Page 52 of Outlaw Witch

He snorts softly. “Something like that.” Turning his head toward me, he quirks his lips in a small smile. “Are you going to tell me how you can withstand my compulsion or how you mirrored it back to me? I’m fairly certain if I were a century younger, or had a weaker will, you’d be able to compel me to do whatever you wanted.”

His voice is low and silky, and I shiver for an entirely different reason.

Maybe it’s the whole sex club backdrop, or that he’s drop-dead gorgeous. Something in his tone is almost flirty. I feel my body responding without my conscious control. Goosebumps raise up on my skin as my nipples pebble into hard points under my top.

Fuck.

Although it could just be a vamp thing. For all I know, they could all just flirt with anything that moves... and maybe their voices have weird nipple stimulating powers.

Must make it easier to get an easy meal if you’re so damnintriguingand magnetic.

I’m curious about what the situation is here. It would have been helpful if Roscoe had thought to clue me in before we turned up at this club. There’s clearly some bad feeling on either side and I wonder whythisis the vamp Roscoe decided would be most likely to help us.

I mean, it could be because he’s already beaten up a bunch of vamps tonight.

... what a damn mess.

I find myself padding across the floor, drawn in Dante’s direction until I’m standing beside him. I then follow his eyeline over the club and get an eyeful of bare flesh in the process.

“Wow. Quite the view you have up here,” I mutter.

He shoots me a dry look over his shoulder. “I own this place. Did the mage boy mention that? This office is one of the perks of the job.”

I’m about to comment about him being a dirty perv, but decide that since I want to try to keep on his good side. Better to keep my snark inside my head.

“Sorry for barging in. I didn’t exactly get any warning about what we were walking into here,” I tell him.

He huffs softly. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

“So, any chance you can give some insight into where we might get some more information on your kind? I’m guessing you’re not going to be willing to be our own personal vampire encyclopedia to help with Fabian.”

“You’d be right about that.” His eyes meet mine and my breath catches in my chest. Something about him is so intense, I feel like a fly caught in a spider's web.

“Since you’re not willing to tell me more details that might pique my interest in the situation, and since I’m not likely to start spilling the secrets of my kind to any Nexus mages. No matter how intriguing their companions are—” He nods to me and I feel my cheeks flush. “—we seem to be at something of an impasse.”

Welp, this was a colossal waste of time. Worse than that, I’ve only succeeded in revealing a little too much of myself to this mysterious vamp who has beef with the Nexus mages.

“Sorry to have wasted your time,” I tell him. He responds by leveling me with a look that’s reluctantly curious. It’s as though he can’t quite make me out and that is irritating him.

“I would, however, be willing to share some insight with you that might help you. But I can’t do it without getting something in return. I’m not going to do it for the good of any Nightshade or Hawkshead, either.” He shifts until he’s leaning heavily on the window behind him. “But there’s something about you that intrigues me.”

I cock my head to one side, feeling my hair slip from behind my ear as I do. “What is it that you want?” My voice is annoyingly husky, so it winds up sounding like a come on, which isnotmy intention.

His eyes scan from my face to Roscoe and back again, a small secretive smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

“Stay where you are and listen,” he barks suddenly at Roscoe, making me jump about a foot.

Roscoe blinks, swaying slightly. “What the hell did you do to us? You shithouse bastard.”

“Quiet,” Dante says, his tone ice cold before he turns his attention back to me. “I want a favor, called in at a time and place of my choosing. That is my payment, and I’ll give you some information that might help you.”

“What? No, that’s—”

“Fine,” I say, cutting Roscoe off. I don’t look at him, already knowing that he’s going to be mad as hell.

But we’re not going to get something for nothing here. It’s not like Dante has any goodwill to spare and we need information, or this entire night will have been a waste of time.

Dante smiles again. “Then we have a deal.”

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