It was several days later when Cale approached Alex. He had waited for Gabe to leave before visiting Alex's apartment. He didn't care that Rile was still in her apartment. It would be useful to him.
"I want to learn more Earth dances," Cale told her.
"No," Alex answered.
Rile looked up from his sword. He slid the whetstone down the blade but didn't speak.
"Why not? You and Rile go dancing."
"You told him?" Alex glared at Rile.
"I didn't." Rile held up his hands in surrender. "Were you watching us, stalker?" Rile sounded happy to use Alex's term.
Cale flicked out his tongue at his youngest brother. "I guessed. Alex confirmed it."
"Fire truck. Cale, you are becoming sneaky and underhanded." Alex put her hands on her hips and tried to look stern.
"As long as you teach me more dancing." Cale smiled his easy smile at her.
"No."
"I'll go out and learn it on my own."
"Fire truck no."
"Your choice, Alex." Cale crossed his arms on his chest.
"Rile, do something." Alex flopped next to Rile on the couch.
"What do you suggest? Want me to wrestle him down and you tie him up?"
"Ick! Rile, suggest something helpful. What's dancing like on Olam?"
"Each clan has its own dancing patterns, either in a circle or a rectangle." Rile lifted his sword and examined the edge. "Boring."
Alex's gaze raked Cale up and down. "Okay. Country line dancing again. Not boring and no one on one. Rile, keep Gabe busy tonight."
"Why am I stuck with Mr. Perfect Eldest Son?" Rile fake-whined.
"You owe me," Cale said. "I'm always stuck with him."
"Cale, you feel that way about Gabe?" Alex looked at him in surprise.
"I want some fun, too," he replied. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Because you're a priest."
"I apprenticed with the priest one dry season. How many times do I have to say it?" Cale hissed in frustration.
Alex bumped shoulders with Rile. "It's so easy to yank his chain about that, isn't it?"
Rile grinned at her. "Amusing, too."
"May we leave now? I'd like dinner first," Cale said.
Alex chewed her lip and evaluated him closely. "Aren't we becoming the pushy one as well as sneaky and underhanded? I think you need more apprenticing with another priest. The Portal Guardian better take y'all back soon."
Rile sheathed his sword. "I don't want to go back."
"This is not the time or place for that discussion," Cale said. "Keep Gabe busy while Alex and I leave."
Rile stood, picked up his staff, and twirled it. "One distraction coming up."
Alex and Cale watched him leave and then Alex timed on her watch.
"We'll use my back stoop," she said. "Express. Hold my hand."
Alex speed burst off the small landing off her back steps. She landed in front of a log cabin restaurant's wooden porch.
The sign proclaimed "BBQ". Cale walked up the wooden steps and touched a rocking chair.
"If you want the whole experience, we'll eat barbeque," Alex told Cale. "With our hands. It's supposed to be messy. We'll clean up before we go dancing."
He followed her inside the wooden building, through the wooden maze of the ordering line. His head turned this way and that as he took in the log plank ceiling, the scraped wooden floors, the large, lit menus on the wall blaring the selections. The smoky scent of barbecue was heady.
"Why don't we order a jumbo combo plate?" Alex suggested when they reached the food service area of the line. "Then you can try a little of everything. It comes with five sides and is meant for two."
"Sure, you decide," Cale said. "You'll know best what I should try."
Alex leaned over the counter glass toward the man with the meat cleaver. "Jumbo combo plate, please. Sausage, beef ribs, pulled pork, half chicken, please."
In response, his cleaver chopped the named meats in rapid succession and he slid them onto the large plastic tray.
Cale nodded in appreciation. The tray was handed off to a smiling girl with a hair net.
"Two fried okras, two sweet cornbreads, and potato salad," Alex told her. Alex told Cale, "I love okra and cornbread too much to share. Sorry, you'll have to try the baked beans and collard greens some other time."
"If they're that good, I want my own as well. Thank you."
The girl handed the tray over the gleaming steel counter. Cale took it before Alex could.
"Now, best Southern desserts are pecan pie and banana pudding, although a well made chess pie is a close behind. We'll have to wait for a Jazz brunch before I'll let you eat bread pudding. I don't trust a barbeque place. I hope we can order bananas foster sometime at a Jazz brunch. Heavenly." Alex picked up the stated pie and pudding and placed them on the tray.
Cale slid the tray to the checkout and beat Alex to paying for the meal. She narrowed her eyes at him and he smiled brilliantly at her until she grinned.
They sat at a table with a red checkered tablecloth. A girl with a bread basket expertly offered them choices of buns with her tongs.
"I love New Orleans," Alex said. "Eat, drink, fight, repeat."
"Dance, too. How many of the humans fight in other places on Earth?" Cale asked.
"Some of the bigger cities, more. Smaller cities, less. Use your fork to dump the pulled pork on the bun, but eat it with your hands." Alex demonstrated.
Cale followed her lead. "What sort of changes do you want to make?"
"Changes? Who said anything about changes?"
"Your music."
Alex rolled her eyes. "You listened, too? It's only music. I didn't write it. I listen to it. Don't take it so personally."
"Musical choices reflect the listener," Cale said and examined a forkful of okra.
"We're here to eat, not philosophize," Alex said. "Did you think I would listen to cheerful music? So it's a bit dark. So what? We're all here to fight evil. Yay for us. Try the okra. It's delicious. If you don't like it, I'll eat it."
"We're here to help each other as well."
"Eating, drinking, and dancing help me, so thank you. Philosophizing, not so much." Alex ducked her head and started on her okra.
"As you wish," Cale said. He popped the okra into his mouth. "Heavenly."
***
After a short speed burst, Cale and Alex landed behind a dumpster, one of her favorite hidden landing sites.
They walked around the sagging wooden fence around the dumpster area to a metal pole barn building.
A rusty metal sign over the doorway proclaimed "Boot Scootin'". A thin man clad in jeans, T-shirt, wide tooled leather belt, and cowboy hat, lounged at the entrance
Alex told Cale, "The dancing should be Achy Breaky Heart, Electric Slide, and the Cupid Shuffle. Do you remember them from last time? All are fun and uplifting and will help us. No soul wounding here." She tried to hand Cale money. "Give this to the man at the door, then place your arm around me and escort me inside. Keep your Stetson low."
Cale shook his head at the money. "I'll pay."
The cowboy at the door nodded curtly in approval at Cale's refusal of Alex's money. He took Cale's with laconic acceptance and Cale slipped his arm around Alex's waist, tipped his hat at the man, and steered Alex inside.
The music was loud but not deafening. There were a few empty tables around the wooden dance floor and Cale claimed one of them.
"Martini?" he asked. "Where is the bar in a place like this?"
"No martinis and I don't like beer that places like this serve. We're here to line dance. I'll pay the DJ to play Achy Breaky Heart, Electric Slide and Cupid Shuffle."
"I want to learn new ones, too."
Alex took his hand. "Let's go."
*****
By the Cupid Shuffle, Alex was laughing and Cale had the hang of several new dances. They sat at their table, drinking.
Cale sniffed his beer bottle before drinking, like he always did with new drinks. Alex grinned.
"We took the drinks directly from the bartender, so it shouldn't be doctored with date rape drug. Either finish it or throw it out if you leave it on the table during the next dance," she told him.
"Now for something new," the announcer said. "A request, folks. The wobble."
"Fire truck," Alex said. "We're out of here."
"Why?"
"Not music Gabe would approve of," Alex said. "We're out."
"It's not like he'll know. He doesn't control you. Or me."
Alex shook her head. "Hurry, before it starts."
Cale stood up and extended his hand. "Come with me or I'll dance on the dance floor without you."
"Fire truck, Cale." Alex shook her head.
Cale leaned over her and whispered in her ear, "Other people will be next to me. Close to me."
"Double truck, Cale." Alex took his hand.
The music and dancing started. Alex danced easily but Cale had more trouble mastering the moves. Alex's hips could twist and sway easily but a draconic pelvis had more limited mobility.
"This is what you're teaching Cale?" Gabe asked, a tower of disapproval suddenly looming over Alex.
Alex tripped and fell into Cale. "Seriously, Gabe, you need to learn to knock or something."
Cale steadied Alex. "Are you stalking us? How in creation did you find us?"
"I searched country line dancing on the internet."
"How did you know to do that?" Cale asked.
"I beat Rile at the staff and held him down until he told me," Gabe said. "Then Dr. Dewey helped me search on his computer. This was my fourth place to look."
"You are a stalker," Cale said. "Go away."
"I lead the clan and the team, not you. We're leaving."
"You heard the leader," Alex said. "Song's almost done anyway."
"You two go," Cale said. "I want to stay and watch."
Alex and Gabe regarded Cale with equally suspicious looks.
"What do you think, team leader?" Alex asked.
"I think not. I think Cale should tell us what he wants to watch." Gabe scanned the room.
Alex looked around as well. "Are we going to do this the easy way or the long, tortuous way, Cale?"
"I wanted to see if I could find who requested the wobble," Cale replied.
Alex fisted her hand and small sparks spat out. "Rile. Jerk."
"What difference does the wobble make?" Gabe continued to scan the room.
"That dance pattern was considerably different than the pattern normally danced here. You wouldn't have objected to the earlier patterns," Cale replied. "There." He tilted his head slightly toward a dark corner of the pole barn.
"I'll handle this," Alex said.
"No. I will," Gabe said.
"Perhaps I should," Cale said.
"Team approach," Gabe said. "Cale, cover the front exit. Alex, the rear."
They split up. Gabe headed toward his little brother like a steam train. Rile's gaze flicked to both exits, and, seeing them blocked, he grinned his impudent grin.
"Gabe, fancy meeting you here," he said. "Enjoying the dance routines?"
"Apparently I would have enjoyed the earlier ones," Gabe said.
"What is wrong with you?" Alex stomped up behind Rile. "Why are you always causing trouble between me and Gabe?"
"I didn't want him to show up and ruin the fun," Rile said. "I was hoping it would take him longer to find this place. I wanted to see if priest boy could dance something more interesting."
"Apprenticed to the priest. One dry season," Cale said as he joined them. "Also apprenticed with the healer one dry season."
"We're going home," Gabe said. "All of us."
"I'm not in the mood. I didn't dance yet," Rile said.
"Let's teach Alex our clan's dance patterns." Cale smiled at her and patted her sparking fist with care.
"There's no point. Move out," Gabe said.
Cale winced and Rile rolled his eyes at his brother's bald statement. Alex stepped away from him.
"What? He's right," Alex said when Cale and Rile looked at her. "As someone without a future, I'm dancing."
"Alex, don't," Gabe said.
"You gave the team the night off," Alex retreated further."Adios."
"As someone without a future on Olam, I'm accompanying you," Rile said. "Adios, bro's."
Alex shouldered through the crowd without difficulty and Rile sidled through it as well to keep up with her. He snatched her hand as soon as they hit the dance floor.
*****
After an hour of dancing, Rile followed when Alex slipped into the alley behind the bar, the music pounding the air.
"Why do you stay with my brother who is not the dancing type?"
Alex snorted. "Either you're a playboy and want a toy, or, Razz is right, and you want a life partner. I'm not either of those."
She stood up and plowed through the crowd to the exit, Rile right behind her.
***
A/N Dedicated to newest and very prolific reader