2. Luring The King

-Katherine-

“I hate this,” I mutter as I stare at myself in the floor-length mirror. “I fucking hate this.”

I’m used to black jeans, a t-shirt, and combat boots with my hair in a ponytail, but now Xenia has me dressed up in a tight-fitting black dress, mile-high heels, and red lipstick. This isn’t me at all, but it’s the me I need to be to lure Priest out.

“I know, but you’ve gotta suck it up, babe; this is the type of meat Devil’s Void vamps love. Gotta put it out there to get their attention,” she says while doing my hair. 

She’s also dressed up, but we won’t be entering the club together. No one can know that I’ll be coming with backup, especially not with her. She’s more ruthless than I am when it comes to taking these fuckers out, but that’s because her entire family was killed by a vamp horde back in DC. They left her for dead after nearly draining her dry, but that’s when my mother found her.

She’s more than my best friend; she’s my sister.

After finishing up with me, we head towards the kitchen to grab our handbags before heading out. “Bottoms up, bitch,” I say, handing her the shot glass of our anti-vampire cocktail, and she downs it. This is to prevent them from using their mind compulsion on us, and it burns like a bitch when they try to drink our blood.

Now there’s nothing left to do but face a nightclub full of vampires; hopefully, Priest will show his face tonight. If not, then we’ll have to kill every vamp there - that should get his attention.

“There’ll be five of us outside and five of us, including me, inside to scope out the area. There will be humans amongst the vamps, and they don’t want their identities revealed, so they won’t attack us head-on if we’re discovered. We should be okay.” Xenia repeats what I already know, but I know it’s only due to nerves. 

Reciting things out loud keeps her calm, so I’m not going to be a bitch and tell her that shut the fuck up because I am just as antsy.

We park the SUV a block away from the nightclub and proceed to walk the rest of the way, with me walking a few paces ahead. I may be dressed in a skimpy outfit, but that doesn’t mean I’ve come unarmed; weapons are placed discreetly on my body, right down to my hair clip. I also have a GPS device in both of my silver stud earrings. You can’t be too safe or too careful around predators.

“Time to get fucking girly,” I mumble when I approach the line of people waiting to enter.

I nearly rear my fist when the bouncer touches my lower back to allow me entry into the club. A vampire’s touch is not only cold, but it leaves you with the uncomfortable feeling of pins and needles wherever they’ve touched you. Normal humans can feel it, but the sons of bitches use their mind compulsion on humans to make them pliable.

Killing them is always a treat because I know what I’m doing is right; these monsters are an abomination and need to be eliminated. Even the werewolves and fae aren’t as peaceful as they claim to be.

I walk up to the bar, sit down and order a glass of red wine before turning around to survey the club. It looks like your run-of-the-mill goth/alternative club with lots of leather, corsets, lace-up boots, and fishnets to be seen. Double-storied with two dance floors and a DJ booth right in the middle of the floor instead of the back of the club. The thumping of Psyclon Nine, coupled with the smoke and lasers, can get you drunk and high faster than alcohol or drugs can.

With the way I look now, I blend right in with the easy humans, hoping a vamp would come up and offer to suck me dry. The mere thought of it sends a sliver of disgust through my body, but that was before I felt another vamp’s hand on my lower back. 

“Haven’t seen you around here before,” he comments with a stupid pickup line, and I try my best to hold in a snarky response. The purr of his voice sounds somewhat familiar, but I don’t dare turn my head. 

“I’m in town for a few days and decided to check it out; my friends are always raving about this place,” I say and take a sip of my wine without looking him in the eye. “Do I stand out that much?”

He chuckles. “Only a little bit; you don’t give off that ‘I’ll do anything to get laid by the owner’ vibe that every girl around here seems to have,” he says and sends a shiver up my spine when he leans in close. “Try to blend in more, Kitty Kat; you look lost.”

My heart drops right into my fucking knees when I realize that this is my informant and that he’s a fucking vampire. I’ve never met him, but he always pointed me in the direction of Devil’s Void vamps and has never been wrong. Does this mean I’ve walked right into a goddamn trap? I need to let the others know that I might have put them all in danger!

“Shh, calm down,” he purrs into my ear. “You’re reeking of anxiety right now, and Priest will immediately smell that on you.”

“You’re one of them, you asshole,” I say while maintaining a smile on my face, then knowing who he is, I turn around to face him. 

Why the fuck do vampires have to be so goddamn gorgeous? He’s dressed in black, the same as everyone else, but he’s not even wearing a shirt. His body is immaculately ripped, with tattoos covering his entire right arm right up to his pectoral, his long blonde hair is hanging down over his shoulders, and his green eyes are the lightest shade I’ve ever seen. 

What is it about tattooed muscular men and me? Why do they have to be the type to get my nipples hard? Fuck.

He sees the effect he has on me and chuckles. “Like what you see?”

“Shut up,” I grumble, then take another sip of my wine. “So, you’re one of them, and yet you’re helping me out. Why is that?”

He shrugs, leans against the bar counter, and orders a whiskey. “Let’s just say I like to gamble,” he says, downing the alcohol as soon as it arrives. “There hasn’t been fun in Vegas in over fifteen years, and I’ve gotten bored.”

“Fun?!” I say through gritted teeth. “You call killing innocent people fun?”

“Same goes for you, Kitty Kat,” he says, ordering another glass. “You people call us monsters without even knowing us, then kill us and call it justice.”

I narrow my eyes at the beautiful man in front of me, knowing that I should be careful about what I’m about to say next. I can’t offend him, or he’ll turn on me and offer me up to Priest, but I also can’t allow my guild to be insulted like this.

“Call it what you want; either way, murder is murder,” I say, finishing my wine with a wave of anger settling in my heart. 

He chuckles and downs his glass, slamming it next to my hand. “You remember that when you find out the truth. By the way, the King is here and looking straight at you,” he says casually before sauntering away. 

The unsettling feeling of him being so close to me gets washed away when I realize what he’s just said. Gabriel Priest is here, and he’s looking at me. I don’t even have to doubt his words because I can feel his predatory gaze boring into the back of my skull. 

Swallowing deeply, I turn my head to see where he could be and when our eyes meet, all the strength leaves my body.

I’ve seen pictures of Priest before, but seeing him up close is another story altogether. My informant was attractive, yes, but this man is another specimen altogether. He’s leaning over the silver balustrade, and I can see two silver rings on his fingers. His biceps flex as he peers down at me, and his dark hair has fallen over into his eyes, but I can still make out the crimson shade. 

God, he looks deliciously solid, ripped, and muscular, like he could keep me up all night, pile driving into me from behind, and I would allow it. He even has a sexy, stubbled beard trimmed to perfection; my fucking weakness is beards. How the fuck does he have one? Aren’t vampires dead?

By his broad, muscular body, I can tell he’s powerful - more powerful than any vampire I’ve faced before, and that’s to be expected since he’s a Pureblood. Then he grins and winks at me, and my heart just about explodes.

Tearing my eyes away from the disgustingly gorgeous vampire, I remind myself that he is the reason my mother and brother were murdered. That he is the reason I am the ruthless hunter who kills even turned women and children without remorse. That he is the reason, I no longer feel human.

“Get a fucking grip,” I mumble to myself, and I am just about to order another glass of wine when I feel someone next to me. A tattooed hand with gaudy silver rings slides the empty glass towards me, and the bartender fills it. 

“You look like you needed that, little lamb,” he says in a low, sultry voice that gets my heart racing. I don’t even have to look up to know who it is.