Eros' point of view
The sun was setting, throwing dark shadows as well as a lovely pinkish red shade over the enormous pool. Residents of the Palace were retiring to their homes after a long leisurely day of swimming, reading and just enjoying the nice weather. It was unseasonable warm for May and many of the woman were in bright sundresses, old-timely stray hats on their grey hair.
Looking at the pool, the tall yellow building, the pond with the small fountain in the middle, spraying water – I couldn't help but feeling I was about to start a relaxing vacation. Instead, I was here at the Palace in Weston to find out more about Benjamin Foul. His name alone made me want to gag. I was fairly certain he wouldn't be here, that he hadn't shown his face ever since losing his powers, but I still hoped to find out something, anything from the people here that had known him. The staff, the residents, anyone.
"Hello there, handsome."
I glanced next to me and saw a tiny little woman standing there, her back bent from old age, a walking stick in her hands.
"Would you mind walking me to the elevator? I'm having such a hard time moving around there says, even when the weather is hot like it is today." She babbled on about how the warmth used to ease her rheumatism as I escorted her inside. She thanked me with a smile and a kiss, her leathery lips brushing my cheek.
"Do all women love you?" I heard someone say behind me. "Or is it just the grannies?"
I turned around to see a pretty waitress with dark hair looking at me. With a shock, I realized I knew her. "Calliope," I breathed. This had been the waitress Benjamin had made me compel when he had visited him. I remembered her cowering under a table before Ben pulled her up and pushed her into my arms so I could control her mind.
She frowned. "Have we met before?"
Of course she wouldn't know who I was. After all, I had erased all memories of that evening from her mind. Back when I still had my powers. Before Demona took them from me to protect me.
"I'm a friend of Ben's," I lied. "Benjamin Foul. He used to live here."
"Oh, Ben!" her face lit up. She obviously didn't remember how awful her had been to her. To all women, really. "Of course I remember him. He's been gone for a while though, moved out with his mother without telling anyone."
I grunted. Another dead end, or so it seemed. "I'm looking for him, but he didn't leave an address or a phone number. You wouldn't happen to know someone who could point me in the right direction?"
Calliope frowned and shook her head, her ponytail bouncing down her back. "I don't think so, although... If anyone would know, it would be Nancy."
"And where can I find her?" My heart was racing, my stomach turning. I hadn't talked to Calliope nor Nancy the last time I'd come her, looking for Ben. Hopefully, I'd have more luck this time.
The girl motioned for me to follow her into the dining hall, where dinner was just winding down. It seemed most people had been eating outside, since there weren't many tables occupied.
"Nancy is the girl in the back, clearing the tables," Calliope told me. "She and Ben used to date, I think, although it was always hard to tell with Ben, how serious he really was about a girl. Nancy was devastated when he left." She have me a hard look. "Please don't upset her."
"Of course not." Despite my promise, I knew I would do whatever it took to get information on Ben. I'd threaten her if I had to, but for now I'd start by talking to her. Maybe bust out my rusty moves and charm some answers out of her.
"Nancy?"
Her head snapped up when she heard her name. "Yes? Are you the new waiter? You're late." She pushed a plate into my hands. "We'll get you some decent clothes in a minute. First help me get this done."
"I'm not-"
She wasn't listening anymore, pushing me aside and handing me more dirty dishes so she could wipe down the table with the yellow cloth she was holding. Her white blouse was slightly stained with sweet – she must have been working all day and in this heat... No wonder she was grumpy. Still, I had no trouble seeing why Ben had dated her. She was stunning. Long legs, tiny waist, big breasts that spilled out of her red bra that was slightly showing through her blouse and luscious blonde hair that was pulled back by a black hairclip. To top all that, she had bright green eyes and lips painted so red it was hard not to stare at them.
She caught me staring at her and scowled. I shook myself back into awareness, hating that I still could see such things as beauty in other girls. My own girlfriend was in a coma, for crying out loud. And here I was, staring at another woman's lips. Not that I desired her in any way, but still. It was bad enough for me to notice these things, to think about her breasts, her hair, her figure.
I was truly a horrible person. Not a single inch of me had ever deserved Demona and with every day that passed without her by my side, I discovered just how awful I truly was. How crazy she must have been for loving me. For sacrificing herself for me.
"Come on," Nancy snapped.
I followed her to the back of the dining hall and into the spacious kitchen where the staff was starting to clean up and load the dishwashers. I rinsed off the dishes I was holding and handed them to Nancy to put in the right places.
"What's your name again?" Nancy asked, taking me to an adjacent room that was filled with clothes. Aprons, jackets, blouses... Everything with the Palace emblem on it: a golden arch.
"Eros," I told her. "And I'm not a waiter. I'm actually here to ask you something."
"Not a waiter?" She threw down the shirt she'd just picked up for me. "Seriously? And you waited this long to tell me? What could you possible want to ask me?"
"Maybe we could sit down somewhere, have a drink?"
"You're not asking me out, are you?" She looked me up and down. "Although if you are, I might as well say yes. It's not like I'm seeing anyone."
My mind was working very hard to find the best approach. She seemed like a tough nut to crack and if Calliope had been right about her missing Ben, it might not be smart to start talking about him right away. Having a drink with her, getting her to unwind... That was probably my best bet and to be fair, butting up girls was my area of expertise. Even without my powers, I felt certain I could still charm the pants off this girl if I wanted to.
"My grandmother lives here," I said, waving a lie that would work. "And I've seen you around a few times. You're by far the prettiest girl that works here. Maybe even the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. I'm glad to hear that you're no seeing anyone..." I winked at her, hoping I wasn't laying it on too thick. It had been a while since I'd deliberately flirted with anyone but Demona. "To answer your question: I'm certainly asking you out."
Her sullen expression turned into a small smile. "How about tomorrow. I'm not working in the afternoon, so we could have our date then."
"And wait another day to see you?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. "That would be torture. How about right now?"
"I'm so gross right now," she complained, "I've been working all day and I still have half an hour to go."
Moving closer to her, I touched her arm. "You look like a beautiful blonde goddess to me, Nancy. How about I help you clear those last tables so you can duck out early. Let me buy you a drink."
She considered for a moment, but I knew the moment I said it that she would buckle. Girls liked it when you used their name, made it seems like you knew them already, paid them compliments. At least, most girls did. I remembered all to well how long it had taken me to charm Demona. How she had scowled and rolled her eyes at me. How she had resisted the pull we both felt.
In a matter of twenty minutes, Nancy and I were at the bar in the Palace, enjoying our drinks. A sex on the beach for her – she'd winked at me before ordering – and a coke for me. I wasn't going to break my promise to Demona again, not after what had happened the last time I'd had alcohol. I wasn't about to end up on the roof of the Palace, ready to jump.
"How come a beautiful girl like yourself is still single?" I asked, touching her arm again. It look everything I had not to recoil, not to give in to the guilty feeling inside that was yelling cheater!
Nancy sighed. "Guys are pigs," she said. "They cheat and dump you and still managed to talk you into bed later. If you're like that, you might as well leave right now. I'm not dating fuckboys anymore."
"What's his name and where does he live?" I asked, leaning forward and whispering the next words so softly she had to move even closer to hear me. "Say the word and I will make him pay."
I was a risk – a lot of girls would run away screaming at the threat of violence – but Nancy's smile told me all I needed to know. My first impression of her had been correct: she liked men who fought for her. She had been in love with Ben, after all, so it was an easy guess that she liked men that were forceful.
"I'm not sure where Ben is these days," she told me, "so even if I wanted to, I couldn't set you lose on him"
Crap, I thought to myself, another dead end after all.
"He left you?" I asked, wanting to make sure she really didn't have a clue where he was.
"I don't really feel like talking about him." She took a large gulp of her drink. "He was an asshole."
"But you loved him anyway."
We looked at each other in silence for a long time. I wasn't sure what she was looking for in my eyes, so I tried to appear as neutral as possible. After a long, intense moment, she smiled sadly and pulled her hair out of its clasp, running her hands through it.
"He was so charming, so handsome, so wonderful. He used to work here, you know, he was part of the entertainment crew. He played piano, guitar, he sang... He gave some dance classes too and I think he worked as a bartender sometimes. We met here, a year ago, I think, when I started working here. He used to live in the Palace with his mother. I never saw her, he was fiercely protective of her. I think she was sick or something."
I remained silent, hoping she'd tell me more.
"I fell in love with him and I thought he liked me as well." She closed her eyes for a moment. "When he left, I was devastated. But then... it turned out he'd been getting around. A lot of the girls around here were devastated when he left. He slept with over half the female staff, I think. And a lot of daughters and granddaughters of the residents in here. Everyone between the age of twenty and thirty was fair game, or so it seems."
"That's awful." I tucked a strand of golden hair behind her air and put my hand against her cheek. "Did you ever get to tell him how you felt? How angry you were at him?"
She leaned into my tough and looked straight at me, though it seemed she wasn't truly seeing me. She was remembering Ben, I was sure of it. The way he'd looked at her. Maybe he had touched her like I was and she was seeing his blue eyes and blonde hair instead of my darker features.
"That's the most awful part," she whispered. "I saw him a few weeks ago, in Eros lounge. You know, the gay bar in Miami." Her eyes widened suddenly. "Hey – didn't you say your name is Eros too? What a weird coincidence."
"Yeah," I said through gritted teeth. I couldn't have her distracted right now. She had seen him! And now months ago, but mere weeks ago. "You were saying...?"
She blinked. "Oh, yeah, I saw Ben about two weeks ago, I think. He was in Eros Lounge, taking to some girl. I was there with my brother – he's gay, you see, just came out of the closet, so he likes me to go with him when he goes out. He's not comfortable yet, it's really cute to see how he gets around cute guys."
For crying out loud! I wanted to yell at her. I don't give a crap about you or your gay brother. I just want to know about Ben. It took all my self-control to keep smiling at her.
"Did you talk to him?" I asked Nancy, trying not to sound too obsessed.
Her face fell. She had been smiling when she talked about her brother, but sadness overtook her now. "I did. In fact, I slept with him. Again. I didn't even tell him how he'd hurt me, how mad I was. I don't know how he did it, but he always has that effect on me. Whatever I plan to say to him, whatever I want to do, I always end up sleeping with him instead."
Mind control will do that to you, I wanted to tell her.
"Sometimes I wish I could forget about him. Just forget I ever knew him."
Part of me wished I could do that for her. A few months ago, I could have. Right now, Demona's fragile body held the powers to do that for her.
"Maybe you still could," I told her. "You deserve some closure. Let's call him right now."
She shook her head. "He changed his number."
"Maybe that girl he was talking to in Eros Lounge has his number." There was no way I was going to drop this. Not when I was this close. "Would you recognize her if you saw her?"
Nancy blinked in surprise. "Yeah, I think so, but-"
I got up and offered her my hand. "I feel like dancing anyway and we might as well do it as Eros Lounge. Come on, Nancy. Let's go get that number and give Ben a piece of your mind."
***
Eros Lounge was exactly the way I remembered it: packed with sweaty bodies moving against each other to the beat. Above our heads was the glass ceiling I remembered. As I looked up, I once again realized that surely there must be spells keeping it from cracking under the weight of all the people that were dancing about our heads.
"I never go up there," Nancy yelled in my ear. "I don't think girls realize that we can look right up their skirts from down here."
Part of me wanted me to tell her that some girl might be up there for that reason alone, because they liked it, because they liked to truly cut lose when they went out. I didn't because I didn't want her thinking I was some pervert. I needed her to like me at least until I got what I wanted: Ben's phone number.
"It's magical, isn't it?" Nancy asked me, looking around us in wonder.
Magical. The word made me remember being here with Demona, Dylan and Carl. Ben had said the same thing. In fact, I think he'd even confirmed our suspicions that the ceiling was enchanted. Hadn't he told us that a witch co-owned the Lounge? Maybe that was who he had been talking to. It seemed strange for Ben to go here just because he needed a drink or wanted to get laid. Surely he would have been here for an important reason. He had been on the run for months now. He wouldn't come back to a place he knew I'd be looking for him without getting something vital out of it.
"Do you know who owns this place?" I asked Nancy. When she didn't respond, I realized I needed to talk louder. I had gotten too used to Demona's supernatural hearing.
When Nancy finally heard me, she nodded. I insisted we should meet him, so she grabbed my hand and pulled me to a bar in the far corner. I wanted to break free form her grasp, but that would be weird. She needed to keep believing I liked her.
"There!" She yelled, pointing at a guy behind the bar. "That's Terry."
I used my vampire sight to take a closer look at him. He was pouring drinks while chatting to a girl that was laughing at whatever he was saying.
"That girl," I yelled. "Is that his girlfriend?"
Nancy moved closed and gasped. "I don't know, but that's the girl that Benjamin was talking to!"
***
Poor Nancy.
After finding the girl, it had been a piece of cake to get Ben's number. I'd let Nancy do all the talking for me, since I was sure that Terry guy would never give me his number. Not if he was helping Ben somehow. He would surely know who I was the moment he heard my name. His girlfriend, however, gave Ben's number to Nancy easily, sympathizing with her.
The moment I heard Ben's number, I texted it to Simon and took off. I didn't even say goodbye to Nancy. I didn't want to be there another second, since memories of kissing Demona on the dancefloor were killing me. She'd been so vibrant that night, so alive. We'd both been drunk and we'd kissed and felt each other up only a few feet from where I'd Nancy was talking to Terry and his girlfriend. I'd give everything I had to go back to that night.
So year, poor Nancy. She now had Ben's number – who would probably not even pick up – and the guy being so nice to her all night was gone without another word.
Part of me felt bad for her, but I was too excited about getting Ben's number to truly care. I was heading home, to my girl. And finally, I had a lead. It was only a number, but it was better than nothing.