Chapter 10 A Bridge Too Far

SASHA POV Rika did her job well. All the vampire staff are piled in the kitchen—even the hostess from upstairs—lying on the floor with blissful expressions, slowly slipping into oblivion. The ecstasy poison. A good choice. From what she s told me, it gives vampire a better high than anything else and makes whatever blood they re drinking taste incredible. They enjoy the high for a little while—anywhere from five minutes to an hour, depending on the amount consumed, but any amount is ultimately lethal—while slowly losing functionality. The high starts to fade, and they just sort have an experience of dozing off, even though vampires can t sleep—and they never wake up. A second death, and a permanent one. A few of them have already passed and started to crumble, but these vampires seem to be largely newer than the ones who were downstairs. "Hello. You are WASP?" a young woman asks me, stepping out of a back corner. She has the WASP insignia on her collar, which narrowly prevents me from impaling her. "Hardly an official greeting," I mutter, looking her over critically. Fae. Almost certainly fae. But she s legitimate, or at least, she knows who I am, since she won t look me in the eye. "I come with…ones downstairs. I clean up in here." I stare at her for a few moments, and she produces a WASP I.D. badge from one pocket. In a moment I m beside her, scanning her badge with my phone. Strong aura on this one. Matches the magic reading in the file, and the file matches the I.D. "All right. Do we have coverage to make it seem like a normal night here?" "Yes. Brought in support operatives with…customer service experience." "Thank you. And…sorry for being skeptical." "Not offended. Is why you are best in WASP." My cheeks heat up and I turn away. That s not an honor I want. "Um. Thanks. In service of all." "That all may survive." This is the official leave-taking between different teams of WASP operatives when they meet in the field. My team s business has concluded, at least, on this particular mission. Normally we would leave the site as quickly as possible, but there s still these damn dogs to deal with. It had to be the same bar. Of course it did. Why would they have wanted to go anywhere else? And of course one of them is a metal-head. Most of the crowd here seems to be really enjoying themselves, but this isn t my scene or my kind of music. I just want to get my girls and get out, but thanks to Anselm—the devil take him—that can t happen yet. I weave my way expertly through the crowd; might as well be efficient, if I have to stay here. There they are. Zoe catches sight of me as I slip between two drunks on their way to the mosh pit and hops up to greet me with a hug. "Nikki!" she squeals, then whispers in my ear, "Thank goodness. Xander will not shut up about local metal bands." Then, loud enough for the guys to hear: "Did you get it sorted?" "I think so. I never know where I stand with Aunt Talia," I answer casually. One of the lycans—the one who caught my scent in the park; Drake?—is staring at me. There s no way he can smell me tonight, not with everything else here and that serum Rika made that we re all wearing. "I see you ve made friends while I ve been handling a family crisis." "Angel will introduce you while I find you a chair." "Nikki, meet Xander, Callum, and Drake," Rika obliges, gesturing to each of the lycans in turn. It is Drake who s been staring at me. Great. By the looks of things, he thinks I m hot. Perfect for Anselm s plans, anyway. "Gentlemen, this is the elusive Nikki we ve been referencing all evening." "Don t believe anything she s told you about me, except that I ve spent the better part of the past hour on the phone with irksome relatives," I joke. It s in our best interests to convince them that I actually want to be here. "I think that s all she s told us about you, other than that you re in Columbus for grad school," Callum replies with bewilderment. "Oh, well, perhaps I spoke too soon. That bit is also true." Can t guess everything, I suppose. "Well, it wasn t easy, but I wrangled a chair from those metal-heads," Zoe interrupts as she returns, dragging a chair behind her. "Quick, sit down before they notice it s missing." I gratefully comply. That fight took a lot of energy. I m more than ready for a catnap, but no chance of that with the infernal racket in this bar. "Thank you. What all have I missed?" "Some great music," Xander answers quickly, his eyes daring me to disagree. I ll take that dare. "Trust me, even in the bathroom on the phone, I couldn t miss that. They ve all been quite loud. Were you here for the first act? Because they were decidedly less than great." "I think we got here partway through the second band s set," Callum responds. Drake seems unable to find his tongue, and his eyes haven t strayed from me since I got here. My wrist buzzes. Drake fancies you—Rika. "Consider yourselves fortunate," I tell Callum while discreetly fiddling with my fake fitness tracker to text Rika back: Just kill me now. Xander looks rather peeved by my snark, but before he can say anything, Rika cuts in. "The guys were just filling us in on entertainment options in the area, in case we ever have another night off from studying," she tells me, trying to smooth things over. "Seems like a long shot, but I ll bite." My gaze settles on Drake. Guess I might as well see how deep the infatuation goes. "What would you most recommend, Drake?" His eyes widen; he wasn t expecting me to say anything to him directly, and he seems to have forgotten how speaking works. "Uh…I guess that depends on what you like to do. When you re not studying," he stammers finally. Ugh. Too easy. "So far they ve suggested barcades, escape rooms, shopping…." Rika tells me helpfully. Her eyes are glinting with amusement. "Perhaps something a little more…active, or extreme," I suggest. Wonder how they ll take that. "What, like axe throwing?" Drake offers, then looks like he wants to eat his words. Bzzzt bzzzt. A new message. Oooooo, he s got it bad for you. Boss will be pleased.—Zoe. "That sounds promising," I tell Drake. I m genuinely interested, and mildly surprised that such a thing exists in Ohio, of all places. Rika and Zoe are also enthused, although weapons training has never been either of their favorite thing. That s not a selling point, I text Zoe under the table. "There are archery ranges, too, if that s something that appeals to you," Callum offers; he and his friends all seem caught off-guard that any of us would see any appeal in such things. Fools. "Definitely." More buzzing on my wrist. Selling point or not, we have a mission to complete. This is something we can use.—Zoe. "And shooting ranges," Xander adds. He would like the explosives. A walking trope. "Excellent," Zoe grins to Rika and me. "Really? Wild," Callum says. His tone and eyes have changed, turned guarded. The reports did indicate that he s the most sensible one of the bunch. Or the most paranoid. Either way, that s not good for us. We ll have to be very careful with that one. "Most girls we ve run into here haven t, uh, shared your interest in that sort of thing." "Hasn t anyone ever taught you not to judge a book by its cover?" I tease him, going for an air of innocence. "Whoa, hey, I ain t judgin . Just surprised." "If you re down for more surprises, maybe we could all hit one of those places up together," Zoe suggests brightly. "We re still learning our way around town. It d be great to have company." This is a terrible idea, I text Zoe and Rika both. "Yeah, sure. This weekend?" Drake responds hopefully. Rika, Zoe, and I exchange glances. I m not down for this at all, but I can already tell I m overruled. "Should work for us. We can adjust our usual studying schedule," Rika answers. Zoe and I nod along with her, all smiles, but I m internally cursing. They ll pay for this later. "Saturday. Name the time and place." "We ll have to do a bit of research," Callum hedges. "Maybe we can text about it this week?" There has to be a way out of this. I don t want to seduce that lycan. Think, Sasha, think! "Well played, sir," Zoe grins, scribbling what I assume is the number for her burner phone onto a napkin and sliding it across the table to Callum, who looks rather flummoxed. "Uh, great. Thanks." That s right. I m having a family crisis. Fake a phone call, go outside to take it, refuse to come back in. We can end the torture for tonight, anyway. I tap my fitness tracker a few times, activating an emergency feature Rika s built in. "Go ahead and text me and I ll save your number." "Oh shit," I grumble, pulling my phone, which is vibrating thanks to the fake phone call I ve sent it from my wrist device, out of my pocket. "I have to take this, and I d rather die than go back in that bathroom with the drunk girls commenting on my conversation. I ll be outside." "Do you want… I mean, is it safe for you to go alone? Outside, in this part of town?" Drake asks awkwardly as I get out of my chair. Safe for whom? I won t have any problems. "I ll be fine. But thank you. Enjoy the music," I answer, hoping I seem distracted by my ongoing (fake) family crisis and not just desperate to get away. "All right, thank you so much for being such a dope audience," the frontman of the band that s been playing shouts into his microphone. A perfect distraction. I take advantage of the moment and make a beeline for the stairs that lead up to the ground floor. "That s it for us tonight, but check out our merch table over in that corner, and stick around for the main event…SLEEEEEEPERRRRRRRRS AWAKE!" I put my phone to my ear as I climb the stairs, listening to Rika s nonsense word jumble that will play on a loop until I hang up the call, just in case that dratted lycan has decided to follow me anyway. Without the band playing downstairs, I m concerned that one of them might catch on to my ruse. I can t get out of here fast enough. Through the door, weave between the tables. Mostly humans up here; gotta keep a normal pace. This crowd is rowdier than the group downstairs; slightly more difficult to slip through. Still, it s not long before I ve made it out of the bar and into the blissfully cool night air. City smells assault my nose—fuel fumes, burning cigarettes and joints, human urine, asphalt—but I don t mind; I m not going back in there. Instead, I end the fake call with Rika s recording and lean against the brick wall of the bar, enjoying a few moments of relative peace. You re just gonna leave us down here with them because you don t want to seduce a dog?—Rika. Seduction s your thing. It isn t mine. We did the main job. We have intel for this one. Let s go home, I type back irritably. Both of them know better, or they should. It s not even so much that he s a lycan as it is that I hate missions requiring me to use seduction, especially on creatures who are looking for their soul mates. A fight to the death with beings who are clearly in the wrong I can stomach, but this…. Whether they ve actually violated WASP laws or not, this might be a bridge too far.