Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“You’re clean,” bouncer-guy announced.
Devon held his hand out and the whole procedure started anew. Only when the girl had nodded after tasting Devon’s blood did bouncer-guy relax. Finished with her duties, Finja curled into herself on the stool again and quickly lost track of what was going on around her.
Bouncer-guy gestured toward the black door. “You’re good to go.”
“Really?” I cringed at how surprised I sounded. “I mean, because we’re not twenty-one,” I said quickly.
The man gave me a look as if he thought I was stupid. “We don’t follow human laws here. We have our own, so you better listen: No using your Variation to kill. No using it to injure someone. No human police. No mention of Variant politics. You break ‘em, I’ll break you. Understood?”
I blinked at him. I wondered how long he’d worked on that little quote. He seemed unnecessarily proud of it. Devon and I exchanged a look and nodded. He’d only mentioned not killing or injuring someone with a Variation. What about using guns or knives?
“And the cold steel stays here,” he added, as though he had read my mind.
Reluctantly, I handed my gun to him. Devon hesitated so long that bouncer guy did something to the air that made my skin tingle and blood-licking girl jerk up with panicky eyes. I snatched the knife from Devon’s hand and handed it over before I pushed Devon toward the second door, desperate to get far away from the hallway and the strange vibes that now filled it.
I’d thought the hallway encounter was weird enough. But the moment we stumbled through the door, I was sure I’d entered a new dimension.
This had to be some kind of strange parallel universe. Bluish light seemed to float on the plumes of smoke in the air. I was glad that my eyes had had the chance to get used to the strange lighting back in the hallway or this would have given me vertigo. The inside of the bar was far more crowded than the state of the parking lot had suggested. Maybe some of the customers had other, less conventional means to reach the bar. The beats of the music I’d heard faintly through the door, now throbbed like a pulse in my veins.
I began to scan the room full of patrons but my eyes were drawn to the huge water tank in the middle of the bar. It was a gargantuan glass cylinder reaching from the floor up to the ceiling.
“Wow,” Devon whispered beside me.
“Yeah,” I said, slowly walking around the water tank.
Spots on the ground of the tank threw bluish light into the water, making it glow, and jets set in two narrow lines on both sides of the cylinder sent pink glitter whirling around. But that alone wouldn’t have warranted that slack-jawed look on Devon’s face. Two identical women, each dressed in a skimpy pink bikini, moved inside the aquarium. They had strawberry blond hair that floated in the water as if it was carried by a gentle breeze. Their make up was heavy—pink lipstick, blue-rimmed eyes and blue eye shadow, topped off with thick black lashes. They turned and twisted in the water in a rhythmic silent dance. Their bodies squirmed and coiled, but while many customers had their eyes trained on them, the women had only eyes for each other, caught in their own sisterly trance. Apparently this was what qualified as Vegas-style entertainment in a Variant bar. I loved it.
“I guess their Variation is that they can breathe underwater,” Devon said, his eyes still glued to the water dance show.
Once I stopped gawking at the aquarium and took in our surroundings, I noticed how many eyes had turned our way. Even in the presence of the water show, it seemed we were the main attraction. We couldn’t have acted more suspiciously if we’d tried. Everyone could see that we were new here. And from the look on many of the faces, new guests meant trouble. Groups of customers put their heads together conspiratorially. Few of them were paying attention to Devon, I realized with dread. Their curious gazes latched on to my eyes, then darted away quickly, only to be back again seconds later. They’d seen turquoise eyes before. They knew what it meant.
I grabbed Devon’s arm and pulled him along. “Come on. Let’s go to the bar.”
Sunken into the floor were the spotlights in the same blue tone as the aquarium, and more blue torches lined the high-ceilinged walls. That explained why the smoke from the cigarettes and cigars was glowing like an apparition from Atlantis. Tall private booths lined the walls; separated from one another by black velvet screens. The customers sitting on the blue leather benches within the booths had a good view at the aquarium and the bar, but most of them seemed either deep in conversation, lost in their own worlds, or else staring at us. Scattered around the interior ring of the vast bar were small round tables with chairs around them. Most of them were empty. Apparently the booths were the way to go.