Page 5 of Escaping Monsters

“Lucky guess.” He poured an amber liquid into a cup and set it in front of me.

“That’s quite a guess,” I said as I took my beer.

“All right, you’re carrying your possessions, so you didn’t come in by car. Your bag is too big for a motorcycle and too clean for a long-distance hiker. And, Western Bus Lines tagged your luggage.” He nodded to the large white tag hanging off my bag.

“Oh, shit. Sorry.” I grimaced before taking a sip of the amber liquid.

“Relax, stay awhile. I can take your bag behind the counter if you want. There are more professional thieves per capita in Grayhaven than in any other city in the world.” He opened his arms, and even though I didn’t want to be parted from my gun, the chances of it being stolen were much higher on this side of the bar.

The moment I passed it over, I felt ten times more vulnerable in my seat, as if I’d passed over invisible armor along with all my earthly possessions.

Taking a small sip of my beer, I turned back to the stage. The singer on stage was a dead ringer for Rockknot’s late, great lead singer, Chad Jameson. This guy had the same long blond hair, dark blue dreamy eyes, bold European features, and full lips. His voice was similar too, if not a little raspier.

The singer’s gaze settled on mine for a second, and my stomach flipped as he continued to sing the familiar words with a sultry smile on his lips.

“Hey.” A man slid in beside me, breaking my moment of eye contact with the Chad Jameson impersonator.

“Hello,” I said, holding up my beer glass in a “cheers” motion.

This guy was probably the only man in a suit in the entire bar, which immediately got my hackles up. Kane lived in his suits. They were practically his second skin. If he wasn’t in one of his tailormade Italian suits, he was naked. There was no in-between.

This man’s suit was bespoke, but it looked worn out and threadbare, which gave me a little comfort. He leaned in, and I took in his long face, dark hair, skin that hadn’t seen the sun in ten years, thick plump lips, and were those—fangs?

I almost startled off my barstool.

What the actual fuck?

I did not smell the chalky death scent of vampires, but this guy was, clear as day, a blood-sucking fiend.

“You okay?” the vampire asked, reaching out toward me, but he was smart enough not to grab me.

“She just got off the bus today,” Nerdy-Sexy said as he set a glass on the bar. He poured a shot of vodka and then added a viscous red liquid to the top before garnishing it with a celery stick. As he passed it over, I got a whiff of the rusty penny smell of blood.

“Remind me not to order a Bloody Mary,” I muttered with a wince.

“This is a Mary Bloody.” The vampire smiled at this before taking a sip. “So, if you just disembarked into our beautiful unique city, where did you come in from?”

Nerdy-Sexy slammed a fist on the bar, making everyone in our vicinity jump. Even the Chad Jameson impersonator missed a note before picking up again. “Clive,” the bartender growled in a low rumble, “It’s none of your business where she came from. Save her the effort of making something up to tell you.”

Clive didn’t seem fazed by the sudden outburst from Nerdy-Sexy, the vampire only smiled over his Mary Bloody and said, “Apologies if I was intrusive.”

“It’s fine,” I said with a shrug.

When I didn’t elaborate, Clive took a small sip of his pungent beverage and set it back on the counter. “If you just arrived today, and your bag is here with you, where are you planning to sleep tonight?”

“That’s yet to be determined.” I ran a finger over the rim of my glass. “Do you have any suggestions?” I asked, even though I would probably do the opposite of whatever he recommended.

“I do.” A smile unfurled across his blood tinged lips. “I run a small Inn with a couple… let’s call them friends. We offer generous payment options.”

The implication was clear. Clive and his vampire buddies took their payment in blood, but I’d rather take my chances on the street.

“I wouldn’t accept if I were you,” Nerdy-Sexy said as he dried tumblers across the bar. He gave me a small wink. “You’d get a better deal from the demons.”

Clive’s head twisted toward the bartender in a completely inhuman way that had the little hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “The demons would make you pay twice.”

“Demons?” I asked.

Every word that came from these men’s lips was so shocking, my mind was barely keeping up. First, vampires were out in the open. Had I been so oblivious that the vampires had revealed their existence to humans, and I didn’t even notice? And Nerdy-Sexy seemed to think nothing of it. He also mentioned demons casually even though in my ten years of being supernatural, I’d only come across one demon, one time, but that was a fucked-up story I wasn’t going to think about right now.

“Down the bar, there, with all the leather.” The bartender nodded back to the group of road-weary bikers.

The vampire twirled his celery stick around his Mary Bloody. “And now that you’ve had a look at them, should we start payment negotiations?”

“Thank you, Clive, but no thank you,” I said, firmly, before turning on my barstool and focusing on my beer, deciding to take only the barest sip. Usually, I could smell any kind of drink tampering a mile away, but my senses were obviously on the fritz in this strange town.

Clive the vampire hadn’t taken the not-so-subtle rejection of his offer, because he made his presence known by leaning in much too close. Finally, I got a good whiff of his chalky death scent as he whispered, “Ours is the nicest hotel in town. Unless you want to pay the incubuses in far more than a pint of blood, the Sanguine Inn is your only choice. You should press your advantage now. When you’re desperate, the price of a room will go much higher. You don’t want to sleep on the streets in Grayhaven.”

A chill ran down my spine at his words, because they sounded a hell of a lot like a warning along with a threat.

“You’ve gone too far this time, Clive. Back away now if you know what’s good for you,” Nerdy-Sexy growled before he nodded to someone deeper in the bar. I felt them before I saw them. Three werewolves surrounded me, their power crackling off my skin. Only when they were feet away did I scent them. They smelled like woodsmoke, and ferns crushed under paws. Their presence felt like the rejuvenating wind on top of a mountain and tasted like the fresh blood of a downed prey. My body screamed that I was home and with my pack. But it was a lie. It had always been a lie.

Panic surged through me as they moved in and surrounded me on three sides, and the taste of metal coated my tongue so strong, it was like my mouth had filled with bullets.

My wolf nature connected with theirs, strengthening them. Their dominant instincts were sharpening. Werewolves always felt glorious near me. I was the built-in spiritual ego boost of wolf-kind. Their instincts urged them to claim me as part of their pack and protect me, but they always handed me back to Kane.

The Alpha of North America was the boogeyman that even the nastiest monsters feared.

Kane Shipman was probably already on his way to Grayhaven.