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Now
“Are you sure you got the scent right?” Silver asked skeptically.
“Positive,” Adam confirmed. “They’re definitely in there. Reese, too.”
They were parked outside a club in the heart of the city. The place seemed to be popular among college students, with young people gathered in groups outside the establishment. It was already dark when Silver woke up, but they had driven around for a while before Adam finally caught the scent of Theresa’s kidnappers and followed it here.
Evidently, this was prime time for a party, since more people were going in rather than coming out. If Theresa’s captors had really taken her here, they were doing a poor job of hiding her.
“These vampires are mercenaries,” Adam explained. “They had a falling out with their creator a few years back and left to start their own gang.”
Silver was already familiar with this kind of group.
Unlike every other race, vampires had the freedom to leave an estate if they didn’t want to live with their creator. Usually, they’d be joining a different estate, but a very small percentage actually chose to go free altogether. They were considered ‘wild’ or ‘feral’ by the larger supernatural community, as they lived either alone in the human world or in a mated pair.
Silver only knew of one vampire who left and sought refuge with someone like Levi, but that happened over a century ago. Nowadays, vampires who chose freedom because they resented their supernatural nature were practically nonexistent. Humans were never turned into vampires against their will anymore, as it was a considered too risky for the estate.
Sometimes, however, vampires left simply because they wanted to form their own independent group. They would start by taking on jobs that lords didn’t want to risk sending out their own people to do. The money they’d receive in payment was barely touched since they didn’t need food and stayed indoors all day. After a few jobs, they would have enough saved up to start a blood-ring—a legitimate business which acted as a front that lured humans for them to feed on. The blood-ring would try to expand their business, taking on more jobs and hiring other vampires to work with them.
Unfortunately, whether they were wild or belonged to a group, free vampires didn’t always care much about the mess they left behind.
Silver had once taken on a mission in New York involving a huge blood-ring. Their business had grown too big, racking up a lot of accidental human deaths caused by overzealous, wild vampire clients. They were also doing a terrible job covering it up with the human authorities, so Silver and the rest of the rescue team at the sanctuary had been called to step in and deal with the situation. They’d spent weeks dismantling the group from the inside until Silver finally took them all out for good. That was the most dangerous mission she’d ever taken on.
The question now was how did Adam know about them?
“Vince’s squad came across a couple of them a few weeks ago,” Adam told her when she asked.
“Will they remember you?”
He gave her a look. “They didn’t survive past the first meeting.”
She nodded. “Good.”
“This place must be their base of operations.”
Silver looked back at the club, hesitating. “Can you tell if they hurt her already?”
“I don’t smell any blood, no.”
“Good,” she sighed. “Let’s go then.”
“Wait.” He grabbed her arm before she could reach for the door handle. He was looking at her staff, which was propped between her legs in the space in front of the passenger seat. “You might want to keep that in the car.”
She glared at him like he was crazy. “We’re about to walk into a blood-ring.”
“In a club tightly packed with humans. Unless you can also make that thing intangible on top of being invisible, you gotta put it away.”
She clutched the weapon close to her chest protectively. Her staff had been by her side since she’d first got it. Parting with it now felt wrong, like walking naked onto a battlefield. Plus, could she really leave it behind in the car, where anyone might find it?
Perhaps she could split it in half and shove the hilt of each sword down her boots?
No, that wouldn’t work. It might still bump into one of the partygoers, or even cut Silver’s own legs by accident. She could heal herself, but it would slow her down. Besides, she hadn’t gotten enough rest to be back to full strength yet. She should preserve her energy for the actual fight.
Maybe Adam had a point. Maybe Theresa’s captors weren’t so clueless after all. This didn’t lessen her reluctance one bit, but she had no choice. She would have to rely on the perception filter she placed around the weapon and the car’s security system to keep it safe.
“Fine,” she sighed. “Let’s go.”
The music was loud enough to be heard from outside the club, though it was muffled. As they were walking toward the entrance, Silver’s arms went up to her sides, clutching uselessly at her jacket and pulling it down. She glanced back toward the car once but then forced the matter out of her mind.
“Are you sure you’re okay to do this?” Adam asked while they approached the entrance, his eyebrows drawn close together.
Silver understood his concern. A club packed with people was exactly the kind of place she tended to avoid. The DJ setup alone would be tempting her to get a fix, but if she got close enough to touch one of those people with Wi-Fi reception on their phones, that would give away her signature to anyone who was watching. It was dangerous all around.
And yet—
“I don’t have a choice. You can’t go in there alone. The vampires will know you’re a hybrid the second you walk in if I don’t I cloak your signature.”
His eyes widened a fraction. “You can do that?”
“I was hiding mine for three hours at the dealership. I could probably do it for both of us for about an hour before I start to get tired.”
That put a deadline on their rescue mission, which Adam accepted with a nod.
“I just hope I have enough self-control to resist drawing power from something in there.”
At that, he briefly touched her arm in a reassuring gesture. “I’ll help if you need it.”
She gave him a brief half-smile, still not used to his niceness even though she’d made peace with it.
“ID?” the bouncer asked when they reached the door.
Keeping her head bent to shield her face with her hair, Silver’s eyes briefly flashed into pearls before seemingly going back to normal when she started cloaking. The man’s gaze became droopy for a moment, but then he blinked, and it was gone.
“Right this way,” he told them as he opened the door to let them both in.
“Still not used to that,” Adam muttered before the music completely overwhelmed their sense of hearing.
Inside, the club was just as crowded as expected. The DJ was up on a platform in the corner and was playing electronic remixes of popular songs. Neon lights flashed and spun around in unison with the beat, which surprisingly didn’t reflect on Adam’s aura. In this lighting, he looked like a live marble sculpture with clothes on, bathed in a lavender colored glow. She’d never seen anything like it before. Perhaps his crystalline form only appeared under lights that contained the full spectrum of colors.
People were dancing on every surface they could stand on, except the bar. Most were holding a drink of some sort, and many looked way past the point of inebriation. Once upon a time, Silver would have enjoyed this type of scene, but not since she was captured in similar condition, and definitely not while she was here to rescue Theresa.
Before she could make a move, Adam tapped on her shoulder and pointed toward the VIP room. His superior sense of smell was useful after all.
“Still no blood?” Silver asked, raising her voice to be heard over the music.
He shook his head.
They cautiously made their way through the crowd and toward the door. Silver extended her signature cloak to cover Adam’s as well. There was a guard standing outside, a big and burly vampire whose aura shone like a red halo around his body. His gaze roamed around the room, vigilantly keeping watch. It landed on Silver a couple of times, growing more and more cautious the closer they got. She needed a nearby but discreet vantage point to figure out how many vampires they were up against.
Pulling at Adam’s sleeve, she raised her head toward him with a hand over her mouth, and he helpfully bent toward her.
“Can you cover me?” she spoke directly in his ear.
Understanding, he nodded and grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the corner behind the bar. There was enough room for both of them to stand comfortably, and he acted as a shield, hiding her from onlookers.
But before she could turn around to face the VIP room, Adam unexpectedly came toward her and brought his arm up to place it near her head. Silver instinctively put a hand to his chest and stopped him before he got too close.
“What are you doing?” she questioned defensively, forgetting to raise her voice.
He still heard her just fine, and instantly took a startled step back. For a moment, all they could do was stare at each other.
Silver had never before stood this close to a hybrid or werewolf without needing to shield her eyes against their aura. From a certain angle, she could see the ridges of Adam’s body momentarily flitting back to his human form, like one of those optical illusion pictures that combined two images into one. She had to admit, there was a sort of beauty to it, though it didn’t change the fact that he was standing too close for comfort.
For his part, Adam’s gaze was both cautious and curious, studying her protective stance and the way she kept him at arm’s length.
“I’m covering you,” he told her after a while, speaking loud enough for her to hear him over the music. “People tend to look away from couples being affectionate in public.”
Oh.
Okay, that made more sense. They were on a mission; of course he wouldn’t try anything. Not that he ever gave her reason to think he would under different circumstances. The issue was with Silver: she hated people touching her or invading her space without warning.
“Right, yeah, go for it,” she muttered.
He stayed where he was, concern flickering on his face. “Are you sure?”
“Stop wasting time and get over here already.”
Perfect. That brought down the awkwardness of the moment, at least on Silver’s side. Adam remained hesitant for another second, but then he frowned and closed the distance between them, leaning on his arm like before. They were close enough that their noses might have brushed, but he aimed his head to the side instead and brought his lips to her ear.
“When you punched me earlier,” he said at a normal volume, and the direction of his thoughts caused her to tense up, “was that because I kissed you?”
“Took you long enough.”
A tense silence ensued. Neither of them moved or said anything. Then—
“Have you not been this close to anyone since...?” Adam trailed off, unable to finish his own question.
She forced out a scoff. “What, you think I’ve been celibate this whole time? Come on. Even I have needs.”
He pulled back slightly to stare at her, and somehow, he knew. It was obvious from the way he looked at her. He didn’t need to ask, and she didn’t need to say it. The truth was plain as day on her face: up until that incident at the dealership, the last man she’d done anything with in seven years was Master Drake.
And the last time they’d been together was the first and only time she hadn’t wanted to.
