by N. P. Martin
For now, I had to focus. The last thing I needed was to be attacked by demons when I was too wasted to defend myself. No, just a few drinks would have to do, and perhaps a joint or two when I got back to the cabin. Maybe I’d even split one with Frank, if he was home that is.
After turning a corner into, of all places, the beginning of the Sex Quarter, I took my phone out and checked it for any missed calls or messages from Frank. But there were none.
"Jeez, Frank," I said shaking my head as I tossed the phone on the front seat, where it clacked against the Glock still sitting there. "Is it any wonder my mom didn’t want you being a parent to her kids when you just disappear for hours…you don’t call…nothing." I laughed to myself. "What the hell do I sound like? It’s not like he’s under any obligation, is it?"
My surroundings suddenly consisted of neon signs and busy streets; naked men and women standing behind large windows, displaying their wears; and an endless stream of people out looking for something that would satisfy whatever desire had driven them to be out at this time of the night. "What the hell am I doing here?" I asked myself wearily, thinking there was plenty of other places in the city I could go to get a quiet drink besides the damn Sex Quarter.
But I knew what I was doing there, even if I wouldn’t admit it to myself. A few minutes later, and I was parked across the street from Demon Ecstasy. I sat in the car for a few minutes just looking across at the two burly bouncers blocking the entrance, only standing aside to let the occasional person in or out. It didn’t take me long to realize the two bouncers were also werewolves. I wasn’t sure why I was certain of that, because not only had I never met or seen a werewolf before, the two bouncers also looked completely normal, if a little…wolfish. It was just a feeling I had, no doubt originating from my grace.
I was beginning to pay more attention of late to my grace’s subtle mechanisms, or my demon radar as I had come to think of it. My grace was not just the brute force energy that I once thought it was. It was also nuanced, and as I say, subtle. It would send thoughts into my head unbidden, and feelings into my body, making me more aware of certain things, such as my surroundings and other people. Or in this case, other hybrid beings like myself. In the short time I had been experiencing these subtle hints, they had never been wrong. Which is why I was trusting my grace now, when it told me I was looking at two werewolves.
Not that the bouncers bothered me, or the fact that they were werewolves. My mind was more on the fact that I was on the verge of going into the club because there was a demon in there who I hardly knew, but yet felt some crazy connection to. But my mind had nothing to do with it at the end of the day, otherwise I simply wouldn’t have been sitting there. No, this was something deeper, something that went beyond mere thought or logic, into that ever ephemeral domain of feelings and soul connections. Such things that refuse point blank to be grabbed hold of in order to describe them.
If Kasey was beside me, and I was explaining it to her, I know what she would say. She would raise her eyebrows and state bluntly:
"So you wanna fuck him then."
I shook my head, partly aghast at the thought. I mean, Lucas was a demon. I should really hate him, despise him, loathe him for what he is, for what he represents.
Yet I didn’t.
"Which means you wanna fuck him." Kasey’s voice inside my head again.
I sighed. My feelings felt disconcerting, and I knew why. It was because they were entirely new to me. Beyond a few distant crushes, I had never had any deep feelings for guys. I’d never been 'in love’. Shit, I’d only ever slept with three people, and I’d been wasted on all three occasions. Too wasted to even remember half the details, which in hindsight, was probably just as well.
So now, there I was, with this almost unbearable aching feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I wanted something so bad, I could hardly stand it. As feelings went, it was both pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. It was also hard to ignore, because it had been there in some form or another from the minute I laid eyes on Lucas.
Maybe Lucas has used his power on me, I thought. Maybe he has me under some kind of spell; a spell that makes me want him, and draws me to him.
I tutted to myself as I shook my head. The idea of being under a spell seemed ridiculous, but given the world I lived in now, not so farfetched.
Kasey’s voice rose in my head again. "Jesus, just go in there and get yourself a fucking drink, and then see what happens."
See what happens? I wasn’t expecting anything to happen. Mostly, I just wanted to see Lucas again, in the flesh so to speak, just to see if the feelings I had were real, and not just something my mind had made up.
"Fuck it."
I reached across and put the Glock in the glovebox, knowing I probably wouldn’t get into the club with it anyway. Still, I needed some protection given the circumstances, so I kept the Watcher Knife on me, concealed under my trouser leg. Then I slid my phone into my jacket and exited the car, jogging across the busy road to the two bouncers outside the club, who didn’t move an inch when I approached. There was something in their eyes, though. Recognition maybe, of what I was, rather than of who I was.
"What do you want?" one of the bouncer’s asked, a big guy with a bald head and tribal tattoos on both temples.
"Eh, I want to go inside," I said. "Obviously."
The two bouncers looked at each other, and then at me. "None of your kind are allowed in here," the other bouncer said, his voice gruff and his eyes menacing. "Fuck off."
My kind? It was a little weird hearing that, yet also empowering in a weird way.
I held my hands out. "Listen guys, I’m not here to cause trouble. I only want to get a drink. I mean, come on, do I look like a threat to you?"
The two bouncers glanced at one another again. "Like we said, fuck off, before we have to see if you really are a threat."
I sighed and shook my head. Are all werewolves like this? I wondered. Stubborn and brute ignorant?
"Come on guys, what do you think I’m going to do?"
The bald-headed one took a step toward me. "Move on, before—"
I couldn’t help it. The bouncers were pissing me off, and I just wanted into the club, now more than ever. So I kicked the guy in the balls as hard as I could, and then landed a grace-fueled punch to his jaw that knocked him to the floor. I think he was unconscious before he even landed.
Then I turned to see the other bouncer standing snarling at me with elongated teeth and yellow wolf eyes. "It would be easier if you just let me in," I said. "You might be able to take me, but just remember what I am, and what I just did to your friend there. I’m tired, and I just want a damn drink so I can relax for an hour. Is that too much to ask?"
Where was this coming from? I wondered as I stared unflinchingly at the bouncer. Not too long ago, I never would’ve done what I just did, nor said what I just said. It seemed like it was coming from a new form of confidence in me, and a new level of power. If so, I would take it.
The bouncer stopped snarling as he eventually stood aside to let me through the doors. Personally, I just think he didn’t want the hassle of having to fight me.
"Thanks," I said walking past him. "Tell your friend I’m sorry."
The bouncer grunted as the doors closed behind me, and I walked into the club
The place was livelier than it was the first time I was in it. It was pretty packed, in fact. The introvert in me saw all those people—men mostly—and wanted to walk straight back out of the place again, to retreat to the solitude of the mountains once more. But as my grace was still buzzing within me, and as my confidence was up from handling the bouncer so deftly, I held my head high as I walked through the crowd on my way to the bar.
On the way there, I glanced up at the dancers on stage, noticing one of them—the one on the main stage—had a huge snake hanging around her neck, and she was sticking her long tongue out to meet the snake’s constantly flickering fork. Not my idea of entertainment, but the
n I doubted I fell into the club’s target demographic, which seemed to be mostly young to middle-aged professional men, most of whom wore expensive suits and shirts with the sleeves rolled up. The music sounded darker than last time, some grinding industrial beat with weird samples laid over the top. I guess it suited the mood of the place, which was darkly sexual, or maybe just dark and seedy. Shit, I don’t know. I was no expert on strip joints, this being only my second time in one.
Despite the large crowd, the bar wasn’t that packed, and I was able to get a seat. A young black guy behind the bar took my order. "Vodka. Double. Neat."
As the barman smiled and walked off to get my drink, I realized the tingling of my grace had intensified a little, and I got the feeling the barman was something other than human, but I didn’t know what. Neither did I really care. I just wanted a drink.
"What’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?"
I turned to see some smug looking guy in a suit standing beside me, leaning one arm on the bar as he held a glass of something in the other. "Go away," I said.
The guy’s smug smile hardly faltered as he briefly looked around to a seating area where another bunch of guys in suits sat, all laughing and smiling over at him. "We knew you’d say that," he said. "You know why?"
"Nope, and nor do I care to know." I went to hand the barman a bill when he placed my drink in front of me, but he waved his hand and told me it was taken care of. I would’ve asked him how, but the dickwad beside me was still talking.
"We knew because white trash like you always knows its place." He started laughing then, as if he found the whole exchange hilarious. "I hope you didn’t come here tonight to get picked up, because you got no chance in here, Trailer Girl. Hell, you should be the one having to buy my next round just for thinking I might be here to pick you up."
Jesus, is this guy for real? Where the fuck does he get off speaking to me like that?
I downed my drink in one and slammed the empty glass on the bar. Then I turned to Dickwad and said, "Get away from me, before I hurt you."
Once upon a time, I would never have said something like that to anyone, let alone a guy twice my size. But I had power now, and that power was changing me. Part of that change was not having to put up with nasty pieces of work like Dickwad here.
He was now staring at me with nothing but contempt in his eyes, but as I stared back, his face began to falter, even if he did his best to hide it with his arrogance. He even stood up straight and came close, as if he wanted to intimidate me. Not that I was that scared by him. I knew it would only take a single blow, combined with a tiny burst of grace, to send this asshole flying back across the bar. When you know you have that type of power at your fingertips, you become much more secure within yourself, and less easily intimidated, especially when that intimidation was coming from a mere human. I felt immediately contrite about having said thoughts, though, especially in light of my twin's recent glorifications of what it is to have power at your fingertips. Did this mean that I was no better than him, and that his assertions were entirely correct? One to work out later, but in the meantime…
My grace was loaded up, and I was ready to hit the guy if he tried to put his hands on me. As it turned out, though, I didn’t need to do anything at all, because someone else slid in between us. Someone in a dark suit who was instantly recognizable to me from his scent alone, which was subtly exotic with dark, seductive undertones. Having him so close to me caused a rush of nervous excitement in my belly that traveled down between my legs.
I almost forgot about Dickwad until Lucas addressed him.
"Is there a problem here?" he asked the guy.
"Who the fuck are you?" Dickwad asked.
This should be good…
I leaned out so I could see past Lucas, just as he put a hand on top of the guy’s shoulder. "I own this place."
"Well, you should watch what kind of trash you let in here." The guy stared arrogantly at Lucas, as if he didn’t care who Lucas was. But then his face suddenly changed, and for a second he looked terrified. I couldn’t see Lucas’ face, so I had no idea what he did to make the guy look at him like that. To me, it looked like Dickwad had caught a monetary glimpse of Hell. The blood draining from his face certainly suggested so.
"I’ll be sure to do that," Lucas said, his voice nothing but calm and polite. Then he called the barman over. "Get this gentleman and his friends the special champagne, Eric, will you?"
There was a mischievous glint in Eric the barman’s eye as he smiled at Lucas and walked off.
Dickwad still stood there, all trace of his arrogance now gone. "That’s…very generous," he said to Lucas, his voice trembling slightly. "Thank you."
"No problem," Lucas replied. "Now why don’t you apologize to the lady."
Dickwad leaned around and looked at me. It was funny to see him so obviously scared. "I’m sorry for what I said. It…won’t happen again."
I nodded. "You’re damn right it won’t."
Dickwad nodded like an idiot and looked back at Lucas. "Okay," Lucas said to him. "You can fuck off back to your table now. Enjoy the champagne."
At that, the guy practically ran back to his friends. In a weird way, I didn’t want him to go at all, for now it was just me and Lucas. Once again, as I waited for him to turn around, I had that feeling of my soul being on fire. The intensity of it was overwhelming, and even more so when he finally turned around to face me.
He smiled when our eyes met, and I couldn’t help but smile back at him, his eyes dark and mysterious, which coupled with his easy smile and devastating composure, was enough to make me want to just fall into him.
"Are you okay?" he asked, genuinely concerned it seemed.
I nodded slowly. "Em, yeah, I’m fine. I was about to handle that guy."
Lucas’ smile widened. "I know you were, just like you handled one of my bouncers outside."
"He wasn’t going to let me in."
Lucas started laughing to himself.
"What’s funny?" I asked.
"What’s funny is, the first time Frank ever came into this place, he ended up knocking out two guys in the first five minutes of being here."
"Maybe I should knock out another two, so I beat his record."
Lucas laughed, and for the first time I was struck by his obvious warmth. Given his lineage, it was something I didn’t expect. Certainly, it made him seem more human. "You realize that’s just like something Frank would say?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I think he may be rubbing off on me."
"That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Frank’s a little rough around the edges, but he’s a good guy."
"Are you saying I’m rough around the edges as well?" I said smiling.
"Maybe," Lucas said smiling back. "But I view it as part of your charm."
"My charm? You don’t know me very well."
I turned to Eric behind the bar and signaled for another drink. When he arrived over, Lucas told him to leave the bottle and fetch another glass, which Eric did. Lucas then filled the two small glasses to the brim and handed me one. Picking up the other glass, he held it out toward me. "To my good fortune," he said.
I raised my eyebrows as I held up my glass. "Good fortune?"
"Yes, my good fortune that you happened along here tonight."
His eyes looked deep into mine, and I was embarrassed to feel myself blush a little as I clinked his glass.
"So tell me," I said, after downing my drink, keen to alleviate my awkwardness. "What’s the special champagne? I didn’t think that asshole’s behavior deserved a reward."
Lucas smiled a little mischievously as he refilled our glasses. "You would be right, of course. His behavior was despicable, which is why he and his friends richly deserve the special champagne I gave them."
We both looked over at Dickwad and his friends as they all sat drinking the champagne Lucas had provided them with. "So why is it special?"
"It has some secret ingredients in it,
which when combined, have a, shall we say, unfortunate effect on a man."
I nodded. "Okay. I’ll bite. What effect?"
Lucas stared over at Dickwad, who quickly averted his gaze. "They will all lose the ability to get an erection."
I nearly choked on my drink. "Seriously?"
"Yes," Lucas said nodding. "Only for a month or so, but believe me, it will be a long, torturous month for those guys."
I looked over at Dickwad and his friends, and smiled at the fact that they had no idea what was about to happen to them. Served them right.
If Kasey were here, she’d be rolling around laughing by now, thinking the whole thing hilarious.
The thought brought a lump to my throat, and a tear to my eye. As I turned my head away from Lucas slightly, he suddenly reached out and affectionately wiped away the tear that was resting on my cheek bone. Then he smiled tenderly. "Something tells me that wasn’t a tear of joy."
I shook my head. "No, I just miss my friend. I’m sorry."
He waved his hand. "No need to apologize. I understand."
"You’ve lost people?"
A sad sort of smile crossed his face, and for the first time, I saw him without all the charm and easy going charisma. He was even more captivating to me then. "When you’ve been around as long as I have, loss is a constant."
I nodded as a brief silence ensued, during which I downed another shot while Lucas looked around the club.
"That was very fiendish of you," I said eventually, in an effort to break the tension. "Relieving those guys over there of their manhood like that, the thing they cling to the most…like I said, fiendish."
"I’m glad you agree," Lucas said, smiling now as his easy charm returned.
"Remind me never too cross you, though."
Lucas smiled as he stared at me. "You have nothing to fear from me, Leia. I could never hurt you."
Jesus, he was completely serious when he said it, and I swallowed as I stared back at him. "You don’t even know me," I said, barely loud enough for him to hear over the music.
