“As much as I’d love to hear all of the sweet and, I’m certain, juicy details, I’m afraid we have bigger problems.”
“Like what?” I didn’t really want to hear what he had to say. In fact, I had made a mistake by coming to Lucy’s at all.
“Like the hit job on me that you’ve been thinking about taking.” He said it so matter of fact.
Dumbfounded doesn’t even begin to describe my instant reaction. I stared up at him like he’d slapped me as I took a step back. Shit. Good news travels fast.
“What?” I mumbled, glancing around anxiously for whatever was out of place. My poor attempt at casual had bombed, but I forced myself to maintain eye contact. “I was never going to take the job.”
“Don’t even try it. If we weren’t facing a shit load of trouble right now, I wouldn’t hesitate to take a bite out of you. But, that will have to wait.”
I was constantly finding myself thankful for the noisy din of the bar. Music, laughter and conversation created the perfect lull of background noise.
Before I could ask what he meant by trouble, my sense of unease grew as an angry energy swirled all around us. I felt vampiric energy approach me from behind and whirled to find Catherine descending the steps. She glowered at us with more hate than I’d had directed at me in a while.
“Alexa!” She was all too happy to see me. “I thought I sensed your presence. Good. Now I can kill the both of you, which only seems fitting considering the circumstances.”
“Cat, please. We can discuss this rationally.” I kicked myself for the remaining humanity that enabled me to feel compassion for a vampire that I seriously suspected of mental illness. “It’s not what you think.”
Her dark eyes narrowed on me, and I felt my chest tighten under the pressure of her fury. How I became “the other woman” was beyond me. I studied Catherine’s absolutely evil stare and felt ashamed. I’d worn a similar expression no more than an hour previous. A shiver tore down my spine.
“Don’t try reasoning with her,” Arys said as he grabbed my hand. He yanked me behind him, away from the crazed vampiress.
His touch caused a visible spark of sudden power between us. It looked like an extreme static zap but much brighter and stronger.
“Whoa,” I gasped, jerking my hand out of his grasp. Was he absolutely insane? This wasn’t getting any better.
I couldn’t tell if Catherine had even seen the spark. She was now staring so hard at Arys that I was glad to be the other woman rather than him.
“Cat, honey,” Arys purred, and I couldn’t help but look at him in surprise. “Let’s not be irrational, my dear. We are in public.”
Her glare grew in its intensity, and it took all I had to keep my eyes on her. Only a woman truly in love could exude so much pure venom. Either that or she was insanely obsessed.
I wanted to just let fly with a good smack up side Arys’s head, but that wasn’t going to discourage Catherine. Though, it might have changed me from foe to friend in her eyes.
“Don’t waste your pathetic charm on me. I’ve come a long way since I was your play thing.” A slow grin played about her ruby red lips.
“We’re going outside, Catherine. Whatever you want to do, you can do there. I won’t let you endanger innocent people in here.” Arys’s voice was low and firm, but she heard him as well as I did.
If looks could kill, he would have fallen into ash at my feet. She glared daggers that even made me want to squirm.
“How dare you speak to me as if you place such value on life? You’re the devil who taught me to take it, ruthless and without mercy.”
“That was a long time ago.” Arys’s voice was soft, persuasive. He was full of shit, and all three of us knew it, yet the pull to believe him was strong. The bastard was good. “Things have changed since those days. It’s time to move on.”
That was clearly the wrong line. Catherine’s eyes seemed to sparkle suddenly, and she was alive with power, but not her natural vampire power. No, this was foreign magic, borrowed rather than owned. Where was she getting it?
“This has been a long time coming, my dear Sindarys.” I saw him visibly flinch at her use of the name. “I cannot wait to watch you turn to dust.”
Every part of me braced for the vampiress’s blow, knowing it was coming. We had to get outside. I began inching away from the bottom of the staircase, toward the rear exit.
Instinctively, I wanted to lock eyes with Shaz across the bar but didn’t dare. Like any supernatural, Catherine would be aware of every Were in the building. She had no beef with him, and I had no good reason to involve him.