Watch It Burn

Jake Montgomery surveyed the room over the rim of his whiskey glass as the thumping music from the dance floor located within the depths of the club vibrated through him. If you didn’t look too close, you would mistake it for any other nightclub where people came to forget their troubles, find a companion for the night, or maybe even both. If you did pay attention you might see an oddly large number of men and women with a red drink in their hand.

If you suspected what kind of club this was, you might assume that if you got close enough to the drinker, you might smell the faint metallic scent that would clue you in to the fact that they weren’t drinking wine. But not here. This particular club catered to some of the more refined palates. Plasma, especially the varieties they offered here, didn’t have the same distinct odor of blood. If you knew the type of clientele this club catered to, you might also notice that there was a smaller percentage of truly drunk club goers. Aside from the humans that ventured into the club and a few of the witches, most of the patrons of the club couldn’t get drunk which brought him to the actual reason why he was here.

It wasn’t unlike clubs he had been to in various countries around the world. This particular club catered to the not so human. Shifters, vampires, witches, demons, and others…it didn’t matter that they all usually hated each other. Clubs like this one were considered to be neutral territory. No fights and more importantly, no judgement. A shifter could hook up with a witch for the night and no one would care. No judgement also meant the club goers could partake in other things as well. Human drugs didn’t work on most paranormals so “other things” generally ran in the vein of specialized blood or cocktails imbued with herbs or other things. It was the “other things” that had his interest now and the sole reason why he was here.

Any other time, he probably would have already found a partner for the night. He never had to try hard and tonight was no different. But, after turning down the fifth or sixth female that hit on him, they seemed to have gotten the message. The problem was, he wasn't exactly sure what the message was. He just hadn’t been interested in anyone in a while. It would be nice if he could blame it on his current assignment but he couldn’t. Even thinking of it in terms of ‘a while’ was attempting to convince himself that he didn’t know the exact date. He did, he just didn’t want to think about it. The problem with that was that it was damn near all he thought about. And, being honest with himself, it wasn’t that he wasn’t interested in anyone. It was that he was interested in one very specific leggy blond. Sleeping with her within two hours of meeting her had probably not been the best idea. Of course sleeping was no where near what actually happened.

He forced himself to focus on the mission. The reason he was here. Find Xander Plethro. His assignments from The Assembly usually involved someone screwing up something. He had been called everything from a fixer to a hired gun. He personally preferred Special Projects. It didn’t have the same negative connotation as Assassin or even Fixer. He could even convince himself that he was one of the good guys.

His current assignment was a little more than fixing a small problem. Plethro, in the eyes of The Assembly and every paranormal he knew, had more than screwed up. He had exposed them all. Now it was more about trying to keep a lid on it.

Finding Plethro was proving to be difficult. After weeks of chasing leads, he decided he needed to work backwards. Find the drug, find the distributor, find the lab, find the maker. It really shouldn’t be that hard except he did a double take every time he saw a tall blond. Forcing himself to focus, he scanned through the club goers. He was fairly confident that the drug was being used here but he wasn’t positive it was being distributed here which meant he needed to find someone using to find out who they were getting it from.

He continued scanning the room until he landed on two tall shifters at the bar. He could tell without slipping into his other vision that they weren’t just any shifter but a very particular type of shifter. He was acquainted with both of them, but their brand of shifter also tended to stand out.

He continued watching them. They had learned a lot about the drug Plethro had created since Landry took down an already dangerous psychopath, made even more so because of the drug. They had learned early on that if used too often, the drug would permanently destroy the shifting gene. It was everything else they had discovered over the last month that made him start focusing on clubs.

The drug produced a high like any good club drug. But it also had a very specific effect if you happened to have sex while taking the drug. According to the doctors studying it, the drug allowed the user to feel the euphoria one got when they mated. Jake didn’t pretend like he understood but he had enough friends who happened to be recently mated shifters that he knew it was something a non-mated shifter might chase. No better place to start than shifters who had little to no chance of finding their mate.

Dragon shifters were all but wiped out over seven hundred years ago. Their numbers had dwindled so low that their chance of finding a mate was slim. Some of the hordes had explored other options but they hadn’t had much success. He knew the two currently leaning against the bar and knowing what he knew about them, he didn’t think these two in particular would risk taking the drug, but more than likely they would know the ones who would.

Dropping his empty glass on a table, he wove his way through the crowd. Dragon shifters were always tall so he had no problem keeping them in sight. As he got closer to them, his breath caught in his throat. His first thought was that he was simply wishing she was here but as he got even closer and her features became clear he knew she wasn’t just his imagination conjuring her up. Olivia Doyle, the woman that lulled him to sleep and then proceeded to haunt his dreams, was leaning against the bar.

Jake took a moment. He tried to convince himself that he was simply appreciating the view. Olivia was tall. And blond. And currently wearing all black. The boots, which didn’t have much of a heel, just served to make her legs look even longer. The leather jacket, gave her an edgy look which he definitely knew she had, but he also knew exactly how soft she could be when she wanted. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail that he immediately wanted to wrap around his hand which brought back all sorts of memories of doing just that very thing…multiple times. Then, he started noticing other things. Starting with the fact that she was currently standing between the two dragon shifters and had her hand on one of their arms.

Feelings flooded through him that he was not familiar with but they drove him forward. Ignoring the dragon shifters, his focus was solely on Olivia. He reached her moments after she noticed him but it was long enough for her to pull her hand away. “Olivia…” Placing his hands on the bar, he trapped her between them. “What are you doing here?”

Taking a deep breath, Olivia looked at Jake. “My guess is the same thing you are.”

“Seems like you two know each other.”

Not moving his hands, he glanced over. “Kane.” The name was a warning because he heard the humor in the question. “Know anything about a new club drug?”

Kane chuckled. “You two need to learn the act of subtlety. Aren’t you supposed to gain our confidence then casually mention the drug? If we were using, we certainly aren’t going to give it up just like that.”

Olivia glared at Jake before turning to look at Kane. “I was being subtle.”

Jake took a step closer to her, his leg pressing against hers. “There’s no need to be subtle.” He looked over to Kane’s companion. “Zeke, your brother would kill you himself if either of you partook in a drug that destroys the shifter gene.” He looked back to Olivia just in time to catch the golden hue of her eyes before she blinked her wolf back and the green returned in full. Not being able to help himself, he leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “What’s wrong…did your wolf miss me?”

He wasn’t quite prepared for the shove she gave him that propelled him away from her. She was definitely holding back since she could have easily dropped him on his ass. Which is what she should have done because he was kind of being an ass. Ignoring Kane and Zeke, he followed Olivia through the crowd at the bar. “Olivia, wait.” He trailed her down the hall leading to the restrooms. He also knew there was an exit. Olivia didn’t run so he wasn’t entire sure what the problem was. “Olivia.”

Completely unprepared for her abrupt halt, he jerked to a stop but before he could say anything else, her lips smashed into his. Pure momentum drove him backwards. He was vaguely aware that she had pushed him into the hallway that led to a storeroom because he briefly felt the corner of the wall drive between his shoulder blades but that particular pain was the last thing on his mind.

Feeling the sharp prick of her canines on his lip he wrestled for control and pushed her against the opposite wall. He knew exactly what she liked without cheating. Olivia was an enforcer for the Ossory Pack she could drop most of the individuals in this club without breaking a sweat but what she enjoyed most was an even give and take. She liked it when he was dominant but hated being smothered. It was a fine line that they danced on quite well.

Shifting away from her mouth, he ran his teeth down her neck and heard the rumble of a growl accompanied by her leg wrapping around his hip. Shifting his hands down from her waist he lifted her up and into the wall.

This particular position allowed her to wrap both of her legs around his waist and grind against him. The black clad legs that he found so enticing moments before just pissed him off now since it just added another layer of clothing between them. Dropping his head further down he licked and nibbled at the gentle curve where skin met the neckline of her shirt.

His hands had just slipped down to her waist to free the edge of her shirt from her pants when a screech of laughter came from the hall next to them. Jake pulled his head away and slipped into his other vision as he scanned the hall. He felt her legs slip from his waist as he looked back at her. Before he could do anything, she ducked under his arm and ran towards the back exit door.