“Isn’t this fucking great!” He curled his arm around Nate’s neck and took a drink from one of the glasses. “I love it!”
The male was speaking with great volume, but she had the sense it was not to be heard over the music, but rather his vibrating excitement. His eyes were not even upon her or Nate. They were trained on the dance floor, on the human women whose stares sought his own.
“Berightback!”
Extricating his draping holds, he bounded into the crowd, holding the drinks up as prizes to capture—whilst she suspected he himself was also up for grabs.
Literally.
“I believe I would like to leave,” she said, mostly to herself.
“Then let’s go.”
Rahvyn looked over at Nate and thought perhaps she should pretend to have misspoken. Alas, she could not lie like that. “Thank you.”
He nodded, and then indicated the way forward—which to her seemed no way forward at all. There were so many humans, both static and moving, everyone bumping into each other. As an abrupt suffocation o’ertook her, she faltered, unable to follow him.
“Let me help you.”
As Nate’s words barely registered, she felt a warm, firm hand envelop her own, and then he was drawing her through the humans, leading the way with his far larger body, people moving to accommodate him because of his size even as he was not being aggressive.
Breaking through the worst of the crowding, they approached the door they had come in through, and she paused to look over her shoulder.
“？’Tis a shame, really. I liked the flowers very much.”
With that pronouncement, she went to resume her departure— Nate was staring down at her with a fixation she recognized. It was that which Shuli had just shown the women before him.
It was also that which the aristocrat had demonstrated. Right before he— Memories of what had happened in that bedding chamber caused her heart to seize up and she gasped, releasing Nate’s palm and putting her hand to the base of her throat. Not that that relieved anything.
“We’ll be outside in a second,” he said tightly.
As Nate turned away from her, she had a sudden instinct to pull him back and apologize. Instead, she let him go through the door first. There would be a better time—and a quieter place—to explain later.
Well, tell him that her withdrawal was no fault of his own.
The instant she stepped out, the cold, clear air hit her flushed cheeks and the perspiration on her brow. Whilst her pores tightened, the tingling was a refreshing relief.
“Oh, no,” she said, glancing back. “What about Shuli?”
Nate shrugged. “I’ll text him and tell him we’re taking his car. He gave me his keys earlier and he’s already too drunk to drive. With any luck, he’ll be sober enough before dawn to demater—”
A loud growling sound brought both of their heads around to the intersection of roading beside the club. A vehicle was coming about the corner with such speed that its tires squealed, its shiny black body and darkened windows like a harbinger of evil.
“Get down!” someone said.
Surprised by the commentary, Rahvyn glanced to her right. The human man who had granted them access unto the club’s building dropped to the honed stone underfoot, laying himself out facedown.
“Sire?” she inquired as she reached out to him. “Are you ill—”
Over the roar of the car’s engine, three sharp sounds rang out, one after another, choo, choo, choo. This was followed by a loud shout, and she looked up. At the opposite end of the building, a human male in a dark coat, who seemed to have come around that other corner, covered his head and stumbled back. After finding his footing, he dove for cover as the black car increased its velocity upon the straightaway, the shooter ducking down behind a blackened window that was rising.
“Rahvyn?”
As Nate said her name, she patted at the human who was on the ground. “Sire? Are you okay? Nate, we best call for help. He is not responding—”
“Rahvyn…”
“We need to get aid.” She twisted around. “What is the number they call—”
Nate was standing over her with the strangest expression on his face. “Help.”
“Yes, we need to get some…”
His hands were trembling as they went to the hem of his sweatshirt. When he lifted the bottom up, she frowned. There was a red dot on the white t-shirt underneath.
The dot was getting bigger. Fast.
“Nate?”
He fell to the ground upon his knees, the sweatshirt still wadded up in his hands. His eyes clung to hers, fear dilating his pupils.