Page 110 of Changeling
“You don’t know what an Irish Flag looks like, Mr. Kelly? Bottoms up.” She winked, lifted her own shot to the center of the table, and waited for the others to clink.
The shots went down smooth and fast just as instructed. Nathan licked his lips. Push come to shove, he was more a beer man, but there were some very tasty shots in the world.
Half an hour later their first two pitchers of beer had come and gone and the night looked very promising.
Nathan barely even registered anymore that Jim and Sasha were running off an energy high. With Sasha it just made him a little more excitable and, thankfully, horny. With Jim it seemed to make him more…well, frankly, like Nathan. He was blatantly flirting with both succubae in the same manner he calmed frightened bystanders.
“You know it’s funny, or maybe kind of crazy,” Epica said, pausing to take a long gulp of who knows what beer they were on by now. “We split often enough to go our own way, do our own thing, ya know. Coz we’re big girls now, thank you. We don’t always need to be together. But somehow—I don’t know if it’s being twins, just sisters, or coz we’re on the supernatural side of things anyway—we always end up together again. Right, Atty?”
Her sister giggled. “There was this one time, I was already in town; Spokane, I think.”
“Yeah,” Epica nodded.
“I was tailing this older guy, the kind of sweet, handsome, totally wonderful type, but for whatever crazy reason never got married and almost never gets laid. You know? We had already met briefly and I let the whole thing slide, playing a little hard to get. Then I show up at this pub he stopped at in town all ‘oh, wow, I didn’t think I’d see you here!’.”
She giggled again. It was very bell-like, and Nathan decided it must be part of their fae heritage since it made him think of nymphs to hear a voice that honestly sweet and melodic.
“But he had this sort of confused look on his face when I started talking, right? Then suddenly up walks Eppy who had been chatting with him too. He thought we were the same person! And poor us, we didn’t even know we were in the same town. All for the best though. That guy really needed us, poor thing.”
Epica grinned but with more of a leer than Attoinette as she said, “He was very…appreciative too. ‘Course whenever we go for a group effort like that we need to feed again that much sooner. Kinda have to share, ya know? Wouldn’t want to wear any one person out too much, especially since once in a while,” she said with a not so subtle look at Jim, “we might like to go back for seconds.”
“Need a new round here looks like,” Nathan said quickly, getting up from his stool and smacking Jim a little harder than necessary on the back. “Hey, baby,” he called to Sasha, “why don’t you give me a hand, huh?” He made sure his stare was direct enough so that Sasha would get the hint.
A grin curled around Sasha’s lips and he was out of his stool in a second. “Sure, any requests?”
“Aw, you call him ‘baby’?” Attoinette nearly squealed at Nathan. “That’s so cute. Cam said you were cute. Well, he said you ‘suited each other’ or something. But it all means the same.”
“I could go for some Leinies,” Epica said to answer Sasha.
“At your service,” Nathan winked and then took off with Sasha towards the bar.
Jim was in so much trouble. It made Nathan grin almost sinisterly. He was thankful of that energy high now if it got Jim off his high horse for a few hours.
“I should really tell them to stop,” Sasha said once they were up at the bar. There was quite a gathering so they were in for a fairly long wait.
“Leave ‘em be,” Nathan said. “Jim needs his ego stroked a little.”
“Among other things,” Sasha snorted.
Glancing over their shoulders at the table, Nathan could see that Jim and the girls were laughing and getting on well even by their lonesome. Every time one of them spoke, they leaned in real close to the others—intimate.
“They using a little pheromone action over there?” Nathan asked.
The bar was loud enough that they didn’t even have to keep their voices all that hushed. Sasha bit his lip a little before answering. “Only the normal kind. I can tell them to stop. I should.” He seemed to be trying to convince himself like a little part of his conscience kept getting in the way of just leaving Jim to his good time.
“Like I said, leave ‘em. If it’s just the normal kind than Jim’s still making his own decisions. Knowing him, the combination of being giddy with energy and being swayed by pheromones is probably the only way he’d ever get laid. Besides, the twins arehot. Lucky bastard. I mean…you can vouch for those chicks, right?”
Sasha smiled in reassurance. “Do you mean could they be secretly plotting Jim’s death by sex? No. Knowing Eppy and Atty though, they could probably still wear him out no matter how juiced up he is. Oh, and if we have to face the wrath of Jim later for not intervening, I am so putting the blame on you.”
Laughter tumbled easily from Nathan’s lips. “I accept your terms.” Besides, no man in their right mind would pass up the opportunity to sex up twins. If Jim had to be in a slightly alteredstate of mind to get on that same wavelength then Nathan was fine with that.
Sasha and Nathan finally returned to the table with two new pitchers of beer only to find the girls getting up off their stools and manhandling Jim towards the dance floor. He was only feigning a struggle since he was smiling all bashful-like instead of looking freaked like usual.
“Come on,” the girls said together, reminding Nathan for the first time in at least a couple hours now that they were actuallytwins.
Nathan was all set to wave them off and enjoy some cold beer, leaving Jim to his fun, but suddenly there was a firm grip on his wrist and Nathan was being dragged in Jim and the girls’ direction by an incubus who he kept forgettinglovedto dance. Nathan could admit a growing fondness for it too where Sasha was involved, but he didn’t want to have to remind his even more ardent than usual lover that they were not in a gay bar. They were in a normal, people-would-probably-stare kind of bar.
The girls looked pleased that they would be joined, and Jim shrugged all unassuming as they soon found themselves crowded amongst several dozen other people on the dance floor. No one really looked as though they were dancing with just one person so Nathan relaxed.
