5. Hale
Something is in the air tonight.
The club is packed, the ambiance thick with pheromones, lust, and debauchery. I lean on the bar, surveying the scene with a smile on my face. I enjoy seeing my fellow supes engaged in the hedonism that rules our existence, even if I don’t indulge myself. There are options, for sure, but since seeing Yannis’s face last night, I can’t get him out of my head. Will he come back? Gods, I hope so.
I feel a tickle on the back of my neck and twist sharply to find Willow perched on the edge of the bar behind me, wearing a curve hugging gold bodysuit. He giggles, releasing a wave of incubus pheromones that so far have no effect on me.
“What are you up to, you little minx?”
Willow grins, flashing his illuminated eyes in green and blue. “You look bored. I came to cheer you up.”
“I’m not bored at all. I’m observing.”
“Well then, you should observe that sexy little fae who just walked in.” He points over my shoulder to the dance floor.
My eyes scan the crowd of bodies, stopping on the new face. It’s a male fae, with long lavender hair, big black eyes, and a lithe body in shimmery pearl. Normally, just my type, but all I can see in my mind is a mountain of a man with muscles for days.
“Very nice,” I murmur.
“Nice enough to get you to talk to him?” Willow asks.
“No.” Smiling, I turn to the incubus. “Why don’t you?”
“I’m hunting for a mortal tonight. I need some of their chaotic lust to feed on.” He drags his hands over my shoulders. “But you, sexy vampire, could benefit from some fae sex magic, don’t you think?”
“Since when are you so concerned about my sex life?”
Willow shrugs. “Call it intuition, but I sense something off kilter in you. Seeking. Am I wrong?”
I huff a small laugh. “No, but what I’m seeking is specific.”
His eyes widen briefly. “Ah. The tasty mortal that visited us last night?”
“Perhaps.”
Willow giggles again. “Good choice. Will he come again?”
I hope so.“We’ll see.”
Willow leans in and kisses my cheek before sliding off the bar onto his feet. “Very well. I hope he is worthy of your pursuit. Mortals so rarely are.”
“They aren’t all bad.”
“They have their uses.” He perks up, turning sharply toward the entrance and sniffing the air. “Hmm. Someone smells delightful.”
Then he’s off, slipping easily through the crowd toward the source of the scent. I sniff the air too, not noticing anything in particular, but then again, my senses are tuned to one person and one person only.
When I turn back around to face the bar, Tiago is pouring drinks in an elaborate way, flipping the bottles in the air and creating a pattern as the liquid flows. A male vampire and two mortal women watch with delight, the women laughing and clapping at the show. Tiago catches my eye and winks at me.
I pull myself away from the bar and walk the club, checking on guests and making sure the rules are abided by. As I make my way to the back rooms, I wonder what I’ll see tonight. We’ve got everything from bondage rooms to glory holes to my favorite, the blood play rooms. Not that I ever indulge, but I do enjoy watching.
When I pass through the curtains, I’m met with a decadent scene of naked, oiled bodies on a stage, clearly engaged in sex. A succubus is in the center, the mortals around her worshipping her body as she clogs the air with her heady pheromones. People, both supernatural and not, crowd around watching the spectacle. The room is so thick with lust, my eyes feel heavy from it.
I walk on, checking in on the wet rooms, the bondage rooms, and finally the coffin room, where I find a vampire in the middle of seducing his pretty mortal twink. I duck out quickly, moving back to the front of the house, where I catch a familiar scent.
Yannis.
I scan my surroundings, searching for the mortal man who has my attention in his clutches, but I don’t see him. I glide through the club, dodging bodies until I get to the front. There he is.
Rhett and Hemsley are with him, talking to him about job opportunities as I approach.
“We also have a donor program for our blood play enthusiasts,” Hemsley explains.
The words grip my chest as images of vampires sucking the neck of my mortal flash through my mind. Oh no. I don’t think that’s going to happen.
“Blood play?” Yannis asks, his eyes shifting to me as the words leave his lips. A pretty smile passes over his face. “Hale.”
“Yannis. You came back.”
He nods, his cheeks turning slightly pink. “Yeah. I was talking to the guys about job opportunities.”
“I’ll take it from here,” I say, reaching for Yannis’s hand. He takes it, allowing me to lead him away to a quieter corner. “How are you?”
I sense a ripple of tension, but he shakes it off with a slight smile. “Good. Still getting my bearings in the city, you know? But I’m good.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Actually, I was gonna ask you if you had some tips or something for me. I’ve never lived in a city like this before, and I’m not sure sometimes how to conduct myself.”
We stop walking. “What do you mean?”
His brow creases and he glances down for a second. “I live in kind of a rough area. Some dude got in my face today telling me it was his street and to mind my business. Shit like that.”
A trickle of anger rises in my chest. “What dude?”
“He said his name was…” He pauses, lifting his gaze to the ceiling for a second. “Bianchi. Ricco Bianchi. He was dressed nice and in a black car.”
“Bianchi,” I repeat. “I’ll see what I can find out. Do you feel safe?”
“Most of the time, yeah. I keep to myself and stuff, but it seems like you can accidentally get involved with shit, you know? I think I walked up on a drug deal that set him off.”
I squeeze his shoulder. “I understand. It sounds like you’re already doing the right thing, which is minding your own business. I have some friends who do protection work in the city. I’ll see what they know about this guy. If he’s a threat, they’ll deal with it.”
Yannis tilts his head. “Deal with it, how? Are they in the Mafia?”
Smiling, I shake my head. “No, not at all.”
“Okay. So, about the job. Are you the person I would work for?”
“Technically, yes. What are you interested in doing?”
“What was Hemsley saying about blood play? I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s advanced kink. Some of our patrons like to indulge.”
“In blood?”
“Yes. We have a screening process to keep everyone safe.”
Yannis’s face is blank. “What do they do with the blood?”
“Lots of things.” The sudden throb in my gums startles me. “Drink it, rub it on their skin. For some, just the process of extracting it is exciting.”
His lips part as he exhales slowly. “Oh.”
I clear my throat. “But there are lots of other things you could do. We have wait staff, and people in the back who keep the club tidy and stocked while patrons are here. We have dancers.”
Yannis chuckles. “Two left feet. I guess I could try waiting tables. Is it tips only?”
“No. We pay a wage per shift plus tips. Our guests are typically wealthy and will compensate you well.” I take a step closer. “But you need to know a few things before you start.”
He nods. “Okay.”
“Come. Let’s sit, and I’ll tell you all about the Lair experience.”