Claws // Colby Brock

💫 28 💫

Instead of going up to the host, I went to the bar and bought a drink with the highest alcohol content, smiling slightly brokenly as if I was upset about something. To keep the story going, I chatted with the bartender for a little while since it wasn't too busy. I told her about a fake relationship and always getting let down, that this was the last straw and I was building up to breaking up with him. She seemed quite sweet as she gave me some advice.

But as soon as I thought the seed was firmly placed, I forced my eyes to tear up a little and excused myself to the bathroom, discreetly taking my drink with me.

Luckily, no one was inside, so I poured my drink on the floor, gathered some toilet paper, and set it alight. Letting it fall to the floor as a flame licked into the air, I exited the restroom to go back to the bar. It wouldn't take long for the flames to engulf everything in there, mostly likely spreading out if I left it long enough.

"Are you feeling better?" asked the bartender, a soft look to her eyes. I sighed heavily, looking away from her. "Hey, why don't I pour you another drink on the house?"

"Can you do that?" I whispered back.

She smiled. "Not supposed to, but who's counting?"

I gave her a little laugh and nodded gratefully. She poured me another, which I actually drank this time for the fun of it. It burned as it slid down my throat but I shook it off.

Considering that fire had been going for a few minutes now, there was no way it hadn't spread at least to the men's room next door. I cast a brief glance over my shoulder to see smoke seeping out under the door and had to disguise my smile.

A couple more minutes passed before, finally, the fire alarm started blaring. At the exact moment someone opened the door to the bathroom and a flame shot out toward her. The whole room was engulfed, exactly as I'd hoped. People started rushing out while the vampires and other staff tried to calm them down to leave in an orderly fashion. I casually strolled among them beside the bartender, muttering about how scary it was that something like that had happened so suddenly.

I spotted Jake and Tara instantly. They were lounging comfortably on someone's car hood, as if it was their own.

"Everyone relax!" yelled a guy in a fancy suit who could only be the manager of this place. "We'll put the fire out and assess the damages. Go home for tonight. Anything left inside will be returned to you once it is safe."

"Be safe," I told the bartender, backing up a couple of steps.

She scoffed. "Yeah, like that's possible round here. How does a fire start in the restroom of all places?" She rolled her eyes with a sigh, patting my shoulder. "Make sure you give him hell, yeah?"

I smiled, this time not because I was acting, but because I thought of the vampires we were about to attack and imagined what it would be like to give them hell. She didn't even know what was going on here, even if what she'd said seemed a little suggestive that she may have known about vampires. She'd never know about me, though. Some vampires didn't even know about werewolves because we did something called mind our own damn business.

"Thanks, I will," I promised her before waving her off.

She disappeared into the crowd, and I examined the faces of those who weren't heading for their own cars. All of them besides the manager were vampires. Their smell was making my nose twitch uncomfortably.

"Go home," one of the vampires told the manager, nodding coldly over his shoulder. "Now."

"I'm going home," he replied and slipped passed. He'd most definitely been compelled. He wasn't the manager here at all, just a pawn to make humans feel more comfortable. I supposed that made sense.