Chapter 5
Muggy air hit E in the face. No matter the number of summers she lived there, she didn’t think she’d ever get used to it.
At least in Columbus, or even Middletown, she’d been able to find space in the heat.
Here, however, the humidity mixed with the hard concrete and brick and the mass of people, making her sometimes feel like she was swimming, jostling with others to get air when she needed it.
Plutus pulled her tight to his side. A little too tight, she noticed, when his hand dug a touch too hard into her hip.
A sound rumbled into the air and it took her a moment to realize it came from deep in Plutus’s chest. A growl?
Surely not—but when she placed her hand on his chest, she felt the vibration.
E looked up to his face, worry etching her own, and turned her head slowly to see where his stony green eyes stared.
Ahead of them, leaning against the brick wall beside the recessed door of the club, a thin, pale man stared back, fangs slightly bared.
He may have also growled, for all E knew, but they were too far away.
Apparently this club had a vampire bouncer, which was damn smart.
They were faster and stronger than humans and had heightened senses.
All good things for security detail. However, it didn’t seem great in terms of how Plutus reacted.
He clipped out, “Stay close to me, E.”
E rolled her eyes but followed his lead.
Vamps weren’t super common in her circles, but she’d run into enough of them to in her few years in NYC to not be fazed.
They were often safer to be around than humans, who seemed to always cause the most trouble wherever they were.
Still, it looked like the vampire and Plutus might have some aggressive standoff or something, so she kept her opinions to herself.
She didn’t want to think about what a fight between a vampire and a god might entail.
The vampire peeled his lanky frame off the brick, looking to most in the crowd like he stepped easy, but E saw the slight crinkle around his eyes, his rapid look between her and Plutus, the flare of his nostrils. He practically screamed unease, to her.
To Plutus as well, whose growl turned up a notch as he stepped closer. Thankfully, he stopped a few feet away. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
Plutus simply nodded, a clipped, hard gesture.
“Yours?” the vampire asked, gesturing toward me with the flip of a hand.
Another clipped nod from Plutus.
“There will be no trouble in here because you decided to take her out for the night?” It could be construed as a demand, but the lilt made it a question. A vampire asking a god if they will behave.
“I will keep her close. You have my word.”
This time, the vampire gave a clipped nod before he turned to the side, gesturing them forward with a sweep of his hand. No line for them, then.
Plutus tugged her along, and she matched his big strides for a few steps before he slowed, forcing his legs to move in more measured steps so they matched their pace. Once inside the big brick building, the music engulfed them, forcing out all her thoughts as she adjusted.
Before she could say or do anything, a dark-haired woman in a short, black, bandage dress wielding a small tablet steeped toward Plutus.
“This way, sir.” She gestured for them to follow her to the left of the hallway, which was the opposite direction from where a wide hole in the hallway poured out music and flickered with light.
They moved to a small hall hidden behind a thick black curtain, one E finally realized wound behind and then above the side of the club, bringing them up a small set of stairs until they went through yet another black curtain.
She blinked at the pulses of light and the wash of a deep purple glow illuminating everything.
Hell. They were in the elevated VIP area on the outskirts of the massive dance floor.
She’d glimpsed this part of the club the one time she’d been here with Lisa and her crowd.
They hadn’t even had enough pull to get a table up there, though they had snagged one of the booths lining the dance floor, which was a win in and of itself, from the excitement she’d seen from Lisa when they’d gotten it.
She said nothing, sticking tight to Plutus’s side, as she said she would, until the woman stopped and gestured toward a circular booth along the wall. “Kim will be with you shortly,” she added with a small nod of her head before moving away to handle whatever business she had to handle.
The music felt slightly muted here, though it still poured hard over her, thumping through her body.
Plutus gave her a small nudge forward so she scooted into the booth first, stopping halfway around when he snaked an arm around her shoulders to hold her still so he could come in close to her.
From this position, they could see part of the dance floor, the DJ booth, and also hear one another if they leaned into each other’s ears.
The woman came over with a tablet perched on a serving tray.
“Welcome. I’m Kim. I’ll be your server for the evening.
She pointed at a small divot in the middle of the table where E noticed a tiny silver button.
“At any time, press this, and I’ll be here in a flash.
” She also flashed a smile at them before asking what they wanted.
“Vodka soda. Double.” E’d learned a while ago ordering a vodka soda was simple enough and usually a solid choice wherever she was.
She had anxiety about looking foolish in new places, like someone might figure out she didn’t belong.
A vodka soda meant she didn’t have to think, or overthink, a drink choice.
“Top shelf.” Plutus cocked his head in thought, then said, “Chopin.” A small smile lit on the waitress’s face as she went through menus on her tablet to mark the order.
“I will have a Macallan 30.” He reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket before the waitress finished, plucking a shiny black credit card to hand to the woman.
She tapped it on her screen, paused a moment, then handed it back before chirping “I’ll be right back with those drinks,” and leaving them alone.
So much had happened in the last ten minutes, she’d forgotten the heat of him until the sear on her side reminded her.
Thinking snark might help her out a bit, she leaned into him more and asked, “No magicking the drinks like you did with the shoes and dress? And suit?” None of that’d been in her apartment, so he’d had to get it some supernatural way.
He chuckled, reached a hand over to stroke her cheek before he turned her head away and dipped low.
His mouth was warm and so damn close to her ear it didn’t take much to imagine what it’d feel like latched there.
“No need. I have the means to pay. Because of my particular skills, I do rather well in the stock market.”
Figured he was a Wall Street type. He almost fit the finance bro mold. If it wasn’t for those little moments of sweetness she’d seen glimmering through.
She pushed the idea of his potential sweetness down deep.
E didn’t need to think on it. They had a transactional relationship, nothing more.
She didn’t want more, not from anyone. She needed to get herself straight however she could then keep herself that way.
It was all she could trust in after years of being in survival mode: herself.
Instead of focusing on who he may or may not be, she went in a different direction.
“The scene out front was a little wild.” Plutus didn’t seem to need her to be right in his ear to hear what she said, but he stayed buried in her pink hair so she could hear him.
“Apologies, E. It was… surprising to see the vampire there. I may have overreacted. He was right to check I wouldn’t act the same way inside.”
“There are vampires around the city, Plutus. You should get used to them.”
A soft chuckle puffed across her ear and she shivered. “I am used to vampires, E. I am, however, unused to vampires being in your vicinity.”
Whatever the hell that meant. E considered, thinking about how she and a vampire might have an issue, but she came up with nothing.
It felt territorial, which might be because of who she was to Plutus.
Whatever a human was to a god when they struck a deal.
She imagined the inverse, the idea of him in the same space as someone she might consider dangerous.
For a second, a word flashed hard and insistent in her mind: MINE.
Shock and confusion echoed after it, even if the word rang true to her.
Lucky for her, Kim popped back up with their drinks, so she could shove the thoughts away with booze.
E scooped up her glass, push aside the straw, and sucked down a good bit of the pint-sized vodka soda the waitress deposited in front of her.
She had to admit, whatever the fancy-ass vodka was, it went down a lot smoother than the liquor she usually got when on any of her rare nights out.
“Easy there, E,” Plutus shouted at her. He’d moved his head away from hers to grab his scotch and thank the waitress. Courteous and kind to service workers was another fact she wasn’t going to know about Plutus. She instead narrowed her eyes on him and concentrated on his words.
“You have no say in how easy I do or don’t go.”
A smirk lifted his lips and she thought she’d like to see his fangs there instead of the flash of regular old human teeth. “Do you not like it easy, E?”
She wasn’t going to touch that question.
Nope. Instead, she took another deep pull of her drink and turned her attention to the dance floor below them.
E swayed to the EDM music pumping through the air, letting her mind drift to sound rather than the insanity of her night and the waves of heat coming from the man beside her.
“Would you like to dance?” he asked.