Free Dark War Chronicles Box Set One by A. L. Kessler

know if I find out. Hope your mercenary stuff is going well. Seems to be since you can afford to keep helping me out.” He downed his coffee. “Thanks, man. I’ll see you later. Careful around Lucius. I think the Circle is right and that he’s hiding something.”
    “Do you know what the stone was?” Jax asked.
    Kaden chuckled and stood. “I hear rumors.”
    “Oh?”
    “It’s apparently a soul. A bad ass mother fucking soul, but no one knows who it belongs to.” He shrugged and walked out the door, blending in with the crowd of humans outside. Jax thought about Kaden’s words as he finished his coffee. He threw a tip on the table before leaving. He needed to create a new list of places to search for this stone.
    Techno music thudded against Kass as she approached the doorman, who waved her in. The crowd bumped and grooved against each other and she swallowed as her eyes wandered over the mix of people. Some human, most of them supernatural. A hand touched her shoulder and she jumped, spinning around, ready to fight.
    “Whoa there kitty, calm down.” Derrik held his hands up. “Just me. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
    Kass took a deep breath. “Sorry, sore from a fight, don’t want people touching me.”
    “I see the limp you had is gone.”
    “The blessing of being a shifter. So, here I am, you want me bartending tonight?” She crossed her arms.
    He laughed. “Let me show you around the club first and then we’ll get you set up at the bar for tonight. I’m assuming you know how to mix and serve drinks.”
    “Yeah, one of the many things I’m trained in.” She rolled her eyes. “What’s with the thump thump music?”
    He shrugged. “Not a fan?”
    “It screws with my senses. I can’t really tell if anyone is around me, not something I can afford right now.” She sighed.
    He motioned for her to follow him. “It’s quieter in the bar area.” He shrugged and then pointed to an area blocked off with a chain link fence. “That’s the DJ booth.” He waved to the guy in the booth.
    “The dance floor covers most of the lower area, and the bar is back here. Keep up if you can, Kitty.” Derrik started weaving through the massive swaying crowd.
    Kass cursed as she tried to follow him. She bent and strained to avoid touching people, but still some brushed against her or tried to dance with her. She shoved at them and growled at the wolf when she got to the other side. “I’m not a crowd kind of girl.”
    “I needed to see how you would handle it.” He shrugged. “Make sure you wouldn’t shift if you got too overwhelmed.”
    She raised a brow. “My cat will stay put. Lucius wouldn’t have sent me if he didn’t think I could do the job.”
    “Lucius is a very strange vampire and will often do things that don’t make sense to anyone. Like stripping a shifter of their control.” He walked up a few steps that led to a raised part of the floor that housed the bar. The four sided bar held three bartenders rushing to keep up with the hordes swarming around them.
    “This is the bar, it’s twice as big as the one you’re used to, but it has a person serving on every side to keep up with the demands. Well, once you start working, that is.”
    Kass saw one of the female bartenders push a portion of the bar and walk through. “This is actually amazing, nothing like Lucius’ bar.”
    “His bar only caters to supernatural creatures. This one is well known to the public, and it’s a safe place for all creatures. Remember that.”
    Something in his voice made Kass turn to him. “A safe place?”
    “A place of protection. We help new shifters, we help new vampires and people in hard places.” He shrugged and walked towards the bar.
    Kass spotted a black door tucked in the back. “And in there?” She asked, pointing at it.
    “The basement.” His said and waved a hand to dismiss it.
    She wanted to push but thought better of it. None of her business. “All right, so I guess I’ll serve