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“Cruel,” Dana said with a sigh. “But accurate. So don’t protest too much, okay,Mozinho?”

“Okay, boss,” Vi conceded, kissing her quickly. “I’ll see you at yours then?”

Dana caught Vi’s hip, drawing her in for another, longer kiss. “Can’t wait.”

“Dibs on her sleeping in my room,” I called to Dana, pulling her attention to me with a scowl.

“You can’t call dibs on people.”

“Can so.” Vi shrugged. “And Ren just did. You snooze, you lose, boss.”

“All this effort and this is the thanks I get?” she teased playfully, nipping Vi’s jaw. “Fine. Tomorrow then.”

“Absolutely,” Vi said, pulling away to pick up a pair of soggy sneakers from the floor with a sigh. “Let’s go?”

She turned to meet my eyes, making my stomach do excited somersaults.

Though the circumstances were disappointing, it’d be nice to have Vi close for a while. Like a trial run confirming what I knew already: that she’d fit with the rest of my family as effortlessly as fireworks, champagne, and strawberries.

I picked up her suitcase on the way, offering Dana a wave, and we started down the stairs, pausing to let some men in coveralls go by.

Vi looked up at me from where she stood several steps down, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “I can’t wait to see your room. I bet you keep it as tidy as the bar.”

I chuckled. “Worse, I fear.”

“Ah,” Vi said thoughtfully, mischief in her dark eyes. “Guess I better make a mess of it then.”

I nudged her so she’d keep walking down the stairs.

Something told me that there would be very,verylittle sleep going on tonight.

vi

. . .

I’d never really givenmuch thought to where the coven lived. I mean, I assumed based on their air of obvious wealth, that it’d be overly fancy and make me feel evenmoreembarrassed for crashing on Kaylee’s couch, but where it was, how big, how it was decorated… It never really crossed my mind.

So, it was a surprise when Ren headed toward the club. The little dented wheels on the rolling suitcase I’d thrifted back in college for a summer break beach vacation with Kaylee, paid for with tips from the shitty student bar we worked at, struggled hard to keep up with the vampire’s long strides.

“Walking distance, huh?” I asked, used to Ren’s pace after a few weeks of tailing her in the mornings.

“Yeah, it’s just above the club.”

I blinked. It never occurred to me that the windows I’d become used to seeing as I approached my workplace were actually portals into the lives of the vampires I’d steadily grown closer to. My eyes moved upwards as the glowing neon sign for O came into view, scanning the above floors to see if I could guess which of the lit rooms beyond belonged to each girl.

We crossed the street, my suitcase protesting only a little as it went from curb to curb. Instead of heading to the red-lit steps that led to the club, we continued down the block, entering the building through a set of glass doors with beautiful brushed brass handles into a bright and modern lobby with glossy white marble floors.

Sitting at a large, thick glass desk was an honest-to-god uniformed doorman who jumped up immediately to try and take my bag from Ren.

“Let me bring that up for you, Ms. Nakamura.”

“I’ve got it, Allen. Thank you,” she said, breezing past to head for the elevator while I marveled at the sparkling crystal chandelier overhead.

Fuck me, I knew they were rich. I knew they were powerful… But this?

This is a lot.

The Lower City was peculiar, a checkerboard of wealth and poverty that made it impossible to tell from the outside whether the building you were passing was a bug-infested rat den or—inexplicably like this—something straight out of a season of the Real Housewives.