de Sang: Embrace Your Blood Lust (10 page)

The music surged and the kiss surged with it, building until it reached an abrupt accent. In perfect choreography and in perfect time with the music, Angel jerked his head to the side and drove her fangs into his neck.

The man shuddered, blood dripping down his chest. As she devoured his neck, Angel raised a slender arm and motioned for Hail. When he stood beside her, the music crested again and with all the swiftness and grace of a mythological vampire, Angel backhanded him. In true dancer form, he spiraled away and onto his knees.

Angel released the dark haired man, who crumpled onto the stage in a bloody heap, and dove for the fallen Hail. Straddling him, she
tasted
his flesh in multiple locations, her inhumanly flexible body undulating above him, before she finally dug her fangs into his pec.

The amount of blood pouring from his body was abundant and incredibly real. When Angel finally rose, dragging Hail's mostly limp form with her, it oozed from her lips and down her breasts.

The dark haired man had risen as well and was stalking toward Angel and Hail. His eyes glowed in the stage lights, and his now elongated fangs glistened when Angel presented Hail as a six foot tall
gift.

The subsequent blood bath rivaled any B horror movie. Hail became a feast for Angel's dark haired
vampire
. And the places he took his meal made the act truly erotic.

Kate glanced at Melanie, whose jaw was scraping the floor. "Was that anything like your encounter with Hail last night?"

Melanie shook her head. "I actually thought the sex was kinda vanilla." Unable to peel her eyes from the stage, she turned her mouth toward Kate, and nothing more. "We're doing a shot after this."

"I'm good…"

"We're doing a shot," Mel insisted. "It's only a hundred calories. I'll buy..."

"Okay, whatever."

As Angel's act reached climax and cheers erupted throughout the venue, Kate did a quick scan of the balcony.

He wasn't hard to spot. Standing to the right of the stage, Lohr Varius watched the stage with the tiniest expression of pleasure. Unlike the others watching from above, he did not lean on the rail, or even clap, but stood perfectly erect, his arms hanging loosely at his side.

He was stunning to look at, that was for sure. Well, he was stunning if you thought vampires were hot. Kate's sister would think he looked like a freak. Slade would have been the guy she went for. Italian, with thick black hair gelled into a faux-hawk, a pretty boy face, too many muscles and no brains. Yep, that was her sister's type.

Lohr's electric blue eyes did a sweep of the room and Kate felt her stomach tighten and pulse race. She ducked beside Melanie at the bar. She wasn't sure why she didn't want him to see her yet.

"I knew you wanted a shot," Melanie said, handing Kate a shot-glass filled with caramel brown liquor. A quick sniff told her it was whiskey. Of course.

Lohr was still watching the room, so Kate caught Melanie's arm as she was stepping away from the bar.

"Cheers!"

With a quick clink of the glass, Kate slid the liquor down her throat in one easy swallow.

Peering out from behind Melanie's artificially elevated head, Kate was relieved to find Lohr no longer stood on the balcony.

She wasn't sure why she was anxious about seeing him since she was
pretty
sure she wanted to. Maybe knowing their next encounter would probably involve some sort of blood exchange was making her skin twitch.

Except when the memory of Slade's mouth on her bleeding flesh abruptly flooded her brain, her body shuddered with heat.

She shook it off.

"Let's check out the scene down here," Kate suggested. She'd make her way to VIP at some point, just not right now.

They wandered through the crowd, chatted with some veeeery drunk tourists from Portland awkwardly wearing costumes they'd obviously just picked up that afternoon, and danced for a little bit before Melanie needed a refill and they made their way back to the bar.

As they passed the burley bouncer guarding the velvet VIP ropes he called, "Hey!"

Kate paused. "Yeah, you," he said.

She had to lean forward and grab Melanie's arms to get her roommate to stop. The girl was on a mission.

"What?" Melanie said. Kate couldn't tell if she was startled or annoyed her liquor mission had been interrupted.

Kate turned to the bouncer. "Somethin' you need?"

He gestured toward her neck. "Your necklace. You comin' up or not?"

Guess now was as good a time as any. Kate jerked her chin toward Mel. "What about my friend?"

The bouncer gave Melanie a quick once over. "Sure, bring her up."

Kate leveled her gaze on Melanie. "Want to go upstairs?"

It took Melanie a good thirty seconds to register the question. "Fuck yeah!"

The bouncer released the velvet rope. "Enjoy, ladies."

Taking Mel's hand, Kate led her up the stairs, anticipation dancing on her skin.

"What do you think is up here?" Melanie wondered

"I don't know. But I hope it's more...
intense
than the downstairs scene."

They hit the VIP bar first, and then settled in at a bar table to people watch. This crowd was nothing like the downstairs one. The energy they oozed hovered like fog, covering the floor in a thick blanket of glamour. Even though the music thumped through huge speakers on the first floor, it was almost quiet on the second. Maybe quiet was the wrong word. It felt like the moment before a storm rolled in, where the air swirled violently in the surrounding sky but still felt eerily still.

"So, you never told me what happened with that bartender last night?"

Kate flushed. "Nothing happened."

"Whatever. You sure blew out of
La
Luxure
fast enough. And the concealer isn't hiding those bite marks very well. Did he attack you or something?"

"No, he didn't attack me." She didn't want to talk about it and scanned the room for something to distract the conversation. "He just showed me some of the toys. I guess I freaked." It was only half a lie. If she mentioned anything about his orgasm inducing fingers, Melanie would be running to
La
Luxure
to get a sample.

"Hey, isn't that Angel?"

Kate turned. Thank God.

Angel was gliding toward them, a smile of recognition on her perfect features. She was positively breathtaking in a long black gown.

"It's so good to see you, ladies," she said when she reached the table. "Kate and Melancholy, right?"

How she could be so exquisite and so nice at the same time boggled Kate's sardonic mind. "Amazing show," Kate said.

"Was that real blood?" Melanie wondered?

Kate rolled her eyes, but the grin on Angel's face was truly euphoric. "I wish," she said. "Unfortunately it's only corn syrup and food coloring." The beauty turned to Kate. "Lohr's been asking about you. I can take you to him."

The abrupt shift in conversation caught Kate off guard. "Sure. Of course," she said even though her guts twisted around like a swarm of snakes and she wasn't so sure she wanted to see him after all.

"Follow me." Angel was already leading the way. She was about six feet two inches in her towering heels and walked in them as smooth as silk.

Closed doors to what used to be bedrooms surrounded the balcony. Music pumped under the doors, sometimes dark and sexy, sometimes techno, sometimes straight up rock. Kate was dying to know what was going on in those rooms. Her heart bucked wildly inside her chest every time they approached a door. Was it the one Angel was going to open? What would happen when she did?

As luck would have it, a couple crossed their path just as they were approaching door number four. As the couple slipped through the heavy wooden door, Kate strained to look inside. All she was able to make out was the corner or a large cross, a strapped in arm, and a glimpse of a cat-of-nine-tails. She could hear the familiar, "whoosh, whap" of the whip on someone's back, and grinned.
This
was the vampire ball she was hoping for.

At the back corner of the balcony, Angel finally stopped and knocked quietly on the door. Another muscled man opened it, blocking their path.

What was with all the vampires on steroids?

He barely glanced toward Angel, checked out Kate long enough to note the necklace, and then spent a considerable amount of time scrutinizing Melanie.

"I'm sorry, but…"

Angel moved close to him. When she touched his arm he grew fidgety. "Now Kindle," she said sweetly. "The beautiful Kate is here at Lohr's request. He told me not fifteen minutes ago how he was looking forward to seeing her. I doubt Kate wants to abandon her friend. Surely you wouldn't want to deny Lohr the pleasure of Kate's company because there happens to be an additional gorgeous female to add to the mix?"

As she spoke she pressed close to the bouncer. His body became a lightening rod and his breathing became so shallow he was practically panting. The effect Angel's nearness had on him was blatant — his cock was probably trying to jump out of his pants to be closer to her — and Angel was well aware of her power. In fact, for the briefest moment her brown gaze caught Kate's and she winked.

"Of course, Angel. I don't know what I was thinking." He moved aside so they had plenty of space to enter.

The room was actually two rooms divided by a pair of propped open French doors. The front was a small sitting room with a velvet couch and fully stocked bar. The open doors didn't give a full view of the second room, but the light drifting out was distinctively candlelight and the noises accompanying it trapped Kate's breath in her throat.

She suddenly knew exactly what was going on beyond those French doors.

The sight of it, however, completely took her breath away. Couple, groups, a random individual...lounged on sofas, chairs, the floor...with contraptions rivaling anything she'd seen in
La
Luxure's
blood room.

There was blood everywhere. Not pooled on the floor, but dripping down necks, breasts, inner thighs... The air in the room was thick with sex and lust.
 

Kate stepped back startled. She'd suspected, expected,
hoped
for something like this but the actual sight of it put her off. There was just so much blood.

It wasn't that the idea of blood sharing repulsed her. Quite the contrary. But while she might like sex, and the thought of sex with a little blood play made her positively ache, an orgy wasn't her cup of tea. And that's was this was: a giant blood orgy.

Melanie, on the other hand looked like she was ready to strip off her clothes and dive into the pile.

It wasn't hard to spot Lohr. He sat in a high backed padded throne of sorts, his mouth latched on the neck of the mini-skirt wearing slut from
La
Luxure
. One hand gripped her shoulder and the other was nowhere to be seen. Kate had a pretty good idea where it was buried.

Lohr's unnatural blue eyes lifted to Kate just as Angel stepped between them.

The sudden appearance of Angel startled her and Kate gasped.

"Play along," Angel purred, interlacing her fingers in Kate's hair and snaking her body close. "You are uncomfortable. Do you want to leave?" Angel said the words directly into Kate's ear.

"I don't know. Is it safe?"

"You met Kindle on the way in, yes? He's here to make sure things don't get out of hand."

It wasn't hard to follow Angel's lead. Her body was impossibly soft and she exuded sex. It actually shimmered around her, and Kate was reminded of
La Luxure
last night and how Angel had calmed the entire bar. She had no doubt Angel could generate any emotion she desired. The sexual energy wasn't focused on Kate, but spread out around them like ripples in a pond in order to camouflage the true nature of the conversation.

Kate peered over Angel's shoulder. A woman was sprawled over a chair, her corset partially undone, the pink of her nipples barely peeking over the top of the rigid boning. One man had her skirt inched up to her hips, and was making a couple of clean slices into her thigh with a scalpel. Another man was latched onto the top of her exposed breast, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth where he suckled her. The woman writhed and twisted in response, her moans on par with the best orgasms.

The question that sprang from Kate's mouth surprised her. "Is this something Slade's into?"

"At one time, but not anymore. For the last several years he's been where Kindle is."

All Kate could think about was Slade's thick, muscular body hovered over the splayed woman, his mouth on her skin, her blood on his lips. The image lit her stomach on fire and sent tension through her arms, up her neck and finally settling in her jaw.

"Don't feel obligated to stay. This scene isn't for everyone. I don't think Lohr has spotted you yet. I can cover your escape."

Kate nodded. "Yeah...I think I'll have to pass."

Unfortunately, just as Kate was deciding to split, Melanie's voice rose above Peter Steele's deep, New York accent sliding from the speakers. "You're Lohr Varius aren't you? My roommate Kate told me all about you!"