Archangel's Shadows (Guild Hunter 7)

The donor screamed, drops of blood splattering the glass, but Ashwini saw no terror on his face, only a naked sexual ecstasy.

She looked away before she ended up witnessing him spurt his semen against the glass. Not that she was sure the show would stop there. Nakedness wasn’t required for feeding, so the donor had probably volunteered for public sex or pain or both. It wasn’t her idea of a good time, but she wasn’t about to judge as long as it was all consensual.

“Well,” she murmured to Janvier, shifting her hand to play with the hair at his nape, “do you come here often?” It didn’t seem his kind of thing, but maybe he had a kink she didn’t know about.

He ran his hand up and down her hip. “Only so I can maintain my contacts.” His lips brushed her ear as he spoke, the music too loud to permit anything else. “For me, feeding from a partner is a private thing. As is fucking.” He nipped her ear with sharp teeth, the contact sending a jolt straight to the heat between her legs. “Not for public exhibition, but to be savored in hushed intimacy.”

Her body was so primed, she barely resisted the urge to shove him into a dark corner and ride him to oblivion. “I’m going to the ladies’.” It was the best place to find mortals in between dancing or donating, especially if she wanted to have an actual conversation.

Janvier’s hand slipped low enough that he was now officially—and very possessively—cupping her ass. “I’ll make sure the bouncers know to let you upstairs if we get separated. No one should bother you here, but if anyone does, feel free to fillet him or her.”

“I don’t need your permission for the filleting,” she said, then leaned forward to bite him on the jaw.

He jerked, hand clenching convulsively.

“There”—pounding heart, shallow breath—“now no one will bother you, either, not unless they want to get filleted.”

Walking away to the sight of his growing and hotly sexy smile, she felt her skin flush. What had started out as a lighthearted dig at his increasing possessiveness had instead betrayed her own. Annoyed with herself for her inability to stick to her guns until she’d told him everything, she snarled at a vamp who went to make a move on her.

His eyes gleamed, but she’d already pulled a blade and had it at his crotch. “I’m no donor.”

He became erect between one heartbeat and the next. “I know. I wouldn’t feed without permission, mistress. Please, hurt me. Please.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” She’d apparently managed to find the one vamp in this place who wanted to be prey rather than predator. “Since you asked so sweetly,” she said and slashed the blade across his thigh, careful not to do anything but prick him. His eyes rolled back in his head.

Leaving him shuddering in ecstasy, she pushed open the door to the ladies’ room. It was as luxurious and classy as she’d expected. In front of her was a large area with mirrors on every wall and curved seating in plush red. Several women sat on the backless red couches, touching up their makeup, talking to friends, or, in one case, snorting coke. Apparently being fresh meat wasn’t enough; this one wanted to be hopped-up fresh meat.

Going through the second door, to the section with the actual stalls, she went in one, flushing it after a reasonable pause before getting out and washing her hands, all to maintain the fiction that she was just another mortal on a night out with her vampire lover. It was unlikely any of the humans would recognize her as a hunter, and even if they did, there was no law that said hunters couldn’t date vamps.

“Damn,” she muttered after returning to the seating area, making a show of digging into her pockets beside a gorgeous, plump brunette who was fluffing up her hair.

“You lose your ID?” the brunette asked with a sweetness that made Ashwini want to bundle her up and get her out of there ASAP.

“No, forgot my lipstick.”

Her new friend opened her glittery gold clutch and took out a tube. “You can borrow mine. Just wipe it off with a tissue and use your finger.” An assessing look. “I think the color would suit.”

“Oh, thanks.” She took a seat beside the girl . . . and noticed the bite mark on her neck. Two tiny circles, along with a nicely developing bruise. “You already donated tonight,” she said with a smile, while taking a tissue from the dispenser.

“Oh, I’m with Rupert.” The woman sighed, hazel eyes dreamy. “He’s so nice to me. Look.” She wiggled her fingers to draw attention to the large rock on her index finger.

Well, at least she had protection. “That’s some ring.” Ashwini took the hand, examined the jewelry. “He must really be into you.”

“He is.” A bright smile. “Just like that vamp you came in with is into you.” The brunette waved a hand in front of her face. “God, talk about cute.”

Ashwini didn’t think Janvier was cute—he was too sexy to be cute—but she went with it. “Yeah, he’s not bad,” she said with a grin that implied all sorts of things.

The other woman squeaked. “Oh, that’s so hot. Rupert and I haven’t, you know, because he’s old-fashioned, but I’m hoping tonight . . .”

Ashwini decided she might like this vampire named Rupert. “That’s nice,” she said. “That he cares enough about you to wait.”

“He really does.”

Having stroked on the lipstick with her finger, she wiped the tube again and gave it back. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Are you guys regulars here?”

“We come once or twice a week,” the girl said, putting her things into her clutch. “Did you want to meet up? We can exchange numbers. I’m Lacey, by the way.”

“Ash.” She took Lacey’s number because contacts were contacts—and because she liked the sweet brunette. “I’ll call you if we come back this way, but I was wondering if you knew another donor.”

“Oh, who?”

Ashwini decided against flashing the image she’d sent to her own phone from Janvier’s during the drive. It was obviously not of a living person and this investigation was all about subtlety. “I’m asking for a friend who’s a vamp. They had the one-night thing, you know.”

Lacey’s face set into lines of disapproval that would’ve done an eighteenth-century schoolteacher proud. “So many girls do that, but I’m a relationship girl. No spreading myself around. I even told Rupert that the first time we met, that if he was just after a quick sex feed, he could find another girl.” Her cheeks dimpled. “But my Rupert’s a gentleman.”