10. Gage
Ten
Gage
G age hated clubs. The Pink Flamingo wasn’t as bad as some of the others as it was mostly humans who came here. The only reason he decided to come was because it didn’t feel safe for Willow to come alone, especially after that weird interaction in her café. He had no idea who the copper-haired man was, but he smelled human, which meant he was not part of Waldo’s family. The stress of not knowing where Waldo currently was or what he was planning was making him paranoid.
He was off to the side, hidden in the shadows as he scanned the crowd trying to find that dress that drove him mad. Maybe that was another reason he’d agreed to come—he wanted to see her dressed up, and she did not disappoint.
That fucking dress. Fuck.
While he was searching, he noticed Marla and Matteo were quickly becoming acquainted as they attempted to suck each other’s faces off in the corner. When she and Willow had first arrived, neither he nor Matteo had recognized Marla at first due to her new look. It seemed Willow took his comment about Playboy and ran with it.
“Clay didn’t tell me how pretty she was. I was expecting some kind of hipster girl with a shaved head and a horrible sense of style,” Robby said as he appeared next to him.
“Who?”
“The girl you’re desperately looking for, Willow. Last I saw she was talking to some dude near the bar. But don’t freak out, she looked offended by something he said so your odds with her are still good.”
“I’m not desperate.” Gage turned away and headed toward the fully-packed bar with Robby close behind. A sharp spike of concern ran through him when he couldn’t find her there.
“By the bathroom.”
“What?” He hissed at his cousin.
“Now she’s by the bathroom. See, she’s waiting in line.”
The panic subsided when he laid his eyes on her. She was bouncing from foot to foot, looking bored and annoyed with the long line. To his delight, she was alone again, with no man in sight.
The bar was separated from the dance floor and a little bit quieter which, to Gage’s dismay, made it easier for Robby to continue talking. “I’m surprised you haven’t marked her yet. I know how quickly you can fall in love.”
Gage’s jaw clenched at his cousin’s accusation, but he chose to ignore it and not let him ruin the night that had just begun. When the two approached the bar, the thick crowd that was encapsulating it parted like the Red Sea.
The bartender was a young blonde girl, barely twenty-one, but smart enough to know that these two required her full attention. She looked nervous as she served each of them a beer and a shot of top shelf whiskey, but looked relieved to find that they both tipped her twenty dollars and left her alone to attend to her more human guests.
They found a table that was recently abandoned and Robby started up his conversation again, not afraid to approach the subject that most people were smart enough to avoid. “I’m shocked that you actually came tonight. Every time I’ve invited you to the club you always told me it wasn’t your thing. Willow must have some kind of hold on you, huh?”
Gage gritted his teeth. “I’m not here because of her, I can do fun things sometimes.”
“Clubbing is not your idea of fun, my dude. You hate dancing, can’t stand drunk people, and hate good music. She’s the only reason why I can assume you came out tonight. You’re in love, just admit it.”
“Shut up. I don’t know her well enough, and I’ve told you before I’m done dating. I learned that lesson real quick.”
Robby rolled his eyes. “You have to get over Venice, she was a snake from the start. Never trust a stripper.”
“I really wish people would stop bringing her up. I’ve heard that name one too many times lately.”
“It’s because she changed you, and we all hate this new Gage. You have never been a douche like this before. Sure, you’ve been an unfriendly loner your whole life, but you’ve never been a douchebag unfriendly loner. Venice took off with Waldo over a year ago, how many women have you used since then?”
“I’ve lost count.”
“See! That’s what I mean! The Gage I knew always treated women with respect, not as a useless sex toys.”
Gage ignored his comment and turned back to watching Willow as she inched closer to the bathroom doors. A smile broke across her face when a black-haired, bearded man slid up next to her. His jaw clenched as he watched the man put his hands on her hips and try to guide her back to the dance floor to grind against his crotch. Willow pushed him away, too gently for his liking, and shook her head. Luckily for the man, he took the hint and left .
Gage stood up from the table and ran both of his hands through his hair. If he continued to sit here and watch her he was pretty sure he would end up killing an innocent human. “I’m going outside for a smoke, don’t follow me. I’m not in the mood for a lecture about being a douche.”
“Oh, don’t get all testy with me. Someone needed to have this conversation with you.” Robby shrugged his shoulders, downed his beer, and rejoined the mass of gyrating people.
Gage grabbed his drink and made his way to the outdoor patio, which seemed eerily quiet compared to the loud club. He found Nikolas smoking a joint with a small brunette girl with a bored expression. Neither of them seemed like they were enjoying each other’s company, so he did not feel bad interrupting them.
“I have to go.” The girl eyed Gage and quickly slipped back inside the club.
“Thank you,” Nikolas sighed. He stubbed out the joint and dropped it into the pocket of his black dress shirt.
Another reason why he would label Nikolas as his best friend was because they both hated socializing. He knew the only reason why he was here was because he felt a sense of loyalty to suffer through the night with him.
“Your dad bought that garage.”
Gage’s eyebrows shot up. “So I guess this is really happening.”
“Yeah, I told him we agreed to work together and he put a bid on the property. It went through this morning. Did you not know?”
He shook his head and took a drink to hide his giddy smile.
Nikolas frowned. “Shit, I hope I didn’t ruin a surprise.”
“You probably did, but that’s okay. Guess we have to start buying tools and advertising our business.”
“Have we picked a name yet?”
“Nope. We could do something basic like Vista Maria Custom Shop. ”
Nikolas looked at him with a scowl. “You’re much more creative than that. Keep trying.”
Gage thought for a moment. “What about Bloodsuckers Inc.?”
They both laughed and Nikolas nodded his head. “That’s stupid, I love it. Maybe one day we can have our own TV show like American Chopper and vampires from all across the country will come visit our shop.”
The smile melted away from Gage’s face. “You know they don’t let our kind on TV.”
Nikolas shrugged. “It’s a nice dream.”
They wandered over to some empty patio chairs and pulled out their phones to start researching all the supplies they would need to renovate the new shop.
He didn’t want to admit it, but his heart was racing at the thought that he would soon be the proud owner of a motorcycle garage. He knew there was a lot of work that would have to be put into it, starting with building his portfolio of custom designs to post on their website, but had no doubt that with Nikolas helping him they would succeed.
Willow
Between her last drink and the wine from earlier, Willow wasn’t lying when she said she had to piss. She stood in the bathroom line for what felt like an hour, then started to make her way through the dance floor to the patio. Halfway there, she spotted Marla as she pressed Matteo up against a wall, thrusting her pelvis harshly into his with a leg wrapped around his waist. His right hand grabbed a handful of her left ass cheek and his left arm gripped her tightly around the waist.
Willow worried that Matteo would turn out to be a dick and make it a one-night stand, causing Marla undeserved heartbreak. She was tempted to pull them apart, but didn’t want to ruin her friend’s night, either .
She cursed her ex-boyfriend for turning her so bitter. It was hard, but she tried to convince herself that maybe not all men were bad, and to cut Matteo some slack. Plus, Marla was a grown woman and knew what she was doing.
Willow wiggled her way through the crowd until she was in the middle of the mass of sweaty bodies. A fast-paced song came on that she was not familiar with, but everyone around her seemed to know it as they lost their minds all at once and began jumping up and down.
One girl dressed in a neon-green string bikini with glitter coating her entire body spun into the side of her. Willow caught her and spun her back in the opposite direction, suddenly feeling a weird sensation overtaking her. The lights seemed brighter and she developed tunnel vision. She felt her heart rate pick up and her breathing become shorter and shallower. She thought a panic attack was starting due to the claustrophobic tightness of the crowd.
She pushed her way through and continued to make her way to the outside patio, hoping the fresh air would calm her down. And if Gage were out there, maybe he could take her home. She suddenly didn’t feel like clubbing anymore.
She was unsteady on her feet and held her arms out to keep herself stable. The feeling was growing more intense and her eyelids began to feel heavy. Even though she was at a nightclub surrounded by people with high energy and EDM blaring, she could sit down on the floor and fall asleep instantly. Even her limbs were starting to grow heavy, making it that much harder to quickly get out to the patio.
When she reached the heavy metal door, she had to apply her full body weight for it to open. A man’s hand appeared on the door as she was leaning against it.
“Need some help there, beautiful?” Thomas’ voice whispered in her ear.
“No, I’m good.” It was an effort to push those few words out of her mouth.
Her panic was in full force as she felt herself slowly lose control of her body. Her mind was starting to lose focus, no matter how important she knew it was that she needed to stay aware of her surroundings. She had never had a panic attack this bad before, and wanted to get somewhere safe where she could finish it out alone.
“You don’t look so good. I have a hotel room reserved across the street, how about you go with me and lay down for a bit?”
The thought of a quiet room with a comfy bed and a toilet that was easy to access sounded so appealing to her right then that she almost agreed. But the cloud of haziness cleared for one second and she realized that being alone with him sounded like a horrible idea.
“No,” she said in an airy voice, “I’m good. I need to…sit.” She struggled to finish her sentence.
She slipped through the half-opened door and looked around her. The world was spinning and she had to lean against the wall. From across the patio, she saw a familiar looking head of shaggy blond hair slouched in a metal patio chair, nursing a drink while scrolling through his phone.
Thomas grabbed her shoulder and gave it a hard squeeze, trying to direct her to the gate in the patio’s fence. “Let’s sit down in my hotel. There are too many people here and you look like you’re about to pass out. I don’t want you to cause a scene.”
A flashback of her mother squatting down in front of her eight-year-old self popped into her mind. Her mother had her finger in her face and was scolding her for almost going off with a stranger at the grocery store. He had been forceful with her, stating that she appeared lost, and demanded that she follow him so he could take her to a police station.
“You have to trust your gut, mo stóirín. If that man made you feel funny, you listen to that feeling and you get the hell away. I don’t care if you have to kick, bite, or scream—you do what you have to to get somewhere safe.”
Using her mother’s voice as a motivator, she mustered up the last of her energy and shook his hand off her. She headed over to Gage, keeping her full attention on staying upright even though she felt as if she were on a boat in a storm. His blond hair appeared to be glowing like a halo due to the blurriness that was happening with her vision.
As she got closer, Gage looked up and raised an eyebrow at the film of glitter that was covering her front half. “What did you do in there? Make out with Tinker Bell?”
The weakness was becoming too strong and she fell to her knees as she continued to crawl her way over to him. She propped herself up on his chair and looked at him with pure panic in her eyes.
“Gage, I wanna go…I don’t feel good. I’m scared, please take me home.” She leaned her face against his knee. “Please,” she whispered as she focused on taking deep breaths.
She was determined not to pass out, but the black stars on the edge of her vision were taking over and Gage’s hand that came to rest on the top of her head felt so warm and comforting. She could hear people talking, but couldn’t understand what they were saying as she slipped into unconsciousness.
Gage
Anger and panic at not knowing how to help her were rolling beneath his calm exterior as a man in a white suit approached them, wringing his hands together. Willow’s eyes slipped closed and he could tell at the weight of her head on his lap that she’d passed out.
“Hi, I’m so sorry about this. My girlfriend had a little bit too much to drink tonight. I really need to get her out of here and take her home.”
“She’s your girlfriend, huh?” He asked, not releasing the hand that was entangled in her hair.
“Yup, she’s not really a drinker, as you can probably tell. So, let me just help her up here and we’ll be out of your way, sir.” He reached out to grab her, but Gage didn’t move.
“What’s her name?”
The man paused as he tried to recall it. He shifted his gaze away from Gage.
Gage grew deadly still, like a predator preparing to pounce. “You don’t know your own girlfriend’s name?”
“Kim, her name is Kim. Now if you would please let me take her-”
“Kim, huh? That’s odd, I could have sworn her name was Willow. And I could have sworn she came to this club with me, not you.”
Thomas’s face blanched and he chuckled in a high-pitched voice. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know she was taken, since she was making moves on me and flirting. You two have a nice night.”
He tried to wave goodbye and retreat into the club, only to be stopped by Nikolas. He had moved with feline grace as he quickly stood up from his chair and slinked behind Thomas.
“What do you think, boss?” Nikolas gave a wide smile that displayed a full set of straight white teeth, with two fangs glistening in the moonlight.
“I’m thinking it’s a shame our little friend here was about to leave before we could invite him to our after-party in the alley.” Gage reflected a similar smile.
“Oh no, friend!” Nikolas slapped the shaking man on the shoulder and dug his nails into his skin. “You can’t miss that, that’s going to be the best part of the whole night. Tell you what, you can be our guest of honor!”
Thomas’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “No, I really should be going. I need to go check into my hotel room since I need to be up early tomorrow for something. Thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to take a rain check.”
He tried to walk around Nikolas, but Nikolas’ grip on his shoulder never let up. Robby walked out to the patio and looked at the death grip Nikolas had on the man. Gage nodded his head toward his cousin, summoning him over to join the fun they would soon be having.
“Oh, what’s this? Are we planning an after-party?” Robby’s face lit up. He put his beer down on one of the patio tables, abandoning it for the other type of drink they would soon be consuming.
“You two are, I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass and get this thing home.” Gage lifted Willow’s ponytail and dropped it back down. She didn’t even twitch at the motion.
“Speaking of going home,” the man began his sentence, but was quickly shut down by Nikolas’ glare.
“Robby, did you drive your bike or the Mustang tonight?”
“Do you need to use my car?” Robby asked, already getting the keys out of his back pocket.
Gage sighed. “I can’t believe I’m trusting you with my bike, but yes. Can we swap rides for the night?”
“Anything for you, cuz!” Robby’s vicious smile grew inhumanly large. Gage never trusted anyone with his most cherished possession, but tonight he was entrusting it to his cousin since there was no way he was going to be able to put Willow on the back of his bike.
Gage picked Willow up bridal-style and followed the boys out of the patio gate while they shuffled a sweaty and panicked Thomas between them. He was babbling about paying them money and finding them an endless supply of beautiful women for them to kill in exchange for his life.
“Hey Nikolas?” Gage paused and looked over his shoulders. “Make sure it hurts, yeah?”
Nikolas nodded and reached up quickly, tearing off the man’s nose. “I’ll tear him apart piece by piece, just for you.”
The man stared at his nose in Nikolas’s hand as the gaping hole in the middle of his face began pouring blood. As Gage carried Willow to the blue Mustang that was inconveniently parked in the very back of the parking lot, he heard the beautiful sound of the man’s screams floating through the midnight air.
????
Gage gently placed Willow on her back in his bed and observed her sleeping form. He could have easily texted his father for her address, since he was the one who’d found her the apartment, but he couldn’t resist having her close to him tonight. He felt like he was truly going mad now.
She looked so peaceful and happy, even though she had barely escaped a traumatizing night. Part of him wondered if she looked this way due to passing out near him, knowing he would keep her safe. The thought brought a comforting warmness.
The thought of the potential rapist ignited his fury again, but it soon dissolved when he looked at the smooth, white skin the triangular hole in her dress exposed. It was the same section of skin he had noticed at the beach, the part of her his fangs were aching to mark. He wanted his bite there, not only to signal to other vampires that she was not food, but to prove that she belonged to him and only him.
The thought crossed his mind that he could bite her right now and she wouldn’t feel a thing with how drugged she was, but then how would he explain where the mark came from? He could blame the white suit and she would have no reason to not believe him, since she had passed out so early in the night, but he didn’t want her to think that she had been raped, either.
He gently passed his fingertips over her exposed skin, and a lightening bolt of desire ran through him at how soft and warm she was. He placed his palm flat against her and felt the rising of her chest as she took deep, peaceful breaths while she made her way through whatever dream she was having.
She moaned slightly and rolled over onto her side, grabbing the pillow that was next to her and snuggling it against her face. He decided to think of that as a moan of pleasure as she dreamt about him, and left her to her fantasy.