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Vance put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him. “I agree with Erica. I think you’d be much more fun to be around if we screwed each other’s brains out.”
I shrugged him off. “I’m so sure.”
He laughed. “I’m just saying.”
I pointed my finger at Erica. “You…Let’s go.” I glared at Vance. “You… Stay!”
“Finally!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.
We started walking down the side of Vance’s house, towards my Camry parked out front. “C’mon, Eri, let’s get out of here,” I said.
“Have a good night at work, Karli!” Vance called. “Think about my demo offer!”
Ugh! Despite my best intentions, I couldn’t help thinking about his offer and had to break out Bob before I went to work. Several times.
*****
Right before six, I arrived at my little home away from home, Pixie Dust. It’s a bar that typically caters to a more discer
ning clientele right off the casino floor of a posh center strip hotel in Las Vegas. When you first walk in, your eyes are instinctively drawn to the Swarovski crystal bar that lines the back wall. That’s where you’ll find me, Karli Lane, Thursday through Sunday nights as Head Bartender/Manager on duty. As if the bar bling wasn’t enough, you have our main attraction: two illuminated, frosted screens flanking the shelves of alcohol. Girls wearing nothing but a pair of fairy wings dance behind them all night, leaving very little to the imagination.
I stashed my purse behind the bar and bumped into our new hostess, Laney.
“Hey there, Karli, how’s it going?” she asked.
“Good, thanks,” I replied. “How’s it been going around here?”
She gathered her long, strawberry blonde curls into a ponytail. “Pretty slow, but it’s about to pick up. Leo just called telling us to expect a crowd soon. I guess there’s a big show in the convention hall that’s about to break.”
Leo Markos, the vampire co-starring in my fantasies, owns Pixie Dust, thereby technically making him my boss. He bought this place several months ago solely to get to know me better. I know you’re probably thinking that there are cheaper ways to get to know a person, right? Well, I did too at first. But rumor has it that Leo has tons of cash lying around accumulated from five hundred plus years of living. Not to mention the fact that I supposedly have trust and/or intimacy issues that are a little too transparent. Go figure.
Vance once told me that vampires and fairies had been inevitably drawn to each other throughout history. Vampires were created thousands of years ago from mixing the blood of a fallen God and a Fae. I guess that means the two races have some sort of cosmic connection. The main problem with that is that Fae blood is intoxicating to a vampire, and also easily detectab
le. Our blood gives off a unique honey-almond scent that a vamp would be able to smell in close proximity once we become immortal. My immortality was fast approaching, making those of the fanged persuasion an even greater threat to me than they already were.
Leo has already proven that he would never succumb to the bloodlust that a vampire typically suffers when around my kind. He’s not only had my blood on two occasions, but he also knows that I am the last full-blooded fairy on this planet, and has done everything in his power to protect me and my secret.
“Did he mention what time we should expect the masses?” I asked while straightening bottles on the shelves.
She shook her head. “No, but he asked me to have you call him when you get a sec.” She winked. “It sounded personal. I hear you two have a thing. Is it true?”
“Um, no,” I lied. Great, so apparently news of our relationship, for lack of a better word, had spread to her as well. Our old hostess, Roxy, was a huge gossip who’d started the buzz...until she turned into a murdering psychopath that I had to kill to save my own life. Hopefully Laney was only looking to replace her in the professional sense.
She smirked. “Whatever you say, Karli. I’d better get back to my station.”
What was that supposed to mean? I didn’t really have a chance to contemplate it any further because the bar was suddenly overloaded with silicone-implanted, collagen-injected women accompanied by a lot of men with their tongues hanging out. It was obvious that the convention being held at the hotel was of the adult film variety. My ex-boyfriend, Chad, became one of the gawkers as he walked in with widened eyes, looking like a kid in a candy store.
He sat directly in front of me. “Hey, Kar, can I get an IPA?”
“Sure, Chad,” I replied. I had to repress a sigh at his unfair level of attractiveness. Southern California born and bred, he was a badass surfer boy to the core. One sexy grin was all it took to make a very good girl go very, very bad. Too bad he had broken my heart into a thousand pieces. A little over a year ago, I discovered that he had an obsession with attending any sexually related gathering that he could find. It’s actually how Erica and I became friends. They had multiple sex buddies in common. Once she found out that we were supposed to be in a monogamous relationship, the girl code required her to tell me all the gory details. He and I are now on the road to maintaining a somewhat civil relationship, but it’s still a work in progress. Big time.
He looked around and smiled. “Wow, this place is like an orgy waiting to happen!”
“Nice, Chad.” I grabbed his bottle of beer and set it in front of him. “Drink your beer and try not to slobber too much.”
He stared at a woman sitting in the corner booth. “Holy fuck, is that who I think it is?”
I looked at the platinum blonde dressed in minimal vinyl clothing. Okay, I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but even I knew who she was. She was very big in the porn industry. “Um, yeah, I think so,” I said.
