Night Shift (Kate Daniels #6.5)(80)

I’d have to catch Finn myself.

The bouncers, if they’d even noticed me at all, didn’t see me as any kind of a threat. And hopefully, between the liquor and the lights, any customer who saw Finnegan the naked leprechaun would talk themselves into believing they’d either had one or five drinks too many, or set up an appointment with their shrink to talk about what it meant to hallucinate a naked leprechaun in a sex club. I was sure it couldn’t have been the first time a naked man had run through Bacchanalia.

I pulled back the curtain and stopped.

Talk about a needle in a haystack.

Either the staff of Bacchanalia was seriously disorganized, or a tornado had just come through here. From what little the boys and girls out front had been wearing, you’d think there couldn’t be so many costumes strewn about.

Sparklies and spangles the likes of which I’d never seen in my life.

There wasn’t a leprechaun to be seen—though when you’re only three foot tall, hiding wouldn’t be difficult in this mess.

This was a dressing room in an exclusive sex club on a Friday night. When the fight started out front, any staff still in here must have run out the back. Considering that there might be a naked leprechaun hiding among the sequins and bugle beads, they’d made the right choice.

A naked leprechaun was many things, but scary wasn’t one of them.

But the man standing across the room from me was.

He wore a dark suit so well tailored it made Alain Moreau look like he shopped off the rack, with a long jacket that was more like a form-fitting frock coat.

He looked human.

But he wasn’t. No human male looked that perfect.

For one, a human couldn’t look that good on their best day. But mainly, it was the way he glided toward me so smoothly it was like he wasn’t using his feet that clued me in.

My seer vision showed me what he really was.

A goblin.

A goblin who dropped his glamour completely as he slowly came toward me.

In a word—wow.

Goblins were mainly nocturnal. They could be out during the day, but their dark eyes were painfully sensitive to sunlight. Goblins were tall, sleek, and sexy. Combine that with darkly seductive—and light-sensitive—eyes and you had a race that took sunglasses to the heights of high fashion. Goblins were gorgeous all by their lonesome, but they took their wardrobes and accessories just as seriously as their tangled court politics. Goblin politics was a full-contact—and often fatal—sport chock-full of seduction, deception, and betrayal.

Goblin hair was dark, often worn long, and the silkiness of it would make a Pantene shampoo model kill from jealousy. Their skin was pale gray, with a silvery sheen, their eyes dark, their ears upswept to a nibbleable point.

And they sported a pair of fangs that weren’t for decorative use only.

With supernaturals that had a tendency to prey on humans, I’d been taught how to act from a young age should I find myself in the presence of one. It all boiled down to one absolute rule—don’t act like prey. But faced with what was quite possibly the hottest creature I’d ever seen in my life, and under the influence of a drug that had essentially evaporated my inhibitions, I suddenly found that rule increasingly difficult to follow.

“Vivienne’s new seer.” The goblin’s voice was a whispered breath against my throat even from several feet away.

So much for being undercover.

“Uh . . . you have me at a disadvantage—”

A slow smile spread across the goblin’s unwholesomely handsome face. “But at least I have you.”

As he spoke, he came closer, and with a negligent flick of his long fingers, the door shut and locked behind me. Neat trick, said part of my brain; the other part was wondering what those fingers would feel like brushing against my throat, and was really hoping I’d get to find out.

“We fulfill fantasies here,” he all but purred. “What is yours, little seer? If you had the chance to gain your heart’s desire, what would it be?” He smiled, giving me a glimpse of fang. “And don’t say finding a certain leprechaun prince. I know that is far from what you truly want.” He gave me a dangerous, knowing smile, like he’d seen every dirty thought I’d ever had, flipped through them like a deck of cards, and set aside the ones he wanted us to try first.

“Sounds like we’re looking for the same guy.” I held my shaking hand out at hip height. “About this tall, red hair, green coat—unless he’s still naked. Turn-ons are amateur-night exotic dancing. Turnoffs include SPI bodyguards and goblin stalkers.”

I tried to take a step back, but my feet had other ideas. The goblin was now within arms’ reach. His. He noticed me noticing, and his laugh warmed the air around me.

“I don’t think he’s here,” I continued, “so I’ll just be on my way.”

The goblin’s lips quirked in a smile. “But then you would miss my proposition.”

Oh, I think I knew what he was proposing.

His easy smile stayed put, and I could feel his mind browsing through my thoughts. “I assure you, it’s strictly business—at least initially. I would like it very much if you would come and work for me.”

Eventually I managed to form words. “Is it the librarian outfit? Because I can assure you, no one wants to watch me strip.”

“I am quite certain you have many talents where you would least expect them, but those are not the talents I am interested in.” The goblin was directly in front of me, his face blocking the light—his eyes seemingly absorbing the rest. “We can save those for later exploration.”