Page 15 of The Biting Bargain

"Are you lost, little girl?"

I blink when I realize that I am the one the vampire has talked to. He is casually leaning against the wall right next to me, looking down at me with amusement. As if I were a particularly entertaining dessert.

I give a shaky smile.

"No, no, I'm just passing through."

He raises an eyebrow, a thin smile curling his lips.

"Interesting," he says. "Just passing through, getting a few bite marks and a post-orgasmic glow on the way out?"

He slides closer. I back away half a step and bump into the velvet wall behind me, and suddenly he's propping one huge hand right next to my head.

"So where else are you headed tonight?" he asks casually, his expression this of a slightly less bored cat now.

I look frantically past him to where the leashed girl is standing behind him. She is stunningly beautiful, close to perfect. Four striking red dots are blaring on her neck —bite marks, it whispers in my head. And fresh ones at that. Is this girl maybe this vampire'scompanion?

Her gaze is cast down, but under thick lashes she manages to shoot me a devastating glare. Great, now she's pissed that her master is hitting on me in the elevator. When exactly did this night get so out of hand?

"Just g-going home," I press out, smiling a little wider.

"Uh-huh." He smirks, and his hand next to my head disappears. Only to reappear a second later right in front of my face, a business card gracefully clutched between two long fingers.

"If you ever feel like more ‘passing through,’ little girl, give me a call." There's that amused twinkle in his eye again.

I take the card like I’m remote controlled and he pins me down with that glance for another second, as if he's unexpectedly found a new, interesting toy. But just then the elevator stops and the doors slide open and then he's gone, striding out of the door with a casual, "Ciao, bella." His leashed companion follows obediently, not without flashing me another withering glare.

The doors slide shut again, the elevator whirs on toward the first floor, and it occurs to me that my knees are made of jello. I sink to the floor, the business card trembling in my fingers.

I've got to get out of here. This, the entire thing, was a fucking bullshit idea.

It’s always a bullshit idea to get involved with vampires.

ChapterSix

Polly

"Polly, phone!"

I almost drop the tray with empty pint glasses when my boss Colin's voice booms from the back. The cold panic that has haunted me since that night three days ago has become a slicing knife in my guts, cutting me every time my phone so much as buzzes. With trembling hands I place the tray on the counter.

The bar is still closed, the taproom still empty. Grace and I are just getting things ready for the shift. I try to do my best. But I've been feeling like I’m walking underwater for days.

"Your dad," Colin booms again, sticking his big ogre head through the door. "Sounds urgent."

"What?"

A completely different kind of alarm flares up. Dad almost never calls, and especially not the bar I work at. Something must be very wrong.

I stumble past my boss, ignoring the concerned sideways glance from my friend Grace, who is polishing shot glasses at the counter. She's been asking me since Monday what's wrong with me, but I've shrugged it off and ignored her. Just like every single one of Marigold's follow-up questions.

And every buzz of my phone.

The last time I peeked at the display, there were 37 missed calls and almost twice as many messages. Most are from Club Sanguine HR, telling me to check in with them. Sure enough, an unread email from Jasmin is also sitting in my inbox like an unexploded bomb.

"Urgent! Please get in touch!"

Of course, I didn't get in touch.

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