Holy smokes, I wanted this guy. He was like a cosmic punishment sent to torture me. The thought of finding a new job had crossed my mind more times than I could count in the last year because of my desire to have him, but I couldn’t force myself to quit. I couldn’t deny myself the pleasure of seeing him a few times per week while I worked behind his bar. I was selfish like that.
“Okay.” His brow lifted as though he was taken aback by my tone. Had I sounded overly bitchy and not realized it?
I flashed him a soft smile hoping it came off as genuine and not forced. “Thanks for double-checking though.”
His lips twisted into a weird half-smile and he nodded. “No problem.”
We stared at one another for longer than I liked. His aura shifted through a variety of colors. One jumped out at me. One that I couldn’t remember having seen before.
Green.
Normally green stood for jealousy. However, there was no reason for Landon to feel jealous. I chewed my lower lip as I stared at it flickering through his aura. Then it came to me. He felt insecure around me.
Great. Apparently I was causing him to have self-esteem issues with my mood swings and mixed signals. I dropped my stare and continued with what I’d been doing. Landon’s attention shifted back to his clipboard. I felt the loss of his gaze the second it happened. He walked away without glancing back at me, and I hated that things had to be this way between us. If I wasn’t decent at bartending, I wondered if I would even be working here at all.
Sage nudged me with her elbow. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” I continued wiping down the taps.
“Pretend you don’t want to jump his bones.”
I shook my head. “I’ve already told you a million times why, not that I should have to explain it to you at all.”
Sage should understand where I was coming from, but she didn’t. I knew she didn’t. She was a little wild and carefree when it came to all things, not just feedings. Honestly, if I wasn’t on her good side, I might be scared of her. The girl could be bipolar at times.
“It would be nice to see you with someone you actually want to be with for once is all I’m saying. I don’t know why you think you don’t deserve to be happy now that you’re a succubus.”
“Sage.” I glared at her. “You know why that person can’t ever be him.”
She turned to face me, her perfect brows touching her hairline. “Why not? I don’t understand why you deprive yourself of all the best things when you have them at your fingertips.”
“He’s too nice, and I like him too much to date him. I’d worry something might happen, that I wouldn’t be able to stop with him.” I resumed my cleaning.
While that was a big factor, it wasn’t the only reason. Even if it was the most important one, one more lurked in my mind, all dark and gloomy when I thought of Landon and I being together. How I might never know if he truly liked me for me, or if it was just part of the stupid allure thing I had going as a succubus. Not knowing if it was real for him would kill me.
I turned to make sure all the bottles of liquor on the shelf behind us were lined up with their labels facing the front.
“Which reminds me.” Sage nudged me again. “I heard what happened between you and my friend Dex last night.” There was a grin on her face, one that didn’t settle well with me. It was too big, too wide, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d heard.
“What did you hear?” How we had prolonged this conversation for so long I wasn’t sure. It shouldn’t have slipped my mind the way that it had.
“That you didn’t hit it off.” She shoved me lightly, her grin still wide and unbelieving. “Why the hell not? He’s hot and funny, totally someone I figured would get that racing libido of yours into full swing in an instant.”
My jaw slacked. “Racing libido?”
“Yeah, I assumed it must be racing since you find yourself heavily sucking face however many times a month with random guys.”
“Um, no. Not necessarily.” I hated this conversation and all the dreadful places it was headed.
Sage tipped her head to the side and eyed me. “Have you even slept with a guy since you were awakened?” she whispered. “I can’t believe we haven’t talked about this until now. I just always assumed you were getting more action than me.” A slight edge to her words made me wonder if she’d secretly been envious of me because of that thought. If only she knew how wrong she was. “But now that I see your face turning the color of a ripe tomato, I’m wondering if I was wrong.”
My stomach hardened. Heat prickled along my neck, running up my face as I thought of how to answer her without sounding lame. How were you supposed to tell someone it had been over a year since your last sexual encounter because you were scared of what could potentially happen to the other person?
I shifted the last bottle into place. “Topic shift, please. I really don’t want to go there tonight.”
Sometimes I swore I needed a code word with her. People who did kinky things in bed used them, why couldn’t I have one with her so that when our conversations dipped into territories I didn’t feel comfortable, I could toss the word out there and she would know to either shut her mouth or change the topic quickly?
Sage tossed her hands up in surrender. “Okay, fine, conversation dropped. Is there any chance you want to hang out with Dex and me tonight? He said you two ended things on good terms. We’re going to that new club opening downtown.”
I vaguely remembered her mentioning something about a new club. “What was that one called again?”
“Red River.”
“Right, and you and Dex are going together? Is it a date or something?” I knew the two of them hung out on occasion, but I wasn’t sure what their status was. For all I knew, they could be friends with some damn good benefits. “I don’t want to be a third wheel or anything.”
“No. We’re friends and that’s it. I wouldn’t have attempted to set you up with him if we were more than that. Trust me; I’m not down for sharing when it comes to guys, ever.”
I believed her. Sage enjoyed being the center of attention way too much. “All right, I’ll come.” I had plenty of other things to do, mainly the covers I needed to create, but a night of dancing sounded fun, and fun was something I felt I could use more of.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I smoothed my hands along the skintight dress I was wearing as I stared at my reflection. I hoped that it would meet Sage’s sex vixen expectations. She had taken it upon herself to remind me I needed to wear something scandalous that would make everyone pause and stare. She was hell bent on hooking me up with someone tonight. This red dress had been the first thing to pop into my mind. If it didn’t say scandalous with its barely there coverage, I wasn’t sure what would.
Deciding to run one more swipe of eyeliner across the top of each eyelid, I created a curve at the corners to give me a cat-like look. The ding of my doorbell startled me. My hand jerked creating a thick black line from the edge of my eye across my cheek. I set the pencil down and reached for a piece of toilet paper. After wetting it, I wiped my cheek while walking down the hall to answer the door. Sage was supposed to be picking me up. Whenever we went out somewhere she always insisted on driving.
I opened my front door still wiping my face. “Hey.”
“Hey. What happened to you?” Her face scrunched up as she took me in.
“A makeup blunder.” Leaving her standing at the door, I headed toward my bathroom to see if I had gotten it all off.
“Well, besides the black smudge you look great!” she called after me.
“Thanks.” A satisfied smile twisted my lips.
I felt good in this dress, better than I thought I would considering how short it was and the open back. I enjoyed dressing up from time to time, but had learned early on that, with this whole succubus thing, it wasn’t a necessity. I could wear my flip-flops and jeans and still snag a guy to feed from.
“What heels are you wearing?” Sage
leaned against the doorframe of my bathroom and watched as I wiped the last few traces of eyeliner from my cheek. “You should wear those sexy, strappy heels you have. The black ones.”
I chuckled when she added the black ones because there were no others to confuse them with. My shoe collection consisted of three pairs of heels, each of them in completely different styles and colors, one pair of sneakers, and about ten pairs of flip-flops.
“I was thinking about wearing those, but figured it might be too much paired with this dress.” I tossed my wet piece of toilet paper into the trash. “I don’t want to look trampy.”
“Trampy? No.” She waved my words away and shook her head. “Sexy as hell is more like it.”
As she said this, I took in what she was wearing—a leopard print dress that hugged her in all the right places, accentuating her slender, yet supple body, and a pair of heels that would cause me to break my damn ankle if I tried to walk two feet in them. Her hair had been braided in an intricate design that wrapped around to the other side of her head. It was fastened in a side ponytail with the rest curled into perfect silken ringlets. The only bold makeup she wore was her signature red lipstick, but even that looked perfect.
“Oh, you need one more thing.” She reached into the clutch she’d been holding and retrieved a tube of lipstick. “Here, give those lips some color.”
I took it from her and applied a light layer. After strapping my heels on, I switched the lights off as we made our way to the door. A sense of renewed energy coursed through me from the excitement of going out looking the way I did. I locked the door to my apartment behind us, ready to take on the night.
When we reached the parking lot, not only did Sage’s car come into view, but also Dex. He was leaning against her sporty car with his arms folded across his chest and a sly smile stretched across his face.
“Damn, ladies. I have to say, I must be the luckiest guy in the whole city tonight because you two are lookin’ fine as can be.” He brushed a hand along his chin as his eyes traveled the length of us. Confidence bloomed within my chest.
“Mmmm…Flattery.” Sage made a throaty sounding giggle. “One of my favorite things.”
I rolled my eyes, but knew how true her words were. I’d seen the skuzziest guys go home with her because not only were they into flattering and sweet-talking her the entire night, but they were also persistent. If I’d learned one thing about Sage during the length of our friendship, it was that she was all about someone vying for her attention and showering her with compliments in a persistent manner. The girl hated to be ignored.
This might make her sound vain, but it wasn’t her only trait.
If someone asked me to describe her in only two words I would have to choose kindhearted and self-centered. Sage was a walking anomaly, but that was why I enjoyed her company.
“Oh, I know, sweetheart.” Dex grinned. “Trust me, I know.”
I opened the back door of Sage’s car and attempted to slither into the backseat. It was a momentous effort to move into a sitting position, and breathing was a tad bit hard. Sage slipped into the driver’s seat with ease and cranked the engine on her badass car. Before Dex had buckled up, she was reversing and whipping the front of the car in the direction of the club. Every time I got in a car with her I somehow forgot she drove like a bat out of hell, but was always reminded within seconds.
The drive to Red River didn’t take nearly as long as it would have had I been the one driving. The second we came to a rolling stop outside a building with people standing in a line that was so long it wrapped around it, my brows furrowed. Red River was unlike anything I had imagined. While we searched for a parking space, I took the building in. I had envisioned a brightly colored shell with loads of neon lights and crazy looking people hanging around out front. In my mind’s eye, I had pictured Red River as something dark and freakishly sexy.
What I saw before me was anything but.
It was as cookie-cutter of a building as the ones you found throughout the city. There was nothing extraordinary about the dapple brick building. In fact, the vehicles parked in the lot were more impressive than the building.
“Damn.” Dex whistled as we walked through the parking lot toward the end of the line. “Look at that Aston Martin. Someone has some mega bucks to be drivin’ that beaut.”
I followed his gaze and spotted a sleek-looking silver car double-parked near the entrance of the club. The curvature of the front and the grooves along the driver’s side door made it appear futuristic.
Sage gripped my upper arm. “No way. He’s actually here.” Her words were an excited whisper that sent a zing of wonder through me.
“What?” I glanced around thinking that while I had been scoping out some car, I’d missed seeing someone incredible.
“That has to be his car.” Her eyes swept over the car once more. “Randal must be here tonight. I’d heard rumors, but wasn’t sure if they were true.” Her words were louder this time, but they still held an uncharacteristic sense of excitement.
“Who’s Randal?” Was she talking about the guy from Mystic, the inspiration for Dracula?
Dex scoffed beside me. I shot him a look and shook my head. I didn’t need him saying something about it being the same guy I had been drooling over during our date last night. Not only would it be an embarrassing thing to dredge up, but from the way Sage was reacting to just the thought of the guy’s presence, I was also positive that tidbit would piss her off.
She released my arm and fingered the curls in her ponytail. “One of the oldest, most respected vampires around. I knew he was the one opening this place, but I damn sure didn’t know he would be here tonight. He wasn’t at the one he opened in L.A.” There was sadness in her voice I found slightly out of character and odd.
Was Sage obsessed with getting a glimpse of this guy? Was he a freaking celebrity vampire? Well, apparently so, considering Dracula had been inspired by him.
She started toward the long line of people, leaving Dex and me behind. Her arms were held tight against her body, and her legs moved with pent up excitement. The possibility of him being inside must have really gotten her worked up. I’d never seen her buzzing with excitement like this before. She reminded me of a teenybopper waiting to meet her favorite celebrity.
“Wow, okay…” I trailed off. “She’s really into this guy.”
“I’d say so.” Dex extended his elbow to me. “We might be on our own tonight. I foresee her joinin’ Randal’s groupies and ditchin’ us for a chance to bask in all his sophisticated glory.” He said in a teasing tone.
“I guess so.” I slipped my arm through his and walked with him to wait in line behind Sage.
“Looks like we’ll be on date number two, and we didn’t even plan it.” Dex tipped his head and smirked. “If at any point you decide you want to take me into a back corner and have your way with me let me know because I’d be down for that in a damn heartbeat.”
“Dually noted.” I smirked.
“I’m so excited! I can’t believe he’s actually here!” Sage spun to face me and clasped both her hands on my shoulders. “This guy, oh my God, he’s sexier than sin, Kenna! I’m telling you.”
I let my breath out slowly. “I can imagine.”
“Can you?” Dex grinned.
I rolled my eyes, but didn’t answer him.
“How do I look? Do I still look okay?” Sage pushed her boobs up and smoothed her hands over her dress.
“Great. You still look great.”
She turned back around as the line crept forward a few inches. Dex nudged me with his shoulder and leaned in until his warm lips were brushing against the outer edge of my ear.
“Why aren’t you tellin’ her you’ve seen him before?” he whispered.
I shrugged. There wasn’t a reason; it just didn’t seem important that I’d spotted him at Mystic. Knowing Sage that information alone would break the friendship rules we had going, and she would be pissed at me for not mentioning it so
oner. She was weird like that. I figured it would be best to pretend I’d never met him and pray we didn’t bump into him, or that if we did he wouldn’t remember me from last night. After all, I couldn’t be the only succubus he’d ever seen.
I glanced around, searching for the vibrant red aura I knew my kind had. There were a handful intermixed with those waiting in line. At least I knew I wasn’t the only one here.
A group of people near the front of the line being turned away caught my attention. I was still wondering why, when two more from the next group were denied entrance as well. I didn’t understand.
“Why are they turning so many people away?” I whispered to both Sage and Dex.
“I’m sure they want the ratio of vampires to be higher than any other tonight since Randal is here,” Dex answered.
“Yeah, they aren’t just going to let anyone in tonight,” Sage agreed.
As we made our way closer to the entrance, I spotted two bulky guys standing at the doors dressed in solid black. It wasn’t their bulging biceps or chiseled features that held my attention, but their gray auras.
Demons, both of them.
I watched as they let in a group of female fairies, and then turned to their clipboards to check something off. Sage had been right; they were only letting in a certain number of each supernatural. I skimmed the different aura shades surrounding me. The majority were either midnight blue or golden. It had me wondering how many werewolves and vampires they had already let slip through. I hoped that they hadn’t met their quota yet because I didn’t think Sage would handle the news well if that was the case.
As we stepped closer to the demons at the door both of them seemed to zero in on Sage. It became apparent there was no way she wasn’t getting inside. I watched as the one on the right softened his expression and flashed her a charming smile.
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