“Sit,” he barked. Full of power and force and intensity, his words demanded obedience. Red quailed and stooped in his seat. If he were in dog form, he would’ve rolled over and showed his belly.
“Gotta go. I’m working.” I took a step away from the table, shamefully ready to run. Downing a guy like Roger would not be easy. Maybe not possible, even for me. I was lucky he couldn’t change into shifter form in front of all the humans. Still, if it came to a fight, the whole bar would be taken out.
“Working. Is that what you call constantly badgering my employee for information you are not entitled to?” He stepped in my path.
“Yes. Why, what do you call it?”
Roger’s face was a terrible mask of violence. Shivers of apprehension worked up my spine. “This ends, now,” he snarled.
Fire sparked in my gut, my automatic response to bullying. Logic told me to run, but my contrariness had always been stronger than my logic. I sometimes hated that part of myself. “You can’t be here all the time, Roger.”
His eyes flashed. “I don’t need to be here all the time. I can find you anywhere.”
“And do what? Hump my leg?” I smirked, the fire spreading through my middle and tingling my fingers.
“I should drag you out of here right now.” He took a step toward me. “You’ve caused a lot of problems for my people.”
“I haven’t done dick to your people. You hang around like gremlins, hoping I’ll slip up so you can haul me into the Realm and get someone to check out my funky smell. I have a legit job, you harassing douche. Spoiler alert: that job doesn’t answer to you. You have no power in the Brink magical law enforcement. You are allowed to work here because you help them with a few of the outliers. Start messing with their employees, and that might not be the case anymore.”
He stared at me, and though he was about my height, it felt like he was looking down at me. Lava replaced the heat in my body—survival mode. It was about to get real, I could tell. Shifters didn’t reprimand with words; they did it with actions. They battled to get to the top of their hierarchy. He was ruthless, vicious, and at the top of his game. Quite possibly, I was in over my head on this one.
I wonder how fast he can run…
Roger’s tone lowered into not much more than a growl. The small hairs rose all over my body. “I will only say this one more time, Reagan Somerset. Keep my employee out of your schemes, or I will be forced to make good on my warning.”
“I didn’t remember hearing a warning in your dull sermon.” Darius strolled into the bar with a calm expression, all infallible confidence.
I jumped, only then noticing full night had fallen. Roger stiffened and turned around extremely slowly, coiled and ready to strike. Green shimmered around his body, a shifter’s magic, making their form change possible. The power of it stung my eyes.
Red hunched so low in his chair that I could barely see his head above the table.
Darius tsked. A little smile played across his lips as he crossed much too closely to the fuming shifter and took his place by my side. “Careful there, little doggie. You wouldn’t want the humans to know how furry you can get. That might get you in some trouble. You’d be on the other end of the law, then, would you not?”
“An elder among us. How did I get so lucky?” Roger grinned, a terrifying sight filled with violent promise.
“You turn into an animal. You didn’t,” Darius replied with nonchalance.
“Given your other form, you probably shouldn’t throw stones regarding what he turns into,” I murmured.
“You openly feed on human blood,” Roger said quietly, his voice muted by the jazz music. “I am authorized to take you down. Do you want a head start?”
Darius laughed. “My, my. Full of ourselves, aren’t we? Tell me, when have you ever taken down an elder by yourself?”
Roger’s unwavering stare beat into Darius’s face. “We’re not solitary monsters like you are, hiding in the shadows and preying on the weak. We run in packs. We share the euphoria of a good kill.”
“For a species that hunts us, you know very little about our true habits. I find that interesting. Or maybe you trick yourself into thinking we are solitary beings so that when you prey on a lone vampire, you can still call yourself mighty?”
Roger’s jaw clenched.
“Food for thought,” I said, and cleared my throat. We were wasting the night. Those mages had to know they were being hunted by now, and they possibly knew by whom. They’d be putting up defenses, and if they were gaining power quickly, I’d soon be no match for them. “Anyway, Roger, we are on official business. His faction”—I nodded at Darius—“has posted a bounty, and we are investigating. He has a legal right to be in the Brink.”
“He has a legal right if he abstains from taking human blood or revealing his true identity.” Roger’s stare had not left Darius’s eyes, and vice versa.
“I have not taken human blood while on official business,” he lied.
“And when you need to?”
“Shifters don’t count as humans…”
A more prominent cloud of green shimmered around Roger. He was having a hard time controlling his wolf, which was not usual for someone in his position. Darius obviously recognized this, judging by the taunting smile curling his lips. He wasn’t fooling me anymore, though. Darius’s body had tensed and the sharp tips of claws were poking me in the back where his hand rested. He was ready to fight, just like Roger was.
“He’ll take it from me,” I blurted.
Both men blinked and looked at me.
My mouth went dry. I didn’t want to say it again. So I dodged. “He won’t have to take it from a human, because he is super old, and elders don’t need blood as often. Which you know, Roger. He was full up when I met him in the Realm, in anticipation of being in the Brink on this bounty, and that was only a couple days ago—”
“Five days,” Darius said, his pupils dilating in a sexual sort of hunger. His hand now splayed across my back possessively.
That probably wasn’t good. At least I knew what day it was, though.