Page 12 of Touched By Moonlight
Chapter 3
Iforgotabout the warning as I resumed work and filling drink orders. On stage, Kelly finished her bump and grind act and sashayedaway.
Usually management played canned music while the next act prepared to come out. No music played. But for muted conversation, silence filled the air. That odd vibe increased, the energy of something nasty cranking up. I glanced at Grayson, whofrowned.
Instead of the next stripper striding onstage, oldies music came over the sound system, as if Dante was trying to tamp down the hard aggression in the room. Odd, because management usually liked the shifters cranked up on Saturday nights. They spent more money and the strippers who serviced them in the back rooms got bettertips.
Shifter testosterone ran high on weekends. So why try to dampenit?
I stopped in the middle of washing a glass. Barry Manilow? Yep, the strains of the has-been crooner came across the loudspeakers. The four arguing shifters, obviously tipsy, stood, hooked arms and began to sway to the tune like sailors on aship.
Guess they’d solved the problem of who had the largestequipment.
Guy, the bouncer, gently herded them out of the door. An Uber, driven by another shifter, would take them home. Human Uber drivers were not acceptable at Crossroads. Not with all the weird stuff that could happen at a paranormal strip club. I’ve worked there only two months and already I’d seen plenty, including a drunk bear shifter who got tossed for rubbing his naked butt against the stripper pole because he had a different kind of itch toscratch.
It seemed that bear shifters were an oddsort.
The strains of “Mandy” screeched over the sound system. At the bar, a werewolf cringed and clapped his hands over hisears.
“Screw this crap. This sounds worse than my old lady nagging me to take the trash out,” he muttered, tossing a fifty on thecounter.
“Change?” I took thebill.
“Naw, keep it hon.” His eyes flashed gold, the rising of his wolf. “You deserve it for putting up with theseassholes.”
“Thanks Vincent.” He was one of the good ones, who groused about his mate, but in reality, came here to give her time to catch up with her femalefriends.
“This place feels weird tonight and it’s not just that damn music. If I were you Sienna, I’d leave.” Vincent cast an uneasy glance around the room. “It feelsodd.”
“I’ll be fine.Thanks.”
Even as the words fled my mouth, he was hurrying out the door, as if hellhounds, or his nagging old lady, pursued him. Unease rippled through me. Vincent wasn’t powerfully built or had the natural strength of an alpha, but he was a werewolf. What spookedhim?
“Sienna, can you handle things? I have to speak with Dante.” Cass wiped her hands on atowel.
I nodded, even though tending bar alone tonight made me uneasy. Vincent was right. Something sparked and sizzled in the air. My senses tingled with magick. Not the magick of the shifters drinking, talking and enjoying the strippers. The sexual energy intertwined with magick always threaded through the air atCrossroads.
This felt different. Baddifferent.
Something wicked was coming and Nicolas and Stephan’s warning seemed more ominous now. I couldn’t pinpoint what, but I knew. The magick hummed in me, a burning clamoring forrelease.
For most, magick is like any skillset. Use it, hone it like a sword and it grows stronger. Ignore it and the gift dies. Atrophies much as a lazy couch surfer’s muscles sag when he swaps out nights at the gym for Dancing with theStars.
Not with me. My magick howled to get out. Most days it lay quietly in wait. Easilycontrolled.
Not tonight. Power crackled inside of me, rising because of that something in theair.
Maybe the others in the bar sensed it as well. More people headed for the exit. I fetched drinks for the servers, and refilled the glasses of the few shifters at the bar. Cass stood near the stage, speaking withDante.
Grayson kept scanning the room. The sexual heat between us still sizzled, though the heavy tension in the air had slightly mutedit.
I lifted a bottle of Goldschlager to pour another shot for a regular shifter, who shook his head and slid off his stool. Barely eleven and this dude always downed at least two shots before heading home. But there he was, grabbing his jacket and making a hastyexit.
Maybe the crappy music had hurt his ears,too.
Then again, maybe Barry Manilow was a werewolf in real life. Hiding his powers like I hid mine. Most humans were blissfully ignorant of the existence of the magick world of shifters and other paranormal creatures. It was best. That’s why Crossroads hired only humans with psychic abilities. Psi humans knew about otherworldly creatures and kept the knowledge to themselves, because ordinary mortals scoffed at them. Most humans don’t believe in werewolves orFae.
Cass came over and began wiping down the counter as Guy carried glasses to the sink. Dante approached, his body tense beneath the elegant black suit and starched white shirt. Stunned, I saw a flash of fangs as he licked hislips.
