Chapter 1

Chapter 1

10 years later…

Loud music pumped rhythmically from the club, its large purple neon sign shifting colors in synch with the beat. The light cast an eerie glow onto the building across the street. On the roof of that building, a man with short, light blonde hair stood with one foot resting on the edge. He leaned forward, an elbow braced on his bent knee, while he smoked a cigarette.

Kane Tripp bent his head slightly and ran a hand through the short spiky hair. He’d hated cutting it, missed the length it had been. He could still remember the feel of its silkiness caressing his lower back. Lifting the cigarette to his lips, he inhaled deeply knowing he missed a lot of things, like the cigarettes he used to smoke before he was buried alive and left for dead.

Forty long years ago he’d been caught off guard by Malachi, the leader of a small jaguar clan, and accused of murdering the shifter’s mate. Prior to that night, Kane had been in good standing with the jaguars, and their leader had been one of his closest friends. Kane’s lips thinned at the memory. Malachi had tried, judged, and sentenced him in a fit of rage.

Using a spell from the very book Kane had thought he’d hidden so carefully, Malachi had bound him with a curse, unable to move or talk… unable to even defend himself. Then he'd removed Kane’s bloodstone earring that allowed him the freedom of walking in the daylight. The bloodstones had once belonged to the first vampire, Syn.

Kane had once asked how there could have been a first and the answer had startled him.

Syn had come to this world alone, injured and starving. A young man had found him and in his starvation, Syn had taken his blood. The vampire quickly learned that the humans of this world were fragile creatures, whose soul would leave them if he shared his blood, in hopes of creating a family on this planet. But once their souls were gone, they were useless to him and little more than monsters.

During his endless life, Syn had only found three such humans who retained their souls… becoming his children. The only difference was that once they’d been turned, the sun would burn… leaving them and their monster siblings to hide from the daylight. This had never been a problem on Syn’s planet because of the bloodstone.

The thick armbands Syn had been wearing came from his own world and were made out of the Bloodstone. Chipping off a piece of one of the armbands, he fashioned them into a ring, a necklace, and a single earring. Kane once again reached up and touched the earring he was wearing.

Where the bloodstone had given him a semi-normal life… it had been Syn’s book of spells that had been Kane’s downfall. Kane had left it for his chosen to use wisely while he slept. Within it was the damning spell, a way to put down the soulless children if they became too big of a risk to the humans.

As the damning spell was used on him, Kane could only watch with dark, unblinking eyes as his former friend shoveled the black soil on top of him. The last thing he remembered seeing was the star filled sky above a forest of trees.

The darkness had been all consuming and so silent. The spell kept him bound but he could feel things in the earth slithering over him. Tiny, mortal creatures that avoided eating his undead flesh but unknowingly gnawed at his soul.

As time passed, he thought for sure he had gone mad, and then he started hearing sounds every so often… voices. They’d been welcome to him in his prison and he yearned to hear more. Sometimes he heard whole families, and other times he heard only adults.

At times he would try fighting the spell, to call for help or even be some kind of company for himself. The magic held him fast, rendering him completely powerless. He knew this spell… had used it on monsters. It was a complex bit of magic that required the blood of a loved one to release him. A spell of love so strong that only the victim’s soul mate could break.

It had always worked with the soulless vampires because you had to have a soul to call to a soul mate. He had used the spell more than once to rid the world of his demonic murdering siblings who knew nothing but bloodlust.

Kane laughed spitefully at the haunting memory of knowing he was doomed… because he didn’t have a soul mate. At least, he had never met such an enigma. And if he did have one, then it was unlikely she would just stumble over his grave while bleeding. Malachi had been so heartbroken… he’d loved his wife so much that he wanted Kane to know the depth of such love and yearn for it.

Yearn for it he did. Many times he would shed tears, begging for whatever god would listen, to bring his soul mate to him so he could be free. Had he truly killed his friend’s wife, then it would have been a just punishment. But he had been innocent of such a crime.

One night, long after he’d given up all hope… he heard it. The distinct sound of Malachi’s roar broke through his insane inner monologue, accompanied by another animalistic scream of fury. Then to his shock, he heard the voice of a little girl directly above him screaming at them not to hurt her puppy.

The sound of her small, frightened voice broke something inside him, making him crave to be free, so he could protect her from the beast in the night.

‘Malachi won’t hurt your puppy little one,’ Kane whispered mentally.

It was true. Malachi wouldn’t hurt anyone unless they’d severely wronged him in some way… especially a child. Knowing his friend was somewhere above him, Kane felt a spark of life return to him. He grew angry when the girl screamed again and he heard something land hard on the ground. Blood… he smelled freshly spilled blood seeping through the soft earth toward him.

It was the most welcome thing he’d ever encountered. The scent invaded his mind and nearly drove him to even greater heights of insanity, knowing he was unable to reach for it. He was so weak from spending so much time without a single drink… thirsting to death yet never dying. That was when he felt one of his fingers twitching.

Kane concentrated on this and set what was left of his mind to trying to move. He felt the days pass, basing them on the heat he felt from the ground above him. The scent of the blood surrounded him now, driving him onward. Finally, he was able to slowly work his arms and started the slow process of trying to dig himself out of his own grave.

More days passed and when his hand finally broke the surface, he literally cried tears of joy. Pulling himself out of the dirt, Kane opened his eyes and stared upward, laughing almost maniacally when he saw a black sky and stars overhead. Looking back down at the ground, he noticed a piece of cloth that had small droplets of blood dried on it. Picking it up, he held it to his nose inhaling the scent of the blood that had freed him.

Keeping the reminder of his savior clenched tight in his fist, he heaved the rest of his body from the ground. Malachi and the shifter that had really killed the jaguar’s wife lay dead only a few feet from his grave.

Looking past them toward the forest, he knew the girl was long gone but Kane was convinced the child was his soul mate. Who else could have broken the spell Malachi placed on him?

Too weak to go in search of the girl, Kane crawled over to Malachi, seeming to tenderly touch the man’s cheek. Turning his face toward him, Kane’s breath left him in confusion. Malachi was wearing the bloodstone earring. His earring!

Within an instant of rage and a movement too fast to detect, Kane stood up with the earring held in his fist. Looking over at Nathaniel, the man that had framed him, Kane gathered the darkness around him like a cloak and vanished into the darkness.

Kane exhaled and watched the smoke drift through the air, curling in front of him before blowing away on the breeze. He’d spent the last ten years roaming from country to country, continent to continent, learning everything he’d missed during his thirty-year prison sentence.

He’d slowly built his strength back up, starting with a white Yorkie puppy he’d found cowering inside a hallowed out tree in that forest. It had been someone’s pet and he’d felt remorse for doing such a thing, but the need to feed was stronger than his guilt at the time.

Only after he’d fed had he realized the pup belonged to the child that had freed him. Feeling a slight spark of life still within the little fur ball, he did the damnedest thing. Biting his own wrist, Kane forced a couple of drops to land on its pink tongue then laid the pup on the ground wondering what the hell he was doing. It would never work… would it?

She’d saved him twice and not even known it. The memory of her frightened voice still had the power to jerk him from his deepest sleep. He wished he’d seen her… just a glimpse to go with the voice that haunted him.

Reaching into his pocket, he took out the small collar and stared down at the bone shaped tag on it. He knew the family name but the address on it was no longer valid… hadn’t been for years. When he finally learned how to work a computer, he’d done a search but the girl’s parents were dead and the house had been sold. The daughter, whom he was sure was the one who freed him, had vanished without a trace.

Kane tossed his cigarette by his left foot and stomped it out. Upon returning to Los Angeles, he’d immediately returned to the club Malachi had once lived in and ran, only to find it had been sold and his children had moved to a new address. The new place had once been nothing but an abandoned warehouse, but the jaguars had recently renovated it and turned it into a nightclub to fit the times. Malachi’s children now ran the establishment.

He shook his head wondering how Malachi could bring himself to remarry knowing how much he’d loved his first wife. She had been his soul mate and even though shifters were known for their sexual appetites, once they met their soul mate it was nearly impossible to love another.

When Kane had researched it, he’d noted that Malachi’s new wife had born him four children then died in childbirth to their youngest son Nick.

Malachi had died the night he’d heard the roar from underground, but Kane still felt the need for revenge clawing at his insides. Almost all vampires are born from the darkness and maybe Syn had been wrong about him being so different from his evil siblings. Just maybe losing his mind for thirty torturous years had done enough damage to where now he was no exception. His mind was still in the dark place where Malachi had put him.

As far as Kane was concerned, it was the jaguars who had drawn first blood. Now he was back to pay his respects in kind… on the whole damned race of shifters, starting with Malachi’s children. Oh, but he wouldn’t stop there. Next would be the children of the shifter that had framed him… Nathaniel Wilder.

Creating followers to provide him with blood hadn’t been difficult. Kane was still amazed at the whole underground Goth scene in the inner city. Many of them only dreamed of being what he was… a true vampire instead of a Goth wanna-be.

All he’d had to do was turn one, and then leave his soulless underling to his own devices. He’d chosen the most dangerous of the group… the one that seemed to have lost his soul already to the darkness. Raven, a rogue, who had been a borderline psychopath as a human… a Goth outcast, who was hungry for blood long before ever having the true need for it.

Raven was the only person Kane had ever told about the backstabbing shifters framing him then burying him alive. He didn’t know why he’d told Raven… boredom maybe.

Kane had set the rogue free on the city. Raven had been angry at the world before being reborn as a child of the night and now Kane had given him an outlet for that anger. Raven had taken it upon himself to exact revenge in Kane’s name and the soulless vampire used his new abilities to their fullest extent.

He didn’t bother trying to talk Raven out of it because it fit in perfectly with his plans of setting up the rest of Malachi’s family for the fall. Why would he protect the shifters from Raven? The most he had offered was to tell the boy that he didn’t have to kill humans to feed, that he didn’t have to do any damage at all, if he didn’t want to. It wasn’t his fault that Raven had chosen to inflict death instead.

The first time Raven had killed had been the only time Kane had stepped in, catching the boy before he left the dead lying with the mark of the vampire within easy view of the humans. Keeping his kind secret was ingrained within his self-preservation and he had forgotten to share that secret with Raven. Kane then showed him how to slice through the fang marks and make it look more like a simple sadistic murder.

Raven had taken to planting his victims near Moon Dance for the authorities to find. It was the perfect arrangement. Most vampires were innately evil so Kane had spent most of his undead life within the reach of murderers. Seeing this boy kill seemed only natural for his kind.

Had Syn been awake to witness the killing spree, he would have put the world out of its misery by killing Raven or binding him to the grave. Now that Kane had experienced such a punishment, he would rather a quick death be the choice.

Before his banishment, he’d been friends with one other vampire… Michael. They’d been together longer than either of them could probably remember or even wanted to. They’d both been gifted with the bloodstones because they had retained their souls… they and Michael’s brother Damon.

Michael was a good man… still on the side of the angels as they say, though he’d heard through the grape vine that Damon had developed a dark side and was taking it out on his brother. Maybe he’d pay Damon a little visit after he was finished here and teach him some manners. Kane wondered about the sudden sibling rivalry because Michael had loved his brother… but things always had a way of changing.

Kane didn’t want Michael to know the evil that the grave had left crawling around inside him. He’d spent some of his time in the last couple of weeks watching Michael from a distance. He knew Michael and the oldest jaguar son, Warren, were now friends… just like he and Malachi had once been.

Shifters were traitors and Michael had yet to find that little fact out. By getting the shifters out of the way, he would be doing Michael one last favor… for old times’ sake.

Kane reached up, touching the earring that housed the bloodstone knowing it had always restricted him from killing humans. If his soul were truly evil, then the magic within the bloodstone would not work for him. He’d often wondered how Malachi could have overlooked that simple fact… the proof of his innocence had been right in front of him.

No matter… He’d spent thirty years in his prison for something he hadn’t done. “Payback will be hell my friends.”

*****

“Telemarketer?” Chad asked, as he tried to hide his smirk, while his little sister slammed the phone down hard enough to make it fall off the wall. It landed with a crash on the floor.

Envy kicked the phone down the hall pretending it was her boyfriend's head before turning on her brother. “Are you all dogs, or is it just the ones I date?”

Chad held his hands up in mock surrender, “In my opinion, girls are just as bad. Now calm down and tell big brother what happened.”

Envy laid her forehead against the coolness of the wall. She refused to let even one tear well up enough to escape. She didn’t like Trevor enough to cry over him and she was seriously getting tired of all guys lacking in one way or another. “Jason just called to ask me out. He thought I was single again because he just ran into Trevor at a new dance club. He was practically screwing another girl right there on the dance floor.”

Chad shook his head. He'd feel no pity for Trevor once his sister got her hands on him. “How about we go clubbing then?” he cocked an eyebrow, not wanting to miss this for the world.

Envy smiled, liking that idea, “Give me ten minutes to get ready.”

Chad nodded and sat down on the edge of the sofa and clicked on the remote to watch the news, though he wasn’t paying it any attention. He hadn’t wanted her dating Trevor anyway. He knew the guy acted like an all American, rich, college prep just to throw everyone off his scent, but that didn’t mean he liked him lying to Envy about who he really was. If Trevor was going to sleep with her, then she needed to at least know the truth about who she was screwing.

Starting a relationship out with a lie wasn’t the best way. If you were going to lie, then you shouldn’t get involved in the first place. He’d cornered Trevor the last time he’d seen him at the station and told the undercover agent to either tell Envy the truth about what he was doing or to stay the hell away from her. It wasn’t his fault Trevor didn’t listen to anyone but himself.

It angered him to think that Trevor might be using Envy while he did undercover work in the bar scene. With her being a bartender for a lot of the clubs, it gave Trevor a reason to follow her into the buildings before they opened and stay till after they closed. Being there without the crowds allowed Trevor to do a lot more snooping and Envy was none the wiser.

Chad refused to go undercover, even though the Special Forces team had been trying to drag him into it for a while now. The closest he’d come so far, was being their favorite guy to call when it was time to kick in doors and take people down. And that was fine with him. He would much rather kick the ass of a bad guy, then just sneak around chatting and shuffling papers, trying to find dirt on someone.

Now their friend Jason, on the other hand, would be much better boyfriend material for Envy. She’d gone to school with Jason, but therein lay the problem. Jason had crushed on her all during high school and hung out at the house so much that Envy considered him a brother… not a guy.

Jason had joined the Angeles National Forest Rangers directly out of school and had held the same job ever since. Envy still loved hanging out with Jason. She also got to see her best friend Tabatha more often, since Tabatha was part of Jason’s unit with the rangers.

Chad got up from the sofa and stood outside Envy’s bedroom door. They had been roommates for the last four years, since their parents had died in a car wreck, and they’d gotten along wonderfully. He was a cop and she was on call for bartending at several of the clubs within the city.

The only reason he didn’t say anything about her getting a “real” job was because most nights she made more money than he did. That made things even better because when rent came due, Envy was the one that usually paid it, while he took care of everything else.

“What club?” he asked through the door.

“The new one called Moon Dance,” Envy swept some of her long strawberry hair up in a ponytail, leaving the rest to hang down her back in long layers. “I might as well apply as a bartender while we’re there.”

Chad frowned. “That’s the one out toward the end of town, right?” He walked back to his room without waiting for her reply. Recently, things down on that end of the city had gotten a little dangerous. Disappearances were the most prominent danger and quite a few bodies had been found within a city block of that club.

So far there was nothing they could link directly to Moon Dance, except that the victims of choice were all club goers. It was just the time frame that Chad and a lot of other people found suspicious. There had been some question as to whether or not there was a serial killer hanging out at that bar. Several of the latest victims had been last seen within the club. As a police officer, he couldn’t overlook the probability that there was a connection.

Since his gun and badge were already in the car, Chad grabbed the small taser and slid it into the back waistband of his pants. With all the bad stuff going on down there, he wanted Envy to have it just in case something went wrong while they were in the club.

Coming out of his room, he glanced down the hallway and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his sister. A black leather skirt with lace peeking out the bottom at mid-thigh covered her legs followed by a black lace belly shirt. There were leather patches only where it counted… enough to hide her breasts and show off her slim belly and navel.

She was also wearing a pair of black leather boots that came just over the knees with dainty link chains around the ankles. A necklace their mother had given her years ago graced her neck with a beautiful piece of amethyst quartz hanging from it. Most of her red hair was tied up in a high ponytail with some of it falling over one shoulder.

Her make-up was tastefully done with a bit of black eyeliner and shadow and a dark shade of lipstick. She looked like a dominatrix.

“Damn, out for blood are we?” Chad cocked an eyebrow, giving her the once-over twice. He had a mind to cancel the night out and make her go back to her room for safety reasons.

“Well, I have decided,” Envy raised a delicate eyebrow, “After I take care of Trevor, I’m going to have fun! From now on, I refuse to date just one guy. I don’t want a boyfriend… I want a LOT of them! That way when one acts like a jerk, it won’t matter because I’ll have others that will be more than happy to kick his ass.”

“Yeah, I remember how well that went over in high school.” Chad shook his head, knowing his sister was way more innocent than she pretended to be, “Let’s take my car in case the station calls.”

“Only if I get to play with the blue lights,” Envy smiled, knowing he would let her.

Chad sighed and started walking out to the car. “I swear you’re worse than a kid in a toy store squeezing every stuffed animal that makes noise and driving everyone insane.”

“What?” she laughed. “I like the blue lights. People get out of our way when I turn them on.”

“Like the time you did it when we ran out of coffee?” he asked. “You do know that’s a waste of taxpayer’s money, right?”

“If you don’t shut up I’m going to drive. Then you’ll have to deal with the red lights and the siren,” she warned with a playful wink.

Chad immediately shut up because the last time that happened, she’d been late for work and he’d been too sick to drive so he’d sat in the passenger seat sound asleep. The chief still gave him grief over it.

*****

Envy clicked off the blue lights about a block away from the nightclub and looked up at the spotlights that danced across the cloud-covered sky. She watched as the two-story building came into view.

She’d been working so much lately that she hadn’t had a chance to check out Moon Dance, but some of her customers had raved about it. On the outside it was nothing fancy. It just looked like a brick warehouse with very few windows and a large purple neon sign high on the front wall.

People were standing in line halfway across the massive parking lot dressed in their best club clothes and talking with each other animatedly. The fact there was still a line after ten at night let her know that working here would probably be very lucrative.

“Yep, I’m definitely putting in an application,” she smiled at the prospect.

“At least the line is almost gone,” Chad said sarcastically, not wanting to wait to see Trevor get a good dose of his sister on adrenaline.

He parked way down on the darkest end of the parking lot right next to Trevor’s car. Before Envy could open the car door, Chad reached out and caught her arm. “Here,” he placed the small taser in her hand then, without a single word about it, he opened his door and got out.

Envy wrapped her fingers around the device with a smile. Her brother had taught her self-defense to the point to where she could probably take down most of the cops he worked with without breaking a sweat. But Chad had always said, ‘Why fight, when all you have to do is press a button?’

She slid the taser into the little side pocket of the leather skirt along with her ID. She’d press Trevor’s button all right. She’d happily press the elevator button going to hell just to see him in it right now. No one cheated on Envy Sexton and got away with it.

They walked toward the line side by side and Envy was especially happy when the line started moving so fast that it only took a couple of minutes to make it inside.

The doorman was dressed in a nice pair of Armani pants and matching suit jacket. The shirt underneath was form fitting and showed off his nice chest. His brown hair fell on either side of his face in waves. A bit of stubble was present on his face and he had piercing dark eyes that almost glowed in the neon light.

Chad paid and they showed their ID’s before the man stamped their hand and unclipped the red velvet rope allowing them access. They entered the main doors and walked down a short hall toward another door that slid open as they approached. Both of them stopped when they entered the main room and stared. It was a lot like walking into another dimension.

For as packed as the parking lot had been, you would think it would be wall-to-wall people inside but it wasn’t. Envy’s lips parted as she walked across the floor to the massive hole cut out in the center of the room.

Stepping closer to the railing, she looked down onto the dance floor below. On either side of them was a walkway that extended across the main level with a long bar that stretched the entire length. The bar itself looked like sand blasted glass with soft neon lighting weaving all through it.

Two sets of stairs went down from her left and right and met in the middle before descending to the actual dance floor below. The dance floor was glowing with soft light, just enough to cast their feet in a type of black light. It all added to the pandemonium created by the overhead strobe and colored spotlights that moved everywhere except directly on the dancers.

The way it was set up, you could see the dancers from the knees down, but other than that, their bodies were shadowed.

Envy leaned over the railing, looking to see if there were any more bars on the lower level but there was nothing but the dance floor. It kind of reminded her of a pit. Once you went down those stairs, you would be at the mercy of the darkness that shadowed the dancers in privacy.

“It's three stories?” she asked, looking up at the solid ceiling above them. Counting the basement, that would be the third floor and she wondered if it was also part of the club or if it was off limits.

Cheers and catcalls made her glance back down at the dance floor. She stared in disbelief when an ice-blue colored spotlight hit a cage in the middle of the pit. She was instantly enthralled with the man behind the bars.

Chad’s gaze also stopped on the cage. It looked like a small jail cell. Inside it was a man and woman and they were circling each other. Even from this distance, he could sense the heat in their movements. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the banister when the guy in the cage pushed his dance partner against the bars only for her to duck under his arm as he tried to pin her against them.

Spinning around, the guy grabbed her wrist and brought her back flush against him before guiding her hands to the bars in front of her. Making her grip the bars, he rubbed himself against her almost naked body until her head fell backward against his chest as if she was enjoying it.

It was animalistic in nature, almost like a primitive mating dance of some kind. Chad and Envy found themselves captivated by the show, the display affecting each in different ways.

Chad watched them for a few more minutes in silence as the main couple sprang apart only for the man to trap her in a different position. The heat of their movements made his jeans grow tight as the male’s hips jerked upward against the girl's ass. Moving his gaze away in frustration, Chad forced himself to look at the decorations on the upper walls that he could see from his angle.

It was mostly flashing lights with steady black lights near huge portrait style paintings with sleek bodies of jaguars, some fighting and some solo predators on the hunt. The lethal animals seemed to have a life of their own. The still paintings almost moved with the lights, giving the impression that the animals were alive and watching.

He had to admit the theme was unique but it worked. His eyes followed the movement of the lights across the walls and he noticed that chains hung between the pictures, some with spiked collars and black leather whips.

He glanced back toward the cage and was about to go find Jason when he spotted Trevor on the dance floor near one of the spotlights. The idiot was sandwiched between two girls and looked like he was having the time of his life. Glancing over at Envy, Chad knew he didn’t have to say a word when he noticed she was staring straight at the trio.

Envy cocked her head to the side trying to study Trevor as if she didn’t know him. It made her wonder why she’d dated him to start out with.

She had to admit he was very easy on the eyes. Damn good looking would be the best phrase. He looked kind of like a California surfer dude with his flyaway sandy blond hair, golden tan and grayish blue eyes. He was completely lickable and had been a lot of fun.

But if you took away his good looks, there wasn’t much too really attract a girl. All that was left was a college frat brat who had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. When he was around, he was very attentive but he would also vanish off the radar, sometimes for days at a time.

The only other good thing she could think to say about him was that he was pretty hot in the sack, and had given her some of the best moments of her life.

To think, she'd actually believed he really liked her… more than liked her. Goes to show what the hell she knew about men. Truth be told, she was just getting tired of being alone… but then, that’s no reason to start dating a guy.

She sighed longingly as she watched him cup the ass of the girl plastered against him, realizing she felt no jealousy at all. If she’d really been in love with him, wouldn’t she be completely pissed off right now instead of simply hurt? What bothered her most was that he’d lied about wanting only her.

Jason had been watching for Envy to come into the club from his bar stool closest to the door. He’d known she would come and he wasn’t surprised to see Chad with her. After giving them a few minutes to look around, he smirked in satisfaction when he noticed the tenseness in Envy’s shoulders and knew she’d spotted her boyfriend making out on the dance floor.

He’d tried to hide his jealousy for the last couple of months and he didn’t want to hurt her, but if this is what it took to get her away from Trevor, then it was for her own good.

Turning back to Kat, the pretty bartender he’d been talking to, Jason smiled, “Told you they’d come.” He nodded in Envy and Chad’s direction.

He’d been here over an hour, but after witnessing Trevor’s cheating on Envy, he hadn’t been in the mood to join the crowd. He’d wound up bored and begun chatting with Kat to pass the time. He’d even told her about Envy’s cheating boyfriend.

“So that’s your best friend and his sister?” Kat eyed the couple but her main interest was on the cop. If Jason hadn’t told her that Chad was a cop, she’d never have known it. He was hot as hell.

About six foot one with sun-kissed skin, and brown hair with golden highlights. It was a little longer than the normal cop hairstyle and looked like the wind had blown most of it to the side, leaving him with a slightly wild appearance. She found herself comparing him to Quinn, and then blinked realizing she’d done it again. She glanced back at Jason knowing they both needed to get over old flames or risk the constant burn.

“He doesn’t look like a cop,” Kat said, eying Chad and wondering if he was dating anyone. Jason hadn’t said one way or the other.

“Yeah well,” Jason almost pouted when he noticed the way she was looking at Chad. He shook his head, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Finishing off his club soda, he slid off the stool and walked toward his friends. As he closed the distance between them, he laid his hand on Envy’s shoulder. Lowering his lips close to the shell of her ear he whispered, “Do you want to dance?”

Envy smiled without turning around. “Oh, hell yes!” she exclaimed, and then took off down the closest flight of stairs, leaving Jason standing there beside Chad with his hand still lying on an imaginary shoulder. He blinked when he heard Chad laughing.

“Damn,” Jason sighed as he watched her descent.

Chad patted Jason on the shoulder in pity as he led him back to the bar and leaned against it, “Don’t let it bother you. I think Envy has a one-track mind at the moment and it involves revenge.”

He glanced at the girl behind the bar and, for a moment, forgot Jason was even there. She was stunning with her bronze tan and very long dark hair that spiraled over her shoulders and all the way down to her hips. Her eyes were just the opposite, light blue with a very thick black ring around the lighter color.

It was her full lips that his gaze was drawn to as he said, “Just a soda please.”

“Not drinking tonight?” Jason asked, and tried not to glare at his friend when Chad’s eyes stayed on Kat, as he answered. Why was it that all girls liked cops?

“No, I have a feeling I need to stay sober for now. I don’t really like Trevor so I gave Envy my taser to play with.” Chad tore his eyes from the girl long enough to quirk a grin at Jason. “And I drove the cop car.” He knew Jason would read between the lines.

Jason shoved away from the bar suddenly forgiving his friend for being a girl magnet. “Oh hell, then there’s no way I’m missing this!” He took off back to the railing, as Chad’s laughter followed behind him.

“Well, that’s two people I’ve made happy tonight,” Chad winked toward Kat, knowing she had been listening, then paid for his drink. He’d best go see what Envy was up to.

Kat nodded when Chad slipped her a twenty and told her to keep the change before he took off to join Jason. Those two guys could be dangerous to a girl’s hormones. Jason had long, sandy brown hair and the face and body of a Bay Watch model.

She’d caught most of the girls as they passed trying to catch his attention. Jason didn't seem to notice any of them and appeared to be lost in his own thoughts... until he’d started telling her about his best friends, Chad, and the girl they both sounded so protective over.

She missed that, someone other than her brothers being so protective over her. She blinked slowly forcing the image of Quinn out of her head and focused on the problem at hand.

It was the taser remark that helped get her mind off Quinn. Kat decided to warn her brothers of this new entertainment that was about to start. They’d had enough trouble lately dealing with the string of murders surrounding the club. The last thing they needed was more bad attention.

Chad leaned over the rail a little looking for Envy. Thank god the cage dancers were still there lending their spot light and making it easier to locate her. Hearing a faint groan coming from Jason, he followed Jason's line of vision until he spotted her dancing in the middle of several guys, near the glow of the soft spotlight of the cage. He frowned, narrowing his gaze and wondering what she was up to.

“At least she’s looking toward Trevor. By the way, thanks for the call,” he said in a serious voice. “I’ve been waiting on something like this to happen.”

Jason shrugged, “It wasn’t for me. It was for her. She deserves better than him.” He tried to smile, as he watched, knowing she would be single now. But the vision of all the other guys pulling at her attention caused his small smile to have a hint of sadness.