The employees nodded their heads to Archer
and I heard a buzzing sound as we approached the Staff Only door.
Archer pulled the door open for me and I looked up at him curiously
before I walked into the back room.
As we rounded a corner, I saw a man in a dark
suit standing next to a set of cellar doors. Wordlessly, he nodded
his head in greeting and bent to open one for us.
Hm…a doorman
for a cellar? Weird
.
Archer stepped inside and held his hand out
to me. “Welcome to Les Oubliette,” he grinned.
I frowned, not understanding how a cellar
could be a vampire club, but trusted him implicitly, so I took his
hand as we descended a long series of stone steps. As we got
further underground, I picked up pulsing, rhythmic vibrations under
my feet. Those vibrations turned to full out industrial music once
we reached the bottom. To my surprise, another man in a dark suit
was stationed here but this time in front of a heavy looking steel
door.
“Welcome back,
athair
,” he rumbled as
he bowed his head respectfully. “We’ve got a packed house tonight,
sir.”
“Excellent,” Archer smiled and shook the
man’s hand. “Charles, I’d like you to meet my mate. This is Skye
Morrison.”
“
A Dhia dhílis
!” he exclaimed with
wide, shocked eyes. “THE Skye Morrison, sir?”
“The one and only,” Archer chuckled as he
lightly nudged me with his elbow.
“I can’t believe it’s you,” he shook my hand,
properly fan-boying out on me. “We all heard about how you defeated
the Dark Father. That’s all anyone’s been talking about. You’re a
legend.”
“Nope,” I smiled as I patted his wrist. “I’m
just a girl.”
Charles seemed to break out of his daze as he
shook his head and opened the door for us. The thumping industrial
beat was loud as it poured through the door. Beyond it was flashing
lights and the smell of blood, humans, sex, and vampires. “Have an
excellent time tonight, Miss Morrison.”
Archer thanked Charles for the both of us as
we entered Les Oubliette. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Hundreds of people were packed into the massive club and I couldn’t
believe they had all gotten through the coffee house without
attracting attention.
I took in the club with wide eyes as I gazed
at my surroundings. Les Oubliette was decorated much like The
Mausoleum with its black and red motif, but that’s where the
similarities ended. This club was tailored to vampires, not humans.
There were two blood bars on the left that were surrounded by
thirty or so long, leather couches. To the right of those were a
section of lounges, each with their own privacy curtain. In the
center was a massive, packed dance floor and accompanying DJ booth
and on the far left there were tables, a liquor bar, and more long,
leather couches. I jerked at the sudden, sharp scent of blood and
turned to my right. A male vampire had just sunk his fangs into a
pretty little blond not fifteen feet from me. Back at The
Mausoleum, that would have been a huge no-no.
I whistled lowly as I looked up at Archer in
surprise. “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto.”
Archer chuckled and took my hand as he led me
down the short steps and into the belly of the club. Every few
feet, someone stopped and greeted Archer. I could tell immediately
that he had spent a great deal of time in this club. After saying
his hellos, and greeting a few people of his own, he led me over to
the liquor bar.
“Well, as I live and breathe!” the female
bartender exclaimed as she saw us sit down, pausing her drink
mixing. “Good to see you again, sir!”
“Matilda,” Archer nodded his head and smiled.
“How’ve you been?”
Matilda was gorgeous and looked to be around
my age. She had short black hair, green eyes, and a cute heart
shaped mouth. I could also tell that she was a Day Walker too.
“Good,” she smiled as she resumed mixing. “I
just got back from Florence last week. Mathis and I took a trip
celebrating our 71
st
wedding anniversary.” She poured up
the liquor and set the glass in front of the human two stools down
from me. “So, what can I get you and your lady friend? A bottle of
your usual?”
“Please, Matilda. Thank you,” Archer answered
kindly.
“What’s the usual?” I asked him in a whisper,
leaning into him.
“Whiskey, of course,” he winked as he put one
arm around my waist.
Matilda returned with the bottle of expensive
whiskey and two glasses. “You just shout if you need something,”
she winked before she flashed to the other side of the bar to take
another order.
“Wow,” I gasped, shocked. “There are humans
here and she’s allowed to flit around at vampire speed?”
“Aye,” Archer chuckled. “This is a vampire
bar. We don’t have to hide our true selves at Les Oubliette. Every
human in here either has an exclusive membership, bought and paid
for by a vampire sponsor, or they work here...for me.”
“This is YOUR club?” I asked, astonished.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was planning on it,” he grinned as he
poured me a tall glass of whiskey. “I’ve got some people to see and
some quick business to attend to. It’s going to be quite boring, so
why don’t you walk around and have fun. If you happen to get
hungry, you’ve got two options. The blood bar serves bagged blood,
so you can’t drink it, but there are always donors around or you
can hit up the live bar.” Archer pointed over his shoulder at the
leather couches behind us. A dozen or so men and women were seated
around, being fed on my vampires. “There is a menu to choose from.
Find something that sounds good and an attendant will come and take
your order. Tell them you’re with me and that I said it’s on the
house.”
“Live bar?” I asked with raised eyebrows. Les
Oubliette was so out of my element; I’d never been to a place like
this before and it was a little overwhelming.
“Yes, live bar. We have in-house specialty
donors that get paid to work here. You’ll understand more when you
read the menu,” he smiled knowingly at me before kissing my lips.
“If you need anything at all, just ask Matilda, okay baby? I’ll be
back as soon as I can.”
I nodded my head, unsure, but agreed. Archer
signaled to Matilda and let her know that anything I needed was on
the house. Archer picked up his bottle of whiskey and kissed me one
last time before he headed to some double doors that were off to
the far right of the club.
I quickly downed my full glass of whiskey and
looked around the club. Les Oubliette easily housed twice as many
customers as The Mausoleum and I felt like a single snowflake in
the middle of a raging blizzard. It made me a little nervous.
“Can I get you something else, dear? You look
a bit wide-eyed,” Matilda smiled, drawing my attention back to
her.
“Um, can I have a pint of Johnnie Walker Blue
and a Sam Adams?”
“Coming right up.”
Matilda set the drinks in front of me and
reached over to pat my hand reassuringly. “Drink this down and then
go have yourself a dance. Loosen up, child. This place is a
blast.”
I chuckled and thanked her before quickly
downing the Johnnie Walker in one chug. It was just enough liquor
to give me the buzz I was going to need to relax and solo the club.
Grabbing my bottle of Sam Adams, I slipped off the stool and went
to check the club out.
Humans and vampires alike swayed and writhed
together on the dance floor to the driving, industrial sounds of
Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor’s sensual, sexy voice growled out the
lyrics to ‘Sin’ and I found my body eager to join the others on the
dance floor.
Sliding through the crowd, I found the
perfect spot to dance towards the middle of the packed space. I
gripped the neck of my bottle and shut my eyes as I lost myself to
the beat. The smell of vampires, blood, humans and sweat was a
heady, erotic combination and one that I found I enjoyed very
much.
‘Sin’ slowly morphed into Reznor’s cover of
‘Get Down, Make Love’ and the dance floor got a lot more
interesting. Bodies packed tighter together as hands roamed. I had
just turned up my beer and was swallowing the last mouthful when I
felt cool hands slide around my hips.
I glanced over my shoulder and into the eyes
of one of the most beautiful vampires I had ever seen. “Whoa,” I
mumbled lamely as I stared.
Turning around, I got an even better look at
him. He was around Archer’s height, had long black hair and wicked
green eyes. His chest was broad and muscular and his tight pants
and shirt left nothing to the imagination. If I hadn’t known any
better, I’d think a young Peter Steele was standing right in front
of my eyes.
Hot damn!
“Here, let me take that for you,” he purred
in a deeply masculine voice as he took the empty bottle from my
hand and passed it to some random human next to us.
“T-Thanks?” I managed to breathe as I looked
up at his towering figure, his striking green eyes drinking me
in.
“Dance with me,” he whispered and I
immediately complied, my Johnnie Walker making me bold.
He turned my body and pulled my hips up
against his hard front. Our bodies moved, rolled, and rocked to the
beat in perfect harmony. I was fairly shocked that he was such a
good dancer. He seemed kind of dark and broody, mysterious and
indifferent, but in a cool sort of way and I dug it completely. We
danced silently, our bodies doing all the talking we needed.
The beat started to slow and morph into
another and my mysterious dance partner never missed a beat as ‘If
I Was Your Vampire’ started playing. Grabbing my wrist, he spun me
out and pulled me back, this time facing him. He dipped me slow and
low, my hair sweeping the floor, before he pulled me back up just
as unhurriedly. I placed my hand in his and we began a suggestive,
sensual gothic waltz. I’d never danced like this before, but with
him expertly leading me, my body had no trouble following. I caught
sight of the dance floor as he dipped me again and I couldn’t
believe what I saw. Everyone had stepped back to allow us full run
of the floor. Coming out of the dip, I looked up at my partner with
wide eyes and he smiled a sexy, satisfied grin.
“You are a vision,” he purred, “and have made
me the envy of every vampire in this room.” I wanted to scoff at
his cheesiness and ask ‘Does that line really work on girls?’, but
held my tongue and finished the song.
When it ended, my partner bowed to me and
tenderly kissed my knuckles. “Won’t you join me for a drink?”
“I’ll take it from here, Corvus,” I heard
someone say behind me and spun around to see that someone was
Jameson.
“I’d love a drink, Corvus,” I smiled, turning
my back on Jameson. I was still mad at him and not nearly drunk
enough to want to have another conversation with him.
Corvus held out his elbow and before I could
take it, Jameson pulled me to him. “She belongs to Archer, Dark
One,” he growled fiercely, his pale green eyes rapidly fading with
anger. “Run along now.”
Corvus smirked and held his hands up in
surrender. “As you wish. May I at least have the pleasure of her
name?”
“It’s Skye,” I smiled up at him. “Skye
Morrison. Thank you for the dance.” Corvus’ eyes flashed briefly in
recognition as Jameson pulled me away.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Jameson
asked me, his eyes still faded in anger.
“Whatever the hell I want,” I spat, jerking
my arm out of his grip. “What the hell business is it of yours
anyway?”
“You’re my sister! It’s my job to look out
for you,” he growled.
“Ha! Oh, so NOW you want to claim me as
family? Fuck that…and fuck you too, Jameson.” I turned on my heel
and started for the bar, desperately needing another drink now that
Jameson had arrived.
I’d barely made it five steps before Jameson
grabbed me around the waist, lifted me, and carried me off to the
leather sofas by the blood bar. I wanted to throw a fit; pound my
fists into him and demand that he let me go, but we were drawing
looks from all around us and I didn’t want to make the situation
any more awkward than it already was.
After he set me down on the sofa, I crossed
my arms and scowled at him. “You ever do that to me again and
you’re a dead man,” I hissed under my breath. “What the hell do you
want, anyway? I thought we were clear at the club. I have nothing
more to say to you, Jameson.”
“I’ll have you know that groupie almost
shredded my dick thanks to you,” he growled as he sat down next to
me. I smiled with deep satisfaction as a waitress came by to see if
we needed anything.
“Two bags of A-negative,” Jameson
ordered.
“And a bottle of Johnnie Walker, blue label,
please,” I added. I figured I might as well get drunk if I was
going to be stuck with Jameson for a while.
“Do you have any idea who that was you were
dancing with?” he asked as he ran his fingers through his long
brown hair.
“Corvus, obviously,” I rolled my eyes.
“Smart ass. His name is Corvus Frost and he’s
the son of Atticus Frost, the current leader of the Dark Ones.”
“So?” I asked, bored.
“So,” he growled, grabbing my face so that
I’d look at him, “you are Archer’s chosen mate and Archer is one
step away from governing all Day Walkers currently residing on the
American Continent. The last thing he needs is his woman grinding
all over Atticus’ son! People gossip, Skye. First you’re dancing
with him and the next thing you know, you’re fucking him. You may
not understand vampire politics, but you will understand this: if
you are to be his mate, you will conduct yourself with honor and
that includes keeping your hands to yourself and especially off
Dark Ones!”
“We were just dancing!” I exclaimed angrily,
pulling my face away from him. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I
didn’t even know who he was.”