Suddenly Urvashi was there, slipping past Ivan to rest her hands on the Tiger Lady’s shoulders. Urvashi focused her angular Persian gaze on the addict and Aaron watched her persuasive aura flow into the woman. “Where is the drug? Give us the otrok.”
Tiger Lady’s knees collapsed, and Aaron snatched her up in his arms to keep her from hitting the floor. Urvashi’s power had bowled over her drug-hazed mind. The bloodslave’s eyes rolled back into her head.
“Can’t you see what you’re doing to her? Back off.” Aaron cast a stern look at his master.
Urvashi let go of the woman and snapped her fingers. “Wake and tell me what I need to know.” The powerful command echoed through his own head as well as the fuzzy mind of the unconscious Tiger Lady. Her eyes fluttered open and she spoke something unintelligible in Russian.
Katya leaned over Aaron’s shoulder to catch the Tiger Lady’s eyes. “Show us.”
That’s when Tiger Lady’s mind cleared and Aaron saw what he needed to know. The vials were kept in a safe in the back room. She knew the code. She had put them there.
“I know where they are. Here.” He handed the half-conscious bloodslave to Ivan. “Give me a minute.”
Swiping his fingers across the curtains, Aaron wiped the paint and wetness off his hands and made his way through the dark passages to another curtained room. A wooden stand like a torture device from The Inquisition, featuring large x-shaped steel bars with leather restraints at each end loomed in the middle of the space. Staring at the strange contraptions with a frown, he finally understood – he’d found the bondage room. This place served all manner of clientele.
Biting back a goofy grin, he shook his head. He faced a cabinet that housed a collection of condoms, dildos, strap-ons, padded handcuffs, and even a power tool that had a foot-long fat ass rubber cock mounted on the end of it. Someone could do serious damage with that bad boy. He considered stealing some of these gadgets to use in his bedroom.
Yeah right. Michelle, Katya and Urvashi would probably gang up on him, and he’d find himself tied down and royally fucked.
He pushed the cabinet aside. Its wheels rolled away smoothly to reveal a hidden black safe set into the wall. He tapped the keypad with the numbers Tiger Lady had memorized and click, the door popped open. Easy peasy. He briefly considered how simple it might be to get into a bank vault the same way. Glean the vault codes from bank employees, find out where they left their keys, learn the security protocols…
A large beefy guy dressed in jeans, a black leather coat and a black 411 t-shirt blocked the door to the room and spit off a challenge in Russian.
There goes my career as a smooth criminal.
Aaron didn’t bother listening to any more of the man’s crap. He knew a thug when he saw one. In a split second. he crossed the room and slammed his fist in the meathead’s face. The guy landed on his back several feet into the hallway, down for the count. Aaron returned to the safe, grabbed the wooden box filled with three vials of otrok and headed back toward Ivan and gang in the curtained dance room.
He had a bad feeling coming on. This place, the employees, they were Russian mafia, somehow connected to Dmitri. The snatches of truth he caught from Tiger Lady made at least that much clear. They’d waltzed into the den of their enemy, minutes from being discovered. If Ivan’s fears were real, they needed to get the fuck out. Now.
Urvashi already headed his way, riding at the edge of his mind, well aware of his concerns. Ivan and Katya followed with the stripper.
“You got what you wanted! Let me go!” Tiger Lady had regained her wits, and her mind resonated with trepidation about Dmitri finding out they had taken the otrok. Mixed into her boiling emotions was an overlapping fury at the fact they were stealing her supply. Dmitri wouldn’t let her have more any time soon.
Aaron leaned into Ivan and whispered. “She’s just an addict, Dmitri’s sex slave. Leave her. We need to get out – now.”
Aaron pulled the woman out of Ivan’s grip and looked her directly in the eyes, letting his mesmerizing gaze take hold. “Go now if you want to live. Never speak of this.”
She nodded and backed away into the darkness of the backrooms. Her only thought was of getting out the door, as far away from Aaron and Ivan as possible. She didn’t even bother grabbing any clothes. Aaron hoped her painted, naked ass didn’t freeze to death in an alley somewhere.
* * * *
Chapter 4
Michelle struggled not to fall on her face in her Gucci boots as she slogged through the frozen streets of Moscow behind Aaron and Urvashi. The icy wind blew flakes of snow up her skirt and tickled her inner thighs with harsh, cold fingers. They stood out front of the hotel, waiting for Nikolay to bring the black Mercedes rental Michelle had paid for.
No one in Russia knew Michelle by name. So, she signed all the checks and registrations, keeping the paper trail of their movements effectively obscured. Michelle de Mornac funded their entire hideout. She could afford it, but the pack insisted on reimbursing her costs. She’d be willing to pay the bill on her own if they’d let her feed properly. The bouffon wolves wouldn’t let her out in public.
Last week, Ivan had argued vehemently to keep Michelle indoors at all times, apart from check-in and check-out. “She attracts too much attention! Look at her! She walks in the room and every prick from here to Siberia is pointing at her.” He’d adjusted the lump in his crotch as evidence of the fact. “How can you not notice her?” The wolves laughed and all agreed in their heavy Slavic accents. No, no, Michelle cannot go out.
Yet, here she stood, freezing her ass off, waiting for the wolves to bring the fucking car. She noticed Aaron and Urvashi watched the streets, nervously looking back over their shoulders as if seeking someone. Who did they expect to find out in this frozen cesspool of slush and grime? Something had kicked up their paranoia.
After untold minutes frozen shivering torture, finally the damned wolves brought the rental Mercedes SUV to the curb. The car splashed frozen brown mush over the toes of her twelve-hundred dollar leather boots. Nikolay and Anatoly, wolf pack mercenaries, stepped out to snatch up the luggage. As bags were tossed in the hatchback and everyone jockeyed for a seat, Michelle realized she had nowhere to sit in this merde rental car. Ivan leaned back into the last seat so fast you’d have thought they played musical chairs.
Conasse.
He grinned at Michelle as he patted his thigh. “Sit here.”
They should have rented a bus.
She growled low. “Lèche mon cul.” Kiss my ass. “I will take a cab.”
Ivan reached out and snagged the hem of her jacket to pull her into the car. He puckered his lips, as if he planned to accommodate her request. “There is room. I will keep you warm.” The last of his words devolved into a growl. His eyes twinkled in mischief.
Michelle didn’t wait another second out in the cold. She slid right onto Ivan’s lap and wiggled her ass down until her crotch settled on the growing lump in his pants.
Served the bastard right.
Anatoly pulled off into the flow of traffic, and turned the radio to one of the many obnoxious Russian rap stations. She leaned back into Ivan’s broad chest. He vibrated against her with the low rumble of his laughter. The scent of his animal musk assaulted Michelle’s senses. Full-size fangs dropped in her mouth and her stomach issued a gut-churning noise. She should have been satisfied feeding from the men in the bar, but something about Ivan made her especially thirsty. These wolves tasted delightful.
Urvashi leaned into Aaron with a kiss and whispered low. “You haven’t been feeding your pet.” Urvashi winked at Michelle and rubbed her lips up on Aaron’s cheek. “She looks like she could take a chunk out of poor Ivan right now.”
Ivan’s hands suddenly held Michelle’s hips, as though preparing for something. “You don’t want this old white meat. Too tough and gamey.” He was teasing, but his voice held an edge of tension. The wolves all knew what Aaron had done to Katya, a much-lamented issue among them.
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Michelle focused all her considerable charms on Ivan, twisting to face him, nose to nose. Mon deux, he smelled so good. All that warm blood just beneath the surface. His animal tang only added to her hunger. She’d tasted Katya and knew precisely how delicious these creatures were. Before he knew what was happening she had slid up her skirt and flipped around to straddle his lap. The hard bulge of his cock pushed against her pubic bone as she sniffed up his jaw line.
“Michelle, this is not …”
Her eyes held him in place, unblinking, and she curved her warm pussy all over his hard groin in a slow circular movement that had his eyes turning golden with wolf. The creature was there, just beneath the surface, and flowing through his veins.
A reaching hand came from the front seat, trying to grab her jacket. “Leave him be!”
Michelle slinked off her coat to evade Katya’s grasp without breaking Ivan’s gaze. “You like me, Ivan, don’t you?” She whispered a kiss across his lips and continued dry-fucking him. “One little bite won’t hurt. You trust me, don’t you?”
Ivan’s head nodded ever so slightly in hypnotized agreement, and she struck the side of his neck like a viper.
“Fucking cunt! Get off him!” Katya went ballistic in the front seat.
Michelle reached down and clicked the lever to lean Ivan’s seat back out of Katya’s reach. Scuffling sounds and curses came from Katya scrambling to get between the front seats into the back.
Aaron’s low growl accompanied his snapped command. “Relax! She’s not hurting him. Trust me!” His arm shot out to stop Katya from climbing in the back.
Michelle wasn’t hurting Ivan, not really. She did grind through a dry hump until he convulsed beneath her, and the warmth of his seed wet his pants. She let go of him after precisely one minute of feeding. That was her rule. One minute, no more. The rule kept her conveniently unattached and helped avoid stalker problems.
She turned around to Katya, patted Ivan’s scruffy cheek and grinned with her bloody lips. “C’est bien. I take good care of this one. Don’t worry. We are friends, non?” She ground her hips on him once more, appreciating the warmth of Ivan’s sizeable crotch. “We had a little fun. Ça ne casse rien.” It is nothing.
Anatoly’s amber wolf eyes watched Michelle from the rear-view mirror, his hands in a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel. “If you hurt him, I will cut you from cunt to chest and leave your guts across the rooftops of Moscow.”
Michelle blew him a kiss and licked the rest of Ivan’s blood off her lips. “I hope you try. I’m still hungry.”
“I’m fine! Stop fighting.” Ivan’s hand gripped Michelle’s ass firmly and he grinned with eyes fully dilated, high as a kite on her venom.
Michelle held her prey delicately, appreciatively. She knew how to handle these moments. She knew what men needed from her and had no problem giving it. Men couldn’t keep away from her. They flocked to her side everywhere she went. Once they had a shot of the venom in her teeth, she owned their asses. She took great pains to ensure the effect was not permanent.
Aaron watched her cautiously. Though he’d had no choice when he saved Katya, Michelle wished he hadn’t brought another complicated woman into their lives. It was bad enough dealing with the damned Persian princess who thought she ran the show. Add Katya in the mix, and their lives had become a mess of bitchy drama scenes, usually related to the wolf who refused to accept the harsh reality of her situation.
Her moment with Ivan came to an abrupt end when the left side window exploded in her face. A barrage of automatic gunfire tore through the car. Bullets, glass, screams and frigid air blasted across the interior. Something smacked her left shoulder hard, and seconds later something hammered into the left side of her head.
Ivan pulled her down on top of him, cursing in Russian, right up to the moment she blacked out.
* * * *
Chapter 5
Aaron leaned over to take Michelle from Ivan, but the car zig-zagged left, then right, knocking him back into his seat. Tires squealed. Wolves growled. Gunshots flew everywhere. One shot sliced across Aaron’s cheek and he barely turned away in time as the bullet blew out another window of the vehicle. Anatoly fired a few rounds at the drive-by shooters, but abandoned the effort to focus on speeding through the icy streets to escape.
Katya had dropped low into Anatoly’s lap, but then popped her blood-splattered face up with her eyes wild and a pistol in each hand. She scanned side to side, looking for someone or something to shoot at. She sighted in on the black SUV trailing behind and unloaded both guns out the open rear window. Her barrage of gunfire barely missed Urvashi. Their pursuer rolled off the road to grind into a parked car. Katya must have nailed the driver.
Aaron lost patience with Ivan’s possessive hold on Michelle’s limp body. “Give her to me!” He reached over the top of Urvashi and pulled Michelle into his arms. Looking shell-shocked, Ivan handed the vampire over carefully, like precious cargo. The question was in his eyes before he spoke. “Is she…?”
Michelle whimpered in Aaron’s arms, but didn’t stir as he cradled her like a baby.
Nikolay pulled his blood-covered hand away from his chest, and looked at it with disgust. He reached past Katya and slammed his fist on the dashboard. “Fucking, Dmitri!”
“Of course it was Dmitri! It’s always fucking Dmitri!” Katya screamed in Nikolay’s face as if she couldn’t stand to hear the obvious. Then she wiped the blood off her cheeks and looked more closely at her brother. Realization dawned in her eyes as Nikolay slumped against her shoulder. “Nikolay?” She turned his face towards her. “No, no, no! Damn it, Kolya! Kolen’ka, stay with me.”
Tears running down her cheeks, Katya pulled his head up and smacked him, trying to wake him. He was limp weight in her hands. She turned on Anatoly and screamed, “Drive faster! We’re losing him!”
All Aaron could do for the moment was hold Michelle close as he frantically probed her mind. He found only black unconsciousness, though still alive. Blood from a scalp wound at her temple poured down her face and onto his fingers. He knew Michelle had survived multiple gunshot wounds before, but a head wound?
Fear gripped his chest. Not again. Please God, don’t let me lose her again.
Ivan’s eyes flicked back and forth from Michelle to Urvashi to Aaron to Katya in the front seat. Though the wolves usually held a solid block on their minds, Aaron caught a hint of that same rare emotion from Ivan – fear. How odd. Beyond his fear for Nikolay and concern for the other wolves, the big man actually gave a shit if Michelle lived or died.
Ivan wiped Michelle’s blood off his hand onto his jeans and looked away from Aaron’s searching gaze. He barked orders at Anatoly. “Take us to the warehouse. No more hiding games!”
Anatoly glanced back at Ivan. “Now? But …”
“Now. We take the fight to Dmitri.”
Watching Ivan with a dour look Urvashi held Michelle’s legs in her lap, stroking her pale white skin absentmindedly. His master, the fallen angel, had barely flinched through the shooting. Her unblinking stare leveled on Ivan. “We’re not prepared to take on Dmitri yet.”
Ivan glared at her. “Dmitri’s hired guns just tried to kill us, again. Almost finished the job this time. If we wait any longer no one will be left alive to move against him.” The inner fire of his wolf had faded from his eyes, replaced by the steely blue-grey. His gaze settled on Michelle and Aaron’s hand stroking her blood-splattered hair from her forehead.
Another sharp pang of fear spiked in Aaron’s gut. He didn’t know what he’d do without Michelle in his life. He thought he’d lost her back in Paris, and for a time he had. He looked to his master for answers, a fallen angel with abilities that bordered on the miraculous.
Ivan finally asked the question that had been on his face for several minutes. “She’ll be okay ... right?”
Aaron projected all his fear and intense love for Michelle through his bond with Urvashi, speaking directly into her mind. {{You m
ust heal her.}}
{{This is no place for such things. Wait until we get down from the car.}}
{{No. Do it now!}}
Ivan watched the silent exchange between Aaron and his master, and Aaron suspected he knew what was happening.
Urvashi spoke low. “I can’t focus like this.”
{{I don’t give a fuck. Heal her now. And him too.}}Aaron leaned his head in the direction of Nikolay.
Spurred on by Aaron’s silent gesture, Ivan snagged a t-shirt from the duffle bag at his feet and leaned over Nikolay in the front seat to place the fabric over his chest. He looked to Katya, and the gold tint of wolf flared in his eyes. “Hold pressure on his wounds. We have to stop the bleeding.”
Katya pressed the shirt against Nikolay’s chest and sat there eyeing everyone with a tight-lipped glare that betrayed only the slightest edge of her hysteria. Since the shooting, her mental shields had wavered on and off, and Aaron caught a glimpse of her desperation. She couldn’t handle losing another of her brothers. She was barely holding onto her sanity. Only the warmth and continued fall and rise of Nikolay’s chest kept her from screaming.
Aaron narrowed his gaze on his powerful master, a well of intensity building within him. The bitch had all that fucking power, yet she just sat there doing nothing. What good is the power of angels if it can’t save a life? “You will help them. You will help Michelle.” His voice came out in a pure growl. He was close to losing it.
“She’ll be fine, Aaron. You know she has survived worse.” Her calm words spoke of reason, but Aaron wasn’t buying the bullshit.
“Whatever you want from me, whatever secret agenda you’ve been hiding, I’ll do it. I’ll owe you. Just help her, now.”
“Despite what you think, my ‘agendas’ are not always about you. But I will help, as the situation allows.” Urvashi closed her eyes for a few seconds and placed her palm against Michelle’s bloody temple. Aaron felt a vibrating hum and thought he could actually see the flow of Urvashi’s powerful aura as it trickled through her into Michelle. The fallen angel spoke under her breath, some kind of Latin incantation. The words were meaningless to Aaron. All that mattered was Michelle, and the life force he felt pouring off of Urvashi.