Caged View (6 page)

“You should come to the Bembe Hall with me
and the family on our goddess’s day.” Ray smoothed down the silk
collar of his hot-red shirt.

Ray had been beyond pissed at me. It took a
warm shower, two bottles of honey, and a
ground-cow-hoof-with-mayonnaise sandwich to calm him down.

“Let my Santero priest bless you,” Ray
added.

“I told you, I’m not interested.” I raised
my hands so the Earth Witch bouncer could check my body for weapons
or harmful spells.

The bouncer’s eyes illuminated to bright
green. His lips moved as he whispered a chant.

A current of cold magic sparked in the air.
Bright green lights swirled around my skin, stinking strongly of
mint. If I had anything illegal, like a dark curse or a knife with
a silver blade, my skin would shine red. The darker the shine, the
deadlier the weapon or spell.

“Go ahead,” the Earth Witch said with a hint
of disappointment. He was used to seeing me with no shirt on.
Tonight, I wore a powder-blue shirt with indigo jeans. He’d
probably assumed when I walked up to him with my chest covered that
I’d hid something under it.

Mixbreeds for Equality, or MFE as most Supes
called it, had been picketing the nightclub for weeks. Most places
had a few nights where Mixbreeds were allowed to enter, party, and
eat.

Club Metamorphosis hadn’t allowed Mixbreeds
to come in any night. In fact, there had been a big billboard sign
above the club with an X brand floating in blood.

The words above it read,
No Combo Trash
Permitted!

The picture had been disrespectful enough,
but adding the speciest term
Combo Trash
to refer to
Mixbreeds was what got me and my organization involved. As far as I
was concerned, they had not only crossed the line, they’d pulled
down their pants and taken a crap on it.

The Earth Witch checked Nona and Ray’s
forehead brands, saw that they were Purebloods, and waved them
through without checking them.

Figures.

“I’ve watched you fill with darkness in the
past few years,” Ray whispered as we entered the nightclub. “You
need to work on your spirituality. Clean up that gloom inside of
you.”

I grunted in response.

Nona trailed on my other side, smirking.

White laser lights sliced through the dark
club, blinking on and off our faces.

Zebra prints now coated every free space of
the wall. Soon, the club would change form, like a Shifter, into
another type of nightclub, and minutes later, it would change
again. No one but the witches that owned the place knew when,
where, or how it transformed into something else. It was just what
happened in Club Metamorphosis.

Hundreds of Mixbreeds crowded the dance
floor, rocking, jumping, and frantically swaying to the electric
beats.

MFE had been so persistent with our
picketing that the Witches immediately took down the sign and
opened the club to Mixbreeds on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Granted,
we’d gotten over two hundred Mixbreeds to picket. Surely, one of
the Witches had seen the possibility of more future, paying
customers.

Tonight was Club Metamorphosis’s Mixbreed
grand opening.

“Hey, Zulu.” A woman’s voice sounded at my
side.

I kept walking, without saying hello.

“
And I miss you, blue-eyed girl with the
curls.”
The Vamp singer York walked on the air, three feet
above the dance crowd, singing the lyrics.
“We were both from
two different worlds. But we held on!”

“We held on!” the crowd screamed. Many of
them jumped high to touch his feet.

“
We held on.”
He twirled in the
air.

Everybody screamed again. “We held on!”

I scanned the club, searching all of their
excited faces.

A strawberry-red-haired woman seductively
waved at me.

I peered around her.

“How long do we have to be here?” Ray
nervously gazed at the bar on the right.

“You don’t,” I corrected. “I do, to show
MFE’s presence.”

“Isn’t it enough that you got the club to
let Mixies in?” he asked.

“I didn’t do that. Lanore did.”

I’d actually thought the whole picketing
thing wouldn’t work. Holding signs and chanting crap? My plan was
to go in on one of their busiest nights, rip two of the owners’
heads off, and nail them to the offensive sign.

Lanore disagreed. She’d spent hours
cornering me in my office, holding open history books, and pointing
to this or that social movement. When I caved in, she thought it
was because of her arguments.

I leaned Nona’s way and asked, “You see
her?”

“No, mon, but me smell her coming from over
there.” She pointed far off to the right.

I shifted my eyes to black to get a better
view and headed that way.

Where are you, Lanore?

And then I spotted her.

My heart sped up to an erratic pace. My
cords vibrated on my arms. I knew that they glowed under the
shirt.

It was what always happened when she was
near.

Lanore swayed back and forth with the beat.
A strapless plum dress wrapped around her cinnamon body. The silky
material ended in the middle of her thighs but didn’t cover
everything. Her waist, tiny belly button, and the top of her ample
cleavage were exposed.

I licked my lips in anticipation, just happy
to be near her for a few hours.

She kept MFE and me out of the rest of her
life, never letting me take her home, and didn’t stay too long at
any of MFE’s social functions.

I grinned as she raised her hands and waved
them around. Amethyst gems hung from her ears and dangled all the
way to her shoulders. I’d slipped them in her jean satchel, without
a note, one night when she wasn’t looking.

“
And in this cage, behind these bars, I
think of you and me,”
York sang.
“And how we held
on.”

“We held on!”

Lanore jumped up and down, repeating the
lyrics with the rest of the crowd. She’d curled those long, black
dreadlocks tonight. They hung in spirals a little bit past her
shoulders and bounced with her movement.

I got closer and spotted Wallace, MFE’s
technical expert, jumping in front of her. He bobbed around like an
idiot, getting her full attention. His bushy red hair flopped up
and down as he twisted his hips. He wore a purple shirt with the
fictional superhero Captain Habitat covering the front, as usual.
His pale, splotchy fists pumped in the air.

She laughed, which motivated Wallace to act
even crazier.

He kneeled down and started flapping his
arms like he was flying.

She covered her mouth in clear
amusement.

He’s always fucking making her laugh.

My hands formed into tight fists. I couldn’t
do anything but stand back and bear it. She preached too much about
peace. I figured ripping off Wallace’s arm might turn her off.

“
Love whispers beyond the bars. It washes
the pain. No more scars.”

I glided by her, rubbed my arm against hers
as if there was just no space to maneuver through, and inhaled her
scent of lavender mixed with sweet cream.

Our eyes met within the blinking laser
lights.

And then the club shifted.

York disappeared.

Electric guitars drowned out the enchanted
organ until they were the only sounds rocking out every speaker.
The walls bulged out five feet toward the crowd, bubbled, and then
rippled, transforming zebra print to cheetah print within seconds.
The large circular bar that had been on the right side of the club
vanished and materialized in the center of the dance floor.

Three women wearing silver body suits and
wigs danced on a stage that appeared near the entrance.

“
No Daddy! No Papi!”
the women sung
into microphones in their hands.
“I don’t need you! I got
me!”

Supes roared with excitement.

The ground quaked, knocking a few people off
balance.

Lanore fell, her body slamming into
mine.

I seized her waist, relishing in her soft
warm skin.

“Thanks.” She scowled at me for a few
seconds and quickly climbed out of my arms.

No Hey, Zulu? Or How are you doing,
Zulu?

She walked away without glancing back over
her shoulder, the curve of her ass moving deliciously in that silky
dress.

I frowned.

I’m in trouble.

She headed to the bar, maneuvering around
gyrating couples.

A big circle opened up on her side. Two
Mixbreeds jumped in the middle and began having a dance off.
Everyone watched and cheered, except Lanore. She put her back to
the mini dance competition and leaned on the edge of the bar.

Not willing to take defeat, I moved in a
blur and appeared at her side, whispering in her ear, “What’s
wrong?”

She jumped when she saw me, and then rolled
her sexy brown eyes. She didn’t respond and, to make things worse,
she looked behind me as if I was invisible.

“Excuse me,” she said to a bartender with
silver and blue braids swinging around his bare shoulders. She
motioned with her hand for him to come over.

He came, twirling a white dish towel.

She got up on the tips of her toes and
whispered in his ear. He scrunched his face up at whatever she had
said, shrugged his shoulders, and laughed.

I tapped my fingers on the bar’s onyx
surface, struggling to draw in my jealousy.

I’ll give her a minute to explain why she’s
ignoring me. If she doesn’t, then I’ll drag her out of here.

He whispered something back to her.

She nodded and grinned.

And just when I was about to say fuck it and
break the bartender’s neck, she sat back down. The bartender dove
under the bar, searching for something, and then stood up, handing
her a pen.

She twisted my way and gave the object to
me. “Here’s a pen so the next time you want to write a message
about drugs, you won’t have to use someone’s heart.”

She slid off the stool and left the bar,
taking her scent with her.

Fuck me.

I thought I had a day or two before she
found out about Tango. I left the bar in a flash and arrived next
to her as she passed two girls fighting around one guy who stood in
the middle of them, beaming.

I put my lips close to Lanore’s ear. “You
disagree with my methods. Fine, but don’t ignore me.”

She stopped moving, got on her toes, and
whispered, “What are you going to do, rip my heart out?”

She walked off.

The music drowned out my growls.

“
Yes Mama, yes Mami!”
The three
singers ground into each other as they danced on the bar.
“I got
you! Come get me!”

The club shifted.

Cracks rushed down the walls. The cheetah
wallpaper exploded into tiny bits that disappeared before it
plummeted to the floor. Jade tile swallowed up the plush tan
carpet. Alligator skin emerged on the walls.

A rap song blasted through the DJ’s speakers
that appeared by the entrance, right as Lanore left.

I shouldn’t go after her. I should just stay
right here and take a willing woman home tonight.

There’d be plenty of eager women.

Sighing, I raced toward the front door as it
slammed behind her.

It took me less than half a second to find
her. Those heels beat against the pavement as she stomped toward a
tram stop.

“You’re so disgusted with me, you left the
grand opening?” I asked.

“You viciously murdered someone.” She
stopped and twisted around. “Why would you just kill him like
that?”

“He’d been doping up little kids all week.”
I held my hands out to my sides.

“And there will be another dealer at the
corner by tomorrow. Except, this time, the sidewalk will be pink
from Tango’s blood.” She turned and continued down the block.

“No.” I got to her in no time and gently
grasped her arm. “That’s the last time you turn your back on me
tonight. We finish this conversation now.”

Her skin heated under my hands, burning me.
I jerked my hand away and gazed at her. She stared back as if
nothing weird had just happened.

Fine. You have some type of heating power. I
get it.

“So,” I said. “You think I should just let
these guys give kids Hemo Drop and do nothing about it?”

“If you want to clean the streets, then get
the people who are in charge.” She began pacing in front of me.
“Tango was just a little guy. Get the suppliers or the law makers
that authorize illegal shipments into the habitat, but don’t
disturb an entire district with horrific images.”

“One Troll was knitting. It couldn’t have
been that bad.”

She put her hands on her hips and rolled
those beautiful eyes. “It doesn’t matter. You’re reconfirming to
everyone that Mixies are barbaric thugs that should be in
jail.”

“Is that what you think?” I stepped toward
her.

She edged back, shaking her head. “No. But I
would have thought that if I didn’t know you.”

“Fine. I like your idea about getting the
suppliers.” I inched forward. “Help me do it.”

She opened her mouth for a few seconds as if
unsure of what to say, then said, “I already have a lot going on;
college, tutoring, I’m already doing more than I wanted to with
MFE—”

“Boyfriend?” I raised my eyebrows.

“I told you I wasn’t interested in dating
you.”

I leaned my head to the side. “But you never
said if there was someone else.”

“Wait a minute. We were talking about drugs
and—”

I closed the distance between us and pressed
my lips to her full ones. Her tongue tasted of peppermint candy.
Groaning, I sucked on it and wrapped my arms around her waist,
pulling her into my chest. Her whole body was as soft as a pillow.
The desire to take her back to my condo burned within me.

She pushed back and whispered, “Stop.”