Free Waiting for Darkness (Blood Martyr) by Fionn Jameson Page A

jacket as his men did the same.
    Oh, God. This was not going how I imagined.
    Kieran ignored the way I tugged at the sleeve of his leather jacket. “Who me? I’m not the fucker straining at the leash,” he said. “But while we’re on the subject of straining….” He snuck a glance at me. “Take your little werewolf girl and get the fuck out of here. Things are going to get a little…messy,” he said quickly and pulled off his leather jacket.
    “ What? You’re fucking kidding me. If you’re fighting, if you’re going to fuck up my club, then the least you could allow me is the fun of doing some of that damage myself.”
    The look on Kieran ’s face was priceless. “You’re not serious.”
    I was serious. Watching Eileen risk death by standing up for me made me realize I had grown weak. I didn’t dislike the person that I’d become—a nicer person. But I’d also turned soft, and that wasn’t good. Nicer wouldn’t kill me, but soft just might do the job. Here was the chance to redeem myself.
    I took the coat from Kieran and turned to Eileen. She stared back at me, a petrified expression on her pretty face.
    “ Go. Go into my office and put everything against the door. Don’t worry about the windows, they’re shatterproof.”
    “ But, but….” Her eyes flickered to Phoenix. “He’s my pack leader. He could kill me for deserting.”
    Kieran butted in. “ You’re welcome in my pack. Any time.”
    Phoenix laughed.
    “You like picking up strays? Well, you can have that one. She was never any good anyways. Wasn’t much good in bed either,” he said.
    Eileen staggered back as if she ’d been struck.
    “ How would you know, Phoenix? I hear you aren’t exactly a Casanova, either,” said Kieran with a smile.
    Phoenix ’s face turned an ugly red.
    “ Go. Eileen, go!” I shoved her toward the general direction of my office on the second floor. After a few faltering steps, she dashed for the stairs, Kieran’s jacket flapping in her slim arms.
    It looked like Phoenix ’s pack was all ready to go, and when I glanced back at Kieran’s men, they stood at the ready, all of them smiling in anticipation of the blood that would be spilled.
    “ You going to be okay? I won’t have to worry about you, will I?” Kieran asked, sounding worried for the first time that night.
    I couldn ’t help but grin.
    It ’d been a long, long time since I fought. Most of my opponents would get knocked out after one blow, so fighting had lost much of its allure. But Phoenix’s men looked so strong. Surely, they could take me on.
    “ I think you should be worried about yourself,” I teased.
    Damn.
    This was going to be a lot of fun.
    And maybe for just a few minutes, I could forget about Jamison.
    I hoped.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER NINE
     
     
     
     
     
    “ No one can answer for his courage when he has never been in danger....”
     
     
     
     
     
    I could smell it.
    I could taste it.
    The almost tangible feeling of expectation hung thick in the air, so thick one could almost choke on it.
    Phoenix sneered and spat on the spic-and-span floor my employees spent an hour polishing every day. I was sort of hoping I ’d be able to polish it back to its original state with his body. “You’re really going to regret butting in pack business, bitch.”
    “ I’d be careful of what I said if I were you. You’re already in deep shit. Do you really think you want to dig any deeper?” Kieran countered.
    Since when did I need a spokesperson to speak on my behalf? But I wasn ’t stupid enough to start an argument. Not with thirty Weres grinning at me twenty feet away.
    A pause lingered as the tracks changed in the DJ booth, and in that instant, ev erything happened, seemingly all at once, like a choreographed dance. I realized then, turning Were could be