“Are you cold?” Laylen asked. Then he shook his head. “Stupid question. Of course, you’re cold. It’s barely forty degrees in here.”
“Why is-s it so c-cold?” I chattered.
“It’s a vampire thing,” he explained as he started to slip off the long-sleeved black thermal shirt he was wearing.
“What are you doing?” I asked, taken aback. Why was he taking off his clothes?
He wasn’t, though. He had a black t-shirt on underneath it, and he handed the one he’d taken off to me. “Put this on. It might help a little.”
I slipped his shirt on, smelling a hint of cologne lingering in the fabric. Putting it on did help a little, but the bottom of my legs were still exposed, and goose bumps spotted my skin. “So now what do we do?” I asked.
He nodded to the stairs. “We go upstairs.”
He took me by the hand, and we made our way up the metal stairway, which shook with every step we took. The air sank colder the higher we got, which didn’t make any sense. Wasn’t warm air supposed to rise?
At the top of the stairs, there was a door; a red door—the color of blood—which seemed like an omen or something. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to stay warm as Laylen opened the blood-red door. Instantly, the smells of smoke, rust, and sweat swirled all around me.
“Stay close to me,” Laylen whispered, and we stepped through the doorway and out onto a balcony.
I had no problem with staying close to him—I was already clinging to him like a scared little child.
Below the balcony, a room opened up packed with tables, chairs, and lots and lots of people. Black Angel’s, “Young Men Dead,” was blasting through the speakers. The lights were low, and the air was heavy with smoke.
We started to make our way down the stairs, the metal railing pressing cold against my skin as I held on to it. Looking down at the room, I didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, like I’d expected to. People were just sitting at tables, drinking, talking, and smoking. But as we got closer, I realized that most of the crystal glasses were filled with a deep red liquid, which I assumed was blood.
I tried hard not to stare at anyone as we walked across the room—I swear I did. But as we passed by the tables, it felt like everyone’s eyes locked on me. That’s when I noticed some of these “people” had fangs pointing sharply from their mouths.
Laylen wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer to him, which brought me some comfort, but not much. We went up to the bar that was in the heart of the room, and Laylen tapped his hand on the glass countertop. “What’s up, stranger,” he said to a woman, who was wiping down the countertops.
The woman looked at us and her brown eyes lit up. “Well, hello stranger, to you too.” She had a slight southern accent, and her dark hair ran down her back in dreads. She was dressed like a biker chic; in steeled toed boots, leather pants, and a rhinestone-decorated tank top. A vine tattoo cuffed each of her wrists.
She leaned over the counter and gave Laylen a small kiss on the cheek. “It’s been awhile. What ya been up to?”
“Nothing much, really. Just the usual trouble,” he said, teasing her with a smile. The woman glanced at me, and then Laylen looked at me. “Oh, Gemma, this is Taven.”
“Hi,” I said, trying not to sound as anxious as I felt.
She stared at me with an intrigued look. “Nice to meet ya, sweetie.” She raised her eyebrows at Laylen. “Finally picked yourself up a human, huh?”
I felt Laylen tense up beside me. “Yeah…something like that.”
Taven smiled, giving me a glimpse of her fangs. I tried not to flinch.
“So I need to see Vladislav,” Laylen told Taven. “Is there any way you could buzz me in?”
She gave him a curious look. “Depends on what ya need him for?”
Laylen let his arm fall off my back, and rested both of his arms on the counter as he leaned in toward Taven, keeping his voice low. “I need to speak to him about The Underworld.”
Taven’s expression fell. “You’re not in any trouble, are ya?
He shook his head. “No. It’s nothing like that. I just have a question to ask him.”
“Okay.” She relaxed. “Hold on just a second and I’ll check to make sure ya’ll can