CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ilooked at myself in the mirror, hoping I chose well for the night.
I didn’t see Alexius when I finally got home after shopping, but I knew he was out there now, waiting on me to come up, all ready for the night.
I was actually worried. This was just a bit out of my comfort zone, the short black dress.
It covered everything, being one of the more conservative options in terms of length, but it was still a club dress, fitted tightly, showing every curve, dip, and bump.
At mid-thigh, I would have to be a little careful, but I could probably get away with bending over if I had to.
I did smoky eye makeup, as I had as a human when I went out with friends. My hair was down, framing my face.
I was ready to go. I just had to step out and go to the club.
I checked my phone, seeing my brother had filled out his schedule, and I wouldn’t be able to see him for another couple of nights.
Tomorrow, he had a regularly scheduled date with Lexi, and they needed it.
If he wanted to try making it work with the werewolf, I would have to bite my tongue and let him.
Any more feelings I had on the matter weren’t helpful.
And I had a lot of feelings. Between Declan and Henry, the men of my family were too much this trip.
And the only person I had to turn to was the man waiting for me, and that was complicated all on its own. He didn’t even know about Henry, and I still wasn’t sure I was going to tell him until I had no other choice.
Okay. Let’s just… get this entire thing over with. Maybe I’ll finally learn a bit more about whatever Alexius is doing. What I saw at the café was my only hint yet. Asking about vampires who didn’t report to Maria’s nest. Maybe she’ll let something slip tonight.
I walked out, nervously smoothing the dress as I got into his view.
He wore a pitch-black suit, not an ounce of color.
It absorbed light, so dark, not reflecting anything.
And he looked fucking good. His hair was barely styled, but it worked so well for him.
He was casual and put together, effortless in a way that reminded me that he was wealthy and powerful, so much, in fact, that he didn’t really care.
He put the suit on, wet and pushed back the hair, and that was it. It was already falling out of place.
“You look wonderful,” he said immediately, and it seemed like he tried to straighten up as I walked closer, the click of my heels on the tile of the foyer the only sound aside from his voice.
“Thanks. I went and found something because I wasn’t sure I should show up in my normal stuff for Maria.
You’re you and do whatever you want, and I could get away with things, but she’s still a member of the Tribunal, and I’m not as familiar with her as I am Isaiah.
So, dress to impress, right?” I did a half turn in each direction, hands up to show off the dress.
It had thicker straps, which covered the bra straps.
I couldn’t bring myself to go braless the way I was supposed to under such a dress.
Or that’s what the salesperson had recommended.
Braless. He’d also recommended fishnets, and I decided to go barelegged.
“It’s perfect,” he said softly, taking one of my lifted hands. “Let’s go. The sooner we go, the sooner I can convince her we can leave.”
He held my hand all the way to the SUV, and the vehicle choice told me he wanted to drive. I was fine with that and slid into the passenger seat, but he was sweet, getting the door for me and closing it once I was putting on my seat belt.
It was charming.
“You fed enough when you woke up, correct? This is your last chance to feed…” He looked over at me from the driver’s seat.
“I’m fine.” With a smile and my hands tucked in my lap, I projected the image of being ready for the evening, even if I wasn’t. I had fed, and it felt uncomfortably full in my stomach now as we headed off to a place I’d rather not go. Nerves. I still had them.
There was a valet at the club, and when Alexius got my door, one of the attendants frowned, as he had already been reaching for it.
“You don’t have to do that,” I whispered to him as we went inside.
He was silent for a long time, but as we wandered down a low-light hallway, he leaned down.
“I want to.”
I figured I had two ways to feel about that response.
First option was to feel frustrated because I could throw it into the pile of other mixed signals he sent on a daily basis.
The second option was to be grateful he was just honest about why he was being sweet and escorting me and getting the door and all the rest, things he didn’t always do.
Both. I think I have enough emotional depth to decide to feel both.
We finally reached the real front doors to the club, an underground affair, hidden underneath a different club, so the people coming and going didn’t seem strange.
The bouncer was a vampire and only had to look at Alexius to decide to open the rope guard on a secondary door.
“This way, sir.”
I looked up at him and watched his eyes take a slow look up and down me. He was a big man, definitely fitting the stereotype of a bouncer. Any vampire could probably do the job, but he was intimidating enough for humans to respect him without knowing he was a vampire.
And he was very much checking me out.
He wasn’t bad, as I looked him over after noticing his eyes on me, and unlike Wren, more my type. I was finding myself into the big, intimidating warrior types. See exhibit A: Alexius.
So, I threw the bouncer a smile and saw his lip curl knowingly. If I was going to be at this place, I was going to try to make the best of it.
Alexius was none the wiser. He pulled me into the side door, and we were guided along farther. I would lose the chance to see the blood club in its full glory through the front door.
What I wasn’t ready for was stairs in my heels, but I survived. Finally, there was a line of rooms, all on one side, and one door was prominently in the middle and seemed to have the most space around it. Someone waited outside it and opened it for us.
And there she was, looking like she belonged in the VIP section of a club.
Maria. She was part executive, part model, but it was the way she looked at us that made me remember she was a member of the Tribunal and, politically, the most powerful female vampire in the world.
She was standing by a couch, looking out of what I assumed was a one-way window, where she could see them, but the club couldn’t see her.
“I figured neither of you are the type to enjoy walking through the crowd and getting the attention from the more public entrance to my suite.”
“Thank you for the consideration,” Alexius said, heading closer to her, but he sat down instead of enjoying the view.
“It’s nice to see you. Thank you for the invitation, Mistress Maria,” I said, aiming for politeness. Then I walked closer, but I couldn’t resist the curiosity to look out the window.
It was a normal club in some ways, but around the edges what I expected.
People danced, a DJ played, the beat dropped as I stood there, and the red lights flashed and spun and did a bit of a show.
And in the corners were booths with curtains.
There were open-air tables, but the entire edge of the club, except entrances and exits, was lined with these booths.
And I could certainly guess what was happening in the ones that were closed.
“So, people feed right out there,” I murmured.
“Yeah, if that’s what they like,” Maria said.
While I was pondering, she was informative.
“There’re private rooms as well. People are bolder in their needs in those.
The cleaning crew makes up seventy-five percent of the staff purely because of those rooms.” She chuckled as I looked at her with what must have been a semi-horrified expression.
“No bodies. Just bodily fluids. Blood is the most common, but it’s not the only one.
While every vampire is given some leave for accidents so long as they are rare, accidents on the grounds of the club are, for me, a reason to get banned.
It makes it harder to keep this place safe when we have to remove bodies.
Can’t have humans saying their friends came to the secret, underground club and many of them aren’t coming back. ”
“So, it’s… exactly what I kind of figured it would be like,” I said, nodding as I sat down next to Alexius, but trying to keep a foot between us, so our knees wouldn’t accidentally knock or anything.
“Feel free to go explore it tonight,” Maria said, turning her smile on me. “I know you don’t get to experience much of this in Savannah. Tell me, how has Los Angeles been treating you? Different from what you must be used to.”
“Yes, it is,” I confirmed. “Vampires going to cafes and a restaurant that serves us. A bit of a culture shock. Like a hidden social world underneath the city. I bet if I was here for a year, I’d find these places better and start to really see, but even in the few days I’ve had so far, it’s been impressive. ”
“Wonderful. I know Savannah has a few unique amenities, but there isn’t much to beat one of the main cities. New York has much of the same types of places, but you went to see Isaiah in his country home. Robbed. Instead, you had to deal with the drama of the older generations.”
“So, you… know.”
“Of course. Read the full report with no omissions. Cambion blood, the plot of the Greeks, still holding their grudge against the Romans. One would think with immortality that old grudges about boundaries of countries and empires would be let go, but…” Maria sighed, then shrugged.
“With Isaiah having all the crucial people to question, there’s not much I can do except be on watch and hopefully get my hands on any of the others involved in the plot.
While Isaiah and I disagree on a great many things, we are fully aligned with the safety of the vampires and the stability of our culture and place in the supernatural world. ” Maria shook her head and met my gaze.
“Beyond all of that, my point stands. You’re a young vampire who has missed interesting things about how supernaturals move now and how vampires fit into that in a larger, wider view of our kind and the current world. A pity. So, I’m glad that Los Angeles has shown you some of that.”
“Thank you. I’m sure you take such consideration to check in with every new vampire and see how they’re faring,” I said, still trying to be polite, a smile plastered on my face.
“Does she think I would miss her sarcasm?” Maria asked Alexius, then looked back at me before Alexius could even reply.
“Of course not. You’re important because Alexius is important.
Being associated with him is a one-way ticket to infamy, and you are the only person to want that ticket.
The rest of us deal with it as a consequence of other choices.
Someone should check in with you every so often. ”
“Maria, it grows tiring to have other vampires continuously talk about my way of life like it’s beneath them,” Alexius said, his position unchanged since the moment he sat down.
“And more tiring when people tell me I need to live more like them than him,” I said, pointing at Alexius with a thumb. “I was, and still mostly am, an introvert. I like how quiet Savannah is. I’ll be exhausted with L.A. by the end of the month.”
“Fair enough. Well, to give you the full experience, I’m going to kick you out now. Alexius and I will talk business, and you’ll go enjoy yourself or not. The choice is yours, how you feel being out there.”
Maria waved, and it was that simple. I was expected to leave. I looked at Alexius, who sighed and nodded, telling me to listen to her.
“No work for you on this trip, remember?” he reminded me. “You can handle blood well enough to be out there. I trust you.”
“Yeah…” And in my tight black dress and strappy heels, I walked out, fully entering a world I had avoided for this long.