The Darkening (23 page)

The succubus looked at him in confusion. Out in the hall, Darius heard footsteps.

"What's going on here?" Ricco demanded from the doorway. "Darius?"

"Touch her," Darius croaked, fighting the ardor as hard as he could.

"What?"

"Touch her!" Darius yelled.

Ricco stormed into the room. "Miss, I'm sorry, but-"

At his touch on her arm, the succubus screamed, cutting off Ricco's words. She jerked away and emitted a loud hiss. Then she ran from the room, and Darius felt the last of the glamour slowly fade.

"What the hell is going on?" Ricco demanded.

Darius lowered himself on the edge of the bed and rubbed his head. "That was a succubus. She's working for the demon lord."

"Why didn't you kill her?"

"It's not that easy," Darius muttered. "You'd appreciate her tactics. She uses glamour-like you."

"I've never had to resort to using glamour on my partners," Ricco said.

"Whatever."

"Why wasn't she able to use that glamour on me?" Ricco asked.

"Because you're a death-magic creature. The glamour only works on those with living magic. The stronger the magic she can suck, the more powerful her glamour becomes." Darius was starting to feel better and smiled. "Sucking on
your
life force wound be like sucking on the tailpipe of a cab."

"Thanks for the analogy. You all right?"

Darius nodded and stood. "Yeah. Thanks to you."

"What are you doing back here anyway? I thought you left with Alise."

Darius fought the urge to put his fist in Ricco's jaw.

"Actually, I came back here to beat the shit out of you, but since you saved my life, I guess that's out. I still want to know what you and Lexi were doing in the back room, though."

"Believe it or not, we were talking."

"About?"

"You."

Darius studied the vampire's face, but decided Ricco was telling the truth. "What did she say?"

Ricco shook his head. "If she wants to tell you, she will. Right now, though, tell me about this succubus."

For the next hour, Darius and Ricco talked. There was no doubt in either of their minds that having both the demon lord and the succubus in town was dangerous. Having them working together was even more so.

"She said something about Amadja's pets," Darius said. "And earlier, I heard Paddy Darby singing about the hounds of hell."

"It could be a coincidence," Ricco pointed out.

"Yeah, it could, but let's say for the sake of argument that it's not. Let's say that the hounds of hell are the same pets the succubus was talking about. If she's siphoning off living magic to feed them, then they have to be demons."

"It makes sense that Amadja would have demons working with him," Ricco summarized.

Darius nodded. "In addition to a growing number of vampires." He paused, thinking. "There's a lot more to that club than what we see from the bar. I need to find a way behind the scenes to see what's really going on. I'm afraid the demon lord has amassed greater forces than we know about-and that could prove deadly for our side."

It was well after midnight when Darius left Ricco's club. He wandered aimlessly until, without even realizing it, he ended up at Lexi's apartment.

Now he needed to decide if he was going to stay or leave. Without conscious thought, he reached beneath his duster and pulled off his key tattoo. He held it to the lock, and soon it changed its shape.

He told himself that he was sneaking into her apartment because he didn't want to wake her, but maybe the truth was that he needed to see her and knew that if he knocked, she'd refuse to open the door.

He inserted the key, unlocked the door and pushed it open. As soon as he stepped inside, a scorching fireball hit him square in the chest, leaving him momentarily stunned. Before he could recover, a force rammed into him and knocked him to the ground.

Reacting on instinct, Darius grabbed his attacker and flipped their positions so he was on top. The glow of a newly forming fireball provided enough light for Darius to see Lexi's angry face. He grabbed her wrists and pinned her to the floor before she had time to hurl her magic. "Lexi, it's okay. It's me, Darius."

"I know who it is," she snarled. "What right do you have to break into my apartment?"

"You invited me," he reminded her.

"That was before you went off to be with your little redhead."

"Is that jealousy I hear?"

She struggled to free her hands. "Don't flatter yourself." "I was only with Alise because I needed information." "I'm sure you were very persuasive," she spit out. He heaved a sigh. "We talked. That's all."

She glared at him. "Did you forget that I saw you going into the back rooms?"

"What you saw us doing was going out the back way," he told her.

"Do you think I'm totally stupid?" she snapped. "You two couldn't have been any cozier if you were Siamese twins."

"Come on, Lexi. You saw her. The woman is barely taller than my waist. She wanted to sneak out the back because there was someone at the front of the bar she didn't want seeing her. But she couldn't get through the crowd without every available male thinking she was an easy target. I was just making sure she got out safely" He waited a second.

"And you expect me to believe that."

"Yes," he said, starting to get a little mad himself. "It's the truth. And I know you won't ask, but for the record, we didn't have sex." His gaze locked with hers. "We. Didn't. Have. Sex," he said again, slowly.

The fireball that had been blazing. ominously in the palm of her hand slowly dissipated. Now that she was no longer trying to attack him, he became more aware of their positions. He was straddling her hips, practically lying on top of her in order to pin her hands to the floor. Arousal shot through him, and his gaze shifted from those gray eyes staring up at him to the dusky rose lips he so badly wanted to kiss.

"We didn't have sex either," she said softly. "Ricco and I."

"I know."

She was clearly surprised. "You do?"

He leaned down a little closer to her. "Yeah. Ricco and I had a little-talk-after you left. He told me you just talked."

She looked so vulnerable staring up at him that he continued his downward descent, intent on tasting those lips once more, even though he knew he shouldn't. He felt the rise and fall of her chest as her breathing grew more rapid.

He was nearly there; could almost taste her sweetness.

"Please don't," she begged, her voice breaking with emotion. "I can't do this again."

The effect of her pleading was like being doused with ice water. She sounded so distraught.

He wanted to tell her that he'd never hurt her, but Ricco's words from the other night floated through his head.
Too late.

Reluctantly he got to his feet and then helped her up. There was a moment of awkward silence while he tried not to stare. She was dressed in a loose shirt and pants that clung to every delicate curve.

"You can stay here tonight if you want," she said, breaking into his thoughts. "But you get to sleep on the couch."

Since he'd expected her to kick him out, he was surprised. "Thank you."

She gave him a look like she didn't entirely trust him. "Follow me."

She walked down the hall, and once they reached her bedroom, she opened the closet and pulled out a pillow. She turned to hand it to him and almost hit him in the chest with it because he was crowding herintentionally. He couldn't help himself; he liked being near her.

He saw the way her breath hitched at the contact, and it made his own pulse quicken to know that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. He looked into her eyes, holding her mesmerized; willing her to

feel the intensity and sincerity of his feelings for her.

He leaned close to her again, pleased to see that she didn't shy away from him. Her lips parted, and he felt her warm breath fan his face when she sighed. He reached behind her, took a blanket off the shelf, and then, with great willpower, stepped back. "This should be enough. Thanks."

He left her standing there and went back into the living room. He tossed the pillow on the couch, lay down and covered himself as best he could with the blanket. It wasn't quite long enough to cover his tall frame, but it didn't matter. It wasn't like he was going to get much sleep anyway.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It was late the next morning when Lexi finally woke up. After dressing, she mentally steeled herself to face Darius, but needn't have bothered. The blanket he'd used was on the couch, neatly folded beneath the pillow, and Darius was nowhere to be found.

Lexi couldn't help the crushing disappointment that swept over her. She was a fool. Principles be damned. She should've gone with instinct, ripped his clothes off and shown him what he'd been missing. She sighed. He knew what he was missing, and he didn't want it. Yet there were those moments when they were together. A touch. A heated look. A suggestive smile. Was that real? Or simply the imagination of a desperate woman?

But even that wasn't the truth. Granted, she was in desperate need of sex, but if that was all it was, she'd had plenty of opportunity to take care of it with Ricco. What she felt for Darius was different. Even a little frightening, because she'd only know him a short time. How did someone become so important so quickly?

The answer was something she didn't want to examine too closely.

She went into the kitchen to make breakfast, determined to forget about Darius. She had other, more important, things to worry about. Work, for instance.

Luckily, there were several cases waiting for her when she finally made it into the office, and she wasted no time in tackling them. She worked straight through the day and, instead of going home for dinner, picked something up and took it back to the office to eat while tackling stacks of paperwork.

It was nearly 8:00 p.m. when she caught a cab ride home. She rested her head against the back seat, eyes closed. All she wanted to do was soak in a hot tub-no looking for the demon or Darius, and definitely no clubbing. In fact, if Mai called asking her to go, she'd tell her

Lexi eyes shot open. Now that Mai knew about the succubus, she wouldn't be foolish enough to go back-would she?

Lexi got an uneasy feeling. When had Mai ever exercised caution when there was a potentially awardwinning article to be written?

As the cab drew to a stop outside her apartment building, she found the thought too frightening to ignore. Feeling the driver's eyes on her as he waited for her to get out, she leaned forward.

"I'm sorry," she told him. "I've changed my mind. I need you to take me to a different address." For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, she had a driver take her to Mai's apartment instead.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" she asked minutes later when Mai answered the door wearing a sparkling gold party dress and heels.

There were dark circles under her eyes and she looked tired, but she gave Lexi a dazzling smile. "Out."

Lexi walked in, closing the door after her. She followed Mai into her bedroom. "I see that. After your brush with death last night, do you think that's wise?"

Mai waved her concern away. "I'm fine," she assured her, picking up an earring to put on."In fact, I feel great." She stopped in the process of applying lip gloss. "Hey, why don't you come with me?You'll have a great time."

It was the last thing Lexi felt like doing tonight, but, given Mai's propensity for trouble, she wondered if maybe she should go with her. "Where are you going?"

Mai, now finished with her makeup, wandered out to the living room where her purse lay on the couch. She picked it up and riffled through the contents, leaving Lexi with the impression that she was purposely ignoring the question.

"Mai," Lexi said in a stern voice. "Where are you going tonight?"

Mai, who had been looking through her purse, closed it and let her hands fall to her sides with a sigh. "The Crypt."

"What?" Lexi was shocked. "How can you even think about going back there after they almost converted you into a vampire? Plus, there's the succubus. Mai, there's bad stuff going on at that club."

"Exactly," Mai said excitedly. "Lexi, the public needs to be informed, and it's my job to tell them."

"Even if it means your death?"

"I can't shy away from exposing the truth because of what
might
happen. Besides, I think you're exaggerating."

"Oh, excuse me," Lexi said sarcastically. "Wasn't that you who almost died last night?"

Mai sighed again. "But I didn't die, and now I have an obligation to expose them. Now, are you going with me?"