Embraced (The Eternal Balance #2)
Jus Accardo
Chapter One
Jax
This sucked.
Bodies grinding against each other on the dance floor. Crowding around the bars. They were even lined up two deep against the walls, several locked at the lips and going at it like crazed f*cking rabbits. The whole club reeked of lust. The orange mist it gave off bled into the air and swirled around like smog, mingling with the always present taint of red. Anger. You couldn’t have one without the other. It made the world go round.
It made my world go round…
I inhaled, taking it all in. Azirak—Azi—the demon royal that had lived inside me my entire life, nibbled at the emotion and rumbled with contentment. That was a demon for you. Always getting off on the dark side of humanity. It needed them to survive. Since we were shacked up in the same space—I was a descendant of Cain, born with a demon fused to my soul—in a twisted way I needed them, too.
A few feet away, a guy let out a yell and threw his bottle of Bud on the ground. It shattered, splattering liquid and glass everywhere as the surrounding crowd scattered and howled with laughter.
Fucking idiots.
The one plus to taking this job as a bouncer at The Viking? It was the perfect way to feed the demon’s need for violence.
“Hey!” The guy heard me, but chose to ignore it, turning back to the girl he was with. Big mistake. I wove through the crowd, itching to introduce him to one—or both—of my fists. The last few nights had been slow. Other than taking harmless crumbs of anger and lust, Azi hadn’t truly fed in over two days. I was starting to feel edgy. Fingers crossed this bastard started something. A good skull cracking would take the edge off. “Knock it the f*ck off,” I demanded, grabbing the back of his shirt and spinning him around to face me.
He immediately threw his hands up in surrender. The whole exchange was hardly worth my trouble.
Much to the demon’s irritation, I let go of the guy and went back to tracking my original prey. He was tall, with dark hair and a stocky build, and had been following the same girl all night long—a small-framed brunette behind the bar on the other side of the club, serving drinks and seeming oblivious to his attention.
After a quick glance over his shoulder, the guy made his move. I started forward as the demon gave an uneasy rumble. Tall-dark-and-stalkery elbowed his way to the bar, leaning in to get the girl’s attention. I had no idea what he’d said, but she looked confused.
“Blow him off, Sammy,” I growled. “Stay behind the f*cking bar.” I was still cutting a path through the crowded club floor. When people didn’t move out of the way fast enough, I started pushing.
The guy waved his arms and pointed to the back of the club. After a minute of this, Sam shook her head and came around to his side of the bar. She called something to the other bartender and followed the guy into the crowd.
“Really?” I spat, willing her to feel my anger through our unwanted—and apparently useless—mental link. Nothing happened. Within seconds Sam’s head disappeared, swallowed by a horde of drunk idiots.
I picked up the pace, roughly shoving away anyone in my path. When I reached the edge of the dance floor, she was just rounding the corner of the basement stairwell. I made it to the door in less than ten steps.
“I dunno what you heard, but I’m not into the whole three-way thing,” I heard Sam say. She forced a laugh. “I’m betting you could find a more than willing participant upstairs, though. Try the bathroom by the door. Lots of weirdos hang out in there.”
I eased the door closed so it didn’t make any noise, then crept down the steps. Sam was at the bottom, by the spare bottles of liquor, and she wasn’t alone. The guy from the bar was in front of her, and to his right was a tall woman with bright red hair. “Your bravado is unimpressive,” she said. “You’re going to come with us.”
“That’s really not gonna happen,” Sam insisted, inching a hair to the left.
Azi flashed a series of images—the demon’s primary means of communication—all involving the brutal beat down of the two intruders. Despite the wave of involuntary contentment at the scenario of massive carnage and snapping bones in my grasp, I tamped the urges down and stepped onto the landing.
“Will you submit to me?” he asked.
“Submit to you?” Sam repeated. There was the smallest warble in her voice. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Give yourself to us willingly. You’ll feel no pain. I promise.” The guy stepped closer, and the moment he reached out to touch her, I propelled myself forward.
Azi roared, a jarring sound that rattled my entire body. The demon didn’t push for control, but stayed close to the surface in case I needed it. I wouldn’t. “I suggest you take the lady’s advice and go find a different playmate.”
The guy glared from Sam to me, then glanced at the red haired woman. She let out a horrible shriek and flung herself at me. As murderous as the urges the demon spurred in me, I refused to hit a woman. Human, at least. But that didn’t stop me from raising my arm to protect myself.
It wasn’t my fault she knocked herself out on my elbow.
“See, Sammy?” I said, straightening. I rolled up the sleeve of my black Viking Security T-shirt and flexed. In the short time I’d been working as a bouncer at Harlow’s one and only nightclub, I’d developed a wicked reputation. “Told you my biceps were dangerous.”