I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled. Was that a backhanded compliment or an insult? Unsure, I replied, “We’re not much alike, she and I. Don’t let the clothing fool you.”
“Miss Summore is very basic in her needs,” he agreed. “You seem like you want something different than her hedonistic lifestyle. It surprises me.” One black brow arched as he studied me, reaching for his beer and taking a long swig.
Pigeonholed. Now that smarted. “Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Fanged, that I might have had a job and a life I was happy with before everyone started messing with me? I liked my world safe and normal and neat. I even liked being respected for my brain and not how well I fill out a bra. That all changed when your kind started fucking with me.”
I took the beer from his hand and swigged the rest of it myself. Pissed wasn’t the word for how I felt at the moment. On fire with angry self-righteousness, maybe. They’d come into my life and turned it upside down, and now had the nerve to be irritated at me?
He laughed in my face and let me have the beer. “I can’t imagine your life was so wonderful that it couldn’t use a bit of improving.”
Anger fired through all my synapses, and I saw red. “Where do you get off, buddy?”
“The blood bank,” he said calmly, responding with another sly smile. “And judging from the noise upstairs, you have about two minutes to wake Adam up before the queen gets here.”
Oh, crap.
I turned to Adam with a sudden desperation and pressed my forehead against his again. The slither of my mind leaving my body shuddered through me, and within moments all was black and dark as night as the world lost focus.
“Hey again.”
I opened my eyes, staring into Adam’s dream bedroom once more. My slutty clones were gone, and Adam reclined on the bed, flipping channels on the TV with the remote, his pants still down around his ankles.
“Hey,” I said in automatic response. I stood awkwardly in the middle of his room and tugged at my skirt. “Um, what are you doing?” The conversation felt awkward without the horny twosome there to break the tension.
“So when are we leaving this dump?” Adam gave me an insolent look and scratched at his naked crotch on the bed. Nice. “As much fun as it is to be here, the girls went away when you left last time, and I’m bored out of my fucking mind sitting here. Can you bring them back?”
Good question. Could I? I didn’t know.
“Let’s not talk about that right now,” I said, switching the subject back to the current situation. “Your queen is on the way, and I need you to wake up again, so both of us aren’t chewed up and spit out.”
“I’m asleep?” Adam seemed surprised by this. A moment later, he paled and shot up out of his bed. “The queen? She’s coming? Here?”
“Well, not here,” I corrected. “To the club. Where your body is at, but your brain is here. Make sense?”
“You’ve got to wake me up! She won’t like it if she sees I’ve been messing around with one of your type.” His red eyes actually looked worried. “Bring me back.”
I spread my dream-hands in a nervous gesture. “I don’t know how.”
He bounded across the room and grabbed me by the shoulders. “What do you mean, you don’t know how? Do something! Sprinkle some magic dust, suck me off, sit on my face, whatever it is your type does to get people awake.”
I jerked away. “Back off, loser. I’m trying to figure it out, all right?” I just didn’t have any idea of which direction to head.
I put a fist to my brow and concentrated. Think, Jackie, think. If you want to wake someone up, what do you do? Call their name? Throw water on their face?
Inspiration struck, and I reached out and pinched sullen Adam. Hard. “Wakey wakey.”
His mouth opened, showing his fangs, and then he vanished, popping out of the surreal reality like a soap bubble.
Before I could wonder if my method had worked, I was shaken back into my body. My spirit slithered back into my skin and my body crawled with a long, intense shudder. It was a disgusting feeling, the opposite of a snake shedding its skin.
Then I crashed to the floor as Adam shoved me off of him, my head thumping against the marble with a crack. The world went black for a moment …
And then I abruptly came to again, fully alert. Crap-I guess succubi couldn’t be knocked unconscious. Which kinda sucked at the moment; I wouldn’t have minded being out when the queen made her entrance.
“Careful,” Zane’s smooth voice warned. His fists were clenched and he was giving a rather sleepy (yet pissed) Adam a dangerous look. “The queen’s going to want to talk to her. Don’t damage her.”
Damage me? Hell, if that was all he was worried about. Disgusted, I picked myself up and dusted off my skirt (which had crawled up over my glorious backside, exposing it to the public). “No, no, don’t help me up,” I jibed at the vampires who stood watching me haul my ass off the floor. “I’ve got it. Really. It’s a piece of cake, getting up off the floor in a miniskirt and stilettos. No shit.”
I heard Zane smother a half laugh, but the others were silent, their faces as stony as gargoyles. Adam was watching my ass, with a mixture of lust and anger at what I had just put him through. I had thought he wouldn’t remember anything, but I guessed wrong. Big surprise there.
Across the room I heard Remy’s muffled whimper, and then darkness descended on us all.
The queen had arrived.
I couldn’t tell if it was a physical darkness or a mental sort of darkness; all I knew was that I was on my knees again, gasping for breath in lungs that had suddenly become too constricted with fear to pull in air. A miasma of dread covered the room, the temperature dropping several degrees to an icy chill. I could feel dark, old hunger, black malevolence, and greed as it swept over me and swarmed through the room, and I felt it approach. My eyes were squeezed shut and I didn’t realize that I was biting my lip to keep from screaming until I tasted blood.
“A party?” The voice whispered across the gloom and rang in my ears, as loud as gunshots in the silence. “And I see you’ve invited friends, one of whom I have not met before.”
I felt the full impact of the queen’s focus on my body, and I nearly slithered into a boneless heap on the floor. There was something inherently wrong about her, something that made me want to run screaming and sleep with the lights on. This was old, old evil, and it had focused its attention on me.
“A whore-child? Unexpected. What is your name, whore-child?” I heard the clack of heels as she approached, could feel the malice rolling over me as I crouched and whimpered on the floor.
To my surprise, Zane spoke. “Her name is Colette. She’s a succubus like the other one.”
Oh lord, why was he lying to the queen? I wanted to babble out my most fearful secrets to her, even though I knew she’d use them against me. My mind was like a brick of ice as I stood there, paralyzed with fear and unable to function. “I–I …” I tried, and failed. My thick tongue wouldn’t work.
The queen sighed, the sound surprisingly gentle. “Ah, yes. I do remember the other one. I have not seen her in some time, though it is always a treat to see one of her … ilk.” The way she tasted the words made me think that it was not a treat at all, but a huge inconvenience, and both Remy and I would pay the cost. No wonder Remy had been skittish around the vampires, and I hoped I’d never have to see them again.