MoonLife (8 page)

“Wendy, look over there at the go-go cages. Do you think they use those girls for feeding?” She watched as a guy came over and pulled the girl out of the cage. The girl went willingly, and they disappeared into the back of the crowd. Then another woman came up and took her spot, and I assumed was waiting to be chosen and pulled into the crowd.

“Vampire groupies you think?” she said
,
watching the action.

“Maybe
,
but it looks sadistic
,
” I said
,
glad that wasn’t me.

Lost in thought
,
I was surprised to turn around and find a tall, attractive dark
-
haired man standing extremely close behind me. He grabbed my hips and started dancing with me. “Can I cut in with you and your friend?” he said as he moved in closer.

“I don’t,”… was all I got out before Dante and Bram were between us.

“The ladies don’t want to dance right now with you
,
” Bram said, almost growling.

“Back off, just wanted to dance
,
” said the handsome stranger.

“No problem, find someone else
,
” Dante said as he took my hand and started to lead me away.

“No Dante. One guy asking us to dance is not going to end our party. It’s okay if we dance with guys, it’s a bachelorette party
,
” I said pulling my hand away.

“Princess-I mean Sadie, if I let you dance with anyone Sebastian is going to have my head, literally. Manduragos are very possessive. If he would have seen that man touch your hips he
would have killed him. We are not like human men, there are laws and traditions we must follow.”

“Well then
,
you dance with me
,
” I said grabbing his hand and pulling him deeper onto the dance floor.

Dante looked very out of place, even more so than I did. If I thought I couldn’t dance
,
he was even more grove-challenged than I was. He was trying to move around in one place and not moving his feet at all. It was cute how uncomfortable he was. I grabbed his hands and started to help him dance around. Once he relaxed a bit he seemed to settle into the music. Bram and Wendy, on the other hand, were meant to dance together. They were all over the floor and each other. Wendy was giggling, and Bram was lifting her up and swinging her around. Ludwik, our invisible guardian and Wendy’s boyfriend, did not look too happy about the whole situation at all. I felt sorry for him and caught his glance and sent him a smile. He smiled back hesitatingly. I hoped he knew that she had no idea he was there. I wouldn’t want him to think she was doing this on purpose.

At the end of the song we took a break, fought our way through the crowd and headed back to our table. Our drinks were there with Dario waiting for us. There were also several people milling around the table. We pushed through them and sat down.

“Why are you doing it?” said a man to me as I sat down. Ludwik was next to me in an instant as Dante stood ey
e
ing the man.

“Doing what? Dancing?” I asked, puzzled.

“No
–
marrying Sebastian. Your marriage is going to cause a war between the Manduragos and the Draccos. Why would you do this to us?” he nearly growled at me
.

“Leave now or I will take you down
,
” Dante said.

“No
,
Dante
,
I want to know what he means. Tell me why
do
you think that my being
Bound
to Sebastian would cause a war?”

“Because you were promised to a Dracco. The Queen promised you to the Dracco King, he has already said that if you marry any Mandurago he will bring a war upon us. Is that what you wish? A war between our two clans?”

“That’s enough. Leave now
,
” stated Bram as he got between me and the
strange
man.

“I’m sorry about that
,
Sadie, just some old legends and superstitious Manduragos. Ignore him
,
” Dante said as he sat down next to me. A war huh? Lars must have let it be known that if I marry Sebastian he will attack. It’s like I can’t get away from that guy. I get it that he thinks I truly was promised to him, but I don’t understand why he would start a war. Once I am married to Sebastian, no matter what happens I am his…forever…so a war is not going to change that. Also, when I become
q
ueen officially and all my
R
oyal powers come in
,
I am going to kick that man
’
s ass for being such a pain.

I downed my beer and then did a shot of Patron. Great tequila and not something I do very often. The drinks and the music were taking the edge off of my worries. I grabbed Bram this time and headed for the floor. The music was pumping through me like it does when you’re at a
concert. Bram was an amazing dancer; he even made me feel as if I knew what I was doing. He had me up in the air, flinging me around, sliding down him as if we were on the cool version of
Dancing with the Stars
. I think the drinks had finally gotten to me because everything was starting to blur a bit. After another twirl I had decided I had enough and needed to pee.

“I need to run to the bathroom. I’ll be right back
,
” I told Bram
,
realizing I had no idea where the bathroom was.

“Hold up
,
Sadie, you’re not going alone. I will take you, but I’m going to have to go in with you
,
” Bram warned as he guided me through the group.

“You are not going in the bathroom with me. How would that even work anyway? No, I can run into the bathroom by myself. Better yet…” I motioned to Wendy and she pulled herself away from the table. “I’ll bring Wendy in with me, we’ll be fine
,
” I told Bram
,
but he didn’t seem so sure.

“Sebastian will kill me, literally
,
if anything at all happens to you so please be careful.” He hesitantly guided us to the bathrooms. I felt sorry for
him;
the look on his face showed how worried he was about letting us in there alone
, especially after what happened in the airport bathroom
.

“Bram don’t worry, we’ll be right back. It’s just a pee break
,
” I said to him as I walked towards the door.

“Get used to this. She has a bladder the size of a
walnut;
we’ll be doing this all night
,
” Wendy said to Bram, patting him on the shoulder as she followed me in the bathroom.

The bathroom was interesting. The whole room was painted black just like the club
,
with every line and seam outlined in neon. The mirrors ran the full length down the whole wall of the bathroom. The sinks were mirrored too so your reflection was head to toe.
Interesting
,
I thought,
were female Manduragos so vain they needed to see all of them… even when they washed their hands?

There were several stalls lining the opposite wall and then in the back was a small lounge area. Again with the lounge in the bathroom. Who thinks we women want to hang out on couches in a bathroom? I would guess that would be men because women know we really don’t do that, well
–
unless we’re drunk. I giggled to myself. I bet those couches have seen a lot of action in this place. Wendy and I both went into stalls. I could see Ludwik’s glimmer from underneath the stall doors and I knew he was standing guard for us. It felt so good to pee. Kind of like when you are in a long movie at the theater and you drank a giant drink. You need to go the whole time but don’t want to leave because you know something important will happen. Then when you finally do get to go it feels so good, but you pee forever. Well that’s what this felt like and I was glad to have gone.

I met Wendy out near the sinks and we washed our hands. Several of the women in the room smiled at us. One said hello and several just stared. I knew there was something up though, I could feel it in my gut
…
that nervous feeling I get before something bad happens. Then when Ludwik came and stood right behind us both, shielding us from something I knew we had trouble. He whispered in my ear furthest away from Wendy to hurry and leave. This worried me and I told Wendy we should go. She, on the other hand, had already drunk twice as much as I had and was having a little trouble getting her lipstick out of the tube.

“You don’t need lipstick, you look fine. Something’s up, I can feel it, we’ve
gotta
go
,
” I told her as quietly as I could, knowing full well that Manduragos had remarkable hearing, and the rest of the bathroom was probably overhearing our whole conversation.

“Leaving so soon
,
Princess Kali? I was hoping we could spend some time together
.
I am a tremendous fan of yours.” The words were said, but I wasn’t sure where they were coming from, then in front of me a woman materialized. She was as tall as I was, with long
,
red flowing hair and vibrant green eyes. She looked like a warrior, like someone out of a video game. She wore a chest plate of gold armor that went down over her hips, underneath she had a flowing green and gold skirt that looked like something from
I
D
ream of Jean
n
ie
. “You do not wish to stay and talk with me? I am saddened by this. I was hoping we could be friends. I have always been friends with the past women my
f
ather has married. Tell me, when are you giving up this Mandurago charade and coming to your real home with my father, King of the Draccos?” she asked while holding her massive spear at her side.

I quickly took my mental metal ski cap off and called to Sebastian.

I am in the restroom at
Azula
. Tell your men to get in here. Lars’ daughter is in here in full on
Xena
warrior style.

What are you doing in there alone?
Never mind
, I’m coming!

No you can’t, just tell Bram and Dante.

And I put my mental cap back on. I did this quickly while she was talking. I felt fairly safe with Ludwik next to us.

“You must be Lars
’
daughter? Thank you for the offer
,
but I am expected outside.” With that I turned to leave. Wendy crowded beside me trying to protect me from the red
-
headed warrior.

“You do not leave my presence unless I have dismissed you. Have you never been in court with a Princess? I am Talia, Princess of the Draccos
,
and you are to be our new
q
ueen. Bow to me and possibly I will let you leave.”

At that moment Ludwik let himself be seen. Wendy was shocked when he materialized next to us. You could see that she was relieved to see him, but worried at the same time. He grabbed both of our shoulders and started herding us to the door.

“I said you may not leave.” With that a lightning bolt came out of the end of her staff and the bathroom doors slammed shut. 

“You will bow or you will die
,
” Talia scolded.

From near the doors that had just slammed walked two Mandurago women. Both were very tall, with long, straight black hair and bright blue eyes. They looked as if they were Egyptian. The taller of the two took the lead and spoke. “She will not bow to you. She is to be our
q
ueen not yours, bitch.”

“This is not your battle, stay out or die.” She pointed her staff at them and they continued to walk forward. Ludwik pushed us closer to the door. I could hear someone pounding now on the other side of them, trying to get in.

“This is more our battle than yours. The Kali Princess is to be our
q
ueen. You have no say as to what she does. You are a mere Dracco, you don’t even belong here. You need to leave, or we will make you.” With that more of the women in the bathroom grouped behind the two dark
-
haired women and started walking towards Talia. Ludwik rushed us faster, pushing us behind the women to protect us.

“You hide like a child among the women. You are not a princess; a real princess would stand up and fight me.”

“She needs not to fight you, you are nothing to us. Leave now or you will wish you had.” I was seriously beginning to like this woman. She definitely was going to be invited to the binding.

“I will leave when I am ready to leave.”

“You will leave now!” Growled the women as the door flew open and Bram, Dante and Dario rushed in at the speed of light. The shorter of the two dark
-
haired Mandurago women flew at Talia in a fit of rage. Ludwik rushed us out of the bathroom as all hell broke loose. I could still hear the commotion as we
were
pulled through the club. Following behind us was Bram and the taller
,
dark
-
haired woman from the bathroom. We
began to breathe easier as we neared the front doors to the club.