My Little Ventrue Pt. 04 Ch. 04

"Might not be the best thing, flirting with customers on my first day." Which wasn't true at all, from what Ganders told him. His job was to be attractive and stand around. And occasionally sit down.

"Well I know that's not true. Been coming here a lot longer than you have. Now come on, hang with us." Damn, she knew the club better than he did.

"... alright."

"Great." She gave him another buddy punch in the arm, and walked over to join her friends. A few words to them, and the redhead Fiona started laughing, before she peeked past her friend to look at him. And, she finger waved as she walked past. Seemed damn young to be coming to a club like this. Hell both the tiny women looked to be twenty.

But, as they walked past, he froze. The same feeling went through him, the same chill down his spine that his body responded to with enough adrenaline to kill an elephant. He could feel his heartbeat pick up as he caught the shy glances of the tiny girl in the suit, and feel his stomach brace for a fight as he caught the gold gaze of the redhead. The same thing, the same damn thing he felt when he looked at Jessy. No amount of ass swaying she did — and she had the ass of an athlete — managed to wash away the terror filling his guts.

That's what it was. It had to be that. Nothing else explained it. Terror. A cold, heavy, sinking feeling in his gut that weighed him to the floor. Something that ate away at him, paralyzed him, felt like parasites devouring him from the inside out.

He was afraid of these women. A real fear. The fear that bit at the skin when you were a child, turned off the lights in your basement, and scampered up the stairs before the hidden things in the blackness around you grabbed your ankle.

His mind shifted, and things he didn't understand began to click, perspectives falling into place. Everyone else, the other bouncers, the customers he wouldn't be surprised to find armed, the women who had the pepper spray and knife combo in their purses, they all just faded away. All of them were prey. These women, these three perfectly normal looking women were the predators.

Go talk to them? Hang out? Hell, if the Jessy woman was being serious, and it seemed like she was, more than talk. Maybe he could find out what was going on, why he was freaking out, why his heart was beating a million beats a second, and why every muscle in his body was getting ready for a fight.

He gulped, and followed them up the stairs. Up on the second floor, the music was quieter, barely, and the lighting was darker. Still red, with flashing white with the music, but not so seizure inducing. More booths, with people in them drinking and relaxing and talking. Fucking. Maybe not actively fucking, not really, but there was one man leaning back with his arms up onto the back of the booth, with a woman on each side of him, their hands doing something under the table the angle hid. Handjob, from two women, at the same time, and they kissed on the man's neck and lips as they pleasured him.

The sex play he'd expected, but Jessy came up to the stranger and said hi while her two friends found another booth, and that he did not expect. Jessy laughed a few times, asked the man if he was enjoying himself, quiet enough that Eric shouldn't have been able to hear. But he could. She said something about a ghoul, too. Called him a ghoul, maybe? He didn't catch the details, but whatever she said, the man nodded after, called Jessy 'Boss', and then leaned his head back to continue enjoying the touch of the two drunk girls in his booth.

More laughter, all from Jessy, who walked away from the man and rejoined her two friends. She slid into the booth, trapping the smallest girl in the center. Well, maybe trapped was the wrong word, as Natasha seemed far more comfortable having some walls between her and the rest of the club. No doubt they dragged her here, forcing her to get some socializing in. Friends could be real assholes.

Eric walked over to them, and stood beside the booth on Jessy's side. But, he maintained his posture as bouncer, eyes on the floor and looking for anything that needed his attention. There wasn't, but at least he was doing his job.

"Ladies," Jessy said, "this is Eric. New bouncer here at the club."

"H-Hello," Natasha said. Quiet voice, bit of a stutter. Yeap, a bit meek, like he thought. Didn't change the feeling in his gut about about her.

"Good evening!" Fiona said. Bright, bubbly, and with some form of Scottish accent. And as he smiled at the curvy little woman, he felt the cold rock in his stomach grow. There was something to her, something in there, something different than Natasha or Jessy. Something he couldn't put his finger on.

She was beautiful though.

"Good evening ladies."

Fiona giggled, and took a sip of something from her glass. The other two had no drinks.

"Jessy says ye're Eric?" The redhead took some time looking him up and down, and she squinted at him, as if she'd found ink on his shirt. No such ink was there, but the girl was looking at him anyway.

"I am," he said, doing his best to sound friendly. Her smile faded, and for a second he thought he failed miserably, but she didn't frown after like he'd expected. No, it was like the girl was looking at him as if she recognized him, as if she was trying to place him.

And, after a time, it was him who frowned. Which was apparently enough to snap her out of where her brain was taking her, make her sit up a little straighter, and redon her smile.

"Sorry. Thought I recognized ye," she said. "Want to sit with us?"

"Can't. Working."

Jessy rolled her eyes, but shrugged and leaned back in her booth. "You can't play hard to get to the point where you're literally impossible, you know. That's not how the game works."

Natasha gave her tall friend a small shove. Comical, considering how tiny the girl was. "Jessy! Stop... y-you know. I mean, Vincent, he's... he uh..."

"Getting a handjob from two strangers." The blond shrugged, gestured with a flick of her fingers to her Vincent buddy, and then elbowed the tiny girl beside her. "He's a ghoul, not my love. Sometimes I give the boys a week or two off, to do whatever, fucking other girls included."

"Aye, I can see that. He do anything to get them both on him like that?" Fiona said.

"What? Nah. Vincent's a sexy fucker; s'all you need for a fling. Same goes for you ya know."

The redhead raised her hands like she was praying to an ancient deity. "I'm trying! Just... other than a few weird run ins in back alleys, and I ken I told Damien they were... more exciting than I really got involved in, ye ken?"

Jessy laughed. "S'why we're here, right? Get you some dick, so your story to Damien won't be a lie anymore."

The tiny thing between them sighed and lowered her head until it was flat to the booth table. "I thought we c-came here to eat?"

"Ye two might be able to eat," Fiona said, "but I need different."

"How's that been going?"

Fiona's voice dropped to a whisper, and she leaned in toward her two friends. Jessy leaned in as well, until the three heads were all within an inch of each other. With the music to bury them, there was no way he'd hear their whispering anymore, a week ago. But now, as he looked down at the three women, these perfectly innocent looking women that had every instinct in his body flexed and demanding he respect their power, he could hear them. Bad idea to eavesdrop on these women, but then, he was never a smart man.

"Azamel's been helping a lot. I dinnae kill them anymore, and instead of gorging, I take a wee bite every few days. Vrall's nae used to being... deprived like this. This constant state of mild hunger is hard on her."

Ok, what? He raised a brow, and looked between the three women, but they paid him no mind. Whatever it was the Scot was talking about, Natasha and Jessy didn't seem to notice the words kill and gorging and bite. Hunger? Vrall? He didn't react, didn't let them know he was doing anything more than his job, standing around and looking pretty.

"What about this Eric p-person?" Natasha said. And in the corner of his eye, he caught her peeking past Jessy's leaning in head to glance at him. "He's a bouncer. M-Maybe he's... a big meanie you can punish?"

Fiona shook her head. "Does nae carry his-self like one. Vrall would recognize the signs. He looks like an asshole, but nae an abusive type."

"How about some sex then?" Jessy said. "He's got that hard, stern look going for him. Bad boy maybe, just waiting to have his hard heart melted by your soft touch. And his hard cock pampered by your soft tits."

Oh good fucking god. Every ounce of training he had stonewalling his wife went into action. He wasn't offended, but damn, this Jessy girl was shameless.

Fiona snorted on a laugh, peeked over Natasha's head at him, winked, and lowered her head back to their whispering circle. "Sound like ye want him?"

"I mean, sure maybe. But I'm getting a strange feeling from this guy. S'why I brought him up here," Jessy said. "I mean, other than him being sexy and very fuckable."

Fiona snorted again. A strange sound, but it made Eric smile. The juxtaposition of their words and the jovial tone was sending strange signals, like what they were talking about was fine and dandy.

"I am too," Natasha whispered. "I mean, c-curious about him. Could j-j-just be... an interesting g-guy?"

"Let's find out." Jessy raised her head from the whispering triumvirate, and slipped out of the booth. "I'm gonna grab a quick snack. Be back in five minutes. And you!" She got into his face, set both her hands against his chest, and leaned in. "Don't go anywhere."

Fiona and Natasha exchanged a few giggles as they watched Jessy walk down the stairway to the first floor. She made sure every step was exaggerated, so her toned ass, hugged by her barely existent skirt, swayed.

"Y-You... you're t-t-tough, to resist Jessy," the tiny one said.

"Yeah well, a rough divorce can do that to a man." Regretted it the moment he said it.

Both women made longing sighs, like a scene out of a romance comedy. He frowned, and made his own sigh, a disgruntled one. Didn't work. The two girls looked at him like he was a wounded puppy now, who needed some TLC. God damn it.

He raised a brow as four more people came up the stairs. Two men, two women.

The switch in his mind went off again.

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~~Author's Note~~

Damien will be taking a backseat from a main PoV for some time (perhaps permanently, depending on how the story unfolds), as I don't want to increase the total PoVs past 6. He'll still be an integral part of Dolareido, but as a main PoV, I felt he was limiting.