Page 15 of Night of the Vampire
He smiled an evil smile. "The females like the feel of it between their legs." He poured two fingers into a glass and slid it across the bar top. "Do you need anything else?"
Yes. I need to find a witch before I go mad from thinking of her. "No, thank you. Take care of your customers," I told him. There was no need to raise my voice. He could hear me loud and clear even over the deep bass thumping through the speakers.
"Gotcha, boss." He turned away, flashing his fangs to the delight of a pretty little thing with bright brown eyes and skin as dark as Elias's smile. Like the others, she didn't know they were real, but thought they were part of a year-round costume. All part of the show.
Elias would dance tomorrow night. Kenya normally tended bar, along with keeping track of the books, but with her in the condition she was in, the guys were taking turns covering for her. Whiskey in hand, I leaned back against the bar to watch the show as I waited for Dae to get done with his dance so he could give me an update.
Three whiskeys later, I finally had my chance. He grinned as he met me at the bar, his dark eyes dancing in his smooth face, fully dressed—sort of—his skin flushed with new blood.
"Hey, Killian! How's our girl?" He took the beer Elias offered him and drank it down in three swallows.
"Hey." I watched Jamal as he turned on the charm on stage. A side of him I only got to see when I was here. "You have a minute to go over the books?"
A shadow crossed his happy features when I didn't answer his question about Kenya. He hadn't seen her in about two weeks, and knew it could only mean one thing. "Yeah, sure. I just balanced everything last night."
Once back in the office, I took a seat in front of the desk and waited for him to grab the receipts and other info to show me.
"Seriously. How is Kenya?" he asked again once we were alone.
"No better than the last time you asked," I told him. "Maybe a wee bit worse."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I know she's a favorite of yours."
"She's not my favorite. She’s just..."
"She's your favorite."
He grinned when I had no argument for him. "Yeah, so, maybe she is," I told him.
"It's okay, man. No offense taken. We all love her."
I knew Dae well enough to know that was true as far as he was concerned. For the most part, he had taken to vampire life better than any of the others, and had carried over his happy-go-lucky personality from his human life. Every once in a while, though, I'd see something dark and heavy reflected in his eyes. He never offered to tell me what it was about, and I never asked him. Whatever it was, it never affected his loyalty to the coven. Or to me. And that's all I truly cared about.
"So, how are things going here?" I asked him. "I know I haven't been around much."
"It's all good. You've been needed somewhere else more, and this place practically runs itself now." He pulled a thick, black book out of the drawer and pulled up a spreadsheet on the computer monitor. "Just don't tell Kenya that," he added as he handed me the book and turned the monitor around so I could see the screen. "She'll be crushed."
He was right. This club ran like a well-oiled machine. Business had been better than normal with it being Halloween. A vampire bar and strip club only added to the general ambiance the city provided to its visitors. "No problems with customers getting out of hand?"
Dae gave me a smirk. "As if any of us would complain if they did?"
"Where's Brogan?"
"Taking a break. He told us he had something to do. Said he'd be back by the time he was needed on stage."
I raised an eyebrow. Brogan should've taken the main stage before Jamal.
"It's all right," Dae said when he saw my look. "Elias, Jamal and I have the place handled."
I nodded. Jamal may hate me, but I could always count on him to carry his weight. And Dae, Elias, and Brogan were staying here at the club, which meant I didn't have to hunt any of them down to remind them about their shift.
Usually.
"I hear you found someone to help Kenya. One of the witches? How did you manage that?"
"She is a witch," I hedged. "But not one of our witches here in the quarter. She's new in town."
"But you know for sure she is one?"
