Page 7 of Nexus
“See Lenny before you leave,” Lord Gilden said as he escorted us to the door. I glanced back to see he was talking to Ruen. The vamp nodded, mood lifting slightly at the new order. “Tell him to put your meal on my tab.”
“Yes, my lord,” Ruen said and quickened his pace to brush past me.
“Good luck, Ms. Sterling,” Drake said, putting his hand on my lower back to guide me through the door. My skin heated at his touch, but it wasn’t because of a spell. He was just so freaking gorgeous that my body instantly reacted to him. “Although something tells me you won’t need it,” he added in a low, sexy voice.
I inhaled his scent that was a mixture of expensive cologne and what had to be dragon pheromones. It was almost intoxicating, but I managed not to drool over him like Ruen had drooled over the freshly dead body. “I’ll see you later, Lord Gilden,” I said confidently, then sauntered off down the hall after his henchman.
People turned to look at me when I reached the ground floor, but their stares were curious rather than hostile now. They showed no signs that they remembered our brawl. I received appreciative looks from a lot of the male shifters. They loved full-figured women, it seemed. Some of them were fairly good looking, but none of them could hold a candle to Drake Gilden.
I worked my way over to the bar where Ruen was talking to the zombie. The other bartenders working to the left and right were a werejaguar and a vampire. “One glass of blood, coming right up,” Lenny said after the leech had placed his order.
“Can I have a beer?” I asked before he could turn away.
“Can I see some ID?” he retorted, milky eye staring off over my shoulder while the brown one became fixed on me. Grinning, I took my license out and held it up. “Happy twenty-first birthday!” he said after scanning it.
“Thanks. The dragon will pay for my drink.”
Lenny’s eyebrows rose and he looked at Ruen for confirmation. “Is she working for the boss?” he asked.
“Ms. Sterling is auditioning for a position as a bounty hunter,” the leech said dourly.
Lenny’s gaze returned to me. “That’s why you look familiar! Your mom is Pearl, right?”
“Yep,” I confirmed. “She said she used to hang out here before I was born. I’m surprised you remember her.”
“Your mom is kind of hard to forget,” he replied with a grin that showed me his black gums and a few missing teeth. “I’ll get you that beer. Make sure you say hi to your mom for me. Tell her we miss her here at the Den.”
“I will,” I promised, making a mental note to ask her why she’d never mentioned that a dead guy ran the place.
Chapter Six
NODDING IN TIME WITH the music, I realized I felt almost comfortable among the monsters. Some of them were dressed similarly to me and others wore practically nothing. I saw shaved heads, punk styles, piercings everywhere and more tattoos than I could count. Instead of standing out like I usually did, I blended in with the crowd.
Lenny poured beer from the tap for me. Then he ambled over to a fridge that was being guarded by a werewolf. He poured blood from a bottle into a tall glass, then heated it up in a microwave. “Bottoms up!” he said with a grin and handed the glasses over.
“Thanks,” I said as Ruen reverently lifted the glass to his nose to take a deep whiff. I took a sip of my first alcoholic beverage and savored the taste for a few moments. Expecting the vamp to do the same, I was shocked when he scarfed the entire glass down within seconds.
Every leech in the club watched him longingly as he licked the glass clean so he didn’t waste a single drop. My upper lip wrinkled back when he even managed to lick the bottom of the glass. “Ew,” I complained as he attempted to compose himself.
“It’s a bit disconcerting to watch them feed at first,” Lenny said with a grin. “But you get used to it after a while.”
“Why aren’t they all drinking blood?” I asked when I saw most of the vamps were drinking alcohol. It wouldn’t quench their unholy thirst, but it was apparently better than nothing.
“It’s too expensive,” the zombie replied, taking the vamp’s glass back as I took a gulp of beer. “Not many of them can afford to pay two hundred bucks per glass.”
I almost sprayed my beer all over the bar at the extravagant cost. “Why is blood so expensive?”
“I can’t exactly order a barrel of it whenever I’m running low,” he replied. “I bribe someone at the blood bank to keep me in supply, but he can only smuggle out a small amount at a time.”
That made sense, so I downed the rest of my beer, eager to continue my hunt. “Thanks for the drink. I’ll pass your message on to mom,” I said as I put my empty glass down. The zombie saluted me, then turned to another patron to take her order.
Ruen’s back was stiff as he led the way to the door. He was probably waiting for me to crack a joke about his lack of decorum. I felt the same way about chocolate milkshakes, so it would be a bit hypocritical to make a snarky comment.
The werebear looked surprised when I marched out behind my companion. “I didn’t think you’d be able to convince him to leave with you,” he said. The spell to forget about me hadn’t extended outside the building.
“It was a misunderstanding,” I explained. “He’s a witness to the murder and he’s going to help me find the real culprit.”
“I’m sure Lord Gilden is relieved you didn’t need to whack his pet leech,” he said with a smirk, eliciting a scowl from Ruen.
