The “knuckles” were made of Lexan and I was able to stow them in my pants without causing any unusual bulges or an impairment to my natural gait. Don't ask me exactly where I had them stored, but let's just say it’s a place that a male bouncer usually is reluctant to grab when doing a cursory frisk... and at least Lexan didn't get cold like metal would.
The evening's early birds had already made it inside, and now a sizable line was forming on the sidewalk as the crowd began stretching onto the street, just as they had done every other night. I shifted around the outskirts of the line and the crowd, and tried to mentally place all of Dimitri's security people, who were standing out in their all-black commando gear. I also tried to pay attention to the way the crowd moved, just in case there were any people who also seemed out of place. I had a feeling that there were some of Dimitri's people, dressed as the club goers, mixed in with the crowd as an extra measure of security.
Once the music had begun to play the party attitude from inside the club almost immediately spilled outside to the revelers in the street, just as Chris and I had seen from the previous night’s recon. The entire crowd began to bounce up and down in time with the bass line of the music, as it boomed through the outdoor speakers, while people raised bottles of champagne or some other liquor over their heads and attempted to bounce and drink simultaneously.
I pushed my way into the crowd as young men in designer suits flapped their arms while young women in provocative evening wear waggled and bounced along with the guys. I had made it to about the middle of the scrum pile when I heard something in my ear that I knew was Chris trying to talk to me. Unfortunately, the noise of the people and the music made for a surrounding volume so loud that I couldn't make out what he was saying. I turned toward the street to look for the headlights of Dimitri's caravan, but saw only darkness before I felt someone's hand dip into my back pocket.
My initial reaction was that of a pickpocket alert, but when I felt an assertive squeeze followed by a second hand sliding its way into my other pocket I realized it wasn't my wallet that was in danger. I turned to find myself looking down into a pair of the largest eyes I had ever seen on any person. I kid you not, the woman was like a Disney cartoon, but for some reason it had a nice effect on her face, giving her an extra, extra cute appearance. The cuteness of her face was completely in contrast to the way she was dressed, which was so sheer and revealing that I couldn't help but wonder if she were cold.
She tilted her head and looked up at me with those too cute to be real eyes and smiled, “Hi.”
She was so short and petite that I had to look twice to make sure I was looking at a grown woman as opposed to a child. Eventually it was only the size of her bosom, and the way she was flaunting it, that made me guess she was old enough to be groping me in such a manner. I admit it wasn't the best form of age identification, but I suddenly wasn't thinking with my head as much as another part of me.
“Hi,” I responded stupidly, and had no idea if I could even be heard over the cacophony that enveloped us.
She stood on her tip toes and barely made it to my shoulder as she half-yelled something in Russian, but ended in what sounded like the name, “Maya.”
I looked around and noticed that there wasn't anyone paying particular attention to us, so I said in English, “Hello Maya, I'm Steve.”
Her eyes widened even more, which I hadn't thought possible, and in nearly perfect English with only a trace of accent said, “You're American?”
Again I heard the sound of Chris talking to me through the earpiece, but couldn't make out what he was saying as I nodded to Maya my confirmation that I was indeed an American.
Maya said something else to me but it was a garbled jumble of words lost in the sound of the crowd and I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders at her to convey my lack of understanding.
It was then I saw the illumination of the headlights from the first of Dimitri's vehicles as it came around a corner and headed toward the club.
“I said,” Maya was doing that standing on her toes and screaming into my ear thing again, “are you here alone?”
I didn't look at her as I nodded my head absently. At that moment I wasn't really listening to her anymore, and if she’d asked me if I rode here on a cow I would have responded the same way. Realizing my mistake I quickly turned back to her and was going to excuse myself when she surprised me.
“My friends and I are going to get inside when Mr. Lagos arrives. You want to party with us?”
I blinked at her and then looked around at the younger, better dressed and apparently wealthier men bouncing around us like rhythmic rabbits. She wanted me to join her over all of them? I like to think of myself as a decent looking guy, but... well, you know that statement about something too good to be true? She did say the word “party”, which was a relatively common term for a working girl to call her services, but the look on her face didn't have the predatory personality that call girls typically have when soliciting their “John's.”
I opened my mouth to say something, then thought better of it and just nodded my head excitedly at the idea. My reaction was, for the most part, feigned. After all, I was here looking for Lei and any seduction act this little girl thought she could pull on me was pure amateur hour, compared to what Lei could do. Still, it didn't take much acting to give her the impression that I was interested. Maya returned my sentiment with equal enthusiasm and began to lead me through the crowd to where, I presumed, her friends were waiting.
Maya seemed to know where she was going as she led me out into the middle of the crowd. It was incredibly difficult to see through the throng of party goers, but when I was able to distinguish my position I could see that we were about to exit the main crush of the crowd and move into a space on the street that would leave me exposed as Dimitri exited his car. Not a good thing as Dimitri knew my face. I turned to the street and saw all three of Dimitri's vehicles had parked along the curb and the door to Dimitri's Rolls Royce open.
I began looking around for a place to shield me from view, but found nothing but the wall of the nightclub behind me, and a perfect line-of-sight to the parked vehicles in front. Maya was looking at me, her expression having lost some of its bubble factor and been replaced by a wariness. She must have noticed my change in demeanor, and I had expected her to break away from me. Instead she moved in closer and ran her fingers down the front of my shirt and whispered a breathy, “What's wrong?”
I could see Dimitri's head as he ducked to clear the doorframe of the vehicle, and heard a crackle in my ear as Chris was invariably trying to warn me to get to cover. I made the only decision I could, and tried to remember everything Lei had ever taught me about what she called the ’thrall’, and focused all my attention on Maya. Inside I felt stupid, as I really didn't know what I was doing, but I bent down and encircled one arm around Maya's waist in a quick and powerful, yet tender embrace. I stood back up to my full height, lifting Maya off her feet with her body pressing tightly into mine in a very intimate manner. She let out a little yelp which could be surprise, pleasure or fright, as my free hand gently caressed and cupped one side of her face, forcing her attention to remain completely on me while I was looking deeply into her eyes and holding her gaze.
Her eyes were wide with what I thought was a mixture of excitement, joy, fear and then I felt the connection that Lei had described to me countless times before. I could feel the conflict in her as Maya's body reacted in a need to pull me closer, while her head fought to push me away. Lei had told me about this internal struggle, and how she overwhelmed her “victims” resistance when they would go through the same internal fight. There is a primitive part of the brain and the body will always want what is being offered. It didn't matter if you were young or old, beautiful or ugly, fat or thin, or any combination of the attractants that serve to possess and impose one’s attraction toward another. All that matters, to a certain part of our person, is that we know what we want instinctively and it’s within our
nature to take advantage when such is offered.
That isn't to say women have different “buttons” to push in these matters, but if you tap into the right part of any brain, then there would be no resistance. Men only needed a proper attitude to be displayed in order to go completely monkey-brained. I hadn't believed it and had asked Lei, if that were true, then why go through the whole production and overt display of her over-the-top sex Goddess body and face? She had smiled, and replied that it made everything that much easier and that sometimes the hard part is getting noticed in the first place. But Lei had told me that for women it was different, because the animal brain in women still reverts back to a time when finding a mate was about looking for the biggest, baddest and most powerful man in the cave, so that she could get a proper hunter, provider and protector for her and her offspring. I honestly didn't know how to tap into my inner caveman, but Maya hadn't started screaming for help yet, so I took it as a positive sign. I stepped forward and gently pinned her back, feet still aloft, to the wall of the club. This left the back of my head to the cars, which is what I wanted, and I leaned in closer to her with the threat of a kiss. Initially she had placed one hand on my chest, resisting my advance as her eyes narrowed and turned into a frown, but when I brought my lips within millimeters of hers, feeling the warmth of her rapid, excited breaths flow over my face, I could feel her resistance and her strength ebb, as her hand’s pressure slackened so it merely rested on my chest while I gently ran my lips over hers. It was more a caress of the lips than a kiss, but I could feel the first pass send a shiver through her body. I slid the second caress at a slower pace over her lips and I felt her free arm move around my neck in response. On the third pass her legs slid up mine, before wrapping around my hips, trying to pull me more tightly against her body. She squeezed her legs and pulled with her arms to try to press our lips together, but I held her fast, and only made the lightest contact with my lips on hers, which pulled a slight breathy moan out of her.
In the background I was aware that the crowd had begun cheering, presumably as Dimitri had fully exited the vehicle, but I found it harder and harder to concentrate on what was going on around me as the seduction I was putting on Maya progressed. Finally, with her body straining and quivering for me to relent, I pressed forward and kissed her passionately. She let out a deep moan into my mouth before returning the kiss with an even greater intensity. The hand she had placed on my chest slid under one of my arms and intertwined with the arm already around my neck while my hands slid over the sheer fabric of her party dress, massaging whatever exposed skin they could find. I could feel her giving in to the seduction as her breath pushed into my lungs. The soft, wet warmth of her mouth and the action of her tongue became insistent as our kiss grew even more passionate. I noticed that there was a strange buzzing around one of my ears, but it was too minor to be any kind of distraction, and Maya's hips began rising up and down my body, which instinctively reacted to the pleasure I was experiencing.
The buzzing at my ear was growing more insistent, and it took all my effort to remove one hand from the amazingly smooth, soft skin it had found on the curve of Maya's upper leg to swat at whatever it was. Maya never broke the kiss but managed to find my loose hand and guided it back, this time beneath the strap of the thong she was wearing to find the full flesh of one buttock. My hand nearly encased her entire cheek and I felt the smooth texture of her perfect skin as my fingers squeezed possessively and assisted her body in its up and down rhythms as her hips slid over the length of me.
That background noise, which had been little more than a hum before, was growing louder, although no more distinguishable, but a part of my mind was telling me something was wrong. I didn't want to break contact with Maya, but a part of me needed to know what was happening. I gently extended my neck in order to break the kiss, but as Maya sensed what I was going to do she grabbed the hair on the back of my head and pulled herself along with my retreat. Her legs cinched tighter around my hips and she arched her back to allow me to feel her breasts and hard nipples as they gently slid over my chest, no longer just quietly pressing firmly against me, but now actively tantilizing me.
I swooned at her response and felt my legs begin to wobble as Maya shifted her small frame, and I found myself moving along with her and completely oblivious of the crowd that was around us, when something struck a part of the wall just to the left of our heads. The impact must have been immense, as tiny pieces of brick and dust covered the left side of my face and stung my cheek. Distracted, I turned toward the impact and saw a softball sized indentation in the brick wall about three feet away from where our heads had been. I frowned, confused because it looked like a bullethole, but there hadn't been the sound of gunfire. I turned my head a little more to see that the crowd hadn't noticed the cause of the indentation nor the spectacle that Maya and I were putting on. I could hear Dimitri's voice addressing the crowd as my ability to hear returned to normal, when Maya shifted her mouth to my ear that was free of the Bluetooth device.
Why had I been wearing a Bluetooth? I shook my head and tried to clear my thoughts. I knew where I was. I knew what was happening around me. But I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do. I felt the warmth of Lei's body against mine as she lowered her feet from around me, and set them back on the ground while she worked her mouth away from my ear and down to my neck. I chuckled as Lei gently bit a particularly ticklish spot that she had found when...
Wait... Lei...?
I was here to get Lei back...
But if I was here for Lei, then who was kissing my neck? My head jolted back and my hands pushed Lei away from me and held her at arms distance. No not Lei. Maya. She had said her name was Maya.
Maya looked at me more startled and confused than upset, and opened her mouth to say something when the voice in my ear exploded.
“Wake up you asshole!” Chris was literally screaming at me through the Bluetooth. The crowd was parting, some were running away from something that was happening on the street. The music was still blaring but no one was dancing any more as all eyes were trained on something, no not something, someone in the street. I looked back to the girl and saw that Maya had lost all interest in me and was also fixated on whatever was happening. I leaned over and placed one hand on the wall to steady myself. Why was I so disorientated? I hadn't ever felt like this since the first time Lei and I had...
Realization hit me like a ton of bricks and my mind jolted back to one hundred percent clarity.
“Oh, son of a bitch!!!” I exclaimed as I pulled the polypropylene Karambit from its sheath at my back. At the sound of my voice Maya spun back to me and her eyes momentarily went wide with surprise, before they narrowed and a loud hiss came from her throat as her face contorted into a mask of rage.
Bad move. If she had cried for help she would have had plenty of people turn to assist. Instead her decision to stand up to me went unnoticed as my fist crashed into her jaw. Little as she was, her body flew back a greater distance than I had expected, before falling in a heap to the pavement unconscious.
I looked to the crowd and a few of the partygoers had turned to see Maya hit the pavement, but they were already in full retreat mode from something else that had them way too scared for their own safety and no one felt the need to assist some random girl.
Chris' voice in my ear sounded desperate, “Everything's blown! Go for your gun now! I'll cover you!”
It was then, that one unmistakable voice rose above the hum of the crowd and the music, which was still coming from the exterior speakers. The voice spoke with such authority and clarity that it could not be ignored.
“YBENTE ERO!” Dimitri Lagos screamed, “KILL HIM!”
Chapter 18
5 minutes earlier
“What the hell?!” Chris had said out loud when he watched Steve get friendly with one of the locals. He shifted the rifle and saw that the door to Dimitri's car had been opened and the old man was climbing out. Understanding that Steve was u
sing the girl for cover, Chris chuckled into the headset, “Oh, very James Bond of you, but Lei is going to kick your ass when I tell her about this.”
Chris kept the crosshairs on Steve for a moment longer but, as the entanglement Steve was in grew in erotic intensity, he uncomfortably returned to scanning the crowd for any sign of Lei or Pha.
“Okay, you officially have made me ill,” Chris mumbled into the microphone, “don’t get too into your role.”
Chris swiveled the rifle toward Dimitri's Rolls Royce and saw the old vampire standing on the vehicle's step and facing the crowd. The music and general sounds coming from the crowd were too loud for Chris to make out what Dimitri was saying, so he just watched and centered the crosshairs of the riflescope on Dimitri's temple. Chris felt his finger tighten on the trigger and had to will himself to relax it up and away, lest he accidental discharge the weapon. Chris thought about how easy it would be to put an end to Dimitri. Just a simple exhale and squeeze and the man's head would literally burst like a ripe watermelon as the large caliber, high velocity round exploded in and through his head. If it weren't for their need to retrieve Lei and Pha he'd be able to put an end to this right now.
Rasputin's Prodigy Page 17