One man takes a small step toward us, narrowing his eyes, and I realize Arion is such an asshole. Well, I already knew that, but now I really know that.
My father and I have just stepped into a private vampire bar, it seems.
The man advancing on us quickly stumbles back a step, just as a chill rises up my back. Arion’s hand lands on the chilled spot, soothing it, as he steps in and starts guiding us through.
Everyone, with zero discretion, jerks their gazes away, and some actually tremble like they’ve been caught about to fuck up in front of him.
I exhale in relief, which is so messed up, but I just can’t deal with vampires and my father right now.
My father picks a table, looking around curiously at everyone like he finds them all rather suspicious and odd. I turn around to evil-eye Arion, who smiles down at me as his arms go around my waist.
“A vampire bar?” I hiss, glaring at him.
A girl walks too close, and I start to worry what happens if they hear me snapping at him.
Arion just grins broader, so it’s clear he’s not concerned. Which means I can get appropriately furious.
“Mostly omegas in here, love. You don’t mind omega wolves.”
“I personally know the omegas I allowed around my father. I trust them.”
“Can’t learn to trust each other until you’re introduced,” he goes on.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Couldn’t this have happened on a night when my father wasn’t here?”
“I don’t know. You can’t seem to understand there’s an us, so I’m having to make this up as I go.”
I can’t imagine how they’ve dealt with this for centuries. Five minutes in, and I’m already exhausted.
“It’s like you save up the things I’ve said to you for moments when you can throw my words back at me and make me feel like somehow I’m in the wrong,” I state very accusingly. “I don’t like feeling manipulated by anyone.”
His expression sobers just barely.
“Remember the same is true for me.”
“I’m not trying to manipulate you,” I point out.
“You haven’t had to yet, love. I’m learning more and more that you do love being chased.”
“I don’t know why I bother speaking,” I say as I turn and head toward the table.
I don’t think it’s healthy to have an argument about communication barriers on the date you’ve been manipulated into taking. In. A. Vampire. Bar.
I take a seat across from my father, putting on my best smile, as Shera slides into the seat next to him. I glance back, finding Arion talking to the super tense bartender.
He catches me looking and shoots me a grin, but I just narrow my eyes as his grin grows.
“Nice place,” Dad says, prompting me to turn back around.
He’s looking over at Shera, who gives him a smirk and a nod. “I think so as well,” Shera says to him, before cutting that devious look toward me.
“I should hit the head if he’s getting our drinks,” Dad says before standing abruptly and heading to the bathroom off to the side.
“Your father is adorable in that very short, pudgy sort of way,” Shera says as she stares after him. “You must look more like your mom.”
“Are you out of your mind?” I hiss at Shera.
“Are you out of yours?” she fires back. “If I tell you not to say something, you’re not supposed to say it. Aren’t you supposed to be good at keeping secrets?”
“I’m not sure where you heard that, but you shouldn’t have been taunting me from behind the wheel if you wanted me to get in the car all stoically and shit,” I point out.
She hesitates and purses her lips, before she finally smiles again. “Fair enough.”
“Well, what are we talking about over here?” Arion asks as he takes a seat and puts his arm around my shoulders.
The music’s a little loud in here, so I’m guessing that was drowning us out too much for his super-hearing.
Shera gives him a tight, annoyed smile. “Waxing and other girl things,” she lies.
Arion’s lips twitch like he knows she’s lying, so he looks to me.
“Why are we in a vampire bar?” I ask him instead.
“Because the drink mixes here are to die for,” he says with a straight face, before that grin tugs up at one corner of his mouth.
Before I can tell him how terrible that joke is, my father is returning, and a round of drinks are being dropped off.
A very pretty, fruity drink lands in front of me, and a semi-decorative, yet still manly drink, is dropped off with Dad.
I have no idea what Shera and Arion have, but judging by the black glasses that hide the contents, I’m terrified to hazard a guess.
I’m on a date with a vampire, his beta, and my father, while the blood drinkers very likely drink blood.
I’m really, really not adjusting this damn fast.
“Good stuff,” my dad informs Arion, lifting his drink.
“Best bar in town,” Arion says with an enigmatic smirk seconds before drinking from his own glass.
“I didn’t know you’d started dating again,” Dad says to me very abruptly.
I cough a little on the harsh sip I force down, as Arion leans over and kisses the side of my head, sticking with the ruse of this being a typical, familial evening.
“It’s all rather new,” I assure him.
Dad simply nods, looking around like he can’t stare at me for too long without getting uncomfortable about this entire situation.
“How’s construction?” Arion asks Dad. “You know, I heard there was more money in demo these days.”
Dad starts to speak, but I actually speak for him.
“Dad only does demo on places that want reconstruction. He’s a builder.”
Dad smiles, and Arion just stares down at me.
“Takes more time and effort to build something than it takes to rip it all down,” Dad adds.
“Indeed it does,” Arion says with a tight smile. “At least you get to build something new instead of working aimlessly atop piles of rubble,” he adds, twisting the words to use to his own metaphorical advantage.
Dad presumably takes the metaphor to be literal, judging by his next words. “Depends on the project. But you don’t build on top of the rubble. You have to clean up the mess first.”
That could totally be used as a metaphorical advantage to me.
I grin up at Arion, who apparently likes it when I’m being the same wiseass he is, since he leans down and kisses me suddenly.
I’m so stunned that I don’t react when his lips land on mine, and he cups my cheek as he deepens the kiss. I sway toward him instead of away from him, until he gently breaks the kiss, nipping at my lips, before he pulls back completely, his eyes intently on mine.
“I think I’m going to hit the head again. Damn bladder gets smaller the older I get,” Dad says with a bright red face, reminding me how inappropriate it is for a vampire to be kissing his daughter in front of him.
“I think I’m going to put on some music,” I say to Arion, who’s still just staring down at me like he doesn’t feel the pressing urge to give me a little space.
Shera says nothing as she sips her drink and follows me like she’s doing her duty.
It isn’t until we’re at the juke box in the corner that she speaks.
“You know why I told you about Emily and Isiah, don’t you?” she muses as I eye the song selection.
“Yes. Because you wanted me to be prepared to be Idun’s substitute,” I state idly, finding one song and then another to play.
“Glad you caught on. You’re doing exceptionally well. So long as you keep it up, he’ll be okay with her staying underground, and life can move along merrily without the alphas fighting all the time.”
My eyes flick to hers. “I’m not sure what my place is yet, but if it becomes clear I’m not ever going to be more than a substitute, I’m done, Shera. I have no right to judge you or pretend to understand your complicated relationship, but I do know it’s not for me.”
Her face falls, and seriousness comes into her eyes. “If Idun is returned, a lot of people will die for being too close to them. Myself included. Women make her feel threatened. Women close to them may as well be marked off the list first—especially me, because I’m close to Arion, her pet. Her most loyal.”
“You’re his beta. You’re not fucking him or even trying to,” I remind her.
“You’re sane and rational enough to differentiate. She’s a jealous twat, from what I’ve heard. Trust me, I’ve learned all I can about her. It’s female monsters like her who make it harder on the rest of us who want to make a name for ourselves.”
“I’m a mortal, temporary solution at the end of the day, Shera,” I remind her absently.
“You dropped me. Electrocuted me somehow, Violet Carmine,” she states with zero humor as she stares over at me.
I eye her with silence.
“You survived Damien Morpheous, the man who kills any woman he fully beds. Emit Morrigan has sex with you near the full moon, and you’re in one piece—”
“How could you possibly already know about Emit?” I ask her on an exasperated sigh.
“I may not often ask questions, but I hear all, eventually, Violet. If you’re mortal, so am I. The question isn’t what you are so much as how. Like how did you look at Arion like you’d already met him that day I brought you into the house for the first time?” she asks very seriously. “It’s the one of the many questions I feel I just have to ask, because nobody else finds it at all suspicious.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie, eyes flicking back to the song choices.
“Arion is too tunnel-visioned on you being a sweet little mortal. He hasn’t spotted all the signs that surround you just yet, such as how you killed four vampire mercenaries and made them look silly. Mortals aren’t capable of killing vampires without some skill or at least some muscle.”
Before I can argue more and explain how very little skill I have with killing vampires, there’s a startled set of noises behind us, and I look across the bar, as people scatter away.
Arion has a girl lifted off the ground by her throat and his fangs are bared, as he presses her against the wall.
“Someone must have gotten frisky,” Shera says on a putout sigh, as I dart a nervous glance around the room, happy my father is still missing. “This is why you can’t ever tell him about the times I’m mean to you,” she adds on a very hushed whisper.
I sprint through vampires, who leap out of my way, as I rush to the side where Arion’s claws are growing and pressing into the girl’s throat.
She cries out a sound of pain, apologizing over and over.
“Arion!” I shout before I think it through.