Sin City Vampire Club

by Kristen Strassel

“Vampirelandia.”

  “That’s right. Every time I come outside the air burns my tongue. It’s a metallic taste. Blood, I assume. I’ve never experienced Bloodlust, but it’s thick in the air. The vampires of the city are in bad shape.”

  Gross. “We could’ve had dinner in the house.”

  Rainey shrugged. “I can taste it all the time now.”

  Which meant Embrace would be a war zone. “I wonder if that’s why Callie won’t let me talk to Tristan.” Or why Blade had made no attempt to contact me. His all-you-can-eat human donor buffet had backfired.

  “It’s very possible,” she said.

  Goosebumps covered my skin. I took a sip of tea, glad that we’d gone with hot over iced. I needed the heat. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea that we go to Embrace tonight.”

  Rainey brightened. “It never is.”

  “Stop. I’m half vampire, but who knows which half a bunch of hungry vampires will see. I don’t feed from energy like they do. And you’re not vampire at all, so if things are going badly in there, they could take whatever they can get.”

  Any relief that had spread on Rainey’s face was washed away with that dark realization. “What do you want to do?”

  “We need bodyguards.” I picked up our plates. Neither of us were eating anymore tonight. “We need to find Gabriel.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “WE CAN’T DO THAT!” Rainey followed me into the house. “That’s not how the vision went. He’ll come to us when he’s ready.”

  I turned around in the middle of the living room and Rainey almost charged right into me. “I’m ready.”

  She rocked on her heels. She had a head of steam coming into the house and she hadn’t been prepared to stop. “We have to wait until the visions tell me it’s the right time.”

  “Your visions aren’t perfect.” That sounded awful. I headed to the kitchen and I scraped the plates before putting them into the dishwasher. If I wanted Rainey to go along with my plan, I couldn’t leave any dishes in the sink. “How many years has he given you riddles? Warning you there’s danger ahead? It’s time for him to do something about it.”

  “We need him on our side.” Rainey rearranged the dishwasher. Her universe had a particular order to it. “We shouldn’t surprise him. It took him this long to make contact. We don’t want to anger him.”

  “You know how I got Callie to let me into the theater to rehearse? I asked her for it. Straight up. I didn’t beat around the bush or hint at it.” I shut the water off and wiped my hands dry. “She was determined to brush me off again. But I didn’t let her. I asked her for what I wanted and she gave it to me.”

  It seemed so simple. But it was the hardest thing in the world to actually do.

  “Okay.” Rainey sounded like she was out of breath. “But we have no idea where to find him.”

  “Last we left him, he was at Embrace.” It wasn’t much of a lead, but it was the only place we had to start.

  “We already decided it was too dangerous to go there.” Rainey frowned, not following my logic.

  “He went directly to the source of the trouble. Where else do vampires spend their time?” All the obvious places, like the theaters, were gone. It only left Embrace. But winter nights were long, and that left a lot of idle time for vampires. Idle hands were the devil’s workshop.

  Rainey shook her head. “I don’t think that’s the question we should be asking. Flip it. Where do angels spend their time?”

  “Where they’re needed most.” Which led us to the same place. “In the danger zone.”

  “Want to play tourist tonight?” Rainey wrapped a lock of my hair around her fingers and tugged it, and made leaving the house the last thing I wanted to do. Reverse psychology couldn’t work. “Head down to the Strip, watch out-of-towners do dumb shit in the name of YOLO, and see if there’s any guardian angels hanging around to save their asses?”

  “That sounds horrible.” I laughed. “But I’m in. I think we can narrow our search more than that.”

  “Oh yeah?” Rainey continued playing with my hair. It was still damp from the shower but she unraveled it from her fingers and started a braid. I loved it when she played did this. All her attention was on me. “What do you propose?” she asked.

  “No one would stay at the Flamingo if they knew what kind of hellhole it had been built on.” A true portal to the underworld. “Think about it. The angels have been here much longer than we thought. They neutralize the bad energy coming from the jail.”

  “Keeping the element of danger but giving people a safe place to act out on their fantasies.” Rainey met my gaze. “And it keeps the vampires in line. If they only had bad energy to feed from, the vampires in the city would be on a rampage. There’s only so long you can stay sane with nothing but negativity. I mean, look at Blade.”

  “Blade’s not crazy.” Most of the time, anyway. “He hates rejection.”

  Rainey rolled her eyes. “He needs to grow up. Thankfully, something’s been keeping him in check, especially since he was at Evil Ground Zero.” It made too much sense. “We’ve had guardian angels looking over us as long as we’ve been in this city.”

  FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE I was glad no one recognized me. But I didn’t pass up the opportunity to dress up. I missed the feeling of putting on something special before going on stage more than ever. Being the woman I was meant to be, even if it was only for the night. Of course, I left my pasties at home. Our two-week winter had passed, and I wore shorts and thigh-high socks now that I knew Rainey liked that combination so much, lace-up boots, and a fuzzy jacket. I left my hair in Rainey’s braid and put on makeup.

  Rainey wore leggings and a dress. Little things had stuck with her after she cast a spell to project herself as Callie. She wore dresses much more now, and she twisted one side of her hair back and clipped it with a flower barrette. I wasn’t used to her being so girly, but I liked it.

  The Strip was quiet this time of year, especially on a Tuesday. In two days, a long line of cars would snake out of the California desert and their passengers would descend on the city for a weekend of debauchery. But until then, we kept company with dazed tourists from the Midwest as they wandered around, drinking sugary concoctions out of plastic boots, and dancing to the cover band that played outside the hotel.

  The band wasn’t bad. Rainey and I ordered drinks and headed to the dance floor. Drinking wasn’t our best idea, but we exchanged our sobriety for the limited inhibitions the alcohol promised us. A couple guys tried to cut in on us, but our intended conquests were in a totally different realm.

  “Nothing good will happen until at least midnight.” I took Rainey’s hand and led her away from the bar when the band took a break. “That’s when the locals come out. That’s who we want.”

  “Where do they party?” Rainey asked. We never had much time for that, since I’d been involved in a show almost immediately after I arrived in the city.

  I racked my brain, trying to remember where the other performers liked to go. Bonus points if any of them were near the Flamingo. From time to time they invited me to go with them, but I always went home to Rainey. I already had the thing they were looking for.

  “There are a couple places on Paradise. Not close enough to walk to. Are you still okay to drive?” We only had one drink. But I’d been working out so much lately the sugar had gone straight to my head.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” She pulled her phone out of her little cross-body bag. “It’s still kind of early, but let’s head there anyway, and see if we can charm some of the regulars into giving us any inside info.”

  It was a crapshoot. We had no idea if Gabriel ever graced this place with his presence, but we knew his crew wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty at a dive bar.

  Calm washed over me every time I left the Strip. I never thought about what that meant before. There was a cluster of clubs I’d never been to, and I wouldn’t have known about if I hadn’t listened in on the other dancers’ stories backstage at
Cirque Macabre.

  The bar was the opposite of Embrace. Embrace was clean and luminescent—at least until the vampires got a hankering for a snack. Graffiti covered the walls in this club, and the stench of stale beer sucker-punched us when the door closed. Bare light bulbs hung from the ceiling, swinging from the impact of what I assumed was the first band of the night. Only a few groups of people dotted the room, and none of them looked familiar.

  “Get something that comes in a bottle, like beer.” Rainey clutched my arm. “Alcohol won’t be enough to kill whatever lives in this place.”

  It would be a long night if we didn’t find some clues soon. Neither of us cared for beer, so we ordered whatever was cheap, and turned toward the stage to watch the band struggle through their set. They were mangling cover songs, trying to put a punk spin on things that should’ve never had one. Rainey and I took turns wincing after each sip of beer.

  “How long do we wait?” she asked after she pushed her empty bottle toward the bartender. “We don’t even know what we’re looking for.”

  This place had the same vibe as the jail Blade had done hard time in, with a better smell. “People are showing up. Can you stomach another beer?”

  She grimaced, but motioned to the bartender to bring us another round. “I’ll be cursing your name when I’m at work tomorrow.”

  I nudged her. “I look forward to my punishment.”

  One of these nights I’d learn to be careful what I wished for. This was not that night. I spun on my stool and stared at the bar, hoping Blade didn’t see me. I grabbed Rainey’s arm, trying to get her to turn before our cover was blown.

  “What’s the matter?” She rubbed her arm once I let go.

  “Blade.” I tilted my head in his direction, looking nowhere but at Rainey like it would make us invisible. “Do you know any disappearing spells off the top of your head?”

  “Yeah, my car keys in my purse.” She laughed, then turned back to look at him. We were so, so screwed. “Why don’t you want him to see us?”

  “Yeah, Holly, why don’t you want me to see you?” Blade pulled a play out of Lennon’s book and moved too fast for anyone to see. Vampires didn’t fight fair. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Blade wasn’t the enemy.

  “I was looking for someone else.” I took a big sip of beer and then held the bottle with both hands. It was too tempting to touch him.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Oh really? Why’s that?”

  Because you will lead me straight into the waiting arms of temptation and kiss me stupid while my world burns around me. No, I couldn’t tell him the truth. “They owe me something.”

  “Anything I can help you with?” He put his hand on my knee. Rainey had her hand on my back. Speechless as their powers flowed through me, fighting each other before deciding they belonged together, I stared at the smoke rising from my stockings. When I peeked up at him, he was smiling in satisfaction.

  A black handprint would forever commemorate this moment.

  The band launched into an Immortal Dilemma cover. Blade sneered in the direction of the stage. “Can we go outside and talk? I can’t listen to them make this song worse.”

  Didn’t have to ask Rainey twice. “Absolutely.” She reached into her purse and threw a twenty on the bar. In a place like this, it covered both rounds and tip. Locals’ bars had that going for them.

  “Why are you here?” I asked Blade. I leaned against Rainey’s car and sucked in clean air.

  He hopped on the hood. Rainey glared at him, but if he noticed, or cared, he ignored her. “I asked you the same thing and you keep answering my questions with more questions.”

  I laughed. “It’s pretty infuriating, isn’t it?”

  “What are you doing, Holly? You have three guesses to figure out why I’m here, and the first two don’t count.”

  “You’re looking for new donors.” I didn’t want to know what happened to the others. He nodded. “We’re looking for Gabriel.”

  “Who’s Gabriel?” Blade narrowed his eyes at the mention of another man’s name.

  “The big guy from Embrace you heard talking about me.” Rainey pressed her lips together. “We need him.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Stop it.” Now he was trying to piss me off. “We want to talk to him. He’s not a vampire, they’re not vampire questions. Have you seen him again?”

  “No. Not since you were there.” Interesting. Blade turned his attention to me. “What else have you been up to? Your mailbox is full of messages you probably haven’t listened to. Want me to tell you what they say? I guarantee they’re all from me, unless you’re ghosting someone else, too.”

  Oh, shit. I didn’t want him to know I was working with his least favorite vampires in the city. “I’m not ghosting anyone, I’ve been busy training for the show.”

  “You got a new show?” He shifted uncomfortably on the hood of the car. “Congratulations.”

  His frown said anything but.

  “Thanks.” I wouldn’t offer any more information than I had to. I’d answer his questions, because I didn’t have time for playing games. “It’s not official yet.”

  Shut up, Holly.

  “Where’s it gonna be?” he asked.

  “Sin City Vampire Club,” Rainey answered for me. I’d kill her later.

  That murderous red tinge glowed in Blade’s eyes. It shined off the tips of the faux fur on my jacket, polluting everything it touched. That was exactly the problem. As much as I cared for Blade, he was toxic. “I’m happy for you, Holly.”

  “I’m excited to have another opportunity to be on stage.” I sounded like I was reading from a press release. What I really wanted to say was don’t fuck this up for me.

  He nodded, seeing right through my bullshit line. “We both want the same things.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “WHAT’S THAT?” I PULLED my glowing red jacket closer to my body, hoping his gaze would stop bathing me in creepy light.

  “Fire.” He hopped off the car. I couldn’t breathe as he approached me. “Control.”

  I took a step back. “I won’t let you ruin this for me.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? You’ve been listening to the wrong vampires. As usual. The ones who make rules that suit them and fuck everyone else, and the ones that punish others for no reason.” He was so close he should’ve been touching me. But he didn’t. My body was going haywire, begging for the flesh on flesh reaction. I throbbed somewhere low and dangerous. He raked his hand through his hair. “Callie Chabot is a selfish little girl who ruins everything she touches.”

  “Like you?” I could barely get the words out.

  Blade nodded. “I’m the exception to the rule. Her stupidity made me better. Stronger. Her envy will be her downfall.”

  He’d twisted the truth to suit him. That woman made him batshit insane, and it scared me. I needed them both, and I didn’t know how to make it all work. Either way, I was screwed. Without both Callie and Blade, there was no way to have the show and my fire. But to get the show, I had to start with the fire. It had been a long time since I’d played with it, and it wasn’t like riding a bicycle. Not that I knew, since I’d never been on one.

  If he told me anything, it was that there wasn’t an angel within earshot. Blade was pure evil.

  “What do you got for me then?” I asked. Rainey gasped and grabbed a handful of my jacket. I prayed it would be enough.

  Blade wrapped my braid around his wrist and tugged on it. My head jerked to the side and his jeans scraped against the bit of bare skin on my legs. His breath was so warm against the exposed line of my neck, only breathing because he wanted to. His hair brushed my cheek in the breeze.

  Wait, there was no breeze.

  Time had all but stopped in the parking lot. It drew the three of us together, bonding us, branding us. Rainey slipped her hand under my jacket. Her touch was cool and delicate on the small of my back. It complimented the strong grip Blade held on
my hair.

  It was like she knew he needed a rope to reel himself in from the fringes of Hell. He played there too often and he was becoming more monster than man.

  It should’ve made me love him less.

  Flames danced on the thundering artery in my neck. I would never forget this feeling. The burn, the sting, and then the comfort the fire brought me. Blade lapped it up. He tilted my head so I could see his smile, and the fire rolling off his tongue. Smoke surrounded us and the club disappeared in the haze. We were still in the parking lot and people’s voices were muffled in the background. I didn’t care if they could see us when Blade sank his teeth into my neck. Like any of them knew what blood meant to a vampire. And if they did, they’d never take that away from him.

  The snap and the connection—my favorite feeling. The completeness.

  He took what he needed from me as Rainey cupped my chin and kissed me. I had no idea when she started doing that; our lips moved together, guiding the flames. I had to be dreaming as I melted into the spark and the warmth of the yellows, oranges, and reds I missed so much. I wanted to reach out and touch them but I kept my grip on both Rainey and Blade. The heat was unbearable and I knew that meant I almost reached the blue apex, the cool relief that came with the color that matched Blade’s eyes when he was everything I wanted him to be.

  And it all vanished when Blade let go. Rainey topped off her kiss with a gasp. We had all the oxygen we needed, now that the fire had extinguished itself.

  He had to have put a spell on me. It was the only way to explain what happened. My jacket was fluffy and intact, and Rainey’s car showed no signs of damage. The only evidence I had was the sting of broken skin on my neck. By the time I touched the wounds, they’d closed.

  I was half vampire, half witch, and not at all human. It was never more obvious than that moment.

  A line had formed to get in the club sometime while that all happened. I scanned the crowd, wishing I could ask them if they saw... No, if they felt what had happened to me when the love of my life and the man that drank fire like water converged upon me for the entire world to see. Such an incredible exchange of energy couldn’t be kept a secret, but I couldn’t bring the words to my lips. I wouldn’t do anything that would push the taste of Rainey away. If it had been a spell, or a vision, or if I’d simply lost my mind and gone batshit crazy, I could live with that, rather than having that experience taken away from me.