He grunted but stepped out of my way so I could enter.
I pushed my way through the crowds looking for the bar. Work or not, I wasn’t spending a night with a bunch of tight ass paranormals sober.
A pretty redhead winked at me. I ignored her. She was a witch, and I didn’t want to mess with magic.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked. I couldn’t tell exactly what he was, but I had a feeling he was shifter.
“A Jack and Coke.”
“Coming up.” He made the drink and set it down in front of me. “Are you new in town?”
“I’m only here for a visit.”
“Oh yeah? Where you from?”
“New Orleans.” I took a large swig of the drink.
“What do you think of the new king? Is he going to make it?”
“Of course, he is. He’s exactly what The Society needs.” I was fiercely defensive of Levi. He was the one guy I knew who would always have my back, and I always had his.
The bartender looked at me warily, probably realizing I was a Pteron and he was treading on thin ice.
“Jared, hello.” A cute, blonde witch put a hand on my arm. “So nice of you to stop by The Sprite House.”
“I thought I’d make the rounds.”
“Lovely. Let me show you around.” She linked her arm with mine.
“You’re the second high-ranking Pteron we’ve had in here in the last few weeks.”
“Oh yeah?” I feigned interest, already staking out the place for intel. I wasn’t going to get it from a witch.
“Toby. Our new fearless leader.”
“Oh, really? I didn’t think he ever left his office.” Just because he dropped the name didn’t mean he frequented the place.
“He did. Had a pretty little human with him too.”
Now that got my interest. “A brunette, big blue eyes?”
“Uh huh. You know her?”
“In passing.”
“He got bent out of shape when I enchanted her drink with an aphrodisiac spell. I’ve never seen a man push a girl away more. He’s too noble for his own good.”
“Tsk tsk. Enchanting a Pteron’s date is a no-no.”
“Not by our rules. I didn’t enchant him.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t shut you down.” I was also surprised he’d kept her at arm’s length. I doubted I’d have that kind of restraint with her. If she asked for it, she’d get it from me.
“He was all right with it once I explained that all it did was enhance feelings.” The witch let her hand move up my arm until she squeezed my bicep. “It was an ego boost.”
“Was that true? The enhance part?”
“Yeah. The more the girl already feels, the better it works.”
“Good for him.” I wondered if he was being as noble at that moment. My guess was he had her in his bed already. Damn, I needed to stop thinking about the girl. I had to focus on the job and not the growing bulge in my pants.
The witch noticed it too. The way her eyes zeroed in on my crotch left me wondering if witches had better vision than I thought. Maybe she just had a sense for hard-ons. “Is that for me, or are you thinking about Toby’s girl?”
“She’s not his.”
“What is it with you Pterons always fighting over the same humans? Didn’t Levi and Toby just go to war last year?” With a sly grin, she released my arm and wandered off.
“A Pteron, huh?”
I followed the seductive voice and found a girl with jet black hair down to her waist. She sat in a darkened booth in a circular alcove. She had a friend with her with equally long hair that was blonde.
“Maybe. What’s it to you?”
“What kind are you?” The blonde stood up and gestured for me to slip into the booth between them. If I was at a human bar, I would have been all about it, but these weren’t humans.
I shook my head. “I’m fine where I am.”
“Are you sure?” she reached behind her neck, untying the strings of her halter top.
“Absolutely.” I kept myself in check. She wasn’t human, which meant she wasn’t of interest in that department.
“That’s too bad. We thought you wanted to have some fun with us.” She dropped the strings and exposed her bare chest.
I swallowed. Human men would pay big money for a few minutes in a place like that.
“You heard him. He’s not interested.” The dark haired girl spoke, and by the time I turned to look at her, she was also topless.
“But he’s straight. I can tell,” the blonde whined. She stepped toward me as though she wasn’t half naked.
“Maybe he’s the type that likes to watch.”
Fuck. They were nymphs. Only nymphs would be playing with me like that. I turned around to regain my composure for a second. By the time I turned back, the blonde was crawling onto her friend’s lap.
“What I want from you is information.”
“Information?” The blonde turned around and slid into the seat next to her friend. Neither bothered to cover up even though the subject had changed.
“Yes.”
“What will we get?”
“That depends on how good the information is.”
“How good does it have to be to get a f**k out of you?” the blonde asked without missing a beat.
“That’s not happening. I could compensate you in other ways.”
She pouted. “Money can buy us things.”
The dark haired nymph giggled. “Fun things.”
I probably could have found someone else to question, but drunk nymphs are easy to interrogate, and human or not, neither had a bad rack. After all, there is a saying about being able to look but not touch. Nymphs talked, they also listened and did a lot of f**king. My guess is these girls had been in bed with plenty of bears and wolves lately and probably had lots to tell.
“You could at least sit down.”
“I suppose I could.” I walked back out to the bar and picked up a chair. Sliding into that booth wouldn’t be a good idea.
“You really are no fun.”
“My clothes are staying on, ladies.”
“Even your shirt?” The blonde touched her br**sts, as though accentuating her nakedness would make me want to do the same thing. “You could at least show us your wings.”
“Good to know that if the money dries up, I can sell nudie shots to the nymphs.”
They both giggled. “You could sell more than a picture.”