by Jessica Gunn
That said, her statement to Keir hadn’t been exactly false. Keir was indeed a half-breed, a bastard son of the Summer Court. But he lacked the grace of faeries and held all the temper of a human who’d grown up sheltered from the supernatural realities of the world.
A human like me.
Keir lifted up his fingers and snapped them together. “Drinks please! For all of us. And maybe some snacks. This table is growing wearisome.” He threw a grin at Kristian and gestured widely to the half-dozen of us waitresses in attendance. “I’m sure they won’t mind you taking a nibble.”
Kristian’s expression remained stone-like: cold and neutral.
“Or a pint,” Keir said, his hands raised before him. “I’m not one to judge.”
A low growl sounded from Kristian.
Milani tapped her manicured fingers on the table, her diamond watch standing stark against her caramel skin. “Enough. Please, bring us drinks.” She motioned toward where I was standing. “And maybe offer yourself to the vampire king to silence the Summer child.”
I glanced over to Halley, my boss, with a questioning look in my eyes. What do we do?
Halley nodded to the bar, sending her brown hair tumbling over one shoulder.
“One moment,” I said to the group at large, hurrying to the bar on light feet.
I knew their drink orders by heart. Blood for Kristian, of course, though it had been garnished with some sort of cinnamon rim, which was…an odd choice. But who was I to judge how blood tasted with cinnamon? Maybe it was delightful.
Keir’s fruity drink meant for summer and beaches, topped with a dollop of whipped cream, was next. At first it seemed a strange option for a fae of the Summer Court, but given how sweet faerie wine and other fae beverages were supposed to be, I could only imagine it tasted like half the drink Keir was used to.
Then there were the other two players. Both Treya and Milani always ordered simple drinks of fine liquor. Whiskey on the rocks for Milani. Gin neat for Treya.
As I gathered their drinks, they began their first game of the night. I listened as they continued small talk over the dealer handing out cards. Keir was the loudest, which I assumed to mean he had a decent hand. The few times I’d seen him around the casino, all times unescorted—which broke the fae and human laws—Keir always got more gregarious and louder in proportion to the quality of his poker hand.
I wondered if his queen—his mother—knew that he came to the mortal weave unescorted so often that not only did the human authorities know him by face and name, but so did the waitresses here at Lunar Royale.
The dealer must have played the first card because for a moment the room grew silent before Keir spoke. His honey-coated voice filled the room. “I’ll raise.”
I finished making the rest of the drinks and balanced them all on a tray. Do or die time. Serving drinks was the only time anyone not in the game or dealing the cards was allowed on the players’ dais. I couldn’t speak, but there was plenty I could do with body language.
As I’d planned, I adjusted my skimpier-than-I’d-like outfit and climbed the few stairs to the players’ dais.
“Ah! Finally.” Keir clapped and reached for his drink behind Milani’s back.
I lifted my chin and smiled as genuinely as possible despite the risk involved with what I was doing. Luckily, Keir wasn’t my target. I gave a little curtsey as Keir snapped up his drink from my tray in a charismatic flourish.
“Thank you!” he said, smacking his lips after taking his first sip.
I lifted an eyebrow and actually had to bite my lip to keep from speaking—it was against the rules. But Keir’s gratitude—no matter how fake it might be—had caught me off-guard. Finally, I managed an exaggerated nod, making a show of winking at Keir before turning to Milani on my other side. I glanced at her cards as I set her drink beside her smooth-skinned hand, so quick that I was sure that no one not making a point of watching would notice me.
Ten of Clubs and a Jack of Spades. It wasn’t good with the first card the dealer had dealt. And I highly doubted it’d be a good hand after the other two appeared, either.
Milani nodded a thank you and I continued on, delivering Treya’s drink and sneaking a look at her cards as well.
Last but not least, Kristian. The vampire king. I set down his warm glass of fresh blood with a cinnamon rim right next to his hand, took a deep breath, and let my thumb run along his for a moment. His eyes slid up my arm, meeting my green irises with his own crimson red. He wore an expression somewhere between curiosity and complete recognition. The two vastly different emotions had me forgetting what I was even doing at the table. Forgetting my entire plan.
“Think that’s safe to do, love?” Kristian asked. “I’ve drank from staff for less.”
I gulped. Focus, Vera. I hadn’t touched him to provoke him, but to get his attention. Seemed I’d done that perfectly fine. It also allowed me to catch a glimpse at his cards. His hand was good. Better than most. I hadn’t seen Keir’s hand, but Kristian would beat the other two easily.
“I raise as well,” Milani said in my silence. “Leave the girl be. We have a game to play.”
Careful, Milani. Minutes before, she’d told Kristian to drink from me to silence Keir. Changing her tune so quickly was a tell.
Kristian raised his eyebrows a millimeter. A question.
I smiled sweetly. “It is my pleasure to serve. If you’d like to, then yes, you may drink from my veins.” I lifted my left arm, my hand palm up, pointing in Milani’s direction as discreetly as possible.
Everything I had just done—touching the players, speaking to them—was against the top rules for waitstaff. Even Halley wasn’t really allowed to speak to the players. In fact, from where she stood, Halley’s wide-eyed look was equal parts shock and anxiety, begging me to shut up.
I should. Shut up, that is. Kristian didn’t need my help, and he probably thought this a game. But if this worked the way I wanted it to…
“Vera,” Halley hissed from the side. I’d broken a rule to state an obvious one. If a client wanted to drink my blood, they could. No questions asked.
But my words hadn’t been entirely about my life-source.
Kristian held my gaze for a moment, his expression still caught between amusement and recognition. Then he shook his head. “Maybe later, love. Thank you for the drink.”
This time, when he said “love,” there was weight to it. Not in a charming, joking way. Not even flirty. But a heaviness that set my nerves on fire. A heaviness that reminded me of the man with scales from earlier tonight.
I backed away from the table and resumed my spot next to Cassie outside the players’ dais, the empty tray tucked beneath my arm.
After a few more cards dealt by the dealer, and folds by Keir and Treya, Kristian had won against Milani. She slid a few more poker chips from her pile to the center before Kristian claimed it all.
“Well played!” Kristian said as he began stacking the chips. He didn’t usher a single look my way.
Good. The last thing I needed was to be outed for helping one of the players win.
The dealer set up another hand and the game went on just as before. Keir wasn’t as loud this time around, although he did keep casting looks around at us on the outside of the players’ dais the entire time. I wondered why. The others hardly paid us any mind at all. Did he think one of us was going to call up the Summer Court to have him dragged back home?
Doubtful. After the meteor strike, the fae had come to our world. The vampires and werewolves and witches had been here all along, hidden and lurking beneath deniability and the desire of the human mind to ignore that which it couldn’t understand.
Faeries, on the other hand… there was no hiding them and the changes they’d brought—nor the changes we’d brought to their world. When both sides had realized that nature and technology and magic didn’t intertwine so well, they’d made rules. Namely, that fae had to be escorted on this side of the portals, and humans had to be escorted on their side
. Human military did the escort duty here. In the fae weave, it was their royal soldiers. Ambassadors did exist. And from time to time they could travel freely. Otherwise, movement was restricted.
Still, a few from either camp often made it across unseen. And Keir had made a living out of doing so, it seemed.
Except tonight, where he was absolutely down two losses.
Treya and Milani stayed in the game until the last round this time. They were now all deliberating on calling or folding.
I wasn’t sure what Treya or Milani had at quick glances. Milani was a hard read when she was silent, but she was currently paying more attention to her drink than her cards. Confidence. She had a good hand. Treya tapped her nails impatiently but didn’t speak up.
Hmm.
Without knowing what Kristian had in comparison, I couldn’t assist him. Least of all from down here. But in case he was looking—and I dared not actually peek to see if he was—I shifted my feet to point toward Milani. She was his only potential challenger this round.
“Fold,” Treya said at the same time the dealer began asking for any last folds.
“All right then,” Keir said. “Let’s see what we’ve got here.”
He, Milani, and Kristian all revealed their hands.
A grin spread across Kristian’s face. “Well, looks like tonight’s my lucky night after all.”
I couldn’t hide the smile curling my lips as Kristian scooped the entire pot of chips and coins toward his end of the table.
“What are you smiling about?” Cassie asked.
I whipped my head to her. “Shh. We’re not supposed to talk.”
Halley hushed us both.
“Okay,” Treya said as she pushed back from the table. “Enough of this playing for money business. Let’s get to what we’re really here for.”
“Can’t it wait?” Kristian asked her, his tone even despite her outburst. “We’re here for fun too.”
“And some lady luck, apparently,” Keir added, flashing his eyebrows. He laughed and drank from his fruity drink, looking directly at me over the top of his glass. “Maybe I can get some next?”
I could have sworn I heard Kristian growl momentarily.
“No,” Milani said. “You all have your drinks. We keep the dais clear from now on. No more distractions, no more interruptions. Is that clear?” She cast a glance over her shoulder. I thought it was for me at first, but her glare settled on Cassie instead. “If you think you can manage it?”
“I’ll take care of her,” Kristian said as he stood. “I’m feeling a bit peckish for something fresher.”
Cassie squirmed beside me. “Um—”
Kristian’s steps from the dais were calculated, smooth, and every bit as dangerous as a big cat in the jungle. “Easy now. This won’t hurt. I assure you of that.”
I couldn’t watch as Kristian approach her, but I knew what would happen next. A tilt of the head, a sinking of teeth into flesh. A few moments went by as Cassie made moaning sounds somewhere between pain and ecstasy. I’d never been bitten before, but I’d heard enough stories to know how painfully amazing vampire venom felt in the human bloodstream.
Then Kristian let her go and Halley was at Cassie’s side, helping her sit down at the bar.
Before he retook his seat, Kristian met my gaze once more and licked a drop of blood from the corner of his mouth.
A warning. One I received loud and clear.
I may have helped him, but we were not friends. And he would kill me for pleasure, sport, or malice all the same if given the chance.
Chapter 2
Kristian’s grin chilled me to the core as he returned to his seat on the dais. “I have an idea.”
“Oh, do you?” Milani’s eyebrow rose, but it was in absolutely anything other than amusement.
The vampire king nodded. He relaxed his frame into the chair as though nothing in the world mattered. Not his idea, his empire, nor whatever this important prize tonight was. “I do. I wish to make this more interesting.”
Treya’s bright eyes narrowed. “Is it not already interesting enough? Considering what we’re playing for, I’d say so.”
Milani lifted her drink in agreement.
Keir, on the other hand, perked up in his seat. “And how would you like to do that, Kristian?”
Kristian’s cool gaze found me once more. “Let’s invite another human to the game. This one.” He pointed a finger my way. “She watches us, has learned our ways of playing. I think it would make this more challenging.”
“Risky,” Treya said. “Risky is the word you’re looking for.”
I kept my eyes focused intently on Kristian’s and tried not to smile.
My plan was working. Step one: Get into the game. Step two: Win with enough money to hire safe passage out of the city into another with a whole new identity. New York wasn’t that far, and it would do. All I knew was that between being outcast from my family and the insanity of Boston, I didn’t want to stay here. But I also couldn’t travel alone and with nothing.
Milani tutted. “We won’t have a commoner in our game. I wouldn’t even have a human with us except that Treya controls most of our assets in Boston.”
There was a pointed, grating scrape of a chair, this time coming from where Treya was sitting. “If you’ve hated playing with me all these months,” Treya spat, flicking her hair to one side, “let me remind you what we play for. I do not enjoy the company of vampires and werewolves, nor that of fae without escort. But tonight is worth it.”
“We don’t like you, either,” Keir said, his words almost sounding like a child’s. But that was Keir’s own way of bluffing. The truth was: Keir could probably take anyone in here one-on-one with his fae magic—even if he was partially human. Maybe even all of them at once. He was one of the highest-ranking members of the Summer Court. Or at least half of him was.
My breathing quickened, shallow and light. Excitement and nerves bundled into one. I gripped the tray still tucked under one arm to keep grip on something solid. This was it. I was so close to freedom.
“Last I checked, we were here to play for a few things tonight,” Kristian said. “Peace in Boston, for one.”
That was a shot at Keir. He and all other fae without escorts caused daily unrest in Boston. Keir wanted to be able to move around the city without being watched.
“And an artifact as old as time,” Milani said, her tone as smooth as stone. “We’re aware of your fantasy, Kristian. All of your fantasies, unfortunately.”
An artifact? I barely kept the question to myself. Normally, only money crossed the table. Or favors. Never objects. Never magic.
And an artifact wouldn’t fit my plan. Unless… it was something more valuable than the artifact I already had in my possession. The one useless to me because I couldn’t use it and didn’t know who to really sell it to. Sure, I could have given it to the appraiser and taken the money then and there. But it was possible to get more for it than he had told me. The appraiser had said so himself. And for what I had planned, I would need all the money I could get my hands on.
That meant winning big tonight.
“That is the final pot,” Kristian said. “Let this human earn her place there. I know it’s a bit unorthodox, but I grow tired of this game.”
“Yes,” Keir said. “Because you’re winning. What can she even stake to make your dumb diversion worthwhile?”
Kristian turned on him. “She has something. I can sense it. Worst case, she folds with nothing more to bargain on the first hand.”
I gulped. What exactly could Kristian sense, the stone or my motives?
Could he sense both?
“And best case?” Keir still sounded unconvinced.
Kristian growled. “Let’s liven up our same old game, shall we? Or are you all scared a common human will win?”
I resented that. I might have been a common human, but I was still a person. And even if I didn’t necessarily think I mattered, I wanted to pretend it was tru
e.
“What do you say?” Kristian asked. I realized belatedly he was asking it of me.
I blinked, unable to respond. If my words came too fast, my heartbeat to match, he would see right through me. Slow, and I’d appear dumb and inattentive. “If you want me to join, I will.”
Halley hissed my name in warning. But even she couldn’t stop what Kristian had set in motion.
Kristian grinned wickedly. “This is wonderful! Everyone, grab your drinks and retake your seats. It’s time to shake things up.”
I shot a look to Halley. She glared in response. Not angrily, but in an overprotective mother sort of way. By entering this game amongst Boston’s titans, I was endangering my life in a million ways. None of them immediately tangible except for the light reflecting off Kristian’s pearly white, elongated canines as he grinned.
Still, a gentle calm washed over me. A sense of rightness.
I could do this. And when I won, I’d be even closer to the end of my plan. To freedom.
I set down my tray on the bar and slowly approached the table on sure feet as a few other employees moved things around to accommodate a fifth chair. I pulled a deep, settling breath into my lungs and waited to be dealt in by the dealer. Another Lunar Royale employee. Even he, who was not supposed to show bias in any way, was looking at me like I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life.
Maybe I had. But life was too short to play it safe. And to be completely honest, I was looking for something more than what I’d been living. My only goal until now had been to save up my paychecks and to get out of Boston one day, although I had no idea what’d be waiting for me when I finally did.
It had to be better than what I was doing now. Living in vague obscurity and risking my life every night at a casino for mostly supernatural clientele. Scraping by due to the perceived shame I had “apparently” brought upon my family. They sure saw it as shame. I saw all of the noble elite in Boston as inane. Still, it had made me a nobody in the end.
Tonight, I was anything but a nobody.
“So, child,” Milani said, regarding me with her golden-brown eyes as she brushed a section of her long, dark hair back over one bare-skinned shoulder. “Have you anything to bet?”