Karma's Spell (Magical Midlife in Mystic Hollow Book 1), Lacey Andersen [best book club books .txt] 📗

I could ask Beth, the music finally came back with a blaring beat, drowning out their next words. The pause had been much too long. No DJ would ever allow something like that, so either someone was screwing up or this was a playlist with no one manning it, or worse, I'd caused the music to pause as well so that the girls could be sufficiently mortified by their gastric distress.

A moment later, before we could step away, the girls came out of the bathroom. One of them had toilet paper clinging to the bottom of her high heels like a bride’s train. They quickly pushed past us toward the door we’d all just come in, and I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face.

They glared at us as they passed, and I didn’t really need to hear their words. I knew what was going on.

“What did you do?” Beth yelled in my ear.

I leaned over and put my mouth next to her ear as I yelled back, "I have no idea! How did you get us in?"

She moved back over and put her mouth next to my head, but she didn’t yell. “Magic,” her voice whispered in my ear, as if we were in a silent room. Chills erupted over my skin and a shiver zinged down my spine.

Grinning, I shook my head at her. “You’re amazing!” I shouted.

Beth either heard me or got my meaning, because she smiled and grabbed my hand as she started working her way through the crowd toward the bar. The whole thing was shocking, and hilarious, but I still wasn’t sure why we were here. Despite the vampires at the door, this place seemed to be full of humans. Not vampires. Or shifters.

I tugged on Beth’s arm and leaned close. “Nothing about this place seems out of the ordinary,” I yelled in her ear, careful about exactly what I said since I didn’t really know for sure these were all humans.

Her voice whispered in my ear again, even though she was nowhere near close enough for me to hear her, yet hear her I did. “Looks can be deceiving." She tossed me a wink before adding, "This is just the front. We have to go downstairs for the real fun.”

Oh, boy. I wasn't sure I was ready for the real fun.

Downstairs.

15

Emma

Beth pulled me into a quiet corner, and I stared out at the room packed with people. Different colored lights flashed overhead and the bass was so strong it seemed to shake the ground. I tried to remember if clubs were the same when I used to go to them in college, but everything seemed brighter and louder now.

But also not like a vampire den.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, frowning as I continued scanning the room.

“We go downstairs, ask about your brother, and hopefully explain that this has all been a big misunderstanding and get him back,” she said, like it was the simplest thing in the world.

“Do you think it’ll be so easy?” I didn’t know a thing about vampires.

She lifted a brow. “Not a chance. But the thing is, supernaturals aren’t just bloodthirsty monsters. We have codes. If the vampires just completely disregard a witch’s request, they risk pissing us all off, and we’re a powerful group. But they’re not just going to give him up. There’s probably going to be a price, so we need to be ready for that.”

A price? I took a deep breath. Whatever it was, I’d find a way to pay it.

“Okay.” I released my breath.

“Ready to take on a room full of arrogant vampires?” she asked, studying me.

No, I was not. “I need a little courage first,” I admitted. “The liquid kind.”

Beth nodded earnestly. “I feel that. Really do. Liquid courage has given me the strength to do a lot of things I never imagined this past year.”

There was no way that Beth had done so much just because of liquid courage.

I couldn’t help but stare at her a little. Beth really amazed me. Even though our situations were so similar, she seemed so over her cheating ex, unlike me. She’d been with her ex for nearly twenty years, about as long as I was married. I’d never officially met the guy. Apparently, he was one of the few people who moved from another place to Mystic Hollow, without any ties to the place. But she’d told me enough in our phone calls to know he’d been cheating on her with a younger woman too. She didn’t speak about it often. I assumed it was because it’d hurt too much to discuss, but was it really just that she’d found a way to come to terms with it?

I didn’t have a clue.

But her confident air, and the way she seemed so at home here, made me think maybe she was just doing well. The thought made me happy as she spun on her heel and started pushing through the crowd. It was good that at least one of us had it together.

We headed straight for the bar. “Four shots of your top shelf whiskey,” she shouted and slapped down a fifty. “Keep the change!”

I raised my eyebrows, but she shrugged. “The drinks are ten dollars apiece anyway. It’s just a tenner for him,” she said in my ear.

The bartender nodded and pulled out a stack of shot glasses, the squat, round glasses dripping with moisture as though they'd just been washed. There were plenty of people in the club so it wouldn't surprise me if they were cleaning glasses as fast as people were using them. The large bottle he grabbed from the top shelf behind the bar was already half empty and the liquid inside sloshed around a second before he flipped it upside down over the first shot glass.

As soon as that one was full, he moved to the next, raising and lowering the bottle over each consecutive glass. I knew it was a trick of the