Rogue (Relentless Book 3) (10 page)

“What?” I pictured the almost naked nymph I’d seen dancing earlier. “I’d better be wearing real clothes.”

Jordan stood and pulled me to my feet. “It’s probably best that you can’t see it. As long as it gets us out of here, right?”

“Ugh! Let’s go.” I glowered at Roland and Peter who were staring at me, as was every other male around us. “Stop that.”

“Sorry,” my friends said sheepishly, and turned away.

“If it makes you feel any better, it doesn’t look like you,” Roland said without looking at me.

Eldeorin led us to the main entrance, right past Chris, who was scanning the room. I tried to look straight ahead, but I couldn’t help myself. I glanced at Chris and found him watching me.
Oh, crap, he knows it’s me.
But then he gave me a slow smile.
Okay, this is beyond awkward.
I wanted to run out of there, but I looked away and forced myself to walk at a normal pace.

The moment the heavy outside door shut behind us, I released the breath I was holding and smacked Eldeorin on the arm. “A freaking nymph? Really? I think my cousin was about to hit on me. Do you know how gross that is?”

His smile was pure mischief. “It got you out of there, didn’t it? And we are all cousins in one way or another.”

I didn’t examine that statement too deeply. I had a feeling Eldeorin had no boundaries when it came to cousins, species, or gender. “Thank you for helping us,” I said instead. “Can you take the glamours off us now?”

“There may be more warriors around. Once you are safely inside your vehicle, I will remove them.”

“Good idea,” Roland said with a smirk as we walked to our car. “In fact, maybe Sara should keep hers for a few days. It’s the perfect disguise.”

“Careful, Roland,” I told him sweetly. “I don’t know how to create glamours yet, but I might someday. How would you like to spend a day walking around in a bikini?”

He winced and raised his hands. “Point taken.”

When we reached the car, Eldeorin hugged me before I could open the door. It was a good thing I had gotten used to hugging, because faeries were an affectionate bunch.

“Stay safe, Cousin. I will check on you soon.”

“How will you find me? Do you have some kind of radar for finding other faeries?”

He laughed softly as he released me. “Something like that. Now get out of here. It won’t take those warriors long to see that you aren’t in the club.”

Jordan started the car, and I climbed into the front passenger seat. By the time I closed the door and buckled my seat belt, Eldeorin had vanished.
I really wish I knew how to do that.
After meeting Eldeorin, I saw there were a lot more advantages to Fae magic than being able to kill vampires.

I rolled down my window a few inches for some air and sank back against my seat. What a night.

Roland let out a deep breath. “Damn, that was close.”

“If we hadn’t met the faerie, they would have had us for sure,” Peter added.

I nodded. “And I’m not sure I would have gotten in to see Adele without him. After meeting her, I’m really glad he was with me.”

Jordan glanced at me as she started driving us back to the hotel. “Why? What happened?”

I told them about meeting Adele and what I had learned about Madeline.

“A succubus?” Jordan made a face. “Madeline has strange taste in friends.”

“If Madeline really is in LA, I think she’ll visit her soon. We just have to watch Adele.”

Roland laid his hand on my shoulder. “I hate to put a crimp in your plans, but the Mohiri were all over that place. We can’t exactly do a stakeout with all those warriors nosing around.”

“Not to mention we have no idea where Adele lives,” Jordan said, stopping at a red light.

“That’s why I’m going to ask David to –” I broke off and looked around the intersection. “Did you guys hear that?”

Jordan looked over at me. “Hear what?”

I rolled the window all the way dawn. “I thought I heard –”

A girl’s terrified scream split the air.

I gasped, not because of the scream, but because of the cold spot forming in my chest. We’d been in Los Angeles for two days and I was surprised it had taken this long to come across one of them. “Vampire.”

Roland slapped the back of Jordan’s seat. “Drive, Jordan!”

“We have to do something,” I told them.

“We have to get out of here,” Roland argued. “We can’t go looking for trouble.”

“I’m not looking for trouble, but I can’t stand by while one of those things murders someone.” My statement was punctuated by another scream.

Jordan jerked the wheel to the right and sped down a less busy side street. The cold spot in my chest grew until I knew we were there. I motioned to her, and she parked in front of a closed drycleaner and jumped out. I followed her to the trunk where we began pulling weapons from the duffle bag we had stored there earlier. I armed myself with a long dagger and the mini crossbow, and Jordan grabbed her new sword.

I held a knife out to Roland, but he shook his head. He and Peter ran into the darkened loading dock between the drycleaner and a laundromat. Less than thirty seconds later, I heard the scratch of claws on pavement.

“No!” a girl cried. It came from the alley across the street. The terror in her voice spurred me forward, and I was halfway across the street before Roland let out a soft growl and started after me.

The alley was lit by the streetlight, and I came up short at the sight before me. The blue-haired girl from the club was backed against a dumpster with her hands held in front of her. Flames flew from her fingertips, holding off the blond vampire advancing on her. At her feet lay her vrell demon friend from the club. He was unconscious and blood ran down one side of his face.

A few feet away from them, two vampires were feeding on a female mox demon. Their noisy slurping and the sight of the ravaged body made my stomach revolt. All I could see was Olivia and Mark lying on the snow that was soaked with their blood.

Rage burned through me. Before I knew what I was doing, I had the crossbow cocked and aimed at one of the vampires kneeling over the mox demon. He jerked and screamed when the silver-coated arrow pierced his back. It wasn’t close enough to hit his heart, but he screeched when he grabbed the arrow and tried to pull it out.

The other two vampires turned their attention to us. “What have we here?” the blond drawled, and then his eyes widened at something behind me. I didn’t have to look to know Roland and Peter were flanking me.

Jordan came to stand beside me. “Vampires eating demons? That’s like cannibalism, isn’t it?”

“What do you care about a couple of dead demons?” asked the red-headed vampire still kneeling over the mox demon. He rose slowly to his feet, and I saw his eyes flit between Jordan and me, assessing who was the bigger threat.

Jordan raised her sword. “We don’t care about dead demons. We do, however, have a problem with live blood suckers.”

The redhead’s attention shifted back to me and instead of fear I felt a flash of annoyance. Why did everyone assume I was the weak one? I looked at Jordan’s sword and listened to the two growling werewolves behind me. Okay, maybe this time they were right.

“I think he likes you,” Jordan said, laughter in her voice.

The blond vampire yelled at his friend who was still making a God-awful racket as he tried to remove my arrow. “Shut up, Trevor!”

“I can shut him up for you,” Jordan said sweetly. “Wouldn’t take more than a second.”

“You can have her,” snarled the redhead. “I want the little one. “

Roland let out a deep growl that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I put my hand back and touched his furry snout.

Jordan scoffed. “Sorry, guys, you aren’t really our types.”

The blond vampire sniffed the air. “Mohiri children out walking their pets. I wonder if your blood is as sweet as they say it is.”

I loaded another arrow into the crossbow. At the same time, I opened my power, relishing the comforting heat spreading through me. The way they moved told me they weren’t mature vampires, but they weren’t new, either. My eyes went to the blue-haired girl who was crouched in a defensive stance between her demon friend and the vampires.

“You guys need some new material,” Jordan quipped. “Sara, what was the name of the last sucker who thought you smelled good? You know the one you killed in Albuquerque?”

“Stefan Price.”

Both vampires stared at me. “
You
killed Stefan Price? Impossible,” declared the redhead.

Jordan brandished her sword. “Why don’t you come over here and find out for yourself?”

Trevor, who had finally managed to extricate the arrow from his back, strutted over to stand beside his friends. He looked a lot cockier when he wasn’t jumping around and screeching his head off. “What are we standing around for? Let’s take care of these bitches and their pups.” He pointed a clawed finger at me. “That one is mine.”

“Sorry, I’m already taken.” I swung the crossbow up and aimed it, earning a laugh from him.

He bared his fangs at me. “You took me by surprise the first time. Do you really think you can hit me in the heart with that thing before I get to –?”

Trevor let out an earsplitting shriek and doubled over, clutching at the arrow protruding from his smoking crotch.

“I wasn’t aiming for your heart.”

Jordan whistled. “Damn, girl, you do have an evil streak after all.”

“If he can’t walk, he can’t attack.”

Roland growled impatiently. The other two vampires took a step back.

“Right, let’s get this over with. Jordan and I will take the redhead, and you guys handle the other two.” It seemed like a fair fight since Trevor was now trying to crawl away. The alley was a dead end, so I wasn’t sure where he thought he was going.

I couldn’t help but compare this to the first time I ended up in an alley with a vampire. I had been so terrified of Eli I could barely move. Back then, I could never imagine me willingly going after a vampire, let alone three of them. So much had changed since that night in Portland. The irony of it all was that vampires were responsible for a lot of it.

The vampires realized playtime was over when the four of us split into pairs. They crouched side-by-side and bared their fangs and claws at us. Tendrils of fear curled in my stomach and adrenaline spiked through me even though we had them outnumbered. I welcomed it. Fear keeps you alive.

Roland and Peter moved first. Snarling, they ran toward the blond vampire. I saw the vampire’s face contort in fear a second before he spun and fled deeper into the alley with the werewolves on his heels. I heard growls and screams, but the dumpster was blocking my view. 

The redhead’s lips curled as Jordan and I advanced on him. “You shouldn’t have let your guard dogs run off. Now it’s just us.”

I reloaded the crossbow and pulled out the dagger I had stuck in the waistband of my pants. “Can you take him?” I asked Jordan, knowing she was itching for a vampire kill. But he wasn’t as young as most of the vampires she had killed.

“Probably,” she replied without her usual cockiness.

“Go for it. I’ve got your back.”

She smiled and started forward. “I know you do.”

The vampire didn’t wait for her to reach him. He rushed at her, claws outstretched. He was fast, but Jordan was faster. She leapt to one side and whirled in a lithe movement to slice the sword across his back. He screamed and spun, lashing out at her. I heard a soft grunt as his claws scored her bare arm, but she didn’t falter. The sword came up again and this time it severed the hand that had injured her. Blood splattered across the front of the new top she’d bought for tonight. She was going to be pissed about that.

He let out a screech and ran at her again. One thing I’d learned over the last few months was that immortality did not equal intelligence. No person in their right mind would attack someone who looked as fierce as Jordan did in that moment, especially if that someone was holding a big ass sword. Her movements when she met his attack were easy and graceful like the steps in a deadly dance. She reminded me of Nikolas.

Jordan’s sword opened a gaping gash in the vampire’s stomach. He stumbled back in shock and grabbed his gut. Like a predator, she advanced. Metal glinted. The vampire’s next scream was cut off as his head separated from his body.

We looked at each other over the vampire’s body. Her chest rose and fell sharply, but I knew it was from excitement, not exertion. She lifted the bloody sword and smiled. “I told you this sword was made for me.”

I started to reply but stopped when I realized I no longer heard any sounds of fighting from the end of the alley. My stomach twisted in fear. “Roland? Peter?”

Their big wolf forms appeared around the dumpster, bloody in places but otherwise looking okay. Roland looked at the dead vampire at Jordan’s feet then nodded to let us know the other two were dead as well.

A whimper drew my attention to the blue-haired girl and her friend, and I rushed over to help them. I couldn’t touch the vrell demon, so I laid a hand on the girl’s bare arm to comfort her. I’m not sure which of us was more shocked when my power flared and lashed out at her. I’d gotten pretty good at keeping it under control, but I was a bit worked up and not expecting her to be a demon. I yanked my hand away. “Shit, you’re a demon.”