LE ROISSY, 2022
If someone is playing a hand, it’s best to let them play it. Whatever was between Fany and Thea was probably interesting and dramatic. I wasn’t sure it would matter all that much. Thea had promised Fulvia she wouldn’t pursue her vendetta against Fany until after the soirée. I knew Thea would honour that. Something made me wonder if Fulvia had a way of making them put their differences aside.
But if Fulvia couldn’t, then one of them would kill the other one, and for my part I wanted to make sure I still had a roommate when the dust settled. Thea was a bit messy, and a little more direct than I liked sometimes, but she was my friend. The only girl-friend I’d ever really had, and I wanted to keep it that way.
If Fany was here she was up to something. Le Roissy was a Serpentine haunt, there were many Corvins around, and a few Peregrines, but Fany was a bit too refined for a place like this. Unless I was reading her wrong, which was a definite possibility. Rich débutantes love to slum it with the worst sorts of men. The higher a girl is in her own mind, the more titillating it is for her to rut with beasts. It’s the only true fetish of the bourgeois and the elite.
That being said, she was not the masochistic type. Even her choice of outfit, as deuced gorgeous as she looked, was lazy compared to every other woman here. I’m not much for the hardcore rubber and gas mask chic this place seemed to encourage — obviously, neither was she.
Fany had her reasons for sitting down with me, and none of them included actually liking me. A girl has one-hundred-and-one reasons for sleeping with a man and his being hot and rich isn’t as high on the list as you’d think. From my perspective, any of them would do. Something about this place took the gentleman out of you.
I sat back in the booth and looked out over the crowd of people dancing. “Do you plan to tell me why you’re here?”
“I thought that was my question,” said Fany.
“How’d you know we would be here?” I emphasised ‘we’ just enough to make it seem like a concession, to let her win a little bit. I was only admitting something she already knew. But because I’d held onto it for so long, it would seem like a subtle victory. Girls like to win — but not too easily.
“Really I just came for the dress-up. I love leather.”
“I see your wrist has healed nicely.”
Fany gripped her wrist and massaged it. I guess there was some lingering pain from where Thea had stabbed her. “You don’t seem worried about pissing me off, do you? I don’t believe you’re not afraid of me.”
“Oh, I’m terrified of you. You could kill me if you wanted to, I couldn’t beat you in a fight. Not with magic.”
Fany smiled again. “Still you tease me?”
“I figure there are perhaps three or four sorcerers in the world that could beat you. It must be deadly dull. We’re not having that kind of duel though, are we? We’re having the other kind, the one you win by letting me win.”
Fany laughed. It was a bit of a cackle. “Fulvia is right about you though, you are daring.” That was surprising. I was under the impression Fulvia didn’t like me at all. I was at risk of losing my practised demeanour. Damn, that woman — even when she wasn’t there she made my blood boil. I wished that Fulvia was there instead of Fany. What would I have given to be alone in a dark booth with her?
“So kind of you to say, your grace,” I said.
“Oh, you’ve decided to be polite now?”
“I find it’s best to be polite in word when being beastly in action.”
At this point her game was obvious. She was building me up, making me feel dominant and in charge, everything I was saying was a boundary four with her. I am nowhere near that good. Without using my powers to seduce women my talents were very average. Fany was not an average girl. Unless I was wrong and she secretly had a thing for half men half goats — which I sincerely doubted.
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Maybe she was a kenofonia? Or stranger slayer. Which is a sort of obscene term for upper-class women who make it a badge of achievement to have intimate relations with every one of the Eldritch races, a practice I sincerely laud them for.
At this point, I was just curious how far she was willing to go to try and ruin my friendship with Thea. I was curious to see if it was going to work, I was torn though. Should I let it happen? How would Thea react? Fany was obviously going to do it right here. The booths were private, in the fake private sense, people could see if they looked close enough. Everyone was looking close enough, discretely. Fany stuck out like a sore thumb among the Serpentines.
I jiggled the table. It was not secure. Fany smiled. She winked. Then she slipped under the table. To her credit, she actually did put her hands on me beneath the table and even accomplished my arousal.
“Hey Boz,” said Thea. She appeared next to the table limping slightly.
“Are you okay,” I asked and sat up. Fany hit her head under the table.
“Ow,” said Fany as she slipped back up to her seat and thumbed a spot on the back of her head. “Oh, Thea — where did you come from?”
Thea looked from Fany to me. “I see.” She took a step back. I wanted to say something, nothing had actually happened yet beyond the most basic of preliminary stimulation. But if I tried to say something, I knew it would make it worse. It would sound like lying. And it would just draw attention to the situation.
“Did you sort out your business?” I asked.
Thea nodded as the brawny blond man with the pencil beard walked up behind her. He was almost twice as tall as her, with broad shoulders and wild stringy hair. He had a lupine hulk, a kind of predatory forward tilt. He was wearing tattered jeans and barrel-sized boots. His leather jacket was rough and worn but open and revealed his inner leather vest covered in arcane patches. They were mostly skull themed, some had ancient writing, cuneiform, Hebrew and Arabic.
He gripped Thea with his plate-sized hand, and I could see his calloused fingers curving around the gap in her thigh. Thea looked down at his fingers, then looked at him.
“Remove it, or I will Fenriss. No freebies.”
Fenriss howled a laugh. The two men who had walked up with him, hulking and equally unnerving, laughed with him.
“I’m not Lucian little toy. You’re Lobo property now. He’s not around to protect you from me.”
Thea looked down at his hand again. Fany reached up to the pin in her bun and started drawing it slowly out. It was a cleverly disguised miniature wand. I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She looked like she intended to help. My own wand was almost half out of my waistcoat pocket when Thea made a low gesture with her hand. The way her palm was down suggested she didn’t want us to continue.
“Oh, sorry Fenriss,” Thea said. She giggled. It was very unsettling to hear her giggle, and I am not entirely sure it was very accurate. It sounded somewhere between “I like ponies!” and “This human stew needs more tarragon.”
“That’s better fuckmeat. Now, don’t be a stranger. We wouldn’t want to have to ride you down, would we.” Fenriss patted her on the buttocks. Her eyes momentarily bulged, and her lips thinned.
“You’ll be at the soirée, won’t you? We’ll have to do this again.”
Fenriss laughed. “You’re one fucked up chick Thea. That’s why we love you.” He and his cronies walked to the bar and loudly consumed several pints of Stella Artois.
I slide deeper into the booth and offered Thea a seat, which she eased into. I didn’t see any obvious wounds, but she groaned like someone who had just run a marathon over hot coals.
“I’m still going to kill you,” said Fany.
“I’m still going to kill you,” said Thea.
“But not until after the party, I hope?” I asked.
“After,” they both said. Thea ordered a snakebite, Fany ordered a Floc de Gascogne, and I settled on Trois Monts, a northern Keeping Beer.
“You’re hanging out with Lobos now?” asked Fany as she sipped her Floc.
“Keeping tabs on me for Fulvia?”
“Getting to know my enemy so it’s easier to murder her.”
“Clever for a bird brain like you.”
“Seriously though, they are scum. How can you let them touch you.”
“Loup-Garou’s aren’t so bad. Fenriss is a special kind of foul, though. I was looking for Lucian.”
Fany snorted. “Guess you found out, huh?”
Thea grimaced. “I don’t have the benefit of sparrows. How was I supposed to know Fenriss killed him and took over.”
I decided it was best to nurse my beer and listen. I found it all a bit fascinating, really. I assumed she meant the Lobos Motorcycle Club. They are something akin to the Hell’s Angels, or The Outlaws for the Eldritch. They are not all wolves. Some are Trolls and Orcs. They’re strictly non-human if rumours are to be believed.
“Well let’s just say Fulvia isn’t happy about it,” said Fany, “so your little wolf friend is either gonna have to accept a short leash or a slow cure.”
“We aren’t friends. I liked Lucian. He was a gentlewolf.”
“Whatever, Snakelette, I’m out,” Fany stood and wiped off the knees of her skirt from when she had climbed under the table. She looked at me and blushed. Her countenance fell dark when she realized.
“You and your goat have a lovely evening.” She swayed away without looking back. I had to admit she was three hundred and sixty degrees of woman, though.
“At least I’m not back to donkey. We —”
“— are adults and I don’t give a fuck. I’m out too.” Thea slipped out of the booth and spiralled into a point.
“I guess drinks are on me,” I said to no one, “I’m finishing it. Both of you can be damned.”
I downed the rest of my pint and then disapparated back to Fourteen Pouzonville. Thea and I avoided each other. I couldn’t tell if she was angry or sad. The next night Fulvia swooped into our foyer in the middle of a particularly thunderous storm.