Dark Descent: The Arondight Codex - Book One by R Nicole (best books to read all time TXT) 📗

with a fiver entry charge. Friday is theme night, this week it’s Horizon Zero Dawn. Saturday is the 8-Bit dance party—cosplay optional—and Sunday is tournament day, you know, PS4, Xbox One, that kind of thing. This week is the Destiny Two Crucible challenge.”

Blond Tips raised his eyebrows and handed me a tenner.

“Enjoy your drink,” I said, flipping him his change. I moved down to where the guy who’d been lingering in the corner had approached the bar. “What can I get you?”

The guy looked me over and his eyebrows rose. It was like everyone was in a constant state of surprise tonight. I wondered if I had something between my teeth. It seemed like the club to be part of, so I raised my thin purple-tinged eyebrows as well.

He was the tall, dark, and handsome kind. Cropped brownish-black hair, stubble on a chiseled jaw, black T-shirt, biker jacket, and I bet below the bar I’d find a pair of beat-up jeans and combat boots… among other things. Calvin Klein called and he wants his runway model back, I thought sullenly to myself. Guys like that never looked at girls like me. Girls like me being scarred internally and externally.

“What?” I prodded, resisting the urge to add a swear word into the mix.

Partially draping himself over the bar, he asked, “Are you always so… surly?”

“I work in a gamer bar full of geeks who’ve never seen a pair of tits before, what do you think?” I slapped my hand over my mouth, stifling a gasp.

The guy smirked and batted his impossibly long eyelashes.

“I don’t… I’m sorry… I don’t know where that came from.”

“I do,” he said mysteriously. “Did you know your hair has a purple tint to it? Did you put that there?”

“Uh…” He wasn’t weird at all. “No,” I said, playing with a long strand that’d fallen forward over my shoulder. “I’ve never coloured my hair—”

“Aren’t you a curious little thing,” he mused, tilting his head from side to side, checking me out. “I can see why it came here of all places. You’re like a smorgasbord.”

“You’re making no sense whatsoever,” I declared. “Do you want a drink or not?”

“Do I get a flyer?”

I made a face and slapped down a fluoro blue rectangle of paper. “There. Which is it? The cosplay night or the cosplay night? You’d make a great Lunafreya.”

“Now I can really see why it liked you.”

I narrowed my eyes, not understanding why this guy had my hackles up. I was never this rude to customers. Firm, yes, but outright bitchy? That wasn’t my MO. Maybe our auras had triggered an unstable nuclear reaction once they’d rubbed together. Oh jeez, rubbing together with a guy who looked like that? Happy birthday to me!

I glanced up as Blond Tips opened the door and left. Another point for Scarlett’s unwavering intuition.

The guy followed my gaze and straightened up. “Thanks for the chat, lovely, but I’ve got to go.”

“Huh?”

“Go home,” he whispered, his eyes shining. “Go home and forget.”

Jackson appeared in front of me, a confused expression on his face. He put down his empty beer glass and waved his hand back and forth to get my attention. “Uh, Scarlett?”

“What?” I asked, staring after the guy I dubbed as the Bad Boy.

“Who were you talking to?”

I clucked my tongue and rolled my eyes. “The guy in the leather jacket.” I waved in his general direction just as the door opened and closed. “He was just…” I sighed and glanced around the pub. He was gone, but hadn’t he just been standing right in front of me?

Jackson scratched his head and gave me a confused look. “Scarlett… No one was there.”

Scowling, I stared out the windows where I could see Blond Tips and Bad Boy arguing. “He’s right outside,” I declared. “He’s arguing with the guy with the ugly blond tips in his hair.”

“What blond guy? Scarlett, are you sure you’re okay?”

My scowl deepened to the point my face began to hurt as I glanced back at Jackson before my attention was drawn outside again.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said absently.

“Because I was thinking… Since it’s your birthday and all, I thought we could go out for dinner or something. I know it’s a tough time for you, what with having no family and all. So I thought we could go all out this year. Fast or fancy, your choice. Your shift ends now, right?”

“Yeah.” I wasn’t really listening to what he was saying because the argument outside was turning borderline violent. Bad Boy had thrust his hands into Blond Tips’ shirt and looked to be threatening him. People were walking right by them, doing nothing to defuse the situation at all. Maybe I should call the cops.

“I’d really like to take you out, because… Scarlett, I really need to tell you something,” Jackson said, “and it’s kind of important.”

I tensed as I saw a flash of metal in Bad Boy’s hand. Was that a knife?

“We’ve known each other a long time and sometimes feelings can change,” Jackson went on. “It’s only natural, right? And I guess what I’m trying to say is—”

“No!” I shrieked.

“Scarlett?” Jackson straightened up and glanced outside. “What’s wrong?”

But I wasn’t listening. Rushing down the bar, I weaved through a bunch of tables by the door and pushed outside. The two men were on the street in full view of everyone this time. Wait… this time?

I shook my head and stared at Blond Tips, who was lying on the ground with the knife sticking out of his chest. This was bad news in capital letters, bold, underline, italic, exclamation point.

“Seriously?” Bad Boy exclaimed, standing over his victim, throwing his hands into the air in exasperation. “Again?”

I shivered, part of me slightly horrified and the other majorly confused. This had happened before. Just like that. Blond Tips on the ground and… Whoa, déjà vu.

“You’re impossible,” Bad Boy said, pointing at me.

“Am not!” I cried, causing passersby to stare at me like I was crazy.

“They can’t see me,” he shot back.