Dark Signs

20

T he back room of Dark Signs was cosy, an ancient furnace warmed the room, it rumbled with life from the corner. I gravitated toward it. Vaylen let me go reluctantly but motioned for Navien to join me, like I needed a personal escort everywhere I went.

“Yes, you do, dove. From now on, you will go nowhere without one of us by your side.” Killian responded to my mental note.

Overprotective much?

“Say it out loud, dove.” Killian said, this time laced with warning.

I turned to him and stuck out my tongue, it was childish, I knew, but it got the reaction I wanted from him.

His icy blue eyes glowed, lit from within with his pure, lust-filled anger. He raised a brow at me and started stalking toward where Navien and I were leaning on the furnace.

“Ah!” Vaylen chastised and held out a hand to stop Killian in his tracks. He gripped his upper arm firmly before he slowly moved it down to his hand.

Vaylen placed that hand in Killian's and brought his knuckles to his lips.

“Time for playing and punishing is later, mon coeur.” Vaylen said calmly. His lips closed in a sweet kiss upon the back of Killian's hand .

Killian exhaled deeply and noisily through his nose.

“Be prepared, little dove.” Killian warned before he turned and stalked to the other side of the room, standing beside the door.

Vaylen sat behind a large oak desk, the chair a deep black leather swivelled as he sat.

The top was adorned with a simple small laptop, a leather bound ledger and a pen. The ledger was embossed with a logo. One I had seen before. Two daggers crossed in the centre, haloed by thorns with a single teardrop falling from the middle of the daggers.

I stared at it, confused.

The gears of my memories turned sluggishly.

To the side was a whiskey cabinet that was filled with the most expensive looking bottles I had ever seen.

Crystal cut glasses and a stoppered decanter sat beside Vaylen on a round golden tray, the liquid inside a deep amber.

Vaylen took a glass, unstoppered the decanter and poured a healthy pour. He knocked it back in one gulp, poured another and handed it back to me.

I took it gingerly, swirling it around the glass, releasing all the complex smells from within.

It was filled with dark fruits and butterscotch. I imagined it would be one of the more expensive bottles he owned, based just on the complexity of the flavours alone.

I took a sip, it was warm upon my tongue and burnt down my throat with a welcome pleasantness.

I sighed deeply, it was delicious.

The music from the dance floor beyond the room thumped through the floorboards, drunken squeals and haughty laughter pierced through the music.

“Why are we in the back room of Dark Signs?” I asked aloud.

“We own it, mon amour. ” Vaylen replied.

My mouth gaped open, “But this is the bar I helped secure finance for.” I exclaimed.

“We know.” Cairn winked at me from across the room.

“You helped finance our bar takeover, little one.” Vaylen added .

“You're V.B?” I asked, astonished.

“The one and only, Miss Valentine.”

“But how did you…?” I started.

“We were worried when you didn't show your face for months, darling girl.” Navien said softly, settling in closely to my side.

“What do you mean?”

“We were waiting for you to come and find us.” Navien replied.

“I don't…”

“So when you didn't show, we had to take other measures to get you to come to us.” Killian said, cutting me off, his lips tipped up in a wicked smile. “We kept hoping you would figure it out and come looking.”

“What other measures ? ” I asked, my voice rising.

“Sophia.” Cairn shrugged.

“What do you mean ‘ Sophia’? ” I mocked. Why were they talking about my best friend like she was a close acquaintance?

“She works for us.” Vaylen stated, matter-of-factly.

“Sophia works for you? In what capacity?” I asked gruffly. I crossed my arms, my drink long forgotten. “She can't work for you, she works with me!” I exclaimed.

“Yes, she does work for me. She has for quite some time.” Vaylen replied. “She is my… Daytime eyes.” He continued with a smirk.

“Daytime eyes?” I asked stunned, cooking my head in confusion. My mind was running a million different directions trying to connect the dots.

“Monique is also one of ours.” Cairn stated.

“Who the fuck is Monique?” I demanded.

“Monique is that ‘acquaintance’ who just loudly enough brought your attention to Eden's Vices.”

“The fu–” I started.

“Which we also own.” Vaylen tacked on.

“You own Eden's?” I shot back defensively.

“Among other… ventures.” He said with a smirk.

“So, let me get this straight.” I said rising to my feet, I began to pace the room thinking .

“Go on, mon amour .” Vaylen prodded when I didn't continue. “I'd love to hear your theory.”

I thought about it some more, dots slowly connecting themselves in my mind.

“You own all the bars in London?”

“Yes.”

“But you didn't need the funding from Wolf and Hound, it was just to get close to me.”

“Correct.” He nodded with a smirk.

“You have both Sophia and Monique on your payroll?”

“Yes.” Vaylen nodded.

“And Sophia is also one of you? A Vampire?”

“No, love. She isn’t. She is an Incubus.” He replied.

My eyes bulged, for fucksake. How many monsters existed?

I let that thought go for now and continued speaking my thoughts aloud. “And Sophia has been an Incubus for as long as I've known her?”

All the men around me smirked, Killian huffed a laugh. “Yes, dove. She was born an Incubus.”

“She has worked for me for longer than she has worked with you.” Vaylen added.

“Does Dan know?” I asked incredulously. Those two were basically a couple, he should know these things.

Vaylen nodded his head. “He does.”

“Right, and what is Dan?” I replied, the blood draining from my face.

“Dan is human. A very, very satisfied human.” Navien supplied from against the furnace, his eyes tracking my movements.

“Sophia used our services at Eden’s to find a match.” Vaylen said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Right.” I nodded. I'd have to confront her about that.

“Continue, mon petit diable. ” Vaylen said as he brought his glass to his lips and took a healthy sip of his very expensive whiskey.

I did the same, maybe the liquor would help me sort this mess out in my head.

It did not, as I chugged the remainder of the liquid in my glass, my mind went thick and my blood warm.

“So,” I continued pacing. “You conspired with Monique and Sophia to get me to come to your club, Eden's Vices. You set yourselves up as matches for me, just to get into my pants?” I ticked off the evidence on my fingers.

Vaylen rose to his feet quicker than my eyes could track, he had me pinned by the throat against the opposite wall, he lifted me slightly, my toes just reaching the ground.

He settled himself between my thighs, making me wrap my legs around his waist.

“There is more to it than just getting into your pants, mon amour. ” Vaylen growled against my lips. His hips thrust into me roughly. The telltale sign of his hardened cock strained at the seam of his trousers. “Although, I think I could arrange that right now.” He warned.

“What am I missing, then?” I hissed back.

“You have been ours for longer than you know.” Vaylen said with his teeth bared.

“From the first moment you set foot in London three years ago, I found you.”

“What?” I breathed.

“I know everything that goes on in my town, love.” Vaylen whispered against my lips and a slow, teasing thrust of his hips.

“How?” I whispered back.

“I’m very, very old,” He said casually. His hands trailed up the expanse of my very naked thigh.

“You got your job, and not long after you arrived here, so did Sophia.” He said. “I couldn't protect you during the day, so I sent her. She is very, very old and very, very powerful.”

“And at night?” I breathed.

“Your building is protected by wards and cameras.” He replied. “I had them installed not long after you moved in.”

“Wards?” I didn't know how to reply to that.

“Of the magical kind, yes, love. Before you spiral, magic is real, too.” He smirked.

“Oh.” I breathed shallowly.

“The one night you slipped our protection and you got hunted by wolves!” He said, menace lacing his words, his teeth bared at my throat.

I swallowed thickly.

“What happened that night?” I asked, where did you go?

“We came to you earlier that evening because of Sophia.”

“Sophia?”

“She's a scary, scary woman to be on the wrong side of, poppet.” Cairn added.

“Her warning glare down our security cameras told us all we needed to know. We needed to come to you and show ourselves for a little while.”

“Oh.”

“Then Cairn got too close, rules would have been broken, mon amour.”

“Sorry.” I said quietly.

“We thought we had you on the cameras, but you slipped out without us seeing, we couldn't find you.” Navien spoke thickly.

“Never again.” Vaylen said with vehemence and another slow roll of his hips.

I nodded, a small gasp spilling from my lips.

“We grew tired of waiting for you to come to us, darling, so we put a plan in motion to bring you into our world.” Navien said from where he watched us against the wall.

“We needed you, dove. We didn't want to wait any longer.” Killian said casually. But the way he looked at me was anything but casual. His eyes were luminous and hungry.

“You are the most delicious poppet, poppet.” Cairn added. “We were tired of fighting off the boys you distracted yourself with.” He said with a fanged grin.

“But why the games?” I asked on a breath.

“Laws and politics, mon amour. ” Vaylen replied. “But we found a loophole to bring you in, and it worked perfectly.” His grip on my hips tightened.

I blinked up at him.

“Now, we are yours.”

“And I am yours.” I replied.

His lip flicked up on one side in a wicked grin before he brought them roughly against my own in a fiery kiss. He pressed me hard against the wall, his cock hard at my centre as he thrust.

“That you are, mon petit diable. ” He growled against my lips as he withdrew from me.

Vaylen let me down, my legs slightly unstable under my own weight. He stabilised me with a supportive hand against my lower back and led me to his desk. He sat and pulled me onto his lap. The hardness of his cock pressing into my lower back. Navien, Cairn and Killian all gravitated toward us.

Cairn perched himself on the edge of Vaylen's desk, his long legs swinging childishly.

Navien pulled up a chair in front of the desk, he sat, his legs spread apart. He casually rearranged the bulge in his jeans.

I couldn't keep my eyes from straying toward it.

“He likes it when you look, love.” Vaylen whispered against my ear.

I swallowed and nodded, letting my eyes wander.

Navien pulsed his muscles and his cock jumped under my gaze. My mouth watered.

He grinned the most adorable boyish smile, his eyes lighting up with excitement and hunger at my attention.

Killian positioned himself at Vaylen's right shoulder, keeping protective watch over us all. I peeked a look back at him, he winked at me once before crossing his arms and training his eyes upon the office door.

“I still have to talk to Sophia about her involvement in all of this.” I said to no one in particular, thinking my thoughts out loud.

Vaylen chuckled behind me, “I'm sure you will.”

∞∞∞

The rest of the night went by in a flurry of staff problems, and the general issues that arise from running multiple nightclubs. The whole time, Vaylen answered questions with me sitting upon his lap. One arm wrapped protectively around my waist, his hand rested upon the roundness of my stomach, the other ran up and down the length of my thigh, light touches causing me to shiver and squirm on top of him.

A few times Killian and Cairn had to leave the office to break up a fight or remove an unruly patron, and each time they did, they placed a kiss upon my forehead with a promise of returning quickly.

When they did indeed return, the physical signs of relief that crossed their face were heartwarming.

“After the last twenty-four hours, mon amour , none of us want you to be out of our sight for longer than necessary.” Vaylen replied, once more answering my internal thoughts.

“Can all of you do that? Read my thoughts, I mean.” I asked, turning to face Vaylen.

He grinned, “We can, but it's not really a mind-reading thing.” He shrugged. “It's more of a bonded thing.”

“Explain.” I sighed.

“Well,” Vaylen started, turning me around to straddle him so we were face to face. “I can manipulate and interpret thoughts, and because I am bonded to Navien, Killian and Cairn, they can feel what I feel and I can… communicate with them on a certain level through that bond.” Vaylen explained.

I positioned myself comfortably in his lap and draped my arms around his shoulders, running my fingers through his raven tresses.

“And will I have that too?” I asked softly.

“What?” Vaylen asked, eyes wide as he pried me away from him, keeping me at arms length.

“I just thought… never mind.” I replied a little embarrassed that thought even crossed my mind.

“ Mon amour, I would like nothing more, we would like nothing more than for you to be bonded to us. But are you certain that is what you want?”

“Why me?” I asked, feeling a little self conscious and extremely overwhelmed.

“Dove, we have waited for a very long time for the final piece of our puzzle to come along.” Killian said coming closer, he placed his hand upon Vaylen's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

“And here you are, darling.” He added.

I spun my head toward him, his face was still so soft and loving.

“Our missing piece.” Cairn said, coming up behind Navien and wrapping him in a hug, resting his chin upon the top of Navien's head.

“But why?” I asked again in a whisper.

“We don't argue with fate, my love. We knew you were out there. We could feel you, the draw of you to us.” Vaylen drew me in for a hug, breathing in my scent. “There was a reason you so impulsively moved to London, into the very neighbourhood we run.” His voice was a symphony to my ears as I pressed myself closely to his chest.

“The rest of it, we didn’t leave up to fate, we gave it a helping hand.” Cairn grinned, the smile lighting up his eyes.

“All the dark signs led me to you.” I said aloud, echoing my thoughts from earlier.

“All the dark signs, mon amour .” Vaylen said with a kiss to the crown of my head.