Page 74 of Demon's Bluff
“No one.” I needed to start watching my mouth. The game was playing out faster than I wanted, giving Newt way too much information to make this last.
“There’s a table by the stage,” Newt said, and I went the other way to aquiet booth against the wall. It was one of those half-circle things so everyone faced out, but I wanted it because I could see the door.
Elyse hesitated, then lurched to follow. “This is reality?” she whispered, exhaling in relief when I nodded. Chances were good we were not just in reality but somewhere in the city limits, seeing as the walls were covered with Cincinnati Howlers’ paraphernalia. “How?” she added. “Demons can’t cross the ley lines unless summoned. I didn’t summon her. Did you?”
There was a thread of panic in her voice, but I was feeling pretty good. I was in reality. I still had my book. Elyse was at my side and I had a demon in tow. If I had my history right, my other self had made a deal with Minias to come get Newt if she ever showed up this side of the lines again.Two cards to play…
“Newt can.” I glanced over my shoulder to see the imperialistic demon garnering stares as she sauntered behind us as if this distant table was her original intent. “The banishment curse didn’t work on her. Maybe because she’s female. Maybe because spells don’t stick to crazy.” I slid into the booth and settled my bag beside me.Maybe because she was the one who cast the spell…I wondered silently. “You want the aisle?”
Elyse nodded in unease, and I slid to the middle.
A woman in what might generously be called a bikini top and short shorts followed Newt to the table. Her scars put her as a living vampire, and the elaborate lace collar around her neck invited bites and nips. Actually, now that I took the time to look, most everyone here was a vamp, mostly the living, but there were a few clearly contemporary undead risking the early night and the chance to make a claim before the really old undead showed up. They were getting a lot of attention at the moment, but I knew that would change when someone who died before the Turn arrived.
“I’ve never been in a vamp strip club,” Elyse said as Newt gracefully settled to my right and the server set three tiny black napkins down.
“What can I get for you?” the woman asked, and a flicker of unease crossed Newt. She didn’t know.
“I’ll have what they’re having,” the demon said, beaming to show the long canines of the undead. They weren’t hers. She was trying to fit in.
“Bloody Mary,” Elyse said immediately. “Easy on the Cholula.”
I glanced over the clientele. Not everyone was staring at the stage anymore. “Orange juice. No pulp.” We needed to settle this and get out of here. The artists onstage were off-limits. We, however, could be considered fair game—which might be why Newt had made a show of fangs.Worldly cosmic powers, and you drop us in a vampire strip joint. Really, Newt?
“One tab,” I added, and the living vamp returned to the bar, hips swaying as she took the long way to engage her clientele. I had enough in my wallet for three drinks and a tip. Probably.
My gaze lifted over the tables, and the skimpily clad guy onstage waved to me, gyrating in invitation to come stuff a bill in his thong as our eyes accidentally met. Well, it was an accident for my part of it, and I shook my head no, only to have the man dramatically blow me a kiss.
Grimacing, I dropped my eyes. I’d never been here before—apart from the version in Dali’s jukebox—but there were lots of places that catered to vamps that I was oblivious to. It was a quiet venue even with the too-loud bass. The line at the bar seemed a mix of one-night bites and living vamps there to relax without having to be anything other than what they were. Piscary’s on a slow day had a higher pheromone level. My scar had been sensitive two years ago, and it was hardly twinging.
“I brought you both, hon,” came a high-pitched voice, and I looked up to see the server dropping off the drinks. There were four, since Newt hadn’t made it clear exactly what she wanted. “Let me know when you want another.”
“Thank you.” They’d put mine in a champagne flute to look like a mimosa, and Newt cleared her throat, lifting her orange juice as if to make a toast.
“To elves, eels, and strawberries,” Newt said, and Elyse and I stared at her, not daring to clink our glasses. A frown flickered across the demon’s brow. “If you don’t know why, I’m not going to explain. You can have Elyse or the mirror, but not both.”
“I am not for sale,” Elyse said hotly, and from a nearby table, a chuckle rose. The man watching turned away, and with that, we were accepted andignored. Vampire norms sucked, but now, at least, I understood Newt’s choice of venue.
I took a slow sip, relishing the tangy juice. “Elyse is not mine to bargain with. She’s here to learn something, not serve as collateral. She is her own person.”
“Learn? As in how to be a familiar?” Newt offered. “Love, don’t befuddle yourself,” she added to Elyse as she gulped her Bloody Mary. “I like the screams crisp and nuanced.”
“What the…” Elyse set the drink down, angry. “They gave me a virgin!”
I clinked my orange juice against her red. “You look like a kid.”
“I amnotakid!”
“Your body is,” I said, smiling at Newt.And a little more confusion…
Elyse pushed back into the bench seat with her virgin Bloody Mary—stymied.
“I must have something you want,” I said. “Other than Elyse and a book you still have.”
“Then produce it,” Newt said. “I don’t understand your reticence. You’re going to give her to me. You need the mirror more than you need her.” Newt closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “She has more spells at her fingertips than you. She’s stealing from your larder. Is that why you singed her synapses before tricking her to come before me? It makes her almost helpless. So much easier to drag to a line.”
Elyse pulled her drink closer. “Touch me, and you’ll see how helpless I am.”
Newt leaned forward to look at her around me. “I intend to.”