9. Vi
vi
. . .
The slam of the heavy front door jerked me awake. I pushed myself onto my elbows with a groan, dragging a hand through my sweaty, knotted hair.
Finally, I’d found a perk to eternal night. No sunlight streaming through the windows to stoke the flames of my hangover-induced headache.
Fuck all those drinks last night; it felt like my head was going to pop clean off.
Kaylee whined beside me, pulling the thick duvet over her head. “Shut up, Vi! I’m dying!”
We were so drunk when we got home that we’d stripped and just piled into bed to gossip and giggle until we fell asleep. I figured I’d move to the couch eventually, but if Kaylee felt half as shit as I did, she’d forgive me for sleeping it off on her far comfier mattress.
The clatter of keys and rustle of plastic bags came from the kitchen, followed by the tantalising smell of chicken fried rice, making my empty stomach growl.
“Vi! Kaylee!” Danny called, their heavy footfalls sounding closer as they approached. “You can’t still be in bed! I know you sent some crazy texts last night, but come on ! You can’t be that hungover—it’s almost time for the game!”
Fuck. I’d totally forgotten that the Nightwalkers were playing today.
“It’s like three o’clock, Danny! We only went to bed at seven!” Kaylee whisper-shouted, the noise enough to make me wince.
I flopped back down against the mattress with a groan to find Kaylee had firmly taken ownership of my borrowed pillow, hugging it against her as she screwed up her face against the streetlights. “So bright.”
Danny pulled the covers off us, giving my leg a shake. “Up you get!”
“I’m a corpse. I can’t get up,” I groaned.
“‘Oh, come on, Vi. What is this? Finals week?” they asked, moving onto Kaylee and tickling the underside of her foot.
“I’m up!” Kaylee gasped, jumping out of bed and throwing herself into the en suite with speed a vampire would’ve envied. She slammed the door behind her, the question dying on my tongue as the sound of her retching came from behind the wood.
Gross .
But hey, at least I had my pillow back. I dove for it, curling back up despite the lack of covers.
Maybe I could get just a few more minutes of sleep…
Danny snorted a laugh, leaning against the doorframe.
“You had fun last night?”
“I think so,” I mumbled. “Everything got fuzzy after I drank five of whatever Ren made us. Kaylee had at least six.” I rolled over to look at my sibling more clearly. “Leave me here to die.”
“Not a chance! I stopped by The Howling Dragon on the way here. Your hangover is nothing that can’t be fixed with some egg rolls.”
Kaylee, looking a little worse for wear, chose that moment to open the door. “Danny, you—” Her eyes widened, and the door slammed shut again, the retching returning with a vengeance.
I fixed a flat stare at them, my eyebrow raised to say I told you so.
“I said your hangover, Vi. Let's leave Kaylee to suffer.”
“Dickhead,” she whined through the door, though her indignation was seriously undermined by the sound of her gagging.
With immense effort and bravery, I forced myself to sit up only to find my phone dead on my bedside table—right beside the charger.
Way to go, drunk Vi, you fucking asshole.
I plugged it in and pulled my hair into a messy knot on the top of my head, securing it with the yellow scrunchie I kept around my wrist.
“Ugh! Jesus !” Danny covered their eyes with their hands, turning around. “Do you always sleep fucking naked ?” They headed for the kitchen, their hands still pressed over their eyes, threatening the lives of the framed photographs and embroideries that decorated the narrow space.
“If you’ve turned around, you don’t need to cover your eyes, dumbass! Do something useful and make some fucking coffee!”
Arguably, I wasn’t even that naked. We had underwear on. Danny was just being a dramatic shit.
“Yes, please make coffee,” Kaylee called as the bathroom door flew open. She wasn’t much more dressed than I was, in her panties and a thin tank top that did nothing to hide her hardened nipples. It was freezing in here without the duvet.
Missing an attempt to swat my ass, she growled, though it was more pathetic than intimidating.
“Can I borrow something to wear?” I asked her, not wanting to scar them further by digging in my suitcase in the living room.
“Yeah, ‘course.”
I crossed to the walk-in closet, riffling through drawers until I found a pair of grey sweatpants. I tugged them on so I’d stop shivering before finding Kaylee pink ones with a matching sweatshirt and throwing the clothes in her direction. She grunted in thanks, beginning to dress right away.
“Thank god we don’t work today,” I said, digging for another sweater. I pulled out my favourite of hers, a black zip-up with the Nightwalkers logo on the back. Once it was on, I finally felt back to a normal human temperature.
“Oh?” Kaylee purred, tired green eyes lit with teasing. “I thought you might like to see a few of our coworkers sooner rather than later.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered. “You know that I can’t get involved with all that. Not only do we work together, but?—”
“Riiiiiight,” she teased, cutting me off with a roll of her green eyes. “I’m going to see if Danny has the coffee sorted yet. Maybe you should check some of those messages.” She looked from me to my phone, now several inches from where I left it, an evil little smile twisting her lips.
I opened my mouth to tell her off for invading my privacy, but she’d already left the room, tossing a wink over her shoulder. “Dannyyyy! You better have those coffees made! Or you are so dead!”
Nosy . She was so fucking nosy. And she didn’t even bother being sneaky about it.
I climbed over the bed to grab my phone, leaving it attached to the charger as I thumbed through my notifications—starting with my text chain with Elsie since it was at the top of the list.
Elsie
Hi! I hope you’re not too sick today!! I had so much fun last night! I knew you had a dancer hiding in there!!! 3
What’s your fave movie? Mine is Finding Nemo! ^-^ !!
I bit my lip, trying to contain the stupid smile that threatened my face.
Turns out coffee wasn’t the only cure for a headache—the unbridled enthusiasm of a cute vampire could do the trick as well.
It felt like ever since our weird moment yesterday—i.e., me totally choking when presented with the opportunity to kiss her—it was like Elsie was on a mission to get to know everything about me. Her questions were basically nonstop… but it was just cute enough that I was willing to play along.
To be fair, I didn’t think there was much Elsie could ask me for that I wouldn’t give her.
I typed back my answer, her response coming before I was even able to move on to the next waiting message.
That’s a tough one. I like romcoms… Probably You’ve Got Mail.
Elsie
I’ve never seen it, maybe we could watch it together sometime.
Are you a butter on your popcorn person or do you like the fake stuff? Ooooh! Candy or chocolate? 3 3
Was she asking me… on a date?
Nah, no way—not after I ran out of the dressing room like a bat out of hell after having some weirdo sex fantasy about her.
Besides, the whole point was that I didn’t want to have to choose between any of them. We were coworkers, and it would be awkward if I started dating Elsie to then snub Ren.
Plus, I didn’t want to. I liked Ren, and, I liked Elsie too.
But if I could have them all…
I shook my head at myself and my wishful thinking as I made my way toward the kitchen. Deciding that Elsie’s texts could wait, I flipped to MagicMirror, a photo social media app, to check the notifications piling up. It wasn’t hard to see why—Dana had posted a video Ren filmed of me mixing the shots I’d made for everyone the night before.
With my hair pushed back behind my ears and a half-cut smile settled onto my lips, I looked… confident. Sexy . And the drinks looked delicious, definitely helped by the slow-motion effect she added during my pours.
Onightclub: Striker’s new shot, the Sanguine Sunrise, will be available all February as a special menu item! Come see for yourself why our newest bartender is quickly becoming the house favourite!
Damn, Dana really did know how to draw people in.
In more ways than one.
I leaned against the counter, and Kaylee looked over my shoulder while I thumbed through the comments, cheeks heating stupidly at Ren’s little blue heart emoji.
“Hey! That post turned out great!” She grinned, setting a cup of coffee down and turning to hunt for some sugar. “You look so profesh .”
“Please just say professional.” I sighed.
“Can I see?” Danny asked excitedly, plucking my phone out of my hand and heading for the living room with their black ponytail swinging. “Good god, who took this? They must be a wizard behind the camera to make you look cool.”
“I think it was Ren,” I said, swiping up the mug—a sculpted ghost holding a black bat—from the counter.
“Hey!” Kaylee complained. “That was mine!”
I shrugged, following my sibling to the living room. “Snooze you lose, Babydoll .”
She huffed as she pulled another mug from the cabinet, pouring coffee for herself again. “Asshole.”
“Guilty!” I sang back, collapsing onto the sofa beside Danny.
They flicked on the TV, the sound of the pregame coverage undercutting our sipping. I swiped my phone out of their hand.
“Hurry up, you’re missing the pregame!” they called to Kaylee, who groaned, fishing out plates before bringing out dinner for us.
It was still early in the season, but we watched all the games anyway. I would have loved to see more of them at the stadium, but I’d been selling our seats for cash for the last little while… But, maybe now that I had a job I could enjoy those season passes myself.
Maybe I could enjoy them with Ren.
Danny leaned forward immediately, popping open the takeaway boxes and shaking some sweet and sour pork onto their plate.
“If you spill on that sofa, both of you are dead. And not in a fun, hot vampire way. Regular dead.”
I snapped up an eggroll with a pair of chopsticks, moving over to allow Kaylee to sit with us. It was nice to just spend time together like this; it reminded me of when we were kids. Before school and bills had complicated our lives.
“How was class, Dan?”
“Oh,” they said with a miserable sigh I could feel in my bones. “You know. A lot.”
“Aw, rats! And here I was under the illusion that medical school was easy,” Kaylee teased.
My phone buzzed, and I glanced at the screen, warmth rushing to my face as Ren’s contact flashed alongside the little media icon. Just before my mind jumped, skipped, and hopped headlong into the hope that she’d sent me a nude.
Please, Vi. I am begging you, get a grip.
I opened our text chain, finding no nudes… But it was difficult to be disappointed when I saw the images she had shared. A collection of photos she’d taken during the cast party the night before.
The first was tame enough, with Cole offering me a bite of cake from his fork while I sat sandwiched between him and Kaylee on one of the velvet sofas in front of the stage. His short blond hair looked like it’d been dyed pink in the glow of the neon lights.
Dana and I with our arms linked as we took shots of something lime green.
Kaylee, her legs in the air like a dead bug as she laughed her ass off while I tried to flip upside down on the rotating pole she wanted to use in her new routine. It was a less-than-flattering attempt. It was way harder than I thought it’d be to hold myself up on those damned things.
A photo of me smiling directly at the camera, posing with a drink in my hand like I was offering it to Ren. The flirtation in my expression was so obvious that I nearly closed the text thread.
Only to immediately wish that I had when I looked at the next image—Elsie and I standing barefoot on the bar, our bodies pressed together as we danced.
I chewed the inside of my cheek. That explained all the texts.
Ren
I hope you’re having a nice day off.
And that you drank some water when you got home.
The most recent message had arrived only a few minutes ago.
Ren
Are you watching the game? Mattel is on fire today.
Kaylee snatched the phone from my hands, scrolling through the photos and messages despite my weak hiss of protest.
“Oh my god,” she squeaked, excitement pouring off of her.
“What?” Danny asked, eyeing the device with interest as they paused with a piece of beef and broccoli hovering near their mouth.
“Just Vi’s girlfriend asking if she’s watching the game.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I snapped.
Kaylee cast a look at Danny, victory in her eyes. “ Yet .”
She tossed them my phone, which they caught one-handed, scrolling through the messages with a low whistle muffled by their bite of food.
“Which one is she? The blonde? So your type, Vi.”
“She’s not in any of those,” Kaylee scoffed, pulling up the club’s MagicMirror on her own phone and showing Danny a picture of Ren.
She looked fucking edible , leaning against the bar with a perfectly poured glass of wine beside her, the sleeves of her black button-down rolled to the elbow to show off her inked arms. That stupid, sexy, crooked smile of hers was like Cupid’s fucking arrow.
Pussy kryptonite.
“And how about this one, who is she?” Danny asked, holding up my photo with Elsie, and I groaned, tipping my head against the back of the couch.
“That’s Elsie .” Kaylee snickered.
“Would you shut the fuck up for once in your life, Kaylee?” I asked, defeated.
The two of them laughed, Danny setting my phone back in my hands.
I didn’t keep secrets from either of them. But I wasn’t sure if I was ready to admit to myself that I was attracted to a few of the vampires I worked with. Much less admit it to my sibling and best friend.
They’d try to talk sense into me. And I didn’t know if I wanted that. Not yet.
I winced as Danny raised an eyebrow in a silent command to spill the beans.
So much for that.
“Ren is…” I started, sighing. “Hot. Stupidly hot.”
“So what’s the problem, Vi? She’s obviously into you if she was playing paparazzi all night.”
I groaned and tossed my phone on the table.
“The last shred of sense I have says I absolutely don’t want to date anyone while I’m broke as hell and living on Kaylee’s sofa... Plus, she’s my fucking boss. Supervisor. Whatever. We work together is my point.”
Kaylee scoffed beside me. “Like that matters.”
“So…” Danny started slowly with a look at Kaylee that seemed to say not helping. “What does your actual brain say?”
“It says that O is a buffet of hotties that I’d like to put my mouth all over,” I admitted, slinging my arm over my eyes.
Especially the tattoos on Ren’s neck. And that dimple on Elsie’s right butt cheek. Or to pull the scowl off Juniper’s grouchy face. And y’know—while I was at it, Dana had the most kissable lips I’d ever seen, especially when wrapped around a straw.
“Why don’t you—I don’t know—get on a dating app or something?” Kaylee offered, unhelpful as all fuck. “You know, since you want to keep pretending like you aren’t totally smitten.”
“I have !” I admitted with a groan, rubbing my hands over my face. “But how the hell am I supposed to think about someone else when that ”—I gestured at my phone, where the photo of us dancing was still glowing on the screen—“is what I’m looking at four nights a week?” I grabbed my sibling’s arm, nearly spilling their plate all over the sofa. “Help me, Danny. Tell me how to get out of this.”
“The heart wants what the heart wants,” they laughed. “Besides, what’s the big deal?”
“I don’t want to have to choose one of them. I…”
“Like them all?” Kaylee supplied. “Seems like they have no problem sharing each other, so why would you be any different?”
“Because I barely know any of them, and they’re fucking vampires .”
“You could be fucking vampires if you got over yourself,” Danny quipped, making Kaylee laugh.
“Yeah, but how long is that going to take? You spend four nights a week together. You’ll just get closer, get to know each other better…”
“Oh my god, Kaylee, shut up!”
Danny set their plate on the coffee table, wiping their hands on their pants. “Listen, Vi...”
“Danny,” I warned.
“No, listen.” They took my hand, giving it a squeeze. “It sounds to me like you’re doing that thing where you stand in your own way again, and I need you to stop.”
Kaylee snuggled into my side, tilting her head against my shoulder like she could sense I was two seconds away from getting up and leaving this conversation.
“You deserve happiness, and if that comes from a human, a vampire, or four vampires, who cares?”
“Dan—” I started, but Kaylee interrupted.
“Ren, Dana, and Elsie are the nicest people I know. Even Juniper isn’t terrible after she gets used to you. But you owe it to yourself and to them to give them a chance. A real one, Vi. You can’t seriously think Ren is texting me cute photos and worrying if I drank enough water.”
I sighed, squeezing Danny’s hand.
“What if they want me to choose? I don’t know any of them well enough to make that kind of decision right now.”
Danny shrugged. “So, tell them that, though from what Kay is saying, it sounds like they’d have no problem with you dating all of them.”
“Fine,” I sighed and relaxed into my two favourite people as we watched the game. Ren was right; Mattel was on fire, on his third point of the night already.
As we cuddled together on the sofa, I found myself with my phone back in my hand. I replied to Elsie’s constant stream of questions, this time asking about my preferred popsicle flavour and what my favourite word was.
Grape and eumoirous.
Though, if I was honest, I said that to sound smart. My favourite word was definitely fuck .
I chewed the inside of my cheek, staring at my chat with Ren for a few long moments.
Somewhere in my heart, I knew they were right. I needed to give myself the chance to fall in love, to explore the feelings that were beginning to simmer alongside the undeniable attraction I had for the coven of vampires I’d accidentally fallen into.
I just needed to have faith… And maybe work on my communication.
Hell yeah, what a game! I’ll see you Thursday for coffee? Our usual time?
Ren’s reply came through almost instantly.
Ren
I wouldn’t miss it for anything.