Wildfire

Chapter 14

14. Fight

"You're his what now?!"

I stared at Lexie in disbelief. Part of me was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we weren't leaving; my neck hurt like hell and we were starting to attract more attention than I was comfortable with. A group of creepy looking guys were blatantly checking us out from behind her, and I was half convinced that a girl with long, tapered fangs had winked at me was she spun past, her long dress swirling around her knees.

My eyes flickered around the dance floor, concentrating more carefully on the crowd scattered around the edges. There was a raised podium to the right of us, swinging from the ceiling at the end of a long, thick chain. It was some sort of seating area; two men were draped across a long, velvet sofa, one missing his shirt and the second with his teeth buried in the first's throat. Across from them, a girl was grinning as she ran the tip of a sharp blade along the length of her arm. Another girl followed the blade with her tongue, lapping up the blood that spilled from her friend's wrist and sealing the wound.

A shiver of foreboding darted down my spine. What kind of place was this?

The beat of the music began to change, slowing to a dark, drugging rhythm that I could feel seeping into my brain. I could feel it pounding in my blood like a second heartbeat, accompanied by the sweetest, sexiest voice that I had ever heard in my entire life. The acoustics in the club were eerily perfect; like Lexie's words before, it sounded as though the singer was crooning the lyrics right in my ear.

I am your nightmare,
insatiable heart
Beat like a killer,
I'll tear you apart

This time, my shiver was pure, liquid heat. I felt my body start to sway as the thrall of the music slowly took me over. I took an automatic step backwards, swaying along the boundary of the dance floor, and I felt the press of other dancers at my back. The touch of their bodies, hot and sweaty from exertion, was like the slide of silk against my prickly, electric skin – and I realized that was what I wanted.

This place made me feel like I was crawling in my own skin, desperate for contact with another person.

A living, thriving aphrodisiac.

But even as this thought occurred to me, the slow, drugging beat of the music dragged me under and I could do little more than close my eyes and... revel.

With a taste of your soul
I will bury desire,
So deep and so vicious
I'll catch you on fire

My whole body was on fire. A sleepy, slow-burning heat. I felt hands on my waist, on my shoulders, touching my hair. In the back of my mind, I could hear Lexie laugh, high and lilting. Part of me knew that the sound was off – she shouldn't be laughing, she should be panicking.

I should be panicking.

But I couldn't – everything was too unclear, too foggy, to understand. All I wanted to do was dance – to touch and feel and explore until my skin and my body was sated...

Snap!

Lexie snapped her fingers in front of my face and I jumped, startled. A thin line of worry creased her brow, and for a moment, I thought that maybe she was finally getting it – that this place was dangerous – but then she opened her mouth and my hopes died as quickly as they'd begun.

"I've been trying to get your attention for ages! You'd swear you never heard good music before," she muttered.

"I've never heard music like this before," I admitted, still a little dazed.