Since it is so early in the afternoon the club is empty of drunken fools and the music that we usually have blasting through the speakers has been replaced by music that Azriel had clearly picked, but it does nothing to bother me as I walk deeper into the first room just to open the second door and walk into the back room. Unlike most clubs, this one was made and ran by Supernatural beings. Of course that does not mean that Humans are not able to step foot inside, but it does mean that we run things differently than most.
Instead of having only one room where we all cram together to dance and preform while guests drink. We have multiple rooms and each is made with a different genre and theme making it more exotic. The first main room that everyone walks through to get to another room, is called Boss. It is where we sell most of our alcohol and where a few of our women dance for the men on the stage, on the poles, sometimes they even dance on the bar for more excitement. The walls are a deep brown nearly red, the floors are not a brown but a deep redwood, the bar is the largest we have in any of the rooms with a long row of black and red barstools to match. All around the large stage and each of the smaller stages that connect to it there are leather chairs and tables for those that wish to dine and watch the girls.
The second room is nearly the complete opposite of the first. Where it had a slightly comforting feeling to it, the second room is built for more upbeat dancing, hence why it had been named Grind. Instead of brown and red, the room had been painted to look like a brick wall off the side of the building with each of the workers names on the walls graffitied with different colors of paint. The floors are black with gold glitter embedded into it, there are stages put up for the dancers with golden poles in place of the normal silver. The long black and golden bar is our second largest with most of the harder drinks, black barstools with golden cushions, and an extra smaller bar built towards the back of the room. It is one of our more popular rooms out of them all.
Our third room is called Jazz, and from the name anyone should be able to guess that it is full of jazz dancers and music. The bar is large but not overly so, the barstools a deep gray with orange cushions, the walls are all made up of soft orange with many soft yellow and blue waves on it, and unlike the other rooms there are not any stages or poles where only the workers dance. Everyone dances with each other instead of just watching.
Our forth room is called Scream and it was made for anyone that prefers alternative to all of the other things we play. The room is large, but because of how large each of the speakers are there is not as much room as there could be. There is a stage for dancers to preform, and a few scattered throughout the room for those that wish to make their own money. The bar is large, but because of the people that come in we usually only sell soda and food unless they can show us an ID that states their real age.
Our fifth room is not one that many clubs have unless they are on the expensive side of town and full of honest business men. It is called The Mermaid because we never dance on poles, grind on each other, or bang our heads. No in this room we use aerial fabric dancing to grab the attention of our customers. Out of all of the rooms it has to be a favorite for everyone, even the alternative adrenaline infested teenagers stop to watch when they pass by. Instead of the room being colored it is white, there is nothing in the room that holds color other than the dancers hair, the black leather chairs resting around the room, the tall black tables, sometimes the silk that is used to dance on, and whatever clothes the dancer at the time chooses to wear.
The last room in the club is the one Azriel had made into a changing room for each of his workers. The room had been so large that he was able to split it up equally, giving half to the men and the other half to the women. A few rooms are shared between them all but it is only done if they are comfortable with it. As for me, I had been given a room all to myself upstairs, it is not because I am what some may call 'his favorite' but because I was the one that had helped him build this place, and for a while I had lived in it with him. There are two whole floors above the club that we use to shelter any and all of our employees if they need or want to live here instead of across the city in an apartment or small house hidden hours away in the woods. There is even an infirmary ran by one of the very many people Az had saved that had became a doctor. The only reasons I am able to prepare myself for the night upstairs, is because it was my old room, and because Azriel does not wish for the others to see just how badly I have been hurt over the years.
When he had first found me I had scared him by screaming in my sleep, I had worried him by lashing out whenever touched by someone without knowing it was going to happen, and I had broken him by letting him see my scars. I have never been one to truly worry over my looks, especially my scars, but Azriel does not like taking the chances of others seeing them, not because he fears them making fun of me, which is part of it, but he does not wish to lose me by having someone recognize me. So he allows me to have my own room upstairs to change in. It is made clear that I am not to be touched by anyone in the club man or woman, and the time that I am preforming he allows me to not only wear whatever I wish to wear, but also uses a glamor to hide my scars because he knows that I never will.
My thoughts pull away from me as a large body of fur brushes against my side with a soft whine filling the air. I look down to Ala to see both of those beautiful eyes watching me as I stand in the middle of the hallway with my right hand wrapped around my doors knob and my body resting less than an inch away from the wooden door. I stare at him for only a moment before I turn the knob and walk into the large room waiting for him to step into the room behind me before I close and lock the door then turn on the light. After being that mans lab rat for so many years I can walk through a pith black room without stumbling, but it is something that the others cannot do so I use the light to make it seem as if I am partially normal. Ala walks through the room to sit on his large bed and watch me as I walk to the closet to pull out a pair of hole infested black skinny jeans, a blood red crop top that says 'Bite Me' across the breasts, and one of my leather jackets only to lay them on the bed and begin pulling off my house clothes.
Unlike the others working in the club I do all I can to hide my scent behind a wall of empty air, and to keep my power from the world around me. I am strong for my age, I am stronger than most Elders are in packs, and it has caused problems in the past so I had asked Azriel to teach me how to pull it in and hide it from those around me. After he taught me that he taught me everything else that I needed to know, including how to use my magic to change my hair color and appearance, and also how to change my eye color and it had worked until I tried to force my eyes to change. Whenever I try to hide my eye color, it only changes the color of my right eye, so I had decided to use contacts to hide my true eye color, and use my magic to change my hair. With my natural looks I do not need any sort of makeup, especially with the glamour Azriel uses to keep each of my scars hidden. I have an odd natural black that outlines my eyes like eyeliner, I have eyelashes that are so thick it looks as if they are already coated in mascara, my cheeks are hollow making it easy to see the sharp angles of my face, and from my pale tone I refuse to use any sort of foundation. So I do what anyone else would do and add a light layer of mascara then use liquid eyeliner to make the thick black wings on the corners of my eyes look more like eyeliner than an odd tattoo, and the moment I force my hair to fall along my back in a long black pony tail, I walk out of the room with Ala at my side once more.
He remains by my side as I walk back downstairs, never moving away or any closer as people pass us. His eyes remain forward as he walks, never once moving to take in the people that walk past us, he is to focused on me to even move out of anyones way, and the moment anyone gets to close to me he lets out a low growl only to move in between us, but never stops moving. Even when people greet him he only gives them a soft wag of his bushy tail, he even ignores the few hands that dare to touch him. After seeing him around for so long the workers are more comfortable around him, since he was a puppy he has been large and just as protective of me as Azriel is. Nobody in the club ever dares to mess with me when he is here even when he is nowhere around they leave me alone in fear of Azriel and each of the other workers.
In this club we are not just owners and our employees, we are family and nobody gets messed with without the others jumping in and tearing that person apart. "Lily my love, how are you?" My eyes move to the man on the bar allowing my false blue eyes to meet his false brown eyes. This man is one of the very few that I allow to touch me, yet even then he and Azriel think that I am alright with it because he is gay. He tells me all the time that I am one of the most gorgeous women that he has seen but he never tries to do anything to me or use me. The only thing he does do is talk to me or ask me to cuddle with him and have a movie night when he is feeling down.
"Hello Jamie." His brown eyes sparkle even brighter than before as I speak to him and I watch as he turns on the bar to watch me as I walk behind the bar to prepare for work.
"Hello Ala." I watch him bend over the bar so that his toned stomach lays flat against his thighs as he trails his long fingers along Alas large head. I begin to move behind the bar to prepare the drinks and take stock as I take him in. He is not as flamboyant as most of the gay men I have met, there are times where he wears bright colored skinny jeans with a dark shirt and a fluffy scarf wrapped loosely around his neck, but now he is wearing dark blue skinny jeans that hang low along his waist showing his boxers, his chest is bare but he wears a thin deep gray jacket over his arms, and his thick deep brown hair is cascading along his beautiful face to his sharp jaw making his sharp cheekbones seem even higher and more pronounced than usual. He is tall at a six foot four, his body is lean with muscles gently outlining his form, and even though he does not look it he could easily lay over half of the bouncers on their asses. "So are you dancing tonight or will you be serving?" Those brown eyes look up to meet my own, and even though they are not his usual golden yellow eyes they are still beautiful.
"Actually, I am going to have her dance for Rachel tonight." His eyes move just as quickly as my own do as Azriels deep voice fills the otherwise empty room.
"Is that so? Can she not make it?" Jamies plump pink lips fall into a frown making Azriel smile as he ruffles his deep brown hair making him shriek as he shoves the large mans hand away before frantically trying to fix his hair.
"I am having them switch tonight so Lily will not smell like booze by the time morning comes." Azriels deep gray eyes lift to my own as he tilts his head down but my eyes remain on the bottles in my hands as I push them onto the shelves where they belong.
"What happens in the morning?" Jamie looks to me with a furrowed brow as if he is ready to attack if need be making Ala lift his large body from the floor. Azriel pouts as he stands out of his crouched position in front of Ala and looks to Jamie with a smile and a soft shrug.
"Tomorrow is Lilys first day at the Gifted Academy." I can see Jamies body stiffen as Azriels words sink in, I can feel his eyes on me as if asking if I am alright with this but I remain silent.
The Gifted Academy is just as it sounds, it is a school for Supernatural beings of all sorts of species that hold enough power to either become an Elder or a leader. It is for those that already know how to use their magic, it is for them to become stronger for their Pack or Covens gain. The school itself had been built on the edge of the coast near the waters edge resting on a tall cliff surrounded by nothing but trees, and of course there is a large wall to keep any and all Humans out of where they do not belong. A few little rumors had spread that the school has a buddy system where the person we share our dorm with is our buddy or for better use of the word they are to be my partner. The one person I go to if I have questions or when we have to pair up for projects and of course, they do not separate the males from the females in the dorms, they believe that it would only cause a fight. They are also known for taking their students on trips that last up to a month long, they allow little to no contact with the outside world unless leaving is a must, and the one that I do not seem to understand is the money. In the schools facilities we do not use money but points to buy everything that we may need or want, and to gain points all one has to do is get good grades and act as they are expected to during class.
"Will you still be coming back to work on the week days?" Jamies large brown eyes stare into my own as he asks. The beautiful orbs are full of a loneliness that he should not yet feel.
"Of course." His loneliness is quick to shift to happiness at my words and I turn away as he begins to nod.
"What about Ala?" Azriel snorts and leans against the bar beside the large animal.
"It took a lot of explaining but they finally agreed to let her take him with her as long as he does not attack anyone. Also we will have to close early to get everything in your dorm before the school day starts." He tilts his head back as he speaks making his light blonde hair brush along his high cheekbones as he does so.
"Alright." I can see the way his eyes flash with concern at my answer, but I know he already knows that I refuse to sleep there. I refuse to share a room with anyone unless it is Azriel or Jamie, even the two men rarely ever see me sleep near them. But for me it is easy to stay up for weeks at a time, it is one of the many things I had been forced to learn in the mans hold.
"Alright then, I will open up early since we will be closing early." Jamie jumps to the floor to kiss my cheek before he begins to walk to Grind. "I will be there to help you move your things love." He waves at me as he turns around and I watch Azriel shake his head as he pushes himself off of the bar only to face me.
"I will not be able to keep a glamour on you while you are so far away, so please Lil, try to keep yourself hidden somehow."