Lucifer’s Daughter(5)

It made my own power sizzle inside my body. My nipples hardened and I licked my lips, a sensual motion that caught his attention; and, for a moment, I saw his eyes flash. It would seem Auric was not immune to my charms.

“You can feel my power?” he asked, his brow creasing.

I just smiled and shrugged. “I can do a lot of things, just like everyone else in here. From what I sensed of your friends, they"re special, too.” The blond had a bestial smell to him, signaling shape shifter, while blue-eyes had the ozone feel of a wizard. An interesting trio, to be sure.

“They"re special, all right,” Auric muttered.

“You guys must be new. I don"t think I"ve ever seen you around before.”



“We moved to town a few months ago, but have been traveling on... business. ” He hesitated before he said business, and I perked up, sensing a story.

“Oh, what kind of business are you into?”

“This and that,” he replied vaguely. “We happened to hear about the bar from a client. He said the owner is a unique kind of supernatural. No one seems to know exactly who or what she is.”

“Aah, the boss,” I said, hiding a smile. “Yes, she"s something, all right.” I wondered just what outrageous stories he"d heard about me.

“Does she ever come in?” he questioned.

I started feeling uneasy about his line of questioning. He seemed awfully curious about the owner of the Nexus–in other words, me. “Nope, she rarely comes in. She just lets us peons do the work for her.”

“What a shame; I would have liked to meet her, I"ve heard so much about her. So if she"s not around, how does the no-magic thing work? It feels as if the whole joint has, like, a dampening field on it. I didn"t believe it „til I felt it. Is it like a spell?”

He wanted to meet the owner? He"d heard so much about her? This talkative Auric didn"t seem like the guy who"d walked into the bar, or who I"d bumped into today. That guy had attitude; that guy didn"t beat around the bush. So why the seemingly innocent questions and friendly talk? A man like him should be demanding answers. Something didn"t seem right. He should have been asking me about me–hot bartender with an awesome set–not who owned the bar and how it worked. Even if he was inadvertently talking about me, I didn"t like it. I"d been the victim of too many assassination attempts not to feel my hackles go up in warning. I switched on a tactic that had worked well for me in the past. “Yeah the no-magic thing is totally neat,” I said, adopting my „if I were a blonde I"d be so dumb" routine. “I have no idea how she does it, but it"s so cool.”

My bubbly response seemed to throw him for a loop, and I saw his eyes narrow in consideration, making me wonder if I should have laid it on a little less thick. “There"s something different about you, Muriel,” mused Auric.

I was almost tempted to ask him what, but he"d made me feel uncomfortable–not to mention annoyed--that instead of asking me out on a date, he wanted to pump me for information. The time had come to end this conversation before I slipped up and said something that revealed who and what I was. “I"m sure you say that to all the girls. Now why don"t you go join your friends, and see if you come up with more lame pickup lines. I"ve got work to do.”

I turned my back on him, a task that ended up being harder than it should have been. My body felt drawn to him, and I had to battle an insane urge to take him out back and tell him to strip so I could find his other scars.



He left the bar to join his friends without another word, and a stupid, girly part of myself gave a moue of disappointment. I mean, he could have tried harder, right?

I pretty much ignored Auric and his friends the rest of the evening, sending my part-time barmaid–dryads could be so unreliable, hence the part-time aspect–to serve them.

Auric didn"t come back to the bar, although I caught him watching me speculatively more than once. Not that I checked on him; nope not me, I just happened to be keeping a general eye on the joint. I sucked at lying, even to myself.

When three a.m. hit, I flashed the lights to signal closing time.

Other than my drunk, disgraced demon, who now sang Elton John as he staggered out the door, and my trio of studs, the bar sat empty. I saw Auric flash me a look as he went by and left with his friends, but I pretended not to see him, and continued with the closing of my register.

Silvia, my wood nymph maid, waved good night and went out back to take the shortcut to the park where she liked to sink her roots. I finished putting the receipts and cash into the safe, threw on my white lambs-wool jacket–Daddy"s least favorite color–then locked up and began the walk home. Only a dozen or so blocks, and for a girl like me, not a problem.