*This is the canon right up to vamp shake up in From Dead To Worse*
I was sitting in the dressing room after my first set. I hated that I had gone up first. None of the real money men were in the club, yet. But I was being punished for mouthing off yesterday about my percentage. "This is going to me a long night," I muttered as I looked at myself in the mirror. I was covered from head to toe in blue body glitter and an electric blue thong. The life of a stripper was so fascinating I know. I pulled out my copy of the Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe. I was thinking about taking a class at ULV and I didn't want to go in there looking stupid. Some of the other girls rolled their eyes at my but I didn't give a damn. It wasn't my fault all they wanted to be was a stripper. Yeah it was good money, but I could do more than give a man an erection.
"Ember you're up." Cary walked as she walked back into the dressing room covered in sweat. If there was one girl that worked hard for the money it was Cary. I slipped my book back into my bag before standing up to change into my next outfit.
The club had filled up since the last time I had been on stage and the thought of making money was the only thing that got my in the mood to get back up on that stage and shake what I assumed my mother had given me. The lights dimmed and I could hear the cocks straining against their pants in anticipation of what was going to happen. I moved the chair out into the middle of the stage and lead back with my head thrown over the back of the chair. The opening chords to Flashdance started and the boys went crazy. I never understood what they found so sexy about this, but I was willing to give the people what they wanted. Is tarted my routine and the money started falling on the stage.
I made eye contact with everyone man in the room. Letting him know I was undressing him in my mind. I danced around the chair as I removed my top. I wasn't wearing a bra and when my breasts sprang free from my shirt the crowd gasped. Larger denominations fell to the stage. That was more like it. The level of lust in the room was at a fever pitch. It was getting harder for me yo block it out and I could feel myself heating up. I sat back down in the chair and leaned back. I could hear the buzz of hunger in the room. A chain dangled down from the ceiling. A few of them men rushed the stage as I pulled. A gallon of water cascaded down on my me splashing the men in the front row. They went wild.
Sopping wet and feeling sexy as hell I stood up from the chair to finish my routine.
I felt it when he walked in. He felt different. My head swiveled around the room to find him. It took me a minute to realize what I was feeling. I could feel another telepath in the room.
I had never felt it before and it distracted me long enough that I missed a beat and almost fell off the stage, but luckily popping off my sequined g-string drew the audience back to me.
I felt giddy at the thought. I always assumed I was the only one in the world who could do what I did. "Hello," I thought. He was sitting in one of the back booths. A slightly pale white guy with dark hair. His head jerked up at my greeting and he started to scan everyone in the room looking for me. I tried to keep my mind on finishing my dance but it was all I could do to keep a stupid grin off my face.
"Hi," He responded tentatively. It almost made me miss the pole entirely. But I've had practice at keep my face smooth when I heard something. I had eyes only for him after that. I didn't care about anyone else. This was the best thing that have ever happened to me. Not that that was saying something. My life hadn't been a fairy tale up until now, but still this was a great thing. I finished my routine. Some of the patrons were throwing the dark haired boy evil looks as I nearly launched myself off the stage toward him. Tina gathered up all of my tips and thrust them at me. I grabbed my clothes and quickly dressed as I tucked the money into my shirt. Well there were a few twenties and a hundred dollar bill. That brightened my mood considerably. A stripper really had to work hard for the money, and it was always nice when our hard work was rewarded. The boy was still looking at me as I picked my way off stage to fix myself up before I went out on the floor. I would have to pay a fine if I didn't.
I dabbed at the sweat on my stomach and shoulders and checked my reflection in the mirror that I passed. My coco brown skin was glistening and glittery. I had a thing for body glitter, so sue me. My tiny tummy flared out to small hips, but at least I had a good set of breasts. I didn't have a big butt for a black girl, something my friends loved to tease me about, but the men at the strip club loved what butt I did have.
I shook myself out of my own thoughts and retouched my make up. Which was just more lipgloss and glitter. Men seemed to like when my big lips looked wet. It played into their fantasies about black women.
As slowly as I could I walked back out onto the floor. I looked like I was looking for a champagne room client but I was looking for that little tousle of brown hair. I spotted him off in a corner and I made a beeline for him.
My progress was stopped by someone catching my hand and almost pulling me off my feet, "How bout a dancer sugar?" A fat tub of a man drawled. I yanked my hand back and glared at him. I know I was messing with my money but I had to get to that man before he left. Diamond had stopped in front of him and was trying to entice him to a private dance. She smiled at something he said and then started to dance. He looked at me as I tried to get out of the private dance fatty was asking for. He returned his attention back to Diamond who was shaking what her mother gave her. She certainly had the body for it, even after 2 kids.
I stopped and took a deep breath and made myself feel sexy. I didn't want anyone to think I was up to something. I smiled at fatty as he settled in for a lap dance. I danced slowly over to him, rolling my hips and making sure he saw my breasts bouncing. I had his attention, men were too easy. It wasn't a long dance, he had only given me a twenty. I didn't get out of bed for anything less than a fifty but my mind wasn't on my work right now. I had to get over to that guy before he left.
I finished the dance and skipped away before anyone else stopped me. Diamond was done with the brown haired boy and he was smiling. Guess he got his money's worth too. I smiled and walked up to him. "I could feel you," I thought. The light behind his eyes lit up and I sat in his lap so that I wouldn't draw KP's attention for talking to a customer who wasn't spending money.
"You could feel me?" he asked as he trembled. I settled in his lap facing him. I didn't want anyone ease dropping. Though we weren't talking. I could feel the lust rolling around in his head. It was like a snaking red cloud coloring his thoughts and I had to pull back from his mind as it was starting to color my thoughts. He was setting my body on fire and this was not the place for me to be getting all hot and bothered. I stood up from his lap and nodded my head in answer to his question. He was visibly aroused, but this was a strip club. No one was going to care.
"I get off at 5am. Meet me at the Denny's on the corner down the street?" I asked softly. Janet had just walked over to the guy sitting at the next table. I couldn't afford to say anything else. "Name's Ember." I told him. My work name was Alize, I didn't pick it believe me.
He stood up. "Barry," and he nodded at my offer. I gave him a small smile as I watched him walk out of the club. My heart was beating fast as I watched him. I had never met another person who could do what I did. Who was a telepath and a strong one at that. It hadn't taken him that long to figure out it was me who spoke to him. I practically skipped back into the dressing room with a silly grin on my face.
The rest of the night I was on autopilot. I knew I was working because dollar bills kept ending up in my panties, but I couldn't tell you what I had done or who I had danced for. I was thinking about meeting Barry and meeting someone who was like me. It was exciting and I found I couldn't think of anything else.
I dropped into my chair at 4:30 am. I was dog tired not knowing what I had done to be so tired. I couldn't remember any of the dances I had done. We were having our closing meeting. 30 minutes until I had to meet Barry.
KP, the club owner, was talking but I swear for the life of my I wasn't listening. "And the top earner was Ember." I heard that and my head snapped around to look at him. How the hell was I the top earner and I wasn't paying attention to anything that was going on around me.
Damn I must have been working it for all it was worth to been the top earner. I heard a few claps and some other choice words. I didn't care. This was just a job and none of those people were friends. I got up and accepted my little prize for the night. It was a gift certificate to some spa in the Lexor and I did smile at that.
We broke up after that and I hurried out to my car, well as fast as I could move with my little rolling bag behind me. I used to keep my stuff at the club, but some of those women had sticky fingers and I was tired of having to replace my things. So now I just packed it up and took it home. I put my bag in the trunk and jumped into my yellow charger and almost peeled out of the parking lot.
"Calm down girl," I told myself. The last thing I needed was another ticket. I got tired of having to "work" my way out of them and I sure as hell was tired of paying them off if I ran into a 'by the book' cop. Or a woman cop.
I pulled into the Denny's and tried to make myself look less like a stripper, but it was hard. I was covered in glitter and I had on some stripper heels, but hey I was only 4 foot 8 I had to get my height were I could find it. The guy at the hostess stand tried to ignore my boobs popping out of my tank top and I could feel the mental rein he was trying to thrown around his libido and I smiled at him. "I see my friend," I told him. He looked relieved that my cleavage was out of his line of sight and I had to smirk as I slid into the booth where Barry was sitting.
He was wearing dark trousers and a dark green sweater. He looked like a tall high school kid, but I could tell he was in his mid twenties. He was the palest thing I had seen in a long time. Well the palest thing that wasn't a vamp. I could tell by his brain pattern that he wasn't a vamp. They felt different.
We looked at each other for a long time. He seemed to not want to speak first. So I did. "So its true?" I asked him my smile almost making my face hurt but I couldn't help it. I had my guard up and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I really liked staying out of people's heads. It was one thing to think you wanted to hear what other people were saying it was another thing entirely to actually hear every thought that fluttered through someone'e head.
I was respecting his privacy, but I sure as hell felt him trying to poke around in my head. That made me frown. That was just bad manners and maybe he didn't know what I cold feel him poking around in my head.
Now that just wouldn't do. I found the source of the tickle and I clamped down on it, hard. Barry jerked back and his face started to redden. "You stop that." He nodded weakly and I let up on him.
He looked at me after his face had returned to its normal color. Though he was now paler than he was five minutes ago.I felt bad about doing that. But just because he could read my mind gave him no right to do so. "How did you learn how to do that?" he asked me weakly.
I shrugged, "I had a very demanding task master when I was little. He taught me a few things" I said softly. My younger life was not the stuff of smiles and trips to Disney World. I had been kidnapped from my parents while on vacation and sold to an American businessman as his personal sex slave and whipping post. That was another life and one I was not going to relive. I wasn't going to tell him that.
Barry nodded in understanding. His dark brown eyes looked at me. Not just at my breasts or the curve of my neck. He was looking me full in the face. It didn't take a mind reader to see that he was pleased with what he was looking at. I blushed and dropped my gaze. What the hell? Me, Ember, blushing.
Once I was sure he wasn't still staring at me I looked up. He was looking over the menu. I wasn't hungry. Denny's made me sick. "You're stronger than me and Sookie," he finally admitted as the waitress skipped over to take his order. She seemed a bit taken by Barry. A spurt of jealousy coursed through me. I glared at her and gave her enough attitude to hurry off to fulfill his order and bring out our drinks.
My mouth hung open, "There are more of us?" I asked him. "More telepaths?" I had learned that word a few years ago and it felt weird to finally say it out loud and in front of another person. I had only ever said it in my head and now it was out loud. It was real. I was real and he was real. Sitting right in front of me.
We were quiet for awhile. It was nice. Sometimes I just liked to sit in silence and it was nice that he didn't feel the need to fill the silence in idle chitchat. I reached out for him mentally. I was afraid he would rebuff me for my earlier mental spanking. The eagerness of his response made me smile. We didn't communicate in words. It was more like flashes of colors and emotions. It was funny his were in pastels and light colors. I had never seen that in a man. I didn't know what he was seeing in me. I couldn't read my own mind.
The waitress bring his food out broke out mental tango. His forehead was covered in a sheen of sweat. I must have pushed him too far. He wasn't used to communicated like that for long periods of time.
He finally nodded at my question and he dug into his pancakes. "Just me and Sookie that I know of." He was eating like a man who hadn't seen food in a few weeks. Or maybe it was our mental workout. I opened my mouth to ask another question but his ring tone cut me off. He flipped open his phone and read the text message, nodded and erased the message. "I have to go. My boss wants me." He slid out of the booth and stood up to wait for me. I made a face about not being able to finish talking to him. This was the first time I had ever met another telepath let alone talked to one, but I brightened up when he slapped a few bills down for our check. Why use my money when I could use someone else's?
We both walked out of Denny's me a tad hungry and Barry in an hurry. I wanted to talk to him more. "Can you meet for lunch or something?" I asked him. I didn't want to seem like I was whining, but the thought of him walking out of my life and me never seeing him again made my heart squeeze.
He shook his head, "I keep vamp hours," I nodded. "My boss is a vamp, from Texas" he said answering my unspoken question. I had never met a vamp before and I hated to admit I was curious.
I sure as hell didn't want to be called a fangbanger by going to one of those bars to meet a vampire. Some of those girls never returned. We all knew what happened to them and I didn't survive my childhood to end up on the back of a milk carton. Besides fangbangers were trash, and that's all I needed to add on top of being a stripper was being called a fangbanger.
"What are you doing in Las Vegas then?" I asked him. Not that I didn't dance for tourists all the time.
Barry looked around as if he was checking to make sure we were alone, "Somethings are happening and my boss wants to be ahead of the curve. You know the other telepath Sookie works for the Louisiana vamps." He told me. I could see her face clearly in his mind. I was a bit more subtle than he was. He didn't even know I was peeking.
He said that like I was supposed to be picking up on something. "Yeah so?" I asked crossing my thin and goose pimpled arms across my chest. He looked down and shuffled his feet. I took a chance to dip back into his head. "You think I could work for them and stop stripping?" I asked with a hint of a smile on my lips. He was thinking about my honor. That was sweet for someone I had just met.
He finally lifted his eyes to my face. "Why can't I feel when you're in my head?" he asked me.
I smiled and winked at him, "I got skills." I told him. Before I could say anything he leaned down and kissed him. His lips were soft and hesitant at first. I let loose a little squeak and he pulled back.
"I'm sorry." He said quickly stepped back looking like I was going to shoot him in the face. I didn't know what to say. Kissing was new to me. Hell I think this was my first kiss, but it was so sweet. I leaned up on my tiptoes and kissed him back. He was just as surprise at my kiss as I had been at his. His arms slipped around my gently and I stepped in close to his body. The red color of his lust made me shiver. I don't know how long we stayed lip locked like that. It felt like a a second but when we broke apart we were both panting.
We looked at each other. We didn't need to speak. I was letting him in and he was letting me in. I reached for him and his phone beeped again. "I better go." He said, though he didn't make any move to go.
He walked me back to my car. I climbed in. He leaned down as I rolled my window down. "Give me your phone." He slid his iPhone over to me and I quickly tapped in my number. He put his number into my phone. "Please call me Barry." I told him. He nodded and I drove out of the parking lot.
It was a pleasant drive home as I sang along with some Travis Porter song on the radio. I knew the words but I didn't know the song. A few of the girls danced do it so you would think I knew the name of it, but I just didn't. I shrugged in the car and then giggled. I was happy for the first time in a long time. I had met another telepath and he liked me. He kissed me. My lips were still tingling from his kiss. He seemed ot be as inexperience at kissing as I was. Which was another reason to smile.
The glitz and lights of Vegas started to fad away as I left the city. I hated apartment living, well I hated the aspect of not having real privacy. You tended to get that way when your master/kidnapper kept you chained to the foot of his bed naked and shivering on the floor for his sick pleasure.
So when I moved to Las Vegas I bought a house in Henderson. It was a neat little three bedroom house on about an acre of land. The realtor thought I was joking when I told her I could pay cash for the place. Well I put that little snip of a woman right in her place. No one told me what I could and could not do. Not anymore.
When me and the businessman parted ways, I took his bank account with me. Well one of them. You couldn't live in Japan without picking up some computer savvy. Good thing he had several accounts and didn't miss the one I nicked. Calling him a businessman was stretching the truth. I never found out what he did, but I knew he had money. I wore a diamond studded dog collar after all, and ant time he actually took my out of the house I was wearing the best clothes. I couldn't believe I was thinking of him and Barry all in the same thought. It made my stomach roll.
My neighborhood was quiet. All the regular people were tucked into the beds getting their eight hours of sleep to prepare for their day jobs. Here I was pulling home at six in the morning. I was already keeping vampire hours.
I pulled into my driveway and hit the garage door opener and slid into my garage. I got out of the car, leaving my bag in the trunk. I had the next night off and I would just get up in the morning and pull everything out and see what needed to be washed. I just wasn't in the mood to do laundry right now. I could feel a fantasy brewing in my head.
Prada was waiting for me in the kitchen by her empty bowls when I flipped on the kitchen lights as I walked into my darkened house. She gave me a happy little bark and a knelt down to scratch behind her ears just how she liked. "Guess what mommy did today." I said. She gave another happy yelp and ran threw my legs as I went about refilling her water bowl and opening a tin of Cesar for her.
I set them both down and she went about the business of eating. "I met another telepath. He came to the club tonight." She looked up at me with a bit of food on the tip of her nose and bemused look on her face. For a French bulldog she was very expressive dog. Or maybe I was projecting onto her. She was a dog after all. I sat down on the floor beside her. I was off telling her all about Barry and our conversation as she ate. She curled up in my lap as I told her about the kiss. I rubbed her ear as I described how soft his lips were and that he tasted like spearmint.
We sat there on the floor recounting our days to each other. Sometimes I got flashes from Prada's mind that made me think she was more than just a dog. That's why I talked to her the way I did. Maybe it made her feel like she normally was and not like the lovable bulldog. I kissed her head and then went to take a shower.
My shower took longer than normal. The hot water and stem did not help the fantasy I started having about Barry in the car. The ghost of his kiss almost sent me over the edge of a orgasm. I hadn't had one in years. But I didn't do anything but fantasize about him.
I was sitting at my vanity and putting cocoa butter all over myself when I finally focused on what I was doing. It kept my skin tight and it gave it a glow that white men drooled over when they watched me strip. It was nearly 7 am by the time I turned the TV on and slid into the covers of my queen sized bed.
Yes, it was ridiculous for a tiny thing like me to be in such a massive bed, but when you grow up having to share a bed with a 400lbs man 3 times your age in a tiny bed built for a small Japanese couple you will go above and beyond the normal sized bed too. I liked having my space.
Watching the cat fighting on the Real Housewives of New Jersey helped me sleep and I didn't realize I had fallen asleep till my door bell pulled me from my sleep state.
I groaned and rolled over to look at the clock. It was blinking noon. I cursed whoever it was at the door and I snatched my room off the foot of the bed and jumped down to open the door. Prada was fast asleep in her bed and wasn't budging.
I opened the door, "Can I help you?" I asked putting in enough attitude so the little man would know I was pissed at being woke up. He was staring at my chest and thinking very lewd things about me. But I was used to that.
He pulled a thick envelop from his trench coat, who the hell wore that in Las Vegas. The sun was already warming up my bare legs. My robe barely covered my burning bush. "This is an invitation from Felipe de Castro. He requests your presence tonight at the Palms Casino." He told him formally. I looked at him as I took the envelop. "The dress is formal," he said pointedly as he took in my bathrobe and slippers. Screw him. I know how to act in public thank you very much. He took his leave once I got the message. I watched him get back into his Town Car and drive off.
I turned the invitation over in my hand before I out a letter opener and tore into it.
My Dearest Ember,
I request the pleasure of your company this evening at the Palms Casino. News of your ability have reached my ears and I would be delighted to meet you.
Felipe de Castro
Vampire King Of Nevada, Arkansas and Louisiana
My heart started pounding in my chest. I had to grab ahold of the door jam to steady myself. How did he know about me? How the hell did he know where I lived and why the hell did he want to meet me? I closed the door and walked back into the house. If I asked myself another question I was going to go dizzy from it all.
I sat down on my couch and thought of all the reasons not to go meet this vampire. I could die. Someone vampire could sink his teeth into my soft skin and suck out my life force. They could turn me into a V junkie. I had heard of some vampires doing that to humans. I shuddered at the thought. "Well its not like my life has been a walk in the park up til now," I said out loud.
Prada padded into the living room looking as prim as a English princess. She jumped up on the couch to look at me. "Well mommy's going to meet a vampire tonight," I told her with a tight smile on my face.