The Ghosts

Chapter Six, Part One

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it matters. If my boss finds out I let some underage girl into his club I’ll get fired. So if she’s not twenty-one, she’s not coming in.”

Funny considering Gregori only turned twenty-one a few weeks ago. That was a fun birthday party. It was the first night I’d willingly let him crash on my couch and the only time I was brave enough to write on him with Sharpie which of course I paid for the next day and following week.  

Gregori raised an eyebrow. “She’s with me.”

The bouncer didn’t say anything else as he turned and headed into the club. There was a secondary guy sitting just inside the door and went outside as we came in. I guess he was the relief bouncer. If I thought the club was loud outside, I got a wake-up call when there was no longer four walls and a ceiling to hold in the sound. I seriously thought my eardrums were going to burst.

I followed him pretty well even though I thought I would lose him. But I just followed the direction of the warmth every time he dropped out of my line of sight.

The guys stopped at the bar to talk to the bartender. I don’t know what they said but he pointed off somewhere. The bouncer nodded and motioned for us to follow him. I hesitated as the mark on my inner arm started to burn just a little.

“Geo.” I looked at Gregori and he raised his eyebrows. “Let’s go.”

“I’m not supposed to be here.”

There was only one reason why my mark would burn and there was only one person I knew who came to clubs. Gregori just took my hand and started towing me after the bouncer. We went through a doorway by the DJ booth and the burning went away.

“You ok?”

I just nodded and we continued on our way.

“The deals are going on back here,” the bouncer said quietly. “The night manager leases out the back room to them a couple nights of the week and gets a cut at the end of the night.”

This didn’t feel right. Why would he be purposely leading us into the tiger’s den? I squeezed Gregori’s hand, hoping he got the message. He did since he squeezed mine back only to let go, freeing up my hands for whatever was going to happen.

Anticipation started building up. I hadn’t had a good fight in a while. The bouncer opened the door and motioned for us to enter. Gregori went in without hesitating and I followed. Everything happened the way I thought it would. The bouncer grabbed me from behind, a hand slapping over my mouth so I couldn’t warn Gregori and the other pinned my arms to my sides.

I rolled my eyes, fairly annoyed and played helpless girl. I thrashed in all the right ways, tried to scream. The light flipped on and a good dozen beefy men stood in the room. That was about the time I realized I shouldn’t be playing around because this danger we were in was real. Gregori looked mildly surprised and glanced back at me.

“What is this?” He looked back at the men in front of him. “Are you seriously going to try…”

One of the men pulled out a gun. That was when real worry and real fear started to burn a path through me. Gregori may be good but he wasn’t bulletproof.

“So you’re Gregori Phillies.” A young black guy stepped forward. “You don’t look like much.” His eyes flicked to me. “And your little protégé. I’ve heard about the two of you.” His eyes stayed on me and like he was reading off a script I’d heard so many times I could recite it myself, he the next thing he said wasn’t unexpected. “The only Slayer Hybrid. You don’t look like much either.”