Ecstasy in Darkness (Alien Huntress 5)

Like Bride, Dallas found himself trying not to grin. How did the bastard get away with the ego and the laziness? If Dallas had said something like that to one of his dates, he would have been slapped.

A new beer was promptly delivered. Bride didn’t drink it, of course, but Devyn did, aiding her illusion. They were both enablers.

“So … tell me about vampire weaknesses, then,” Noelle said. She reached over, grabbed a few cashews from the bowl in the center of the table, and tossed them into her mouth. “Real ones, not shit from myths.”

Bride shrugged, leaning back against her man. “I’m not the best source of information for that. I, well, I don’t have any weaknesses.”

“True story,” Devyn said with pride.

“And I only recently learned there were other vampires out there,” Bride continued. “I haven’t spent a lot of time with them. They weren’t exactly welcoming when I visited them underground.”

Noelle scrubbed a hand down her pretty face. “You’re so not helping.”

Dallas risked another glance at Hector. Man was still watching Noelle, expression still blank. He’d wanted so badly to be wrong, but he’d been battling these types of visions for over a year now, and not a single one had failed to come to pass. He was going to sleep with Noelle, even knowing the outcome, and then Hector was going to sleep with Noelle.

“Do you think we failed to talk to Bride while filling out McKell’s file?” Mia, too, propped her elbows on the table. She sat across from Noelle, allowing her to glare straight into the trainee’s face. “I assure you, everything Bride knows, which amounts to shit, is in his file.”

“Hey,” Bride said at the same time an unimpressed Noelle said, “never hurts to return to a source with follow-up questions.”

Mia shrugged. “Work the rest of the night, then. But me? I’m relaxing for once.” Her chair skidded behind her as she stood. “The rest of you can go to hell.” With that, she stomped to the bar.

Dallas was positive he heard every person at the table utter a quick prayer for the safe and speedy return of Mia’s husband. She always morphed into Cranky McBitch when Kyrin was out of town. And as he’d only departed for a meeting with his people, the Arcadians, this morning, and planned to be gone for seven days, the next seven days were going to be long and torturous.

Bride regarded Noelle intently. “McKell giving you trouble or something?”

“Not me.” She waved her fingers. “See, I still have these. He’s messing with Ava. No one messes with my Ava.”

The Rakans, who’d been without female companionship for two years before settling here on Earth, watched her with utter adoration. Her Ava? She had to know what kind of reaction that kind of statement would get, but she blithely continued munching on those cashews.

“Really?” Bride furrowed her brow, the picture of confusion and disappointment. “He cut off her fingers?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” Noelle licked the salt from her nails, and Dallas moaned, deciding he and Hector were technically only acquaintances. “But he’s got to be screwing with her mind, you know? He’s not pissed at her for stabbing him. And he wants to work with her, even bargained with her.”

Bride tapped her fingertips against her chin. “Hmm. That is odd. Usually he erupts with the slightest provocation.”

Yeah. A real conundrum. “He wants to sleep with her,” Dallas said. They acted as if they’d never met a man with a penis.

Johnny, he noticed, leaned forward to listen to the rest of the conversation, gaze sharp.

Bride asked for details about the bargain, but Noelle refused to give them. She loved her friend, and wouldn’t betray her confidence, even for answers of her own. Great. Something else to like about her. Exactly what he hadn’t needed.

“Is it true that vampires can’t go out during the day?” Noelle asked.

“Not necessarily.” Green eyes hardened, and it was clear Bride didn’t like discussing her people. But she did it. Anything for her precious Devyn, who sometimes worked for AIR. What would it be like to have someone care that much? Dallas wondered. “We burn easily, so we like to avoid the sunlight, but we don’t burst into flame or anything like that.”

“And you heal quickly? Faster than humans?”

“Yes.”

Noelle’s head tilted to the side. “So what does it mean if you don’t heal quickly?”

“That there’s not enough AB negative in my diet.”

“That’s it? The only problem?”

“Yep.”

Now it was Noelle’s eyes that hardened, turning the gray to steel. “And when you’re hungry, you’ll eat anything?”

Dallas cast another glance to Hector, expecting to see more of the same. A blank mask. Only, his friend had his beer poised at his lips, his gaze gobbling up Noelle with massive amounts of heat. Had thoughts of biting and sucking pushed him over the edge?

Didn’t matter, really. Here it was, unadulterated proof that Hector wanted Noelle.

I’ll fight her appeal, Dallas thought, determined. No matter what the vision promised, he could control his body. He could say no. Even if Noelle stripped and straddled him while he was tied to a chair, slipping and sliding, begging—and shit. None of that, you gutter-loving bastard.

“I can’t, no,” Bride said. “Once I met Devyn, I couldn’t drink from anyone but him. If I tried, I vomited.”

“And can you blame her?” Devyn grinned like a man who had just experienced the best orgasm of his life. “My blood is the best.”

Wasn’t bragging when you spoke the truth. Dallas had no designs on the guy, but if either one of them had been a woman, Dallas would have tapped that. Confidence really flipped his lid.

“Mated vampires can’t drink from anyone else,” Bride added. “Whether the blood’s good. Or bad.”

Devyn clutched his heart as if he’d been stabbed.

“I wonder if there’s a way to force the mating …” Noelle said, mind obviously drifting.

Johnny tried to gain her attention, but failed. Did he want to know more about Ava and McKell? Probably. Moron, Dallas thought again. Like there was any way the ass**le would get a chance with those goods again. Ava wasn’t stupid. Plus, the few times Dallas had seen her with Johnny, her disgust had been palpable.

Johnny would have better luck with a nice girl from church. Really, McKell was a stone-cold killer, and Dallas wasn’t even sure he could handle Ava. Girl was a man-eater. And man-eaters were dangerous. Real dangerous. Junior twitched again.