Devon came back at twenty minutes to midnight.
"Looking good," she noted when he opened the door to her. "You ready? I'm in a hurry. Kind of. Not that anyone is going to care if I'm late... but I hate to be late."
"Yep," Dani picked up his jacket. "Let's go. And, by the way, your money," he handed her the two hundred. "The bellboy said it was going to be included in the bill."
Devon nodded absent-mindedly, putting the money in her pocket.
"I know," she said, locking the door behind them.
"You knew?" Dani shrugged. "Why did you leave it, then?"
Devon winked at him.
"Wanted to give you a chance to run off before I'm back. In case you would want to. You men are tricky animals."
"Ah... I... " Dani was stuck for words. "I... appreciate it."
She nodded again, pressing the elevator button.
Down in the lobby, Dani waited at the door while she was sorting it out with the clerk. The draft from the door was cold. His hair still wasn't quite dry, and chilly night air made him shiver.
He was going to react pretty inadequately to any kind of air movement these next few days.
Devon came up to him and handed him the keys.
"What's that?"
"Even if everything goes as planned, you'll have to come back here tonight before Tommy picks you up. Besides," Devon grinned, "you left your little black bag up there. You're not gonna leave your make-up kit to one of the maids, are you?"
Dani winced and shook his head no. The little black bag was on the bedside table now, covering the dent. At the bottom of it, buried under his make-up kit, lay the book and the candle he would never want to touch again.
His bravery had evaporated. Vanished into thin air. He needed to get over it. Either forget about it or convince himself it hadn't been real. Otherwise he'd lose the rest of his sanity.
There was a limo waiting outside. Devon was a bit too easy about wasting money for a former Alice Cooper back-up singer, Dani thought, getting inside it. She was sitting near him on a seat, and the seat probably cost more than all the clothes she had on thrown together. She looked such a stranger to the environment, sitting in that posh limo in her slogan t-shirt and old washed-out blue jeans, and a leather jacket that was pretty worn down on the elbows. But she didn't seem to care. She obviously felt at home. She was smiling. She had an interesting kind of face: her brows were a bit too thick, her straight nose a bit too long, her mouth a bit too wide, but when she smiled, she looked almost beautiful.
Dani had the impression he had seen that face a few times before.
She shrugged when he asked her about it.
"I had a few roles," she said. "TV, cinema. Nothing too big. Shit, I even did a little modeling." She laughed. "Your best bet at seeing me is 'Alice Cooper Trashes The World', anyways."
"And what do you do now?"
"For a living?"
"Yes."
She stretched.
"I give vocal lessons."
Vocal lessons? That could pay for two nights at Franklin Plaza? And limos?
"Stop thinking, Dani-boy. I'm just lucky with money. It keeps falling right onto my head."
Dani looked out of the window, city lights flying past his eyes.
"How did you get to know Tommy?" he asked finally, just to break the silence.
Devon sighed.
"Was a long-ass time ago, babe."
"I figured."
She gave a short laugh.
"You're not a Crue fan... so probably you never heard of that Hollywood Hills Chick Sacrificing Story."
Dani flinched.
"So it was true?"
"Ah, you heard of it. Well, I'm the chick."
Dani stared at her.
"They didn't sacrifice you."
"Obviously," she sighed. "Though, dude, I really wanted them to. I thought it was such a grand way to go to Hell."
"Back in England I get such offers twice an hour."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Boasting? Well, back then it wasn't such a common practice."
"I guess you impressed them."
"I guess I did."
The explanation apparently was over. Especially as the limo stopped. They had arrived.
"Frank'N'Stein's," Dani read stepping out of the car. "Damn, that's a great name for a bar!"
"Just what I think," Devon grinned again and pushed him towards the doors. "Let's go, sweetheart. I'm afraid it's already past midnight."
"What, is this a horror show joint or something?" Dani asked as they passed the bouncer, a big bold guy with scars covering his arms up to the elbow.
"Nah, just a strip bar with a concept. It's the company that's special, not the place."
Dani looked back at the bouncer.
"You didn't pay the entrance fee."
"No. I'm a special guest. And you're my special guest. Oh, here they are!"
She dragged him through the dimly lit hall, past the bar stand, past the stage where a voluptuous naked black-haired girl accommodated a boa constrictor on her body in a more or less successful imitation of From-Dusk-Til-Dawn Salma Hayek. Past the walls on which Hustler-type nudes alternated with band posters and screenshots from Frankenstein movies. To a corner table where a company of three were watching the show.
From what Dani could see through the gloom and tobacco fog (it was so thick, Dani had already mentally kissed his eyes goodbye), two of them were identical girl twins, young, pretty-faced and delicate, with long blonde hair. The third person, occupying the darkest corner seat, was nothing but a dark shape slumped in a chair to him. He thought it was a man, but of course he could be mistaken.
"Hiya motherfuckers!!!" Devon screamed and rushed to them.
The blondes jumped up to their feet, and Dani, surprised, realised that he had been wrong. They weren't both girls. One of them was a guy. Dani watched on, speechless, as Devon hugged them in turn and kissed each of them on the lips.
"Haven't seen you in ages, Devon," the boy twin said with a smile. The prettiest face Dani had ever seen in a man. It was even scary a little.
"Yeah, I decided to break out of family routine for a while," Devon grinned wider. "Missed you, guys. Hey!" she nudged the corner seat inhabitant with her toe. "My first time in Hollywood in two years, and this old bitch isn't even saying hello to me?!"
A hand shot up, seized Devon by the shoulder and pulled her down, making her bend over. She listened to almost inaudible whisper for a while, smiling. Then she suddenly shrieked. Then laughed and straightened up, rubbing her earlobe.
"Hey, I can bite, too, baby!" she warned, giggling.
The shape made a snorting sound.
"You better believe I can," Devon assured it and laughed again.
"Aren't you going to introduce your guest, Devon?" the girl twin said, giving Dani a long look. "I'd be sooo pleased to know him."
"Cute, huh?" Devon snickered. "This is Dani. Dani, these two unearthly creatures are Vic and Vikki. And you deserve some prize if you can guess who of them is who."
They shook hands. The girl's hand was thin and silky, the guy's turned out surprisingly strong.
"And this sleepy old fuck in the chair over there is..."
The shape moved. Shifted, entering the circle of light. Blue eyes glinted through messed-up black hair.
"You got no lip ring today," a low, all too familiar voice said.
Dani gasped, unaware he was backing away from the man who lazily rested his elbow on the table desk, smiling with one corner of his mouth.
"What lip ring?" Devon demanded explanations.
"He had a ring in his lip yesterday. Now he doesn't."
Nikki motherfucking Sixx. Why the hell had he just let this fuck scare him for the second time running? Dani shook up and tried to regain his composure. There was nothing scary about middle-aged glam bassists.
"I'm about to make the most conceptual hypothesis of the century," Devon drawled. "Here it is: you guys know each other."
"Well, not really," Dani gave a flashing smile, dropping into a vacant seat. "We... umm... talked yesterday."
Devon sat down on a chair opposite Nikki.
"Hmm," she looked at him. "You were in Frisco yesterday? Tommy didn't tell me."
"Vince was having a gig in the area," Nikki yawned. "I decided I wanted to pay him a visit. Then I found out Tommy's there, too. So why not kill two birds with one stone?"
Devon giggled.
"Blondie alone wasn't enough for you?"
"Your mind's in the gutter," Nikki yawned again. "All I wanted was just a little talk. In both cases."
"Okay, let's say I believed you," Devon giggled again. She was obviously in a great mood. "So, it's Dani here, as you already know..."
"I didn't."
"Sixx, shut up and let me finish the thought before I get drunk and forget it."
Nikki gave a smile. A normal one. Devon must really be his good friend, Dani thought.
"So, Dani here, he's gotten into a screw. Your Tommy..."
"As much mine as yours..."
"Sixx!!!"
"Okay, okay. So Tommy..."
"... flew him here from Frisco, left him here without any means of escape or communication, and caused him to spend a night with me, which is the biggest sin of all."
Nikki's eyes sized Dani up.
"How mean of him. Where do I fit into this picture?"
"Right here. Pick up your cell and give the fucker a call. You got his number. Tell him to pick Dani up in the morning."
Nikki tore his eyes off Dani. Shifted his stare to Devon. Sighed.
"Only because I love you so much, baby," he said and reached into his pocket.
"Can I buy you a drink, Dani?" Vikki said, leaning on the table.
"No, thanks," Dani refused hastily. "I think I should slow down on it for a while..."
"Buy him a Bloodsucker," Devon prompted."Don't you see his fangs?"
Laughter.
"No, really," Dani insisted. "I'd better not..."
"It's non-alcoholic," Vikki said with a hint of a smile. "A kiddie cocktail. Bloodsucker. Please, let me. It'd be my pleasure."
"Okay," Dani gave in. "Hope you didn't lie about it, because otherwise, I'm dead."
"Why would I lie?" Vikki raised her eyebrows innocently.
"Because blondes do lie," Nikki offered from his corner. "Anyway, Tommy's out of reach. You remember where your next show should be?"
Dani shook his head.
"Shame on you. Maybe he's too far by now."
Devon gave him a dirty look.
"Or he just flipped his cell off," Nikki consented. "I'll try again later. If you order Bloodsuckers, get me one, too."
Dani smiled.
"Someone told a joke?" Nikki wondered softly.
"I don't know much about you or your band," Dani said, trying to show off the confidence he didn't possess, "but somehow my mental image of Nikki Sixx always included Jack Daniels. Not some kiddie cocktail."
Nikki smirked.
"I don't know where that image comes from, kid," he said. "I'm a family man."
He slumped back into his chair. It looked as if he cut off the connection with the outer world. Metamorphozed from a human being back to a dark mysterious shape on the very border of light.
A glam bassist, Dani reminded himself. Just a glam bassist.
Vikki called up a waitress, who sported tiny leather shorts and two duct-tape crosses over her nipples as her uniform, and ordered five Bloodsuckers. Then turned her attention back to him.
"You're a musician - am I right, Dani?"
Dani nodded. It didn't even feel bitter anymore. In fact, the feeling was as if he had taken a time trip. As if he were eighteen again. At a dark, smoke-filled local rock club, talking to people, who, he hoped, would buy him beer.
"What instrument do you play?"
"Vikki," Devon gave her a reproachful look. "I know you're blonde, but still, don't be stupid. Look at him. He's a vocalist. You can see it a mile away."
"What about you, Vikki?" Dani asked. She bought him drinks, he just had to be nice.
"I also sing. At times," she gave a bewitching smile. "But not so often. Well, Vic here, he is a drummer."
Vic gave an identical smile. Dani tried to imagine him behind a drum kit. Failed.
"You're in a band together?"
The twins laughed. Simultaneously. Like two bells ringing. Vikki's laughter like silvery chimes, Vic's - a bronze toll.
"You could say so," Vic said, still smiling.
The same waitress brought Bloodsuckers in tall glasses. Dani cautiously took his drink. The liquid was the color of wine, but thicker, more viscid. It really looked like blood. Like clotting blood.
"What's in there?"
"Try it," Vic suggested. "Maybe you'll guess."
Dani sighed, brought the glass to his lips and took a sip.
It wasn't half bad. He really didn't taste any alcohol in it. But the taste was unusual. Sweet? Yes... Sour? Yes... Salty? And that, too.
"Can you guess?" Vikki tilted her head, looking at him with sparkling eyes.
Dani took another sip.
"Cherry?" he ventured.
"Right," Vic emptied half a glass in one go. "There is some cherry syrup in it."
"What else?" Dani drank some more. "How do they make it sweet and salty at the same time?"
Devon, Vic and Vikki exchanged amused glances.
"Believe me," Devon said, "you don't wanna know."
They laughed again. Dani shrugged. If they sold it at a public place, it had to be edible, so what the hell. He took a look around. The brunette with a snake was offstage, doing a private dance for a few guys at a front table. Onstage, there was a tall redhead. Her current costume consisted of a whip and a few leather straps, and there were fewer and fewer of the straps left by the second.
The music seemed familiar.
"Aren't you singing on this track, Devon?" Vikki pinched her hand.
"Ah, 'Bed Of Nails'. Yes, I am," Devon snickered. "Do you think this S&M babe over there will be impressed if I tell her?"
"I'm not sure she knows whose song she's dancing to at all," Vic gave her an ironic glance. "You're back into chicks?"
"I'm gonna get me a chick and a guy," Devon mused dreamily. "Gonna have one hell of a night. Then come back to my hubby."
"Haven't you already found a guy?" Vikki's eyelashes went up and down. She had them too long.
"Lay off Dani," Devon said seriously. "He's kind of married."
Vikki looked at her perplexedly.
"Aren't you?"
Devon waved her off and finished her Bloodsucker.
"You got a nice accent, Dani," Vic said suddenly. "Are you from Britain?"
"Yes," Dani sighed. "I've been told people here don't understand half the stuff I say, but I just can't talk American."
"Don't even try!" Vikki exclaimed. "It sounds too cute!"
"Besides you're kind of goth," Vic observed with a little smile. "And goths with an LA drawl are just ridiculous. Where are you from, Dani? I have some relatives over there. In Stafford."
Dani shook his head.
"I'm from Suffolk. Woodbridge, Ipswich..."
"Ahh," Nikki's hoarse voice all but made Dani jump. He had almost forgotten Sixx was there. "Witchfinder Path."
"You know?" Dani couldn't help showing his surprise.
"Sure. Who doesn't."
"Witchfinder?" Vikki echoed.
"Witchfinder General," Nikki explained, not taking his eyes off Dani's face. "Mr. Matthew Hopkins."
Dani made an effort and turned away from him. Looked at the twins. And was startled to see rage and disgust twist the features of their angelic faces.
"That bastard," Vikki spit.
"Sick fuck," Vic muttered and gulped down the rest of his drink. "Damn, I need something heavier."
"So... Dani," Nikki's voice made him turn back. "You're a fellow townsman of a guy who made some history, huh? How does that feel?"
Dani cringed.
"Fuck him," he said. "He was a simple hitman. He was making money, that's all. What a fucking celebrity."
"Ha!" Nikki moved closer to the table, leaning in, making Dani uncomfortable. "The man went all over England claiming he had a complete list of all the witches in the country. He killed four hundred people. He was a walking synonym for terror for three years. And you call him a hitman?"
"He was a money-maker," Dani wasn't going to back down. "All he had to do was to come to a town, live a luxurious life for a few weeks at the expense of the citizens, and then find a poor old bitch nobody liked, preferably with a cat, and hang her."
"But there was so much more to this man," Nikki drawled softly. "So much more. If he had simply wanted people to confess, he could force them into an ordeal. But he never did that."
Why had he thought these eyes blue? They were black. Blacker than the night outside.
"You know what he did?"
"No," Dani couldn't look away now. Not to save his life. There it was again. His fear chained them together.
"He tortured them. Oh no, not in the good old inquisitor tradition - that was outlawed in England at the time. So he found his own ways."
The twins, Devon, the bar surrounding them - all of that blurred out. The music became distant. Unreal. But Nikki was real. He was overly real. Too much real.
"To start with, he didn't let them sleep. How long can you stay up, Dani? Two days? Three? My personal record is a week when I was on drugs... but ten days? More? They say, a human being dies when deprived of sleep for ten days... but what if not? What do they feel? What would you feel?"
Dani licked his dry lips in despair. The man was hypnotic.
"He starved them. Stripped them naked. Made them pace their cell until their feet were blistered and bleeding. Until they broke down and confessed. And then he would turn to the procedure he called 'Pricking'."
Two strong hands caught Dani's left palm. Then he felt callused fingers circling his wrist. Felt his claw ring being slid off his forefinger. And he still couldn't look away.
"You know what it is?"
"No," Dani whispered.
"Searching for 'Witch's Marks'. Sure you know what these marks are. They are insensitive spots on a witch's body. If you pierce them, the witch doesn't react, because she doesn't feel the pain. Unless, of course, she sees you pricked her there, and so she fakes. The way all the women do. So they would blindfold the lady..."
Nikki's palm covered his eyes, sliding his eyelids shut. Dani kept them closed when the palm disappeared. Everything was better than these eyes, these eyes, these eyes...
"... and start poking her with pins."
Dani gasped as something sharp bit at the back of his palm.
"Piercing through skin. Drawing blood."
Yet another sting. It hurt. But Dani didn't move. He couldn't.
"Everywhere. Every square inch of her body."
Like sharp pecks going at his skin. His palm, his wrist, his forearm. Dani gasped again. From pain.
And excitement.
Maybe there had been some alcohol in that Bloodsucker after all.
Or something else.
"But you know what the problem was, Dani?"
Dani slowly opened his eyes.
"The problem was that not even the witchiest witch had those witchmarks. Because, to be frank with you, no-one does. So they felt the pain, and shrieked, and bled. Just like you."
Dani felt wetness over his palm. He felt wet warmth, and something trickling over his skin, but he didn't dare look down.
"You know what he did then?" Nikki's fingers toyed with Dani's hair, pulling at it lightly. "He would make them sit Indian style, cross-legged and cross armed. And then he would secure this position with a rope, tying them up so that they couldn't move a muscle, and leave them like this for the night. Twelve, thirteen hours. After that he repeated the procedure. With witnesses. By that time, not a single limb of theirs remained sensitive, you know. And so they'd be condemned..." Nikki got hold of the pentagram necklace and gave it a twist, making a noose around Dani's throat, "... and hanged as malicious witches." A sudden pull at the necklace made Dani slump forward over the table, panting for air. Bringing him face to face with Nikki. Two pairs of eyes an inch away from each other.
Silence.
"That's not what a hitman would do, Dani," Nikki whispered.
And let him go. Tossed his claw ring onto the table. Grabbed his Bloodsucker and fell back in his chair, watching the strippers.
Dani drew a deep sigh, shivering. Everyone around him was silent. He turned his eyes down to his hands and bit his lip. His left one was bleeding. Blood was oozing from small punctures all over it. Nikki had done this with his own jewelry, right?
For the first time Dani thought he knew what girls felt. Those girls he would call up onstage during Cradle Of Filth's shows, and then fool around with cuffs, chains and whips. Because now he was feeling the same. Shock. Fear. Shame. Pain - not excruciating, not torture, but it was real pain, and it was unnerving. And yet there was that arousal. That charm.
That wishing this would never end.
He had never thought he'd learn this lesson from someone like Nikki.
Devon spoke up just when the silence was beginning to become unbearable.
"Listen, Sixx," she scowled at him. "I know that guy made great movie material, but shit, why are you going at Dani like that? What, do you relate to the Hopkins fucker that much? You're almost defending him!"
Nikki put a cigarette between his teeth and lit it before answering.
"The guy, as Vic said, was a sick fuck," he inhaled smoke and puffed it out. "But he was huge in his time. And there's nothing worse than underestimating your enemy."
I'll remember that, Dani thought, nursing his hand under the table. I'll remember that about underestimating.
"How is that dead shit Dani's enemy?" Devon obviously didn't appreciate the way Nikki treated her guest.
"If he were alive, he would be, though," Vic said pensively. "He'd definitely do you in, dude."
"Well, he is dead," Vikki said nervously. "And enough of that!"
"You're gonna ruin your pants," Nikki's voice was as sudden as usual.
"Yeah?"
"You keep your hand on your knees. Blood is bad for the leather."
Dani jumped up to his feet, almost sick with fury. This was too much! But Nikki was looking at him again, calm, half curious, bored expectation in his eyes, and the fury burned down to desperate helpless anger. He wasn't ready to confront the man now.
He had to give some explanation for his jump, though. So he blurted out the first thing he could think off:
"I think I need to use the restroom."
"Oh," Devon cleared her throat. "The boysroom is..."
"I'll show you."
Dani watched silently, as Nikki stood up from his seat.
"Come on."
Dani had no choice but to follow him.
Nikki took him across the hall into a corridor. Then down that corridor.
"What kind of a bar has the toilet so far from the hall?" Dani muttered after the second turn.
"This bar."
"You sure you remember the way right?"
"That was a joke, I guess."
"Kinda."
"No. I don't remember the way. See, I usually piss on the floor. I just wanna take you to the backyard, where no-one will hear you, and then rape you and kill you. Actually, first kill you, then rape you."
"Oh."
"It's a joke. Kinda."
Dani didn't find it funny. It sounded too much like truth.
"Here," Nikki pushed a white door. "Suit yourself."
Dani stepped inside the men's room that was surprisingly clean. No dirt, no mud, no stench. As if it weren't a strip bar at all. He looked back at Nikki who closed the door behind them and leaned against the wall beside it. Shit, why was he still here?
"Thanks, man," Dani gave him a please-clear-the-area look.
Nikki nodded. And stayed where he was.
"Hey... you wanna watch me take a leak or what?"
"I'm gonna see to it that you make it back to the hall without getting lost. Since it's oh so far."
Dani rolled his eyes. Looked at the line of urinals at the wall. Back at Nikki. Getting more and more nervous. He didn't need to piss, and even if he did, he wouldn't, not with this fuck watching! What the HELL?!
"What the hell, Dani? You're shy? You have it too small?"
Dani blushed, darted into a stall and slammed the door closed, shutting it in. The automatic catch snapped. Nikki, now invisible, gave a little laugh.
"I see. It's gonna take a while," he said.
Bastard.
Dani closed the john and sat down on it, biting his thumb. Like a fucking schoolgirl, he scolded himself silently. Like a schoolgirl who'd just found out she was pregnant.
He heard the men's room door screech open and pricked his ears. Maybe Nikki was going to give him a break, after all. He listened hard, but still didn't hear any sound that a closing door could make. Ah. Maybe Sixx just left it open. Would be just like him.
Dani waited for another minute and pushed the stall door.
It didn't open.
Dani pushed again, then remembered he had to undo the automatic catch. He tried to do it. And failed.
"Fuck!"
He tried again. The catch wouldn't give in. Dani, cursing, took off his claw rings and tried again. No result.
"It has to open in one way or another!" he said to himself aloud. "Just has to!"
Well, it appeared he just didn't know the way.
What?! After everything that happened to him in these two days, he, on top of it, was locked in a toilet stall?!
Dani slipped into blind rage, kicking at the door again and again - it didn't give way. It was strong. Well-done. Quality work.
Hurried steps.
"Shit, Dani, can't I leave you alone even for a minute? Step back from the door."
Dani did as he was told, almost crying from frustration.
CRRRAAKKK-THUMP!
The door flew open.
"There you go," Nikki and his fucking half-smile. "Right out of the closet."
"Fuck off!" Dani snarled, pushing past him towards the exit.
Nikki grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him into a wall. So hard that Dani's head bumped on it. Nikki pressed his palm on his chest, pinning him to the tiled surface.
"That's your thanks, kid?"
Dani was trying to catch his breath, almost sweating from the heat Nikki's body gave off. He lost any will to fight in a second. And it was not that Nikki was too big for him - a kick in the crotch could make a bigger guy make way. It was the air of danger the man had around him. He smelled of it. And you could feel that if you fought him, it wouldn't be just another fight. In a normal fight, people tried to hurt each other, but they both knew a broken bone or two was the worst it could end in. With Nikki, you knew he'd kill you at will. If he had the smallest chance, if he felt like doing it - he'd just do it. And it wasn't that you couldn't fight.
When he looked at you, you didn't want to fight.
"Thank you," Dani whispered obediently.
Nikki's fingers lifted his chin.
"Look at me, kid."
Dani looked up at him reluctantly.
Blue? Black? No way. His eyes were dark chocolate brown. Rich, warm color. As magnetic as Dani remembered them, but nowhere as scary. You wanted to look in these eyes.
You wanted to see yourself there.
"You're welcome."
Nikki's fingertips outlined Dani's lips, a millimeter above the soft skin, not touching the lipstick. Then pressed on his jawbone. Dani let his mouth open a bit, obliging to this pressure. Felt these fingers slide between his lips. Brush against his tongue. Run over his teeth, examining his "fangs". Dani narrowed his eyes, his gaze still bound to that chocolate velvet under Nikki's eyelashes. Feeling dizzy.
Feeling hot.
He was loving every second of this. He realized it. He also realized his leathers began to feel uncomfortable. But he couldn't think about it. Feeling was all he could do.
Nikki's fingers left his mouth. Ran over his ear. Tangled in his hair.
"I wanna see your eyes. Without lenses."
Dani raised his hands to his face. Not even thinking twice. Nikki radiated strange, animal magnetism. Dani wasn't immune to it.
Lenses off. They'd been hurting his eyes anyway. Dani only hoped they weren't bloodshot now, these eyes of his.
Nikki's fingertips brushed over his cheek.
"So they are blue. That's nice."
Dani made his breath slow down and said hoarsely:
"I thought yours were blue."
Nikki's fingers disappeared from his face. Nikki's eyelashes went down. Nikki's eyelashes went back up.
Nikki blinked.
And when Dani saw his eyes the next second, they were the finest steel blue he'd ever seen.
"Aren't they?"
"How..." Dani whispered and broke off - Nikki's eyelashes were going down again.
Blink.
Brown.
Blink.
Green.
Blink.
Piercing, poisonous yellow.
Blink.
Blue.
"Who are you?" Dani gasped. "What are you?"
Nikki moved out, taking his palm off Dani's chest, and the charms broke once again.
"What are you talking about?" Nikki yawned and leaned on the door. "Put your lenses back on and let's get outta here. If you're done, that is."
Dani sighed brokenly.
"I'm done."
He moved to the mirror and put the lenses on - which wasn't that easy. His hands were shaking. Bigtime.
"Easy, don't put your eyes out," he could hear that half-smile in Nikki's voice. "Fuck, we must've been gone for half an hour now. They'll think we're doing the nasty here."
Dani gave him an ironic look.
"Aren't we?"
The steel blue reflected the look and sent it right back at him.
"Are we?"
Dani's hands rolled into fists.
He's one of the most annoying persons I've ever met!
Nikki had already walked out into the corridor and Dani followed suit hurriedly.
And one of the most charismatic.
Already at the doorway, he, led by some impulse, stopped and looked back at the stalls.
The stall door wasn't just open. It hung open, on one hinge. And the catch had been ripped in two by the pull. Ripped. A metal catch.
If Nikki had wanted to, he could have nailed his hand to the table with that damn claw ring. Right through the bone.
And one of the scariest, for sure!
If not number one.
At the end of the corridor Nikki stopped. Undid a neckerchief he had on.
"Here. Get your hand covered. Devon is getting more and more eager to dismember me with each look at it."
Dani didn't answer to this. He just took the neckerchief and walked to their table, wrapping it around his hand. He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard Nikki snicker behind his back.
At least he didn't make fun of that strain in the crotch of Dani's leathers. The hard-on he had started to have was dying now, and it hurt, but Dani was glad it did. He was sooo pissed. And not even at Nikki. At himself. What, had he taken some drugs at that party with Tommy last night? Why was he hallucinating up to now? And why was he acting like a fucking choirboy?! He was the baddest motherfucker in England, fuck it! And just because he was in Los Angeles, he turned into this?! Enough. He wasn't going to take any more shit.
"I changed my mind," he announced, sitting down. "I want whisky. Anybody willing to sponsor me?"
"Sure!" Vikki and Devon exclaimed in unison and scowled at each other.
"Don't get into a fight, gals," Dani leaned back and stretched. "I'll have two, then."
Devon looked at him. Then at Nikki, who was standing near his seat.
"Something happened, Dani?"
Dani closed his eyes and quoted:
"I have raised demons, and the dead. I have summoned the ghosts of my ancestors to real and visible appearance on the tops of temples built to reach the stars, and built to touch the nethermost cavities of Hades. I have wrestled with the Black Magician, Azag-Thoth, in vain, and fled to the Earth by calling upon Inanna and her brother Marduk, Lord of the double-headed Axe... I have found Fear," he smirked. "Is that enough to justify an urge to have a couple of JD's?"
"Lovecraft," Nikki said.
"Apparently," Dani opened his eyes and boldly met Nikki's stare. Let him bring up that blood-on-skin bullshit, he thought. I'll grind him to dust if he does. Give me that chance, Nikki.
"Crappy version," Nikki noted matter-of-factly. "Sesame Street shit."
"Version?" Dani took his whisky from the duct-tape-clad waitress. "What version?"
"Lovecraft's version," Nikki shrugged. "Doesn't work. He skipped all the good stuff."
"I had an impression when I read it that he had just written down a few bits that he had heard from the people who were in the know," Vic nodded.
Dani stared at him. He couldn't picture him reading Necronomicon any more than he could picture him drumming.
"No," Nikki frowned. "I think he had studied the original book. And then he castrated it. Omitted exactly those bits that made it work. Like censored Hitler diaries. I compared the texts, and it's a line here, an ingredient there... Surgical work. He did it on purpose."
"Wait-wait-wait," Dani cut in. "What did he castrate?"
The four looked at him, and Dani felt as if he were a nerdy kid in high school who had failed the math test everyone had expected him to excel in.
"Necronomicon," Nikki said. "The real one."
"The real one?"
Skin and blood...
"Yeah, the old book. Dani... you never read it?!"
"There are just seven copies," Vic said compromisingly. "It's not the most findable book in the world, Nikki."
Nikki didn't look at him. He was looking at Dani. Smiling. With both corners of his mouth.
"I bet he wants to read it," he said. "Don't you, Dani?"
Dani paused in sudden unease. Then urged himself to respond. Come on, there is no such book anyway.
"Of course I do. But I won't go to Tibet to see it, if that's where the closest of these seven copies is. I'm already a bit too far from home."
"It's right here," Nikki said, still smiling. "In Los Angeles. You're such a lucky fuck, dude. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time... and in perfect company."
Dani couldn't believe his ears. This practical joke was going a bit too far. Dani decided to push it a little farther. Maybe it would fall right off the edge.
"So where is it? How can I have a look? You have it, Nikki? I think I heard someone say you did..."
"Oh, no. I never owned one. Too much responsibility. What if I shot up and barfed all over it?"
They laughed. Dani smiled. From now on it had to tone down.
He was wrong.
"I can take you there. To the place where they keep it."
"When?"
"Why not tonight?" Nikki's smile grew wider. Teeth flashing. Normal teeth, not extended, not whetted... and yet they looked impossibly sharp. "I have some business to attend to, so I'm leaving now... But if you meet me at, say, three this night, I'll show you a few things you're going to remember."
Dani had no chance to back out of it now. And well - after his whisky kicked in - maybe he wanted to see the damn book! If there ever existed one... yes, that would be a trip!
Nikki read his face.
"Clark street," he said. "Three AM. 'Til then, Dani."
He melted into the crowd, a shadow among shadows. Dani fingered the ends of the neckerchief tied around his hand absent-mindedly. Tommy had lied to him, he thought. Motley Crue couldn't have been solely about women, hairspray and fire. Not with a band leader like Nikki.
Devon put a hand on his shoulder.
"He's not always like this," she said apologetically. "This shit on your hand... hurts bad?"
"No. Nothing big. Listen, this book... why in LA?"
"There are seven," Vic reminded. "One in America, and they thought LA was funny, City of Angels, you know... One is in Mexico. The third one is somewhere in Asia, most likely in China. The fourth is in England. There's yet another one in Africa, either in Cairo or somewhere in Lebanon. And one is rumored to be in Russia and in active use. Sounds like truth, with all the shit going on there..."
"And the last one?" Dani held up six fingers. "You said there were seven."
"But Dani, it's obvious," there was mild reproach in Vikki's voice. "The last one is the original. It's home. In Hell."