Page 7

He gave it a cursory glance before looking at me with a split, silvery eyebrow raised. “You lost, sweetheart?”

“No,” I said flatly, holding out my hand for my ID. “Why would I be lo?—”

“Nick,” a clipped, feminine voice admonished from behind the bouncer as another vampire walked up the steps toward us. She was dressed in all black, her tight long-sleeve top augmented by a series of clips and harnesses clinging to her shoulders and hips. Loose cargo-style pants with many pockets hung off her waist like an afterthought, the effect of her outfit reminding me a bit of a character from the old fighting games Danny and I liked to play at the coin-op arcade by the pier. “Are you scaring away customers again?”

“No, ma’am!” Nick said quickly, moving to hand back my ID with the air of a cat that’d been caught scratching the couch. A bit of an odd dynamic since the guy was so much bigger than the woman that he could look clean over her head without moving his head.

The vampire caught it in her dark fingers, her warm brown eyes looking over the printed information as she brought the plastic card close to her face with a low whistle. “Sure this is you, darling? You’re much prettier than the photo.”

I laughed, my eyes catching on the jewellery woven into her box braids, pulled into a low ponytail that fell over her ochre shoulder.

Beautiful, certainly. At least ten times more attractive than old Nick here. But, given the sharp fangs protruding around her smirk and slightly narrowed eyes, decidedly dangerous.

“You say that to all the girls, I’m sure,” I teased.

Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she handed the ID back to me, soft accent lilting with her barely concealed laugh. “You’d be surprised. Have a good night, Vivienne.”

“It’s Vi,” I corrected, returning the smile. And then, because I’d never claimed to be smart in the face of a gorgeous woman, added, “You should probably remember it if you want to buy me a drink later.”

“Você é uma gata… difícil de resistir,” the vampire said in what sounded like a foreign language and she laughed, making little creases appear at the corner of her eyes. “Tell the bartender that Dana sent you for a treat. She’ll take care of that drink for you,Vi.”

Ignoring the way my name on her tongue made my knees wobble and feeling slightly bolder than I had a moment before, I brushed past her and down the short flight of stairs into a sort of landing area with a second door. My fingers hooked into the handle, pulling it open to a wave of music and dim, sultry lights.

Okay, maybe if all my coworkers looked likethat, slinging drinks at the vamp bar wouldn’t be the worst thing to ever happen to me.

Inside the next room, what I really could only describe as an antechamber, the carved stone walls reached toward a ceiling painted like some sort of demented cathedral. The mural overhead depicted vampires as angels with fluffy white wings, frolicking in an ambery cloud-filled sky while humans writhed between their bodies. The picture was incredibly erotic, nearly everyone nude save for the covering that each other’s bodies provided. Faces full of ecstasy as fangs pierced tender pink flesh.

A coat check counter stood in the centre of the back wall, draped like an offering table with thick white cloth, and a scantily clad hostess waiting to take my jacket. On either side of the table stood two heavy wooden doors. The door on the left was fixed with a thick brass cross in its centre, while the right was fitted to match, its cross inverted so that it stood upside down.

Salvation and Sin. Quite the aesthetic for a high-class sex dungeon.

Okay, fine.It was cool as fuck. And I was sort of dying to peek behind the inverted cross door and see whatreallyhappened in the backrooms. But I was on a mission. Kaylee first, thenmaybe?—

“Babe, we’re busy as hell tonight. Are you coming inside?” the coat check girl asked, her tits—pushed up to her chin in her latex corset dress—bouncing with each word.

I cleared my throat and stepped forward to peel off my short, yellow denim jacket, handing it over. “Yeah, sorry.”

Her eyes dipped to take in the tiny black dress dusting along my upper thigh. “Goddamn,” she purred appreciatively as she tucked the coat onto a hanger. “Here to play or just to look? I’m off in a bit.”

I didn’t need to ask what she meant byplay; I knew from Kaylee that the club wasfull service—meaning I could’ve been on my way inside to trade my blood for a stack of cash, a quick fuck, or damn near anything else—so long as I was interested in letting a vampire suck on my neck.

Dana’s full lips flashed into my mind, sending heat racing up my spine.

Well, maybe I was interested. Vampire bitesweresupposed to be orgasmic.

Jesus, what the hell is wrong with me? Focus, Vi!

“Look,” I managed to mutter out, the disappointment in my tone matching the look in the coat check girl’s eyes.

“Shame.” A small ticket was handed back to me in place of my jacket, and I popped it into my purse. A red bracelet was slid around my wrist shortly after. “This will keep the hands off then. Door on your left, babes, have fun!”

“Thanks,” I said, and without thinking about it, mostly so I wouldn’t chicken out and go home—or worse, abandon my fallback for a job in favour of a direly needed orgasm—I opened the door on the left.

Lavish sofas upholstered in cream leather and maroon velvet took the place of the wooden chairs that you’d expect in a venue like this. Most of the places that catered to vampires were keen to have furniture that could be easily cleaned in the event of a…mess. Something that O didn’t seem to give a fuck about.

I didn’t even want to think about what their dry cleaning bill looked like.

The tables were adorned with candles, the glow of the room low and soft save for the bright spots from the stage lights. Decadent wallpaper and heavy velvet curtains lined the walls, blending in with the rest of the decor to create a space that felt both sultry and a little forbidden. Somewhere between an old-school speakeasy and the bougiest strip club in hell.