“All right, Brahm, I think we cracked the code. I’m going out. Don’t look for me until morning.”
“Mrrrow?”
“My thoughts exactly.”
I strode through the back door of the goth club that led to a dark hallway. And then that hallway to an even darker stairway down. And thenthatstairway led to another corridor with no light at all. I wasn’t worried, though, and continued to stride forward until I reached a set of doors that were barely visible even with my somewhat subpar vampiric vision. While most of my undead compatriots could see even in the blackest of night, I didn’t have all the same advantages they did.
Still, that didn’t matter. My coven had long since gotten used to the little quirks of mycondition.
“Who goes—Oh, Rowan, it’s you.”
“That it is!” I said happily, unable to stop my grin as I held the bouquet behind my back. “How are you on this wonderful night, Matthew?”
“Itoldyou to call me Lucifer Duskwood!”
“Right, right, of course you did, Ma—Lucifer Duskwood. My apologies. A lot on my mind lately.”
“Whatever,” came the apathetic reply before the doors swung open.
It wasn’t the grandest building I’d been in, but it was impressive, considering it was tucked away in a human city and could only be reached through the gothic club or the bowling alley next door. There were guards at either entrance: low-ranking vampires at night, and loyal thralls during the day.
It was a lovely space, in a bit of an overwrought way. It was styled like a European castle, but with enough anachronisms that it would also work perfectly as the set of an early-aughtsfantasy show. Long, velvet curtains hung on walls that had no windows, vaulted ceilings with elaborate chandeliers kitted out with electrical candles so wax wouldn’t drip onto any of the impeccably dressed patrons. And of course, a sixteenth century organ that was actually the reason I’d found the coven in the first place. They’d reached out tome,having heard about a local vampire who was an expert in restoring musical instruments, and one thing had led to another until I was part of things.
They’d been wary of me at first, which I was quite used to, but after five years, all that awkwardness was behind us.
Well, mostly.
No one ever played the organ, of course; it was just more frills and finery that reminded the elder vampires of the world they came from and allowed younger vampires to roleplay that they were a part of history too. I got it, I did, and I didn’t yuck their yum at all. I just didn’t feel the same compulsion that most of my peers did.
And that was all right. If there was anything I’d learned in my hundred-and-twelve years, it was that it took folks of all different cloths to make the world go round.
Yes sirree,I thought to myself as I scanned the room.A single dish ten times over would be a poor feast indeed.
That was something Ibrahim had said whenever I started to question why he kept me around after something clearly went wrong with my change. It was as wonderfully comforting as it was frustrating—the former because he’d seen me as valuable and had made me his heir despite my obvious shortcomings, and the latter because he acted as if nothing was wrong with me when the rest of the vampire world was all too eager to reiterate that something was clearly amiss with my creation.
But in the decades since he’d walked into the sun, I’d come to appreciate the unfettered affection my sire had had for me. I wasnever less than in his view, and if that was the case, why should I be less than in myown?
At least, that’s what I tried to tell myself.
However, that was not the matter at hand. No, that wasCelestia,and my gaze finally landed on her in a lounge area, posed like a masterpiece carved from alabaster.
Taking a deep breath—even though we vampires didn’t actually need to breathe; I just liked the habit—I strode forward, flowers still tucked behind my back.
“Rowan, what are you doing here? You never visit on a weeknight.”
As much as I didn’t want to halt on my path, I wasn’t one to ignore a friendly greeting, so I turned to see Orthallow leaning against a doorway to the dance floor, sipping from a wineglass filled with blood—courtesy of my connection, who made weekly deliveries to the coven on my behalf. Orthallow was actually quite young for a vampire, barely forty, but he did have a serious nature to him that I appreciated.
“Tonight’s a special occasion,” I answered happily.
“Oh?” He simply raised an eyebrow. I’d long since grown accustomed to the micro-expressions the other coven members liked to use. I found it strange that they were so loath to use any of their facial muscles. It wasn’t like we could get wrinkles like humans, but to each their own.
“Yes. I’m here to ask Celestia out. On a date. Naturally.”
Orthallow didn’t say anything for a long, long moment. “Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of,” he said as he pushed himself off the wall.
“What was that?”
“You mentioned you fixed the organ here, right?”
