Who knew? One simple conversation and it’s like I’ve finally been exhumed from my shallow grave. Her sudden presence in my life—her beauty, her wit—has shed new light on this horrible, endless existence of mine.
Her eyes narrow in acknowledgment.She is afraid.I know she wants to say something to smooth the moment over. Her mouth opens, but my pride gets in the way. I turn and walk away before she can confirm what I know to be true with a flimsy lie. What was I thinking? I am not allowed to have a friend, a lover. I am allowed to comfort myself with acrid cigarette smoke, drugs that dull me, and passionless sex.
On Thursday, I make a point of sitting on the other side of the room. If Diantha comes to class, I do not notice. If she looks my way, I do not feel it.
Class ends and we scatter, but there’s a part of me, a part I thought was almost entirely extinct, that aches.
Hades House’s transformation into a cheap den of sin is nearly complete, desecrated at the hands of the shittiest assholes I’ve ever met.
And I’ve encountered many assholes.
The downstairs walls have been covered in black paint, the curtains swapped for heavy, light-blocking velvet drapes, tables and chairs removed and replaced with plastic sofas that line the walls. A stripper pole has been installed in the open space in front of the bar, though I doubt Alfo knows anyone with enough skill to mount the thing.
The pièce de résistance is the disco ball now hanging over the bar.
“Ta da.” Leo flicks a switch and the mirrorball commences its pathetic circle.
Nisos, the furthest thing from an ally, and I trade a blank look.
“How classy,” I remark as I finish washing my paint brushes in the bar sink.
“Don’t be such a fucking snob. Humans love a theme—they love a little ambiance.” Leo sinks down onto one of the cheap couches and lights a cigarette. “And vampires, you sick fucks only care about one thing.”
He’s not wrong. Tomorrow night, this town will be crawling with vampires from every corner of the East coast. Hungry andviolent and beautiful. Women will go missing—some will never be seen again. I scrunch my nose at the thought.
“We are somehow even more disgusting than humans,” I concede.
“Aw, come on, you big Roman cuck. You’ll be the main event,” Nis says, smirking as he blows a smoke ring. “Should we chain him up and put him in a cage?”
“Orfy would look good in chains,” Leo chimes in. “Almost as good as he looks in leather.”
“Main event? For who?” I shake my head. “The entire point of this bar is to draw in rich, beautiful vamps so they can feast on the all-you-can-eat buffet of the poor souls you’ve tricked into working for you. What the fuck do they care about me?” I dry my hands on a bar towel before tossing it over my shoulder. “This is the problem with demons: you’re too fucking stupid to be any good at being evil.”
Anger flares in Nis’s beady eyes. “But you’re here with us, aren’t you? With us idiots.” He leans forward onto the bar, blown out pupils glassy under the cheap light. “So, what does that make you?” He pulls his cigarette from his lips and presses the smoldering tip into the bar top, millimeters from my hand. “Where’s your money,bastardo?”
I grab hold of his wrist, twisting his arm backward. Before Nis can cry out in pain, I hop the bar and slam him into the back wall, pressing my forearm flat against his windpipe.
He claws at me, gagging as he tries desperately to suck down air. I loosen my grip only so I don’t lose the satisfaction of forcing him to listen to me.
If I wanted to kill Nisos, it would have already been done.
But I don’t care enough about him to have his blood on my hands. His life is worthless, as is his death. What I want is for him to fear me, down to his bones. I want his dick to shrink and his stomach to hurt when I walk in the room.
I lean my face close to his, baring my fangs. “I’m here to fulfill a commitment to Alfo. Don’t you ever, for one moment, confuse my presence with a desire to be in your company.” I tighten my grip on his T-shirt and lift him off the ground, until only the tips of his sneakers touch the hardwood floors. His eyes bulge, anger and fear bleeding together. “If Alfo and I hadn’t made an agreement, I would have already snapped your skinny neck and let your slimy, pathetic body bleed out on the floor. Do you understand that? Do you understand why I haven’t ripped your throat out of your neck yet?
“Instead, I paint the ceiling, I laugh at your pathetic jokes, I indulge your desperate women, and then I go home. I don’t killanyone, actually.Isn’t that kind of me?”
Nisos pulls his lips back over his teeth, thrashing under my hold. “Fuckingbloodsucker.Fuckingrodent.”
I lean in so close our noses almost touch. Around me, the lights flicker. Glasses and bottles stored on the shelves behind the bar begin to rattle, not like the ground is shaking but like someone has stumbled back into them. I shoot a glare in Leo’s direction, but he’s just sitting there, smoking.
Nis thinks the energy surge is my doing. Sweat gathers on his hairline, all remaining color drained from his pathetic face. Little does he know, I have no fucking idea what’s going on either.
“I asked if that’s kind of me.” I smirk. “Am I kind, Nisos?”
He bares his teeth in a snarl, choking out each word. “You’re…fucking…kind.”
I drop Nis, moving across the room in an instant and leaving him to hit the floor with a dull thud. I dust off my hands and pick up my leather jacket.
