I shake my head. Cecile is too good at her job. These guys are both gone. I can’t resist having some fun with them. “This is Cecile. She’s really friendly, but she likes guys who know how to have a good time…together. Maybe you two should go dance together for a bit, and she might be tempted to join you.”
Both guys gulp down their beers and head out to the dance floor. My eyebrows hit the ceiling when they start grinding against one another. “Damn, Cecile, just what setting did you have the pheromones turned up to?”
Cecile laughs, the sound light and tinkling, and sucks in a deep breath as she watches the Idiot Twins on the dance floor. I’d been joking, but Cecile does have a preference for multiple partners at once. “Oh, sweet Nora, I do love having you here. You get all these men so hot I hardly have to do any work at all. As for those two, they deserve it for not believing you.”
“Yeah,” a new voice says. “Terrance should be in here with you, helping to spread the news. Not a damn one of the assholes in this place will believe just you.”
I grin at the newcomer. Nick Gorgeous works for the FUA—Federal Underworld Agency—and gorgeous he is, even though his look is completely unconventional. If you mashed up a biker bad boy and a well-mannered cowboy, you’d have Nick Gorgeous. And if that’s not enough of a picture, he’s got smooth, ebony skin, warm chocolate eyes, a screw-me smile, and a cute baby face. He’s quite the picture, but somehow it all works.
“Aw, but T-man’s so much better at playing grumpy bouncer than friendly bartender,” I say.
Snorting, Nick plops down on an open stool. Well, a stool that some other guy vacates after Nick gives him a look. (Nick is one scary badass when he wants to be.) “We meet again, little spitfire.” He shoots me a wink. “I heard the rumors, but I had to come see it for myself, and, sure enough, here you are, serving drinks to rowdy underworlders. I swear you’re the only human crazy enough to try it.”
I laugh. “Have you come to warn me away, then?”
“Hell no. I came to watch the show. It’s been a slow week for the FUA, and you’re bound to stir up all kinds of trouble here. I could use a drink, too. How about some Demon’s Brew?”
“Sure thing.” That’s one of the non-human beers on tap. The damn stuff smells so strong it practically knocks me on my ass just serving it. “How about you, Cecile? Can I get you anything?”
“Have you made a Sidhe Hurricane yet?”
“That’s the one with the glowing blue, purple, and green, right?”
Cecile smiles. “That’s the one. Two shots of the purple, dear.”
“Coming right up.”
I bring them their drinks and leave them to chat with each other while I fill other orders as fast as I can. Wulf constantly looks my direction to make sure I’m okay, but he already trusts me enough to let me do my thing. I ask him when someone orders a drink I’m unfamiliar with, but other than that, he gives me the freedom to work the bar on my own. I really like that about him. I can play nice with others, but I’ve always been independent, and I don’t think I could handle a boss who hovers too much.
“Hey, sexy, how about you bring a shot of Angelfire and that pretty little ass over here.”
I pour a shot of the fey alcohol and bring it to the tactless man with a forced smile. As I take the cash he lays out on the counter, he grabs my arm and pulls me close. “You know, I’ve never had a human before—they’re not usually worth my time—but I’d make an exception for you.”
I yank my arm back. “Not interested, thanks.”
I start to walk away, so he quickly downs his shot and asks for another. “What’s the matter? Think you’re too good to bed an underworlder?”
I smirk as I fill his shot glass with another round of the light blue liquid. “Nope. Just too good for cocky assholes.”
I don’t have time to regret running my mouth off before the man has me by the throat and is pulling me across the counter to his seething face. “I’ll show you manners, human. You’re nothing but an insect in my world. A plaything. And now you’ll be mine. I’ll have you begging for death for all eternity.”
His thoughts are scarier than his words. He plans to follow through on his threat. He knows many fey in the winter court that keep human pets. He’s never seen the appeal, but now he wants nothing more than to humiliate me and make me suffer. And maybe he’ll eat me once he’s bored of the torture.
His grip is so strong I can’t breathe, but before I start to see spots in my vision, Wulf and Nick rip me apart from the psychotic winter faerie. Wulf has me behind him, using his body to physically shield me, while Nick has the faerie laid out on the bar by his throat. The man is wailing in pain, and it takes me a moment to figure out it’s because Nick’s buried a dagger in the man’s shoulder, hilt deep. Judging from the screams of pain, the dagger is made of iron, which is poisonous to faeries. “What was that about begging for death for all eternity?” Nick asks. “Is that how you like to play?”
“But she’s human,” the faerie cries, as if that justifies his actions.
Wulf growls at this, and his whole body begins to shake. I place a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. I’ve heard that werewolves like physical touch, and a gesture to tell him I’m all right should help with his protective instincts. I’ve never seen a werewolf shift, and I don’t really want to see one now while he’s pissed and I’m trapped behind a bar with him. I want to say something soothing, but honestly, I’m too scared to get any words out. That faerie has a dark, twisted mind.
“She is an employee of this club and Terrance’s only clan,” Nick says.
The fey’s eyes pop wide open. “She’s his clan?”
“His first.” Nick nods. “And he’s especially fond of her. So I would advise you to leave her alone. In fact, I bet you’re a dead man walking once Terrance figures out you’re the asshole who put the bruises around her neck.”
Nick’s eyes do that thing they do when he gets really pissed. The pupils turn into vertical slits. It’s freaky looking. He also emits some kind of power. I can’t really explain it. I don’t know what kind of underworlder Nick is. It’s rude to ask, and he’s never offered the information up. But it’s something totally badass that scares even the nastiest underworlders. Mr. Creepy Fey Man is squirming under his grip, looking like he’s about to piss himself. “I’m sorry,” he whines. “I didn’t know who she was. I’ll leave. Just let me up before Terrance comes.”
“Maybe we should leave him pinned to the bar for a while,” Wulf says, making the fey’s eyes go wide again. “That’ll send the message that Nora is off limits, which might appease Terrance.”
I can’t help the way my mouth falls open. “You’re not serious.”
Wulf gives me a grim look. “This man disrespected Terrance’s staff. That won’t go unpunished—house rules.”
“Terrance will kill him for touching you, unless we punish him first,” Nick adds, backing up Wulf’s claims.
They’re not kidding. They plan to keep this guy staked to the counter the way he is. The underworld runs on a different set of rules. It’s brutal and dangerous. If I want to survive it, I need to learn to stomach the darker side of it and trust those who have my well-being at heart.
“Okay,” I say, since both Wulf and Nick seem to be waiting for my approval. It’s not that hard to agree, considering how evil the man’s thoughts were. “Let’s leave him for a while.”
“Put a sign on him so everyone knows,” Nick says.
Wulf writes a note on a pad that says I touched the human girl. He puts it on the faerie’s chest. “Hold this, and don’t drop it.”
The man grips the message and holds it against his chest where everyone who gets close can read it. But he’s squirming, swearing, sweating, and hollering about the pain. I have no doubt it hurts. Nick has no sympathy for him. “Shut your mouth,” he says, touching the dagger’s hilt and twisting it ever so slightly, causing the faerie to scream in real agony. “This is a tender mercy. Stop whining, or I’ll put this dagger through your heart to shut you up.”