Chapter 4
by Michelle M Pillow & Mandy M Roth
Interview with: Elaine Corvidae -- Author of WOLFKIN
“Hey, kitten!” Armando
called out to Mandy as she entered The Raven. Her heel twisted and she lost
her balance. Makonnen’s big arms caught her and she clung to the bouncer
until she was able to regain her footing. Armando appeared next to her and
snarled at Makonnen as he took Mandy’s arm.
“Sorry, boss. I know that
she’s your girl. I was just helping her out,” Makonnen said with a slight
bow of his head.
It infuriated Mandy to see a
seven-foot man reduced to groveling. She twisted her head up to look into
Armando’s dark eyes. “I’m sorry, but did he just call me your girl, because
last time I checked we weren’t dating. I’ve never even kissed you.”
“You do not need to remind
me. Come,” Armando said, as he pulled Mandy from the doorway.
She jerked her arm away from
him and huffed. “What the hell’s gotten into you? Wake up on the wrong
side of the coffin?”
Armando shot her a nasty
look. “At least I know whose coffin I woke up in.”
She bit the corner of her
lip and tried her best to look innocent. “Oh, you heard about me and
Jones.”
He flung her around and
pulled her closer to him. “James. The vampire you were with last night is
named James, not Jones. How you can forget his name is beyond me. Come on,
Mandy, he has bleached out white blonde hair, with pink tips.”
“That wasn’t the tip I was
concentrating on, although, that was pink too….”
“ENOUGH!” Armando yelled.
Mandy’s mouth dropped open
and she started to rebuke him, but was interrupted by a commotion at the
door. Makonnen was there arguing with a man almost as tall as he, but with
the reddest hair Mandy had ever seen. The man’s grey eyes locked on her and
her mind raced with the nagging feeling that she knew him from somewhere.
“Mandy,” he said, his voice
deep. “Kindly tell this man to let me in.”
Armando stepped in front of
Mandy protectively. “What seems to be the problem?”
The man bared his teeth and
his jaw tightened. “The problem is that your bouncer will not let me
enter.”
“Makonnen?” Armando asked.
“Boss, I told him that he
and his little lady are welcome to come in, but his sword isn’t.”
Armando waved his hand in
the air, dismissing the situation as foolish. “Turn your weapons in to
Makonnen and you may enter.”
Mandy looked again at the
stranger’s blood red hair. “Yozerf!” she shouted as she pushed past
Armando. “Is Elaine with you?”
Armando grabbed her arm and
stopped her in mid stride. “Tell me that you haven’t slept with him, too.”
Mandy laughed and patted
Armando arm lightly. “No, silly! He’s my friend, Elaine Corvidae’s, man.”
As if on cue, a tiny blonde
poked her head out from behind Yozerf. She adjusted her tiny black pleather
dress and smiled at Mandy. “Hey, I thought I recognized your voice.”
“Elaine!” Mandy screeched
and ran to meet her friend.
“You know everyone,” Armando
called out dryly behind her.
“Not everyone,” Mandy shot
back as she ran towards Elaine. “Only the important people. Come here!”
She embraced Elaine, and Makonnen stepped back, allowing them room to
maneuver.
Mandy glanced at Yozerf and
laughed slightly as he stood there unloading a never-ending arsenal from his
person. “I see that he still has a Rambo complex.”
Elaine covered her mouth as
she laughed and nodded her head. “Let’s hope he behaves himself tonight. I
heard that there was quite the bar fight here the other night.”
“You can say that again,”
Dmitri said, suddenly appearing behind the women.
Mandy’s eyes widened when
she saw that Dmitri now wore eye patches over both eyes. Armando moved in
next to his friend and guided him to a chair. He glanced at Mandy and shook
his head. “Michelle did quite a number on him. She used enough pepper
spray to bring down twenty men.”
“Yeah, or one lycan,” said
Dmitri sardonically.
Yozerf appeared next to
Elaine and put his arm around her. “Come, let us find a table.” Elaine
rolled her eyes a bit, but let the very alpha male lead her away.
Mandy reached into her
handbag and grabbed her cell phone. She dialed Michelle and waited for her
to pick up. “Hey, it’s me. Oh, my gosh! You need to get your butt down
here. You blinded Dmitri…no, totally blind…I’m not exaggerating…no I don’t
have a tendency to do that…Michelle!”
~****~
Michelle grabbed the side of
the table to keep from passing out. The second she saw Dmitri’s bandaged
eyes, she felt a wave of nausea come over her. After Mandy’s call she’d
read the warning on the bottle and rushed over when she saw that it could
indeed cause blindness.
Dmitri hadn’t said much to
her since her arrival, and that in itself was unusual. The playboy
generally had a mouthful of comments ready and waiting for her. She slid
into the empty chair next to him and waited for Mandy to return with her
drink. Michelle normally didn’t drink alcohol, but for this, she was
willing to make an exception.
Armando approached with a
cool compress for Dmitri. He put his hands in the air and smiled at her.
“I mean you no harm, please do not hurt me.” He was trying to be funny, but
he only succeeded in making Michelle feel worse.
Mandy came back with their
drinks and touched Michelle’s shoulder gently. “Well, it’s probably not as
bad as it looks.”
“Humph,” Dmitri said,
shifting slightly in his seat to tilt his head back so the compress laid
over his head. “You should try being on this end of it.”
“I, umm…. I didn’t mean
to,” Michelle mumbled the words, unable to think of anything to say that
would rectify the problem.
Mandy leaned down and
whispered in her ear. “The least you could do is go out with the poor guy.
You did blind him.”
Armando let out a noise that
sounded a bit like a laugh. Michelle shot him a nasty look, and the vampire
grinned devilishly. “Oh, I agree with her, you should really spend an
evening with Dmitri. Like Mandy said, it’s the least you could do for him.
It’s not like he can see his way around by himself.”
“Just think of him all
alone, by himself,” said Mandy mournfully. She shook her head sadly and her
eyes seemed to say, ‘all because of you’.
Michelle looked at Dmitri
and nodded her head. It wasn’t like he would really pose a threat in his
current state. Mandy tapped her shoulder again and gave a pointed look at
the bandages. It hit Michelle that Dmitri couldn’t see her nod her head.
“Yes,” she stammered over the word. “Yes, I’ll go out with you if you still
want to.”
Dmitri flashed a wide
smile. “Great, tomorrow night, eight pm.”
“Ow!” Michelle yelped as
Mandy kicked the side of her chair. “Yes, sorry, yes tomorrow’s perfect.”
