The Pale: Volume One, Jacob Long [best beach reads TXT] 📗

Of course, she figured that must be what’s in there. How could she have been so stupid as to take that pill? Oh well, a gambler has to lose sometimes.

Davy said something, but to Téa, it sounded like he was underwater.

“What?” she asked, holding her head.

“I said, are you all right?”

“Ugh,” Téa tried again to shake the cobwebs out of her skull. “No. I . . . I don’t think so. Are you sure that was a Valium?”

“Yeah,” Davy answered. “Well, mostly. It was like a knock off, but it’s supposed to be the same thing.”

Téa had started sweating and nearly toppled off her stool. Luckily, Davy caught her in his arms and pushed her upright. He looked around furtively. It seemed that no one had noticed this girl was falling out on him. He started to panic. He didn’t know what was wrong with her, but he knew he had to get her out of there before someone noticed.

“All right,” Davy whispered, pressing his lips close to Téa’s ear. “Stay with me. Don’t go doing anything stupid like passing out. Let’s get you out of here. I can get you someplace safe.”

Téa could hardly hear him and barely knew where she was anyway. Breathing was becoming a complicated task.

Davy hooked one of Téa’s arms over his shoulder and tried to carry her as inconspicuously as possible. Luckily, her feet were still moving. As he motivated her forward, her legs caught her weight almost autonomously.

Davy guided her away from the bar and around the dance floor. The reveling people were too busy with their dancing and drinking. No one seemed to be paying any attention, so Davy reached the iron stairwell that led up to the overlooking office without any trouble. He had to get the girl into Rick’s office. Rick owned the place and owed Davy’s brother more than a few favors. He could hide the bitch there.

Getting Téa up the stairs was a chore, but she was mostly cooperative. “Just keep walking,” Davy told her. “You’re doing good.”

Davy reached the top of the stairs, where Warren, Rick’s bodyguard, was standing outside the door to the office. Warren was a big old white guy in a gray suit, with broad shoulders and the kind of haircut a man looking to be tough would have. Davy wasn’t worried about him. He knew not to do anything that would upset Davy’s brother.

Warren’s face scrunched up at the sight of Davy dragging another half-awake girl up the stairs. The first time he’d seen Davy do it, the doorman had no intention of letting the boy into the office, but then the brat wanted to talk to Rick. Once he had Rick, he said some crap about his brother, and then Rick made Warren let him in. Every time Davy was in there with a girl, Warren just avoided the office. He didn’t want to know what was going on in there. Out of sight, out of mind.

Begrudgingly, the bodyguard stood to the side and opened the door for Davy to go through.

Rick, the bar owner, looked up from his desk to see Davy basically carrying some girl into his office, again. He was too old to be putting up with Davy’s shenanigans. Rick had worked hard for all he had in his middling age. He would have been enjoying his life if it weren’t for Davy’s brother and his thugs constantly putting pressure on him. Having to indulge Davy’s twisted fantasies was just a footnote in a whole library of degrading things Rick had to endure.

“Jesus, Davy,” Rick said in his gravelly voice. “How many is this now? You can’t keep doing this. You’re gonna get in trouble, and you’re gonna drag me down with you.”

Rick had renovated the office into a nice place. He replaced the old windows that looked down over the floor with thicker soundproof ones and renovated the interior with expensive carpeting and furniture. The room still vibrated with each bass note of the powerful speakers, but Rick had done a great deal to make the place comfortable. That’s why Davy kept coming back when he actually did roofie some poor girl.

“It’s not like that this time, man!” Davy decried as he let Téa fall into one of the couches. “I just gave her a valium. It wasn’t nothing weird. Now, I don’t know, she’s just dying on me or something!”

Rick shook his head and waved his hands as he stood from behind his desk. “Oh no. Oh, hell no! You did not bring this girl up here so she could OD in my office. Hell no. That’s where I draw the line. Get her the fuck out of here!”

Davy turned and stood up to Rick despite the kid’s clear size disadvantage. “Hey, man, fuck you! You have to help me here! I don’t know what to do!”

“You call an ambulance, and you move her outside!”

“I can’t do that! Then everyone would know I gave her the drugs! What if she doesn’t die? She can ID me!”

“Not my problem. You move her now!”

Davy wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Okay! All right! Let’s just . . . chill out. Okay? She’ll probably be fine. She’s not gonna die. Look, she’s breathing. She’ll probably be fine. She just needs to rest in here for a little bit.”

Rick looked over at Téa. Her chest was moving with each weak respiration. When he turned back to Davy, he stabbed a meaty finger in the kid’s face and said, “I’m gonna go out back and smoke. I don’t see anything. But when I get back, she better be gone, Davy, or I swear to God, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Without another word, Rick turned and left the room.

Alone in the room with Téa, Davy mocked the bar owner’s gruff voice. “I swear to God, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

He looked at Téa’s unconscious form, worrying over what he was going to do. He didn’t know if she was just having some sort of reaction or what. He didn’t mean for it to happen, not that time. Maybe he just gave her the wrong pill. He paced nervously around the room, looking at Téa. Just looking. She was actually kind of beautiful. Davy didn’t think so much at first, but she looked so serene lying on the couch. She looked peaceful, like a dolled-up angel.

Davy hesitated in his pacing. Téa was very thin, her breasts were nearly nonexistent, and her face was kind of boyish, but . . . there was a brand of beauty to be seen.

Davy glanced at the door, and he sneered at Rick’s idle threat. “What is he really going to do? He wouldn’t hurt me. He’d just piss off my brother. That would be the last mistake he ever made. Nah. That prick isn’t going to do anything.”

Davy didn’t have anything in mind when he took Téa up to the office, but she was right there, beautiful and vulnerable. Davy felt a stirring he couldn’t ignore. It drove him forward. He moved to the couch where Téa rested and leaned over her. He studied her face like a piece of art, appreciating every line and pore. He admired the dainty curve of her jaw and the milky white of her skin. He brought his face so close that he could smell her. She had a pleasant smell. It was some perfume, like gentle prairie flowers. It could only be smelled if one got close. It gave Davy a rush, so he dared closer. He touched his lips to Téa’s cheek. He loved touching his lips to women’s skin. Something about it was just so pleasurable and made him feel blessed.

When he pulled away, Davy did so slowly and tenderly. His breathing had become heavier. His eyes explored Téa’s slight frame. Her body was a playground of taboo delights waiting to be explored. He didn’t want to hurt her. Nothing he wanted would hurt her. He just wanted to touch. Like her breasts. The modest slopes called to him from under her tight shirt, begging for the touch of his hand. Not bothering to resist, he reached out and grasped the left, giving it a firm squeeze.

Téa stirred slightly and uttered a light moan.

Davy pulled the errant hand away and covered his grinning mouth, holding back a gasp. She liked it. God, she wanted more. Davy was so excited, and his pants were getting tighter. When he reached for her again, his hand trembled with nervous excitement.

Adam had watched while Téa accepted the pill from that kid. He saw as she became disoriented and nearly collapsed out of her chair. He’d wanted to intervene. The first thought that crossed his mind was breaking the kid’s arm and taking Téa away with him. Her car was probably outside, and she might even still live in the same place, but that would cause a scene, and he’d already drawn too much attention. People would ask questions about the girl, and about him. People think he’s dead and he couldn’t have a spectacle made of him. It was no matter. He could just wait until the kid got her outside. He couldn’t very well do anything to Téa in the middle of the dance floor.

Adam was working himself into a rage. The thought of someone doing that to Téa boiled his blood. Already Téa didn’t have an easy life. Between her crippling awkwardness and introversion, her small frame and passive personality, she was already so vulnerable. And there was that kid taking advantage of her like a predator. A real monster. Unlucky for him that Adam had been brought back to earth to hunt monsters.

To Adam’s surprise and vexation, the kid did not take Téa outside where Adam could introduce the fiend to his own vulnerability. Instead, the kid led her up the iron stairwell toward the office at the top. After a brief exchange with the doorman, he was allowed inside. Adam sneered. That made things considerably more complicated. Why was he let in there? What’s he going to do? Maybe he really was trying to help her.

Adam shook his head.

Idiot.

He ran his hand through his hair and huffed out a big sigh. He was hesitating. He was stuck. Going up there involved risking so much, but how could he possibly leave Téa to suffer whatever she was being subjected to in that office? He would have to get past the doorman, and he knew that would be difficult. Like most bouncers and security, that doorman was large. He definitely hit the weights at the gym more than Adam ever had. If it turned violent, which it very well could, Adam didn’t know if he could take the gorilla. His brain and heart conflicted with urges to go and stay. Fear held him back while his conviction urged him to action.

Adam looked up at the doorman once again. The man squeezed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as he slowly descended the steps. He moseyed away from the office and leaned against the rail, shaking his head. To Adam, this looked to be a man amenable to the idea of putting a stop to whatever crime was being committed in that office. Maybe there was a path of lesser resistance.

Adam stood from his booth and started making his way through the crowd. His eyes were fixed on his destination. His one hope was the doorman and his attack of conscience.

Suddenly, the door to the office opened again. An older man wearing a snazzy shirt stepped out, and he too looked to be cursed with a terminal case of old man strength. His body language indicated questioning. The doorman stood upright and responded apologetically. This development prompted Adam to stop in his crusade toward the stairs and observe. Anything could happen. He didn’t know if he could muscle past the both of them or if the snazzy man could be reasoned with as well, but it began to look more and more like the only way out was through. He didn’t know if he could pull it off, even with whatever super power he’d gained devouring the fraction of that young cop’s soul.

To Adam’s great relief, the conversation ended. The doorman apparently acquiesced to whatever the snazzy man had been telling him, and they were going their separate ways. The snazzy man pulled out a pack of cigarettes and popped one in between his lips as he descended the stairs. Then he rounded the foot of the stairs and walked underneath. There was a back entrance to the club. That was good. Adam would probably have to carry Téa out, and it would be a lot easier that way. No alarm went off when the snazzy man opened the back exit, so Adam’s hopes continued to grow. He had options.

The situation was improving all the time, and Adam was motivated into action. He didn’t have a lot of time, so he began maneuvering his way through the crowd once again. He slipped through where he could, but he was not averse to pushing people out of the way. He’d force a