Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [34]
Then one set of hands was lifted off, and I heard a crash as a flying body hit the side of the cage. The second male let go of me and scrambled away, shouting, “Hey, man, what the Hex are you doing?” before an ugly fist-induced thud cut off his cries.
I got to my knees, using my forearm to wipe the blood off my face. I really, really wanted to curl in a ball and be sick, but the mystery of who had saved me took precedence. I struggled up to stand, hands on knees, and saw a tall male form slamming the second were’s head rhythmically into the mesh, his face becoming pulpier and less recognizable with each hit.
“Hey,” I rasped, inaudible above the crowd, just as happy to root for the stranger as they were the males. “Hey!” I shouted again. The man stopped his beating and turned to face me.
“What? Don’t tell me you’re gonna complain about me saving your lady-cop ass, darlin’.”
I swayed, catching myself on the cage. He was gone. I was dead, and this was a cruel hallucination on my journey to Hell. “Dmitri?”
“One and only,” he said, holding up the other were and hitting him in the gut. The male fell to the cage floor and got sick. “Fuckin’ flea-bitten piece of shit,” Dmitri said, stepping back in disgust.
The other male looked at the two of us, eyes flicking between Dmitri and me as he calculated his odds of remaining alive. I snarled at him. “Take a hike, and pray I don’t decide to come find you.”
He ran. Smart guy, considering the night I’d had so far. Dmitri shook his head, something that may have been a grin flirting with his mouth. “Still the same tough bitch. Can’t say I didn’t miss that.”
My first reaction on seeing Dmitri Sandovsky had been utter shock. My second was righteous fury. I hit him, closed fist. A girly-girl slap would not do justice in the present situation. He stumbled, putting a hand to his jaw.
“Hex it, Luna! What the hell’s the matter with you?”
“You!” I hissed furiously. “You’re what’s the matter! How long have you been back in the city and not told me?”
The club music cut off with a screech and normal fluorescent lights came up. The door to the outside filled with Nocturne City police officers in riot gear. Someone with a bullhorn announced that this was a raid.
Relieved as I was that Shelby had chosen now as the time to actually do something right, it wasn’t enough to stop me from noticing Dmitri trying to sneak out of the cage. I grabbed his arm. “You think we’re finished here, buster?”
His mouth quirked as he turned back to me. “Do you really want to have this conversation in the middle of a sex club, Luna?”
Had a point there—I’d seen enough of Bete Noire to last me several consecutive lifetimes. I got my shoes back on and led him by the arm down the steps and into the hall by the bathrooms as police herded patrons up against the club’s four walls. Samael smiled blandly as a uniformed officer put real handcuffs on him.
Dmitri jerked his arm away once I stopped walking. “Manhandling is decidedly not the way I wanted to be welcomed back.”
“Really!” I snapped, eyes and mouth wide with pretend shock. “Because I was wondering if you wanted my welcome at all. How long have you been back in Nocturne? And don’t lie!” I added as an afterthought.
“Don’t worry, I’m not looking to get punched again,” Dmitri grumbled. “I just got back last night.”
“And of course, the first logical spot you’d go to is a fetish bar,” I agreed. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Hex me, Luna, will you shut your mouth and let me explain?” Dmitri snarled. His deep emerald eyes flared to gold and I was unpleasantly reminded that Dmitri didn’t need a moon to phase—his pack magick let him do it whenever he damn well pleased.
“You’d better explain, and don’t tell me to shut up.”
“It’s a fifteen-hour flight from St. Petersburg. I was jet-lagged, and the apartments above the club are a Redback safe house. So sorry I didn’t immediately inform you of my social calendar.”
His Eastern European accent was stronger, I noticed, more rolling r’s and soft sounds than I’d remembered. He’d lost