Page 13 of Bite of Sin

“If he’s not back soon, I’m going looking for him,” Viggo muttered under his breath as I pulled open the front door of Impulse.

I arched an eyebrow, glancing at him before going inside. Viggo had a lethal reputation. Other vampires feared him, just like they did me. But his one soft spot was his twin. He worried about Pax much more than he’d ever admit out loud. Viggo might only be two minutes older, but he took the big brother role seriously.

“Zan. Want your usual?”

Lifting my head, my gaze fell on Gia. We owned everything in this city, but she ran Impulse to make sure everything went smoothly. Her fiery red hair was a couple of shades lighter than the bright cherry lipstick she loved to wear. She had hazel eyes that were always bright, and she was the cheeriest vampire I’d ever fucking met. But she wasn’t one to mess with. She had trained under my father and was deadlier than nearly all the other vampires in this city.

“How’s the night going, Gia?” Viggo asked as we made our way to our usual spot. “Anything to report?”

Gia shook her head. “It’s actually been a quiet night.”

I chuckled, taking a seat in a plush black chair before scanning the room. The space was loud and busy. Music pulsed as dancers took up the middle of the room. Fights were a nightly occurrence. There were couches and chairs scattered everywhere, with tables crammed wherever they could fit. Pool tables and dart boards were in the back, next to the private rooms. A long bar ran along the entire left wall with two workers behind it, busy making drinks.

I never knew what life had been like before the war, but from what I’d learned, this was how humans spent their free nights. Partying in places like this. Some vampires remembered those days, and they loved telling stories about it.

Although I was sure the cages around the room were something the human clubs didn’t have.

My eyes drifted to the closest one, where a man was sitting in the middle. His arms were wrapped around his legs, and he was keeping himself as small as possible. The cages were tall enough to stand in, but I was sure this particular human was exhausted. He’d been in there for at least a week. Fear flickered across his face when a vampire sauntered up to him and stuck her arm into the cage. He scrambled back, his spine hitting the bars as he tried to evade her.

She laughed when he was grabbed by another vampire who snuck up behind him. The man screamed when his arm was pulled through the bars, and the vampire sank his teeth into the man’s forearm.

My gaze cut back to Viggo, uninterested in watching someone else’s meal. The people trapped here were our enemies. The cages were reserved for the humans who tried getting into our city or attempted to attack us. I hadn’t felt empathy in seven years, but even if I did, I wouldn’t feel anything for those assholes. They wanted us dead.

Viggo made himself comfortable in his chair as Gia came back with our drinks. Our little corner of Impulse made it easy to watch the entire room. We lived upstairs, and I had to admit, I considered it home after being here for so long. The freedom here beat the hell out of living on my father’s property.

“Damn. He wasn’t gone long.” Viggo was staring at the entrance, and I followed his gaze to see Pax stalking toward us, a pissed-off scowl on his face. We’d left him the vehicle, so it would have only taken him a few minutes to get back here compared to our twenty-something-minute walk. Pax dropped into the last chair in our half circle, nodding at Gia to get him a drink.

“How’d she taste?” Viggo asked, cocking his head as if already knowing the answer.

“I didn’t go after her to eat,” Pax replied tightly.

Viggo scoffed, shaking his head, but didn’t say a word. Pax fed on humans just like us, but he was much more particular in his tastes. Because he had sympathy that Viggo couldn’t stand. If he stumbled on a human he felt bad for, he wouldn’t feed. My father fucking detested it, and it wasn’t a secret that he looked at Pax as the weakest of his sons.

“She was running from them,” Pax explained in a low voice, leaning forward. “She’s from Project Hope.”

“So?” Viggo asked, sounding bored.

“Soshe couldn’t just walk past the gate. I wanted to follow her to see how she got back into the city.”

That got my attention, and I peered around, checking to see if anyone was listening. I really didn’t care if vampires overheard. But there were humans in here too, and this was not for their ears.

“And?” I asked, getting impatient. “Did you follow her?”

If we had a secret way into the city, that would help speed up our plans. When Pax shook his head, I leaned back in disappointment.

“I let her out of sight because she was already suspicious as fuck. Then she jumped in the damn river, making it harder to catch her scent again,” Pax gritted out.

Viggo let out a howl of laughter. “One human girl got away from you?”

Pax shot him a scathing glare. “Before I could catch up, I ran into a few of the guards they have patrolling the woods over there.”

“You took care of them?” I asked, noticing the small splatter of blood on his shirt.

He nodded. “Yeah. But they called backup, so I decided to leave.”

“PARA was chasing her?” I murmured, curiosity getting the better of me. “Why?”

“She wasn’t exactly chatty with me,” Pax replied, taking his drink from Gia.

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