Page 23 of Silver
I still worried, though, feeling like we were neglecting one of our own. What if he was starving somewhere? Or afraid? Hell, I’d been afraid. And lonely.
“What’s wrong?” Xari asked from the driver’s seat, looking at the mirror to meet my eyes. I sat in the back with Wilston like usual.
I shrugged. “Just thinking about Altair and how afraid he must be right now.” My words put a damper on all our moods, but Xari wasn’t allowing it, removing all our guilt, fear, and worry, replacing it with happiness and determination. It wasn’t healthy not dealing with our emotions, but we also needed to stay alert. We were two hours away from where we were meeting up with Julie. God, I hoped she would be there.
Wilston took my hand in his, stroking it gently as we waited impatiently for the drive to be over. We would have to explain everything to a non-mage and then take her with us.
“Did you find an RV dealership on the way?” I asked, remembering we would soon be out of extra room.
“No, but there is a car dealer that sells campers. We can buy one of those and keep the trailer,” Niam responded, scrolling through Xari’s phone. “Julie will sleep with us in the camper and Altair, too.Maybe they won’t mind sharing a mattress, and if they do, we can figure something else out.”
“They could always sleep on shift or something,” Xari added. “Julie isn’t too picky when it comes to survival.”
Julie sounded a lot like my friend Sandra back at the strip club. She was one of those girls who, if she wanted something fixed, she did it herself. I smiled to myself as I remembered her on all fours as she laid down wall to wall carpet in the shared lounge room. We all wanted the noise to be less aggressive back there and added padding would help. Sandra had taken that as a challenge and with Christian’s money and acceptance, she’d bought noise cancelling panels and the carpet, not bothering with paying for it to be installed, doing it all on her own.
Soft lips met my own and I gasped softly in surprise. Wilston’s eyes gleamed as he smiled at me.
“Now, what did I do to deserve that?” I asked teasingly.
He shrugged. “You were smiling and looking all cute. I guess I just wanted to kiss you.”
He was too amazing. I leaned into him and gave him another much firmer and demanding kiss. My man had changed so muchsince we first found him. He was still shy at times. The sort of trauma he had experienced didn’t just magically disappear, not even for us mages. But he was opening up and no longer holding back. It was nice to see him speak to Julie without worry, and then just kiss me because he wanted to.
“You can kiss me anytime you want,” I assured him with a satisfied grin, both our lips reddened by the kiss.
“No sex back there!” Xari teased in warning.
I rolled my eyes. “Please, we’re not like you two, heathens, fucking at every chance available.” I didn’t mention that I was working on being exactly that with Wilston. My man and I needed all the sex we could get. I swallowed a laugh as I remembered they would soon share their van with Julie. No sex for them.
“Why are you all gleeful all of a sudden?” Xari asked me, his suspicion obvious in his tone. I just shrugged in response, allowing myself to havesomesecrets.
Like how I was going to suck Wilston’s cock tonight, edging him to madness until he would beg me enough times for me to show him mercy. Writhing underneath my touch, shivering with pleasure. His skin slicked up with sweat and desperate tears.
“And now you’re horny. Great,” Xari muttered.
Wilston blushed but managed to grin at me, clearly liking where my head was at. Not that he knew what I had planned. That was only for me to know.
The rest of the drive went by fast with us talking about anything and everything as the world passed us by. We only stopped once for food and to relieve ourselves. And then we were there. And Julie… wasn’t.
“Where could she be?!” Xari asked no one in particular as he paced in front of the motel we’d agreed to meet up in. He’d told her to wait outside in the parking lot, in her car. No parked car held any passengers, and it affected Xari. A lot. Julie was obviously a dear friend to him, maybe more like family.
I thought back to my friends at the strip club. They’d been my first true friends. Bessi, Sandra, and Christian were the ones I got along with the best. Christian wasn’t the kind of owner to just sit back and watch, no he’d been teaching us our routines and kept upwith that. He’d been a dancer before he inherited the strip club from his uncle, not something he’d ever expected, but in true Christian fashion, he’d stepped into the role and made the strip club into what it was today.
I guess Tanya was a close friend, too. She’d helped me out a few times when I was behind on bills, lending me enough so I wouldn’t get kicked out of my trailer. I always paid her back as soon as possible, not wanting to ruin our friendship over money, something I’d seen happen way too many times just in the short amount of time I’d worked at the strip club.
I actually found myself missing it. How it felt moving around on that stage, all eyes intently on me. Only me. I’d felt powerful. Wanted. It was such a rush performing, I didn’t even mind the fact I was getting naked. I was too busy finally enjoying life and living it. Grandma would’ve been proud of me. I hoped she was still alive. I hoped she was sitting in her favorite chair. It was a fucking awful looking chair covered with flowers all in clashing colors. But I wanted her to sit in that chair right now and enjoy her life. I wanted her to greet me happily when I returned and challenged the leaders.
I wanted all of that and more.
I wanted to return home when it had all been dealt with. I just wanted to finally be able to live without being punished for who I was. My parents hadn’t sucked because I didn’t have my powers, they’d just sucked. But everything else was because I was treated as a freak, someone who didn’t belong. I believed the strip club would always feel like the start of my real life. It wasn’t until then I was truly accepted for being myself. Maybe that was why I’d loved it so much. It wasn’t about the performance or the freedom it gave me. It was the fact I was Silver. And people liked Silver. They’d accepted me. Cared for me. Loved me.
“Have you checked all the cars, baby?” Niam asked, looking around, too.
“Every single one,” Xari replied in defeat.
“Maybe she stopped somewhere to rest,” I added, hoping to be helpful. “It would be hard for her to drive all that time without any stops.”
“Maybe,” Xari said, giving me a small appreciative smile.
