Chapter Seven
TIAGO WAS surprised. I was pretty sure I knew why. He’d expected a different kind of club on Bourbon Street. Standing outside of the blue neon–lit techno monstrosity, he was stunned, and it showed on his face, the open mouth and wide eyes.
“You were thinking a jazz club, right? Or swing dance or even blues?”
“I—with a name like Blue Moon, I…. Varic must despise this.”
“Why?” I asked as Aziel led the way inside, a doorman in Hugo Boss having opened the velvet rope the moment he saw Tiago walking toward him.
“He wants to talk to you, and this will render that nigh impossible.”
A short hallway led from the front door to another doorman, this one in Prada—Ode had opened up my fashion world and was always taking me to try on suits—who was checking IDs, and a cashier, a stunning blonde woman in a Saint Laurent tuxedo who would have collected a cover charge from me if I wasn’t with Tiago.
Once we stepped into the club, a wall of music assaulted us, the techno beat so loud and pounding that I could feel it in my chest. I leaned in close to Tiago and told him that I would go up on the balcony, get a beer, and stand along the railing.
“You have been here before,” he said against my ear.
I nodded, patted his shoulder, and then began making my way through the teeming mob.
Snaking my way up the stairs, smiling, making apologies, the whole “excuse me, pardon me” every other second, I finally got to the second floor and made my way to the bar. Once I had my Abita Imperial Stout in hand, I made my way to the railing and looked out over the dance floor below me.
I could see everything but no one in particular; of course I could see the bottle service area where the prince had to be. While half of me really wanted to go down there and talk to him, the rest of me wasn’t up for it.
“Jason.”
I turned to see Niko with two others. “Hey,” I greeted him over the throbbing, pounding music.
He smiled and put a hand on my shoulder as he leaned in close so he could be heard. “I think I have to leave soon. I’m getting a terrible headache.”
“You’re giving creatures of the night a bad name.”
His laughter looked good on him, infusing his face with ease. “I’m a creature of the morning. I have meetings early, but I’m glad I ran into you before I left.”
“How long have you been here?”
He groaned. “At least twenty minutes.” He was really not a fan of the club, and something about the grimace of pain made me feel better about the night before.
“I wanted to apologize,” he said, arm around my shoulders now because we had to be that close so I could hear him. “I misspoke last night and scared you with what I said about the binding. I didn’t mean to suggest anything untoward, it’s just that you’ve already done so much for the community, and I was worried that with his wealth Benny could have influenced you unfairly.”
Niko had been feeling me out, trying to see where my alliance was when it wasn’t with either the purebloods or the made vampyrs, but with both. He was worried, maybe even scared, seeing my influence over others, and he didn’t want that to shift from something balanced to something that was not.
It was funny how things became clear once they were explained. Patterns emerged, truths became evident, and dots suddenly connected.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” I promised. “I would never take anyone’s side over the other’s. I know how important it is to be fair.”
He nodded.
“Not that I think I’m doing anything special or that I am anything special. I was telling Cooke the other day that the peace in the Quarter is because of you and Benny, nothing else.”
“And yet we’ve been here for a while, he and I, and this is the first truce we’ve ever had.” He squeezed my shoulders. “You must take some credit, Jason, because I know the truth. Without you, things would go right back to how they were.”
“Which wasn’t good for anyone,” I commented. All I’d ever heard was horror story after horror story.
“Of course not,” he agreed, leaning away. “Now I really need to go before I get a migraine.”
“Vampyrs can get migraines?”
He squinted at me. “When we go for coffee, I’ll explain the not-so-vast difference between our two species.”
I smiled as he gave me a head tip before leaving, two of his men trialing after him. As I watched him descend, seeing him do the same thing I had coming up the stairs, I felt so much better about him. He’d not only made the effort to come over and apologize, but then reminded me we had a standing date for coffee. I understood why his people were so loyal. He actually worried about them enough to confront me about my plans and my alliances.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and when I pulled it from the breast pocket of my suit jacket, I saw a text from Tiago. He told me to make my way to the bottle service area.
I turned from the railing to find myself face-to-face with a stunning man. Seeing his platinum-blond hair, it took me only a moment to place him. I was looking at the same courtier from the night before. All on a plane home, my ass.
“You’re like a bitch in heat, aren’t you, human?”
Oh, he was charming. “Get out of my way,” I said, feeling my face get hot. I was embarrassed all over again because, really, if you had guys who looked like him around, what did you need with regular mortals?
He grabbed hold of my bicep when I moved to step around him, and luckily it wasn’t the one I’d been shot in, or I would have decked him. “If you’re here for a fuck and suck, you’re out of your league, human. The prince doesn’t drink from filth.”
Yanking my arm free, I moved through the crowd, put my half-empty beer bottle on a table I passed and made my way to the stairs. Halfway down, I saw Aziel and decided to join him. But when he looked up, he didn’t see me. Even when I waved, he missed me. And then I had the weirdest thought. Tiago told me that Aziel saw Niko holding on to me the night before. Since Aziel worked for Hadrian, shouldn’t he have walked over to investigate? Checked that I was all right?
It was strange.
I wasn’t sure what to make of a guard—who Hadrian must have told to be on the lookout for me—not, in fact, looking out for me.
All my life, I’d trusted my gut, so when he finally saw me and waved, I forced a smile but turned left at the bottom of the stairs instead of heading right toward him.
A man stepped in front of me, tall, in a black suit, but there were so many people around us I got jostled into him instead of stopping my forward momentum.
I opened my mouth to apologize, but he grabbed me so fast I didn’t get a chance. One second I was facing him, the next he took hold of my throat hard, painfully, and when I went to pull back to twist loose, instantly he tightened his grip, cutting off my air.
I grabbed hold of his wrist in both my hands, but his grasp was immovable. When he took a step back, moving me with him under the stairs toward the hallway that led out the back, my training kicked in. Using my left hand, I pressed his wrist down against my collarbone, holding tight, and with my right, I found his elbow and rolled him sideways. Because his wrist was locked, I had the leverage. Once he was doubled over, I kicked him in the face. If he’d been a normal man, I would have had him on the floor, but he was a vampyr, so he moved faster than I could counter and twisted free, facing me a moment later. But I wasn’t at his mercy anymore and readied myself, fists raised, prepared to defend myself.
But he wasn’t looking at me anymore. His vision was caught on something behind me. Whatever it was, he made the decision to turn and run. As I watched him disappear down the hall, I felt a hand on my back.
Rounding fast, ready to fight again if this was the second wave, I was relieved to find Hadrian instead.
I tried to smile but couldn’t quite manage it and watched as one woman and one man moved by us in pursuit of my attacker. Since it was just as loud downstairs as it was upstairs, I moved forward, and he bent toward me, his ear close to my lips.
“We should go with your guards to find out who that guy was,” I said adamantly, remembering another oddity from the night before when the guy who grabbed me yelled to the others that he had me. “There’s something weird going on.”
“I agree,” he acknowledged, his voice just loud enough to carry over the driving beat of the music. “But first we need to see the prince,” he directed, sliding his hand up to my shoulders as he turned me slowly around before easing me forward. “Come.”
I stopped moving. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“I disagree,” he said with a smile, pressing firmly but gently to get me moving again.
Turning, stepping sideways into someone I had to apologize to, I got my eyes back on Hadrian in seconds. “I just want to go home,” I almost yelled, trying to be heard.
“After you see the prince and I explain what transpired, I will escort you,” he shouted back. “But you must see him before you leave.”
“I don’t need to be escorted,” I argued, trying to move around him. “I can walk home from here just fine.”
“But the prince has requested your presence and now I must report to him this incident or be in breach of my duty.”
Rubbing my throat, staring at him, I realized it wasn’t worth it to stand there and do the whole back-and-forth thing with him when we could just have a two-minute conversation with the prince and be done.
“I wanna leave as soon as you tell him what happened.”
“Of course.”
Letting out a deep breath, I gestured forward. His smile, in response, was warm.
I followed closely after him, and when we reached the steps, Tiago met us. I leaned in close so he could hear me.
“You lied to me.”
His eyes widened. “I would never.”
“You told me all the courtiers went home. I just saw one.”
“What? Where?”
I pointed up toward the balcony.
Tiago moved around in front of Hadrian, forcing Hadrian to stop. “I thought all the courtiers were dismissed.”
“It was my understanding that they did as commanded.”
“Apparently not. It is your job to glean the truth, rekkr,” he said haughtily.
“I know my place, rajan. Perhaps you should mind yours.”
If I hadn’t known better, if I hadn’t heard them speak of each other before, I would have drawn a completely different conclusion. But I knew posturing when I saw and heard it. Something was going on with them, and their long drawn-out use of each other’s titles as well as the cutting civility was straight out of a romantic comedy.
“Where’s the prince?” I asked Tiago.
He didn’t answer, turning on his heel, making a show of it, then striding purposefully off on his way toward the stairs, I was sure.
Hadrian watched him a moment, visibly torn between his duty and following the man who clearly gave him fits.
“Go, I’ll tell the prince what happened,” I assured him.
He nodded and rushed after Tiago.
I watched him go before another hand appeared on my arm. When I turned, I found a woman dressed in a finely tailored suit holding out her hand, gesturing to where I needed to go. Another of Hadrian’s guards.
I did as prodded, walking around several tables on my way to the very back and through a gossamer curtain that led to a short hall, which then opened up into a room that overlooked Bourbon Street.
It was noisy outside too but so much better than being inside the club. The balcony was private, featuring several tables crowded with talking people, no one looking at me, in rapt conversation between themselves. The area was covered by a canopy on three sides, the fourth allowing a view of the revelers in the street below.
The prince was standing, waiting away from the tables just inside a doorway to another short hallway. It probably led to another exit, or to offices. I had been to the club only two other times, invited by Garrett to the soft opening and then to the grand one. I had not investigated the entire space on either visit, and I had no idea of the layout beyond the main areas. What I did realize, though, was the prince was in the space that could be considered farthest away from the music and still be in the club. Tiago was right; the prince was not a fan of Garrett’s monster dance club.
I stood there, unsure whether I was supposed to sit down at one of the tables or walk over to him. I had no idea what was expected when you addressed vampyr royalty. Deciding I should give him his space, let him walk over if he wanted, not intrude, I went to take a seat overlooking the sprawling crowd, but he cleared his throat when I was halfway there. When I met his gaze and felt a tightening in my chest, and when he lifted his hand, the excitement that washed over me made it hard, for a moment, to breathe.
Nervously I walked by the tables until I reached him.
“Your highness,” I said because, this time, I was certain from the start who stood in front of me.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Oh, okay. What would you prefer?”
“Varic,” he murmured, his gaze locked with mine. “Call me by my name.”
“Varic it is, then,” I said, sounding lame to my ears.
He stood quietly, staring at me, and I felt the weight of his stare like a caress and wondered if it was real or a fanciful flight of my imagination. Either way, the silence was an unbearable vacuum I rushed to fill.
“I’m sorry I didn’t walk right over here. I knew you’d asked to see me, but I wasn’t sure if that was okay to do or if there was some protocol about that,” I rambled. I wanted to stop talking but apparently was unable to. “That’s why I was gonna go sit down until you called me, but then you gestured me over here, so I came.”
He nodded, not having any trouble staying quiet.
“Have you spent your whole night talking to people here to see you?”
“I have, yes. And there are still so many more to meet.”
That was my cue. “Well, then, I’ll let you get to it,” I said, torn between wanting to stand right there for as long as he’d let me and needing to run before I embarrassed myself any further.
“Wait,” he ordered, but it sounded more like a request. “What happened?”
The rough rumble of his voice did crazy things to my ability to focus on anything but his mouth. “I’m sorry?”
“To your neck,” he said, stepping closer, lifting his hand toward me only to drop it back to his side. “Your throat is red.”
It would be bruised by the next day, I was sure. “I dunno what was going on, but some guy grabbed me right before I came back here. I got away, but I’m pretty sure he would have tried again. Hadrian showed up and sent a couple guards after him when he ran.”
He was obviously listening but didn’t comment.
“I wonder if he was working with the guy I chased last night. And when he saw me here, maybe he thought I’d seen him, too, even though I never got a good look at anyone but the guy I was after.”
“Perhaps.”
My brain always looked for logical reasons for strange occurrences—cult instead of vampyrs, for example. “I bet that’s why he attacked me,” I said, standing my ground as Varic moved closer. “He probably didn’t want me to be able to tell you that I saw him during the attack last night, didn’t want me to put him at the scene.”
“That makes sense, if that’s what happened,” he agreed, his voice hoarse and low. He inhaled deeply. “But we’ll know very soon.”
“How will we?”
He stepped around me, putting himself in my way, barring my escape, and I liked it, the subtle movement that telegraphed his desire that I remain. “Hadrian will find him, as you said. And we’ll get to the bottom of his mystery.”
“Well, he’s with Tiago at the moment, looking for the courtier.”
He didn’t need to put on an act for me. It wasn’t necessary, and I found my equanimity in that moment and took a step back, putting space between us. “The one you had stay.”
His brows creased. “You’re mistaken.”
“No, I just talked to him.”
“I have no doubt you spoke to someone, but not a courtier.”
The hell I didn’t. I saw the man with my own eyes. Maybe Varic sent the others home, but the hottest one of all, the only one with a speaking part the night before, had remained for his pleasure. “It’s none of my business,” I said gruffly. “I don’t—you’re the prince, so you can do whatever you want, so… I get it.”
“I assure you that no one remained.”
The scowl I got was still sexy as hell, and it convinced me he meant what he said. “Then he didn’t listen to you,” I informed him.
Varic looked away at the wall but not really, instead thinking about something, eyes distant, running through events in his head and working out what he knew.
“I should probably—”
“Jason,” he said then, taking hold of my elbow, holding me still. “I need you to stay here while I go find Hadrian.”
“Actually I need to go home,” I told him. “But it was good to see you again.”
“No,” he said flatly, almost growling, his composure slipping for a second. He crowded me so I had to move sideways or be knocked back into the wall. “I need to know that you’re—would you allow me to have a car take you to the penthouse where I’m staying?”
“That’s not necessary, I know you’re busy. You’ve already taken more time seeing me than I know you have.”
“I have all the time in the world for you,” he made known. “Now please, don’t make a beggar of a prince.”
I smiled at the line, and he arched a brow in return. “You got a whole book of those, huh?”
He made a contented noise, like a lion’s rumbling growl of satisfaction. I was a fan.
“You’re full of some cheesy lines.”
“I hadn’t thought so, but apparently you bring it out in me.”
It was nice to hear. Really his romance game was on point. “Listen,” I said, and I took a breath. “If you have time before you leave, maybe we can—”
“No,” he said sternly, the change in tone giving me whiplash. “You may either remain here with me and leave when I do, or go now to the penthouse and await my return. Which would you prefer?”
“Neither one of those works for me because I need to go home, and let’s face it, you just don’t really have the time to do anything but meet your subjects.”
“You don’t know anything,” he rasped, which I would have rebutted, but voices behind us preceded a group of people who entered and hurried over to him. Apparently it was their turn to meet and greet him.
I was bumped and pushed out of the way until five and then ten people stood between us. It happened fast, and I took the opportunity to bolt even as I heard him yell first an order for everyone to be still, and then my name.
I pretended I didn’t hear him call for me. I was already at the hallway, and I dodged more people walking in, and then I was in the main club, the music back to being all I heard, the push of it against me almost welcome because it cleared my head completely.
Once I was outside, I took a deep breath and got my bearings, then turned to head up Toulouse to Royal, happy to be off my least favorite street in the Quarter.