by LS Anders
If she stuck it out at Mythical Ink, tonight would be one of her last night’s slinging watered down alcohol off a chipped, plastic tray.
Squaring her shoulders with a new resolve, she yanked the door open and was nearly toppled over by a patron.
“Sorry, perty lady,” he slurred. “Didn’t means to run you over.”
The man’s breath had her holding hers. The stench of it stinging her sinuses. Her gag reflex and flight response kicked into overdrive as he lurched towards her as if he were going to kiss her cheek.
That was soooo not going to happen.
Jumping back, the man fell forward giving her the chance to make a run for the door. Stepping inside the humid environs, she was relieved to be free of the drunk on the sidewalk, but had traded him for a whole room full of the same.
Hustling behind the bar and into the room beyond, she caught sight of the owner sitting at his table off to the side of the bar. That corner was the darkest, the dimmed can lights not reaching that small section of the place. She half-suspected he kept that table for himself so he could watch the waitresses while keeping one hand hidden underneath the table. His eyes always seemed to be roving from one girl to the other, and she imagined he was beating off or at the very least rubbing himself.
Soooo disgusting.
Grabbing an empty tray, she rushed past where he sat not looking very pleased that she was a minute late. She didn’t give a shit. One less minute in this place was never a bad thing.
Stopping at the first occupied table she came to, she collected the order and headed over to the bar to get their drinks from the bartender.
Cold air crept up her legs as a new patron stepped inside. Glancing over, she smiled though gritted teeth at the new arrival.
Craig. Her best tipper smiled and waved as he grabbed the first empty seat. Great. This night just kept getting worse.
Aside from the money he had no problem gifting her, she hated the way he would pretend he couldn’t hear so she would have to move in closer, and then he’d stroke her leg with the back of his hand as if it had been an accident. But for the exorbitant dollars he was willing to part with, she would tolerate his fortuitous touch even though it sent her skin on a shivery crawl.
Don’t even get her started on the cologne he insisted on bathing himself in. An attempt at musk, the alcohol after-stench did nothing to hide his harsh body odor. Merely blended the two horrible smells that clouded around him.
Delivering the drinks to her first table of the evening, she forced her feet and a smile as she made her way over to Craig’s table.
“Hey, Craig. You want the usual?”
Giving his ear a tap, she was reluctant to lean down to repeat her words, but this was the game she must play if she wanted his money. Enduring his bare knuckles on her skin, she held onto her shudder.
Resisting the urge to run away after taking his order, his stink stayed with her and would until she went home to shower. God help any of her roommates who thought to use up all the hot water.
The surge of jealousy had come out of left field and had pimp-slapped the common sense right out of him.
Of course Sevin wouldn’t have hooked up with a female he knew Vex favored. He’d let his cock do the thinking and had wrongfully accused a male he thought of as a son and an innocent female he was...infatuated with.
Sevin had just finished explaining about Alea’s living conditions, and the kid had done nothing more than look after a new friend.
Apologizing for his stupidity seemed to be becoming a bad habit. First Lucian, now Sevin and Alea. Especially, Alea.
“...would never have used my pheromones on a chick you're digging on,” Sevin finished.
He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thick thighs. He felt like a complete asshole. Scrubbing both hands over his buzzed head, he stood triggering Sevin to take a large step back.
“Come here, puppy.” He waved Sevin forward with a flick on his hand. “Stop apologizing.”
Taking a cautious step forward, Sevin regarded him with a wary eye. “Are you trying to trick me into getting closer so you can grab me, like that time you swatted me with a rolled up newspaper? You know I can outrun your big ass.”
“Yes, I know and no, this isn't a trick.” He held his hand out. As soon as Sevin’s palm made contact with his, he pulled him in for a quick hug and a slap on the back. “Sorry for doubting you about Alea. And, I only smacked you one time with the newspaper. You deserved it for pissing all over my damn shoes. You were hell to potty train, but that one swat on the ass did the trick. You learned—”
“No, I didn't,” Sevin interrupted, beginning to back away. A wicked grin taking over his face before he burst out laughing. “I was already trained. I was doing it on purpose, because you always made me go to bed before the Comedy Hour show came on. Lu always let me stay up past my bedtime to watch it when you worked nights.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he roared, watching in disbelief as Sevin high-tailed it to the office.
Taking off after the insolent little shit, he hit the office door just in time to see Sevin duck behind Lucian. The flash of his silvery mohawk impossible to hide.
“What the hell?” Lucian bitched, getting bumped forward in his chair as Sevin squeezed into the tight space between the wall and the back of the seat. “Isn't there enough drama going on without the two of you butting heads? What’s going on now?”
“He's mad about the Comedy Hour show,” Sevin’s muffled voice rose up from his hiding spot.
Lucian's brow creased, raising a shoulder to shrug until the memory coalesced inside his mind and he barked out a laugh.
“You knew!” he accused, throwing his upper body forward on his hips. When Lucian laughed harder, he jabbed his finger in the air at the angel. “You motherfucker. This whole time, I thought that little prick was slow to potty train, but the entire time he was pissing all over my shit because you were his favorite?”
“Yes,” Lucian managed to push out through his laughter. The chair he was sitting in shook from Sevin yucking it up down below.
“You guys suck so hard.” His anger made them laugh that much harder. That shit was pretty damn funny, but he wasn’t about to give either one of them the satisfaction of even a hint of a smile. “Gales and Evana already gone?”
“Jason just walked out the back door to hand her off to his friends. So, we’re about to head out to try and track down the members.”
“Hand her off?” His brows dropped low. “Gales is not helping us look for those bikers, hippie. We need to use every skill we’ve got to locate those assholes before something happens to her. We can’t do that with a human trailing us. It’s dangerous enough having him here all day long. Your mouth nearly got us busted earlier.”
“Your light show has nearly gotten us busted over the past few days.”
“Shut it, Sevin,” he warned. “What do you think Gales will do if you shifted into a wolf in front of him? And, you can’t very well track the humans in the form you’re in now, can you?”
“That’s why you’re gonna stay here and make sure he stays put until we find them. We’ll call you—”
“Oh, hell no,” he roared, effectively cutting off the angel’s words. “I’m not being used as a glorified babysitter while you two traipse around the city with no backup.”
“Before you interrupted me, I was gonna say that we’ll call you after Sevin locates them and you can meet us.”
“And, what am I supposed to do with the human until then? Tie him to a fucking chair?”
“Use your power of persuasion.” Sevin popped up from behind Lucian’s seat. “Duh.”
“It doesn’t work like that, dip shit. If the thought isn’t already in his mind, then it won’t stick. Gales is no pussy. He’s not going to want to stay put if he doesn’t want to.”
“But, you can plant the idea long enough to get a head start on the guy,” Lucian argued. “Just tell him to lock up and go home. Business as
usual.”
“That will never work.”
“Then you want to try and talk some sense into him, because I’ve already done that and he isn’t taking no for an answer,” Lucian added.
The back door swung open and in walked Jason looking like he’d been stretched too thin and snapped back into place. Yeah, trying to leave this man behind was not going to go over well.
His cell phone buzzed and every molecule in his body hoped it was Alea. Looking at the tiny screen, he sagged into himself, disappointment sucking the life right out of him.
It was just Lucian sending a covert text telling him to distract Jason so he and Sevin could slip out the back door and start their search.
Great. He couldn’t wait to see what excuse he’d use to keep the human occupied long enough for Sevin to track them down, much less ditch the guy once they located them.
“Hey, Gales.” He wrapped a beefy arm around the human’s shoulders and began to usher him towards the front of the shop. “Why don’t you tell me more about the Satan’s Disciples?”
Jason scrubbed a hand over his cap of short, dark hair, roughing it up worse than it already was. Easily going along with Vex’s manipulation until they reached the front desk and heard the soft click of the back door being gently closed. Digging in his heels, Jason spun out of his hold and made a run for the back.
He gave chase, tackling the human to the ground. “Look motherfucker—”
“Get off of me, asshole,” Jason pushed at the unmovable mountain that was him. “They left without me. I gotta catch up to them.”
“You need to trust us on this, Gales. Sevin can track down anything and the hippie can cover more ground faster if you let them work.”
“I can’t just stay here and wait. I’m gonna lose my damn mind. I need to be out there doing something to help find those fuckers before they do something awful to Evana.”
“Yes, you can and you will,” he growled back.
Sevin and Lucian were gonna owe him big for this.
He was bristling over being shelved, too, and itching to go look for Alea since she’d been ignoring his calls. But, he was determined to stay away from her and not make more of a fool out of himself than he already had. Besides, Alea could take care of herself where as Evana was just a human. From what he understood of the MC that was after her, they weren’t much on forgiveness.
“I’m gonna let you up, but if you even think about making a run for it, I’ll knock you the fuck out.”
He lifted his weight by small degrees, testing the tension in the human’s body beneath his.
Jason remained face first on the floor for a moment after he stood. Rolling over onto his back with little enthusiasm, Jason sat up, but didn’t make another move to bolt. The guy looked like he’d just been cracked wide-open with all kinds of vulnerabilities spilling out all over the floor. So, he looked about like Vex felt.
Helpless. Confused. Sad.
That’s what you got when you let a female worm her way into your brain. Trouble. Females of any species were nothing but trouble.
“Look, I know you’re worried about her,” he said, crouching in front of Jason. It was a curious thing for him to have an overwhelming need to reassure someone. “Give the guys a chance to find them. I promise you that we will find the MC before they find Evana. I swear it.”
Jason’s eyes jumped around the room seeing nothing until they settled on the hand he held out to him. Clasping palms, he was surprised by the strength that dragged him closer to the human’s face.
“I barely know you, but for some fucked up reason, I’m gonna trust you on this,” Jason said locking eyes with him as if he were trying to read what was going on inside his head. “If your promise turns south—”
“It won’t.”
“If it does, and something happens to my girl while I’m sitting here on my ass doing nothing, I swear I will hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands.”
It was little more than lifting a child’s doll from the floor as he stood with Jason in tow.
“Then, I have nothing to worry about. I wouldn’t tell you something if I didn’t know it was the truth. She’ll be fine. Just be patient.”
Only a few hours had gone by and Vex had given up on getting Jason to sit his ass down.
Trying again to reach Alea was about as useful as watching the human wear a track into the floor as he paced around like a caged animal.
He was no better off. On the outside, he appeared calm, seated quietly on his artist stool. On the inside, he was drifting aimlessly, lost in the vast ocean of his own indecisions with so many ideas crashing into one another and nothing much actually sticking. He kept flip-flopping back and forth with what he should do about Alea that he was suffocating himself as if he were holding his own head below water.
At the moment, all he had was a cell phone connection to her which was non-existent since she hadn’t answered. But, he had decided as soon as he was done with this drama, he was going to get busy fixing his mess.
Waiting until tomorrow wasn’t an option. He needed to make sure she came back to work in the morning. Getting her address from Sevin was the first step in his plan. After that, he didn’t have the first damn clue how to get her to accept his apology.
Jason levitated about a foot off the floor when his cell phone buzzed in his hand. “Evana and the guys are at the hotel.”
“Good. Now why don’t you go on and meet her there.” He made the suggestion knowing Jason wouldn’t comply. He’d have a better chance of cows sprouting wings and buzzing around the city.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’re determined to be pain in my ass tonight,” he mumbled not liking the only option the human was giving him. Free will should never be taken away or even momentarily hindered, but he had to keep Jason out of harm’s way while the three of them fixed this mess.
“Look, I appreciate you all standing up for Evana, but I’ve known her for over half my life and if anyone is going to teach these assholes a lesson, it’s going to be me.” The human swelled with determination.
Glancing down at the vibrating device in his hand, he announced, “Sevin’s tracked them down.”
“Where?”
“Why would you need to know that? Your ass is going to go stay with Evana at the hotel.”
“I’m coming with you. She’s got three other guys with her. I want to make sure those dic—”
Bending at the waist, he put his face directly in line with Jason’s. The human’s eyes peeled open wide, and with his increase in body temperature, knew the veins in his eyes were beginning to glow.
Delving inside the human’s mind felt wrong, but what other option did he have? Jason’s safety was more important, so implanting this one idea was necessary and would soon dissipate on its own.
“You’re going to the hotel. End of discussion. Lock the door and set the alarm. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
Pulling on his jacket as he hit the front door, he left the human behind in a slight daze. His suggestion would wear off quickly with as strong a mind as Jason’s. His free will would come barreling back with a vengeance eradicating any suggestions he presented to his gray matter, so he needed to double-time it away from the shop and let the sea of pedestrians swallow him up.
A cursory glance behind him, the sidewalk was already dark in front of the shop, so Jason was being a good boy and doing what he was told.
Pulling the hood up on his jacket to cover his buzzed head, he lowered his eyes to the ground and tried to keep a low profile as he made his way over to the address Sevin had texted him.
After crossing a few more streets and hanging a right, Sevin was where he said he would be.
Stepping from the mouth of an alley two blocks away from a bar notorious for attracting rough customers, the shifter brought him up to speed. “I counted twelve of them. Lucian’s already in New Rochelle checking the hotels for any more.”
Nodding, he started to turn away only t
o have Sevin snag ahold of his arm. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
No, he wasn’t, but what other choice did they have? Evana was an innocent soul. The pureness of her aura told him she would never be deserving of any sort of horrible end to her young life. And he figured, if her deceased husband could watch after her from the Realm of the Dead, then it was the least he could do to offer his help keeping her safe here.
That fairy Evana had hired as her receptionist after the death of her husband was no coincidence. Kyle Grey had made the request to have her looked after as his soul was being transported to the Realm of the Dead. An occurrence that rarely happened. Most newly departing souls were more concerned with what was going to become of them, than who they were leaving behind.
His request being granted, Kyle’s transporter had contacted Lucian. He had been the one to send Avie to Exotic Ink. She was a good choice. That fairy was rather old, but obviously not an ancient or she would have seen the MC coming.
Pulling free of Sevin’s grip, he tugged his hood down farther around his face and cleared the short distance to the bar’s heavy wooden door. Swinging it open, he slouched trying to appear shorter in case someone decided to be a hero and give a description of him to the police.
Seeking out the darkest corner, he made himself blend in with the environs. The bikers were easy to spot, the blackness surrounding them was a stain that needed to be sent to Netherworld ASAP. A shame he wouldn’t be joining them.
Closing his eyes against the red light that would illuminate the thin veins in his eyes, he reached out into the minds of the table filled with Satan’s Disciples. Disrupting their free will, he planted the idea for the twelve of them to file out through the back door of the bar.
Sending out a suggestive blanket to all the patrons with the notion that they didn’t see him leaving, he fell in line behind the last biker to exit. Like good little soldiers, they marched out into the narrow alley behind the bar. Cloudy puffs of breath floated above every head as they formed a perfect circle facing the center.