Page 69 of Veil of Death and Shadow

He lifted the rim to his nose and sniffed, not once shifting his glare from Ace. “Let me be clearer this time,man. I saw you drop something in this beer. And then you gave it to Mareena. What did you spike it with?”

“It was nothing,” Ace said, though the color drained from his face when Levi took a step towards him, positioning himself between us. Ace held his hands up and took a few steps back, bumping into a random girl behind him. “Look, it’s no big deal, okay? Just a little something to help loosen her up, you know? We’re just trying to have some fun.”

My jaw clenched and a wave of fury shot through me—most of it directed at Ace, but there was a decent reserve saved for myself, too. Why the hell had I let this asshole I didn’t even know get my drink? I’d seen enough movies and news headlines to know better. I should’ve gone with him, watched the bartender open the bottle and taken it directly from his hands.

“You tried to drug me?” I asked, my voice crackling under my anger. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Dude, chill out, you don’t need to blow this out of proportion,” he shot back.

Levi was tense, and he shifted towards Ace, positioning himself between us.

“Out of proportion?” I yelled, completely unconcerned with the looks we were drawing from the cluster of people surrounding us.

“I’m sorry, okay,” Ace said, then started to move towards me. “It was a mistake. Won’t happen again.”

I snorted. Again? This dude actually thought I’d stick around with him long enough for there to be another opportunity?

“Stay the fuck away from her.” Levi’s voice was low, but the threatening growl of it somehow carried over the music.

“This isn’t your business,” Ace shot back, his expression twisting into something darker. “This is between me and the girl—stay out of it.”

The girl. Who the fuck did this guy think he was?

Levi shifted so that one second he was standing between me and Ace, and the next he had Ace flattened against the wall, his forearm pressed against his neck.

The panicked look in Ace’s eyes and his mouth’s fish-like mawing made it clear he was struggling to get a gulp of air in.

I grabbed Levi’s shoulder, aware that the attention we were drawing was slowly growing more interested in us than the band, but he didn’t budge. “Levi, stop.”

He glanced back at me, the question and surprise clear on his face.

“Let him go,” I said. “I appreciate the assist, but I don’t need your help. I can handle it from here.”

A muscle in Levi’s jaw pumped, and I could tell he wanted to argue.

“Let him go,” I repeated, my voice firm now.

Ace was turning purple, his hands clawing at Levi’s arm, though to little effect—Levi hardly seemed to notice, even though Ace had started to draw blood.

Slowly, not once taking his eyes off me, Levi removed his arm, letting Ace slide down the wall, gasping as he fought to suck in a breath.

“Thank you,” I said, then I turned my fury on Ace. “You actually spiked my drink? And you have the audacity to act like my anger is blowing this out of proportion? What the fuck is wrong with you? How many people have you done this to?”

“That dude is fucking nuts.” Ace coughed as he found his footing, his hand massaging the base of his neck. “Look, Mareena?—”

Before he had a chance to fire whichever excuse he was going to pull out of his ass, I pummeled my fist into his face with every ounce of strength I could muster.

In my head, it seemed like a good idea, but several things happened at once, proving me wrong.

Ace fell to the side before landing on his ass, his nose blossoming into a fountain of blood which, to be fair, was pretty great.

But pain, hot and angry, shot through my hand, and the momentum of the punch dipped me forward until I went spilling down on top of him—stopped only by a firm arm around my waist that held me steady.

The music faded, then stopped altogether when the drummer realized he was playing alone.

Whatever cover we had here in the shadows, on the perimeter of the dance floor, was now long gone. The bouncer at the door came barreling through a shocked crowd that was torn half between backing away to give us space and inching closer to see what might happen next.

“What the fuck?” Ace yelled, his fingers delicately tracing his face, where his nose was now bent at an angle that it hadn’t been before. “My nose—you fucking bitch.” He turned to the bouncer, “She fucking hit me. Don’t just stand there. Do something. Get them out of here.”

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