Page 40 of The Clash of the Damned
Stabilize Tao
Sign Satine’s get well soon card
Invest in Tao’s financial future and possibly expand
Extend…my family line?
That’s something I’m not ready to deal with yet. I understand how the Supernaturals have survived this long. We need to have babies to continue our lines, and mine is becoming smaller and smaller. If I die, so does the De Greer line.
I’m much more comfortable with the subject of money. I’ll deal with the subject of family, or the lack thereof, another day. After the fight club, each Undead pledged their allegiance to me again, in a way I especially appreciate. They gave me a higher percentage of their club earnings. But even then…it’s not enough. Running my hand through my hair in frustration, my mind races trying to solve the problem in front of me. No matter which way I run our budgeting formulas, if business keeps the way it’s currently been, we will run out of money in roughly six months. And that’s if we don’t have a raid from the police in that time, which is unlikely.
Tao is where Supernaturals can have their secret natures catered to, and for humans, they can pretend to be something like us–the elite. We’vealways relied on a mixture of Supernatural and human clientele to keep our businesses afloat; neither alone are enough to keep it running. Double checking the income sheets over the past few nights, I can see from Silva’s comments that there has been a sharp decrease in human patronage.
Recently, I thought we were okay; we had successful parties, which helped. But the overhead to put on a party like that is immense, and we need to balance it out with normal nights to ensure the best mixture of gross margin to grow our business. People think being a nightclub owner is glamorous, but I sound like a nerd talking about financial formulas.
It has to be this religious group scaring the humans away; it’s the only explanation. I need to deal with them before they tank my business. We have survived so much, including a recession. This can’t be the way we go out. I have to do better; the survival of my business depends on it.
Grabbing my phone, which I set to silent when I started working, I see several missed calls and messages waiting for me. First, I see Jude asking if I’ve seen the latest news report and her telling me to answer my phone. She needs to talk urgently. Now Amelia is looking for me urgently? What the fuck is going on? But the message that stands out the most is from Reece. It’s not like we’re close…
I call her number, not expecting anything at this late hour, but she answers on the second ring. “Luca?”
“Hey, Reece, it’s kind of late. What’s wrong?”
“Have you seen him?” She jumps straight into demands, like I know exactly what she’s talking about. “When he didn’t come home for dinner, I knew something was wrong. He always lets us know if he’s running late, and if you call his number, it’s been disconnected.”
“Slow down, Reece. Who’she?”
“Dom, obviously. Who else?”
Shit. This is not good, and I won’t say what we’re both probably thinking. The religious group got to him. But how would average humans get to someone like Dom? He would never allow that to happen and leave his sisters like this.
“I can’t get hold of Jude and Sebastian either, but I know they’re home. You’re the only one that called back.” Amelia bursts into my office, and I’m hit with a wave of deja vu. Except this time, she’s dressed in black leather pants and a jacket that looks incredible on her, which doesn’t matter; I have to ignore it. But more importantly, she looks like she’s ready to go to war.
“Listen, Amelia just got here. I will see if she’s heard anything. If you and your sister don’t want to be alone tonight, you’re welcome to come to my place until we figure this out. I will call you back ASAP.”
“Thanks, Luca.” Her voice cracks with emotion, and I get flashbacks to when I called Sebastian when my mom went missing. “We can’t lose him too. He’s all we have.”
Ending the call, I turn to focus on my unwanted visitor. “Must you keep appearing in my life when I’ve made it clear you’re not wanted?
“We can fight later.” Amelia looks over her shoulder, like she’s worried she was followed. “Gabe called to warn us. They’re here to burn Tao down, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they think executing you would be fun.”
“Who’s they?” I ask her, frustrated at how everyone is being so fucking cryptic.
“The Children of Christ.”
