Chapter Club Muses

Modern Times, Las Vegas.

Looking out of the darkly tinted windows of her SUV, Anjael was surprised to see Priest Justus waiting on the steps of the Lost Mine Packhouse as Ridge drove them into the parking garage. Before the door finished, she and Dart hurried into the house. She wondered if the Catholic Church had agreed to her petition to allow Delphi Delilah to search through their archives in Ravena and on Patmos for clues to the sun-worshiping wolf she was seeking.

"Brother Justus, welcome." Anjael hugged him before Dart shook his hand but the Wicce-turned-priest did not smile in return. "What's wrong?"

"Queen Ilona sent a message through the Greek Orthodox Church to you." Ouroboros answered for him and held out the parchment written in the ancient runes of the Edenoans.

Anjael's Demoness looked out her eyes, causing the cat-like slits to grow more pronounced as she read it then she laughed. It was a deep, evil sound filled with mocking. "She still owes eggs to my mother and my aunt's clans. Until she hands them over, she will get nothing from the Western Clan. Has she sent eggs to Queen Udo who dwells in the darkest part of Africa? Or Queen Echidna who has hidden herself from me? No. She only trades eggs with the Romani whose queen is now sterile and dying. Tell her, Shishi's clan in Japan will get the first egg not for my clanmates and she can just wait unless she brings me Echidna!" Her voice rose to a snarling shout.

Everyone stepped back except the other two Cruors. Dartanian took the letter before she could tear it to shreds. He read through it carefully then smirked. "Brother Justus, can you deliver a letter to the Greek Orthodox priest who is the liaison with Queen Ilona?"

When Anjael growled, he blinked his tawny eyes at her, "My Queen, this is an opportunity to turn the other queens against Echidna and discern her location. We should invite Ilona to meet us in a neutral location like New York, London, or Paris. Tell her what that snake did. Give her your blood to prove your claim and demand an egg for your uncle first. Tell her you want your sons from Echidna for her mistreatment of you, and Thalmus' heart in payment for his abuse and abandonment. I will draft a legal document to send with it detailing the violations of the treaty of the queens."

She considered his words and nodded, "Thank you, Dart." Then she walked away. Shrinking, back into her mortal form, she seemed to shudder.

"Dartanian, I would rather you receive an egg from Ilona than I," Ouroboros clicked in their language.

"My Lord Ouroboros, the lineage of the Western clan cannot only be carried by Lady Anjael. I can egg with her, you cannot."

Ridge walked past the door with Heather, who glanced at them with unveiled hatred. Ouroboros did not shy from returning her heated gaze, then he looked back to the alabaster-colored Cruor, clicking and whistling, "I would not put my beloved soul through suffering my infidelity with any female."

"He would understand. He faces the same dilemma of having a child so do not make the choice for him before you discuss it with him." Dartanian suggested. "Perhaps you could raise your offspring together, and guard Ethridge and Heather's children for as many generations as you did Khonsu-et's lineage." He hoped encouraging Ouroboros to move outside his unusual monogamous relationship would expand their clan.

"I will consider it."

"And talk to Ridge... please."

Ouroboros gave the younger Cruor a nod and retreated to his below ground rooms. Brother Justus raised an eyebrow at Dartanian. "Why are they so upset?"

"Pray for him and his beloved soul. Both need to bear children in this generation," Dartanian explained.

The centuries-old Wicce warlock-turned-priest nodded. "It is an unusual arrangement far outside the teachings of the church."

"It is, but we are no longer living in times when they can only love one another." Dartanian held out his hand for the priest to proceed him, "Come to my office and I will tell you a story no one outside our clan, the Romani clan, and the Mediterranean clan know. We need to discern a way to word Anjael's request without it sounding like a decoration of war on the other clans if they won't punish the Romani and hand Echinda over to be punished."

Entering the room filled with rich olive wood furnishings and decorated with the art of the Etruscans and the sculptures of his foster family, Dart poured a glass of his family's vintage.

Sipping the wine, Justus grinned, "Is this a Testamatta Sangiovese?"

"It is... enjoy it because there is nothing pleasant about what I am going to tell you. The queens of those other two clans schemed together to force Anjael to become a breeder when she was the equivalent of a fourteen-year-old girl. Echidna allowed her to suffer greatly at the hands of her brother and his Romani male lover... You were there for the War against the Black Death?" When the priest nodded, Dart continued, "She was so young, so full of hope and a drive to save our kind from the fate of the giants, but she trusted a queen only because she was a queen..." He continued to talk for several hours. He had once demanded Anjael show him why she hated the Romani and Gorgon-Cruor. He still had nightmares about her imprisonment and her wandering for several seasons on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea with her wings chained to her body with emerald.

<*><*><*><*>

Unable to bear to listen to Dartanian sharing her horror with Justus, she left with Shishi and went to her newest club. The suggestive statues bordered on erotic, but were just shy of something that would bring the police. As the music thumped and the lights flashed, the warehouse began to fill with humans and a few werewolves. These Lycani carried several different pack scents but tonight, the smell of smoke and burnt meat wasn't among them. Shishi waded through the crowd dancing with anyone willing while she watched from above. No one noticed that one of the statues moved, crawling across the ceiling like a spider. She dropped behind a group carrying meth-tainted cannabis and followed them.

"Woods, I need a full cell dump and intel on the group in the Baccus Suite. Block all communication out and activate the sound dampeners if it gets too loud." Anjael ordered then she slid the door to the private room closed behind her. It locked with a quiet click only she could hear.

"Herrera? What have I said about dealing that tainted crap in my clubs?" She looked down at the were-jaguar like she wanted to gut him. "I have already thrown the Jalisco Cartel out of my city. Do not make me come for you and yours." Her threat hung in the air as several of the newer dealers pointed guns at her. They were completely unnerved that she didn't even flinch.

"L-lady Anjael... I-I thought you were in Europe," he stammered, then tried to bluff, "And this isn't tainted... It's the best we could import from..."

"Stop." She held up her hand. "You know that I can smell the meth it's mixed with. Just like I can smell that you are lying to me."

"Man, what are you taking this shyte from this biyatch?! Just cap her arse," one of the younger ones demanded before Herrera or his lieutenants could stop him.

Anjael turned and smiled at the arrogant werecoyote. "Go ahead. Shoot me."

The hot head pulled the trigger as Herrera shouted, "No."

Anjael turned like she had been struck then she straightened and shifted into her mid-form succubus while she held out her palm with the bullet in it. "At least you didn't miss." Before the shooter could fire again, her tail wrapped his throat and dragged him toward her.

"Submit," she whispered into the terrified youth's ear and he shuddered, falling to his knees. She placed the gun on the table with their drinks.

His coyote looked out his human form's eyes at her in terror as he urinated on himself. "Wh-what are you-you?"

Her sideways cat-like pupils grew more pronounced as her fangs snapped forward like a switchblade. She grinned showing off her pointed, mother-of-pearl teeth. "I'm a demoness. A queen, in fact."

Herrera and his crew were already backed against the walls and not making eye contact. "Please, please, Lady Anjael... We're sorry. It... it was my mistake to bring th-this here and try to offload a b-bad shi-shipment."

"Yes, it was." She bit the werecoyote's shoulder through his shirt and drew in some of his blood. It was tainted with drugs and alcohol and tasted horrid, but she needed to judge his guilt. When she saw what he did to his little sister when he was a teenager and to several young girls afterward, she ordered him in throaty, whispering tones, "Strip and jerk off like you are with one of your underaged girls."

Sitting down, she watched as one of the others tried to open the suite door only to find it locked. To the others, she said louder, "Sit down gentlemen, enjoy the show compliments of the house."

She watched the others more than him, and just as he climaxed, she ordered in her enthrallment tone, "Pick up your gun and shoot it off, it's a snake."

The young werecoyote looked down at his manhood in his hand and yelped as he hallucinated, then he shot himself in the crotch several times. He lay on the floor screaming and thrashing until he passed out while she smiled at Herrera and his crew. All the men were staring between the one bleeding and the demoness. They were all pale and one was vomiting into his hands.

Anjael stood and walked to the door with the lilting stride of a runway model. "Tell your father I expect a million in my account by tomorrow as a fine for bringing tainted product in. I allow you access to my clubs, but I do not want my patrons dead."

"But he doesn't..."

"I don't care." Her sharp tone interrupted him. "If you cross me again, I will skin your cat and leave you on the hood of a car like I did the last pair of coyotes pushing poison in my city. Do you understand?"

Herrera nodded with a jerk of his head while everyone else didn't look at her. Before she melted into her more human looking form, she picked up the gun and bent the barrel, popping the slide off ruining it. Handing it to one of the other new dealers, she smiled and pursed her lips like she was blowing Herrera a kiss.

"Be good, boys, and do take your trash with you when you leave." The door unlocked the moment she touched it, and she walked out.

Shishi was waiting for her, and he followed her through the crowd to the office. "Do you wish for me to deal with them?"

"No, they will be better behaved because I let them live," she answered in the clicks and whistles of the Cruor language. Once the office door closed, she said aloud, "Woods?"

The mirror behind her desk slid aside. The scrawny hacker scowled and held out a printed sheet. "Here are all their contacts and I have already planted bugging apps on their devices. One of them is a corrupt cop dismissed from the Baltimore Police. I can have his I.A. file in half an hour. Do you want me to contact your detective friend to pick him up?"

"How corrupt is he?" she asked as she stared out over the crowd, watching the human like prey. Herrera's group had redressed the injured werecoyote male and were carrying him out like he was too drunk to walk. She wondered absently if they would heal him or kill him. It no longer mattered to her because he would never harm any girl again. She focused on listening to her hacker.

"Drugs, money laundering, evidence and witness tampering, nothing bad enough to keep him out of Witness Protection. He's young, and has at least one girlfriend who reported him for domestic violence but the charge was dropped. You'll have to bleed him to confirm," Woods sounded gleeful at the idea of her murdering the man. "No one will miss him. Dad's in the supermax for life, and his mom is a missing person and presumed dead."

"You seem too happy," Shishi observed with a frown.

"I like to watch our queen cull those who deserve to be dragged off by the Moon's hounds to the place the humans call Hell," Woods retorted.

"Call Detective Sargent Biaz and prepare a packet for him from the information you gathered tonight. I am going to follow the ex-cop. Shishi, make certain they don't sell any of their tainted cannabis in my club," Anjael ordered as she climbed the ladder to the roof.

"His alias name is Ryan Domingues, but his real name is Reich Bodnar same as his dad. His mother was Milllyana Petchekur," Woods called after her.

"Thanks." Closing the hatch, she ran and leapt off the edge, letting her wings pull her into the dark sky. The corrupt cop got onto a motorcycle and roared away from the club. He stopped in front of a church, made a call, and started arguing with someone.

"It's me, I'm out... I don't care what my contract says or that I am not supposed to call you on this phone. I. Am. Out!" Reich shouted into the phone.

The voice on the other side snarled in a Ukrainian accent. "No one leaves the family. Your job is to gather information so we can move into the area."

"Did you know that there is a freaking demoness running several of the clubs? I just watched her make a guy who tried to shoot her, wank off and then blow off his own junk." He scrubbed his face as he looked around where he was parked.

She wondered if he would run into the church as she eavesdropped.

"There are no more Demones, they are extinct," the accented voice refuted Reich. The way he used the old name made her curious.

She clicked and whistled in tones no human would notice. "I can hear you. Keep your filth out of my territory."

Suddenly, the voice stopped speaking. After a few minutes, Reich demanded, "Are you still there?"

"Give her the phone."

"What?"

"I said, give Queen Anutari the phone," the voice ordered.

Reich twisted around in surprise then fell off his motorcycle, when he looked over his shoulder to see her folding her wings. She held out her hand. Standing up, the human held out the phone. His shaking hand telegraphing his terror as much as his scent.

"Hello," she said in a girlish and light tone then she spoke in her kind's language, "You have influenced groups on the eastern coast and in several major cities on both continents. Vegas and the west are mine. Tell Queen Ilona, if she wants to talk, I will meet her on neutral ground, but she better be prepared to provide my uncle with an egg and give me Echidna's location. Do you understand the message?" There was silence for a few moments, so Anjael examined her pearly nails as though bored.

"She wants to know why you wish to find the other queen." The male Cruor sounded nervous.

"I don't gossip with males. The affairs of the queens are none of your concern. She will be getting a letter soon," Anjael handed the phone back to the human, then announced aloud in his language, "Leave my territory, son of Reich Bondar and Milllyana Petchekur, or your lineage will end in my territory." She leapt into the sky and vanished.

As Anjael circled, she heard Reich demand, "Who the fuk... what the fuk is she?"

"She is the Western Queen, and I suggest you get as far from Vegas as you can before she turns you into a thrall and maims you like she did Herrera's werecoyote friend." Then line clicked as it disconnected.

Anjael followed him to the edge of the city and watched as he sped away toward Las Angeles. She shook her head thinking about the name because she knew there were no angels living in that city.