Dianthe Rising Read Free Page B

curled it earlier and she had reapplied makeup. Dang, she was ready for the red carpet. "Annie, no one will even notice me with you there," I laughed. "You are smoking hot."
    Ten minutes later, we were making our way down to Angel Tube Station.
    “So where are we going again? Kind of want to know what train to get on.”
    “Oh, yeah, I never told you the name. Sorry, blonde moment. Have you heard of the nightclub down by Tower Bridge? It’s called Cable. It’s massively cool right now.”
    I flipped my hair over my shoulder and looked at her out of the corner of my eye, “Yeah that sounds good. I heard about it from some of the undergrads at work. Isn’t it a bit wild though?”
    “Nahh,” she replied. “Not through the week anyway. Should be a blast though.”
    We heard the train coming and prepared to sardine ourselves onto the tube for the time it took us to get to our stop.
    Once we got to the river and headed toward Bermondsey Street where club Cable was located, Annie and I went over our day.
    “So what did Davey Davies say when you told him you were taking time off?”
    “I was extremely surprised,” I exclaimed. “He was so laid back about it. He told me that I had been working hard lately, that my research was coming along great and that I deserved a good night out. He went all “dad like” on me and said to be careful and watch out for strange men. Sometimes it’s not the easiest thing working for someone who has known you since you were in nappies.”
    “Hey, don’t knock it. He sounds like the coolest boss ever. How many do you think are out there that would be okay with you for blowing off work to go party?”
    I raised my eyebrow but I did not bother to remind her whose idea it was to ditch work in the first place.
    We rounded a corner and Annie became more hyper than normal. “Here we are,” she chirped happily.
    I looked up to see the arch of the doors and a white banner with a black circle saying Cable. The queue wrapped around the building. I wrapped my wool jacket tighter around me and shivered. “We are never going to get in here, Annie.”
    “Don’t sweat it, sweets, I’ve got us an in,” she threw back.
    We ignored all the nasty looks as we walked around the crowd to the front of the queue. There we met with a mountain of a man guarding the velvet ropes. His neck was as big as my waist. I so wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley. Oh, wait…we were in a dark alley. Oh well, I shrugged, at least he was hot.
    Did Annie take any notice of the glare the behemoth was levelling at every one? Nope, she sashayed right up to him and jumped into his startled arms.
    “Why, Daniel Lovelace, I’ve not seen you in ages. How are you, sweetie pie?”
    I gasped when she pinched the monster’s cheek and gave him a kiss that would make any grandmother proud. She then tugged him down the couple of feet to our level.
    “Daniel, you remember me telling you about my best mate in the whole world Dia? Guess what, it’s her birthday and I’m taking her out for the night of her life.”
    While he looked extremely uncomfortable, the giant killing machine carefully wrapped an arm around Annie’s back.
    “Hi,” the mountain rumbled as he reached out a hand and took mine. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Raggedy Annie here has been talking about you for years. She did tell you we are cousins right?” He arched an eyebrow at Annie.
    “Umm, no she didn’t, I thought," I faltered with the words. Annie thankfully cut me off before I could stutter more.
    “Damn it, Danny,” Annie cried. “I was so going to make her think we had a thing going. How funny would that be?”
    Looking embarrassed, he glanced at me shyly while he mumbled, “I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.”
    “Why would she get the wrong idea?” Annie questioned. “She’s never even met you before, you know she might even…oh…ohh, I see.” Annie giggled, eyes widening as Daniel’s face went a craggy red. In a