Sebastian strode through the nightclub, nodding to several of the club’s employees as he passed. They were busy with their sidework, getting ready for another hectic night. He scanned the large room for dark hair and black-rimmed glasses, but didn’t see either. The new waitress wasn’t in yet, or maybe it was her night off. Or better yet, maybe she’d quit.
“Where’s the new girl?” he asked Nadine, keeping his voice casual as he slid onto a bar stool.
Nadine glanced at him, then picked up a bundle of napkins. “She’ll be in any minute.”
“So what’s the deal with her?”
Nadine didn’t look up from where she crouched behind the bar, restocking the shelves. “What do you mean?”
“She’s—odd.”
Nadine rose, crumpled up the empty wrapper from the napkins and tossed it down the bar into a gray plastic trash can.
“She is,” Nadine agreed. “But she’s harmless.”
“When she’s not starting fires in the backroom, that is.”
“That was an accident.”
Sebastian nodded, but knew he didn’t look convinced. There had been something about the new waitress’s behavior that still didn’t seem right to him. It was almost as if she’d been disappointed when he’d assured her the rest of the nightclub was fine. And then in his apartment, she’d been downright afraid of him.
He supposed he could chalk up her fear to the fact that she’d fully expected to be fired, which many other business owners would have done. He wondered why he hadn’t.
“You said that she needs this position,” Sebastian said. “Why? What’s her story?”
Nadine ladled maraschino cherries from a large jar into a metal serving tray. “I don’t know much about her. She’s pretty quiet.”
“Then how do you know—” Sebastian started, but his head bartender silenced him with a sharp flash of her dark eyes.
“I just get the vibe that she needs this job,” she stated. “There’s something…desperate about her.”
Sebastian couldn’t disagree with that. At the very least, there was something desperately strange about her. He started to say so when Nadine’s next comment stopped him.
“She seems lost.”
Sebastian paused. Hadn’t that been what he’d sensed about her, too? He just hadn’t been able to label it as Nadine had. But there was something anxious and almost lost about her. She was unlike any vampire he’d encountered, and running this club, he’d met many. He had to admit that she made him curious.
And other than being a little accident-prone, she was obviously not dangerous. In fact, aside from her strangeness, she was rather unexceptionable. Another peculiar trait for a vampiress. Vampires were nothing if not noticeable. She wasn’t.
Except when wet, he amended. She’d definitely been noticeable then. The image of her sitting in that puddle, dress hiked up to the tops of her pale thighs, appeared in his mind again.
He gritted his teeth, annoyed with himself. He wasn’t irritated with himself for noticing. After all, that’s what he did. He always noticed women. It was the fact that the image was still so clear in his mind, and kept replaying. He’d seen far more provocative displays of skin from far more beautiful women, yet something about—what was her name?
Wilhelmina.
He grimaced. But something about Wilhelmina had captured his attention. Again and again over the course of last evening, and again tonight.
He’d obviously been depriving himself. Time with his holier-than-thou brothers really did cramp his style. And last night, the sprinkler incident had put a damper (no pun intended) on his plans. By the time he was finished cleaning up the backroom, he’d decided just to head up to his apartment to relax. Alone. He’d been too preoccupied: with who could have called the cops about serving minors, and then as much as he hated to admit it, Wilhelmina. He’d thought about her more than the damned cops.
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,”
