Darkness Rising: Cursed Guardians

A Drink

I pulled into the back parking lot of the bar and club at 5:30. The bar I knew was already getting busy at this hour on Friday. The club wouldn't start getting busy until later around 7 when the sunset. I walked up the alley to the baI pulled into the back parking lot of the bar and club at 5:30. The bar I knew was already getting busy at this hour on Friday. The club wouldn't start getting busy until later around 7 when the sunset. I walked up the alley to the back door and opened it with my key and stepped into the hallway and hung an immediate right into the break room where the employee lockers are. I stowed my stuff and went to the restroom quickly before walking down to the end of the hall and going into Demetri's office on the left. 

The door was open but I lightly knocked anyway before entering. Demetri was seated behind his desk going over some appears that we're making his brow crease. At my knock he looked up, preparing to tell whoever it was to go away judging from the change in expression, but smiled when he saw it was me. That smile always made me internally break a sweat. 

"Why do you insist on knocking? You know very well I always welcome your presence." Demetri said in a smooth European accent. He rose and walked around the desk as I entered. Demetri was hot. Stupid hot. It's the peel of hotness that temporarily tenders you stupid.  At 6'5" with raven hair and olive skin Demetri screamed sexy. His face was strong with a prominent chin and brow, deep set hazel eyes, and full lips that only looked better when he gave a sultry, charming smile. Add that to the completely ripped body that would make Channing Tatums abs jealous and you have recipe for walking, talking sexy. Stupid. Hot. 

"You know me and my manners Demetri. It's habit plus I'm always afraid of interrupting something important." I said as we met in the middle of the office. Demetri bent down and kissed me on both cheeks and hugged me as he did every night I worked. Even with my 5" heeled boots making my 6' Demetri still had to lean down. As everyone who worked in the bar and club knew, I'm special to Demetri. Whether it's because I see him for what he really is and accept that or some other reason I don't know. All I know is after the first few months of me working at Cauldron I seemed to spend longer amounts of time just talking to Demetri. I'd spend an hour in his office after shift talking about absolutely nothing. During that time he trained me to be a manager. I got promoted 3 months after starting when the second manager since I'd been working there quit. After the staff found out Demetri trained me himself and that we becoming friends, the other employees started acting weird around me. At first I was shunned but eventually when everyone realized I wasn't acting different towards them and that Demetri didn't treat me any differently then the rest of them things went back to normal. I did temporarily suspect that Demetri had threatened them all with their jobs but he assured me he hadn't but I still think he might have. Either way I'm good with almost everyone, human or otherwise. There are a few girls who don't like that Demetri and I are close. Too bad.  

Demetri crossed to the chairs in front of the desk and pulled out my chair for me. I sat as he walked back around to take his seat behind the desk. From a drawer he pulled out my leather bound journal. Opened in up to last nights date. Here I had totals from the bar inside of Cauldron, V.I.P. services, notes of who the guests were, and requests from the V.I.P. guests.  

"Ready for numbers?" I asked. 

Demetri looked at me and gave me another smile and nodded pulling out his own leather journal. After we went over the numbers, confirming an increase in sales from the previous night and up from the previous year, we moved on to tonight's agenda. 

"I have two private parties tonight. The V.I.P. Section has been split so half the room is for the private parties and the other half is for any other V.I.P.s that happen to come tonight." I explained to Demetri. 

"Which party has the bigger fish?" Demetri inquired. 

"The first party is scheduled to be here at 8 and it's for a group of Jackals. In addition to reserving a spot the V.I.P. section, they also prepaid for a six case of Cristal and a bottle of Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Congac which they paid for plus the cost of shipping the bottle here insured. They also noted that they are willing to spend an additional amount on companionship for the duration of the evening." I raised my eyebrows at the last bit. I do everything I can as a V.I.P. hostess and will go the extra mile for clientele, especially if they are important business for Demetri. That being said I don't do any arrangements for companionship, which is a nice way to say high end escorts.  

"I'll have Stefan make the calls when we are done here and brief the girls when they arrive. Just make sure to keep an eye on them. Jackals have a way bringing out the wild side in people. It seems they are going to give us a significant profit. If the evening goes well try to negotiate with them to join our exclusive V.I.P. client list. Who is the other private party."  

I looked at my schedule and replied "The other party is a group of Sirens. It's a bachelorette party. This could get interesting if they start singing." 

Demetri frowned. "That could be dangerous with the Jackals. If the Sirens sing the Jackals will get wound up which is good for no one. Thoughts?" 

I thought for a minute. "What if we box of the back corner opposite of the Jackals with partitions? If we box the corner we can call one of the local witches to come and magic sound proof the corner. As long as I can keep them in that corner and happy they should stay put and the singing will be limited to the sound proof location. We should also make sure any male server, because they requested all males, should have earring protection on when they enter that corner. There's a base right there so it's reasonable to wear it." 

Demetri smiled. "Call the coven and make it happen. I'll have Stefan dig out the partitions and set them up. You'll brief the servers?" 

"Of course. Is there anything else?" I rose from my seat. 

Demetri also stood. "No my dear I think we are done until close. I'll be waiting to go over the evening with you after close. Make sure you keep me posted throughout the evening. The new headsets should be here Monday if yours starts acting up again come see me and I'll switch it out with someone else's." 

"Not necessary I can manage." I said as I turned to go. 

"Sabella." Demetri said in voice that said my reply was not acceptable. "If your headset stops working come tell me. I don't need you at a disadvantage with Jackals in one corner and Sirens in another. I'll know anyway if I try to contact you and you don't respond." 

I gave him a little eye roll. "Alright, alright I will come tell you if I have issues. See you after close." I walked out of the office into the club and went to work arranging tables in the V.I.P. section and calling a local witches coven. About 20 minutes later Stefan came from the back carrying two of the huge partitions. Now if a human would have seen this that person would have flipped out since each partition went from floor to about a foot beneath the ceiling an easily weighed 300 plus pounds. Stefan carried them like they didn't weigh any more than an office trash can. "Hercules, Hercules,Hercules!"  

Stefan looked over at me and asked when the witch would be arriving. I glanced at my phone and said anytime. A second later a voice, whose name was Mike, was speaking in my headset letting me know that I had a visitor in the bar. I told Stefan I'd be back and that the visitor was most likely the witch. Going from Cauldron into Witches Brew I said a quick hello to Boris the head bouncer and made my way to the bar. I could smell wings frying as I passed the small kitchen and heard Tyler yelling out orders to the new short order cook whose name I didn't yet know. Mike, the voice in my ear, who was also one of the bartenders was at  the end of the bar slicing oranges so I headed over. 

"Hey Mike! How's your night going?" I half yelled over AC/DCs "Back in Black" and general noise of the bar crowd. 

"Hey Sabella lookin good! My nights hoppin as you can see. Guy in the faded denim jacket came up to the bar and asked for you." At that Mike gave a head nod in the direction of my visitor. 

"Thanks Mike. Hope your night stays hoppin."  

"You too." He said as walked over to greet the witch. Or warlock. Male magic practicers are funny about what you call them. Some don't mind being called a witch while others find it demeaning ad prefer to be referred to as warlocks.  

"Excuse me." I said to the young man. 

He turned around to reveal a mid twenties guy of the goth variety. "Are you Sabella?" he asked. 

I smiled. "Yup that's me. Are you from the coven?" I asked him. He nodded. "Christian" he said extending a hand. I shook his hand and said "Follow me please." We went back to pass by Boris and into Cauldron. I lead him back to the now fully erected partitions where Stefan was standing. Ten minutes later our area was good to go and the witch was paid for services and on his way. I still had five minutes before the club opened. I ran to the back went to bathroom, did a quick touch up, and stuck my head in Demetri's office. 

"Hey just wanted you to know the Siren sound proofing is complete. I'm off to brief the servers. See you later." 

He nodded and off I went. The usual club crowd started coming when full dark set. It was mixture of humans and others all drinking, bumping, and grinding to beat of our resident DJ who was currently blasting Marilyn Manson's "personal Jesus." Our crowd was always interesting. There were the typical club goers, curve hugging dresses, skin tight pants. The main crowd was all goth. The night was slow before my two private V.I.P. parties arrived at 8 and 9. When they came my evening went into over drive. The Jackals ran through the entire six cases of champagne by 10 and the bottle of cognac soon followed. After that I was running back and forth to the bar inside of Cauldron bringing various drinks to their party while monitoring the serves attending to the Sirens. Happily only one server neglected his hearing protection and was temporarily at the mercy of a group of 10 Sirens. I was able to pull him out before things got too serious. 

Around 11:30 Mike was in my ear again informing me of yet another visitor. The Sirens were departing to go a local strip bar to carry on their festivities and the Jackals were winding down as well. After doing one more check on them I headed back into Witches Brew. Instantly my stomach did flips and I couldn't breathe. There at the end of the bar chatting with Mike was Cass. I put on the best non horrified and concerned face that I could and walked over. 

"What are you doing here Cass?!" I asked with a smile. 

"Sabella! I was so bored at home so I decided to come have a drink." As she said this she started fiddling with my hair. Typical Cass. 

"You treating her right Mike?" I asked. 

"Course. Friends of yours get nothing but the best." he grinned. 

"Thanks Mike." I gave a little smile and then looked at Cass. "I've got a private party I gotta get back to. You enjoy your drink and be safe going home." 

"I'm gonna hang around a while. If I drink too much I know where to find you." she said cheerfully. Oh goody. I went back to Cauldron full of dread and worry. My feelings are never wrong. Never.  

The next half hour dragged. Even though the club was super busy time seemed to not move due to my worry over Cass being here. The Jackals were ready to leave shortly after I got back but I managed to get them to talk with me about being our exclusive clientele and eventually got them to agree which I knew would please Demetri. Just before midnight I told another hostess I was going out for some air and walked to the back to grab my keys from my locker and toss my headset in then headed out the back entrance. My stomach was killing me and I was starting to lose my breathe. In needed a minute. Bad things were coming. I stepped outside and the door closed gently behind me. I stepped to the side leaned on the exterior brick wall gasping for air. That's when the body slammed into me at full force. 

ck door and opened it with my key and stepped into the hallway and hung an immediate right into the break room where the employee lockers are. I stowed my stuff and went to the restroom quickly before walking down to the end of the hall and going into Demetri's office on the left. 

The door was open but I lightly knocked anyway before entering. Demetri was seated behind his desk going over some appears that we're making his brow crease. At my knock he looked up, preparing to tell whoever it was to go away judging from the change in expression, but smiled when he saw it was me. That smile always made me internally break a sweat. 

"Why do you insist on knocking? You know very well I always welcome your presence." Demetri said in a smooth European accent. He rose and walked around the desk as I entered. Demetri was hot. Stupid hot. It's the peel of hotness that temporarily tenders you stupid.  At 6'5" with raven hair and olive skin Demetri screamed sexy. His face was strong with a prominent chin and brow, deep set hazel eyes, and full lips that only looked better when he gave a sultry, charming smile. Add that to the completely ripped body that would make Channing Tatums abs jealous and you have recipe for walking, talking sexy. Stupid. Hot. 

"You know me and my manners Demetri. It's habit plus I'm always afraid of interrupting something important." I said as we met in the middle of the office. Demetri bent down and kissed me on both cheeks and hugged me as he did every night I worked. Even with my 5" heeled boots making my 6' Demetri still had to lean down. As everyone who worked in the bar and club knew, I'm special to Demetri. Whether it's because I see him for what he really is and accept that or some other reason I don't know. All I know is after the first few months of me working at Cauldron I seemed to spend longer amounts of time just talking to Demetri. I'd spend an hour in his office after shift talking about absolutely nothing. During that time he trained me to be a manager. I got promoted 3 months after starting when the second manager since I'd been working there quit. After the staff found out Demetri trained me himself and that we becoming friends, the other employees started acting weird around me. At first I was shunned but eventually when everyone realized I wasn't acting different towards them and that Demetri didn't treat me any differently then the rest of them things went back to normal. I did temporarily suspect that Demetri had threatened them all with their jobs but he assured me he hadn't but I still think he might have. Either way I'm good with almost everyone, human or otherwise. There are a few girls who don't like that Demetri and I are close. Too bad.  

Demetri crossed to the chairs in front of the desk and pulled out my chair for me. I sat as he walked back around to take his seat behind the desk. From a drawer he pulled out my leather bound journal. Opened in up to last nights date. Here I had totals from the bar inside of Cauldron, V.I.P. services, notes of who the guests were, and requests from the V.I.P. guests.  

"Ready for numbers?" I asked. 

Demetri looked at me and gave me another smile and nodded pulling out his own leather journal. After we went over the numbers, confirming an increase in sales from the previous night and up from the previous year, we moved on to tonight's agenda. 

"I have two private parties tonight. The V.I.P. Section has been split so half the room is for the private parties and the other half is for any other V.I.P.s that happen to come tonight." I explained to Demetri. 

"Which party has the bigger fish?" Demetri inquired. 

"The first party is scheduled to be here at 8 and it's for a group of Jackals. In addition to reserving a spot the V.I.P. section, they also prepaid for a six case of Cristal and a bottle of Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Congac which they paid for plus the cost of shipping the bottle here insured. They also noted that they are willing to spend an additional amount on companionship for the duration of the evening." I raised my eyebrows at the last bit. I do everything I can as a V.I.P. hostess and will go the extra mile for clientele, especially if they are important business for Demetri. That being said I don't do any arrangements for companionship, which is a nice way to say high end escorts.  

"I'll have Stefan make the calls when we are done here and brief the girls when they arrive. Just make sure to keep an eye on them. Jackals have a way bringing out the wild side in people. It seems they are going to give us a significant profit. If the evening goes well try to negotiate with them to join our exclusive V.I.P. client list. Who is the other private party."  

I looked at my schedule and replied "The other party is a group of Sirens. It's a bachelorette party. This could get interesting if they start singing." 

Demetri frowned. "That could be dangerous with the Jackals. If the Sirens sing the Jackals will get wound up which is good for no one. Thoughts?" 

I thought for a minute. "What if we box of the back corner opposite of the Jackals with partitions? If we box the corner we can call one of the local witches to come and magic sound proof the corner. As long as I can keep them in that corner and happy they should stay put and the singing will be limited to the sound proof location. We should also make sure any male server, because they requested all males, should have earring protection on when they enter that corner. There's a base right there so it's reasonable to wear it." 

Demetri smiled. "Call the coven and make it happen. I'll have Stefan dig out the partitions and set them up. You'll brief the servers?" 

"Of course. Is there anything else?" I rose from my seat. 

Demetri also stood. "No my dear I think we are done until close. I'll be waiting to go over the evening with you after close. Make sure you keep me posted throughout the evening. The new headsets should be here Monday if yours starts acting up again come see me and I'll switch it out with someone else's." 

"Not necessary I can manage." I said as I turned to go. 

"Sabella." Demetri said in voice that said my reply was not acceptable. "If your headset stops working come tell me. I don't need you at a disadvantage with Jackals in one corner and Sirens in another. I'll know anyway if I try to contact you and you don't respond." 

I gave him a little eye roll. "Alright, alright I will come tell you if I have issues. See you after close." I walked out of the office into the club and went to work arranging tables in the V.I.P. section and calling a local witches coven. About 20 minutes later Stefan came from the back carrying two of the huge partitions. Now if a human would have seen this that person would have flipped out since each partition went from floor to about a foot beneath the ceiling an easily weighed 300 plus pounds. Stefan carried them like they didn't weigh any more than an office trash can. "Hercules, Hercules,Hercules!"  

Stefan looked over at me and asked when the witch would be arriving. I glanced at my phone and said anytime. A second later a voice, whose name was Mike, was speaking in my headset letting me know that I had a visitor in the bar. I told Stefan I'd be back and that the visitor was most likely the witch. Going from Cauldron into Witches Brew I said a quick hello to Boris the head bouncer and made my way to the bar. I could smell wings frying as I passed the small kitchen and heard Tyler yelling out orders to the new short order cook whose name I didn't yet know. Mike, the voice in my ear, who was also one of the bartenders was at  the end of the bar slicing oranges so I headed over. 

"Hey Mike! How's your night going?" I half yelled over AC/DCs "Back in Black" and general noise of the bar crowd. 

"Hey Sabella lookin good! My nights hoppin as you can see. Guy in the faded denim jacket came up to the bar and asked for you." At that Mike gave a head nod in the direction of my visitor. 

"Thanks Mike. Hope your night stays hoppin."  

"You too." He said as walked over to greet the witch. Or warlock. Male magic practicers are funny about what you call them. Some don't mind being called a witch while others find it demeaning ad prefer to be referred to as warlocks.  

"Excuse me." I said to the young man. 

He turned around to reveal a mid twenties guy of the goth variety. "Are you Sabella?" he asked. 

I smiled. "Yup that's me. Are you from the coven?" I asked him. He nodded. "Christian" he said extending a hand. I shook his hand and said "Follow me please." We went back to pass by Boris and into Cauldron. I lead him back to the now fully erected partitions where Stefan was standing. Ten minutes later our area was good to go and the witch was paid for services and on his way. I still had five minutes before the club opened. I ran to the back went to bathroom, did a quick touch up, and stuck my head in Demetri's office. 

"Hey just wanted you to know the Siren sound proofing is complete. I'm off to brief the servers. See you later." 

He nodded and off I went. The usual club crowd started coming when full dark set. It was mixture of humans and others all drinking, bumping, and grinding to beat of our resident DJ who was currently blasting Marilyn Manson's "personal Jesus." Our crowd was always interesting. There were the typical club goers, curve hugging dresses, skin tight pants. The main crowd was all goth. The night was slow before my two private V.I.P. parties arrived at 8 and 9. When they came my evening went into over drive. The Jackals ran through the entire six cases of champagne by 10 and the bottle of cognac soon followed. After that I was running back and forth to the bar inside of Cauldron bringing various drinks to their party while monitoring the serves attending to the Sirens. Happily only one server neglected his hearing protection and was temporarily at the mercy of a group of 10 Sirens. I was able to pull him out before things got too serious. 

Around 11:30 Mike was in my ear again informing me of yet another visitor. The Sirens were departing to go a local strip bar to carry on their festivities and the Jackals were winding down as well. After doing one more check on them I headed back into Witches Brew. Instantly my stomach did flips and I couldn't breathe. There at the end of the bar chatting with Mike was Cass. I put on the best non horrified and concerned face that I could and walked over. 

"What are you doing here Cass?!" I asked with a smile. 

"Sabella! I was so bored at home so I decided to come have a drink." As she said this she started fiddling with my hair. Typical Cass. 

"You treating her right Mike?" I asked. 

"Course. Friends of yours get nothing but the best." he grinned. 

"Thanks Mike." I gave a little smile and then looked at Cass. "I've got a private party I gotta get back to. You enjoy your drink and be safe going home." 

"I'm gonna hang around a while. If I drink too much I know where to find you." she said cheerfully. Oh goody. I went back to Cauldron full of dread and worry. My feelings are never wrong. Never.  

The next half hour dragged. Even though the club was super busy time seemed to not move due to my worry over Cass being here. The Jackals were ready to leave shortly after I got back but I managed to get them to talk with me about being our exclusive clientele and eventually got them to agree which I knew would please Demetri. Just before midnight I told another hostess I was going out for some air and walked to the back to grab my keys from my locker and toss my headset in then headed out the back entrance. My stomach was killing me and I was starting to lose my breathe. In needed a minute. Bad things were coming. I stepped outside and the door closed gently behind me. I stepped to the side leaned on the exterior brick wall gasping for air. That's when the body slammed into me at full force.