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ChapterFourteen
I’d been draggedto clubs before, plenty of times in the past two years. The first few times were fun—I’d never been dancing before, other than around the Saturday bonfire we made back in Everer during summer. Clubs were a brand new thing—just one of the brand new things I had the freedom to do in this new life I lived, so I’d always said yes whenever Hunter, Patricia and Eva invited me out.
But soon after, I’d learned that clubs were not exactly fun. Too many people, too many bodies pressing against me, too many hands groping me and I could never tell who’d done it. Even the music got way too loud eventually, so these past few months, I’d lied through my teeth any time my friends made plans to go clubbing. I’d decided it just wasn’t for me. I was a boring pixie—I preferred a bar where I could sit down, have a drink, listen to music while having a decent conversation with people.
That’s why I was sure I was going to hate De La Cruz the moment we stepped out of the car that night and saw the people waiting in line to get in. Too many of them. The music was way too loud, too, shaking the asphalt all around the building. It was just ten p.m., and I was already exhausted just imagining what it would be like in there.
Unfortunately for me, this was part of my job, so I wouldn’t complain, especially to Dominic, who seemed to be hating this even more than me. It did comfort me to know that. A little bit.
He was wearing Noah Bennett’s face again. Sandra had come back, looking a bit worn, like all that magic she’d used during the day on both me and Dominic had left her spent. She still managed to create the illusion perfectly, and she’d already left another dress for me in the room, together with a bag of makeup. She didn’t help me get ready personally, but her assistants did. They put some makeup on me, added even more volume to my hair, and put me in a black strapless dress, so tight the fabric was like a second skin to me. The pantyhose were completely transparent, so you couldn’t even tell I had them on, but the black pumps didn’t have straps on them, and the heels weren’t as big as those of the white sandals.
Once again, I’d looked at myself in the mirror and hardly recognized the girl staring back. The black dress was simple, beautiful, and it fit me exactly right, but it wasn’t pink. As much as I hated it, no other color looked as good on me, but at least black came the closest.
Dominic wore a black dress shirt and some jeans, topped with a leather jacket that looked perfect on his own body, but slightly too big when Sandra put her illusion magic on him. Still, it was hard to look at him especially when I felt his eyes on me, on my practically naked thighs. Despite my best efforts, it still made my cheeks turn pink constantly.
The bodyguards who were always with us went to whisper to the bouncers’ ears before they turned to us and waved. The line of people waiting to get in—seriously, there were at least a hundred people on that sidewalk—booed us and called us names when the bouncer opened the velvet rope, then the black double doors, and let us through. I turned and smiled apologetically at the people booing us. I was in their shoes plenty of times back home, waiting in the blistering cold to get into one of the best clubs in Manhattan, so I knew how they felt.
All I got in return was middle fingers.
When we stepped into the club, there was no room in my head for thinking anymore—just the beat that shook me to my core every second. The place was huge, bigger than any club I’d ever been to. So many people, so many flashing lights—neon greens and pinks and yellows moving on the sea of bodies on the dance floor. I was already dizzy. Dominic kept his hand on mine, and we followed the bodyguards toward the bar. People pushed us and elbowed us, and it was too dark and there were too many flashing lights to see anything properly, but it felt like hours before we made it to a wide stairway to the side of the huge bar swarming with people. The bodyguards said something to the three bouncers there, too, and the next second, they made way for us to pass through.
My friends and I had never even had the chance to enter the VIP sections of any clubs we’d gone to. We didn’t know anybody important, and we weren’t rich. But Noah Bennett was, and we were reaping the benefits of his name and status to the fullest.
That’s how we found ourselves on the second floor of the club, where there was leather furniture and mirrors and only about thirty people sitting down. So much space. You could dance here freely without being groped by anyone, and even the music wasn’t as loud because the space was enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass walls that overlooked the dance floor below.
The bodyguards took us all the way to the end of the rectangular room, away from everyone else. The black leather couches were really low, and the round table in between them had blue lights mounted underneath it that made the floor look like water. The beat of the music kept on shaking me, and my body wanted to move. How long had it been since I went dancing? Four months? Five?
When we sat down, I took out my phone to snap a few pictures, these for my friends. I’d send them later, when the mission was over and I could actually tell them what I’d been doing, with the caption: reasons why we need rich friends and VIP club sections.
By the time I was done, Dominic had made himself comfortable—his jacket was off and the sleeves of his black shirt were rolled up to his elbows.
“So much space,” I said in wonder. There were about ten feet of matte black tiles separating us from the glass walls that overlooked the ground floor. I could dance for hours, unbothered, and never even have to bump into another person.
“If they could only turn down the music a little bit,” Dominic mumbled. “My head’s gonna explode.”
“It’s not so bad up here,” I said with a shrug. “I normally don’t like clubs, but I’ve never been to a place like this before. This is actually nice.” The low lights, the music, the comfortable couch underneath me—all of it.
And then two waiters were coming our way, guided by the bodyguards. One had a silver bucket full of ice with a bottle of Jack Daniels in it. The other had a tray with four glasses and four bottles of water in it. They were all smiles while they set everything down on the table and poured the whiskey for us without even asking. That’s probably what Noah Bennett drank when he was clubbing, so I didn’t comment, though I would have loved a margarita.
The bodyguards settled right behind us, one on either side of the couch we sat on. Dominic tipped the waiters, and when they left us alone, he grabbed his glass of whiskey and raised it to me.
“Cheers, baby,” he said, sending a rush inside of me that I couldn’t ignore no matter how hard I tried. I clanked my glass to his.
“Cheers,” I said and drank.
“Not so fast,” he said in a whisper, then put his glass down and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. He pulled me to his chest, and even if I’d wanted to stop him, I didn’t have the strength. “You need to pretend to be drunk in about half an hour, then dance.”
I nodded, remembering the article I’d read. It did say that Noah and the pixie girlfriend had stayed until the early morning, and in the end, he’d had to carry her into the car because she was so drunk, she couldn’t walk.
The image of Dominic carrying me in his arms invaded my mind for a second, and my breath hitched.
“Got it,” I said, more for my benefit, to keep my mind distracted. He didn’t keep his arm around me for long, thankfully. The chocolate bar he’d given me at the car show was still in my purse, along with a couple others I’d gotten from the minibar. I hadn’t opened that one at all for some reason, not even after eating the dinner they’d brought us to the hotel room.
“In the meantime, pretend to drink.” He grabbed his glass again, and I followed his motions, bringing the whiskey to my lips, but never drinking.
“Do you do this often?” I asked, looking out the glass walls, at the people dancing. From up here, it didn’t look so bad, actually. I couldn’t see anyone touching or groping anyone—too dark and they were too far away—but everyone there seemed to be having a good time, swinging and jumping to the music.
“Go to clubs?” Dominic asked.
