Shadow

by Jan Stryvant

  “Because people fear me,” he said rather simply.

  “More than the other people here?” she asked keeping her voice low.

  “Pretty much. On the one hand they know I fuck a lot, if you weren’t here I’d probably have already fucked two or three of the cuter girls here. I’m not always discrete about it. I also have quite a few steady girlfriends, and some of those have killed men just for hitting on them.

  “And on the other hand I’m a complete mystery to most of them, they know I run with Circe who is as bad as they come, but they don’t know what I do for her. They’ve seen her and I have knock down drag outs in public, and they’ve all heard the rumors about how I make people disappear.”

  “Disappear?” She asked curious.

  “People who come after me for one reason or another are often never seen again. And even some who go after my girlfriends.”

  Karen looked at him, “What did you do to them?”

  “I suspect people think I ate them,” he grinned and picked his teeth with a claw.

  “Are you going to eat me?” she asked in a little girl voice suddenly worried.

  He laughed, “Of course not.”

  “Then why do they think that?”

  “Because they’ve seen me bite a person’s throat out with my fangs. I’ve killed some very tough customers, Kitten, in rather spectacular fashion. People talk about it and I’m sure your friend Jess has heard all the stories by now.”

  Karen nodded, “Well she’s not exactly my friend. I just know her.”

  Shadow hmmed? “Well how much do you like her?”

  “She’s okay; she helped me out, why?”

  “Well she’s about to end up a hooker, that’s a pimp hitting on her.”

  “What?” Karen looked, “You have to do something!”

  Shadow whistled and several people turned to look, including Jess. He crooked a finger at her to come back over. The pimp saw it and immediately went in search of other targets. Jess noticed then she was alone and came over.

  “What did you do that for?” she asked, a little too scared to be upset.

  “He was a pimp!” Karen hissed, “Looking for new girls.”

  “And you should talk?” Jess said, then turned rather pale as she remembered who’s lap Karen was sitting on.

  “I don’t sell my women on the street,” Shadow laughed, “Though if you want I could call him back?”

  Jess got paler.

  “To be honest though, if you want to be a prostitute I can fix you up with a lot better than him. You are rather attractive, young, tight body, nice tits and ass. No doubt you’d make a pimp a lot of money before he was done with you. Of course he’d hook you on drugs to control you, sell you to lower end pimps as the drugs took their toll, and eventually one would OD you and you’d end up in the morgue.”

  Shadow smiled at her, “But if you got a job at a nice whorehouse with a decent madam, well then of course you’d be taken care of and could quit when you wanted to.”

  Jess gulped again and Shadow handed her his drink, which she finished rather quickly. He looked her over carefully, appraising her obvious assets.

  “So what do you want to do Jess?” He asked.

  “Huh? What do you mean?”

  “Think of this party as a big job interview, and all those guys as employers. Some are looking for girlfriends, though that job tends not too last long. Some are looking for prostitutes as I just mentioned. Some want sex slaves, but that breaks down into the ones who will treat you well, and the ones who will eventually kill you. In either case you’ll be a slave afterwards and probably sold. Just some sell to good homes and some sell to bad ones. There are guys here looking for strippers, and dancers, and waitresses, and well, just about anything. Just remember that your body is going to be your bargaining chip, and once the deal is closed, they’re going to be fucking you a lot. Like it or not.”

  “Why, why are you telling me this?”

  “Cause Karen here likes you and I guess she wanted me to help you. So I’m helping. This is the underground, if you’re going to stay here, as a hot little sixteen or seventeen year old girl, you’re prey. They’re the predators. These parties are the savannah. If you want to work for one of these guys, tell me what you want to do and I’ll hook you up. Just understand that if I hook you up you can’t go back on the deal. Otherwise you’ll face me,” Shadow growled out that last word.

  Jess collapsed onto the couch and stared at Karen looking a little panicked again.

  “Quit scaring her Shadow,” Karen said and hugged him, “Please?”

  Shadow grinned. “Go back out on the floor and think about what you want, and then come here and tell me. If I can help, I’ll set you up. If I can’t I’ll tell you so. Okay?”

  Jess nodded dumbly and got up and walked off.

  “I can’t believe you told her to do that!” Karen gasped, surprised. “You looking to get laid?”

  He grinned and kissed her, “I have mine for tonight. I know someone who has a high-class brothel. She treats the girls well so I point willing candidates her way.”

  The party continued on, Shadow and Karen enjoying each other's company as well as the drinks and the atmosphere. Shadow loved the parties, even when he wasn't shagging everything in skirts.

  Eventually Jess came back.

  “How safe is it working in a whorehouse?” she asked, making Karen’s eyes widen.

  “I can set you up with one where you will get to keep a third of what you make, and they will provide you with a room, food, customers, as well as take care of your safety. Even includes medical treatment. They charge top dollar, but you’ll have to agree to a three year contract, which means that you can’t quit for those three years.”

  “Three years?” she blinked.

  “They’re going to train you and outfit you. They have a bit of an investment to recoup. But after three years you can stay or go as you like, pick your own hours, whatever. And they can’t sell your contract without your approval, and if you’re smart you’ll never let them do it.”

  She nodded slowly. “I don’t mind sleeping with strangers. I like men, and some of them are really nice to me afterwards. If I have to do something, I think I can do that.”

  Shadow nodded and squeezed Karen when he thought she was going to say something.

  “Come with me then,” he said and led the girls out of the party and hailed a cab. He took them both to a place in a quieter part of town that was mostly industrial but not all. He led them in the back door and had them wait their while he went off in search of somebody.

  “You want to be a prostitute?” Karen asked Jessie surprised.

  “You should talk, you’re screwing a freaking black panther,” Jessie hissed back.

  Karen blushed, “He’s nice,” she said embarrassed.

  “Well maybe, but the stories on the street don’t seem to say that. But maybe you can handle him.” Jess visibly shivered, “he scares the hell out of me. You can keep him.”

  “You sure you want to do this?” Karen pressed again, trying to return the conversation to her original question.

  “Sure, why not? I’m already sleeping with guys to get food and rent money. And with you gone ....”

  Karen blushed and nodded, before Shadow had grabbed her last week, she’d been helping Jess.

  Shadow came back in then with a strikingly beautiful woman on his arm, “Liz, this is Jess. Jess is interested in joining your fine establishment as one of your girls.”

  Liz nodded and motioned for Jess to come to her. “Welcome, Jess. Shadow I take it has given you the gist of what goes on here?”

  Jess nodded, “This is a whorehouse, I want to be one of your prostitutes.”

  Liz sighed and gave Shadow a kick in the shins, Karen and Jess both looked shocked while Shadow smiled and ignored it.

  “This is a house of companionship,” Liz began glaring at Shadow, “Trust him to be rude and crass about it. You will entertain customers who p
ay for your time, in private rooms. As the gentlemen are paying for you, you will make them happy by acceding to their requests, including those of a rather sexual nature. You will be expected to behave like a lady in public, and follow the house rules. But most importantly you will do whatever I tell you, whenever I tell you, and understand I can be actually meaner than this furball,” and she jerked a thumb at Shadow. “In return you will be protected, and taken care of, trained and introduced to men of means and quality. Understood?”

  Jess nodded, “To be honest, Liz, you make it sound a lot better than he did, and well, he didn’t make it sound bad really.”

  “Good, now strip, naked.” Liz commanded

  Jess blinked but did as she was told. Liz then walked around her and gave her a light physical examination, using her hands as well as her eyes.

  “Okay, yes, you will definitely fit in here. Our customers appreciate lovely young women and they’ll definitely appreciate you. Leave those rags here; I’ll get you outfitted with some nicer things. We can start on your training tonight.”

  Jess gulped, “Yes, Liz.”

  “Yes ma'am. You haven’t earned the right to call me Liz yet darling.

  “Yes, Ma'am. Ma'am, I have some personal belongings I’d like to get?”

  “I’ll send someone to get them later, don’t worry. Now go through that door and into the shower at the end of the hall. I want you to wash up. I’ll catch up with you in a moment.”

  “Yes, Ma'am!” Jess said and left.

  Liz turned to Shadow, “Your usual fee then dear?”

  Shadow grinned at Liz, “Oh no, I want a percentage of her take. I’ll stake her costs and I want half the house.”

  “Hell no. This is my establishment. I’ll split the stake, and you’ll take twenty percent. Just like the last two you brought in.”

  “Greedy bitch,” Shadow grinned.

  “Hardly, she’s got the looks, but I’m still going to have to make a lot of an investment in her. Probably be a while before I break even, I’ll be training her for months. She needs to learn to act the role these guys will want.”

  “What role is that?” Karen asked curious, they’d seemed to have forgotten her.

  “Teenaged daughter to loving dad, or teenaged daughter’s friend in most cases,” Liz said and gave Karen a looking over.

  “Oh, I see.” Karen nodded and blushed.

  “I’ll give you a million, cash, for her right now, Shadow,” Liz said “Plus ten percent.”

  Karen started shocked as Shadow laughed.

  “I’m keeping this one a while yet, Liz. Maybe when she’s eighteen if she’s interested I’ll send her over.”

  “I won’t be offering so much then, Hon. This one would have every congressman and senator around crawling outside her door, I’d guarantee it!”

  Shadow laughed again and gave Liz a kiss, “Quit trying to steal my kitten. See you Wednesday, Liz.” And he led Karen out and got a taxi to take them home.

  “Was she serious about that?” Karen blinked.

  “Pretty much. You’d make a great call girl, you’re well trained, responsive and completely submissive. She can pick it out of you pretty easily. Of course she was also doing it to tease me. That’s why she offered a million.”

  “Oh.” She thought a bit, “So you’re going to be making money off of Jessie’s having sex?”

  He nodded, “I bring Liz girls I think would fit in well, she runs a class place and takes good care of her girls. She gives me the usual commission. But sometimes I’ll stake them and take a percentage.”

  “You think Jess is that good a whore then?” Karen was confused again.

  “To be honest, no. I don’t know how good Jess will be. But if she bombs, then Liz doesn’t lose as much. I never fucked your friend so I have no idea if she’s good or bad. Hopefully I didn’t just stick Liz with a dud. But you wanted me to help her, so I did.” Shadow gave her a hug and a smile.

  “Oh!” Karen thought a moment, “Well I seem to recall the guys coming out of her room looking really happy, and she had a lot of them come back.”

  “Well that’s good.”

  They settled into a routine fairly quickly after that, Karen left for school before he was up in the morning, and of course she came home when he was usually out. Shadow would normally drift in for dinner, eat, spend some time with her and then head back out. If he came home alone he’d crawl in to her bed and often wake her up for a nice fuck or two, then curl up for the night with her. A model parent he wasn’t, but she didn’t mind. She knew he cared and he always spent time each day talking with her about her day and her problems, even if it was only on the phone. And Sundays were hers, from whenever he dragged himself in until she had to go to school Monday morning. She especially liked spending that night in his bed and bedroom. Sleeping in his bed was always the best in her mind, because no one else could be there with him if she was.

  He had made it clear to her; he was a cat, leopard actually. He had his territory to maintain and most of his deals and work were done in the late hours of the night. Plus he had a fair share of girlfriends to keep up as well. He made sure he brought someone home at least once a week, he’d let Karen know in advance because he wanted her to stay in her room during those visits. He didn’t want to get too attached and didn’t want her to get too attached either. So letting her hear him banging another gal senseless at least once a week was good for her. He knew she peeked in occasionally when he fucked them in the living room, but he was careful not to let her know that. Some nights he’d send that gal home when he was done with her and go fuck his ‘daughter’ next as she’d be sopping wet and horny as hell. Ah, he was such a pervert at times he had to admit.

  It was the last Tuesday of the month and Shadow was sitting in the back of Giovan’s, one of his favorite restaurants. It was slow this time of day, and rather dark in the back.

  “Hold it right there, feline scum!” he heard whispered from behind.

  Leaning back in the chair and tilting his head way back until it was upside down he smiled. “Hi, Tomas. Have a seat.”

  “How can you do that? It makes my neck hurt just looking at you!” Tomas said and walked around to sit across from Shadow at the small table.

  “It’s a cat thing,” Shadow said sitting back up straight. “So how is whoever she was?”

  “Fine. The doctors said if that vein hadn’t been clamped she’d have died in a few minutes. As it is she’s going to take a while to fully heal.”

  Shadow nodded, “Centurion tell you then?”

  “Yeah, but no one else. Just said some guy he’d never seen before was working on her, claimed to be a doctor so he let him deal with her. Rumors now abound about this mystery doctor of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “He was a bit confused, but he knows not everyone on the other side is evil, I think he even understands the risk you took. He’s been in the business a long time, I suspect he’s used to surprises.”

  Shadow nodded again and they both were quiet as food was delivered. Shadow had taken the initiative to order earlier for both of them. “People here think I’m a cold blooded killer. Wouldn’t pay to have them think otherwise, they might start challenging me again.” He said after the waiter had left.

  “If you keep that image up one of these days the DA is going to send us after you, you know.”

  Shadow shrugged, “He’d be digging, plus,” he smiled at Tomas, “you’d never catch me.”

  “Don’t be too sure of that one, Shadow, I have a lot of resources on tap.”

  “Yeah, and I’m one of them,” Shadow laughed, “if I hadn’t been forced to drop my guard to help that gal of yours, you wouldn’t have even known I was there.”

  “Why were you there?” Tomas asked curiously.

  “I’m always there. Parties are my thing, and I like scouting out the new girls for talent.”

  “Ha ha,” Tomas said dryly.

  Shadow grinned and shrugged, he’d told To
mas at least a hundred times that he was here mainly to have a good time, but Tomas still didn’t seem to believe him. “That was pretty ballsy hitting such a large event; I’m surprised you did it.”

  “The DA wanted a big show and so did the Mayor and the Governor. Scorecard was a major haul.”

  “Yeah, but you nearly got your asses handed to you and Laughing Boy still got away.” Shadow shook his head, “I know how the press and the politicians played it off, but that wasn’t much of a success.”

  Tomas nodded in agreement, “I made sure they realized that. The fed’s were pissed, that was one of their prizes that almost got killed. I don’t think they’ll be up for that again anytime soon.”

  “Yeah well, Laughing Boy isn’t going to give you another chance at him. Now that he knows you’re after him in a big way, he’s taking precautions in a big way as well. And of course rumor is he’s planning even bigger crimes to get even with the Mayor for attacking him. You reached for too much, every predator knows you only go after one at a time.”

  “Yeah well, you know the Mayor and the Feds.”

  “Well when they get the bill for the buildings and property that got destroyed, rub their noses in it. That claim is probably going to be in the millions. It was poorly done.”

  “What would you suggest?” Tomas said raising an eyebrow.

  “Hitting the parties randomly isn’t a bad idea; it keeps people on their toes and lets the bad guys know they don’t run this town. Also you never know what you’ll shake loose and catch. But wait until they’ve been going a while and people are feeling no pain. And on the bigger parties, hit people on the way out, away from the building. Don’t just go barging in. Half the people at the party only fought because they had to save face. They either want a job with one of the heavy hitters or already have one and don’t want to look like wimps in front of them.”

  “So you’re saying they’d give up and go to jail without a fight?”

  Shadow nodded, “For a lot of them, yes. They only fight if they think they can win, plus going to jail looks good on the resume. They can tell all sorts of lies about the fight they put up if no one is there to witness it. Eighty percent of the folks running in the underground don’t really have any backbone. Unless you’re looking to make a spectacle, do it away from public. Even some of the baddest guys out there will surrender if they think they might die, it’s the ones with nothing to lose that you have to watch out for.”