Dead and Kicking (8 page)

Eleanor frowned. “I didn’t disagree with your grandmother
about many things, but some decisions she made…” She paused and shook her head. “Ah well, a promise must be kept.” She patted my hand again in a motherly
fashion. “I think deep down you
know. Perhaps you aren’t yet ready to
admit it even to yourself.”

Now it was my turn to frown. Eleanor’s comments had come a little too
close to the mark, but I pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on my anger
instead. My life was my business and
nobody else’s. And, I wasn’t going to
stand by while Tess was forced to use our friendship to glean information for
the pack.

“No one uses my friends against
me.” I said vehemently. “If you think you need to know something
about me, do me the courtesy of asking me.”

Eleanor arched an eyebrow. “You remind me of your grandmother. She was fiercely loyal to her friends and
always stood up for herself too. I can
see why my son is so interested in you.”

Say what? Nash, interested in me? The only interest he had was in making my
life difficult. I looked at Eleanor in
surprise, speechless.

“But here are your friends.” Eleanor gestured to where Holly and Tess
stood unsure whether or not to approach.
“You should go have fun.” Eleanor
shooed me off.

“I can’t. I’m supposed to meet with the Triad.”

“You just did, dear.” Eleanor chuckled. “Well, at least one of them.”

“You’re…but…” I looked at Eleanor in surprise.

“Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Surely not as frightening
as meeting the Magister.”

I looked at Eleanor, remembering the
wave of power I felt from her earlier, and replied, “I think you can be just as
scary as the Magister when you want to.”

“Yes, of course dear. It’s nice to know your grandmother didn’t
raise a fool.”

The party at the Ice House was in
full force when we arrived. We didn’t
have to go far to get there, just pass inspection by the bouncer appropriately
named Tank, and walk through the door at the back of the bar. The door led to a small storage room that
served as the entrance to the Ice House; an old, formerly refrigerated
warehouse behind the building that housed The Lodge.

The space itself was about the size
of a hockey rink and could easily hold a couple hundred people. It was set up with a large dance floor in the
middle and a bar running down either side.
At the far end of the dance floor there was a
DJ booth and a few tables for those wanting to sit. At the opposite end, near where we entered, a
pool hall of sorts had been set up with four big green-felted tables, a couple of dart boards and overhead lighting.

Music blasted through the entire
space, the throbbing beat so loud you could feel it pulse. No thrasher rock here; instead, it sounded
like all the top 40 dance tunes were on the playlist.

The crowd was almost completely made
up of werewolves of indiscriminate age.
Unlike vampires, werewolves tended to be insular, socializing amongst
themselves, although I could sense a few fellow witches in the crowd. The one thing I was sure I wouldn’t find was
a vampire. There were always some wolves
wanting to push the envelope and party at Dante’s or one of the other vampire
clubs downtown, but you would never find a vampire wanting to ‘slum it’ at
a werewolf club, not that they would be allowed to in any case.

The energy in the place was palpable
and I shivered and took a deep breath, feeling it radiate over me in waves. I slammed my personal shields down against
the onslaught, but even protected as I was, I could feel the energy taking
hold, amping me up.
It was seductive.

“Let’s party!” I shouted over the
music.

“Woo eee!”
Holly replied, as she grabbed my arm and pulled me through the crowd towards
the bar. “Let’s fuel up. Then we dance our asses off!” She ordered three shots of tequila. We raised our shot glasses and I caught
Tess’s eye.

“To great
friends who love you even when you act like a complete bitch.”

Tess clinked
her glass with mine and replied, “I’ll drink to that as long as you’re the
bitch in the scenario.”

“Yay! To friends!” shouted Holly.
“Kiss and make up you two.”

We tossed back our drinks and Tess
and I threw our arms around each other, relieved that the rift between us was
mended.

“I’m sorry I gave you such a hard
time. I know you didn’t have a choice,” I said.

“I’m sorry too, Harry. I only told them what I absolutely had to.”

“Well, hopefully it won’t be an issue
anymore. If the Triad needs to know
something about me they can just ask me their damn selves.”

“Harry! You didn’t say that to Eleanor did you?”

I shrugged. “Sort of.”

“Enough you
two!
Let’s go dance!” Holly grabbed
our hands and pulled us to the dance floor.
The crowd parted around us, making room.
At first, I just let go and the three of us danced together, like female
friends can do, not caring about anything else, just having a good time. After a while, I looked up and noticed that
both Holly and Tess had managed to gather some male admirers. That’s when I noticed that I was dancing
alone. There was a gap in the crowd all
around me. At first I thought it was
some sort of anomaly of crowd dynamics but when I moved, the gap followed me. It was like the crowd was the greasy
dishwater and I was a drop of detergent. Everyone on the dance floor seemed to be making an
effort to stay at least two feet away from me, especially those with a Y
chromosome.

To test my theory, I scanned the
crowd until I saw a familiar face. It
was Joe. He was dancing on the far side
of the crowd. I made my way over to him,
which wasn’t difficult since the crowd parted before me like the Red Sea did
for Moses, and caught his eye.

“Hey handsome,
ready for that dance?”

“What?” Joe looked around nervously. “Uh, no. Sorry,” he continued, looking over his
shoulder again. “I was just going.” He pushed his way through the crowd, leaving
me standing there dumbfounded.

“Harry! Hey, Harry!” Holly plowed through the crowd towards
me. “Where are you going?”

“Looks like nowhere.” I turned my head and sniffed my
shoulder. “Is there something wrong with
me? Do I smell or something?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Does my breath smell?” I lifted my palm in front of my mouth and
exhaled on it.

Holly grabbed my arm. “What on earth has gotten into you? Are you drunk?”

I pulled my arm from her grasp. “No, of course not. But I think I’m a leper or something.” I looked down at my dress with its cute ruffled
skirt. “Is Gran right? Is it my clothes? Do I really look like a hippy school marm?”

“Are you kidding? You look gorgeous in that dress.” Holly began pulling me towards a table. “Here, sit down.”
She looked at me sternly. “Stay there.
I’m going to get you some water.
I think you must be dehydrated or something.”

Holly arrived back, Tess in tow, a
few minutes later. Even if she hadn’t
been carrying two shooters of tequila in each hand, I would have known from her
expression that something was wrong.

“Here, drink this,” she said, handing
me a glass.

“What happened to the water?”

“Trust me,
you’re going to want this.”

I shrugged and gulped the tequila
back, grimacing as it burned its way down my throat. I sucked in a breath through my teeth and
said, “Alright, whatever it is, lay it on me.” I looked from Tess to Holly and then back
again. They both looked like they were
about to tell me that my dog died. I’d
have been worried, but I don’t own a dog.
“Come on. Spill it. Don’t keep me in suspense.”

***

I knew that Tess had finished speaking because
her lips had stopped moving, but frankly, I had stopped listening. Besides, it was hard to hear
anything over the dull roar of the anger building inside my head.

“He did what?!” I stood up, pushing my chair over. “That bastard.” I grabbed another shot of tequila and tossed
it back, slamming the empty glass on the table.
“Wait until I find him. I’ll kill
him.” I pushed past Tess, who did her
best to block my path.

“Harry, wait!” Holly made a lunge for my arm, but she was
too slow. I was already storming across
the dance floor, the crowd parting before me, which I now knew was thanks to Nash and his meddling. I didn’t really have a plan or have a clue
where I might find Nash. I just needed
to move. By the time I had stomped my
way across the dance floor, something that’s not particularly easy in three
inch pumps, some of my anger had worn off and the tequila had kicked in. It made for a dangerous combination,
especially with the waves of energy already pounding at me. I relaxed my shields a little, letting a
tendril of the pulsing wave slip past.
It was like a drug, wrapping around me, heightening my senses, making me
feel more alive. I stopped where I was
and closed my eyes, relishing the feeling.

“Hey pretty lady. Why is a sweet thing like you all alone?”

I opened my eyes in surprise. The speaker was around my age, although with
werewolves it’s hard to tell, and as is typical with many of the non-human
races, he was good looking bordering on smoking hot.
Obviously he hadn’t gotten the less than subtle message Nash had left
earlier regarding me being off limits.
Maybe he wasn’t there when Nash brought me the stew, which in werewolf
terms meant I was untouchable. It had
some Neanderthal-like reasoning behind it which I had sort of tuned out when
Tess was explaining things. It went
something like since Nash fed me, I was his and no other wolves could touch me,
unless they wanted to fight him for me first, or some such nonsense. Maybe this guy had a death wish.
Whatever the case, I wasn’t in the mood to pass up the opportunity.

“I’m not alone now.” I ran my hand down his bare, muscular
arm. “Dance with me.” It was more a command than a question. I grabbed his hand and pulled him further
onto the dance floor.

Between the lights and the music and
the pulsing flow of energy, I felt a rush.
My new friend pulled me close and whisper-shouted in my ear, “I’m Greg.”

I smiled in answer and just kept
dancing, the beat of the music hypnotic.
I let it wash over me, flow into me, feeling like I was flying higher
with each beat. The music changed to
something sexy and seductive. Greg put
his hands on my hips and we did a bump and grind, our bodies touching. I felt on fire. Feeling reckless, I reached up and ran my
hand through his hair, pulling his mouth to mine. He responded to my kiss, his mouth exploring
mine. He slid his hands down to cup my
ass, pressing my body up against his.

“Are you nuts man?” The voice startled us. A hand reached out and grabbed Greg’s arm,
pulling us apart. A wolf I didn’t
recognize scowled at me then pulled Greg further away.

“What the fuck, Ethan?” Greg shrugged his friend off. Ethan grabbed his arm again and leaned in to
whisper something in Greg’s ear.

Greg stiffened and looked at me,
putting his hands up as if to ward me off.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” He shook his head then backed further away.

“Wait. Stop.” I reached out to him but he shied away. “I don’t belong to anyone. You can dance with me if you want.”

“Harry!” Tess came running up to me, Holly following
close behind. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! I’m just fine!” I brushed her off. “No, that’s a lie. I’m not fine, I’m
pissed off at Nash. Well, screw
him. Can’t you feel it? This place is electric. I feel like I could fly!” I threw my arms wide, soaking in the energy
all around me. I felt giddy with it.

“Harry!” Holly grabbed my arms. “Stop that!
You’re going to overdo it.”

“Oh, Holly, don’t be such a
spoilsport. I feel wonderful. Or I would except for that,
that jack-off….no, ass-off…. I mean that jerk off, asshole Nash ruining
my entire night!” I swayed, my knees buckling
a little. “Whoa.” I threw my hand out to
steady myself against Tess. Okay, so
maybe I was a little out of control.

“Harry, it’s too much. You’re drunk.
High even.” Holly looked at me
with concern.

“Nah, I’m fine. I’m good.”
I closed my eyes, feeling the music pounding within me again. “I just want to dance only no one will dance
with me, thanks to Nash.” I pushed away
from Tess and staggered to the edge of the dance floor.

Climbing onto a table, I scanned the
crowd then cupped my hands to my mouth and shouted, “Nash! Cian Nash!”
I looked out over the crowd. “Nash, you coward!
Come out and face me like a man.”

“Harry, have you gone crazy?” Holly tried to grab for me. “Get down before you fall and break your
neck.”

“Nonsense. I have perfect
balance.” I wobbled on the table. “See?”

“Harry, come on. You’re going to hurt yourself.” Tess came to stand beside Holly.

The crowd around us had stopped
dancing and everyone milled around looking at us. Suddenly there was a movement at the back of
the crowd and it parted, letting a very pissed off looking Nash pass.

“Oh, there you are. The big, bad wolf. Ha!” I
shook my fist at him causing the table to wobble some more. “Whoa!”
My foot slipped, but I quickly regained my balance.

“Harry, what the hell are you
doing?” Nash strode up and stopped in
front of me, hands on his hips. “Get
down from there before you fall.”

“You aren’t the boss of me, you, you…Mister.”

“Are you drunk?” Nash looked at Holly and Tess. “Is this how you take care of her?” Tess cowered away from him.

“Hey!
Leave my friends alone, you big bully.”
I leaned over to try and push him away.
The table wobbled again and I lost my footing, sending me flying off,
straight into Nash’s arms.

He quickly set me down on my
feet. “Are you okay?” He held me out at arm’s length so he could
look at me.

“I’m fine.” I closed my eyes for a moment to try and stop
the room from spinning. “Okay, maybe I’m
a little not so fine.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “My head, it’s just….” I made a blowing up hand gesture like my head
was exploding outward. “Buhwow!” I laughed, my arms stretched over my
head. “Can’t you feel it?” I started to slow motion dance to the music.

“Are you high? Did you take something?” Nash grabbed me by my elbow pulling me
through the crowd.

“Hey!
Hold on.” I tried to pry his
fingers from my arm. “Let go of
me!” He dragged me across the room and
out a side door to a quiet hallway. Tess
and Holly skidded through the door behind us.

“Are you on drugs?” He grabbed my face and looked at my
eyes.

I slapped his hands away. “Stop
that. I’m not on anything. I don’t do drugs.” Unfortunately my knees chose that moment to
buckle and I turned over on one heel. I
started to laugh uncontrollably, finding the whole situation hysterical. I took a deep breath and continued.
“And don’t change the topic. I’m mad at you…you…Barbarian!”