by D L Greeley
“Eyes front soldier!”
“Leave me be, will ya?”
Shauna didn’t mind at all. “Oh God, that accent is amazing, but if that’s what it’s finally going to take to get you into bed, Mack. I can put my morals aside, for a guy like you.” Her eyes sparkled. Bloody Hell—being hot does sometimes have its disadvantages. Mind you, there aren’t many.
“Do you have any idea how old I really am, little girl?”
“Age is just a number.” She licked her lips and stared hungrily into my eyes. The intimacy was too much and there was an odd Sense of desperation that started to make me uncomfortable, like an idiot, I burst out laughing. Her face dropped and the grin vanished. Damn, she’s taking it wrong.
“Did you catch that, Alex? She’s terrified of something.”
“I know, something’s wrong.”
“Go easy, she’s on the edge. We need her to tell us willingly. No compulsion.”
“Got it.”
As I said before, Mai and I have a rule. No snooping in people’s minds without permission. Now, that being said, as you probably expected, there are exceptions. With my clients Mai will access their minds but, in order to protect their privacy, she will only share what she deems necessary. This situation had necessity written all over it.
I reached out and grabbed Shauna’s wrist to stop her from leaving. The motion was so fast, my hand was just a blur. It ended up startling her. The rum was starting to kick in and I had an empty stomach, which made it tougher for me to keep my Abilities in check. I needed to be careful so… I gave her a big smile, maybe too big, accidentally exposing my fangs. Funny thing is, it didn’t scare her, it was exciting her, even more. “Trust me, girlie. If I weren’t such a wreck tonight and attached; I would take you up on your offer and rock your world until you kicked me out. Just not tonight, savvy? Rain-check for coffee sometime?” She smiled ravenously, like she wanted to take a bite out of me, oddly appropriate in this place. “I’m going to hold you to that, Mack.”
“And then maybe you can tell me, what’s bothering you?” A look of relief washed across her face as she reached out and began writing her number on my right palm with a Sharpie, exhausted and in a mild state of shock…I let her.
“That ought to be fun removing before Claire sees it.”
“Quiet, you.”
Noticing my ring, she gave me an inquisitive look. When dormant, Mai’s ring appears as a black band with a silver border and alternating dragon heads, just her personal style. I’m never sure when I could run into someone that would recognize the ring in its natural state, so the incognito form is a regular thing. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were attached.” Shauna said in the form of a challenge.
Good we were back to the light flirtation; I don’t think I could have stood any more drama tonight. Nodding slightly, I chuckled “You have no idea how ATTACHED I am, kid. I did tell ya you’d be the other woman, didn’t I?” Shauna’s eyes twinkled as she kept writing.
“What are you doing?” There was a plaintive touch of disgust coloring Mai’s words. “What? Any port in a storm; it never hurts to have more mates.”
“That depends of what definition of mate, you have in mind.” I decided to ignore her. Shauna leaned in to me. “I love your prosthetics by the way. They are absolutely perrrfect.” She rolled the R in a, spot on, imitation of Hallie Berrie’s Cat Woman, giving her skirt a little twirl as she walked away, affording me a view of one very well-toned buttock with a panther paw tattoo…outstanding bit of irony, that. “Eh hem!” Mai loudly cleared her throat in my head. “Does the name Claire mean anything to you?”
“Means the world to me, spoil sport…I thought you were napping.”
“As I said, when you get into trouble…” I sat there smiling, enjoying the forbidden flirtation for a while, when a young man took the seat next to me and leaned over. “I like your approach man but you must be new at this, completely blew that one.”
“Excuse me?” I growled out of the corner of my mouth as I stared straight ahead. “Don’t remember soliciting your opinion, friend.”
“You showed your fangs. Rookie move, you don’t show them the fangs until they’re on board with the whole thing. Don’t worry about it; in here, the fangs blend in. We trans-naturals can’t afford to advertise like that anyplace else, best keep that in mind. Didn’t your sire teach you this? I’m Dominic, by the way.” He held his hand out. I promptly ignored it.
Starring into the mirror behind the bar, my foggy wits started to clear; his reflection was off, moving just a barely perceptible fraction of a second behind his actual movements. Dominic’s eyes were empty holes with pupils floating in the middle, base make-up and colored contacts no doubt. I inhaled deeply through my nose, and suppressed my urge to hurl him across the room. Ugh! Yep! Vampire! There is no mistaking the smell. Regardless of how much cologne they pour on, MY nose will always pick it up. It’s like a drunk with a stomach full of pickles, puked into a soiled diaper and left it in the sun. I hate vampires, ever so bloody much, if you couldn’t already tell.
“Damn! Just as I was starting to enjoy myself. He’s not going to leave off, is he Mai?”
“It doesn’t Feel like it and he’s damn angry with someone.”
“Bloody marvelous.”
“Uh Alex, I’ve got more bad news.”
“I picked them up myself; four more.”
“Five, another just walked in, obviously here for you. What are we going to do?”
“The only thing we can, lead them away and handle them.”
“How? You’re not drunk but you’re seriously depleted. Six alone would be no problem when you have the energy to Slip as needed, but without it… impossible.”
“We’re going to have to wing it, Mai.”
“No! No more winging it tonight! Winging time is now at an end!”
“Wish it were, but there are too many innocents in here, going to have to do something to get ‘em out of harm’s way.”
I gave my new BESTEST friend Dominic, a baleful look. “I’d shake your hand and say pleased to meet you, but I’m not… I think you have me confused with someone who values your opinion, now bugger off, before I get UNPLEASANT.” He didn’t even blink, persistent little shit! “Come now, don’t be that way. We all make mistakes the first time out; no need to take it personally. Let me help you.” He put a hand on my shoulder and gestured across the room with his eyes. “Now take that group of girls at three o’clock. You could easily cut one of them from the herd, no problem.” Dominic’s thoughts easily jumped the distance from his mind to mine. He thought I was a newbie vamp that needed supervision and was going to pursue me no matter where I went, as a form of damage control, taking my head, first chance he got. I had to work that to my advantage.
“Fight or flight, Alex?” Mai sounded a little panicked. “I’m thinking it’s going to come down to a little of both. Track the other vamps and shield me from their mind probes. I’m going to try something; I hope will get everyone out of here alive and provide us a little cover to escape.
“Fire alarm?”
“Fire alarm.”
“One problem with this brilliant plan, you don’t have enough energy left to pull all this off. If I start shielding and tracking simultaneously, you’re going to lose consciousness in a matter of minutes. It’ll take longer than that, just to clear the building.”
“I think I’ve got that covered, just be ready.”
“You’re the boss.” Mai didn’t sound confident, “Let’s hope this works because it’s all we’ve got.”
I signaled Shauna. She came over grinning and planted her elbows on the bar, her face inches from mine, providing me an inviting look down her half top. “Couldn’t stand to stay away, huh? I have that effect on men.”
“Oh, please!” breathed Mai with an exasperated sigh. “No doubt that you do, Luv.” I grinned and signaled her to come closer. Her eyes lit up as she started to go in for a kiss. Dodging slightly to the sid
e I laid a firm hand on her arm. “I need a favor.” I Projected a sense of urgency into her mind.
“Already? We can hook up after we close, at three. Then you’ll have all of me you want and I do mean ALL of me.” The thoughts racing through her mind would have made a porn star blush. It was strange but there was still that taint of desperation to it. I gripped the bar rail so hard my fingers made dents in the brass. “Self-control, Mack, old boy” I thought to myself. “You have a good thing with Claire no point throwing that away for a night… you’ll likely remember hundreds of years from now.” An involuntary groan escaped my lips. “Bravo,” came Dominic’s voice in the background. The ass was listening with those damn vamp ears. “Mai I need you to shield what I’m going to say next from the Domster, over there. Can we do it?”
“If it’s just for a few seconds, we can.” I felt the shield go up and started to feel light headed. Crikey, I was in a bad way! I leaned in closer to Shauna and her excitement grew, but it Felt like anxiety. She was very uncomfortable with Dominic’s attention to me. “Sorry Luv, but I can’t tonight. I need something else. I’m a diabetic and my blood sugar just bottomed out. I need sugar, a lot of it but no alcohol, anything you can do for me?” She giggled but it was a performance, she was definitely covering something up. “I’ll be right back. Do I need to tie you to the stool or will you be OK?”
“Hmmm… tie me to the stool, eh? Sounds kinky, but let’s save that one for later.” She giggled again.
“Can we PLEASE just get on with this? You two are making me ill.”
“Jealousy is such an ugly emotion, Mai. Something more is going on here, I think Shauna is in trouble.” I kissed the tip of Shauna’s ear. “I know something’s wrong and I can help you, trust me.”
“You’re my only hope, Mack.” I picked up the stray thought as she walked away. Shauna returned in a few minutes with an enormous hurricane glass left over from Mardi Gras. “You’re now the proud owner of the world’s largest, virgin, Sex on the Beach.” Dominic laughed beside me. “Well, you’ve got the color right but that isn’t going to do you any good.”
“Wanna bet, asshole?” I growled. “Bless you Shauna.” I started guzzling the drink as fast I could without choking or giving myself a fatal case of brain freeze. When I finished, grinning ear to ear, I let out an eardrum shattering belch. “Guess you enjoyed it.” Shauna smiled. “That’ll be $45.00.” I slapped down a C note.
“Worth every penny, Luv. Keep the change.” Why not? She just saved my ass and I have no idea what you tip for something like that. Dominic lightly applauded me. “Nice! What do you do for an encore, the alphabet, perhaps a song? If you’re all done showing off we need to talk in private.” I turned to give him my most disdainful look. “If you don’t mind, the owner and I are trying to have a private conversation and it’s becoming very productive, now piss off!”
Dominic snorted derisively, “If you’re here to talk to the owner, then she can go.” He waived Shauna away. My gaze narrowed at him. “Excuse me? You’re the new owner? I wasn’t aware Shauna was selling.”
“It’s a rather recent development, Mack, is it?”
“Mr. Walker or please-sir-don’t-kill-me, to you.” I growled as I turned to Shauna. “This true? Without even giving me a fair bid?” She gave an apologetic shrug to convey her nonchalance but the true message hit me like a ton of bricks. “OH GOD! PLEASE HELP ME!” I winced involuntarily. Dominic noted it. “You OK Mr. Walker?
“He didn’t pay for this place, Alex. He STOLE it!” Mai’s voice was full of outrage, almost equal to my own.
“You don’t say…”
“Do it, Alex!”
A sugar buzz coupled the emotional pain of the previous rescue and just enough anger to field strip a battleship, is a Hell of a Power source. I was ready to deal with this piece of shit and not about to botch another rescue. “Better make this quick, I’ve sped up your metabolism but it’s not going to be long before the sugar runs out. Move your ass!”
I stood up, grabbing Dominic by the front of his shirt, not being delicate about any damage my claws did. Slowly lifting him off his stool with one arm and pulling him up to my eye level, I removed my sunglasses to make sure I had his undivided attention. I heard Shauna and a few customers gasp in surprise, and a little admiration. “Look, you overgrown mosquito,” I hissed just loud enough for his vampire ears to pick up. “I am clearly not what you think I am. Notice how I look you straight in the eye? That’s because I’m immune to your mind control. Did you also happen to notice how I am speaking to you without screaming in this loud ass place? That’s because I’m literally inside your head. If you’re looking for trouble mate, I’m not the kind you want to find. I’m your worst nightmare, an angry, drunk, super-natural that has had a REALLY fucked up day. I’ll deal with you later but as for right now, Shauna is leaving with me. So why don’t you call off your goons and make a path or you’re going to remember what happens next for the rest of your bloody life.”
“Alright Alex, you’ve got their attention, incoming 20 seconds.” I put him back down on his stool and towered over him snarling. He stared at me blankly, mesmerized by the furious glow of my eyes. “What…what are you?”
“Pray to whatever deity you worship, you never truly find out, most blokes don’t survive the experience, especially VAMPIRES.” I allowed my eyes to glow brighter, adding to my alien appearance and then… I pulled the fire alarm. Turning back to him, I smiled broadly. “Better get moving. You don’t want to be here when the cops arrive.”
Yeah…if it had only been that simple.
Chapter 6
The place cleared out quickly. Looking around at his empty club, Dominic turned his attention back to me. “Is that all you’re worried about? No problem, lad.” He walked to the back of the bar and pulled out a ringing telephone. “Hello? Yes? This is Dominic Llewellyn. Yes I’m owner of Club Noir. No there is no fire, just a false alarm. Would you mind resetting the system? Code word, Blood sport. Thank you; you have a good night too, lass. ”
“Well...that didn’t go as planned. Good work Alex. I wonder if my next host will be this brilliant.”
“Not the time, Mai. We need to figure something out.”
“We need to stall for time; at least eight people already called 911.”
”All that’s going to do is provide an appetizer before the main course.”
“If two police officers go missing while on a call, especially to this establishment, there will be an investigation and possible exposure of The Community. He can’t allow that to happen.”
The bells went silent and Dominic eyed me warily. “All taken care of, we need to talk Mr. Walker.” So he knows my alias, big deal. I took a quick visual inventory of the room, all the exits were blocked by vampires and two more were weaving their way around overturned tables and chairs. “Now, my tall dark friend, let’s start with WHAT you are and more importantly who the Hell you think you are, threatened me like that? In case you haven’t noticed, you’re a little outnumbered.”
“No choice Mai. Those two are closing in fast. We’re going to have to fight our way out.”
“This is not going to work, Alex. You’re going to get yourself killed or worse… turned.”
The decision had already been made. Lunging at Dominic, I drew my Beretta, hoping to acquire a hostage. He nimbly kicked the gun out of my hand and leaped out of the way, landing lightly on the back of an upright chair. The chair didn’t even wobble, impressive. “Now now, Mr. Walker, we’ll have none of that; you force me to have you subdued.” He nodded to the two thugs that were still making their way towards me. One of them kicked my gun across the dance floor. Dominic grinned evilly. “Take him!” They both dove at me at the same time. Leaping up, I hurled two of my throwing knives, striking each one in the throat. They crashed to the floor howling in pain as the titanium alloy fortified with Elfen silver started to smoke and sizzle. Which was exactly when other’s started moving in from the exits. We were trapped
and out of options. “Alex! We have to go, now!”
I let out a roar, Projecting a generous dose of fear into it, temporarily stunning my would be attackers, with a surge of telepathic energy. Rushing forward, my gauntlet morphed into a dragon headed cudgel. I delivered two crushing blows to the throats and knees of the bruisers. Scooping up Shauna in the process. I bolted out the rear exit door with her in my arms. We shot across the street in a blur of motion but I could Sense at least two sets of eyes watching us. Dominic had somehow called for reinforcements.
I had parked my motorcycle in the furthest, darkest corner of a dead end alley. Upon hindsight, it hadn’t been one of my best ideas. I hadn’t gone into the club expecting to rescue a damsel in distress, even though this was becoming a recurring theme. In the distant gloom I could see shapes enter and block the alley. I had to do something fast.
Stepping away from the bike, I put up a Shroud. It crackled a few times but I didn’t think the vamps saw it. I gently pushed Shauna behind the wall of illusion. “Stay here and don’t make a sound.” Bending light around the big motorcycle and projecting my surroundings at the same time, Mai telepathically broadcast a signal telling the vamps to ignore it. As the two terminators approached they found me standing in the middle of the alley, polishing my nails on my shirt.
“Oi! You blokes must have taken the long way. I’ve been here half an hour, you ready to apologize?” I batted my eye lashes at them, causing one of them to glower at me. “That was a nasty little trick, mortal, Elfen silver knives?” He was hoarse, I assumed from a partially crushed windpipe. “Oh! You were looking for sport were you? Well allow me to accommodate you. Let’s say you make a fast break for the exit and I won’t drop kick you into the end zone at the Ed Jones dome.”