But Vashti was a powerful woman, tal and leanly muscular, a renowned expert with al weaponry. She didn’t need bodyguards. And from a resources standpoint, it didn’t seem wise for Syre to tie three of his best Fal en together.
“So what’s your story, Alpha?” Raze drawled. While Elijah wasn’t much of a judge when it came to male attractiveness, he’d noted the number of female glances that fol owed the vamp when he had stepped outside to take a cal .
“I’l tel you mine, if you tel me yours.”
Raze snorted. “I suppose you want me to focus on my story as it relates to Vash.”
He didn’t deny it. “She carries a lot of manpower in you and Salem, but she’s strong and smart. She can take care of herself.”
“She’s stil a woman.”
Elijah took a long pul on his beer and absorbed that. He knew damn wel Raze and Salem had a healthy respect for Vashti or they wouldn’t be taking orders from her. Which meant the mention of her sex wasn’t gender bias.
Women were vulnerable to attack in ways men rarely were.
Syre, Raze, and Salem were al fiercely protective. And the way she’d first had sex with him…restraining him…trying to maintain total control… “Lycans?” Elijah asked tightly, fury simmering in his blood.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
So…Raze wouldn’t discuss Vash outright, he’d only al ude. Elijah respected that, even as he hungered for more information.
Raze draped his arm along the window ledge. “You know what we were before—Watchers. After we fel , we had to figure out what to do with ourselves. We al had different areas of knowledge, and that’s where we focused our efforts. Vashti specialized in armaments—how to create them and use them. Even as a scholar, she was a warrior.”
The note of affection in Raze’s voice tightened Elijah’s grip on his bottle. “I can see that.”
“At the time, we thought maybe we just needed to earn our way back into the Creator’s good graces. Pay a penance of some sort. Make amends. Vash took to hunting demons, which came in handy later on when they started fucking with us. We were the throwaway angels, the ones they thought they’d have carte blanche to screw around with.” Raze exhaled audibly. “Syre wanted to take a more diplomatic approach, while Vash was more aggressive. Since she was the one in the field, her way prevailed. It’s a fuckin’ major understatement to say she wasn’t popular in the demon community.”
“Jesus…” Elijah fel heavily into the booth back. He’d seen the leavings of demon attacks. Just the thought of that sort of damage in any relation whatsoever to Vashti made his stomach knot.
“And demons like to kick you when you’re down. The death of a mate is one of those perfect times for them.”
Teeth grinding, he bit out, “She said Syre took care of it. Is that right?”
“Yeah. He took care of it. When he was done with them, he dumped their ashes into a trash can and sent them back to their liege.”
Elijah bitterly regretted that he wouldn’t be able to exact vengeance of his own. The feeling of impotence was so sharp it was painful. “What was your specialty?”
“Triage.”
Scrubbing a hand over his face, Elijah pul ed everything together and created a picture that gnawed at his gut. “Jesus,” he said again, remembering how roughly he’d taken her in Vegas, how completely he’d dominated her.
Raze smiled at the waitress when she returned with Elijah’s food. She smiled back, her eyes bright with interest. She asked Raze twice if he was sure she couldn’t get him anything and he replied that he was just waiting for her to go on break, if she was of the mind to share it with him. Which she was, of course.
“Sex wil limber you,” Raze said to Elijah once she’d walked away. “You might want to grab a piece of ass before tomorrow, especial y considering how close you came to croaking yesterday. This might be your last chance to get laid.”
“I’m touched you care, but my sex life is none of your business.”
“You like redheads, right? There’s a honey of a redhead that just walked in. You might get lucky.” Raze whistled. “Damn, you didn’t even look.
Vash must have you wrapped around her little finger.”
Elijah finished chewing his first bite of an excel ent rare tri-tip. “Is that supposed to make me feel like a douche? I don’t see any problem with knowing when you’ve got it good and sticking with it.”
“Just ’cuz it’s good, doesn’t mean you can’t get better.”
“Christ, man.” He popped a hush puppy into his mouth and decimated it in two bites. “You lost your wings over a woman. You can’t have forgotten what it feels like.”
A shadow passed over Raze’s features, erasing al levity. “It wasn’t like that for me. I wasn’t as noble as the others. I was banging everything that let me.”
Chewing his steak, Elijah wondered if that made Raze feel more culpable than the others or less.
The vamp shrugged off his sudden dark mood. “Anyway. There was one later on…not too long ago…”
Elijah set aside the now-empty bowl that once held col ard greens and dropped a cleaned rib bone into it.
“Holy shit, Alpha,” Raze muttered, watching him mow through his second platter. “You can put it away.”
“What happened to the one?”
“She deserved someone without fangs.” Raze smiled at the waitress, but his eyes were flat. He slid out of the booth. “There’s my dinner bel . I’l catch you later. Good luck with the redhead. Looks like she wants a piece of you.”
“Take her, too,” Elijah shot back, unfolding the wet nap next to his plate to clean his hands. “Make it a party.”
Raze laughed and headed out.
Picking up the check sitting on the edge of the table, Elijah noted the total and reached into his back pocket for his wal et.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
The sound of Vashti’s irate voice nearly made him smile, but he restrained himself. “Eating.”
“Don’t be coy.” She dropped into the seat Raze had just vacated. “What are you doing here in Louisiana?”
“Working.”
Her amber eyes were hot with fury, her cheeks flushed and lips red. With her long mane of crimson hair and her sleek black bodysuit, she was so damned delicious she made his mouth water. He wouldn’t change a thing about her, except the pain in her past and her evasive tendencies in the present.
“You’re deliberately trying to piss me off, lycan.”
He pushed to his feet. “Let’s take this next door.”
Tossing cash for the bil on the table, he gestured his bristling vampress toward the exit.
When they stepped outside, she rounded on him. “We had a deal.”