“Face.”
They both appeared at their respective windows. Cecilia looked as soft and sparkly as always, with her warm brown skin glowing and her hair curled into gentle waves. Glitter caught thelight on her eyelids and her lip gloss was just the right shade of purple-pink. With those doe eyes and soft lips, Dahlia was almost tempted to date Cecilia herself.
“You’re wasted on men,” she said, nodding sagely.
“As are you, my sexy friend.” Cecilia disappeared for a moment before she leaned out the window, her arm stretching to pass along a tube of lipstick. “Here. This is my lucky red. Wear it as a good luck talisman tonight.”
“Thank yo— Wait, Cece, this ismylipstick!”
“That’s why it’s lucky,” she replied, utterly shameless. “It was free!”
Popping the cap off, Dahlia warned her friend’s retreating back, “If you die, I’m gonna leave your sex toys out on your bed for your parents to find. That glow-in-the-dark dildo is going under your pillow. Your mother will think you used it as a night light, you animal!”
“I guess you’ll just have to die first after all. Have fun at work!”
There was no time to plot a more immediate revenge for the theft. Dahlia raced around her studio, pulling on her skimpy uniform, grabbing her purse, and shrugging on her coat with impressive speed. There were many serious downsides to her apartment being so close to The Lush, the vampire bar she’d worked at for five years, but she forgot every last one of them whenever she ran late.
The sun was just beginning to set when she wheeled into the back entrance, out of breath but exactly on time.
No one paid her any mind as she stuffed her belongings into her locker. Inputting her code into the lock, she resisted the urge to check her phone again. Tonight was a big night with — hopefully — big tips. Even if it wasn’t, she tried very hard not to think about how reliant on her boogeyman she’d become over the years.
She didn’tmisshim. And she definitely wasn’t stupid enough to worry about him. She was just used to his constant annoyances. That was all.
Dahlia tried to shove him from her mind as she scrubbed her hands and forearms in the sanitation station. Someone had already turned on the music for the night. The thumping beat bled through the thick walls. She’d never liked it much, but it was easy to tune out after so many years of practice.
Drying her hands under the UV light, she quickly donned the long white gloves they were all required to wear. All vampire bars made their staff wear gloves, but the ones the staff at The Lush wore were one part utility and three parts kink. The length added something special to their uniform, Devon said. As if the low neckline, mesh décolletage, and high hemline weren’t enough.
Her lips thinned. Working VIP events meant great tips, but it also meant exposure to her boss. She’d never seen anyone as desperate to schmooze with bigwigs as Devon, which was saying something.
She hadn’t known very much about vampires before she took the server position at The Lush. Dahlia would admit she was still pretty ignorant about the finer details, but it only took her a few months to pick up on the fact that there was just one thing in the world they valued more than blood.
Status.
The nebulous ideals of prestige and respect ruled the vampire underworld, all the way from the lowest of the low to the highest rung. She’d seen fights break out over the smallest of perceived infractions and heard stomach-turning rumors about what happened to servers who thought they could survive an entanglement with one or more of the deadly predators.
A week after she started, a server named Jackson got into trouble when he tried dating two different vampires at once. Oneof the women ended up dead, disemboweled in the restroom, and Jackson never showed up to work again.
Despite abundant cautionary tales, some servers took the job explicitly to find a wealthy vampire to attach themselves to, but it was a very dangerous game. More often than not they got used and dumped before a permanent bond was formed, leaving them to deal with venom withdrawal on their own. On the rare occasions they didn’t, there was almost always another vampire in the wings, furious that someone they thought was already their property had been snapped up.
She and Cecilia had learned quickly that surviving their job meant keeping their heads down, giving good service, and never letting a vampire get attached.Head down, tray up,they said.
Of course, that only worked with the customers. Management was another story.
Devon hadn’t always been the boss. His brother, Duke, was in charge when she was hired. He’d been thoroughly disinterested in the job and left the staff — and patrons — alone, for the most part. It was a sad day for them all when Devon took over.
His pale blue eyes found her immediately when she stepped out onto the floor, her silver tray tucked under her arm. Devon looked at all the servers like they were meat, but he reserved a special sort of intensity for her.
She’d really hoped he’d roll in fashionably late and a little drunk, like he sometimes did. But he was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed that evening, dressed in his tightest white buttondown and slacks. His pale blond hair was swept behind his ears and his thin silver nose ring gleamed in the neon lights of the bar.
Dahlia really had no idea what look he was going for. The closest thing she could come up with wasboy band member meets mobsterin all the worst possible ways.
Gesturing with his claws for her and two other servers, he flashed his fangs in a way that was probably supposed to be intimidating. She sucked in a deep breath and prayed for patience.
“Good evening,” he drawled, gaze taking a leisurely stroll up and down her body before flicking toward the other servers assigned to the VIP rooftop lounge. “We’ve got some really important guests here tonight, so I don’t need to tell you what’ll happen if you fuck up, do I? I want the synth flowing all night — no limit. The most expensive stuff we have.”
He was somehow more wound up than usual tonight. Urgency practically oozed out of him when he ordered, “Whatever you have to do to make our guests happy, you do it. No questions asked. Clear?”
They all nodded. There were no rookies in their little VIP crew, which meant that they all knew it was best to keep their mouths shut.
