Dianthe Rising (3 page)

She raised her eyebrow and pert little nose in the air, and haughtily said, "We do not know of what you are speaking. Now be gone peasant and prepare thy self. Our work here is not done.” Annie gave a little royal wave to me as I made my way to the bathroom. I ignored her antics, deciding to get dressed and do my makeup, leaving her to it.

Twenty minutes later, I came out self-consciously aware of the amount of cleavage on show, only to gape at the now spotless bedroom. Annie was sprawled on top of my bed with a magazine. She jumped up, grabbed me by the hands, and spun me around.

“Oh. My. Freaking God. You are totally getting laid tonight.”

“Annie,” I gasped. “I’m not getting laid. We’ve had this conversation how many times?”

“Okay. Alright. Don’t get your thong in a twist,” she grumbled before adding with a grin, “but, girl, you are so getting hit on, like all night.”

Laughing, I said, “Yeah I can handle that. So this isn’t too slutty then?” I eyed myself uncertainly in the mirror. Annie and I stood side by side watching our reflection. We were complete opposites she and I. I had nearly four inches on her in our bare feet and she was fair to my darkness. My hair shone nearly black, except for the strange gold highlights that ran through it. Natural loose curls wove down to my waist and my golden eyes looked a more natural brown in the lighting. Most people thought my exotic looks were due to a great stylist and contacts but in reality it was some weird genetic anomaly. So the specialists had told my parents.

“Slutty?” She recoiled in mock horror, “How is it slutty? Seriously, you really need to get out more. This,” she waved in my general direction, “is tame. I’ve set your boots out for you, so as soon as you’re ready we’ll jump on the tube. You are so gonna love the club where I’m taking you. It’s industrial and so hot right now. Even through the week the queue is huge.” Turning to me, she batted her lashes. "By the way, how do I look?"

I took in her tiny awesomeness and whistled. A miniscule midnight blue corset dress hugged her form. Her hair fell in a cascade of ringlets where she had curled it earlier and she had reapplied makeup. Dang, she was ready for the red carpet. "Annie, no one will even notice me with you there," I laughed. "You are smoking hot."

Ten minutes later, we were making our way down to Angel Tube Station.

“So where are we going again? Kind of want to know what train to get on.”

“Oh, yeah, I never told you the name. Sorry, blonde moment. Have you heard of the nightclub down by Tower Bridge? It’s called Cable. It’s massively cool right now.”

I flipped my hair over my shoulder and looked at her out of the corner of my eye, “Yeah that sounds good. I heard about it from some of the undergrads at work. Isn’t it a bit wild though?”

“Nahh,” she replied. “Not through the week anyway. Should be a blast though.”

We heard the train coming and prepared to sardine ourselves onto the tube for the time it took us to get to our stop.

Once we got to the river and headed toward Bermondsey Street where club Cable was located, Annie and I went over our day.

“So what did Davey Davies say when you told him you were taking time off?”

“I was extremely surprised,” I exclaimed. “He was so laid back about it. He told me that I had been working hard lately, that my research was coming along great and that I deserved a good night out. He went all “dad like” on me and said to be careful and watch out for strange men. Sometimes it’s not the easiest thing working for someone who has known you since you were in nappies.”

“Hey, don’t knock it. He sounds like the coolest boss ever. How many do you think are out there that would be okay with you for blowing off work to go party?”

I raised my eyebrow but I did not bother to remind her whose idea it was to ditch work in the first place.

We rounded a corner and Annie became more hyper than normal. “Here we are,” she chirped happily.

I looked up to see the arch of the doors and a white banner with a black circle saying Cable. The queue wrapped around the building. I wrapped my wool jacket tighter around me and shivered. “We are never going to get in here, Annie.”

“Don’t sweat it, sweets, I’ve got us an in,” she threw back.

We ignored all the nasty looks as we walked around the crowd to the front of the queue. There we met with a mountain of a man guarding the velvet ropes. His neck was as big as my waist. I so wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley. Oh, wait…we were in a dark alley. Oh well, I shrugged, at least he was hot.

Did Annie take any notice of the glare the behemoth was levelling at every one? Nope, she sashayed right up to him and jumped into his startled arms.

“Why, Daniel Lovelace, I’ve not seen you in ages. How are you, sweetie pie?”

I gasped when she pinched the monster’s cheek and gave him a kiss that would make any grandmother proud. She then tugged him down the couple of feet to our level.

“Daniel, you remember me telling you about my best mate in the whole world Dia? Guess what, it’s her birthday and I’m taking her out for the night of her life.”

While he looked extremely uncomfortable, the giant killing machine carefully wrapped an arm around Annie’s back.

“Hi,” the mountain rumbled as he reached out a hand and took mine. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Raggedy Annie here has been talking about you for years. She did tell you we are cousins right?” He arched an eyebrow at Annie.

“Umm, no she didn’t, I thought," I faltered with the words. Annie thankfully cut me off before I could stutter more.

“Damn it, Danny,” Annie cried. “I was so going to make her think we had a thing going. How funny would that be?”

Looking embarrassed, he glanced at me shyly while he mumbled, “I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.”

“Why would she get the wrong idea?” Annie questioned. “She’s never even met you before, you know she might even…oh…ohh, I see.” Annie giggled, eyes widening as Daniel’s face went a craggy red. In a singsong voice, she purred, “You think she’s hot…you wanna kiss her…”

“Oh my God," I groaned. "Annie, what are you, like twelve? I am so sorry about this, Daniel. I really thought I could take her out in public.”

“Hey, no worries, Dia. You guys go on in. If I get a break later, do you want to have a drink with me?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” I blushed. I couldn’t believe that we hadn't even made it into the club and I was already being chatted up by Annie’s cousin. The mountain pretending to be a bouncer.

Inside, there was nowhere to sit downstairs. We decided to head straight onto the dance floor. The bass was thumping and Daft Punk was playing as we got our groove on.

I think we had danced for almost an hour before sore feet and thirst made us head for some drinks. The crush was crazy and random hands copped a feel at least twenty times before we finally made it to the bar. I gave out death glares to everyone I thought was involved, but there were dozens of drunk boys in the club and too many to single any one out.

The gods of the club scene were smiling down upon us as two stools opened up at the very end of the bar. We were on them faster than you could blink.

Unfortunately, there was nowhere near enough bar staff for the people waiting to be served. Annie leaned over and shouted in my ear.

“I’m going to go down closer to the center of this mass of humanity and see if I can get us some drinks. Whadda you want?!” she screamed.

“Surprise me,” I shouted back and she gave me the thumbs up sign and left me to guard our seats.

I sat there for a few moments catching my breath and people watching while waiting for Annie to come back. I was having a great time and astonishingly glad I came out tonight. Clubs are not normally my scene. A shiver ran down my spine as I felt the presence of someone beside me in Annie’s seat. I turned around ready to shout “that was fast” but my voice caught in my throat. A man was sitting there. Our eyes met and a sensation of wariness went through me. He was about six foot tall had sandy blonde hair and brown eyes. Most girls would think he was sexy in a boy-band-punk kind of way. His eyebrow was pierced and he had a lithe sensuality to him that screamed predator. He looked like he wanted to lick me up like an ice cream cone. Unlike several of the women nearby who were giving me nasty looks because of the attention, but I so wasn’t interested. He leaned over and it felt like he was whispering in my ear.

“Hello, petal. My name’s Marcus. What brings you here? Mm mm…” he hummed. "You smell positively divine. I could just drink you up.”

“What?” I gasped. “I think you need to back off, mate. I’m so not interested.”

Eyes narrowed, the stranger leaned in closer to me and inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring. “So ripe, so ready. What games do you play, female? Males of all species will be scenting you soon. Your flavor, it is so unique. Yet with hints of…”

Before he could finish his crazy talk, my mini blonde savior appeared.

“Hey!” Annie called out as she pushed toward me. The crowd miraculously thinned to give her room to squeeze through. “I got our drinks.” Noticing the pallor of my face, Annie levelled her suddenly narrowed eyes on the man called Marcus. “Is this creep bothering you? I so know the big burly bouncer,” she said as she eyed up Mr. Weird.

“No, he was just leaving, weren’t you?” There was no need to get the mountain to come to the rescue yet.

Hissing through his teeth, Marcus glared at me before standing. “Until we meet again, petal, it has been absolutely enlightening to meet you. I do hope we will get to see each other again—very soon.” With that, he turned away and blended into the crowd around us.

“OMG, he was hot but über weird,” Annie laughed before turning serious. "You really look pale, Dia. You okay?”

With a nod, I shook off the horrible vibe he left and smiled at my best friend. “Yeah, just really thirsty, so what did you get me?”

“It’s a Zombie. You’ll love it, trust me.”

“Annie, last time I trusted you, my dad had to pick us up from Sean’s precinct.”

“It’s a cocktail, you’ll be fine I promise.” Before I could comment, she threw in a huge distraction. “Look, there’s Danny boy. I bet he’s coming over to see you. I think he is in lurve. He so has the hots for you.”

“Annie, please be kind to him. He’s your cousin,” I shouted.

“Ummm…yeah, that would mean I should be bad to him not kind. But since it’s you asking, I’ll be on my best behavior. I love him really. I just like to give him a hard time.”

Annie stood up and started waving both arms to get Daniel’s attention, as if she really needed the help. He was such a big man he could see over the crowds. He had such a sweet soft look on his face when he looked down at Annie that it was hard to be intimidated by him. Even so, I took several large swallows of the surprisingly sweet and smooth drink for added courage.

“Hey girls, you having fun in Cable tonight?”

“Yeah.” I smiled up at him. “The music is great and it’s a cool atmosphere.”

“Nice.” He smiled at me and I honestly felt my heart melt a little. If nothing else, Daniel and I were going to be friends.

“Hey,” Annie shouted at us. “I’m going to go check out all the single guys left out there. Are you going to be here for a while Danny?”

“Yeah,” his voice growled.

Even when he spoke softly, it was like rocks rolling down an embankment it was so deep.

“I’ve got an hour before I have to be back on the door. I pulled a favor in,” he winked at me.

“Cool beans.” Annie gave us the thumbs up. “Well, I will leave the birthday girl in your capable hands.”

Before we could say another word, she had flounced off into the mass of dancing bodies, never looking back.

Danny's deep timbre vibrated against my neck when he leaned down to speak to me.

“Hey, do you want to go upstairs where it’s quieter? It’s the VIP section, but I can get us in.”

“Sure,” I was ready for a break from all the people around us. Daniel took my hand in his huge one and led me through the crowd.

“I’ll let Mark know to point Annie in our direction if she comes looking.” He leaned over the bar and grabbed the attention of one of the bartenders. A twenty something bloke came over. He had purple hair gelled up in a Mohawk, several hoops and studs pierced both ears. Punk had nothing on this guy.

“Hey, Mark, Dia and I are heading up stairs. You know my little cousin, Raggedy, if she comes looking send her our way, mate.”

“No problem,” Mark shouted back in a strong Australian accent as we made our way to the stairs.

We ran into another masculine mountain at the ropes to the stairs. “Geeze, is it a requirement that you guys have to be ripped to work here?”

Laughing, Daniel leaned down so I could hear him. “Nahh, but to work the ropes and security it helps. We’d hardly intimidate the rowdy ones if we weighed in at ten stone now would we?”

“Okay, I get your point,” I laughed. “Lead and I will follow, oh intimidating one.”

The bouncer at the stairs let us through with a smirk at Daniel. As we made our way up the stairs, I looked down at my hand in his.

“Your buddy does realize that you’re not taking me up here to score right?”

A huge grin spread across Daniel's face. “Probs,” he said. “But a guy is hardly going to admit he’s taking a sexy thing like you upstairs to talk.”

“You freak,” I laughed. “They are going to assume I’m a skank.”

“If you insist on that picture,” he grinned, then grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up against his chest. I wrapped my legs around his waist and held on for dear life. My arms flew around his neck for balance and I squealed like a little girl.

“Oh my God, we are on the stairs you idiot. You might kill us both.”

Sniggering, he cupped my bum and said, “You should hold on.” He proceeded to run up the last steps and I managed to catch a glimpse over his shoulder to see his buddy laughing at us.

Daniel carried me to a corner of the room where the lights were dimmer. He took us to a recessed booth that stood concealed from any curious onlookers. The music was a fraction of the sound up stairs and I could hear myself think.

“Wow, this is an improvement. I can hear. I don’t have to scream at you, Daniel,” I giggled. “We can have a real conversation.”