My alarm goes off far too soon.

I spasm, immediately turning off the alarm, my heart racing erratically. I don't know how modern technology has come far enough to make a phone that produces such a horrible, ear-splitting sound that instantly floods my body with terror, but Apple as perfected the art of torture with the iPhone alarm sound.

Though I can't deny that it's effective.

Thirty minutes later, my brown hair is curled and my dark makeup is applied. I'm pull on black, ripped jeans; a dark red, low cut, long sleeve shirt; and black booties with a small heel. Since I own the bar, there's no particular dress code I'm obligated to follow, but there is a certain aesthetic I feel inclined to perpetuate.

The bar is modern, edgy, dark; it would look strange if the owner of it didn't dress in accordance with that. I'm not really sure what my own personal tastes are, with fashion changing practically every year, I've seen the rise and fall of many trends, so I don't put too much consideration in to what I wear, with the exception of making sure I look like I'm from this century.

I have to say, I don't miss the corsets worn for the better part of my life.

And the 80's were a nightmare for fashion.

Tucking a coat under my arm, knowing I'll need it in the morning, I leave my sector of the condo and knock on Eden's door.

"Come in!"

Of course, she's sitting at her glass desk, pouring over the same book from this morning. Though it's thick and she barely started it, now, she's on the last few pages. "Looks like you're almost done. Want to come to the Empire tonight?" I don't offer because I think she'll come, though I'd want her to; I offer so she knows I'm really not mad at her for the conversation earlier. Eden won't stand up to her parents; it's just who she is.

She looks mournfully at her book before shaking her head. "I have a lot of homework tonight."

Translation: My parents would lose their shit if I didn't stay locked up in this ivory tower.

"You look cute though!" she chirps. "Maybe I'll come another time. I need an excuse to get dolled up for something that isn't a coven-sanctioned event."

"Yeah, maybe." Maybe in another few centuries.

I resist the urge to flip off the doorman while walking out of Blackhelm Heights, like the polite not-so-young lady that I am. As summer nears its end, it's begun getting darker sooner, and it's pitch black while I begin my journey to The Shadow Empire.

Despite being a woman walking alone in the dark through the city, I'm not even close to scared. Human muggers could be easily obliterated (which I've done), and, well, I'm friends with most of the monsters of the city, since the vast majority of them frequent my bar. And the ones that I'm not friends with? They wouldn't want to piss off their friends that do come to the Shadow Empire by killing me.

So, I walk alone and without fear.

When I do reach the Empire, there's already a few people waiting outside. "Drunkards, all of you," I mutter as I drop the locking spell with a wave of my hand.

"We heard that," the vampires and werewolves say with a laugh.

"Yeah, they heard that," a witch says with a nod. "And they said you said it, which means I've heard it by proxy."

I roll my eyes at that, suppressing a smile as I open the door for them. "Yeah, yeah. You don't like the attitude—you go to another bar. I hear Sullivan's just opened back up." I give a pointed look to a vampire, Joanna. "Don't think they serve blood though."

"Ah, come on, Jade. We were just playing," she says with a grin, dropping a kiss on my cheek before walking inside.

The others who were waiting for me to arrive follow in her lead, making half-hearted apologies and kissing my cheek before heading in.

I groan after the last one, wiping my cheek. "If any of you give me some kind of supernatural sexually transmitted disease, I'm going to curse your bloodline."

"Hey, Liam just got checked last week!" Cady calls out, already sitting at the bar when I close the door behind me.

Liam hoots, "Yeah, I just got checked last week!"

"They finally get rid of your fleas?" I ask innocuously, starting on their regular orders.

"Why, you want a piece of this?" Liam asks, shimmying in his seat. "Sorry, babe, my mate won't share. He's very possessive."

"Aren't all you dogs?" Cady teases, and though she's joking, I murmur a noise of agreement. Werewolves, for more reasons than that, are my least favorite kind of supernatural.

"True," he agrees, grinning slyly. "But we make it sexy."

Cady steals his drink, despite her own, witch-custom one in front of her. "Still not as sexy as us witches. We make wicked sexy." Victorious with her own statement, she takes a sip of his moonshine before spitting it out and sputtering. "Fuck, Liam, I don't know how you drink that shit."

He swipes his drink back. "It tastes like the moon," he says dreamily.

"Cady," I begin in exasperation.

"I know, I know." She takes a deep breath, staring at the spilled drink gleaming on the floor. "Evanescet."

The puddle on the floor disappears, and I roll my eyes at her smirking face. "I could have given you a mop."

"Pfft. Like I'd do manual labor when I can say a word and make it disappear." Wisely, she chooses to only drink from her cup this time.

"You didn't make it disappear," I correct mildly, nodding to another patron flagging me down. I already know his order, so I start making it while continuing to explain. "You sent it somewhere else."

"Somewhere else?" Liam questions while I fill a cup with ice.

"Technically, she's right." Cady shrugs. "Matter can't be created or destroyed, even with magic. Everything has to go somewhere. It may look like it disappeared for good, but in reality, I sent it into the ocean."

"Is that safe for the fish?" Liam asks, distraught.

"No," I answer at the same time Cady says passively, "Probably not."

Once I get back from delivering the vampire his blood-wine cocktail through the air, Liam asks, "Jade, why don't you have to say words to do magic like Cady does?"

"Jade is a better vampire than Cady."

Cady frowns at my answer. "Okay, that may be true, but it's not why." I can tell that Cady is about to launch into an explanation, so I subtly shake my head, trying to silence her so she doesn't tell a werewolf our secrets, but she either inadvertently or purposely ignores it.

"Jade is a somatic witch," she explains. "Meaning she has to use her body to perform spells. Like the hand-flicky thing she does. More complicated spells would require more movement, but smaller spells could be done with a roll of her eyes. I'm a verbatuum witch, which means I need to say spells out loud for them to work."

"Are there other kinds?" he interrogates. It could be innocent, but I wouldn't be caught dead trusting a werewolf. Actually, if I did trust a werewolf, I would be caught dead.

"Of course," Cady says, like she's surprised he didn't know. "There're motai witches, who cast spells based on how they're feeling—real hotheads. Don't recommend messing with those ones; piss one off and you'll wake up at the bottom of the Atlantic. And then my personal least favorite: psyches."

Liam leans forward, whispering since the bar is becoming full rather quickly. "Why are they your least favorite?"

She snorts. "Psyches are awful. They cast spells with their mind. It's unfair, really. The rest of us have to work for it."

"It's not easy being a psyche," I interject, forgetting that Liam the werewolf is listening. "They have to see people's auras all the time. That would blow, big-time."

"No way!" Cady takes another swig. "That would be sick. Constantly knowing how people are feeling. What an advantage that would be over your enemies! Hell, even with your lovers!"

"You witches really are wicked," Liam says, blinking in shock.

"Don't forget it," I warn. He laughs, taking it as a joke, but he shouldn't.

Since the bar is now brimming with people, I turn away to start making more drinks, but I hear Cady advise him lowly, "Seriously, don't mess with Jade. She's older than God himself. She could fuck anyone in this bar up just by raising her pinkie."

I'm sending drinks to various tables when there's three harsh raps on the door.

Instantly, everyone silences.

No supernatural has to knock to come inside.

"Police! Open up!"