| Road Trip Challenge: Part 9 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We walked down Royal to avoid the crowds on the other streets. Just before we reached Ursulines Ave. a guy stepped out of an alley in front of us; he had a gun pointed at us at waist level. “Good evening folks,” he said just as calm as could be. “I won’t take but a minute of your time. I’ll be having all of your wallets and jewelry and then I’ll be on my way.” He looked Cherry and I up and down, appraising every curve. “You ladies are looking very sexy tonight.” We took a step forward as group. “No, now don’t go doing anything stupid,” he warned. The boys started fanning out around him so that he couldn’t keep his eyes on all of us at once. Jason looked at me and I saw that his eyes had bled to their wolf green. Scare tactics. I let my eyes go and concentrated on extending just my claws. Now we were even… ok so maybe I had the better weapon. To my left I heard Zane hiss at the guy and knew the site he would see with Zane’s upper and lower canines. We had the guy back against the wall, his gun hanging loosely by his side forgotten. We continued advancing on him until we were shoulder to shoulder and the guy was visibly shaking. “I’ve got something more frightening that a gun,” I said lifting my hand and running a claw down the front of his shirt. “Want to be fury once a month?” Jason lifted his head and howled and Cherry and Nathaniel followed suit with piercing leopard screams causing the would-be mugger’s bladder to empty onto the street. We all backed up and he took off running into the depths of the quarter. We walked a little further in case anyone came out to investigate the clearly lycanthrope noises and then stopped to take a moment to calm down and slow the flow of adrenaline before one or all of us changed. When we were once again composed we walked up Gov. Nichols and turned right; next door to Café Angeli’s was what was once known as The Crystal, but was now The Whirling Dervish. “It used to be The Crystal,” I said as we were waiting in line to enter. “… It was famous in its day.” Just inside the door I turned immediately to the right and took them through and actually hole in the wall that led to a set of stairs. “Upstairs is Mythique,” I explained. “That’s where Robert DJs.” We entered the dimly lit room that looked like a brothel – Victorian furniture was set cozily around the room, sconces on the wall and candles on the table provided the limited illumination, and pillows on the floor in the far corner surrounded a padded swing wide enough for two people. Robert was at the miniscule DJ table just inside the door. We all said hello and then left him to spin his music and took the pillow and swing seats in the far corner. Cherry and Zane sat on the swing and Jason, Nathaniel, and I curled up on the pillows – Nathaniel situating himself between my legs and wrapping my arms around him. The lone waitress came and took our drink orders and returned a few minutes later. We didn’t talk much, just relaxed and listened to the music. At 4AM when Robert finally finished his set, we decided to call it quits as well – we needed to rest because we had to drive home later in the day. I said my goodbyes to Robert, promising that I would look him up next time I was in town and even suggested he come visit us sometime. He said he would definitely think about it and we all parted ways and we headed back to the hotel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Part 10 Index |