“Would you mind moving so that I can get to the bar?” It sounded like a reasonable request, and I honestly had no idea what they were doing standing between these two tables, blocking the most direct route between the watering hole and the stage. Until I glanced at the guy in the cloak.
He was standing absolutely motionless, except for a slight trembling in his hands, which he held a few inches away from his body at waist level. I thought he was having some kind of fit. His eyes were fixed on the stage, or at least on the mosh-pit in front of the stage, and he was taking deep breaths, in through his nose and out through his mouth. But it was his eyes that grabbed me. He didn’t seem to be looking at anything in the room, really, but they had kind of an unfocused intensity. I would say that it was one of the weirdest things I’d ever seen, but that would be lying – I’d seen some even stranger things in my short but pleasantly eventful life. Still, this definitely was not your average Saturday night drinking session.
Biker Number Two’s attention had been drawn. Without turning around, having faced the bar all this time, he asked over his shoulder if there was a problem. I was about to leave it and “go around”, like the nice people had asked, when I felt an arm go around my shoulders.
“That’s what I’d like to know. Is there a problem here, ladies?”
I’ve never figured out how he did it, but Mick could literally smell trouble from the other side of a room. It seemed to attract him the way most people would be attracted to the scent of freshly baked bread. Of course, Mick’s question had been in code. What he’d actually meant was “This my mate. You not. You die.” The “mate” thing was an optional extra he’d tossed in for appearances, just to give him an excuse. He must have been in a good mood.
“Nah, it’s cool,” I told him, not taking my eyes off the first Horseman. He shrugged, then looked at Mick. The big lad had already lost interest and turned away, with a pat on my shoulder, and missed the sneer that the biker tossed after him. I smiled again and went around the human island to the bar.
Extract from Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick. Available from www.amazon.com/author/burning
Have a great new year, wherever you are.
Till next time. Cheers.
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