bad shivers

It was a pulse, through the walls, the floor, under his own skin.

Crouched behind the bar, Linc swallowed hard. The coppery echoes sticking in his throat as the trash can crinkled with the sound of empty blood bags. Just about all they’d get away with behind closed doors. All he should’ve been getting away with but no amount of imagination as he clutched onto one of those bags, sucking on it like it was a one of those ice cold Capri Suns from the ice cream van and he was seven again, was going to slake the real thirst.

Just the lingering scent of that blood in the air was enough to have what was left of his own pulse hitting like a hammer blow in his throat.

He shoved at the contents, punching them low in the belly of the trash bag. Laughter rolled over the top of the bar, the other bartender working in here tonight charming some customer. One of the hallowed few allowed through from the club upstairs to this little Valhalla. Linc pushed to his feet, muscles in his jaw jumping as he saw the woman with the unblinking dark eyes staring back at him. Not a flicker on her face. Not a vampire, he didn’t think, not with the way he heard her pulse whooshing through her veins. Cold as one though, like a marble statue staring at him. He didn’t doubt for a minute that she’d snap him like a twig if he did give in to that burning need that wouldn’t be sated even if he left her dropping to the floor like a stone after.

Linc turned away, blue eyes ticking up to the bartender. No Magnus sat at the end of the bar tonight, like a wrinkled old reminder of what he was meant to be doing here. Learning. Getting out from under Wesley’s hand. Even if that meant working behind a bar again. At least this one didn’t come with the sort of wild parties that left him clearing more than empty glasses out at the end of the night. ”Taking this out.” The neck of the bag clutched heavily in one hand, Linc headed for the back. They wouldn’t care if he didn’t come back for an hour. Wasn’t like the place was crowded, unlike the bar out front. Emerald City was nothing like the Ruby Slipper, an island of peace and quiet beneath the tumult upstairs. None of it like Wesley’s place though, that same stink of wrong filling the air.

Still, he sucked in a breath like it was his last as he slammed the door open, cool and tinged with the damp that hadn’t come pelting down from that dreary sky that he’d watched through a crack in the curtains in Magnus’ place all afternoon. No ring on his finger yet, no escape from being a cave dwelling vamp, stuck waiting for the dark to hit before he could escape. Well, as far an escape as the apartment to the club allowed him. Lincoln drew in another breath, watched only the thinnest streams of vapor escape back out. Like his heartbeat, another human sign dulled to the point where it barely registered.

Dropping his chin, he stepped aside. Hands fumbling with the lid of the dumpster, the bag flung inside to crash against the empty bottles and god knew what else. They were probably scraping buckets of stuff he didn’t want to think about up from the floor of the club at the end of the night. That, thank God, wasn’t his problem anymore. He had bigger ones…

…ones that wouldn’t leave him alone.

All it took was the V word to bite through the air to have his heart leaping up in his throat. Linc glanced aside as he let the lid of the dumpster fall back. Words were tumbling out of her mouth. The blonde with annoyance written all over a pretty face, the black latticework of tights circling her waist above her jeans, not much else above it but more black lace and pale skin. Obviously not as blind to what was going on in the club as the rest of the town. Swallowing again, trying to ignore the way her pulse kicked beneath her skin too, Linc settled a hand uneasily against the corner of the dumpster as she threw up her middle fingers at the club like it was some sentient entity that would give a damn.

Blue eyes squinted, waiting for her attention to roll back from the scarred bricks towards him. ”You’re lookin’ to have fun getting’ something to kick your arse up and down this place?” he asked slowly. Linc dragged his tongue across his lips, the air cool against that sudden damp. ”23 and not some Dracula like bad ass. Sorry if that’s ruining your fucking life more. Not me.” His head tilted, the trace of a smile touching the corner of his lips as he took a step towards the club. ”That brute they got at the door turn you away? Too young right?” It’d explain the talk about looking like a baby but not being one. Wesley had never bothered. Visits from the police just didn’t seem to happen, long as it looked like they were ripe for a feed, they were allowed in the door, encouraged to cut loose. Just so later they could be ushered upstairs to the apartment or down to the basement. The thirst kicked in with those banked vestiges of temper, leaving his jaw tightening again. This wasn’t there, Magnus and the others weren’t Wesley. He wasn’t Wesley.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 940

If he hadn’t been wherever big, bad vampires went when someone practically cut them in half with broadswords, Wesley would’ve been rubbing his hands together at this. A young woman, just mad enough and just knowledgeable enough to go stomping around what she knew was a vampire mecca. When you got mad you left yourself open, Wesley had crowed about it a thousand times before while he’d watched. Drawing them over to him, introducing his ‘boy’ Linc, making it clear he could help them party. A blue eyed lure to a world none of them should ever have been near. The grip on him that promise of some sort of magical life once he’d paid the price of his ticket to ride into it slippery enough that Wes had just let him slip way in the end.

Even before she cut off the idea that she wasn’t there looking to get her ass kicked Linc saw it in his mind’s eye, felt the pit of his stomach turn as greasy and foul as whatever was in the bottom of that dumpster. He wouldn’t have questioned her sanity if she’d said yes but it would’ve spoken of someone to back the hell away from. More time than he liked was already spent fighting that sort of urge, to give in, to let the monster the turning had put inside of him free. The frown deepening, a nod of reassurance all he could get out as he tightened his grip on the edge of the dumpster.

There were some inside who wouldn’t have held back, turning that light smile into something more than he had to squash as she questioned him. Her lips were already curving back as she grinned, something bright that reminded him of a new bulb, blinding in compared to the old, dim one pulled from the socket at the end of its life. ”You said it … your fucking life…” Linc gestured at her with his free hand, like it would stitch together what she’d said and what he had. He tilted his head, half disagreeing. ”Crotchety don’t always go hand in hand with age but … naw …” A rake of teeth over his lip again as though he was considering how to explain that experience had him putting together the vampire version of 2 and 2 and coming up with a 4 that wasn’t right and she probably wouldn’t have wanted.

He’d thought she’d come looking for that, too narrow in thought thanks to years of watching Wesley play with his toys too roughly. Luring in the young and dumb just to destroy them. Broken dolls left dumped after he’d had his fun. Jaded beyond his years but not …as she’d put it … crotchety.

Just anxious, scrabbling with fingertips to hold on to the narrow ledge he’d never wanted to be on in the first place. No compulsion to stop him from looking down and freaking out anymore.

Linc studied her face in the dim light back here. Painted, pretty, proud maybe, certainly not as pissed anymore as he’d cut that original rant off. He shook his head, holding his tongue until he gave a faint huff. ”Not unless someone’s cutting it down to weeks of difference. You got a babyface too.” It’d probably been an instant red flag to the ogre at the door. One that wouuld’ve gone ignored at Wesley’s place. The young the easiest to con.

Magnus had sworn that it was different here but Magnus had said a lot and not all of it had sat well with him. ”Nepotism,” Linc told her with the same bald honesty. His chin dipped as she went almost bashful with the compliment. A buttering up she probably hadn’t meant but he was looking at her from under his lashes anyway. ”Right back at you,” he managed, the words feeling awkward in his throat. Compliments he’d only ever slathered on under Wesley’s orders.

He should’ve slipped in. Told her to go home and not to risk it, like he’d wanted to a million times before but the compulsion had always stoppered the words up in his throat. Now Linc knew they’d slip out but her pulse was kicking up and she was pushing in until he was standing there with his palm flat against the door and her only a foot away. ”Hey,” he echoed hoarsely, hoping the word would take some of the sudden hunger with it. His throat ached with it, leaving him a little breathless. ”Not into the club. Hector would … he’d shit a brick and I don’t wanna be the one tryin’ to clean that up. You really wanna party that bad?” The frown cutting deeper for a moment. Probably as bad as he wanted to pull her in, anybody in and hold on tight when he buried his fangs into that meaty pulse. A breath rushed out, only seeming to have that fire stroking in his throat. Linc pushed at the door, raising his hand between them to gesture her in. He needed a drink, needed to curb this with the purely unsatisfying burn of alcohol, as badly as he needed to stop her from rushing the next vampire with the same plea on her lips and someone less puckered tight to steer her right.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 886

Even on the estate there’d been a social ladder. The kids whose parents both worked – no matter how shitty their jobs were – sat atop it. Others tried to vie for superiority but when everybody knew that neither your mum or the endless cycle of ‘boyfriends’ who skipped in and out of fatherhood had worked a day in their lives you didn’t have much of a leg to stand on. His were worse than that, Linc had been aware of their bottom of the barrel existence before he’d even hit primary school. He’d only understood about one word in three of the stuff that had been flung at him then, while Mrs Graham tried to brush them off, but it was enough. Parenthood hadn’t straightened his parents up, some ten year old scoffing about it wasn’t gonna change that.

He hadn’t known about the promises then. Desperation for something more, some bigger high, had driven them to crawl to Wesley and they’d gone the way Wesley had always intended them to do. People were nothing to him. Disposable. The thought that they would maybe have gotten themselves turned and ended up somewhere like this in a couple of hundred years, playing Mr and Mrs. like Hector and Hannya.

Royalty didn’t take out the trash. The thought was ludicrous enough that Linc actually began to laugh at Cassie’s snickered question. It rolled out, feeling like it went on for too long before he was shaking his head. His hand came up like he was warding off her getting upset about it. ”My family? Naw. The guy that owns this place just took pity on me, gave me a job … cause my … sire asked him too.” The word father still stuck in his throat, despite Magnus being closer to one that he’d ever had. ”He’s really old, really crochety too.” And apparently really tied into royalty if all those stories Magnus had spun him were even closer to true. There was something to him, something that had started to rub off those rough edges his childhood and his time with Wesley had put on him.

His compliment hadn’t exactly been smooth, a line tossed back at the girl without much thought but it had brought a blush to her face that he couldn’t have pulled off even if he’d tried now. The two of them seemed to be stood there, a little unsure of where to tread with it after. He’d been about to go back in, an escape before Hannya started screeching for him, but Linc stopped as she called out to him. That awkward little moment of flirtation blipping away. Baby vampire or not he could’ve told her to go home and she would’ve done it but the only word that’d slipped from his mouth at first was that weak little ‘hey’ back at her.

More colour in her cheeks at that, his eye drawn to it before she flashed him a smile, all teeth, bright enough to almost chase the shadows and filth back out here. Maybe it wouldn’t be there if he let her in, Hector would wipe it out, but she wanted it bad, badly enough that she come back here in the first place. Linc made a quiet sound in his throat, his head dipping slightly so he looked at her bashfully from under his lashes. ”Hector would’ve kicked his arse if he broke the law and someone found out about it.” No fuss, no attention. That’d been the warning when he’d started her. Tilting his head slightly, Linc raked his teeth over the inside of his upper lip. ”Save it by letting you in.” Then Hector would turn all that pissed on him instead of the bouncer. The new boy might have an excuse at least. Too young and too foolish to say no to what really was an incredibly pretty face.

Forget going to hell, he was gonna be lucky if Hector didn’t murder him by the end of the night, although that would’ve left him and Hannya a bartender down and handling a pissed off Magnus. That small part in the pit of his stomach that had always been a bellwether while he’d been with Wesley shook now but Linc was already moving through the door, ushing her in with him. She caught at him though, fingers warm around the cool of his wrist. ”The boss,” he confirmed simply. The geezer. The gaffer. Linc stood almost stock still only his head swivelling to keep Cassie in sight as she swanned in. He wet lips suddenly gone dry like that would somehow get the rasp out of his voice. ”Like Bonnie and Clyde?” A cover maybe if Hector did confront her lately – like there were a dozen British baby vampires slogging their guts out here.

Easing past her to glance in through the doorway that led into Emerald City, Linc paused for a moment. No sign of Lawrence or of Hannya. Maybe they’re at least be able to get through to the store room. He twisted his hand as he turned back to her, giving hers a squeeze. Even that felt kinda small in his own hand, delicate. ”This part of it at least. The old part. No dancin’ down here. It’s … it’s Lincoln.” Screw it, if he was gonna get his neck snapped for this then he’d go out as himself at least.

Clutching Cassie’s hand he drew her out into the club, slipping almost soundlessly through the tables, his eyes only catching the gazes of the few members in tonight briefly as he headed for the quietest corner at the end of the bar, the book where they stored the bottles. ”What did you wanna do up there?” A lift of his chin, a flick of his eyes up towards the ceiling. Something more than just stealing a drink in a dark corner he’d bet. They almost always wanted something more.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 991

Old. Would Magnus have bristled at the label, as though eternal life for vampires ended up with them in some sort of facility. Nurse maids shuffling around, feeling them blood from cups with two handles and a little sippy mouth piece. Linc huffed out a breath, amusement wrapping itself around that grief that welled up at the memory of Mrs. Graham in one of those places, slowly forgetting how to use even those, squeezing the life out of it. Hannya wouldn’t have appreciated the comparison either, although she probably had some sort of Ann Summers like rubber nurse’s outfit somewhere.

That was a splash of cold water. His eyes cut to Cassie as she studied him, stopping that short, icy wake up call. Hannya was dangerous enough that even the old ones didn’t dare kick anything in. He had a feeling that even Hector was wary around her but half the time it was impossible to tell what was going on with either one of them. Linc huffed out a breath, chin ticking side to side minutely. ”Don’t think we’d pull it off if we did,” he admitted low. She couldn’t at least. There was something that radiated young and innocent from inside of her, like a thousand watt bulb, flashing in her grin, shining like an aura from her skin. The things that came here, ancient or not, would’ve drunk it all up, drained her of it.

Like Wesley had drained him.

Another throb of that grief in his chest – for what he’d been, what he’d lost long before Magnus had swept in to try and put Humpty Dumpty together again.

He hadn’t liked his name as a kid. It stuck out like a sore thumb among all the Jacks and Daniels, too damn posh for two addicts on a run down council estate. He’d always suspected they’d read it on the side of a bus on the way to register his birth or it’d bubbled up out of brains half rotted with what they’d taken. Linc’s eyes dropped to Cassie’s lips as she said it though. No need for his pupils to blow wide to see in the dark in here. Sounded different on hers. ”Yeah, like that,” he agreed. ”Or the city.” Not that his parents ever would’ve travelled that far, never the sort to gawp up at the cathedral, to try and see a bit of the world beyond their grubby corner of it.

Lips pressed together, Linc shook his head at her question. One, really. With the rest it had been an affectation, that crooned version of it used to try and lure him in, like he was a fly drawn more strongly to the honey than the vinegar they usually tossed in his direction.

God, it sounded so normal coming out of her, like she’d had the sort of childhood where that sort of thing really happened. In the dim light of that hallway he continued to study her face as she broke off, lips pressing together again at the next question. A tiny quirk of his lips now as he shook his head again. A tease tossed back in response, an easy lob of the verbal ball. ”Not in a long time. It’s Crowne.” Cassie. As American as his own name. He should’ve been warning her off – Go home Cassie, whateveryourlastnameis, it’s not safe for you here.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda. If only Cassie hadn’t pleaded with him already, her face screwed up so earnestly like she didn’t know how hard this could end up biting her on the arse.

His hand wasn’t sweaty around hers at least. Just that warm squeeze of hers lending some warmth to his, wicking into his skin, pushing him on. Don’t let go, Cassie, don’t wander off. Silent warnings going no further than his own brain.

It was gonna come back to bite him too but Linc was already dragging her with him, scuttling through Emerald City. He wasn’t meeting anybody’s eye, but he felt Cassie doing it as much as he saw her doing it as he glanced back. If he wasn’t careful one of them was gonna run right back to Hannya, sucking up to her with the news that the boy had brought a little morsel in, playing keep away from them. For good reason too.

She’d have been the honey to those flies. The sun and sweetness in that smile irresistible to the things that tended to just wade around in the dark. Tucked in to the nook at the end of the bar, Linc hunched his shoulders. Cassie’s gaze was already sweeping past him to the liquor she wasn’t old enough to drink before she grinned like he’d called out the last number on her card and she was shrieking bingo. ”They’re too stuffy to. Probably isn’t the right music to do a waltz to anyway.” Another of those tiny smiles as he dropped his chin again. ”Is that the whole package – some bourbon, a dance?” If it was he could manage that, half of it without sneaking out into the club itself, although that was likely what that last number on her card was.

Linc’s teeth were back on his lips, that nip of a canine as it worried at that tender skin in consideration. Letting her in was the biggest crime, was it gonna get worse with each step taken after that. He shrugged, biting down harder and failing entirely to allow that sting to reach his conscience. ”I’m on it I guess. Long as nobody needs me to clean up after them I’m on my own. You really wanna hear the music and dance?” Years under Wesley’s tutelage meant he could do that at least. The club upstairs had been enough to leave him shuddering when he’d first walked in with Magnus. Afterimages of Wesley’s place and the girl’s been let out to lure in flashing behind his eyes. As the door to the staircase that led up to the club opened and a burst of music spilled in Linc started to move to it slowly, that sway of his body, his free hand coming up to ease past Cassie. Cool fingers closing around the neck of a bottle of bourbon. Hopefully nothing that would cost him every penny he’d earned this month.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1053

He’d never known much about the states outside of what he’d seen in those nights parked in front of Mrs. Graham’s TV, watching ancient reruns of Cagney and Lacey and Golden Girls with the sound crackling and the picture fizzing in and out on a box that had probably been 30 years old even then. It had been broken to him bit by bit as Magnus had somehow gotten him here without giving away he was here illegally or getting him killed in the process. Wide blue eyes watching, nose pressed to the plane window as they’d come in over the Virginia coast. Lights sprawling in the cities they’d passed until they’d touched down in Lynchburg. London was big, although he’d never been above it in the same way to see that mass of life spreading out.

A concrete cage and years only imagining what was outside. Clinging to what he’d known like pennies saved up for Christmas. Grubby fingers closed around the only thing he’d had left – knowledge.

Linc supposed he could’ve corrected her – Lincoln, Nebraska, pretty damn big – but she was obviously as concrete closeted as he’d been himself. His lips curved instead, a thin trace of amusement there as he shrugged off the comment. ”There,” Linc managed hoarsely. ”Not that my parents would’ve had a clue about it.” The two of them hadn’t been caged, not unless you counted bars made of booze and baggies. ”Sounds like some movie character. Kinda cheesy.” That touch of heat trying to rise to his cheeks with that. The name had been too glossy, too Hollywood sounding for two addle brained party animals to come up with it but some sort of delusion of grandeur had struck them when he was born.

That tiny drop of his chin, eyes studying her from beneath the screen of his lashes. No rush of details on her part, spilled on a single breath like she had to get it all out in case it was her last. Secretive? Maybe, perhaps just distracted in that everything, everywhere, naow impression that was rolling off of Cassie with that buzz of energy.

Once they were in the stock room, away from prying eyes for at least a minute it should’ve been too much, cloying, but it wasn’t. It radiated like a sunbeam when she pressed in to his space. His gaze remaining locked on her while hers was past him, every shift noted. That little pout of her lips, turning into a sly grin as he tried to pick apart just what she’d wanted out of this invasion attempt. ”If you say a visit to the lush toilets down here you’re gonna be out of luck,” he warned. His gaze dropped to her mouth as she threatened to think of something but shot away as the door opened, admitting all that music. He hope it wasn’t anything more than that, each item was adding enough of a layer of danger as it was.

Hector could sweep in any minute, like the pirate he was. All dark looks and sabre sharp wit – and threats. The possibility was a weight on his shoulders, leaving them sluggish as they rose and fell again. ”Just checkin’ I’m doin’ enough,” he admitted. He’d tried then, that slow sway of his body as he eased in, turning stiff and awkward as she laughed. The heat tried to rise again but she was reaching for him, curling her hand around his as his hand closed on the bottle. Gaze falling, his body rhythm changing to match hers more closely as she started to bounce their joined hands. ”You wanna teach me?” Linc managed hoarsely. It hadn’t mattered with Wesley. The cheap liquor stripped away any common sense anybody’d had, bodies writhing on the dance floor before he’d lured some away. Separating the sheep of the night from the herd.

He should’ve pulled back then, the memory of it a mule kick to the belly but Cassie was already giggling, pulling at the bottle. Linc steadied it while he tried to keep up the shift to the beat with her. It washed over him, throbbed in his veins like a mutant form of his hunger as she lifted the bottle he held, gulping from it. Not so different to what he used to do, although there was no big bad vamp upstairs waiting for him to lead the sacrifice in. The relief enough to have him smiling, the chuckle light under the music. ”Careful, Cassie.” A warning as he tipped the bottle back.

The shiver had run through her, through him in tiny quakes through their joined hands. He lifted it to his own mouth, grimaced as he took a deep belt of it. It wouldn’t do half as much to him as it would to her. Linc swallowed convulsively, almost choking on it as she started to shake his hand around. He took another belt as nerves hit lightning bolt bright in his stomach. A swipe of the back of his hand over the back of his mouth as he looked at her. Another connection – there with a drunk girl, or bloke, pressing into him, here with Cassie dropping that dare on him. Sloppy and fumbling with the knowledge that he just needed to get them hooked enough on him to follow him when the night ended.

Cassie wasn’t sloppy, definitely wasn’t fumbling. Linc swallowed hard as he drifted in a step. He could smell her, the warmth of her – shampoo, perfume, the sweetness of someone who wasn’t tainted by all of this regardless of who knew what had brought her here in the first place – rolling from her skin strong enough he could taste it like candy on his tongue.

Fumbling the bottle back onto the shelf behind them, a splash of bourbon on his hand, Linc lowered his head. His eyes were slamming shut immediately, twin desires digging claws into the pit of his cut. Not staring at the spot where the blood would pump close to the surface. ”That on your list?” he asked hoarsely. ”I …shouldn’t. ‘s dangerous, Cassie.” It was why Hector blocked them all from being down here. Dropping a human into even a dignified den of things was asking for trouble, and he’d led Cassie right in here. He’d parked her in a spot where everything was her and as his fingers, still damp with bourbon, curled around her hip and he breathed in Linc knew that he was too close to being one of those things.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1090

Before it had always been a game. Wesley’s front to tempt them in. The blue eyed kid, so innocent none of them would believe he was just a lure to get them to the after party. Even once they’d been locked in the cells under the club he’d been the one they’d pleaded with. As though he’d crack and open the door, leaving Wesley without his fun and his dinner. The same threats weren’t there from Hector and Magnus, no fangs pressed in warning against his throat, fingers biting deep enough that they probably could’ve torn his spine right out as they curled at the back of his neck.

Play the game or you end up where they are. Dead. Cast aside in some alleyway.

Almost there anyway, it had taken Magnus to pull him out at the last minute, leaving him to … Throat dry, fingers clutching at the bottle, Linc moved as Cassie did, falling into that slow rhythm of her hips, for her. A lure the way he’d once been for others. The alcohol burned in his throat, leaving his hands fumbling more than they’d done a minute ago. He could feel those slow circles of her hips brushing against his own now. If it was capable of it his heart would’ve raced, leaping up into his throat like a rabbit diving for the headlights of a car. The effect just as deadly if he wasn’t …

Stop.

The word didn’t break past his lips but it was close, so close he could smell the wash of that mouthful of booze raw on her breath as it washed over his lips. Linc slammed his eyes shut, his hand coming up to squeeze at her hip – unsure if he was drawing her closer or pushing her away. Away. It should’ve been away. He could practically feel her pulse against his lips from here, the small space that separated them not enough.

Linc lifted his head just enough to meet her eye, blue on blue, his wanting to darken, the burn in them as much a warning as the ache in his gum. If he’d flashed fangs the minute he’d brought her in here it might’ve been easier. The need had already been deep now though, his body going to war with itself, the hunger in one regard feeding the other until her pulse was practically a beat in the air. ”When you want to … it’s … you make me wanna … shit.” He didn’t pull away but he was already growling lightly in his throat, closing his eyes again as he lowered his head. That put the scent of her blood, warming on the surface like it’d been drawn there by just the thought of his touch, closer, but it was easier not to look at her.

Double shit.

His eyes flew open as she threw her arm around his shoulders and pushed him back. The hand on his hip clutched at her, the warning boiling on his tongue. The ‘Cassie we can’t’ pinned there viciously by the press of her lips. No protest now, just that low hum of need that vibrated in his throat. Lips firm on his, hungry as his own, the slick of lipstick would undoubtedly leave tell tale marks on him but Linc couldn’t bring himself to push her back. The pulse was there against his mouth, transferred through her scarlet lips, a rapid flutter that left him dropped his mouth down to her jaw as the kid ended.

A heartbeat there, breathing her in, trying to tamp that need back down inside. He didn’t whimper, that was promising at least. Linc’s pupils were blown wide with need as he lifted his head again. ”Just a kiss,” he breathed, managing a strangled chuckle. ”You think it’s ever just that Cassie?” There was no heat in his question, but there was in his throat as she pecked a kiss close to his mouth. His hands gripped at both hips now, his laughter taking on an almost hysterical edge. ”You’ve got one hell of a list if that was on there. You shouldn’t … not in a place like this. You never know who’s gonna take advantage, there are things here that’d take that and more…” His eyes dropped to the crook of her shoulder then, the pulse that beat harder there than in her lips.

Linc lowered his head slowly, his arms going around her as he grazed his mouth over that pulse point. He could already hear Magnus’ sigh but his maker was miles away, at least in theory. His lips grazed, drew on her skin lightly, until he felt the kick of her pulse against his lips and then his fangs were there, bursting through his gums as he felt the veins under his eyes begin to squirm. Pressing his lips harder, Linc did whimper this time, fangs just grazing the ivory skin until there was a bang of a door, someone coming down from upstairs, bringing that burst of music with them.

”No! We’re not. You’ve gotta go, you’ve had your dance and your kiss, you can’t be here. Cassie! You can’t!” The warning snapped out as footsteps sounded, moving away, thank God. They’d been a reprieve, one that he grabbed with both hands the way that he did Cassie’s hips as he tried to shove that hunger back under. Linc pushed her back towards the opening into their little nook, looking past her and starting to move fast as he found the space empty. It wasn’t a whole night but surely she’d had enough … especially with the warning of that almost slip.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 944

The alarm bells should’ve started ringing in his head the minute he’d let Cassie in the club. Every single one of Magnus’ lectures rising up again to warn him against the dangers of getting someone else involved in this, against letting her get close enough that he could feel the blood warm and sweet pulsing as Cassie’s lips pressed to his. Right there. A single scratch of a fang would have it spilling into his own mouth, turning those first pangs of hunger in a ravenousness that would have had him switching their positions, pushing Cassie back into the shelves as he latched onto her throat and …

No amount of lectures made this any easier. With the man in the hotel room he’d been able to let all that pain and anger spill out. No pulling himself back until the artery had stopped pumping the life down his throat. There’d been something in Magnus’ eyes after, some worry. He’d been dragged here to learn how not to do that but it was falling flat the minute he got close. Was this what it was gonna be like from now on? Unable to touch anybody, unable to feel an interest in anyone without wanting this.

Linc felt the strain in every inch of his body as he held onto Cassie, trying to keep her far enough away that the scent wouldn’t drown him. She wasn’t stopping through, her elbow on his shoulder, fingers drifting through his hair in a way that had shivers running over his skin. Needs of more than one kind going to war, burning under his skin, dropping through every inch of him. He tilted his head, lips pressing together but all that did was intensify the taste of her that lingered on the damp skin. ”You think I’m gonna be able to do anythin’ if any of them want to?” A baby vampire in a nest of things that had probably been alive when Caesar had come, seen and failed to conquer.

Eyes slipped shut, the thud of her pulse would guide him in without even having to look at that stretch of ivory skin. Arms tightening around her, lips on that skin now, close enough to feel the blood right there with only millimetres of skin and flesh. Linc felt the prick of fangs at his gums, that gnawing hunger biting deep enough to leave his control slipping. Without the slam of the door and the footsteps he would’ve done it. Maybe losing enough control to leave her crumpled in the corner of the little nook, that skin paler, the heart that had bounced with excitement still as panic did all it was capable of with his own.

Staring at her, Linc felt his heart make a good attempt at it without her falling limp from his arms, killed by what he should’ve had more control over. His chest heaving, that push back that had her yelping at him. Linc glared at her, the veins still crawling beneath his eyes. ”You should be scared I was gonna bite you,” he hissed back. ”Why are you not?” Ask. Staring, he shook his head as understanding dawned. ”I don’t want to, Cassie. You shouldn’t want me to either. I could kill you. You get that right? It’s not just them that are dangerous. I am too.” But she wasn’t listening. Like she’d done before she was steam-rollering right over the warnings.

Hands on him again, her palm warm against his cheek and her thumb tracing the veins. Linc felt that shiver roll through him again, his throat working hard as he swallowed. He peeled a hand off of her waist and wrapped it gently around the wrist of the hand she had on him but her thumb was already dipping to peel his lip back from his fangs. ”Sharp enough to tear your throat out if I’m not careful. Cool or not they’re dangerous, Cassie, I’m dangerous too. It’s not somethin’ to play with.” She tried though, the thumb she’d just slid down to his lip so close to his thumb like she was going to prick herself, Sleeping Beauty purposefully aiming for the spindle. This wasn’t just going to be a long nap til true love had her waking up. ”You’ve gotta go. Before somethin’ happens.” By him or someone else, either way she was gonna be in way over her head.

Taking her hand, Linc squeezed it hard. He eased into her again, not stopping til he was towing her out into the hall this time. He looked both ways, saw nobody as he towed her back the way they’d come. More people in Emerald City this time. Two more at the bar, eyes swivelling towards them as Linc strolled through like he couldn’t see any of them. Down the short hallway to the back door again. Linc hesitated just a minute as he pulled it open. ”You had your dance and your drink, that’s gotta be enough, alright? Go home, Cassie. Don’t keep temptin’ fate.” His palm was damp on hers though, muscles twitching under the skin as he resisted the urge to toss control to the wind and bury his face back against her throat. That would’ve been more of a warning but the idea came like a bucket of cold water doused over him. Letting go of her hand, Linc gripped her bicep instead of pushed her back out into that cold night air. For her own good.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA (End with yours?) * Word Count: 916