Courting Trouble (Chapter 5) (Patreon)

   Index
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3  
Chapter 4 

Chapter 5

I turned and beheld a woman that beggared belief. She was pale as marble, with golden, wavy hair that crested down her shoulders and back. Her red dress stopped just above the knee, with a neckline low enough to draw the eye to her ample chest. Ruby lips were tucked into a confident, coy smile and her sea green eyes blazed with something I couldn’t quite describe.

Blinking, my thoughts stolen away momentarily, I just took her all in. She knew the effect she was having and her smile grew wider. She patted the stool next to her and I practically floated over to take the seat. I caught a whiff of her perfume, something that made me think of dark gardens full of roses, warmed by the day but cooling quickly.

After a moment my rational mind asserting itself again, pushing away the vivid daydream she inspired. I smiled at her appreciatively and shifted slightly on my stool seat. “You know Nemue?”

“I do,” she replied, drawing out the last word. “I’m Helena. And you are?”

I felt butterflies in my stomach as I leaned forward. “Ellie,”  Immediately following the introduction that rational part of me disappeared and I blurted out. “Can I get you something to drink?”

Helena laughed. Her eyes sparkled with a wickedness that intrigued me, and I found I couldn’t look away. I smiled back, broader than before  turning a bit more to face her. I hadn’t flirted in a long time and it was an amazing feeling to do it again. And to have the attention of a woman liked this...

“I am quite parched but I can wait,” she murmured quietly, placing her hand on mine. It was subtle enough that it could’ve been an accident but I knew it wasn’t. Lightning shot up my arm and my belly trembled with nerves.

“So what do you do? And how do you know Nemue?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.

I swallowed and Nemue’s face drifted through my head for a second, her sitting on my couch. I had only met her a few hours ago and I was inspecting her framing for several murders. But she was my client, and I didn’t know this woman. I couldn’t just divulge information like that to anyone. “I know her from a ways back. And what I do isn’t really all that impressive.”

Helena squeezed my hand slightly and my insides tightened. “People always undersell themselves. Tell me.”

By the time I had processed her words my own mouth was moving, as if on autopilot. “I’m an investigator. I look for lost people, things.”

“Really?” The woman mused, leaning a bit closer, eyes wide, eyebrows up. I had the urge to lean in again but I wanted to keep my distance. Just for now. “Only looking for Nemue, are you?”

My eyes locked on her lips, soft and plush, and my gaze crept up until our eyes met. I tried to speak but couldn’t, words catching in my throat.

She leans in further and I felt her cheek brush mine, her hair sweep by my nose, dousing my head with her perfume again. She whispered into my ear, “Meet me out back.”

My eyes slid back into focus a second later to see an empty stool and I dimly heard the door shut. Those words repeated in my ear over and over again, each time drawing my attention to the promise hidden in them. I got up and practically stumbled out of the door and into the street.

I was behind the pub a minute later. It was drab or dusty but it was private, the sounds of the bazaar dulled and softened, the light from the street faintly illuminated the alley. A couple cracks of light streaked across the cobblestone street from under back doors, creating bars of golden light that cast shadows over the walls.

As seconds ticked by I began to realize how easy a target I could be in that alley. Doubt began to drizzle down like ice water into my belly. Something wasn’t right.

But as I turned to leave I nearly walked into Helena. She smiled at me and I felt my doubt of the situation dry up and burn away. I practically melted into her, feeling my heart skip a beat.

Helena kissed me and it had been so long since any intimate contact that I had nearly forgotten the sensation. I felt something hard against my back and my fingers brushed against the hardwood of one of the buildings. The kiss felt like it lasted forever but when her lips parted from mine, I felt a yearning, eager need well up inside me, not yet fulfilled.

After that first kiss, things got hazy. The touch of her hands up and down my body, the sensation of her lips on mine. I don’t know how long we were like that, but by the end I only remember feeling ache of desire, the need to be close to her and nothing else.

The second kiss ended and even the few seconds apart, I desperately wanted it to continue. But Helena didn’t lean in again. I made a small noise of protest, quietly begging her to return, arching my back and offering myself to her. “Please…” I mewled.

Helena’s voice was like her hand, gliding over me, questing and teasing. “I will, just tell me why you’re asking about Nemue.” I felt her fingers brush my hips, then lower, and my toes curled in my shoes, my breath catching in my chest.

I wanted to tell her, anything to have her continue. Those green-blue eyes swallowed me and there was no thought of lying to her, to hide anything from her. “Nimue hired me,” I gasped, rolling my hips gently for her, “to find who killed the dark elves.”

Helena pushed closer and I pressed my lips against her chest, kissing the skin her dress left exposed. Her smell, of roses and the cooling evening, wafted around me like a blanket. The gorgeous woman purred quietly. “Do you know where she is?”

“Yes.” I murmured and looked up at her. Something went through my hair and only dimly did I realize it was her fingers. I wanted them to entwine in my hair, to  have her guide me, to worship her at her pleasure.

“Tell me.” She whispered directly into my ear. Her words drove into my thoughts like a knife and I felt my back arch. Helena’s fingers brushed in the inside of my thigh and slid upward.

“Don’t… don’t stop.” I pleaded, my whole body tensing, my eyes rolling into the back of my head. My breath was coming out ragged and gasping, my fingers desperately holding on to her. “P-please…”

Something changed in that moment and the haze of emotions clouding my reason was murdered on the spot. Helena’s words drove deeper into me and they physically hurt. “Tell me.”

I suddenly realized how cold Helena’s hands were, how painful she was holding me to the wall. Inside my head, as if physically dug up with pick, my apartment address was brought to the fore of my thoughts. I cried out in pain and bit my tongue to stop from blurting it out.

My eyes rolled forward, out of the back of my head, and I saw, truly saw, Helena. She looked the same but she seemed to lack that cloud of light, that life to her. Now she was cold, hard and empty. As she spoke I saw fangs behind those ruby lips, long and sharp.

I couldn’t fight her, she was too strong, her hands like iron. I kicked and struggled, to no avail. I would have had better luck kicking through stone. I saw her lean in, felt that pressure drill into my brain again, trying to scream but unable to.

My lips trembled as the vampire hissed, her lips parting, her fangs gleaming, lowering them to my throat. “Tell me where she is.” I felt something snap inside my head and I felt the words forming on my lips.

And then there was massive, shattering noise and a brilliant flash of stinging light. I saw Helena whip forward and I flinched out of pure reflex. But a second later I saw the huge hand wrapped around her throat, pulling her forward. I felt the vampire’s head smack into the wood wall behind me and she stumbled away, spinning drunkenly.

I fell to my knees, shaking, feeling as if I had walked out of a warm sauna, only to be doused in ice water. I suddenly felt ill, violated, and my stomach turned in nauseated horror. I looked up to see a hubcap sized hole in the wood and the tips of massive fingers withdrawing back through it. There was the rattle of lock being unlatched and one of the back doors opened up. A massive shape loomed in the doorway.

There was a shrieking hiss and I turned to see Helena leap through the air. I felt an irrational fear drive into my stomach and paralyze me. I felt a similar sensation before, months ago, at the hands of a monster that abducted children. I fought through it as best I could, drawing my gun from my shoulder holster.

My hands shook, the barrel of my gun wavering back and forth. My rescuer didn’t need my help though. It caught the woman in mid leap and drove her into the cobblestones with the force of a pile driver. There was the crunch of breaking bone, and Helena lay spasming on the ground. The fear inside me receded like the tide and my gun steadied a bit.

It was over in seconds. Helena moaned and struggled to get up. The figure grabbed her by the hair and swung her down into the cobbles three times with elemental brutality; wham, wham, wham. Helena made a  gurgling, choking sound and then her assailant twisted at the hips and shoulder and she was hurled out of the alley and into the street some fifteen feet away.

There was a grunt of satisfaction and the silhouette turned to me. I saw massive hands come out of the dark and I recoiled in fear, only to have them pick me up like a toddler and carry me indoors.

The light hurt my eyes and I squinted, looking around. I caught glimpses of wood shelves, lined with stacks of containers; burlap sacks, wood crates, barrels, plastic containers, cardboard boxes. I could smell the overpowering odor of produce, the scent of several vegetables and wet earth.

I felt myself bob and heard the steady, rhythmic thumping of feet going up steps. I glanced down to see a pair of bare, thick feet pounding up wooden steps. Craning my head I tried to catch my savior’s face but I was pulled too close to his or her chest to see beyond the massive chin.

I jostled slightly and a door opened. I could smell tobacco, some sort of strong liquor and the faint, muffled sound of jazz music coming from below. I was sat down on the edge of a massive bed, with hand quilted sheets.

The barman looked down at me, arms crossed over his dirty apron. “Got yourself into trouble,” he said simply.

“I- yes.” I stammered and a second later my brain caught up with the situation. “You saved me.”

The man nodded absentmindedly, moving a hand up to scratch at some stubble on his cheek. “Probably, yeah. Saw you leave with that thing. Didn’t like it, listened in on you through the door. Heard what you said about Nemue.”

“Was that a vampire?” I asked, feeling my nerves jangle uncertainly as adrenaline started to wear off.

He raised one massive, knobby brow and I saw his eyes were similar to Nemue’s; no whites, though his eyes were a dark, murky green. “You’re new to all this, mm?”

I nodded. I was going to ask “Who are you?” but it came out “What are you?”

The thing’s jaw tightened a bit, as if the question annoyed him. “Never seen a troll before, mm?” The words were harsh but a moment later he cast an eye over me and his expression softened. He extended his massive hand to me and I could see his palms were like cracked street pavement. “I’m Belkor.”

Nervously, I took his hand. He didn’t squeeze or shake it, maybe because if he did he might break my fingers or dislocate my arm. “I’m Ellie Nott.”

“Nemue hired you?” he asked.

I hesitated before nodding. He saved my life and he probably overheard enough to know what was going on. “Yes. She says she was framed.”

“She would’ve been, she isn’t a killer. She sang here, I paid her some.” The troll withdrew his hand and sighed sadly, something that caused his massive barrel chest to heave. “But it is a bad situation.”

So that was why Nemue sent me to The Black Cauldron; to meet her employer. I chewed on my tongue for a second and nodded, recalling the talk I had with elf girl. “I know, they found the murder weapon in her home.”

Belkor gave me an impatient look and his tone became grave. “Far worse than that, I’m afraid.”