The Mate Challenge

19

Once they’d taken Lael into the SUV, Shaari and the other enforcer got back into their SUV and left.

Nic turned to Emma with a sigh. “What now?”

“Want to swing by Embraced?”

Nic’s eyes widened. “You really want to go over there?”

“We aren’t going inside, just looking from the outside to see what we find.”

Nic growled and turned the car on. The engine roared to life and she sped off. “You know, you need to stop that death wish you have. I swear to god I am going to get Barbara to come and talk to you about it.”

Emma grinned. “I don’t have a death wish.”

Nic glanced at her from the driver’s side with a raised brow. “Yes, you do. Everything with you is putting yourself in danger. Like you want to get yourself killed or something.”

Emma’s smile fell from her face. She’d never really stopped to think about things that way. After her family died, she tried to focus on helping others and doing what she could for her friends. There wasn’t much else for her to do.

Nic sighed. “I’m sorry, Emma. I don’t mean it like that.”

But she did. And she was right. “I guess I didn’t realize I put myself in danger that often.”

Nic pursed her lips and made an apologetic face. “Don’t you ever stop and just miss your family?”

God, no! She tried not to. “I’m not good with mourning.”

The car made a sudden stop and Nic turned to Emma. “You’re not still blaming yourself for their deaths, are you?”

Emma glanced away, training her gaze on the dark road ahead of them. “Things could have been so different.”

Nic sucked a breath in. “Yeah! You would be dead too!”

Maybe then she wouldn’t be living with the guilt of knowing her family had died on what was supposed to be a family vacation. A vacation she’d initiated and then pulled out of because she’d gotten angry with her mother.

She wouldn’t debate that with Nic, though. Nicole didn’t understand how hard it was to go home and not be able to call her brother on the phone. To not hear her mother’s laughter. Her father’s advice on how to handle the tough things in life. She was alone in the world and if she stopped to think about it, the pain would eat her from the inside. Instead, she did things. Put herself out there for others. To help. She organized and remembered how her father taught her to make lists and keep everything the way it was supposed to be. Her friends thought she was OCD, but she wasn’t. She did things the way her dad taught her as a way to keep his memory alive in her day to day life.

“Let’s just go and see if we see anything suspicious,” Emma muttered. She didn’t want to open the doors to her pain at that moment. When she was home, alone, and drunk she would. Right now, there was no time for that.

Nic whispered something that sounded very much like ‘hard head’ under her breath and put the car in drive. Emma had researched the location for Embraced. Unlike the Wolfe clubs, it was located in a desolate part of town. An area known for empty warehouses and large distances between houses.

The club, if it could be called that, was in what looked like an abandoned building. There was no signs out front and the only way they knew they’d gotten the right spot was because fangs dripping with blood were spray painted on the metal entrance.

“Looks cozy,” Nic drawled.

“Yeah, top of the line,” Emma wiggled in her seat. “I wonder what it looks like inside.”

“Uh, no. You don’t. Because that would mean you are thinking of getting in there and we do not, I repeat, do not go into vampire territory.” Nic slapped Emma on the arm to get her to stop staring at the entrance and pay attention. “Especially you. Or have you forgotten that you are human?”

“Of course, I didn’t forget,” she whispered when she saw a couple heading for the door.

She watched them look around before the woman tapped her nail on the door. She mouthed something that Emma couldn’t make out and the door flung open.

“Crap,” she mumbled, “Get down!”

She tugged on Nic’s side and both dove their heads under the dashboard.

“Why are we hiding?” Nic whispered.

“Shhh!” She didn’t want them to chance getting caught. Not by vampires.

The bouncer had come out with a flashlight on, lighting the entrance to all the cars in the area. The door slammed closed and Emma peeked up slowly to see if there was anyone outside the club.

“Okay, you can come up.”

Nic frowned and glanced outside the car to see if there were any others headed for the club. “Why were we hiding?”

“That bouncer had a flashlight. When my brother and I used to sneak into illegal clubs, we’d see them do the same thing. Someone would all of a sudden open the door and flash the cars to make sure nobody was out there watching or sitting in their cars.”

Nic curled her lip in distaste. “Didn’t they hear of cameras?”

Emma giggled. “I’m sure they weren’t worrying about security systems when the party would be in a different location the following week. It seems Embraced does it more to catch random passer byers. I wonder if they have trouble with people trying to get in.”

“Why anyone would want to go into a hole filled with undead is beyond me.”

Emma shrugged. “Someone recently told me that she couldn’t understand why I wanted to sleep with a dog.”

Nic blinked. “What did you say?”

“Nothing. What could I say? He hasn’t given me rabies, fleas or ticks, so things are looking up.”

Nic laughed. “You are nuts.”