Page 9 of Queen of Vampire Hearts

I CLOSED THE FRONT DOOR OF MYapartment,forced to slam it three times before it finally locked into place. The rickety A/C unit in my window and the two fans were off, and the sticky weather made my clothes cling to my skin. Dressed for my bartending job at Tulane’s campus bar, the black short-sleeved shirt, and matching pants felt more like a parka with the humidity. One downside to the swamp city was that it felt like you were walking through hot soup some days.

I sighed heavily, my steps trudging toward work, preparing for the night ahead. I would rather be heading anywhere else. Well, I guess notanywhere, butcloseto anywhere. I was not looking forward to the grabby hands of frat brothers, spilled drinks, aching feet, and long hours of pounding music.

Temporary, this is temporary,I reminded myself again, probably for the seventeenth time since I’d dragged my shapely ass out of bed and into my work clothes. I didn’t know why that phrase reassured me. My entire life was temporary. Every city I was in, I had a new name, new background, new face, and I was gone before anyone could ever come close to discovering the truth. My current fake ID said I wasSerena Carmichael, born and raised in Lafayette. My hair and eyes were their normal color. Sometimes, I needed to seemyface in the mirror. It could be too easy to lose myself in these identities. I needed to remember who I was.

I sighed again and dragged my feet the several blocks to work, ducking into the air-conditioned building with a relieved exhale. The air was arctic in the bar to combat the humidity, and soon I’d be shivering. One of my coworkers called out to me as I stepped through the door, his voice way too cheerful. “Hey, Serena!”

I waved my hand in acknowledgment, moving to the register to clock in and prepare for the night. I felt Luis come up next to me, knowing it was him without having to look. He bumped his hip playfully against mine. When would he get the message that Ididn’twant to be friends? “You ready for tonight,chica?”

“As always,” I answered wearily, trying to maintain some distance between us. He’d wanted to be friends with me since I started working at the bar. I couldn’t have friends. Friends were the roots of the tree that I could never grow. Friends required trust, and that was something I couldn’t afford. Most days, I couldn’t even trust myself. I’d made so many mistakes on the run, some very,veryrecently. Rule number one was number one for a reason.

“What’s that blush about?” Luis asked as we stocked the bar with alcohol, making sure we replaced all the empty bottles and the various cups were ready to go. “You get laid?”

I barely stopped myself from choking at how close he was to the truth. I covered it with a wistful exhale. “If only, Luis. If only.”

Luis shook his head and mimicked a dramatic sigh as he leaned on the bar. “How someone so hot never gets laid is the second biggest mystery since the disappearance of Osama Bin Laden.”

I couldn’t stop my laugh, covering my mouth in surprise. Luis’s eyes sparked, and I could practically hear him think,look at us, bonding and shit.Fuck, he was going to think we’re friends now. I needed to throw my walls back up, push him away.

Rule No. 3: Don’t tell anyone anything, ever.

It looked like I was doomed to one-night stands and non-existent friends for the foreseeable future.So I kept everyone at a distance. Everyone was a bounty hunter waiting to betray me. A feeling of despair settled on my shoulders, and I tried to suppress the way my mood plummeted. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I needed to get the grimoires, and then maybe I could figure a way out of this.Yeah, I could make up spells. Being on the run had forced me to explore spells once forbidden to me, but for thereallypowerful stuff, I needed my grimoires to pull it off.

If I had them, maybe I could permanently alter the memory of the survivors. Memory spells were tricky. The longer someone knew something, the harder it was to erase. But maybe, if I could erase the Council’s memories, I could finally rest, put down roots, and move on. Maybe I could have a real relationship.

It was the reason I didn’t have sex with Lucien. Something had told me once would never be enough, and once was all I could offer. I was still thinking about him days later, and I had flicked the bean to the memory of us together more times than I could count. Honestly, I needed to give the old gal a break.

Students began filtering in, and the raucous nature of the young mortals distracted me from my inner turmoil. We were busier than normal. The newest freshman had engaged in the recruitment process for Greek Life, and the bar was crammed full with them, each vibrating with frenetic energy.

Wistfully, I reminisced about the same process at UT, the excitement, the parties, the drama. I had been so naïve.I’d met he-who-shall-be-castrated at one of those parties. It was the beginning of the end for me. My eyes glazed as the orders came in, and I filled them by rote without conscious effort.

An asshole snapped his fingers at me multiple times from down the bar. His shirt was a blinding salmon, and his khaki screameddouche on daddy’s money. What a dickwad. I wasn’t blind. I was busy. Finally, I made my way to him, seeing a young girl, likely just a freshman, standing next to him. She appeared to be trying to inch away from him but seemed unsure if she should. It was like she was feeling pressure to stand there with him.

“What can I get you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the boy.

“Two hand grenades,” he answered, tossing his credit card and fake ID at me. It wasn’t my business, and I wasn’t going to get involved.

Rule No. 4: Never draw attention, mortal or otherwise.

“I just want water—” the girl tried to speak up.

“Come on. You can’t come to the Boot without having a hand grenade.”

“I don’t know—”

“Trust me,” he interrupted her again, and I barely suppressed a loud scoff. In my experience, any man who saidtrust mewas full of shit.

I turned away to mix the drinks, making one light on alcohol. When I returned to hand them off, the girl had vanished, so I handed both drinks over to the douche. If I hadn’t been suspicious as fuck about him already, I would have turned away without a thought, but I watched him from the corner of my eye. When he thought I wasn’t looking, he pulled a pill from his pocket. He dropped it into the young girl’s drink before carrying it over to their little group of friends and handing it off to the skittish girl.

It wasn’t my business. I should stay out of it.Fuck!I couldn’t keep out of it. I hid my hand beneath the bar as it began to glow with magic. With a flick of my fingers, I switched the drug from her drink to his. Have fun with that asshole.

Satisfied, I turned back to my other customers, mixing more drinks with a slight smile on my face. At least one girl was going to be safe from a fucking asshole trying to take advantage. The rest of the shift dragged, but at least there were no further incidents. I noticed with a vicious smirk that three frat brothers were forced to carry the douche home.

The doors finally shuttered at six in the morning, the slight rays of sunrise glowing through the glass windows. Luis cleaned tables as I scrubbed down the bar. Our boss waved as he exited, leaving just the two of us. Very typical, the one who cut the checks got to leave before the actual work was done.

With him gone, my focus returned to the bar, a comforting monotony in the task. Each time the rag I used went over the surface of the scarred wood, I imagined the last ten years of my life disappearing, rubbed away with the stains left behind by the patrons.Instead, I was standing in the Council’s chambers, and they—

I hit Luis in the chest as he suddenly appeared next to me. How had he moved so fast? “Holy shit! You scared me!” I exclaimed, a shiver of unease going through me.

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