All it does is make me want to shrink into the shadows of the room and disappear. Which unfortunately is not a power I’m blessed with.
“What’s your name?” a sweaty voice asks right next to my ear. I recoil from the heat of it and swivel around to see an equally sweaty guy with slicked back greasy hair and a button-down shirt open almost to his navel ogling me.
“No thanks,” Amelia says to him from behind me. She waves her hand dismissively at him. “We can definitely do better than that,” she says to me.
“We’re not doing better than anything,” I remind her. “I’m just here to hang out with you and Reese.” It has been ages since we’ve had a girls’ night. We used to do stuff like this all the time, but now we lead such different lives and it feels like a huge distance has risen up between the three of us. Tonight was just supposed to be like old times. And maybe it already is, because since when did my sisternotmeddle in my life?
I look around for Reese, catching a guy with dark hair grinding with her, his arms around her waist, his lips murmuring something in her ear. She sees me looking and grins excitedly, obviously super into the guy. And he is hot, so I smile back at her. “I’m going to get another round of drinks,” I tell them, as Amelia draws a guy towards her with just the simplest crook of her finger.
They shout their drink preferences at me as I try not to stumble all the way to the bar. Taking off these heels at the end of the night is the closest I’m coming to an orgasm today. A couple of the guys from the dance floor trail after me, so I let one of them buy the round of drinks, but I make sure to carry all three back to the dance floor so no one gets any ideas of slipping anything into them.
Amelia and Dericia reach out and take their drinks. Amelia exchanges numbers with the guy she was dancing with, winking at me as he heads back to his friends. “I’ll circle back to him before we leave,” she says, glancing down at her dress, which keeps riding up. She tugs it down with her free hand. “Anyone catch your eye?” she asks me hopefully.
“Nope, but Dericia definitely seems to have caught many eyes,” I say, noticing a guy in a red shirt with his hair pulled up into a bun trying to pull her away from the guy she’s been dancing with now for several songs. Her dance partner twirls them, so that Dericia is facing away from us, trying to put himself between her and the guy with the red shirt.
Amelia and I gasp as we catch a glimpse of the back of his neck. Thick ridges line the center of his back. It’s not as apparent through his shirt, but above the collar we can see where his ridged spine pushes through his skin.
A warlock.
Before we can attempt to disentangle Dericia from the warlock, the red-shirted guy starts shouting at him, and a crowd starts to form as everyone tries to get a look at what’s happening.
“Let her go, you Made fae piece of trash,” the guy in the red shirt says, baring his fangs at the warlock.
The warlock tightens his arms around Dericia, who swivels in his grasp to find us, her eyes wide. “We were just dancing,” the warlock says, fury lacing his words.
“I don’t understand why this place even lets in your kind,” the red-shirted vamp says, grabbing onto Dericia’s arms and trying to pull her out of the warlock’s grasp. “Don’t worry, babe, I won’t let him hurt you.”
“I’m not going to hurt her,” the warlock shouts.
Amelia and I exchange glances. More and more fae are starting to congregate around the scene these two are making, with Dericia smack-dab in the middle of it. We have to get her out of there before anyone starts using their powers. While her kindred rune protects her from some fae magic, like compulsion, it won’t protect against direct hits, and she doesn’t have magic of her own to defend herself if she gets caught in the magical crossfire.
Amelia sucks in a breath, raising her arms out around her, and a whooshing sensation rushes past me as she lets out a calming energy. I can tell immediately when it reaches the two guys. The Born fae vampire relaxes a bit, but he is still trying to pull Dericia out of the warlock’s grip. “She’s human, man. Just let her go.”
“Just because I’m Made, doesn’t mean I’ll hurt her,” the warlock replies, but the fury in his voice is gone.
I step between Dericia and the vampire. “Hey, Reese, we’re gonna go home now, okay?” She nods at me, her eyes no longer wide and a lazy grin on her face as she feels the effects of Amelia’s magic. I gently remove the warlock’s arms from around her middle and he stares at me with an almost sleepy confusion. Once I’ve lead Dericia away from the fae and we’re behind Amelia, she lets go of her magic and the two fae whip their eyes back towards one another.
“Fucking Made fae, thinking they can just steal humans away. You probably wanted to turn her, didn’t you?” the vampire asks. He doesn’t wait for a reply as he drunkenly swings a fist at the warlock.
The warlock tries to conjure some magic to defend himself, but the vampire hits him square in the jaw. The warlock gives up on magic entirely, launching himself at the vampire, knocking him to the ground. Others pounce on the Made fae, pulling him up off the vampire and throwing him back to the ground, where they start to beat on him.
Despite the news of the warlock attacks, I’m desperate to get the other fae to cool off. My power ebbs to the surface, reluctantly dusting itself off. I raise my hand, letting a dribble of power out. The small fae mob show no sign my magic has any effect. Not a single person stops what they’re doing. None of the onlookers step in to help.
Amelia tugs on my arm. “Let’s go.”
I turn my pleading eyes on her and she shakes her head. But I see her look behind me at the fight. Her eyes widen and she sends another wave of her power blasting at the group. They all slow to a halt, dazed smiles appearing on their faces and laughter bubbling up their throats.
Amelia and Dericia tug at my arms as I stand there, frozen. We should still help the warlock, shouldn’t we? Find his friends, maybe? “We gotta go, Bliss.”
As they drag me out of the club, I can’t help but shiver.
“Gross, I can’t believe I was dancing with a warlock,” Dericia says, shaking out her arms like she can somehow shake off any germs he might have left on her. “Ugh, what if he was like two hundred years old?”
“He seemed nice enough,” I say, though the warning all Born fae have been given echoes in my head. We’re taught not to interact with Made fae if we can help it. They don’t have our morals and many kill without remorse and turn humans against their will.
“Bliss, did you not see the ridges on his neck?” Amelia asks, shuddering. She feigns gagging.
I shrug and let out a yawn. “I guess we should probably call it a night, huh?”
