Frankie (Through Time 4)

They weren’t pleasant, and in fact, Frankie took exception to their manhandling with some of her own.

She stomped on the booted foot of the initial aggressor so that he whelped with pain and jumped in place on one foot while holding the other and nearly fell into the crowd at his back. Frankie laughed and then shoved the first guy on her right into the crowd and would have done the same to the guy on the left if the first one hadn’t come back at her, grabbed the top of her tank top and slammed her into the wall.

She could not see past them and knew no one could really see her with these tall sturdy jerks around her. With a blink she could make them drop and no one would be the wiser. The crowd would just think they had passed out.

The husky leering one leaned in closer to her and slurred, “Well lass, I see ye aren’t looking fer company, are ye?” He shrugged. “But, ye are going to have it whether ye want it or not.”

“Really? I’ll give ye just one warning and tell ye it would be best if ye stand aside and let me pass,” Frankie said on a hard note. She didn’t want to make a scene. She wasn’t seriously concerned about this situation. They were drunk. She could fell them with a flick of her wrist, and shift out. When they came to, they could think whatever they wanted to think. However, she wasn’t ready to leave the club yet--she was worried about Fiona, who had seemed more than a little tipsy when they had gotten separated. She just couldn’t leave without knowing her friend was okay.

“Kiss her,” taunted the blond drunk on her right, “Go on, Josh, and kiss her. She says she doesn’t want us, but kiss her and see if she means it.”

“Right then, pretty lass, be nice and give us a kiss,” Josh said as he swayed, while his friends pushed at him. He fell onto Frankie and with a slight blink he found himself falling backward and into a crush of people. He looked shocked as he stumbled and accused, “The little bitch pushed me—nearly knocked me over!”

“I’ll be doing more than pushing ye, if ye don’t stand aside,” Frankie threatened, seriously irritated now.

The guy on her left grabbed her arm, “Will ye now, think on it before ye try…”

This was upsetting. She could easily get away, but what about some poor young woman that couldn’t? These guys needed a lesson.

She liked teaching lessons.

She was supposed to keep a low profile, but the crowd was too busy dancing, and drinking to notice one little lass, doing just a bit of magic now, right?

She could hear Jazz in her head saying, just shift out. No one would notice if she just vanished and if they did, they would put it to a ‘trick of the eye’.

But why should she have to leave and cut her evening short?

Aye, then, she did not. Although she did not want to stand out too much, become a subject of conversation, have anyone look too closely too long, she wasn’t going to run and let these hooligans win. She had to do something to make these awful men think twice before they chose to accost a woman again.

Her mind was all jumbled up with doubt and irritation and concern for Fiona as she came to a decision and stared hard at the creeps surrounding her.

And then…

She felt the air shift.

How had he known? Had he sensed she was in a bind?

Had she called out to him without realizing it? Had he felt a disturbance in her psyche? She had been really annoyed, quite thoroughly upset and she knew because he had once explained that sometimes he could feel her moods.

He must have felt something rise up in her,

that dark glitter forever at the surface, beating time.

All at once, Graely stood not twenty feet away looking like a superstar.

His black hair fell in layered waves around his too beautiful face. He wore a black silk shirt, opened just enough to show part of his tattoo. He wore black silk pants, with a leather belt sporting a silver buckle, and silver tipped Gucci boots. To say that he stood out in this crowd would be like saying the Wolverine looked like pussy cat. Graely had everyone’s attention, even the band’s playing slowed to the hum of the amplifiers.

All eyes were on him because he stood out and above them all. Graely was magnificent. She could feel the electricity in the air. She could see that no one doubted that he was beyond capable, beyond hot, beyond angry.

His eyes burned with fury and Frankie saw the flames reaching in his coal dark eyes—reaching out, ready to strike.

People fell over themselves to get out of his way, sure that Frankie must be his ‘girl’ and that the blokes bothering her were blithering idiots that were about to be destroyed.

He strode purposely, he moved with grace and emitted an unmistakable scent—one that spelled out ‘you are dead’ to the young men surrounding her.

All three had a sudden revelation as they stared with shock and frightened expressions. They weren’t leering any longer.

Graely took the two guys who had stood on either side of her and held them up in the air by their shirt collars. Frankie called out, “Graely—don’t kill them…don’t…”