All Souls' Night - Renee Rose Page 0,114

color from time to time.”

He smirks. “Sorry, it’s just that you like—” He gestures at my suit.

I smooth my tie again. “I like dark. What can I say? We can’t all be… flashy.” I gesture right back at him.

Tonight, Theophilus is wearing a deep red shirt under a charcoal suit, and a dark grey silk tie.

I remember a time in the distant past when we wore not five-thousand-dollar suits but the robes and armor of the Roman army. Lucius turned both of us, although not at the same time. We didn’t know each other in life. We would’ve died of our wounds in battle had Lucius not turned us.

Together, we’ve spilled and drunk more blood than is possible to remember. We’ve pledged our allegiance to Lucius and each other.

When someone threatens one of us, we all stand against them. Until recently, much of our wealth was less than legally earned, shall we say? But with his new mate, and with law enforcement’s new technology, Lucius has finally settled into a more legal business model. This keeps us safer, even though most of us admit it is rather… dull now.

“I am not flashy, brother,” he says. “I’m enjoying myself.” He sniffs. “Unlike you. It’s depressing.”

“It’s stylish.”

“Stylish is accenting with colors others than black, dark black, and off-black.”

“But I bought a blue car.”

I think he gets his eyebrow arch from Lucius. “And yet you still prefer to wear black.”

“I look good in dark colors.”

“You look like a broody wolf.”

“That’s a horrible insult.” Not the worst one he’s said to me over the years, however.

He laughs. “No, an insult would be saying you smelled like a broody wolf.”

On that note, I flip him a bird and head downstairs to make sure everything’s ready for us to open on time.

Chapter 2

My tiny studio apartment smells like a luscious batch of sweet, yeasty dinner rolls.

Mostly because there’s a dozen of them, freshly baked from scratch, thank you very much, cooling on my counter right now.

Meanwhile, I’m stretched out across the air mattress that’s my bed, with my phone in my hand, and I’m… scrolling.

I’ve done a lot of that over the past few days, when I wasn’t at work.

David hasn’t messaged me back yet, even though earlier we exchanged a few texts through the dating app not long after I returned home from work. He’d said maybe he’d come by tonight, and he’d let me know by seven.

But it’s already after eight and I haven’t heard anything from him.

I don’t know why I’d think he’d really show up, because he hasn’t so far in the two weeks we’ve been chatting through the dating app.

I haven’t even met him in person yet.

Even though I don’t want to listen to it, there’s an annoying little voice inside my brain telling me that maybe David isn’t being completely honest with me about who he is.

And, yes, he is the first man I’ve ever dated.

Heck, he is the first person I’ve dated.

Ever.

I mean…

“Dated” with the air quotes, all right? Because are we really even “dating” if I haven’t so much as met him yet?

That’s not sarcasm. I’m really not certain, and it’s not like I trust my coworkers enough to ask them about it. I don’t want to give away too much of my story to people I don’t know very well. I don’t think my family will ever come looking for me, but in case they do, the less information others have about me, the better.

Except I was honest with David in our chats when I told him that I don’t have any experience with this due to how I was raised. Maybe I was too honest. Maybe I’ve scared him off.

But lying didn’t feel right.

I scroll through some of the app’s groups, ones I know David is a member of via the list on his profile, and see a thread between him and some others about going to Club Toxic here in Tucson.

Tonight.

Well, heck.

I pull up the club’s website and discover it’s not that far from my apartment building. I don’t have a car, but I could take a cab, or a ride-share, or even walk it, if I wanted to.

What do you even wear to one of those clubs?

I glance over at the cooling dinner rolls. There are a lot of things I have never done before, or I’m new to doing. I tried not to sound too lost when I chatted with David, but I admitted I was a virgin.

Which… was huge, considering he was