I had always played it safe as far as Rifters were concerned. I mean, there was that one time with an incubus when I was at university, but sex demons almost never killed anyone. And what would the university experience be without sowing a few wild oats? Besides, I was drunk, and Kirsten dared me, so that was her fault.
The lines were already forming to get inside, but being relatively young, single, and female, we passed by the bouncers quickly and without paying a cover charge. The band was about half an hour into their first set, and the dance floor was starting to get busy. We headed to the second-floor bar, hoping to snag a table on the mezzanine overlooking the scene downstairs.
We timed our entrance so well that it almost seemed like magik. A two-top next to the mezzanine railing was open, and we slid into the seats. Lucifer’s was one of the rare places with live waitstaff, but that was due to the nature of the owner. He didn’t hire anyone who might carry a disease, and demons didn’t get along with technology.
“What’s your pleasure?” a sensuous voice purred before I even had a chance to look around for a waitress. She turned out to be a lilith, a lust demon, with bright pink skin and the cutest little horns jutting up through her blonde hair. She was wearing the standard waitress uniform—tight string-bikini top and a G-string—with her headlights distractingly turned on and her camel-toe prominently apparent. The pheromones she shed weren’t entirely wasted on Kirsten and me, even though we were staunchly hetero.
We gave her our order—drinks and a basket of munchies—and she sauntered off, probably high as a kite on the lust she’d inspired in us.
“Whew!” Kirsten said, watching her. “What I’d give for my ass to look like that.”
“Mine does,” I said. “You need to get off yours and exercise occasionally.”
“You wish. If I wasn’t in the mood before we got here, I am now. I wonder if your new partner ever comes here.” Her grin was definitely predatory. “He would be a perfect way to get inside Top Ten society.”
“From what his cousin told me, the Ten are a randy bunch. Not really any different from other mages. Or witches, if your predilections are common.”
“There’s nothing common about me. You should know that.”
“She also told me that Mychal is a nerd.”
Kirsten’s big disappointment in life was that she wasn’t born queen. She didn’t dwell on it, but the injustice was her prime motivation, and I was giving even odds she would get there someday.
A couple of vampires with human dates sat at a table near us, and to my surprise, an elf with a lavender-skinned lilith sat at another nearby table. The place was filling up. Our waitress brought our order. It was my round, so I paid and tipped her. She gave me a come-hither grin, but when I simply shrugged, she moved away to her other customers.
The first guy to ask Kirsten to dance was an incubus, and she declined, to his surprise. But she did say yes to a blood vampire, and I watched them go down the stairs to the dance floor. I doubted she would give him a taste, although she might if she was in the right mood, but he would never get her out the door. He would be crazy to even contemplate it, though. Magik-users’ blood was a drug, inducing a high that could become addictive, and that addiction usually spiraled down into madness.
“May I have this dance?”
Startled out of my reverie, I looked up and saw a mage standing by my chair.
“My friend is dancing, and I have her purse,” I replied. “Maybe when she comes back.”
He slid into Kirsten’s chair and put his drink on the table. “I hope you don’t mind if I wait.” He had a nice smile.
“No, not at all.” I gave him a smile in return. Blond, with a short, trimmed beard and blue eyes, he was slender but not skinny. I judged him to be about my height. His powder-blue suit was expensively cut.
“I’m Phillip,” he said.
“Dani. Nice suit. Black is so passé, don’t you think?”
He chuckled. “Definitely. I mean, how am I supposed to stand out amongst all the vampires?”
We chatted and I kept an eye on Kirsten. After dancing with the vampire, she danced with a mage, a human, and another mage before making her way back up the stairs.
“I’m only gone for a couple of dances, and you’ve replaced me already?” she joked, picking up her drink and taking a long swallow.
“He was interested in dancing with me, but after half an hour of listening to me, he’s probably changed his mind.”
“Not at all. Shall we?” He stood and waited for me to join him.
I noted the small sign of surprise when I stood up. The boots I was wearing had two-inch heels, which made me a little taller than he was. But I seemed to pass the down-and-up survey he conducted with his eyes, and his smile stayed in place, so we trooped down the stairs.
He danced okay, moved okay, didn’t try to be an asshole and invade my private space, so overall, I gave him a six out of ten, which was pretty good for a guy in Lucifer’s. It always blew my mind when I saw old movies where people actually touched when they were
