“You believe him?” he asked.
“I don’t know what to believe,” I said. “You know how much I want that.”
“Christ, take your sweet time racking,” Julian said. His ass bumped my hip familiarly as he set the pool table, and he took the opportunity to mutter, “Company at your eleven.”
I ran my hands over Carter’s chest intimately, looking over his shoulder as I pretended to nibble his ear. His breath gave against my chest as I found the vamps; they were crowded by the bar, flirting with the redhead and her friends.
“Fuck, you should take those girls home to keep them safe,” I whispered to him. Then with a wink I added, “and to give them the best night of their lives.”
Not that I would know.
Elly kissed us goodbye, planning to leave us to our game; she’d try to run down the vamps’ hive while they were busy here.
“Later,” she chided me. “You’re coming over for dinner tomorrow.”
“I think that’s a little much quality time,” I teased before I turned to set up my shot.
As I leaned over the pool table, Carter landed a playful smack on my ass.
“Be nice to your grandma,” he teased.
She gave him a look. “I’m going to let some beastie eat all three of you.”
“What did I do?” Julian demanded.
“No, she’s not,” Carter said. “She’s going to feed us fried chicken and try to fix us, like she always does.”
Elly scoffed. “Even I can admit when something is a lost cause.”
Carter walked her out to her car just to make sure she was safe—Hunters are never truly alone—and Julian and I kept an eye on the vamps in the meantime. My pool playing was a lot better when I knew there was no risk of Carter smacking the back of my jeans. He embraced playing the obnoxious boyfriend a bit too much.
When he did come back, he brought another round of shots, and I kept getting louder and bouncier as we went through our game.
“Let’s do some research into this mysterious new friend of yours,” Julian suggested. “Figure out what he wants. What he actually knows.”
These two were always on my side.
“I don’t know how I’d even find him again,” I said, leaning over to take my last shot. “Corner pocket!”
“Was that tank top designed with any intention of keeping your breasts contained?” Carter demanded as I bent over.
“Shoot!” I straightened from the shot I’d sloppily missed, as the cue ball jumped the end of the pool table and rolled across the floor. I had to chase it to catch it, which brought me almost to the vampire’s table. I kneeled a few feet away from them, close enough to smell the dark, obnoxious cologne they wore to cover the odor of blood.
“You look good on your knees,” one of the vamps muttered, so quietly that if I didn’t hunt assholes for a living, I might have doubted I heard him correctly.
I grabbed the cue ball and straightened, rubbing my lipstick with the back of my hand so it smeared across my cheek. I was good at faking messy drunk and looking good at it, too. I gave them a slow, horny once-over—these greasy vamps knew they looked good to humans—and then sashayed back to my friends.
My ass looked luscious in these tight jeans. I knew they were watching.
I was a natural with a sword. I’d learned a lot over the past five years though that hadn’t come so easily. Elly and the other female Hunters had to teach me how to walk naturally even when someone was checking me out. They’d taught me how to be deliberately sexy, how to trick a man with his eyes on my boobs, so they never noticed what I was doing with my hands…or a blade.
I held my hands to either side and shimmied to answer Carter, once I was positioned to give the vamps a good look too. “These babies cannot be contained! I cannot be contained.”
“You’re wild,” he laughed, wrapping me in his arms and hugging me tight. It was the same warm, affectionate hug that Carter always offered me, wherever we were and whatever we were planning. He added, “And drunk.”
“Me?” I asked innocently, then blanched. “I’ll be right back.”
The bar had a hall that led past the restrooms to a rear exit. When I’d knelt to pick up the cue ball, I’d noted that one of the vamps was positioned to watch down that hallway. If I were going to kidnap someone, I’d force them right out that door into the parking lot.
But I was going to make it extra easy for them. I didn’t appreciate the competition from the redhead.
I made a show of being about to hurl and stumbled right past the women’s room door, slamming myself into the back door as I stumbled out into the cool night air. I was still bent over pretending to yak across the concrete when arms circled my waist and yanked me to the left. The second vamp threw the car door open just before I reached it, and the first one bundled me into the back.
I screamed, belatedly, and lashed out at the one who had just taken me. I wouldn’t want to scream in public and draw some well-intentioned civilian into the fray. I was sure their car was soundproofed.
Now they would discover they had their hands more full than they realized. I twisted to reach my blade as the vamps piled into the backseat with me. The two of them flashed toothy grimaces, their fangs ripping out of their gums. They looked like frat boys—I’d been kidnapped by a couple of bros. The thought of anyone’s life ending by bro seemed like an extra tragedy.
The first one lunged at me, but my blade was in my hand, and I caught his throat in my hand. Carter and Julian would be just a step behind. I had to hurry and gut these two before I had to share the win with my friends.
“We heard about you guys, Alisa,” said the second one just as he pulled a potion bottle out of his pocket.
Fuck. The vamps had probably made Carter and Julian too, then. My friends might need a rescue.
I didn’t know what that was in the bottle, but I doubted it was anything good.
I kicked out at him, slamming my booted foot into his face, and he let out a grunt. He dropped the bottle and thrashed around, trying to avoid my next kick. He didn’t make it—my heel clipped him across the temple.
The guy I was struggling with managed to croak out a word in Latin just as the other guy smashed the bottle open with his heel.
I inhaled a sharp, sweet tang of magic, and stared at the two bleeding vamps, their long, gleaming fangs biting into their lips and their eyes gleaming with anticipation.
“What exactly is that supposed to do besides piss me off?” I demanded.
The car door was wrenched open. I looked up with a thrill of relief, expecting to find Julian and Carter safe and unharmed.
Duncan filled the doorway. His breath came fast, as if he were enraged, and his eyes on the two men were icy. All three of us paused; the sense of threat that radiated from him was powerful.
Intoxicating, even.
I didn’t know where the hell that thought had come from, but the wayward horniness was driven away as two shadows shot into the car. I leapt back from the vampire I’d almost strangled as the shadow—no, it was a black dog, an enormous, snarling black dog—slammed into him.
The car rocked as the dogs each leapt onto a vampire. The dogs sounded vicious, growling and snarling, and the vamps screamed, and then there was a wet ripping sound and it was all over.