Elias shrugged and went back to his list. "She has a thing for guys who wear tacky Hawaiian shirts."
"Brogan?"
He scratched the back of his neck. "She's only here on the nights he's working."
"So, he has a stalker."
"Maybe." Elias didn't sound concerned, and neither was I. We were used to it. And if it got too annoying, all we had to do was have one of us--usually Dae Jung because he had no morals--give them the suggestion that they weren't that into us. Human women found us irresistible. Not because we were all that. Not really. I mean, we were all decent looking guys as far as that went, but it was the vampire thing that really got them. We were predators, and nature had made it easy for us to attract our prey.
I was kind of glad, though. I don't know how I'd feel if we had to truly hunt for our meals. Take down a human like a lion takes down a gazelle. It was hard enough to hang on to our humanity as it was. Although there were some like me who did hunt like that, who got off on it, I wasn't one of them.
"So I hear you got yourself a girlfriend."
I glanced up to find Elias's black eyes laughing at me. "You heard wrong."
He ignored my protest. "I'm just glad it's you and not me, man. Ain't no woman gonna havemeat her beck and call, messing up my room with all of her stuff."
"You gonna make her have her own room?"
"Hey," he stopped what he was doing and stared at me with a perfectly serious expression. "There's nothing wrong with having a little order in your life. I know the rest of you don't appreciate it..." Setting the list he'd made near the register, he grabbed a towel and started wiping down the spotless bar. "Well, maybe Killian and Lizzy..."
I interrupted him, having no desire to listen to his spiel on cleanliness. "I don't have a woman."
Something in my voice must've finally gotten through to him, for he stopped what he was doing, and the smirk fell from his face as he stared at me across the bar. "That's not what I heard," he told me, but he wasn't busting my ass anymore. He was dead serious.
"What did you hear?"
"That you saved that hot little redhead from a fight with a djinn and got yourself impaled for your efforts."
I hated to even ask. "Anything else?"
He sighed, set down the towel, and leaned his elbows on the bar, large fingers rubbing the back of the opposite hand. "I heard you drank from her. That she offered it to help you heal. And that when Killian and Lizzy got there you were pacing in front of her like some sort of starved beast. Liz said you looked like Killian had the first time he drank from her."
I let out a nervous laugh. "Nah, man. They're exaggerating." I touched the center of my chest. "I was there when that shit happened. It was nothing like that. I'd just lost a lot of blood. That's all."
Elias stared at me until it was fucking uncomfortable, and I suddenly knew how he always managed to get the underage drinkers into confessing without dipping one toe into their heads.
"What," I said.
He dropped his chin, breaking eye contact. But just for a second as he got his thoughts together. "Look," he told me. "I talk a lot of shit. I know this. But Jamal, if you've found your mate--"
"Leeloo is NOT my mate."
"If you've found your mate," he continued, a little louder this time, "then it is what it is, man. Fighting it will get you nowhere."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Don't tell me you believe in that shit."
He straightened, pulled out his phone, and checked the time. "I know what I see in front of my own damn eyes. First Killian. And now Kenya. Something is in the air, and I have the feeling we're all gonna be fucked eventually. And not in a good way. You just happen to be next." He lifted his chin toward the door. "Wanna get that? Time to open up."
I slid off my stool. "Who's up first?"
"Dae-Jung. Then Brogan."
I nodded. Dae was a great opening act. He always got the audience all wound up for the rest of us. That guy's hips got the cash flowing better than alcohol. Or maybe it was the massive tattoo on his back the ladies liked. Either way, it worked.
While the other guys warmed up the stage for me, I sat in the back office, thinking about what Elias had said. I was so deep in my thoughts I didn't hear Kenya when she came in to do the books.
"Hey," she said softly. I could hear the concern in her voice even over the music.
