Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) (12 page)

I didn’t, but this was not a conversation I could interrupt. As Jason’s
Ailward,
it was my job to look tough and menacing.

But without my weapon, I wasn’t sure how I was pulling it off.

“I’m a rich man,” Jason said with a straight face. “To Reiko, I think I am a formidable ally. There are many who would think nothing of knocking an entire House down, if only to advance their own families. No matter how you try to hide it from the humans, there is always internal strife. Each House battles another for prestige and honor. Every year, more vampires die at the hands of their own brethren than from human hunters.”

Vincent inclined his head. “This I can attest to.”

“Then why is it so wrong for me to have a bodyguard?”

Vincent looked at me and in his eyes I read the mind of a man I hoped never to anger. “It’s not the fact you have a bodyguard that surprises me. It’s the fact that you have
her
as one.”

Calling me a bitch would’ve been less offensive. It was that sort of tone. I could have been on fire and he wouldn’t have pissed on me to save my life.

Jason tilted his head to one side. “Who better to protect me than someone like her? She has made it her life work to eliminate vampires. Human bodyguards are easy to get, but someone like her? No…she is a rare treasure and one I plan to protect.”

Strange choice of words. After all, I was meant to be protect him, not the other way around.

He put a hand on my waist and I let him. “She is, for the lack of a better word,
incorruptible
. Wouldn’t you agree…Vincent?”

Vincent’s lips tightened until they almost disappeared in the pale oval of his face. “So be it. Keep your secrets. But consider this a warning, newborn. I am going to watch you. I am going to watch your so-called
Ailward
. If I so much as sense some sort of treachery from you, if you do anything to harm Reiko and her House, you will not live to see another moon rise. Do you understand?”

Jason nodded. He did not have to see anything.

I stood still as Vincent’s eyes raked me one last time.

“One foot out of line, hunter. One foot out of line and I’ll rip you apart.”

I had no doubt he would. “Warning well noted.”

He whirled on one heel and left us then, the faint scent of oranges and something else, something coppery, staying in the air for quite some time.

His human emissary was the last to leave.

She paused, one hand on the metal railing and then looked over her shoulder.

“If I were you, I’d listen.”

I had to clear my throat to get any words out. “But you’re not.”

Her lips twitched. “No. I’m not. And thank God for that.”

She left and I let my knees get a little weak.

That I had been around such a vampire like Vincent and emerged alive and well…this was certainly quite an education. “This complicates things.”

Jason sighed. “You don’t say. It appears Reiko did not share with Vincent the…details of our relationship.”

“If I kill Noir and Vincent gets the idea it’s me, I won’t stay alive for long,” I said quietly.

“I can keep you away.” Jason looked up at me, eyes glittering like black diamonds. “I can hide you. Get you a new identity if you need it.”

A tempting offer, but… “If that vampire wanted me dead, I don’t think a new name would keep me alive.”

“What about a new face?”

He looked much too earnest. “I think I’ll pass. If the Fellowship can’t keep me hidden, I don’t think anything would.”

He stared at the mass of dancers on the ground floor, their hands waving in the air, reminding me of sea anemones, colorful and beautiful. “I think I’m hungry.”

Of course. That was one of the biggest reasons why we were here after all. Consensual feeding seemed to be the norm, or at least none of the staff thought to stop the various couples hidden here and there, buried in on themselves. Bile rose in the back of my throat as I thought about the blood that would flow down Jason’s throat.

Better anyone else than me. “Do you need my help?”

He grinned and for a moment, I saw the face of the skater punk from so very long ago. “Shouldn’t think so.”

“Well, in any case, I can’t just stand here.”

“Can’t you?” he asked, sounding terribly amused.

What was I supposed to say? “I don’t…”

He stood up, pushed the hair behind his ears and adjusted his shirt cuffs. “Standing here, or in my case, sitting here is hardly going to fix or change anything. You can stay here and watch me feed, or you can go down and get yourself a drink or something.” He laughed. “Perhaps they’ll have some juice.”

The way he said the last sentence made me feel like a child. But I was thirsty and all the expensive alcohol on the table less than a foot away was as useful to me as a bucket of sand in a desert.

I followed him down the stairs and stood at the very edge of the massive dance floor, watched Jason look at the mass of writhing, sweating bodies with a predatory gleam in his eyes.

“I’m off.” He slipped into the crowd as graceful and deadly as a hawk homing in on its prey and while I was good at finding, it would take more than I had to track him through the hundreds of people on the dance floor.

If I wanted to.

Which I didn’t.

The long, metallic bar with seven bartenders, all of them dressed professionally in black vests over white button-down shirts and black pants, stretched along one side of the wall and I made my way to the bar, managing to snag a seat in the very middle. A giggly, very drunk blond was on my right and a quiet, also very drunk redhead was on my left, both of them looking as though they would not be leaving the club under their own power.

I held up a hand and a bartender, dapper with a small goatee, nodded in my direction.

“What can I get for ya?”

“Cranberry juice, if you’ve got any.”

The giggly, drunk blond laughed shrilly upon hearing my order, but I ignored her. Taking action against her in the state she was in, was pointless and moot.

The bartender slapped a glass on the counter and poured me a tall one. “No problema. Will that be all for ya,
chica
?”

Chica? What was that supposed to mean? “Um. Yes. That’s all.”

Drink paid for, I turned in my seat, cold glass in one hand, all the while acutely aware of the leather wrist sheathe riding comfortably over my wrist bone, almost like a cherished bracelet.

I couldn’t kill a vampire with the small dagger, but I could hurt them enough to make them think twice about attacking me again.

And in most cases, that was seventy-five percent of the battle.

If I was under the impression that I could possibly spot Jason in the middle of at least three hundred people, I was sorely disillusioned.

Three hundred people.

Three hundred.

The bottom dropped out of my stomach and I put the glass down on the counter, hard enough to cause a wash of crimson to splash over the rim and onto my right hand.

Shit.

That’s twice in three days I left Jason alone.

Never mind he was taught by a vampire who could teach me more than a thing or two.

Never mind he was, by all accounts, my master.

He was still my responsibility and if he died on me now, I’d never get close to Noir, not with Vincent keeping such a close eye on me.

The DJ spun something new, something loud with lots of hard, distortion guitar music. I didn’t recognize the artist, but then again, my music of choice was written by people who were dead for at least a couple hundred years.

I pushed into the crowd, amidst cries and curses from the disturbed dancers who apparently didn’t enjoy my interruption into their bouncing and swaying.

Couldn’t see Jason.

I managed to make it out to the other side of the dance floor, the side facing the double entrance/exit doors and took a couple of deep breaths. I needed them. It was impossible to get a breath in, squashed in by people from all sides. It was enough to make me want to just start throwing punches left and right, if only to clear the way.

Shit, shit, shit!

Someone touched my shoulder lightly and unconsciously, I cocked my fist and whirled on one heel.

The fact he was a vampire was the only reason he wasn’t plastered against the wall. A human wouldn’t have been quick enough to duck.

The blond vampire held up his hands, cerulean blue eyes wide. “Whoa, whoa. Calm down! Calm the fuck down, lady!”

Chest heaving, I brought my hand down, desperately glad I had enough sense to keep the bi-su where it belonged, tucked in the wrist sheath. I had to remember…it was nothing but a last resort. Had to remember. Why did I keep forgetting? “What do you want?”

He ran a hand through his blond hair, long enough to brush his jawline. “Couldn’t help but notice you seemed to be in a bit of trouble.”

“Trouble?”

“You just plowed through that dance floor like a fucking bull-dozer,” he said dryly. “You’re lucky no one got hurt. Much.”

I didn’t have time for this. I had to find Jason, had to make sure he was safe. If I had to stand in front of him and watch him drain a human, I would. I no longer had a choice, not anymore. “Get out of the way. Leave me alone.”

He crossed his arms and planted himself directly in front of me. “Look, I’d like to help you. Let me help.”

What was his problem? Besides being nothing more than a walking corpse, anyways. “I said get lost!”

I pushed past him, eyes scanning the dance floor, the myriad of human bodies that glistened like wet silk under the strobe lights and frenetic colored lights that would give any healthy human the seizure of the lifetime.

He followed me as I walked around the dance floor, hoping for a glimpse of a white shirt, a glimpse of dark hair, even a flash of onyx eyes.

“Hey, I said I could help!”

Persistent bastard.

Still, if he wanted to help so much…

I stopped, sudden enough to make him bump into me. Most women would’ve taken it the wrong way and slapped the crap out of him, but I didn’t take it personally. I’ve got about as much curves as a plank of wood and about as much sex appeal. But you’d never find me complaining. “Fine, you want to help?”

His eyes were wide. It was cute. Not really. “What can I do?”

How much could I tell him without the wrong information going to Vincent? Such a precarious situation.

What was more important?

Finding Jason?

Or explaining away a wrong impression to Centennial City’s most powerful vampire?

The latter I could do.

But the former would lead to consequences that were unfixable, should they come to pass.

I drew in a deep breath of the slightly sweet, slightly sweaty heated air. Not because I like it, but because it was calming. Breathe in…breathe out…

“I’m looking for the vampire I was with,” I explained. “Jason. The newborn. My…master.”

The blond vampire tapped the side of his elegant nose. “Ah, he put the sack over you, eh?”

I had no idea what that even meant. “Um. Yes. Whatever you said. Look, it’s imperative I find him. If we split up, we can find him that much sooner.”

He squared his wide shoulders. I would’ve been more impressed if he wasn’t a vampire. “I can do that. What do I do after I find him, if I do?”

First thing tomorrow, I was going to get a cell phone. “Just stay with him. He might be feeding. When he’s done, escort him back to our seats. If I don’t find him within thirty minutes, I’ll assume you have him and we’ll rendezvous there. Got it?”

He grinned. “Ooh, rendezvous, hm? Sounds professional. I think I kind of like it.”

Who was this man and how had he survived for this long? I’d never met such a flippant being.“Just…just find him, okay?”

He clicked his heels together. “Aye, aye, Captain!”

I had serious doubts as to whether he could help me, but two pairs of eyes are more useful than one. “See you in thirty, if not sooner.”

“Um.” He stuck out his hand. “Name’s Ryder.”

I stared at the proffered hand. I didn’t want to take it. I didn’t need to start making vampire friends. As soon as Noir’s head was off his shoulders, I would be back hunting his kind. I didn’t need this kind of emotional attachment. “That’s nice to know.”

He sighed and extended his hand further. “You’re supposed to take my hand. Shake it. And then you say, Hi, my name is…whatever your name is. And then you say, nice to meet you. I’ll say likewise. Then we’ll be on our merry way.”

There was absolutely nothing merry about this. Nothing. “You sound ridiculous.”

He winked broadly. “Maybe so. But I’m pretty hot, so most people tend to overlook my faults.”

Reluctantly I took his hand, all the while painfully aware of the seconds, minutes ticking by, seconds and minutes better spent looking for Jason and being aware of his safety.