“Well, has anyone bothered asking her? Maybe she can explain.” I said nervously.
“Sure, all addicts have their reasons.” Katy groaned. “Don’t you people understand? I’ve been trying to help Penny, because she won’t help herself.”
“What does Grim have to say about it?” Danika asked.
“Oh yeah, ask the enabler. Please…if Penny told him she wanted to eat a baby, he’d be sneaking around a daycare right now. She says jump, and he says how high. They have this weirdly toxic codependent relationship. She was a lot saner before she became an item with Grim. Now she thinks up something crazy, and then Grim steps in and makes it worse.”
“I don’t know what you’re up to, but feed this bullshit to someone else.” Niki growled.
“Really? You’re saying I’m wrong, but your expression sure doesn’t look so confident.” Katy’s expression was ice cold.
“Let’s, just drop this okay.” I pleaded, and thankfully the others agreed.
The elevator ride wasn’t exactly comfortable. Niki kept staring daggers at Katy, and Danika was really working hard to keep her lover calm. The ding that announced our arrival couldn’t come fast enough.
We made our way straight to the convention hall. Niki and Danika went off towards a group of attractive young men. In fact Danika made a beeline towards them. That’s kind of weird. I turned to ask Katy about it, but she’d already disappeared, who knows where. I searched the room, and finally saw a familiar face. Jes Jones was waving wildly at me. She’d actually saved several seats for us all. Hopefully she won’t be too disappointed that I’m the only one sitting with her, but maybe later I can talk Danika and Niki into hanging out with her. I mean she’s a fan of us; we should at least try to show our appreciation. Heck, considering the last time she saw us, I’ll be happy if she just walks away not thinking we’re complete freaks.
I walked up, and smiled. Jes patted the chair beside her and said, “I saw some of the others, are they coming?”
“Penny and Grim are on a date, Janine is kind of doing her own thing, and as for the rest…well I’m not sure what they’re up to. I mean they’re here, but they wandered off, so who knows if they’ll be back?” I tried to sound as apologetic as possible.
“That’s okay. It’s a long convention, there will be other opportunities. Speaking of other opportunities…this is my cousin Sam.” Jes pointed off to her right, and the most beautiful man I’d ever laid eyes on was staring back at me. I don’t mean handsome, I mean beautiful. His features were so fine, and his hair was so long. He looked like one of those men you see in anime movies. So pretty that he could almost pass for a woman.
Jes stood up and scooted over so that I could sit beside Sam. It was obvious even to me that she was trying to get us to hook up, and thank God. It’s about time something went my way for a change. Sam’s eyes were the same shade of blue as Grim’s, but his hair was long and red like Penny’s. His features were fine like Penny’s as well, but he carried an inner intensity that reminded me so much of Grim that it was kind of scary. I smiled and waved hello. He took my hand and gave it a gentle kiss. It was intended to be just a cute little gesture of affection, but it reached way down deep inside me and must have found my inner southern belle because I was giggling my head off and practically ready to beg to have his babies. Somewhere along the way my inner southern belle went from being a classy lady to a bit of a slut. So maybe my inner southern belle is a lot less Melanie Wilkes, and a lot more like Belle Watling. I’m weak, I admit it. In fact if Sam keeps looking at me like that, it’s a pretty safe bet I’d let him be Rhett Butler to my Scarlet O’Hara, and we could reenact chapter fifty-four all night long.
I felt myself flush a little. I glanced towards the man. He was calm, collected, and staring at me with a quiet intensity that was nearly making my panties melt. What the heck is wrong with me? I haven’t been around the guy more than two minutes and if I thought I could get away with it I’d rip his clothes off and ride him like I stole him right in front of everyone.
“When Jes talked about you, she never said you were so beautiful.” His perfect lips moved, forming the words on his perfect face. I however was a gibbering idiot, and not even an average idiot. I was a drooling, jabbering, babbling, bubbling idiot. I couldn’t even form words, but even with my massive failure at all things communication…he kept looking at me like I was the only woman on earth. Seriously, who doesn’t want to feel that way, even if it’s just for a few moments?
We made idle chit-chat. Okay, he made idle chit-chat and I giggled and tried not to drown in my own drool. Thank God the lights dimmed down, and the convention started. Then I felt his hand wrap around mine. All I could think about was would he tell me his last name, or am I going to be calling myself Mrs. Sam I don’t even know his last name in my head forever…maybe we could just be like Prince and use a symbol? Is it a bad thing when I’m rambling to myself in my own head? Only if I answer myself…crud.
The speaker stepped up to the microphone. “Good evening ladies, gentlemen, and of course, everything in between.” The room erupted in clapping and laughter, but I didn’t get the joke. “Welcome to F-Con One! I’m the chairman this year. Some of you know me as Mal-Content, and for those that don’t know my fursona…my name is Richard Smith, and now you know. In the event that you have questions, concerns, or comments, please find me or anyone wearing one of those really bright vests that say Con-Staff. We’re all here to make this a great convention, and we love to help you when we can. Now, before we get to the fun, there are some basic rules.”
Richard pushed a button on a little handheld remote, and both of the giant screens behind him came to life. “Rule number one is…don’t be a dick!” Behind him were pictures of various “Dicks”. Dick Cheney, Dick Clark, Dick Van Dyke were just some of the famous “Dicks” that popped up on the screen.
“We say this because the hotel is nice enough to allow us to hold the convention here. So be nice to them. Don’t do anything that makes them wish they’d never allowed us to come. We’ll be stressing this rule during most, if not all the panels. For now, if you aren’t sure whether what you are about to say or do makes you a dick…just assume it does and move on to something else. Everyone will be much happier.” Richard walked around the stage confidently, but all I could think about were the tiny circles Sam was tracing on my hand with his thumb.
“The second rule is pretty simple. If you see media, please do not take it upon yourself to become the spokesman for all furries everywhere. Ever since the Fur and Loathing episode of CSI was shown, the media has made it a real habit of trying to search out the creepers and the freaks in our conventions. Instead of providing the media, and through them the general public, with well thought out, and concise answers to questions, the media finds some douchebag wearing a down to yiff t-shirt and lets him start using terms like anthropomorphic. Before you know it there are people sitting at home watching the television thinking we’re the biggest freaks in all of freakdom.” Several heads nodded in agreement.
“If you see the media, direct them to those of us with the bright colored vests. If they keep asking you about what exactly goes on at a furry convention, just tell them that it’s like a comic convention, or a Star-Trek convention. Both of those types of conventions are fairly mainstream, and people can wrap their minds around that as an explanation. For God’s sake, please avoid saying yiff, or yiffing. Even if they ask you about it, don’t talk about it. Consider yiffing furrydom’s equivalent of fight club. Do I even need to remind you all what the first rule of Fight Club was?”
The whole audience screamed, “Don’t talk about fight club!” Then they erupted in laughter.
Richard laughed, “Get a group of nerds together, and it’s only a matter of time before someone starts breaking out pop culture references, and for the record, Firsties!” The room cracked up, not that it was a particularly good joke, but it was well timed. “Okay, I can see by the confused look on a few people’s fac
es that we have some guests here that are complete newbies and haven’t heard the term yiff. For those of you that don’t know the word, it originally meant yes, or a really excited hello. Unfortunately, words change meanings over time, and now its primary meaning is a generic term for anything sexual in nature. So if a creepy guy in a van dressed up as Clifford the big red dog rolls up outside this hotel and asks if you’re down to yiff…run, don’t walk, to your nearest con representative.”
Our host sighed, “We don’t really care what you’re doing in your rooms as long as it’s safe, sane and consensual, but keep it out of the hallways people. Oh, and if you are walking around this hotel asking people if they are down to yiff…you’ve just broken the first rule. You’re officially being a dick and we’ll be speaking with you, and using really unhappy faces when we do it.”
Richard went on and on explaining a bunch of the convention, but I started ignoring him because Sam was whispering things to me. Sweet nothings that just found their way into me, and made me ache with excitement. I leaned in and he kissed me, his tongue tasted like mango. God, I’ve never felt like this. I just wanted to rip off his clothes. The end of Richard’s speech couldn’t come fast enough.
Finally, Richard wrapped up his speech, and announced the next speakers. “Okay so that’s all I really have. Now as you all know, our theme this year is zombie apocalypse. Since there is always some dark, nefarious cause for the zombie apocalypse, we at the con really racked our brains on how our zombies got started. What we came up with was that evil magic was used to create our zombies. Since this is the first official night of the con, we contacted a local witch’s coven to perform a fake ritual to start us off. I have to stress this, because the last thing we need is some crazy fanboy screaming that our guests are doing it wrong.” The room was probably laughing at that too, but I was too busy shoving my tongue into Sam’s mouth. I just couldn’t get enough of him.
I heard one of the witches say she was their leader. She called herself Raven Nightbird, or something. Raven said in an overly dramatic, and spooky voice that usually only comes out of fifteen year old goth girls trying to sound tougher than they are, “We’ll be doing a ritual based off of an actual spell to raise the undead. We’ve taken some liberties with it though. The spell requires the sacrifice of a chicken. Since we’re all huge supporters of animal rights, we were at a loss about how to do the spell without the sacrifice. Luckily, an old friend from way back called us with some ideas. After hearing her out, it was decided that it would be more fun and entertaining for you if instead of sacrificing a live chicken we use these chicken nuggets. That way after the ceremony, anyone that wants to be one of the zombies will just have to take a bite of the chicken nugget, and then take a lanyard that declares you as officially a zombie.” I heard people clapping, but all I really cared about was Sam’s hand sliding higher up my thigh.
“Get a room you two.” Someone coughed from behind us, and Sam withdrew his tongue from my mouth long enough to give whoever said that a withering stare. Then he resumed kissing me with renewed vigor. Yay for renewed vigor!
“Now the rules are simple, people. We have roughly three hundred chicken nuggets. There are a little over fifteen hundred of you attending. So not everyone gets a chicken nugget, and it’ll be first come- first serve. You eat a chicken nugget, and you get a lanyard saying you’re a zombie. The rest of you get a lanyard saying yummy human on it. The panel discussions and the artist alley are safety zones. No zombie attacks are allowed in either, but in the hallways around the convention the zombies can roam. No running, you can’t even walk fast. You zombies have to work together to catch victims. That means that you have to surround someone. Once you’ve surrounded someone, and joined hands, that person is now a victim. They have to go to a con representative and take a lanyard declaring themselves as a zombie. If you don’t want to play you either don’t take a lanyard from us, or turn yours in if you don’t want to play anymore. Now, on with the ceremony.”
There was chanting and probably some lighting effects because I heard “oohs” and “aahs”, but I had almost completely turned around in my chair to make out with Sam. It was like we were teenagers and the puberty bomb hit us ten minutes ago. I knew I should be embarrassed by how I was shoving my tongue down his throat, but for some reason I just didn’t care. Maybe my long dry spell had finally broken my brain. All I know is tonight this man was going to be in my bed if I had to drag him kicking and screaming the entire way. Thankfully, by his current reaction I was pretty sure it wouldn’t come to actual kidnapping.
Chapter 12
The witches’ performance ended, and now we were allowed to have a meet and greet. Sam held my hand and led me around the room. Jes stayed with us, but really didn’t say much. It was kind of weird that she was so quiet, but maybe she was just staying out of the way after playing matchmaker. I caught glimpses of Niki and Danika. Danika was having a pretty intense discussion with some men, and I probably should have moved over there to see if she needed anything. Instead I let Sam direct me out to a verandah. It was already starting to get dark, and I could see the moon peeking just over the rooftops on the horizon. Jes looked a little upset, or maybe she was just feeling weird about being a third wheel. After hovering around us for a few moments, she walked off in a hurry. I wanted to run off and check on her, but things were starting to heat up here. Is it really so bad that I just wanted her to leave so I could have Sam all to myself for the night?
“It’s a pretty night.” I was kind of nervous.
“Not as pretty as you.” Sam said, and his voice was like velvet. He put his arms on either side of me, pinning me against the railing. Then he started kissing my neck, and I melted. Sam leaned closer, and pressed his groin against my booty. He was so hard, and even through the fabric of his pants I could feel he was thick and long. I heard myself moan in pleasure, and it was almost like I was hearing someone else entirely. It was me, but it seemed like someone else. I twisted around and started kissing him. He ground himself against me, and my hoo-hoo did everything but start begging for me to let him inside. My nails trailed down his chest, and then came to a rest on his firm derrière. I just couldn’t resist giving it a good hard squeeze, and when I felt him push his hardness against me…all I can say is, “Mama like!” Sam was hard like steel, and I could actually feel him throbbing between my thighs, actually pulsing against my zipper.
“DD?” Damn...DAmn…DAMn…DAMN! What did I ever do to deserve such horrible karma? I was just about to take Sam up to my hotel room and let him use me as his own personal playground the rest of the night. So of course something had to step in and interrupt.
I gave Sam a weak push, and he leaned back. His erection still pressing against my entrance, and right now I’d give anything to keep him there, but unfortunately my life and my sex life are not on the same page. “Yes, Niki?” I tried not to sound frustrated, but my hoo-hoo was halfway down the road to Happyland, and she was pretty angry that she was having to make her way back to Celibate City, population…me.
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I can see you’ve made a new friend, but Danika is missing.” Niki sounded really worried. My head was foggy with lust, but I pieced things together enough to disentangle myself from Sam, and walk over to my friend.
“What do you mean missing?” I asked.
“Danika ran into a few werewolves in the meet and greet, and they all left pretty quickly.”
“So?” I saide tersely.
“Well, it’s not like her to just ditch me, and I have a really bad feeling about this. Please DD…I really need you to back me up on this. I tried to find Katy, but I don’t know where she is.”
“So Katy’s missing as well?”
“No, I just don’t know where she went. I asked around while I was looking for my Honeybuns. One of the representatives at the con said she and that witch coven went off to talk shop, but nobody knows where they went.” Niki was really worried about her lover. I took one last look at Sam. He
’s so beautiful that I didn’t want to leave him, but my friend needed me. Sigh…at this rate I’m never going to get laid.
“Okay, but you seriously owe me!” I grumbled and started to make my way to the van when I froze. “Oh fudge! We’ve got a problem.”
“What?” Niki asked.
“Penny and Grim took our vehicle. So I guess we’ll be walking around looking for Danika all night.” I grumbled.
“No, I know exactly where she is.”
“But you said she’s missing.” I grumbled and looked back towards Sam. He looked like something off a romance novel. My lady parts were already trying to lead a revolution. They were practically screaming to ditch Niki, and take Sam up to my room.
“What I mean is that she’s not here. She left the hotel with the werewolves. She wouldn’t leave without me. Please DD, Danika might be in danger.” Crud! I just went from getting hot and heavy with someone that topped my wildest fantasies to having to make a walk to who knows where, and possibly into unknown dangers. Talk about a letdown.
“I have a car. If you don’t mind me tagging along.” Sam held out keys. Yes, my sex life might just be saved.
“Thanks.” I tried not to sound too eager. Mr. Cutiebooty, I mean Sam, lead us to his car. Lexus…scoreboard! My future boy-toy is hot, sexy, and apparently pretty well off financially. Sam took the driver’s seat, Niki slipped in back, and I got into the passenger seat. “So where to?”
Midnight Squad: The Ties That Bind Page 19