The Dark Side by M. J. Scott

around the disc. It was still warm from Dan’s hand. That made my heart warm a little too.
    “Thanks.” I slipped the button into the pocket of my jacket.
    “Use it,” he said warningly. “For anything that makes you nervous.
Anything
.”
    His eyes slid toward Marco and I fought the urge not to roll mine. Marco was not going to leap on me and try and have his wicked way with me. I didn’t think for a moment he was actually interested in me in that way. His flirtatious manner was, as far as I could tell, part innate, part enjoying tweaking a werewolf’s—Dan’s—tail. Even if I was wrong about it, if Marco did try anything, I was hardly going to just stand there and let him.
    “Perhaps I shall wait for you by the elevator,
cara
,” Marco said diplomatically. “I have my car here.”
    Marco’s limo was better than having to pay a taxi a bonus to take me to a dark club. I nodded and Marco glided away.
    Dan stayed silent, the smell of smoke still rolling around him.
    “I could say something about being hoist on your own petard,” I said sweetly. “But I won’t.”
    Another growl vibrated in his throat and I sighed. “I don’t want to fight, Dan. You’re the one who brought the subject up in front of Marco. I’m taking the protection. You should be happy.”
    “I’m never happy when you’re with vampires,” he said softly, arms folded tightly enough that his biceps strained the fabric of his suit.
    “Even Jase?” I tried to lighten the mood.
    The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “Jase gets a pass. Nobody else.”
    “I know this is hard,” I said. “But we just have to get through it.” I hoped we could get through it. The alternative didn’t bear thinking about. I’d let Dan go once before and it had nearly killed me. I wasn’t sure I could do it again.
    After a moment, Dan uncrossed his arms, rolled his shoulders and nodded. “It will get better.”
    I wanted to believe him. But I couldn’t see how it would unless he forgave me for going to Marco. Which, given the front and center position Marco had just taken in my life, seemed unlikely to happen any time soon. We were going to keep going round and round until one of us broke. I didn’t want it to be me. Despite my doubts, I wasn’t ready to let go of Dan. In fact, I didn’t know if I
could
let go of him, even if I wanted to. So I lied. “Yes.”
    It earned me a proper smile. I couldn’t tell whether it was ‘thanks for trying to make me feel better’ or ‘I believe you.’ I smiled back and reached out to straighten his tie. Or rather, to use my straightening his tie as an excuse to touch him. Things seemed to work better for us when we focused on the physical.
    He bore my girly fussing without comment until I dropped my hands.
    “Finished?” he asked dryly.
    “Hardly.” I grinned up at him, grabbed his tie again and yanked his head down to kiss him goodbye. Screw behaving well in the office, sometimes a girl needs a good pulse-pounding lip-lock to take her mind off all the crap.

Chapter Five
    The trip to Infradark was largely silent. As Marco’s driver wound his way into one of the dodgier areas of town, cold tendrils of anxiety wound their way around my spine, making the skin on the back of my neck crawl.
    Another dark club.
    Too soon. My mind kept flashing back to Esteban and Maelstrom, the memories a confused blur of lust and panic and the smell of blood. The faint scent of vampire that filled the car, like a hint of acid beneath the expensive colognes that both Marco and Jase wore, didn’t help.
    The wolf interpreted that scent as a threat and put my senses on high alert. Even the small warm bump of the panic button in my pocket didn’t relax me, no matter how often I told myself that Esteban wouldn’t be at Infradark.
    The limo headed down a narrow street, then pulled to a halt beneath the one operating streetlight that shed a yellowish pool of light over the entrance to an even narrower alley. The driver’s