Cursed with Life and Death

Crave

It’s eerily quiet in the limo.

No one really wants to rehash what we just spoke about.. but it’s hard to move past it.

Am I being rash in thinking it’s a bad idea to look into resurrections?? I mean, I have technically died twice and I’m still here?

I shake my head. Now’s not the time for this - we’re in a limo, pretty drunk and I still have a bet to win.

I pull out my phone to review the tentative itinerary. There’s a club lined up called Crave that has a red dot next to it, meaning I should go and negotiate a grant or whatever it’s called with them. I click the button to talk to the driver and let them know to take us there first.

Vi looks at me.

“What? No offence but it feels like we have to loosen up a bit before we hit a s*x club. Plus I have some business to do.” I qualify. “Can someone put some music on?”

Thankfully Katie takes DJ and we start to relax by the time we pull up to the club. There’s a huge line so I take a breath and muster up the confidence I need to do this.

I strut up to the front of the line with my head held high and look at the bouncer.

“I’m Jade Williams, I believe you’re expecting me.” I glance away.

He looks down and hops off his stool immediately opening the rope for us. “Mrs. Williams, of course right this way.”

I don’t bother correcting him as the line protests at the 6 of us walking right in.

“Mrs. Williams! Wonderful to meet you! I’m Ashley, the owner of Crave. I can’t say how thrilled I am to be meeting you after working with Mr. Williams for so many years.” A slender woman with short brown hair says as she approaches me. She extends her hand to me.

I shake her hand and eye her. She’s pretty attractive. The unwelcomed thought of her and Travis having history pops up. I nod at her.

“I’d appreciate just a moment of your time, in private of course.” She says eyeing my friends. We’re blocking the entrance a bit.

“Naturally. Do you have a table prepared for my guests while we discuss?” I ask, a bit colder than I need to be.

“Yes, Amber here can show them to your table.”

“Please have a bottle of tequila, some water and two bottles of champagne delivered immediately.” I say to Amber, feeling the thrill of playing my part and nailing this exchange.

“Any champagne?” She squeaks.

“Dom please” Vi jumps in.

I nod at Amber. The rest start to follow her but Xander eyes me with an impressed smile on his face.

*I should only be a few minutes. Try to keep them out of trouble.* I reassure him. He looks at them and chuckles, both of us knowing that’s an impossible feat.

“Right this way.” I follow Ashley upstairs and into a soundproofed office that overlooks the club. She introduces me to two men whose names I forget immediately.

They offer me some fancy scotch and I take it out of politeness, sipping it occasionally.

They hand me a full printed presentation of club projections and financial statements and launch into what I’m sure would be a riveting financial summary. I can’t believe people still use paper for sh*t like this? What a waste.

I cut them off almost immediately.

“Listen you’ll have to excuse my bluntness but I have no interest in reviewing your hopefully profitable business case right now. Can you just cut to the chase? I assume you want to renew the terms you had agreed with Mr Williams?”

“Essentially. We had actually expected to meet with him and not you or we would have tailored the discussion to be more suitable for someone who wasn’t aware of the current arrangement.” Ashley says, obviously annoyed to be dealing with me instead of Travis.

“Yes, well, I don’t think he expected to die before getting to meet with you either.” I say cooly. “How much did he give you last year?”

“I had no idea.. I’m so sorry Mrs. Williams.” Ashley says shocked.

“It’s Ms.” I snap. “How much?”

“$150 thousand” one of the men finally answers. I turn to address him.

“And I assume you want to increase the amount this year? Some expansion or something critical I'm sure.” I keep with the blunt questioning.

“Yes we were hoping for an additional $50 thousand.” the helpful man replies.

“I assume I’ll be able to frequent your establishment with my friends whenever we’d like on top of any preexisting perks that were negotiated?” I say again glancing back at Ashley.

“Of course. Any time you’d like your table and of course your room will be available.” Ashley reassures me.

I pause. He has a room reserved at a club? That’s a little sleazy.

I pull out my phone and text Steve.

“I’ll have my associate arrange $225k for you. Please send him the soft copy of these documents for my review. Also for any future meetings I’d like the material in advance, electronically, with a one page summary of the ask before I meet with you in person.” I stand, leaving the document unopened on the desk.

She hops up and shakes my hand again “Of course. Thank you so much Ms. Williams.”

“Don’t mention it. I'd like to return to my evening if you wouldn’t mind.” I say with a small smile to try to not look as b*tchy as I just sounded.

“Of course, right this way, table 11.” She walks me out and points me towards the tables on the far side of the dance floor. My step falters for a nano second at the table number. “So nice to meet you again!”

“The pleasure’s all mine Ashley” I mutter with a slight wave while I walk to the booths with my scotch.

I walk along the row of tables when I see two barely-dressed girls talking to Xander. I growl and watch him hand them each a shot, taking one with them in a three-way cheers.

“Wow if looks could kill.” Someone at the table to my left says. I don’t bother looking at him. I keep glaring at the giggling girls drooling all over my man.

“Hello? Earth to the angry wolf in front of us. Are you going to shift right here??” The voice calls out again. I glance over.. I thought this was a normal human club.

I see three vampires sitting and drinking what I assume is more scotch.

“I’ll be fine. Enjoy your.. drink.” I say to them poignantly.

To my surprise he laughs and jumps up. “Would you like to stay for a glass?” He appears just a little too close to me.

His black eyes match his short black hair and all black suit, a perfect contradiction to his pale skin. “It seems your mate is distracted anyway.” He glances at the women.

I sigh and down the scotch in my glass. I hand the empty glass to him and turn to his table. F*ck it. Maybe catching me drinking with a bunch of vampires is enough to set Xander off his game.

“Thank you.” I take a sip of my refreshed drink and nod. It’s good. Not as good as the Blue Label Vi served me, but still very good. I look at the bottle - Highland Park 18? Never heard of it.

“So who are you? I’ve never seen you around here before.” The guy says and settles down sitting near where I’m standing.

“I’m Jade. Just in town for New Years. And you?”

“I’m Victor, this is Eric and Nikki.”

“Nice to meet you.” I shake their hands and get a look at them.

Eric is almost the opposite of Victor - smaller, with bleach blond hair and lighter eyes. Nikki on the other hand has a unique look to her, tall and lean, accentuated by the romper she’s rocking. She has lots of freckles and her brown curly hair falls in perfect ringlets as it cascades down her back.

“So you all live in New York?” I say not really sure what else I’m supposed to say here. I’m not one for easy small talk.

“We’re nomads.. but we’ve been in New York for a while.” Eric says simply, taking a drink.

“I have to say I’m not normally one for wolves but you really smell delicious.” Victor says, appearing closer than I’d like again trying to smell me again.

“I’m only half,” I say glancing back over to my friends, my unease flaring up at his proximity to me. Xander looks over right on cue, seeing Victor smelling me.

“That must be it. There’s something about you. It’s curious.” He studies me closer. I take a swig of my drink stepping back.

“You don’t need to scare her off Victor,” Nikki says, twirling a ringlet of hair in her fingers.

“My apologies. Would you like to dance, beautiful?” He grins down at me, I hadn’t noticed how tall he was.

“She’s spoken for.” Xander cuts in, not hiding his anger.

“I’m sure she can speak for herself.” Victor remarks, not taking his eyes off me to acknowledge Xander.

“Later, perhaps. Thanks for the drink Victor.”

“Anytime Jade. You know where to find me.” He smiles at me and watches me walk away as I brush past Xander to our table.

“There she is! This is sick Jade! Anytime you need company on your business trips you can count us in!” Jackson calls out, handing me a glass of champagne. I frown at him. Doesn’t he have responsibilities to his pack? How is he out partying with us all the time? I push the thought out of my head. Now’s not the time.

“Here you like scotch, right?” I say handing my drink to Xander and taking the champagne. He polishes it off with one swig.

Vi hands out another round of shots, everyone taking one. I down 2 large glasses of water to help dilute the amount of alcohol coursing through my system.

“Let’s go dance!!” Katie shouts, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the dance floor as Vi refills glasses. I start walking away with her but glance back and see Xander do another shot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drink this much before..

We find a spot near the far side of the floor by a pillar and start dancing.

We laugh and lose ourselves to the music, enjoying some solid best friend time as we enjoy moving.

After a few songs Jackson appears and starts dancing behind Katie, the alcohol causing their hands to start wandering. I smile at how happy they are together, aware that I've never once heard a complaint from her about him.

I peek back over at the table and watch Xander do another shot, not glancing over this way. I shrug and keep dancing, taking a step back from the couple grinding in front of me.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Victor appears close behind me, speaking into my ear so I can hear him over the music.

His hands slide onto my waist. “How about that dance?” He asks but has already started grinding with me.

F*ck it.

I smile and turn into him, wrapping my arms around his neck as I dance against him, answering him with my actions.

He picks me up and spins me, placing me down facing away from him again, staying in step with the beat. I flip my hair and do a body roll against him smiling as I lose myself.

He goes to spin me again but I see it coming and step out of the way slightly, causing him to lose his step. He grins at me.

“You’re holding back,” his face appears over my shoulder as he falls back in step dancing behind me.

“Maybe. Wouldn’t you like to know?” I muse back to him.

He brushes my hair away from my neck. “I would very much,” he smells me again, his mouth getting dangerously close to my marking. I quickly - maybe too quickly - spin back facing towards him, continuing to dance in a slightly less vulnerable position.

“What are you?” he whispers with a curious grin.

He tilts his head and brings his hand to my face, his eyes glancing down to my lips, an involuntary sign that he’s thinking about kissing me.

I feel two hands on my hips yank me back, causing me to lose my balance. I crash against a hard body as I feel the familiar overwhelming charge I get from being near Xander.

I turn my head to get a look at him, but he takes my mouth, kissing me aggressively as he starts grinding against me.

Holy sh*t.. He’s never danced with me before..

Xander dances like he f*cks - deliberately with complete attention and skill in how he works my body. His hands are wild as they stroke across me, fingers digging into my skin teasing me while his hips circle with mine, driving our pace.

He breaks the kiss for a moment. “Don’t forget your mine.” He growls, his possessive nature makes him seem almost feral.

“Right like you forgot about me when some giggly girls were hitting you up for shots?” My jealousy flares up from earlier.

“There’s a difference between a drink and a kiss,” he says and brushes his lips against my mark spot, making my jolt a little.

He spins me to face him and takes my mouth again in such a rough way I moan a little. I lose everything else but him as he basically dry f*cks me on the dance floor. The way he’s grinding against me has me building again, quickly, not even noticing the noises I’m making.

He pushes me up against the pillar behind me, the cold wall on my back locking me in place as we keep grinding together. He kisses down my neck and slides his hands up my legs, pulling my hips against him harder.

“No one gets you like this but me, Jade.” He snaps one of my garters and takes my mouth again, pushing against me and making me jump a little.

“Xander I’m-“ I break the kiss and start to pant out that I’m getting close but we’re interrupted by the mostly silent gentleman from my meeting with Ashley clearing his throat.

We jump apart.

“Excuse me, Ms. Williams? I’d be happy to show you to your room.” he says.

“That’s alright. Thank you,” I breathe, eyes still blazing into Xander as I try to calm myself with some breaths.

“Really I insist.” He says again. I turn to look at him.

“Thank you, but we’re good.” I insist again, annoyed that he’s still here.

“Then I will have to ask you and your guest to control yourselves while on the dance floor.” He stares at Xander. “I’m certainly not going to escort her out but if you continue like this, we will require you to move to your room, or he will have to leave.”

I burst out laughing.

I f*cking won.