Page 10 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

I looked behind me and darted away from the edge of the sidewalk just as the bike and its rider zipped past me. The vampire driving glanced over his shoulder at me with a quick, fanged smirk before facing forward again.

My hand came to my chest as I tried to get my heartbeat under control. I had to be aware of my surroundings without being so jumpy. Getting off the street and sitting down somewhere would definitely help with that.

Ahead of me on the next block was a place called Pulse Point Club and Lounge, which seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

It was one of the few places besides the blood bank that had a second level.

I glanced behind me, making sure I could still see the hospital-like building before I crossed the street.

I walked inside to even warmer air and a large, dimly lit room.

A well-stocked bar took up the center space, with intimate booths along the walls and a dance floor with a DJ table taking up the rest of the floor.

A wide staircase led up to the second floor, which was a loft set up with comfortable furniture and its own miniature bar. The VIP area, I assumed.

There were more people here than I expected, considering it was probably mid-morning for vampires. Couples and even a few throuples cozied up in the booths along the walls. At the bar, people leaned in closely to talk over the bass-heavy music.

The dance floor was mostly filled with women. Human women, I realized after a second glance.

“‘Scuse me.” Someone, another human woman, squeezed past me from behind and headed straight up the stairs to the loft section.

After realizing I’d been taking in everything from the doorway, and therefore blocking the entrance, I took a few steps forward. My nerves eased at seeing so many humans around and I gathered enough courage to slide into an empty seat at the bar.

“Be right with you,” said the bartender, who I was pretty sure was a vampire. I couldn’t see their eyes, but there was something in the quality of a vampire’s skin that was almost too perfect to be human.

I looked up at the loft section as I waited, noting several human women up there too.

Most of them stood around, as if waiting for something.

A few had drinks in hand but most didn’t.

All were beautiful, varying from girl-next-door to ethereal supermodel.

Through the spaces between their bodies I saw two men lounging on a couch, although I was too far away to tell if they were vampires or not.

“What can I get you?” The bartender stopped in front of me, red eyes bright. They had an androgynous look with a slender, feminine face, short hair, and dark slacks held up by suspenders over a white buttoned shirt.

“Forgive me if this is a stupid question,” I started. “But you do have drinks without blood in them, right?”

The bartender grinned, stopping just short of laughing. “Yes, we definitely do. Almost anything you can get in the human world, you can get here. Unless it’s really limited or seasonal.”

“Okay, I would love a gin and tonic, then.”

“You got it.”

As they started making my drink, I suddenly panicked over how I would pay for it. Would a debit or credit card even work here? Did they use dollars or some other currency?

“Um, what kind of payment do you take?”

“Blood.”

At my panicked face, the bartender burst out laughing as they set the drink in front of me. “Temkra, I’m kidding. We take all kinds. It costs five, or I can start a tab.”

“Five what?”

“What have you got?”

“Uh, dollars?”

“Sure. But if you need change, it won’t all be the same currency.”

I stared at them for a beat. “What do you mean?”

“So, say you give me a ten. I’ll give you back five like this.

” They opened a drawer and placed a five euro note on the bar.

“Or like this.” Taking back the five euros, they replaced it with a five British pound note.

“Or like this.” They placed a US dollar, a Canadian dollar, a Fijian dollar, a Dominican peso, and an Egyptian pound below the British fiver.

“No way, you’re kidding.” I picked up one of the foreign bills to examine more closely. “This is how you use money here?”

“Yeah.” The bartender shrugged. “As long as it’s got the right number on it, we take it.”

“This is wild. Do you take Monopoly money?”

“No.” They laughed. “I’m pretty sure it has to have been legal tender at some point in time.”

“How did you even get so many different kinds?”

“From humans like you, venturing from your world to ours.”

I glanced at them over the Fijian dollar in my hands. “I’m that obvious, huh?”

“Just a little.” They pinched their thumb and forefinger close together.

“And you’re okay with that? Us coming to your world.”

The bartender placed a forearm down and leaned toward me. “No offense, but I think we could take you guys if we had to.”

I let out a laugh. “Yeah, that’s probably true.”

“And anyway, most humans who end up here don’t come with bad intentions. They usually end up staying.”

“Really?” My eyebrows went up. As fascinating as this world was, I couldn’t imagine leaving my whole life behind.

“Yeah I’d say eighty percent, roughly.” The bartender leaned back, grinning wryly as they returned the money to the drawer. “I’ll let you enjoy your drink and check on you in a bit. Just flag me down if you want to start a tab or close out right away.”

I appreciated the peace to sit with the new information I’d learned. It seemed I wasn’t the first human to randomly stumble upon Sanguine, nor would I be the last.

The prepper community I’d run into my first time seemed like they’d been here for several generations.

A couple hundred years or so. I wondered if their ancestors had been occultists or something, searching for a supernatural world.

Or if they had been like me, and stumbled their way into Sanguine completely by accident.

After sipping my drink for a few minutes, a commotion drew my attention toward the VIP loft.

The women were raising their voices, shouting and arguing loud enough to be heard over the music.

They appeared to huddle around something, packing in tightly with their backs facing me.

The couch where the two men sat was now completely hidden from view.

All at once, something made the women draw back with a collective gasp. A man surged to his feet, his head and shoulders visible above the crowd closing in on him once again. My muscles locked with tension at the sight of his face. Even from a distance, I could tell he wasn’t human.

The sight of him stopped my breath. He was definitely a vampire. Even taking that into account, he was…something else.

His eyes were on the lighter side of the red spectrum, a bit more magenta than true red.

He was tall, with bone structure that looked straight out of an illustration or a Greek statue because it was too beautiful to be real.

His hair was a pale ash blond, cut close to his scalp with longer, messy waves on top.

I couldn’t stop staring, and not only because he was beautiful to look at. My instincts prickled on high alert, and I didn’t want to take my eyes off of what was surely a predator.

There was something feral about him, an untamed wildness in his gaze. A sharpness to his features that indicated hunger and struggle. He wasn’t gaunt by any means, but this vampire almost looked more animal than human.

Whatever he hungered for didn’t seem to be in the beautiful women surrounding him.

His lips peeled back in a snarl, exposing long, white fangs.

I could almost hear the growl rumbling in his throat.

A feminine hand reached out to him, looking like it was going to caress his jaw or neck, but he smacked the hand away like it was a fly buzzing around his head.

The effect rippled throughout the crowd of women.

Some drew back in fear while others made their way closer to the vampire, willing to take their chances.

The more they crowded him, the more agitated he seemed to become.

His friend, a darker-haired vampire stepped in, spreading his arms to create space as he tried to placate the women.

Then the feral vampire looked up.

Magenta eyes locked onto mine with laser focus and an intensity I couldn’t escape. He stared at me like the women surrounding him didn’t exist.

I knew then that the predator had sighted his prey. He’d found what would curb his hunger. That gaze showed no intention of letting me go.

Deep, hindbrain instincts told me to run. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to move. I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if this beautiful, dangerous creature captured me.

The vampire pushed his way past the crowd of fawning women as if they were curtains in a doorway. He gripped the railing at the edge of the loft, large hands and broad shoulders bunched with tension as he stared down at me.

He only stared for a few seconds before he vaulted over the railing, the movement as quick and fluid as an Olympic athlete. Before I could make a sound or react in any way, he landed lightly on his feet.

Red eyes ablaze and a fanged smirk on his mouth, he started toward me.