Chapter 10: Chapter 10

After learning of his mother’s tragic demise, Jazzy stayed quiet for a while, filling himself with guilt for not being there for her. Élancé could see the red in his eyes, cindering, heated from holding back the tears that wanted to pour.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Élancé said softly. She was still feeling the ringing in her head, and she had a feeling she wouldn’t be conscious for much longer, but she held on. Apart from her unconscious father, Jazzy was all she had now, and she wasn’t going to let him use his own guilt to open himself up. “Jazz, it’s not your fault. None of it is your fault. You have to believe that.”

Jazzy said nothing. He just leaned on the wall, quiet, chewing his teeth and clenching his fist. He wanted to punch something. Or someone. He wanted to flip a table or pick up a chair and whip it on the floor until there was nothing left but small splinters too small to make a good fire. But he held on. He felt the craving to get a drink. Perhaps alcohol would press his grief down into his stomach where it would never come back up again.

“Jazz…” Élancé said softly. Looking at Jazzy and the way he was feeling, she started to get back the feeling of incompetence. It crept up her bones and threatened to sneak into her very core. But she couldn’t let it. Her dead men didn’t need her tears. They needed her vengeance. They needed her to find out who was behind the attack and make them pay.

Jazzy couldn’t take it anymore. He gave into his craving. He knew it would be a much better way to cope with what it was he was feeling. He walked hastily to the door. Élancé didn’t say anything to him as she saw him walking to the door. She knew he needed to be alone. She felt the sudden urge to lay back down. So this time, she listened to her body.

Jazzy left the room and walked outside to his car. He got in and drove out of the compound with a heart full of loss. He sped on the asphalt for some minutes until he saw neon lights to his right.

Good, he thought. I’ll need some music to drown out everything. So he pulled over and got out of the car.

“Goddamn rogues! Away with you! You drink up the whole bar but never have enough to pay!”

Jazzy notices the woman behind the counter yelling at the two werewolves that walked past him.

He walked up to the bar and took a seat.

“Tap beer,” he ordered, not looking at the bartender.

“Bad day, handsome?” Mojo asked Jazzy seductively. She could smell Élancé on Jazzy and she instantly knew this was a great opportunity.

Jazzy looked up to the woman who was before him. She looked even more attractive than she had when he saw her from the door. She had on a strapless leather top which revealed the lower part of her stomach. A thought crossed Jazzy’s mind: he would love to see the rest of that body.

“Now you know that face is too pretty to be wearing a frown.” Mojo came closer and gave Jazzy his tap beer, but let her eye linger on his to capture his attention. Then, she flipped a napkin over her shoulders and walked to the end of the bar. Jazzy’s eyes followed her curves which ran down the side of her hips to the tight skirt which stopped at the beginning of her full thighs.

“You shouldn’t stare,” Mojo said without turning.

Jazzy took a sip of his beer.

“You shouldn’t be this gorgeous,” he said with a commanding tone. He was loving the distraction but even more, he was loving the feeling of blood rushing between his legs.

“Keep staring at me like that, I can’t promise to keep putting on the whole good girl act,” Mojo said as she mixed a martini for another customer. She started wiping the bar from the other end, coming down to Jazzy’s end.

“Good,” Jazzy said, “I was wondering when the real you was going to show herself.”

Mojo smiled, then looked into Jazzy’s eyes. Jazzy noticed her black lipstick and the light of the room on her skin made him desire her even more. There was something about her voice that made every muscle in his body want to have her.

“You don’t waste your words, do you?” Mojo asked when she got to Jazzy. She kept her gaze with him even when another customer was calling. This made Jazzy feel more heated. The blood rushed to his groin more rapidly.

“I don’t need to.”

“I wish I could listen to whatever it is that’s bothering you, handsome. Not enough time for that,” Mojo said, as she ran her eyes down to Jazzy’s lips, then to his neck and to the divide of his chest, “But I can take your mind off it. Unless of course, staring at me is enough for you. Then I don’t mind being the thing that makes you get off.”

She tried to walk away, but Jazzy grabbed her by her arm. She could feel the strength of a werewolf clutching her tightly. There was lust in Jazzy’s eyes and he was neither afraid nor ashamed to show it.

“Come on, man!” One of the men called out to Jazzy to let her go, but Jazzy wouldn’t break eye contact with Mojo.

“What time do you get off?” Jazzy asked.

“Not for two hours. But it’s about time I took a smoke break.” Mojo answered.

Jazzy emptied the remainder of his beer into his mouth and dropped the glass on the table.

“Shandra! Cover for me. I’m taking a smoke break!”

Mojo called out to one of the waitresses who did as she was told.

Mojo followed Jazzy out to the parking lot, excited that she had spun him into her web. When they got to Jazzy’s car, she pushed him hard against the door, confident that his body could take it, then she pressed a deep kiss into his mouth. From there, they fiddled with each other’s clothes and flicked the back door open. Jazzy got in first, then Mojo got in after him, raising her skirt above her curved hips. She slid him inside her and from then onwards, Jazzy was glad he had stopped at the bar. She really was the distraction he needed.

“My smoke break’s over,” Mojo said through her panting after some minutes. She hadn’t expected Jazzy to feel that good. She arranged her hair with the rear view mirror and applied fresh lipstick, then she smacked her lips a couple times. Jazzy watched Mojo, intoxicated by everything that she was.

“Wait,” Jazzy said as Mojo reached for the door. “When am I seeing you again?”

Mojo waited for a bit, allowing the suspense to settle in. “We’ll see, handsome. We’ll see.”

And with that she left Jazzy hungry for more, thirsty for all of her. Jazzy ran his hands over his face and through his short brown hair. He could smell Mojo in his car. He wondered if her scent was ever going to fade. He wondered if he ever wanted it to.

He fixed his trousers and slipped into the front seat, remembering that he hadn’t gotten her name. He smiled. He thought that he should have watched Mojo walk back. But then again, he wasn’t sure he would have let her go if he did. He twisted the key in the ignition and the engine sputtered for some seconds before igniting.

Jazzy turned the car around. As he drove back to Austin’s mansion, he felt something twist and knot up his stomach. He did not like Austin and there was no way he was going to hide it. On the other hand, he knew how much he needed Élancé and how much Élancé needed him. Especially at that moment. His mother came to his mind again. The last time he spoke to her on the phone, he had hurriedly hung up because he was busy with something else. Now, he wished he stayed for a bit longer.

He convinced himself that the only thing that was going to seal that bond was the blood of the one who was behind the attack.

Blood for blood, he thought, as he caught sight of Austin’s mansion in the dark hours of the morning. He needed to let Élancé know that she wasn’t alone. But first things first. He couldn’t stay in Austin’s mansion.