Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Behind him, two couples had also entered, talking together, their faces obscured by their costumes, the men taller, holding hands with their partners as they cut through the crowd going toward the second bar. Barack and Syndil, two members of the Dark Troubadour band, legends in the Carpathian community, were dressed in black, taking in everything and conveying the information to the other Carpathians as they followed Josef. Dayan, another band member, and Corrine, his lifemate, also followed, dressed in black, their makeup impeccable, impossible to be recognized as Carpathian as they moved through the crowd, picking up the strains of thoughts as well as conversations.
The underground club was designed to appeal to the goth crowd. It was very popular with both the goth and goth-vampire cultures. The full basement beneath the large nightclub had been renovated into three bars, each looking like a series of caves, one leading into the next. All had wellmarked exits, but the interiors were dark and lit mostly with wall sconces that looked like old-fashioned candles so that flames flickered on the walls of the caves.
Each bar was quite large and shaped like a cave, the sides appearing as if carved from the inside of the bowels of a mountain. The walls seemed so real, glittering with rock that had strains of minerals and even gems running through them. In a few places water appeared to leak in steady trickles that created dark curved streaks playing through the “dirt” of the walls. Rocks jutted out here and there, giving more dimension and realism to the feeling of a cavern.
Colors pulsed through the bars, dark purple and blue, a bruising heartbeat that vibrated the floor and walls and bodies of those inside, connecting them together. It became a singular experience to attend the club, one to be repeated, almost an addiction, a need to return again and again to find others accepting of differences so many felt.
The feel in the club was quite different than Ferro expected. It wasn’t the men drooling over the women, looking for a quick lay. It wasn’t even a bunch of depressed crazies coming together to hang out, staring into their glasses of alcohol. These were people of all ages, dancing to different types of music, dressing the way they wanted, accepting one another the way they were no matter age, gender or preference for partners.
Ferro was with a contingent of Carpathian hunters scattered around the underground club, unseen, a part of the walls, impossible to detect by the human psychic males that had been placed in the nightclub systematically over the last few years. Tariq had been shocked that so many had been. Seventeen of his servers had been identified by Josef as actually working for the enemy.
Tariq had looked at the work schedule and discovered that all were working this rising, that they had traded shifts with others to be certain to be on, which only proved Josef was correct. One other had also traded shifts, making him appear suspicious, so they added his name to the roster, bringing the number to eighteen.
They couldn’t have any of the human psychics working close together and take a chance that their combined gifts would give away the fact that many of the Carpathians were in the club. Fortunately, the building was four stories high with a club on each floor. Each floor had a different type of dance music playing, creating a different atmosphere. The center of each floor was open so one could look down and see onto the dance floors of the clubs below it—all but the underground cave, which was kept extremely private.
The underground club added an additional working environment that had to be covered. Not only was the nightclub enormously popular, crowded and always busy, but Tariq employed quite a number of workers for each separate club. Tariq simply shifted the workers around.
Woman is approaching me, Josef announced. Definitely human. Her mind is protected. She has to be Sergey’s.
Ferro and each of the other Carpathians reached out very gently in an attempt to try to scan the redheaded woman walking boldly up to Josef. She was short, with large brown eyes and a generous mouth.
She looks a little bit like Skyler did when she was younger, Josef said. He nearly groaned. I think of Skyler as a little sister. How am I supposed to flirt with this girl?
It’s called acting, Dayan said. We all know you’re good at that. Anytime you’re around the prince you put on a good show.
Ferro would have given anything to ask questions about the kinds of things the kid did when he was around Mikhail. Any of the Carpathians could have broken through the shield erected in the woman’s mind, but Sergey would have known and immediately been alerted.
Elisabeta, can you tell if Sergey was the one to place the barrier in the girl’s brain, and if so, can you push past it without his knowledge? Ferro asked.