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If riding a bike was insanely more difficult with every lingering look or careful, non-accidental brush.

“Can I get you anything else?” I asked politely, narrowly hiding the breathy laugh in my voice.

One look at the less-than-designer shoes and wrinkled white button-down he wore, and I could’ve guessed that the club’s membership fee was well out of reach.Especiallyconsidering he was wearing chinos and no jacket. But the real giveaway was watching him actually look at the prices of drinks on the menu.

None of the other vampires I’d served tonight had done that.

Being the most exclusive in the Lower City meant a hefty door price for casuals and anostentatiouscost for members. It was a big deal, especially since for vampires alifetime membershipcould span centuries.

Lucky dickheads.

“A rum and coke,” he gritted through his pointed teeth.

A basic drink that was going to cost the asshole damn near twenty-five dollars, and that was for well liquor. The premium was almost thirty.

I could’ve moaned thinking about the tips I’d already made tonight, enough to cover my overdue fees with the storage company at least.

“And I’ll have another too, please,” Sel called, their pale green eyes twinkling with mirth as they lifted their half-empty glass to me. “When you have a minute.”

I nodded tightly and went to fix their drinks. The rum and coke was easy enough, something I could make with my eyes shut. I set it down on the bar with a wedge of lime tucked against the rim a few moments later, offering a polite, if not a bit flirty, smile.

Brokeback Vampire threw down some cash, sneering as he turned and wove his way through the crowd toward the smattering of tables clustered around the stage. It wasn’t long before his tense, angry shoulders disappeared between the other patrons.

I couldn’t say I was sad to see him go. Something about him just… made me feel uneasy.

“I hope he left you a half-decent tip,” Sel remarked, tipping his glass back to suck on an ice cube.

By the look of their eyes, they were old. And I meanold—like ancient. Ren had introduced them as one of her regulars, and on first glance, we could’ve graduated together.

But I knew better.

It wasn’t every day you saw a nightwalker with enough years behind them to have anything but brown eyes, much less as clear as theirs.

New vampires, like the one who’d just left, had red eyes. Coloured by their own human blood working through their veins. Usually, after the first few years, they dulled to a rusty brown, darkening as the vampire worked through their human lifespan and embraced their new immortality. Eventually, if you lived long enough, they’d clear back to what they were before you’d been changed.

Vampires like Sel, who’d been around long enough for that to happen, were incredibly rare. It meant that they’d been around well before the Unshrouding, when vampires came out of hiding.

I collected the cash with a breath of laughter, my mind wandering to what life must’ve been like when they’d been human. How different things must be now.

Well, most things. I imagined that even in Sel’s lifespan men had always been creatures ruled by their fragile pride.

“You bruised his ego.”

They waved a scarred hand dismissively, shoulders shaking with a chuckle too low for me to hear. “Newbies always want to flaunt their status. Shame they never have the resources to back it up.”

“Come on, Sel,” chided Ren from the other end of the bar. “You’re really going to chase off Vi’s customers?”

They snorted, taking a long drink from the fresh glass I’d sat in front of them. “I don’t think Vi was too impressed by that one. She seems like a smart girl,” they remarked, studying me closely in a way that felt more curious than predatory. Sort of like I was a clue in a crossword puzzle they couldn’t quite remember the answer to, or the name of a song on the tip of their tongue.

It lacked all of the heat of where Ren’s eyes lingered on my skin.

“I try,” I said, pulling glasses for martinis.

“Our lone wolf has a new little friend,” Ren said with a smirk.

“All by yourself, are you?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

“Not by choice,” Sel muttered. “Turns out living forever makes finding friends who won’t stab you in the back hard to find.”