Shelby’s Angels: Sometimes I’m Not

by Stephanie Burke

  “Dammit!” Blain shouted. “That had to be them!”

  Raidon raced toward the rear entrance, just to be sure, then the three raced back to the van.

  “Get Rika and Nalu,” Raidon directed as he took off down the street toward Angels. “We need them back home!”

  Then Blain and Adan were dodging bodies once more, searching for their comrades and desperately praying that Shen would be okay.

  * * *

  “What the hell is going on around here?” Feenixxx’s bellow roared from backstage, just as Delsin shot past, an eager expression in his eyes and an evil smirk on his face.

  “Brawl!” Del gushed, pausing to grip the client’s hand as he raced toward the stage. “And I get to bug the baddie. Is that not wonderful?”

  “I thought Shen was doing that?” Feenixxx began, then gasped as, clearing the wings, she got a look at her club. “What the fuck?”

  With a scream, Del launched himself into the crowd of writhing bodies, looking for the man Shen had described to him. Finding him, he reached for his shirt. He got in one good grab before the man was lost in the fight.

  But then Feenixxx’s attention was grabbed by the total wanton destruction taking place in her club. “Not again,” she groaned. She stalked off on her high heels toward the bar.

  Feenixxx had had enough! And while it was one thing to annoy the owner of a club or a drag queen, it was something entirely different to piss off a full-fledged vampire! “You will stop!” she shouted, full mental control and command in her voice. “This will cease.”

  Almost as one, the struggling group of people halted and turned dazed eyes to Feenixxx. Snorting, she slammed the megaphone down and moved toward the front doors, all eyes on her as she sedately strolled through the bodies.

  Too bad Shen wasn’t here to see this, she thought with a chuckle. This had to be more fun than all that hopping he kept going on about, and more impressive too.

  She stalked up to the frozen figure of Nalu and tapped him on the shoulder.

  He blinked once, then shuddered as he came back to himself and stared at the still people around him.

  “Where is Barika?” Feenixxx’s voice was filled with amusement. Nalu stared at the frozen figures around him, then pointed to a group frozen nearby.

  “Okay, come with me.” They stalked over to the group of men and easily pulled Rika out of the pile.

  “How?” Barika began, but Feenixxx placed one finger over her lips and shushed. “It’s a secret you won’t remember.” She chuckled and led them to the stage.

  Once they were there, out of reach of the threat of the crowd, she retrieved her bullhorn and shouted out a new order.

  “Resume!” she cheerfully called, and the ruckus stared all over again.

  Barika and Nalu looked around, curious as to why they were on the stage and not in the growing riot. Before they could come to any conclusion, Feenixxx began her questions.

  “What happened?”

  They were interrupted by shouting heard above the sounds of fists hitting flesh, and Barika realized someone was calling his name. Turning, he saw Blain and Adan braving the crowd to make it to the stage.

  “They have Shen!” Adan shouted as he leapt to the wooden stage, his eyes worried as he panted for breath.

  “Get Shelby!” Barika started, but Adan cut him off.

  “Raidon is on it and we have to get back to Angels.”

  “Shen is in the dressing room,” Feenixxx began, looking worried. “Del told me he went after that guy you all took pictures of.”

  She looked over the crowd to see Del cheering. He climbed onto some man’s back and rode him toward the stage.

  “Oh, Feenixxx!” he crowed as he hopped off the man and shoved him back into the action. “This is the best riot since the time we crashed that Lesbian Man Haters association and tried to convince them to change their minds!” Then he noted no one was laughing. “Three of them did. What?”

  “They got Shen!” Barika snarled.

  “Nonsense!” Del waved away their concerns. “He swallowed the bug when that smelly Neanderthal grabbed him, so when you attempted to punch his lights out, we went back to the dressing rooms. I still had my bug, so I insisted that Del wait for us while I bugged the bad guy. I got him too, first try! Then I lost him when someone tugged at my hair. I hate that!”

  Del sniffed and turned to lead them back toward the dressing rooms.

  “Shen should be where I left him.”

  Confidently, with the others following, he stalked to the dressing room doors and slammed them open, only to let out a shrill scream!

  There, in the middle of the room, stood none other than Nikolaj, and he looked cornered.

  “Where the hell is he?” Barika snarled, stalking into the room and grabbing the man by the collar.

  “He left a note!” The man squealed as Rika shook him like a cat playing with a mouse. “It’s there!”

  “Liar! Where is he?” Del stalked up to the pair, incensed, and got in the man’s face.

  “He left the letter and the earrings! He found someone else!” Nikolaj tried, but only got a smack from Delsin and another shake from Barika.

  “Leave him with me!” Feenixxx snarled, anger pouring from the woman strongly enough to make the others take a step back. “I just need a moment.”

  “But…” The man began to shudder as he took a good look into those swirling red eyes. His bladder released at the intensity, the hate, in that gaze.

  “Eww!” Del shuddered, taking a step back, then another. “Incontinence!”

  Dropping the man in disgust, Barika released him to fall into a pile of his own fluids and motioned the others out of the room.

  “Is this wise?” Adan asked, but Blain cut him off.

  “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, my friend. And this is one burned lass, believe me.”

  “And if she doesn’t get him to squeal,” Nalu added, “I know several pressure points that would make one wish for death.”

  Quietly they exited the room, leaving him with one irate vampire.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “You will be sorry!” Shen sang. He sat bound in a corner of the import/export offices of Kiji Atta. “My man is coming for me. He knows all about you.”

  “He knows only what Nikolaj leaves him.”

  “Your partner?” Shen was curious, despite the annoyance filling him. Those drugs had given him a bit of a headache, and he was very uncomfortable. Not to mention the soft leather bindings that held him would suck the moisture out of his skin. Shen was not a very happy concubine. “Nikolaj is your partner?”

  “My partner and the one who set up your new owner,” Cara explained as she settled back into a large, comfortable recliner.

  “And your murderer,” Shen added, looking around him.

  He was surrounded by tasteful and exotic objects d’art. Too bad the person who was holding him here saw him as a thing no less inanimate than the statues and paintings surrounding him.

  He shifted on his pile of pillows and glared at Cara a.k.a. Kiji Atta.

  “I told you that was an accident. Cammie wasn’t meant to die. She had a wonderful owner all picked out, and now you, sweetie, will take her place.”

  Sighing, Shen got back to his original point. “You will be sorry. My man is coming to get me.”

  “Keep dreaming, dear,” Kiji sighed, chuckling a bit to herself. “Everyone has to dream. And while you’re at it, just dream of how your new master will treat you. To him, you’re worth millions, honey, and instead of dreaming of the past, you’d better figure out how to work that old man for your future.”

  Shen said nothing, but glared harder.

  “You’re bringing me millions,” Kiji snickered. “And after you’re handed off and I get my payment, I can retire.”

  “Blood money,” Shen snapped.

  “It all comes clean in the wash, hon.” Kiji pointed to the warehouse filled with priceless antiques. “And this lot will wash a
lot.”

  Shen sank into silence once again, but he pitied Kiji. When Feenixxx found them, he was sure he would get to see a vampire hop.

  * * *

  “You will tell me everything, and you will tell me now!”

  Nikolaj took a step backwards as the woman’s eyes became a deep, penetrating red, narrowed in anger.

  “He left!” the man whispered, digging in his pocket and producing first a lighter, then a small pack of mints, before finding the pair of earrings and lifting them with trembling hands in front of him. “He wanted to give these back to his lover.”

  “Bullshit!” Feenixxx snapped. She reached out and ripped the earrings from his hands, crushing them into a melded lump of metal and then hurling them at the cringing man, striking him on the forehead. “I am his lover. Try again.”

  The man scrambled back, his back hitting Shen’s vanity table. Several objects rattled and fell off, striking him in the shoulder.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about!” he cried out, his hand groping on the ground.

  “You are not even worth the time it would take to kill you,” Feenixxx growled, smiling and exposing her teeth. They began to lengthen and grow before the man’s terrified eyes.

  “What are you?” He began to tremble as fear stole over his body.

  “Retribution,” Feenixxx growled and took a step closer. “Revenge so that my ladies can rest in peace.”

  Long talons exploded from her nail beds, sharp and gleaming in the light of the room. Her skin grew dark as she reached for the trembling man. “Scream for me.” Then her teeth sank into his collarbone, snapping it easily as she pulled back to sip at his blood.

  His screams were pitiful and weak with fear as he trembled in her grasp. “I know --”

  “Nothing, yes, I know.” Feenixxx lapped at the wound. Then she tore into his shoulder, tearing the flesh and spitting a hunk of skin to the side as the bright red blood began to flow.

  “Kiji!” he screamed as the monster, the demon, began to drink from this fresh fount of blood. “Kiji has her!”

  “Kiji… Who is Kiji?”

  “Caramello!” Nikolaj screamed, crying as his tears mixed with his blood. “Cara took him to the warehouse. Kiji Atta Imports! Please!”

  He was sobbing pitifully now, sinking in on himself, trying to avoid any more pain. He was broken. In a few seconds, the vampire had succeeded.

  “He had better be there.” Feenixxx rose to her feet and turned to leave the room. “I have your scent and your taste. I can find you again, my little hors d’oeuvre.”

  Her words sent fright screaming through his body. He had to get away. He scrambled backwards, his hands striking a cool metal surface. The can of adhesive. He looked down and saw the dropped lighter.

  “Fire!” he screamed, his desperate mind settling on a course of action. “Fire to cleanse the devil!”

  As Feenixxx turned, he depressed the trigger on the aerosol can and flicked the lighter to life. The resulting whoosh of sound was followed by an orange-blue spray of fire that struck Feenixxx, enveloping her.

  Then her laughter filled the room.

  Instead of screaming and dying a grisly death, the vampire Feenixxx casually strolled toward the now screaming man.

  “Why do you think they call me Feenixxx, bitch?” She jerked the man into her arms and then, in a show of preternatural might, transferred the fire from her body to his. “I rise from the ashes,” she whispered, holding him still. “I’m the fire that burns, that cleanses.” She tossed him into the clothes rack where his body ignited the materials lying there. “That kills.” She turned and screamed at the top of her voice.

  Instantly, the men waiting outside burst into the room.

  Barika, taking in the situation at a glance, pulled Feenixxx away from the door, holding her face against his chest to hide her view of the burning, writhing, screaming man.

  Blain raced for a fire extinguisher as Del pulled the fire alarm. Then, of course, he raced in to save their garment bags. The unused clothing had to be returned to Shelby and he refused to let their things burn.

  Within moments, Blain and Adan were hosing down the no longer writhing form of Nikolaj and several others raced through the door, the detective J.P. Hollinsworth in the lead.

  “What the hell is going on around here?” he bellowed, taking in the scene.

  “He admitted it!” Feenixxx cried, looking pitiful in her torn clothing as she clung to Barika. “He said he took Cammie and killed her. Then he tried to kill me too!” She pointed to the rolling can of adhesive and the lighter lying nearby. “He set himself on fire!”

  Feenixxx shuddered and gripped Rika tighter, ignoring his snort of disbelief.

  “We need to take this back to the station!” he bellowed.

  Several firefighters demanded entrance to the room. They brushed by the detective, knocking him to the side as they raced in with equipment and more manpower.

  By the time the area was clear enough for him to question the witnesses again, they were gone. He cursed and stomped his feet. “Well, shit!”

  But the group was already racing toward Angels after exiting the back door with all due haste.

  “We have to find Cara!” Feenixxx screamed as she led the way to the strip club. “Then we find Shen.”

  “Where is she?” Barika demanded. They rounded the corner and took off down the street like a shot.

  “Kiji Atta Imports!” Feenixxx called back as they arrived at the glowing white angel’s wings on the glass front of the club. “Yellow pages! Think, dammit! We have to get Shen!”

  “You bet your sweet ass we do!”

  Shelby’s voice caused them all to pause at the entrance. She and Raidon were racing out, Will bringing up the rear.

  “Did he place the bug?” Raidon gasped, reaching out and gripping Del’s already overloaded arms as he tossed the garment bags to a nearby bouncer.

  “He swallowed the bug!” Del wailed. “And the bad man is dead!”

  “We have a name,” Feenixxx added, turning and heading back toward the streets. “Kiji Atta Imports.”

  “We have a location,” Barika said with a smile. “Shen swallowed the bug with the tracer. I have the receiver.”

  With great relief they all raced back down the street and reclaimed the van, the only vehicle large enough to hold them all, because everyone insisted on going.

  “I have to get Shen back!” Del stated, glowering at everyone in the van. “I have to, Shelby. I owe him an ass kicking, and no one is going to deprive me of it.”

  Other than Rika calling out directions, the rest of the trip was made in silence.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “You are going to die,” Shen sang after about an hour of silence. “Kiji is going to die.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” Cara snapped. Nikolaj was late. This was not like him. It was time for them to make the drop, and she couldn’t if he wasn’t here. If not for his presence, the people he knew, his family, would suspect she had done something to him and all that she had worked so hard for would be gone with the sound of a gun blast.

  And now the little bitch’s words were getting to her. “Just shut up!” She began to pace, yet again. “Nikolaj will be here.”

  “That’s what you said an hour ago, and I’m beginning to chafe.”

  “Why should I care?”

  “Because my new owners would not like damaged property.”

  Huffing, Kiji stalked over to Shen and began to loosen his bindings.

  “Only one more job,” she reminded herself. “One more job and I retire.”

  “Why not take what you have and let me go?”

  “Because it is not enough!” Cara sank onto the pillows beside Shen. “It is never enough. I have to keep up with appearances. I have to live in a style I deserve. I have to live on my own terms!”

  “I wonder how many of your victims said the same thing.”

  “How would you know?” Kiji growled, rising to her feet.
“You are nothing but a pampered man’s play toy anyway. This change will be nothing to you. This new life is just like the old one.”

  Before he could retort, there was a knock at the door and Kiji smiled. “Opportunity is knocking, Shen. Time for me to answer.”

  She walked over to the small access door that led to the street and swung it open.

  “About --”

  Two fists neatly connected with her face, lifting her up in the air and knocking her back a few feet to skid across the floor on her ass.

  “Baby!” Feenixxx shrieked. She raced across the floor, Del at her heels, and dropped beside the bound Shen. “Are you okay? Did the bad woman hurt you?”

  The bad woman in question was shaking her head, trying to knock the haze from her eyes, as the men of Angels surrounded her.

  She gave up without a fight. She knew when she had been beaten.

  “You had better be okay!” Del demanded. “I need to battle you to defend my honor!”

  Shen just smiled and let himself be coddled and fussed over as Feenixxx released his bindings and helped him to his feet.

  “Tonight, lover,” he purred to Feenixxx. “I want to see you hop.”

  No one questioned the blush that stole across Feenixxx’s face, all just too happy to have their Shen back and safe in the fold.

  Epilogue

  Shen sat on the couch in the living room/war room in the basement of Angels the next night, and watched the news with quiet satisfaction. “Police have made arrangements with the government of Taiwan to have our citizens returned home.” The smiling reporter turned to face the camera again, continued on with the next story. “And in other news, local hotspot Club Double Take is closed today due to some unusual circumstances.”

  “And the woman told us all to be still and we couldn’t move!” The footage showed a giggling young man dressed in leather jeans and a collar standing in the midst of fire trucks, police cars, and milling people. “I can’t wait to come back next week!” he added before tossing up a defiant fist and walking away.