Page 136 of Veil of Death and Shadow

“You have a lot of nerve,” Claude said, his voice soft and steady, but somehow more ominous because of how collected it sounded—so sure and confident, like a predator just before he launches on his prey, “talking to me like that, and in my bar no less.” In a motion too quick for me to track, he plucked the picture from my fingers and flung it across the pool table. “Your friend is not here. And, assuming her puppet masters gain better control of her, she won’t be back again. Her kind are not welcome here.”

“Humans, you mean?” I asked, deeply confused. What the hell was he talking about? Puppet masters? Did he mean Lav?

“Humans are free to enter if they wish.” His mouth curled into a snarl. “But I will not entertain a member of the Seven Sons in my establishment. They bring only trouble to our kind. I’ve made myself very clear in the past, but it seems they’ve grown more daring over time. Lav was unaware of your friend’s associations when she brought her here, so I don’t blame her for the poor judgment.” He glanced at Manny. “It was you who escorted the girl out last night, correct?”

“Yes,” Manny answered.

“There you have it,” Claude said, turning back to me, his hands spread in front of him. “She’s not here and she hasn’t been on the premises since last night. Now please take your leave before we have another issue on our hands.”

“The—” I paused, confusion cannibalizing my fear. “What are you talking about? Sora’s not a member of the Seven Sons.”

“The girl in that picture,” he gestured to the photo, “is a member of the House of Wrath. And one who’s made enough enemies of the other Sons that House of Lust ordered a bounty on her head just last week. From what I understand, her capture is fetching quite the reward. She’s lucky no one here recognized her or turned her in before I asked Manny to remove her from the premises. I have no interest in the Sons’ ridiculous spats.”

“No,” I said, shifting my focus back to the vampire in front of me. I assumed he was a vampire anyway. “You’re mistaken.”

“No,” Claude's jaw was tight, every stretched line of his body so clearly screaming threat, that he might as well be wearing a sign with the word ‘dangerous’ plastered across it in neon lights, “I’m not. Your friend’s made quite a name for herself in Wrath’s fighting circuit. They’ve been shuffling through the city all year. She’s taken a surprising number of lives, too,” his head tilted as he took a step closer, “for such a small, unassuming human, that is.”

“You must be thinking of someone else.” I shook my head. “My friend’s not in a cult.” The thought was almost ridiculous enough to make me laugh, but one look from Claude had the humor drying up instantly. “She works in a diner every night and cuts people’s hair. She won’t even kill those giant ass spiders that show up every fall, for fuck’s sake. Trust me,” I added, “I promise you that you’re wrong.”

I felt the rest of the patrons’ eyes on us, the room that had been bustling with good humor when we entered, was now filled with a silent, captive audience—one that watched us with bated breath. I got the feeling people didn’t challenge Claude’s misconceptions very often.

Even Thorne was watching us—looking, for once, almost entertained.

Dickhole probably wanted to watch this vampire drain me dry.

“I saw her there myself,” Claude said, “today, in passing, when I met with one of their representatives to remind them of our agreement. That they’re to stay away from my establishment if they don’t want more trouble.” His eyes narrowed. “They assured me that I wouldn’t find her in this part of town again.”

“You saw her?” I asked, trying to imagine what the hell Sora would be doing all the way over by Wrath. It didn’t make any sense. “I don’t believe you.”

I could understand why she might have come here last night. According to Rex’s list, she needed to exchange blood with a vampire. There were plenty here if Lav wasn’t up for the job.

But what did she need from House of Wrath?

“It’s a dangerous game,” Claude said, a muscle ticking in his jaw, “to come into a vampire’s place of business and call him a liar. It appears that you’re as reckless with your life as your friend is with hers.”

“She’s my best friend.” I met his unflinching stare. “There’s no risk I won’t take to find her.”

He was silent for a moment as he assessed me.

Kieran edged closer; his expression unreadable.

“Very well,” Claude said, “it’s your life to gamble with as you like. But I find that my patience with girls who dress their bad decisions in the guise of courage wears thin these days. So you’ll have to lay down your life somewhere else. As I’ve already made clear, your friend is not here. And if she’s got any sense of self preservation, she won’t show her face near this place again. Now, if you please,” he said, drawing the word out in a way that made it sound more like a threat than a request, “I ask that you take your leave. And don’t let me catch sight of you in my bar again. There’s only so much restraint I can request of my patrons, and if a human walks in, offering her life so flippantly—” he shook his head, shrugging, “I won’t waste my breath protecting it again.”

Jaw clenched, I reached past Claude and grabbed the photo of Sora.

“Understood.” Ignoring every instinct in my body that told me not to turn my back to a predator as deadly as Claude, I made my way to the door.

The bartender, Marge, watched on with concern as she twisted the bar rag in her hands, wringing it within an inch of its life.

There was another woman beside her now. She had long, black hair, and looked to be of East Asian descent. There was something unusual about her, almost otherworldly, and I couldn’t get a read on her age for the life of me. Her dark velvet eyes were absent of the anxiety etched so clearly in Marge’s.

“Don’t worry,” she said, her voice soft and melodic, “his bark is worse than his bite. If you do decide to return to this place in the future, you’ll be under the same protection as everyone else.”

Claude mumbled something incoherent, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn back and look at him.

With a soft smile, she freed Marge’s rag from the woman’s relentless grip, then shot me a look that I couldn’t begin to decipher. She watched my weird walk of shame with unblinking focus—and the way that her gaze shifted to Kieran, then Thorne, then back to me, her mouth pinched in curiosity, I was almost convinced that she could see them, too.

“Fecking hell.” Kieran exhaled sharply, his hands on his knees as he bent over. He shook his head and looked up at me. “That was about two seconds away from a disaster, Agony. Can we please just go home now?”

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