Lunar Eclipse / Blood Magic

CHAPTER ONE

"He's staring at you again."

Camilla Graves looked up from the drink she was pouring to her friend, Tessa, and then to the guy at the end of the bar. 

She knew exactly who Tessa was talking about. 

Cami had felt his eyes on her all night. Usually guys staring at her whilst she worked the bar creeped her out, but this guy was actually attractive, in a mysterious I-only-say-three-words-at-a-time kind of way. However, like every time she glanced at him, he was looking down at the whiskey Tessa had poured him.

"Someone should tell him staring is rude," Cami remarked. She handed some girl the Jack and Coke she'd ordered.

"Maybe you should go tell him that," Tessa suggested as she put away the tray of clean glasses she'd just fetched from the kitchen's dishwasher.

Cami rolled her eyes at her friend. Tessa was always trying to get someone laid. Her shining beauty and her equally bright personality meant that she was usually getting herself laid, so she thankfulling didn't have too much time to pester Cami. 

Tessa's brown skin, bright amber eyes, and chocolate curls were a lethal combination with both men and women. She wasn't necessarily skinny, although she was toned with a breathtakingly amazing hour glass figure. However, it was Tessa's personality that usually sealed the deal. She was everyone's friend; funny and completely care-free. 

It was how Cami had become friends with her so quickly and so permanently.

"Aren't you going out tonight with your sisters after this shift?" Cami asked, hoping to distract her friend.

Tessa shook her head, her tight curls shaking with her. "Nah, they all bailed on me." She complained, and then shot Cami with her pleading eyes.

Cami snorted out a cynical laugh, "Nope."

"Coooooome on Cami! It's Friday night."

Cami shook her head as she helped Tessa with the last of the glasses. 

It was past one in the morning and the bar was just starting to wind down, after being stacked out just a couple of hours ago. There were still a lot of people milling around or sat at tables, but no where near as many as when her and Tessa had been rushing around one another to get the drinks ready for the lines and lines of demanding and shouting people queuing on all sides of the bar.

"It might be," Cami said, "But you rolled out of bed around five this afternoon for your shift - after being out again last night -  whilst I'd already worked the lunch shift, and anyway-"

"Can I get six tequila shots?" A giggling girl asked, looking back at a table of equally inebriated friends. 

Cami prayed that they managed to keep the shots she was about to pour in their stomachs until they were out of the bar.

She quickly grabbed the six glasses, lined them up on the bar, and speed-poured the tequila smoothly from glass to glass.

 Once the girl stumbled back to her friends, Cami carried on with what she had been saying. "I told Helena I'll work it again tomorrow."

"Jesus Cam, why you working so hard?" Tess said, "Plus, I can get you out of working tomorrow, Hel will understand."

Cami didn't doubt she would. Helena Deveraux was the kindest woman Cami had ever met. She was their boss and also Tessa's older sister. She'd apparently raised Tess and her two other sisters after their parents had died. 

And Cami knew first-hand how well she took care of people in need.

Cami had been travelling for a while, she hadn't wanted to or been able to, settle anywhere. So she'd been living out of her car whilst taking any job she could between hoping from city to city, state to state. 

That had been until she had rocked up to New Orleans. 

Helena had taken Cami in without any questions or reservations. The woman had basically saved Cami's life.

That had been a whole year ago now. And the friendship and kindness that Helena had offered back then had been repeated over and over again. Usually Cami had spent only a few months at a time in a certain place, but she had found her home here in New Orleans.

"So, what do you say," Tessa asked again, "are you going to come out with me?"

"I'm going to pass tonight, Tess."

Tessa let out a defeated sigh before picking up the empty pallet now that the clean dishes had been cleared. "I'm going to make a round and pick up the empties, why don't you go chat to tall, dark and handsome over there?" Tessa said gesturing to the same guy that she'd pointed out had been staring earlier, before sauntering off to find the used glasses.

Cami rolled her eyes at her friend's insistence at pursing him. Although, she did give the guy a glance. She sure as hell couldn't deny how attractive he was. 

Before she looked away, the guy decided to stop staring at his glass of whiskey and directed his attention at Cami. 

His stare sent an injection of lust straight to her groin. Cami quickly glanced away and stared down at the glasses under the bar so that her bangs hid her face - and her rare blush. She was breathing heavily. 

God, she hadn't been that turned on in a long time, so much so it was a shock to her whole nervous system. A part of herself that had been laying dormant - a part of herself she thought had gone extinct even - was suddenly alive and lighting up her veins with each hammering beat of her heart. 

She chalked down the severe reaction to him as horniness. She was convinced it was just because she hadn't had sex in a long time... A really long time.

Cami was gearing herself up to look at him again - she could feel his stare burning into the side of her face, the fire spreading all over her body - when a customer came over and she was forced to get back to work.