Immortals After Dark 05 - Dark Needs at Nights Edge

heady. I’m like the old Néomi. The one who would roll the dice and laugh in the face of fate. She was going to get “capped,” and she didn’t give a damn!
    “I had to do the bottles,” Mari murmured in answer. “You saw her—she was freaking out.”
    At first the change had been overwhelming. Suddenly thrust into a world of perception, Néomi had stood in her studio, wide-eyed and struggling to adjust to the onslaught of feeling.
    The weight of her body had abruptly pressed down on her feet, against a floor that was impossibly rigid. Her hair had pulled heavily along her back, and shivers had glanced over every inch of her skin.
    It hadn’t seemed to Néomi that she alone was changed, but that the entire world was altered, as if she’d been living in a dim bubble. Her new corporeal self had been shaking with sensation, dizzy with it. She’d patted her face in astonishment and whispered, “M-maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”
    Mari had called what she was feeling hypersensitivity and said she had gone through the same not long ago. It would improve... .
    “And we never would have gotten her to climb into the mirror otherwise,” Mari added. “It was like trying to dunk a cat in acid.”
    Women with small boxes fastened on chokers walked by. “What are they wearing?” Néomi asked, a tad too loudly by the look on Mari’s face. Each box had individual decorations or sayings painted on it.
    “Voice modulators. The Sirenae are being polite,” Mari explained. “If they sing, they could captivate all the unmated males here. Not very sporting.”
    One box read: “Yeah, you’re welcome.” Another read, “Boom! I got your boyfriend.” Néomi laughed with delight. Sirens! Of course!
    A group of elven-looking women strolled by, wearing nothing but gauzy skirts. Their chests were bare except for body paint styled in intricate leafy designs.
    “Goody,” Nïx muttered. “The dendrophiles.”
    “The dendro what?” Néomi said.
    “Tree lovers—the tree nymphs.”
    Their obvious leader said, “Well, if it isn’t Nucking Futs Nïx and the hex hack.”
    “Well, if isn’t the hookers,” Nïx replied blandly. “Oh, I’m sorry, nymphets, this isn’t the orgy—that’s down the road.”
    “Nïxie, every party is an orgy waiting to happen.”
    Nïx opened her mouth, then closed it, dragging Néomi and Mari away. “Well, you can’t argue with reason, can you?”
    And nymphs!
    Almost at once, Néomi’s excitement was tinged by a tug of disappointment. Murdoch had said that nymphs would be in attendance. These startlingly lovely women reminded her that Conrad might have one like them for his Bride.
    Luckily, there were gorgeous males too, and soon Néomi, Nïx, and Mari were surrounded by a number. They were all huge. A couple were even taller than Conrad.
    Néomi felt dwarfed, but they seemed to be making every attempt not to startle her, especially since Nïx had introduced her as “Néomi, the mortal.” Néomi smiled in greeting, while furtively peering around them for a glimpse of the vampire.
    “This is Uilleam and Munro,” Nïx said, indicating a pair of Scottish twins who were roguishly handsome. “We just call them Hot and Hotter, or is it Hotter and Hot?” She shrugged. “They’re Lykae. And here are the demons Cade and Rydstrom, also brothers—the ones I was telling you about.”
    “Nice to meet you, sweet,” Cade said. But he seemed preoccupied, absently rasping the blond stubble over his jawline.
    “It’s a pleasure, Néomi.” Rydstrom gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach his remarkably green eyes.
    The brothers’ features were so alike, and yet their overall appearances were so dissimilar. Their bearings and even their accents differed. She could hear the colonial British in them, but Rydstrom’s sounded more upper-class.
    Rydstrom turned to Nïx. “I’ve been looking for you, Valkyrie.”
    “Oh, why? Did you find the one who seeks him in sleep?”
    “As a matter of fact... ” Rydstrom took her upper arm and guided her to the side.
    “Help, help!” Nïx cried over her shoulder. “I’m being ravished by a demon!” When Néomi started after her—as if she could do something—Nïx mouthed, “I’m really not.”
    “Here’s Bowen!” Mari said. He’d seemed to be following a scent. When he caught sight of Mari, he charged for her, gathering her in his arms.
    After receiving a deep, seeking kiss that had Néomi fanning herself, Mari introduced him. He