Page 1 of Let Me Win You

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From around the corner of the building, I watched the crowd gathering in front of the dance hall… Um, no, they called it “a night club” or just “a club” nowadays. I had to remember that.

I shook my head, both annoyed and frustrated. Humans modified their language more frequently than they changed their clothes. It was hard to keep up, especially if one came to this world as infrequently as I did.

My brother Avar, the Sin of Greed, kept locked up both the transcendence potion needed to travel to the human world and the moonstone ring that gave one a mortal body to blend in with humans. Through careful planning and a little luck, I’d managed to acquire both and came here to findher, the woman who’d love me the way Madison loved Avar.

From what I’d learned about modern humans from watching them through the Pandora’s Box back in Purgatory, one of the ways to meet a woman was to “go out” to a place where single people could mingle unchaperoned. The club was the latest “it spot” in the city, and every eligible bachelor and bacheloretteseemed to strive to get in tonight. The crowd at the front door formed a long line that curved from the main street into an alley.

The cold wind blew between the tall concrete buildings, biting my fragile human skin like a blade. I pulled up the collar of my jacket that had cost quite a bit by human standards. Sadly, despite its high price, the jacket provided no protection from the weather. The freezing air made its way under the leather, chilling me to the bone.

A car pulled over from the busy street, and a couple exited. Pulling his female companion by her hand, the man confidently strolled to the door.

“I’m Sabine’s friend,” he said to the guard at the entrance.

Without slowing down, the man then sauntered through the door, leading his woman along.

“Do you have an invitation?” the guard yelled after the couple.

But the pulsing lights and the music from the inside had already swallowed them both.

I could walk all the way to the end of the line and wait in the cold to get in. Time was of no essence to me, but my human body might not survive such an ordeal. Besides, from what I’d learned during my research, women appreciated confidence. Here, in this unfamiliar world with its strange scents and sounds, feeling confident wasn’t easy. But I had mastered the art of imitation better than anyone.

Rolling back my shoulders, I smoothed a hand over my hair that the barber had spent a considerable amount of time to trim and style into a deliberately messy knot on the back of my head, assuring me that was the most dashing way to wear long hair nowadays.

Bracing the cold, I unzipped my tailored leather jacket, like the man who’d just entered the club wore his. The dark shirt I had underneath and the black pants were rather plain for mytastes, but I chose the clothes after carefully studying the current fashion trends. All pieces came from famous fashion houses and cost me a small fortune in gems and gold that I’d traded for the modern paper money for shopping. Humans valued their appearances, and first impressions were important.

Heaving a breath, I stepped out from the shadows and into the lights of the electric lanterns on the street.

The guard at the door was talking to the young woman who was first in line, and I walked past them like the other man had, as if I had every right to bypass the line.

“Um, sir?” the guard made a move my way.

“I’m a friend of Sabine’s.” I waved him off with an indulging smile, graciously forgiving him for his mistake of trying to stop me.

“Are you on the list?” His words almost drowned in the noise and music blasting from the inside.

I nodded, not slowing down my pace. The guard, the line, and the street were already behind me. The foul air of the night club engulfed me, rich with body odor, perfume, alcohol, and a trace of rodent droppings.

In front of me lay a room filled with humans, and one of them was destined to become what Madison was for my brother Avar.

Madison was supposed to be mine. I saw her first. But the greedy asshole that he was, Avar grabbed her before I got a chance. For a while, I’d plotted to take her from him. I’d fantasized that she'd see me as her rescuer and favor me over him.

Sadly, Madison fell in love with Avar. Who knew it’d take her such a short time to form a deep affection for my grumpy, anti-social, void of any charisma brother? But she did, and I was too late. I had missed my chance. If I took her away from him now, she’d despise me.

“Hey.” A man from a group next to me elbowed his buddy. “Wanna hear a joke?” He didn’t wait for his friend’s reply to continue. “So, two chicks die and get to the purgatory, and the ground there is solidly covered with ducks.”

Ducks?

That got my attention.

Why ducks?

It made no sense. There aren’t that many ducks in Purgatory. Some live in my swamp, but there aren’t enough of them to cover the entire ground.

I paused to hear more.

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