He caught the filthy looks they received from those in the line and the envious ones, too, and didn’t blame them at all. Stephanie was dressed to kill in a short-skirted number with a black lace back and knee-high boots.
She wore no heels, though. It was like the girl expected trouble, but he wouldn’t complain. He assumed she could dance all night in those she wore and he wouldn’t feel guilty about treading on her toes.
With her arm tucked through his and Vishlog on her other side, Stephanie approached the door. Lars led the way, withdrew several passes from his pocket, and showed them to the guard.
The man glanced at the documents and waved them inside.
“Typical,” someone in the front line murmured. “Use your pet Dreth to get in.”
“I bet he makes her feel real safe,” another muttered.
“Aw, be nice, guys. It’s the only way they’ll let him in.”
“They shouldn’t let him in at all,” a third grumbled. “They actually shouldn’t even let him on the planet.”
Stephanie’s grasp tightened on Todd’s arm and Lars glanced back anxiously.
“Right this way, ma’am,” the guard told them and concern colored his tone.
At his words, she moved forward but one look at her face told her friend all he needed to know. She wasn’t happy. The grip on his arm was like iron, and he was relieved when they made it through the door.
“I’m sorry, Vishlog.” She patted the Dreth’s arm.
“They are like that everywhere. You get used to it.” He shrugged.
“You shouldn’t have to.”
He looked at her and grinned. “Why would I care? They have to stand in line for another hour or three and I am in here.”
Around them, the guys mirrored his grin and Frog slapped him on the shoulder.
“The big man has a point.” He laughed and surveyed the dance floor. “Now, are we gonna dance, or what?”
Todd looked at Lars and noticed how the guard’s gaze already roved the club’s interior. It moved from the galleries made difficult to see by the strobing neons and spinning ball above the dancers, to the dimly lit booths and tables and the shadowed areas around the bar.
“Let’s find a table.”
They threaded their way through the dancers and finally located a large enough table for the team. It overlooked the dance floor, and Todd settled beside Stephanie while the music boomed around them. Vishlog lounged against the wall and staked a claim on the remaining seats with his presence.
The rest of the team headed to the bar and returned with Avery, Brendan, and a trayful of drinks. Stephanie smiled as she accepted hers and sipped it, her eyes on the dancers. Her friend glanced at her and then at the dance floor and took a large swallow from his glass.
This wasn’t the first time he’d been at a dance with Stephanie, but it was definitely the first time he’d been at a dance with her as his date—his date! A cold weight settled in his stomach and he pasted a smile on.
Crap. Last time he’d looked, she didn’t know how to dance.
She didn’t even like it.
But the club had been her idea.
He took another mouthful from his glass and regarded the dance floor.
“So, who’s up for a dance?” Frog asked.
Johnny came around the table and extended his hand to Stephanie. “May I?”
She hesitated, cast a brief glance at Todd, then flashed the other man a wide smile. “I would love to,” she replied and took his hand.
Todd watched her go and faked a smile and waved when she looked back.
“Well, that went well,” he muttered and lifted his glass again.
Frog clapped him on the shoulder and bounced after Steph and Johnny. “Better luck next time, Todd.”
“Yeah... Thanks, Frog,” he murmured as the man bounded over to Steph and Johnny and slid between them, grabbed her hand on the way past, and twirled her as he made her duo with Johnny a trio.
Todd watched as they grooved to the beat, surprised at the way she seemed to be enjoying herself—and the fact that she really could dance. Maybe when she came back...
He lifted his glass and took a sip, smiled when she glanced at him, and watched as she mirror-danced with Frog. When she turned to Johnny, he took a sip of his beer, so engrossed with watching her that he didn’t notice Lars and Marcus arrive until they sat beside him.
Marcus laid an arm around the back of his chair and drank. Lars set one elbow on the table and put his glass down. Todd glanced briefly at them but turned his attention to where Stephanie challenged Frog to another round.
She put her hands behind her head and strutted around the man, then sent another glance at Todd before she circled Johnny.
Lars smirked as he watched them, and Todd sighed. “What do I do about that?” he murmured and Marcus turned to face him.
“Are you really so blind,” he began, “that you can’t tell she’d rather be dancing with you than her two security guards?”
The other man shifted to face him, too, and jerked his thumb at the dance floor. “Women like that,” he added, “have a ton of attention. You have to join in.”
“But, guys,” he protested. “I’m only a high school friend. She’s the Witch of the Federation. I’m the nobody who joined the Navy and had my ass shot off, and she has tv shows about her.” He took another sip and stared morosely at the dance floor. “Hell, did you know that in high school she even set me up with one of the cheerleaders for Prom? That doesn’t exactly yell, ‘Please date me,’ now does it?”
Marcus snorted and made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “High school girls are silly, emotional, illogical, and full of hormones,” he began, and Lars looked at him.
“And this changes when they grow older how?”
“Don’t you let Ms E hear you say that.”
“She’s not normal.”
Todd let the exchange drift past him and watched as Stephanie danced back to back with Frog, while Johnny looked on. When the blond guard threw his hands up and danced in to draw her away, Lars realized he wasn’t listening.
“Focus,” he snapped and tapped his teammate on the arm.
Marcus glanced at him, glanced at Stephanie, and continued.
“So, Stephanie,” he said as Todd took another large swallow, this time from the glass Lars had switched for his almost empty one. “Stephanie didn’t have much confidence in relationships when we came along.”
He frowned, not sure he liked where this was going, but the other man was oblivious.
“I can imagine she made some altruistic decision to do something for the fate of mankind and didn’t look twice at her personal sacrifice,” he continued, and Todd nodded, his gaze drawn back to the dancers.
“And now,” Marcus explained, “she wants to be near you so much that she’s paid close to an annual salary to come to a club that’s nowhere near home. We did not have to come this far to go to a club.”
“Plus,” Lars added, “you need to think that if this is the last time you get to see her for a while, do you really want to wonder what could have been?” His gaze drifted to the dance floor but his eyes looked back to somewhere in his past. “Trust me. You never stop wondering what if.”
Todd set his glass down. “I got shot on my first deployment. That’s not exactly hero material.”
“She leveled a town for you,” Marcus told him and his face was perfectly serious when he stared at him. “If that doesn’t say some form of love, I don’t know what does.”
He looked at the dance floor and swallowed hard. “I’d almost rather go on a mission.”
“Pain isn’t the same as taking a bullet or two,” Lars told him. “Now, drink a little more courage and go find out if you have a chance—or at least try hard enough to make sure you never wonder.”
His expression one of trepidation, he looked at his drink and lifted it again. This time, he was conscious of the extra empty glass.
“It’s Stephanie,” he told th
em and a small sip. “I can’t slur my words.”
After a second, larger sip, he swallowed and set the glass down, put his hands on the table, and tried to work out a way to get out of his seat. Marcus took his arm from around Todd’s shoulders and two large hands seized him from behind.
He was dragged out of his seat and lifted over Lars.
“I will get you to her,” Vishlog said in heavy Dreth tones and set him on his feet.
The dance floor had never seemed so far away and he hadn’t realized exactly how crowded the club had become.
Vishlog was like a magic spell. The big guard settled his arm across his shoulders, curled his hand unobtrusively under his arm on the opposite side, and acted as both a guide and a support. People stepped aside as soon as he loomed over them.
Well, most people stepped aside. Todd noticed three big guys stand from their table and begin to force their own path toward them.
He and the Dreth made it down the stairs and almost to the dance floor when the guys reached them. One was as tall as Todd but the other two were much larger.
“Hey, rock-snot. Who let you in here?” the biggest one asked and Todd rolled his eyes.
“Really? Rock-snot? That’s the best you’ve got?”
The next tallest one used his fingertips to poke him in the chest. “No one asked you, little man. Our business is with the space trash.”
“Ooh, space trash. Yeah, that’s real creative. Why don’t you give it up and try to find yourself half a brain?”
In the nearby crowd, someone snickered, and the three of them slid their gazes away from Vishlog. Todd shrugged free of the Dreth’s arm and was pleased to find he could stand on his own. He poked the second tallest guy in the chest.
“Or maybe this is your weird-ass way of asking a Dreth to dance. You never know. If you’re real nice, he might even take you home.”
Todd ignored Vishlog’s sudden intake of breath and prodded the guy again.
“Or you can dance with me. Everyone tells me I’m not picky enough, but hell, you look like you could bust a move or two.”
And speaking of busting a move... His gaze drifted past the guy he was baiting to where Stephanie danced and he felt a stab of annoyance. If these clowns didn’t move out of his way, he might miss his chance entirely.
And he’d only barely found the courage to take it.
He shoved the guy again, this time a little harder than he’d intended.
“What do you say, sweetheart? Do you care to dance with the Toddster?”
Beyond the harasser, Stephanie continued to dance. She moved slower and listened to something Frog was saying. It made Todd green with envy but she danced on, apparently oblivious.
“So,” Frog told her. “You have to cut yourself some slack. It’s all very well to bust a gut saving the universe and everything, but you need to stop and smell the flowers, too.”
Johnny laughed. “Todd is not a flower.”
She joined in. “And I won’t smell him, either.”
The other man’s eyebrows raised but he didn’t pursue it. He scowled. “What I’m trying to say is that you need to live a little. Take a moment while you’re saving the universe to do something for yourself.”
As he spoke, another guy tried to cut in and Frog slid effortlessly in front of him to boogaloo him backward into the crowd. Johnny executed a fast turn and did a Fred Astaire sidestep to block another would-be dance partner until they turned away in disgust. By the time he was done, Frog had returned to dance with her.
And she wasn’t the only target. A pretty brunette sashayed her way over to Johnny and laid her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to make him turn to face her. He glanced at her as he slid out from under her hand.
“Sorry,” he told her and winked as he spun and joined Frog’s dance with Stephanie.
Another girl saw an opening in the triangle they’d formed and came between Stephanie and Frog. He gave her a bright smile and a cheeky wink, turned his back to her, and danced with Johnny as he wagged his ass in the newcomer’s direction.
Even she laughed at that and accepted another guy’s offer and let him return to dancing with Stephanie. After a few more attempts, another girl tried a more direct approach.
She wove around Frog’s attempt at interference and tapped Stephanie on the shoulder. “Hey, are you gonna choose one and get off the floor?”
“What?”
The girl jerked a thumb at the guys. “Choose one, already. The rest of us are tired of waiting.”
Stephanie frowned and did a provocative shimmy with Johnny. “Why would I choose only one?”
“You’re hogging all the game,” the girl shouted and several of the other male dancers rolled their eyes and made a few crude gestures of their own.
“You need to find yourself a date,” she retorted as the boys maneuvered between her and the girl.
“At least I don’t need to buy mine like some cheap trick in reverse.”
Frog cast Stephanie a worried glance but she simply gave the girl a wicked grin.
“Jealousy’s a bi—” she began but it was cut off by a familiar roar.
“I said no.”
The dancers froze but Stephanie, Johnny, and Frog pivoted toward the sound of Vishlog’s shout.
They were barely in time to see Todd drive his fist into the stomach of the guy in front of him and bring his other down on his back as he turned and punched one of those alongside in the ribs.
“The guy is crazy.” Frog broke into a run and shoved dancers out of his way.
“Listen to who’s talking,” Johnny sniped and remained beside Stephanie as she followed.
Todd, meanwhile, was determined to make sure Vishlog didn’t get into any trouble on his behalf. The big guy had refused to let the leader of the guys who had confronted them take Todd out the back, and it had looked like he would have to back that up with his fists.
He absolutely couldn’t allow that.
For one thing, he’d kinda escalated things faster than they would have anyway. For another, if Vishlog threw the first punch, the Dreth would end up in the brig, whereas he’d be allowed to slide if he joined the fight to protect Todd.
Yeah, that he would live with.
He couldn’t stop the fight, but he sure as shit could keep the big guy out of the can. Vishlog hadn’t deserved any of the names he’d been called and nor did he deserve to be accused of being a pirate, a traitor, or anything else, simply because of his race.
The warrior had guarded Stephanie when Todd had been away and protected her with his life. He was loyal and, from what he had seen, the kind of person you wanted to have at your back—and that was more than could be said for many humans. There was no way he deserved the treatment he’d been given.
Todd ducked under a return punch and hammered his opponent’s kidneys. He followed the punches with a knee to the guy’s groin and bounced that into the man’s face as he doubled over.
“Talk about kicking a guy when he’s down?” he asked and drove his shoe into the guy’s midriff. “That’s how it’s done.”
As he did so, Vishlog realized there was still one guy left. He looked up and met the man’s eyes as if they’d both only now noticed they’d stared at Todd instead of joining in.
The Dreth grinned, and the guy’s eyes widened. He didn’t even get his hands up in time to stop the warrior’s fist from meeting his face. Todd’s voice told him the fight didn’t end there, though. The first opponent had found his feet and delivered a blow between Todd’s shoulder blades.
He dropped to his knees and scrambled up to duck under the next punch and wipe the sweat off his top lip as he turned. “Oh no. No. No. No. No. No. No one punches the Toddster.”
Vishlog pivoted so he stood with his back to Todd and lashed out with his boot to bounce a newcomer to the fight over a table as he caught hold of a second. Humans! Who’d have thought they enjoyed fighting as much as the Dreth?
Todd punched the person who swung a chair
toward the warrior’s head, caught the chair before it landed, and smacked it into the next guy who tried to land a blow on his partner.
“Oh, yeah!” Frog crowed and held a hand up for Johnny to high-five. “He’s one of us.”
“Hell yes, he is,” Stephanie agreed, and the three of them entered the rear of the melee.
Those who had come to dance remained on the dance floor, but others who’d come for the beer, the women, or anything else that might come up joined in. Most decided it was Team Dreth against Team Club and ranged themselves against the humans who supported the large warrior.
A few decided it was them against anyone and several more took their drinks to a quieter section of the club and leaned back to enjoy the show. After all, it wasn’t their asses that would be hauled off to jail.
As Todd moved to intercept another attack, Vishlog snatched a guy who had targeted his partner and hurled him over the nearest table. This didn’t stop the next one from trying, and the warrior picked him up by his shirt front and heaved him away as well.
A third tried to sidle around the fight, carrying a drink in either hand. He backed away when Vishlog reached in his direction and closed his eyes, but the Dreth simply lifted him over the fight, set him down, and turned to punch the next guy who tried to king-hit the smaller man.
Todd simply retaliated against everything and anyone who stepped in front of him. He might not be dancing with his girl, but these guys wouldn’t manage any dancing for months. Merely recalling the looks on their faces as they went for his friend and found him instead would have to be compensation enough.
He felled another opponent and caught a flash of movement coming from his left. With his left arm extended in a sweep to throw off their arm, he pivoted and looked for a target for his right fist.
His punch was already launched when he recognized the face he had aimed at.
“Stephanie!”
She grinned, caught his fist, swept it to one side, and turned so they stood back to back.
“Do you always cause this much trouble when you’re on a date?” she yelled and smacked Lars across the back of the head. “You’re blocking my line of sight.”
Witch Of The Federation III (Federal Histories Book 3) Page 8
