Velvet Haven

Immediately she’d been visited by the man of her dreams. As usual, he had pleasured her, made her cry out in ecstasy. But the dream had taken on a different tone than the ones before it. After her orgasm, a darkness had swept over her. Images of blood and the sting of betrayal assailed her until Mairi had forced herself awake, terror filling her as her sweat-drenched T-shirt clung to her breasts, the nipples still hard from her dream.
    She was still kind of freaked out, and it didn’t help her current state of mind to know that she was standing on the sidewalk in the city’s notorious downtown east side. No one but drug addicts and vagrants came to this part of town. No one except the hundreds of eager people around her who were lining up, trying to get inside the old Gothic mansion.
    “This is going to be so cool,” Rowan squealed beside her. “I can’t believe we’re actually going to get in.”
    “How did you manage to score VIP tickets to the hottest club in town, anyway?” she asked, watching a big black bird land on the shoulder of the gargoyle statue. The thing was huge. But then, if the east side was his home, there was lots of garbage to dine on.
    She watched its head cock to the left, its sharp, predator eyes honing in on something. Was it just her, or was the bird scanning the crowd as if it were looking for a midnight snack?
    “I told you, my Tarot Guy brought a friend along with him this morning. He gave them to me.”
    The flap of the raven’s wings drew Mairi’s attention away from Rowan. She watched the bird lift from the statue’s shoulder and fly to a branch of the apple tree above her. The branch wavered as the bird landed, and the sweet scent of apple blossoms wafted over her.
    She was never one for bird watching, but this one had a strange silver streak on its back that captured her attention. It was extremely focused, astute, as it watched the crowd. Its head would cock sharply to the left and then to the right, as if it were listening. But always its sharp eyes came back to—her—if she allowed herself to admit it. But she couldn’t.
    The bird is not watching me , she muttered over and over, but still, she felt that rapacious gaze on her, even when she kept her eyes firmly lowered.
    “Are you sure you should be accepting tickets from a guy you don’t even know?” Mairi asked.
    “I swear,” Rowan gushed, “he was totally normal.”
    “Yeah, well, we thought Aaron was, too. Till he turned into a stalker and we had to hide you for weeks.”
    “That was months ago, and he’s in jail, remember? Besides, you know I’ve always wanted to get inside this place. How could I turn down free tickets?”
    Was Aaron still in jail? Mairi wasn’t so sure. Not after what Lauren had told her. “So, tell me about this man,” Mairi said as she watched a pair of guys with Mohawks and silver chains dangling from their nostrils to their lips saunter past them.
    “His name is Sayer,” Rowan answered, watching the guys go by, “and, my God, is he hot. He came into Enchantment this morning with the Tarot Guy. Who, by the way, is überhot, too. He simmers with mystery and totally oozes sex. I bet he’s wild in the sack, once he lets go of his reserve.”
    “I know. You talk about him every week.”
    “Do I?” Rowan sighed. “He doesn’t notice me. At least not that way.”
    “So a guy you’ve never met comes into your store and offers you tickets to Velvet Haven, and you accept them—and don’t feel a bit worried about that, especially after what I showed you happened in the city last night?”
    Rowan paused. “Did it happen here?”
    Mairi glanced at the bird, then at the facade of the club. “No.”
    “Then what’s to worry about?”
    “I don’t know.” And truly, she didn’t. But she felt like they should worry. This wasn’t their usual scene. And her dreams . . . they were dark and disturbing and somehow in her mind she had linked them with this place. Even though she’d never been inside the club.
    Something brushed by her, skating down her arm. It was a black feather from the raven, which had just flown off the branch. Goose bumps sprang up and she shivered. Her body tingled where it had touched her. She felt warm—aroused.
    “Hey, look, the line’s moving,” Rowan announced.
    Within five minutes they were standing before a brute of a bouncer who scowled and looked them up and down as he took their tickets. “You’re VIP,” the bouncer muttered as he