A large stained-glass window of red sits against the far back wall, looming above the stage where the DJ is spinning. The set up features coffins and candelabras, all lit with glowing red lights that shift and change with the tempo of the music. Next to the DJ are smaller, rounder stages set up on either, each equipped with a pole and a cage. I can see bodies moving inside them, dancing along with those on the floor level. If I look hard enough there, I can just make out the outline of lips and vampire teeth adorning the dancefloor.
Tannis really outdid themselves.
“This way, ladies!” Nate shouts. He leads us away, only to bring us to another staircase that opens to a separate hallway. We pass a couple doors, all of which I assume are private boxes for VIPS.
Once we’re inside one, though, a lame ‘wow’ is all I can manage.
“This is way better than I expected,” Jill says, and Emma squeals with delight beside her.
“Holy shit! This is crazy!”
Emma is right. It’s crazy. While the dancefloor and the club are impressive, the private room is even more surprising. The room is black, decked out with sleek, modern gray furniture. There are couches and armchairs, with a round glass table at the center. Against one wall is a wardrobe, which Nate opens to take coats. I pass mine off after Emma and pull her over to a glass window that overlooks the dancefloor.
“I see Tannis spared no expense,” Gray says somewhere behind me. I turn around in time to catch him examining a lit fireplace. It’s the coolest room I’ve ever been in that doesn’t have a pole.
“Welcome to the VIP lounge.” Nate claps his hands together, satisfied by our reactions. I’m sure he’s going to relay that to Tannis. That’ll be a nice little ego boost.
“Who owns this place, Millie?” Jill asks from the couch. She hasn’t moved to take off her coat.
“A friend of a friend,” I say. It’s not a lie. Not completely.
Still, I feel bad for doing it. When she first met Gray, I had told her that his belongings had burned up in a house fire. I couldn’t exactly tell her that his rich cousin owned the club. That wouldn’t sit right with her, especially knowing that I was the one footing the bill for his new wardrobe. He paid me back at least, and he got a lap dance out of it, so I guess I’d say we’re even now.
Jill seems satisfied enough with my answer.
“Let’s go dance!” Emma shouts, grabbing for her sister. Jill comes up fast, unable to deny her. I catch up with them both, tangling myself with Emma’s free arm on the way out. I plan to spend the rest of the night dancing and losing myself in the music and Gray.
I don’t know how long I’ve been dancing for, I only know that I’m covered in sweat, pressed between bodies on both sides. Gray is in front of me, his black shirt now unbuttoned and hanging loose. I have a firm grip on his belt, with my other hand wrapped up in my hair. The minute our feet touched the dancefloor, I felt myself pulled into the rhythm, arrested to its will as I moved with the changing tunes. The DJ played everything, from remixes of pop songs to heavy metal.
Currently, the haunting toll of Peter Steele’s voice winds in and out with a synthwave tune that bleeds into the beginnings of a Sleep Token song. It’s like the DJ has been scrolling throughmy Spotify this whole time. Vessel’s vocals tickle my scalp, which sends a pleasant little vibration down my spine, making my toes and fingers tingle.
“Having fun?” Gray asks, leaning in to speak. He turns me in his arms so that my back is flat against his front. I peer up at him, half-veiled by my unruly mess of green waves. He isn’t just looking at me, he’s drinking me in with his eyes, devouring my figure as hands rove along my curves.
“Mm, I am.” I purposely bump into him. “Can we take a break?”
“Thirsty?” he asks with a smirk.
“Parched.” It’s also been a minute since I’ve seen Jill or Emma, though I distinctly recall Nate falling prey to the latter of the two.
Gray spins me around and then takes me by the hand. He leads us through the packed dance floor to the bar on the other side. Just as I expected, Emma and Nate are cozied up on one side of the bar, close enough to kiss. We lost them a few seconds after leaving Jill in the VIP room. I’m not surprised to find them there at all.
“Let’s go this way.” I pull Gray to the other side of the bar, the part that sits in the darkness, untouched by the vivid neon lights. I take a seat on a stool and usher Gray to stand between my legs, close enough that we can still talk without screaming above the music. When he waves the bartender over, he orders a glass of red wine for himself, and I order a martini.
“What kind of wine is that?” I ask him. It looks a little too thick from where I’m sitting.
He raises a brow as he moves the glass away from his lips. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Is it—?” I zero in on the color and how dark it is. My initial thought is blood, or wine mixed with blood, and that’s just a guess. Amusement dances in his eyes, and I know I’m right.
“It’s exactly what you think it is,” he says.
“How do they know?” I wonder, eyeing the bartender.
Gray raises his wrist with the black wristband and gives it a shake. “Nate fibbed. Black marks us as vampires.”
So Iwasright.
“Ya know,” I start, turning back to the bar where my drink sits untouched, “I can hardly believe this is all real. One minute, I’m waking up in my own bed back home, taking my top off for randos, and the next, I’m hanging out at a vamp bar, top intact.”
