He speed-dialed Mercer.
Mercer answered with a blast of music in the background. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for the last hour.”
“I’m sorry. I ended up at Uncle Joey’s,” Raul said loudly into the receiver.
“Well, get your ass down here quick. Your girl flew the coop about an hour after you left. We’re at the Warehouse.”
Raul’s claws sliced out. The Warehouse was a well-known vampire feeding ground. “You let her go in there? Alone?” he bellowed.
“Hell no, you know me better than that, but I couldn’t stop her from going inside, not without explaining why I’d been following her in the first place. I didn’t think you wanted her knowing you’d stuck a tail on her,” Mercer explained.
Raul let out a string of curses and ran an agitated hand through his hair. “Okay, let me think. Can you get inside?”
“Already am,” Mercer confirmed. “I latched on to a couple of beauties near the front of the line. They let me join their party. I ditched them once inside.”
“Did the guards give you any trouble?” he asked as he shoved the vehicle in gear, backed out of the brush, and eased onto the pavement.
“No, you know shifter blood is a delicacy. They watched me with hungry eyes, but no one made a move to stop me,” Mercer said.
“Nobody touches her. You hear me?”
“So far, it’s not the vampires you need to be concerned with. It’s the humans. I’ll drag her off the dance floor if I have to, but the way she’s dressed, it will start a riot.”
Raul growled, and his gums hurt. “I’ll be there in ten.”
“Make it five,” Mercer said and disconnected the line.
Six minutes later Raul strode to the double entrance doors of the Warehouse like he owned the place. He was tired, smelled of earth and sweat, and probably looked wild. The line of people he bypassed waiting to get in hissed and booed at him. Some hurled insults while others shouted out complaints.
He ignored them all, his attention on the two male vampires flanking the doors.
One held out a black-nailed hand, his long black hair pulled back in a queue, his body encased in head-to-toe black. “Get to the back of the line.”
Raul flashed canines and allowed his eyes to go wolf. “My mate’s inside.”
The younger-looking vamp, a blond appearing barely out of his teens, which meant he was probably old as fuck, nudged the larger one. “I didn’t see no bitch come through the line. Did you?”
Raul had the vamp dangling by the throat in an instant. “Watch how you speak about my woman,” he snarled.
The crowd, those close enough to see the confrontation, fell into an uneasy silence broken by a few muttered whispers. Some broke line and left, clearly not wanting to be involved in whatever trouble Raul was bringing.
The black-haired vampire made to move, and Raul’s head snapped around to pin him with a glare. “Don’t. I’ll rip his throat out before you can blink. I’m not here to cause a scene. I just want my woman, and then we’ll be leaving.”
The vampire met his gaze for a long moment, glanced at the claws currently embedded in his fellow security guard’s neck, then looked over his shoulder to the crowd that was growing more agitated by the moment. “Noel’s right. No she-wolf has come through the line.”
“You’ll forgive me if I want to see for myself.”
The vamp debated the wisdom of allowing Raul access.
“Oh look,” Raul taunted as more people broke away from the line and left, “more cattle are leaving. Make up your mind quickly before the rest of tonight’s dinner runs away.”
“Go, wolf,” the vampire snarled. “Find your bitch before someone makes a meal out of her.” The look in his eye said he hoped someone drained Angel dry. He pulled on the door and held it open.
Raul didn’t bother to correct his misconception by telling him Angel was human. He pulled a twenty out of his pocket and gave it to the larger vamp before turning his wolf gaze on the one still dangling by the neck. “Be careful who you taunt. It’s been a while since my pack had a good hunt.” With a casual flick of the wrist, Raul tossed him aside, wiped the blood on his jeans, then entered the club.
As soon as the door shut behind him, the noise and smell of the place overwhelmed him. Underneath the sweat, lust, and alcohol was the iron tinge of blood and the musty scent of sex. His nostrils twitched a protest. The booming bass and strident screech of electric guitars threatened to blow out his sensitive eardrums. He needed to find Angel and get the hell out of there as soon as possible.
He glanced around as he followed the direction most of the club’s patrons seemed to be headed. He didn’t see Angel or Mercer. There were too many people. This was the second time today Raul wished he’d completed the mating bond with Angel. Then he’d know exactly where she was at all times. After tonight the lack of a bond would no longer be an issue, he reminded himself.
He moved out of the flow of foot traffic, whipped out his cell phone, and sent Mercer a brief text. I’m here. Where is she?
Upstairs.
He automatically glanced up to the dark, glass-enclosed space above. Then he scrutinized the club until he noted the curving staircase leading to the upper level.
Upstairs was darker than the lower level. The smell of blood and sex intensified. Raul’s preternatural vision kicked in, turning the dark shapes into identifiable beings. This level was a mass of booths along the back wall, small round high tables that seated two intimately overlooking the dance floor below, another smaller bar doing brisk business, and dance floor filled but not overflowing with bodies like the ones below.
Raul glanced over the dance floor twice before he spotted Angel. She was dressed in a gold metallic halter dress that barely covered the essentials. Her breasts bounced and jiggled as she danced to the pounding beat. Angel’s long, curly dark brown hair swirled around her hips, drawing attention to her rounded ass. She was laughing at something the woman, obviously a vampire, dancing with her said. He started forward determinedly.
Two willowy arms wrapped around his neck as a skinny blonde stepped into his path. “Hey, handsome. Buy me a drink?” she slurred, pressing her body tightly to his.
Raul grasped her by the waist, lifted her bodily, and set her to the side. “No, thank you, and I believe you’ve had enough.” As he moved past her, he heard her wail, “Hey, where’d he go?”
He didn’t look back. His gaze was locked onto his target. A growl rumbled low in his chest when a male eased up behind his woman and ground his pelvis against her butt in a parody of sex, his hands placed possessively on her hips. He lowered his face to her neck and languidly drew his tongue from the base to just below her ear where the pulse beat steadily.
Hell no! No vamp was feeding from his woman. He’d rip the man from limb to limb. Wolf riding just below the surface of his skin, Raul shoved his way forward with no consideration for the dancers he dislodged to reach his goal.
In a quick move, Angel pivoted so that she was behind the male. To his immediate consternation, she didn’t shove Lover Boy away. Instead she draped one arm around his neck and wrapped the other his waist, her hand dangling perilously close to the male’s crotch. Then Angel tipped the male’s chin up and to the side, baring a long length of throat. Her mouth opened wide, revealing a dainty pair of fangs, right before she sank them into the male’s carotid artery.
Chapter Six
Raul halted so abruptly it felt like he’d run into an invisible wall. Even his wolf went preternaturally still inside, analyzing this new information about the woman they both claimed as mate. He stared fixedly while she fed, eyes closed, and a rapturous expression on her face. The same look, in fact, she had when she climaxed with him deep inside her.