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“This is Chase Johnson, detective and friend of the business. Close to being family. Treat him right.”
Derrick nodded. “Nice to meet you, Detective.”
“Chase, this is Derrick—my new bartender. Derrick, give us a few minutes alone. Chase has something to talk to me about. Don’t you?”
“Yeah, though I wish this were just a social cal .” He shook hands with Derrick, then fol owed me to a booth. “Werewolf?”
“Badger People. Werebadger.”
“Sheesh—is there a Were class for every animal on the planet?” Chase snorted and rubbed one perfectly groomed eyebrow.
“Just about. What is it, Johnson?”
“Trouble. You have the time to take a little ride with me to headquarters? Vampire business. I think.” He let out a long sigh.
Hel . Vampire business was so not what I wanted to hear because when Chase came cal ing about vampires, it usual y meant somebody was dead. Usual y murdered. There’d been an upswing in nocturnal activity lately, but since I was no longer privy to the scuttlebutt going around Vampires Anonymous—a support group for vamps new to the life, run by vampire and former friend Wade Stevens—it was harder for me to ferret out secrets. I had to rely on what Sassy Branson told me, but she was growing more erratic every day. I’d been seriously considering taking my “daughter” Erin out of the older vampire’s care.
ER 1
“I can’t believe I need another new bartender.” I leaned back in my chair and propped my feet on the desk. Luke had left the bar for a good reason, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. And his replacement—Shawn, a vampire—hadn’t risen to the chal enge. I’d fired him after two weeks of inept bartending and questionable customer service. When I caught him trying to put the fang on a couple of my regulars, I lost it and kicked him out. Nobody messed with my regulars, especial y in my bar.
But that left a void. The Wayfarer was busy, like every other place during the holiday season, and we needed every hand on board. We’d started early with an Otherworld Thanksgiving feast from the gril , and then that weekend I’d put up a fake tree in the corner and handed out bonuses so that my employees could shop. Now, nearing the end of the first week of December, the main focus of Winter Solstice was stil ahead of us—and Christmas for my clients who celebrated it—
and the parties were getting more frantic and raucous every night as people crowded in, exhausted from shopping and coping with holiday chaos.
Nerissa gave me the what-can-you-do gesture with her hands, tossing them up in the air. “What can I say, dol ? I’m sorry, but that’s the way things go.” Standing behind me, she leaned down and slowly trailed a line of kisses down my cheek to my neck. “I’d work for you, if I didn’t have the day job.”
“You’d make such an awesome bartender, and then I could yank you back here in my office to make love whenever we felt like it.”
“We’d never get anything done,” she countered.
I laughed, then shrugged. “I know, I know—hiring people is part of owning a bar, but it fucking sucks.”
I tipped my head back and she caught me ful on the mouth. I savored my golden goddess’s lips as she set off a ricochet of desire that shockwaved through my body. Al I could think about was how much I wanted her. Here. Now. As I reached for her breast, my fingers sliding over the rounded curves of her body, a knock on the door interrupted us.
“Bad timing.” I glanced up at her rueful y. “Rain check?”
“Always.” She reluctantly stepped back to sit in the chair next to my desk.
A werepuma, Nerissa was a warped Aphrodite, but she was also extremely diplomatic about knowing when I needed to present a professional appearance. She sat primly in the chair, her skirt suit and tawny chignon making her look like a librarian waiting to bust out and go wild. Everybody knew we were together, but it wouldn’t do for the boss to be sucking face when the help checked in.
“Come in.” I waited as Chrysandra opened the door and peeked her head in. “What’s up?”
She glanced at Nerissa, then at me, and grinned. “Sorry to interrupt, boss, but I’ve got someone out here looking for a job. I’m not sure, but you might want to talk to him.”
“Supe?” I had instituted a policy of only hiring members of the Supernatural Community. The Wayfarer attracted far too many potential problems for me to take a chance on any more ful -
blooded humans. Chrysandra had gotten the hang of working around Supes of al kinds, but for a bartender, I needed someone who could also act as bouncer when I wasn’t around.
Pieder, the giant, did a good job, but he worked days, and I was hiring for the night shift. I probably should hire a second bouncer while I was at it, but since I worked a majority of evenings in the bar, I usual y covered the void. Smart people didn’t mess with vampires, and most of my regulars had quickly learned not to cross me.
She nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not sure what kind. He has an odd feel.” The look on her face told me that either he made her nervous or he was just so strange that she didn’t know what to make of him. Chrysandra was, I had discovered, fairly psychic for an FBH—ful -blooded human—and she picked up on things easily.
“Send him in.” I turned to Nerissa. “Sweetie, you mind giving me a little privacy to interview him?”
“No problem. You sure you want to talk to him alone, girl?” She stroked my cheek with her fingers. “I can stay.”
“I can tear apart ninety percent of the creatures I meet if they bother me. Don’t forget that I’m a vampire, sweet-heart. Never, ever forget it.” I took her hand, holding it for a moment. I loved her dearly, and because of that, I never wanted her to forget I was a dangerous predator. It was my nature and I accepted it and at times—reveled in it.
