I Only Have Fangs for You(11)

He sighed, turning his thoughts to the threesome of women he’d turned away. That had been stupid. He wouldn’t still feel so uneasy if he’d spent last night feeding his hunger and burned off his extra tension with them. Maybe they’d be back tonight and he could make up for his bad behavior. They would forgive him. Women always did.

Again, the new waitress popped into his head. Except for her, maybe. She definitely didn’t respond to him like most women, whether vampiress or female human. Even Nadine was more receptive to his charm—and Nadine was one tough she-wolf.

Nadine’s a wolf, understanding dawning on him. That had to be why Nadine was championing the weird waitress. Wolves were protective by nature.

“Nadine, I appreciate your decision, but I’m not sure she’s cut out for a job here. I mean look at Greta.” He gestured to the leggy blonde, leaning on the end of the bar chatting with Crystal, a curvy brunette. “And Crystal. Our cocktail waitresses are part of the allure of the place. They are supposed to be a draw for the patrons.”

“Give her a chance. This is where she needs to be,” Nadine said, certainty in her husky voice.

Sebastian studied his right-hand woman and friend. Finally, he nodded. Nadine was a good judge of character, another trait of werewolves. Animal instincts and all that. And he’d trusted her for years with all his hiring. It didn’t make much sense to question her now.

Still, while there was something that intrigued him about the vampiress, there was something that made him uncomfortable as well. His gut told him he should bypass Nadine’s opinion and give the little waitress her walking papers.

“Hi, Wilhelmina,” he heard Greta greet the waitress in question.

Sebastian glanced down the bar to see her rush into the club. Her hair was again knotted in that peculiar, messy, hornlike hairstyle and her black plastic-framed glasses slipped down to the tip of her nose. She scurried in a graceless way, the large knapsack on her back causing her to stoop forward, making her look like a hunchback.

“Hi,” she murmured to the blonde as she hurried past.

As she approached, she hesitated slightly when her eyes met his. Then as she started forward again, the toe of her left foot caught on one of the nearly nonexistent grooves in the marble flooring. She tripped forward but managed to catch herself on the back of a bar stool before she fell.

Sebastian started to stand to make sure she was okay, but before he could rise, she scampered past him toward the employee lounge.

“Wilhelmina,” he called, turning his bar stool in her direction.

He’d expected her to be reluctant to speak to him, but instead she spun to face him.

“Y-yes,” she said, her gaze darting from him to Nadine and then back to him again.

“Are you okay?” he asked. As in his apartment, he got the vibration that she was scared.

“Yes,” she said quickly. “I—I just need to call my roommate before my shift starts. I—I forgot to tell her—something.”

Just then her knapsack shifted, and she reached a hand to one of the straps to secure it. She backed away from them. “I, um, I need to make that call.”

She continued to back away a few more steps, then turned and literally fled into the small lounge.

Sebastian glanced at Nadine. “I hope you are right about her.”

Nadine gave him a bemused look that stated she currently had her doubts as well. “Me too.”





Chapter 4





Wilhelmina rushed into the employee lounge, a relieved sigh escaping her as she saw the room was empty. Thank God. She started to sag back against the wall, her heart pounding and her knees weak. But at the last moment, just as her back would have connected, squeezing the backpack between herself and the wallboard, she caught herself.

Pushing straight, she reached for the straps of the pack and eased it off her shoulders. She placed the large sack on the floor, watching as the nylon rippled and undulated like a living thing. Of course, the creatures inside were alive. And judging from the squeaks and clawing, they were also more than a little upset. The woman at the pet store had looked a little upset, too, when Wilhelmina had asked to buy all of their rats, and then had stuck them in her knapsack. Oh well. This had to be done.

“Sorry guys,” she murmured to the bag, “but you can’t be any more distressed than I am.”

The last person she’d expected to be in the bar was Sebastian. She’d just assumed that the great Sebastian Young didn’t make an appearance until the place was bustling with his next round of human victims. After all, that was the importance of the nightclub for him, wasn’t it?

Wilhelmina hadn’t expected him to be sitting right there at the bar, watching her with those intense, golden eyes.