Listening to the roaring silence coming from the empty house, Michael closed the door. He missed having Kane, Damon and Alicia living here with him. He’d lived alone for so long before that… he hadn't realized just how lonely he truly was.
With a heavy sigh, Michael walked away from the house and decided he needed to get to Moon Dance as quickly as he could. For some reason, he just didn’t want to be alone tonight.
The first thing he saw when he entered the club was Kat and Quinn standing against the railing looking down onto the dance floor. He tilted his head to the side, the edges of a smile pulling at his lips.
“What’s going on?” Michael asked when he saw what Kat and Quinn were looking at.
“Devon’s practicing a new cage dance,” Quinn smirked at him and then grabbed the top of his head when Kat smacked him. “What?” he inquired looking innocently at Kat.
Kat crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him as if he were stupid, “You’re joking… right?”
Michael frowned at the weirdness of the newly mated couple and cocked an eyebrow at what he was seeing. Warren was sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on a five gallon paint bucket and he was staring at the cage with a dejected looking Devon inside. Michael cocked an eyebrow when he noticed that the door to the dance cage had a heavy chain locking it.
“Will you please talk some sense into Warren?” Kat pleaded.
“Don’t you mean talk some sense into Devon?” Quinn corrected then took a quick step back when Kat snapped a glare in his direction.
“Do you really want to fight?” Kat asked then took her own step back when Quinn started toward her.
“Yes,” Quinn’s voice came out in a dark seductive purr.
Michael shook his head when Kat took off up the stairs with Quinn right on her heels. He had to admit Kat was often smarter than her brothers and glanced back down into the pit seeing an almost devious smile on Warren’s face.
Yep, whatever reason Warren had taken Devon prisoner… he was enjoying playing the part of jailer.
Feeling eyes on him, Warren lifted his head and waved at Michael. He reached for the bottle of Heat on the floor beside him and held it up so Michael could see it. “Wanna join me?”
Devon sighed now sitting on the cage floor with his back against the bars. Seeing Michael coming down the steps was all he needed. He thumped his head backwards against the steel making the bars rattle. Between Michael and Warren… he would never hear the end of this.
“Sorry to disappoint you Michael but the show is over,” he hissed.
“What did I miss?” Michael asked rubbing his chin as he stopped beside Warren’s chair.
Warren finally pulled his gaze away from his brooding brother and glanced at Michael who was busy sliding the five gallon bucket across the floor with his foot, “You mean you really don’t know?”
“Know what?” Michael asked only for Warren to laugh and hand him the bottle.
“Hey Devon, why don’t you tell him,” Warren suggested glad Michael didn’t know. This was going to be funny as hell.
“Why don’t you go to hell,” Devon retaliated staring at the wall so he wouldn’t have to look at them. “I’m fine now… let me go to her.”
“Her? You’re keeping him away from Envy?” Michael inquired while taking a seat on the bucket.
Warren looked at Michael and held up one finger… then pointed it at Devon with a mischievous smile. “You can’t go see Envy right now… it’s the middle of the night and she’s probably in bed snuggled up to her Teddy Bear.”
When Devon grabbed his head and started screaming in a tired voice, Michael slowly tipped the bottle up and took a long drink. It was a Trevor pun… he understood that much, but why the theatrics?
Michael felt his healing powers surface and sat the bottle back on the floor… he could feel Devon's pain and didn’t like it. He started toward the cage with every intention of fixing Devon but Warren’s words stopped him.
“He’s alright… leave him be,” Warren nodded when Michael turned to look at him curiously. “Kane has him under a compulsion spell.”
“Kane did this?” Michael asked rubbing his temple. “Isn’t this why you called saying you needed my help?”
Warren shook his head, “Nope, I need something else.”
By the time Warren finished telling him everything, Devon had quieted down to soft groans. “Where have you been for the last couple days not to have already known about this?” Warren asked. “And in case you didn’t know… your cell phone is going straight to voicemail.”
“We’ll talk about that later,” Michael brushed his own problems to the side and once again approached the cage. From the amount of pain coming off Devon, he’d have to say Kat was right in which brother needed his help. And right now… helping Warren meant talking some sense into Devon.
Squatting down beside the cage, Michael gripped the bars and tried the opposite thing that Warren had been trying. “Devon, look at me.”
“I don’t think so,” Devon said quietly. “The last time I looked at one of your kind… this happened.”
“Fine, just listen closely,” Michael said calmly. “I know you… have watched you since the day you were born. You’re hot headed and very passionate about everything you do, but above all you’re honorable. Believe it or not… I understand perfectly. You’ve found your soul mate and you love her with all of that hotheaded passion. It’s because of that passion that Envy fell in love with you. You know that… right?”
Devon remained silent as he listened to Michael's gentle voice then finally gave a slight nod. “She loves both of us though. I’ve known it all along. And now… there’s a baby.”
Michael closed his eyes as a vision of Aurora swam through his mind followed by the image of the demon that claimed to have possession of her. Blinking away his own disturbing thoughts, he refocused on the jaguar.
“I see… in your eyes Trevor is winning. So then… what will you do? Give her back to Trevor?” Michael asked point blank.
“No… but I don’t know how to beat him,” Devon gave voice to his biggest fear.
The caged jaguar made a pained face and Michael knew it wasn’t from a migraine… but a pain far deeper than that. “I’m not sure what you need to do but Kane gave you a huge hint when he put you and Trevor under the compulsion spell. The quickest way for you to lose Envy is to hurt the man she loves… and that goes for the both of you. It’s not about a competition anymore.”
“Then what do I do?” Devon finally looked at him.
“That’s the easy part… you love her exactly like you did before you found out she was pregnant. That is the man that took her away from Trevor in the first place,” Michael said as he snapped the lock on the cage. “Trevor has nothing to do with the way Envy loves you.”
When Devon didn’t make a move to come out of the cage, Michael looked back at Warren and then glanced up the stairs pointedly. The two of them moved away from the cage and back up into the bar area.
Warren stayed quiet until they reached the bar. There were many reasons why he loved Michael and the fact that the vampire had just gotten through to Devon where no one else had didn’t surprise him in the least.
“That’s why I called you. I know I was being cruel to him, but at first I thought it would work. Make him immune… you know,” Warren shrugged.
Michael shook his head and walked behind the bar to grab another bottle of Heat. “You torturing Devon before I got here was probably why he was exhausted enough to finally listen to reason. Don’t get me wrong… he’ll still have his fair share of migraines from random thoughts before it’s all said and done, but even without Kane’s compulsion, I don’t think he would have followed through with any of those thoughts. He loves Envy too much to risk her hating him.”
“Too bad Trevor caught on to that theory first. It made the bear shifter kind of look like the good guy… or at least it didn’t help Devon save face.” Warren pointed out still holding the bottle of Heat he’d brought up from the dance pit.
“About that,” Michael made a face knowing there was no such thing as a bear shifter. He rubbed his hand over his eyes remembering the bar was probably bugged by PIT and not a good place to be telling secrets. “I think it’s safe to leave Devon alone for a while. Let’s say we take a drive.”
Warren pulled two sets of keys out of his pocket, tossing one to Michael. “I bought a couple things this morning that you might find enticing,” Warren hinted with an intriguing smirk.
Michael followed him into the private garage attached to the extended building and smiled when he saw the sleek black motorcycles parked beside Warren's jaguar.
“You do know what I like,” Michael said and approached the vehicles.
“Where to?” Warren asked.
Michael started to say his house, but changed his mind associating the place with the loneliness he’d felt earlier. “Let’s go to Love Bites. At least I know that place isn’t bugged by PIT.”
“Must be important if you want to keep it from them,” Warren said.
Michael nodded and took up his helmet, “Trust me… it’s very important.”
“Race you,” Warren taunted as he put his helmet on.
Michael smirked, “Yeah right, you’ll be eating my dust.”
Chapter 5
A loud sound woke Aurora. She sat upright forgetting where she was for a moment. The sound abruptly silenced and she slid from the blankets to investigate. She crawled across the rooftop to the huge sanctuary sign and stood up behind the red lettering.
Peeking around the edge of one of the letters, she saw two men parking a pair of two wheeled machines close to the doors. She’d seen humans riding these contraptions around the city and they traveled very fast. It made her question how they kept from killing themselves on them. Humans were fragile creatures and it was usually the brave ones that figured that out first.
She tilted her head to the side curious when she heard male laughter and watched as they reached up to remove the odd looking helmets.
Michael and Warren took off their helmets and grabbed their private bottles of heat from the saddlebags before walking toward the building.
“I won that one,” Michael said.
“You did not,” Warren shot back. “I had you by at least two inches.”
Michael chuckled, “In your dreams.”
Aurora swung around and flattened herself against the back of the sign before sliding to the hard rooftop. Her heart was beating a hard and fast tempo in her chest to the point that it was almost painful. Thank god he was still alive… it looked like the fight with Samuel hadn't fazed him at all. But, what was he doing here? Had he somehow found her?
Her mind flashed back to the man the woman had called Kane… his eyes had been the same strange color as her lovers’. Was this the home and family of the man from the subway?
Her first instinct told her to run and she almost took that step but curiosity made her stay where she was. She didn’t think she’d ever see him again in a place this size with so many souls in it. Yet she’d ironically found him in the one place Samuel couldn’t reach her… it was almost funny.
Michael opened the front door and walked in with Warren directly behind him. Warren stopped to take in the interior and nodded his approval.
“So, is this were you’ve been for the last couple days?” Warren asked.
“No,” Michael shook his head, “long story short… I made love to a stranger in the subways, was attacked by a jealous demon, and then murdered by my father.” He winked at the horrified look on Warren’s face. “But enough about me, I brought you here so we could talk about Trevor without risking the chance that he’s actually listening.”
Kane had come out of his room when he heard the unmistakable sound of a pair of motorcycles outside. He entered the bar area just in time to hear Michael confess part of what happened the other night.
“You made love to a stranger in the subway?” Kane asked stepping up behind them, making Warren flinch. When Michael looked over his shoulder at him, Kane shrugged, “What? I could feel you coming seeing as how my blood is inside you right now… plus you know I could never resist the hum of a motorcycle.”
“How did your blood get inside Michael?” Tabatha asked making the boys turn toward her.
“Found him dead yesterday love… had to do something to help him heal,” Kane said bluntly.
“What?” Tabatha and Warren said in unison.
Kane sighed seeing the anger start to rise in Tabatha’s eyes and figured he might as well give it a shot at defending himself, “I told you I was with Michael for a little while.”
“And you conveniently left out the fact that he was dead,” Tabatha insisted as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Nah nah na na nahhhhhh,” Michael teased Kane as he walked on toward the bar that was still set up in the huge room.
“I knew he wouldn’t stay that way,” Kane tried again then admitted just for the hell of it, “even if I did do a few things out of boredom.” He saw Tabatha’s eyes darken more and quickly decided a change of subject was in order. “So Warren, how’s that brother of yours?”
“In need of a bottle of mega-aspirin,” Warren said then caught up with Michael at the bar in the middle of the room. “Why didn’t you call me?”
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