Sacrifice Me: The Complete Season One (9 page)

“It’s his baby,” she said. She
led me down a narrow hallway painted in all black, then opened a door
and motioned for me to go inside.

The storage room was huge. Metal racks lined the
walls from floor to ceiling, stacked with boxes.

“I’m not surprised he didn’t
mention it,” she said. “He’s a real hands-on kind
of boss, always working behind the bar and making sure things are
running smoothly. Still, did you really think a guy behind the bar
could just hire you on the spot and demand that you show up the next
morning?”

I shrugged, feeling stupid. “After the night
I had last night, I didn’t even think to question it.”

She frowned. “Did something happen? I mean,
besides your friend getting sick? I saw Rend go out on the floor to
dance with you and at first, I figured maybe he knew you from
somewhere else.”

She climbed up on a step-ladder and pulled down a
box, handing it to me before grabbing another and climbing down.

I didn’t know where to start. Was I supposed
to keep what happened in the alley a secret? I wasn’t about to
tell her about my mom, but I didn’t really want to tell her I’d
almost been eaten by vampires, either. “I’d never met him
until last night,” I said, deciding to leave it at that and let
her push for more if she wanted to.

She made a face. “You guys got pretty cozy
with each other there for a while,” she said. “I’ve
never seen Rend do that with a customer before. Don’t get used
to it.”

Was that a hint of jealousy in her tone?

“I’m sure it won’t happen
again,” I said. “I think he’s pretty pissed at me.”

“Pissed enough to hire you?” she said,
laughing again. “Set that down over here and open it up. I want
to show you something.”

I brought the box over to the middle of the room
and pulled the tape off the top. She set hers beside mine and opened
hers, too. Inside both boxes were plastic shot glasses in various
neon colors. Stacks of them were wrapped in brown tissue paper. Each
glass had the Venom logo on it. A serpent with its fangs
outstretched. I shuddered at the image, wondering if snake fangs had
anything to do with human fangs.

“This, obviously, is one of the main storage
rooms,” she said. I was grateful to be talking about the job
and out of the line of fire for a minute. “We keep all our
merchandise-type items in here. Shot glasses, t-shirts, novelty type
stuff. On this other side, are the paper products, like napkins and
toilet paper. Your first job is to unwrap all the glasses in these
two boxes and bring them up to the bar area for me. Sound good?”

“Sounds easy enough,” I said.

“Great.” She slapped her hands against
her legs and looked around. “So, I’ll just leave you to
it for now. I’m going back up front to work on washing the
other new glassware. Come back out when you’re done and I’ll
finish showing you around.”

I nodded and sat down on the floor next to the
boxes.

“Oh.” She turned around as she reached
the door. “By the way, welcome to Venom.”

“Thanks,” I said as she disappeared
into the hallway, leaving me alone with the boxes.

In an hour, I had all the glasses unwrapped and
stacked on the edge of the bar. So far, it wasn’t a bad job,
but I wished I had thought to bring some headphones with me so I
could listen to music on my phone. Anything to distract me from
thoughts of what happened last night.

Azure showed me around the rest of the club, but
there wasn’t that much to see. At least not that she was
willing to show, anyway. She took me on a tour of the main sections
of the club like the dance-floor, the exits, the second floor
balcony. She showed me where the bathrooms were, even though she knew
I'd already been inside them last night. She took me to a second
storage room where all the glassware for behind the bar was kept, and
finally, she showed me to another room on that same hallway where the
employees took breaks during their shifts. There was a coffee pot and
snacks on the counter, some well-worn couches, and a TV, but other
than that, nothing else to see. Just your basic break room.

“That’s everything,” Azure said,
ignoring the fact that she'd walked me past at least half a dozen
doors that she didn't open. “When you start your shift, you’ll
come here to the break room and clock in on this computer. I don’t
think your name is listed officially yet, though.”

“I haven’t filled out any paperwork,”
I said.

She shook her head. “We’re all kind of
off the books here at Venom, so to speak.”

I studied her to see if she was just messing with
me. “What do you mean? Like, no taxes?”

“I mean, no official documentation that you
work here. No taxes, no W-2’s, no paychecks.”

“So, how do you get paid?”

She smiled. “Rend pays us once a week.”

“In cash?”

“In cash and other things,” she said.

I wanted to beat my head against the wall and tell
her to stop messing around with me. So far, this place was full of
secrets. It was driving me mad.

“What kinds of other things?” I
figured she wasn’t going to tell me, but I needed to ask
because I didn’t want to end up working here and getting paid
in plastic neon shot-glasses.

“Most of us who work here have our own
special needs that only Rend can meet,” she said. When she saw
the disgusted look on my face, she laughed and touched my arm. A
static shock went off between us and I jumped, but she didn’t
seem surprised. “I’m not talking about anything gross, so
get your mind out of the gutter. I just mean he has some particular
talents that are in high demand in our world.”

I was relieved she wasn’t talking about sex.
The idea of Rend touching me again wasn’t exactly offensive,
but I did not want to be a part of some sex-demon freak show. Still,
the way she’d said ‘
our world
’ made my heart
beat a little faster. As if stepping into this nightclub meant
stepping into another dimension. One where reality ceased to exist
and creatures from the world of nightmares came out to play.

Or feed.

Rend had used that word last night in the alley
and it still haunted me.

“I’m sure he’ll go over all that
stuff with you when he gets a chance,” she said.

“Is he here?” I asked. I hated that I
sounded eager when I’d meant to sound completely uninterested.
Had she noticed?

“He’s completely off-limits. You
realize that right?”

Oh, yeah, she noticed.

“He’s my boss, I get it. I just have a
lot of questions after last night.”

She stared at me, and I tried to act cool. I had a
feeling she could see right through me. I hated that almost as much
as I hated the fact that I kept thinking about the way his thumb had
brushed against my skin.

“I’ve seen that look before,”
she said. “Trust me, every girl who comes through those doors
wants a piece of him. And every girl ends up leaving sorely
disappointed.”

“I’m not trying to get a piece of
anything,” I said, snapping at her more sharply than I’d
intended. She was annoying the crap out of me. So what if every girl
wanted him. I wasn’t like every other girl.

Besides, she was the one who had said she’d
never seen him dance that way with anyone before.

And, as much as I hated to admit it, no one had
ever made me feel the way he had last night. Some nagging part of me
wanted to know if he had felt it too, or if he’d just truly
been trying to keep me safe.

A bolt of fear shot through me.

In the excitement and horror of the back alley
drama, I had completely forgotten about the fact that someone else
had been watching me from the shadows. Someone who had sent me black
roses and invited me to Venom in the first place.

Whoever they were, they knew about my mother. I
could feel it in my bones. If nothing else came from the fact that I
had to work in this place, I wanted to at least get to the bottom of
that red invitation.

Rend had recognized the paper. He’d said the
man who used that type of paper was dangerous. But what he didn’t
say was why someone like that would be interested in a nobody like
me.

“Azure?”

She was making a pot of coffee and turned when I
called her name.

“I know you said you can’t tell me
everything about what happens here at the club, but I do have one
question,” I said. “What was in that drink last night?
The Red Dragon?”

A small smile played on her lips. “You liked
it, huh? Want more of it?”

“It’s not that,” I said. “I
mean, yes, I loved it. But I’m more interested in finding out
what it was and why it made Katy sick when it made me feel so great.”

She bit her bottom lip and avoided my gaze as she
poured some coffee into a thick paper cup.

“In the bathroom last night, you gave her
something to make her feel better,” I said, not letting it go.
“You told her you didn’t know she was a normal. What did
you mean by that?”

She poured an obscene amount of cream and sugar
into her cup and stirred it around before taking a sip. “Look,
I get that you’re curious. I would be too. But I don’t
know that it’s my place to talk to you about—”

“Dammit,” I shouted, slamming my hand
down on the counter. “I’m tired of everyone giving me the
run around. What’s with all the secrets? I’m here, aren’t
I? I’m wearing the t-shirt, right? If I’m going to work
here and possibly risk my life to come to this place every night, I
have a right to know what the hell is going on.”

“You’re right.” Rend’s
voice startled me.

I turned and sucked in a deep breath. Damn, he was
even more gorgeous in the light. I didn’t know that was even
possible.

Even though there was a good twenty feet or so
between us, my body reacted as if his hands were on me. My skin
burned for the feel of his warm fingertips on my skin.

And that reaction was immediately followed by
anger at the fact that I wanted him so badly. I had dated my fair
share of guys and none of them had left me feeling so helpless and
needy. I felt out of control around him. Like I wanted to know where
I stood with him and if there was any way he was feeling even a
fraction of what I was feeling right now.

I hated that he had this power over me. No one had
ever had power over me. Not even my own mother.

Especially not my mother.

Yet here he was. The one person in the world who
might have answers about where she was or what kind of mess she’d
managed to get herself into, and all I could think about was if I
would ever again feel the burning heat of his skin against mine.

“Morning, boss,” Azure said, looking
from him to me and back again. “Seems your new employee has a
lot of questions, so, I guess I’ll just leave you guys to it.”

Rend nodded, but never once took his eyes off me.

Azure passed by him, then threw one last bitter
glance back toward me before she walked out the door.

“Do you want a cup of coffee?” he
asked.

“I’d rather have some straight answers
about what’s going on and what I’m really doing here,”
I said.

He gave a slight smile, amusement dancing in his
dark black eyes. I wanted to get closer to see if there was still
that hint of silver in them or if I had dreamed it up. “It
wasn’t an either or kind of question, you know.”

I relaxed my shoulders and walked over to pour
myself a cup. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t
do well with secrets and vague hints at things. I like honesty.”

“Even when the truth is hard to hear?”
He crossed over to stand beside me and grabbed a cup for himself.

“Especially when the truth is hard to hear.”

Our arms nearly touched and I had to work to
control my heartbeat. Dammit, this guy was really getting to me.

“You keep surprising me,” he said.
“I’ve been around for a very long time, and believe me
when I say that not many people can surprise me anymore.”

I laughed. “You can’t be that much
older than I am. You’re what? Twenty-seven? Twenty-eight?”

He gave me a sideways glance and a somewhat
frustrated groan.

“What now?” I asked.

He laughed. “Come on. Let’s go to my
office where we can talk.”

I finished pouring some creamer into my coffee and
followed him down the hallway toward a set of black double-doors at
the very end.

Azure hadn't brought me back here to this end of
the hallway.

I expected to walk straight into his office when
he opened the door, but instead there was a large open seating area
with a door on the left, a door on the right, and a wide staircase
straight ahead that led up to a second floor.

Rend headed for the door on the right, opened it,
and motioned for me to go on in.

His office was not at all what I’d expected,
either. I had pictured a small room that looked like the manager’s
offices in other bars or restaurants where I’d waitressed.
Usually there would be the standard metal desk cluttered with bills
and notebooks and binders. Maybe a few pictures of family members. A
filing cabinet or two. Harsh fluorescent lighting.

But this was nothing at all like that.

Rend’s office was a work of art. To begin
with, it was huge. Instead of bright overhead lights, there was a
warm amber glow coming from a series of round orbs hanging like
pendants from the ceiling. A dark leather couch was pushed against
the wall on one side of the room with a gorgeous Persian rug and a
deep mahogany coffee table in front of it.

His desk was an equally gorgeous color of deep
mahogany brown, intricately carved. A real antique that looked like
it probably cost a fortune. Instead of stacks of papers and binders,
his desk was clean and organized. A sleek, flat-screen computer
monitor was angled off to one side. My eyes were drawn to a beautiful
green stone sitting on the edge of the desk. It almost looked as if
it were glowing from within. I wanted to touch it, but wondered if it
would be rude.