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Chapter 1
Seline
“Get off the bar, Ronnie! Nobody wants to see you naked!”
The 68-year-old human gives me a saucy look. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew me forty years ago.”
I let out a sigh before grabbing the man by the arm and forcing him off the bar as some of the regular patrons hoot and wolf-whistle. “This is the third time this week, Ronnie. I amthisclose to putting your name on the ‘do not allow’ list.”
I hand him his shirt and the belt he had tossed onto my shoulder. “Put it on, and Ellie will take you home.”“I have a car!” Ronnie immediately protests.
I dangle the keys in front of him. “Not anymore, you don’t. Pick them up tomorrow. Ellie!” I nod at the other bartender, who is getting off-duty.
She approaches me, looking amused. “’Sup, Ronnie? Seline giving you a hard time?”
Ronnie immediately turns to her, having found a shoulder to complain on.
I make a face. “Take him home. And you’d better get your keys tomorrow, Ronnie!”
However, Ronnie is already on another drunken rampage. I just shrug.
He’s no longer my problem.
It’s still a few hours shy of midnight, so the bar is pretty full. But the human clientele is slowly decreasing in number. I see a few new faces, but that isn’t surprising considering that Arrow Brooke is a town that attracts Others like curious moths to a flame. It’s rare to have so many species of Others coexisting in one place.
I slide behind the bar, smiling at the man in the cowboy gear. “What can I get ya?”
He looks uncomfortable but asks slowly, “I heard this place offers A-negative?”
My lips twitch at the young vampire’s shy demeanor. “Would you like it chilled, separate, or half and half with our tap beer?”
He stares at me in stunned silence before stammering, “H-half and half, please.”
“Coming right up.” I crouch down and grab the key hanging from my neck before opening the fridge door. Carefully selecting the blood pouch, I grab a mug and pour some of it out before closing the fridge and locking it. After nine, there is no worry about some of the human staff coming across the blood in the fridge since they’re usually gone by that time. But I still prefer to be careful. Nothing good has ever come of humans discovering the presence of Others. Even in this town, with its small human population, there are only a handful of trusted humans who have lived here for generations and are aware that something darker lurks in this town and the forest that surrounds it.
The door opens, the bell against it ringing obnoxiously. “Seline, my sweet, one of the dinner special for me and my lady!”
I glance at Mr. Hamrington and eye the woman by his side. As always, Ashley looks like she has a stick up her ass. Not surprising, since she’s married to the elderly-looking Donald Hamrington. I remember when she married him eight years ago, expecting him to die any moment. But the town mayor is also a vampire,a very old one,and he’s not set to die for another couple of centuries. Age has done nothing to make him any less shameless as he keeps marrying young women, stringing them along in the hopes of inheriting his fortune, and then dumping them once they are in their forties or fifties.
Shameless, perverted vamp.
But then, he also gave me the job here, so I shouldn’t be judging his lifestyle.
“Be right there!” I nod at him before knocking on the glass window that separates the bar from the kitchen. “Marty! Two orders for the dinner special and one Dancing Wino for the mayor!”
Mr. Hamrington winks at me, and I just roll my eyes.
It’s like the town mayor attracts trouble. It’s not even a full five minutes before a group of rowdy-looking men walks in.
One of the benefits of having warlock abilities is the ability to sense what type of Other is crossing the threshold of this bar. My skin tingles when an Other approaches, and who they are is like a taste on my tongue.
I wouldn’t work at this bar if I weren’t comfortable mingling amongst Others, but panther shifters are the bane of my existence. Those sly and arrogant creatures enjoy causing trouble wherever they go. This particular group reeks of trouble.
I heard from some of the regulars about a group of panther rogues moving together, but I hoped they had the good sense not to come here and create a ruckus. Unfortunately, I was proven wrong.
I hate being proven wrong.
“Hey, legs! Over here!”
