Page 5

Chapter three

“What the fuck?” the waitress screamed as Rae tackled her to the floor.

“Keep down, and keep quiet,” she hissed, already regretting that second glass of visk.

Another explosion rattled the ceiling, glasses and bottles falling from their shelves and smashing beside them. The waitress was already bleeding, shakes racking her body.

Perfect.

“On the count of three, we’re going to move, okay?

” Rae murmured. Music still played from somewhere, a track of screams and shouts accompanying it.

The waitress was too stunned to reply. “Three.” Rae pulled the girl to her feet, took in the chaos around them, and chose their exit.

One side of the bar had half the VIP area on top of it, the other side, where the exit had been, collapsed in on itself.

“Up,” she commanded, already pushing the waitress over the counter before the human had the chance to respond.

Blood glistened on broken glass, and if the bar itself hadn’t been polished black and the club wasn’t so fucking dark, Rae was certain a smear of blood would have been visible across it.

She scrabbled after the waitress, regretting her decision to wear shorts tonight as her bare knees pressed into splinters of debris.

The waitress screamed as a blood-high Vampire yanked her towards him, but Rae pulled her dagger from her boot and slammed the fine point through the male’s throat just as his teeth came down on the waitress’s neck.

An ordinary silver blade would have only taken him out for a short while, but Rae knew better; she’d spelled her weapon so that wounds couldn’t clot and heal over, smithed the narrow blade herself and imbued it with magic as she worked the metal.

The Vampire roared, dropped the waitress, and spun around to face Rae.

The Goddess must have had it in for her tonight. Blue. The Vampire whose money she still had tucked away in her bag.

“You,” he spat, his pointed canines glistening with blood.

“Oh sweetie, I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Rae purred with a smile, already moving. Vampires never expected humans to be fast or to put up a fight. Though Rae wasn’t the best fighter, she was light on her feet and knew the power of a few well-timed moves.

She feigned reaching out to embrace him, but instead, slammed the blade into his heart. The Vampire sucked in a wet breath and an exhale of smoke followed it.

Oh. Shit.

A Gerentis. She’d forgotten. And a fire wielder. Of all the types he could have been.

A grin widened his mouth, canines bared, and Rae ducked, bringing her hands to her head for all the good it would do—because she’d lost her advantage of taking him by surprise—and waited for the blast of flames. That never came. Hot air brushed the hair on her arms, and the Vampire screamed.

Rae stumbled back onto her ass. He’d set himself on fire.

What the—

She didn’t allow herself time to think about it.

Rae grabbed hold of the quivering human who’d watched, dumbstruck since the Vampire had attacked her, one hand pressed to the wound at her neck, and dragged her across the dance floor towards a side door.

It wasn’t the best exit, but it would have to do.

Rae gave herself a mental high-five for opting to pair boots with her shorts as they stepped over corpses—human and Vampire—her eyes darting left and right through the chaos as they made it closer to the door.

Just a few more feet. The music had stopped but the lights were still low, the air thick with dust and smoke and blood and screams. There would be time to figure out what had happened later.

There was too much movement in the club for what should have only been its occupants trying to leave, but Rae made herself focus on her task.

They reached the door, and she shoved the whimpering human inside, the pink bows on the young woman’s sleeves unravelled and stained with blood.

“Lock it behind you, follow the corridor to the end, and climb out the window. You can make it down to the street from there,” Rae told her.

“How?” the girl asked, blood trickling down her hand and over the pink blouse, her eyes wide.

“You’ll figure it out. Lock.” Rae jerked her chin at the door before slamming it shut and spinning around to survey the club.

A pair of silver eyes snagged hers, and Rae found herself staring at the fucking Vampire Lord himself, taking her in from her blood-stained knees to the spelled blade in her hand he’d no doubt just watched her stab one of his own with moments before.

Fuck. This night just kept getting better and better.

He smirked like he’d heard her. Asshole. Rae knew there was little chance of that—because she was nothing if not prepared—but the expression on her face would have been enough for a Provident as powerful as him. The most powerful.

His gaze moved to somewhere above her shoulder, and Rae followed it to a group of humans cowering in a booth.

Perhaps she was foolish to believe his intentions to be genuine, but something told her that in that moment, they were.

She nodded her thanks, already moving towards them, not bothering to question why the Vampire Lord would give a shit about saving some humans when his own were lying dead and dying at his feet.

Perhaps the rumours were true; he truly did hate everything, and this was just some part of whatever sick entertainment he’d cooked up for the evening.

The building shook, and the air hummed with magic.

Broken wards and Providents, most likely, but Rae ignored it, focused on not falling flat on her ass as she made her way over to the humans.

She almost tripped over a corpse, and unwilling to find out if it was human or Vampire, slid over a table to crouch low beside the group, all cowering and clinging to each other as the club turned to shit around them.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Rae said, sucking in a breath.

Five pairs of eyes stared back at her, four women and a young man.

All of them were wide-eyed and dishevelled, one with a large wound on their head that Rae didn’t like the look of.

“There’s a door, right over there.” She waved a hand.

“And you’re all going to take a deep breath, hold each other’s hands in a chain, and follow me to it.

When we get there, you’re going to go inside, lock the door, and run. Okay?”

“Run where?” the young man asked.

Fuck me. What did these people want, an instruction manual? Rae wondered where, in their evolution, some of the humans had stopped giving a shit about self-preservation. “Just hold onto each other. Let’s go.”

She didn’t look back. There was too much movement. Too many bodies in the dark that Rae knew were not revellers and clientele. Fae, if she had to guess, despite the explosions. That was another item in the chew over it later pile.

She reached the door first, praying the club’s wards held, because if whoever had attacked it brought guns inside, it was game over for everyone. A quickly muttered spell under her breath and the lock opened for Rae to shove the five humans inside.

“Thank you,” the girl with the head wound breathed, a sob racking her words.

Rae gave a sombre nod. The wound was deep, but if the remaining four lived, that was something, at least.

“Run,” was all she told them, locking the door from the outside with another murmured spell and ignoring the ache at her temples.

“Those market spells are becoming much more sophisticated,” a deep voice said behind her.

Rae sucked in a breath, turning to face its owner.

He was dressed in black, a shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows and unbuttoned at the neck, black hair falling in waves across silver eyes, and a good head taller than her, as imposing and fierce as all the rumours said he was.

The Vampire Lord had a female thrown over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing, her arms hanging down, unmoving.

“Open it,” he commanded, and Rae felt the words ripple over her skin.

She cleared her throat and swallowed down the acid burn of his magic, the only notable effect it had on her, mercifully. “So you can hunt them down and feast on them? Absolutely not.”

Something flickered across the angular lines of his face for a moment, something that might have been surprise, but then his head tipped, and Rae knew he’d heard something that likely meant more trouble. “For her,” he said. “She won’t wake up for hours. The humans will be long gone.”

Rae considered him for a moment. Considered the female over his shoulder.

Someone he cared for, if he wanted to lock her away from the group of Fae that were now getting closer, almost on the other side of the bar.

Nothing showed on his face, no pleading, no impatience, nothing , as if he had all the time in the world to wait this decision out.

But she needed to earn his trust, and this was as good a start as any.

Rae nodded, unlocked the door and watched the Vampire Lord deposit the female carefully within, her short skirt exposing a gaping wound in her thigh.

The Lord took a step back, shutting the door, and glanced down at Rae expectantly, so close she could feel his warmth, could inhale his sandalwood and leather scent.

“You owe me for this,” she said, her hand already on the doorknob, her spell already on her tongue.

“Call it even for the Gerentis,” he said dryly, and it was Rae’s turn to be surprised, her gaze flicking up to meet his, diamond eyes already fixed on hers. The Gerentis hadn’t set himself on fire. It had been a Provident’s work. The Provident standing beside her.

A woman screamed, and they both turned towards the sound. Rae could make out little in the darkness beyond a few feet in front of them, but she knew Vampire eyes could likely see everything.

“Aidan Vale, as I live and breathe,” a male voice called out from across the club. “And what’s this, your little human pet?”

Rae clicked her tongue and wiped her filthy blade on her torn shorts. Her favourite pair, ruined. “I’m no one’s fucking pet.”

Aidan let out a quiet puff of air beside her, in what she assumed was as close to a laugh as he was capable of.

Rae didn’t shift her attention away from the Fae who took in the chaos around them, not a single black hair out of place on his head or his beard, both just as slick with oil as the other.

“I will never understand why humans favour such foul language. It’s very unbecoming.

” The Fae stalked closer, and that was the moment Rae knew she was truly fucked.

There was no way in Hel that the Vampire Lord would have allowed the Fae’s proximity if it weren’t for one of two reasons: either something was interfering with his abilities, or he was working with the Liberalist Fae.

Both were very, very bad options for her.

And that meant she had to make a quick decision about who to side with, because the wrong one meant she would certainly end up dead. And Nim would not be very pleased about that.

Neither would Rae, if she was being honest.

She tightened her grip on her blade, and at the same moment, Aidan shifted almost imperceptibly at her side, his fingers flexing as if he were aching for a fight. He hadn’t said a word. Had barely even shown any signs of acknowledging someone had been speaking to him.

He moved so fast that Rae could barely track the movement, lunging for the Fae and landing a blow to the bastard’s face as they slammed into the floor of the club.

His blows were brutal, pounding into the Fae with his fists, no hint of his Provident abilities despite the bodies flooding into what remained of the club around them.

Rae narrowed her eyes. Someone had a syphon on him.

A spell used by Witches to draw power from its source.

Which meant she’d already chosen wrong. Goddess help me .

She was already murmuring another spell as more bodies moved from the shadows and surrounded them, hands grappling at Aidan as he laid into the Fae, canines bared and bloodied.

Her spell was almost finished, the last few words bubbling up her throat as one of them shoved a large needle into the Vampire’s back and his body bowed in response to whatever they’d injected him with.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Just a few more words and then—a rush of air was all the warning Rae had before a blow to the head took her out.