I shouldn’t, obviously, have said what I said about supernatural monsters, because something was hanging out outside the sub store when I left work. The agency had called me with another gig. It might be enough to finally quit that joint.

No. I needed all the cash I could get. But something was there. I saw it…no, him…through the corner of my eye. No doubt anyone not clued in would just have seen a teenager in a leather jacket, head to toe black, black hair.

Goth. Or vampire, I thought with wry amusement. If fairies were real, vampires probably were too, although I’d bet every writer had got them wrong.

He certainly wasn’t particularly sexy. Not bad, but not the kind of guy I’d go head over heels for. I sought his eyes for a moment, met them, nodded and then walked away. Whoever or whatever he was, I wanted him to know I had him made. It wasn’t a challenge, it was just meant to let him know somebody knew he was there.

He nodded back, but stayed where he was. So, he wasn’t targeting me. It was just a moment of ships passing in the night, of two people who’s worlds were overlapping.

If he was a vampire, though? I elected not to worry about it, but to keep the corner of an eye on him.

Then, hesitating, I doubled back around to where I could see him. Yup. Once I was out of view, he’d started to move, heading into a bar he looked too young to visit. Fake ID, no doubt. Or some sort of magical equivalent. I had no doubt, for example, that Loki could have produced me a convincing one if I cared that much. I didn’t, really. Thea had let me try some alcohol, and while I liked it well enough, I didn’t like the effect I saw it have on people if they had too much of it.

I definitely, I thought wryly, wasn’t Thor’s daughter. There were far, far too many stories of him getting drunk and doing stupid stuff, then doing it all again. Maybe he had a good sense of humor.

About pushing people into pools, anyway.

But right now, I wanted to know what this guy was. He didn’t feel human. He didn’t feel Asgardian. He felt…almost like a gap.

That was why, I realized, my mind had leapt to vampire. And it wasn’t like I hadn’t encountered a couple of vampire-like things before. I tugged out my cell phone and called Thea.

Which went to voice mail. Typical. She was probably somewhere loud where she couldn’t hear her phone. She, after all, emphatically was Thor’s daughter. She was probably drunk, too.

So, I had to handle this on my own. I headed over to the bar, just willing that I wouldn’t be carded on entrance. If I could get in, I would be fine. I wasn’t going to order a drink.

The bouncer seemed not to notice me and then I was inside. I hadn’t been in an adult club before. And this one was very adult…there was a woman pole dancing in the center wearing no more than she had to and less than most would have.

Finding the other shouldn’t be too hard, except he wasn’t the only supernatural in here. Surprisingly, the dancer was giving me vibes too. Some kind of fae.

Maybe that was why he was in here after all.