Ch. 13 Athena's Gift

Chapter 13

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices also have very few virtues.” - Abraham Lincoln

Trench coated people began parting and moving towards the door of the club as Matthews’ group headed for the Angels table. Several of the trench coats stopped at various tables, whispering in the ears of patrons. The music was still playing, people still drank and the dance floor was still crowded. But a thick tension began to spread through the air.

Annabeth and Mikhail appeared momentarily frustrated to see Matthew. One of Matthew’s men reached out and snatched someone by the collar, dragging them into the booth.

Groups within the club began to shift, moving from tables and positioning themselves for a fight or to get out quickly. There had to be five hundred people crowded in here, if this place went up it was going to be bad.

“Jeff, maybe we should go put a circle down outside.” I suggested in Jeff’s ear.

“I’ll go get that started, you get the others. Warn Phineas.” Jeff headed for the door. I began threading my way back to the table.

“The Necromance returns…” Phineas announced, smiling conspiratorially when I approached the table. “What trouble have you started for us now?”

“Jeff is putting a circle down outside the club, we need to leave now.” I said, ignoring Phineas’ comments. “He asked that I tell you that the Angels and the Demon Touched are about to throw down.”

“Maybe you should just have a seat,” he said, patting a chair next to him, “and keep your head down.”

Phineas leaned forward in his chair, steepling his fingertips. He uttered what sounded like a cross between a prayer and an obscene oath. He dropped his now glowing crucifix beneath his shirt.

Jill and Suzanne picked up on Phineas’ air of panic and looked around surreptitiously.

“We need to go now.” I said, why weren’t they listening to me?

“Sit Down!” Phineas ordered me sharply, in a low voice. “You are making us stand out.”

I lowered myself into the closest seat, not right next to Phineas. I had to turn slightly to see the front door, which I did slowly. My skin crawled with energy as I expected to be struck or yanked out of my chair at any moment.

“Girls, pull up some chairs here.” Phineas snapped his fingers, but didn’t speak above a whisper.

About six women from all over this back area of the club sat as close to Phineas as they could. They all appeared to be deep in conversation with Phineas, but I could see that they were putting on jackets and shawls to cover cleavage or bright colors. A few of them let their long hair down to cover their faces.

Phineas brought out a handful of herbs and powders that he dropped into the large glass ashtray in the center of the table. He placed his smoldering cigar into the small pile, setting it alight. Then he brought out a small flask of perfumed liquid and shook it all around the area. A few of the drops landed on my shirt.

I could see the misty lines forming behind Phineas. They began to swirl all around the table, in between all of us.

“What are you doing Phineas?” I asked, “Suzanne, can you see them?”

“I see them. They’re beautiful.” Suzanne said, obviously in a state of awe.

As I tracked one of the shapes flowing behind Jill I noticed that people at the tables next to us were watching something at the door. With dread I turned in my seat to see what held their attention.

Richard and his two meaty thugs were looking right at us, a golden flash smoldering in his eyes.

“Ladies, go out the back and find Jeff.” Phineas quickly ordered us. Several of his women got up and headed for the back door.

Jill, Suzanne and I looked at each other.

“You don’t have anything on you that will stop Richard. Please, just leave while you can.” Phineas made the decision for us.

We all got up. I decided to follow Jill and Suzanne, glancing over my shoulder to make sure we would all make it.

I gasped as I stared right into the golden, leering eyes of Richard. Damn, he was fast.

“You still owe me Phineas.” His voice had changed cadence and vocabulary. “Perhaps I’ll take this one as partial payment.”

His two underlings chuckled darkly. I didn’t care for the implications.

“If you think that you can, Richard.” Phineas challenged. “Besides, she doesn’t belong to me.”

What was that supposed to mean?

“What else do you want, Richard?” Phineas was negotiating now, apparently putting me on my own.

“I think it is time you began pulling your weight with us. We have left you free to operate for far too long. Your women will begin distributing Sight for us immediately, starting with this one.” He said, reaching for my shoulder.

I tried to step back, but I was pinned between the table and Richard. He pulled me up on tiptoe and tilted my head back so I could look him in the eye.

“None of my clients have any use for Sight, Richard.” Phineas announced simply.

“You have just taken on new clients. Stop calling me that, you are ruining my concentration.” Not-Richard growled out, returning his vision to me.

“Who’d you sell your soul to Richard?” I called out loudly, “Or did you give permission to this thing to ride you?”

Not-Richard paused, looking at me quizzically. He looked over at Phineas but I couldn’t be sure what he saw. Hoping to see an Angel coming to the rescue, I panned the crowd behind Richard. Matthew and his goon squad were hustling Annabeth and Mikhail out the door. Annabeth tossed me a smirk before she went out shaking her head.

“Oh, this one will be a lot of fun won’t she? I think we’ll keep her as an example to the rest of your whores. When we finish with her we’ll send her back to you.” Richard said in an evil voice, smiling at me for all the world like a kindly Uncle. “She will of course, be expected to perform just as the others. No matter what she looks like.”

He shoved me at his two thugs for safekeeping as he sat down at the table, across from Phineas. One of them, with a chipped front tooth, grabbed a fistful of hair. The other, with a strange sort of pompadour, removed my gun and began patting me down for anything else of interest. Pompadour paused at my breasts, giving them a painful pinch. When I didn’t cry out, he twisted, causing me to gasp. Chipped tooth laughed softly as he ground against my backside. I was in so much trouble right now.

“Don’t worry, little whore, you won’t be entirely alone.” Richard said casually, looking at Phineas. “One of you go out back and bring in the rest of Phineas’ girls. We should probably test them out. I’d hate for them to expire too quickly the first time they have to service a Demon.”

Pompadour gave my breasts a final smack, making them jiggle.

“My pleasure.” He said as he headed for the back door.

I have found that men who exhibited a violent fascination for breasts had issues with their sexuality. Somehow that scared me more than Chipped Tooth.

Phineas wouldn’t look at me. He had a defeated expression on his face as the Loa swirled ineffectually around him. Richard passed a small cigar box across the table towards Phineas, who peeked inside the lid before putting it inside his jacket.

“If you want immediate distribution I’ll need all my girls. I can only work a new market with numbers.” Phineas began, all business.

“Not to worry, your new clients will find you. By now, everyone from Heaven to Hell knows what you are selling.” He chuckled to himself. Then to Chipped Tooth he said, “Take her and the others back to my office. I will be there as soon as I finish out the details with Phineas.”
**********************

I struggled unsuccessfully against my captor when we reached the door. He told me not to waste my energy; I’d be needing it later.

When we got outside Chipped Tooth looked around for Pompadour. Not finding him he yanked me around the corner by my hair, leading me towards the back of the building. I could see Loa swirling above a pile of bloody rags.


As we got closer I realized that the rags were attached to body parts. Female body parts. My eyes watered as I realized that someone or something had ripped these women limb from limb. Then I saw the sapphire ring on a broken and twisted finger.

“What have you done? Richard said to bring them back to the office- not kill them you sick bastard!” Chipped Tooth cried out in a panicked voice. “This is on you. All on you.”

He spun me around as if to protect me from what I assumed was Pompadour. As I sailed around by the hair I saw the bloody form of Pompadour kneeling near the wall of the alley. He appeared to be licking his fingers.

As he whipped me around facing the other wall, Chipped Tooth sent me sprawling to the pavement. I could only guess that he and Pompadour were fighting. I took this chance to move away, crawling until I could get my legs under me.

When I turned back I could still see Pompadour kneeling. I looked over at Chipped Tooth and he was on the ground wrestling with someone.

“A little help here…” Jeff called to me, as Chipped Tooth somehow managed to roll on top of Jeff.
Relief flooded through me as I ran back over, keeping an eye on the strangely still form of Pompadour. Why wasn’t he getting up?

I lined up for a perfect boot to the ribs, then remembered how easy it was for a foot to be caught. I took the extra step and turned it into a knee, much more effective. I heard a satisfying crack when I connected and grabbed the back of Chippy’s shirt as I lined up for another. He tried to roll away from me, allowing me to get his face this time. Blood sprayed from his now smashed nose as he sailed back off of Jeff.

I stepped over Jeff and stomped down on Chippy’s ankle, feeling it twist beneath my boot. I transferred all of my weight to that boot, scraping down the side of his foot until it found pavement again. Chippy instinctively pulled up in pain, and I brought my foot up to smash his ruined nose. It wasn’t as satisfying as the knee, so I knelt a little to reach for his hair.

In his rush to get away from me he wound up on his back again, pulling me forward. I got my fingers twisted into his nasty retro Afro and didn’t let go. I stomped on his mid section, but I couldn’t get enough momentum going for any real damage. The air whooshed out of him, stifling his scream. I began yanking his head around, trying to maintain control of his panicked efforts to get away from me. He brought his knees up to try to protect himself, but he was overweight and out of shape. He just couldn’t muster it. All he could do was scrabble with his hands and crab walk with his legs on a broken ankle.

Through a series of stomps and yanks of his hair I got him flipped over on his front. Standing behind and beside him, I dug a knee into his back as I pulled up on his hair. I imagined this was a very similar scenario to what he had planned for me.

I tried to kick his hands out from under him, thinking to smash his face into the ground. He fought me. I stomped his fingers making him cry out in pain, then I twisted the ball of my foot into them. As the fingers twisted and rolled beneath my boot he shrieked loudly- begging me to stop.

“What, isn’t this what you wanted? Isn’t this what you had in mind?” I yelled back in a cracking voice. I was breathing heavily at this point, strength draining out of me. A steady stream of obscenities issued from my mouth as I again tried to get his hands out from under him so I could smash his face.

“Lucy. LUCY!” Jeff said mildly behind me. He had his hand resting lightly in the middle of my back.

I let out a frustrated wail as I looked over at the pile of body parts. I pushed Chippy’s head forward as I released him and stood upright again, subduing an urge to stomp on his back. Then I saw Pompadour still kneeling against the wall. My vision got a little tunnelly and the world took on a dark reddish cast.

With renewed energy I turned my rage on Pompadour. As I headed towards him I stomped down on the back of Chippy’s whimpering head, feeling the fragile neck bones give way beneath me. He stopped whimpering.

I approached Pompadour at angle from behind, not giving him the chance to react to me. I didn’t know why he wasn’t helping Chippy out, maybe he was in some sort of bloodlust ecstasy. It didn’t matter- I would be yanking him out of his fantasy soon enough.

I picked my foot up to knee height, turning slightly to the side, scraping down the back of Pompadour’s ribs. He slid even further into the wall crumpling in an immobile heap at my feet. I stomped down over and over again until Jeff put his hand on my shoulder again, calling my name softly.

“Where were you?” I yelled at Jeff angrily. “Where were you?”

I headed for the pile of bodies. The Loa were still swirling over them. As I moved closer I could feel the same heavy static electricity that passed between Phineas and I earlier. Something just felt wrong about it. I felt like I was pushing against something in the air. Every time I thought I might get a handle on it, I rolled out of it.

The back door of the club slammed open and Phineas came barreling out. I jumped back, ready for Richard to follow.

Phineas dropped to his knees next to the bodies, pulling packets of herbs from his pockets.

“Help me Jeff, we don’t have much time.” Phineas cried. Jeff dropped down next to him, lighting up a cigar and using it to burn various herbs.

The bodies began to waver visually. The Loa circled faster and faster gradually vanishing from view.

Incredibly I was looking at all of the women, including Jill and Suzanne, sitting unharmed in a circle on the ground. I gasped in shock as tears ran freely down my cheek.

“Lets go ladies,” Phineas snapped his fingers repeatedly, “Lucy help them up. They are stiff from sitting here so long.”

We began to pull them to their feet, moving towards the mouth of the alley.

“How long Phineas?” Jeff asked.

Phineas tilted his head, again listening to voices I couldn’t hear.

“He is beginning to suspect. Maybe a minute or two. Let us hope he investigates out here before he decides to track us.” Phineas answered.

With that, we began to run towards our room at the Catholic Church.