Page 69 of The Mermaid's Bubble Lounge
“I’ll take it back myself,” Clive said. The valet nodded, getting out of Clive’s way.
He circled around the nightclub and parked beside a shiny black limo. One of the nocturne’s vampires sat behind the wheel and nodded to Clive when our car came to a stop. “The others are here.”
THIRTY-ONE
My Clothing Doesn’t Require Ventilation, Thank You Very Much
Clive patted my hand, which I knew meant he wanted me to wait for him. Cadmael and Vlad got out and went to the site of the second murder, checking the area around the dumpster. Clive opened my door and held out his hand to me.
“I’m sorry I made us late.”
He kissed the hand he was holding and then tucked it in the crook of his elbow. “You didn’t. We can check out the area Meri told you about after the others leave.” He placed his hand over mine and I nodded, letting out a shaky breath.
“Right. Okay.”
Clive didn’t bother with the dumpster. He walked us to the front door of the club. The other two must have caught up because Vlad opened the oversized door for us. I didn’t realize my head was down until I heard Clive’s voice in my head, Chin up, darling.
When I looked up, I saw Nerissa, the mermaid owner of the nightclub, heading toward us. “Good evening. I’m so glad you were able to join us.” She moved in to kiss my cheek, which was super weird as we weren’t on cheek-kissing terms, but she whispered, “Two at the bar. Don’t know them. Be careful.”
Clive turned at that and then I could see him cataloguing everyone sitting at the bar. “Nerissa, thank you for making room for us.” He slid me to his other side so he could kiss Nerissa on the cheek. He did it so effortlessly, so charmingly, you’d never clock it unless you were me and knew he was putting himself between me and the bar.
Nerissa gestured us forward. “The rest of your party is straight ahead.”
“Thank you,” he said, wrapping his arm around me. Middle of the bar. Two men. They smell of elven steel.
Shit. Did we just walk into two of the king’s assassins having a cocktail?
No. See the way their eyes are darting around. One of them is watching the vampire table, the other just saw us and elbowed the partner. They were waiting for us.
How did they know we were coming?
Excellent question for later. In the meantime—he gave me a fast, hard kiss—don’t die.
If anything happens to me, save the jewelry.
You’re not funny.
We’d been walking toward the bar, our bodies loose, not projecting our awareness of them.
The two men slid off their stools. The room was quiet. I spared a glance at the rest of the nightclub and saw patrons frozen, some in speech, some with forks on their lips, some mid-twirl on the dance floor.
Okay. We were doing this. Clive and I spread out to give ourselves room. I snatched the axe off my back.
One of the fae men flicked his eyes at Clive and then at Nerissa, hissing, “The king will hear of this.”
“Not if you don’t survive,” she replied, stepping back into the shadows.
Oh. It wasn’t just the humans who were frozen. The vamps and the fae servers were as well. Nerissa had left Clive and me free so I’d have a fighting chance.
Nerissa told them we were coming, Clive said.
I got that. I tossed my little handbag to the side at Vlad’s feet. But she’s also the one trying to help.
“That’s not yours,” the one on the right sneered at me, staring at the axe.
They were both tall, broad-shouldered warrior elves. They’d made an attempt to blend in, wearing black dress shirts and black pants. One had light brown hair and the other’s was white-blond. That was really the only difference between them. Both were inhumanly beautiful and both looked pretty excited about handing me over to the king, or short of that, killing me on the spot.
“I beg to differ,” I said, spinning the handle. “I won this from the dwarf who tried to kill me. The axe stayed with me when his dead body returned to Faerie. It changed alliances. I have an elf’s sword at home too. Are you sure you want to do this?”
