by Jeff Hale
The MAGE Council had done their best to leash me when I worked for them, and they had failed and finally given up. Despite being ‘fired’ from my job at MAGE because of being an ‘accomplice’ in the destruction of the Barrier, I still kept in contact with the Council. I had resources at my disposal that they found useful, primarily my ties with the AE community through Raven and Lucien, not to mention some other ties I had gained because of Katelyn becoming a werecat.
That had surprised me. Oh, I’d always felt that there was something about her, something different, but I never would have guessed that she had been born half shifter, or that after she went back home she would become one fully. Sweet, innocent little Katelyn ended up being one of us AEs in the end. And not so innocent after all.
I just wished, deep down, that if she had to end up being some kind of AE that it hadn’t been a shifter. MAGE had taught me that shifters weren’t the best behaved supernatural creatures in the world, seemingly unable to control their emotional and instinctive urges, as well as horribly violent. Kat was different though, but I might have just been biased. I guess it was better than her being a vampire. Yuck.
“That seems kinda… unconstitutional, doesn’t it?” Joey was asking, breaking me away from my thoughts of Kat.
I shrugged and didn’t mention that I didn’t have one of those chips. “Maybe, but everything is different now, so I’m pretty sure the old Constitution isn’t applicable anymore.” I let the flames die out from around my hand. “Anyway, I’m kinda meeting some friends and they’re waiting for me.”
“Oh! Sorry, didn’t mean to impose on you,” Rachel said contritely. “Thank you, though, for being so nice, and talking to us. Wait’ll we tell our friends back home!”
Exactly my hope. I nodded at them, then turned and made my way to the bouncer by the entrance. His name was Rob if I remembered correctly.
“Aerick!” Rob’s face lit up when he saw me. “Good to see you again! Just you tonight?” He leaned over to unhook the rope in front of the door for me.
I started to say yes, then glanced back over at the couple, who were still watching me. “Them too.” I pointed at them, then motioned for them to come to us. “And put their cover charge on my tab.”
Rachel and Joey hurried up to me, then gave me a shocked and thankful look when I indicated that they were to go into the club with me. There were more people waiting in the lobby, but Rob gestured for us to go on through. Joey and Rachel whispered to each other as they pointed out some celebrities they recognized, but Rachel prudently didn’t use her camera. They followed me through the wood doors and into the club itself.
It had undergone some changes since I had been away. This was normal. Lucien was a chaotic creature and thus his club changed quite often. Since he and several fae ran the place, it wasn’t all that hard for him to change it either.
The club had an overall Aztecan or Mayan feel to it now, with the floors, walls, and support columns etched with strange symbols and hieroglyphs. The front portion of the club was still a restaurant, with tables and booths dominating the main area and a bar running along the wall to my right. The place was pretty busy with most of the tables and booths being full. Several fae waiters and waitresses moved from table to table and to the area behind the bar.
“You two here for the dancing, the food, or both?” I asked Rachel and Joey as they hovered behind me.
“Dinner would be good, first, but we came to dance too,” Rachel answered me.
“This place serves really good food, so you’re in for a treat. I don’t see my friends in here though.” I hadn’t, which meant they were probably in the back part of the club, where the music and dancing were. “They’re probably in the back. Maybe I’ll see you two later then?” I waved at the hostess and then pointed at the couple. The hostess came over with a couple menus and for a moment I was worried that Rachel might strangle her boyfriend.
Lucien appreciated beauty and sexuality and usually had his staff wearing next to nothing. That hadn’t changed. The guys wore nothing but loin-cloths and the women were clad in very skimpy string bikinis. Fae were very beautiful creatures, or at least certain species of them were, and I had already found myself appreciating a couple of the waitresses. Seeing several female fae wearing close to nothing would get any guy’s attention. Including Joey’s.
Neither of them answered my question, so I waved goodbye and hurried off before they got into an argument, heading for the curtain that ran the width of the club, separating the restaurant from the dance floor. As I pulled the curtain aside and moved through, I felt the tingle of Aetheric energy and loud music assaulted my ears. Type O Negative’s “Blood and Fire” was playing full blast and the dance floor was already full.
Technically there were two dance floors in this section. One on my left and one on my right. The floors were glass, and there appeared to be a bluish lava underneath. Clear tubes ran along the edges of the floor, and when a tube met a corner it ran up the wall. Eventually all the tubes met at the point of the vaulted ceiling. At intervals timed with whatever music was playing, flashes of multi-colored flames would shoot through the tubes. Each dance floor had several shortened ziggurat shaped columns here and there upon which either really good, or really drunk, dancers could climb on and dance for all to see.
The DJ booth sat across the floor to my left, and a bar ran along the wall straight ahead. The bar actually curved into the next area, where there was probably another dance floor section with different music playing. To my right across the floor was another bar and several booths. I saw Dave, Jessie, and Malcolm in one booth waving me over.
I smiled and waved. Making my way around the dance floor, I watched several of the females that were dancing on the raised ziggurats. One was trying vainly to dance well with some loser grinding on her. I could tell that she would be good if not for him. However it was a different dancer that really caught my eye, and she was someone I recognized: Lily.
Lily was about five foot two or so and slender. She didn’t have a lot up top, but she did have a really nice butt and gorgeous legs. Her curly dark-blonde hair was shorter than I remembered it, just falling to her shoulders, and I didn’t need to see her eyes to recall their bright blue color. She had really tight hot pants on but her bikini top matched that of the staff uniforms.
I stopped and forgot about everything else for several moments, mesmerized by her dancing. She was good. More than that, she was fucking awesome. She didn’t dance like a trashy stripper like most of the girls in these clubs; when she danced, she danced. She gave the lyrics and the music a physical outlet in her movements; that was the only way to describe it. She always had a habit of coming in early before her shift so she could practice.
I shook my head and forced myself to tear my eyes away from the vision of beauty that was Lily dancing, then made my way to my friends. It was probably for the best. I didn’t need Lily noticing me watching her anyway and possibly reading more into it than was really there. Not after the other… night.
Jessie scooted in further so I could sit down. She was dressed for Vegas heat, in a back and stomach baring dark-blue top that tied around the back and the neck, and a pair of short denim shorts. As I sat down next to her, she put an arm around me and leaned into me. I let her, mainly because I had missed her and because we were just that close. I shook Dave’s extended hand and noticed he was wearing a new shirt that read ‘I used to be an Atheist’ and under that in smaller letters it said ‘Until I realized that I am God’. Malcolm’s dark-blue button up shirt was unbuttoned to just below his chest, and the fact that he had the patience of a saint was the only reason I could fathom his still being with Jessie. Not that Jessie was a bad person. She was just… eccentric.
“So. Aerick. Dude. Bro. What the fuck is up?!” Dave asked, smiling at me the whole time. “You a badass yet?”
Dave and I had only gotten to see each other briefly in passing in the week I’d been back. Raven and I were trying to establish our own
private agency that specialized in eliminating renegade AEs, but because she was fae, MAGE refused to contract her for the freelance work and I was trying to get it smoothed out. Between that, and Dave’s job schedule, Dave and I hadn’t really had a chance to talk.
I laughed at Dave’s question, figuring he was just joking, then realized that everyone was waiting expectantly for my answer. “What? You’re serious?” I asked, incredulous.
“Fuck yeah, I am. I want to make sure that if some vamp or other crazy thing comes after me that you can wipe the floor with it. I only ask in the need for self-preservation.” Dave was still giving me that shit eating grin.
“I don’t know. I guess. I trained mainly in combat. Merlin said something about deeper teachings, but he didn’t have time to get into all that. He wanted my combat capabilities top notch as soon as possible for some reason.” I shrugged.
“Good,” Dave said, and I saw some emotion flash across his face, something dark. Concern? Fear? Anger? I couldn’t tell. It was too quick.
“Can you take people’s clothes off with your mind yet?” Jessie asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Uh. No? I’m not a telekinetic,” I said, giving her a perplexed look.
“Then what good are you to me?” she replied, making a shooing motion at me.
See. Eccentric. And a massive perv to boot. She was actually studying to become a psychologist, and from what Dave had said on the phone she had leapt on the ideals of one Dr. Sigmund Freud. No surprise there.
“I could burn them off though, can’t say the person underneath would be completely intact,” I offered.
“Well when you can do that and not burn the person, let me know. I have a study I’m doing and I can’t get people to take off their clothes for it.” Jessie pouted and shook her head in exasperation.
“What kind of study?” I asked, curious now, although I should have known better.
“She wants to know who shaves their pubic hair. She has some theory that only people younger than twenty-five do,” Malcolm said with a resigned smirk. I could almost see him rolling his eyes mentally.
“Can’t you just ask them?” I asked, giving Jessie a shocked look.
“No. I want pictures to back up my research,” she informed me in a matter of fact tone.
“Riiiight. So what else has been going on? Where’s Nina?” I asked, figuring she would have been here for this.
“She hasn’t been around,” Dave snapped.
“Oh, sorry, man. Didn’t mean to touch a nerve.” I held my hands up in surrender.
“No, dude, it’s okay. Sorry about that, I’ve just had it with her,” Dave said, a sad smile playing across his lips.
“What now?” I asked.
They had been on and off ever since we had caught her cheating on him in the bathroom of the school. Apparently she had cheated on him at Prom too. With three guys. At the same time. Literally. Use your imagination on that one.
“Nothing big. She’s just having regular gang bangs with this group of people,” Dave said, anger and disgust apparent in his tone. He still loved her. He probably always would, no matter what she did. Poor guy.
“That all?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant. “I mean it’s not like she’s fucking the football team and the cheerleaders all at the same time or something.” I shrugged and gave Dave a grin to let him know I was joking.
He actually laughed. “I’d pay to watch that. She’d end up taking a bath in acid and bleach just to clean herself after that.”
Nina had a known, burning hatred for cheerleaders and jocks both, going all the way back to when she got drummed out of the squad when she was a freshman for having pink hair one day.
“Hey, guys! What can I get for ya’ll?” I heard the cheerful voice from next to me and as I looked up at the speaker, I saw it was Lily in uniform. Her tanned skin still had a thin sheen of sweat on it and I couldn’t help but admire her for a moment as she stood there, ready to take our orders. Even as I ogled her, I groaned inwardly as she winked at me.
“I think he’ll have an order of you for dessert,” Malcolm said, pointing at me and laughing. Everyone else followed suit. Everyone except Lily.
“Anytime he wants,” Lily replied in a serious tone, which elicited everyone to make ooo’ing noises, had Jessie slapping me on the back, and Dave and Malcolm bumping fists.
Yep. I loved my friends. Good thing, too, because I could have fried them on the spot for this. I sank a little in my seat. Lily apparently took that as an invitation because she decided to plop herself onto my lap. I grunted a bit when she did, not expecting her to weigh as much as she did. She looked small, but she was dense. I shook my head and picked her up and planted her back on her feet.
“We… I mean, I can’t do this,” I said, feeling my face flush briefly.
“You seemed fine with it a few nights ago,” Lily said, crossing her arms, her eyes narrowing in on me.
“Whoa. Wait. What?” Dave asked, giving me a surprised look.
“Yeah, he didn’t mind my dance moves the other night after he got back,” Lily said, giving me a lascivious look.
“You didn’t,” Dave stated, shaking his head.
I just nodded guiltily.
“What the fuck, man?” Dave demanded, confused. “That’s not you at all, but I guess that explains why you didn’t come back to the apartment that first night. What about Kat?”
“What about her? She’s off fucking Darien in Europe, remember?” I snapped off bitterly.
“Yeah. That’s right. Sorry, man. Forgot,” Dave replied, a bit chagrinned.
“Ahem. Orders?” Lily asked, now obviously not wanting to be anywhere near us. We all ordered and I opted for a screwdriver. I had the sudden urge to get drunk. Again.
I sighed as she sauntered away. I had had a thing for Lily for a little while now. She had been working at the Flame since before the Barrier fell. Lucien had his ways when it came to employing under-twenty-one staff, and he only employed those he knew he could explicitly trust. Lily had been a runaway, and Lucien had taken her in, giving her a job to help her pay for dance schooling.
I tried to ignore Lily every time she came to the table, which was difficult to say the least. I just didn’t do one night stands, and the fact that I had was bugging me. A lot. When she wasn’t around I regaled my friends with stories of my past exploits and cases since I hadn’t been able to tell them before. They thoroughly enjoyed my anecdotes and seemed to be pleased that I was happy for once. Can’t say that I blamed them, they were just glad to see me having a good time. They were used to me moping and pining after Serena. What they didn’t know was that pining after my dead girlfriend had only been part of my moodiness around them, that it had a lot to do with the fact that I had had to keep what I really was from them.
Serena. During all my training, and with how busy I had been recently, I had managed to put her to the back of my mind. I knew that both Azryel and Nychelle had mentioned some possibility of her not being dead, or not released into the Aether, or something of that effect. If her soul hadn’t been released to the Aether it meant it was possible, through powerful magic, to resurrect her, since her soul wouldn’t have been recycled and returned through reincarnation. I had asked Merlin about it, but he quickly warned me off from such thoughts.
Then there were the dreams. They were almost constant now. I was dreaming of memories I had of her. But the dream I had had earlier this year, I could have sworn I had heard her voice after I woke up. I shook my head free of such thoughts as Lily came back with our drinks. No need to ruin a perfectly good evening when I could deal with all of this on another day.
I kept my eye out for that tourist couple, but I didn’t see them anywhere. For all I knew, they had eaten dinner then left, and I didn’t let it worry me. I was just glad that I had the chance to show them that AEs were people too. Eventually everyone started to wind down and head home. Dave was the last to leave, primarily because he was deep into his cups and muttering a
bout Nina constantly. Despite my desire to get drunk, I had decided to pace myself and settled for a healthy buzz. Looked like Dave needed it more.
I called a cab and while we waited for it to arrive, I took Dave outside for some fresh air. He promptly bent over and began to throw up. I hated seeing him do this to himself over a selfish twat like Nina, but there was nothing I could do about it. I understood it to an extent even.
“It’s sweet of you to watch over him like that,” Lily said from behind me. She sounded slightly bitter. Couldn’t blame her.
I turned and saw her wearing the same things from when she had been dancing earlier. Once again, my guilt shot forward and I looked away. Damn, but she was hot. I kept thinking that maybe it wasn’t entirely my fault. I had been drunk and dwelling on the fact that Kat hadn’t waited for me like I had hoped she might, when Lily had gotten off work and comforted me that night. In more ways than one.
“Who else is going to do it? Besides, he’s my best friend. He’s seen me in an even worse condition than what he’s in right now. Far worse,” I said, shrugging.
“There are a lot of people who would have just called a cab and left their ‘friend’ to their own devices. You’re a good friend to put him first like that,” Lily said, watching Dave with a measure of sympathy.
“Well, I try. He’s seen me through a lot. I owe him,” I said.
“So, why aren’t we doing anything tonight?” Lily asked, crossing her arms like she had earlier.
“I… well, I don’t sleep with anyone I’m not in a relationship with…” I started to say before she cut me off.
“Ooooh. That’s right, you have that girlfriend rule.” She nodded knowingly.
‘Wait. What do you mean by that?” I asked, wondering how exactly she knew that.
