“Nah, I know Dimitri. He’ll be here for hours.” The man studied her again and dragged her even closer toward his body. Tatyanna slammed against a hard wall, realizing it was his chest. He laid his hands possessively on her waist. “First time here? Why is that?”
“It’s my twenty-first birthday.” She grimaced, hoping she could be polite to the brute until someone came to her rescue.
“Twenty-first, huh? Then, you deserve a birthday kiss.” He leaned down toward her face, and let his hands slowly roam down her backside. Tatyanna had enough and slapped him before he could score. His eyes gleamed red, and he grabbed one of her wrists before yelping in surprise. He glanced down at her again about to say something, when all of a sudden he changed his mind. He bowed down to her, apologized, and turned around quickly only to run into the man Dimitri had been talking to.
“James, is everything okay here?”
“Yes, sir. Everything is fine, sir. I was just…uh…going to go…uh…back…uh…back there in the corner,” he said, pointing nervously.
The man didn’t answer, but simply nodded his head, and Tatyanna wondered about the man’s odd behavior. She didn’t dwell on it long and turned her attention back to him.
“I guess I should say thanks.”
“For what?”
“Coming to my rescue.”
He shrugged. “That wasn’t me. I’m Emmett, by the way. I bet you feel like you need to wash up. There’s a bathroom over near the booths. Wash your face, calm down, and I’ll have a drink ready for you when you come back.”
“How’d you know I wanted to use the bathroom?”
“I’m a bartender; it’s my job to know everything.”
Tatyanna looked at him skeptically. “Whatever.” She followed his directions toward the women’s restroom.
As soon as Tatyanna had walked away, Emmett stalked toward Dimitri, pulled him over to the bar closest to the door, and slapped him upside the head. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“What?”
“You brought her here, without even trying to disguise her?”
“I didn’t think anyone would know who she was.”
“James sure as hell did. He tried to come on to her.”
“What!” Dimitri exclaimed, looking around the room for the other man. Althea growled low in her throat. “Did he hurt her?”
“No. Funny thing is, she hurt him.”
“How?”
“She has a new surprise she will see in the morning. A protection of sorts.”
“What are you talking about?”
Emmett studied his friend for a moment, and then shook his head. “No, I don’t think you need to know just yet.”
“You’re withholding information from me?”
“You brought her here, without trying to hide her hair, and then ditched her so you could come to me and complain about how some jackass hit your precious truck. I think I have every right to withhold information from you since you majorly screwed up,” he hissed angrily. “Hell, Dimitri, you could have given her your baseball cap to wear. Why the hell are you wearing one anyway? What are you trying to hide?”
“Nothing, man. I just didn’t want people to talk to me when I was there. Anyway, what the hell is your problem? I think you need to work on your people skills. You’ve apparently forgotten several things while in your other form.”
“I have forgotten some things? You are the one who usually swears like a sailor. I’m surprised. You’re doing remarkably well.”
“Yeah, well, I’m in the presence of a Lady. I don’t want to scare her off.”
“No, but you practically sic’d James on her. You know how he is with women.”
“Fine. I screwed up. Happy now?”
Emmett brushed aside the apology. “Hmph. For now.” He glanced over to the bathrooms, and quickly asked, “So, do you think she is ready?”
“She sees Althea in her true form. She already feels like an outcast around her peers and her family. On top of that, her hair is blue, which is a sign she’s the one.”
“You’ve been with her for, what, an hour? Two, tops? And you think you know her? I’ve been with her for years, and she has yet to even see me in my true form. I believe she needs to comprehend a few things before we can say if she is ready, or not. We don’t want to shock her to the point she starts to rationalize everything she sees. She needs to accept the change, not question it.”
Dimitri studied his friend, letting out a long breath. “I hate when you’re right.”
As Tatyanna came back, she heard Emmett say, “I’m a bartender, I’m always right. It’s part of the job.”
“Always right?” she asked.
“Of course. I have to be, serving people all day long, every day.”
“All day long?” Dimitri asked. “Whatever. I’m lucky to see you when I come in, and I’m here practically every day.”
“Some people have lives outside this place.”
“I have a life,” he said defensively.
Emmett snorted. “Yeah, rebuilding that piece of shit truck you drive. You’re never going to complete it. You’ll get bored and move on to something new.”
“Will not,” he pouted.
“Will to. How many cars have you started to rebuild, and then have moved on?”
Dimitri refused to answer his friend, turning to Tatyanna. “You don’t like your drink?”
“Haven’t tried it yet.”
“Well, drink up. It’s your birthday. You need to celebrate it in style.”
“In style, you mean, by getting drunk?”
“I’ll make sure Cinderella gets home before midnight.”
For once, Tatyanna didn’t think about the consequences and downed her drink in several gulps. “I’ll take what he’s having.” She indicated to Dimitri’s beer.
Emmett watched her for a second before telling her no. “Have you ever had alcohol before?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought. Trust me. I’ll start you off slow, and you can work your way up to the hard stuff.”
“Okay,” Tatyanna said, taking a sip of her drink. She was disappointed to find out it was the same thing she had just consumed. But, as he said, he knew everything, and she chose to trust him.
Chapter Three
The Day After the Party
Tatyanna groaned and rolled over in bed, causing Tux to hiss when she accidently landed on top of him. “Sorry, Tux,” she mumbled, closing her eyes again. She was almost asleep when her sister came barging into her room.
“Wake up, Tat! I have so much to tell you.”
“Go away,” Tatyanna grumbled, pulling her pillows over her head.
Lilah simply moved the pillows to the side and jumped onto the bed beside her sister. “Where’d you go last night? You missed an awesome party.”
“I’m sure I did.” She grabbed the pillows again and burrowed underneath them, holding them in place over her head.
That didn’t deter Lilah at all. She snatched at the pillows, and the two sisters started a game of tug of war. “What’s that?” Lilah asked.
Tatyanna laughed. “Oh no. You aren’t going to fool me with that trick again.”
“No, I’m serious. What’s that on your wrist?” Her sister grabbed her arm to inspect it more closely. “You got a tattoo? That is soo cool!” she exclaimed.
“No…wait…what?” Tatyanna asked, confused, looking down at the inside of her right wrist. Surprised, she quickly let go of the pillows causing them to fling back and hit Lilah smack in the face. Any other day, Tatyanna would have laughed, but she was too mesmerized by her new tattoo and wondered when she got it. All she remembered last night was hanging out at some bar with Dimitri and then coming back here. She didn’t think she drank that much, but maybe she did after all.
“So, what is it?” Lilah asked, grabbing Tatyanna’s wrist back, pulling her sister toward her, so Tatyanna was almost on top of her.
“If you must know, it’s a phoeni
x.”
“A bird? Of all the things you could have gotten tattooed on your body, you chose some bird?” she asked, disappointed.
Tatyanna inspected the tattoo and knew it wasn’t anything ordinary. It was a simple, black, tribal phoenix but there was something special about it. She just didn’t know what it was. “Mythology states the phoenix is reborn from its ashes,” she mused quietly, again realizing she shouldn’t know that information. She would have to figure this out later.
“Oh, you mean like the bird in Harry Potter?”
Tatyanna smiled. If it were in a movie or on TV, her sister would be able to relate. “Yes,” she said as if talking to a little child. “Just like in the Harry Potter movies.”
Lilah thought about that for a moment and then shrugged. “Okay, I suppose that is cool. But you should have added some color to it, at least.”
Wanting to move on to anything other than her mysterious tattoo, Tatyanna picked the next dreaded topic, but one that was sure to get her sister’s mind on something else. “So, how’s Jon?”
Lilah scrunched up her face at his name. “Gone, thank goodness.”
“Oh? Things aren’t happy in paradise?” Tatyanna said sardonically. If her sister noticed the tone, she didn’t say anything. “When I left, you two were playing tongue hockey.”
Lilah leaned forward and dropped her voice, “To be honest, he wasn’t that good of a kisser anyway.”
“Why are you whispering?”
“Because it’s rude to talk ill of an ex-boyfriend.”
“Really? Since when?”
“He wasn’t that bad.”
“You just said he was a horrible kisser.”
“True, and he wasn’t even that good-looking.”
“So you barely even liked the guy. Why did you date him?”
“Because he drove a really nice car, and he comes from money.”
“Wow. That’s shallow.”
“And he promised to take me to Europe.”
“No comment.”
“You’ve never liked him. Why?” Lilah accused her sister.
“Because he’s barely twenty-two and he already has a receding hairline. He’ll be bald by the time he hits forty.”
Lilah giggled. “You are so right,” she said, taking on a Valley Girl tone. “I could never be with someone who wasn’t as beautiful as me.”
Tatyanna rolled her eyes and got out of bed to get dressed. “So, are you going to tell me what happened?”
“Well, we took a break and went outside, and he went ballistic when he saw his car.”
Tatyanna grinned, keeping her back to her sister so she wouldn’t see. “What happened to his car?”
“Okay, so at first, he starts to say someone randomly hit him, but it actually looked like someone took a baseball bat to his car. After listening to him whine about how much his dad was going to kill him, it comes out he hit somebody else on the way to my party. A party, I might add, that he was late for, and then he doesn’t even stop to make sure the other guy was okay. So I put two and two together, and I think the other guy came after him and sought out revenge.” She finished twirling her blond hair around her finger. All she needed was bubblegum, and she’d complete the airhead picture in Tatyanna’s head.
Lilah was gazing off into the distance for a moment as if she forgot what she was talking about and then her eyes focused, and she continued on about Jon. “So, Jon isn’t whom I thought he was. Turns out that the car he’s been driving isn’t even his, but his dad’s car. He was just driving it to impress me.”
“You honestly thought he owned a hundred grand car? Even I was suspicious.”
Lilah’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know anything about cars. How’d you know what it was worth?”
“Why do you think it was revenge?” Tatyanna asked sweetly, playing dumb.
Lilah was silent studying her sister, and her eyes lit up excitedly. “You met a guy! I so want details!”
Refusing to give in to her sister, Tatyanna repeated her question, “Why do you think it was revenge?”
Lilah huffed in defeat. “Fine, play coy. I will get the truth from you.” She shrugged and said, “I smelled some kind of animal pee all around his car, and I left that blubbering fool behind and went back into the house.”
“So, now, you are boyfriend free?”
Lilah leaned back on the bed. “I wouldn’t say that. I met this really cute guy…” After that, Tatyanna tuned her sister out. It was always the same story but with a different guy. She met a cute guy and he whisked her off her feet. She was the envy of all her friends…blah blah blah. And here Tatyanna was, officially twenty-one, and never had a boyfriend, much less a first kiss. Some people had all the luck.
Tatyanna waited several minutes, to be sure her sister was done with her story, and asked, “When are you going to see him again?”
“In three hours,” she answered dreamily. Lilah sat up, trying to fix her already perfect hair. “Three hours! I need to get ready.”
Tatyanna was confused. “You’re already dressed. What else do you have to do?”
Lilah looked down at herself. “This is my pre-morning outfit. This is not suitable for a date, and then I have to wash my hair until it shines and get a mani/pedi, and while I’m at it, I need to have a facial done. There’s barely enough time to get ready before he picks me up. I have to go.” She rushed out of her sister’s room without even a backward wave.
“Well, that was easy,” Tatyanna said, turning toward her cat, only to find he was no longer in her room. It wasn’t unusual for him to disappear, and he often did whenever Lilah was around. Smart cat. He knew how to move quickly and quietly. She only wished she had similar talents. Tatyanna didn’t waste any time. She finished getting dressed, dragging her fingers through her hair as she walked downstairs. She grabbed her keys, intent on going back to The Ghastly Web to find out exactly what had happened last night.
Tatyanna was surprised she didn’t get pulled over on her way to The Ghastly Web. She had to have broken every driving rule known to man, making it there in record time. She didn’t know if they would be open and who would be there, but she knew it was where she needed to start to piece together the night before.
She pulled behind the building and parked in the exact same spot Dimitri had the night before. Hopping out of her car, Tatyanna was feeling slightly better about being there in the daytime, rather than at night, but she felt like she was being watched.
As Tatyanna crossed the parking lot, she noticed a sign hanging at the entrance of the bar. When she got closer, Tatyanna saw it was an eviction notice, giving them thirty days before the bar would officially be closed down. She was surprised she hadn’t noticed it last night and stood there reading the whole thing.
“Never seen an eviction notice before, sweetheart?”
Tatyanna glanced over her shoulder and studied the man who had spoken to her. He appeared to be in his late twenties, maybe even early thirties, with a crew cut. He was tall, with wide shoulders. She envisioned him as a football player at one point in his life.
“How long has this been here?”
“Oh, I’m sure Emmett put that one up this morning.”
“It’s fake?”
“Of course, it’s fake. Not everyone is welcome at the bar, honey. We don’t want anyone here who doesn’t belong, so Emmett posts notices any time people start to get curious.”
“Oh.”
“Why do you think there are hardly any cars here? If this place were packed, it would raise suspicions.” The man peered down at her. “Unless you are unwanted….” he trailed off.
“No, I was here last night with Dimitri,” she said carefully, not understanding what he meant by unwanted.
The man opened the door for her and gestured inside. “Then, by all means, what are we standing out here for? Let me buy you a drink.”
“It’s ten in the morning.”
“Yeah, but I’m sure it’s nighttime somewhere. Come on. W
hat harm will one little drink do to you?”
Tatyanna resisted the urge to look at her wrist. “My mommy told me never to speak to strangers.” She opened the door, leaving him standing there, chuckling. She walked through the door and was surprised by how busy the bar was. Last night, it was practically dead, and today, almost every seat was filled. She gave her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness, and as soon as she spotted Emmett, she briskly walked toward him. She pinpointed him quickly, which was weird considering he was wearing the same outfit as the night before and could almost blend in with his surroundings. It was his startling bright green eyes which had caught her attention, reminding her of a cat’s eyes, the light reflecting off them.
Tatyanna walked toward him, trying to keep her cool, but lost it all when she neared closer and saw how carefree and relaxed he appeared. “I have a bone to pick with you,” she shouted, causing everyone sitting in front of the bar to turn to her. She was given the onceover, and everyone, save an older gentleman, turned back to their drinks and conversation.
The older gentleman was the only one to take a double take, and then a third. He placed a fist over his heart and bowed to her. “My name is Luka; it is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Tatyanna.”
Tatyanna was thrown off-kilter by the man’s reaction to her. He was treating her as if she was royalty, when, in reality, she was a nobody. “Umm… Thank you?” she responded back, unsure of what to do. She glanced at Emmett and his green eyes twinkled, almost as if they were laughing at her.
“Excuse me, Lady, for we have not been properly introduced. I am Luka Greywolf of the Greywolf clan, and uncle to young Dimitri, whom I heard you recently met.” Tatyanna could immediately see the resemblance between the two. Luka was at least a few inches taller than Dimitri, with dark circles under his eyes, but he had the same body build and dark blond hair that took on a mind of its own.
“Oh, is he here?” Tatyanna would have loved to talk to him again to find out what he knew about last night. She was convinced Emmett had either purposely gotten her drunk or had slipped her something. It was the only explanation for the new tattoo on her wrist.
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