Wild Game (Codex Blair Book 4) Read online

  Mal turned back, an eyebrow raised, his expression thoughtful. "Thank you." He gestured to a wall. "We can do this outside, less chance of singeing any furniture when it is purified."

  I nodded and turned my back on him to face the wall. I braced my hands against it, drawing in a shuddering breath. This was the worst part of all of it, yanking the energy back out of me. It didn't want to go, didn't want to leave its new home, but it had to be done. The longer it stayed in me...

  "Tergus succubus," I said, forcing the Latin past my lips. The moment it was spoken it began, the churning in my gut as the energy was forced to separate from my own, yanked out of my body and pushed onto the concrete floor of the balcony.

  The smoke tore at my throat, wrenching at every inch of my body that it passed as it was expelled from my system. My eyes watered, my mouth fought to close around the pain of it all. I felt my arms shaking with the effort it took to keep me upright, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was getting the energy out of me, no matter how much it burned my insides to do it.

  And then the pain abated, somewhat, and I was aware of Mal's hand on my back. Stroking, calming. I heard, as if across a great distance, him chanting in the background.

  He was taking away the pain, easing the passing for me, shouldering it for me so that I wasn't tortured. Sweat broke out on my forehead with the effort, but a wave of relief washed over me. I should have done this sooner, let him help me, I hadn't realised what he was capable of.

  But wasn't that our entire relationship? Me constantly being surprised by him. He was always revealing one new trick or another, always finding a way to show me that I couldn't let him go.

  Tears pricked at my eyes and the pain started to escalate again, but so did the cadence of Mal's voice. It was a comfort, beyond the magic he was working for me, the sound of his voice. When had his presence become a source of relief instead of anxiety?

  At last the rest of the smoke was gone from me, swirling at the base of the wall as if it didn't know where to go now that it was homeless. My legs shook, my arms were weak and barely holding me up.

  It was almost over.

  "Mundus." My voice broke as it croaked out the word, and I gestured with my hand at the smoke there. It began to dissipate, and that was when my legs gave out, dropping me. I cringed at the thought of colliding with the ground, but strong arms caught me.

  Mal lifted me up, one arm under my back and the other under my knees, and I would almost say he was cradling me against his chest.

  "It's done," he said, nodding at the space where the smoke had once been. He carried me inside and laid me down on his couch, standing over me. He didn't look like he was going anywhere anytime soon.

  I struggled to sit up but a wave of nausea took me and I flopped back down on my back, lifting a hand to my face. It hadn't been as bad this time, I hadn't carved my already scabbed fingers into the wall of his building, and at least this time I hadn't puked everywhere. Gods, but that would have been humiliating.

  It was already humiliating, though. Mal was seeing me at my weakest, unable to sit up, unable to do anything more than just lay there like a helpless babe.

  "Let me get you some water. Lie still, Blair." His voice had a warning edge to it, as if he knew that I would try to get back to my feet as soon as I felt capable.

  I glared back at him, my lips set in a firm line, but when I saw that he wasn't going to move I nodded my head in acquiescence.

  He left then, moving through his flat to his kitchen with all the elegance of the Angel he had once been. I tilted my head to the side, watching him move, but quickly remembered to avert my eyes. There was no use watching him, no use thinking about him, because I had closed that door and there was no going back on that. I knew why it was the sensible choice and I wasn't going to change my mind. There was no future for us, not so long as he was Fallen, and that was certainly not going to change.

  When he came back he had a glass of water in hand and I was still on my back. I struggled again to sit up and he sat the glass on the table, kneeling in front of me and reaching an arm under my back to lift me up.

  "I am sorry that this is a necessity, Blair," he said and offered me the glass.

  I grimaced, taking it, and swallowing a large gulp. "It is what it is."

  "I hate thinking of you going through this without my help..."

  "I make do," I said. Which, while true, wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world. He had done a lot to abate the worst of the symptoms I'd had each time I'd done this with Fred, and I could already tell that I would be back in functioning condition soon enough. My recovery hadn't been this fast before. "Thank you for helping."

  A corner of his lip twitched, he was fighting back a smile. "I will always help you, whenever you let me."

  Glowering at him, I drank more of the water. I knew what he meant; I was stubborn and refused help whenever it was offered.

  "I should be going," I said.

  "Please, rest for a little while longer. I promise to behave."

  Wary, I looked down at the glass in my hand and idly tapped a finger on it. "OK. But only because I have important stuff to do, and I don't want to be at a disadvantage."

  I couldn't let him know how much I enjoyed his company.

  15

  It took longer than I would have liked for me to leave Mal's flat, but I was finally at Serenity. My energy was back up to normal levels, thanks to Mal force feeding me a power bar. It was early in the evening, the club had just opened for the night, but it had not yet filled up. There were only a few people there, the regulars that would never leave this club no matter what.

  I was grateful that the club wasn't full, it had a habit of riling up my temper and leaving me ready for a fight. Geoff had to stop me once, and the look on his face was not one I'd soon forget. I hoped he wouldn't kick me out as soon as he saw me, as he'd tried to do to Mal. Hopefully it was a 'three strikes, you're out,' policy and not a 'screw up once, you're dead to me' policy.

  Making my way to the bar, I noticed that a lot of the customers here weren't engaging in the usual activity of the club, but were rather lounging about and having conversations with one another. In the far corner of the club there was one couple that were making out, but that was the heaviest action I could see, and I couldn't say that for the other times I'd come into the club. It was nice to see the tamer side of Serenity, the side where it was a safe haven for the members of the community that had nothing else.

  I was one who fit into neither category. I had no safe haven, no acceptance with Lilith's crowd and no friendly faces to find at Serenity. As I walked, fully geared up and ready for a fight should I have one, eyes strayed from their companions to watch me. Conversations died down or stopped altogether when I passed people, instead they watched me with reproachful eyes.

  The message was clear; I didn't belong here. That was OK, I was used to not belonging. I held my head high and continued to the bar, taking a seat, and flashing a smile at the bartender.

  He sized me up, deliberating on whether to tell me to get lost, before he came over and leaned on the bar. "What'll you have?"

  My eyes flicked to the alcohol. I didn't like to drink in situations that were unknown, but I also didn't want to offend the bartender.

  "You know, I'd like to try something new. Could you make me something, maybe your own special concoction?" I tilted my head to the side, watching him with careful eyes.

  He didn't respond for several moments, but when he did he broke out into a big grin. "You bet your arse I can whip you up something special. Just you wait and see." He started picking up bottles, muttering under his breath as he put one away and picked up another, squinting at the label. I was genuinely curious to find out what he was going to make for me; I hoped it wouldn't knock me out cold. I wasn't looking to get drunk, just to foster good relations with the people of Serenity. I hadn't made the best impressions the few times I'd come here.

  I don't know why I wanted to change that,
make a better impression this time around, but I did. At the same time as I needed these people to fear me so that they would keep in line, I wanted their friendship. Not all of them were monsters, they were learning from Geoff, and it was my hope that I would never have to raise a hand to the people that visited Serenity.

  Surveying the meager crowd, I genuinely believed that these people knew better than the monsters I had fought so far. Intelligence marked their features, where on the monsters I'd killed there had been nothing but greed. Maybe not everyone that visited Serenity would be spared, but these people...these people could be.

  I had never seen this side of Serenity before.

  The bartender slid a glass of something green over to me, delight in his eyes as he watched me. It had been a gamble, asking him to make something just for me—bartenders come in one of two flavors. One looks down on his job and everyone who comes in, is lazy, and just wants to get through the night. The other takes pride in what he does, enjoys every minute of it, and relishes the opportunity to create something new. A gamble it may have been, but a calculated one. I didn't see Geoff as the type to employ someone who didn't love what they did. He cared about Serenity too much.

  I eyed the glass in front of me, making sure not to wrinkle my nose at the colour of it—it looked like something that wouldn't taste very good, but I had asked the bartender to surprise me. I lifted the glass and took a tiny sip, preparing myself for the worst, but what passed my lips was pure ambrosia. My jaw dropped open and my eyes went wide, staring at the bartender, before I greedily drank more.

  "Slow down, girl, before you get yourself in trouble," the bartender said with a chuckle.

  "You shouldn't have made something so delicious if you didn't want me to drink it all at once!"

  He beamed at me, clearly proud of his concoction. "I haven't seen you here before."

  I arched an eyebrow. I suppose I hadn't made it over to the bar in my previous visits, but I would have thought that he'd heard of me by now.

  As if reading my thoughts, he shook his head. "I know you, make no mistake. But you haven't visited me before."

  My lips curved into a smile. So, he knew me. And he served me with a smile anyway. That spoke volumes about the kind of man he was, but was that really such a surprise? Geoff was the preacher of tolerance, he would have looked for the same kindness in his employees.

  "I had a bad experience at Serenity and haven't wanted to repeat it."

  His eyes narrowed. "A bad experience, here? Did you tell Geoff? He has strict rules."

  "Oh, um..." I swallowed, putting the glass down to pick at a loose thread on my jeans. "To be fair, it happened as I was leaving. I tend to associate the two, though."

  The night the vampires had taken and tortured me. Carmen had insisted I dress the part of a Serenity customer so that I could blend in, and it had worked. Only she hadn't known that the rogue vampires were watching, and they had taken me when I walked home alone, with none of my gear on because the bloody skimpy outfit Mal had picked out had nowhere to hide things.

  The bartender watched me for several more minutes, wiping down the counter. "I think you have plenty of bad experiences."

  "You're not wrong there," I said, laughing. That wasn't the politest thing for him to say, but I wasn't the politest person, so I couldn't hold it against him.

  "Why does that one experience stand out?"

  My lips set in a firm line. "Why are you acting like a therapist?"

  He shrugged. "Comes with the job. People want to talk. You wouldn't have brought it up if you didn't want to talk about it."

  "I was ambushed," I said, a lump forming in my throat. "And I almost lost everyone I care about because of it."

  He nodded his head. "And that doesn't happen a lot?"

  My lips twisted into a sardonic smile. "More and more with each passing day."

  "I'm sorry."

  My eyebrows lifted at his apology. "I don't get a lot of sympathy, especially not here."

  His shoulders moved up in a half shrug. "Way I see it, you're not so different from the lot that come through here. Nobody deserves to lose the people they care about."

  I took another sip of the drink he had made for me, letting the delicious mixture coat my tongue and soothe the ache that remained in my throat. "For all I know, I'm the one who's taken loved ones."

  "Aye, you might have done that," he said, nodding his head. "But it's not my place to judge others."

  Looking up at him, I wonder what he’d done. That's the thing with Serenity, everyone has a story, everyone has a dark reason for why they're welcome here and nowhere else.

  Just then Geoff came around the corner, his amber eyes widening slightly when he saw me.

  I can't do anything to stop the flush that creeps up my neck, waiting for him to tell me to get the hell out and never come back.

  "Hey, Geoff."

  "Hey yourself. You OK?"

  I blinked, stunned. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine."

  "Only you weren't so OK last time I saw you."

  There's that flush again. "I'm sorry about that. Things have been...happening. But I'm working on it."

  As if understanding what I'm not saying, he nods his head. "Is this a pleasure trip?"

  I sighed, aware that this is where the 'pleasure' part of it ends and the business begins. Just looking at him, I can't imagine him doling out the pain I witnessed just a few hours ago. He couldn't possibly be capable of it, but all the evidence was pointing at him. "No, it's not. I came here to talk to you."

  A flicker of something, an emotion I couldn't catch, crosses his face. "All right. Let's go back to my office."

  Paying the bartender—with a hefty tip, because that drink was worth it—I scoot off my seat and follow him to the back of the club and into his office. It's not as messy as I would have thought it'd be, but it's not exactly pristine either.

  Before sitting down, he drags a hand through his shaggy brown hair, letting it fall loose against his darkly tanned skin. I sat across from him, crossing one leg over the other, bouncing my leg apprehensively.

  His eyes softened when he looked up at me. "You know, when I gave you my card, I kind of hoped to see you sooner, and not for business." His eyes twinkled when he spoke and I couldn’t help but grin in response.

  It's hard not to be appreciative of his body, he works out and it's obvious, in all the good kind of ways.

  Down girl, you've got enough problems in that department.

  "To be fair, I got kidnapped when I left your club last time," I said, though my grin did not fall away. "Left a bad taste in my mouth."

  His expression sobered and he leaned forward. "What are you talking about?"

  Right, I've never brought that up. Well, I haven't really seen him, except for when I came to the club looking for the succubus a week or so ago. Six months had passed since we talked on that balcony, I never came back to tell him what had happened.

  What if he had been the one to tip them off? I hadn't really believed that, though I used it as an excuse to stay away, until now. Now that I was looking into him for murder, it wasn't that much of a stretch to think that he would have served me up to the vampires on a silver platter.

  You're being ridiculous. He's not that kind of person.

  "When I left Serenity that night, I was attacked. I didn't have any of my gear on me, if you'll remember the outfit I was wearing, you'll remember why."

  "Couldn't forget that outfit if I tried."

  I smirked, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. "Anyway, I woke up in a basement, with two other victims, and had to fight my way out of it. It was very difficult, and they threatened my friends. I know it's not Serenity's fault, but...it's been hard to come here."

  "I understand," he said, nodding. "I'd feel the same."

  "Thank you."

  "All the same, you could have called. I'd have met you anywhere."

  I looked down at my lap, then flick my eyes up to see him through my eyelashes, a demure look f
or me. "As I recall, you made no effort to find me."

  "I got the distinct impression you don't like to be chased."

  I tilted my head back and laughed. It felt good to laugh, with all that had been going on of late.

  "You're right, there. I don't play that game."

  "What game are you playing?"

  I arched an eyebrow, my only response.

  "What are you doing here, Blair?" His voice became more serious, his eyes more focused.

  Frowning, I heaved out a sigh. I don't want the light moment to end, don't want to break this spell. "There's been an attack, Geoff."

  "And what does that have to do with me? Or Serenity?"

  I plucked at the string on my jeans, averting my eyes. "It was a wolf," I said, barely more than a whisper.

  Silence stretched out between us, neither of us spoke. It was a different kind of spell, a different tension that filled the room. I hated that I was accusing him. I hated that I had to investigate this at all, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't come to him. He was lucky I was giving him an opportunity to explain himself, it was more than had given others.

  "And you think it was me," he said at last.

  I swallowed. "I don't...no, not really. But it doesn't make sense to not think it was you. You're the only one, Geoff. I know what I saw."

  "What did you see? Because I don't even know about an attack. I haven't heard a thing, not through the rumor mill."

  "It only happened last night," I said.

  Do I tell him? Can he be trusted?

  "I was here last night," he said, providing the alibi I didn't ask for.

  A breath of relief escaped me and I looked at him again. "I'm sorry, Geoff. I didn't want to think it was you..."

  "I know. But there's only so much you can do when you're a wolf."

  Stereotypes. I cringed, hating that he had to deal with them, hating that I was the one bringing them to his door.