Page 9 of Lured

I blinked and cleared my throat as the man motioned to the empty chair. “I'll do you one better. Sit yourself down and I'll teach you.”

“Oh,” she replied, shocked, but taking the seat almost immediately. She somehow produced a few chips from a pocket or some area I couldn't see and placed them on the table. “Do you think these will be enough to play with?”

The man chuckled and pushed one forward as her initial bet. “Maybe not, but we'll see if that is the case shortly. If I make you lose and you're trusting me, I'll see you right, princess, don't you worry that pretty head of yours.”

“That's very sweet of you,” she replied, still sounding very different and more sweet and innocent than she had before. If I had doubted she was going to find a way to stay and play, I didn't now.

After watching her influence and manipulate the man beside her for a while and get herself a little stack of chips that grew now and then, I smiled to myself and got up. Before I could stop myself, I found myself at the table as well, sitting down in another empty seat.

She glanced over at me, a little startled but I ordered her a drink as well as myself as soon as a waitress came over.

“You don't have to do that,” she said, her eyes genuinely widening at this.

“Of course I don't. But a pretty lady shouldn't have her glass run dry and I'm about to give you a challenge for your money. Least I can do is be kind in another way.”

“That's a lot of fighting talk,” the elder man on the other side of this entrancing woman said, trying to draw everyone's attention back to him. “You might be able to buy a girl a drink, but that doesn't mean you know anything else about the fairer sex.”

Although I considered bantering words with the man, I knew it would just get him to be more aggressive and then I'd have him and his attitude to deal with as well. I didn't need another element to this dynamic. After all, I shouldn't forget that my whole purpose was looking out for Ludis and figuring out what he was up to.

Enjoying the company of a pretty female was one thing. Letting myself get distracted and missing my cue to take out Ludis was not acceptable. With that in mind, I inclined my head toward the other guy and acted as if he had a point. “You're quite right. Consider me a student and allow me to at least pay for the privilege of learning.

She looked between us and didn't seem to know how to respond. I had put her off her stride and made it difficult for her to pick up whatever hustle or con she had been selling. In some ways it made me feel smug, but in others I felt a little guilt. It was clear she only had the chips in front of her to her name right now.

The drinks arriving helped and I ordered one for the man beside her to continue to soothe the rustled feathers. Finally we got back to the game of black jack and she pretended to take instruction from the man beside her. To anyone with any observation skills, it was clear that she had a better idea of how to play, however.

Still, he helped her for some time. Although I was there, for a few hands she didn't say anything to me, but then the other guy finally worked out that he was losing, she was generally winning and I was sitting right where I wanted to be. In the middle.

As he lost another hand I finally decided I could say something to the woman next to me. “You're picking up the game well, ma'am. You must have an eye for it and a good teacher.”

“If only the luck was favoring me as well as it was my student,” the guy replied, sounding gruff. He looked at his chips and swept them toward himself. At the same time he put his cards down and made it clear he wouldn't be playing any further.

She immediately began to eyeball her chips as if she was counting them and then pulled a generous stack into her hand. “Here,” she said, holding them out to the man. “You were so focused on helping me. These are yours really, not mine.”

He shook his head and pushed her hand back toward her. “No, your friend is right. You picked the game up quickly, but I appreciate you caring. I look forward to seeing you here again sometime.” He took her other hand and kissed the back of it before hurrying away.

On any other day I'd have called him smooth and suspected he'd have had more of a chance with her, but I was here and closer to her age. I was also wealthier. And this didn't even include the advantage my vampire pheromones gave me. Women were just more attracted to vampires than they were their own kind.

As she turned back toward me and picked up her drink, she paused midway and frowned. I followed her gaze and noticed that Ludis was no longer where he had been when we last looked that way. Although I knew there was a chance that he'd just gone off to the bathroom. I didn't know for sure that he would be back.

A few seconds later I heard a strange commotion and saw that Ludis wasn't at his gambling table because someone had bumped into him or something and then walked off. Ludis had gone after. I mumbled something by way of an apology, grabbed my chips and also hurried away.

Ludis was giving this man a piece of his mind, but the man wasn't intimidated and had squared his shoulders.

“Come on, man. Let's go for a walk or something. We don't need to waste our time on idiots like this, do we?” I had my hand on Ludis's shoulder, but at first he wouldn't even look at me too busy staring at the guy who had pissed him off.

I thought I might have to drag him away, but eventually he stepped back, looked at me and just walked toward the back exit.

I exhaled, irritated that this was yet another element of Ludis I had to deal with. He was so hot headed. A lot of the rest of the vamps went to follow him, one even bumping into the poor guy who had invoked Ludis's temper.

Although it appeared as if it might start a fight anyway, the vamps kept moving and the butch guy chose to stride off.

“Those sort better watch out,” Hutch said, one of the skinniest and most frail vampires I thought I'd ever seen. “Ludis is going to take out some important people who like to keep us hiding in the shadows. Then it's going to be different in places like this. We'll all get a chance to show them what to be truly afraid of.”

Before I could ask Hutch what he was talking about, the vampire hurried off after Ludis and left me standing in the casino alone. I needed to decide how to handle this. Did I follow everyone else, or keep the seat warm and wait for him to come back much calmer.

I glanced toward the blackjack table where I had left my own interests sitting and drinking the beverage I'd ordered her, but she was also gone.

Letting out a frustrated growl, I did the only option left open to me and stalked after Ludis and his band of half-blood idiots.

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