by Meg Xuemei X
“What about?” he asked impatiently.
“Sorry, but I can’t tell you about the true nature of the business. I was referred here.”
“Referred by who?”A trace of a Russian accent rolled off his voice.
“Can’t tell you that, either.” I managed to give him a condescending glance despite his height.
He narrowed his eyes, but I kept a bland, steely mask in place. If this was the demeanor he’d accept, then I’d give it to him.
“Your boss is expecting me,” I added haughtily, “as I was told by my contact. You don’t want to be fired from the job if you mess this up.”
My plan was to get in the door first. When he went to check with his boss, whoever he was, I could follow him in. If his boss said the meeting wasn’t in his schedule, I could always blame Tony, my phantom contact.
I’d learned early on that sometimes you had to bluff your way through life.
The bouncer stared at me hard, and I stared back harder, a fist pressing against my hip to add the effect. He suddenly grinned fiendishly, revealing a row of fangs, and opened the door wider.
“Be my guest,” he said.
I’d been acting super cool a moment ago, and now my heart started pumping erratically again. I still had time to back off, especially when I saw the bouncer’s horns appearing again.
Most dangerous club. The other kind of patrons. High-paid. Becca’s cousin’s words pounded in my ears. The images of Baron, Rowan, and their Fae gangs rushed by my mind. There was another world out there. What if this club gathered crowds like them?
I’d survived them. I’d driven away a Nightling. I should survive this place, too, shouldn’t I?
“You in or not?” the bouncer asked, that fiendish smirk on his wide lips taunting me, as he saw my hesitation. “This is a one-time offer, girl.”
Then the word high-paid got me at last.
“Of course I’m in, man.” I dashed in before he closed the door in my face.
Loud music crashed into my sensitive ears instantly.
“What’s your name?” I shouted over the music. “Where is your boss?”
“You can call me Crogulogu Morgonron Kuscrico Madoofe, Junior.” He pointed at the bar in the back of the club with his thick finger and flashed me a wolfish smile. “You can go there to ask about the boss, little girl.”
At that instant, I realized that the bouncer knew exactly that I’d lied, played me, and lured me in. I’d offended him and he wanted to teach me a lesson on his turf.
I darted a quick backward glance at the door, only to register another equal-sized bouncer had blocked the exit. But at least, that one didn’t bear horns.
But I knew I wouldn’t get past him without losing a few fingers or a limb.
There was no going back now. I scanned the club, my throat parched and my ears ringing louder than the music. I swallowed and tried to even my breath and heartbeat.
It was daytime, but patrons already filled half the club. I clenched my teeth to keep my jaw from dropping as I spotted different species all around. Patrons with various fangs, claws, furs, horns, pointed ears, and glowing eyes lounged in the booths, loitered around the lobby, hung out at the bar, or wiggled on the dance floor.
There were young women as well, humans like me, sitting on the fanged patrons’ laps and entertaining the males of other kinds.
I wasn’t sure now I wanted to work here. I didn’t come for that type of job, not that I was judging those girls. Each to their own. I just wasn’t the entertaining type since I was horrible at that. I expected others to entertain me instead.
I darted a look at the door again before I averted my timid gaze. I couldn’t afford a mishap in a place like this. A lot of heads had turned in my direction, knowing I was the new arrival. From the predatory looks in those eyes, I was fresh meat.
Magic practically rippled in the air, powers of a variety of calibers making the air thin and tight. I had no idea what kind of magic these creatures possessed or which power belonged to whom.
I’d never felt so uncomfortable and edgy in my life. Then it dawned on me that I had indeed stumbled into a lair of monsters, and in here, humans were probably at the bottom of the food chain.
I’d thought I was prepared and tough. I put on good makeup. I wore a chic tank top with fit dress pants. And there was a hidden dagger in my slender boots.
I’d assumed I’d fit in with my sharp wit and badass attitude, like a pro bartender should be, only to realize I was way over my head in this world.
The bouncer with the ridiculously long name—I wasn’t even sure if he was bullshitting me or not—flashed me a new impish look, judging me exactly as I was now reevaluating myself. The bastard had nailed me good, putting me on the plate for today’s main entertainment course.
Even the other human girls, dressed gorgeously, on those men’s laps tilted their heads to study me critically, trying to estimate if I was the new threat to their status, if I would steal their clients. Some of them laughed lightly, dismissing me. Yet some still watched me, waiting for an explosion of drama.
Not one of them would come to me to offer a hand or an exit strategy. Not that I expected them to.
I was the deer caught in the hunters’ trap.
I couldn’t run. If I did, they would get the thrill of chasing and hunting me. I’d learned that since the day Dad had trained me to be a hunter.
I swallowed hard. What had I gotten myself into this time?
There was only one way to go through this—proceed.
I leveled my gaze and looked ahead, ignoring every mocking, greedy, calculating stare, and strode toward the bar. My boots clicked on the floor, uncomfortably loud.
Vicious laughter trailed after me as if everyone could see through my act. I bet they could. I wasn’t their kind. I’d been sheltered my entire life until my parents vanished without a trace, until it was my turn to shelter my younger siblings.
My gaze locked on a spiky short-haired girl in leather behind the bar. She had inked tattoos all over her muscled body, including a wolf’s paw on the left side of her face and a red blade on her right temple.
She looked meaner than the bouncer. And I bet that was why the fucker sent me to her.
Chapter 9
I wrinkled my nose as I sauntered to the long bar. Instead of the traditional gleaming dark wood, this bar glowed white under the dim lights, like it had been carved from ivory. The smell of strong alcohol, cologne, sex, and the aroma of all sorts of species assaulted my sensitive nose.
“Do I smell?” The female bartender asked sharply after she finished yelling at a large, scary-looking dude perching at the corner of the bar.
Her eyes nearly glowed yellow. Beastly power radiated from her and raked at my skin. Not a human then. She didn’t have pointed ears, though, so she might not be Fae.
What was she?
Every head in the bar snapped to me. Some laughed at the bartender’s question, only to drop their laugh at her glare. A few patrons stared at me, waiting to see how I’d answer.
“No, it’s not you, chick.” I shook my head. “You’re fine. It’s this place with so many different types of A-holes. I don’t know how you stand it.”
She chortled.
“You think I smell, then?” A man who looked like a supernatural weight trainer with a tattoo of a woman’s breasts on his bulky arm stepped toward me.
He towered me by a head, and I noticed that his hands were clawed. He’d be my first trial to settle how the others treated me here. I had a feeling that bouncer probably encouraged this bully to pick on me.
I sniffed mockingly. “You do, like many others here.”
The bartender now laughed in delight.
The clawed man looked surprised at my daring for a second.
“I’ll give you one last chance, little human whore,” he said. “Beg for forgiveness and suck my dick good, and I’ll forget this.”
“You’re the second dude who’s asked me for a blowjob to
day,” I said. “The first one didn’t like my answer too much. You won’t either.”
“This isn’t your regular bar, human cunt,” he said. “But your daddy is all horned up, and you’ll serve it good.”
A few big men stood behind him, waiting in line to try my free, forced services. The leading man reached for my butt with his clawed hand. I sidestepped, faster than he could expect, and whipped out a tiny bottle of homemade pepper spray from the back pocket of my pants. The pepper spray was meant for Rowan and Baron if they didn’t behave next time.
I shot the pepper liquid into his eyes. He screamed, stumbled back, and crashed to the ground, nearly poking his own eyes out as he rubbed furiously with his claws.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Did it hurt that much?”
“What did you spray him with, bitch?” A man behind him wanted to know.
“Carolina Reaper, the world’s hottest pepper with two point two million S-H-U,” I answered truthfully. “This species is bred for heat, a cross between a Ghost pepper and a Red Habanero. Imagine touching your eyeballs with something two hundred times hotter than a jalapeno pepper. That’s how your pal feels.”
I scanned his buddies, their jaws still dropped. Even the bouncer with the long, stupid name dropped his big jaw at my knowledge of peppers. I planned to plant all sort of peppers in the backyard after I got my parents back and we didn’t need to move or run anymore.
“What can I say?” I shrugged. “I’m a sucker for quality. I traded my brother’s favorite comic porn for Carolina Reaper. He’s going to kill me if he learns about that.”
“I’m going to kill you, you whore!” the man on the floor howled. His bloodshot eyes squinted up at me, rage written in his expression.
I kicked him in the face. “They say you shouldn’t kick a man when he’s down, but I’m a bitch plus a whore, as you and your pal called me. Besides, didn’t you insist on teaching me how to please a man? So, I had to oblige you. Let me please you, my furry boy. Pain is pleasure.” My boot landed on his mouth and I heard a crack. “By the way, I’m dirt poor. Even if you sue me, I can’t pay for your dental bills.”
The bouncer stalked toward me, and I looked at him, then at my pepper spray.
He shook a fat finger at me and snarled. “Dare you to use that on me!”
“Fine, I plan to conserve my resources, anyway,” I said. “I didn’t start the fight.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” he said.
“Don’t you dare to spoil my fun, K,” the bartender, who had been laughing like a banshee, shouted behind me and slid her ass onto the bar. “Let the human girl play. You want your patrons to have a good time? She’s giving them one.”
“Indira, the boss will—”
“I’ll face Rydstrom’s wrath,” Indira said. “And if he wants to cut my paycheck, so be it.”
“He won’t just cut your paycheck if you anger him,” K said, then shook his head. “I’m gonna toss out the douche. He’s down, so he’s out of the game.”
So that was the club rule—winners took all?
K dragged the fallen man, who was still howling, behind him. The ring of onlookers opened a path for K to take his victim out.
“Shit,” I cried in dismay, suddenly realizing that I was doomed. “So I screwed up the last chance to get hired here?”
Indira’s tattooed face scrunched with confusion. “Get hired?”
“I came for a job interview,” I said exasperatedly. “I want to tend the bar like you. I can help you lessen the workload, since it looks like all the meanest douchebags in the city are here. I can even work in security as you can see that I’m resourceful and capable, as long as the pay is good. I hope I didn’t come here and put up with all this stupid shit for nothing. I have a life, you know.”
Indira arched a brow just as three men lunged at me. They got too close for me to use the pepper spray, believing I wouldn’t be able to defend myself against multiple attackers.
The truth was that I didn’t need my Carolina Reaper to do proper damage.
“Bring down the bitch,” one of them yelled and all of the attacking men’s eyes glowed yellowish light. Damn, just as I suspected. None of them belonged to the human race.
I swept over the bar and threw glass and shots at the gang. Then I grabbed the edge of the bar, using it as an anchor as I leveled up my body. My boots lashed out with a round-house kick. Though I wasn’t able to kick down the beefy men, they all staggered back at the force of my dropkick. However, I didn’t come out of the fight unscathed either. One of the guys’ claws had slashed open my pants, revealing my creamy thigh.
I leapt onto the long bar in a crouching position and yanked my dagger out of my boot. I hissed at my attackers, aiming my dagger at their throats.
Their death might be my only way out, or I’d be carried out in a body bag. This wasn’t a human world and it had different rules which I had no idea of.
Indira snatched a hose and shot a stream of cold Coke into the faces of the nearest aggressors. “That’s enough,” she snarled, her fangs and claws out. “Fuck off now.”
“Who said it’s enough?” one of the pack dudes chuckled lewdly. “I say the fun has just started.”
“I say it’s enough.” A voice dropped like a bomb, deep, rich, yet more dangerous than midnight murder.
The club instantly silenced, like death had just arrived. Even the music seemed quieter.
I followed everyone’s gaze and stared up at a man standing on the balcony of the second floor, looking down like a king surveying his subjects. His dark gaze held mine, and I parted my lips like a star-struck teen.
His jet-black hair flowed to his broad shoulders and framed his savagely beautiful face. His sinful lips promised the wickedest pleasure. He was tall, large, and perfectly masculine, danger etched in every refined line of his hard body.
My breath caught. The man seemed to hold death’s door and decide who lived or died next.
That was his power, I realized. It traveled through the air, searching and condemning the victims even from the distance. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that bite of the whip. Everyone was struggling to get air into their needy lungs.
But when his power invaded my personal space, I casually shoved it away, just as I’d done to Baron’s and Rowan’s power, as if I was merely dusting my pet’s fur.
A hint of surprise flitted by the formidable man’s face, gone in an instant.
“Boss, I can explain,” K stuttered. “This human girl is very sneaky. I didn’t expect her to be such a menace—”
What? He blamed it all on me?
Just as I was about to open my mouth to rebuke the bouncer and present my defense to the club’s manager, the man’s power cut the air like a knife again, and I heard gasps all around.
“Bring her to my office,” he said in a clipped tone before turning back to the glass room.
A pair of black wings, the feather tips dusted with violet, brushed the doorframe then faded.
I blinked. Wings. Seriously?
Rowan had said that I had the Sight and that I could see through Fae glamour.
“He’s the manager, right?” I asked Indira in a whisper.
“That’s Rydstrom.” She looked at me with pity and whispered back. “You’re in a lot of trouble, girl. No one here has ever been called to his office before. But then no human girls dared to stir shit as you did. Keep your head down and your eyelids lower. Admit your fault and beg for forgiveness. That’ll be your way out.”
I glared at her. “It’s not my fault. I’m not even going to apologize.” I swept an accusing glare at K. “On the contrary, the club should apologize to me for the assault and pay for my dress pants. I got it on sale at Macy’s, but it still cost me two hundred bucks.”
I might have exaggerated a little. I paid less than twenty for it.
“You’re asking for the impossible, homegirl,” Indira said, rolling her brown eyes at me. “I like you, so I’m giving you one last piece of adv
ice before K takes you upstairs. Don’t speak before you’re spoken to. And don’t call Rydstrom a dude if you want to keep your front teeth.”
Chapter 10
I followed K up the stairs, the sharp clack of my boot heels echoing in the still club with every step.
K sent me an annoyed look over his massive shoulder.
“What?” I said. “I don’t want to insult your boss by padding up the stairs barefoot. This isn’t a family home. This is a club, a place for business.”
He sighed, and soon we were both at the top of the staircase. I squinted into the depth of the dim corridor, but two armored guards blocked my view. One of them peeled away from the office door. Faintly I caught his pointed ears.
Fae, then.
I waved at them to be polite, and they ignored me. The one who strode toward me told the bouncer, “Leave the girl here.”
Which meant this floor was off-limit to the bouncers as well.
K nodded and descended the stairs without sparing me a glance.
“Bye, K,” I said sweetly.
He stopped to glare at me. He probably thought I was taunting him. But after Indira’s warnings, I figured it would be smart to remember my manners.
I wheeled to the Fae guards. “Heya, should I knock on the door first?”
The one who stayed by the door gave me a blank look and rapped on the door with one knuckle.
“Send her in,” said a voice that could make my toes curl.
The guard swung the door open and nodded for me to enter.
“Thanks, dude,” I said, just to annoy him. People who took themselves too seriously didn’t like to be called dude.
I gave the lavish interior an onceover and whistled softly.
Both guards gave me a warning, stern look, but I had already ducked into the glass office. One of them closed the door gently behind me.
Skylights in the ceiling let afternoon sunshine sparkle on golden marble floor. Full glass walls overlooked outside and the club beneath us, but no one could look in. My heart leapt at the prospect that Rydstrom might have seen everything that had happened since K let me in.