All the Lovely Creatures
Page 25
TWO
Bonnie took the fifty-dollars from the outstretched hand of the man between her legs and stood up. Warm, creamy liquid slipped between her thighs as she picked up her purple satin robe decorated with a silver Chinese dragon and slipped it on.
“Russ will be around to check on you in a few minutes so be sure to have yourself cleaned up by then ok?” She said.
The old sailor merely grinned at her through his disheveled beard as she grabbed a small black hand-towel from a stack near the door and tossed it on his stomach. Tying the sash on her robe she disappeared into one of the dancer’s dressing rooms, making sure to lock the door securely behind her.
Technically and legally speaking, Bonnie wasn’t a hooker – she was a dancer – but the club did have private rooms for patrons with slightly larger pockets and when one came along with a big enough budget, Bonnie was usually willing to go the extra mile. Of course Sal would come unglued if he knew what she and some of the other girls were really doing in those rooms but, fortunately for them, he was too cheap to replace the cardboard cameras that had hung from the ceilings since 1983 with real ones. Russ and some of the other bouncers knew the truth but as long as Bonnie and the other girls tossed them a few bones here and there, they were more than happy to keep their mouths shut about it.
The RedTail had about a dozen bouncers overall but Russ was Bonnie’s favorite and she knew that he felt the same way about her. He was gay but that only made things easier for Bonnie because it gave her someone that she could count on who was also immune to her powers.
Valkyries don’t just look different from normal human beings; they also have abilities that land them firmly in the realm of the supernatural. Most Valkyries consumed the souls of humans to survive but a few decades ago, when Bonnie left her clan to try out life in the real world, she gave up munching on souls and forced herself to develop a taste for chi instead. As it turned out, chi was a much better source of sustenance for a Valkyrie for a variety of reasons. Every human has only one soul and once a Valkyrie has taken it, or even part of it, it will never grow back. The humane thing to do when taking a soul is to kill the human so that he doesn’t end up walking around trying to live his life without it; soulless humans tend to develop homicidal tendencies that lead them to torture and kill the fellow members of their species. But chi is the energy by which the human body functions and a Valkyrie can nibble at a human’s chi throughout his entire life without any lasting side effects. Once the human experiences a strong emotion such as fear, anger, joy, or lust his chi begins to replenish itself and Bonnie learned that she could use the emotion of lust to her advantage in more ways than one.
Valkyries are predators and, just like any other predator on the planet, they’re naturally equipped with special talents that make it easier for them to capture their prey, just as spiders spin webs and lions have huge claws and sharp teeth. For Valkyries, their talents are strength and seduction. The strength comes from the ability to store portions of the souls or chi that they consume in their horns and then tap into it as needed for an extra burst of potency, which is why Bonnie opted not to have her horns removed along with her wings. But the seduction happens when they dance; even with their shocking and even terrifying appearance, once a Valkyrie starts to dance no human male can resist her.
Bonnie was just about to step into the small shower for a quick rinse when she heard a soft tap on one of the dressing room’s doors.
“Yeah?” She called out in response.
“Just checking.” Russ replied from the other side.
Bonnie smiled with genuine affection. Russ was a really good person, and an even better friend. That was why she’d given Detective Kirk his name specifically – Russ would back up anything that Bonnie said without hesitation and he’d never ask questions. From Russ’ perspective, what Bonnie did was her business and his job was just to keep her safe.