It’d been days since she’d entered heat and she thought she was learning how to control her riotous emotions, but the heated whisper of his words had shivered down her spine like a lover’s caress and made her ache down low.
And even reminding herself that she danced with fire by allowing herself to wish for more than just a mere whisper in her ear didn’t seem to quench her hunger. No male had ever made her feel this crazy riot of emotions before. It was unnerving, exhilarating, and terrifying all at the same time.
Taking a deep breath, she willed her traitorous body under control and nodded her head. “As you say, knight.”
They meandered through the tight space, bumping into a few bodies too drunk to do more other than to grouse at being disturbed before finding a small, round table tucked against the leftmost wall and hidden partly in shadow.
Taking a seat, Lilith was just about to give him a weak smile when an uneasy and strange feeling overcame her. The table next to theirs had three figures seated at it. The bodies were draped in black cloaks, and, with their heads bent, they seemed to be in a furious discussion of some sort.
Though she couldn’t make out the faces, that horrible nagging feeling she’d been having for the past few minutes seemed to ratchet up in their presence.
“What ye’ll have?” a merry voice interrupted her thoughts.
Turning, Lilith’s eyes widened as she came face to face with a divine-looking creature. She was pale-skinned with arresting brown eyes. Her hair fell only to her chin and was a riotous mass of deep purple curls. She wore a tank top that revealed impressive musculature for a female. But that was not the most interesting part about their serving wench.
“Yeah, I get those looks all the time.” She grinned, a wide-open and friendly smile. Not at all what one would typically expect in a pub known to cater to the dregs of Kingdom. “Name’s Kym.” She held out her hand. “Bitch on wheels,” she said, pointing to her white t-shirt emblazoned with the chunky black lettering of the very same words. “But I’m not a bar wench—this here’s my pub, and that there,” she said, hooking her finger over her shoulder to a freakishly massive wall of centaur muscle Lilith had completely overlooked standing guard at the exit, “is my boy toy, Chestnut.”
She laughed and leaned in as though to whisper something in confidence. “Though round here we just call him Chest—Chestnut tends to make my bronco a little testy. So…” She righted herself, tapping her long manicured purple nails on the wheelchair armrests. “What’ll you have?”
“Umm?” Lilith turned to Giles who merely shrugged, wearing a similar look of confusion on his own face. “What happened to Mortimor? Thought he was the proprietor of the Skull.”
“Oh, Mort,” Kym snickered, sounding a little like a braying horse. “Well, he kicked the bucket about a year ago. Me and Chest grabbed up this place quick like.” She snapped her fingers. “Kind of fits my style. And don’t,” she said, lifting a finger, “let the chair fool you. I’m a tough broad.” Hiking up her shirt, she revealed the carved wooden handle of a dirk tucked into her pants. “There will be no thieving, no cheating, and no killing in my pub. Got it?”
“You’ve no worries there, madam.” Giles inclined his head. “We wish only to dine and perhaps rent a room for the night.”
“Food, I can do.” The pixie-faced beauty grinned. “But no can do with the rooms. I don’t run no bordello, mister.”
“Indeed.” He chuckled. “Then an ale and a mincemeat pie, if you have it.”
“Sure do.”
“I’ll just have an ale, some bread, and whatever cheese you’ve got.” Lilith nodded. “And Kym?”
The barkeep had already turned her chair about, but stopped and glanced back. “Yes?”
“I’ve always been fascinated by accents, but yours is strange. Where are you from?”
Perhaps a little blunt, but then her mother had gotten a chance to travel not only all of Kingdom but Earth, too, and Lilith suspected this strange creature had not been born here.
Kym glanced at the centaur and her brown eyes softened. “Chest saved me from a hellhole in Kentucky.” Blinking, she looked back at Lilith. “Earth.”
And with those words she rolled her wheels back toward the front of the bar.
“How in the world did a centaur enter into Earth? Could you imagine the sight of him amongst the mortals?” Lilith turned to Giles, forgetting for a moment the attraction she fought so hard when she was near him. “And that Kym would willingly leave with him?”
He shrugged, but his lips twitched. “The universe is a strange place.”
“No stranger than a shifter and a demone working together, I’d imagine.”
His gaze was soft as his eyes looked upon her. And though she knew she looked nothing like she normally did, for a moment her wolf reveled in the exotic beauty of the man looking at her as though he saw not the crone but the woman.