I shrugged as I shimmied through the throng of people to the bar for another drink. The barman spotted me instantly and had my Jack and Coke ready by the time I made it to the bar. “I know it’s probably weird to you, but I trust Warin with everything I am. Now that we have you guys on our side, I know I’ll be safe.”
“I hope you’re right—if there is a skinwalker pack in Chicago, it’s gonna be all ‘hide yo kids, hide yo wives’ up in here until they’re dealt with. Did you know they rape witches to force-reincarnate souls in their wombs?” She shuddered and grabbed the beer the barman slid her way with a, “Thanks, Fred.” Apparently, it wasn’t the first time Isla played host to this coven.
I grimaced. “I’m sorry—force-reincarnate? You can… force someone to reincarnate?”
“Well, I can’t. It takes some seriously pitch-black magic to do the kind of shit the skinwalkers do. To even be able to take on another form, they have to kill first. And in pretty fucking gruesome ways.” Raven shuddered again before she put the beer bottle to her lips and downed it in four long gulps. “I’ll spare you the details, but I can tell you I haven’t been able to look at dogs or birds the same since I found out. Now, come on—finish up your drink. You said you wanted to dance, didn’t you?”
* * *
It didn’t take us long to get caught up in the music and atmosphere of the club, and—in my case—forget all about the tense meeting in the backroom. I tended to spend most of my nights home on the couch, so when I finally went out to dance, I wasn’t about to let an impending supernatural war kill my buzz.
Which was probably why when Raven twirled me a bit too hard and I went stumbling into a tall man next to us, I only managed a giggled, “Oops!”
“Oops, indeed.” The auburn-haired stranger grasped me lightly by the elbows to break my fall. The coldness of his fingers against my skin made me look up—and up—until my eyes connected with his. They were bright blue and adorning a face so ruthlessly handsome I’d only ever seen one man more gorgeous in my life—Warin.
“Does your daddy know you’re giving every man in a one-mile radius a hard-on while he’s off attending to business?” His deep voice was practically a purr.
Maybe I should have been disturbed by the crudeness of his taunt, but a shock of recognition sparked through my drunk brain before I could. “You’re his brother!” I chirped, a wide smile pulling on my lips as I looked up at the vampire who’d ensured Warin’s other vampire friends didn’t turn me into dinner in his foyer. “Aleric, right?”
“Indeed,” he said, releasing my left shoulder so he could nudge my chin up with his finger. “I see he’s let you keep your memories, little mouse. And if his second-in-command is to be believed, you’re also responsible for this little witchy meeting tonight? I find that… ever so curious.”
“Oh?” was my intelligent response. I couldn’t quite grasp what he was fishing for, but the predatory spark at the back of his eyes made some faraway fight=or-flight instincts rise through my drunken haze.
“My brother’s not the type to let a pretty little mortal get herself all tangled up in his business.” Aleric snuck an arm around me as he dipped his head low, letting his cool lips brush over the shell of my ear. “I hear he spends most of his nights with you. And I can’t help but wonder… what’s so special about you, little mouse, to have enthralled an Ancient so?”
Goosebumps broke out across my body at the feel of his cold breath brushing against my skin. “Nothing,” I croaked.
“No?” he hummed. “No delicious magic in your blood to keep him coming back for more? Are you perhaps my dear brother’s dirty little secret? Is that why he’s been so reluctant to leash you with a claim? Are you a witch, little mouse?”
Despite my drunken state, his question made a nervous bolt of energy shoot through my veins. I gulped and pulled back, trying to break the hold of his arm against my back. I might as well have tried to shift a mountain. “No, I am not a witch. I didn’t even know they were real until a week ago. And if you don’t get your hands off me right now, I’m going to scream ‘vampire.’”
Aleric’s mouth hiked up at the corner, displaying a gleaming white fang. It wasn’t elongated, but it looked wickedly sharp. “Well, well, don’t you have a pair of brass balls, little human.” His gaze flashed above my head for a second before he released his grip on my waist. “How delightful.”
I stumbled one step backward and away from the tall vampire, only to feel another steel band close around my midriff and pull me back against a solid form.
“Aleric. You come early, brother.” Despite the noise and music in the club, I recognized Warin’s voice effortlessly. Without thinking, I relaxed in his grasp as the sensation of complete safety set in. My drunken brain stopped attempting to shoot danger signals through the fog, and I happily pushed back into my vampire’s chest, reveling in the softness of his cashmere sweater and the hardness of his body underneath it. Well, mm.
“You call, I don’t delay. You know this, my blood.” The look on the auburn-haired vampire’s face was so different now—filled with reverence, not a hint of a threat left behind. “I hoped we could talk about your, ah, situation before the others arrive.”
“I will be home before dawn. Bring Carina and the Guard with you and wait for me there. We will speak more then.”
I smiled at the obvious dismissal in Warin’s voice, but Aleric’s gaze remained impassive as he let it slide over me, hovering by my neck and cleavage for a moment before he returned his focus to his brother. “As you wish. Do enjoy your snack—you look like you need it.”
Warin didn’t respond, and Aleric nodded at him before he took off, leaving us on the crowded dance floor.
Warin kept his grip on me, his strong arm still holding me so deliciously tight against his body. It was such a protective gesture, and maybe I should have wondered what about his brother’s appearance had him acting like that given how we usually didn’t touch much. But instead, I let his strength and the sensation of his body behind me penetrate deep into my blood, let myself get lost in the familiarity of his touch despite being surrounded by strangers. It felt so… intimate. Perhaps because I knew, in the depths of my soul, that Warin never let anyone close. His solitude was an invisible wall, surrounding and protecting him from ever truly knowing someone. But he knew me. He touched me. Held me.
Slowly, for every night we sat in my living room and talked about everything and nothing, he had let me in just a little further.
Like I had him.
Right then, as we stood together surrounded by loud music and drunk people who would never understand how profoundly right his arm around me felt, I knew I wanted to be like this always.
That it was how I was meant to be—safe in Warin’s embrace. Shielded from the world and all its horrors.
Maybe if I hadn’t been drunk, I would have handled that moment’s clarity with grace, or dignity. Or both.
Unfortunately for me, I chose neither.