Angelica nodded her head but ignored the hand offered. Some vampires could determine what type of being a person was through touch. She didn’t need Stephen knowing she was the only child of the head of the North American vampire council. She liked keeping a low profile, and it helped that she came across to most paranormal species’ senses as human.
As Stephen lowered his hand, he told Sophie, “Keep an eye on her in there if you don’t want her being munched on.”
Her cousin’s smile looked more like a smirk. “Don’t worry. She can handle herself, but I’ll stay close in case she needs me. How long you on duty tonight?” Sophie ran her hand down his shoulder and rested it briefly on Stephen’s chest.
The big vampire shuddered, and his eyelids lowered to half-mast. “To closing.”
“Aww, that’s too bad. Maybe you can get away for a few,” Sophie asked suggestively as that hand stroked lower until it cupped him between the legs.
Angelica was used to the lack of inhibitions and overt sexuality of vampires, but still found herself glancing around warily at the steady stream of customers entering the club. Fortunately they were focused on the goal of getting inside and seemed completely oblivious to the love play going on right in front of them.
“You got it, baby,” Stephen assured Sophie before snatching her up for another lingering kiss.
Angelica rolled her eyes. Her cousin’s family line fed on sex as well as blood. Sophie looked like sex on a stick, and her sensuous nature never left her lacking for lovers. For a moment, she almost pitied Stephen. Her cousin wasn’t equipped to settle down with a mate, not for a long time at least, and Stephen looked like he had it bad for her, if the glazed expression in his eyes when the kiss ended was anything to go by.
Sophie wiggled her fingers at him, grabbed Angelica by the arm, and said, “Later, lover,” as she towed Angelica through the black double door.
Sounds and scents crashed over them like a big Hawaiian wave. Heavy metal rock blasted her sensitive eardrums, and the scent of sex with a metallic undertone of blood assaulted her nostrils. It was the emotional backlash that rocked her and almost brought her to her knees. Angelica sent more power to her empathic shields until on the psychic plane they took on a diamond-like hardness. Sophie tugged on her arm and pointed up. Angelica allowed her gaze to travel in the direction of her cousin’s finger and noticed a set of stairs leading to an upper, glassed-in level. The bottom of the stairs was roped off, and the upper room seemed, from this angle, to have less people. She followed when Sophie turned and headed in that direction.
“Up here we can be ourselves,” her cousin shouted as she unlatched the cord, waved Angelica past, and secured the cord again once she was on the other side. As they walked up the stairs, Angelica could feel the anticipation radiating off Sophie in waves.
She’d never before been to the Warehouse, being instead inclined to shy away from places her kind haunted. Half-breeds like herself were rare. In fact, Angelica was the only one of her kind that she knew about in this generation, and on this continent. Therefore, it wouldn’t take long for others to put two and two together and realize she was the daughter of an extremely powerful vampire. Then any hint of anonymity and independence she’d gained over the years would be lost.
Her father would assign guards to protect his fragile half-human daughter from vampires willing to use her as a pawn against him. Not to mention power-hungry male vampires would be coming out of the woodwork, attempting to woo her with the idea of getting an in with her father. No thank you. She hadn’t traveled thousands of miles from home and set up housekeeping only to get dragged back into vampire politics and the power struggles that went hand in hand with them.
Angelica pushed all that out of her mind as they went through the double-wide opening at the top of the stairs. In here, the lighting and sound was much more vampire friendly. The glass walls must have had some type of soundproofing in them, because most of the noise from below was muted. A quick glance showed several vampires feeding, from arms, necks, and even a few inner thighs. The smell of sex was stronger up here than below. Sex did make a feeding so much better.
In her element, Angelica cautiously dropped her shields and let the emotions—lust, hunger, anticipation, greed, satiation—flow over her and fill her. None but other members of her family caste knew she could feed from emotions as well as from blood. She drew it in so deep her nipples puckered and her sex swelled and moistened. Oh yes, this was more like it.
Angelica followed Sophie onto the dance floor. Before she left tonight the Thirst would be well quenched. She thought back to earlier that evening when she’d been making love with Raul. Since the beginning she’d been aware of the physical signs of his wolf coming to the surface as his lust raged almost out of control, but Raul had been so busy hiding what he was, he’d never noticed her feeding off the sexual energy they’d created. Or the appearance of her fangs as she’d fought the battle to feed from more than his emotions.
She swayed her hips sensuously from side to side and let her body issue its invitation. Come to me. Feel me. Feed me.
Chapter Five
Fifteen minutes, an hour? Raul didn’t know how long he prowled around outside. He hurt. He’d always believed one day he’d find his mother and say…what? I thought you loved me? If so, how could you just walk away from me like old furniture that you no longer needed? Or maybe he’d beg her forgiveness for ruining his parents’ marriage? Whatever the case, it no longer mattered, because she was dead.
Dead.
In the grand scheme of things, did knowledge of his mother’s death change anything? No. That acknowledgment settled his queasy gut but did nothing for the hollow feeling in his chest. Slowly Raul made his way back inside to hear the rest of what his uncle wanted to say to him.
Uncle Joey waited until he was seated before continuing. “You know, son, I’ve never liked speaking ill of the dead, but it’s past time you knew all of it. When the situation with your parents first happened, you were too young for us to fully explain. And later…well, you seemed to have adjusted so completely to your parents’ abandonment that none of us wanted to bring up painful memories. I’d always intended to revisit the issue when you became older, but whenever I tried to ease into the subject, you blew me off. Max finally convinced me to leave it alone. However, I’m guessing by your reaction tonight that was a mistake. I should have pushed the issue, not let it go.”
Raul shrugged. “For the most part I had, adjusted, that is.”
“But you blame yourself for your parents’ breakup and your father’s death.”
“Because it’s my fault. Poppa told me not to tell Momma what he could do, that it was a secret. I told. You saw what happened as a result,” Raul stated.
Uncle Joey said some uncomplimentary things regarding his father’s ancestry under his breath that Raul pretended not to hear.
“You know, your father wasn’t the only male in this family to mate with a human.”
Shock replaced guilt as Raul jerked his head up from contemplating his feet and made his uncle the focus of his complete attention. He opened his mouth to pepper his uncle with questions, but Joey held up a hand, forestalling him.
“You just listen now. You can ask questions after,” Uncle Joey instructed.
Raul bit back his questions and waited.
“I know because of your father you’ve got the belief that mating between shifters and human are doomed to fail. Maybe even forbidden, but that’s simply not the case.”