Blue Moon Rising (The Patroness) by Natalie Herzer

watched me for a moment but then accepted the sudden change of subject. “I liked it, yes. But it can’t hurt to try another one.”
    I leaned forward and waved the bartender to us, “Two Biere du Demon, sil vous plait.”
    We sat their drinking some nice European beers, but after a while I remembered the reason for our visit. “So what about the scents? Did you catch anything?”
    He shrugged. “There are too many people, I can’t tell from here. We need to mingle.” He stood, his brown and blue ey es on me, and held out his hand. “Do you want to dance?”
    I shot a glance at the dance floor, pulsing with near naked, titillating bodies and then at Kylian. Hell no. “Why not?” Wait, that wasn’t what I wanted to say, was it?
    What the heck, even the Patroness was allowed to have fun every once in a while, right?
    I took his hand and there it was again. A spark. My skin tingled, where we touched. It was probably just the alcohol playing games with me. Although, come to think of it, this morning after our fight I’d had the same kind of reaction to him. Maybe my skin was just a little more sensitive than usual because of the healing wounds. Yes, that had to be it.
    I hopped off the barstool and followed Kylian to the dance floor. A song ended and a new began. Slow, beating rhythm. A song that whispered of love and moaned with desire. We moved to the music and only this moment existed. I let myself go. Kylian put his hands on my hips, pulling me to him, then he leaned down to inhale my scent. Automatically I tipped my head to the side to give him better access. His breath was warm on my skin, our hips swaying in an age-old rhythm. Butterflies were stirring in my stomach.
    “You murderous bitch! Who do you think you are?”
    Kylian tensed, I came awake out of this heat as if slapped with cold water, and we both looked about the room. The woman I’d seen being rather busy on the table earlier was mowing her way towards us, her furious yellow eyes locked on me.
    When the other shapeshifters stepped back to form a circle around us Kylian moved to stand in front of me. Protecting me.
    “No, let me handle this,” I whispered into his ear and surprisingly, without a word, he stepped aside. I concentrated on her, my right hand itching for my sword but I had to control myself.
    She snarled, “Isn’t it enough for you to kill us, now you have to fuck our men?” Oh boy, the jealous type.
    She stopped right in front of me, our toes nearly touching. Her lips curled back over her fangs and she looked as if she wanted to bite my nose off. I’d like to keep it, though, thank you very much. Breathing’s easier that way.
    “Hmmm, why are you in such a foul mood?  I guess the three-way earlier wasn’t quite as satisfying as you made it out to be.”
    She attacked, rotating her claw-tipped arms like a windmill, trying to get a slice of me. Taking a few steps backwards I moved from side to side, ducking the lethal razors. Knowing there wasn’t much room to fight left with the excited crowd moving in on us at the same time, I pulled my Trident daggers, and heard someone shout. “Weapon!” I blocked her claws; they were long and pointy, so I pulled the concealed blades and clipped some of them.
    Everything was going fine until I was grabbed from behind and went airborne. The last thing I heard was a roar of fury. I flew a few seconds, out the door and landed on the sidewalk on my butt. Ouch. Vin, the bouncer was nowhere to be seen. So I guess, after they’d noticed I was armed, he’d probably come to solve the problem by throwing me out the club – literally. Nice.
    As I was scrambling to my feet and dusting of my jeans, Kylian came strolling out the door and trying very unsuccessfully to hide a grin.
    “You’re banned for life.”
    I looked at him incr edulous. “Me, and what about you?”
    Now his lips curved into a really big grin. “I’m not.”
    “What? Why? You were the one who got me in there in the first