Chapter Seven
Verity almost felt bad about how simple it had been to find the club, slipping the FindMe coin into Adam’s breast pocket – no one ever used their breast pocket – was too easy. After that, she took note of where he went at the end of the night for a couple of weeks and found the pattern.
It was painfully obvious. He visited somewhere most days, arriving near dawn and staying for hours. A quick search online and she found it.
SubRosa.
The building was on street views, but it didn’t have a website. No social media, no reviews, no contact information. It felt weird. Wrong.
Alarm bells rung the moment she heard about this club, but over the last month the feeling had only grown.
Especially when she saw bite marks on Adam’s neck.
There might not have been any proof of broken rules before, but neck biting was strictly prohibited.
What sickened her even more, was when David pulled Adam’s collar up to hide it.
It never sat right with Verity that the support group was run by a vampire. She wondered whether, in a case of wrongdoing, the group leader would take the donor’s side or the vampires’.
David answered that question with one flick of Adam’s collar. Verity hadn’t felt particularly comfortable discussing donation with the group before that, but she sure as shit wasn’t sharing after.
She wanted to know what was going on. Needed to know. The only thing she actually felt bad about was Theo.
True, she definitely wasn’t invited, and she never told him she had a date. He assumed and she hadn’t corrected him. Well, she had corrected him, but he didn’t believe her, so she went along with it.
Since the first time she brought up the club, she hadn’t mentioned it again. His stance was clear. He wouldn’t bend, and neither would she.
So, she took a taxi to the club on the edge of town as the sun began to rise. The driver knew what was up as he drove round the back and under the building, stopping by a queue of people waiting to get in.
One last deep breath. She could do this.
Hopping out in the underground car park, she surveyed her surroundings while walking to the end of the line. The queue wasn’t long, but it wasn’t moving either. And it was loud, with most club-goers clearly having had pre-drinks.
A few vampires waited but more humans, all with visible bite marks, and not just on wrists and necks.
Two girls waited in front of her, mid-twenties at most, talking and giggling.
One wore a backless jumpsuit sporting bite marks running down her spine like a ladder of pink snowflakes.
The other’s skirt was shorter than Verity’s, showing off bites on her thighs. Inside and out.
Looking behind her, she saw scarred bites on everyone, and some did not look well healed.
Verity’s hands tightened on her bag. What the fuck was this? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. What if someone tried to bite her? She hadn’t even considered that. What if they did bite her? What would she say to Theo?
No one noticed when she took a shaky breath and stepped out of the line. She had seen it now. She could do some more research and come back another night. She’d learnt enough for today.
Walking down the line, heading for the edge of the car park, she pulled her phone out and was about to call a taxi when she heard someone call, “Verity?”
Her heart stopped. It actually stopped dead. She wasn’t breathing. Oh gods, how had she fucked up this bad?
“Verity!” snapped a female voice she knew too well, and she turned to find Stella storming toward her.
“Oh, hey,” Verity tried, but the look on Stella’s face wasn’t a friendly one.
“What the fuck are you doing here? Does Theo know?” Stella asked. A female vampire hovered a step behind her, looking rather uncomfortable as her eyes darted between the two women.
“Oh, I was just…” Just what? What the hells was her excuse?
Stella pulled her phone out, giving it a few taps before pulling up the details for “BOSS MAN”.
“Oh gods, Stella. Please don’t!” she begged, but Stella hit call and lifted the phone to her ear.
Verity heard a muffled male voice a second later and held her hands together in prayer while mouthing Please don’t tell him! Please!
“Hey,” Stella said, staring Verity straight in the eye. “I’m at SubRosa. Wanna guess who else is here?”
Silence.
“I shall take your silence as…”
“Good morning, Stella,” someone greeted behind them, and Verity turned to find Vivienne Green.
Verity was dead. She had to be, because somehow, she’d ended up in the lowest circle of hell.
“And Verity! How lovely to see you again. Is Theo coming?” Vivienne asked, voice sweet and eyes bright.
“I’m just talking to him,” Stella said, smiling and gesturing to her phone. “Viv’s here. Yeah, yeah. He’s running late. Should be here any minute,” she said before hanging up.
“Well then, why don’t you girls come in with me? I’d love to hear how everything is going, Verity,” Vivienne said, guiding the group towards the front of the queue.
This wasn’t the first time Verity had been caught snooping. It was never great, but normally she had the option to run. Not this time, though. Playing along was all she could do.
The bouncers didn’t say anything, nodding as the four of them walked in, and just like that, she was inside. With Vivienne. And Theo was coming. Fuck.
Humans and vampires milled in a foyer, many waving to Vivienne as they passed. Voices and footsteps echoed off the mirror walls as they approached the huge double doors that the room flowed towards.
The pulsing bass of the music beyond the room matched Verity’s racing heart and she concentrated on her footsteps, not used to wearing heels and not wanting to trip on the polished tiles.
Tiles, she thought. A design choice, or because they were easier to clean? It smelled clean. Not like bleach but…
No. That was not a calming thought.
Two women in low-cut black dresses opened the doors in perfect synchronicity and Verity entered a round hall, the domed ceiling covered in murals and carvings.
Every inch of the vast space was adorned with gold and silk, all bathed in candlelight from the many chandeliers, hanging low over tables that circled a dance floor.
Vivienne guided them to a table, Stella’s friend making small talk with her as Stella slipped into the chair beside Verity. She leant over, cupping a hand around Verity’s ear before whispering, “He’s gonna kill you.”
Verity nodded with a grimace. “Well aware.”
Other vampires kept coming over to talk to Vivienne and Verity was grateful for the distraction. As worried as she was about Theo’s reaction, she was counting the seconds until he arrived.
“Verity!” called another voice and she turned to see Adam running over and grabbing her in a hug. “Thank the gods! We can talk properly now! First time? Where’s Theo? This is Bea!”
Adam wore a white shirt, the top buttons left open, showing off bites on his neck and chest. Verity tried not to stare.
Bea, his beautiful client, waved happily to Verity before being called by someone else and dragging Adam away with her.
He shouted something but the sound was swallowed by the dancing mass before her.
Lights flashed across the dance floor, red and gold and white.
Laughter and cheering. The smell of whiskey and perfume.
There were people everywhere, surrounding her, talking to her and Stella and Vivienne.
Vampires she’d never met speaking over each other until she couldn’t tell one voice from another.
“You okay, love?” came a smooth male voice as a vampire took the free chair beside her. “Like a pack of dogs, fighting over scraps, aren’t they?”
“I’m scraps, am I?” she asked the handsome stranger, and he laughed.
No fangs, not a vampire. In fact, he had a rich tan on his skin, sun-kissed cheekbones, freckles that matched his red-brown hair, and Verity’s head tilted as she wondered why she assumed he wasn’t human.
Perhaps it was the swagger, the total nonchalance as he leaned closer, paying no mind to the predators around them.
“I was talking about Viv,” he said. “Everywhere we go, everyone clambers over each other, desperate to impress her.”
“She doesn’t look very impressed to me.”
Over the shoulder of the vampire she spoke to, Vivienne met Verity’s gaze and rolled her eyes. Well, if she was impressed, she would have been paying more attention to her conversation.
Verity’s companion laughed again, hooking an arm over the back of her chair and offering a hand.
“Abraham,” he said, shaking her hand.
“Verity.”
When he didn’t let go, she was struck by the coolness of his touch, the darkness of his eyes. His grip was firm, but not forceful, as he turned her hand to see the many bite marks on her wrist. A shiver ran through her as he grazed a finger over them.
“You’re a donor?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“How do you find it?” He looked up and Verity realised how close they were. Any closer and she’d feel his breath on her face.
“Fine,” she said.
“Just fine?” he mused. “We don’t have anything like your Vital Exchange where I’m from. I’m curious how the humans feel about it.” So, he wasn’t human?
“Where’s that?” Verity asked.
Abraham smirked, glancing over to Vivienne who, Verity realised, watched them as she sipped her drink.
The ever present smile on her face had slipped, replaced by a watchful concern as she observed them.
Should she not be talking to this Abraham?
Were there rules she wasn’t privy to, questions she shouldn’t ask?
Verity pulled her hand out of his as Stella set a glass in front of her. If anyone else had given her a drink she wouldn’t have touched it, but Stella seemed the only safe person there.
Taking the glass she sipped, willing her hands not to shake.
“North,” Abraham said vaguely.
“So, how do you feed without donors?” she asked.
Abraham shrugged. “Most humans have been there for generations, attached to one family or another.”
“Owned?” Verity asked. She was pushing it with a question like that, but she couldn’t help herself.