Page 15

Ren chuckled, a subtle bitterness to the sound as she stepped away from me. “Fucking Elsie, always stealing the show. I’ll get an answer from you yet, Vi.”

The vampire’s—I could only assume given the distance—pale thighs were visible through dramatic slits in her flowy skirt. The fabric cut so high at the top of her hips, a tease of her black panties was visible between the folds as it swayed. Criss-crossing straps covered her chest, a bra-like top cupping her breasts as she leaned back on the swing, her throat bared to the room. Her blonde hair turned to a molten wave of spun gold.

She was, in every sense of the word,stunning.

A spotlight shone down on her as she kicked, her legs arcing through the air as her toes pointed up in a pair of high, strappy heels. The music swelled as the swing reached its apex and began to rotate slowly, allowing the crowd to see her from all angles. She wrapped a hand around her throat, the fabric of her gloves contrasting dramatically against her milky skin as she slowly ran her fingers down over her breasts and stomach, eventually trailing into the folds of her skirt.

In a display of vampire agility that confirmed my suspicions, she slid off the swing, now ten feet in the air, landing lithely on her feet.

It was a miracle she didn’t snap the thin heel of her stiletto. I was only super jealous that as I rapidly approached thirty sometimes I threw my shoulder out by sleeping on it weird.

Vampires, really living the life.

My lips popped open in a silent gasp as the vampire continued to dance, the glow of the stage lights catching on the myriad of rhinestones affixed to her costume.

“She’s something else, isn’t she?” asked a vampire with bright coppery hair as she perched on a bar stool with her back to me, eyes on the stage. “That’s Elsie—our headliner.”

I hadn’t even noticed her approach.

It was like popping a bubble, and I shook myself, returning to earth with several quick blinks. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought she was a siren, with the way she’d drawn the attention of everyone in the room.

Y’know, if those existed.

Elsie’s call was more powerful than anything I’d experienced before, the longer that she was on the stage the harder that it was to force my eyes away from it.

Head in the game. Making a quick buck, remember?

“She’s amazing,” I conceded, giving into the urge for another long look.

Fuck.

On the stage, the vampire took a few steps, then leaned heavily onto one hip, tossing her gently curled hair. The lights shifted into something cooler, and the once golden strands turned silver, not unlike the strings silkworms left in trees during the August heat.

With another shift of her weight, she was standing straight once more, bringing her legs together to sway her hips. Elsie’sleft arm flew out, the right walking its fingers slowly toward the end of her long glove until she was pulling it away from her fingertips in jerky segments that did nothing but build the coil of tension in my stomach. She twirled it in her hand before tossing it aside, repeating the motion on the right.

Mesmerising.

Her bare fingers made their way from her hair down to her breasts, where she rubbed briefly, the dark fabric straining to contain her chest before she continued her descent down her stomach, pausing to pat lightly at her hips as she circled them.

She tugged at the tie on the front of her skirt, holding onto the two sides as it came apart, her hips swaying hypnotically.

My heart raced as I waited for the inevitable moment when she would strip it off.

“Shouldn’t you be asking me what I want to drink?” the redhead asked turning her head to look at me, pulling my attention to her deep red lips, pursed with irritation.

Behind her, Elsie dropped the gauzy fabric to the polished stage floor.

I jerked into motion with my cheeks flaming, moving to grab a glass.

“Shit, sorry. I’m not used to… Anyway, what can I?—?”

“I’m fucking with you. I’m Juniper, I do the costuming for the club,” she explained as she leaned her elbows on the bar behind her. “Babydoll told me to come say hi to the new girl.”

“Oh,” I said, my eyes flicking from her soft jawline back to the stage in time to catch Elsie turning her back to the audience.

She dropped into a squat with a move that gave the room a view of her perfect, round ass as she rolled slowly back to standing, keeping her legs together, her hands trailing up the back from her ankles, up her slender calves, and to her hips.

Juniper wolf-whistled, her fangs glistening in the neon lights as Elsie peeled off her bra, her nipples hidden under thin straps connected to her harness. “That’s my girl!”