Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [197]
“I enjoyed our walk, Dante.”
“So did I.”
Tess glanced down at her feet, a wistful look on her face.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. I just…I wasn’t expecting anything good to happen tonight. It’s generally not one of my favorite days.”
“Why not?”
She glanced up then, gave a vague shrug of her shoulder. “It’s my birthday.”
He chuckled. “That’s a bad thing?”
“I don’t usually celebrate it. Let’s just say I had a rather dysfunctional upbringing. It’s not a big deal, really.”
Really, it was. Dante wouldn’t have needed any part of a blood bond with Tess to understand that she was still hurting from a very old wound. He wanted to know everything about her pain and its source, his protective instincts firing up at the thought of Tess suffering any kind of unhappiness. But she was already moving away from him, inching toward the path that would lead them up to the street, back to her neighborhood. He reached for her hand, delaying her retreat. He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her there.
“You should have reason to celebrate every day, Tess. Especially this one. I’m glad you let me spend some of it with you.”
She smiled—truly smiled, her eyes glimmering in the soft glow of the park lamps, her luscious mouth spreading into a beautiful, soft arc. Dante couldn’t resist his need to feel her close to him. He tightened his fingers around hers and gently brought her toward him.
He looked down into her beautiful face, half lost to desire for her. “No birthday is complete without a kiss.”
Like a gate slamming down before him, Tess’s expression fell. She froze, then stiffened, pulling away from him. “I don’t like birthday kisses,” she blurted out on a rush of breath. “I just…I think we should call it a night now, Dante.”
“Tess, I’m sorry—”
“I have to go.” She was already moving onto the path. Then she pivoted around and ran off at a quick jog, leaving him standing alone in the park to wonder what the hell had just happened.
CHAPTER Fourteen
Chase drove away from the Order’s estate, itchy with frustration. There would be no patrol for him tonight. All of the warriors were out on solo missions, leaving Chase with several hours of darkness to kill on his own.
The death last night of Camden’s friend still ate at him, making him all the more aware that the clock was ticking fast if he stood any hope of bringing his nephew home in one piece. Chase drove by some of the places Dante had taken him on their patrols of the city, both the known and lesser-known locations where humans and vampires tended to mingle.
He searched the streets and dockyards for Camden, prowling for any sign of him or any of his friends. Several hours into it, he was still coming up empty.
He was parked somewhere in Chinatown, about to head back to the Darkhaven, when he saw two Breed youths and a couple of human females enter an unmarked door up ahead of him. Chase cut the Lexus’s engine and stepped out of the vehicle. As he approached the place where the group had gone, loud music bumped from somewhere down below street level. He opened the door and crept inside.
Down a long, barely lit flight of stairs was another door. This one had a human bouncer stationed outside it, but Chase had no trouble getting past the goth steak-head as he pressed a hundred-dollar bill in the guy’s hand.
Deep, thumping bass filled Chase’s head as he entered the crowded club. Bodies thrashed everywhere he looked, the dancing having overtaken the room in a giant, bobbing mass. He scanned the thick crowd as he waded in farther, blue and red strobe lights blasting his eyes.
He stumbled into a drunken female who’d been dancing with some friends. Chase murmured an apology that she probably couldn’t hear over the din. Belatedly, he realized that his hands were on her tight, round