Bad Luck, Baby

17 - Bad Vibes

I took it and sipped it slowly as I watched the crowd. Despite my determination to stay, I felt uneasy and out of place—nothing like feeling all alone in a room full of people—and wondered if Tobin would notice if I left. Probably not, with how absorbed he seemed, bobbing his head to the beat, flipping switches and turning dials, or whatever DJs did. I didn't have much basis for judgment, but he seemed good at it, and controlled the energy in the room like a pro.

I amused myself by watching him for a while. He was sweet, and I liked him, but I couldn't really imagine him as my familiar. I'd just arrived at this conclusion when a hand rested lightly on my arm.

"I haven't seen you here before," a soft voice said, and I turned to see a beautiful woman at my side. She was tall and voluptuous, with silky blond hair. Her blood-red lips curved in a charming smile. "You must be new. I'm Carmella."

"Oh! Um, Ellie," I said, remembering that Carmella was the club's owner. "Tobin invited me."

"Ah—you're Janelle's latest, then. I thought you looked a little lost."

She had a musical, wind-chime laugh, and the sound put me at ease, somehow. Something inside me relaxed, even as my face warmed with embarrassment.

"I don't often come to... places like this," I admitted.

She tilted her head, regarding me with crystal blue eyes that glowed with their own light. "But what are you?" she asked curiously, leaning a little closer. "You're not a familiar."

"Nope. Just a human," I said with an awkward laugh. "Well, a human witch, I guess."

Her eyes narrowed, as if she detected a lie, but then she smiled.

"Well, let me show you around. This is my place, you know."

Unable to resist, I let her lead me through the crowd to one of the sofas along the wall.

She sat and patted the spot beside her, and I sat as well. A warm, cinnamon-vanilla scent infiltrated my breath, and I realized it was coming from her. I found it oddly relaxing, and suddenly the club didn't feel so strange and overwhelming, anymore. In fact, it felt like home.

"So," Carmella smiled, resting a perfect, red-nailed hand on my knee, "tell me about yourself, Ellie."

I opened my mouth and, to my own surprise, I obeyed. I kept it vague and left out my father and Thrones, but over the next the quarter-hour, I told her pretty much everything. Despite my shield, the music still pulsed through my body, and the lights seemed to flash inside my skull, but somehow it was more tolerable, and almost pleasant, when I had something else to focus on.

And Carmella was very easy to focus on.

I'd never been attracted to women, but there was something ineluctably alluring about her: from the length of her legs to the narrow line of her waist, to the way she moved with serpentine grace. She smiled, and listened with close attention, and somehow I didn't have to shout for her to hear me, or strain to hear her replies. It was almost as if we existed in our own little pocket of reality, just enough removed to feel intimate, even in the midst of a crowd.

And the longer I sat with her, the more I relaxed.

"Any familiar would be lucky to have you," she said, when I reached the end of my tale. "You're quite something. In fact, I'd quite like to have you myself."

I blinked, uncertain I had heard her correctly. "You're a familiar?"

She laughed lightly, and her cinnamon-vanilla scent filled my senses. A warm languor seeped through my body as she moved closer and draped an arm around my shoulders, and I relaxed even more. I felt completely safe and a little tired.