Chapter 16
Bar Fight
LANIAS
Lanias was starting to notice a trend.
She awoke lying in bed, staring at the ceiling wondering what she’d been thinking?
Last night she’d allowed Alek to play with her body like a fiddle. Every sound she’d made had been manipulated by him and she’d allowed it.
The memory of the smug look in his eyes and the satisfied aura that had come off him made her tense feeling something near shame but not. She rolled over and punched the pillow next to her. Dammit, she was the madame. Sex shouldn’t faze her in anyway, she wanted her orgasm back.
She wasn’t willing to trade it for her pride. Dammit.
Groaning, she pressed her face into the pillow and winced when she pulled on her hair. Lifting her head, she looked over her shoulder looking at the ridiculous length. “I forgot about that.”
Her magic had gone haywire when she’d passed out.
Releasing a sigh, she turned over and sat up. “Let’s take care of this.”
Raising her hand, creating a scissor shape with her fingers she made a snipping motion and immediately her hair was cut short to shoulder length. Snapping her fingers, the left-over hair lit up with black fire.
Clapping her hands together, she moved to get up.
She looked in the mirror as she got to her feet to see she had dark smudges under her eyes. “Let’s get you together,” she said to no one as she walked into the bathroom.
Finished with getting ready for the day, she walked out of the room and headed downstairs. The moment she stepped out the door a voice inquired.
“Where are you going?”
Blocking her way, was mister Half-dead himself. Today his hair was in a single braid, which was thrown over his shoulder and contrasted sharply with his black suit. He looked far more new money than usual.
“What happened to the romantic poet look?” she joked, stopping in front of him. She placed a hand on her waist, tapping her chin with her other hand. “Hmm, I like it.”
She grabbed the end of his braided hair, and pulled, playing with the tip of it. “It’s stirring the Madame in me.”
Alek’s expression barely changed. “Where are you going Lanias?” He gave her outfit a hard eye. “Especially dressed the way you are.”
She sighed, letting his platinum braid slip from her fingers. “I’m going to a bar; I spoke with Fabian, and he told me about this fella that used to meet with Stanthos. I’m going to see if I can find him.”
“And you were planning on doing this alone.” It wasn’t a question.
“Sure was,” Lanias said with a knowing smile. “I figured you’d know if I got in a pinch.”
Alek took a deep breath. “Don’t you think that making a deal for protection with me would imply that you should come to me for protection?”
She shrugged. “I figured you had enough on your plate, with stuff.”
“Stuff?” His tone questioned her intelligence.
She pursed her lips and clicked her tongue, irritated. “Are you coming with me or not?”
Alek stepped forward, closing the space between them. She swallowed. What made him smell so good. Lanias was going to find out just so she could ruin whatever it was so she wouldn’t feel like dropping her panties every time he got close.
Damn Vampire.
“If I come, you’re going to change.”
Pulled out of her inner musing about his smell, she looked up at him in surprise. “You’re joking?”
He gave a slow shake of the head. “You’re displaying too much of your charm. I don’t want to accidentally kill anyone.”
She snorted. “Kill them, I’m not changing my clothes.”
She’d wriggled her form into a short skirt, and black cropped shirt. Her knee-high boots highlighted the line of her legs. While she wasn’t wearing the dramatic clothes of her past, Lanias was just as particular about her day-to-day outfits now as she was then.
It was one of her few pleasures.
Changing her clothes was akin to asking her to skin herself.
“And the last time I checked, the only one who could tell me what to do died long ago. So, you have two choices, either come with me and kill the few guys who take a look or—don’t come.” She went to step around him, only to feel the free wind around her middle disappear.
She paused and glanced down to see her crop top had been switched out with an oversized black button-down shirt. It took a minute for it to register what happened. Spinning around she was ready to give him an earful, but he was no longer standing behind her. She found Dmitri there instead.
“Where did he go?” she nearly growled, barely holding back her need to yell.
“Father said he’d meet us at the bar. And he said don’t bother trying to change the shirt, he’ll know the minute you do,” he added.
She narrowed her eyes, detecting a bit of laughter in the other man’s voice.
Running a frustrated hand through her hair, Lanias flicked the shoulder of the shirt. It moved and shifted so that it bared her shoulders, tucking itself in. She sent Dmitri a glare, “Your father is lucky he’s immortal, or he’d be sitting pretty in a grave.”
With that, she turned and to display her power she used her magic to travel. As the world fell away, she heard the slide of metal escaping it’s sheath just as they landed. “Also, you should think twice about pulling weapons on me.”
She turned around to find Dmitri looking at her in surprise, his swords not in his hands but hers. She lifted them, “I can do pretty much what I want in my space.” She tossed them to his feet. “You should loosen up, not everything is meant as a threat.”
“I won’t allow you to speak ill of Father,” Dmitri angrily said.
“Ooh, so you’re a daddy’s boy,” she teased. “Aren’t you too old for that?”
Dmitri winced, his weapons disappearing into the cement, reappearing in his hands. “Don’t say it like that.”
She laughed. “Then stop acting like that.”
“I’m loyal to the Monarch,” he muttered, averting his gaze away from her.
“As he should be.”
Lanias turned around, her blade flinging from her hand.
Alek caught it just before it pierced his right eye.
“I should get some blood in exchange for this,” She motioned angrily to her shirt. “Who told you to change my clothes?” She heatedly demanded.
His eyes roamed all over her, a small smile gracing his lips. “It looks good on you.”
Eyes flashing, she crossed her arms. “Everything suits me, that’s not the point.”
“I know, it’s about control,” he said, approaching her.
Lanias noticed he’d changed clothes, he’d switched out the suit for a black turtleneck, grey felt coat and black slacks.
Once again, she didn’t want to admit he cut a handsome figure.
One thing she’d noticed when Tiller had brought his Jackals to the shade, was that all four of those crazy villains were handsome.
False advertisement in her opinion, especially when she knew their bloody past. “Control, you will learn is something I always have.”
“Yeah, right,” Lanias said, turning away from him. “Let’s get this over with.” She wasn’t fazed in the least that Dmitri was suddenly gone. Beings came and went with the wind, and the random Batman-like moments were the least shocking thing they did.
“Do you know how to meet this Roni person,” Alek asked as he walked beside her.
“Fabian said, I just need to bring this.” She lifted a coin; it was Grecian. “I just need to order a beer and pay with this and the Roni person would appear.”
“Do you think he’ll show up?”
“He has no choice; he’s probably been feeling antsy since Stanthos hasn’t reached out to him in so long.
” Lanias wondered what the man would do in reaction to her news of Stanthos’ death.
When she’d gone to Stanthos’ house it was clear that much time and planning had gone into the protection of half-blood children.
“I’ll act as someone who’s come to inform him about Stanthos. ”
“And what if he doesn’t take kindly to being told of his partner’s early demise?” Alek asked as they came to the top of the steps, a flashing light above the door read, “Cains”.
“You’ve got a lot of questions. It’s simple, we take him half-alive and torture him till we get answers,” Lanais said. “Now follow me, and play my big, bad bodyguard.”
He half-turned, leaned down, and kissed her where her shoulder met her neck. “Yes, ma’am.”
She shot him a dark look; irritation intermixed with something that pleased him.
When she stomped off, he leisurely followed along.
After a minor scuffle with the bodyguard, a Troll who’d thought he’d impress her with his heavy touch swiftly learned his lesson when his head had been shoved into the door by a smiling Alek.
Lanias finally entered the noisy and rowdy bar.
On the edge, was an understatement for this kind of place, but it served those not quite open in the Veil.
The mixture of Beings included those forgotten by lore and if she had to say something about them, at least they were lively.
Some appeared to be openly eating human flesh.
The way she came to this conclusion was seeing a skull rolled like a bowling ball in to a tower of empty beer bottles.
Lifting the edge of her shirt sleeve to cover her nose, she wrinkled it. “There are plenty of bars that are better for meeting at.”
Alek placed a hand on her lower back. “But not as isolated.” He maneuvered her away from what looked like a Hag mixing a bottle of black dust with pixie leavings. “Do you know where your mystery man is?”
Lanias, who’d kept her eyes on the prize the entire time, gave a short nod. Walking over to the counter she side-stepped two demons who had a disagreement over a deal of dill weed. Reaching the bar, she gave two short knocks on the counter. Only to come away with a sticky residue on her fingers.
She desperately wished she could scrub her hands with hot water and soap. She settled for using magic to clean and wriggled her fingers feeling some relief from it.
“What will ya be having?” The question came from a hunchback who’d just hobbled to their side of the bar. “We don’t have any more of the human special, and there isn’t any basilisk blood soup until Sunday.”
Lanias felt her stomach tighten and her throat clench at the very idea of eating anything, much less, human from this place.
She definitely wouldn’t be drinking from the bottle he’d handed her.
She rolled her hand, the Grecian coin appearing between her fingers.
And set it down with a click, using her pointer finger she slid it across the counter. “I’m wanting a Voreia.”
The hunchback squinted down at the coin before eyeing her and Alek.
Lanias kept her expression blank, she wasn’t sure what face Alek made, only that when the hunchback looked his way he quickly dropped his eyes.
“Coming right up,” he growled before limping away.
Lanias watched him go. “I hope you didn’t scare him too much.”
“You wound me,” Alek complained, pressing closer to her.
Lanias wanted to ask him if he believed in personal space.
Her head was growing dizzy from his alluring smell.
She wanted to shove him aside but felt that it would only draw attention, indicating they weren’t together.
While she wasn’t afraid of the others in the bar.
It wouldn’t be good to bring too much attention to herself especially since she was supposed to be dead.
She offered him a smile full of skepticism. “Name the last time you were actually wounded?”
Leaning his head back, he looked away, his expression now thoughtful. “That’s a hard one.”
“Exactly,” she said, spotting the hunchback just as he returned. Not thinking much of it, she reached out to take the bottle he offered to her. “So, I doubt my words wounded you in the least.”
Just as the tip of her fingers encountered the bottle. Lanias felt a sensation of falling sweep over her. The bottle slipped from her loose grip and smashed on not a cement floor but a wooden one.