Welcome to the Dark Side (The Fallen Men 2)

I didn’t linger on it though, because I loved everyone else and was beyond thrilled to see Lila again, she’d embraced me as if I was a long-lost sister. The bar was epic, the same style as the clubhouse and when I’d asked Z about it, he’d explained that the massive man who owned the bar was also an artist specializing in graffiti art and neon signage.

I’d done tequila shots with Lab-Rat, a huge blond Viking named Axe-Man and Bat, who was no-nonsense but had taken a shine to me. A brother named Boner had taught me how to play pool like a pro even though when I’d challenged Zeus to a match, he’d wiped the floor with me and done it laughing.

Mute was my constant shadow and one I found I loved. I liked his largeness, his quietness, and the way he lumbered in a manner that was somehow graceful. I never would have told him to his face, but he reminded me somewhat of Frankenstein’s monster, a creature made for violence with a surprising kindness of spirit. It was fairly obvious to me that he was on the autistic spectrum though at the low end, and I was happy that he was forced to come with me three times a week to the Autism Centre. He and Sammy were quickly becoming best friends and Sammy had asked me just yesterday to help him draw up another best friendship contract for his new biker bff to sign.

I was spending less time as Louise. Dance classes were still a priority, but everything else I ducked out of as much as I could. Reece was patient with me, the cheerleading squad as well, and my teachers offered to give me extensions on my work even though I stayed up late to finish it each night. I was taking advantage of their pity while I could because December was drawing nearer with each cold day and with it would come more chemo and the end of my stamina.

So, I’d decided to take action while I could.

I waited until the club was empty in the wee hours of Saturday night.

It didn’t take long.

As soon as the performers were done, everyone cleaned up quick and left to parties or bed, or the special kinda parties that take place in a bed. No one wanted to hang around an empty stripclub.

But I knew Zeus would be there, sitting in his black velvet booth finishing the end of a cigarette, maybe talking to one of his brothers.

That there would be other people to witness my scene didn’t concern me.

I was too preoccupied with the thought of Zeus, of his burning eyes on me, scoring every inch of my skin in invisible ink that branded me as his.

The music kicked up because my girl Ruby promised to turn it on before she high tailed it out of there.

It was my moment to make a very serious point.

I wasn’t a little girl anymore.

I was a woman, one with dark thoughts and deviant desires. There was no changing the tapestry of my psyche now. Whether it had been the violence of the shooting, the rigidity of Lafayette family rules or something intrinsic to my DNA, I craved the darkness.

Even more, I craved the god who ruled from it.

I knew he’d been hyper aware of me all week. His resolve was eroding and he needed only one final push. I couldn’t touch him but I was serious about making him want to touch me.

The swell of AC/DC’s “Sink the Pink” spilled through the huge room hot and slick as whiskey from a barrel. I waited for my cue, took a deep breath to calm my spastic heart and then strutted out onto the lacquered black stage in my wicked cool, clear plastic platform high heels.

I couldn’t see the audience because of the pale blue, pink and white spotlights shining down on the stage, but I was grateful for it. I may have been a classically trained ballerina but I was a virgin about to do a strip-tease for the Lord of the Damned and I didn’t need any distractions.

Besides, I could feel his eyes on me like dark tunnels channeling through the light.

I closed my eyes as I hit center stage, took a deep breath to find that cavern of peace music always unlocked in my psyche and then, I moved.

My body dropped to the stage as the beat did, knees bent but closed, before I swung upright with my spine arched so the long length of my hair swished against the top of my ass.

Again.

This time legs opened, hand dipped into the shadowed crevice cast by the harsh lights between each thigh. Just a tease, a flutter of my fingers disappearing before I shot up again. The beat controlled me, shoved me to the ground with my knees turned out farther, my little frilly skirt flipped up enough to show the frilly white thong barely covering my sex beneath it.