Page 77 of The Blood Witch

Thanking him, she gathered the drinks and ran back to her table to tell her friends everything. Jasper grinned. That free round, and his little white lie implying Fey might come by that night, would be enough to keep that group around and drinking up a huge tab until closing time. They’d more than make up for the cost of the free drinks, and next week he’d bet his whole paycheck he’d see them, and even more Witches like them, after they told all their friends what a great time they’d had.

Whistling, Jasper went back to polishing glasses. It was a slow night,and for once, it seemed like they might be over-staffed. Sid was cleaning the stockroom, but Jasper had given him the task mainly to give him something to do. Well, that, and because after the last few weeks of use the stockroom probably needed a good deep clean. With bleach.

He had just put down a glass and picked up a new one when the club door opened and Alastair walked in.

The Witches whispering at their table went dead silent, jaws dropping as the Vampire moved across the dance floor. He had that effect on the patrons. Hell, if half of the Witches who came in tonight were hoping to see Fey, the other half was probably here to see Alastair. The Vampire Prince who was drop dead gorgeous enough to capture the heart of the Broken Blade? Now that was something people wanted to see.

Jasper reached under the counter and pulled out a bottle of Alastair’s favorite whiskey. Flipping one of the freshly polished glasses up, he grinned at Alastair, expecting him to stop for his usual.

“Hey boss,” Jasper called, uncorking the bottle.

But Alastair didn’t look up. Didn’t acknowledge him at all. He walked, head down, straight past the bar and up the stairs to the VIP section, heading toward his office.

Something tightened in Jasper’s chest. He corked the bottle as the smile slipped off his face. He stared down at the empty glass on the bar for a few long seconds before putting it back with the others.

Once upon a time, before he started working for Alastair, Jasper had tried his hand at being a thief. It was a common line of work for most Shifters when he was growing up, and Jasper figured if some of his friends could do it, so could he.

He was, without a doubt, a really shitty thief. Sure, he could blend into a crowd, and he could pick pockets with the best of them, but a good thief always knows when to cut and run.

And Jasper never ran from a fight.

After getting into one too many scraps after being caught in the act, and after drawing way too much attention to himself, Jasper had given up on picking pockets and managed to get a job as hired muscle.

All these years later, and he still didn’t know when to back down. Still never ranfrom a fight.

Grinding his teeth together, Jasper went to the stockroom to find Sid. He needed someone to cover the bar while he and Alastair had a chat.

Chapter 35

ALASTAIR

Iwas a fucking idiot not to promote Ferus earlier,Alastair thought, looking over the order sheets from the last few months. Who would have thought the Wolf he’d brought in to run security would be so damned organized?

In the two years since his promotion, Ferus had turned The Last Drop into a perfectly oiled machine, meticulously tracking their earnings, spending, and the workers’ schedules. The damned Wolf was not only saving him a fortune every month, but he’d also managed to do everything so efficiently that Alastair didn’t have any work to do most nights.

And now, when he needed a distraction, when he needed something,anything, to get his mind off the hunger gnawing at his guts, now was when everything was running perfectly smooth. Just his fucking luck.

Alastair took a sip from the glass of whiskey on his desk and nearly spat it back out.

Fuck the Goddess, that stuff was awful. He scowled at the label, turning the bottle toward him to read it. It was top shelf, aged, and the Wolf running the VIP bar last night had said it was spectacular. One of their most expensive bottles.

Why did it taste like backwash to him, then?

A knock on his open office door made him glance up. Jasper. Great. And his luck officially just got shittier. Swallowing his rising anger, Alastair looked back down at his paperwork.

Jasper didn’t wait to be invited in. He walked right in without a word and closed the office door behind him.

“I have that open for a reason, you know,” Alastair grumbled, not looking up from his paperwork.

“Yeah. And now I’ve closed it for a reason,” Jasper answered. He took a few steps into the room and stopped before Alastair’s desk. “We need to talk.”

Alastair raised an eyebrow, glancing up just long enough for Jasper to appreciate it. “Shouldn’t you be at the bar?” he asked.

Jasper shrugged. “It’s a Thursday night, boss. The place is empty. Sid and Mara can handle it. And since when do you care, anyway? You used to be fine with me taking a few minutes off to play with a pretty girl if she caught my eye.”

Alastair grunted, turning back to his paperwork.

“You’re avoiding me,” Jasper said.

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