Page 42 of Nosfer-Meet You

“Yo, you made it!” Marcus yells over the music. “Have a seat, you two! Meet Sapphire.”

Sapphire smiles politely and holds out her hand to shake mine. We exchange quick pleasantries, but then Eli cuts straight to the chase.

“Why are we here?” he asks.

Ava throws back a shot of vodka and laughs. “Always business with Elias, even on a holiday.”

“You’re here to hang out and relax,” Marcus says. Sapphire smiles and nods along.

“Just have fun,” Ava says, and pushes a couple of vodka shots toward me and Eli. I want one, yeah, but I don’t like drinking in strange places. Eli shakes his head, pushing them back to Ava. Predictably, she frowns, then pulls one of her notorious pouts on our dear leader.

“No, thank you,” Eli says.

“Aw, c’mon. It’s New Year’s Eve and it’s the end of the world!” Ava whines. I’ve never wanted to smack her so much.

Sapphire winks at Eli and says, “Yeah. Live a little. It’s just one night. You can go back to being your handsome, polished self tomorrow, I’m sure.”

Compliments might work on her usual clientele, but Eli is impervious to them.

“I’m afraid that if we have nothing important to discuss, then I must take my leave. I need to get back to the office,” he says, then slides out of the booth. Marcus jumps to his feet to chase after him, leaving me with Sapphire and Ava. Well, Sapphire, mostly. Ava is too incoherent to be considered anywhere at all right now.

“So, your sister is Harriett, right?” Sapphire asks as she scoots closer to me.

I nod. “Yeah. She’s downstairs.”

“I saw,” she says, then takes one of the vodka shots and tosses it back. She wipes her mouth clean and winces. “I keep telling the bartender we need better shit. This stuff’s like drinking bleach.”

“Drink a lot of bleach, then, do you?” I ask. Half of my body is out of the booth, ready to make my great escape and find Eli.

Sapphire either doesn’t notice the jab or chooses to ignore it. “She’s cute. Your sister, I mean. And I had no idea your boss was such a hottie.”

I roll my eyes. “He’s not available, so don’t get too attached.” Unless she just wants his wallet. In either case, she’s going to be disappointed. To my knowledge, Eli has never paid for female company, and I doubt that’s going to start in 2000.

I don’t wait for Sapphire to answer before stepping out of the booth. Ava slumps over the table in a drunken stupor. That’s been her usual game lately—get so wasted she can’t move or feel feelings, then nurse her hangover with a fresh kill the next evening. This shite’s getting old, though, and all I want to do is go back home to the nest and sleep.

Sapphire grabs my wrist, and I spin around to bare my fangs at her. But to my surprise, she doesn’t flinch or even so much as react. She just … stares at me.

“Stay,” she says. “I know what you are. I know what you all are.”

Dammit, Marcus. The fuck did you do now?

I let out a groan and retract my fangs. “What the fuck,” I breathe.

“Relax. Stay a while. Party,” she says, and pulls on my arm so hard I fall back into the booth beside her. When I look back over at Ava, I notice she’s drooling on the table. What a mess.

“Hey, Ava,” I say, and reach over with my free hand to shake her. “Wake up.”

“She’s not waking up for a while,” Sapphire says in a sing-songy voice that sends a chill down my spine.

I turn to push Sapphire away, to go find Eli and Marcus. Her grip on my wrist is strong, but I’m stronger, and I shove her against the wall. “Knock it off. Leave me alone.”

I slide out of the booth and go to grab Ava to take her back to the nest, but all the lights in the club suddenly go out, plunging the room into darkness. The crowd downstairs screams as the doors slam shut. I hiss and whirl around⁠—

Only to find Sapphire at my back, with a crossbow aimed directly for my heart.

“Don’t move,” she says. Her lips curl into a sadistic grin. I look over at Ava still knocked out in the booth. “Just stay right there, you bloodsucking son of a bitch.”

I put my hands up as the panic rises within me. Harriett. I have to find my sister. I have to find Eli, too, before it’s too late.