Bet these three are real lucky with the ladies with all of the garbage spewing out of their mouths. I wonder if they know what kind of assholes they sound like or if they even care.
I don’t bother opening my mouth because I’m a lady. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. And these three fucktwats would be in for a litany of ‘not nice’ if I attempted it right now.
When I step out into the hallway, Lucien grabs my elbow to stop me. I don’t even have time to knee him in the balls before Jax comes around the corner right on cue with a royally pissed off expression. The club’s bouncer is a beast of a man that would make most grown men piss themselves if they saw him coming, and I could kiss his shiny little head right now for his flawless timing.
“I’m only going to say this once, jackass. Hands off,” Jax rumbles. He doesn’t need to raise his voice to be heard over the music; it carries down the hall with a dark menace all its own.
“You don’t understand,” Lucien growls, but he does let go. “She robbed us and who knows how many others!”
Jax turns to me and raises an eyebrow. “You shackin’ up with these assholes, Ria?”
I shake my head. “You know my motto; a dick a day keeps the feelings away. I live alone for a reason.”
Jax refocuses his attention on the men behind me while I not-so-subtly slip behind the bouncer like a coward. I’m not, but I’ll sure as shit let him hold them off while I get a head start.
A martyr, I am not.
So, with the sound of men verbally pissing all over the damn place, I saunter out of the club and out to the street, jogging towards the crossover and my apartment. It’s only a mile to the bridge, so if I hustle, I can make it before the landlord calls it the next day and changes the locks on me again.
Guy is always such an asshole about the rent. Counts the seconds like he’s got nothing better to do.
I cross the street into the park, jogging towards where the trees get progressively thicker and more ominous. It typically encourages people to stay the hell away, except for the random dumb kid on a dare. I weave through the thick trunks, glancing at my watch and cursing. A few more minutes and I’m at the clearing, a magical oasis in an otherwise nightmarish forest.
There’s a gap just big enough in the branches for the light of dawn to trickle down, bathing the clearing in the orange tinted glow of dawn. Near the center is a blackened, necrotic circle of dead grass, as if a dragon huffed out a ring of embers to scorch the earth. Just inside of it, a ring of forget-me-nots in varying shades of blues and purples dance with the breeze. There are a handful of mushrooms interspersed with the flowers, but nothing touches the charred ring despite the wind.
Checking that I’m alone, I step into it, closing my eyes and sighing. Honestly, I dread coming home. The human realm is so much more...alive. Accepting. You can disappear as easily as you can stand out, and it’s all about your choices. But the best part?
My family refuses to ever step foot over here.
They think they’re so superior and that the human world is garbage. It’s the perfect place for me to breathe without them constantly lording over me, my only safe haven.
My skin tingles as I cross over and when I open my eyes I’m hit with a bone deep weariness. Everything is pristine and perfect. Fake. Deceitful. The fae world is a land as magical as you could imagine, but you can’t trust so much as the stones beneath your feet not to sell you out if it would give them a leg up in the world.
Leaving the clearing behind, I start to jog down the path towards non-civilized civilization and the shitty part of town. Far less glamorous, but even the poor side of town isn’t allowed to fall into complete disrepair; the queen would never allow it. Instead, it’s a barebones, cookie cutter neighborhood of basic white boxes.
I hate it. Everything here is blank, depressing. There isn’t a blip of individuality to be found. Just an oppressing blanket of bleached ‘perfection’.
Not a single apartment here is more than a one bedroom, despite how large some of the families are. I was lucky enough to get a studio alone, but the landlord looks for any opportunity to throw me out of the place that sure as hell doesn’t deserve as much as he gets for it. But it’s mine, and that means more to me than anything, so I’ll be damned if I’m about to lose it.
I open the door to the building and hear the whir of the power drill and pick up my speed, grabbing the thin, rickety handrail and taking the steps two at a time.
That piss-stain just can’t wait to get me out of here.
I curse when a splinter embeds itself in my palm as I make it to the top of the staircase. Shit just needs to look perfect, but doesn’t need the standards to back up the claim. Cheap-ass landlord just pays a guy to glamour everything instead of actually fixing shit.
“I had until six and you know it.” I glare daggers at the thin, oily man that never ceases to send a shiver of disgust through me when I see him.
“It’s five till. We both know you don’t get paid until the end of the week, so just accept you cut it too close this time,” he sneers.
I stuff my hand down my shirt and withdraw the wad of cash, holding it out for him and ignoring the way he leers at me. “All there, so see you next month, Ted.”
He glowers as he counts it, accepting that I scraped by on the skin of my teeth for the fourth month in a row.
“You are without a doubt the worst tenant I’ve ever had,” he jabs, stuffing the money into his pocket.
“And yet, you’re stuck with me for another three months. Gotta’ love rental agreements,” I throw right back. “See you next month, but fix the door before you go.”
Glaring at him as I sidestep as much as I can on the small landing, I pull the door shut behind me. He bitches loudly as he goes about putting the lock back in and I make a mental note to call a locksmith after he leaves to check his work and add a deadbolt from my side. I’ve never felt comfortable with him having a key despite the fact it’s in the agreement for maintenance and in case I bail, but the skeevy bastard rubs me the wrong way.
I go to the fridge to grab something to eat before crashing, but there isn’t much in the place to snack on. Shaking out my pockets, I manage to come up with a whopping fifty-two cents and sigh. Just need to hold out two more days until payday.
I play real life operation trying to get the splinter out for a few minutes, cursing all the while. Knowing my luck, it’ll give me some sort of supernatural sepsis and I’ll keel over on the way to the bank. With nothing else to do, I take a quick shower before bed. I love my job, but using my abilities always leaves me feeling dirty.
Giving up for the night, I crawl into bed just as the sun starts to rise steadily. It’s not much, and low key, kind of sucks, but it’s mine. That may not mean much to some people, but after finally getting out from under my family’s thumb five years ago, it means everything to me.
Chapter 3
Dorian
The bouncer throws us out of the club on our asses and returns inside, the sound amplified for a brief moment as he opens the door before he slams it shut behind him.
“Well that sucked ass. Sorry we dragged you out here for this, Luce,” I apologize.
He scoffs, standing up and brushing dirt off of his dress pants. “This is exactly the sort of reason I despise places like this; they’re trouble. I would think the two of you would know better by now to just avoid these situations rather than come to me to bail you out after the fact,” he states coolly. “I’m heading home.”