Raven sent me a text to let me know he was ready to meet up at the club after sundown. It was a Friday night and the club would be hopping with vamps and groupies alike.

I pulled up in front of the club. The parking lot was packed. I found a spot and texted Raven to ask where he was.

Already inside.

Meandering through the crowd in front of the club, I got in line to go inside. The other women around me were dressed in skimpy, revealing clothes, with dyed pink and purple hair, facial piercings, tattoos, and their breasts pushed sky high.

I looked down at my outfit. Black leather pants, black tank top, black leather jacket. Any paranormal creature would be able to see my sword and gun. At least I’d brushed my hair and washed my face after my workout.

Turning around into a shadow, I pulled my boobs up and pulled down the neck of my tank. There. That would look sexy.

I approached the bouncer, not wanting to stand in the ridiculous line. I worked for the Council. I shouldn’t have to wait.

“Executioner Olivia Fanning. I have business here,” I said to the same guy I’d seen earlier that day. He growled down at me, crossing his massive arms over his thick chest.

“Your friend is already inside,” he said, unhooking the rope barrier. He pulled it aside and I walked through into the dark entrance of the club.

Dance music poured through the hallway, thumping in my brain and vibrating through my body. When I turned into the main room of the club, my eyes widened. It was packed. There was a DJ up on the stage spinning beats for the writhing crowd on the dance floor. Purple, blue, and pink lights flashed over the room.

The crowded bar bustled with activity. Bottles of alcohol lined the mirrored wall behind the bar. All the gothy clubbers bounced around, eye makeup in full effect.

Approaching the bar, I saw Raven leaning over it with a beer absently pinched between his long fingers. The line of his sensuous back, his slim waist, and hips curved over the bar. The sight of it made my panties melt. I wanted to touch him. My fingers ached to caress the sensitive flesh under his thin T-shirt, peeking from under his leather bomber jacket. 

I sidled up next to him, pushing in between him and the purple dreadlocked groupie getting drunk on peppermint schnapps. She gave me a snotty look, but I ignored her.

“Come here often?” I yelled in Raven’s ear, over the music. He pursed his lips at me and swigged his beer.

“You’re late, Fanning.”

“I’m not late, you’re early. You’re trying to get some vamp groupie action aren’t you?” I teased. He didn’t take the bait. He just stared at me like I had two heads. Fine, whatever. Don’t have a sense of humor.

“There is a VIP room in the back where they do most of their bloodletting.”

“Let’s start there.”

He pushed away from the bar and started weaving through the crowd, leaving me to push through behind him. Music thumped through the floor and the dancers moved in a writhing, sensual rhythm that awakened my own feelings as I followed Raven through the flashing lights and mass of semi-naked bodies.

We came to a back section of the warehouse that was walled off from the rest, where a bouncer stood outside the door. He frowned at us.

“VIPs only,” the bouncer said.

“We were just here earlier. Stefan invited us to ask around about the missing girls.” Raven flashed his badge and the bouncer frowned.

“What about her?”

I was about to speak but Raven cut me off. “She’s with me.”

I closed my gaping mouth and followed him through the door into the VIP room. It was lit in bright pink light with a central stage. Strippers danced topless in G-strings and ballet-style heels while they held clear plastic poles full of glowing LED lights.

Red couches were scattered across the room, curving around low tables. Groups of men and women in various stages of undress were pressed together. There were fangs extended, blood dripping down necks. Biting. Sucking.

A man had a needle in his arm attached to a tube that flowed red with his blood, collecting in a stainless steel bowl below him.

I looked around at the vampire bloodletting sex room and cringed. These people wouldn’t even remember this tomorrow. Freaking vampires.

“Follow me,” Raven said. “Be cool.”

He walked over to a group of vampires with their human blood bags. The vamps had just finished feeding and the humans were draped all over them, kissing and licking at their vampire masters.

Raven stood at the edge of the couch, not stepping into the vampires’ direct line of sight. He pulled the photographs from his pocket.

“Have any of you seen these girls?” he asked, handing the photos to the nearest vampire.

The vamp had bleach-blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked like he’d been turned in his early twenties. He had that boy band look about him. The girl licking down his exposed chest looked like she was barely eighteen.

He took the photos and frowned. “Who’s asking?” he said, turning to look at Raven. He stepped into better view of the couch now that he’d had their attention.

“Detective Raven Hunter, Portland PD. This is Executioner Olivia Fanning.” He accentuated the words Executioner.

The vampire looked back at the photo with renewed interest. “No. Never seen these ones,” he said, passing the photos around the couch. Everyone there shook their heads and the photos almost made their way all the way back to Raven. One of the human girls on her knees on the floor who had a vamp sucking from her wrist grabbed the photos.

“I know her,” she said, meekly pointing at one of the pictures.

“Quiet,” her master said.

“Let her talk,” Raven growled. “How do you know her? From the club?”

“We usually go to Felix. He’s old. He takes three or four girls at a time.” The vampire sucking her wrist spit it away and pushed her off his lap. The girl stumbled up to her feet and walked to Raven with the photographs. “She went with a new vampire the last time a saw her. A very old vampire. Very powerful.” The lust in her eyes was unmistakable.

“Why didn’t you go with him?” I asked.

“He didn’t want me. Said I’m not his type.”

The girl in front of us was short and blonde. All the missing girls were tall and brunette. I grabbed the photographs again, inspecting them for the first time.

A cold shiver went down my spine. The girls had a lot in common—the most being that they all bore a striking resemblance to me. Oh fuck.

I felt like I was going to be sick. Vincent was taking girls who looked like me. But why? What kind of sick twisted plan did he have? What was he getting out of it? I gulped. Best not to try to understand the mind of a psychopathic vampire.

“When was this?” Raven asked.

“Last week.”

“Where did he take her?”

“I don’t know. I never saw her again.”

Another vampire came and took the petite blonde girl and led her away, pulling her down onto a couch. This one went straight for her neck as he gripped her breast.

I pulled Raven into the corner. “Did you notice all those girls look like me?”

“Are you flattered?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.

“No. Of course not. It’s sick.” I was actually offended now. He tilted his head back and sighed, then straightened up and looked at me.

“That girl said this one was taken last week,” he said, pointing at the photograph.

“Do you think it was Vincent?” I asked him.

“What do you think, Olivia? You knew the guy.”

“I only knew him for like two weeks.”

“And then you tried to kill him. That kind of thing tends to stay with you.”

“I feel like he’s messing with me now. Like this is all some kind of trap. He’s trying to get back at me for banishing him.”

“Did you banish him straight to Portland?”

“No. I just banished him. It was nonspecific and a tactic only meant to work long enough to save my freaking life.”

“Okay. So, we both think it was him. What now? We aren’t any closer to locating the bastard.”

“I’m sure he has cloaking spells. I can’t sense him at all with my tracking ability.”

“Come on. Let’s ask a few more of these vamps about the girls.”

We continued asking around. The information we gathered basically reiterated what we’d already learned. A few vamps and groupies had seen all four of the missing girls. They’d gone off with a new, mystery vampire that no one had ever seen. The girls had been handpicked, with the message coming from a third party to meet him in the back of the club.

“No one knew this messenger,” I said to Raven as we came out of the loud club into the quiet darkness of the parking lot.

“Could be anyone. Might just be some human he picked up to be his minion. I’ll run a search on the facial description we got from the witnesses. Maybe it will bring something up.”

He stopped by his truck and opened the door. I didn’t back away. I just stood there like an idiot, waiting for him to lick my face or something.

I clenched my teeth, not knowing what I was doing. He just looked at me and put his hands on his hips, cocking his head. I was standing so close he couldn’t shut the door or climb inside.

“Olivia,” he muttered, rubbing his temples with his fingertips.

“What?”

I knew I was being indecisive and immature. I couldn’t help it. I was so confused it brought the coy brat out of me.

“Livi,” he breathed, moving closer. He cupped my jaw and wrapped his arm around my waist, grabbing my ass as he pulled me against him. His kissed me ferociously, his tongue thrusting into my mouth. I went soft and wet under his kiss, my nipples tightening into hard nubs.

He broke the kiss and embraced me. Hugged me tight against him. Holding me. I could feel the heat of his love and affection, his need, his desire. His devotion to me. I could feel it radiate off his skin.

I was falling into it—being swept away into an ocean of happily ever after. The passion and lust flowered into a blooming life of harmony and love. God it felt good. It felt so damn good.

I pushed away. Why couldn’t I let myself have that? Didn’t I deserve to be loved? No. I didn’t. I didn’t deserve to be loved like that. I didn’t deserve Raven. A stupid tear slid down my face.

“I’ll call you in the morning,” I muttered, pushing away.

He caught my arm when I turned to go. “Livi,” he said. I glanced up at him and saw the pain in his eyes.

“I’m a bad person, Raven. I’m just going to hurt you. I shouldn’t ever have let it go this far. I’m no good for you.”

“Isn’t that my decision?”

“I can’t let myself hurt you.”

“You already are, Olivia. Stop walking away from me.”

“I’ve got to go.”

I stumbled away, my head and body ablaze with desire. The full body vision I’d had of my life together with Raven still throbbed through me. I gripped my head, trying to force it out. Why was this happening to me?

I’d constructed such a simple life of solitude. I’d lived that way peacefully for five years. Now, after my second biggest failure, I had to be confronted with the biggest failure of my life.

I’d let everyone down. I’d caused my father to be killed. I’d made my entire family hate me. I’d destroyed my one true love. There was no going back now. No matter how much they all seemed to want to invite me back into the fold, I could never forgive myself for what I’d done and what I’d become.

The truth was that I’d missed them all every minute of every day. I’d never called or written. I’d never let them know I was okay. I’d done nothing. I didn’t deserve to be forgiven.

I could never forgive myself for what I’d done. To me, I would always be the destroyer, no matter what everyone else told me or how much they wanted me or believed in me. I’d made my bed, and now I had to lie in it. I knew what kind of person I had become, even if no one else knew it.