“No problem, darling,” she said, her fangs flashing in the streetlight, and brushed her lush, bright red hair over her shoulder. “My apologies. I’m late fordinner,” she added with a wink before hurrying to the bordello.
She pulled the huge doors open, and the first thing I noticed were the sounds. Panting, moaning, cries of pleasure, whispered curses, and the steadyslap-slap-slapof skin on skin, plus an undercurrent of animal-like grunting sounds. I averted my eyes, terrified of what I might see, and moved down the street.
The farther I went, the more fantastical the place got. I’d always known bigger cities held more of our world, but I’d never truly realized it until now.Thiswas what the hidden magical world was truly like. A place where none of us had to hide or worry about humans realizing what we were. It was more thanliterallymagical, it wasemotionallymagical.
More people appeared, moving up and down the street, entering restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. The sound of a jazz band echoed out to the street, and when I glanced through the open door, I spotted a man playing trombone on stage. Behind him, the piano, stand-up bass, and saxophone played along as though operated by ghosts. The instruments hovered in the air, playing without anyone touching them. The club itself looked like it had been torn out of an old black-and-white movie.
“Jewelry for the lovely lady?” a voice said behind me.
I spun, stifling a cry of surprise, to find a hairy-faced man holding open a briefcase. Inside dozens of bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and rings glittered, silver, jewels, and gold shining back with preternatural light. The salesman leered at me in what I supposed was his attempt at good nature, but instead appeared almost menacing. Only then did I realize his face wasn’thairybut covered in strangely stunted feathers. His huge beak-like nose hooked over his thin feathered lips, and his overcoat looked like it was hiding some huge lumps on his back, which were most likely folded wings. Iknewthis creature. A tengu. A bird-human hybrid creature most humans knew from Japanese folklore. I’dread about them at the academy, but had never met one in person.
“Uh, no thanks,” I said, waving an apologetic hand at him. “I’m, uh, not here to shop.”
The tengu nodded its head and closed the briefcase. “Very well. You can find me here most evenings should you change your mind, my lady.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, moving deeper into the crowd.
Now that there were more beings around, I worried Imightactually be spotted, though that was still highly unlikely. The sheer number of people here was both shocking and relieving. Most were in human form, though some weren’t, but I blended in pretty well. I did, however, remove my glasses, though that made me anxious, like taking away a comfort blanket from a small child, but if it helped keep me from being noticed, I’d deal with it.
The sights, sounds, and smells were too much to sift through with my enhanced senses. I couldn’t make out Declan’s scent, so all I could do was wander around until Ihopefullyfound him.
At another intersection I found a group of creatures and beings gathered in circles around different street performers. I stopped to watch a woman, tall and beautiful with flowing blonde hair. She wore an outfit that looked like it had been made of nothing but dental floss, leaving very little to the imagination. Gyrating and dancing, she put on a hell of a display of magical expertise by conjuring, swallowing, and spitting out balls of fire, electricity, and water. At one point, she juggled one of each element, tossing them into the air with enough speed and skill that they blurred.Caught up in the display, I watched her until she tossed all three up at once, where they combined to form a flaming plasma orb.
She did a perfect backflip, landing in a split, her head thrown back, mouth wide open. The orb fell into her mouth. Closing her lips around it, she grinned and opened her eyes, which now glowed as though electricity crackled inside her skull. Smoke curled from her ears. I clapped along with everyone else, and several folks stepped forward to toss money into the small hat by her feet. This place was freaking amazing.
My grin slipped as Ifinallycaught a whiff of Declan’s scent. I hurried down the street, chasing the smell. It led away from most of the activity of the downtown area to a more rundown portion of the city. People still milled about, and there were a couple of sordid-looking bars and clubs, but for the most part, it looked like a place time had left behind. Most notably, I walked past an empty, open-air blacksmith shop that looked like it had been abandoned for a couple centuries, and a crumbling townhouse with broken windows where a strange, shimmering light moved back and forth in front of the windows. A ghost or spirit of some sort might still be living inside.
Toward the end of that street, I found a small and intimate nightclub that sat back off the sidewalk a bit, almost completely cloaked in shadows. The sign above the door looked like it had been traced in smoldering and flowing mercury.The Catch All Club.Declan’s scent was strong here.
I walked up to the door, where a massive man with broad shoulders sat on a stool behind a velvet rope that blocked the entrance. When he looked up, I nearly gasped in surprise. He gazed at me with shimmering bright red eyes, but they weren’t the dark, deep, blood-red orbs of a demon. Instead, they were the cut and polished stones of rubies. The rest of his body was allangular and chipped stone. He was a golem, a creature of stone and earth given life by magic.
“Can I help you?” His voice sounded like a bucket of gravel being shaken.
“I need to go inside,” I said, pointing through the door.
I peered over his shoulder through the glass door. I could see a bar along one wall, and a lady dancing and singing on a stage. The door must have been magically insulated because no sound came out.
“Are you on the list?” the golem asked.
“List?” I swallowed hard, trying to think of what to say.
He rose from his stool, his body crackling as if the stones his knees were made of were being struck with small hammers. His full height was nearly two feet taller than my slim five-foot-four frame. He gazed down at me with his glowing ruby eyes.
“Ain’t nobody get inside if they aren’t on the list,” he growled.
“Uh, got it,” I said, holding up my hands and taking a few steps back.
Once I was off the sidewalk and on the street, the golem decided I was no longer worth his trouble and sat back down on his stool. I paced up and down the street, trying to figure out how to get inside. Declan was in there. His scent was strongest right by the door. There was no mistaking it.
While I waited, I watched a few more people walk up to the door. The golem checked a scroll and waved them in once he’d found their names. Could I try to talk to someone before they headedin? Maybe I could turn on the charm and get them to take me in with them? Maybe if I tried flirting with?—
“Excuse me?”
I paused in my pacing and glanced toward the door. A woman stood beside the golem, looking at me with a faint, bored smile on her face.
“Are you Veronica Paolo?” she said.
“I…uh…yeah, I am,” I said, taking a step forward, throwing a cautious look toward the golem once more, who sat there, staring at me.
