Authors: Dean Murray
The
Chicago pack fit the bill perfectly, assuming that I could convince
Shawn to defy his father once and for all, that or convince him to
help me talk his dad into finally picking a side. Both options were
risky, but it was past time for the Coun'hij to be pulled down, even
if the cost was a civil war.
All
of which explained how I ended up outside one of the hottest clubs in
Chicago.
Shawn
was apparently quite the social butterfly. Now I just needed to find
him. Getting in hadn't been too difficult, but it had required a bit
of planning.
There
were only three ways to get into an exclusive club like this. Beauty,
money or power. We opted to use all three.
James
was dressed as a bodyguard, right down to the dark, severe suit and
the earpiece. Jasmin and Jess were dressed in typical club wear,
meaning that they weren't wearing a whole lot, but that every male we
passed and some of the females couldn't seem to pry their eyes off of
them.
All
of which made it easy for me to blend in. Everyone saw me, but nobody
really noticed me, they were too busy noticing the obvious trappings
of wealth I was displaying so prominently. The night was cold enough
that I could feel it through my jeans and tank top. I felt a little
sorry for Jasmin and Jess, but at least they had our species'
supercharged metabolism to offset the temperature. There were a lot
of human girls standing in line who were wearing even less and they
didn't have the same kind of genetic advantages.
We
didn't wait in line, because really rich people, even when they're
slumming, don't wait in lines. I walked up to the door, Jess and
Jasmin on my arms, James exactly three feet behind me, and handed the
doorman two one-hundred-dollar bills.
We
were inside the club fifteen seconds later and navigating the hot
press of bodies. The music and lights would have been an assault on
the senses of normal humans; I couldn't even begin to understand why
Shawn would choose to spend his free time in a place like this.
It
only took me a couple of seconds to identify the entrance to the club
within the main club. These places all seemed to be the same. The
regular people waited outside trying to get inside, but once you got
inside then you found out that all of the really important people
were off in an area of their own.
We
worked our way over to the velvet ropes and the very large bouncer
who was stationed in front of them. Jasmin and Jess both swayed in
time to the music, but Jess was doing a much better job blending in.
Jasmin still looked like she was on a mission and just pretending to
be having fun.
It
still worked though. The expression on her face wasn't much different
than what you might see from any other attractive woman who happened
to be with someone solely because of his money. Some guys didn't care
about the motivation of their companions, they just wanted someone
attractive and submissive without having to worry too much about the
reason the women were so compliant.
I
palmed another couple of bills, but the bouncer saw us coming and was
already shaking his head at me.
"The
VIP club is already full, man."
"I
can make it worth your while."
He
snorted in amusement. "You and everyone else in here. Get lost."
James
was already stepping forward. The bouncer reached forward to shove
him back away from the ropes, but James easily sidestepped the push
and grabbed the other man's arm.
A
human would have put the bouncer in a wristlock or something else to
apply their strength against their opponent's weakness. James didn't
do that, he simply started squeezing.
Our
human bodies weren't anywhere near as strong as a hybrid, but we were
still much stronger than any human of an equivalent size. The bouncer
tried to resist, tried to get his other arm in play, tried to get his
bodyweight shifted around so that he could back James into the wall,
but it was all fruitless.
James
exerted such a crushing grip on the bouncer that the other man
dropped down to one knee. It had to have been a humbling experience.
A guy that big was used to dominating any physical confrontation, but
he'd just been manhandled with ease by someone nearly an inch and a
half shorter than him.
"You
don't talk to Mr. Murphy that way. Nobody does. I'm going to give you
one more chance to make things right and let Mr. Murphy and his dates
inside."
"I
could have you thrown out of the club in two seconds flat."
The
bouncer's free hand had already started moving up to his mouth to
call for help, but James just clamped down even harder so that the
bouncer dropped to both knees.
"You
could do that, but that would be a big mistake. Mr. Murphy is an
upstanding citizen, he would never do anything to hurt you, but you
can't say the same kind of thing about me. If you let us through then
Mr. Murphy will hand you the two hundred dollars he approached you
with a couple of seconds ago. If you get us kicked out of the club,
then I'll follow you home one of these nights and the two of us will
have a very unpleasant conversation."
"Okay,
okay, you guys can go inside."
James
just stood there for a second without letting go, driving home just
how overmatched the bouncer had been.
"Jerome,
please let the nice man go. You're causing a scene."
We
hadn't actually come up with aliases for each other, but James let go
of the bouncer without looking back at me.
"Yes,
Mr. Murphy. I'm sorry, Mr. Murphy. I believe he'll let us by now."
I
gave the bouncer my best apologetic smile, as if to say that there
was only so much I could do to control a psychopath like Jerome, and
then the girls and I followed James into the VIP area.
I
knew Shawn would be in here somewhere, but finding him was going to
be harder than I'd expected.
There
was a very prominent bar just inside the door we'd entered by, and
across the dance floor I could see a set of stairs that looked like
they led up to some kind of private room for the club owner. I wasn't
particularly eager to try and force my way past the two bouncers at
the foot of the stairs—at least not until after we'd confirmed
that Shawn wasn't in one of the huge private booths situated in long
rows on either side of the dance floor.
In
any other setting Jasmin and Jess would have been terribly
conspicuous, but here they blended right in with the rest of the
half-naked bodies, male and female, out on the dance floor. I pulled
the two of them closer so that they could hear me despite the
thrumming music.
"Go
find Shawn for me, but try not to make it too obvious that you're
looking for someone in particular. Pretend you're here looking for a
sugar daddy."
Jasmin
shot me a nasty look, but they both nodded and then glided onto the
dance floor. They would dance for a minute or two and then start
working their way down the two sets of booths.
I
walked over to the bar and ordered a drink, not because alcohol
actually did anything for shape shifters, but because it was the best
way to blend in.
The
bartender saw me looking at the booths and leaned in close enough to
be heard when he brought my drink over.
"The
booths with a red light are full. The booths with a green light are
vacant or would welcome guests. If you decide to claim one of the
booths, you'll find a call button inside. Push that and a waitress
will come by and take your drink order."
I
nodded my thanks and slipped him another hundred to cover the price
of the drink and the information.
"Let's
go find ourselves a booth, Jerome."
I
headed towards one of the green lights and smiled when I found it
empty.
"I
don't think this place is anywhere near as full as our friend back at
the rope tried to indicate it was."
James
shrugged, but didn't sit down next to me. "He was probably just
hoping to get another hundred bucks out of you."
I
sighed and nodded. More than anything else, I suddenly wished we were
back at the hotel where we'd left our luggage. I had half a dozen
things that I needed to be doing. There were important plans that
were sitting idle right now because I was here wasting time in a
club, but all of the other things I was trying to accomplish might
very well fall through if I couldn't find a way to save Agony.
"I'd
ask you to sit down, but that probably wouldn't be very much in
keeping with your cover."
"Yeah,
I already thought of that." James paused for a second and then
frowned. "There are two girls headed this direction, what do you
want me to do with them?"
"Send
them away, politely."
I
hadn't scooted around all the way to the back of the booth, so I
could still see out onto the dance floor.
The
girl on the left was a blonde, the one on the right was a redhead,
but neither of them looked like that was their original hair color.
They were both young, probably barely old enough to buy alcohol, fit,
and wearing the same kind of outfits as the rest of the girls inside
the club.
James
stepped forward to block the two of them, but rather than scaring
them off, it backfired. The redhead took a quick, aggressive step
forward, invading James' space. A real bodyguard, someone who was
actually worried about the safety of his principal, would have
straight-armed her.
James
wasn't worried about my safety, not from a couple of human girls.
Their clothing wasn't substantial enough to conceal a weapon bigger
than a one-inch blade and they weren't vampires, but just because
they were unarmed didn't necessarily mean they were
safe
.
There
was a split-second pause as James started to straight-arm the redhead
and then realized that he wasn't quite sure where to touch her. We
shape shifters spent a lot of time trying to avoid casual
skin-on-skin contact with humans, but the only parts of her that were
covered were exactly the parts that polite society frowned on him
touching.
The
stutter to James' movements was barely perceptible, but it was just
enough for the redhead to slip her arms around his neck and lean
forward as if to kiss him. No wild animal likes to be trapped and the
fact that she wasn't actually strong enough to restrain James didn't
matter to his beast.
James
reached up and pulled her arms apart, using his gentle but firm grip
on her to push her back far enough that she wasn't rubbing up against
him, but the damage was done. The skin-on-skin contact hadn't been
enough to addict her to him, at least not unless she had a
particularly addictive personality and the situation had been a lot
more stressful for her than she'd let on, but she'd distracted James
enough that her friend was able to slip into the booth with me.
"Buy
me a drink and I'll tell you a secret."
There
was a coy flirtatiousness to her tone that I hadn't had directed at
me very often. The girls back home had been too scared of Kaleb and
his plans for me to be that aggressive. It was intriguing, but that
wasn't what made me wave James back.
She
was gorgeous in an oversexed-beyond-her-years-way. No rich young man
would kick her to the curb without at least talking to her for a few
minutes. I couldn't let James get rid of her without potentially
blowing my cover.
"Fine,
I'll buy you a drink and you can tell me your secret, after which you
should leave."
I
found the panel on the wall that controlled the lights, flipped the
switch to occupied, and pushed the call button.
"Oh,
does that mean you're taken?"
Lying
didn't come second nature to me yet. Maybe it never would, but I was
starting to think that I was going to have to get a lot better at it
if I expected to survive the next couple of decades. It was a
mistake, but I temporized.
"Let's
just say that there are a couple of very dangerous young ladies who
aren't going to be happy to see you when they get back here."
"That
wasn't a yes. Besides, I'm not afraid of a little competition, your
friends aren't the only ones around here who are dangerous."
I
was saved from answering by the arrival of our waitress. I slipped
the waitress a pair of hundred-dollar bills and waved at my unwanted
guest.
"The
first one is for her, please get her whatever she wants until that
runs out. The other one is for you."
The
waitress flashed me a winning smile and then turned to the blonde.
"Scotch,
neat."
Once
we were alone again but for James, the girl turned back to me. "My
name is Brindi."
"Hello,
Brindi, are you always this determined?"
"Only
when I see something I want."
She
said it looking up at me through her lashes. It was an alluring
combination of shy and bold that finally made me realize what had
been tickling the back of my mind ever since I'd first seen her.
I'd
known that there was something familiar about her, but I hadn't been
able place it until then. She reminded me of the blonde from my
dreams. It wasn't her face, although there was some resemblance there
too. It was the way she held herself. Not all of the time, but half
of her motions, the more reserved, shy ones were a perfect match for
the girl from my dreams.
It
had been weeks since I'd thought about the girl who had been haunting
my dreams for years now. She'd been there as long as I could
remember, but lately the dreams had changed, becoming more
believable, more vivid. Recent events had been so overwhelming that I
hadn't had a chance to dwell on anything but survival, but now that
I'd been forcefully reminded of her, I felt a torrent of emotion.
Longing,
loss, desire. It was all there with a strength that was nearly
overpowering. That by itself would have given me pause, but there was
something else there. It was less than a shadow of a fragment of a
memory, but it was important. My mind picked at the sliver of
experience, but it was slow reconstituting into something usable.