Page 52 of Marcus-stiltskin

She backs away from me and the cloak, slowly, as if I’m going to attack. “It’s got something on it,” I try to explain. “It made me sick. Don’t touch it.”

She kicks it with the toe of her shoe and it slides across the floor and right into the path of a sexy T-Rex. At least I think that’s what the costume is. The woman stops in her tracks and stares at the cloak for a long moment before reaching down to pick it up.

“NO!” the girls at the table join me in shouting at her, but she merely pinches it between two fingers and holds it up as if it is the most disgusting thing she’s ever seen.

Her large eyes meet mine and I realize I know this T-Rex. “Where are they?” she asks.

“Esmer?”

She smiles and turns, “You like the fit?”

I nod. “Th-they are on the dance floor, I think.”

“Show me.”

I leave my tray at the bar and then head into the crowd with Esmer still holding the cloak up as if it’s a soiled diaper. The crowd parts for us, eager to get away from the garment. The hobbits are nowhere to be seen.

She shakes her head as we find ourselves on the other side of the room. “They’re still here. I can feel them.”

I’m tempted to ask her what they are. This seems to be a lot of trouble for dudes dressed as hobbits, when I see Zach Lamar making a beeline for us. “Steely, where’s Zander? I thought he was guarding you?”

Esmer turns to him and gives him a disgusted look. “She’s helping me look for trows. Be useful and help us, wolf.”

“Trows? What’s a trow?”

“A predator, looking for a mortal wife to steal. So unless you want to be known as the place where women go to disappear, I’d suggest you start helping us look now, too.”

“Fuck, what does this trow look like?”

“There’s four. They look like hobbits. They’re wearing cloaks like this,” I tell him, pointing to the fabric Esmer is holding. “Don’t touch the cloak, it’s like being roofied.”

Esmer shakes her head. “They can look like anything or anyone they want. The cloaks won’t change, though. Have people look for the cloaks.”

Zach looks horrified. “I’ll make an announcement from the DJ’s stand.”

He wanders off and I follow Esmer as she makes a large circle around the room. There aren’t many exits in the building. In fact, I’m not even sure this building is built to fire code. We work our way through throngs of drunk people. Most move out of the way of the sexy T-Rex, but several men try to stop her as we pass, and are sent away with just a scathing look.

The club has quickly become packed–everyone’s costumes are making it that much harder to move through the crowd. We dodge tails and inflated plastic outfits, and cardboard cutouts left and right. As we move closer and closer to the door, she moves faster and faster. I don’t know why, but I keep on her heels, eager to see what this confrontation will look like.

“You!” I hear her shout above the crowd. “Stop that man there!”

She rushes forward as the man hurries to the door, a person covered in a cloak leaning against his side.

This isn’t the creepy, grumpy hobbit from before, but instead a human man in jeans, a baseball cap, and a t-shirt that says “THIS IS MY COSTUME” in large black letters. He’s got his arm around a woman completely draped in a cloak similar to the one in Esmer’s hand. As we get closer, I can feel the heat emanating from him.

“STOP THAT MAN!” I call out to Eddie, our bright red demon bouncer. That gets him up and on the defensive.

“This is my girlfriend. She just had a little too much to drink. I’m just taking her home.” the man says. The woman leans against him, moaning.

“I’m going to throw up,” she mutters as we all gather around.

“What’s going on here?” Zander says, appearing out of nowhere.

Esmer turns to him. “This trow is attempting to steal a human from your bar.”

“Are you sure?” he says, getting into the man’s space. Zander and all the wolves are in their partial shift. They stand a lot taller and appear far more muscular than normal. He sniffs the air and looks between the man and the woman.

“She doesn’t smell like yours.”

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