Page 19 of Only Fangs

I glance towards Clara, hoping she might add some context.

“Apparently, asking your employees to a club is workplace harassment,” Clara says in a deadpan tone. She shrugs.

“Oh.” I feel like I’ve walked in on the tail end of a private joke and decide to just shrug it off.

“You must be Matt,” Ivan says as he stands and reaches out a taloned hand to Matt.

“Uh… hi,” Matt stammers. I stamp on his foot, a signal for him to act at least vaguely normal.

“Let’s get you a drink and get acquainted, shall we?” If Matt could blush, he’d be bright beetroot. But he allows Ivan to guide him towards the bar. I have to admit that they make kind of a cute couple.

“Well, I doubt we’ll be seeing much of those two this evening,” Clara remarks. “And it’s highly unlikely Ivan will remember to get us drinks while he’s at the bar.” She huffs slightly and stands up. “I’ll go and sort us out. Shall we be naughty and have some kind of swishy martini?” She directs the question to Ari.

“It’s a work night,” Ari reminds her.

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” Clara replies and winks at her before directing a beaming smile towards me. “Back in a jiffy.” Jiffy is such a grandma thing to say and it’s so anachronistic to come from the lips of a thirty year old in a leather miniskirt.

Ari pats the seat next to her and I plonk myself down on the plush leather sofa. “This place is kind of swish,” I say then groan inside at how much of a dumbass I must sound. But I’ve always been so awful at small talk.

“Yeah. It’s Clara’s favourite. We’ve been coming here since the twenties.”

“Cool.” Cool? I’m such a dweeb. “So it’s mainly a vampire place?” I ask.

Ari looks around and I follow the direction of her gaze. It is so obviously a vampire place and I feel my cheeks flare. Why am I being such an imbecile this evening? It certainly has nothing at all to do with the scarlet top Ari is wearing. Or the way her legs look in a pair of skin tight black jeans.

She leans in to whisper something in my ear and I feel my pulse quicken as the scent of her perfume blankets the air between us. “My friends don’t know you’re a normie.”

“Oh.” I don’t really know what to say. Is she embarrassed by me? Or are her friends anti-human? No, that doesn’t seem to fit, she’s not like that and I don’t think she’d be friends with vampires who were.

“It’s complicated. I…” she starts, but she trails off. “I just didn’t tell them and now it feels kind of weird.”

But that isn’t the reason, I can sense she’s lying to me. I just don’t understand why.

“Just.. I’m not going to ask you to tell fibs or anything. But…” She turns her face away from me.

“I won’t say anything. I guess they’ve just assumed I’m vampire?”

She nods.

“Well,” I turn towards the bar area. Clara is chatting to a stunningly gorgeous and incredibly tall woman in a long black lace gown that should look bizarre but seems almost fitting given the decor of the place. Matt and Ivan are a few metres away from Clara, deep in conversation. Ivan’s hand is resting gently on Matt’s arm. “I think our friends have other things than my lack of fangs on their minds.” I make it sound like a joke, a platform from which we can jump to some safer ground.

Chapter 11

Ari

Iwake up in the dark with a banging headache and a crick in my neck. Oh fuck. I must have fallen asleep on Clara’s sofa. Jeez. I don’t even remember getting back here last night. The last thing I can picture is dancing with Brody, and “dancing” might be generous because I think I was just swaying against him vaguely in time to the beat.

What were we drinking? Oh yes. Espresso martinis. I remember now that Clara thought they’d be perfect as the caffeine would counteract the vodka and so it was basically the same as drinking water. Why do I let her talk me into these things?

I lie in the dark as my brain races through all my memories of last night. At least I don’t think I disgraced myself too badly, even if I did demonstrate that I was still down with the kids by performing the dance to Katseye’s “Touch”. I groan as I replay the scene in technicolour. That was definitely not my finest moment. And I think I might have told Clara that I thought Brody was kind of easy on the eye.

I hear noise from the kitchen and go to investigate. “Please tell me you are making some kind of food,” I say to Clara who is standing with her head inside the fridge, perusing the contents.

“I can do cinnamon bagels and cream cheese?”

“Sounds like heaven.” My stomach growls in agreement. Thinking back, I’m not sure I ate dinner last night. Which might also explain how shit faced I must have been.

Clara busies herself with breakfast as I sit on one of the kitchen stools and will myself to stay upright and not puke everywhere.