Valkyrie

Chapter 12

Purgatory was not where I thought Alexi would be keeping Mischa while he went through the furor. It made a kind of sense, though. The club was in an industrial area with few people around once the sun went down. Being a newborn baby vamp, he'd be asleep during the day and any noise he made when he was awake at night would be muffled under the tons of concrete and earth above him and the pounding beat of music. No one would ever know he was down there fighting for his life, trying not to lose himself under the near insatiable hunger for blood.

I followed Spike from the SUV to a door in the back of the club, our steps silent on the blacktop. Spike gave the solid, steel door a sharp knock and we waited. The night was still and mostly quiet. The shushing sound of traffic far away and the murmur of voices from the line of people waiting to get in on the other side of the club were all I could hear. The door opened a moment or two later and an annoyingly familiar face peered out from the darkness. Joseph's lips lifted in a toothy smile when he saw me, velvety brown eyes sparkling with mischief. I let out an audible groan and rubbed my eyes with a finger and thumb.

"My sweetest angel," he said as he held the door open. "You look more stunning than the last time I saw you." Faint thumps of bass met my ears as I stepped through the doorway. The entry Spike and I were using was reserved for employees only and in the very back of Purgatory. It was relatively quiet compared to other parts of the club. You had to go through another locked door to get to it from the inside of the club. Halfway down the hall was yet another locked door that led to a stone stairway that went down to the catacombs hidden underneath the club. They sprawled out for miles. A person could become lost down there if they didn't know where they were going. Another hallway to the right and you were in the employee locker rooms and storage areas.

I brushed past Joseph as we moved down the hall, the scent of hot desert sand and cactus blossoms teasing my nose, thicker than the smells of humans, other shifters, and vamps. He reached out a hand and tried to grab my braid but I moved out of the way too quickly, spinning around and grabbing him by the neck, lifting him off the ground and slamming him against the wall so we were eye to eye. His smile only got bigger even though he was dangling about three feet off the floor and I was cutting off his oxygen supply. He wrapped his hands around my wrist, his soft skin hot against mine. All shifter's run hot.

"How many times do I have to tell you to keep your hands to yourself, cat?"

"One... more... time," he wheezed out with a grin. I growled and dropped him, taking a step back. He landed easily, bending his knees to cushion the fall, arms out for balance. Damned bobcat. "You know I like it rough, angel," he crooned as he stood and smoothed the front of his black button-up shirt down. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows exposing strong forearms and ebony skin. He only came to about my chest but he was strong in the way that all shifters are. His hair was trimmed close to his scalp leaving the gentle points of his ears exposed. As a child, Joseph had spent too much time in his animal form and it had left permanent marks on his human form. Pointed ears. Slitted pupils. Someone had told me he even had a little tail. Not that I would ever look. I am not a fan of cats. Shifter or mundane. That was why Joseph liked to mess with me. He knew I didn't particularly like him but he was bound and determined to try to win me over anyways. So far, he was losing.

"You could never handle all of this," I tossed over my shoulder as I followed Spike to the end of the hall where he entered a code in the keypad mounted on the wall next to it. Joseph chuckled, the sound more hiss than laugh. The door opened and whatever sound the little cat made was immediately wiped away by the music pounding through the club, the bass practically rattling my bones. Rammstein. One of my favorites. They put on a great live show. Don't sit up front if you're squeamish, though.