I snuck a glance toward Nevaeh, who was entertaining shifters of her own, the hand of a pretty blonde running circles around her knee. She looked at me with a wink, raising another shot as she jerked her chin toward the Fae group sidling through the crowd.
“Another round on me!”
A roar of appreciation shook the room. The dark-haired shifter beside me put his arm around my waist and tugged me toward his chest, filling my nose with the scents of sweat and booze and his pungent cologne. Somewhere in the crowd, the Fae faltered. Tarik. I fought the impulse to flinch.
That temper of his . . .
A tall figure, Sebastian, moved swiftly to the side and blocked my view. I hoped he could get Tarik moving again, even as I smiled at the shifter who was too close, too hot, his fingers on my back making my skin crawl. I reluctantly picked up the shot glass the bartender slid my way, offering a seductive grin to the shifter pawing at me, only to have another shifter step forward to try his luck too.
Before I could react, I was swept from the bar into the swell of shifters, passed between them like a prize. Somewhere behind me, Nevaeh chided them for taking me from her side. For a moment, I didn’t know if she would come for me. Panic rose in my chest as the ebony-haired shifter slipped his hand up my thigh, as two of his friends circled around me. The need to shift pressed on my spine, urging me to defend myself, to flee from this uncomfortable situation.
Then she was there, her arm back in mine, pulling me free of the crowd.
“You’re all so overzealous. You’re overwhelming my friend.” She clicked her tongue. “Another round to keep you busy while we freshen up.”
A final roar of excitement and the room was chaos once more. We ducked into the women’s bathroom. Nevaeh tipped back the shot still clutched in her hand and sighed.
“I saw our crew get through,” she said. “A struggle, because Tarik was fighting them. But they made it into the back room. Now it’s our turn.”
“Easy for you,” I murmured, checking the stalls to make sure no one was listening. “You shift into a rat. Literally no one will notice you slip out.”
“If you think I’m going to leave my best friend behind, you’ve got another think coming.”
“And while I appreciate that, how do we get to the back room from here?”
Nevaeh winked, but didn’t give me a real answer, shoving a dark beanie on my head and poking the free strands underneath.
“Your white hair will be a quick giveaway.” She repeated the motions on herself. “As will my lavender. We have to be swift. They’ll figure out we’re gone soon enough.”
After a moment’s pause Nevaeh moved for the tiny, street-level bathroom window above us. Stretching to her toes she yanked up the latch and shoved it open. She tossed her heels out. “They’ll send some of those pretty girls in here to investigate soon enough. Might as well give them something to find.”
“You love those heels.”
“And I love you more. This will buy us time. Come on.”
She grabbed my hand before I could protest and pulled me from the bathroom. The bartender was so distracted pouring drinks for the excitable shifters that he didn’t notice us as we snuck past. For a moment, we thought no one had seen us slip through the heavy red door to the back.
“Two for one, hmm?” The deep voice echoed in the small space. Nevaeh’s fingers tightened around mine. That ebony-haired shifter must have been watching me more closely than I thought. “I mean, there’s a lot of people out there who would be happy with even one of you gals, but if you’re going to do your business back here, I might as well join in.”
The room wasn’t very big. A quick scan told me my lion wouldn’t fit between the shelves filled with food, drink, and supplies that lined the walls. My attention snagged on the floor hatch near the back of the room. The door was propped open. The Fae were already below.
Nevaeh and I were going to have to be clever.
“We’re a little busy right now,” she said, and I could have groaned.
So much for thinking this through.
“That’s fine.” The man grinned, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the door. “I’ll wait. Hell, I don’t even mind watching.”
Nevaeh rolled her eyes. “That’s not how we operate.”
The need to shift itched through me, but if I did, my lion would cause too much commotion. I extended my nails and let my hands morph into claws, hiding them behind my back. At least I wasn’t entirely unarmed.
“Oh, I get it,” he said. The smile faded from his lips. “You use the crowd to get your jollies and then hide away to get your rocks off. Bonus points if it’s somewhere like this where you can get caught.” He shrugged. “But from where I’m standing, you’re not getting out until I move, and I’m not moving until I get something out of all that teasing.”
“We’re not giving you anything,” I growled, unable to fully contain the minor shift in my throat that made my words sound unnatural. Animal.
“What makes you think you can stop me?”
And in an instant I remembered another time like this, when I had felt helpless. When Alec had cornered me. I hadn’t acted.
Nevaeh glanced my way. Understanding flared in her eyes. She stepped around me and swung a fist toward the shifter’s jaw. He caught her hand with ease, wrenching her arm to the side. Before he could twist, I was there, my half-shifted hand against his throat. My lion’s claws dug into his skin, releasing beads of blood that ran streaks of crimson down my white fur.
“Hey, easy, this was all in good fun,” he sputtered. I watched his Adam's apple dip, my claws mere inches above it.
“Fun for who?” I snarled.
His attention slid to the white fur covering the back of my hand and his dark eyes widened. “N-Night Enforcer?”
I swore under my breath, a match to Nevaeh’s own expletive. She frowned. “We have to take care of this.”
“I know . . .”
But I didn’t want to. Even if he was a shifter, and a vial, loathsome man who had tried to pressure Nevaeh and me into something neither of us were comfortable with.
My claws dug deeper and he yelped softly.
A bottle filled with clear liquid crashed down on his head. The scent of alcohol and blood filled my nose. Shattered glass cut into his scalp, leaving a deep gash down the length of his cheek.
“We need to move,” Nevaeh said, as he slumped to the floor. “Now, before the noise attracts attention.”
“It’s so loud out there . . . they couldn’t have heard—”
“Reagan.” I met her eyes, her expression calm and steady. “Trust me. We need to go. Now.”
I nodded, my hands shifting back to normal, my hair falling into layers of blue and black around my shoulders. Blood splatters still coated my fingers and stomach, but I tried to ignore them as I dropped through the hatch across the room after my friend.
“What was that sound?” Akeno asked Nevaeh.
“Nothing. A complication. We handled it.”
Akeno huffed in response, then set to work, using a blow torch to secure the hatch behind us. Buying us time. We didn’t seem to have enough of it.
The underground passage was dark and the strong scent of mildew pressed in on me, making my stomach uneasy. I rubbed at my temples, relieved that we had gotten this far and that only one shifter had seen us escape. And he had been quickly dealt with.