Page 2 of Beauty At Stake
Ignoring the way Star moved against me, his erection evident in those tailored trousers, I searched the dark club for the real vampires. No, not really real, but the closest thing there was to real. And that's Bite Witches. Witches are what you get when fairies have babies with humans. Sometimes. Not all unions created Witches. Although, it was hard to tell since Witches didn't become their own race until several generations had passed.
Their first babies would have been born half-Fey. Only the firstborn who had babies with humans, then so on and so forth, would have potentially and eventually bred Witches by diluting the Fey magic until it became something new. All magic wasn't equal. The type of magic passed down depended on who the Fey ancestors were. Through the years, the different types of magic created sub-races of Witches that became known as clans. Collectively, the clans are called the Coven. There arealso the Casters—Witches who mixed clans and had babies with blended magic—but they're all Witches. Humans descended from Fairies.
The particular Witches I was looking for were of the Bite Clan. Their ancestors had been Baobhan-Sith, also called the White Women.
The Bite Clan was unusual even among Witches. Or at least noteworthy. Baobhan-Sith were called White Women because they were always women. They mate with other fairies, but the children arealwaysborn Baobhan-Sith and female. That changed when they had babies with human men. The first offspring weren't born entirely Baobhan-Sith. I don't know if their mothers knew this immediately or if their human blood revealed itself later, but when those half-human babies had babies with humans, it became obvious. Not only was the Fey blood diluted, but they also bore males. I heard the White Women weren’t pleased with their bouncing baby boys.
Moving on, those babies were the ancestors of the Bite Clan and they passed on a need for blood. As in, a basic need that, if denied, resulted in death. Unfortunately, drinking blood only gives Bite Witches enhanced strength and speed. It doesn't make them immortal like the vampires of human myths or even like their ancestors. But they did inherit a couple of bonus mórs from the Baobhan-Sith—Allure and Beauty. And if you don't think Beauty is a type of magic, you've never met a Baobhan-Sith.
“Damn,” I muttered to myself as I located the two Bite Witches we were looking for.
They held court at a tiny table in the back of the nightclub, surrounded by a crowd of humans who jostled each other for achance to give the Witches anything from cocktails to their bared throats.
One of the Witches looked up and caught my eye. She didn't give any other indication that she knew me. Good girl. Vanessa and Leo were our bait. We weren't there to hunt Bite Witches. No, we were after the humans who hunted them.
Vampire hunters.
Yup. I would have laughed if there hadn't been three dead Bite Witches in the Coven morgue. And those were only the bodies they had found. Many more Biters were missing, and I had little hope of them being found alive.
“Incoming,” one of the vexes on our team said through my earpiece. “Two men. One woman. Not locals. Caucasian.”
I glanced around and saw the trio making its way through the crowd. A lot of tourists came to Bloodsuckers, but these people looked as if they were trying too hard. They had the whole vampire get-up on—the woman in black lace and the men wearing poet shirts (Hello, the 80s called, they want their puffy shirts back). The outfits might have been fine if they'd been more casual about things. Like say, grabbing a drink before offering yourself as a drink to the vampires. But no, they were making a beeline to the Bite Witches.
“Got 'em,” I said. “Tighten the net.”
Although I couldn't see them, I knew our team was closing in around those three hunters. It was time for us to get involved.
I took Killian's and Star's hands and led them off the dance floor, toward the Bite Witches. A wink sent their way wasenough of a warning. Leo leaned over to whisper in Vanessa's ear. She grinned as if he'd said something sexy, but as she did, she searched the crowd. She clocked the hunters, then refocused on one of her admirers. Professional, but they were vexes—the Coven equivalent of extinguishers—so they'd better be. We don't put civilians at risk unless it's absolutely necessary.
Kill, Star, and I sidled closer.
We converged with the vampire hunters just in front of the Witches' table as if it had been fate. But I only slid up against Kill and stroked his chest. I wanted to see how the hunters trapped their targets. The information we gathered now would help to prevent this from happening again.
The female hunter took the lead, the men trailing behind her. She went up to the Witches' table, shoved aside those who stood in her way, and leaned over, setting her palms among the detritus of drinks. Back there, the music was softer, but even if it hadn't been, my enhanced hearing would have picked up the conversation.
“You are too beautiful for these people,” the woman said in a French accent. “Why waste your time with them when you could have us?” She waved her hand at her companions.
It was a bold move, but she wasn't wrong. The three of them were an upgrade from the selection of humans currently on offer.
Vanessa leaned forward and grinned wide enough to show off her fangs. “We're the real thing, darling. So, unless you're serious about giving up your blood and your pussy, we're not interested.”
“Is that so?” the woman purred. “I don't believe you. Why don't you come back to our hotel with us and prove it?”
“Aren't you scared we might kill you?”
“Will you?” The woman straightened and drew the tips of her long, red nails over her cleavage. “Or will you give as much as you take?”
Leo took over. “I'll give you so much pleasure with my bite alone that you'll never be satisfied by another man. You still interested?”
“Oh, yes.” The vampire hunter turned and walked away, utterly sure that they'd follow.
They might not have if it had been an ordinary situation. I saw the annoyance on Leo's face. But this wasn't a normal night out.
The Bite vexes got up slowly, disentangling from pouting admirers who tried to hold them back. But the Witches were used to such attention and easily evaded the hands that reached for them. I felt a shiver in the air, and the crowd drew back. Allurement—they must have turned it down, or maybe off. Whatever the case, the Biters walked away from their groupies without further issue and followed the trio of hunters out of the club.
And my trio followed them.
As Kill, Star, and I slipped through the crowd, I caught glimpses of the rest of our team—two vexes and six extinguishers, all dressed for the club. There were three more extinguishers and a vex in a van outside, plus another vex in agetaway car for the Biters. Yeah, a lot of vexes were with us. But this was their mission. They were the ones in danger this time.
