Page 110 of A Dusk Of Stars

“Your first time here, Novak?” Bane asks, throwing a look over his shoulder as he leads us into one of the most dingy alleyways I’ve ever been in.

“It’ll be my first time in the Vein,” I tell him, in a friendly but not engaging way.

He cranes his neck to throw another squint at me, but he doesn’t push anything.

“Mine was in 1939,” I hear Alaric say, and I welcome the opportunity to shift my focus back onto him.

“Just before the War?” I ask, despite knowing this is a touchy subject for him.

He happily nods, throwing a glance at Raven.

“Holy hell,” I say. “What was it like?”

By the time Bane stops in front of an old wooden door with dirty stained glass panels, he’s told us exactly what the Veinusedto look like.

I move to the end of the line our little group forms, to take a look at the old sign with the name of the place creaking up in the air.

“The fun is this way,” I hear Bane say and I snap out of it, seeing him standing in the doorway, keeping the door open and gesturing for me to get moving.

I don’t say anything. I just start walking, my behavior these past two days starting to make me feel I should cut my interactions with him to a minimum.

I’ll make an appearance, blend into the crowd and take the first chance to get out of here.

Until I step inside and see the place is almost exactly like Alaric described it — hot, cramped, noisy and dimly lit. There are doors leading into a whole web of other rooms, something psychedelic going on to the left of the old wooden bar and something clubbish to the right. It’s all in black wood and red leather, light reflecting off glass and metal everywhere.

It’s glorious.

Mesmerized, I let the crowd swallow me, making sure I stay behind Alaric, who’s elbowing his way through a group of vampires who are obviously all on something.

Once we find a spot near the bar with drinks in our hands, I let everyone else have fun and take the opportunity to figure out what’s so captivating about this place. Because it’s not just the ambience. There’s magic in these walls. I can feel it.

Pieces of something Alaric’s saying to Raven drifting to my ear, I start glancing around. It’s old, that’s for sure. Alaric did say it was last renovated during the Prohibition.

Slowly, I completely stop registering the people around me and move out of our circle. There are things conflicting inside me — this sadness about my wolf going silent on me again, with this excitement at the very thought of actually dropping the whole Aurora stress for the time being. It doesn’t hurt that, by doing the latter, I could maybe fix the former.

Maybe, just maybe, I could be a regular student for a moment, I think as I walk past a group of girls chanting something as they throw glowing pink shots back.

It makes me blow a laugh through my nose. I down my own drink and walk up to the bar, slamming the glass on the sticky wooden surface, throwing the energetic bartender a grin and ordering a blood gin.

I’m on my third one, and I’m leaned on the bar, admiring the gargoyles carved into the wall above, when I sense him come to stand next to me. “I heard this guy say they used to weep actual blood tears.”

I turn to look at him, finding him leaning against the bar with a scotch in his hand. That seems to be his favorite drink. “Interesting,” I say, trying to be as flat as possible so as not to engage him too much.

He throws me a suspicious look. Then his gaze drops to my scarf and he lets out a scoff before he tips his chin at it and asks, “Aren’t you hot in that monstrosity?”

So clever, he thinks he is. I just look at him for a second, my lips curling into a smirk. “Actually, I am,” I say as I grab onto one end of the silky thing and slide it off my neck, revealing the real reason for the scarf — the fact that my favorite dress has a cleavage a little too plunging for an affair like the Academy mixer. Especially given whatI’mworking with.

His eyes dart down and back up, locking with mine. I raise my eyebrows at him mockingly, but he seems to be at a loss for words at the moment. It all makes me want to laugh a smuglaugh, but this is getting too close to flirting, so I just smile, grab my glass and move to go back to our group.

He rushes to block my way. “Why don’t you help me with something, Novak,” he says in a low, serious voice.

I take a step back, raising my eyebrows.

“Why don’t you tell me why you’re still choosing to be such a little liar?”

I laugh. “What am I lying about?”

He gets in my face, his eyes narrowing at me. “Everything. All the time.”

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