Where is she?
Chapter eighteen
Orthia
2 Days
Thisclubisnowherenear my usual hunting grounds. We are a fair distance from the water, closer to the historic district than the bay. On a Saturday night, there is a long queue wrapped around the front entrance. People dressed in their expensive clothing, smoking and shouting at one another. Most of them already smell of alcohol.
This is also not a monster-owned club. The man at the door is a human as they come, meaning I will actually have to work to get inside.
There is not a chance in this life that I will stand and wait to get into this place. I tug the sleeves of my billow top lower over my wrists while I walk around the block to get a view of the back alleyway. There are a couple of security lights, one car with blacked-out windows, and a long row of dumpsters. The car’s engine is turned off, and when I shove my face up against the glass, it is empty.Good.I don’t need some random fuck getting in the way of me dragging my human out of this place.
I scope out the back door to the club, waiting for someone to come out for a break or to take the bins out. The longer I am left standing there, the more my body demands that I move. To break down the door and cause a scene.
That would blow her cover though, put us both at risk and then I might have to kill more people than I could explain away to Deg’Doriel. This is a good operation we have going, but if I have to leave because of this, it isn’t that bad, I suppose.
Delphini is worth it.
I blow out a heavy breath, my fingers running through my buzz cut.Shit.She really is worth it, getting kicked out of the group and uprooting our entire gig here. I’d do it for her, to keep her safe.
When the fuck did I start thinking like this?
There isn’t time to examine all my feelings about Delphini Fields because the door finally opens. It takes no effort to sneak in before the door closes. The kitchen staff ignore me, not paid nearly enough to care, as I stalk through the crowded main floor. Lights flash and fake, sweet-smelling smoke swirls around the feet of crushed bodies on the dance floor. The loud music pumping through the sound system is some sort of new electric shit that makes my ears ring. It’s a crush, pushing through the crowd is nearly impossible as my body shivers with every brush of these people. The bar is as crowded, and every person I look at could be a threat. I stand to the side, trying to push myself up a bit higher on the bar to see over everyone’s heads.
Not a speck of pink on this fucking dance floor. Between flashes of light, the wide arc of the beams, and projections on the ceiling, I’m sure if Delphini were here, I would have seen her. Even if there was no light, I am confident I would be able to find her in this room. She is my human, my fuckingomphalos.
“Hey, you want a drink?” the bartender shouts at me over the noise.
I give her a look, though I keep the derision to myself. That sort of energy I am saving to unleash on Delphini for running away.
“I’m looking for my girlfriend. She’s like this tall, really pretty hair, pink outfit?”
Using those prescriptive words to describe someone as complex as Delphini causes a pain in my chest. She is so much more than those things. There is so much of her that I have only scratched the surface of due to…
“Stubbornness.”
My eyes flutter closed as the ghost of Love’s tentacles wrap around my chest and neck. The weight of them settles the rabid energy shaking through me and their voices drown out the gods awful music playing here.
“She is here, but to find her, you must prove you want her just as much as she desires you.”
My outfit tonight should be proof enough that I desire Delphini. I’m here pushing through a crowd of people, feeling their icy touch with every jostle and shimmy people make, all while wearing a pair of skintight leather pants. These fucking trousers were the only thing in that costume room that would fit the dress code.
I feel fucking ridiculous in this.
The closer to the centre of the crush I get, the colder I become. There is no way to avoid the touch of so many humans. They move in practised motions with their hands raised above their heads so they can fit tighter together. It’s taking all my willpower to stay focused, to not react with every snag of my shirt sleeves. I want to punch and stab each one of these fucking humans for being so close to me. Even Love’s fading touch has not calmed enough to be able to cope with these cretins.
If completing this test, if finding her, is what it takes? I will do it over and over again until she is satisfied.
It’s not until I think I am going to have to stab someone to get any further through the crowd that I catch a glimpse of her signature pink. Delphini dances in the middle of the room, completely surrounded by other women. They move in unison with her, bodies reacting to each sway of her hips.
This is where she is always meant to be. She is the centre of the club, the centre of this universe—a sacred beacon calling everyone to her glory.
Her gaze zeroes in on something overhead. Tucked into a dark corner, there is a raised platform roped off. She barely blinks as she watches a couple be allowed to pass the ropes.
Unceremoniously, I shove the woman in front of Delphini away.
“Delphini,” I shout over the noise.
