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“I understand,” I said, squeezing her hand again. “I feel that, too. Even now, just outside the bar, I was worried someone who might recognize us might be here.”
Willa’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Oh, yeah. I hadn’t thought about that.”
It was time to move on, or start moving on. “We deserve to relax and have fun like everyone else.”
Willa gestured to the crowd of people again. “You mean live naively and not worry that you’ll be a vampire’s victim? There’re no rules in this city keeping them from feeding randomly.”
There weren’t. The only law that existed so far was that vampires shouldn’t kill. But clearly, those in charge had never encountered a hungry vampire with bloodlust in their eyes. Vampires very rarely had enough control to stop feeding. And those who did existed inside feeding communities like Lazarus’s where killing the feeders was severely frowned upon.
Unless you were Cassius, apparently. Lazarus had kept him around in his lounge that same day I’d burnt it down despite having killed a feeder that very morning.
Lazarus’s name boomeranged in my mind every day. But especially today, it seemed to be taking up more space than it should have.
I slapped my thighs and stood. “Okay. Enough wallowing. I’ll go get us more drinks and let’s try to enjoy ourselves.”
Willa smiled weakly. “We can go somewhere else if you want. My place or Dark Iron?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “We deserve to be here just as much as anyone else.” Besides, Mrak would protect us, right?
“Okay,” Willa said slowly, clearly not fully convinced.
I made my way quickly to the bar and ordered two more glasses of whisky. I wasn’t as smooth ordering as some of the other patrons, having never really done this before. And that awkwardness did not go unnoticed.
Two guys next to me turned and looked me up and down. The taller of the two, with dark hair and a beard, asked, “Need some help, baby?” He moved closer to me.
I all but jumped away as I took our drinks from the bartender. “No, thank you. I’ve got it handled.”
The shorter of the two men stepped off his bar stool. “Are you sure? Those seem like strong drinks for such a small lady.” He smiled slowly, revealing a set of fangs that sent my heart racing. His friend then smiled, too.
Vampires. Both of them.
I cut them both glares, ready to run if they made any more moves. “I’m sure.”
“I’ll burn them both if you desire,”Mrak’s said. His voice coiled around me like smoke, tickling my skin where it touched.
I turned from the men and made my way back toward Willa. “Only if they come after us.”
“Are you sure?”Mrak’s question was punctuated by a sensation of tendrils sliding across my skin. Not quite an embrace, but not quite for protection, either.“You’re tense despite the drinks.”
“I hate vampires.”
A couple dancing in my path looked at me strangely as I passed them saying that. I hoped they weren’t vampires, and not just because of what I’d said.
“If it’s too much, then let’s go home,”he purred in my ear, louder somehow than the music around me.“Let me relax you.”
Warmth pooled between my thighs at the thought of all the ways Mrak had learned to relax me in the last year. It was a strange sort of one-sided sexual relationship in which I couldn’t return the pleasure, but Mrak hadn’t seemed to mind. I wanted to be able to touch him, though. To give him everything he’d given me and more.
“I’ll leave when Willa is ready to,” I said as I returned to the table. We hadn’t been here long at all, and we deserved to try making this work. “Here you go.” I passed Willa one of the drinks.
“Thank you.” She drank half of it in one sip. “We must seem ridiculous.”
I chuckled and sipped my drink as well. “How do you mean?”
“Two women in the back corner of a bar throwing back whisky,” Willa said as she smiled. “Everyone’s dancing but us.”
“We can dance if you want to,” I offered without fully thinking it through. It was one thing to observe the supernaturals from afar. But to be that close to vampires again…
Willa sent me a look that convinced me she had somehow read my mind. “Yeah, no. No, thank you. I’d much rather sit here and catch up with you.”
And catch up we did over the course of a few hours and more drinks. With every new sip of whisky, I felt the tension loosen from my shoulders and my chest. Rationally, I knew there were still vampires and other supernaturals in the crowded bar, but I was no longer afraid of them. I felt as safe with Willa and this alcohol as I had with Mrak for the past year.
Freedom again. For now.
