getting close enough to the party in question to sense the intent of their aura. Proximity was the thing.
“Too many people,” Riona shouted, trying to sort with her eyes through the throng before them without any success. “We have to get in there, feel them out.”
Without another word, she shot up from her seat and threw her body into the hive.
Marc’s heart beat in his ears as echoes of what Persephone had said about women being attacked reverberated in his memory. The chair hit the wall behind him as he kicked it out of the way. With Riona’s bright red hair, she shouldn’t be hard to pick out amongst this crowd who looked like most had dipped their heads in coal dust or bleach. A chick who couldn’t have been more than twenty-two and who, based on her glassy eyes, was already five shots into the bar tab, locked him in her gaze and drew herself in. Marc’s body went board-stiff, resisting her urgings to move with her, as she turned her tight little frame to him and began swinging her hips right against the front of his pants. He backed away cautiously, his hands disciplined at his side, and was oddly relieved when an overly-pierced guy, bound in leather, quickly filled the impersonal void he had left.
Flashing lights made liars of color and moved in time with the music. There was plenty of sin bubbling up around him — it was so thick it left a metallic taste on his tongue — but no pure evil or demon presence that he could sense. Disheartened, Marc reminded himself that Hermosa had been his friend for fifteen years, and he had never made him out for what he truly was. How in the hell could he be expected to tell from a bunch of strangers indulging in lust at a glance which of them drew a paycheck from Hell? And though she had proven that she could kick ass when it came time, Riona still hadn’t honed her skills enough to be any better. That sort of moral perception took years to develop. A witch, however, and a Pure Keystone witch at that, would have an aura that tasted like a hit of cocaine, meth, and a Starbucks triple espresso combined to a demon. They’d pick her out in a second if they set eyes on her.
Fuck, he had to find her.
“Jesus!”
On the edge of hyperventilating, the hand that landed on his shoulder sent a shockwave of fret through him. Marc jolted. He all but leapt out of his skin when he turned, ready to hit something, and saw Riona looking at him disappointedly.
The music poured out from speakers directly overhead, too strong to hear anything she might have said, but as she overly-accentuated “blend in,” he got the point. Her body started a white man’s strut against the rhythm that tapped with forceful fingers on their skin. Marc had never really been the dancing type, but did his best to reflect her footing. When he stumbled, stepping on her foot after tenderizing his own, she gave him a crooked grin and moved closer. Dangerously closer. Close enough that he could smell the scent of perfume radiating from her heated skin and see that she had used three bobby pins behind her ear to hold her hair in all the right spots.
Marc backed away like she was a shot of tequila and he was in recovery. She wouldn’t accept it, only glared at him more sharply as a few curious heads turned to take in his imitation of a pine board. Riona grabbed his shirt and pulled it, circling his neck with her arm as she brought her body flush to his. When he didn’t move, but just stared at her wide-eyed and gap-mouthed, she used her other hand to reach out to his arms and draw it behind her. He tried to ignore the bliss that enveloped him as their bodies began to move in time with the bass.
The speed of the music slowed, and with it, the tempo of the crowd. Rabid bouncing diminished to a sultry fluidity. Marc could spot over Riona’s shoulder the immediate change in the environment. Distances between bodies disappeared. Hands washed over hips and mouths over necks in perfect time to the slow-driven, hypnotic beat. Marc was so enraptured with the view, his thoughts leaning dangerously erotic as visual stimuli bombarded him, that it took him a moment to realize how his sway and