Chapter Three
by Michelle M Pillow & Mandy M Roth
Interview with:
Shiloh Walker author of a
Touch of Gypsy Fire
The music slowed and Armando
stepped closer to Mandy, sliding his hands down and around her waist. She
looked up at him and tipped her head to the side. Her breasts pressed
against his firm chest and his body stiffened.
“Tell me what you’re thinking
about.” He pulled Mandy closer to him.
“I’m thinking about how nice
this is….” Mandy stopped in midstream and let out a squeal. She thrust
herself away from Armando’s tall figure and ran across the dance floor.
Loudly, she shouted, “Shiloh!”
Michelle heard Mandy’s voice
above the club noise and looked out to see what she was doing. She watched
as her friend left Armando alone on the dance floor. Mandy pushed through
the crowd and made her way to a redhead woman who was holding her black
heels in her hand as she danced with an onyx-haired hunk.
It didn’t surprise Michelle
that Mandy had found someone else in the bar she knew. What did surprise
Michelle was that Mandy had abandoned Armando so easily. She started to
make her way out to keep the dumped vamp company, but stopped when a warm
hand moved over her shoulder.
“Rethink my offer to dance
yet?” Dmitri asked.
“Yes, I’ve decided that not
only would I rather have hot pokers jabbed in my eyes than dance with you,
I’d rather be boiled alive too! Move. I’m afraid that you’ll try and hump
my leg!”
“Hey,” his voice dipped and
wavered, “the werewolf jokes are starting to sting.”
Michelle let out a snort.
“Not nearly as much as having to listen to your lame come-on lines. Isn’t
there some dimwitted female around here you can sniff out and harass? Hey,
right there, by the pool tables. She looks to be your type.”
Dmitri followed Michelle’s
finger to the blonde bimbo with high hair, high heels and way too much
makeup. She was giggling, a whiny ear-grating sound.
“Ouch, that hurts,” he
grumbled.
“Truth usually does.”
~****~
“Shiloh Walker, as I live and
breathe!” Mandy shouted as she pulled on the woman’s arm. The tall vampire
with her didn’t look pleased to have someone yanking on his dancing partner,
but Mandy just smiled at him. “Let me guess, a hunter.”
“Mandy!” Shiloh said,
spinning around and embracing her friend. “I didn’t know that you were in
town, too.”
“I live here now. I
relocated about a year ago. I’m working for the Nocturnal Journal.”
“Writing the sex
column?” Shiloh asked, her brown eyes twinkling with a hint of humor.
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
Shiloh reached back and
touched her escort’s arm. “Byron, this is Mandy. Her mind rarely leaves
the gutter.”
“Guilty as charged. So,
Byron, I’ve heard of you. I called Eli a few weeks back to check in on the
gang and he mentioned you. Come to think of it, so did Sarel.” Mandy said
with a wink.
Byron’s blue eyes widened and
he ran a hand through his black hair. If Mandy didn’t know better, she’d
have said he looked uncomfortable. Shiloh noticed it too, and stepped
forward. “Well, now it’s all just Mythe & Magick until you’re told
different right?”
“Mandy?” Michelle called out.
“Over here!” Mandy answered,
reaching out and taking Shiloh’s hands in her own. “You’ve got to do an
interview with my friend Michelle. She handles the author interviews for NJ
and would love to talk with you.”
Michelle frowned, weaving and
ducking her way through the dancing throng. Armando had moved back behind
the bar, so she abandoned her plan to save the poor vampire from Mandy’s
rejection. Finally reaching Mandy and her friends, she sighed. “How is it
we keep ending up in this place?”
Mandy just giggled. If she
had her way, Michelle would be coming with her every night until she was
addicted to the warehouse club. “I want you to meet an old friend of mine,
Shiloh. She’s another writer.”
“There seems to be a lot of
us hanging here lately,” laughed Michelle, grimacing as an overzealous lycan
danced an elbow into her back.
“And this fine specimen is
Byron.” Mandy winked at him. Michelle merely nodded in greeting.
“So you’re Shiloh, Mandy’s
old school friend. She’s practically thrust all your books at me, not that
I mind. They’re all wonderful! I just finished Her Wildest Dreams
last week.”
“Thanks,” answered Shiloh
smiling. “Mandy tells me you do interviews for NJ.”
“Got a card right here.”
Michelle handed her a card from her back pocket. “If you’re interested,
just give us a call and we’ll make an appointment to have you come in and do
some photos for a feature.”
“Oh, I’m only in town for
tonight,” said Shiloh, frowning slightly.
“One night!” said Mandy, as
she pulled Shiloh’s arm. “Then, come on, we’ve got some partying to do!
You guys can do a phone interview later and I have some old photos of Shiloh
I can give you.”
“Mandy,” said Michelle,
laughing. “I’ve seen some of your old photos and if they are anything like
that, I don’t want to see them.”
“Ha. Ha.” Mandy chuckled,
grinning. “Maybe you should send her some of yours, Shi!”
Michelle began to lead the
way through the crowded dance floor. Suddenly, she stopped and grimaced.
Over her shoulder, she called, “Do we have to go up to the bar? Can’t we
just wave Jaycee over to a table?”
Mandy used Michelle’s
shoulder for leverage to look at the bar. Seeing Dmitri and Armando, she
laughed. “What? Didn’t he apologize to you prettily enough?”
“Wolfboy didn’t apologize at
all. He asked me to dance. I think he just wanted an excuse to hump my leg
in public.”
“Oh!” laughed Mandy wickedly,
giving Michelle a push. “That doesn’t sound half bad, besides I already
told you he doesn’t bite.”
“Uh-huh, yeah, and I don’t
breathe.”
Shiloh leaned into Byron and
whispered in his ear. He smiled slightly and nodded. Fingers tapped
Shiloh’s shoulder. A smarmy man with dark hair and eyes was looking her
over as if she were the centerfold of a porn magazine.
“Dance with me,” he demanded,
his eyes traveling over her skin.
Shiloh lifted her finger to
show her wedding band. “Happily married. No thanks.”
The man tried to grab her.
Byron tensed, ready to defend her. Suddenly, a hand tipped with long pink
fingernails darted out from the crowd and grabbed onto Shiloh’s black
chemise styled dress.
“What you doin’ with my man,
bitch?”
Shiloh’s arm shot up and she
deflected the girl’s fingers from her with ease. In a matter of seconds,
lycans were crawling all around them. Shiloh backed up towards Mandy and
let out a small laugh. “Still staying entertained I see.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t want me any
other…way….” Mandy spit out as she ducked, pulling Michelle with her to
avoid being hit with a runaway chair.
Byron spun around and
instantly engaged several unhappy lycan gang members. Shiloh grabbed the
lanky blonde who had pushed her by her hair and propelled her across the
dance floor.
A tall brunette made her way
to Mandy and caught her cheek with her nail. Mandy kicked out hard and
planted her heel into the vixen’s stomach. She glanced at Michelle and
noticed her reaching into her purse.
Shiloh gasped and Mandy spun
around to find Byron picking Shiloh up and moving her to safety. “I need
one of those,” Mandy said, half under her breath as she dodged another blow
from the busty brunette.
Cool hands swept around her
and her body tensed. “You rang, kitten?” said Armando, putting Mandy behind
him as he stood to face the rowdy crowd. She turned to Michelle, seeing her
friend was trapped in a pit of drunken lycans. They were all eyeing her,
ready to strike. Dmitri growled as he ran past them on his way to
Michelle.
“No!” Mandy screamed as she
saw Michelle turn with her pepper spray aimed and ready.
Everything happened in an
instant. Dmitri roughly pushed the lycans aside and they scampered away,
seeing his anger. Michelle, terrified, sprayed at the first thing that
moved. Dmitri grabbed his eyes with a howl and dropped to the floor.
Michelle looked down at the cocky lycan and then to her hand. She dropped
the pepper spray and backed away from Dmitri slowly, her eyes wide with
shock.
Armando, Byron, and The
Raven’s head bouncer, Makonnen cleared the crowd out. Jaycee ran from
behind the bar with a bat, waving it around like a mad woman. “Gee, a gal
takes a fifteen minute break and returns to full-blown bar brawl!”
Mandy laughed and Michelle’s
face hardened. “This isn’t funny!”
Shiloh appeared next to
Dmitri with damp paper towels and tried to help him to his feet. Mandy
stopped laughing long enough to take in the scene of a barefoot, five
foot-six inch tall woman helping a temporarily blind, six foot tall lycan to
his feet. “You’re right, Michelle. It’s not funny, it’s hilarious!”
Dmitri growled in irritation,
a low animalistic sound that made Michelle shiver. She gulped, knowing he
was mad and not blaming him. Mandy couldn’t stop laughing. Dmitri, unable
to see who helped him, shrugged away from Shiloh.
“Shiloh, come on, let’s get
out of here.”
Everyone turned to Byron. He
was livid. With a growl, he didn’t give Shiloh a choice. Lifting her from
the floor, he tossed her easily over one shoulder and strode for the door.
Tense and ready to face whatever danger still lurked in the parking lot.
Shiloh pushed up off Bryon’s
back, grinned, and waved at Mandy and Michelle. “Call you next week for
that interview!”
