Page 23 of Stripped

I was halfway to the exit, Zane's arm still around me, when Leopold grabbed my elbow and yanked me back. Zane's arm slipped from my shoulders, but he grabbed my hand. He tried to pull me back, but Leopold held me tight against his chest. He nipped my neck with his teeth, not enough to break the skin, just a promise. I shuddered and not in pleasure. Nothing about vampirism had ever appealed to me. “I'll let all your girls go, never let them work here again, if you are mine.”

Zane jerked me from Leopold's arms before I could answer and Leopold made it clear he'd let me go, his hands high in the air, his grin cocky. “She belongs to me,” Zane roared. “You don't touch her. Don't even fucking look at her.”

“If I want her,” Leopold said. “I'll have her, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, pretty boy.”

Zane growled and dragged me from the club. He dragged me to the car, opened the passenger door and pushed me inside. I had several things to say about him rescuing me, mostly thank you, but I forgot all those words when he paced outside the car, looking truly pained. His hands were shifting from human to furry and back again and he looked about two seconds away from shifting into a wolf.

It was probably one of the stupider things I'd ever done, but I got out of the car and met him halfway in his pacing. He tried to go around me, but I grabbed him around his narrow waist, wrapped my arms around him as best I could and squeezed. “It's okay,” I said. “We're out of there.”

His whole body was tense and hard, but slowly, very, very slowly, he relaxed. His arms dropped to my shoulders and he hugged me back.

“You could be them,” he said, his voice rough.

I didn't loosen my hold, but I tipped my head back to look at him. “What?”

He met my eyes and the hardness in his vanished. “If I wasn't here, if he'd gotten you into that club without me. You could be one of those women on his arm. He could enthrall you and rape you and there wouldn't be a damn thing I could do to stop it.”

“Rape me?” I asked. “How…” My heart sank. “Are you saying the women in there with him have no control over their actions? That's not real. Vampires can't really do that.” I wasn't an idiot. I knew that people could get addicted to vampires feeding on them, but I'd never heard of vampires compelling anyone beyond maybe a mild persuasion that could be explained away as charm.

Zane's eyes clouded and he looked into the darkness over my shoulder. I could see the debate waging behind his eyes. He looked down at me, into my eyes. “They can do that. There are rules against it, especially now that the vampires are out, and the council will kill a vampire who's found guilty of enthralling and using humans or even other supernaturals, but it appears Leopold isn't concerned about that.”

My stomach roiled. “So those women in there… He's going to force them…” I couldn't even say the words. I pulled against Zane trying to get back to the club.

He held me tight in place. “It appeared they were in thrall to Leopold. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they really adore him. Vampires can be very charming, very persuasive even without the thrall and they might—”

“No,” I said. “Don't lie to me. You were furious when we came out here because you know they're under his spell. You know how easily it could be me in there. We have to help them.”

He looked around again, like he expected vamps to start pouring out of the club at any minute. “We can't go up against an entire club of vampires, Abby. And, even if we did, we can't break the thrall. The women wouldn't come with us because they're convinced they want to be with Leopold, that leaving him would break their hearts.”

I shoved against his chest and bent just in time. I vomited in front of him for the second time in two days, but at least this time it didn't get on him. He held back my hair and rubbed my back, whispering soothing things to me. Once I felt like I could handle it, I stood and faced him again. “There has to be something we can do. Can't we call the council and tell them what's going on?”

He kicked at the gravel and growled. “The council has been siding with the vamps lately, even actively working against our pack.” He paced for a few moments, tapping his fingers against his thighs. “There is something… But we'd have to get back in the club…”

“I don't think they're going to let us back in the club.”

He paced some more. “What about your ex? That faun guy, Rockford.”

“Rixton. I'll call him, but he's not very reliable.”

“I just need twenty minutes of his time. All he has to do is go in there and pull the fire alarm. Vampires are terrified of fire, it's one of the only things that can kill them.”

Rixton arrived twenty minutes later, two lovely women in the back seat of his car, snuggling up together. He hopped out and wrapped his arms around me in a warm hug. “I'm so bummed about your club, man,” he said. “I still can't really believe it.”

“Me, either,” I said. “I'm sorry to tear you away from your night out, but Leopold's got Alice and Carly and all the dancers in there and he's enthralled some of them. I just need you to go in and pull the fire alarm and get everyone out.”

“Cool, dude,” he said. “What are we going to do with all the girls, though?”

I looked to Zane, but he was also nonplussed. “They'll go home.”

Rixton's ubiquitous grin slipped. “Not if they're in thrall, they won't. We'll need to kidnap 'em and take 'em somewhere until the venom works its way out of their systems.”

“Venom?” Zane asked.

Rixton huffed, impatient. “Dude, that's how vamps put humans in thrall for the long haul. They can get you there by looking in your eyes, if they're powerful enough, but they can't keep you that way for longer than ten, twenty minutes unless they suck your blood and inject you with some of their venom. If you want the girls to stay away from the vamps, you're going to have to force them to do it.”

“I've never heard of that,” Zane said. “And I know vampires.”

Rixton stared at him, looking more serious than I'd ever seen him look. “You know how vamps and wolves work together, man. They have a whole different kind of effect on humans.”

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