Golden's Rule (16 page)

“As long as you remember rule number one.”

Hell, yeah, he had that one down. Maybe rule number two should be cuddling? He grinned, pulling her into his arms and promised he’d never forget. It was actually a waste of a rule. He’d win her. She’d see.

Until then, he’d hold her as tight as possible.

Chapter Ten

“Beauty? I have to go, sweet.” Torque kissed her rounded cheek and smiled at her when she murmured for him to come back to bed.

“I’d like nothing more, but right now I have to go. I’ll be back soon.”

She sat up instead of going back to sleep like he’d hoped. “Torque? Where are you going?” She frowned over his shoulder at the clock and he knew he couldn’t lie to her and say to a meeting. Well, it was a meeting, but that wasn’t all.

“I have to go meet someone. There’s rumours I have to check out.”

Her frown grew and she pulled the sheet over her breasts. “I want to come. We agreed to this. I can’t just sit here while you—”

Ice shot through his veins at the idea of her going to the club Jaxon wanted him to check out. “Not a chance.”

He might have said that a bit too sharply because Beauty gave him a frosty glare and got up off the bed.

“Look, sweetheart, I can’t take you. This isn’t my meeting I don’t know what’s going to happen, or even what we’ll find.”

He softened his tone and pulled her into his arms. She was stiff and he knew he’d screwed things up again. “I’m sorry,” he murmured in her hair. “Just give me some time, okay? I’ll only be gone a little while.”

She sighed heavily and inside his chest, he felt a solid lump of anxiety grow. She was strong, a witch with powers she was beginning to come to terms with. She wasn’t staying on the sidelines and that scared the hell out of him. He’d promised to let her be strong, but this wasn’t his call. Jaxon had called and asked for him to meet him.

“Torque.” There was disappointment in her tone, disappointment and something else, hurt he thought.

He tipped her head up by her chin and pressed a kiss to her lush mouth. “Just trust me for a bit longer. This isn’t my meet, if it was, I’d take you. Believe me.”

Finally, she nodded slightly and rested her head on his shoulder. “I believe you, but think how I feel with you going into danger, Torque. The same way you feel, I bet.”

He nodded. Shit, maybe he was as old-fashioned as Jaxon kept telling him. “I’ll be safe. I promise. And I’ll be back as quick as I can.”

She nodded, closing her eyes but not before he glimpsed the unrest there.

Turning away was hard, but he did it and quickly took the hallway downstairs to the travel hub set up in the living room. Two seconds later, he was on the wet, cold streets of London.

“A male really shouldn’t leave a female’s soft warm body for shit like this,” Torque grumbled to himself as he headed to his meeting with Jaxon. If he didn’t need more information, if so much wasn’t on the line, he’d not have had to leave Beauty like that. Sad. She’d been sad and worse, he sensed he’d once again done something wrong.
No shit, dumbass, you treated her like she was some youngling unable to defend herself.

He wanted a break from the constant struggle. A vacation. Something. Time he could spend with Beauty and learn everything there was to her. He needed it. He woke himself up at night with fears for her safety.

The wet London air wrapped around him, soaking into his pores, and filling him with even more regret. Hell, he’d regretted leaving her the second he’d left their warm bed. He hadn’t needed her waking up and asking to come with him to make him see how stupid he was.

Exhaling, he frowned as the air around him steamed. London. So damn wet and cold, but here, more than anywhere else, they’d found Death Stalkers cells. Why here, he hadn’t figured out. Yet. But he would. The vibration of his phone had him grimacing. “I thought you said two a.m.”

Jaxon. Damn him. “I did. I’m only a second behind.” Ten minutes, but the vampire shouldn’t be so punctual. He barely managed to step over a sludge-filled puddle, nearly breaking his ankle, before making the corner where Jaxon would be waiting.

Right on time, too. The bastard. The vampire stood tall and silent under the dim light of a street lamp. He looked irritated, but ready for a battle in his leather trench coat and shit-kickers. That was one reason Torque had him along for the ride. Death Stalkers, in particular, were Jaxon’s favourite entertainment. He’d seen the male kill so silently, he even made him wary. And they were on the same side.

“Took you long enough. Hard to leave your warm…” Pausing, he tilted his head and slowly grinned. “Bed?”

“Shut up.”

That made the bastard laugh. Still, Torque knew Jaxon was a good man to have at his back. Unless he opened his smart-assed mouth, which he did, constantly. His suspicions on Beauty proved that.

“Ah…so, Death Stalkers. Three of them entered the bar not two doors down. New club, Rafters, hot place, a little dark, little dreary, but hip with the motley crews.”

What the hell? For a vampire, an ancient vampire, the man talked some kind of street lingo. “Three went in? And more are inside?”

“Isn’t that what I just said?” Lighting a hand-rolled cigarette, a clove, he inhaled, squinted, and nodded towards the corner, blowing out spicy smoke with a hissed warning. “The place draws the suckers.”

“I’ll be damned.”

“I hope not. That would suck for you, Torque.”

“Your smart-ass mouth is going to be your undoing, vampire.”

“Yeah?” Sounding bored, he took a drag before saying, “Heard that a few times, man. Not impressed.”

Fucking asshole, but a good friend all the same. “So, what’s the story? Is this a meeting house?”

Shrugging he exhaled smoke, not directly in Torque’s face, otherwise he’d be without the little clove, but close. “Didn’t get that far. Let’s hit it.”

“Hold on. We have no idea who or even what is going on in there.”

“Right, makes life a bit grand, doesn’t it? It can go fuck all on us and who the hell knows, right?” Jax bit down on the cigarette and started walking.

“Holy hell.” This was going to hurt. Damn Jaxon and his death wish. Didn’t the bastard know he could just get staked and end it all? Why drag him along? Watching the vampire’s back, he grinned. Because, if it wasn’t fun to try and keep up. “Just remember we’re after just one. Maybe two, but I need one alive and breathing.”

“Sure thing, Dr Hyde.”

“It’s the other way around, you idiot.”

Chuckles were not what he wanted out of the big bastard, but that was all he got before Jaxon opened the door and they headed in.

Music, deep bass, and so loud it shook the place, surrounded them. The club was hopping—busy, packed nearly to the rafters. And it was two in the morning. People stood, sat, or danced everywhere. Nearly fifty feet above their heads, women in bright gold body paint danced seductively in gilded cages.

“What the fuck? Why so damn busy?”

Jaxon grimaced and spat out a bit of tobacco. “Not sure, been wondering that myself.”

Two blonde-haired women, long-legged with barely covered bodies, including their fake breasts, sauntered over. One nearly draped herself over Jaxon. The other reached for him. Until she saw his face, then she backed up and made a soft sound of distress. Jaxon pulled her in, one big arm around each girl, grinning with the clove hanging half out of his mouth.

“Cover.”

He said something low to the women and they both giggled, curling around him like a second skin. One played with the buttons of his shirt, heading down, the other slipped a hand over his leather belt looking like she was ready to unbuckle and begin. Damn vampire.

Cover, his ass.

“Snack time later. Help me out here. I see no sign of anyone but more of this.” This being humans. No immortals and more, no Death Stalkers. The scar marking him from breastbone to hip usually clued him when he stood near anyone who’d taken the death vows.

Jax gave him a small shake of his head. The vampire could scent them. It was damn strange, more than irritating, but there it was. The bastard had a nose like no one’s business. Within seconds, Jaxon buried his face in between the fake breasts of the smaller blonde, while the other rubbed all over his side looking for attention.

“Jaxon, work or play? What’s it goin’ be?”

Jaxon grumbled something against the woman, but lifted his head none too happy.

“Ah, you suck the fun right out of the party. Girls, go get me a table in the back and order some sweet little treats. I’ll be over after this. Run on now and Big J will give you what you want.”

Big J? That shit was funny.

The women didn’t think so. They both pouted at Big J, before turning to frown at him as if he’d ruined all their fun.

He muttered a curse. Really, he could be home, in bed with Beauty and not here putting up with this shit. Thankfully, he’d not brought her here. She’d not have liked the women even looking at him.

Jaxon cracked a laugh, but waved a hand at the girls. Both left with long looks at Jaxon and one more sneer at him.

“Big J will give you what you want?” he muttered.

Jaxon didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed. His face split in a cocky grin and he winked. “Worked, didn’t it?”

“Damn, you are one sorry male. That was lame.”

“Yeah, yeah, we can’t all be bonded.”

Shit. Nosy bastard.

Blue eyes met his, a great deal more serious than he’d ever been before. “Take a care, mage. You don’t want to lose what you just found. This shit”—he jerked a thumb behind him to indicate the women he’d just fondled, and grimaced—“it ain’t life, it gets us by, but what you found, that’s life. You should be back in bed with her, not out here on this shitty search.”

“Oh? Is that the same advice you gave me last I saw your sorry ass? She might be spelling me even now.”

Jaxon just grinned. “I knew she had something on you. Hell, you’re one mean bastard. I didn’t think you’d be bonding to a sweet woman like that.”

 “Just get this over with, then I can get back to her.”

Jaxon shook his head as if Torque were a lost cause and shot one more disgusted look at him before shrugging broad shoulders and turning to plough his way through the gyrating crowd, heading towards the back of the club.

Torque followed, irritation rising as the women he passed touched him. Bodies collided with his, some clung to his arms, one made a grab further south, and he stopped that action with a low growl and firm grip on the offending wrist before managing to squeeze through the crowds on the dance floor. When he finally reached the other side of the place in one piece, he had to take a minute to straighten his shirt where one woman had tugged it nearly out of his jeans. Beauty would be pissed. Adjusting himself, he faced Jaxon expecting something from the man, but not the look of pure pissed-off male he confronted.

The guy was lit up.

“What?” Searching him from head to toe, he saw nothing to cause such alarm.

“Fucking little brat. I told her to stay away from this—” He shut his mouth with a snap, as if he’d just caught on he was speaking aloud. A scowl darkened his face.

“Who are you talking about?” Sounded more like a personal problem than the hunt to him.

“Nothing, just fuck. This complicates it, doesn’t? Women.”

Oh, yeah. Jaxon was lit. Talk about being bonded. Torque wondered if the gruff bastard even understood he was.

Stalking off, the vampire didn’t even wait. His leather jacket snapped as he moved, his boots drilling on the hard floor, pounding louder as they moved further from the noise of the club.

“Jaxon, what’s up, man? Slow the hell down.”

“Just keep up. There’s nothing here. Not yet.”

That wasn’t reassuring in the least. He sensed spells, deep, hidden spells flowing along with the hallway. Odd, but true. Taking in the area, he had to wonder who the hell the decorator was if this was the kind of art work they favoured. Disgusting portraits of creatures in various painful-looking depictions of sex. Demons with huge members covered in blood-devoured human females. Some scenes had the humans nearly bent over backwards in the midst of sex, while the demons looked to be splitting them in two with grimaces of ecstasy on their faces. Disgusting, absolutely disgusting.

Worse, he’d seen worse. In the flesh.

“Fuck.” His scar tingled, warming up. This place pissed him off. Obviously, this was a meat market. Just not the typical sex hook-up market humans haunted. The unsuspecting humans became much more than a snack by the looks of the walls. Sex slaves. Blood banks. Food. The possibilities were as endless as the creatures thinking them up. But this place wasn’t simply for humans. Immortals, young ones for certain, would fall for the tricks these bastards spun. He drew his sword, not about to go any further without the reassurance of the blade at the ready.

“Yeah, slow down, Jaxon.”

The vampire didn’t listen. He started pounding faster down the hall. No doubt, he’d sensed Death Stalkers. If his female was here…

Shit. This put the hunt into a whole new level. Shit. A search and rescue, not
hunt and who cares if you killed a Death Stalker by mistake
level.

“Damn it, Jaxon, we need to slow, man.”

“Just keep up, and what is up with the hallway, mage?”

The hallway seemed to loom around them, longer than it had first appeared, and they weren’t getting any closer to the end.

He put on the brakes. Didn’t matter if Jaxon ploughed ahead like some bull after a red flag if he wasn’t getting any closer to the damn flag. Not that the silly bastard noticed. Torque ignored him, and focused his power. Immediately he felt the surge of magic tingle along his spine. The warmth and temptation of magic use was nearly as good as sex, but much, much more deadly. A mage could grow lost in his own power, thus the controls Torque placed on himself. Still, the rush was a high and he savoured the feeling only for a heartbeat before throwing a spell at the hall. The dark walls, with the cheap lights and disgusting paintings, melted away to reveal a long bare hallway descending downward at a slight angle.