Sacrifice Me: The Complete Season One (8 page)

The three vampires visibly relaxed.

The tall one wiped dark blood from his nose. “She
was being a real pain in the ass anyway,” he said, snarling. “I
think she broke my nose.”

Rend glanced back at me, shaking his head, and
laughing. “She's stronger than she looks.”

“Tell me about it,” the small one
said, clutching his side.

“We didn’t mean any disrespect.”

“You may have been outside of my club, but
you should know better than to feed less than three feet away from my
back door,” Rend said. “The ones who come here have a
right to feel safe whether they’re coming or going. You know
that. Like I said, I’ll let you live. This time. Don’t
let me see any of you around here for a while.”

“But—”

The tall one started to argue, but his friends cut
him off. They all bowed, said their thanks, then right before my
eyes, each of them turned from solid men into dark, swirling shadows.

I reached up to hold onto Rend’s still
outstretched arms, my eyes not leaving the spot where the shadows
gathered and then flew away into the night.

“What the hell were those things?” I
asked, breathless. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know.

Rend pulled his arm away from me, then walked over
to retrieve my shoes.

He glared at me as he handed them over.

“Remember when I told you this place was
dangerous and you needed to go home? What happened to that?”

I pulled my shoes on and shrugged. “I
thought I saw someone I knew.”

He walked past me and pulled open the door.

“Hey, that door was locked a minute ago,”
I said.

“This door is never locked to me,” he
said. He stood there, waiting for me to go in.

I straightened my shoulders and took a deep breath
to calm my fractured nerves.

Demons. Vampires. Whatever they were, he wasn’t
joking when he told me I shouldn’t have come here.

But I still had a lot of questions. Especially
about the woman who had led me out here in the first place. Where had
she disappeared to? Was it even really my mother or was it just some
trick to lure me out here?

I was afraid that asking those questions would
lead me down a path I wasn’t ready to walk.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s
get you inside.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I walked past
him and back into the neon glow of Venom.

I wanted to do what I should have done half an
hour ago. Grab Katy and get the hell out of there.

But when I started toward the dance floor, Rend
called out to me. “Hey, Franki.”

“What?” I said, turning back to him. I
didn't remember ever telling him my name.

He motioned for me to follow him, then leaned over
the top of the bar and grabbed a black t-shirt. He threw it at me and
I nearly dropped my shoes to catch it.

I held it out to get a better look at the shirt.
The word VENOM was written in bright green across the chest. On the
back was the word STAFF.

I swallowed. “What’s this for?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“You’re one of mine, now,” he
said, a smile playing at his lips. “You start tomorrow.”

Episode 2: The Dream

Large black wings rise up against the shadows.
I stagger backwards, tripping over something soft on the ground.

I look down to see a ratty old teddy bear.
Something from my childhood that tugs at the edge of my memory. I
pick up the small tattered thing and bring it up to my chest, hugging
it close. It smells like home. My old home.

I hear the fluttering of wings and look up, but
I’m no longer in the dark alleyway. Instead, I’m in a
long, narrow hallway that stretches out as far as my eyes can see.
Doors line both sides. A light above flickers on and off.

I clutch the bear to my chest and walk forward.
I’m not sure what I’m searching for, but I think it must
be this way. I follow the sound of the crow’s caw.

On each side of me, the doors are marked with
different symbols. A horse. A serpent. A flower. A butterfly.

I keep to the center of the hall, not daring to
reach out and touch any of the doors. I half expect one of them to
open and reveal some chamber of horrors on the other side. I can’t
shake the feeling that someone is watching me. Following me.

But when I turn to look, there’s no one
there. I am alone.

Alone except for the crow.

I keep moving forward, my steps tentative, like
a little girl. I feel small and frightened.

The sound of flapping wings echoes around me,
but I can’t see the bird. She’s here somewhere. If I
could just find her, I’d be safe.

I’d be home.

The overhead light finally flickers one last
time and then dies, dousing the hallway in darkness. I stop, unsure
what to do without someone to guide me or tell me where to go.

But then I see it. Just up ahead, one of the
doors is glowing.

I force my feet to move, feeling that if I
could just reach that door safely, I would find the answers I’ve
been looking for.

The hall is long and dark, but when I finally
reach the glowing door, I gasp. The symbol carved into the wood is
the outline of a black crow.

With a trembling hand, I reach for it.

The buzzing of my alarm ripped me from the dream.
Sweat poured down the back of my neck and my heart pounded against my
ribs.

Holy crap. Last night had really done a number on
my head. It had taken me forever to get to sleep in the first place,
and I must have spent the rest of the night lost in the same dream,
walking down that endless hallway over and over again.

I pushed my hair off my face and sat up. The black
t-shirt Rend gave me was lying on top of my desk. I just stared at
it, as if looking at it long enough might make it disappear. How
could he expect me to go back to that awful place?

I’d almost died last night. If he hadn’t
shown up at just that moment, I would probably be sprawled out in a
dumpster, drained of every single drop of blood.

The image of that guy licking up a few drops of my
spilled blood from the ground invaded my mind and I squeezed my eyes
shut, begging it to go away.

This couldn’t be real. Vampires didn't
really exist, right? They were myths or make-believe, not something
you actually encountered in a dark alley. Maybe I’d just gotten
hold of some really bad drugs last night and went on some kind of
weird trip. Maybe I’d get to the club and realize it was all
just one, long nightmare.

But I knew in my gut that it was no dream.

I thought about crawling back under the covers and
ignoring the rest of the day. What would Rend do if I didn’t
show up to work? It wasn’t like he knew where I lived.

I hope.

Still, he struck me as the kind of guy who would
know how to find people. And I most definitely did not want him to
have to come looking for me.

Random bartender or not, those guys last night had
been scared of him. Terrified. So what did that make him?

More than just a bartender, that’s for sure.

And if he expected me to work for him at Venom, I
didn’t have much of a choice but to show up.

I forced myself out of bed and climbed into the
shower, turning the water up as hot as it would go. I washed off the
stench of sweat and cigarette smoke and let the hot water wash the
crusted blood from my palms and my elbow. A large black and blue
bruise had formed on my arm where the tall guy had grabbed me.

I knew I was lucky to have gotten out of there
without more damage done. What would happen if I had to work there
now? Night after night?

I couldn’t do it. I’d have to go in
today and tell Rend that I’d work off whatever debt I owed him
and then I was out of there, gone forever just like he’d wanted
in the first place. I would find a way to wipe the whole experience
from my mind and move on.

When my skin had turned bright pink from the heat
of the water, I turned it off and got dressed, pulling on a clean
pair of jeans and the black Venom Staff t-shirt.

The only consolation as I grabbed my keys and
headed out the door was that he’d asked me to come in at ten in
the morning instead of ten at night. I didn’t think I could
face that place again after dark.

The outside of the club looked very different in
the light of day. Less dark and dangerous and more like any other
rundown building on this side of town.

I parked in a nearby lot and headed toward the
alley entrance, wondering again why they didn't have a more normal
entrance facing the main street. I also realized I had no idea where
that back door must have taken me last night. If this was the back
alley, where the hell was that?

I shook my head. Maybe there were just some things
I was going to have to let go of about this place. I took a deep
breath and steeled my nerves for whatever may come. There was no
doubt I owed this guy Rend for saving my life. I just hoped I didn’t
have to run into anymore demons or vampires while I was there.

I’d be good with never having to see fangs
again in my life, thank you very much.

Inside the first hallway, the green liquid still
glowed as brightly as it had the night before. Were they open all
day? Or did they just leave these lights on all the time?

The tunnel-like entrance beyond was still lit up,
too, but this time there was no bouncer waiting to check my ID. I
went straight through to the club and looked around for Rend. He
hadn’t told me exactly what to do when I got here or where to
go, so I had assumed he’d just be waiting for me.

I checked my watch. It was three minutes after ten
and there was no one else in sight.

The lights were all on at this time of morning and
the place looked far less exotic. I walked over toward the bar, then
flipped around as one of the doors on the other side of the room
opened.

I hoped to see Rend, but instead, the other
bartender from last night appeared. Azure. She was dressed almost the
same as she had been the night before. We could have been twins
except that her hair was blonde and curly and mine was black and
straight as a board.

She smiled when she saw me. “Franki, right?”

She held her hand out and I shook it.

“Yes,” I said. “I guess Rend
told you I’d be coming in today.”

She nodded and motioned toward the bar. “I
have to tell you, I was really surprised when he told me you’d
be working here.”

“Me too,” I mumbled. I followed her to
the bar and took a seat on one of the stools while she went back
behind the counter and started unloading a box of new glasses onto
the bar-top.

“Just out of curiosity, what made you want
to work here?” she asked. “I mean, no offense or
anything, but I’ve never seen you around and you and your
friend seemed pretty freaked out by the place. We don’t get a
lot of newcomers around here.”

“That’s kind of what Rend was telling
me last night,” I said. “Why is that exactly?”

Other than the whole demon vampire thing.

She shrugged. “It’s the kind of place
that caters to a certain... clientele. Most of the regulars have been
coming here for years.”

“Okay, but why don’t new people stop
in all the time? I get that this place isn’t exactly on the
main strip or anything, but if you guys put a sign out front, I'm
sure you'd get a lot more business.”

“More business isn't something we're looking
for,” she said. “And to be honest, I’m not sure the
boss would want me to explain it even if I could. At least, not until
you understand more about what it is we do here.”

Great. More cryptic answers.

“Okay, so how do I find out what it is you
do here?”

I had obviously already figured out this wasn’t
a typical bar or nightclub, but I still didn’t understand what
it was that made it so different. Surely everyone who was here last
night wasn’t some kind of demon, right?

“I think it’s safer if I just wait and
let the boss man tell you when he thinks you’re ready,”
she said with a laugh. “In the meantime, he asked me show you
around the place and get you started on some of the basic morning
tasks.”

I slid off my stool and followed her back toward
the other side of the room. “So, when will I get to meet him?”
I asked.

“Who?”

“This mysterious boss man,” I said.
“Rend didn't say anything about him.”

She stopped, a huge grin spreading across her
face. “You are so adorably clueless,” she said. “You
really don't know?”

“Know what?” My cheeks flushed.

Azure laughed and opened a black metal door just
off the dance-floor.

“Rend is the boss.”

I felt like an idiot.

“Oh, god, I thought he was just a
bartender,” I said. “No offense. I mean, I have nothing
against bartenders, it’s just that, crap. I had no idea he
owned the place.”