Love Bites by Magen Cubed

Author:Magen Cubed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magen Cubed
Published: 2020-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

Dorian wondered if he should be taking social cues from a guy with that many bruises, but he knew that was just the nerves talking. After all, he’d seen Cash at work once already, all smiles and relaxed charm. Although Dorian may have been an easy mark. He was a sucker for a nice ass in a tight pair of jeans, and Cash certainly had both in spades.

Sidling up to the bar, Dorian tried to remember his strengths. He was good at talking to people. That was how he made money as a bartender, and how he ended up with people who were loose with their own. The bartender was a sharp-looking young wolf, around Dorian’s age. She had dark skin, piercing brown eyes, and a stylish, asymmetrical black bob framing her runway-destined cheekbones. Glancing at him, her nose wrinkled, and she bore the tip of a long, sharp canine.

Ignoring her primal response, Dorian put on the most flirtatious smile he had on reserve.

“Hey,” he said casually.

“Hey,” the bartender answered. “You lost?”

Shifters in general, and werewolves in particular, couldn’t stand vampires. Dorian’s kind was counted among the lowest classes of monsters, relegated to lives of poverty in the margins of human cities due to their beastlier appearances. They had no soft human skin to slip into like their wolf cousins, lacking the ability to camouflage themselves while other creatures had the hope of attaining relative comfort and security. If wolves in Northside were the status quo, vampires were the dirty castoffs who didn’t have the good sense, or the necessary adaptive strategies, to assimilate.

But, as with most things, Dorian was practiced enough to work around that. He had done his fair share of dating outside Devil’s Row, finding himself in the beds of wolves, mothmen, and even a sobek. The vampire still had the scar on his thighs to prove it.

“I’m looking for someone. I was hoping you can help me,” Dorian said. “Last I heard, he’s a regular customer of yours. Do you know Sendhil Balakrishnan?”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“You sure? Comes in after work most weekday nights?”

The bartender looked at the driver’s license photo Dorian held up. Her eyes flickered over it, to Dorian’s face, and back. “Yeah, he comes in here. Why? What’s a vampire got to do with it?”

“He’s gone missing,” said Dorian, summoning conviction into his voice. “He might be in trouble. I just want to find him.”

It was the most convincing performance he had put on in a while. He might be halfway decent at this after all.

For all her cool, the bartender suddenly looked unsettled. The pack mentality reared its head. “Alright, if he’s in trouble, I can think of a few regulars he comes in here with. They might know where he’s gone.” Taking up a notepad from under the counter, she crossed out the day’s liquor count and quickly scribbled down three names. “I can’t tell you much more than that.”

A strange feeling, dangerously close to pride, swelled in Dorian’s chest. He took the list with a sincere nod of thanks.

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