The Vampire's Tainted Mate

Chapter 1: The Vixen Club

Logan stared out at the dancing bodies within the The Vixen Club, moving beneath the straying lights that scanned over the crowd. Each person was so willing to give up some of their life to a vampire. Every human was so trusting that one of them wouldn't take their life, or maybe it was the latter, they wanted the thrill of feeling their life falter. He really didn't understand what made a human consent to such an event, but maybe it depended on their life before they stepped foot in The Vixen. Some humans lack the motivation to keep going and those were the ones that usually poured their souls out onto his bar while he poured them a drink. However, tonight was different than his typical night at the club.

Logan peered up to find a human in tight leather pants and a matching corset with painted onyx lips and charcoal shaded eyes. Her makeup was already a wreck, wearing off in some places and her lipstick was smudged like she had already sampled some of the vampires in here. She was already decently drunk, and he thought about closing her tab for the night and getting her a ride home, but she wasn't his responsibility. Logan didn't know what she was running from, but clearly, she needed whatever they offered there.

His gaze took in the bite marks that littered her skin and he swallowed hard, connecting each bruise like a dotted line, wondering what picture it would create in the end.

“Another," she slurred and leaned on the top of the bar, swaying a bit. “Hey, hey," she tried to draw out Logan's attention and he partially ignored her. “How come no one wants a girl like me, huh? Am I not pretty?" She faltered backwards and held her arms out at her sides. “Am I not good enough?"

“How about some water?" Logan set a glass of water down in front of her and she shoved it away, spilling it all over the bar. He gave up and replaced it with the drink she had previously ordered all night. Same order, a Strawberry Daiquiri. Simple and plain, just like her. Nothing about her made her stand out from the rest. If anything, she blended in with the rest of the sad humans that were busy talking and undulating to the loud music that pumped through the club.

“Water is for the weak…" she drew out the words and scooped up her mixed drink. “Good man. Wanna drink?" She tilted her head to the side, baring her slender, bruised, vein to Logan and giggled. “Of course, you don't. No one wants me."

She mumbled and walked off before Logan could say anything to her. He slid the glass of water towards himself and dumped the rest of it, putting the glass off to the side to be cleaned later. As Logan was drying a martini glass, a sweet scent wafted through the air. A scent that reminded him of flowers in spring and their sweet nectar. A scent that would have left his heart racing in his chest if it were still beating with life. Suddenly, Logan was starving for more and weak in the knees. The alluring scent made heat pool between his thighs and his attention turn to the direction of the heavenly smell. One that Logan couldn't get to leave his mind. It was gorgeous, tantalizing, and delicious. Something so dark and taboo like a vice or a drug. He needed to know who the scent was coming from. He needed to have it. He needed to have her. It wasn't just a want or a need, it was a necessity to survive.

The crowd parted, as if they were a pair of luxurious curtains, to reveal the woman just for him and he was hooked on her. The mere sight of her alone, along with her alluring perfume made him want to die again. Her dark hair shined beneath the lights in the club, and Logan was instantly drawn to her. The way tattoos covered her arms in gorgeous sleeves and the way her right shoulder held a dagger tattoo made his mouth run dry. She was beyond gorgeous, and her warm brown eyes seemed so kind and welcoming. Logan had never seen anything quite like her. He had never seen someone so full of life and vigor. She was like a rose growing out of stark, cracked, concrete. The very essence of being in the middle of chaos.

But it wasn't just how she looked. It wasn't about her beautiful silky dark hair or her warm brown eyes, it was her scent. Her floral sweet smell, weaving and rushing through the throng of patrons, that had Logan reeling and the loud thrum of rushing, pumping, life through her veins. It surrounded him like a thick veil and beckoned him to step closer, making him thirstier than he had ever been. Logan's golden eyes flashed red at the sight of her and he instantly locked on the pulse point in her neck. Her blood rushed through her veins, her chest rose and fell with each breath of oxygen, and her eyes suddenly peered up to lock onto his.

Her body was so small compared to his and he felt like he could break her just by touching her hand. She seemed so fragile compared to Logan and everyone he knew, yet here she was walking through The Vixen like she owned it. He read it in the way she walked with a sway in her hips and a seductive expression on her face. His gaze ran down her body to settle on the golden sickle pendant dangling between her rounded breasts, shining in the lights of the club. A symbol that told him she wasn't here to just drink from his bar but was waiting for someone to partake in her.

A sudden feeling of protectiveness came over Logan and joined the unquenchable thirst. He wanted her, but he couldn't have her. She didn't deserve someone as screwed up as him. Logan's life was too dangerous, and he didn't want to involve her in the type of cartel that his family dealt in. He was afraid of tainting her and making her a part of his world. She didn't belong in the immortal world, where it was full of grey and not full of vivid color like the mortal world. She was too full of life for it. Untouched. He could tell she had never been a donor before, she was fresh to the scene, and he wanted to tell her to leave, but he couldn't.

Logan licked his lips and smirked, showcasing one of his fangs to her. He ran his index finger and thumb along the sides of his full lips and watched her with glowing golden eyes, wondering what else her hips could do. The way they swayed beneath her satin red dress had his brain wandering alone and he instantly wanted to rip it from her body, if she let him. And for the first time in ages, Logan wanted to sink his fangs into a mortal. He wanted to feel her abundance of life rushing into his mouth and feel her energy coursing through his still veins. He wanted to feel like he was living again and not just floating through life, stuck in quicksand while the world around him spun.

Her gaze didn't leave Logan's as she walked up to the bar, eyeing him as if she was interested. Her gaze, skirting every curve and muscle that was peeking out from his black button-down shirt. The way her gaze wandered further to the top of the bar before roaming back up to catch his eye.

'Yeah, I see you.' Logan licked his lips and took himself out of his thoughts the moment he realized what he had said. 'What am I doing?' Logan internally scolded himself and shook his head, busying himself with another order, while she walked up to him and took a seat at the bar on one of the black leather stools that his best friend, Alex had made.

She ran her fingers along the top of the bar and tapped her black nails, one at a time, to grab Logan's attention. His gaze locked on her as he finished up pouring a beer for a gentleman at the bar.

“Hey," Logan walked over to her, setting down a napkin to set a drink on. “You seem to be teeming with life in a place so full of death."

“Excuse me?" She looked at him like he had lost his mind saying something like that.

“Just something about you when you walked in here made me think of a rose growing out of cracked concrete is all," Logan shrugged, whipping a red towel before drying a glass with it.

“Do you say that to all the women that walk up to your bar?" She raised an eyebrow at him as if she was judging him hard for his way with words.

Logan smirked and looked down at the glass, inspecting it and chuckling to himself. “No. Have you seen this place?" He peered up and gestured with the now clean glass. “Most the people in here are either dead or beggin' to die."

She nodded in agreement before opening her mouth, “Are you sure they aren't just learning how to live with what they were given in their lives? Not everyone gets dealt the best cards, ya know? Some have to come to terms with what they have and learn to live with them. If being turned into a vampire or being here to feel a little closer to immortality helps them, who are we to judge."

He froze for a moment, unable to say anything after that other than, “Agree to disagree. Anyway, what can I get you?"

“I don't know… what's good?" She peered up at him with a kind smile.

Logan leaned on the bar with his elbow and a smug expression, “Anything I make is pretty damn good, darling."

“Then make me your best. Or are you all bark and no bite?" she smirked and gave him a challenging expression that could kill him if he let it.

“You got it," Logan winked at her and began to make her a drink that made him think of her.

“Tell me," she rested her chin on her folded hands, watching Logan throw bottles of liquor to make the drink, “do you always try to impress your next prey?"

“Jokes on you, sweetheart, I don't try to impress anyone." He slid her drink to her across the bar with a smirk before wiping my hands on a crimson towel.

“Come on… you don't impress anyone to get better tips?" She teased him as she ran her finger around her glass.

“Nope, no reason to." Logan shrugged and began to wipe down the bar before flinging the towel over his shoulder to lean on the bar.

“I mean, isn't feeding a good enough excuse?" She was trying to pry anything from him.

“Don't need it," he gave her a short answer before getting flagged down by a woman at the other side of the bar. “Be back. Enjoy."

He slid over to take the other order, keeping his peripheral on the lively girl at the other end that he had left behind. “Hey, sugar, what would you like?"

“Two beers," the woman called over the bumping music.

Logan nodded and grabbed two beers, flipping them and cracking them open fast with the edge of the bar before sliding them to her. “Tabs open."

He rushed back over to the girl that he was more interested in. The one who smelled of spring and the one that he didn't want to wreck. “How is it? Everything you imagined?"

“I don't know... could be better..." she teased with a smug expression.

“Ouch," Logan touched his chest and laughed, “you really know how to hurt a man."

“Nah, I think you'll live." She leaned closer with a wink, “Even when you're surrounded by death."

“I'm not kidding. Open your eyes, honey." Logan tapped the bar with the bottle opener before rushing off to get another person a drink.

He kept his gaze on her from time to time, yet always keeping his ears out to hear everything from her breathing to her subtle giggles at something he did.

“Two hundred for the night," Logan called out to a customer who was closing their tab. He took their card and slid it through the card reader before returning it with their receipt. He noticed her drink was empty and made his way back over to the girl. “Another?" He swiped up her glass.

“Why not!" She giggled and watched him try harder to put some flare into making it. She shook her head, wondering why he told her he didn't impress everyone yet was trying to impress her. “You know… I'm not easily impressed."

“Who's impressing you? I'll murder him," Logan set a glass down and poured her drink into it before sliding it over for her. “I'm Logan."

“Gwen." She put her hand out to shake his.

He dried his hands on the towel tucked into his back pocket and shook her hand, “Is that short for something?"

“Gwendolyn but no one calls me that," Gwen shook her head like she didn't like it.

“Why not? I like Gwendolyn," Logan smiled at her, showing off one of his sharp fangs.

“You might be one of the few that do," she raised her eyebrows and lowered them, peering into her glass.

“Too bad," Logan smirked and watched her shrug.

“I should go sit at a booth. I'll see you around," Gwen awkwardly stood up with her drink and napkin.

“See ya," he watched her leave and wondered how long it would be until she walked back up there to close her tab or order another drink from him.