The Vessel

By Ofelia Grand

Sequel to The Ruby Tooth

Welcome to The Ruby Tooth, the only nightclub the supernatural council has approved for mixed clientele. Here the pure-souled are shown to the bar on the left, and the rest to the one on the right.

Sadek Verity works as a doorman at The Ruby Tooth. His job is to look into the soul of each club goer and determine if they belong on the naughty or the nice side. It’s an easy job until Dei shows up. Dei doesn’t belong on either side, and Sadek doesn’t know what to do about it.

Dei Vessel shouldn’t have run away from his master. For twenty-six years, he’s been the familiar of a slightly deranged witch, but when the opportunity shows itself, he walks out the door and into the city. He finds himself in a nightclub with a hot but scary doorman. When his master comes looking, Sadek helps him escape. But will he let Dei hide out with him forever, or will Dei have to find his own way?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Dec 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685506230

Ofelia Grand

Ofelia Gränd is Swedish through and through. She is constantly thinking of stories she would love to write. Anything and everything is a source of inspiration that has her lost in thought, staring off into space, in no time at all. Sometimes she turns a street corner, and sees a different world. She is often walking around mumbling to herself and her intended characters. Every so often she is painting mental pictures of their appearances, or wishing that she was better at Photoshop, because she knows exactly what the cover of the story in her mind should look like. Real life, however, interferes all too often, and the stories mostly remains unwritten. In real life, Ofelia is living with her husband and their three children in a small town on the southwestern Swedish coast. When she isn’t a stay-at-home mom, she is teaching Swedish and Swedish as a second language to teenagers and adults. She has been thinking about teaching English, but since she isn’t fluent in the language, she is sticking to the one she knows well. Therefore, she, more than anyone, is a bit perplexed about why she thought it would be a good idea to try to write in English. But, she’ll probably come to her senses— sometime.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Sadek Verity stood unmoving as a man about his size stumbled in through the door. Sadek wasn’t small, and few humans were as big as he was. You didn’t work as a doorman in a nightclub like The Ruby Tooth if you couldn’t handle yourself, and size helped diffuse some conflicts. The Ruby Tooth was the only chain approved by the supernatural council to have a mixed clientele—shifters, vampires, witches, and humans were welcome.

The humans didn’t know there were other species than them, or most of them didn’t know, at least. He suspected the one who was looking him up and down right this moment did. Their gazes met and Sadek’s heart gave a double beat.

The man was nothing special, dark hair, dark stubble on his cheeks, his clothes loved rather than fashionable, but his eyes…His eyes held a thousand sorrows, and the energy around him crackled.

Sadek didn’t have a developed sense of smell, nothing like a shifter, but the small room between the doors to the two different sides of the nightclub filled with the scent of ozone. He took a steadying breath as he prepared to look into the man’s soul. He’d been convinced the man was human, but ozone…only magic users smelled of ozone.

The man gave him a flirty grin at odds with the look in his eyes. The grin slipped away as Sadek reached into his soul—good or bad? He sifted through the turmoil of emotions, impressions, and urges. Evaluated his impulse control and delved deeper. For a moment, he didn’t know where he ended, and the man began. It was harder to climb out than it normally was, and Sadek suppressed a shudder. To the right.

The man nodded and swayed before stumbling toward the right. There was something wrong. Sadek couldn’t see what it was, and that was disturbing. He could always see. It was what he did. He looked into people’s souls and knew if they were good or bad. It was his job, but also what they did as a species. He was a veritas. He saw the truth. He was always certain. It only took a second. One quick dip inside, and the answer was right there…except something was wrong here.

The man’s energy had been doused in an oily, sinister substance. Not a substance, exactly, but it left Sadek with an oily, uneasy feeling. Which meant he had to go to the right, but he wasn’t…evil. And yet there was something evil.

The moment the door closed behind the man; indecision curled around him. Veritas didn’t feel indecision. It was why the council had agreed to allow a nightclub chain of mixed clientele. A nightclub wasn’t allowed to open if they didn’t have a veritas doorman on duty.

He and his fellow veritas looked into the souls of the club-goers one at a time and told them which door to walk through. Pure-souled people went to the left, the not-so-pure went to the right.

Shifters and vampires almost exclusively went to the right. Some witches belonged on the left side, but there were black witches, and for some reason, they outnumbered the white witches by far. Power corrupted.

Humans mostly went to the left. It didn’t mean all humans were good, far from, but few of them had any plans of using physical strength or magic to control those around them. As a general, humans were more mild-mannered, and some even had a dash of altruism. Refreshing.

Should he have shown the man to the left? No, he couldn’t risk it. But could he risk the man being on the right side? He hadn’t been able to pinpoint any power source within him, and yet there was magic. Could he be a crossbreed of some kind? A human and a witch who’d had a child, and the power was dormant? He’d always believed the magic took over, and if a witch had a child with a human, it would be born a witch.

He’d have to ask Marilla, who worked in the kitchen. She was a magic user and was familiar with most other magic users in the area. Since Sadek never had seen the man before, he might not be from the area, but…

The door opened and a young human woman in a pink dress far too thin for the December cold took an uncertain step forward. He only took a quick dip into her soul before plastering on a smile and showing her to the left.

Three other young human women followed—one at the time. It was another rule, there was only one other person allowed in the room with him. This was so he couldn’t be distracted. The council didn’t understand veritas if they believed any of his brethren would be, but he appreciated not having to take on a group of shifters if they were displeased with which side he sent people.

More people trickled in, and he did his job, but his mind was still stuck on the man. Perhaps he should peek inside the right side to ensure the other club-goers hadn’t eaten him.

He’d most likely come to meet up with friends and was having a great time, safe and sound. And yet a persistent niggle remained in his mind.

* * * *

Dei Vessel found an empty spot