“I’m a wizard, and am holding you still.” I smiled back, pleased at the fear that I had caused the sneaky dragon. I wouldn’t give him the chance to even attempt mind-games on me tonight.
His face paled, and Clyde looked mollified, as if suddenly realizing that he had done something to risk his job, but not knowing exactly what I had done to immobilize his bartender. “It’s the contacts, Master Temple. That’s what I was trying to show you. Everyone is wearing them. It’s required by the wishes of the patron sponsor for tonight’s dance competition.” I blinked, and then looked around. One by one, I realized that Clyde was right. Everyone had the same horizontal dragon-eyed pupils. I shivered, understanding now how dangerous this situation had become — that we could very easily be outnumbered if everyone looked like a dragon. We wouldn’t be able to tell regulars from freaks. And that was probably the fucking point. I was suddenly interested in who this patron was, fearing that the Dragon Lord had been working one step ahead of me.
I let the bartender go, waving him away. Instead of resuming work, he darted towards the restroom, holding the rear of his pants without embarrassment. I shook my head. I guess I had literally scared him shitless. That was a first.
A lingerie-clad hostess glided up beside Tory and Gunnar, her dragon-eyed contacts shining an icy blue, leaning in close to help them put in their contacts. A minute later, Tory and Gunnar had each donned their disguise, and were studying the crowd, ready for anything. Gunnar shrugged at my look, fiery-red dragon-eyes turning to me. “If we’re the only ones without the contacts, it will be pretty easy to pick us out in the crowd.” I nodded, but was still angry. I hated being one step behind.
“Who is this patron, and where are your contacts?” I asked Clyde as I slid on my own pair. They looked bright green in the case. I had worn contacts before in several Halloween costume contests, so knew how to do it fairly easily.
“Since I am normally outside, I wasn’t wearing them. Same with the bouncer downstairs. Didn’t want to ruin the surprise for the guests.” He answered. “The patron, although I’m sure it is just a nickname, is called Raego. Perhaps he’s a DJ, or a rising Rap star hoping to gain favor from the city. He is running a bit late, but said he would be here soon. He requested that if the Master Temple should arrive, he might be granted a few moments of your time. If it wasn’t too much trouble, of course. It seems you caused quite the stir at the Eads Bridge this afternoon. It’s all over the news. Archangel, they’re calling you.” Clyde said neutrally, no doubt itching to ask more. I said nothing, letting him think what he wished. The fucking news again. My secret was no more. Oh well, nothing to be done for it now.
Raego? That was the name of the black dragon that the dragon hunters warned me about. They would owe me big time if they were somehow able to bag him tonight after I tipped them off to this location. But how had he known I would be here? Had the Dragon Lord been lying to me? Was the Dragon Lord really Raego, and had someone followed us here? Or were the two working together?
“I was on the news?” I asked. Clyde nodded slowly as if I were daft.
“Did you really slay a… dragon? They say you’re a wizard.” He asked as if embarrassed at the question. Then his eyes trailed back to the bartender who had run to the bathroom, and his shoulders tightened, as if suddenly believing the man’s fear.
“More than one, but the news only heard about the one on the bridge.” I basked in the shock on his face. “Perhaps I could spare a moment or so. I am meeting a client here myself, but if Raego arrives before I leave, then I might say hello.”
“Well, I will direct him your way when he arrives. It’s been a real pleasure meeting you, but I need to get back to the front. If you need anything, anything at all, just tell the waitress ‘Archangel.’ And she will supply… whatever you or your party desires.” The implication was heavy, and for the first time, I wondered what kind of club this was. Or was I reading too deep into things? Maybe I should have researched the place before telling my client I would meet him here. I had heard the name of the club through passing conversation and advertisements around town, and it had simply been the first place I thought of. Plus, I knew it had a rooftop bar. Always have a secondary escape option.
Maybe a little more research would have been smart.
Tory and Gunnar had moved over towards a balcony that overlooked the main floor below, and I saw their dragon contacts wide and clear as they watched the show below them in amazement. As I saw what had caught their attention, my eyes widened too. It was like Cirque De Soleil meets Hustler magazine. Three separate stages stood below us, with shiny steel poles climbing up to the ceiling above my head. As I followed the pole up, I realized that a nude woman was hanging by her thighs, arms outstretched, breasts hanging freely, and kissing the neck of a guest on the same level as me. She was thirty feet above the first floor stage, barely holding on to the pole, and still seducing people on the floor above. The guest folded a twenty-dollar bill and tucked it inside a feather collar around the stripper’s neck.
I shook my head, and noticed that Tory looked downright ravenous as she watched. I pinched her arm and she gasped, flushing red as she met my eyes. “Sorry, just incredibly… impressed.” She said, but didn’t sound convincing. I shook my head with an amused smile. Glancing back down, I saw a dance floor full of bodies writhing and thrashing to the music. Dragon eyes everywhere. I noticed a few strippers here and there, enticing couples into better positions, fueling their libido, but remaining just out of grasp of too-eager hands. Bouncer’s stood positioned through the room, ready to be anywhere at a moment’s notice. I saw one stripper leading a young couple off to a back room, and shook my head in disbelief. A dance club, and a strip club. Who knew?
I pulled Tory and Gunnar’s sleeve away from the railing. “So, I guess I didn’t research the locale very well. I had no idea it was a strip club, I swear.” Gunnar frowned at me, not believing a word. “Seriously. But let’s go up onto the roof. Perhaps it’s more G-rated up there. That’s where I’m meeting my client anyway.” They nodded, following me as I searched for the roof access to the top floor of the club, where hopefully nudity would be frowned upon by neighbors across the street, if not discouraged outright by the cold weather.
I found the door, and climbed up a narrow set of wooden stairs, my posse in tow behind me. We exited onto a wooden dance floor sheltered by a glass ceilinged area with couches and divans around the perimeter where couples cuddled up beside each other or strippers performed lap dances in public view. Jesus. I felt like a prude. Don’t get me wrong, I love the female body, and I have even visited a strip club or dozen, but I was focused on business tonight, and I had a female guest with me, making everything slightly more uncomfortable, even though Tory seemed to be enjoying herself just fine as she studied several of the dancers acutely.
Heat lamps dotted the roof, keeping the air tolerable, and hidden speakers thumped loudly with different music than downstairs. I scanned the tangle of bodies, even peering around the shoulder of a dancer writhing upon a black-clothed man in one of the plush chairs. Her breasts almost hit me in the face as she turned into me, startled at my cold-fingered touch. Her dragon eyes instinctively startled me, as she looked me up and down. “Care for a dance, love?” She purred.
I shook my head. “No, I was just looking for someone.”
“I could be someone,” she whispered sensually. I shook my head again and strode away. Scanning the dragon-eyed people around us, I began to feel nervous. This was bad. Very, very bad. There was no way for me to spot a real dragon before it was too late. And with Raego picking the dress code, odds were that he wouldn’t be alone, and that he had probably sent some dragons here ahead of time. Why else the disguises?
We grabbed drinks, asking the bartender if he had seen anyone that might fit my client’s description. He shook his head, and offered us a free dance with anyone we chose as soon as he realized who I was. I declined, although Tory looked disappointed at m
y choice, arguing that we might fit in better if we looked like we were having a good time.
“So good a time that we won’t see a real dragon come up behind us and snap our necks?” I retorted, quietly but severely. She sighed, nodding agreement, and we continued searching the roof for my client. I began to feel stupid that I had never pressed him harder for a name. I mean, he was paying me a lot of money, and I had procured a book for him; a very, very dangerous book, apparently. But I had let him get away with not answering the question.
In the future, I would have to remedy that. It would have made things easier if we could have passed out a name to the over-eager waitresses who never seemed to be too far away to suggest luxuries we might enjoy while we wait. Some of those luxuries promised to be quite strenuous. “Would you care to take your pick of two dancers to one of the private rooms?” One asked. I shook my head, the pain from not getting release from Indie’s affections earlier threatening to cripple me like a fist in the gut. “How about three, Master Temple?” Again, I somehow managed to say no, and we found a seat on one of the couches.
We chatted idly, eyes searching the crowd. It was unsettling to see so many dragon eyes around me. Even when I glanced at Gunnar and Tory I would flinch instinctively. After a while, we finally began to relax, and that was when Aphrodite and her sisters came to play with the mortals.
Chapter 34
T he five goddesses swayed over to us, eyes for no one else. Two sat beside Gunnar after scooting him over to a separate chair wide enough for three. One sat on either side of me, and the last sat directly in Tory’s lap. It happened so fast that none of us could even protest. They were experts, and only prior knowledge let me realize that they weren’t actual goddesses, but just extremely talented dancers. They wore just enough to tease, and little enough to lock your eyes in search of straps or buttons that magically seemed to hold the sparse fabric in place.
Tory’s eyes were wide as the dancer leaned down and licked the hollow of her throat, but that was all I had time to notice before my own strippers dove upon me without abandon. One leaned in, her rose-scented hair cloying my nostrils as she licked my earlobe. Her lacy top brushed my cold drink and she moaned at the contact, the sound muddling my brain.
“Mmmm… Archangel is here to take care of us. Whatever shall we do?” She asked the other, wrapping her arms around my neck as she settled herself firmly in my lap. She used one hand to place my own upon her smooth rear end, able to cup the entire naked cheek in one palm.
That was it. The wizard was officially useless.
The blue dragon-eyes of the woman straddling me made it all the more alluring as she arched her back, leaning backwards to the second woman, who promptly reached out and gently grabbed a pleasant handful of breast. Her green dragon-eyes met mine as she did so — sexual hunger filling her gaze. They parted, staring into each other’s eyes hungrily. “I say that we should do whatever the Master wishes of us.” They turned to face me, as the one on my lap slowly continued to lean back until her spine rested on my knees, gravity pulling her breasts slightly to the side as her hands gripped my ankles and she ground her panties into my abdomen.
We had attracted quite a crowd. I managed to notice the dancers with Gunnar in various Chinese acrobatic positions across his body, and I saw one dancer fiddling with a fuzzy handcuff type bracelet in her hands as the other smothered his face with her chest, throwing her head back with a laugh. Gunnar was surprisingly enjoying himself, which was totally out of character for him. The thought scattered to nothing as my own duo regained my attention with well-placed bite-marks on my thigh.
One of the green-eyed dancer’s hands found the book in my back pocket. “Hmm… a librarian. I have always wanted to play with a librarian. Do you like games, librarian? We know a game involving handcuffs…” Her eyes sparkled down at me as she withdrew a pair of handcuffs from out of nowhere. “I think this book is getting in the way. Perhaps we should remove it to reach what is underneath… Which one of us would you choose?” The green-eyed dancer moaned, her horizontal pupils dilating to a solid bar across her eyes. My haze evaporated in a blink, but I didn’t show it.
“I’ll have to flip a coin to decide…” I pulled the coin Asterion had given me from my pocket, hoping for the best, and flipped it up into the air. The coin instantly turned into a shield, slamming into the green-eyed dragon’s — because that is what she truly was — jaw. I felt blood spray across my face, and one of her teeth landed on my shirt as she flew across the dance floor. I drew my power, embracing it to it’s fullest, and felt the telltale signs of mind control that had been clouding us. I grabbed the blue-eyed dragon by the throat, carefully plucking the book from her fingers. Then I shoved with all my strength, fueled by a riptide of magic, and launched her into a wall. She struck the wall with a solid smack, immediately silencing the music in an explosive shower of sparks, and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, spine broken.
Dead was good.
I heard the snap of metal and turned to see the dragons with Gunnar smiling as their handcuff clasped around his wrist. His eyes immediately changed — even behind the contacts — glazing over. He was no longer home. Tory was oblivious, making out with her red-haired dancer. I grabbed the bitch by the hair, yanked, and threw her a dozen feet behind me with an added boost of air. Her bare skin screeched in a horrendous wood burn as she skidded across the dance floor. Tory’s eyes widened as she saw me looming over her, her shirt tugged down over her stomach so that she was naked from the waist up. I saw the handcuff on her wrist, but thankfully it was unclasped. Feeling something on my own wrist, I glanced down and saw a similar handcuff dangling, unclasped. I shivered, flinging it off into the night out over the railing of the roof.
Tory bound to her feet, pulling her top back up into a semblance of decency. My own fly was unzipped. Damn. Aphrodite had nothing on them. I hadn’t even noticed their power. The dragons stood from various positions around the floor where I had thrown them, but the two with Gunnar continued smiling up at me, one holding a thin chain attached to the bracelet in their fingers. “Good, wolfie…” The blue-eyed, red haired dragon cooed in his ear. Gunnar’s shoulders relaxed at the praise.
“Gunnar, get away from them. Now.” I demanded.
“Don’t want to.” He said, struggling with the words. “I’m happy here. So happy. They love me…” I slammed my power into him, but it struck an invisible dome emanating from the handcuff, bouncing harmlessly away. Shit. One down. I had to kill these bitches now, or I had no idea what would happen to Gunnar.
The regulars around the dance floor watched drunkenly, several shooting angry glares my way as they had just seen me hurt three strippers. Good men, but they had no idea of the truth. I wouldn’t have time to differentiate between regulars and dragons if it came to a fight, and if a couple of these drunken men thought they were protecting an innocent woman, they might wake up in a hospital tomorrow morning. Shit, shit, shit.
A cop appeared out of nowhere, brandishing his pistol, and aiming it in my general direction, yelling at me to stop hurting the women, his eyes wide as his overweight frame sloshed back and forth at any sign of movement. The green-eyed dragon dancer strode up to him, blood dripping from her mouth, eyes innocent and afraid. “He hurt me. Do something, officer. Please! Help me!” She was holding his arm in mock fear. His eyes turned on me, rage blinding him.
“Don’t!” I yelled, as he began to raise his gun.
Her hand moved quicker than I had ever seen, tearing his throat completely from his neck to reveal a purplish white spine beneath the gore. Blood spurted into the air, painting the green-eyed dragon’s face. Then she shifted into her true form, her legs kicking out a couch that had been too close. She wasn’t as big as Misha or the silver dragon I had killed, but she was easily twice as long as a man from rump to snout, and green like a forest in summer.
Then mass chaos erupted. People ran, eyes wide, not even realizing where they were running, abandoni
ng all ties with either their loved ones, dates, strippers, or friends. Screaming tore at my ears, making it hard to notice anything else, but I kept my eyes on the dragons, ready for the fight of my life. Four versus two. A sudden blast of fire ignited a nearby couch, and four more dragons emerged from the flames.
Okay. Now we were really screwed.
I realized I had the book in my pocket and groaned. The book they had been tearing up my city to find. If they turned Gunnar against us we were in serious trouble, because I couldn’t see myself hurting my best friend. He wouldn’t know what he was doing, but he was one of the most dangerous things I had ever seen when in werewolf form. It would also ruin his career if they made him shift.
Tory tugged at my arm, letting me know she was ready for battle. I waved a hand at the cop, but she shook her head, lifting up hands stained with blood. “He’s gone.” Crap, a dead cop. Kosage was going to be furious, and once again, I was present at the crime. What would that make him think? But I didn’t have time to worry about that now. The fire spread to the beams that held up the glass ceiling, thick dark smoke cloyed the air.
“Well then. I think it’s time for you to earn your own nickname.” I murmured, unleashing the same whips of fire and ice I had used at Alaric’s hotel room earlier. Another couch burst into flame as my whip licked it with the faintest brush. “Come on down, bitches. Let me show you what I did to your big sisters.” I grinned, flashing teeth, and then I began to cackle.
I think the non-masculine sound had to do with the suddenly power-drunk status of my body trying to figure out what to make of the new reservoir of magic I had been given earlier in the day. Regardless, it made the dragons hesitate.
Then they began to move, freaky fast, like, well… snakes.
I slung the liquid ice whip around the green dragon’s throat, and her eyes went wide enough that I was curious they would pop out. Then, as I tugged back, her neck simply shattered into fragments of frozen dragon-meat cubes. Her body crashed to the dance floor, twitching. I slung the fiery whip over Tory’s head as she darted low, and managed to latch onto the back legs of another dragon mid-shift. It knocked her completely off her feet, and sent her tearing through the protective railing bordering the roof, cloaked in flames, screaming as she fell.
Obsidian Son (The Temple Chronicles Book 1) Page 25