Free Luscious Craving by Cameron Dean Page B

give a damn. I could see enough to stumble to one of the empty stalls. I rushed in, shut the door that reached all the way to the floor, and locked it behind me, then leaned against it.
    Breathe, just breathe, Candace
, I thought.
    I closed my eyes and rested the back of my head on the door. The clatter of the silver spikes in my hair was both reassuring and frightening. I had a weapon, but of course I couldn’t use it in the crowded club.
    Come on now, get a hold of yourself
, I thought.
    Yes, coming face-to-face with my doppelgänger was extremely creepy, but it was nothing to have a panic attack about. They say everyone has a double. It was just my sick, twisted luck that mine was a vampire. Coming to Taste was teaching me an important lesson. I now knew that my vampire-sensing skills could actually go on overload. I had experienced this once before, when I had sought out Ash at a vampire meeting place called the Majestic. But that experience had been nowhere near this disorienting, or this strong.
    Congratulations. You’re a fast learner
, I told myself sarcastically.
Now find Bibi and get out
.
    I turned, reached for the lock on the door, then stiffened. Male voices. Several of them. Coming from high up. I squinted through the dark and saw dim light glinting off an open transom window near the ceiling. I heard water splashing.
The window must be between the two restrooms
, I thought.
    “…see those legs?” I heard one guy ask.
    “Jesus, Dino,” a second voice said. “We don’t have time for that now. New Year’s Eve is right around the corner. We’ve got plans to finalize.”
    Then the words hit me:
Dino. We. New Year’s Eve
, I thought. Could I possibly be eavesdropping on the Bat Pack? But surely that didn’t make any sense. Blanchard had claimed they were low-level losers, and he had never steered me wrong. Someone else was speaking now, but I couldn’t catch his words. Blanchard might not deliberately
steer
me wrong. That wasn’t the same as saying he couldn’t
be
wrong.
I need to get closer to that window
, I thought.
    The toilet. Grabbing the top of the marble walls of the stall, I set one shoe on the seat, then hoisted myself up. I balanced precariously, straining my ears to listen.
    “…when we finish at the Sher ” came through, clear as a bell.
    “Why does it have to be the Sher ?” a voice I hadn’t heard before complained. “Why can’t it be New York – New York ? I like that one better.”
    “Because it’s not up to you, buddy boy. And if you want to be a player in this town, you’ll do things
his
way, or pretty soon you won’t be doing them at all.”
    “After what goes down at the Sher , things are going to go
our
way,” the guy who had wanted New York – New York gloated. “You watch. The power in this town is gonna change. We’re gonna count down to midnight in style.”
    I felt sick. The vamp at the Sher had been telling the truth. Al’s instincts had been right, and mine wrong. The rumors were more than rumors. They were fact. There was a major con set to go down at the Sher on New Year’s Eve, and vampires were very definitely involved.
    Something moved in the faint reflection on the transom. Acting purely on instinct, I ducked. I knew it was the wrong move the second I made it. My heel slid off the seat, banging into porcelain.
    The voices stopped at once. There was a beat of silence.
    “Check the ladies’ room.” One of them gave the order.
    Shit! Now I’d done it.
    I slipped out of the stall and inched open the outer door, peering out as the music thudded in, wondering if I could simply make a run for it. The trouble was , I didn’t know which direction to go. There was no way out except along a narrow corridor that led to both bathrooms. How in hell did I find my way here in the first place? If I had been thinking, I would have noticed how easily I could be trapped.
    But I hadn’t been thinking, I had been reacting, and now I was just plain fucked. I heard