gestured to her huddled with Tarri and Jayla at the bar.

Kali clutched the edge of the polished countertop, her back to us, her shoulders rocking. She said something to them, and their trioveryinconspicuouslyglanced at us before doubling down and laughing so earnestly Jayla had to wipe her eyes.

Kali’s joy, even on our account, was contagious. Like a virus infecting my system to the point I dreamed about hearing more of it. Tasting it. I bet its flavor would carry notes of smoke and honey—peppery and sweet.

Delicious.

“As I was saying…” Gedeon continued. “Take them both to your playground andplay. No scars and no additional broken bones, but everything else goes.”

I picked up my glass and welcomed the chill from the condensation. Five more days. The finish line of my suffering was near. Or at least a partial end.