2. Vi
vi
. . .
With the help of my phone’s GPS—and the line circling the block to get in—it didn’t take me long to find the club.
For a bustling vampire hotspot, O was extremely missable from the outside. Though I guessed that was the point. Being discreet was one of the club’s major draws, even if it was entirely defeated by the parade of night children shifting impatiently in the chilly night air.
Not that they could feel it, I thought with an internal eye roll at being antsy for the sake of it.
Okay, that wasn’t fair. Vampires could feel temperature differences; they just didn’t produce their own body heat.
The building was nestled only a few streets away from Kaylee’s apartment and The Drip, part of a row of tall buildings with many windows. It looked like the top floors of the club were apartments, the facade made of light, carved stone with darker accents giving it a roaring twenties sort of feel. For all I knew, that’s when it was built. The Lower City was a mishmash of architectural styles built over hundreds of years when the shaders were installed, making it a bit of a grab bag for artistic direction and age of construction.
The effect was, admittedly , charming.
Overhead, a neon sign with the bar’s logo, a pair of cherry red lips puckered into an O that showed an ample amount of fang, hummed with electricity. The image reproduced in bright distortions in the puddles lining the street alongside the reflections of the vampires standing in line.
Yep, no disappearing in mirrors or photographs. Vampire media really did get a lot of things wrong before the blood suckers stepped from the shadows and into the light.
Figuratively, of course.
Not that I was expecting much, since they wanted us to believe there were people out there who turned into monstrous half-human wolves once a month, like some kind of spectral period. For the record, werewolves? Fictional.
…I think.
I caught a glimpse of the stairs leading to the building’s basement, where a red door had been propped open to allow guests inside, tossing the thrum of bass and snatches of familiar lyrics into the night as I approached the bouncer.
There was one definitive perk to being besties with a performer—I was always on the VIP list. No waiting out in the cold in shoes that killed your feet for me!
Not that I’d ever bothered to use that superpower before.
Hey, first time for everything, right?
I stopped short beside the VIP rope, taking in the massive vampire working the door. He glanced over the IDs of a few patrons in the main line, cracking jokes like they were old friends, before turning his rusty stare to me.
“Name?”
“Vi Knox,” I said, rooting around in my criminally small going-out purse—a remnant of my bar star days in college—for my ID and handing it to him.
He gave it a cursory glance before looking at me with a split, silvery eyebrow raised. “You lost, sweetheart?”
“No,” I said flatly, holding out my hand for my ID. “Why would I be lo?—”
“Nick,” a clipped, feminine voice admonished from behind the bouncer as another vampire walked up the steps toward us. She was dressed in all black, her tight long-sleeve top augmented by a series of clips and harnesses clinging to her shoulders and hips. Loose cargo-style pants with many pockets hung off her waist like an afterthought, the effect of her outfit reminding me a bit of a character from the old fighting games Danny and I liked to play at the coin-op arcade by the pier. “Are you scaring away customers again?”
“No, ma’am!” Nick said quickly, moving to hand back my ID with the air of a cat that’d been caught scratching the couch. A bit of an odd dynamic since the guy was so much bigger than the woman that he could look clean over her head without moving his head.
The vampire caught it in her dark fingers, her warm brown eyes looking over the printed information as she brought the plastic card close to her face with a low whistle. “Sure this is you, darling? You’re much prettier than the photo.”
I laughed, my eyes catching on the jewellery woven into her box braids, pulled into a low ponytail that fell over her ochre shoulder.
Beautiful, certainly. At least ten times more attractive than old Nick here. But, given the sharp fangs protruding around her smirk and slightly narrowed eyes, decidedly dangerous.
“You say that to all the girls, I’m sure,” I teased.
Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she handed the ID back to me, soft accent lilting with her barely concealed laugh. “You’d be surprised. Have a good night, Vivienne.”
“It’s Vi,” I corrected, returning the smile. And then, because I’d never claimed to be smart in the face of a gorgeous woman, added, “You should probably remember it if you want to buy me a drink later.”
“ Você é uma gata… difícil de resistir, ” the vampire said in what sounded like a foreign language and she laughed, making little creases appear at the corner of her eyes. “Tell the bartender that Dana sent you for a treat. She’ll take care of that drink for you, Vi .”
Ignoring the way my name on her tongue made my knees wobble and feeling slightly bolder than I had a moment before, I brushed past her and down the short flight of stairs into a sort of landing area with a second door. My fingers hooked into the handle, pulling it open to a wave of music and dim, sultry lights.
Okay, maybe if all my coworkers looked like that , slinging drinks at the vamp bar wouldn’t be the worst thing to ever happen to me.
Inside the next room, what I really could only describe as an antechamber, the carved stone walls reached toward a ceiling painted like some sort of demented cathedral. The mural overhead depicted vampires as angels with fluffy white wings, frolicking in an ambery cloud-filled sky while humans writhed between their bodies. The picture was incredibly erotic, nearly everyone nude save for the covering that each other’s bodies provided. Faces full of ecstasy as fangs pierced tender pink flesh.
A coat check counter stood in the centre of the back wall, draped like an offering table with thick white cloth, and a scantily clad hostess waiting to take my jacket. On either side of the table stood two heavy wooden doors. The door on the left was fixed with a thick brass cross in its centre, while the right was fitted to match, its cross inverted so that it stood upside down.
Salvation and Sin. Quite the aesthetic for a high-class sex dungeon.
Okay, fine. It was cool as fuck. And I was sort of dying to peek behind the inverted cross door and see what really happened in the backrooms. But I was on a mission. Kaylee first, then maybe ?—
“Babe, we’re busy as hell tonight. Are you coming inside?” the coat check girl asked, her tits—pushed up to her chin in her latex corset dress—bouncing with each word.
I cleared my throat and stepped forward to peel off my short, yellow denim jacket, handing it over. “Yeah, sorry.”
Her eyes dipped to take in the tiny black dress dusting along my upper thigh. “Goddamn,” she purred appreciatively as she tucked the coat onto a hanger. “Here to play or just to look? I’m off in a bit.”
I didn’t need to ask what she meant by play ; I knew from Kaylee that the club was full service —meaning I could’ve been on my way inside to trade my blood for a stack of cash, a quick fuck, or damn near anything else—so long as I was interested in letting a vampire suck on my neck.
Dana’s full lips flashed into my mind, sending heat racing up my spine.
Well, maybe I was interested. Vampire bites were supposed to be orgasmic.
Jesus, what the hell is wrong with me? Focus, Vi!
“Look,” I managed to mutter out, the disappointment in my tone matching the look in the coat check girl’s eyes.
“Shame.” A small ticket was handed back to me in place of my jacket, and I popped it into my purse. A red bracelet was slid around my wrist shortly after. “This will keep the hands off then. Door on your left, babes, have fun!”
“Thanks,” I said, and without thinking about it, mostly so I wouldn’t chicken out and go home—or worse, abandon my fall back for a job in favour of a direly needed orgasm—I opened the door on the left.
Lavish sofas upholstered in cream leather and maroon velvet took the place of the wooden chairs that you’d expect in a venue like this. Most of the places that catered to vampires were keen to have furniture that could be easily cleaned in the event of a… mess . Something that O didn’t seem to give a fuck about.
I didn’t even want to think about what their dry cleaning bill looked like.
The tables were adorned with candles, the glow of the room low and soft save for the bright spots from the stage lights. Decadent wallpaper and heavy velvet curtains lined the walls, blending in with the rest of the decor to create a space that felt both sultry and a little forbidden. Somewhere between an old-school speakeasy and the bougiest strip club in hell.
Seductive.
A tasteful neon sign of the top row of a vampire's teeth, cut off at the fangs in shimmering white, hung beside a set of heavy doors with inverted crosses as handles. Glowing red droplets hung from the sign, giving the effect of glossy blood dripping away from the enamel. I didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that through them were the private rooms, the ones that acted as the live blood bar—and just about anything else, if the mood was right.
Vampires and humans alike relaxed at tables, stood in groups, or were tucked into booths. Dancing, drinking, and, for one particularly shameless couple in a booth near the stage, getting well on their way through some foreplay.
On the stage, a pair of dancers were doing a routine together to an upbeat jazz track. The girls transitioned fluidly from standing to lying together on the floor, movements suggestive and erotic. I fought to keep myself on task—I could watch the performances after I spoke to Kaylee and secured my free drink, courtesy of Dana.
If this afternoon had taught me anything, it was that I was in no position to decline a vampire’s generosity.
The floors were shiny, black, and lacking the perfunctory nightclub stickiness as I dodged patrons on my way to the bar.
It was strange. Despite being packed with bodies, the room wasn’t stiflingly hot like I’d come to expect from the human nightclubs in the Upper City. Being sweaty and warm was sort of part of the ambience when it came to dancing. But here? The temperature was downright pleasant.
The bartop lined the entire back wall, offering plenty of places to sit along its polished wooden surface. I grabbed a stool, careful to make sure my ass was covered in the tiny scrap of fabric I dared to call a dress before I perched more than sat to study the bottles lining the shelves overhead. Their collection of liquor was extensive, especially the near fucking ancient scotch they had on hand. I wondered if my Dana-provided freebie would get me a couple of fingers of a hundred-year-old Strigoi Black Label.
A girl could dream.
“Hey,” I called over the music and din of conversation to the tall, short-haired bartender where they faced away from me, pulling liqueurs from the glass shelves. “Could I get a?—”
My voice died in my throat as the bartender turned to face me, my heart juddering to a stop in my chest for a couple of long moments as our eyes met.
“Flat White,” Ren teased with a grin that revealed her pointed fangs. “Fancy seeing you here.”
I leaned my elbows on the bar, resting my chin on my entwined fingers. It was meant to look casual. Something that was entirely thrown out the window as I batted my eyelashes at the gorgeous woman, shamelessly pretending like she hadn’t saved my ass from one of the most humiliating moments in my entire life only a few hours ago.
“Have we met before?” I teased, my voice fighting to carry over the music. “You look so familiar.”
“Ha, ha.” Ren said dryly, leaning on her elbows as she leaned into my personal space. “I take it you’ve been in before?”
“No, actually. I’m just here to meet my roommate,” I said, reminding myself not to fidget as Ren’s nostrils flared slightly with her deep breath. I thanked my lucky stars that Kaylee had gifted me a beautiful bottle of perfume for my birthday a few months ago—the reminder of the reason why I was here keeping me tied to my mission. “She works here, Kaylee?”
“Kaylee?” Ren asked, confusion pulling her dark eyebrows together.
“Y’know, blonde, sun-kissed golden skin, eyelashes out to here?—”
“ Oh ! You mean Babydoll!” Ren said, chuckling. Her eyes moved down my frame, catching on my cleavage as her lower lip disappeared between her teeth.
I laughed at the overly cutesy nickname. “Yeah, sorry, I forgot you use working names at the club.”
So what if I arched my back just so to give her a better view of my cleavage? I was only human!
The vampire’s gaze was pulled to the offered skin instantly, eyes carving a path up my chest and over my collarbone before landing on the thrum of my slightly elevated pulse at her obvious attraction along the side of my neck.
I cleared my throat, a raised eyebrow my only defence against a full blown cocky smirk.
Ren recovered quickly, straightening up and cupping her hands around her mouth. “Go tell Baby she has a visitor!” she called down the bar to a busser bringing over flats of glassware before turning to look back at me, a long-fingered hand scrubbing through her short hair and making it stand adorably on end.
It made me wonder how it’d look after spending a couple of hours tucked into one of those infamous back rooms.
Deliciously frazzled, perhaps?
“Can I get you something to drink while you wait? It’s on the house.”
My flirty return was interrupted before it started.
“Back off,” Dana’s voice drifted from behind me as she slid onto the stool at my side with a grin, elbow meeting the bartop. “I already told her I’d buy her a drink. Besides, she’s too pretty for you .”
I looked between the two vampires, self-conscious that they’d likely heard the way my heartbeat increased like a rabbit caught in a snare. A super sexy, exciting snare that I wanted to be right in the middle?—
Now really wasn’t the time for this. But Jesus, had the dating apps been dry lately.
A woman had some needs that even their most trusted vibrator couldn’t handle.
My eyes shifted to the bottles behind the bar again, voice hopeful as I ordered what was undeniably the most expensive thing they had on the shelf. “Two fingers of Strigoi Black, the one hundred, please.”
Dana groaned, tipping her head back to look at the ceiling. “And she has taste . Where has Baby been keeping you?”
“In a fourth floor walk up,” I sighed dramatically. “A crime, isn’t it?”
“Undeniably,” Ren said, moving away to fetch my drink.
I turned to Dana, taking Ren’s turned back as an opportunity to refocus on the stunning vampire. “Now that you’re here, what did you say outside? Did you insult me or something?”
She smirked, tongue pressing against her fang, a small diamond I didn’t notice in the dark of outside glittering against the enamel. “Quite the opposite, darling. I said you’re beautiful. Sexy, in Portuguese. I’m Brazilian, immigrated not long after the unveiling.
“Oh,” I said softly, my face going hot.
Not just a hot vampire with the prettiest dark brown skin and expertly styled hair, but one that could whisper sweet nothings to me in Portuguese .
Kaylee appeared from behind a curtain in a corset and not much else, grinning as she raced around the bar to throw her arms around me with an excited squeal. “You really came!”
“I told you I would,” I said, squeezing her back with a light, half-embarrassed laugh.
In the process of our embrace, I‘d acquired a fair amount of body glitter, constantly being vaguely sparkly a hazard of being friends with someone as glamorous as Kaylee. She was always leaving little glimmering bits everywhere, like cat fur.
“Popular,” Ren teased.
“And for good reason,” Dana replied with a heated look in my direction before turning her gaze to Ren. “I didn’t see Cole come in; is he late again ?”
“Called out,” Ren interrupted with an irritated sigh. “So, I’m fucked, basically.”
“Vi could help you,” Kaylee offered, slinging an arm around my shoulders and giving me a little shake. I pretended to miss her pointed, pleading look. “Couldn’t you, Vi?”
Ren and Dana appeared to have a conversation without words, the pair sharing a series of looks.
“Well…” Ren started slowly. “I do need the help.”
“And we’ve heard you need a job, right?” Dana said quickly. “I could pay you cash for tonight?—”
“What?” I yelped. “Listen, I’m just here to check the place out, I wasn’t really prepared to work tonight. And… Are you even allowed to hire?—”
“It’s my bar,” Dana said with another one of those sharp, knee-wobbling grins. “Come on, Vi. I’ll pay you… Well, five hundred cash is fair, right? Since you’re helping us out… Plus, you can keep whatever you make in tips. I won’t even have you tip out the bussers.” She extended her hand for me to shake, eyes pleading. “Please? We’re a little desperate, I’m afraid, darling.”
I looked between the three of them—Kaylee’s hopeful beaming, Ren’s slightly quirked smirk, and Dana’s persuasively desperate eyes—and blew out a sigh.
“ Fine , but I still want the scotch.”
“Yes!” Kaylee whooped, punching the air. “Told you that you just needed to see the place.”
“I’m not agreeing to anything more than one night ,” I said quickly, shaking Dana’s cool hand.
The vampire locked their free hand around the shake, grasping my palm between both of hers. “You’re really saving my ass. I owe you one.”
My lips twitched, face warming at her proximity. Something that I was absolutely going to have to ignore.
What was worse than a hot vampire that I could barely speak around? A hot vampire I could barely speak around who was also my boss .
Like she’d had a similar thought, Dana dropped my hands, taking a measured step away.
I tucked my hair behind my ear nervously, nodding in thanks to Ren as a short glass without ice appeared beside me.
“You better have something more sensible for me to wear for shoes back there, Baby. These stilettos will kill my feet.”
Kaylee turned, all but whipping me in the face with her golden hair as she dove for the curtain to the staff area. “Leave it to me!”