When Beth turned to go back into the club, and Emma followed, I realized I didn’t have a choice. Ever since Beth had opened her business years ago, she’d found a way to involve herself in a lot of supernatural cases. Most of them involved small things: missing items, cheaters, discovering hexers, removing curses, etc. I never minded, because she had a way of getting to the bottom of things and leaving everyone involved feeling like they’d won, which was a hard thing to do as a police officer sometimes. But as I slowly followed behind the two of them, I felt in my gut that a missing brother and trouble with sirens was more than they should be involved in.
But knowing it and getting them to listen to me were two different things.
I sighed and hurried to catch up with them. If they were going to do this anyway, I could at least keep an eye on them.
The bouncer at the front door did a double take when he saw Beth coming. His eyes widened as he jumped out of the way and opened the door as fast as he could move. Beth looked over her shoulder. “You two can wait out here.”
Emma and I exchanged a fast look. I had zero intention of letting Beth go in there alone, and wished they hadn’t gone in without me before, too. Hurrying forward, I tried to go in after her, but the bouncer stepped in the way.
Emma sighed beside me. “Let us in.”
The vampire chuckled. “You don’t have the power your friend does.”
“No,” Emma said in an even tone. “I have my own.” She narrowed her eyes as I watched in amazement.
The vampire may as well have turned to stone for all the emotion he showed as he said, “You're not allowed back in. Antonal's orders. And old ass men aren't allowed in either.”
“Old?” For some reason, I loved the outrage in her face as she glanced from the bouncer to me. It was like in her eyes I was some kind of young stud.
I turned and looked at some of the twenty-something-year-olds in line, trying to hide the blush that was no doubt staining my cheeks. “It’s okay--”
“It’s not okay! What in the world is with all these people using the word old like it’s an insult?” She looked from me to the bouncer. “Age isn’t something to be ashamed of! And I’ll tell you, I’d rather have a nice-looking man with a face like his then some young guy who doesn’t even know how to drive a car properly.”
Drive acar? Was she talking about…? I felt my cheeks get even hotter.
“And another thing: I think you'll find that I am allowed into the club, as is my friend,” Emma said, her voice rising. She narrowed her eyes as I watched in amazement. “Your job brings a bit too much power,” she said as she tossed her hair. “I think you’re getting a little big for your britches.”
The vampire furrowed his brows. “Okay?” But then he blinked. A second later he looked down at himself, his fingers trying to grab on to his belt as what had started out as regular jeans turned into skinny jeans, at least in terms of their size. Suddenly it was very obvious that the bouncer had been skipping leg day, and the jeans tightened even more until I had to avert my eyes. The last thing I wanted to see was the outline of this guy's junk, and that's where it was heading.
“Go,” he shouted. “I’m sorry! Make it stop!”
Emma cocked her head. “Stop acting so cocky and your pants will loosen. When you’re not too big for them.”
He nodded vigorously and tried to unbutton his jeans as we walked past.
Beth stood inside the door and turned to us. “I told you, you can't be with me. I need to do this alone. Dance floor,” she yelled. “It’s the only way this works!” She pushed at Emma’s shoulders so she’d follow me out onto the dance floor. “Go!”
I shrugged and held out my hand. Emma gave me a small smile and the next thing I knew, we were slow dancing to a very fast song. I wished I could say that I was more aware of our surroundings, but in that moment, with Emma looking up at me as we swayed back and forth, I wasn't. Hell, I wasn't even aware of the other sweaty bodies gyrating on the dance floor even though I'd seen them only a moment ago.
“So, what happened with the vampires?” I asked. I had to pull her close and bend forward with my ear to her lips to listen. It broke the moment though, which was what I needed. I couldn't afford to be so distracted.
“Long story short, I used my unique abilities to convince the owner of this place to give us some info, which was that Henry pissed off the sirens. That was all he knew.”
“Well, it gets us started, anyway.” As we swung on the dance floor, I kept my eyes open for Beth, and off of Emma. Beth floated around the room, apparently looking for her target.
All the bodies that I had been oblivious to before were now all too present. Everywhere I looked, the place was filled with college aged kids that were theoretically doing something akin to dancing. The way some of the women were shaking their behinds and grinding them into their dance partner's crotch was enough to make me feel ancient. When had dancing become little more than sex with clothes on? The bouncer was right, I was an old ass man.
I pulled my thoughts back to the situation at hand. “I won’t stop looking for your brother,” I said. “We have a good lead, but that won’t stop me following up on others.”
Her dark brows drew together, twin arches over those deep brown eyes of hers. For a second, I couldn’t look away. There were so many songs about blue-eyed girls, but tonight was the first time I wished I could sing, just so I could talk about her eyes.
Man, this woman had done a number on me. She was turning me into some cheesy idiot.
“Why are you helping me?” Emma finally asked. There was a mix of surprise and relief in her eyes. Had she really thought that I'd hear that sirens were involved and run off? When the surprise wore off, I could also see a healthy dose of skepticism in there as well.
“I understand loss.” I watched the idiot kids dancing and probably taking ridiculous amounts of drugs around me and sighed. I hated telling this story. I pushed the emotions down so I could relay what happened without getting overwhelmed. “My wife and best friend were on their way to Shawsville to pick up a birthday present for me when they were in a freak accident. A fuel truck crashed into them and exploded.“ I chucked humorlessly. “Those things are really hard to blow up, though you wouldn’t think so. But it did, killing them both. It also started a fire. It was a dry and windy summer, so it turned into a wildfire. The worst one our region has ever seen, as a matter of fact.”
I wanted to say more. I wanted to pull that moment together with this moment when she was scared for her brother, but I couldn’t seem to form the words. Because everyone knew that Emma had lost so much over the years already. It seemed like the right thing to tell her I understood, but the wrong thing to compare any of our losses as if they were the same. Loss was always different. That was something I’d learned in my professional life and my personal life.
