The crowd swallowed us whole.

Heat clung to the air, the smell of sweat, perfume, and cheap vodka saturating every breath. Strobe lights fractured the room into flashes, faces, limbs, the glint of wet hair and then darkness again.

Jaxon’s hand didn’t leave me. It slid from my waist to the small of my back, guiding me deeper into the writhing mass of bodies.

“Blend in,” he murmured against my ear, his breath warm enough to cut through the chill the rain had left on my skin. “Make ...