With a deep breath, I stepped back and pulled my hand away. Arys said nothing, but the look in his eyes said enough. I almost forgot we were in a public place. I shook my head to clear the haze that had developed.
“I should go keep Jez company in that line up,” I mumbled, trying to find a reason to walk away. My heart pounded as a dose of adrenaline hit me. “I’ll catch you later.”
“Not if I catch you first,” he replied.
I couldn’t deny the meaning behind the look he shot me. His eyes held hidden promises of greater desires. Arys made no secret of his infatuation. He had made no attempt to deny his interest nor had he blatantly pursued me. He’d simply made it my choice. I could feel the hot blush that spread across my cheeks when I turned to walk away.
I thought back to a time when my best friend Kylarai Kramer had asked me if I was curious about Arys, curious about what it would be like with him and all of the power that went with him. Hell yes, I was curious. I was a living, breathing woman after all.
I was also realistic and cautious. I didn’t want to jump in bed with the vampire just because it was the easiest way to see what we could do metaphysically. Energy just needed to be charged, it didn’t have to be tantric. Arys gave our power exchange that flavor, and honestly, it freaked me out.
“That one has it bad,” Jez said when I joined her at the bar. I carefully ignored the people behind her who thought I was cutting the line.
“What?”
“The smoking hot vampire,” she nodded slightly in Arys’s direction. “I can practically smell the lust from here.”
“Shut up.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m sure he has more than his fair share.”
She just shrugged and overlooked my remark. “Do you want me to order you a drink? How are you feeling?”
“Thanks to Arys, I feel great. I’ll take a whiskey. Just one though.” I wasn’t a big drinker, but I enjoyed the occasional cold one. Shifters process alcohol twice as fast as humans, so one drink would do virtually nothing to me.
“Energy games with the vampire, huh? Well, whatever works.”
I didn’t respond. She wouldn’t understand, and I couldn’t begin to explain it to her in the noisy bar. When it came to the rush and tingle of metaphysical power, some things cannot easily be described.
When we stepped up to the bar, Shaz Richardson flashed me a smile almost as white as his naturally platinum blond hair. He had joined our small town pack as a newly turned and naïve eighteen-year-old after meeting Raoul by chance. He’s since graduated to a twenty-three year old with a great loss of innocence and a new, in-depth awareness of what really goes bump in the night. My friendship with him was a special one. I trusted nobody else the way I trusted Shaz. He was my other half in so many ways.
“Hey ladies.” He greeted us with a smile that appeared to have never known a frown. “What can I get for you? The usual?”
“Make mine a double,” Jez quipped.
“I thought you guys were hunting tonight. That didn’t take long.” Shaz turned to grab a new whiskey bottle from the liquor shelf behind him and something bright red for Jez’s fruity drink.
“No. Jez wanted to play cat and mouse with our target for awhile, but once he saw her kitty cat eyes, he changed his mind,” I said and fished some cash from my bag. Jez waved it off as she produced enough to cover both drinks and a nice tip for Shaz.
“I would, too,” he joked as he poured our drinks. His jade green eyes flashed bright in the bar light overhead as he met my gaze. “So, when are we doing breakfast?”
Once, Shaz and I had a routine of going for breakfast every morning. Since I’d started working independently for Veryl, I couldn’t recall the last time I was actually awake during breakfast hours.
“Let’s make it dinner. Why don’t you come by the house one night this week?”
“Are you cooking?” He raised an eyebrow at me skeptically.
“No, I wouldn’t do that to you. We can order in or go out. Maybe Kylarai will want to come.” Kylarai and I share a house on the west side of town. It backs onto a farmer’s field with a tree line of forest only a short run away. It’s a perfect location for wolves.
“Sounds good to me.” He pressed my drink into my hand, and the barest touch of his fingers against mine made the wolf inside me raise its head in recognition. For the briefest moment, our two wolves shared a wet nosed greeting. A longing deep down inside me sought the scent of the forest and the exertion of a good run on all fours.
We’d just left the bar and begun looking for a place to sit near the pool tables, when a few guys sitting nearby beckoned us over. When we ignored them, the ringleader of the three got up and approached us.
“What do you want?” Jez snapped. If he had known that she’d been knuckle deep inside somebody’s spleen tonight, I doubt he would have tried.