The Space Between

Brendan 1-2

Like I said, Zak’s lucky to still be alive after the beating I laid on him. And he took it, never tried to fight back, like he was resigned to that fate. He went home and licked his wounds after that, didn’t return to the club for a week, that’s how long it took for him to heal. Even with his elf super healing s**t, it still took him a week to recover. If it had been his sister, I would have beat every one of those demon’s faces into a pulp. But he turned his back on them, on my sister. Why, I still don’t know.

So, no, things hadn’t been the same between us. He tried, like last night, to return some levity, some humor, to our relationship. At one point his comment about a nameless f**k might have at least brought me a chuckle, but not anymore.

I decided to go to the gym down the street. I lived over the club, mostly because it seemed like a waste of money to pay for an apartment when I had one in a building I already owned. I was downstairs when the club was open anyway. I grabbed my gym bag and headed down the stairs leading to my apartment, pushing open the door that led to the sidewalk. The gym was only a couple blocks away and I walked the streets of New York to get there.

Humans would truly be terrified if they knew who lived and walked among them. Witches, warlocks, fairies, giants, angels, and demons. Werewolves, shapeshifters, just to name a few. We were all here, living alongside them. Mingling, f*****g, fighting, even procreating with them. All their human myths and legends were my reality.

I walk into the gym, glad to see there aren’t that many people in here right now. A couple of human males lifting weights, some doing strength training, a few human females running on the treadmills and one doing yoga in the corner. This place smells like sweat to me, but I’m sure the humans don’t have the same sense of smell that I do. Another throwback to the giant in my bloodline. I nod to the guy behind the counter, he’s huge and I’d consider offering him a job in my club if he wasn’t human. Humans could come dance in my club, they could drink and party, but I would not employ them, those jobs are meant for the magical community.

After stowing my gear, I head to the weight area, packing on as much as I can. I need to sweat out the stress I’ve been carrying somehow. This will have to do since I didn’t get to sweat it out with the mystery woman last night. I pay no attention to what’s going on around me as I start lifting the weights, doing the same exercise I’ve done since I started coming in here. All I can think about was her.

I had worked the front door with Mark and Sven last night, so I knew she hadn’t entered when I was there, which is the main reason I approached her. Something caught me in the way she was standing there, with her eyes closed and her face turned to the music, like she hadn’t heard any in a long time. Thankfully, she was tucked into a little alcove where not too many people were around. It was a pretty good distance from the main dance floor and bar. I’d meant to scare her, to find out how and when she came in. I briefly wondered if she was human. Instead, when I’d stepped up behind her and bent down to her ear, something changed.

“I don’t remember letting you through the door.”

She didn’t smell human, I don’t know what creature she smelled like, but it wasn’t human. In fact, she smelled like nothing I’ve known. She smelled like the wind and the rain and wide-open spaces. She smelled like stardust. I wanted to lick her entire body right then. 

And then she leaned back into me and fit her head on my shoulder.

My body and my hands had a mind of their own after that. Especially when she started swaying against me. I didn’t know my d**k could get that hard. Her skin had been so soft, and I gave her an out before I went any farther. I didn’t need to force someone to have s*x. That wasn’t my style. But she uttered no words as her body swayed against mine, so I took that as willing acceptance.

I wasn’t expecting to feel skin when my hand reached her breast. Silk, yes. Lace, yes. Even whatever that s**t was they made sports bras out of, yes. 

Skin, no.

But there it was, full and plump in my hand, her n****e already hard. I couldn’t stop my fingers from brushing that n****e and that’s when I heard the only sound I got from her. 

One f*****g moan. 

I’ve never begged someone for their name as much as I did her. Scratch that, I’ve never begged someone for their name, period. But I did her. Especially when my other hand was unbuttoning her jeans, praying she was as unclothed down there as she was up here. What a reward it was to feel her hot s*x in my hand.

The way she responded just made me want her more. When I slipped a finger inside her, I could feel her melt in my arms. Her hands were begging me, even if her mouth wasn’t and I couldn’t resist licking her skin when finger number two went in. She tasted good. She smelled good. God, I wanted to f**k her so bad, and I clearly could tell she wanted me as well. She was wet and ready and willing.

I could see her mouth moving, like she was ready to tell me her name so this could continue somewhere with a lot less people and a lot less clothing, when I heard Zak call me. Goddamn Zak. Zak the f*****g d**k. I knew if I didn’t answer him, he’d come looking for me and the last thing I wanted was him to see her like this. f**k, I didn’t want him to see her at all. Everything about her just seemed so soft, from the rounded cheek next to mine, to her skin, to her hips, to the thighs my hand was between. I was afraid he’d try to sweet talk her away from me, and I admit, I felt some jealousy flare up.

“Please don’t leave this club until I find you again.” 

It’s weird, but I could feel her disappointment when I removed my hands from her body. It rolled off her in tangible waves. I almost said the hell with whatever problem Zak had and brought her back into my arms because it seemed that’s where she wanted to be. When I took care of whatever Zak’s problem was and found her again, she could stay in them all night if she wanted. And the next day for all I cared.

But I didn’t stay, and I turned from her to find Zak instead, walking up to him standing at the end of the hallway just ten feet away. “Someone better be dead,” I told him.

He looked confused when I walked up to him. “What are you doing all the way back here?”

“Hello,” I said, snapping my fingers in his face, “What’s the f*****g problem? I was in the middle of something.”

“Minerva,” he said, pointing over his shoulder in the direction of the kitchen.

“Oh, for f**k’s sake,” I said, heading toward the kitchen. “All you have to do is placate her and give her a damn cookie.”

Minerva was an ogre who worked in the kitchen. She was in charge of the dishes, but sometimes she could be difficult. Behind the scenes in the kitchen, storeroom and office is where most of the staff who couldn’t pass for human worked. Minerva was one of them. I pushed open the swinging kitchen doors to find most of the staff huddled together in a far corner while pots and pans were flying around in the dish room. I reached up and grabbed a cookie jar on top of a cooler and took out a giant cookie. Ogre cookies. They were baked with all sorts of nasty s**t that only ogres liked to eat. I bought them from a specialty shop run by wood sprites on the other side of town.

“Minerva,” I said, using my soft ‘talking to Minerva while she’s having a temper tantrum’ voice, while I turned the corner. The dish room was a mess and Minerva’s huge, green body was heaving in anger, but she settled down when she saw me. She loved me. “What’s the matter, my darling?” I opened my arms for a hug, and she threw herself in them. I had to brace myself because Minerva was as big as me. I stroked her stringy, ogre hair. “Tell Brendan what’s wrong.”

Minerva stepped back and I could tell she’d been crying. She then held up a pointer finger to show me one of her nails was broken. You have to understand, Minerva knows she’s not a beautiful creature, so any little beauty she can have, she loves, and Minerva loved to get her nails done. Every other nail was polished and beautiful and a different color, except that one broken one. “Oh, no,” I said, placing her hand in both of mine, “your beautiful nail is broken.” Her eyes got sad, and her lips went down in a frown. Minerva couldn’t speak, she’d had half her tongue chopped off by some human maniac when she was a child. And then she’d killed him. “You know what,” I say, still holding her hand, “how about tomorrow or Monday when the club is closed you go down to see Genie and have her put a whole new set of nails on, how’s that sound? I’ll call her and tell her to send me the bill. Brendan can’t have his favorite Minerva with a broken nail.”

Minerva smiled and me and clapped her hands, jumping up and down in excitement. I took the cookie out of my back pocket. “Here’s a cookie too,” I drew it back before she could grab it. “Promise Brendan you’ll clean up this mess and finish all your dishes and chores after you eat this. Oh, and apologize to all your friends in the kitchen.” Minerva nodded her head and smiled as she waved to all the other kitchen staff still huddled in the corner. I could see them collectively sigh once she was happy. I handed her the cookie and she jammed the whole thing in her mouth before I even turned around.

Zak was still standing at the swinging doors when I joined him again. “You know she only likes you.”

“You could have tried,” I said, pushing a little too hard on the door. “I pay you enough.” I turned to head back in the direction I’d come from. I didn’t really think she’d still be there, but I was starting my search there.

“What’s got into you?” Zak asked me.

“Nothing got into me,” I said, still walking away, “it’s what I was trying to get into.”

But I couldn’t find her. And I looked everywhere. I circled that club three times. I waded through the dance floor and had to remove some witches hand from my ass. I went to the Dark Room in the back, a special space we had set up for those creatures with extremely sensitive eyes. Everything was lit by blacklight. I even waited outside the ladies’ room to see if she came out. 

Nothing.

I asked Mark and Sven if she’d left, and they didn’t recognize anyone matching that description. I waded through hours of security footage on fast forward to see if I could spot her. Maybe she’d decided to leave with someone else and jump on their d**k after I warmed her up and left her hanging. Because of f*****g Zak.

Nada.

It’s like she disappeared and as discussed earlier, there is no disappearing in my club. So, the only other explanation that I had was that she was a succubus. But I wasn’t asleep when I was with her, and no demons could come in my club. So, I was back to square one.