see. Get your jollies off in another room,” he said, trying to maintain order. Some obeyed, but the vast majority wanted to watch.
The hairy guy grimaced when the Lone Musketeer cut his chest again.
“I bet that’s her boyfriend,” I said to Simone.
“Let’s hope he’s not a Shifter.” She took out her nose ring and put it inside her bra. “See that guy who looks like Sonny Crockett?”
“Sonny who?”
She turned to me matter-of-factly as chaos erupted around us. “Don Johnson played him.” Met with my blank stare, she looked at me in disbelief. “Don Johnson? Miami Vice? None of that rings a bell?”
“I don’t watch a lot of movies.”
She gave a contemptuous sigh. “Some days I weep for humanity. He’s the one in the blue shirt and grey sports jacket. The one grabbing everyone’s wrist.”
“What about him?”
“He juiced a man unconscious, and now he’s trying to find another Mage. His bald friend over there is doing the same.”
“Are they all the same Breed?”
Simone scanned the scene. “I don’t know about Romeo on the couch or him.”
I followed her gaze to a long-haired man who looked like someone from an old rock band. He stripped off his suit jacket and white button-up shirt, his hands drenched in blood and his eyes wild with delight.
“That one disemboweled a man. That’s how this whole thing started.”
“Holy shit. Right in the middle of the club?”
Simone took a deep breath, her hands shaking as she wrung them. “Luckily it was a Shifter, and he’s mostly healed. But I almost got torn apart carrying him to a private room.”
Three puncture marks branded her shoulder, but she didn’t seem to know they were there.
“The juicers knocked out two of my people already. They’re looking for a female Mage they can bind with and are blasting everyone in the process. The one at nine o’clock holding the beer bottle—blood excites him. The woman on the sofa is willing, so the man fucking her is the least of my concerns. We don’t have the authority to kill these men. They’ll shut us down.”
I could see why they were hesitating. For one, they didn’t have anyone qualified to handle this level of violence. Most of the workers were busy trying to lead customers away, and we anxiously waited for them to disperse. The fewer people around, the fewer potential victims.
Simone snapped her fingers at Flynn. “Lock the stairwells. Don’t let anyone down until we get this contained.”
Flynn relayed the command to three of his crew. I spotted Claude scooping up women like ice cream and heading to the back door.
What kind of fuckery was about to unfold? Five men juiced up on toxic levels of sensory magic, which amplified their desires, whether that was sex, juicing, or violence. And not a single Mage employee in sight to help me out.
“Clyde!” I shouted, relieved I hadn’t blurted out his real name in the heat of the moment.
Still in his gold shorts, Claude sliced through the thinning crowd until he reached us.
I looked between him and Simone. “How many Chitahs are on the floor?”
She shook her head. “Workers? Clyde’s the only one. We have a few upstairs, but we’ve had trouble in the past with them flipping their switch.”
“Think you can take down a Mage?” I asked him. “No killing.”
He let only his top two canines elongate. “I think I can handle it.”
I gave him a pointed look. “Don’t flip your switch, and don’t put more venom in him than two fangs. If you do, it’ll shut down this club, and we’re all screwed.” I glanced at the room. “Take out Sonny Crockett.”
He glanced at a man rising from an unconscious body on the floor. “Don Johnson over there in the jacket?”
“See?” Simone said, judging me with her coffee-colored eyes.
“Can you handle the Lone Musketeer with the broken beer bottle?” I asked her.
She looked down to where Rena lay on the floor, still knocked out from the blast of energy. “Why not the humping fool on the couch? Seems like we should take out the easy ones first.”
“Because I have a feeling that the furry guy over there wants him more than we do. If you take care of the Lone Musketeer, the furry guy will take care of Romeo. Clyde, after you take down Miami Vice, go for Vin Diesel. I’ll take care of Bon Jovi.”
Simone blinked. “Who?”
I grinned at her. “You’re kidding me, right? ‘Living on a Prayer’? You’re the one who started the celebrity look-alike contest.”