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I clutched the money against my chest, crumpling the hundreds in my fist.

In one transaction, I’d almost made my entire rent. Not that they'd had any way of knowing that.

Fuck. I really am going to take this job, aren’t I?

I looked up from the register in time to catch Elsie pointing directly at me, mouthing the last few words of the song. Well, maybe it was at me… More likely, it was at Juniper. The plush, curvy vampire content to remain perched right in my field of vision.

Thunderous applause kicked off as she turned to walk toward the back of the stage, disappearing between the black curtains with a final swish of her hips.

I dropped the cash into the tip jar, paying no mind where it fell.

By the time I’d finished clapping, my hands were numb.

dana

. . .

“See you tomorrow?”Nick called, pulling his dorky, loosely knit beanie missing several stitches down to cover his ears.

I nodded, clapping him on the shoulder. The urge to poke fun at him about the ugly hatagainwas undeniable… But somehow, I resisted. I wasn’t really interested in another lecture about how his girlfriend made it and that I wasjust jealous that I didn’t have a hot little human willing to make me presents.

Nevermind that he didn’t need the damn thing anyway; it wasn’t like he could catch a cold. None of us could.

Human diseases didn’t affect vampires, and thank fuck for that. I’d been really dicey in the early nineties with protection and doinga lotof hooking up. Those were the days.

Really, the worst thing that could happen to a vampire was being bloodbound. But we had no idea what caused that, just that it was incredibly painful and—as far as we knew—incurable.

“Yeah, thanks for the good work tonight, man.” I said to Nick, holding the door open for him by the safety bar.

“No worries, Dana,” he said, adjusting the strap of his backpack as he made to go, pausing to look back at me. “By theway, did you manage to catch up with that girl from earlier? Y’know, tiny dress and doe eyes?”

I barked a laugh. Every person who worked here—vampire and human alike—was a fucking gossip. There wasn’t much that happened in this club that we didn’t all know about, thanks to the constant flow of information. Usually, I didn’t mind so much. It was useful for keeping our staff safe, knowing who was too drunk to go into the back and who wouldn’t be invited to renew because of bad behaviour or weird vibes.

Most importantly, it kept peoplehonest.

I was almost grateful for our little rumour mill. But now that I was the subject of the gossip? I found myself wishing everyone would mind their fucking business.

Especially Nick and his stupid knitted hat and pointedI-know-you-were-into-herstare.

The only upside was that his interest was piqued for something fun this time. It’d been fucking miserable when the staff were fishing for information about how we were doing after Cherie passed.

Especially since, if I was honest? It was like losing my wife had fundamentally changed something in me. Broke it. Something I wasn’t sure would ever be right or whole again. She wasn’t just my sire, Cherie had been my partner for two entire human lifetimes.

We’d seen the invention of the internet together for fuck sakes.

You didn’t just… get over something like that. It left marks, a space that I had no idea how to fill.

As time passed and the others moved on, I wondered if I’d be able to conceal the truth from them.

That whoever I was before died right along with her.

With a good-natured shove toward the stairs, I raised an eyebrow at Nick. “Got a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of her. She’s the friend Babydoll’s been harping on about.”

Nick swore with a low whistle. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the gentle giant looked crestfallen. “No go then?”

“Não vá,” I echoed, but not without a flicker of disappointment.

I was only interested in a long drink and a quick fuck, but it was pretty hard to tap and dash on a girl who was about to become your new employee. At least she would be if I had any say in the matter. We were desperate for a good,reliablebartender, and now that one had breezed through the door—and looking likethat?