2. Daphne Distortion
two
Daphne: Distortion
Three major factions ran the Seattle Underground, leaving the smaller crews to crawl into the holes no one else wanted to deal with.
There were no oaths, no banners, no clean lines in the dirt, but everyone knew where the shadows leaned.
The Black Wings flew in Marianne’s pocket, which made them rivals by default to Karsten’s crew.
Not that it was by choice. It was inherited loyalty, one that Wolfe had been trying to break since he took over for his father five years ago after being raised in the club his entire life.
“They sure pick peculiar venues,” Kandy grinned at me from the sidewalk in front of the deflated building.
As with all things in the Underworld, parties had to move to avoid becoming sitting ducks. Raids, drunk targets, and opportunistic enemies were always lurking, and being stationary meant death.
“Let’s make this quick,” a chiseled shadow of Robin Hood cut a path ahead of me. “Nikki’s waiting, and I fucking hate this shit.”
Kandy watched the rogue move to the front of the line, and I followed her gaze, knowing instantly he wasn’t one of mine.
“Hope they all look like that,” she winked, and I smiled.
The night was dark, wet, and the strange lines the streetlights cast across the forming puddles created a sense of nowhere that came with being part of this city. My boots sloshed through the mud as we approached, kicking up water as we stomped toward the door.
“Blade!” I smiled, ignoring the groans from the people beside me.
Blade’s real name was Christopher, and like Threx and Wolfe, he’d been given a new moniker to hide behind.
Threx wasn’t too thrilled when I pointed out that his sounded like it belonged to a dinosaur, or that I continued to call him Thay whenever I wanted to poke at the soul they took from him that day.
“Daphne!” Blade shouted, lifting off the brick wall to snag me in a hug. The strands of blonde hair dripped down the collar of his club jacket, but he didn’t seem to mind as he pulled me close.
“How did you land door duty? Isn’t this job for the recruits?” I asked, throwing my arms around his neck and planting a kiss on his cheek.
“Pissed off Wolfe today. Guess you shouldn’t fuck his sister.”
Carissa. Damn. She needed to get out of this city.
“That will do it,” I smiled up at him when he tossed a glance at Kandy. “Is he in there?” I asked, and he knew exactly who I meant.
“You might not want to go in tonight, Daph.” Blade released his grip and shifted his weight back onto the brick wall.
“Why?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“It, ugh… well, they’re celebrating, and you two are way overdressed.”
“What does that mean?” Kandy made a face, glancing at her sheer, sparkling piece of fabric masquerading as a garment.
“It means, it is naked night for all the females.”
“Gross, Blade,” I glowered, nudging him in the ribs. “Fucking gross.”
I arched a brow at Kandy, suddenly understanding Threx’s earlier warning for me not to come tonight.
“Still want to play?” I asked her, and Kandy dropped her dress right onto the broken step with a sloppy thud. Blade laughed, but I only shook my head and blinked.
“Yeah, I am not doing that,” I shot him a look that made him smile.
I’d grown up in the clubhouse, but Wolfe and Thay were the only ones who had ever seen me naked, and I intended to keep it that way.
“But he is in there?” I asked again, staring past him into the fog.
Blade bit his lip as if he were about to give away a secret and nodded.
“Open the door,” I sighed.
“Daph, it is…”
“Open it, Christopher,” I ordered, angling his name as if it were a blade of my own.
“Fuck you,” he growled, planting a playful bite on my neck. “But don’t come after me when you discover how much you hate this,” he added, offering a slow warning before ushering us into the industrial grit of pulsing rock and swirling lights.
I paused in the shadow, catching his collar and pulling him back toward me.
“Was Carissa worth it?”
“Fuck yeah,” he cheered, his smile turning everything bright, and I threw my hands up in victory.
Sometimes it was difficult to remember every shade of darkness that threaded into their charm, or the smell of red permanently stained on their fingers.
To me, Blade was the guy who licked the flavor packet after making his second bowl of ramen, not the hands around some man’s throat or the black whisper playing cards with fate.
I blew him a kiss before Kandy took me by the arm and dragged me into the music.
Deftones pulsed, breaking the edges and blurring the world into silver lights and sex that sweats. Kandy felt it in her thighs as we moved past naked bodies doing naked things.
“Holy shit,” she breathed, feeling the distortion roll through her, pressing her lips together as we approached the bar. “I want to feel everything!”
“Hey Daph,” Lyla leaned over the smooth surface, her messy features lit by the faded blue lights twisting over her head. I was happy to see her tits all safe and warm, trapped behind her everyday wardrobe of black on black. “Your usual?”
I nodded.
“Neat?” she confirmed, and I reached for the whiskey, wanting the burn more than anything else.
“And for you?” she looked at Kandy with a dull smile.
“I’ll take a White Russian!”
I hid my laugh in another full-body gulp when Lyla’s eyes stretched wide before she pivoted. Leave it to Kandy to order a fucking coffee drink, buck ass naked at an underground party.
“Don’t let anyone handle your drinks here,” I said directly into her ear before she pulled away.
“Got it, babe. I’m going to go…” She took a sip. “Play!”
How her hips perfected the saunter, I will never know.
“Is he upstairs?” I asked, peering up at the balcony, roped off with black caution tape.
“Yeah,” Lyla confirmed, trepidation flashing across her face before pulling out a shot glass and taking it straight.
“Hey, Daph,” Molly plopped onto the stool beside me. She was naked, round, and had to be about seven months along.
For as long as I could remember, she and Rinley had been together.
He was part of the clean-up crew, which was code for making dead things disappear.
You’d think such a profession would come with stoic resolve and icy blue wisdom, but Rinley was a dick for brains.
I couldn’t stand the asshole, but like me, she had grown up under the cadence of violent men.
Not that you’d ever know.
Molly was sweet. The kind of flower that pops up in spring, painting the air with the promise of sugar. It didn’t take me long to learn that men here liked that sort of thing. I think it made them feel less like underworld monsters and more deserving of the finer things in life. Sadistic assholes.
“Aren’t you a doctor?” She asked, twisting her straw around in the ice water Lyla had given her.
“Midwife. And no, not yet.” I studied her, taking in the way her swollen ankles bent into the barstool. “Molly?”
“Don’t start,” she groaned, slumping even further. “All I ever do is sit in that room at the clubhouse and rest. I wanted to feel like a person for five goddamn seconds, okay?” She shot me a teary-eyed scowl, then went back to tracing circles in her glass.
“And do you?” I arched a brow, handing Lyla a twenty. “Wolfe covers my drinks, so keep that,” I told her.
“Love you,” Lyla mouthed, drifting down the bar to help the cluster of penises camped there.
“No,” Molly mumbled, on the verge of crying.
“He’s up there fucking some girl right now.
” She bit back her ire because that was what club wives were expected to do.
Fidelity was a choice, not a promise, and in this world, you played by the rules or died for breaking them.
“And I feel fat, and tired, and…” She swallowed. “And fat.”
“You’re pregnant. Growing a soul is hard ass work,” I stood, taking her by the arm to keep her legs from dangling. “Molly, your ankles are really swollen. Are they watching your blood pressure?”
She gave me a look that told me everything I needed to know. Rinley was likely keeping her from medical appointments because eyes on her meant eyes on him, and something inside me burned.
“Move,” I ordered the two people fucking on the sofa, before pointing at Molly to sit.
“Don’t you ever get tired of it?” Molly shot me a look before plopping down in a huff.
“Tired of what?” I asked, bending low to put her feet up.
Damn, they were worse than I thought.
“Fixing things and it not mattering. You helping me now won’t help me later. You’d think you would have learned that,” she was trying to hurt me. “I mean, you tried to fix Threx, and he is up there fucking, too.” Molly shot me a bladed look, her pretty brown eyes plummeting even lower.
“Thay and I aren’t like that, and you know it.”
“Please.” She threw her head back in an indignant scoff, glitter sliding from her cheek to her shoulder. “Of all the couples in the club, you two are the only ones who are like that.”
A dark cloud crept over me, but I shoved it aside. I couldn’t drown in rain clouds right now. I was too tired of slipping into the damn hole that held me by the throat.
“Molly,” I changed the subject. “When you are pregnant, the blood in your body increases by almost fifty percent.” I took a deep breath. “Which means your heart is working harder, your kidneys are filtering more, and your blood vessels are under a great deal of stress.”
Molly stared at me, folding her lip under the way she always had whenever someone spoke to her like a person.
“And if that strain becomes too much for your veins to handle, the fluid in your blood leaks into your tissues, which causes them to swell. It is a sign of preeclampsia. You need to see a doctor.”
She rubbed her face, leaning back into the cushions in silence.
“Rinley does clean up,” she mumbled low, and possibly to God because she wasn’t looking at me.
“You don’t have to name him on anything.”
“My address is the Clubhouse, Daphne. They will know.”
“Then, use mine,” I said blankly. “You could die from this, and so could your baby.”