cleared my throat and dropped an octave. “Is he meeting us there?”
But Sariah and co were crossing the road. The lights of a club were to our left. Bouncers at the door, queue snaking down the street. The faint stench of rubbish hit me, and then there was something else. Woodsy, earthy, familiar on a visceral level. I took another breath, but it was gone.
Wait, why were we headed toward an alley? I hated alleys. “Hey.” I made a grab for Sariah’s arm, and her brows pinched together in a frown. “I don’t do alleys. Alleys are bad news.”
And as if to illustrate my point, several hulking figures emerged from the shadowy depths of said alley.
My thighs bunched as my body readied for fight or flee, just like Azazel had trained me. But then moonlight spilled across golden locks and kissed the tips of dark lashes. Silver eyes ringed in indigo locked onto me. Grayson’s mouth parted slightly. He was surprised to see me. Even as that gave me a stab of satisfaction over the sense of having the upper hand, a clawing flared to life in my belly, like hunger, or thirst, or the want for something unnamed but vital.
My gaze tracked across his face, taking in his broad chiseled features, the dip in his upper lip, and the razor edge of his jaw hugged by stubble. He’d shaved his golden beard, but instead of making him look younger, it made him look more intimidating. Harder. Rougher. His hair was loose and tucked behind his ears. You’d think it would soften him, but fuck, it made him look even more masculine. I wanted to touch that hair, sniff it, rub my face—I was going nuts. It was the only logical explanation for my reaction to him.
“Grayson,” Sariah greeted him. “This is Seraphina Dawn, our Dominus.”
He didn’t take his eyes off me. “We’ve met. Twice.” He took a deep breath, and his eyes fluttered closed. “You’re a demon?”
I nodded, heart pounding so hard in my chest that I thought it would crack my ribs. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“I’m a Dominus.” My voice sounded husky and breathless.
The kind of voice reserved for sex, for when your man is deep inside you, and you ask for more. When you tell him to thrust harder, faster, and not to stop.
I shook my head slightly to clear it.
“Come here,” he said.
It was an order, not a request, and I took an involuntary step forward before checking myself. Hell no.
His eyes narrowed, locking on my foot.
What the fuck. I stood taller. “I don’t take orders. I give them. You have a vampire problem, so let’s deal with it. We’ll go in and flush out the suckers, and you and your … pack will cover the exits and nab them as they make a break for it.”
The corner of his mouth hooked up. “Nab?”
Was he mocking me? Annoyance flared hot in my chest. “Grab, pinch, wallop, whatever.”
Several more figures stepped out of the alley. Seven in total. Paired up with us four, that was eleven against … “How many vamps do we think are in there?”
“They’ve been banding into claves,” Grayson said, his voice a deep rumble that seemed to vibrate through me. “Anything from ten to fifteen in a clave, and their numbers are growing.”
In other words, we had no idea. “Why this place? Why are they attracted to Killion’s as a hunting ground?”
Grayson’s lip curled. “Bliss.”
I gave him a blank look.
He arched a brow. “You have no idea what that is, do you?”
I offered him an uncertain smile. “Happiness?”
He let out a surprised snort. “In a sense. Bliss is a drug created by outliers for outliers. A nice little relaxation pill that loosens inhibitions, but when consumed by humans, it makes them doubly prone to suggestion. Word on the street is that they deal it here. A lot.”
“A vampire can simply ask a human to leave with him or her,” Sariah said. “Or ask them to slit open their vein, and they’d do it.”
Like when Peiter had asked me to forget what I’d seen, or maybe more like Mal when he’d made me want to touch his—Nope, not thinking about that. But I’d learned a thing or two about suggestion.
Oh yes. “Doesn’t the person have to want to do the thing, or be open to it for suggestion to work?”
“Not with Bliss,” Sariah explained. “With Bliss, a human will literally do anything they’re asked to by the first person they set