Lurch winked at me as I passed him, the gesture oddly animated for a man who had barely even raised his eyebrow earlier. “Have fun,” he drolled.
Beth and I followed the vampires, practically glued at the hip.
“So, you’ve been down here before?” I whispered to Beth.
She made a little sound. “Not exactly, but I have heard a lot about it.”
Oh man, that was not what I wanted to hear. Beth seemed so confident about tonight. It sounded like she came here every other weekend. But then again, it probably would’ve been smarter for me to have asked her rather than just assuming it.
But rather than entering some creepy serial killer’s basement, we found ourselves on stairs that were well lit, with wooden walls that the woman from the home and garden channel would’ve loved. Ship-something decor. I didn’t have a clue. I wanted to ask Beth more about what she heard about the vampires and this part of the club, but I figured it wasn’t a good idea, with the bouncers a few feet in front of us.
Once we got downstairs, I stopped in shock at what I was seeing. The stairs had seemed to last longer than I'd expected and now I understood why. The first thing I noticed was how the air had changed. It didn't have that sweaty alcohol and sex smell that the club had upstairs. It was cooler, fresher.
It was like an old-school speakeasy. There were large oval tables that were surrounded by leather booths at the entrance then as the room opened up it became almost a hodgepodge of designs, as though it had been around too long to just have one aesthetic.
One of the alcoves off to the right was basically a library. The walls were lined with books and the tables were the same as the others but this time the booths were made of crushed red velvet. Another alcove was all flocked damask wallpaper and material draping from the ceiling with lanterns reminiscent of the kind you'd see at a Turkish bazaar. The booths in that alcove were lower to the ground, just like the tables, and had intricate patterns on the large, overstuffed cushions. Yet another looked more like someone's living room with leather couches and a low coffee table in the middle.
On the side opposite the alcoves was a long bar that was styled like a pub with its own ceiling and everything. Glasses hung from the racks overhead and bottles of all kinds lined the wall. There were more than just a few of each kind of alcohol; there had to be hundreds of bottles there. The glossy black surface of the bar was spotless. I could see that even from here.
The tables in the center of the room were what held my attention the most, though. Dealers and gamblers lined each one. A few of the tables had that distinctive green felt that I'd only ever seen on casino tables before, while others were dark wood and still others were glass.
The vampires we’d been following turned and stared at us. Oh, shit. We looked like a couple of idiots. I sprang away from Beth and straightened my skirt before tossing my hair. “Lead the way, good men,” I said in a formal voice that came out completely ridiculous.
But they just nodded and carried on past the tables of people playing cards, toward some booths that were tucked away and dimly lit. I hadn't even been able to see them from the entrance. There were a few other doors and staircases that peeled off from the room, which had been roped off. I glanced up to see rooms above us with glass fronts, the kind of two-way mirror where whoever was in there could see out but we couldn’t see in.
That explained why the staircase was so long. We were more like two stories down. It also explained why the bar had its own section of lowered ceiling.
The vampires stopped at one of the roped-off doors and nodded at the guard posted there. He knocked on the door twice, and a few seconds later it opened from the inside.
We went up a short flight of stairs. Vampire one, me, Beth, then vampire two bringing up the rear. My feet were starting to freaking hurt. Sitting against the wall was a vampire that looked like she owned the place. She was watching us like we were ants in her kitchen. Next to her, though, was one of the most intimidating men I'd ever encountered. If I thought she looked like she owned the place it was nothing compared to this guy. And beside him were two young women who looked like they belonged upstairs.
One of our vampire guides turned to face us. “Mr. Atonal owns this club. You will show him respect.” There was a viciousness to his voice that left me with the feeling that if we didn't voluntarily we'd be forced to. And he didn't look opposed to violence.
“I thought the leader of the vamps was a woman,” I whispered to Beth.
“She is. He just owns the club.”
The two women who looked far too young for Mr. Atonal hissed at us. As we approached, I couldn't help but realize how wrong I'd been about the woman who'd sneered at us as we walked in. She definitely didn't look like she owned the club, not when compared to Mr. Atonal.
“I don’t just own the club,” he said in a low voice, easily heard in the quiet VIP room. “I’m the second-in-command to the vampire queen and lord of this domain.” He spread his hands pompously.
Oh, fuck. What a dick. “I’m looking for my brother, Henry Foxx.”
Atonal squinted. “The human?” He waved his hand dismissively. “He is no concern of mine.”
“Hey,” I said sharply, causing Atonal to give me a withering glance. “He is
