“I’ve introduced Luke to a couple of good beers and whiskeys. He’s always careful about how much he drinks, though.” Malachi smiled fondly at the back of his human’s head.
“We can go to the club after this,” Talon suggested. “It’s closed tonight, right?” he asked, leaning over to look down the row of demons at Shadrach.
“Yep,” Shadrach said. “It would just be us. Fuck it, drinks on the house. And who knows? A night of debauchery might be exactly what Julian needs to loosen up.”
The bar wasin the basement of their apartment building. A narrow, concrete staircase on the back side of the building led to a thick metal door. There were no street lights or signs to indicate what kind of place it was. From the outside, no one would be able to tell that it was actually a decadent nightclub for demons.
Valac had never been inside such a nightclub. Shadrach and Isaac had teleported to the club ahead of them to unlock the door and turn the lights on. He was surprised by how big it was. There were two bars, one on either side of the sprawling room. The ceilings were high. The walls were painted black, and the floor was also dark, polished to a shine. Black tables and chairs and booths circled the room, and raised platforms also dotted the room. Some had cages on top of them, some had silver poles, and some had ropes, chains, or satin fabric.
Valac tilted his head, studying one of the cages with curiosity as he followed Julian toward the bar.
“What are these platforms for?” he asked Shadrach, who was behind the bar with Wolf.
Beside him, Julian shot him a wide-eyed look and then buried his face in his hands.
Shadrach smirked. “You’ve never been to a strip club.”
“A what?”
“Don’t tease the man,” Wolf admonished as he passed behind Shadrach.
“They’re for people to dance on,” Shadrach said bluntly. “They can dance in the cages or hold onto the pole. Same for the chains and ropes and silks. Sometimes we’ll hire professionals to come in, and sometimes it’ll be open for the customers to usehowever they want. Some people do more thandanceup there.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “We’ve got private rooms in the back for more, ah, intense things.” He popped the lid off a brown bottle and slid it over to Julian. “What do you want to drink, big guy?”
Valac looked at the rows and rows of gleaming bottles. Alcohol had probably changed just as much as everything else in the world, and he didn’t know where to begin.
“You know what? I’ll start you off simple, and we can go from there,” Shadrach said, grabbing a bottle off the wall behind him and pouring it into a glass with two cubes of ice. “Whiskey on the rocks. Have you two set up that computer yet? I got that for you.”
“Me?” Valac asked.
“Yeah. Well, for both of you, but you’re the one who needs it more. Once you set that up, Jules here can show you how the internet works, and you can start learning about the world. It shouldn’t take you too long to pick up the basics. Humanity hasn’t really changed much, as a whole.”
Julian blinked at them. “That’s a great idea.”
Shadrach nodded sagely. “I’m known to have them occasionally.”
“I need to have words with you about, uh, some of the clothes you picked out for me,” Julian said, face flaming.
Shadrach shot him a smirk. “Have those words with Isaac, too. He’s the one who recommended some of it. We’ve been expanding his horizons since he escaped the guild.”
Isaac barreled into Shadrach’s side. “Hey, stop telling people what’s under the hood.”
Shadrach’s dark eyes sharpened with that same hunger Valac felt burning for Julian. “I can’t help it. I like to brag. You want to try and make me pay for it?”
“No. I want you to pour me a drink and then take a look under the hood for yourself later.” Isaac grinned.
While they continued to bicker—which Valac was pretty sure was a type of foreplay for them—he turned to regard Julian, who was spinning his beer bottle on the bar-top with fidgety fingers.
“Are you well?” Valac asked, smoothing a hand down Julian’s back. He would never get enough of touching him.
Julian straightened, offering him a weak smile and nod. “Yeah. I think my brain is still catching up with everything that’s happened in the last couple of days, that’s all.”
Valac leaned in. “Was there something wrong with the clothing they picked out for you?”
Julian’s face flushed again. “In theory, no. They just got me some stuff I’m not used to wearing.” He tugged at his earlobe. Was he self-conscious?
Valac looked him up and down. What was he wearing that was out of the ordinary? He looked just like the rest of them. “I think you look perfect.”
Julian softened. “That’s not—thanks, Valac.”
