Chapter 6
“All monsters are human.”
— SISTER JUDE, AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM
M y heart was pounding. I chewed on my thumbnail nervously as people started to file into the restaurant. Shem was strategically seating them in rotation. He was doing the best he could to steer people away from the bar to keep me from getting overwhelmed, but it was inevitable. Soon, we would be on a waitlist, and people would crowd around to get drinks and mingle while they waited for a table. The chit machine sprang to life, and I went to work making the first cocktails of the night.
I was shaking up a Poisoned Pear Sour when Rafael approached service with the most attractive man I had ever seen in my life.
He towered over Raf and was dressed in Voodoo’s mandatory black collared shirt and dress pants. Like Shem, he had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows, but his arms were completely covered with tattoos.
Skulls and snakes twisted together up his forearms, and I imagined they covered the rest of him under his shirt because they continued up his neck to his cut jaw. He was lean but well-muscled. His arms were corded with veins, and his fingers were dripping in silver rings. The one on the middle finger of his left hand had a goat’s head on it, with two wickedly curved horns that nearly grazed his knuckle .
The man’s eyes were the clearest hazel I had ever seen. They were a brandy amber around the pupil that bled to a shocking teal green on the outer edge of the iris. His eyes were lined with thick, black lashes, and his dark, ashy-brown hair was faded short on the sides but left long on top. A series of silver earrings and cuffs marched up his right ear, and his brow was furrowed into one of the most aggressive and unfriendly scowls I had ever seen.
“Here’s your name tag.” Raf handed the man a small piece of plastic, and he glanced down at it, his lip curling up into a disgusted sneer.
“ Really?” he asked Raf, looking at the nametag like he would rather light himself on fire than put it on. Raf gave him a stern look and nodded.
“Yes, really.”
The man’s scowl deepened, but he pinned the tag to his shirt and turned those angry, hazel eyes on me. My frantically beating heart nearly stopped at the hostility in his gaze.
Great, this was going to fucking suck. This guy seemed like a huge asshole.
Maybe you won’t get him killed then if he wants nothing to do with you. That mean little voice was back, and this time, it was right. Maybe it was a good thing this guy seemed to hate me on sight. My demon probably loved that I would be trapped behind a bar with this douchebag all night.
“Lilith, this is Reaver. He’ll be standing in for Sam tonight, but if this goes well, we’ll make him more of a permanent fixture.”
“Hi,” I said, giving him a friendly wave despite the fact that he was looking at me like he wanted me dead. I wished I could tell him to quit while he was ahead — I tried... more than once. I wouldn’t be dying anytime soon, no matter how hard he willed it into existence.
He just curled his lip like he smelled something terrible and flipped up the drop-hatch to let himself behind the bar.
“Alright, I’ll leave you to it,” Rafael said before heading over to the host stand to help out Shem, who was already looking a little overwhelmed.
I turned around to find Reaver leaning back against the floor-to-ceiling liquor display with his phone out. I gasped.
Who did this asshole think he was?!
Phones were not allowed behind the bar. Guests were already starting to crowd the wood, looking at him expectantly, but he ignored them in favor of whatever the hell he was reading on his phone.
“Um, hey. No phones on the floor,” I said, trying to sound sure of myself. He looked up at me and gave me a once-over. His hazel eyes skimmed the hem of my skirt, and I clenched my thighs together, suddenly feeling naked under his gaze. Finally, he glanced back up at me, and I thought he might say something, but then he thought better of it and decided to completely ignore me, looking back down at his phone instead .
My blood turned hot at his dismissal, and I tried to keep my cool. “Hey, maybe we got off on the wrong foot? I’m Lilith.” I held out a hand to him, and he jerked away from me as if the thought of touching me disgusted him.
“I know who you are,” he snapped, and I frowned. What was that supposed to mean?
“Hey, can I get a damn drink over here?” One of the guests at the bar complained, and the chit machine fired off another slew of drink orders for service at the same time.
My eyes darted back and forth from the quickly filling bar to the out-of-control chit machine.
“Do you think you could handle the bar while I do service?” I asked, and Reaver let out a low chuckle but otherwise didn’t respond. He just continued to scroll on his phone as if I wasn’t there at all. I let out a frustrated little stomp and spun away from him.
Fine. I would do it myself.
I tackled the bar first, rapidly taking drink orders and tapping them into the POS machine before pouring several pints and a few glasses of wine in quick succession. By the time I made it back to service, the chits were curling over the edge of the counter all the way to the floor. I had a long lineup of servers waiting for their drinks.
Fuck!
I ran to the chit machine and didn’t let myself think before getting to work. I ripped through all the single and double orders first before tackling the larger ones.
I loved service. It was like a puzzle. I would read all the orders first and mentally tally up how many of each drink I needed to make. Then, I would come up with an on-the-spot strategy and the best way to execute it. It was mentally stimulating and a fun challenge. I lost myself in the work and got a rush of satisfaction when I dropped the last drink on the service bar.
“Woah, thanks, Lil! I was worried for a minute, but you whipped these up so fast!” said one of the servers, Sarah, grinning at me as she loaded her tray. I beamed at her, blushing.
“Maybe let Raf know how much you love working with me,” I winked at her. “I’m trying to score a permanent spot in primetime.”
Sarah smiled back. “You got it! Thanks again,” she said before leaving to run her drinks to her table.
I turned to find that the bar was now three lines of people deep, all trying to get Reaver’s attention while he… cleaned a rocks glass.
For fucks sake.
I barreled past him and went to work refilling drinks for people with open tabs while trying to take new orders at the same time. I could feel Reaver’s eyes following me as I ran back and forth, doing everything I could to get people their drinks in a reasonable amount of time.
Soon the bar looked like a hurricane had run through it. There were empty mix containers strewn about, abandoned, dirty martini shakers, and our empty bins hadn’t been taken out once.
I was getting so frustrated, and I couldn’t even stop to catch my breath. Reaver just watched me, his angry frown turning more and more amused the more frantic I became.
By the time the dinner rush was over and we moved into the more relaxed late-night crowd, I was close to tears. This was my one big chance to prove that I could handle this, and as always, the universe seemed to have stacked the chips against me.
The moment there was a break in orders, I started cleaning. I needed to get the bar back in tip-top shape before Raf noticed. I couldn’t tell him that Reaver hadn’t lifted a damn finger to help me. Rafael was not one for excuses. He would make it seem like I should have found a solution and somehow managed to make it a successful night with or without Reaver’s help. It would still be my fault.
So, I forced the tears down and frantically got to work. I scrubbed every single surface and ran the glassware washer. I restocked garnishes and made sure service practically sparkled. I was just finally getting to the full bin of empties when Raf appeared with a big smile on his face.
“You guys did great!” he exclaimed, wiping his finger over the sparkling clean service bar and nodding appreciatively. “Especially you, Lil. I had so many servers telling me how amazing you were tonight. Great job, you two!” he beamed before heading back into the kitchen.
I felt like steam was going to come out of my ears.
Great job, you TWO!?
I spun around, my arms full of sticky, empty beer bottles, to find Reaver lazily filling up a pint glass while chatting casually with one of the remaining guests at the bar. He glanced over at me with an infuriating smirk on his stupidly attractive mouth.
I wanted to punch him right in his smug little face.
Storming out from behind the bar, I brought the empties to the recycling room. After sorting them by color, I jogged back upstairs to find Reaver on his way out from behind the bar with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Shem came up behind me and tossed his arm around my shoulders.
“You killed it tonight, Lil! You were running around like a mad woman, but damn! No one can stop talking about how amazing you were!”
I shrugged out from under his arm, putting distance between us.
“Thanks…” I frowned at Reaver as he brushed past us to head out for the smoke break that he hadn’t earned. “Has anyone heard from Sam?” I asked .
Shem shook his head. “Nope! I really think he might actually be dead.”
I slapped Shem on the shoulder before ducking back behind the bar. “Don’t say that. It’s not funny.”
“I’m not trying to be funny. The man just freaking disappeared. No one can get a hold of him. I think Raf is trying to see if he can reach out to his family or friends somehow to check on him.”
My gut soured, and I bit my lip. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but I knew in my heart Sam was dead. I had forgotten for a split second who I was, had given him a hug, and my demon killed him for it. It was my fault.
The rush of adrenaline that had carried me through the night began to fade, and I felt myself begin to crash. The scars on my thighs burned, and I knew I would be adding another later that night.