Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,15
the feel of those muscles against me, I’d like to keep a little of my dignity.
I wouldn’t have thought the night could get much better, no matter what the incubus had planned next, but my heart leapt when the RV pulled up at our next stop: a karaoke bar decked out with neon lights. Not that singing was my most favorite activity—it was the thought of watching my companions take a shot that had me grinning.
“We’ve got to take equal turns,” I announced as I bounded to the Everymobile’s door. “No one sits out, or you’ll have a very sad birthday gal.”
“We wouldn’t want that, now would we?” Ruse said with amusement.
My demand worked on two thirds of my shadowkind crew. Omen plonked down in a corner of the private room Ruse had booked and refused to do anything with his mouth other than scowl. But it was pretty easy to ignore his lack of participation when I got to belt out “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” to Ruse’s enthusiastic whooping and Thorn’s applause, followed by the incubus strutting around with the microphone as he instructed us all, “Don’t you forget about me.”
The highlight, though, had to be Thorn gruffly but gamely giving “Sexual Healing” his best shot while he held the mic as if he expected to need to club someone with it at any moment. Believe me, you’ve never seen any performance to top that.
I nearly exploded holding in my laughter, but the flush that darkened the warrior’s tan face made me want to offer him a little sexual healing to his ego after he’d finished. I wasn’t quite so wanton as to get down and dirty in a karaoke booth, so I settled for planting a kiss on him long enough to bring a rumble into his chest before I went to pick my next song.
When our hour there was up, it turned out Ruse wasn’t done with us yet. “One more stop,” he said, with an affectionate tap of my chin. “But you can stay there as long as your feet will hold you up.”
I understood what he meant when Omen parked the RV across the street from a dance club. A dance club with a sign in the window gleefully announcing that tonight was ‘80s night. The smile that sprang to my lips brought a bittersweet pang with it.
It was impossible to indulge in my love of all things ‘80s without thinking of the woman who’d passed on that love to me. Before I’d really had friends, when we’d moved from city to city so often I didn’t have the chance to get close to anyone, my birthdays had been spent eating ice cream cake that Auntie Luna glamoured glittering sparkles onto and having private dance parties in the living room of whatever house or apartment she’d managed to arrange for us in that town.
She should have been here to celebrate more of those birthdays—to see the woman I’d become. The Company had stolen her in a way I could never get back.
Ruse obviously hadn’t realized the connection I’d draw. His own smile faltered when he took in my expression, which must have shown a little of my sense of loss.
“It’s great,” I told him before he could think I was at all disappointed with his choice of activity. “It’s perfect. Just brings back some memories.”
I’d dance for Luna and amp myself up to strike tomorrow’s blow against the organization who’d caused her death.
Thorn studied the building’s front with obvious hesitation. “I don’t know if it would be wisest for me to—”
“Nope, no backing out now—I want to see all of you on the dance floor.” I grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the door. “If you’re not sure what to do, just shuffle from side to side a little. No one’s going to dare to even think anything judgemental when they take a look at you, I promise.”
Omen stretched where he was still sitting in the driver’s seat. “I’ll come, but only to keep an eye on the rest of you fools.”
“The fool is often the one who sees things most clearly,” Ruse informed him with a smirk that practically twinkled, and led the way across the street.
It wasn’t that late in the evening yet, but the place was already packed. I squeezed into the center of the dance floor and let the familiar music wind around me. Ruse kept pace, his hands grazing my waist, my hips, and my arms as he