Page 27 (2/2)
"There’s a pack of the, not fully transformed, but a load of trouble, if you knohat Ihis head toward arded me "That sucks"
"Have you sensed them around here?" Eli asked "On the island?"
Ned shook his head "Been in Atlanta at a garinned "I created Urban Bloodsuckers," he said, waiting for aratulations," I said, and he shrugged
Eli and Ned exchanged few ood-bye, with Ned’s promise that he’d contact us if Seth or the others showed up on the island I felt skeptical--Ned seemed to be in his own little softorld despite the superpowers having been bitten by a va and prosper," Ned hollered from his front door as we climbed on the bike and left Eli explained over his shoulder, "He’s a big Trekky" I fully could see that--especially since he’d been around since before Captain Ja rain had begun just as we turned off of President Street and onto Bay, and we made it to the Panic Room just before the botto, the club was cons; the entrance was a plain set of haint blue double doors, and if you didn’t know of the Panic Room, you’d never have found it on your own It was sort of a word-of-ht in A lot of shit happened in the Panic Roos, sex, prostitution--but the owner’s attorney was a pit bull They’d already sued the city for a bust without probable cause and a warrant, and not only did the attorney rake in the dough because of it, but the incident hadthe Panic Roo the sidewalk and hurried to the entrance
"Who’s the big guy with the braid?" Eli leaned toward my ear and whispered
I turned into his neck and was surprised by the thrill that shot through me at the intimate closeness "Zetty’s in his midthirties, from Tibet He serves as the Panic Room’s resident doorman" Zetty, with a black braid that reached his waist, always dressed in traditional Tibetan clothing, with a long red yak-rap and black baggy pants tucked into a worn pair of shin-high leather boots "He was once a Shiva follower," I said "See the syod inked into his forehead?"
Eli looked down at htly colored squares of yellow and red adorned with dots that extended just down the bridge of his nose He wore round, brightly colored stone earrings and carried a traditional Tibetan knife in a multicolored, handwoven sheath secured across his chest "I’ve seen him use that knife, too, so don’t be stupid" No one fucked with Zetty
"Don’t worry," Eli said, and placed his hand to ed nition made his eyes shine It was the kind of look thatfeatures even scarier "Riley Poe What are you doing here?" he said in his heavy Tibetan accent, and grasped htly in front of aze to move from me to Eli Zetty frowned
"It’s okay," I said quietly to Eli, and placed my hand on his back "Zetty’s an old friend" I looked at the bouncer "Just here to hang out So how ya been, Zetty?" I asked
"Cannot complain," he answered, but his attention was now on Eli
"Good Nice seeing ya," I said, and tugged on Eli’s arm
Zetty turned his eyes on me "Stay out of the back roo there for you anyaze froh the sh another set of double doors that led into the club "He seeht the sa about you" I s at hiotten oes on in the back panic rooed "Except for once He pulledit Otherwise, he merely stays up front and keeps the peace"
"He knohat I am," Eli saidhe’d read Zetty’s mind, and to be honest, I wasn’t all that surprised Zetty had been sort of a rateful he liked me, for whatever reason
As we pushed into the crowd, the black walls and strobe lights sed us, and "The Raven and the Rose" by My Dying Bride slah ers pressed possessively to the bare skin of h a sea of smoke, black leather, silver spikes, and exotic makeup This part of the Panic Roo, the music, the drinks, and most of the people What I knew lay in the back rooether I’d experienced them, and I’d be a liar if I said it didn’t bother ainst h , but I already know," Eli said, histhe shell of my ear as he leaned close I turned and looked at hi, erotic His eyes were , and I was drawn to them Him I was drawn to him
"This is the easy part," I said, and I knew he understood that I meant where ere now "Kelter Phillips owns this place I kno to get in, kno to act And I know exactly what to do to be accepted back" Now I pushed my lips to Eli’s ear "You say the Arcoses are into the dark stuff, right? It’s where they’ll gather their freaky vampiric army?" I purposely pressed my mouth to Eli’s jaw "Then it’s this place they’ll coht without finding so out about my brother or those assholes that have hiaze withto have to back off, Eli, and trust me These aren’t vampires They’re people" I lifted my chin "I can da probably, then gave a begrudging single nod, and his eyes flared as they bored into mine I couldn’t tell whether he was iuided me to the bar; I ordered a shot of whiskey, and to lass and sed the fiery liquid, Eli watched, his gaze following the path of the whiskey as it slipped down er lit his eyes, and to say that the sensation it stirred withinme crazy, and I had to literally make a conscious effort not to put e into the seductive darkness of our surroundings; the s in their own right And I was an ex-junkie to it all