Sacrifice Me (2 page)

The tunnel-like entrance beyond was still lit up,
too, but this time there was no bouncer waiting to check my ID. I
went straight through to the club and looked around for Rend. He
hadn’t told me exactly what to do when I got here or where to
go, so I had assumed he’d just be waiting for me.

I checked my watch. It was three minutes after ten
and there was no one else in sight.

The lights were all on at this time of morning and
the place looked far less exotic. I walked over toward the bar, then
flipped around as one of the doors on the other side of the room
opened.

I hoped to see Rend, but instead, the other
bartender from last night appeared. Azure. She was dressed almost the
same as she had been the night before. We could have been twins
except that her hair was blonde and curly and mine was black and
straight as a board.

She smiled when she saw me. “Franki, right?”

She held her hand out and I shook it.

“Yes,” I said. “I guess Rend
told you I’d be coming in today.”

She nodded and motioned toward the bar. “I
have to tell you, I was really surprised when he told me you’d
be working here.”

“Me too,” I mumbled. I followed her to
the bar and took a seat on one of the stools while she went back
behind the counter and started unloading a box of new glasses onto
the bar-top.

“Just out of curiosity, what made you want
to work here?” she asked. “I mean, no offense or
anything, but I’ve never seen you around and you and your
friend seemed pretty freaked out by the place. We don’t get a
lot of newcomers around here.”

“That’s kind of what Rend was telling
me last night,” I said. “Why is that exactly?”

Other than the whole demon vampire thing.

She shrugged. “It’s the kind of place
that caters to a certain... clientele. Most of the regulars have been
coming here for years.”

“Okay, but why don’t new people stop
in all the time? I get that this place isn’t exactly on the
main strip or anything, but if you guys put a sign out front, I'm
sure you'd get a lot more business.”

“More business isn't something we're looking
for,” she said. “And to be honest, I’m not sure the
boss would want me to explain it even if I could. At least, not until
you understand more about what it is we do here.”

Great. More cryptic answers.

“Okay, so how do I find out what it is you
do here?”

I had obviously already figured out this wasn’t
a typical bar or nightclub, but I still didn’t understand what
it was that made it so different. Surely everyone who was here last
night wasn’t some kind of demon, right?

“I think it’s safer if I just wait and
let the boss man tell you when he thinks you’re ready,”
she said with a laugh. “In the meantime, he asked me show you
around the place and get you started on some of the basic morning
tasks.”

I slid off my stool and followed her back toward
the other side of the room. “So, when will I get to meet him?”
I asked.

“Who?”

“This mysterious boss man,” I said.
“Rend didn't say anything about him.”

She stopped, a huge grin spreading across her
face. “You are so adorably clueless,” she said. “You
really don't know?”

“Know what?” My cheeks flushed.

Azure laughed and opened a black metal door just
off the dance-floor.

“Rend is the boss.”

I felt like an idiot.

“Oh, god, I thought he was just a
bartender,” I said. “No offense. I mean, I have nothing
against bartenders, it’s just that, crap. I had no idea he
owned the place.”

“It’s his baby,” she said. She
led me down a narrow hallway painted in all black, then opened a door
and motioned for me to go inside.

The storage room was huge. Metal racks lined the
walls from floor to ceiling, stacked with boxes.

“I’m not surprised he didn’t
mention it,” she said. “He’s a real hands-on kind
of boss, always working behind the bar and making sure things are
running smoothly. Still, did you really think a guy behind the bar
could just hire you on the spot and demand that you show up the next
morning?”

I shrugged, feeling stupid. “After the night
I had last night, I didn’t even think to question it.”

She frowned. “Did something happen? I mean,
besides your friend getting sick? I saw Rend go out on the floor to
dance with you and at first, I figured maybe he knew you from
somewhere else.”

She climbed up on a step-ladder and pulled down a
box, handing it to me before grabbing another and climbing down.

I didn’t know where to start. Was I supposed
to keep what happened in the alley a secret? I wasn’t about to
tell her about my mom, but I didn’t really want to tell her I’d
almost been eaten by vampires, either. “I’d never met him
until last night,” I said, deciding to leave it at that and let
her push for more if she wanted to.

She made a face. “You guys got pretty cozy
with each other there for a while,” she said. “I’ve
never seen Rend do that with a customer before. Don’t get used
to it.”

Was that a hint of jealousy in her tone?

“I’m sure it won’t happen
again,” I said. “I think he’s pretty pissed at me.”

“Pissed enough to hire you?” she said,
laughing again. “Set that down over here and open it up. I want
to show you something.”

I brought the box over to the middle of the room
and pulled the tape off the top. She set hers beside mine and opened
hers, too. Inside both boxes were plastic shot glasses in various
neon colors. Stacks of them were wrapped in brown tissue paper. Each
glass had the Venom logo on it. A serpent with its fangs
outstretched. I shuddered at the image, wondering if snake fangs had
anything to do with human fangs.

“This, obviously, is one of the main storage
rooms,” she said. I was grateful to be talking about the job
and out of the line of fire for a minute. “We keep all our
merchandise-type items in here. Shot glasses, t-shirts, novelty type
stuff. On this other side, are the paper products, like napkins and
toilet paper. Your first job is to unwrap all the glasses in these
two boxes and bring them up to the bar area for me. Sound good?”

“Sounds easy enough,” I said.

“Great.” She slapped her hands against
her legs and looked around. “So, I’ll just leave you to
it for now. I’m going back up front to work on washing the
other new glassware. Come back out when you’re done and I’ll
finish showing you around.”

I nodded and sat down on the floor next to the
boxes.

“Oh.” She turned around as she reached
the door. “By the way, welcome to Venom.”

“Thanks,” I said as she disappeared
into the hallway, leaving me alone with the boxes.

In an hour, I had all the glasses unwrapped and
stacked on the edge of the bar. So far, it wasn’t a bad job,
but I wished I had thought to bring some headphones with me so I
could listen to music on my phone. Anything to distract me from
thoughts of what happened last night.

Azure showed me around the rest of the club, but
there wasn’t that much to see. At least not that she was
willing to show, anyway. She took me on a tour of the main sections
of the club like the dance-floor, the exits, the second floor
balcony. She showed me where the bathrooms were, even though she knew
I'd already been inside them last night. She took me to a second
storage room where all the glassware for behind the bar was kept, and
finally, she showed me to another room on that same hallway where the
employees took breaks during their shifts. There was a coffee pot and
snacks on the counter, some well-worn couches, and a TV, but other
than that, nothing else to see. Just your basic break room.

“That’s everything,” Azure said,
ignoring the fact that she'd walked me past at least half a dozen
doors that she didn't open. “When you start your shift, you’ll
come here to the break room and clock in on this computer. I don’t
think your name is listed officially yet, though.”

“I haven’t filled out any paperwork,”
I said.

She shook her head. “We’re all kind of
off the books here at Venom, so to speak.”

I studied her to see if she was just messing with
me. “What do you mean? Like, no taxes?”

“I mean, no official documentation that you
work here. No taxes, no W-2’s, no paychecks.”

“So, how do you get paid?”

She smiled. “Rend pays us once a week.”

“In cash?”

“In cash and other things,” she said.

I wanted to beat my head against the wall and tell
her to stop messing around with me. So far, this place was full of
secrets. It was driving me mad.

“What kinds of other things?” I
figured she wasn’t going to tell me, but I needed to ask
because I didn’t want to end up working here and getting paid
in plastic neon shot-glasses.

“Most of us who work here have our own
special needs that only Rend can meet,” she said. When she saw
the disgusted look on my face, she laughed and touched my arm. A
static shock went off between us and I jumped, but she didn’t
seem surprised. “I’m not talking about anything gross, so
get your mind out of the gutter. I just mean he has some particular
talents that are in high demand in our world.”

I was relieved she wasn’t talking about sex.
The idea of Rend touching me again wasn’t exactly offensive,
but I did not want to be a part of some sex-demon freak show. Still,
the way she’d said ‘
our world
’ made my heart
beat a little faster. As if stepping into this nightclub meant
stepping into another dimension. One where reality ceased to exist
and creatures from the world of nightmares came out to play.

Or feed.

Rend had used that word last night in the alley
and it still haunted me.

“I’m sure he’ll go over all that
stuff with you when he gets a chance,” she said.

“Is he here?” I asked. I hated that I
sounded eager when I’d meant to sound completely uninterested.
Had she noticed?

“He’s completely off-limits. You
realize that right?”

Oh, yeah, she noticed.

“He’s my boss, I get it. I just have a
lot of questions after last night.”

She stared at me, and I tried to act cool. I had a
feeling she could see right through me. I hated that almost as much
as I hated the fact that I kept thinking about the way his thumb had
brushed against my skin.

“I’ve seen that look before,”
she said. “Trust me, every girl who comes through those doors
wants a piece of him. And every girl ends up leaving sorely
disappointed.”

“I’m not trying to get a piece of
anything,” I said, snapping at her more sharply than I’d
intended. She was annoying the crap out of me. So what if every girl
wanted him. I wasn’t like every other girl.

Besides, she was the one who had said she’d
never seen him dance that way with anyone before.

And, as much as I hated to admit it, no one had
ever made me feel the way he had last night. Some nagging part of me
wanted to know if he had felt it too, or if he’d just truly
been trying to keep me safe.

A bolt of fear shot through me.

In the excitement and horror of the back alley
drama, I had completely forgotten about the fact that someone else
had been watching me from the shadows. Someone who had sent me black
roses and invited me to Venom in the first place.

Whoever they were, they knew about my mother. I
could feel it in my bones. If nothing else came from the fact that I
had to work in this place, I wanted to at least get to the bottom of
that red invitation.

Rend had recognized the paper. He’d said the
man who used that type of paper was dangerous. But what he didn’t
say was why someone like that would be interested in a nobody like
me.

“Azure?”

She was making a pot of coffee and turned when I
called her name.

“I know you said you can’t tell me
everything about what happens here at the club, but I do have one
question,” I said. “What was in that drink last night?
The Red Dragon?”

A small smile played on her lips. “You liked
it, huh? Want more of it?”

“It’s not that,” I said. “I
mean, yes, I loved it. But I’m more interested in finding out
what it was and why it made Katy sick when it made me feel so great.”

She bit her bottom lip and avoided my gaze as she
poured some coffee into a thick paper cup.

“In the bathroom last night, you gave her
something to make her feel better,” I said, not letting it go.
“You told her you didn’t know she was a normal. What did
you mean by that?”

She poured an obscene amount of cream and sugar
into her cup and stirred it around before taking a sip. “Look,
I get that you’re curious. I would be too. But I don’t
know that it’s my place to talk to you about—”

“Dammit,” I shouted, slamming my hand
down on the counter. “I’m tired of everyone giving me the
run around. What’s with all the secrets? I’m here, aren’t
I? I’m wearing the t-shirt, right? If I’m going to work
here and possibly risk my life to come to this place every night, I
have a right to know what the hell is going on.”

“You’re right.” Rend’s
voice startled me.

I turned and sucked in a deep breath. Damn, he was
even more gorgeous in the light. I didn’t know that was even
possible.

Even though there was a good twenty feet or so
between us, my body reacted as if his hands were on me. My skin
burned for the feel of his warm fingertips on my skin.

And that reaction was immediately followed by
anger at the fact that I wanted him so badly. I had dated my fair
share of guys and none of them had left me feeling so helpless and
needy. I felt out of control around him. Like I wanted to know where
I stood with him and if there was any way he was feeling even a
fraction of what I was feeling right now.

I hated that he had this power over me. No one had
ever had power over me. Not even my own mother.