House of the Rising Sun Read Online Free PDF

to blend.”
    She shrugged. “Your head.”
    They crossed the street and swerved through a few blocks of tourists until she pushed through a nondescript wood door. A simple hand-painted sign above read “Stella’s.” He followed after her. The place was lit mostly by a bunch of holovisions showing various sporting events. The few solar tubes there looked like they hadn’t held a full charge in years, which was fine with Augustine because he wasn’t sure the place would hold up to bright light. The sticky floor grabbed at his boots with every step and dust coated the Mardi Gras beads that hung off the beer signs.
    Dulcinea had already found a spot at the bar. He took the stool beside her, hoping nothing in the joint was communicable. “Nice place.”
    “Isn’t it?” She perked up. “Stella’s is my other joint. They leave you alone in here.”
    “They leave a lot alone in here by the looks of it.”
    The bartender stopped leaning and walked toward them, nodding at Dulcinea. “The usual?”
    She held up two fingers. “Double it.”
    “Really,” Augustine started, “you come here that often? What’s your usual?” With Dulcinea, nothing was a given. Once upon a time, it had been white Russians, heavy on the white.
    “I come here enough, I guess.”
    “Must have started since I left because you’ve never brought me here.”
    “You’re too fancy for joints like this.” She stuck her tongue out at him.
    “Fancy?”
    “Yeah, you like the kind of places where the beautiful people hang out.” She batted her lashes at him, then gave him a wry smile. “I guess I should say the beautiful women. That you then seduce and take home.”
    “Hey, now.” He pointed a finger at her. “I never take them home. It’s their hotel or nothing.”
    She laughed. “You’re such a man whore.”
    He waggled his eyebrows. “That didn’t stop you from taking a dip in this pool.” A dip that had happened ages ago and only that one time, as they’d quickly come to the mutual understanding that being friends was more valuable.
    The bartender set two bottles of Abita, the local beer, down in front of them, answering the question about what her usual was. She took a long pull off hers before responding. “That’s because I liked to swim and your pool was always open. Also, we were young and stupid.”
    “That we were.” He sipped his beer. “Dulce, you know you could swim in any pool you wanted.” She might be odd, but there were plenty of humans who’d developed a fae fetish since the covenant had fallen and to them there was no such thing as a normal fae anyway. Something he’d taken full advantage of.
    She leaned in, clinking her bottle against his. “Maybe, but I don’t want some mouth breather following me around, moon-eyed and dopey with love. I want what I want until I don’t want it anymore.” She tipped her bottle in his direction. “With you, it was just like you said. We were young and dumb. No emotional strings. Just like all those tourist chicks you pick up. Except I never tried to hunt you down afterwards.”
    He nodded, slightly sobered by her frankness. “None of them have tried to hunt me down.”
    “That you know about.” She set her beer on the bar, her expression growing earnest. “I really
am
glad you’re back. Things are getting a little hinky in town.”
    “This about what you wouldn’t tell me outside?”
    She glanced around, but the few other patrons in the bar were some distance away and definitely not interested in what they were doing. “Vamps.”
    Not what he’d wanted to hear. He shook his head. He hadn’t seen a single vampire on his walk here, despite the fact that they could daywalk within the limits of the Orleans parish thanks to a nearly two-century-old curse leveled against the city by a heartbroken witch. “Is that why you were over at Olivia’s?”
    She kind of half shrugged. “That and you were gone. Figured it couldn’t hurt.” The label on her bottle slowly