And she’d never let go of it again.
But neither her mind nor her body were listening tonight. Even now, she could feel Sebastian. Feel the sizzle of his touch on her wrist. On the back of her hand. Her cheek. Her lips.
You can’t do this, she realized. She had to quit the club. The whole thing was more than she could handle. She hugged her knees tighter to herself and closed her eyes. She had to tell the members of the Society. She could imagine their looks. I-told-you-so looks. Because they hadn’t believed she could stop Sebastian from the start. She should have known she couldn’t.
Releasing her hold on her legs, she straightened. No. She wasn’t going to think this way. Hadn’t Dr. Fowler made her realize that she didn’t need to cling to the shadows any longer? Made her realize that she could get her life back? She was a vampire now, but she still had her humanity. She had her soul. And she wasn’t going to go back to being the scared, hopeless creature she’d been before Dr. Fowler found her. And now she had also the Society of Preternaturals. They were helping empower her too.
She could do it. She just needed a new plan. A plan that was focused solely on the real problem: Sebastian Young. He was the one setting the precedent at Carfax Abbey. He was by far the biggest user of mortals.
“He’s the one who needs to be stopped,” she said to herself, even as she felt her nerves stretching taut. Her fear building up again. But she ignored it. She had to do this. She had to prove to herself she could.
Sebastian Young’s misuse of mortals had to be stopped. And she would be the one to find the way to stop him.
Sebastian poked his head into Mick’s office. Mick, his head of security, sat behind his bank of computer screens, his booted feet crossed on the corner of the desk. To others, Mick might have looked too relaxed, too insolent to be a good employee, much less a successful head of security. But Sebastian knew he was the best.
“Have you found anything?”
Mick shook his head. “I’ve got someone working on the health department’s computer system. He should be calling soon with a list of incoming calls on the twenty-fifth.”
Sebastian nodded. “And the police?”
“Nothing there. But I haven’t given up.”
“Good,” Sebastian said. “Let me know as soon as you hear anything.”
Mick nodded, and turned back to the computer monitors, his features looking starker, more brutal in the bluish light.
Sebastian left the office and headed through the back entrance into the club. The place wasn’t crowded yet, but he knew in a few hours the dance floor would be packed. He wondered if the anonymous caller would be there. If he or she was already there.
Even though the past couple of nights had been quiet, he still had the gut feeling that the person targeting his club wasn’t finished. Maybe he was being overly cautious, but he’d learned in two hundred years that it was good to follow his instincts. And his instincts were on high alert.
He slipped into one of the booths on the upper level, scanning the main room below. His hunger was strong tonight. Very strong. A side effect of his instincts being on overdrive, that and things kept distracting him from his usual feedings. But given that he could do nothing except wait for Mick’s report, he might as well rectify that last problem now.
Who would be his companion for the night? He cast a look around the upper level where he sat. As if by some colossal joke, Mina appeared at the small bar that lined the back wall.
He’d decided that his bizarre attraction to her had been a direct result of lack of feeding and lack of sex. That always made him a little off. Still he’d avoided her for the past two nights. And he got the impression she’d avoided him too.
Tonight, her hair was braided into two pigtails. The hairstyle should have made her look young and childish but combined with her snug black uniform, her pale skin, and her bowed, red lips, she looked more like a very naughty schoolgirl. His eyes roamed down her body. Her curves were gentle and lithe under the black brocade.
He gritted his teeth and forced his gaze to the dance floor. What was he thinking? Physically, she wasn’t even close to his type. He liked flashy women with long hair, long legs, and abundant curves. Mina had an unremarkable figure, weird hair, and her legs were….
Against his will, his gaze returned to her. From where she stood he couldn’t see her legs. Although he knew from the sprinkler night, they had no flaws. Shapely and smooth and pale. His cock swelled against the denim of his jeans.
Bryce, the upstairs bartender, leaned forward, telling Mina something. From his angle, Sebastian could see only her profile, but he could tell one corner of her rosy lips turn up into a smile as Bryce talked. Sebastian realized he’d never seen Mina smile. A real smile anyway.
Bryce said something else, and Mina laughed. A brief, nearly nonexistent laugh, but Sebastian suddenly found himself leaning forward in an attempt to hear it. He pushed up from his table and strode to the bar, taking a stool next to where she stood.
“Good evening, Bryce,” he said. “Mina.”
Mina glanced at him, a quick flash of something that looked an awful lot like disdain flickered in her eyes, then she looked back to Bryce.
“Hey, Sebastian,” Bryce greeted in his laid-back Southern drawl. The handsome werebear was every inch good ole Southern boy, and he always struck Sebastian as being out of place in the big city. Even though he’d been working here for nearly three years.
Sebastian glanced back to Mina. She looked out of place here too. But unlike Bryce, whose easygoing personality would allow him actually to fit in anywhere, Mina truly didn’t belong here.
Again, his instincts niggled him. Again, he wondered why she was here. Could she somehow be involved in the calls to the club? He studied her as she waited for Bryce to make her drink orders. She had shifted down the bar away from him. Her sidling movements had been subtle, but he’d noticed the escape.
He tried to read her emotions, but as usual there were too many and she was too guarded for him to get a clear impression. He found it interesting that someone so reserved could be surrounded by such a whirl of emotions. He wondered what would happen if she loosened up and let them show. The idea excited him.
“Bryce, may I get a scotch?” he asked suddenly, needing a drink to calm his reaction to her. A little booze, a lot of blood, and he’d be thinking far more clearly. And not about Mina.
“Sure thing.”
He chuckled at the bartender’s words. “I need that too.”
Bryce grinned. “Well, I reckon you won’t have any problem finding one of those here tonight.”
Sebastian sensed rather than saw Mina stiffen at their conversation. He glanced at her.
She looked down at her order pad, her brow furrowed, her lips twisted slightly. He couldn’t tell what her expression meant, whether it was disdain or maybe even jealousy.
Disdain, he figured. But either way, she was reacting, and for some perverse reason, Sebastian liked that he was getting some sort of response from her. It amused him to see her bow-shaped lips pucker as if she’d just sunk her fangs into a lemon. For a
