Destiny (10 page)

Hate you, Dixon.

One minute.

Outside, a river of fog raced over the hills, obliterating rooftops on its mad dash through the city and onward to the bay. The fog swallowed Sutro Tower—usually a blinking beacon at this time of night—as if the steel antenna tower had never existed.

Wish you didn’t exist, you fangy freak.

But Dixon was real and I, having failed to find a counteroffensive to use against my deadly enemy, I had to comply with his demands to keep my friends alive no matter the cost to myself.

The rumble of my garage door vibrated the glass and drew my gaze downward. Bathed in the light from the garage, Mark and Ren stood on the sidewalk staring up at me. Mark tapped his wrist then raised one finger in my direction. Translation—
if you’re not at Haven in an hour, we’re coming back for you.

I hadn’t seen them in two days, claiming first a need for alone time to recover from my sake hangover, then saying I needed yet more me time to process Dixon’s attack. The result of my lies? They’d given me all the space I needed in our three-story home.

Mark and Ren stuck to their second-floor quarters, while my ever-present shadow Stella took up residence on the first floor, playing video games alone or with Ren, the insatiable gamer. For two days, they’d waited for me to get a grip, then insisted I needed people time now, not quiet time. If I kept pushing them away, I’d alert their bullshit radar. So I caved and promised to show up at my club tonight.

My boys disappeared into the garage just as the blooding hour arrived. I rushed to the couch in vampire speed, popped the stopper and knocked back vial number four in one quick gulp. As with the first three, I experienced little reaction other than brief appreciation for the coppery blood then a grimace for the citrusy, earthy aftertaste. I almost wished for a harsher result. Stomach cramps, headache. Something, because silent and deadly scared me more.

My phone buzzed and rattled on the coffee table, making me jump and lose my grip on the vial. It clattered to the table, rolled, and took a nosedive off the edge, hitting the carpet with a soft thump. I felt a lot like that vial, falling off a cliff with no aid in sight. No soft carpet to cushion my fall, however.

The buzzing phone collided with my laptop. Adrian’s handsome face smiled at me from caller ID. I swiped the surface and hit speaker. “What’s up, Adrian?”

“Hey, babe. You finished hiding?”

I tapped the spacebar on my laptop to wake up my computer before responding to his good-natured dig. “I’m not hiding. I’m working.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I am.” My screen lit up to reveal the spreadsheets for Club Destiny I actually had perused while I awaited that damn, blooding hour. I toggled the sheets and pulled up the guest file. “I’m looking at the VIP list right now.”

It read like a veritable Who’s Who in the preternatural community. That didn’t mean much to me since I knew none of them. Raphael Torelli, vampire, Tranquilli
cosca.
Dasia Byrne, vampire, Tessa’s
cosca
. Joseph Goldschmidt, CEO, San Francisco Wizard Association. On and on the names went with COOs, CFOs, and assorted other heads of witch covens, my family’s vampire gangs, and more.

“Adrian, do you actually know any of these people? This reads more like a corporate board meeting than a party list.”

“I do, and trust me, we want community leaders at our grand opening. Show them a good time, and they’ll green-light the place for all of their minions and—”

“Minions party more often than their leaders,” I finished for him.

“Exactly, babe.”

“Fine, but I want Shane and Bobby added. In fact, I want them on the perma-list, with Gen and Claire and all of our DJs.”

Our Haven regular clubbers Shane and Bobby had befriended my brother Tony the night before Dixon and his evil partner, Magnas the Dark One, abducted, murdered, and turned him. When Tony returned from Italy,
if
he returned, they’d promised to help him as willing blood donors if he wanted.

“Sure, babe. No problem. Shane and Bobby are good people.” The gentle sympathy in his tone made my eyes water. I blinked back the tears.

My front door opened, and Stella strolled in, clearly clued into the end of my self-imposed isolation. She gave me a brusque nod and sauntered to my fridge. Shit. My gaze darted to the empty vial on the floor. I covered it with my foot while she snagged a carafe of blood from my fridge along with a wine glass from the cabinet.

She paused halfway to the door and cocked her head, surveying my state of not-ready-to-party. “We leave soon.”

I pressed my foot on the vial, the glass digging into my arch while guilt over my deception jabbed my gut. “I know.”

She raised the carafe. “Drink?”

I shook my head. “No,
grazie
.”

She whooshed through the door, back to the land of Tomb Raider or whatever RPG or other game fascinated her today. She was plowing through our collection in impressive, vampire super speed.

“No, thank you for what?” Adrian prompted me.

“Sorry, Stella was here. Offered me a drink.”

“Ah. One sec, babe.” The clinking of glasses and the murmur of voices in the background sounded through the phone. “Mark is here. He says tick tock
.
”

That comment pulled a reluctant smile from me. I loved his solicitous nature. Nice to be loved. Inconvenient at times like this, but warm and fuzzy nonetheless.

“Tell him Stella and I will be there in thirty.”

Stella was already dressed in one of her usual black cat suits, and it would take her seconds to pull on the towering dominatrix boots she usually wore. As for me, my appearance didn’t even make my worry list at the moment, given the monumental problems on it, so my natural ghost girl look would suffice, no makeup save red lip gloss for my parched lips.

Crimson and raspberries,
Alexander’s smooth as sin voice whispered in my memory.
I love your lips.
I let myself fall into that past moment. My room in the clinic after Dixon’s attack months ago. We cuddled in my oversized hospital bed, legs entwined. Alexander’s talented fingers trailed down my spine then over my hip, giving it a firm squeeze while his head dipped to nuzzle my neck.
Cream and moonbeams. Good enough to eat,
he murmured against my sensitized skin.

Remembered pleasure skittered down my torso all the way to my toes, vanishing too fast under the weight of our current situation. Alexander’s secret. The woman in his room.
Everywhere I turn, secrets and lies.

“Babe, Ren says no way can you get ready that quickly.”

I drew my mind back to the here and now. “I’ll take that bet.” I’d wear my current attire—skinny, black jeans, red corset top. Like Stella, I’d pull on boots and go. “Put your phone on speaker, Adrian.”

“Okay, you’re on with the troops now.”

“Thanks.” I retrieved the empty vial from under my foot and whisked it to the fridge, back to its spot in the box.
“Hiya, Ren. I’ll be there in twenty and you’re so going to owe me that pretty blue bottle of ginjo Lily busted out the other night. Eighty-five bucks.”

Adrian laughed.

Ren muttered something in Mandarin then boomed into Adrian’s phone. “You’re on.”

“Enough with the gambling,” Mark interrupted. “Did you see that text from Faith?”

I froze for one horror-filled moment, my hand on the closed fridge door, the cool stainless steel chilling my palm, his words chilling me more. Then fear propelled me back to the couch where I stared at my phone like it was a poisonous snake. I swallowed hard. “What text?”

“She’s not coming back tonight. Skipped off to Napa with Kai.” Suspicion laced Mark’s voice.

Shit. I did not need a suspicious Mark right now. I snaked my fingers into my hair and yanked. Point to Dixon for thinking to have Faith send us a text, but Mark was no fool. Damn it, what could I say to throw him off that trail?

Fortunately, Ren came to the rescue. “Jesus, dude, relax. Let the lovebirds have their play date. We can handle things here.”

A heated conversation in Mandarin ensued. I didn’t need to understand to know they argued and would soon come to brotherly blows if I didn’t intervene.

“Stand down,” I barked into the phone. I grabbed my boots and yanked them on. “I’ll be there in fifteen. Try not to kill each other before I get there. And Ren is right. Let Faith and Kai enjoy their quality alone time.”
Because if you go looking for them, we’re so screwed and they’re dead.

“No, damn it,” Mark protested. “With Dixon lurking around—”

“
Basta.
Enough. We don’t need our psychic here to tell us Dixon is a freaking problem. Already got the memo.” I zipped up my boots, collected my phone, and headed for the door. “They’re probably safer up north anyway. Out of the line of fire, you know?”
Oh, how easily I lie now.
“See you soon.”

I ended the call and switched the display to Faith’s text.
In wine country. Quality time needed with Kai. I *SEE*. We’re safe. All is well with us, but you…Dixon is near. Be vigilant.

Damn Dixon for his cleverly crafted text. He’d forced Faith to send this group text to everyone but five of those words spoke to me alone, words my best friend, my soul sister, knew I desperately needed to see.
All is well with us.

In other words, Dixon kept his promise, feeding them, and hopefully not torturing them. My grip tightened as images of the many horrible ways that bastard could hurt my friends ricocheted through my mind. I couldn’t linger on that road. Instead, I pictured Dixon suffering a beating and a biting. Evisceration. Decapitation. My tension eased a bit at the thought of delivering bloody payback to that bastard friend-napper.

I slipped the phone in my back jeans pocket, shoved my arms into my leather jacket, and hurried downstairs and outside where Stella awaited me.

“Let’s walk.” I headed down the hill, knowing she would follow.

Cloaked in Stella’s power, we hit the Castro’s main drag in minutes and blended into the Friday night party crowd—happy clubbers, hungry diners, eager moviegoers. Their scents—cigarette and alcohol, sweat and perfume—mixed with the salty ocean air, making my nose tingle and my eyes water. Their laughter and cheery chatter aggravated my eardrums and grated on my nerves. Surrounded by merriment, my heart drowned in a sea of gloom, but I plastered on a smile when we hit Haven’s towering metal doors and even managed a cheery wave at the patrons waiting in line to enter. Because I had to keep faking it.

Four days down of Dixon’s sick, life or death game. Five more to go. I couldn’t afford to succumb to sadness now. I had to stay strong.

Inside my club, Claire spun some fierce tribal tune, its four-on-the-floor beat a bolstering balm to my soul. On any other night, I’d hurl myself into the gyrating bodies on the dance floor and lose myself in that primordial ocean of music. But not tonight, not with my friends in danger.

My phone buzzed. I fished it out of my back pocket. An email alert flashed at the top of the screen. From sender D, subject, 999. My heart jackhammered a chaotic beat in my chest.
Dixon is sending me email. And 999? The new sign of the vampire apocalypse.
Damn the man. The phone slipped from my shaking hand. Stella caught it and put it on my palm.

She leaned in close and sniffed. “I smell your fear, little vampire.”

Nervous goose bumps blanketed my arms. I debated what to tell her then stuck fairly close to the truth. I dropped my mental shield and broadcast memories and feelings to her, serving up a dose of that rat bastard Dixon with a side of Alexander and a dollop of PTSD for dessert—Dixon’s sexual assault during his more recent attack, then Alexander’s mysterious and abrupt departure from our video date, and lastly, the moment I murdered a witch, Dixon’s ally, in self-defense two months ago.

Emotions flooded me. Guilt, fear, despair.

Stella gripped my arm. “Do not let the past own you. You must crush it and move forward.
Capisci?
”

I nodded. “
Si.
I understand.” Given her past human life as a drug addict and sex slave centuries ago, her response didn’t surprise me one bit. In fact, I’d counted on it.

She gave me one last appraising stare from head to toe. “
Bene.
” Her gaze darted to the bar. “You were headed to claim your spot, yes?”

“Yes.” Nestled next to the bar, my spot overlooked the dance floor. A permanent
reserved
sign stuck to the wall above the couch guaranteed its constant availability. I wanted to curl up there alone, check Dixon’s full message, and figure out how to thwart his undead ass. My home research hadn’t resulted in any solutions, but I wouldn’t stop trying.

Stella inclined her head. “Go. I will watch you from above.”

Meaning, she’d spy on me via the video screens in my penthouse office. She melted into the crowd. Alone at last, I moved toward my spot while opening Dixon’s message.

Bravo, my kitten. Keep it up, or rather, down. LOL.

Your master,

D

Embedded in his message, a photo of Faith and Kai on the ground, nondescript takeout bags on their laps. I enlarged the image, moving it around to check for location clues. Cement floor. Blackened background. Nothing useful. Frustration tightened my jaw and my gums tingled and burned. I rubbed the tip of my tongue over my canines. Still rounded, not even a hint of sharpness.
Hey fangs, hurry up and sprout. I need to shred Dixon’s neck.

In the meantime… My thumbs tapped fast on the smooth surface of my cell.

You’re pathetic, Dixon. Not man enough to face me one on one? Had to kidnap my human friends as leverage to make up for your impotence? Come on, you poor excuse for a vampire, let the humans go and prove yourself. Meet me tonight. No back-up. Just you and me. I dare you.