Dangerous girls 3, p.10
Dangerous Girls 3, page 10
“Hey, Mike.” Diana was standing in the bedroom doorway. “Do you have clean towels? Could I have a shower?”
The sight of Diana standing naked in the doorway was enough to make my brain short-circuit again.
“Mike?” Diana prompted with a giggle as I just stared at her without speaking.
“Uh, yeah, towels.” I pulled myself together and got out of bed. “I’ll find you some.”
Diana turned and went into the bathroom, which gave me a glorious view of her ass, but I firmly told myself to get a grip and pulled out the under-bed storage to find some clean towels.
After Diana had showered, I decided to have a shower as well, and then we both got into bed.
Diana laid on her side, and I pressed up behind her and wrapped my arms around her.
“Mmm,” I murmured into her hair. “You smell so good.”
“You have nice shower gel,” she replied with a giggle.
“I think it’s something else.” I squeezed her tightly, and she let out a little hum of contentment and pressed her ass against my pelvis.
“This is nice,” she whispered.
“It really is.” I kissed the back of her neck, and then her cheek as she turned around to smile at me.
For a moment, we just gazed at each other. Then I dropped a final kiss on her upturned face, and Diana turned around again and snuggled deeper into her position as the little spoon.
“Sweet dreams, Mike,” Diana whispered as I leaned over her to turn off the light.
However, I slept without any dreams at all, and I woke up when my alarm went off the next morning.
I remained still in the bed for a moment and let my brain wake up. There was something off, and it took me a few seconds to put my finger on it. Then I realized that it was because Chanterelle wasn’t in the bed next to me like she normally was. Instead, I could smell Diana’s spicy perfume, and when I rolled over, she was still asleep beside me.
I studied the perfect details of her beautiful face for a moment, then reached out and gently touched her shoulder.
“Diana,” I whispered. “It’s morning.”
Diana sighed.
“Do you want coffee?” I asked.
“Mm,” she murmured. “Yes, please.”
I got out of bed, quickly got dressed, and went into the kitchen. I started a pot of coffee and got out bread to make toast.
After a little while, Diana came into the kitchen. She was fully dressed, and she looked as poised and polished as if she’d been up for hours.
“You look nice,” I told her with a smile.
“It’s exactly what I was wearing yesterday,” she pointed out.
“And you looked very nice yesterday as well.” I pushed a mug of coffee toward her. “What do you want on your toast? I’ve got peanut butter, jam, honey, or cinnamon sugar.”
“Jam, please,” she replied.
“We’re meeting Artemis and Chanterelle in the square,” I said as I spread jam on the toast, put it on a plate, and handed it to her.
“The assembly starts at ten, right?” Diana asked.
“Yeah.” I scraped peanut butter on my slices of toast. “We’ve got an hour before we need to head out.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “In that case, I’m going to do my makeup.”
“Wait, aren’t you already wearing makeup?” I asked her in surprise.
Diana gave me an unimpressed look.
“Oh, Mike.” She shook her head. “It’s sweet that you think that.”
“Alright, fine.” I rolled my eyes. “Did Artemis leave some here?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I noticed it in the bathroom. Obviously, her concealer isn’t going to match my skin, but the girl has good taste in blush and eyeliner.”
“I know what some of those words mean,” I said with a grin.
Diana chuckled.
We finished breakfast, and while I cleaned up, Diana vanished into the bathroom to attend to the makeup situation.
I got out my phone and texted Jay.
Do you want to meet us in the square to go over to the hotel for the assembly?
He texted back almost immediately.
I was planning to work my shift like normal today.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise and texted back.
If you want the hours, that’s cool. I thought you might want to join the assembly.
Nope, he texted back. I’m curious obvs but not curious enough to run the risk of getting run through by a bunch of scary women with big swords.
I chuckled.
It’s an assembly to bring law and order here, I texted. There shouldn’t be any running through of people.
That’s what they all say, Jay texted back, and I could picture the plaintive look on his face. I’d rather face customers.
Haha, no worries, I replied. I’ll update you about everything once it’s over.
Diana emerged from the bathroom after a while with a triumphant smile on her face.
“Well?” she asked.
I leaned in close and studied her face. There did seem to be more product on her face, and I could see that she was wearing some black stuff around her eyes, which I assumed was eyeliner or mascara.
“Hmm…” I frowned.
“What?” Diana asked in surprise.
I leaned closer, then darted in and kissed her on the mouth.
Diana let out a startled little squeal of laughter and pushed me away.
“You,” she scolded.
“Come on.” I grinned. “It’s time to meet the others.”
We headed down the stairs and out of the shop.
It was a typical Wormwood day outside, which meant the sky was moody and gray and full of clouds. It was cool, even though we were supposed to be heading into summer by now, and there was a wind that whipped at my hair and snapped my shirt against my chest.
Artemis and Chanterelle were waiting for us in the square, and they waved to us as we approached.
Artemis was wearing black denim shorts and a burgundy plaid shirt half-buttoned up to show a black camisole underneath. She wore thigh-high black socks and her chunky black Doc Marten boots.
Chanterelle was wearing a baby-pink dress with a short skirt that ballooned out around her waist and made her look like a cupcake. On top of that, she wore a cropped, mustard-yellow knitted cardigan and at least five necklaces. She’d finished off her ensemble with black fishnet tights and red high-top Converse.
Together they looked like a canary and a crow.
“Hey, guys,” Artemis called as we walked up to them.
“Hey,” I replied. “You both look very nice.”
“It’s my strength dress.” Chanterelle twirled around and held the poofy skirt out to show it off to its full advantage. “I have worn it to feel confident and most like myself.”
“Wait,” Diana said with a frown. “How did you manage to get dressed in your clothes if you were at Artemis’?”
“Oh, well…” Chanterelle looked sheepish. “Maybe I absorbed back to Mike’s place this morning when it was very early and you were both asleep so you weren’t disturbed by my process of going through the closet and selecting my strength dress.”
“No worries,” I chuckled. “There weren’t any disturbances in the night, then?”
“No.” Artemis shook her head. “No shifter attacks. Nothing magical happened at all.”
“Well, at least there’s that,” I said.
We started walking across the square.
“Where is Jay today?” Chanterelle asked.
“He’s going to open the shop for me,” I replied. “He said he’d rather face customers than scary women with swords who might run him through.”
“The assembly’s meant to be making sure that doesn’t happen anymore,” Diana protested.
“That’s what I told him,” I said.
“Although,” Artemis said with a grin, “if anyone was going to get run through by a scary woman with a sword, it would be Jay.”
“Jay is vulnerable,” Chanterelle agreed. “He has red shirt written all over him.”
“Wait, what?” I stared at her. “How do you know about red shirts and what that means?”
Chanterelle caught her lower lip between her teeth and stared at me with her huge blue eyes.
“Red shirts,” she repeated.
“Wait, what’s a red shirt?” Artemis asked.
“In the original Star Trek series–” Diana explained, but she was cut off by Artemis groaning.
“Oh, my god,” she sighed. “I should have known.”
“Hush,” Diana commanded. “This is an important piece of your education.”
Artemis rolled her eyes. “Fine. Continue.”
“In the original Star Trek series,” Diana continued in a serene tone, “unnamed members of the Enterprise crew would often get killed as a way of showing that the situation was serious. Of course, they couldn’t kill any of the main cast, so it would be the unnamed crew members, who all wore red shirts, who would be sacrificed to make a point.”
“Oh, my god,” Artemis sighed again.
“Red shirts!” Chanterelle chirped.
“Every time there’s some kind of reference I don’t get,” Artemis said, “it always seems to go back to some random TV show from a hundred years ago. Why aren’t there any new references that I might actually get? Did everything cool stop in the eighties?”
“Yes,” I said with a chuckle. “And no. Maybe our references are just dated.”
“We are old now,” Chanterelle said in a serious tone. “And we are become decrepit. The children now love luxury and no longer rise when their elders enter a room.”
“Speak for yourself,” Diana said.
We were all joking and laughing, but I could tell that it was a way for us to deal with the nervous tension in the morning air. This assembly could change everything in Wormwood, for the better or for the worse.
The Three had said the gathering was to bring law and order to the town and to stop things from spiraling out of control with dozens of different magic users trying to locate and use the source of power here. Things had already gotten bloody and violent, and the Three’s spell on the WarAxe gamers yesterday wasn’t the first time we’d had to use magic to wipe people’s memories.
Magic was here in Wormwood, and it was here to stay.
It was just a question of how peacefully it could co-exist next to everyday, regular, mundane life.
Whenever I’d watched movies or read books that made a huge deal about keeping the existence of magic a secret from the normies, part of me had always wondered why they bothered. Surely it would be better if the word got out. It would certainly cause far less hassle, especially in those stories where the main conflict was keeping the secret that only got more and more obvious as the plot progressed.
Was it such a bad thing if the rest of the world knew about magic?
I couldn’t answer that when it came to The Magicians or Harry Potter, but one thing I knew for sure was that the fewer people who knew about Chanterelle, the better. That one thing I was abso-fucking-lutely sure about.
It was bad enough that dozens of magic folk and strange creatures were coming to Wormwood to try and find her and use her power for themselves. If the news of an incredible living power source spread out into the rest of the world?
I hated to think of the danger that would put Chanterelle in.
And if this assembly could lower the number of people who might accidentally reveal the existence of magic, then it had to be a good thing.
Even so, my mind kept going over what Jay had said. I wanted to dismiss it as Jay’s usual and ever-present anxiety over everything, but I couldn’t shake the worry that he might be right and that this assembly might turn out to be more dangerous than anticipated.
But I didn’t have any more time to chew it over because we’d arrived at the doors of the Gilmore Hotel.
Somehow it was even fancier than I remembered.
We walked into the lobby, and I immediately cringed as Artemis’ Docs and Diana’s heeled boots thumped on the shiny marble floor of the lobby.
“Jesus,” I hissed. “You guys should just wear bells around your necks, it would be easier to announce yourselves.”
“It’s called fashion, Wainwright,” Artemis retorted. “Look it up.”
There was a check-in desk at the other end of the lobby. It was made of dark, shiny wood, and finished with gold trim that matched the gold chevrons on the marble floor. There were a few uncomfortable-looking chairs in the space around the desk which were upholstered in gray velvet.
“So… what now?” Diana asked. “Do we go up to the desk?”
“I guess so.” I felt in my pocket for the little token that the Three had given me.
There was a young concierge behind the desk, and she looked up with a sunny smile as we approached.
“Good morning!” she chirped in a voice that matched her smile. “Welcome to the Gilmore. How can I help you today?”
“Hi,” I said with a polite smile. “We’re part of a, uh, conference here today. In the Hilton Conference Room. What floor is that on?”
“The second floor,” the woman replied and pointed. “Just go to the bottom of the lobby here, then turn left and go around the gold screen, and you’ll see the stairs. Go up and follow the signs.”
“Great.” I nodded. “Thank you.”
“I hope you don’t mind my asking.” The woman’s eyes lit up with interest. “But what is this conference for?”
“What’s it for?” I hedged.
“Yes,” she said eagerly. “We’ve seen so many interesting people coming and going out of that room today, and we’ve got some real characters staying with us as well, but no one will give a straight answer about what they’re here for. All of the staff are placing bets about what it will be.”
“It’s not that exciting, I’m afraid,” I said with a smile. “It’s a bottle cap convention.”
“Bottle caps?” Some of the excitement faded from the woman’s face. “Really?”
“Yep.” I nodded. “We’re just really into bottle caps. Vintage caps, modern caps, modern recreations of vintage caps… It’s become a really popular hobby in the last five years.”
“Oh.” The concierge sounded very disappointed. “Okay. Well, thank you. Enjoy your… bottle cap convention.”
“Thank you,” I replied sweetly. “We will.”
We walked away from the desk and followed the concierge’s instructions to get up to the second floor.
“Bottle cap convention?” Artemis asked me with a grin. “Where did that come from?”
“Like all of my brilliant ideas,” I said. “I pulled it out of my ass.”
“But bottle caps?” Artemis shook her head.
“The thing is…” I admitted in a rueful tone. “I actually was kind of interested in bottle caps for a while.”
“Let me guess.” Diana grinned. “Fallout?”
“Fallout,” I agreed with a chuckle, then explained to Artemis, “It’s a game.”
“Oh, great,” she sighed. “Of course.”
“Hey, it came in handy, didn’t it?” I said. “Ask me for a cool fact about bottle caps, I can provide one.”
“Okay.” Artemis grinned. “Give me a cool fact about bottle caps.”
I chuckled as we reached the second floor and came out in a long corridor. The floor was covered in some of the ugliest carpet I’d ever seen. It was black and covered in a zigzagging pattern of stark white chevrons. The walls were covered in gold and white wallpaper and every so often there was a bland photo frame with a bland stock image of bland flowers or trees to break up the monotony of the paper.
“This is so damn ugly,” Diana said with a sigh. “I swear, maybe I’m just too poor to have been anywhere nice, but every hotel I’ve ever been in has made me feel depressed.”
“I like it,” Chanterelle said with a smile. “People live here, but they don’t live here. It’s funny.”
“Mike,” Artemis demanded. “Bottle cap fact.”
There was a golden arrow sign fixed to the wall that read “Hilton Conference Room” and pointed toward a door at the end of the hallway. There was a small sign on a stand outside the door that read “ASSEMBLY.”
“Alright, alright,” I said. “Bottle cap fact. Did you know that the first kind of bottle cap was called a crown cap and it was invented in Baltimore in 1892?”
“I didn’t know that,” Artemis deadpanned. “Wow. What an interesting fact.”
“I thought you’d like it.” I went up to the door of the conference room and knocked.
It immediately opened, and a tall guy with a long red beard and long red waves that were almost as striking as Artemis’ looked out at us. He was wearing a plain white button-up shirt and black jeans, and he looked pretty normal. So long as I looked past the fact that his eyes were purple and that he wore a thick leather belt around his waist with a leather scabbard hanging from it.
I was surprised to see a guy there. Artemis had told me that the majority of magic users were female, and so far all of the magical visitors I’d encountered had been women. I guessed the assembly must be big enough of a deal to bring everyone to Wormwood, even the men.
“Yes?” he asked with one hand resting on the pommel of the sword in the scabbard.
“We’re here for the, uh, assembly.” I pulled out my token and held it up for him to see.
The guy peered at the token carefully.
Then he nodded, stepped back, and waved us into the room.
I was expecting the decor to be just as appealing as the stuff in the hall, and the Hilton Conference Room did not disappoint.
The floor was covered in more of the ugly black-and-white chevron-covered carpet. The walls were plain white, but there were even more of the boring pictures hanging in there. The light fixtures were very bright and very modern-looking with lots of unnecessary doodads and weird bits of metal hanging off them.
The far wall at the back of the room was blank, and from the projector hanging from the ceiling, I guessed it was left that way so people would have space to project a PowerPoint presentation if they needed to. There was a narrow table set against the wall, and in the space in front of the table were about ten rows of identical chairs with black metal legs and dark gray seat coverings.
