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    Club Nexus
    Club Nexus
    Club Nexus
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    Club Nexus

    By E.J. Stevens

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    A demon, a human, an Unseelie faerie, and a vampire walk into a bar...

    This Ivy Granger series novella contains four intertwining stories set in Club Nexus, the hidden haunt of Harborsmouth's paranormal underworld. Club Nexus is a great introduction into the award-winning urban fantasy world of Ivy Granger.

    ICED

    A bargain gone wrong leads a highborn Unseelie faerie to life as an enslaved bartender with a taste for revenge.

    DUSTED

    Being a highly skilled predator doesn't necessarily put you at the top of the food chain at Club Nexus. A southern vampire with a hankering for blood and wanton violence may have bit off more than he can chew.

    DEMONIZED

    The demon attorney we love to hate has his eye on a certain rockabilly human. Too bad she's brought a crossbow loaded with holy water dipped bolts for this night on the town.

    JINXED

    Just when Jinx needs a carefree girl's night out with Ivy, a smoking hot demon tries to buy her a drink. She really is the unluckiest human on the planet.

    Club Nexus (Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective #2.5) is a novella set in the award-winning Ivy Granger urban fantasy series by E.J. Stevens. The world of Ivy Granger, including the Ivy Granger Psychic Detective series and Hunters' Guild series, is filled with action, paranormal mystery, magic, dark humor, quirky characters, bloodsucking vampires, flirtatious demons, sarcastic gargoyles, sexy shifters, temperamental witches, psychotic faeries, and snarky, kick-butt heroines.

    The Ivy Granger series has won numerous awards, including the BTS Red Carpet Award for Best Novel, the PRG Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Paranormal Fantasy Novel, Best Urban Fantasy Novel, and finalist for Best Urban Fantasy Series.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherE.J. Stevens
    Release dateDec 3, 2013
    ISBN9781310587221
    Club Nexus

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      Book preview

      Club Nexus - E.J. Stevens

      Club Nexus

      E.J. Stevens

      Club Nexus

      E.J. Stevens

      Published by Sacred Oaks Press

      Copyright 2013 E.J. Stevens

      All rights reserved

      Publisher’s Note

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

      Ebook License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Author’s Note

      Club Nexus is comprised of four short stories—Iced, Dusted, Jinxed, and Demonized. I highly recommend reading these stories in order for the most powerful, and pleasurable, reading experience.

      But, of course, you can and will read these stories any which way you like. No matter how you read Club Nexus—back to front, upside down, or in a tutu—I hope you enjoy these glimpses into the paranormal nightlife of Harborsmouth.

      xx,

      E.J.

      But I don’t want to go among mad people, Alice remarked.

      Oh, you can’t help that, said the Cat: we’re all mad here.

      —Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

      Introduction

      Welcome to Club Nexus, a singular entertainment experience deep in the heart of Harborsmouth.

      If you have discovered our exclusive club, then it’s likely you belong to our specialized clientele. We cater to the needs and desires of vampires, demons, faeries, both Seelie and Unseelie, and their human servants.

      To ensure the privacy of our patrons, a glamour has been cast to ward our club from detection by non-paranormals. We also provide club security, both at the door and within our fine establishment.

      Our well-trained security staff do more than keep out unwelcome human riffraff. Due to our unique location atop crisscrossing ley lines, Club Nexus has been declared neutral ground. As such, we at Club Nexus have strict rules of conduct. Bloodshed must be consensual or the guilty parties risk punishment—death, maiming, or banishment from our club—at our security staff’s discretion.

      If you do hunger to satisfy unorthodox tastes and wish to walk the tightrope of our rules, you may be interested in the services of Mr. Goodfellow. Puck is a resourceful creature who will likely be able to provide what you desire—for a price.

      We do hope you enjoy your visit to Club Nexus. Whether you are in need of a drink, a special someone, or a special someone to drink, we at Club Nexus are at your service.

      ICED

      I blew a stray lock of hair from my eyes while running a damp cloth over the bar. The raven black curl froze at the edge of my vision, ice crystals from my breath coating it like the dust of fractured diamonds. But within seconds the damp chunk of bangs thawed from the perpetual heat of the club.

      The heat was one of the many things that I despised about bartending at Club Nexus. There were places within the club that were as cold as the Unseelie court I’d once called home—they had something here to please any fae in the upper echelons of power—but those areas were off limits to all but royalty and their trusted staff. Lowly club employees, such as myself, didn’t make it past the velvet rope.

      Not that a silly rope barrier would have kept me from the sweet embrace of one of the Winter Court’s icy, private booths. No, the true deterrents were the heavily armed guards—a griffin with a razor sharp beak and a boggart with a particularly nasty disposition, even for one of my dark fae brethren. I sighed and pushed the lock of hair from my face, tucking it behind one of my pointy, blue ears.

      I was proud of my pointy ears, slender figure, and unusual seven-foot height, for these things marked me as highborn fae. What I wasn’t so keen on was my current living situation. Once upon a time, I’d graced the halls of the Winter Court in finery spun from spider silk, my hair pinned up with late blooming roses, strands of ice crystals around my neck. Now I was bedecked in an unflattering uniform, and had to bear drunken pickup lines from lowly light fae while serving my enemies drinks and cleaning up their messes. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.

      I’d been tricked into an unfavorable bargain that left me with no alternative but to work off my debt here at Club Nexus as little more than a slave.

      The man who’d tricked me, a notorious Seelie fae named Puck, was little more than a pimp. He used a number of underhanded methods to hold sway over a variety of races: vamps, demons, humans, and fae. Puck ran girls through this club for sex, blood, and sport. I suppose I should count myself lucky that he’d been enamored by the idea of having an Unseelie bartender who could chill drinks with her very breath, but my position as a servant still rankled.

      It was a predicament that should not have befallen one of the highborn. I gripped the dishrag tight, the dirty remains of spilled drinks dribbling down my wrist. I grimaced at the foul liquid and tossed the rag into a bucket of soapy water. Sulking wouldn’t free me from this foul job, but an ear in the right place just might.

      I turned my attention to Puck, who had walked in moments before and now had his head tilted close to the ear of a vampire. They made an unlikely pair, the towheaded faerie with his smiling cherubic face and the fanged vampire coated in the dust of the grave. With the fangs of a vampire mere inches from his jugular one might worry for Puck’s safety, if you didn’t know who he really was.

      No matter his appearance, Puck was no angel; his kind was worse than any demon. He was a trickster who thrived on chaos and the thrill of cheating others out of all they had, whether that meant parting them from their money, their blood, or their souls.

      I moved toward the two on the pretense of feeding the small faerie who provided illumination from within a glass lantern further down the bar. I placed a scoop of honey inside a trough cut into the base of the lantern and listened.

      In the market for a short or tall ten pints? Puck asked. Had a new shipment of Ice in this week, so your drink can come feisty or sedate. Take your pick.

      My ears pricked at the mention of Ice—in the Winter Court we

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