The Seeking Kiss (2 page)

Chapter Two

He watched her walk into the club, all defiant bravado, but he could smell the acrid scent of fear beneath. The new ones were always a little scared. But this little one had only an edge of it. Maybe the bravado wasn’t all defiance.

Hex had been just like that when he’d entered the club in Paris ten years ago. When he’d met Aleron. He’d been so damned ready. And hadn’t regretted a moment of his decision.

He turned his attention back to the new girl. Sleek, long, dark hair like a curtain around her slender shoulders and nearly to her tiny waist, a tight little body with breasts perhaps just a bit too full for her small frame. Lovely. One of those pouting doll mouths. She would look innocent if it weren’t for her eyes. They were green, tilted at the corners. Feline.

Pulling in a deep breath, he took in her fragrance from across the room, separating out the perfumes and sweat of the others, the alcohol, the cigarette smoke, the hash smoke. Yes, there she was, like honey, sweet, as innocent as her face. Except that there was a dark musk underneath it that spoke of sex.

Have to show her to Aleron. Have to have this one.

She glanced up, and her gaze caught his. He kept her there for a long moment, until she stumbled, and he let her go. There would be time later, once Aleron arrived. Aleron would help him bring the girl to him. To them.

His groin tightened.

They’d taken many women together, he and Aleron, in the years since Aleron had Turned him in the club in Paris. They’d come to London together only last year, wanting a change of scene. They both loved the British girls. There was a certain hardness about them the French women seemed to lack. And the British boys were beautiful and tough and smart. But the boys were almost too easy. He and Aleron fulfilled each other’s need for men anyway. It was the girls Hex wanted, that Aleron wanted.

Yes, they would bring the girl to
them
. Together. He could hardly wait.

The pulsing beat of the music seemed to push Nissa across the room as effectively as Ilana’s hand on her shoulder. She hardly had time to take in the multi-level dance floor, the old balconies of the theater hung with their golden scrollwork and life-sized cupids, paused as if about to take flight.

Her pulse was thrumming from that man—that vampire—looking at her. Not just looking, but
looking
. Into her.
Seeing
her.

She shivered.

Ilana had been right—there was no mistaking him for human. His dark gaze had glittered as though filled with the distant light of the stars. And even in the dim, throbbing glow of the club lights, his skin was luminous, his lips impossibly lush, smooth and pink. He had one of those compact, muscular bodies, broad shoulders beneath his white T-shirt, narrow hips in his black leather pants. He seemed impossibly clean, somehow, in a way she didn’t quite understand. All she really understood was that she wanted him, with a simmering desire she could barely contain.

But Ilana was gesturing her toward the long marble-topped bar at one end of the enormous room.

“Nissa, have a drink. It’ll calm you down.”

“What? All right. I’ll have a scotch, I guess.”

“You seem distracted.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“I saw him.”

“Who?”

“That dark one watching you.”

“Oh.” Nissa smoothed her hair from her face. She was always utterly confident when it came to men. But this was different.
He
was different. He wasn’t a man, after all. “It’s just…a lot to take in at first. I’ll be fine in a moment. Better after a drink.”

“Don’t drink too much. They won’t let you here, you know.”

“Yes, I know. And I never drink too much. Just something to take the edge off. But only the barest bit. I’m rather liking the edge.”

Ilana smiled at her. “I thought you might. There is a certain thrill just being here. It’s like nothing else.”

Nissa smiled back. “I didn’t want it to be.”

“That’s why you’re here.”

Ilana turned and ordered Nissa’s scotch and a vodka for herself. Nissa lifted her drink and sipped, her gaze wandering around the room. It was frankly thrilling as hell when she spotted a vampire among the humans. And after a few minutes, impossible not to recognize them immediately. They were the most beautiful creatures she had ever seen, every single one of them, although they came in every form. But all of them with that same flawless, gleaming skin like polished marble, eyes sparkling like jewels, with the most enormous pupils, absolutely perfect bodies. The way they moved, with absolute grace, as though their limbs were made of liquid. And that aura of power they seemed to wear like a halo.

“Nissa?”

“What? Sorry. Were you saying something?”

“I asked if you’re done with your drink.”

“Oh, yes, sure. I’m finished.” She swallowed the last bit of amber liquid and set her empty glass on the long polished bar. “What now?”

“Do you need me to go over anything else with you? How this works?”

“We’ve already discussed everything, haven’t we?”

They had. And Nissa had read over and over again the material that had been dropped at her flat by courier—a courier, for God’s sake, in these times. She knew all about the club itself, how the vampires had taken over the old theater fifteen years earlier when the London culture could no longer support live theater. She knew that those who entered Midnight Playground were offering themselves as servants, sexual partners without limit. She knew about the Seeking Kiss, in which they would drink from her during sex. And if she were very lucky, one would offer her the Turning Kiss, the ultimate offering of eternity.

She shivered, a long shimmering undulation of desire working its way up her spine.

“I have a date,” Ilana went on, “so I’ll have to leave you on your own now.”

Nissa nodded. “I expected as much. I’ll be fine.”

She always was. But she couldn’t deny the nerves trembling in her stomach, making her neck hot and tight.

“If you go through the doors at the back of the auditorium you’ll find a handful of small, semi-private rooms with tables and booths, for drinking, eating, talking. On the next floor up are the sex rooms. You’re welcome to watch if a curtain is open. If it’s closed, walk on. You’ll find a large, central room for more public displays. And on the top floor is the dungeon, if you’re ready for that.”

Nissa’s heart sped up, knocking in her veins like a hammer. “I’m ready for anything.”

“You’ll be all right?”

“Ilana, I am here because I wanted this. All of it. To meet them, to become one of them. And to be touched by them. To have them drink from me. I understand perfectly what I am getting myself into. I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t been well educated as to what goes on here. I want this. I’ve waited so long. I’m dying to get started, frankly. Trust me, there is no overload for me.”

Ilana smiled once more. “Ah, they really will love you.”

“I hope so.”

“All right. I’ll ring you in a few days. Don’t expect to see me again tonight.”

Nissa smiled, nodded.

Her adventure was about to begin.

She knew exactly where she wanted to go. She didn’t want to hang out in the bar. She was far too impatient to sit there and wait for one of them to approach her. No, she wanted to dive right in, to see it all. She was growing damp simply thinking about it, her heart a hammering beat.

She moved into a hallway lit by dimly glowing wall sconces. Even in the faint golden glow she could see the walls paneled in marble and onyx, everything perfectly polished, gorgeous. In front of her was a wide marble staircase carpeted in plush red, the railings in intricate gilt. People lounged on the stairs, talking, drinking. And several of
them
. Vampires. A male with waist-length, dark hair, gorgeous olive skin, a high forehead, his black eyes glittering like twin orbs of polished jet, was surrounded by four women in all shapes and sizes. All of them beautiful of course, and scantily dressed in jewel-toned silk. Nissa watched as he threw his head back and laughed, light glinting off the sharp canines at the corners of his lips.

They were too beautiful, these creatures. They needed a more glamorous name, something less sinister. But what were they if not sinister? These men and women who lived off human blood, who essentially took humans as their slaves, no matter how willing.

Oh God, she was willing…

She breathed in the musky nighttime perfume of the vampire as she moved up the stairs past him, past his small harem of beauties. Somehow she sensed she was not for him, so she didn’t pause.

At the top of the grand staircase a hallway led in both directions, decorated with the same tall panels of onyx and marble, punctuated here and there by gilt-trimmed, marble-topped tables holding tall vases of rare, real flowers. Lilies, she thought. Their perfume was intoxicating as she passed by, seeming to cling to her skin. And she remembered the stories her Nana had told her, of the flower garden she’d had before the riots, the scents of earth and flowers blooming. But she couldn’t think of all that now. Nana, childhood. Grief at all that had been lost. There was too much happening at this moment.

The first curtained doorway was closed tight with a knotted golden cord pulled across it, as was the next one. But the silk drape at the third doorway was parted. Nissa stood uncertainly for a moment before stepping close enough to peer inside.

A female vampire and a human male on a high bed draped in blood red velvet, both of them gloriously naked. The woman straddled his body, her hands on her small, firm breasts, twisting the dark red nipples while he bucked beneath her. Her curling brown hair hung in a graceful cascade down her back, swinging as she moved, her hips pumping, his thrusting up to meet hers. The only sound was a quiet panting, the steady beat from the music downstairs nothing more than background, like the pulsing of blood through the veins.

The woman turned to look at her, a small smile on her lovely face revealing her eyeteeth. Then, lifting the young man’s hand to her lips, and with her gaze steady on Nissa’s, a smile still on her lush mouth, she bit into his wrist. Just the tips of her fangs, causing two small trickles of blood to weep from the wounds. The man sighed as her tongue darted out, licking at the blood. He groaned then, a deep sound coming from his throat as she planted her mouth over his wrist and sucked in earnest. And all the time Nissa stood shivering with need and heat. But the woman turned her attention back to the man, and Nissa was not invited to join them.

These two are not for me.

Her body burning, she moved down the hallway, passing several more closed curtains. She was more certain than ever that this was what she wanted, craved.
Needed.
She passed several doorways, open in invitation, without looking in. Something made her keep moving down the curving hallway. Something compelled her.

When she found another parted curtain she knew this was where she was meant to stop. What did that mean? But she didn’t have time to think about it. She could hear quiet moans coming from inside, making her shiver all over. And as she approached the doorway, the scent that came to her was earthy, dark. Pure sex. When she looked in, her heart stuttered.

Two males, vampires both, twined together, standing naked in the small room. One tall, well over six feet, with short spiky hair in such a pale shade of platinum blond it appeared almost white. His skin was as milky as the marble panels on the walls and looked just as hard and smooth. He had long, lean muscles, his thighs strong, the curve of his buttocks and back a flawless flow of lines. His mouth was on the throat of his partner, working, sucking, one hand on the other male’s back, holding him close, the other hand behind his dark head.

And the dark one…

He was the one she’d seen downstairs in the main room, that midnight stare that went right through her. She could only see his profile, his full lips parted in ecstasy, but she knew it was him.

He was all hard-packed muscle beneath naked skin, gold and gleaming and so incredibly beautiful just looking at him made her breath catch in her throat. His hand was between the taller man’s thighs, his fingers stroking his partner’s long, hard cock.

Oh God…

Desire lanced into her body, a hard shock of it like lightning, like fire. She was shaking. The tall one drew his mouth from the dark one’s throat, leaving a small smear of blood that ran in a tiny rivulet over his collarbone and down his broad chest, bright scarlet against that golden skin. Nissa licked her lips.

Yes, to have my own mouth there. To have them do those things to me…

The tall one turned the other in his arms and pulled his muscular body in close, broad bronzed back to his angular, pale chest. With one hand he stroked slowly down his back, then using his sharp nails, he punctured the skin at the edge of one shoulder blade. Nissa heard a sharp hiss from the dark one, but she knew it was in pleasure, not pain. The blond leaned in and licked at the droplets of blood, and they both moaned, a low hum in the back of their throats. Her body was weak with desire, warm, her pussy soaking wet and aching. She squeezed her thighs together, but it didn’t help. And she was held there, enraptured, unable to turn away.

The tall one slid his palm over that lovely golden skin, down and down, until he reached the smooth curve of his buttocks. He slipped a hand in between them and the dark one tensed for a moment, then his hips surged back, angling so that Nissa could see his hard golden cock, not as long as the tall blond’s, but thick, the head dark purple. She licked her lips.

Have to touch him, to take him in my mouth. Yes…

As she watched, enthralled, the blond lifted his head, his gaze meeting hers. His eyes were a piercing, shocking blue, with large black pupils, and she saw in them the depth and knowledge of centuries. It was as much a shock as the keen desire knifing into her system. And as she stared, fascinated, he parted the younger vampire’s buttocks and thrust his cock in.

The dark one cried out, his head thrown back, his neck corded. And Nissa felt it as though her own body had been impaled. She was shivering with pleasure, the pulsebeat between her damp thighs nearly unbearable, and the tall one watched her still, his blue gaze unwavering on her face. When he began to pump his hips, the dark beauty pushing back against him, she swore she felt a stirring deep in her body, a ghost of sensation, too powerful to deny. With a shock, she felt that long, marble pale cock pushing into her pussy, feeding her desire. Stronger and stronger as she watched them together, watched them fucking in some beautiful and purely animal way. She grasped the edge of the doorway next to her, her fingers twisting in the heavy curtain.