It was hard to sit there and bite my tongue when he knelt before her. He grabbed her hand, holding tight when she tried to pull away. A few people at the nearby tables turned to stare, but Kale paid them no attention.
“Jez St. Claire, you are the little sister I never had. You’re one of the only people on the planet I would do this for. You have no idea how filled with regret and guilt I am over what I did to you. I hate myself for hurting you. And, I am truly sorry.” With true repentance in his eyes, he gazed up at her.
The depths of Kale’s love for Jez captivated me. Not only was he willing to humiliate himself in public, he acted as if it were the least he deserved. I groaned inwardly, hating myself for swooning over this. I flashed back in my mind to a night of warm summer rain and Kale. It had been less than a month ago that we’d made love outside The Wicked Kiss, but it felt like forever.
Jez dragged out her response, staring at him until the tension hummed. After making him wait for what she felt was a reasonable amount of time, she nodded. “Thank you, Kale. I forgive you. If you ever try to kill me again, I’ll have your balls for breakfast.”
And just like that, Jez abolished the grudge she’d been holding for weeks. She pulled Kale to his feet for a hug, and the tension between them slipped away. He resumed his seat next to me, winking a puppy dog brown eye at me.
“I can’t believe you did that.” I laughed, shaking my head.
“Honestly, I expected her to really torture me, so it wasn’t too bad.” Kale shrugged it off as if he hadn’t just made himself her bitch.
“So, it’s been a while since the three of us did something. I mean really did something.” Jez leaped in like the last few minutes had never happened, let alone the last few weeks. It was mind-boggling. “We need to hang out. But, not in this place. It’s disgusting. We should go to a concert or a movie.”
I’d given up on figuring Jez out long ago. She was a firecracker alright. From being pissed at Kale to excitedly planning an outing, she was lively in a way that made her infectious. No wonder the vampires here were so drawn to her.
With my back to the corner of the booth, I nodded as necessary while she prattled on. There was a pleasant tingle in my limbs as the alcohol coursed through my bloodstream. My anxiety eased and I relaxed.
Kale was alluring at such close proximity. Just a year ago, he hadn’t set me off like this, but as my power had grown, so had my hunger for him. Some might say that the two weren’t related, that plain old, physical lust afflicted us, but I knew the source of my desire was something bigger.
“You know what we should really do?” Jez continued, pausing only to sip from her drink before going on again. “Road trip. Seriously. We have never done anything like that. Let’s go somewhere. Oh! Let’s go to Vegas! You have some ass to kick there, Lex. It would be a blast.”
“Vegas? Oh hell no.” I shook my head despite my mild intrigue. “I can’t begin to imagine the kind of trouble we’d find there.”
“Then let’s not imagine. Let’s go. Pick a date.”
Kale laughed and relaxed in the booth beside me. Just inches kept us from touching. “Knock yourselves out. Most road trips aren’t exactly vampire friendly.”
“They can be.” Jez shrugged off his protest. “We can hit hotels during the day. Really damn expensive ones. It would kick ass.”
What was she doing? Kale and I on a road trip together would be all kinds of bad news regardless of whether or not she was there too. Not to mention the fight with Arys that would ensue. I hadn’t considered leaving town at all recently, although a chance to get away didn’t sound like a totally bad idea.
Las Vegas had made me curious in recent months. Arys had ties to the city through his sire, Harley, the most powerful vampire in Sin City, or at least, he was.
“Besides,” the feisty leopard went on. “You guys need to spend more time away from this place. Both of you. It’s a menace to your mental health.”
“Can’t argue there.” I tossed back another mouthful of whiskey. A vacation from this place sounded like heaven.
Right on cue, the rear door separating the back rooms from the rest of the club opened, and Shaz strode through. My stomach plummeted in a nauseating free fall when she appeared at his side. They didn’t touch, yet there was an unspoken intimacy between them. I was going to be sick.
I knew very little about her, the vampire Shaz had become acquainted with. She was a tall, leggy thing with long black hair. I got the sense that she wasn’t an old vampire but not brand-new either. I didn’t even know her name, but I hated her more than I’d ever hated anyone or anything. Even Raoul.