Page 23 of Rock Bottom
Maybe I’d allow that again during scenes, or even longer stretches, but never at the expense of my autonomy. I was never, ever going to let anyone have a say in my career or creative decisions again.
Laurent and I had been twenty-four/seven TPE, and no way would I consider handing that much power to another person again. However, I’d be fine having my sexuality owned around the clock without a break, even if that meant locking my dick up here and there.
Not on stage, obviously, but if he took it off in the dressing room before I went on and put it back on right after, there still wouldn’t be any opportunity for me to orgasm.
We were thankfully not in the midst of a heated battle in our video game when a whole bunch of people came into the theater, including Micca, who was holding Davy’s hand, and he was wearing jeans. Barefoot and shirtless, but he isn’t often in jeans while in the house.
“Quick introductions,” Panda said. “Aaron Drake and Nathan Pierce, owners of Drake Security. I believe everyone knows Eunice, Collosa, and Mira.”
Aaron stepped in front of us. “Introductions can wait.” He looked at Will and Davy. “Micca has been lobbying hard to tell you her secret, and that includes convincing some high-powered people to call in favors on her behalf. A vote recently happened that quite narrowly gave her approval, but there are people who absolutely don’t want a famous person to know these secrets, and they’ve threatened to kill you and Davy if you’re told.”
My heart went into my throat at the very thought of us losing Will. My life changed when he came into my world. He’s our leader, and technically our boss, but he’s set everything up so we all work as a team. Pretty much the only stuff he pulls thebossstuff out for is privacy — who we bring into the house, what we tell people we’ve just met, who we share new songs with.
Losing Will would be devastating, not only for the business, but because I’ve grown to love him. I mean, not romantically, but as way more than a friend. Sibling, maybe, and that’s saying something because I have a brother I adore. Okay, stepbrother, but still.
The blond guy — I couldn’t remember his name — stood beside the first guy and told Will, “We didn’t expect this to happen, or we would’ve counseled Micca against campaigning for permission to tell you. Long story short, we need to move everyone to a secure location until we get this resolved.”
While they talked, Kirsten suddenly appeared, and I reached for Mikey’s hand without even thinking.
“She’s a friend,” Micca said from in front of us, talking to Will and Davy. “She’ll get us out of here the same way she just came.”
I knew she was a friend, but I didn’t know she could… what? Teleport?
“How many people are going?” Kirsten asked the two men up front.
“The two of us, Venom and Josef, four band members plus Davy, Micca, Ghost, and Collosa,” the blond man told her. He’d been at the party, and it bothered me I couldn’t remember his name.
Kirsten asked Micca, “Is there a one-piece sofa that will hold twelve people? Not a sectional deal, something that’s all one piece.”
“There’s a daybed down here, all one piece and pretty big,” Micca told her.
She nodded. “Show me.”
They walked out and the room went silent. Within minutes, we were all filing out of the theater, piling onto the daybed in two rows. Kirsten returned out of thin air again, and literally floated up and then settled on the daybed, standing mostly in the middle. “Everyone take a breath and hold it. This’ll only take a few seconds. I’ll count down from five.”
I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes, and when people started moving around, I cracked on eye open and lost my breath.
We were in a tent. A massive white tent. Not quite a circus-sized, but close. It looked like full night outside, but there were candles on the tables, flickering warm light over everything as if we’d been dropped into some medieval festival.
“Welcome to Alfheim,” Kirsten said, and she floated up and then to the ground as if it were a totally normal thing to do.
The blond man turned to face us, calm as you please. “This is Kirsten, Queen of Alfheim. We aren’t expecting to be around anyone who lives here today, but if we are, you’ll need to address her as Your Majesty.”
I missed some of what Kirsten said, and heard, “…fine to eat and drink while you’re here. This isn’t the case in all the realms, but feel free to feast.” She motioned to a long table with food along the side of the tent.
“Realm?” Will asked.
“Another world,” Aaron said. “You’re from Midgard, and you can guess what Helheim is like. Vanaheim is what you’d think of as Faerie. Svartalfheim is where the dwarves live. Jotenheim has giants. There are more, but we don’t want to overwhelm you with information because a whole lot more is coming.”
I caught myself staring, slack-jawed, and tried to snap out of it, but the words washed over me: realms, Midgard, dwarves, giants, Faerie. It was like standing in the middle of a D&D campaign I hadn’t agreed to play.
My eyes went to Mikey’s hand in mine, as if he could anchor me to reality.
“Basically,” Kirsten said, “it’s against supernatural law in the human world, Midgard, for humans to know about supernaturals, but everyone knows about them here. So, we aren’t breaking any laws by telling you all kinds of secrets while you’re here.”
“We’re still going to follow the Midgard rules and oath you to our secrets,” a tall, dark, and handsome man said, “but that will come later.”
My mind tried to process everything, but the mention ofoaths— the word had such a foreboding feeling, like we were about to be sworn into some secret society.
