Julian tapped his fingers on the bar while he waited for Aida to return. A growing sense of unease filled him as one of the women standing at the bar edged closer to him. “I haven’t seen you in here before,” she said.
Judging by the gleam in her eyes, Julian suspected, if she had seen him before, she might have tried to devour him. He glanced at the hall where Aida disappeared but still didn’t see her.
“I’m new to the city,” he said.
“I could show you around,” the woman offered as her fingers crept closer to his.
Julian moved his hand off the bar and thrust his thumb at Kyle. “My brother is handling that.”
The woman’s mouth parted as she glanced from him to Kyle and back again. “Kyle is your brother?”
For some reason, this piqued her interest more as her eyes shone with lust. When he glanced at his brother, he found Kyle grinning at him as he popped the top on a beer bottle before setting it on the bar. Julian scowled back at him.
“I’m his older brother,” Julian said.
“How… wonderful.”
“I’m here with someone,” he said bluntly.
The woman’s eyes darted to Aida’s empty seat before returning to him. “That doesn’t mean you have to leave with her.”
Julian’s skin crawled at the idea of touching anyone other than Aida. “I’m not interested.”
The woman’s eyes twinkled with amusement as she leaned away from him. His rejection hadn’t fazed her at all. “Perhaps another night.”
It took everything he had not to bare his fangs at her and watch her run screaming from the bar, but he forgot about her as he turned his attention back to the hallway. He couldn’t ignore the uneasiness in his stomach anymore. Pushing away from the bar, Julian’s heart beat faster as he started toward the hall and the urge to run gripped him.
Then he realized his rising terror wasn’t from him; it was coming from Aida.
• • •
No! No! NO! Aida screamed in her head as she fumbled for her purse and slipped her hand inside. She pulled the butterfly knife out and, after years of practicing to release it while incapacitated in some way such as being blindfolded or with one arm tied behind her back, sometimes both, she flipped it open with ease.
She’d much prefer a stake, but they didn’t exactly fit into her purse, and they didn’t fold up into a neat little package that made it safe to carry around. Besides, her chances of being able to stake a vamp in the heart were slim to none, and she didn’t know if she had the physical strength to pierce someone’s breastplate, but she could get a blade through them.
The vamp threw the table aside, but instead of trying to roll away from the crazed monster, she rolled toward him and plunged the blade into his foot. The vamp howled, and she ducked back when a massive hand swung at her head. Keeping her hand on the knife, she twisted it into his bones.
Grabbing her by the back of her shirt, the vampire plucked her off the ground. The adrenaline flooding her system made her hands quiver. Drawing on all her years of self-defense classes, she refused to give in to the panic clawing at her chest like a hamster at his cage. If she panicked, she’d be as good as dead.
She didn’t scream. This far away from the bar and with the music playing, no one would hear her, and she refused to give this thing the satisfaction of hearing her screams. Swinging her hand back, she backhanded the creature across the face.
She’d never seen a vampire look so furious with his blazing red eyes and extended fangs that sliced into his bottom lip. When he jerked her up and down, the quick, sharp movements sent a lightning bolt of pain from her neck to her spine.
The vamp dropped her down again as a bloodcurdling sound filled the air. At first, Aida believed it was coming from the vamp, but when he stopped using her like a yo-yo, she saw the confusion on his twisted face.
She lifted her head to find Julian standing in the doorway. She realized she’d been wrong; now she’d never seen a vampire look so furious. She barely recognized Julian as his eyes blazed red, he bared his fangs, and his shoulders hunched like a bull about to tear apart everything in its way.
Julian raced forward in a blur Aida barely registered before he struck the vamp’s face. His head shot to the side and blood flew from his mouth as Julian battered him again and again.
Before the vamp regained control, Julian captured the hand holding Aida’s shirt and crushed the bones in it. The vamp squeaked, and its fingers involuntarily relinquished their hold on her. Releasing the hand, Julian caught her before she hit the floor.
Aida stumbled back when Julian righted her and set her abruptly on her feet. She didn’t have a chance to get her bearings before Julian hit the vamp so hard, he knocked the man off his feet and flung him ten feet across the room.
When the vamp hit the door, the metal dented, and he slid down to sit on the ground. Aida imagined little cartoon birdies flying around the vamp’s head as his head bobbed back and forth. With every muscle in his body tensed like a panther about to strike, Julian stalked toward his victim.
She’d never seen him look so enraged, and she knew he wouldn’t stop until he gave in to the one thing he craved most… killing. He seized the vamp by the throat as Kyle and Cassidy arrived in the door of the hallway. Their eyes widened as they assessed the situation.
Throwing the back door open, Julian dragged the vamp into the alley and bashed it off the brick wall across the way. The bones crunching in its skull made a sickening sound when he thumped its head against the brick and unleashed the savagery bottled up inside him.
His fangs throbbed in his mouth, and red clouded his vision as he repeatedly drove his fist into the vamp’s face. This thing had dared to touch Aida, and that was a decision it would regret for the short amount of time it had left.
Blood flew from his hands as he repeatedly battered the vamp. His incessant need to kill eased, and he relished the brutality while he beat the vampire to death.
The second Julian opened the door, an alarm started to blare, but Aida ignored it as she shoved the door back open and ran into the alley after him. She skidded to a halt when she spotted Julian pummeling the vampire. His hands blurred as blood flew from them.
“Julian!” she cried as she ran toward him. “Julian, no!”
He couldn’t do this here. The alarm would draw people, and if anyone saw him like this, it would expose vampires and put his life, as well as countless others, in danger. “Julian, please stop,” she pleaded.
Aida’s please penetrated the haze of bloodlust consuming him, and his punches slowed in their assault.
“People will see you,” she said.
He hadn’t expected her voice to be so close. When he turned his head, he discovered her standing beside him. Her golden eyes shone with terror, and her lower lip quivered as she brought her hand to her mouth.
When he looked back at the battered remnants of the vamp, shame flooded him. He never should have lost control like this in front of her; she never should have seen how much of a monster he was. She’d dealt with the absolute worst of his kind on the island, and now she was seeing the worst side of him.
His shoulders heaved as he bowed his head and gazed down at the blood dripping from his hands. Most of the blood belonged to the vamp, but some was from where his knuckles split open during the fight.
Turning back to the vamp, he took in the pummeled remains of its face. He’d beaten the man so badly it was impossible to make out any of the thing’s features. A gurgled noise escaped it, and blood spilled from between its lips.
“Turn away, Aida,” he said.
“Julian—”
“I don’t want you to see any more of this,” he said more brusquely than he intended.
It was a little ridiculous for her to turn away now when she’d already seen so much, but he was barely in control of himself, so she did as he asked. The cold air caressing her skin was nothing compared to the ice encasing her soul. Not only had she been attacked by a vampire again tonight, but she’d also witnessed how close Julian was to becoming one of the things she hated most.
She winced when bones crunched, and she suspected he was either tearing the vamp’s heart out or ripping off its head. The wind flowing down the alley tickled her face as it blew her hair around her. At the far end, people rushed past the opening. They were probably fleeing the bar and the possibility of fire. She rubbed at the goose bumps covering her arms and prayed no one looked down the alley.