Dark Realms(212)
“To play poker?” joked Liam, staring at me with amusement. “Please tell me your favorite is ‘Strip’. I always pay up for that.”
“No,” I replied, blushing. “Actually, we wanted to find out if any of you have seen my cousin. She’s missing.”
There was a long silence and then the guy with the dimples leaned forward. “Missing? When did she go missing?”
“Last night. I guess she came here to see your band in concert and then left with a guy. Nobody has seen or heard from her since.”
“Maybe she’s just pulling an all-nighter,” said another guy. He had short red hair and a goatee. Like the others, he was also very handsome. “I’m Sean, by the way. That’s Jimmy,” he pointed to the dimpled guy. “And that’s Bradan,” he said, nodding towards a fourth guy who was texting someone on his cell phone.
Bradan looked up and smiled. “Sorry, lass, I’m listening to you. Truly I am. Keep going.”
I licked my lips. “Well, like I said, she’s missing but I don’t think she’s pulling an ‘all-nighter’. She hasn’t contacted anyone, not even her friends and the Melody can’t live without texting.”
Bradan looked embarrassed. “I’m not normally this bad. It’s me ma. She won’t stop asking me to come home for the holidays.”
I smiled at his accent. “So, are you the only one from Ireland?”
“We all are,” said Liam, although he didn’t have an accent. “Except for Slade. He’s originally from Romania. He lost his accent eons ago.”
I laughed. “So, I take it you’ve been in the U.S. for a while then?”
“Yes,” said Jimmy with a glint in his eye. “Centuries, in fact. Interesting place.”
“Wow, you sure age well,” teased Susan. “Let me guess… you’re really vampires and drink blood to stay young and virile?”
The table went quiet.
“Ha ha…” said Susan, shaking her head.
“Ah… you Americans and your infatuation with vampires,” chuckled Liam. “It’s quite amusing.”
“Almost as amusing as our infatuation with zombies,” replied Susan. “Last week there was a ‘Zombie Bar Crawl’ in town.” She grimaced. “They all showed up at Ruth’s afterwards- drunk, hungry, and… creepy. I know they do it for fun, but zombies just freak me out, you know?”
I agreed.
“What is a ‘Zombie Bar Crawl’?” asked Liam.
“People dress up as zombies and basically bar-hop all night long,” she replied. “They’ll do it again on Halloween.”
“That actually sounds like a lot of fun,” said Jimmy. “Hell, we could join them and have a regular night without obsessed fans. I wouldn’t mind getting all gored up for that.”
“I agree,” said Liam. “Don’t get me wrong… I’m grateful that we’re getting more popular, but it definitely has its drawbacks.”
“I’m sure that you’ve lost a lot of privacy,” I replied.
He nodded. “You have no idea.”
“So, um, where is Slade?” asked Susan.
Liam looked over my head. “What do you know? Ask and you shall receive.”
When I turned around and saw Slade this close, my mouth went dry. He had to have been the hottest guy I’d ever seen. Dark hair, broad shoulders, a strong jaw, and eyes as green as the grass after a rainfall.
“What are these two doing here?” Slade asked, looking less than thrilled.
“Fans,” replied Liam. “Ethan sent them up.”
Slade stopped next to me and I lowered my trembling hands to my lap. Although he was obviously irritated that we’d joined the table, there was almost like a static connection between us. It gave me goose bumps.
“Is that right?” he asked, his eyes softening. “You two are fans of Venom?”
“Uh, yeah,” I replied, smiling up at him weakly.
His eyes darted down to my chest and then back up. If I would have blinked I’d have missed it.
I frowned and looked away. Although I was secretly thrilled that Slade was checking me out, it was also very irritating. I wasn’t naïve and knew that he’d probably already pegged me as an easy lay.
“I know one thing, you weren’t at the show last night,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.
Stunned, I looked back up at him. “And how do you know that?”
His eyes glittered. “I just do.”
“He just does,” mimicked Liam. “Slade thinks he knows everything, but the truth is, he’s just full of shit.”