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“It's not that bad!” Elsie said quickly. “Basically punk rock!”

“It is that bad,” Kaylee whispered. “You look like a member of Hiss”

Ren ran a hand through her short hair, the tattoos spanning her arm little more than shadows in the low light of the club, visible now that she’d rolled her sleeves to the elbow.

“Yeah, go get changed, and then I need you back here so we can run through a couple things before we get busy. Plus, you have to sign your paperwork with Dana.” She hopped over the bar, bending until she was nearly out of sight. A moment later, she resurfaced with an energy drink in her hand and tossed me the chilled can. I caught it, grinning at her quirked eyebrow of surprise. “Not bad, Striker; give that to Juniper, and she might just remember to be polite.”

I turned the can over in my hands, glancing at the label. A little bumblebee sat above the drink’s name—Bee Positive!It would have been cute if the honeycomb pattern hadn’t been oozing blood instead of sticky nectar.

It was kind of cute anyway, I guessed.

“Uh, yeah, sure.” I said. “Think it’ll win me some brownie points?”

“Doubtful,” muttered Kaylee. “She’s a bit of a?—”

“Okay, okay!” Elsie interrupted. “Enough about grumpy June; let’s get you into something dry and at least twenty percent more revealing.”

“Seconded,” Ren called, not looking up from where she was wiping the bar.

“Yeah, Vi,” Kaylee whispered in my ear, her tone dripping with teasing as her eyes flicked toward Elsie. “Go on then.”

I put my palm in her face, pushing her back with a laugh.

“Shut up, dickhead.”

She knew as well as I did that any semblance of a private conversation, regardless of whispering, was out the window with vampires around. And I wasn’t particularly keen on sharing my obvious attraction to Elsie, or Ren for that matter, with the room.

Besides, Kaylee had heard more than her fair share of my lusting last night. We didn’t need to go over it again.

“Okay, byeeeee! I have magic to make!” Elsie chirped, grabbing my arm, and leading me toward the same curtain Juniper disappeared behind.

I twisted to wave at Kaylee, catching her looking like the cat who got the cream. Normally, it would’ve irritated me. But who was I kidding? She’d landed me a job working at a club full of the hottest coven I’d ever seen in my life, and I wasweak.

She deserved to feel a little self-satisfied.

“You have a great rack, so we’ll have to be choosy about what we put you in. Gotta make sure it actually fits,” Elsie said excitedly, leading me through the back.

“Right,” I said noncommittally, marvelling at the floor-to-ceiling glossy black paint of the backroom—if you could call the warehouse-sized space a room. Vanities sat in a long line, separated by overflowing racks of clothes. Overhead, accessible through a spiralised staircase, was a loft that looked over the workstations.

I saw Juniper standing with her soft hip pressed into the railing as she watched the girls get ready, but as soon as she caught me looking, she turned and disappeared further into the space.

“Oh! You’ve never been back here!” Elsie quickly realised. “Let me give you a quick tour too!” She kept hold of my arm as she led us to the back, motioning at the doors. Not that I minded, her excitement was contagious. “Dana’s old office—sheuses the one upstairs mostly now… and Ren’s—she does a lot of the purchasing.”

“Right, yeah,” I said distractedly with a nod, my focus more on where her pink-painted fingers were wrapped around my bicep.

Elsie’s energy and easy friendliness were consuming. A few more hits of her close like this and I’d easily be addicted. She turned to face me with that thousand-kilowatt smile, the lights from the vanities clustered in the middle of the floor glinting off her fangs, and it was all I could do not to ask her there and then if she wanted to go out for dinner sometime.

“So this is where we all get ready,” Elsie went on excitedly, pointing to a station on the far end. “That one is mine! And Babydoll’s is just on the other side.”

I hummed, letting her guide me into the warmth of the bulbs. Racks of clothes acted like walls between the girls’ stations, offering the illusion of privacy, though, judging by the number of women in various states of undress flitting around from station to station, no one here was shy. I supposed confidence was a prerequisite for dancing in your underwear for a living.

“And that leads backstage.” She pointed at a thick, velvet curtain just beyond her station that I guessed was to help block out some of the noise.

The vampire’s vanity could only be described as organised chaos. Costumes everywhere and cosmetics and wigs haphazardly flung on every available inch of countertop. She released me and shoved some makeup palettes aside to set her coffee down, turning to thumb through a rack of sparkle-covered garments. She hummed as she slid option after option across the bar with the dull shriek of metal on metal.

“Juniper deals with all the costumes for us girls, so she can be a bit intense about wardrobe.” Elsie looked over her shoulder at me and smiled in an embarrassed sort of way. “I promise she isnice when you get to know her, but she needs to get her way or it’s a mess foreveryone.”

I nodded, returning her smile. “Sorry to give you trouble.”