“Do you need to feed?”
Gideon shook his head a little too quickly and Rafe frowned. He wasn’t going to force Gideon. It wasn’t what he needed right now.
Leaning forward, he pressed a quick kiss to Gideon’s soft blond hair before stepping away. Ryder immediately drew close and helped Gideon get to his feet. He ushered the smaller vampire out of the club like a mother hen tucking a chick under her wing.
Only when they were gone did he turn his attention to Lola, who was lounging against the bar. She already had two glasses of whiskey poured and waiting for them. With his back to the two corpses mucking up his floor, Rafe leaned on the bar and picked up one of the drinks.
“Do you think he’ll return?” Lola inquired after he’d tossed back half the whiskey without tasting it.
“No.”
“Should I have—”
“No, you handled it fine,” Rafe snapped.
“Then why the hell are you so pissy?”
Rafe glared over at Lola and she gave her best “Don’t fuck with me” look. This was why he adored her. She put up with all his moods and never flinched. Never gave him a goddamn inch.
And she’d put up with a lot of shit over the years. There had been countless disappearances on his part to deal with his mother. Then the nights when he was mentally fighting through the aftermath of his mother’s episodes. She’d been there to steer him through so many acts of stupidity on his part when he couldn’t look himself in the mirror.
“Why the hell are you even still here?” Rafe grumbled.
Lola gave a deep, throaty laugh that drew his eyes to her. She leaned against the bar and tilted her head up toward the ceiling, a broad smile pulling her deep red lips apart. Her skin was a warm, dusky brown even after decades of hiding from the sun, and her eyes were a dark, rich brown. He thought she’d mentioned growing up somewhere in the Middle East one night when they were drunk of blood, sex, and alcohol, but those human years were so very far away now.
“You mean other than the fact that you pay well?” She turned her head and stared at him. “You’re fun, Rafe. Even when you’re at your most self-destructive. Even when the world is burning around us. You’ll always be more fun than anyone I’ll ever meet.”
Rafe’s fingers tightened around his glass. “Tonight was fun?”
“In regards to Gideon, no. But you turning them on each other? Yes. Knowing that the vamps in town will fear you? Yes. Knowing that Gideon has just a little more protection? That we all do? Yeah, that was fun.”
“I doubt this is the kind of impression Marcus wanted the Variks making in this town.”
“Something was going to happen eventually,” Lola said. “And after talking to Edgar, we all know everyone is watching for it. This was a good start.” Her smirk spread as she repeated, “ ‘Don’t cross the Variks.’ It’s a very good start.”
Rafe’s eyes returned to his nearly empty glass. He didn’t know if it was a good idea if the others feared his family. If they saw the Variks as a threat. He knew his brothers didn’t want power or political influence. They just wanted to live their lives in peace. But their kind was determined to make sure that was an impossibility.
“Go home, Rafe. I’ve got this mess,” Lola instructed. Rafe looked over at his companion to find that her smile had softened a little. “You’ve been dealing with this Arsenault shit for over a week now. Rest. Hunt. Go through your phone and find someone to fuck.”
Despite his general love of arguing with Lola, Rafe tamped it down this time. He finished the rest of his drink and placed the glass on the bar with a heavy thud before pushing away.
“Call me if there are any more problems. I’m not planning to leave town again anytime soon.”
“Got it.”
Rafe walked out of Blush feeling an ache deep in his bones, as if the weight of all his one hundred and seventy-six years was pressing on him. He wanted to keep Gideon safe. He wanted to keep Lola and Ryder safe. But it was more than that. He wanted to keep Philippe and his clan safe as well. Philippe was trying to save vampires who had been abandoned and tortured by their makers, wanted to offer them a safe haven and a family to call their own.
How the fuck was he supposed to do all that? He was no one. Just some nightclub owner. Fuck, he and his brothers were good at finding plenty of trouble on their own. How the hell was he supposed to keep anyone else safe, protect anyone, when he was so damn good at making a mess of things on his own? He certainly hadn’t been able to keep his mother alive and safe.