Chapter 4

“What the fuck?” I growled as we came to a stop in a posh office that was reminiscent of Victorian era boudoir.

I tugged on my hand and frowned as Syn’s grip tightened for the briefest of seconds before she allowed my hand to leave hers. She clenched her now empty one into a fist and gave out a low hiss of frustration before spinning away from me and heading toward a small bar set up in the corner.

I took the time to glance around, listening as crystal clinked against crystal. It was obviously Syn’s domain. There were rich red curtains that matched the throw pillows on a settee that I would have bet my life was an antique and was likely one that she’d owned when it was still new.

In the corner of the room sat a small high-backed chair, also antique, with a filmy black lace robe draped over it. I turned back to Syn with one eyebrow raised, eyeing her as she lifted a delicate looking glass of clear liquid to her lips. If I didn’t know her, I might not have spotted the slight trembling of her fingers as they tightened on the glass.

She gave me a grim smile, then picked up the second tumbler with her free hand and walked it over to me.

“The finest vodka, a gift from Alexander Romanov after, well…” She cleared her throat while holding the crystal filled with what was likely one of the most expensive vodkas in existence. I folded my arms over my chest and waited.

Syn sighed in disappointment. “It’s rude to reject an offer from a lady, you know.” She turned to the small couch and sat reclining in the seat, draping her arms across the back after setting both glasses on the low, gleaming mahogany table in front of her. I eyed her, still waiting for an explanation for why she had so suddenly appeared panicked. She’d hurried me away from the main room and into her admittedly lush office. However, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from a room that belonged to Syn. She had always had a taste for the finer things in life.

Syn pouted at me, her perfectly lush lips turning downward just enough to show her displeasure. Any actress getting paid millions to act the part of a simpering seductress could learn a thing or two from Syn. But then, she was the very epitome of seductress. It was who she was, and she couldn’t be anything else. Her life depended on it. I sighed but didn’t move toward the tiny couch. I would likely break the thing in two if I even considered it. Instead, I leaned my hip against the solid wood desk across from her.

“Syn, for the sake of our friendship, I rode over two thousand miles to come see you when you told me you needed me. I’m here, but you are acting strange. What was that back there?” I threw out my arm, gesturing back the way we had come. “You looked almost terrified when I grabbed my arm.”

I looked down at the arm in question, remembering the way it had burned as if someone had poured acid over my skin for the briefest of moments. It was more Syn’s reaction to the whole thing that had taken my attention than the burning sensation I’d felt. Looking down now, I froze.

I had been too distracted to see it then, but now that I was focused on my arm, I could only wonder how I hadn’t seen it immediately.

“What the fuck is this?” My tone was strange even to my own ears. I made a strangled sound in the back of my throat as I traced the intricate lines across my wrist. The symbol looked ancient, almost Celtic in design, though that wasn’t quite the right description. I had no words to describe the blood-red symbol that was now burned into my flesh.

I glanced up at Syn, hoping she held the answer to the question, insistently screaming through every part of me. When I saw the expression of fear filling her delicate features, I straightened to my full height and dropped my arm to my side.

“What is it?”

Syn cleared her throat and closed her eyes, pain making her look older than the perpetual twenty-five she had always appeared. In a flash, the pain was gone as she opened her eyes, replaced by a steely determination.

“I’m guessing that in all your time roaming this realm, you have never heard about fated mates?” Her tone was sarcastic, punctuated by a raised eyebrow.

“Fated mates? That’s just a myth.” I thought back, trying to sort through my memories, but it was like trying to swim through cold molasses. Nothing was coming to me, nothing solid I could grasp.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had been branded?” Syn rose from her reclined position and strode over to me, taking my hand in hers and holding my arm up to see the symbol for herself.

“You saw what happened at the same time I did.” I shook my head.

She sighed, dropped my arm, spun around to pick up her forgotten drink, and tossed it back in one swallow.

I snorted. “If that vodka really is one hundred and fifty years old, I’m surprised you would be so careless with it.”

Syn grimaced and picked up the second glass that I hadn’t wanted before taking a healthy swallow of that one as well. She shrugged one thin shoulder. “Desperate times and all that.”

As much as I wanted to hurry her along with her explanation I knew that would get me nowhere. Syn was nothing if not stubborn. She also enjoyed the control she gained by making others wait on her. I crossed my arms again and resumed my leaning pose against the desk as Syn paced a few steps. I got the impression she was trying to find her words, maybe she was even trying to find the courage to say what she felt she needed to.

I glanced back at the door toward the main room where all the entertainment was happening. Something was drawing my attention back out there, like an itch under my skin. I glanced down at the symbol on my wrist, the curiosity beginning to prick at me. I traced the lines, a little bit awed at the intricacy of something that just randomly appeared as if by magic.

“The fates are a bitch.” Syn’s words brought my attention back to her even though my fingers didn’t leave the new mark. “Somewhere, somehow, someone decides who all demons’ fated mates should be without a single bit of care about the lives they are messing with.”

That caught my full attention, making me stand up straight, dropping my arms to my sides with my fists clenched. “Fated mates really exist?” My tone was harsh, the words coming out in an almost incoherent grumble. I wasn’t sure about what she was saying, but somehow, it felt right. My chest felt tight as my mind spun with the implications.

Syn huffed out a laugh and ran her pointed red fingernails through her perfectly styled hair. “Yeah, Val, fated mates.” She turned back to face me, a wry smile on her plump lips. “Congratulations, you have a mate out there who you have never met before. Someone who the fates think you should be with for the rest of eternity. Whether you even like her or not.” She shook her head and gave a humorless chuckle. “You didn’t know that you have no say over who you want to be tied to?”

She stepped back over to the couch and dropped into it, crossing her legs and looking up at me with a sad expression. She tilted her head and studied me while tapping her fingers on one exposed knee. “Did you not feel the same type of burning feeling sometime in the past? Maybe twenty or thirty years ago?”

I thought back, running through my memories of the last few decades. One moment in time stood out to me. I had been riding my motorcycle down a scenic highway in North Dakota. I had felt a pain in my wrist, and the burning sensation had made me swerve before I managed to gain control again, all while cursing violently. It had ended as quickly as it began. By the time I could safely stop, there was no sign of anything there. Though, if I really thought about it, there were times I could have sworn I’d seen just a hint of something on the skin if I looked at it just right.

“Perhaps.” It was all I was willing to give without more information. Her reaction to the entire situation was making me question why. What was it that made her so upset? She wasn’t acting like her usual flirty self. Syn and I had never been anything but friends. I had helped her and her group of girls out all those years ago. Since then, we have been close acquaintances. I allowed very few people close to me over the years, and she was one mostly because she wouldn’t let me push her away for long. I narrowed my eyes.

“Why is this upsetting you, Syn?”

She narrowed her eyes back at me before barking out a husky laugh. “You have no idea, do you? Wow. Just so you know, handsome, just because you were assigned a fated mate, it doesn’t mean that you have to accept it.” Her smile was blinding as she looked me over.

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

Before she could answer, sounds coming from the main room of the strip club startled both of us. Without thought, I rushed to the closed door, gripping the handle and twisting it. I threw it open so hard it crashed into the wall, where the handle became immediately embedded into the plaster.

“Damn it, Val. you’re going to pay for that damage.”

I ignored Syn as I rushed from the office and down the hallway, where the sounds of screaming were louder. I glanced through the small window in the door a second before that too, was thrown open. That one brief look was all I needed to have me seeing red.

Vampires were in the club, and they were causing mayhem. I looked back at Syn with an accusing glare. She knew better. Vampires were nothing but troublemakers who wreaked havoc everywhere they went. I would be demanding answers as to why she would put her club and all the people in it at risk so recklessly.

I stalked over to the blond vamp who had just torn the heart out of the guy who’d been standing by the front door when I’d arrived. I grabbed him by the back of the neck with one hand and shot my fist into his ugly face. The moment I had entered the room, I felt a pull unlike anything I could have imagined. That draw was keeping me from concentrating fully on the vampire in my grasp, allowing him to turn and bite the shit out of my arm.

With a curse, I pulled him closer, ready to rip his head off his scrawny shoulders. I had my hands wrapped around his neck and prepared to tear it off when I was suddenly stopped by a scream from Syn. She placed her hand on my arm and tugged it as she yelled into my ear.

“Valen! You can’t!”

I turned to glance down at her with an incredulous look. “Why the fuck not? Did you see what he did?”

She gave me a pleading look. “I know, Valen, but you don’t understand. You just can’t, okay?”

With disgust, I reared back my fist and punched the asshole in the face hard enough to knock out one of his fangs and dropped him to the floor. I turned to see the other two vamps backing away with wary expressions, one holding a struggling brunette dressed provocatively in what looked like a serving outfit that Syn would require her girls to wear. The girl was crying and covered in blood.

In two strides, I was in front of the greasy-looking vampire holding her to his chest. He hissed at me like a fucking cat, as if that were any deterrent. I reached out and grasped the terrified girl by the arm and pulled her toward me, somehow finding myself in a strange tug-of-war with the guy, the girl in the middle. He didn’t appear to be ready to let go any time soon.

“Valen, stop! Just let them go!”

I ignored Syn’s pleas, knowing that if this girl went with them, she would never walk away alive.

“Val, if they want her, there’s nothing we can do. They will hunt her down until they get her. It’s okay. Just let her go.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. There was nothing inside of me that could have let the girl go with those monsters. With a snarl, I did what I hadn’t allowed myself to do in over two hundred years, and I let my power out.

In seconds, the man holding tight to the woman I was trying to save began to visibly show signs of what could only be described as melting. His face turned a sickly yellow as the flesh began to sag around his eyes. He didn’t seem to notice right away that he was dying until his grip loosened enough that I was finally able to pull the woman into my chest. With a sob, she leaned her weight into me, and I had to wrap an arm around her to keep her from falling to the floor.

I continued to glare at the vampire and watched as the flesh pulled downward, hanging around his chin and exposing the wet, pink flesh around the bottom of his eyeballs. I would have kept going until he was nothing but wet flesh puddled on the floor, but Syn punched me in the arm, jarring me.

“Stop it! You’re going to get us all killed!”

I turned my glare to her, but before I could say anything, she shoved my shoulder. “You need to get out of here. Now! Before he finds out.”

I shook my head, not wanting to leave her to face the vampires alone, but at a second command for me to go, I gave a stiff nod and began striding quickly toward the entrance, the young woman still held firmly to my chest. If Syn was right, and these guys would hunt her down, I was going to keep her with me. I’d be damned if I allowed an innocent to be taken by fucking vampires.