Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
“Here we are!” Ravenna cheered, clapping her hands as the limo pulled up to the curb.
The entrance to Nocturnum was hidden in plain sight, marked only by a worn brass plaque beside the door and a single red bulb casting the front of the seemingly abandoned building in an eerie light.
The group made their way inside and the city sounds – the distant rumble of cars, faint echoes of conversation, the occasional shriek of a siren – faded as Pandora made her way down the narrow spiral staircase.
Each step felt like a deliberate departure from the mortal world above. The very air felt thicker, an intoxicating scent of aged leather, sandalwood, and something darker, more metallic, that Pandora was trying hard not to think about.
At the base of the stairs stood a towering figure in an expensive suit, his handsome features obscured a bit by the club’s rouged lights.
The doorman’s gaze slid over the eclectic group. From the tight, short, low-cut dresses worn by Pandora, Lucy, Kora, Maribelle, and Bellatrix, to the long, ornate, heavy dresses and gowns worn by the older vampires.
He shook his head a bit at them, but reached to pull apart the thick velvet curtains.
The scene unfolded before Pandora’s eyes.
It was a sprawling, dimly lit lounge just about as far as the eye could see. Everything was in shades of crimson and black. Heavy chandeliers dripped from the ceiling, casting muted maroon over the club’s patrons, rendering their features otherworldly.
Shadows clung to the corners and Pandora couldn’t help but wonder – or fear – what might be happening just out of sight. Especially since, right there in the open on one of the many black leather couches, two female vampires had their fangs stuck into either side of the neck of a male human donor.
A deep, persistent bass reverberated through the floor, felt rather than heard, a rhythm eerily similar to a mortal heartbeat.
Pandora couldn’t help but feel drawn to it, this invitation that threatened to bypass her conscious thought, her very morals.
She turned, following the tug she felt inside her, finding the bar spread across one wall. Behind it, a male bartender was pouring the house specialty – a viscous, dark-crimson liquid – into two separate goblets for waiting patrons.
Half of her party broke off to head to the bar. Or, she shuddered to think, find human donors.
Pandora and Lucy pressed deeper into the room.
The atmosphere shifted as she watched the way the humans moved around, captivated and adoring, orbiting the vampires like moths to a flame.
She caught snippets of conversations, mentions of ancient clans, deals being brokered, thinly veiled threats to make good on old rivalries. All around, there were hints of danger wrapped in velvet voices.
Lucy led Pandora toward a raised private section with comfortable seating and tables. “There’s a staircase directly back there,” Lucy told her, pointing toward a dark corner of the VIP section. “Leads down toward a private feeding room. But beside that is a doorway into the alley that connects this club to the bar next door, so we can sneak in and out without anyone really noticing. Kind of glad how busy this place is tonight.”
“Is it a thing that people buy private feedings for others?”
“Yeah. That’s how some of the male vampires are trying to seduce the humans.” Lucy waved toward where one of the servers was leading a dazed-looking human toward a red-headed female vampire sitting at a table alone. The server gestured toward a man who raised his glass of blood at her before the woman stood, grabbed the human, and led him toward one of the private rooms.
“OK. So … you are just buying me a bunch of feedings tonight to celebrate.”
“Precisely.”
Plan in place, Lucy and Pandora joined Kora and Maribelle on the dance floor, all of them getting lost in the music and the ability to be in public, but also unafraid of moving too fast, of acting too … inhuman.
Eventually, though, Lucy linked an arm through a human donor’s and led him over to Pandora. Then the three of them made their way toward the feeding rooms. Where they simply handed off the human to another vampire, then rushed out the back door.
The alley smelled rancid, making both women wrinkle their noses as they inched toward the door to the pub.
The inside was in direct contrast to the club.
The lights were a warm white, the floors a light hardwood, the walls an understated cream, but covered in kitschy, mismatched decor. From signed football and rugby photographs to film posters and maps of old London.
It was a rowdy crowd. Loud and brash. A group of young uni guys were in a back corner singing a rugby anthem, their arms swinging with the beat, making their pints slosh over onto their hands, shoes, and the floor. Another duo were arguing about something on the TV. A group of women were laughing at something one woman was showing the others on her phone.