Chapter 4

David frowned. “Since when did you go clubbing?”

Sam smirked knowingly. “There are clubs, and then there are clubs. We’ve got no business taking Parisa to one of those grope-fest raves. The place I have in mind is the best of the best. They play good music, live music, and I’ve never heard of any complaints about the place. People are always trying to get in, but the guy who owns the place is super selective about who he lets in.”

David gave Sam a very dry look. “Uh huh. So super selective that he’s let you in before?”

“Well, no,” Sam admitted. “I’ve never actually gotten inside again. But I’m sure this time will be different! I’ve always gone by myself before, never as part of a crowd. I’m sure with the two of you by my side that we’ll get in for sure!”

“Uh huh, and this is totally my surprised face,” David said, completely stone faced. “You do remember the whole “no mind control” rule, right? We’re not just going to be able to Jedi mind-trick our way through the front door.”

“No, but we have... the card!“ Sam declared triumphantly. “Seriously, places like this, the first thing they do is scan your credit card to see how much you have available. If you can’t afford the place, they don’t let you in. It’s why I never got past the line. But with the card Parisa created, that shouldn’t be a problem any more. We can spend all we want among the finest company in Ohio!”

David let out the sigh of a man who has spent a lifetime suffering and knows that there is still more trouble to come. He turned to Parisa and asked, “So, what do you think of all of this? It’s going to be a lot more crowded than the mall, and I won’t be able to guarantee that the guys there will be entirely willing to keep their hands to themselves. Honestly, a lot of people are going to be drunk, and that means a lot of people are going to be complete assholes.”

Parisa tensed as she considered the warning. On one hand, the thought of being pawed at by absolute strangers was worrying. The only man who would ever be allowed to touch her was David. If anyone else tried, well ... She could claim she was just defending herself, and as long as she didn’t hurt the person too badly it shouldn’t draw any attention from the seraphim. And more crowded than the mall? How could that even be possible? Despite its vast size, the mall was absolutely packed with people, and she didn’t need to be told that this club, whatever it was, would obviously be much smaller than the mall. The djinn weren’t exactly known for being claustrophobic, but they were creatures of air at the very core of their being, and the palace she had grown up in had been filled with large, wide open spaces. Parisa tried to picture a space as small as David’s apartment filled with all the people in the mall and just ... couldn’t.

On the other hand, she was never going to be able to adjust to the mortal world if she avoided everything that seemed even remotely uncomfortable or threatening. So she swallowed her concerns and said, “It sounds like it could be interesting. And I do want to see more of your world. Let us go to this ... club?”

“All right!” Sam clapped his hands excitedly. “I’m sure the car knows the way, so let’s get going!”

Sam was, of course, absolutely correct. The SUV knew exactly where it was going, and was racing for the exit of the parking garage while they were still getting themselves settled in the back. David hadn’t even told it where they were going. It just took off like a cat with its tail on fire. He expected it to slow as they neared the pay barrier, but instead he got the strangest feeling of doing the limbo without having to bend over. They hit the street at more than eighty miles per hour because speed limits were for other people. So, it seemed, were traffic lights and stop signs. Sidewalks, on the other hand, those belonged to the SUV. If there happened to be some pedestrians trying to make use of them, well, so be it. They would just have to share.

The SUV didn’t screech to a stop when they reached the club. Instead it pulled right up to the curb and politely told the fire hydrant and “No Parking” sign that were in front of the club to kindly get the fuck out its way. Which they did, obligingly moving ten feet down the street without going anywhere at all. Finally satisfied with its parking space, it unlocked its doors and allowed its passengers to depart.

Dave stepped out of the SUV and turned around to help Parisa down. As she was climbing out of the car a nearby security guard came rushing up to them, waving his arms over his head to get David’s attention. “Hey! HEY!”

“Yes?” David stepped sideways, putting himself between Parisa and the guard. That meant there wasn’t enough room for Sam to get down, so he just poked his head out over her shoulder to see what was going on.

“You can’t park there!” The guard stabbed a finger at the SUV. “You need to move your car! Now!”

David looked at the car, looked at the guard, and frowned. “Why? There’s no fire lane, and no sign saying we can’t park here. Is it reserved for someone?”

“What, are you blind?” the guard snarled. “There’s a fire hydrant right ... there...”

The guard face twisted in confusion as he stared at the space where the fire hydrant was/wasn’t. He’d been working the same shift in the same place for the last fifteen years. The fire hydrant had always been to the left of the front doors. Except now it was on the right side of the doors. He looked back and forth between David and the fire hydrant, only to eventually grind out, “I’m sorry. I guess I was wrong...”

David tried not to grin as the guard walked away while muttering something into his radio. He watched as the guard turned around one last time and squinted as the SUV, as if the man was trying to convince himself that he wasn’t going insane. Satisfied that the guard wasn’t going to be coming back to continue the argument, David stepped to the side to allow Sam to get out of the SUV and turned to the study the club that his friend had picked.

The building itself was nothing extraordinary. It had the same flat, squat shape that David associated with most clubs. Okay, sure, it looked a little more expensive than most. The walls looked to sheathed in marble, and someone had invested in half a dozen doric columns to line the front entrance, three to the side. Judging from the stupidly long line that was pressed up against the size of the building, David figured they could afford to splurge on the extra decorations. The line had already wrapped around itself three times as people waited to pass under the flickering blue neon sign was mounted just above the door, declaring in bold capital letters that the name of the club to be the Thirteenth Temple. In an attempt to be cute someone had designed the name so that the last two letters were actually numbers, so the sign cheesily read, “THE THIRTEENTH TEMP13”.

“No wonder you never got into this place,” David muttered as Sam walked up to his side. “That line is ridiculous.”

“The good news is, it’s not that kind of line,” Sam answered. “Sure, they’re all waiting to get inside, but the Temple doesn’t run on a first come, first served basis. Instead they send people out to pick who gets to go inside.”

“And you think that we shall get picked?” Parisa asked as she took David’s hand.

“Only one way to find out. Come on, let’s go get in line!”

They made their way to where the crowd ended, finding a spot just behind a group of four obviously wealthy middle aged men. Each member of the group sported the same frosted hair cut, wore what looked like hand tailored silk shirts, and they all wore a Rolex on their wrist. David had seen enough of the infamous watches in his life to spot the real thing when he saw it, and a quick mental calculation pegged each individual outfit as being more expensive than the monthly rent for the apartment he and Sam shared.

David felt his face begin heat as he watched one of the men nudge one of his friends and point in the direction of David and his group. The second man sniggered when he saw Sam, only for the snigger to turn into a leer when the man noticed Parisa. He whispered something in the first man’s ear, then made a lewd gesture with his hips. David didn’t realize he was clenching his hands into fists until Sam touched him on the shoulder. “Not worth it, man. Just keep your cool.”

Fortunately, Parisa hadn’t noticed them staring at her. Unfortunately, this just seemed to encourage the men to make their comments even louder.

“Hey, Mark, you thinking what I’m thinking?” The man spoke loud enough that even the people on the other side of his cluster turned to see what was going on.

“That depends, John. You thinking maybe we get a little taste of the Middle East while we’re out tonight?” The man called Mark stepped towards Parisa while his friends laughed behind him. “Hey, little girl. What’s someone as fine as you doing with a couple of losers like these two? Why don’t you come joine me and my friends instead? We’ll make sure to show you a real good time, allll night long.”

“Leave me alone,” Parisa mumbled as she stepped back away from the man. The foursome had obviously started their partying much earlier in the night, as his breath absolutely reeked of alcohol.

“Aw, no reason to be scared!” Mark’s laugh was unnerving. “I’m not gonna bite! Well, not much, anyway!”

“Hey, why don’t you back off?” David growled. He side stepped so that he was between his wife and the drunk, standing at an angle so that the drunk couldn’t see the tension building in his right shoulder. It was hard to take a man down with just one punch, and four to three odds didn’t really make him happy. Sam wasn’t much of a fighter, and David was concerned that Parisa’s first response would be to start slinging spells in order to protect him. Sam shifted to cover David’s left, effectively barricading Parisa against the wall. He glanced sideways at David and made a slight nod. Not much of a fighter, but definitely willing.

“Aww, look at this boys!” Mark turned to his friends as he jerked his thumb at David. “The lunk thinks he’s the hunk who’s gonna be a hero!”

He turned back to David and grinned. David had Mark topped by a good eight inches, out weighed the smaller man by close to sixty pounds, and Parisa had specifically given him a shirt that showed he was carrying muscle, not fat. A sober man would have apologized and backed off, but then a sober man likely wouldn’t have gotten into such a situation in the first place. Mark, on the other hand, was absolutely swimming in liquid courage. “I bet you’ve taken so many steroids, your balls have shriveled up to tiny little raisins, haven’t they? So why don’t you step aside and let me take that pretty little bird so that me and my friends can show her what it’s like to fuck a real man?”

David’s teeth ground together as he growled, “Go. Away.”

Mark looked back at his friends with an exaggerated pout. “Aww, the little boy told me to go away! I think I hurt his feelings!” Then, in an obvious attempt at suicide, he pulled out his wallet and held up a thick wad of bills. “So, what is it? Twenty for a blow, fifty for a fuck? She can’t be that expensive if she’s with you. Tell you what, I’ll give you one-fifty and you can watch as take turns fucking her up the ass.”

David’s foot slid forward, but before he could throw the punch, Mark was snatched away by the largest man David had ever seen. Six and a half feet tall, David wasn’t used to feeling tiny, but the bouncer who had grabbed Mark was damned near the size of an elephant. David felt like he was back in elementary school, when his father had come to rescue him from a playground bully.

“You will apologize, and then you will leave,” the giant stated as he shook Mark like a dog worrying a rat.

“Put me down, shithead!” Mark managed to gasp. “Do you know who I am? I will sue you for everything you have!”

“You are an important man, yes?” The giant cocked his head sideways as he grinned at Mark. It

was the sort of grin that wolves tended to use when they discovered a deer with a broken leg. “I suspect that you are a frequent flier then, yes?”

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”

The giant’s response was to throw Mark across the street. Not into the street - no, that would have been too dangerous. Instead the drunk’s body went pinwheeling over four lanes of traffic, only to come to a complete and total stop when he smashed into the chain link fence lining the other side of the road. The metal links rattled has Mark’s body dropped into a crumpled pile on the far sidewalk. The giant turned to Mark’s friends, still grinning. “You may wish to go tend to your friend. I would suggest taking him somewhere he can sleep that off. He will definitely be feeling that in the morning.”

The three remaining men nodded hastily, then darted across the road to collect their fallen friend. David looked between them, to the giant, to Mark, then back to the giant. “He’s not... ?”

“Dead?” The giant frowned and shook his head. “No. It would be very bad for business if I killed every stupid drunk I had to throw off the property.”

“What?” Sam blurted incredulously. “Bullshit! That must have been a fifty foot throw, and he took that fence face first! People just don’t walk that sort of thing off!”

“I ... would not be so sure,” Parisa murmured as she peeked out from behind David. She could almost see the giant’s aura, that’s how powerful he was. It was the sort of power she would have expected from a fae noble or her father. At the same time, there was something off about the giant, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. “You’re not human, are you?”

“I’m not not human.” The giant smiled and held out his hand. “My name is Airkel. I am head of security for the Temple. Come. My boss would like to meet the one who could make the fire hydrant move. He has been trying to do that for decades, but it is a very stubborn hydrant. He is actually most impressed.”

“Uh, okay.” David tried not to glance at Parisa, knowing that would be a dead give away. The giant smiled and motioned for them to follow him as he passed them through to the front of the line. A few people booed and hissed as they watched the trio get escorted through the door, but most of the people in the line simply clapped and cheered, congratulating them on getting picked.

They were intercepted at the door by a young-looking woman dressed more for the office than the club. Her long black skirt had been designed with quick movement in mind rather than showing off her shapely legs, and her plain white blouse was buttoned to the collar. She was holding a clipboard tucked into the crook of her elbow, and David couldn’t help but notice that there was a coiled scorpion tattooed on the back of her right hand. She nodded at Airkel and said, “The boss sent me for the girl and the boy. He said to bring the big one on up to his office while I get the other two drinks...”

Parisa’s hand tightened around David’s as he cleared his throat. “Uh, I don’t mean to be rude, but-”

“Then don’t be,” the woman cut him off.

David glared at her. “Look, lady, I don’t know who you are or who your boss is, or why he wants to meet me so badly. Me and my friends, we just came to see if we could have a good time. It’s not our fault that that we ran into a couple of jackasses, and if it is that big a deal for you and your boss, then you know what? We’ll just leave.”

He turned to walk away, only to find Airkel looming over him, blocking his escape. The giant was grinning. “You are afraid you are in trouble, yes? Nothing of the sort! All we want is a conversation. But you must forgive Maryn. She has been dealing with the county inspector all day and that always makes her cranky. You said you just came for a good time, yes? Then let us show you a good time, on the house! Trust me, I think you will be very pleased.”

Sam touched David on the shoulder and murmured, “Dude.”

David took a deep breath to calm himself down, then mentally swore to kill Sam once this was all over with for even suggesting that they try going to the club. Another deep breath followed the first one, and then he said, “All right. I’ll meet with whoever this guy is.” He tried to smile reassuringly at Parisa. “It’s not like I have much to offer, so I guess this shouldn’t take too long. I’ll be right back, okay?” He waited for her nod before turning to Airkel. “All right, let’s get this over with.”

“Good!” Airkel boomed. “Follow me, yes?”

But Maryn went in first, motioning for Sam and Parisa to follow her. They went left, heading in the direction of an echoing bass line. David and Airkel went right, up a nearby spiral staircase. The staircase led to a wide hallway with a pristine marble floor. Eleven portraits hung on the wall, five on the left and six on the right. The subject of each was either an incredibly beautiful woman or a devastatingly handsome man. The ones on the left all wore white, while those to the right all work dark colors, either black or midnight blue. At the far end of the hall was a pair of statues standing back to back. The statue on the left had been forged from black iron, shaped to the image of a man dressed in heavy black plate armor. His bowed face was completely obscured by the spiked helmet he wore. His left arm was tucked behind his back, while his right arm was held up over his head, curved backwards. His partner was a woman in a long flowing white robe, with closed eyes and lips curved into a shy smile. Her left arm was also tucked behind her back, where her hand gripped her partner’s, and her right arm was also held so that it curved upwards. Suspended between them, with no visible means of support, was a basketball-sized crystal that glowed softly.

“Who are they?” David asked as he and Airkel reached the plain oak door that stood just beyond the statues.

“They were the best family a man could ever hope for,” Airkel answered as he knocked on the door. His voice was thick with past grief.

The door opened on its own. Airkel ushered David inside, then shut the door behind the boy, leaving David alone with the room’s only other occupant. The room itself was surprisingly bland. A trio of metal filing cabinets stood against one wall, and the carpet was the sort of short weave and industrial blue color that David normally associated with waiting rooms and hotel dining rooms. About two thirds of the way down the room was an equally industrial desk, covered in loose papers scattered around a normal sized desk top computer.

The man sitting at the desk was equally bland. Not too heavy, not too thin, and of about average height. He had a straight nose, square jaw, black eyes, and a few day’s growth of stubble, but David’s mind seemed to forget those details almost as soon as he noticed them.There was a steady clack-clack-clack as the man hammered away at his keyboard, his lips silently moving as he checked over his reports. He didn’t seem to realize that David was standing there, so David coughed politely in his hand and said, “Hello?”

The man didn’t even bother to look up when he spoke, but just kept typing. “You’re hired.”

David blinked. Of all the possible ways he had considered their conversation going, this was most definitely not one of them. “Um. What?”

“I said, you’re hired.” The man looked down at his desk, fished out a piece of paper from the scattered piles, and went back to typing. “Be here Monday at ten in the morning. Use the back door. You’ll report directly to Airkel. Pay is a hundred dollars an hour, plus benefits. Bring the djinn, I’ll give her a job either as a waitress or behind the bar. It will be good socializing for her.”

“Okay, I don’t know who you are or what you want, but-”

“David.” The man was smirking when he finally turned to look up at his guest. “Your name is David. Somehow or other you’ve ended up partnered with a royal djinn, and since you’re not a smoking hole in the ground that means her family is okay with it. She’s also either very naive or very stupid, or she wouldn’t have let you anywhere near this place. As it is, as soon as your car pulled that little stunt with the fire hydrant you popped up on my radar. Which means now I have a choice to make. I can either stand by and do nothing and enjoy the show as someone with far less scruples takes advantage of the situation, or I can give you a job, which would nominally put you under my protection.”

“And just who the hell are you?” David demanded.

“No one you’ve ever heard of before,” the man answered with a smile. “But my friends call me Karcseras. I’m the owner of this club, the what of which is slightly more important than the what of who I am.”

David’s brain froze as he tried to parse that last sentence. “Uh...”

“You are standing on neutral ground,” Karcseras explained. “By working for me, that neutrality extends to you and the djinn, making you safe from the major factions even when you’re not at the club. It won’t protect you from the purely mortal threats that exist, and there are always those who do not consider themselves bound by the law, so you’ll have to handle those on your own. In exchange, I don’t have to worry about a war breaking out in my backyard. That sort of thing tends to be really bad for business. I also get a purely mortal bouncer, so Airkel can finally focus on dealing with the bigger ticket clientele instead of shot putting drunken hedge fund managers.”

“And what if I say no?” David asked cautiously.

“Then the door is right behind you. I’m sure the funeral will be lovely. I’ll send flowers.”

David frowned, but remained where he was standing. His mind raced as he tried to come to grips with everything Karcseras was throwing at him. He’d been threatened before, and while it had been worded like a threat, it hadn’t sounded like a threat. It actually sounded like a good offer, but it was too sudden and too good an offer. There had to be some sort of trap underneath it all, but he just couldn’t see what it might be. If he took the job, would Parisa have to grant this guy wishes? Was this some sort of supernatural organized crime thing?

“I’ve got some questions.”

Karcseras merely shrugged. “I’ll answer them if I feel like it.”

“Fair enough. And if I don’t like an answer, I’ll just walk out,” David replied.

“And they’ll be such lovely, lovely flowers,” Karcseras reminded him.”Go ahead. Ask.”

“First, I want to be clear that this is just a job. We work for you as employees. You don’t own us, we don’t have to do any special favors for you, there’s no hidden strings or contracts we need to sign. We clock in, we clock out. No midnight calls asking us to hide a body or anything like that.”

Karcseras looked like he was trying not to laugh. “I run a club, not the mafia. If I ever need you to deal with a dead body it will involve calling the coroner, not tying cinderblocks to someone’s ankles. Your job is going to be mostly keeping an eye on our purely mortal customers. What else?”

“You’re not going to be asking for any wishes, are you?”

Karcseras smirked. “No.”

David frowned. He knew there had to be more to the answer than that. He wanted to know why Karcseras wasn’t going to be asking for any wishes. But at the same time, he felt that if the other man had wanted him to know, he would have explained further. On the other hand, it wasn’t a deal breaker if Karcseras wanted to keep some secrets. David figured that was just the nature of the game at this point.

“Are we going to get into any trouble for trusting you?”

Karcseras waggled his hand back and forth. “Honestly? Probably. As I said before, not everyone respects neutral ground. When that happens, you either stand up for yourself or you don’t remain neutral for long. So yes, I have enemies, who will by their very nature hold it against you that you are one of my employees. That said, when you have enough power to maintain your neutrality you also tend to make friends, who will by their very nature consider you to be a friend simply because you work for me. Or, at least they’ll treat you in a friendly manner. Some of them will just be dicks for the sake of being a dick, but that’s just people for you.”

“And if we do get into trouble with some of those people who are your enemies?” David probed. “Or those you said that will ignore the rules you people seem to operate by?”

“Then it depends on where you get into trouble,” Karcseras answered rather bluntly. “My territory extends as far as the property lines of this club. To a certain extent my authority extends to the rest of the city as well, but there are other factions who have also made their claim on Greenville and to cross them would mean violating my neutrality. So I wouldn’t forget to lock your doors when you get home tonight.”

David sighed. “If your protection only extends as far as the club, what good does it do us? It’s not like Parisa and I are going to be moving into the attic.”

“As you said, my protection only extends as far as the club,” Karcseras elaborated. “But my reputation extends even further. There are quite a number of people who either owe me favors or would like to. So you can take some comfort in the fact that if you do get badly mangled, I’ll at least attempt to take revenge for you.”

David grimaced. That sounded all fine and good, but dead was dead. Revenge wouldn’t bring him or Sam or Parisa back to life if anything happened to them. At the same time, there was no telling if they would get a better offer. David knew he was in way over his head. Sure, he and Parisa could probably just go back to wherever she had come from, or maybe she could whip up another pocket dimension like the one that seemed to exist in the back of the SUV. But then what? Were they just supposed to hide that way forever? Just give up his friends and family? That pretty much made the decision for him.

“Fine, but on one condition. You give Sam a job, too.”

It seemed like something had finally thrown Karcseras. “The other boy who was with you? Why?”

“Because he’s my friend, and if I’m at risk from some sort of faceless danger for having Parisa in my life, then I’d be willing to bet that he is, too. Someone wants to come after my wife and I, what better way to do than to go through my roommate?”

Karcseras nodded, as if he hadn’t already considered that. “Makes sense. The band could use another stage hand, and it seems like he already has the necessary taste in black clothing. If he agrees, then he’ll start Monday as well.”

David took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right then. What do I have to do?”

“I already told you, be here Monday morning at ten.” Karcseras waved a hand dismissively. “Now go on. I’m sure you’d rather be having fun with your friends. Food and drink is on the house tonight, but just don’t go too wild. Remember, the people serving you tonight are going to be your co-workers starting next week.”

“Yeah, sure,” David mumbled as he got up from his chair and headed back into the hall. He half expected Airkel to be waiting for him, but the giant was nowhere to be found. He lingered a bit, taking the time to study the paintings as he passed. There were no names or dates to say when they were painted or who they were paintings of, but Airkel had said they were family. David supposed that was true. He could see the resemblance between some of the different subjects.

He followed the hall down to the stairs, then headed in the same direction that he had watched Sam and Parisa walk earlier. The music grew steadily louder as he approached. The song was heavy metal at its core, but as he got closer he could pick up the high notes of a flute and the skirl of a bagpipe keeping pace with a racing guitar riff. He found his head bobbing along in time with the music as he walked. Metal had never really been his thing, but whomever was playing was damned good, and their lead vocalist had an absolutely gorgeous voice, bright and clear and easily heard over the instruments backing her. Something about getting into a fight with a guy, only half the lyrics made it sound like they were having sex rather than fighting.

The doors leading into the main dance hall had been blocked open to keep the traffic moving. The hall itself was split into three levels. The main dancing area and stage with the band were actually a sunken pit about eight feet deep, fifty wide, and a hundred long. A single set of extra wide stairs led directly from the doors down to the pit. Lights in a dozen different colors spun, twisted, and flashed across the people in the pit, occasionally splashing up against the very edge of the stage, where an equally energetic display was playing over the band.

Built around the edges of the pit was the bar area, with boothed seating right up against the rails so that those who wanted to avoid the crush of the dancers but still wanted to be close to the band. Ten booths lined each the left and right sides of the railing surrounded the pit. Another ten booths lined the left side wall, while the right side of the building was fully occupied by the bar, where six different bartenders patrolled its length.