by Quinn Loftis
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Elle whispered as she moved closer to Peri tugging Sally with her. All three stood and watched, frozen with the rest of the crowd as three females jumped up on the bar. They moved in synch with each other, every motion obviously practiced. When they finally turned to face the crowd Sally gasped.
“What were you saying about her innocence shining like the sun?” Sally asked Peri.
Peri groaned. “Let me guess, Stella is the dark beauty in the center that no one can take their eyes off of?”
“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner,” Sally muttered.
“Even the humans are drawn to the healer in her,” Elle said as she watched the faces of the crowd.
“Uh, Elle,” Sally chuckled, “I don’t think it’s the healer in her they’re drawn to.”
Peri snorted. “If only Jen were here.”
“She would totally be jealous of Stella’s moves,” Sally agreed.
“Peri, what do we do?” Elle asked as the crowd began to cheer the dancers on.
“Watch and learn; variety is the spice of life after all and mated pairs are together for a long, long time.” Peri laughed at the skeptical look in Elle’s eyes. “Well we can’t very well just snatch her off the bar,” she clarified.
The music continued on and the three girls danced, thankfully no clothes came off. As soon as the girls were done they were being ushered quickly from the makeshift stage and through a door behind the bar.
“Can you see if there is a back entrance, maybe they will use it for an exit,” Peri sent the thought to Lucian.
She saw him slip through the crowd and knew the only reason she was able to see him was because he allowed it.
“Lucian’s checking on a back entrance,” she told Elle and Sally.
“Are we just going to take,” Sally paused as her eyes caught a movement that was incongruent with the atmosphere. Suddenly, where there had been an empty space across the room from them, there was Lorelle. Her eyes met Sally’s drawing a gasp from the healer.
Peri’s head snapped around and her eyes met her sister’s for the first time since Lorelle had left her dying the dark forest. Peri grabbed Sally’s arm as she snapped, “Elle outside now!”
They flashed from the building ending up on the sidewalk outside of the club. Sally’s eyes wide with fear as she remembered her encounter with Lorelle and the outcome, which had been her own death.
“Talk to me, Lucian,” Peri reached out for him as if she had been doing it all of her long life.
“There is a door back here,” he showed her the image in his mind of the door he was staring at. “I can hear voices through it.”
“We have company. We need to get the girl and leave now,” she told him, then looked at Elle and Sally. “We’re going to flash to the rear of the building and meet Lucian. I’m going to get Stella and then we’re going to get the hell out of dodge.” She didn’t give them time to answer but grabbed both of their arms and flashed to the location Lucian had showed her through their bond. They appeared beside him in an alley that ran behind the club. A weak fluorescent light hung precariously above the club’s rear door, buzzing and sputtering, providing the alley’s only illumination. Peri felt his hands on her waist as he leaned in close to her ear. “I heard her name being spoken just beyond the door,” his deep voice rumbled.
Peri nodded. “I’m going in to get her and then as soon as I’m back here we are going straight back to Farie. Lorelle was in the club.” She felt him tense and sensed his anger. She patted his hand. “I got this, Lucian. You watch the girls for me.” Then she was gone.
∞
Stella wiped the sweat from her neck and face and then tossed the towel in the dirty clothes basket next to the lockers. She heard one of the other dancers yell her name and tell her goodnight. She didn’t even have the energy to respond. She was tired of dancing. She was tired of late nights at the club and then long days at the diner where she worked. She was sick of the leering men, grabby hands and nasty comments. And the club customers were bad too, she chuckled to herself. It might not have bothered her so much had her background been different, but then her childhood had been filled with nightmares. It had left her so scarred that she didn’t think she would ever be able to tolerate the touch of man, not matter how loving or gentle. She could barely stomach her brother’s hugs, but she tried hard not to show him, she didn’t want to hurt him. He no idea what she had endured at the hands of their father, literally his hands. And if he did he would have killed him, and then she would be all alone with her brother behind bars. Bile rose in her throat at the thought of the one man who had taken her childhood from her. There had been no mother to love her or care for her. The woman who bore her and Derrick had been the product of generations of alcoholics and drug attics. After Stella had been born she left the hospital without so much as an I don’t want this kid. Her parents hadn’t been married, and to this day she still didn’t know why their father had chosen to keep them when it was so obvious that he had no love for either of them. As soon as Stella turned eighteen, her brother had moved them out of their father’s apartment. Though he hadn’t known about the horror she went through, he did know that Willie James was a no good scoundrel, not worth the precious oxygen that he took from the world.
She graduated high school and started working at the club where Derrick worked as a bouncer because he wanted to know where she was, that she was safe. She had argued that being eighteen meant she was an adult and didn’t need his supervision; he disagreed. Then she had argued that it was weird that he was okay with her dancing in a bar but he had argued that she wasn’t taking any clothes off and he kept an eye on her and always tossed out the scum. The pay was good, and that was the only reason she was doing it. She was saving up. She was getting out of the city, putting the memories of her shattered youth behind her like dust kicking up from the back wheels of a car; as soon as she had enough money of course.
She grabbed the oversized t-shirt that she kept to wear after her show and pulled it over the skimpy outfit. She slipped out of the dance shoes she wore to help her slide over the bar and put on her only pair of tennis shoes and then closed her locker. She was just turning to leave when she heard her name. It wasn’t her name being said that shocked her into stillness, it was the sound of the voice saying her name. It was nearly musical in cadence, beautiful beyond words, causing chill bumps to rise on her arms. She turned slowly to see a woman with white hair and pale skin. She looked young, but her eyes told a different story than the youth of her face. Stella was about to ask her who she was when a hand clamped around her arm.
“We have much to discuss, sister, but Stella and I have pressing business, so it will have to wait for another time. Toodles.” Stella looked at the woman who held her arm and her eyes widened at the sheer beauty of her. She looked like the woman across the room, only brighter, as if the sun followed her wherever she went. “Please try not to puke,” the woman said and then they were swallowed by darkness just as the other woman shrieked, “PERI!”
Stella tried to pull away from the grip but found that the woman was much stronger than she looked. She blinked, attempting to see through the darkness and just as quickly as the blackness had engulfed them, there was light again. She realized they were in the alley behind the club, where the dim glow of The Core’s back light illuminated only a small area around her. There were three other people standing there, looking expectantly at the woman who still held her arm.
“You know where to take them, let’s go,” the woman said and then they were overcome by darkness again. This time it lasted longer and she understood why the woman had asked her not to puke, because the feeling was disorienting, causing her stomach to get a little queasy.
Stella’s thoughts were racing as she tried to cope with the obscurity around her and the sick feeling in her stomach. Who was the lady who had called her name, who was the lady who grabbed her arm, how did they know her name and what in the hell was sh
e doing to cause them to move from one location to the next without so much as a here let me get the damn door for you? Okay so she had a lot to work through, but living in the Bronx she knew the first rule of any situation was don’t panic. Her brother always told her that panic equaled stupid and stupid equaled dead. Yeah, he was just full of warm fuzzies like that.
After several minutes in the dizzying black hole she was abruptly surrounded by light and people. She looked from face to face as they stared at her and she was sure they were waiting for her to bolt or freak out. They obviously weren’t from New York. New Yorkers don’t freak, they get pissed and then they get even. She took stock of the males in the room and instinctively took a step back, attempting to put as much space between them and herself. She didn’t trust men, not any, save one. She noticed that when she took the step back each of the men wrapped their arms around the respective women standing next to them, almost as if they understood that she feared them and they wanted her to know that she was of no interest to any of them.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this isn’t your everyday, run of the mill mugging,” Stella said in her best New Yorker accent.
She heard a small snort of laughter and turned her head to see the beautiful woman who had grabbed her looking at her with a smirk. The man, revision, huge, handsome man holding her didn’t look at Stella, but just somewhere in the vicinity of her.
“I don’t know what they’re feeding you healers these days but it’s made you much less sweet and innocent than what I’m used to.” The woman called Peri smirked.
“Forgive me for just a second if I don’t really care what you’re used to since you just kidnapped me from the club and worked some weird mojo on me,” Stella said in as calm a voice as she could muster.
“Oh I like her,” one of the girls that had been standing in the alley spoke up. Stella would like to say her pink hair was unique, but in her line of work she saw all sorts and pink hair was tame.
“So you haven’t killed me yet, and at the moment you are all staring at me like I kidnapped you―which I didn’t. So,” she turned and saw an empty chair, she backed up slowly to it and sat down, crossing her legs attempting to appear as confident as possible and then looked back up at the group. “I am guessing by your bossy, take no crap attitude, you would be the leader of this outfit,” She said narrowing her eyes at Peri. “How about we cut the crap and you tell me what you want so I can get back before my brother tears the Big Apple apart looking for me.”
Peri sat on the arm of the chair that Lucian had taken. She stared at the gypsy healer across from her in what she knew was a look of respect. Then again, the girl was from New York, and worked in a club as a dancer, she had to be made of tough stuff. Her dark chocolate skin was smooth and even, with the obvious freshness of youth. She had large almond eyes that were a very light brown which was striking against her dark skin. Her hair was fairly long past her shoulders, straight and shiny, held back by a scarf she had tied as a head band. She had full lips, high cheek bones and a no nonsense attitude that Peri found herself smiling at.
“You are correct,” Peri finally breathed out as she leaned into the hand Lucian had placed on her lower back. “I am in charge of this ragtag looking outfit.”
Stella chuckled. “Um, no offence but only people who have gone under the knife or have their pictures photo shopped look as pretty as you freaks do, so ragtag you are not.”
“She’s going to give Jen a run for her money,” Crina laughed to Peri.
“Yes, like Jen, she doesn’t seem to have a filter,” Peri agreed. “Tell me Stella, do you believe in the supernatural?” Peri watched as the healer’s eyes narrowed.
“I believe in God if that’s what you mean,” she answered confidently.
“Lucian,” Peri said her mate’s name but didn’t take her eyes off of Stella. “I think you should just show her. Let’s just rip the band aide off fast. Then after she has her fit we’ll break it all down for her. Then we need to move onto the next one.”
“Are you sure you want me to?” Lucian asked calmly in his deep voice.
Peri turned her head to look at him. “You’re beautiful in your wolf form.”
Lucian smiled at her, obviously pleased at the compliment. He leaned forward and kissed her chastely on the lips before standing. “We should probably go outside for this.” Lucian was a large wolf and with this many people in the room, he knew there would not be enough room for him.
They all followed him out the front door into the front yard of the house. The night air of Farie was cool and refreshing, a stark contrast to their previous surroundings. The sky was full of stars too innumerable to count.
Stella noticed the only other girl who looked as lost as she felt and managed to ease herself closer to her. “You’re not one of them, are you?” Stella asked the girl.
“I’m Anna,” she answered. “And according to them I am one of them, and you must be too if you’re here and they’re about to show you this.” She motioned to the incredibly handsome guy who was removing his shirt.
“Uh, why is he undressing?” Stella asked as her chest began to tighten and the familiar feeling of dread welled up at the idea of knowing a man in any intimate way. She had no desire to see a half dressed male, no matter how magnificent he was.
“I can’t even begin to answer that, but rest assured he won’t hurt you and he won’t even look your way,” Anna said, obviously picking up on Stella’s distress. “He belongs to that one.” She pointed to the one called Peri. “And they are quite committed to each other.”
Stella wanted to believe Anna, but she had watched too many married men come in the club and slip their wedding bands into their pockets, as if that somehow made them free agents.
Lucian turned to face the group and looked at Peri. “I’m going to leave the breeches on.”
“Good call,” Peri nodded and smiled at his lapse into a manner of speaking long past.
There was a shimmering in the air around Lucian and then his human form slipped away the pants falling as rags to the ground, and in its place was a massive white wolf.
“I don’t know what you slipped me, but you could make a killing in the Bronx,” Stella muttered as she stared at the massive wolf before her, where only moments ago a man had been.
Sally smiled sympathetically at the new healer. “Believe me, chick, if we could bottle this crap and make some money off of the stuff we live, we’d be rich.”
“Uh, hello. People like Anne Rice are freaking rich because of the stuff we live, and they don’t even know it’s real,” Crina piped in.
“How do you know she doesn’t know it’s real?” Adam asked, joining in the banter.
“Are you implying that Anne Rice wrote her books based on facts?” Sally asked skeptically.
“I’m simply saying that…,”
“I’m so sorry to interrupt what is sure to be a conversation that I might actually care about later, but could someone please explain to me where the man went, and where the wolf came from?” Stella jumped in cutting Adam off. “I mean, this may be normal to you people but even in the Bronx we don’t have werewolves.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure about that…” Peri said with a twinkle in her eye as she stroked the huge white wolf.
Chapter 10
“If you have ever lived in someone’s shadow then you know what it is like to feel second best. To feel as though you are the credits that nobody wants to read at the end of a fantastic movie. Though you may have played a major part in the production, you are but a passing thought to the viewers. I have played second fiddle to my sister long enough. I have been the afterthought to her triumphs for as long as I can stand. I am done, I have reached the end of my rope.” ~Lorelle
Lorelle stared at the empty spot where the healer had been standing. She was frozen with shock. Her sister had been right there within her grasp and she had just stood there like a daft fledgling as her prize was stolen. That was two. Two
healers ripped right from her grasp. Two healers that would have gotten her closer to her goal of escaping yet another evil man hell bent on ruling the world. Why couldn’t men just be happy with killing their obnoxious sibling and being the powerful one on a council? Why did they always have to strive for world domination and all that crap? With no reason to linger in the dim, smelly room that scantily clad women used to change their clothes, she flashed herself back to the dark forest, back to the place that had been her salvation until Volcan showed up.
As soon as the sounds of the city were gone and the familiar darkness of the forest surrounded her, Lorelle resumed her pacing. With three girls accounted for, there were only two left. She had to get those two, there was no getting around it. If she failed to produce more healers than Peri stole, she was sure Volcan would somehow magically zap her even in his bodiless form.
“I hate to bother you since you seem busy in thought, but my mom will be expecting me home soon, or well I think soon. I’m not really sure of the time,” a sweet, innocent voice broke through Lorelle’s concentration. She turned her head slowly to look at the girl and for all her contrast to the healer known as Sally, this one reminded her of the Serbian pack healer. Where Sally had tan skin, this one had milky pale skin, where Sally had brown eyes, this one had green eyes and where Sally had long dark chocolate hair, this one had strawberry blonde hair cut to just below her ears. Again she was struck by just how beautiful she was for a human. She had that glow about her that was common in healers, though to humans they would never understand why they were drawn to the girl. She wasn’t short or tall, simply average and she was just beginning to show the curves of womanhood. She looked much too innocent for this world. Much too innocent for the unimaginable things she would be facing in the near future and here she was simply worried about getting home to a mother who expected her, but would never see her again.