Chapter 2

2

GAbrIEL

T he club was thrumming with activity around me, full of dancing bodies and the scents of perfume, sweat, and liquor. As soon as my friends and I arrived, a table in a quiet corner miraculously opened up, and from it I had an excellent view of the dance floor. The place was styled as a speakeasy, which was an elegant way of making a basement sound more enticing. It was full of dark green tile and black leather, with twisting golden trees reaching up to the ceiling. Silver leaves gleamed in the dozens of lights that floated near the ceiling, pulsing in time to the music. Shimmering willow boughs cordoned off the shadowy alcoves. A few of the trees grew behind the bar, heavy with opalescent fruit. Each of those had a tap set into its trunk, and the nymphs who were bartending poured nectar and sap straight from them.

Next to me, two of my housemates were pressed close together. Lissa was short and curvy, with a sharp blonde bob she'd copied from a human lounge singer who'd come through Eldoria in the 1920s. Vic, on the other hand, was tall, lean, and hadn't bothered to change his hairstyle since the eighteenth century, so it fell in chestnut waves over his shoulders. Despite how different they looked, they always seemed to complement each other, both in manner and in dress. Lissa's nails were painted the same bright green as Vic's eyes, and his shirt was the same dark red as her lipstick. He had an arm draped around her shoulders, not in a possessive way, but simply because he liked to touch her. If there were times where I was quietly, privately jealous of them, I refused to let anyone know about it.

"You two are revolting, I hope you know that," Theo said, coming over from the bar with a tray in hand and a man trailing behind them. Theo was stocky and broad, built like a dockworker. They wore black nail polish, which somehow always seemed to be the exact same level of chipped, and a tight white T-shirt. The only change they'd made to their outfit before coming out tonight was swapping their jeans for a pair of identically tailored leather pants, and sticking a gray bandanna in their left back pocket.

At their comment, Lissa stuck her tongue out, and Vic grinned.

"We, um... we got the drinks," said the man trailing behind Theo. Nathan was the youngest of us by several centuries, and we were still trying to convince him that, yes, we actually enjoyed his company, and no, he didn't have to apologize all the time. He was the only one of the group who didn't live in my house, partially because I suspected that if I asked him to move in, he would somehow have a heart attack, despite being, technically speaking, dead.

I took my glass from the tray and drank a long sip, letting the taste of the blood-spiked cocktail roll over my tongue. It was just sheep's blood, but it satisfied the craving. I wiped a droplet of the drink from the side of the glass with my thumb and lapped it up idly.

The music changed to something filthy and undulating, and a cheer went up from the crowd. The floating lights shone over skin sparkling with sweat, scales, and glitter.

Lissa tapped her nails against the glossy wood of the table in time to the beat. "It's been too long since we went out," she said. "I blame you for it, Gabriel."

I raised an eyebrow. "You do know you can go out without me, don't you?" I asked dryly.

"We don't get the VIP treatment when we're not with you, though," Vic pointed out. "Being friends with the son of a vampire king definitely has its perks."

"Oh, I see how it is," I said, faux-mournful. "You're only friends with me for my connections. How cruel of you. How shallow."

Theo snorted into their drink and kicked me lightly in the shin. "Yep. You caught us. Sorry you had to find out this way."

"I'll never forgive you," I said, utterly deadpan. Nathan looked mildly terrified, his eyes wide under his curly blond mop of hair, and I took pity on him. "I'm joking. These three have been with me through a lot. Besides, they have plenty of influence in their own right."

Lissa grinned sharply, and Theo gave me their best innocent "who, me?" look, which I'd grown immune to several hundred years ago.

"Seriously, though," Lissa said. "We've barely seen you lately, and given that we, you know, live together, that's saying something."

I grimaced. "Council business. You know how it is. I've been trying to convince my father to put some of my plans into motion, but he's…" I trailed off, baring my fangs in a grimace.

"A dick?" Lissa offered.

"Not a big listener," Theo said.

"Stubborn as hell," Vic added.

"Uh… A little set in his ways?" Nathan said meekly.

"Set in his ways," I said. "Yes, that's one way to put it." I sighed, reaching up to run a hand through my hair, but Lissa caught my wrist before I could ruin the work she'd put into styling it for me. Grooming was a social activity for vampires, both as a form of bonding and because it was difficult to do your own hair when you couldn't use a mirror.

"I keep telling him we need to do something about the disappearances. He always listens, always says he'll take it into consideration, then he doesn't do anything." I didn't bother hiding my frustration. I trusted my friends, and our alcove had a mild sound-muffling charm that not only meant we didn't have to yell over the music, but also that it would be practically impossible for anyone on the dance floor to eavesdrop. I couldn't honestly say if I would have tried to mask how irritated I was even if everyone in the club had been listening in. I had plans, actual researched plans, with proposals on paper and numbers to back them up, yet my father still treated me like a foolish, blindly optimistic child. The truth was that I was over nine hundred years old, and it seemed like I was the only high-ranking vampire taking the recent vampiric disappearances seriously.

I thought about the stacks of paper that had accumulated on my desk. Plans for food banks, educational programs for the newly turned, accommodations for vampires who struggled to deal with their heightened senses… all ignored by my father. I slammed back my drink and stood up.

"We're not here to talk about politics," I said firmly. "We're here to dance."

Lissa and Theo whooped and hollered while Vic grinned as his mate tugged him to his feet. I pulled two small black and silver items from my pocket and pressed one into each ear before I stepped out of the bubble of the muffling charm. Vampiric hearing didn't mix well with loud nightclubs, so earplugs, lightly enchanted to keep out background noise while keeping music and conversation clear, were a must. The more fashion-forward among us had gotten sets with charms that made them always coordinate with the wearer's outfit. Perhaps if I got in touch with a few of the enchanters, they would be willing to supply some for less fortunate vampires…

I shook myself. Not what I was here for.

I slid into the crowd, letting the throb and pulse of the music take over. Time became fluid as I lost myself in the energy of the club, and I couldn't have said how long it was before a vampire with long black hair and gold makeup gleaming on her dark skin began to dance with me. She looked up at me through her lashes, and I grinned, moving closer. The scent of her perfume filled my nostrils with something spicy and warm as she pressed against me. My hands found her waist, then her lips found mine, and not long after, the two of us found a cab back to her place.