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CECELIA

A hiss escapedthrough my gritted teeth as I hopped from foot to foot.

“Can you stand still for one bloody second?”

I glared at my best friend and flipped her off. Standing six feet tall, Laura towered over me with a scowl. “Maybe if you didn’t make me wear these stupid skyscrapers, I wouldn’t be so fidgety!”

Laura’s pretty red lips tilted up, almost a smile but not quite. She never was one for backing down. “Well, maybe if you had broken them in days ago when I told you to, they wouldn’t hurt your feet so much.” She tossed a strand of her hair over her shoulder. “Besides, those are only like four inches. I could walk in heels that high when I was a toddler.”

I rolled my eyes but didn’t comment. There was no use arguing with her, she always won. Laura was the type of woman who won at everything in life, did everything flawlessly, and made everyone fall in love with her. She was tall, with long auburn hair and the brightest green eyes I had ever seen; she was beautiful. Being the polar opposite, we made perfect friends. I was never a competition for her, and she took all attention away from me and let me live quietly in the shadows.

Well, except for tonight. Tonight was all about me and I wanted to do nothing more than kick these heels off and run for the hills.

Laura glanced around at the people queuing behind us. We had been in line for almost twenty minutes and the queue had tripled in that time. There must have been around a hundred people lined up, waiting for admittance to the club.

“What made you choose this place, anyway?” I asked curiously as I took rest against the wall, my legs threatening to collapse beneath me. How anyone could walk around in heels all day long was beyond me; I would have cut my feet off if it meant the pain would stop.

“Do you live under a rock, little cherub?” I rolled my eyes at the patronizing nickname and shoved at her shoulder. She grinned mischievously. “Everyone’s been talking about this place for ages! You genuinely haven’t heard of it?”

I shook my head and looked up at the electric blue neon sign.Ambrosia.

In ancient times, ambrosia was believed to hold magical properties. Greek mythology stated that it was the food of the Gods, said to be brought before them by doves and give immortality to whoever consumed it.

A beautiful story, but the name was a little on the nose.

“Oh, dearest friend of mine, we are about to enter the most elite club around. This is owned by one of the Known.”

Pushing off of the wall, I gripped Laura’s shoulders. “Are you freaking crazy?”

As children, we were told to be scared of the monsters that haunt the dark. But then those monsters claimed back the night, righting the stories and instilling a new kind of fear in everyone. The Known were a faction of vampires who chose not to hide in the shadows, instead living amongst us humans as though it wasn’t the craziest thing in the world.

Laura only laughed. “Come on, Cece. Live a little.”

“I’m pretty sure going into a club full of vampires will result in the exact opposite of that.”

“It’ll be fun! There haven’t even been any instances of killings since this place opened. All the feeding is voluntary.”

My mouth hung slack as I stared at her. “Well, as long as it’s voluntary!”

I followed reluctantly as we moved towards the front of the queue. Why would she think this was my ideal way to celebrate my birthday?

“You’ve really never thought about it?” Laura dropped her voice, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “They say their bite, when done right, can be so pleasurable that it’s almost orgasmic.”

Color flooded my cheeks and I glanced around us to make sure nobody had heard her. “No, I most certainly have not ever thought about that.”

Laura shrugged and straightened, bristling at my tone. “Your loss, I guess. I think it’ll be amazing.”

“Please tell me that isn’t why we’re here tonight?”

“Of course not! We’re here to celebrate your twenty-one beautiful years on this earth,” she said as she draped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me towards the door. “Anything else is just a bonus.”

I opened my mouth to protest but she hushed me as the doorman checked our names on his list—his eyes lingering a bit too long on our chests—before ushering us inside.

As I stumbled through the darkened hallway, the air on my arms stood to attention. I wasn’t sure what I was about to walk into and fear dripped into my soul—but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that a tiny part of me was curious. Everyone knew about the Known and, while I never imagined myself even coming close to meeting them, my curiosity got the better of me.

I just hoped like hell that I didn’t end up dead like Schrodinger’s cat.