Yeah. I had his attention. And I intended to keep it.

Aric leaned on the bar with his forearms. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he muttered.

I took another sip of my martini. “Playing a role,” I said, watching Dilip leave his women behind and move in my direction.

“And what role is that?” Aric asked under his breath. “A high-end prostitute?” He swore when I didn’t answer. “This was the vamps’ MO?”

“It’s what Dilip likes. How else do you expect me to get close to him?” I growled under my breath.

Aric mumbled something in wolf.

Martin appeared to my left. Bren, finally snapping out of his “Emme daze,” managed to pour him a glass of scotch and pass it to him. Martin tossed it back like water. “This is a perfect example of why we don’t permit mates together on missions,” he said. “Aric, stand down and allow Celia to do what she must.”

Dilip appeared then, his plain cotton shirt open to expose his curly chest hair. My eyes scanned his pants, looking for a bulge. The only one I found was right behind his zipper. Damnit. Where was his damn phone?

Martin stepped in front of him and offered him his hand. “Mr. Singh, I’m Isaac Blake.” He motioned to me. “I see you’ve taken an interest in my lovely Thea.”

I smiled at him and ran my hand along the plunging neckline of my dress.

“How much?” he asked, without bothering to look at Martin or take his hand.

Aric snarled, gripping the edge of the bar. That was my cue to walk away from him and toward Martin and Dilip. Martin was discussing my services. Apparently I didn’t come cheap.

Dilip was only an inch taller than me. He licked his lips, his attention fixed on my breasts. “You Thea?” he finally asked, looking up.

“Tell him you can be anyone he wants,” Agnes said.

“I can be anyone you want,” I repeated in a purr.

Aric stepped in front of me when Dilip reached his hand out toward my chest.

“Who’s this?” Dilip asked, laughing.

The wolf who’ll kill you if you touch me, I obviously didn’t say. I slowly inched around Aric, trying to snag Dilip’s attention. “Um. My brother, Billy.”

“Your brother?” Agnes asked in my ear.

“Your brother?” Dilip repeated, laughing harder.

There was something odd in his laugh—contrived and unnatural—and I could sense the mounting hysteria in it.

He punched Aric affectionately in the arm. “How’s it going, Billy?”

“I’m going to rip your heart out and eat it,” Billy answered.

I clasped Dilip’s hand, leading him away. “Billy’s protective. He knows I want you. Now tell me, what do you want?”

Dilip laughed again. “I want to drink champagne as it drips from your breasts.” He reached behind him as we continued to walk and pulled out a…huge plastic bottle of Sprite.

He dropped it as if it burned, releasing my hand and whipping around. It didn’t take a genius to know Shah had heard him, and that he had begun to mess with Dilip.

I forced a laugh. “Wow. Great trick. What else can you pull out of your pants?”

I almost gagged at my own damn question. Dilip’s eyes widened and he jumped, reaching into his pants and pulling out a carrot, then a cucumber, and an eggplant. Each rolled away into the crowd gathering around us.

There was a way I could use this to my advantage. But I couldn’t think of anything then. Produce-producing pants had that effect on me.

I ignored the zucchini and banana he pulled out next. “Should we get a drink?” I asked.

Dilip slapped his hands over his ears and scrunched his lids. “No.”

“Celia, get him to focus on you,” Agnes insisted. “You need him to focus on you before Shah makes it rain cantaloupes!”

I reached for Dilip’s arm, only to have him wrench away from me. He spun in circles, yelling hysterically, “No. No. No. I own you. I fucking own you, you little bitch!”

He wasn’t talking to me. As I watched, the bulge in his pants widened and squirmed. Something alive had taken up residence there. Whatever it was scurried beneath the fabric and raced down the legs of his slacks.

“No!” he screamed.

In my brief time belonging to the supernatural world, I’d seen a lot of crazy things. Ferrets spilling from some nerd’s pants weren’t among them.

My feet left the floor as Aric lifted me into his arms. Ferrets by the dozens raced out of Dilip’s slacks, their fangs and claws tearing through the fabric. Aric knew if one of these little critters touched me I’d fall into a seizure and unwittingly change. He meant to protect me, but his actions worked against us.

The clubbers screamed, shoving at one another to race to the exits. Members of the Alliance stormed in, trying to make their way forward. But Dilip didn’t notice them, or the ferrets, any longer. He only saw Aric and me. The way Aric held me in his shielding embrace gave away that we were lovers.

Agnes was wrong. Dilip wasn’t a fool. He looked to the sky and yelled, “Shah!”

Lightning crashed within the club. The fog lifted. And the ferrets became something more.

Small curled bodies rose, lengthening in size and bulk, their fur ripping open to reveal reptilian skin beneath. Aric backed away, carefully lowering me and pulling me behind him.

Crocodiles standing on their hindquarters towered over us. They surrounded Dilip, whose crazed brown eyes fixed on us. “Protect me, Shah,” he said. “My enemies have arrived.”

Chapter 11

“Stay with Dilip,” Agnes’s voice buzzed in my ear. She was running, I knew that much. “But don’t attack. Shah won’t turn against you unless you attack.”

Said the vampire not currently facing rows of snapping, sharp-tooth-filled jaws.

“I can’t fight them,” I whispered to Aric. I didn’t want to explain and give too much away. But he seemed to know what I meant.

“You won’t have to,” he promised. “We’ll protect you.”

But who will protect you?

More ferrets-turned-crocs appeared. Shit. There were at least fifty.

Growls and hisses bounced off the walls as werebeasts and vamps spread along the perimeter of the club. Aric motioned me back. The Alliance team had arrived but there didn’t seem to be enough of us to deal with the plethora of creepy and hungry reptiles.