Five to Go Read online

  “A hundred years?” Trixie said in awe. “How old are you?”

  “One hundred and thirty three,” Adrian said merrily, grilling her with his cavernous blue eyes. “I transformed at only twenty-three, but I could not be happier with my choice. It keeps me young in spirit forever, or so I like to think. And you, Miz Trixie? Of what age are you?”

  “I’m twenty-three,” she said softly. “Go figure.” And get out of my freaking pants with your eyes while you’re at it! Or, um, into them…

  Cenek sniffed the air and shot a glance at Adrian that made her suspicious. Adrian returned his clone’s stare with intensity, and Trixie shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked at last.

  “Oh,” Adrian said, appearing as though he may feel awkward. “Certainly not. How rude Cenek and I are being. As clones of one another, we are capable of using telepathy.”

  “Yeah?” Trixie asked. “So what were you talking about?”

  “Hmm,” said Cenek. “Do you really want to know, dear? I am not shy. But are you?”

  “Not so much.” Trixie laughed. “Sometimes, I wish I was. I probably wouldn’t have just barged in here and completely forgotten to ask you where my pack was. So, now that that’s on my mind again, I should ask. Have you seen a three-pack of shifters?”

  Trixie paused thoughtfully. “Geez, I think I made them sound like breakfast sandwiches. But, they’re bears. Have you?”

  The vampire twins exchanged a glance.

  “You are mated with bear shifters?” Adrian asked at some length.

  “Yes,” Trixie said slowly. “I know you’re from out of town, but that’s actually pretty common around here.”

  “I have been here some time,” Adrian said with a wave of his hand. “Fifty-five years to be exactly. This is, after all, my club.”

  “Really?” Trixie asked, feeling mildly embarrassed. “That’s pretty cool. I mean, you know, that you can own a place you don’t even frequent very often. I mean, the dance floor part. Wow, look at me jumping to conclusions. I think what I wanted to ask is if you stay back here all the time.”

  “I visit the dance areas at my leisure,” Adrian said with a smile that teased her, whether he had intended to or not. “I am not so stuffy as one might think when they first see me. I do enjoy my quiet time, however.”

  “Except for me.” Cenek laughed. “I do not count.”

  “But to answer your question,” Adrian said. “I have not seen the bear shifters.”

  “Phooey,” Trixie said with a frown. “Well, um, I gotta ask. What were you guys talking about with telepathy? Is there something weird about me being mated with bear shifters?”

  The vampires looked to one another before they fixated their gazes on Trixie.

  “It is just that you are a vampire’s mate,” Cenek said awkwardly. “As in, you are genetically inclined to mate with vampires and produce their hybrid offspring.”

  “W-what?”

  “Yes, it is true,” Adrian said with a sigh. “You do detect as a vampire’s mate. It is likely why you are so boggled by our presence. I figured that I would let you know this in advance.”

  Trixie jumped up, her head spinning. “You’re bullshitting me.”

  The vampires looked at each other again and Trixie frowned.

  “Oh, please stop doing that, guys. Speaking with telepathy in front of your guest equals totally rude.”

  Adrian smiled. “I am not, how do you say, bullshitting you, Trixie. It is fact. You smell as a vampire’s mate and you are one.”

  Trixie sat back down, taking a huge sip of her drink and tapping her foot nervously on the thick carpeting. “And, um, what all does that entail? Me being entranced with you? I thought that was typical with humans and vampires. I was also hoping you’d recognize me as the Club Heat bartender and, um, not lay waste to me.”

  The twins laughed.

  “I would not,” Adrian said. “You are far too beautiful and I am well fed. But I will explain now. The vampire’s mate is a genetic happenstance in the genome that makes a human man or woman inclined to mate with vampires only. Though it is true they may take other mates—”

  “They will always be most attracted to vampires,” Cenek said, sighing and placing a hand on his chest. “Such is the charmed life of the undead. Gorgeous human women and all the time in the world to obtain our desires. One of our foremost desires, of course, being said gorgeous human women.”

  “So, I’m going to feel like that forever?” Trixie asked. “Because you’re totally right. I think about vampires all the time. Club Heat has the vampire area on the second floor, and I always want to go up there, even though I work downstairs with the shifters. But, I mean…wait a minute. How do I know this isn’t some trick to seduce me?”

  The vampires burst into laughter.

  “If I wanted to seduce you I would have done so already,” Adrian said. “I am a vampire, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Trixie said glumly. “So that means…wow. Excuse me. It just got really hot in here.”

  More laughter from the vamps.

  “What is it?” she demanded.

  “Your body is succumbing to its desire to mate with us,” Adrian said, eyeing her up and down as though he were equally powerless in his attraction to her. “You will be flushed for some time. I should have warned you, again.”

  “It’s okay,” Trixie said, using her hand to fan herself off. “But does this mean I’d feel like this around all vampires?”

  “Not necessarily,” Cenek said. “Just the sort your body wants to mate. Apparently, your desire for us is strong.”

  “Boy, you guys are blunt, huh?”

  The vamps looked to one another thoughtfully and then nodded in agreement.

  “I suppose,” Adrian said.

  “Honesty is the best policy.” Cenek smiled. “Though if it makes you feel better, you only want to mate me because I am Adrian’s twin. In truth, your body longs for Adrian.” He gave a dramatic sigh. “Such is the life of the doppelganger.”

  “Do not put yourself down, my friend,” Adrian said reassuringly. “So, what of it? Shall we put our desires into practice? Feel free to move at your own pace.”

  “Oh!” Trixie said. Yes. Fuck yes. Hog tie me to that sexy chair and give me a double dose of… “A kiss?” she asked, though she knew she shouldn’t be. She was mated with the shifters, after all, though she wasn’t sure about the infidelity policy. She’d never signed anything. As far as she was concerned, at least for the moment, their relationship had just officially become no strings attached. “I would love to kiss you,” Trixie said. “See, now I’m being blunt.”

  “Typical of a vampire’s mate,” Adrian said with a nod. “Who shall you kiss first? I suppose it does not matter, though you will likely find our styles different. After all, Cenek is his own doppelganger.”

  Cenek shot him a look of mock offense and Adrian grinned, revealing a set of perfectly polished white fangs.

  “Your fangs are out,” Trixie said nervously.

  “It is the usual,” Cenek assured her. “When encountering a potential mate.”

  “Potential mate?” Trixie raised her forehead. “So now I’m potential, am I? Boy, are we moving fast.”

  “I do not like to waste time,” Adrian said simply, and he was on his feet and in front of her in an eerie second.

  As soon as the smell of him hit her, Trixie’s eyes began to water. She had been sitting by Cenek the whole time, of course, but not so closely as Adrian had just come to her. He lowered his face to her’s and Trixie grasped his chin, as though unable to stop herself. She shoved her mouth into his with a hunger that was like nothing she had ever felt, one that made her gasp as stars shot off behind her closed eyes and lit her vision up like a Jack O’ Lantern.

  His mouth was heated and he tasted of cinnamon and wine. Trixie became lost in the flavor at once, and she didn’t even hesitate when he pushed her back and away. She lay her head back an
d kissed Cenek, who tasted almost exactly like Adrian, as she had supposed he would. Her eyes watered when Cenek pushed her back, and she was greeted with two identical, inquisitive faces.

  “Do you believe us now?” Adrian asked.

  “I never said I didn’t,” Trixie said with a little smile. “Holy God. Let’s get naked.”

  The vampires laughed and Adrian got to his feet, running his hand through her hair and taking the time to whirl one stray lock around his finger.

  Oh my God, he’s like freaking Dracula.

  “I think that you should go take care of your mates and then get back with us,” he said with a little tsk. “Do you think this is fair?”

  “My pack!” Trixie had all but forgotten about them. Every inch of her wanted to curl up between Adrian and Cenek, screwing and spooning, very possibly until she was blue in the face. But, she still had an obligation to her pack for the time being.

  She got to her feet with a dutiful sigh. “You want me to come see you again, then?” she asked.

  The vampires nodded eagerly in unison.

  “And I can find you here?”

  “Every weekend,” Adrian said. “I spend the weekdays at my loft, and Cenek at his.”

  Trixie downed her drink and crumpled the paper cup in her hand, tossing it neatly into the waste receptacle across the room. She threw her hair over her shoulders and gave the vampires her most winning smile. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Chapter Three

  Trixie finished wiping the bar and greeted her pack with a wave from across the room. She hoped her smile wasn’t entirely dubious. As it turned out, she’d ended up feeling a little funny the night before after she walked back out to the dance floor. Despite the no strings lifestyle they’d had going on, she still felt a skewed sense of loyalty to the bears. Guilt had just about overwhelmed her as soon as she found them, who as it turned out, had never been more than fifteen feet away in the crowded Club De La Crème.

  On the flip side, the kisses she had exchanged with Adrian and Cenek had been breathtaking, passing through her senses in a way she had never even been aware existed. She hadn’t been able to get the two vampires off her mind that night or the next, even as she socialized with her usual crowd at Club Heat.

  She watched the shifters shoot pool and sighed. She leaned against the taps and gave her co-worker, Kit, a smile. Kit was a vampire and had moved up to working on the second floor after her boyfriend, Jax Heart, had transformed her. But tonight, there was a huge crowd expected after the concert in town, and Kit had made a rare visit to the bottom floor of Club Heat.

  “What’s on your mind?” Kit asked, pushing her hair behind her ears and flashing Trixie an obscenely cheesy smile.

  Trixie laughed. “Vampires, actually.”

  “Really?”

  Kit looked surprised, and Trixie realized she had never really gotten to have a heart to heart with her co-worker. She had worked much more with Janika and Rachel, and they three women had exchanged plenty of secrets and gossip.

  Kit had remained a somewhat mysterious figure in her life, a dark shape that had only swaggered by on her way to the top floor Trixie was so ready to be a part of. However, Kit was a vampire, and it might do her some good to chat her up on the subject of the undead.

  “Funny, right?” Trixie asked with an awkward grin. “Ye’ old human girl has vamps on the mind. Typically a recipe for disaster. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

  Kit gave her a gentle smile. “Typically,” she said. “We are the entrancing creatures of the night, after all.”

  The two women giggled and Kit sat down on a barstool, indicating with a gesture that Trixie should do the same.

  Trixie sat and the vampiress poured two shots of Jack Daniels for them.

  “You might need it,” Kit said, rolling her eyes. “With that hellacious crowd we’re expecting tonight. So, tell me, Trixie. I know we’ve never really gotten a chance to talk, but I do know a thing or two about vampires. What brought them to mind?”

  “Wellll,” Trixie said, glancing around the pool area. The shifters were still laughing and carrying on as they played pool. Definitely out of earshot. “What do you know about…vampire’s mates?”

  Kit blinked. “That they’re humans genetically hard-wired to want to mate with vampires. I thought everyone knew that.” She gave a little laugh. “Sorry. I forgot you’re kind of new here. And, um, human. But we were all newbies once! For example, you should have seen the look on my face when I first met Jax’s doppelganger, Knox. Oh, I should tell you about that, huh? A doppelganger is—”

  “That I know,” Trixie said triumphantly. “Because the vampire I met had one. He owns Club De La Crème, and I walked into his private room, only to meet the sexiest pair of twins I’ve ever seen. Bet you five bucks the look on my face was dumber than the look on yours.”

  “He had a doppelganger!” Kit said. “Don’t you know what that means, Trixie?”

  Trixie gave her a blank look and Kit laughed.

  “That means he’s probably a head vampire,” Kit said. “So far as I know, they’re the only ones capable of making doppelgangers.”

  “So Jax is a head vampire?”

  “Yup,” Kit said, the pride in her voice evident. “And so am I.”

  “Wow,” Trixie said slowly. She’d had no idea she’d spent the previous night in the company of a head vampire…or two. “Was he telling the truth? Or was he just seducing me the old-fashioned way?”

  “About you being a vampire’s mate?”

  “Yup.”

  “Well,” Kit said. “As a female vampire, I’d have to smell you up close. You wouldn’t emit pheromones to me the way you would to the male vampires. But I should still be able to tell.”

  Trixie leaned her head back so that her neck was exposed. She pointed to her throat. “Sniff away,” she told Kit. “Just don’t get happy with the fangs.”

  Kit laughed. “No eating our friends,” she said reassuringly as she leaned forward and sniffed at Trixie’s throat.

  The vampiress pulled back and gave Trixie a serious look. “Oh, definitely,” she said with a nod of her head. “You reek of it.”

  Trixie paused. She had the feeling that they were being watched. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one, because both she and Kit turned to the bar to see the bear shifters, each holding an empty glass and wearing a grin. Apparently, they’d made it just in the time for the show.

  “We can come back later,” Bobby said with a laugh.

  “Totally not what it looked like,” Kit said, taking their glasses and walking over to the taps. She looked over her shoulder and grinned as she refilled their beers. “Not that it would be any of your business if it were what it looked like.”

  “Oh, it would so be our business,” Saul said, leaning over the bar to exchange a kiss with Trixie, who blushed at once with guilt.

  “So in the unfortunate case that wasn’t what it looked like,” Trinity said, “what the hell were you doing?”

  “Going upstairs to get more glasses,” Kit said with a glance at the growing crowd. “I’m not gonna be able to hold them off long, it seems.”

  “They’re like zombies,” Trixie said with a laugh. “Once they’ve had enough to drink, that is.”

  “I’ll leave my flamethrower at the bar for you,” Kit said. She smiled as she exited via the western-style door that separated the bar from the crowd.

  Trixie watched as her co-worker made her way to the vampiric party above. She sighed.

  “Something wrong?” Trinity asked, examining her with his big, brown eyes.

  Shit. To tell the truth or forever hold my peace?

  The thought of Adrian and Cenek struck her from nowhere, as if they had become a part of her, sealed with a kiss. Trixie was shocked at the intensity of the emotions that accompanied the thoughts, and all for a pair of men she had known less than twenty-four hours. And strangely enough, she now felt guilt for spending time with the shifters. The sentiment was both absu
rd and impossible to deny. She shook off the shudder that had run through her spine and gave Trinity her sweetest smile. “I think we need to talk,” she said. “But it’ll have to wait until after my shift.”

  The bears exchanged a troubled glance and a thick silence fell over them. At last, Bobby nodded. “Okay,” he said, as though suddenly put off by her. “You are okay, aren’t you?”

  “I’m—” she began, and suddenly she felt as though she’d been punched in the chest.

  Adrian was walking right up to the bar, looking drastically out of place in his old-fashioned ensemble in the middle of Club Heat. Though she had only met the twins once, she was certain it was Adrian. She had noted at once the small differences in their mannerisms.

  “I, uh,” Trixie stuttered. “Janika!”

  Trixie’s blonde co-worker was walking by the bar with her own pack, the five tiger shifters that Trixie waited on often.

  Trixie waved her down frantically and Janika jogged over to the bar, a look of concern on her face.

  “What’s wrong?” Janika asked.

  “Can you take over the bar real quick?” Trixie asked desperately.

  If the shifters saw her reaction to Adrian’s presence, they would probably freak. She wasn’t sure what would happen yet, but she was certain it wouldn’t be pretty in a public arena. At least, it wouldn’t be if the fainting feeling he had brought with him last time decided to make a comeback.

  “Sure, no problem,” Janika said, patting Trixie on the shoulder as she took her place behind the bar. Janika called to the tiger shifters that she would be right back, and Trixie made her exit.

  “I’ll just be a few minutes,” Trixie told the bears hurriedly. “And I’m fine, just so you know. Just saw an old friend from, er, college.”

  “Okay,” Bobby said with a laugh. “Don’t have a heart attack.”

  Trixie ran up to Adrian and grabbed his arm. She almost succumbed to the sight and scent of him on the spot, finding that she needed to use his limb for support. “What are you doing here?” she whispered furiously, pulling him toward the exit that led to the back alley.