This Side of the Grave (#5 Night Huntress)

“I’m really sorry about what happened before, but we won’t even bend a drink straw the wrong way this time,” I chimed in, giving Verses my most
winning smile.
“Indeed,” Bones added, his own grin widening. “On my honor, mate.”
“And on your credit card, if anything so much as gets dented,” Verses shot back before letting out a grunt. “Fine. Come in, but don’t make me
regret it.”
At first glance, even people who couldn’t feel the vibrations that the undead patrons gave off could guess that Bite wasn’t a typical club. For one,
the random bursts of lights across the ceiling were far more muted than in a normal club, plus the interior was darker than what legal guidelines
would allow. The music also wasn’t painfully loud to my ears, another concession to the heightened senses vampires and ghouls had.
But the most notable difference was that the bars weren’t the only places where patrons could get drinks. In booths, on the dance floor, and even
in corners, couples held each other in embraces that, upon closer look, were more predatory than passionate. The scent of blood flavored the air
with a faint, coppery tang, probably tickling Bones’s taste buds but doing nothing for mine because it was human blood, not vampire.
“How long do you want to wait before we split up?” I murmured to Bones once we were away from Verses. If Bite’s owner did still happen to be
watching us, we couldn’t have him getting suspicious if we immediately separated after we’d stressed that we were here just for recreation.
“Let’s start with a few drinks. Then perhaps you can go powder your nose and take the long way back. After that, I’ll find someone to take a nip
from, and I’ll be quite picky about my choice,” he replied in equally soft tones.
Sounded like a plan to me. After all, both of us would recognize the reporter on sight, if he was here. I let Bones lead me to the bar, glad that so
far, only my thoughts rattled around in my mind. I hoped with the high percentage of patrons in this club being undead, if I did start picking up on any
stray thoughts, I wouldn’t feel overwhelmed like at the mall. Guess there were benefits to frequenting places filled with my own kind instead of having
mostly humans around me.
My own kind. How strange that I felt that way now. I’d spent the first sixteen years of my life not knowing about my mixed heritage, then the next six
years hating vampires until I met Bones. Now, at twenty-nine, I’d been a full vampire for less than a year, but I almost couldn’t remember what it had
been like to think of myself as human. I hadn’t felt that way since my mother first told me why I was different from everyone else.
“Gin and tonic, plus a whiskey, neat,” Bones told the bartender.
Oddly enough, that made me smile. Some things didn’t change, after all.
Chapter Eight
I was on my way back from my third trip to the bathroom, thinking my nose couldn’t be less shiny and being glad public toilets were no longer a
necessary evil for me, when a shout jerked my head around.
“Let me go!”
Even above the music and the other noises, the words were distinct. I switched directions and headed toward the source of that cry, realizing it
came from the booths in the far corner where I’d first met Bones. A cluster of vampires gathered in a circle, their backs to me. They had someone in
the middle of them, and from the sounds of it, whoever it was wasn’t happy.
“Get your hands off me!” came another yell, too shrill for me to tell if I recognized who was speaking.
“You know the rules. Take it off the premises,” the DJ boomed out. He didn’t sound too concerned about what would happen after that, I noticed.
I reached the vampires just as they shoved the screaming man out of my line of sight. From the frantic internal thumping in his chest, he was
human.
“What’s going on, guys?” My voice was casual and I kept my hands off the silver strapped to my upper back. After all, I’d promised Verses we
wouldn’t break his rules this time.
One of the vampires gave me a hostile glare. “None of your business, Redhead.”
Bones came into the area, obviously having heard the disruption and my involvement in it. He smiled at the group of vampires, but that wasn’t
what made them stop to give him their full attention. It was the power Bones unleashed when he dropped his shields and the full weight of his aura
blasted out like a geyser, swirling the air around him with invisible currents.
“I believe my wife asked you a question,” he noted in a deceptively light tone.
It was very unfeminist of me, but the expressions of wariness that settled on their faces had me biting my cheeks to keep from laughing. Just
realized having several of your buddies around doesn’t mean you have the upper hand, huh, boys?
“The human’s a spy,” the one who’d snapped at me said to Bones in a much more respectful manner. “I’ve seen him coming in here before,
asking questions about our kind . . . now we caught him taking pictures. You know we can’t have that.”