“I’m not sure. It was already getting heated when Eli and I got down here.”
Another of La Notte’s fighters, a blond, long-haired Breed male named Syn, met Nathan’s hot glare from nearby as the din ratcheted up even higher among the spectators gathered in the arena. “Better rein in your baby warrior before Rune leaves him in bloodied shreds.”
“What’s Rune’s problem with Aric tonight?”
Syn smirked. “Rune’s problem?” He shook his head. “Rune was minding his own business, just taking a breather and enjoying some refreshment before tonight’s first match.”
The way Syn leaned on the word refreshment told Nathan that when Aric found him, Rune was likely feeding from one of the paid human blood Hosts employed by Cass to serve his fighters and VIP clientele.
“Your boy started talking shit,” Syn went on. “Started telling Rune the Order had its eye on him. That he’d better watch his step or he was gonna get ashed.”
Holy hell. Nathan acknowledged that this confrontation probably shouldn’t surprise him, but Aric’s personal dislike of the brutal cage fighter had nothing to do with Order business.
Not yet, anyway. If Aric and Carys’s father, Sterling Chase, ever found out his daughter had taken up with an unapologetic underworld player like Rune, Nathan had no doubt the Order as a whole would definitely have something to say about it.
Nathan, Rafe, and Jax pushed through the jeering crowd just in time to see Aric lunge past Elijah to grab hold of Rune. Aric body-slammed the big fighter into the nearby cage, fangs bared and eyes aglow with fury. He threw a couple of wild punches, each deftly avoided by Rune. Aric’s anger opened him wide for a punishing blow.
Rune didn’t hit back. He was glaring lethally, his savage face twisted in rage. But under his shaggy mane of dark brown hair, the undefeated fighter with more kills to his name than any other before him stayed his hand.
Nathan shoved past the onlookers so he and Rafe could peel Aric off Rune. No easy feat, that. Although just twenty years old, Aric was Gen One like Nathan. He was strong as hell and deadly powerful, especially now, when his whole body was electric with animosity toward his sister’s unsavory lover.
“What the fuck, man?” Rafe shouted at his friend. “You lost your mind, Aric? What are you doing down here?”
Aric continued to glower at Rune. He jabbed his finger at the deceptively cool fighter. “You keep to your own. Stay away from her. She’s better than this, better than you.”
Now Rune’s lips twisted slowly, into an ironic smile. “I tell her that all the time. She seems to think otherwise.”
As Rune spoke, one of La Notte’s blood Hosts sauntered over to drape her nearly naked body around him. She took Rune’s earlobe between her teeth, whispering something against his dark, stubble-shadowed cheek. Rune gave her thong-strung behind a meaningful swat and told her to wait for him in one of the nearby booths.
Aric went apeshit. Snarling and seething, he struggled to break loose of his comrade’s hold.
Nathan shot a hard look at Rafe. “Let’s get him out of here.”
“A wise move,” Syn agreed, as Nathan and his crew wrestled Aric away from the cages and out of Rune’s reach.
They hustled the furious vampire out of the club and back onto the street outside. He tried to lunge for the door, but Nathan and Rafe blocked him. He shook them off and rocked back on his bootheels.
“She has to know this can’t go on. Carys has to understand that asshole is beneath her. I can’t stand by and let her get hurt by gutter filth like Rune.” Aric cursed, low and savage. “Goddamn it, I won’t stand by.”
Then he bolted. Not for the club again, but out into the street.
“Shit,” Rafe muttered, raking a hand over his head. He glanced over at Nathan. “You know where he’s going.”
The museum reception. Nathan didn’t have to guess. But he hated like hell to acknowledge it. No more than he hated to acknowledge that he and his patrol squad were going to have to abandon tonight’s search for Cassian Gray and instead go after one of their own.
One of their own who was about to earn the wrath of his beloved sister, if Aric followed through on his threat to see Carys and Rune separated.
And going after Aric meant coming face-to-face with something else Nathan would rather avoid, especially under these circumstances.
Jordana Gates.
The beautiful, Darkhaven-raised female he’d been trying to bar from his thoughts for the past week—ever since she’d pressed her mouth against his in an entirely unexpected, totally unforgettable kiss. A kiss that had unsettled him and, yes, enraged him.
Disturbed him on a level he was still struggling to comprehend.
“The art museum’s on Huntington Avenue,” Rafe said beside him.
Nathan’s reply was short, almost a growl. “I know where it is.”