by Erin Hayes
Delilah all but confirmed this the moment they were through the door. Like one of the scantily clad dancers gyrating about the club’s interior, Zoey’s suspicions were planted on an imaginary stage between them and lit as an unquestioned truth. With a flash of fake smile and a purring of phony excitement the therion tramp had deliberately separated the two of them, assigning them their roles. Hooking an arm around Isaac’s shoulder and planting herself between them, she regarded Zoey with cold eyes melting over her scorching grin and, with a condescending tone that insinuated more than once that mixing drinks was serious work, shooed Zoey away to the bar. As she struggled to get through the thick, writhing crowd, Zoey heard, more through Isaac’s thoughts than with her actual ears, that he was to serve as a doorman.
Between the bar and the club’s entrance, Zoey would have been hard pressed to actually find two points that were further apart!
Bitch!
Nevertheless, a job was a job, and this job, though belittling and tedious, was relevant to the mission at hand. Reminding herself of this fact for the tenth time before she reached the bar, Zoey was greeted with a thick amber aura and a pair of dubious green eyes that existed closer to the realm of yellow than most humans were probably comfortable admitting to themselves. After explaining that Delilah had sent her there to help him, his expression softened and he raised the hinged length of bar near one side to let her join him. The eyes, and the increasingly cheerful face they rested against, belonged to a younger therion who soon after introduced himself as Trey, who Zoey was thankful to find didn’t seem to have any problem sharing a work space with her kind. Moreover, Trey didn’t seem to have a problem sharing much of anything with her kind, and as the last of the drinks were served up to a small cluster of shrill-voiced humans he began to recite his life story. Glad to be around a therion in Delilah’s pack not eager to bare their teeth at her, Zoey did nothing to stop him.
As it turned out, though, Trey’s story was actually an interesting one.
“Do the others mind that you want to leave the pack for college?” she asked as she absently handed a waiting hand a bottle of beer that Trey had pointed her towards.
Trey shrugged, his long brown hair rolling like a shampoo commercial with the gesture, and finished mixing a bright green drink in a shallow glass before expertly sliding it across the bar. Looking away, not bothering to see if the concoction had made it to its rightful owner, he pulled the dishrag he kept slung over his right shoulder and began wiping down the other side of the bar where some of the liquor had spilled. “Some do more than others,” he confessed. “But Delilah is happy that I’m taking the initiative. Most of the others don’t aspire to do much more than follow and obey.”
Zoey raised an eyebrow at that. “And Delilah’s actually glad to see you not aspiring to do the same?”
Trey finished the task and, with a flick of his wrist, returned the rag over his shoulder a brief moment before he gave another shrug. “Delilah believes there’s more to our kind than most alphas. It’s why we live out here and not in the forest. She’s a businesswoman first and a therion second.”
“How modern,” Zoey spoke the words before she could stop herself and cringed when she realized how it sounded. “I mean… I didn’t—”
Trey shook his head and held up a hand to stop her. “It’s fine. Really,” he assured her. “I know that she can seem…” he cocked his head and scratched at his chin for a moment, scanning the ceiling as though the right word was written somewhere in the rafters. “Well… ‘intense’ I suppose is the right word.”
Zoey was able to keep her opinion to herself this time…
Almost.
“Not the word I would’ve used,” she muttered.
Trey laughed and nodded. “Yea, I heard that you and Isaac were a thing. I’m sure she’s none too pleased with that. Probably making your life difficult for it, huh?”
“Something like that,” Zoey groaned, glad to have a voice of reason to confide in.
She already missed Isaac…
“Well, it’s worth pointing out that she is a woman,” Trey offered, leaning against the counter as he spoke. “My mother always says that the only thing more fierce than a pissed off therion was a pissed off woman.”
Zoey laughed and shook her head. “Your father better look out for her, right?”
“I should say so,” Trey smirked, offering enough teeth as he did to offer a glimpse of his own savagery, “since my mother killed him and his mistress after finding them in bed.”
Taken aback, Zoey stared long enough to confirm that Trey wasn’t joking. “Oh my…” she stammered, “I’m so sorry!”
Another laugh. “Don’t be,” Trey raised both hands this time to settle Zoey’s ramblings. “I can’t say that he was the greatest father, and Mom’s done alright on her own since then.”
“Remarried?” Zoey asked.
“I don’t think any of the couples of our pack have gone so far as to actually get married,” Trey explained, “but, yea, she found somebody new.”
“That’s good,” Zoey let herself relax, confident that she’d gotten through the awkwardness unscathed. “Do you like your new… uh, would-be stepdad then?”
“I would,” Trey’s coy smirk returned along with a delighted swirl of his amber aura to hint at what was coming, “if she wasn’t technically a would-be stepmom.”
Gods above, Zoey silently prayed to anybody who might listen, get me through this night!
Another awkward apology began before Trey once again set both Zoey’s mind and stammering tongue to rest with another assurance.
“Besides, it all worked out in the end,” Trey went on. “The pack saw her as a force to be reckoned with, and she finally found somebody whose fierceness could match her own. I suppose it’s because I’ve always been offered a view from other perspectives that I decided that I wanted to go to college.”
Zoey smiled, elated by the young therion’s optimism. “So what do you want to study?” she asked, beginning to clean out some empty glasses.
“Actually, I want to study to become a veterinarian,” he grinned. “I know it’s kind of funny, me being a—”
It was Zoey’s turn to offer him the reassurance as she gave him an approving nod. “I think it’s admirable,” she said.
He blushed and looked away. “Thanks…”
They stood there in awkward silence then, and Zoey found herself wondering why all of the club’s patrons had chosen that moment to not to get a drink.
“You know,” Trey finally broke the silence, “you’re not too bad for a law-preaching, rainbow-headed vampire.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Zoey smirked at him, “coming from a booze-slinging therion who wants to be a vet.”
Any lingering awkwardness was avoided as the lights in the club began to dim all at once and the music, which Zoey had somehow been able to tune out, began to fade into silence. Though the noise hadn’t been any less relentless, her senses had come to accept and work around it as a reliable constant. Now, however, a new breed of awkwardness assaulted her senses as she found herself missing something she’d almost forgotten was there all along. She was about to ask Trey what was happening when she detected a familiar aura and she felt a swell of excitement at Isaac’s approach. Though his aura was lagged with exhaustion, Zoey couldn’t help but smile as his face lit up as he wormed through the crowd and caught sight of her face. That expression alone almost made their cruel separation worthwhile. When he reached the bar, he took a seat across from Zoey and gave Trey a nod.
“How you been, kid?” he asked with a friendly familiarity.
“Same ol’, same ol’,” Trey’s response was so quick and joined with such a wide grin that Zoey wondered what sort of history the two might have shared. “Just been talking your lady’s ear off all night.”
“Well she’s a gem for putting up with that sort of boredom,” Isaac said with a smirk before they both shared a laugh.
With Trey
still chuckling over their back-and-forth, Isaac turned his gaze towards Zoey.
“You okay?” he raised an eyebrow, turning his gaze to Trey for a moment before returning it.
“Actually, I’m fine right now,” she admitted, nodding over her shoulder. “Trey has been more than hospitable, and,” she shot him a playful glare, “not at all boring.”
Trey grinned and nodded, stabbing a thumb in her direction before holding it upright. “I like her, Isaac. I know Delilah still has hard feelings about everything, but your new chick’s cool in my books.”
“Thanks, that means a lot,” Isaac gave him a single nod before glancing over his shoulder. “So… any idea of why Delilah asked me to come in? I thought I had another hour at the door before my shift was up.”
Trey’s brow furrowed. “Delilah asked you to come in now?”
Looking back again, Isaac nodded. “Yea, one of the other bouncers came out and said she’d told me I needed to come in. Said it was important.”
Trey shook his head before letting his face tip forward into an open palm. “Oh god…”
“What?” Zoey asked, “What’s going on out there?” she motioned towards the dimming lights and calming crowd.
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,” the voice that boomed through the speakers was enough to rattle Zoey’s teeth inside her skull and she found herself missing the too-loud music even more. “PLEASE SECURE YOUR JAWS AND YOUR LOINS FOR OUR VERY OWN…”
Both Zoey and Isaac groaned and mirrored Trey’s gesture as realization dawned upon them.
“DEE-LIE-LAAAAAAA!” the voice trailed in a too-long howl of the name as the audience’s cheers began to drown it out.
A spotlight cut through the length of the club from the ceiling in time to capture Delilah’s sinewy figure as she slipped out from behind a black curtain behind the main stage. She was wearing only a small corset that showed more skin than it covered along with a flimsy and far-too-short leather skirt that had no hope of covering even a fraction of her lower half. As the crowd’s shouts and applause doubled in response, a low, steady beat began to ooze from the speakers. Then Delilah began her dance.
Zoey looked away in time to see Isaac shake his head and turn his back to the display to look back at her and roll his eyes. All of Zoey’s tension was washed away at that, and she looked up in time to catch Delilah’s scowl as her eyes met Isaac’s back. Though it haunted her face for the briefest of moments—nothing that her hollering fans would have caught, Zoey guessed—before she readopted the lewd, sensual expression, it was just long enough for Zoey to feel a swell of confidence from it.
“Guess she had something she wanted to show you,” Trey said.
“So I noticed,” Isaac pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head again. Then, smiling back at Zoey, he said, “So, why don't you show me what Trey’s taught you?”
“Alright! Let me whip you up something delicious!” she grinned.
“You ‘whip’ cream, not liquor,” Trey chided with a smirk as he went back to wiping the counters.
“Oh no! Don’t you get started with me, therion-vet!” she chuckled, beginning to work on the only drink she felt confident trying on her own, a Long Island iced tea with a splash of cranberry juice.
“‘Therion-vet’?” Isaac raised an eyebrow in Trey’s direction.
Though his back was to Isaac, Trey shrugged under the new weight of his gaze. “Yeah,” Trey answered nonchalantly, “I’m planning on starting college in the fall.” He turned around then and gave a playful sneer, “I wanna help animals. Y’know, all those cute little puppies and kittens and—”
“And bunnies?” Isaac finished, not trying to hide the chuckle that followed it. “You know, I think I still have that picture of you tearing the belly from a rabbit you chased down a few years back.”
Trey rolled his eyes at that and jabbed an accusatory finger at him from across the bar. “You bet me that I couldn’t catch it after you caught me drunk on all that stolen Jack Daniels you hauled in for the others! And, if I remember correctly, you never paid me the fifty bucks you promised!”
Isaac’s chuckle trailed off into a casual grin. Leaning across the bar and locking his predatory gaze with Trey’s, he said, “You were the one drunk enough to believe that a forest dweller like me needed cash, let alone carried it.”
“But you carried a camera?”
“I was lucky enough to have eaten a nature photographer a week earlier,” Isaac gave a wide grin that exposed the sides of his teeth before adding, “Besides, I didn’t tell your mom about your little stunt, so you should be thanking me.”
Trey didn’t thank him, but he did give Isaac a wide grin and a “It’s good to have you back” before returning to his work behind the bar. Replacing his spot across from Isaac, Zoey set her first solo attempt at a drink atop a coaster and rested her elbows across the bar. While her assets weren’t nearly as impressive as Delilah’s, she hoped that the exposed cleavage would work to tempt him away from the erotic show the therion was still putting on behind him. As he took his first sip, she caught sight of his eyes drifting downward and felt a wave of satisfaction, both for her successful display and, judging from the almost immediate satisfaction in his expression as he gulped, equally successful drink mixing abilities.
Still wrapped up in her pride, Zoey wasn’t aware of the new arrival until after a harsh, demanding sound drew her—and everyone elses’—attention. It had been a simple clearing of the throat, but, like the man responsible for the sound, it was strong and aggressive and, once out in the open, impossible to ignore. The enraged ferocity in the man’s eyes tore through the three as they swept from Zoey to Isaac and then Trey before finishing once more on her. Shivering under the unnerving weight of it, she averted her own gaze and, as she did, caught sight of the long, jagged scar that stretched across his exposed torso. The sleeveless leather jacket he wore was just enough to cloak him in obscurity within the horde of leather-loving fetishists, but exposed enough of his powerful form to separate him entirely from them and, as if challenging somebody to look upon it, leave the scar blatantly visible.
The scar…
Y-shaped and pale as the moon, it stretched from below each of his shoulders and tore downward towards his midsection where the two points met and continued as one further downward towards his naval. It was unlike anything Zoey had ever seen before. She gulped as that thought cycled back in her mind; correcting her own thoughts in an instant. She had seen something like it before during her medical training. On the corpses! It was the same sort of incision the morticians used; the same sort of incision she’d used many times during her own autopsies. On plenty of occasions she’d had to dig through the bodies, both human and mythos alike, who’d fallen victim to the whims of rogues. It was part of working for a clan.
“It’s not all fun and games,” as Serena would say.
Yes, Zoey had seen plenty of incisions with that same pattern.
But Zoey had never seen a scar like that…
Because the dead bodies that had been autopsied never healed after the fact!
Holding back what she was certain would be an unpleasant display of disgust, she turned away from the man entirely and pressed the back of her hand against her trembling lips to coax a wave of nausea back. Behind her, she felt a wave of concern blossom from Isaac and an equal mix of the same and disappointment from Trey. She’d been trying to prevent a scene and, in that, she’d failed. And she’d turned her back on a customer—a customer who was already impatient and agitated.
“What can I get for ya, pal?” Trey asked, putting more of a friendly curl on each word in an attempt to calm the newcomer’s intensity.
“A better bar-bitch for starters,” a voice like cracking cinderblocks answered, “but I’ll settle for that bottle.”
Zoey sensed Isaac’s rage flare from the newcomer’s words.
No! Don’t! she warned him, not bothering to look back as she spoke within his mind. There’s something… off about
him. Something terrible. Whatever sort of trouble he’s looking for, we can’t risk him starting it in here.
“That bottle?” Trey asked, as unaware of Zoey and Isaac’s private conversation as the newcomer. “That’s a pretty pricey whistle wetter, my friend, and the whole bottle’s even more—”
“I didn’t ask for your life story, pup!” the cinderblocks shattered on, and through her mind’s eye Zoey could see a rapidly shifting hand embed its newly sprouted claws into the bar’s surface as a set of fangs—no, two sets of fangs!—extend from his upper and lower jaws. “NOW GIVE ME THE DAMN BOTTLE!”
All three jumped at the display and Trey hurried to retrieve the bottle and set it on the bar before he took a long step away from the man. Letting out a gruff, satisfied scoff, the man gave another sweep of the three—Zoey shivering as his eyes fell upon her even though she couldn’t actually see him glaring at her—and then stormed back into the crowd with his prize.
She sensed Isaac shift in his seat, his aura radiating with relief at the man’s departure but even more concern for Zoey, before he finally settled enough to think clearly. You see stuff like that often as in your clan work?
Never, actually, she admitted, finally feeling the wave of sickness pass and grabbing a dirty mug as quickly as it was set down on the bar. Trey had already caught her not doing the job that she was meant to be doing, and she wasn’t about to let it happen again. But it’s not all that uncommon. Not nearly as uncommon as that scar…
Yea… That was—
“Isaac! Darling! You missed almost my entire show!” Delilah’s ringing voice was painfully loud and growing louder with her approach. “And I wanted so badly to know what you thought of it.”