I get as close to the drunk as I can without actually forcing myself between him and the current girl he’s ogling. Taking a deep breath, I let the beat of the music settle me. I start to sway my hips slowly, imagining the feel of someone’s hands on my waist. I ignore the fact that it’s Calix’s hands I’m imagining.
I lift my arms in the air, taking up some of my hair as I do. It falls back down over my back and shoulders in a pale wave.
I know the drunk is going to touch me before he does. I can feel the slime oozing off him as his thoughts turn nefarious. Even though I hate the thought, I let him put his nasty hand on the swell of my hip.
One touch, and I spin around and shove him backwards. He stumbles, but there are too many people standing around for him to fall on his ass like he should have. He gets bounced right back up. He’s so unsteady on his feet, he almost goes down again trying to regain his balance.
“Hey,” he slurs, his eyes are all glassy, but his lips are lifted in a sneer.
“Keep your fucking hands off me.” I thought this would be a good idea to get Gunnar’s attention, but I want to kick this guy in the balls so badly.
The crowd shifts before he has a chance to respond. I feel a hand on my upper arm, and when I look over, Gunnar is standing next to me, glaring down at the drunk, who now has a security guy holding his shoulder, only the grip doesn’t seem nearly as gentle as the one Gunnar has on me.
“Time to go,” Gunnar announces, and tugs on my arm a little. The anger is still simmering inside of me, and I want to tug my arm out of his hold, but this is exactly what I was hoping for.
“I didn’t do shit,” the man spews. “That bitch pushed me.”
I glare over my shoulder at him. The man grabs his chest and starts coughing violently. Even though I don’t want to, I release the hold I have on his soul. This man is riddled with sins so severe, he’s going to be dead within a few years anyway, and those years won’t be very pleasant. I can already feel the tar surrounding his organs.
The first time I ripped out someone’s soul was by accident. I was young and hungry. There was a teacher at school whose aura was dirty, but not black, and I pulled too much from her. Before I realized it, she was on the floor, clutching her chest. The next day, the school announced she had a heart attack, and they even brought in grief counselors. But I knew what had really happened.
I had eaten her soul instead of her sins. It was a very effective lesson on meal planning.
“Shut up. I should have tossed you out an hour ago.” The security guy holding the drunk jerks his arm, causing the man to stumble again. He’s too busy trying to catch his breath to argue anymore, though. I made sure of that.
Gunnar leads me in the opposite direction of the exit where the drunk is headed, his grip still loose on my upper arm. “If you wanted my attention, all you had to do was ask. Not almost get some idiot killed to get it.”
I do pull away from him then. “I wasn’t even close to killing him,” I counter.
“I didn’t sayyouwere.” He leans down in my face. Gunnar’s eyes are wild, and there’s a thick vein pulsing at the side of his neck.
I roll my eyes. If he thinks that’s going to intimidate me, he’s mistaken. “I’ve been watching that guy harass women all night. I was doing you a favor.”
“Next time, just tell someone,” Gunnar grates out through his teeth.
“Sure, I’ll do that.” I brace my hands on my hips when we reach a door that has ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ painted in bright yellow across the top.
Gunnar waves a keycard in front of a square pad, and a small, green light blinks twice before he reaches for the door handle and yanks it open. He looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to go in ahead of him.
“Tossing me out the back?” I strut through the door, not at all worried that he might be.
“Last door on the left.” He motions for me to go forward without answering my question. The hall is lined with doors on either side, but the one Gunnar directed me to has another square pad next to the door. He swipes the same keycard near the box, then enters a six-digit code into a keypad. His fingers go too fast for me to follow, but it’s not like I plan to sneak back in here or anything.
I hear the lock disengage this time, since most of the music from the club is drowned out behind the walls. The room is dark until Gunnar slaps his hand against the wall. I cross my arms under my chest. I figured with all that security, there would be something notable behind the door—not a boring-as-hell office with an old, metal desk that looks as if it’s been around for a decade, and a worn-out office chair that’s leaning to the left behind it.
“Fancy,” I drawl.
Gunnar tosses the keycard on the desk. “Wanna explain why you sauntered past Gina’s wards tonight?”
“First of all, I don’t need to explain shit to you.” This isn’t going quite how I expected. I’m still feeling on edge. It can’t just be the Calix situation. I’m looking for a fight. The drunk didn’t provide nearly enough of a distraction.
Gunnar pinches the bridge of his nose. In a much calmer tone, he tries again. “Will you please tell me how you were able to get past the wards?”
That appeases the anger in me a little. I look around the office again. There’s a ratty old couch to the left of the desk. It looks as if it were pulled out of a dumpster behind a thrift shop, but I walk over and sit as daintily as possible on the arm of the sofa anyway.
“It wasn’t intentional. I didn’t even know they were there until I was past them,” I answer honestly.
“Y-You…What? You didn’t know they were there?” he stammers, like he can’t believe what I just said.
