Page 16

CHAPTER 16

I came around on the office floor, minutes or hours later. Music thumped through the club walls, but Zee wasn’t singing.

I had to get back to them.

Climbing to my feet sparked a throbbing headache, and a quick probe with my fingers found a bruise that would heal soon. Kat had wanted me out of the way...

I stuffed The Peach Pit owners photo in my pocket and dashed out the door, down the corridor, found the right path, and dove back into the bustling parts of the club. Loud music pounded my headache even harder. Nothing had changed, but the neon-pink surroundings had a different, more sinister vibe now.

The stage was empty again.

I stopped a passing server—the same guy I’d seen outside. “Hey, where did the singing demon go?”

“Oh, hey there. No idea. You wanna drink?”

“Uh, no, I’m good. When did he finish up?”

“Huh?”

“The demon, Zee, when did he leave the stage?”

“I don’t know, like... ten minutes go? Are you okay, man? Do you need to sit down?”

“I’m fine...” I left him, shoved through the crowd, and found our table, now empty. Our half-empty glasses were still there... but no Victor or Zee. They wouldn’t leave. They’d be looking for me.

I had to find them. Fast.

If Kat was working with Skrinde, then Kat could have tipped him off. Skrinde probably already knew we’d planned to spring a trap.

I scanned the crowd and spotted some of Hooper’s people enjoying their drinks and waiting for six a.m. to roll around. But there were trolls here too. And while not all trolls were Skrinde’s people, they could be.

“Adam?”

I whirled.

Zee was back on stage, but this time not to sing. He was looking for me.

I waved, caught his attention, and in an instant, he poofed to my side, startling others nearby. “Where did you go? Where’s Vic? If this is a game of hide-and-seek, you gotta warn me. I’m into games, but I need a bit of warnin’ first?—”

I shoved the picture into Zee’s hand. He unfolded it and frowned. “What’s this?”

“They were partners, all three of them, Zee. Kat doesn’t hate Skrinde. I think they’re in business together, and maybe...” Zee looked up, already knowing where I was going with this. “Maybe they got rid of the human?”

His tail whipped. “For real?”

“I might be wrong, but also... he kinda hit me over the head, so yeah... for real.”

“He hit you?!” Purple sparks sizzled down Zee’s horns. “Now I’m fuckin’ mad.”

“We have to find Victor. I think Skrinde might already be?—”

The music cut off and the club’s lights dimmed. Skrinde stood on the stage, bathed in spotlights. His white suit glowed, but it wasn’t just any white suit. It was covered in little cartoon unicorns. Skrinde really liked unicorns.

“Alright, settle down...” Skrinde said into the mic, making it screech. “No need to panic. This is just a public service announcement.” The mic screeched again, and Skrinde adjusted it, looking my way. “Adam Vex, did you really think I was so dumb I’d fall for your stupid trap?”

A spotlight flooded over me, highlighting me in the crowd. “Uhm... yeah?”

“Ha!” Skrinde beamed. “Alright boys, let’s show them who’s the boss of this town!” Skrinde’s not-so-subtle gang members pulled guns, grabbing Hooper’s people. “Surprise! Look around. You really are surrounded this time, and oh no, where’s your vampire? The one who can voice-fuck people? Huh, not here.”

“Fuck this tiny asshole.” Zee poofed onto the stage, but a cloud of pink got there before him. The two ex-warrior demons faced off, wings flared, tails whipping. Kat was smaller, but he had the element of surprise and shock over Zee. They hadn’t traded blows... not yet.

“Kat told you about the plan?” I called over to Skrinde.

“Yeah, and?” he replied into the mic, his voice filling every corner of the room.

“So you would have fallen for it, if Kat hadn’t betrayed us?”

“What?” Skrinde snorted. “No. It’s obviously a trap. You think I got to be top troll in this town by trusting people?”

“Traitor,” Zee snarled, ignoring Skrinde and instead focusing on Kat.

Kat’s wings drooped. “I’m looking out for me . Like we all had to.”

“Did you kill him? Your human partner?” Zee asked, waving the wrinkled photo in front of Kat’s face.

Kat lifted his chin, defiant. “He was just some stupid human.”

Zee lunged, grabbed Kat by the neck too fast for him to react, and slammed him into the club’s back wall. “I thought I’d taken out the trash with Sebastien. Seems like I missed some.”

“Lycian... wait,” Kat squeaked. His tail whipped up behind Zee, but Zee’s tail smacked it back. “We’re soldiers, brothers, bonds formed in battle!”

“The name’s Zee, an’ no traitor is a brother of mine.”

He was going to kill him. Zee had been pushed to breaking point. He was done messing around with people trying to hurt us, or take advantage of others. But if he killed Kat in front of all these people, there was no coming back from that. He was angry, I got that, but right now he wasn’t thinking clearly.

“Zee...” I pushed through the crowd toward the stage. “Easy.”

He leaned in, teeth bared. “You’re right, Kitten, it would be easy. After the battles we’ve been through, this is how you repay me? I should pull your wings off, Kat.”

“Go ahead,” Skrinde laughed. “What’s another murder to you guys? When the SSD show up, who do you think they’re going to arrest? Me? What did I do? You guys have murdered your way across the States to get here.”

“That’s not... We haven’t...” Okay, so we had been in the wrong places at the wrong times, and some things did look bad. But this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. The SSD were going to arrest Skrinde . I’d made sure of it. Leomaris had assured me—during a second phone call when I’d set up this plan—that the SSD agents would bring Skrinde in for drug offenses, locking him up for good.

Unless I hadn’t been speaking to Leomaris during that second phone call.

Unless Jenny had been on the end of that line

Or maybe Leomaris just had orders to bring us in...

Oh dear.

What if I’d given my brother and the loup-garou everything they’d needed to bring the SSD to us... not to save us, but to arrest us?

Had I set our own trap?

The crowd waited, most of them intrigued, not scared. This was probably a typical Miami night.

Zee waited for my word to snap Kat’s neck, and Skrinde waited with a grin on his face, thinking he’d won.

But I had something he didn’t.

The lights went out, plunging the club into near darkness. The only light came from the two faintly glowing demons at the back of the stage.

I had a shadow daddy.

Shame it was too dark for Skrinde to see my smile.

Indecipherable whispers filtered through the dark in a voice that chilled the air and touched my spine. The crowd stirred, tension rising, panic brewing. I could feel it too—the anticipation, a hint of fear. Ancient instincts warning us all there was a predator among us, and this time, it wasn’t me.

There are vampires, and then there’s Victor Reynard. And when he’s angry, he’s a whole other level of murder husband.

Skrinde grunted into the mic, but when I looked back to the stage, he’d vanished. Zee was still there, unconcerned by the sudden darkness. He could feel Victor at work.

There had always been a chance Skrinde wouldn’t fall for our six a.m. trap.

So Victor was our backup plan.

He appeared on stage, bathed in the spotlight, missing his tie, looking wild and ragged, eyes a shining silver, hair kinda messy. Unhinged Victor had arrived.

“We’re all gonna play Victor Says. You ready?” Zee asked Kat.

Kat’s wide-eyed gaze darted from Zee to Victor, then to me. He’d begun to realize he wasn’t getting out of this.

“All the people here working for Skrinde, raise your hands,” Victor said into the mic, using his voice . He could also see in the dark, so he had a great view of those who were here to harm us or others. “Drop your weapons.”

The clatter of weapons hitting the ground filled the club.

“Everyone working for Skrinde, kneel.”

The rustle of clothes sounded, and a pleasant little shiver ran through me.

“Ooh, I like this part.” Zee grinned, stepping back and letting Kat drop to his knees too.

“Remain in that position until I give you permission to move.”

“How long is that gonna be?” a meek voice called out.

Victor narrowed his glare on the speaker, and said, “Silence.” He stepped back from the mic and vanished. In his typically anticlimactic fashion, it was over. A few moments later, the club’s lights came back on, revealing at least fifteen people on their knees, with Skrinde hogtied and gagged in the middle of the club. So that was where Victor’s tie had gone.

After the nervousness eased, the music kicked in again and the crowd melted away, deciding now was probably a good time to head to a different bar, or home.

I returned to our table, and was soon joined by Victor and Zee.

“Sorry about Kat,” Zee grumbled, slotting himself in next to me while Victor sat opposite. “I’d say war changes people but he’s always been a flouncy fuck.”

“Well, it’s a good thing we were prepared.”

Zee and I both admired Victor for a moment, watching him lift his drink and take a sip. Power was intoxicating, and he had it in spades.

“I do believe the combined heat in your gazes has a slim chance of making me blush.”

“I’m just glad you’re on our side, Fancy McMurder Daddy.” Zee chuckled, reaching for his drink.

“It would not have been possible without Adam’s... intimate attention earlier.”

With a smirk, Zee reclined in the seat, dragging me with him. “Fancy words for Adam deep-throating your dick in the restroom, you kinky pair you.”

The club doors flew open from all sides—back and front—and a stream of armor-clad agents poured in and around Skrinde’s kneeling people, ignoring them and instead coming straight for me.

“By international order of the SSD, Adam Vex, you are hereby under arrest and must submit immediately or wards will be used to restrain you.”

Oh dear.