Incubus Dreams - Laurell K. Hamilton [199]
It was 1:00 in the morning, but when Requiem opened the door, the sound of many people in a small space, having a very good time, spilled out around us. It was hot inside the doors, and it wasn’t caused by the heating system, it was just that many bodies in a small space. I couldn’t see if Nathaniel was on stage yet, because my view was blocked by a curtain of black-shirted security.
Buzz was talking to the three women. “If she doesn’t have ID, she doesn’t get in.”
“But Clay told us it would be alright,” the redhead said, and I assumed it was Marla.
“Marla,” Buzz said, “you know the rules. No exceptions, not even for regulars.”
The man who’d come in just ahead of us was facing two of the largest security guards I’d seen. One was as blond as Clay, and the other was very, very brunette, as in African American brunette. They were both over six feet, with a shoulder spread that was nearly as wide as I was tall. They made Buzz look small, and I wondered where they’d been when Primo was beating everyone’s ass.
The brunette said, “You are not allowed in here.”
“I have a right to see my own son,” the man said.
“I told you, Marlowe is not dancing tonight. He called in sick.”
Marlowe was Gregory’s stage name, and he only had one biological unit that called itself his father. The man who’d sexually abused them as children, pimped them out to other pedophiles, and even put them in films. I knew he was in town, but we had a restraining order against him. Alright, Gregory and Stephen did.
I patted Requiem’s hand and said, “Excuse me a minute.” I went to the big security guards. Buzz saw me moving, and he gave the three women over to someone else to usher outside. He followed me. You’d think he didn’t trust me not to start trouble.
“Excuse me,” I said, “are you Anthony Dietrich?”
He turned, then had to look down, as if he’d expected me to be taller. “Who’s asking?”
The creepy thing was that he had their eyes. Those beautiful cornflower blue eyes stared out of a lined and aged face. He was close to six feet tall, and the face was flat and harsh, not the delicate bone structure of the boys. Only the eyes staring out of a stranger’s face.
The eyes shook me, so that I stood there staring for a second, and it was Buzz who said, “The boys have a restraining order against you. You can’t enter this club without violating it. Charon, Cerebus, get his ass out of here. Don’t hurt him, but get him out.”
The two big men took an arm apiece, lifted, and carried him, without his feet touching the ground, out the door.
I turned to Buzz. “Does he try to get in here often?”
“A couple of times, whenever Harlow or Marlowe are scheduled.”
I shook my head. “That is just so . . . wrong.”
Buzz nodded, then took a deep breath and shook his shoulders, like a bird settling its feathers. “I’m going to have to talk to Clay.”
“You talk to him, then send him to me, because I want to talk to him, too.”
He looked at me. “Okay, but Brandon saved a chair by the stage for you, and I think he’ll be very disappointed if you don’t at least catch the end of his act.”
It took me a second to remember that Brandon was Nathaniel’s stage name. “Oh, yeah, sorry, got distracted.”
“The fact that that piece of shit keeps trying to get in and watch his sons strip distracts me, too.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Requiem will take you to your seat. Enjoy the show.”
The vampire was just suddenly at my elbow, and I let him lead me through the crowd, but my eyes were back toward the door. What did Anthony Dietrich want with Gregory and Stephen? What could he possibly want from them after all these years? They were too old for a pedophile to be interested in them, weren’t they?
I bumped into a chair and had to apologize to the woman who sat in it, and pay more attention to what was in front of me than what was behind. It was worth paying attention to.
Nathaniel was on stage. I don’t know what I’d expected. I knew he stripped. I knew he performed. But I’d never seen him do it.
It wasn’t that Nathaniel was shy, but he was quiet, gentle. The person on stage was neither