Book 2

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 am this close to putting your name on the ‘do not allow’ list.”

I hand him his shirt and the belt that 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 clientage 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 then asks slowly, “I heard this place offers A-negative?”

My lips twitch at the shy demeanor of the young vampire. “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 the small human population, it is only a handful of trusted human—who have lived here for generations—who 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.

However, it’s like the town mayor attracts trouble. It’s not even a full five minutes before a group of rowdy-looking men walk 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 wasn’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 reek of trouble.

I heard from some of the regulars about a group of panther rogues moving together, but I had hoped that they would have 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!”

I can see one of the motioning in my direction like a man possessed, and I hope to everything holy that he’s not referring to me. I see the mayor frowning, and I shake my head at him. I don’t want him getting involved. Not everyone in this town knows him as anyone else than a bored vampire who indulges in beautiful women and scams them.

Better that it remains that way.

I see one of the waitresses, a fawn shifter, approaching the table and I tense, ready to intervene if they harass her. But they don’t seem interested in Marie. It seems that they don’t take kindly to being ignored. Especially by a female.\

I hear a wolf whistle in my direction before shouting, “Get your juicy ass here, legs! Don’t make me come over there!”

I exchange a look with Mr. Hamrington, who’s scowling now. He gives a discreet nod, however, and I set down the cloth I was using to wipe down the bar. The shy vampire is also beginning to look a little irritated. His voice is low as he whispers, “Do you need any help?”

He’s sweet and attractive, in a harmless way, and extremely young from the looks of it. The panther shifters will eat him up.

“Thanks, cutie,” I smile at him tersely. “But I’ve got this. You enjoy your drink and tell me if anything else on the menu catches your eye.”

Grabbing my notepad and a pen, I walk over to the table, ignoring the way the shifters begin hooting at me. As soon as I reach them, I slam my notebook down on the table, so hard that a few of the customers around us look over.

“What can I get ya?” I ask, my voice saccharine-sweet.