His cold lizard eyes widened slightly at this, and he looked at me a little more intently, with a little more curiosity.
“What name?” He asked after studying me, pointing an old crooked claw at me.
“Teek.”
“Teek.” He repeated, then paused thoughtfully. “I never hear name before.”
“Yea, well, it’s the only name I got,” I growled, the liquor in my blood making me confused and impatient. “How ‘bout you, friend, what do they call you?”
The slender old kobold mulled over my question, then pointed an old gnarled claw back at himself.
“Me, Ginzee.” He closed his claw into a fist, tapped it twice against his chest, then held his claws together.
I waited a long minute, then realized that the kobold wasn’t gonna say anything else. “Okay, Mr. Ginzee. What do ya say to the offer?”
“What you do for work, Teek?” He asked instead, dodging my question, which kinda pissed me off.
“I’m a jack of all trades, man, whatever you need.” I was starting to sweat, starting to feel a little desperate. I wasn’t tryin’ to go to an apartment building where they might want an application and a fuckin’ credit and background check.
“I no understand this, jack of trades,” Ginzee said calmly, shaking his lizard head from side to side. I tried to pick my brain, thinking, what the fuck does he want me to say? I got my own car dealership? Does he want me to hand ‘em a fuckin’ business card?
“I’ll be workin’ with my family, they got a construction business.” I lied off the cuff, tryin’ to sound confident.
“Okay, good, so you no need job here.” The skinny old kobold placed his crossed claws on the desk in front of him.
“I appreciate the offer,” I began, feelin’ oddly somewhat insulted.
“No, I make no offer!”
I rubbed a hand down my tired face. “Yea, no, I meant that I’m good, I have work, I have money to put in your pocket right this moment if you’ll pass them keys on over to me.”
The kobold eyed me coldly, cracked an ugly smile. “Rent is seven hundred, fifty dollar, each month. You pay now, and deposit, one thousand dollar.”
I felt like it wasn’t such a great deal all things considered, and I got an ugly, paranoid feeling that the kobold knew I was lying and was hittin’ me up for a few extra bucks, perhaps sensing I was in a pinch since I was comin’ to a fuckin’ kobold for a place to stay in the first place. I shrugged my shoulders and quickly pulled out my cash, flipped through the bills, countin’ out twenty five hundred dollars, having added an extra month’s rent, putting the little stack of cash down on the desk in front of me, a long red finger pinning the dollars down where they were. Ginzee eyed the cash for a moment, then slipped a claw down to where I couldn’t see it, opening a drawer, making me tense, but then bringing up a key and passing it to me. I moved the cash towards him, meeting him at the middle of the desk, and snatched the key from him.
“No party, no loud noise,” the old prick hissed, clawing the cash over to himself.
“No problem.” I stood up. “Pleasure doin’ business with you. Shall I just pass the rent money to the hostess, from here on out?” I thought I was doin’ him a favor since he didn’t seem to care for the pleasure of my company.
“No!” Ginzee hissed louder, trembling, sounding panicked, his eyes opening wider. “You put in envelope! Leave under door! First day, every month! Now go!”
I nodded to him and walked out, heading back towards the front of the restaurant, suppressing a smile. I guess he doesn’t want his sister wife out there gettin’ her grubby claws on his paper. Can’t blame him, those specks she had on were definitely designer. I strode over to the table where Skreech and the girls were waitin’.
“Where to now, boss?” The goblin asked impatiently.
“Yes, where are we staying tonight? Will we stay in a proper bed for once?” Alelicia asked.
I nodded to them, deciding they were too tired and had been through too much to be fucked with right now. “You know what, I think that we just might. Let’s go.” I walked out the front door, the others quickly getting up and following me out.
Chapter 4
We walked around the side of the building, where there was a stairway that was hidden from plain view, having been built into the brickwork of the outer wall, and headed up ‘til we were on a small walkway where there was just one door. I hope this ain’t a shithole. I glanced at the girls real quick, Alelicia especially. I really don’t want to hear any griping tonight. I’m tired, drunk, and I need to go see my family tomorrow. I need to sleep. I slid the key into the door. I walked in a step, felt around on the wall for a light switch, flipped it on and looked around the illuminated room. There was a small kitchen next to a living area with a futon, a couple chairs, a decent sized table. A decent television against the wall across from the futon and chairs. Not too shabby, I thought, motioning for Skreech and the girls to come in and check out the place. I walked into the bedroom, it wasn’t all that big, but it was relatively clean and there was a made bed in it. I peaked in at the bathroom, saw that it was also alright, nothin’ fancy or all that new, but clean, working.
“Skreech, come help me grab the stuff from the car, alright?” I walked by the others, headin’ out down the stairs towards the car. The goblin nodded and followed me. As we came down the stairs I realized there was a third set of feet behind us, and I looked back to see Tyzee comin’ down the last couple stairs.
“What are you doin’?” I looked at her strangely.
“I’m coming to help, too,” she replied, looking me in my eyes.
I looked back at her, turned to Skreech for a second, then looked back to the beautiful hybrid orc girl. “Thanks, but we got it. You go ahead back up and relax.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I want to help. We’re a team now, remember?”
I looked at her incredulously, eyebrows raised, but judging from the look in her eyes that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer, I nodded to her and said, “Okay. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She smiled.
We walked over to the car, which I unlocked, grabbin’ my stash of joints and the tree, the rest of my cash, my cigarettes, some other miscellaneous items, then met Skreech back at the trunk, unlocking it and lifting it open. There was a hefty, bulging duffle bag of bullet cases, all the rounds I had in my possession when I told Skreech to saddle up before we hit the train back in Vegas.
“I can get it,” Tyzee said, reaching for it.
For some reason I reached my hand out, lightly taking hold of her arm. “No, I got it. You get the Draco, okay?” I reached over, picking up the assault pistol I kept in the trunk just in case things got real ugly, handing it off to her. Skreech looked back and forth, from me to Tyzee.
“Okay,” she giggled, looking down at it in some surprise, taking it then doing a quick pseudo-military pose with it pressed against her large, round breasts.
“Careful with that.” I smiled, lifting the bag of bullets out of the trunk and looking around making sure no one was watching us. Damn, she looks even sexier holding that fuckin’ piece! I tossed the keys of the car to Skreech.
“Pull the car around to the side and lock it up, would ya?” I asked the goblin, turning to head back in to our new little place. I lifted the bag up to sling it over my shoulder, having to put some muscle into it. I looked over at Skreech in surprise as he hopped into the Mustang, he had been lifting and carrying it out to the car with no complaints. Son of a bitch, I thought, having a new respect for him, it’s good to know I can count on him in a sticky situation. He’s proven himself more than a few times now, and not just recently… I’ll have to think of a way to reward the little guy. When we got back upstairs, Alelicia was in the bathroom, so I plopped the bag of rounds, our ad hoc cache of bullets, in the closet in the living room, then took the Draco from Tyzee, our eyes meeting briefly as our fingers touched, and placed it on the wooden rack towards the top o
f closet. Alelicia peered out the bathroom door, her eyes wide and nervous, but when she saw it was us she relaxed a little and came out. Poor fuckin’ thing. I glanced at her on the sly. She probably thought some asshole ran up here and was rummaging around.
“You okay?” I nodded over to Alelicia, some concern in my voice.
She lightly nodded back. “Yes, I think I got a little scared when I heard noises from the other side of the door… I didn’t know if it was you or not.”
I moved a little closer to her, put a red hand on the soft, creamy white skin of her shoulder. She shuddered a little for a moment, but didn’t try to remove it.
“Hey, listen.” I made sure she was lookin’ me in my eyes. “We’re okay here, I’m not gonna let nothin’ up in here to come get at you.”
“How can you be so sure?” She asked, her wide eyes taking me in, searching mine for something, some hope she could grasp for.
“I gave you my word.” Suddenly my throat felt like sandpaper and I heard myself noisily dry swallow. “I’m goin’ to keep you safe.” I looked over at Tyzee, making sure she knew what I was sayin’ was for her ears as well. “I’m goin’ to keep both of you safe.”
Tyzee continued to look at me with a neutral face, not saying anything. When I looked back to Alelicia, she searched my face a little longer, I guess tryin’ to determine if I was lyin’ to her or tryin’ to trick her, but then she nodded.
“Okay… Thank you.” She looked around, then, moving towards the bedroom, she stretched her arms upward and yawned. “I’m tired, I’m going to bed.”
“Alright.” I couldn’t stop myself as I watched her slim curves sway, the bottom swell of her ass peeking through that denim bathing suit she had on. That tiny little waist, the slim, luscious thighs. The shining, straight golden hair. Damn, this girl. I heard footsteps comin’ up to the open front door, watched Skreech scamper in and shut it behind him. We exchanged nods.
“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually agree with her, for once,” Tyzee said suddenly, watching Alelicia cross the doorway of the bedroom. “Goodnight!” She called over her shoulder, quickly striding towards the bedroom as well.
“How can this be?!” Alelicia’s sharp voice came from the bedroom. “I have to share a room with you?”
“Oh, you think I wanna be having a slumber party with you, princess?”
“I think that we should divide the room into quadrants.”
“Quadrants? What is this, calculus? We’re just sharing a room, sweetie.”
“Sweetie...” Alelicia trailed off, her voice softened, her full lips parting. “Someone used to call me that.”
“Who?” Tyzee took her sunglasses off, suddenly curious.
“I wish I could remember.” As Alelicia gazed down, some of her golden hair fell past her pointed elf ears.
“I know what you mean.” My eyes rounded as Tyzee actually stepped forward and slung her long green arms around the elf girl. She hugged Alelicia then, squeezing her tight, and the elf let herself feel whatever she’d been holdin’ onto the last several days, and just buried her face into Tyzee’s shining clavicles. She shuddered a little. Tyzee being taller, her breasts rested on top of Alelicia’s and their buoyant flesh swelled to the sides, nearly popping right out of her makeshift purple bra. Their hands caressed each other, running up and down the lean muscles of their backs.
I was feeling all kinds of things as I watched them, and yea one of ‘em sure as hell was being in awe of their physicality, but another was wanting to comfort them too.
“Truce? For tonight?” Tyzee spoke, her lips inches away from Alelicia’s naturally rosy ones.
“Yes. A truce. An armistice.”
The orc girl silently chuckled. “Whatever you want to call it, but don’t expect me to sync my period to yours just yet. Sharing a bed for the night is as far as I’m ready to go.”
Tyzee turned to face me, raised an eyebrow, and started sauntering toward me, her long green thighs glistening.
“It was a touching moment,” I stammered.
When she had reached the doorway, her pretty hand slid along the siding as she snorted a laugh. “I’m sure you were thinking of touching, that’s for sure.”
“Yo, what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means goodnight.” She waved at me, and promptly closed the door without another glance. I looked down at Skreech in stupefaction, then back at the door.
“Wait, where am I supposed to sleep?!”
“I don’t know, figure it out, mister red!” Tyzee’s muffled voice came through the closed door.
“That’s nice, real nice!” I yelled at the bedroom door. “These fuckin’ broads…” I muttered a few moments later, shaking my head. The goblin was tryin’ to commiserate with me, but at the same time I caught his eye longingly darting over to the futon. “Great, you too?” Guess I’m sleepin’ in the chair tonight. I decided to let Skreech have the futon so he could lay out and get a good rest, since I didn’t think I was goin’ to sleep much this night anyway.
“I’ll take the chair, boss,” Skreech said reluctantly after a few moments of awkward silence.
I shook my head. “Nah, you go ahead and take the futon tonight. We’ll figure out a new sleepin’ arrangement later.” I yawned loudly, my jaw cracking and eyes watering. “I’ll take the chair.”
Skreech started to shake his head. “You’re bigger, boss, you should have it.”
I walked over to the closet, took out the Draco pistol, then went to sit on the chair. “Skreech, just lay your ass down and go to sleep, alright? Turn that light off.”
The little goblin, needing no more encouragement, flipped off the light and dove onto the futon, rollin’ around, stretchin’ out, then within a few minutes, he was passed the fuck out, sound asleep, snoring away.
“You go ahead and sleep, buddy, you done real good.” I whispered over at the sleeping goblin. I looked down at the Draco assault pistol in my lap that Skreech had snatched for me awhile back. The gun was all black, clandestine military ops style, except midway along the barrel, where FUCK ‘EM ALL was crudely carved in small red letters. I shook my head and laughed. Yea, fuck ‘em all indeed. I turned around to look out the window, saw the full moon lookin’ back at me. I tried to calculate how much cash I probably had left, realized it was more than likely a little south of two thousand dollars, and I felt a little sick. Two fuckin’ racks to my name, that’s it. If I died now, or tomorrow, who would even fuckin’ remember me? Where are all my great deeds? You can’t even get a decent fuckin’ coffin and headstone for two thousand lousy bucks. I haven’t seen or spoken to Shal and uncle Khakkoc in ages. I tried to remember just how long it had been. At least a decade, maybe more. What the fuck am I even gonna say to them? That I dicked it out to California, been fuckin’ around out there for years, workin’ for orcs and fuckin’ their women… Workin’ for humans and fuckin’ their women… Movin’ dope, doin’ small heists, real mickey mouse shit. I got jammed up though, and now I’m back in Philly, and I need work, and I need somewhere safe to lay low? I shook my head bitterly again, remembering one of those ugly conversations with my uncle, when he caught me gettin’ dropped off by a human girl I was bangin’ at the time from around the way. Had a good time, huh? I can smell that nasty human bitch cunt on you, boy, where the fuck you been? he had snarled at me, is that what you want? Your blood is noble, you lookin’ to water it down, have a few hybrid babies with that soft, pale human bitch? What’s the matter with you, you can’t find a nice hobgoblin girl? You gotta go slummin’? What is it with you, your generation? I shivered a little at the memory. I made the right choice, bringin’ the girls here first. I shot a quick glance over at the bedroom doors. If my uncle saw them, I’d never hear the end of it, and they’d hear all his bullshit. They’d feel it, too, and I promised I wouldn’t let anyone hurt them, physically or otherwise. And what about Shal? What the fuck is he gonna say? Part of me hopes he’ll throw an arm around my shoulder like back in the
day, but the other part of me is sayin’ he’s either gonna shit on me or shoot me or both. He told me he was gonna bring me up through the ranks with him, we’d start our own crew, and the next day I was fuckin’ gone without so much as a goodbye or a go fuck yourself. I looked back out the window, up at the moon, sighed deeply. Well, they’re all I got. I came all this way and I definitely can’t go back now, can’t bring the girls back to California. I couldn’t even cut them loose, tell ‘em to kick rocks at this point, girls like that, lookin’ beautiful, lost and confused, undefended. They’d get snatched up before they made it five miles. And, truth be told, I was into them, really into them, fuckin’ surprisingly into them.
“What the fuck?” I hissed to myself, angered by my thoughts. Why the fuck am I even into them this deep? They’re hot, sure, and I’d be lyin’ if I said I wasn’t very physically attracted to them, fuckin’ drawn to them, but somehow it’s already more than that, I mean we haven’t even touched, we haven’t even so much as fuckin’ made out, yet their lives and safety matter to me? I’m buyin’ them meals, drivin’ them around, puttin’ them up in apartments, saving their lives, and we ain’t even fuckin’? That’s new.
Chapter 5
I awoke in the middle of the night, startled and sweating. I looked over at the digital clock on the counter, seeing it was nearly four in the morning. Terrible dreams. I ran a hand across my face, flinging the sweat from my fingers, then pushed my sweaty hair back. Shal and his old man lockin’ me in a cage, forcing me to marry or die, then a hobgoblin girl in a wedding dress standing in front of me with a bouquet of red and black roses, then Tyzee and Alelicia come from behind, kill the hobgoblin girl and tell me I have to marry them, then my uncle pullin’ a gun on me, shootin’ at me, the hybrid girls pull guns and shoot at me, Skreech is there cacklin’, demanding a cut of the money, sprayin’ his MAC-10 at me, Raulis the dead elf, wearin’ a McDonald’s uniform, dark red blood bloomin’ from the rough, jagged, blown out hole in his midsection on his shirt, lookin’ harried and worried, askin’ me if I’d like fries with that, my old man in a fancy pin striped suit comin’ up to me, jerkin’ a thumb over at the hybrid girls happily firing seemingly bottomless clips into me, at me, sayin’ that’s my boy, Teek, ya can’t turn down high quality ass like that, then, shaking his head sadly for some reason, Remember what I told ya, you’re gonna pay for it one way or another, ‘specially with those two, then walking away from me, shaking hands with a massive dragon walking towards me, then disappearing, then the dragon, many times my size, approaching me, a gigantic custom suit about to bust, ridiculously large Versace loafers on his feet, cranes his serpentine neck down so that his face would be close enough to mine, and, breathing air that smelled of sulphur and smoke at me, says to me: rent is one million dollar, plus deposit. You no pay, so I take girls. Then, reaching around, searchin’ for a piece on my hip that ain’t there, I look up at the dragon’s open mouth, the light created by the rapidly forged fire it was about to breath on me burning my eyes, blinding me…
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