Chapter 1 beware of the dog

Just as I was turning around, he grabbed my arm and pulled me close. In one last move I flicked around, my outside leg on a 90° angle and hauled myself on his hips, closed my eyes and slowly let my head fall back as he leaned in and let his lips move from my ears to my neck and over my collarbone down to stop at the deep end of my cleavage just as the music ended.

"Perfect, as always. Remember to flirt with the vip's tonight Rose and Mady, the aria is completely booked by some rich guy's bachelor party."

"Oh my joy." I said sarcastically. We had bachelor parties in here every week. I didn't like them. The single members always trying to hook up with you or trying to get you to hook up with the bachelor 'for his last night of freedom.'

"So what? The guys don't have to flirt with them? What if they are gay? Then I'm flirting without a reason!" Mady made a good point actually. Good thing Mady loved Bachelor parties. Nobody is going to be clingy afterwards cause they have some fiancé or girlfriend waiting at home. And she loved a one night stand with a complete stranger.

"Just,...Go get ready." Jason, my boss said.

We did as told and went up to the glass area above the bar of the club...Maybe I should explain this.

When you entered the club the left side you had appero tables and access to the toilets. Stretched over the entire far wall was the bar. On the right you had the vip access to the strip club (which was part of the club) and the dance stage. My home workplace. Above the bar were the changing areas, showers and make-up tables and our lockers. The cool thing about this. It was completely (walls and floor) in milk glass. People downstairs could see shapes and in the right light even color, but you couldn't see anything specific. It was sexy as hell and we had a lot of fun with it. Like pretending to have sex against the wall, when security said a group of people were watching.

I came here four years ago after the whole 'Love fades, mine has' thing. Dimitri didn't want me. I was lying to Adrian. I pretty mush lost my guardian status after taking Lissa to Vegas. Lissa was mad at me for not staying away from him and... I pretty much had nothing to stay.

The plan was to stay away for only a few day. Nobody would notice anyway so I didn't bother to say goodbye. Those four days somehow turned into four years and I wasn't going back now. I met Jason when some strigoi mistook me for some untrained bloodwhore. He saw me fight and said he could use someone beautiful and trained in his club.

He said he owned a 24hour club, which is why there are always a lot of moroi and dhampirs present and why there are quite a few guardians working there. Especially at the human night. We where an attractive hunting spot for soulless monsters. Unpromised or unbelieving, whatever their reason, most of the security and some of the normal personnel at night came from our world. During the day we had more humans. He showed me around and the group of dancers I met in the basement training room took me under their wing. I trained them a little more in fighting strigoi, they thought me how to dance. And now I'm one of them.

For as far as we could see the club was already packed. After a quick shower I changed in my first costume of the night. We always warm the club up by doing a little coyote ugly routine up on the bar. And therefore we wore something best compared to the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders uniform, only with jeans booty shorts, red blouse and a brown leather jacket. Oh and long black boots with 6 inch heels.

You say you dance with heels in a club every week? Well f you. What you do is bouncing your knees and moaning your feet hurt. Try dancing real routines for four hours with 6 inch heels ,sometimes on a slippery bar, it drunk ass dudes trying to catch your ankles. It's hard. The only people who know what I'm talking about are damn professional ballerina's.

As the song changed in the a familiar remix of 'thank god I'm a country girl' most regulars starting cheering. As started hopping over the bar to reach my spot in time. Covering an 30 meters long bar with just 3 girls. That was a lot of stretched place for one person. I saw the bartenders making place. And removing unknowing guest there hands of the bar. Security came closer. We could hold out own, but the show of them prevented a scene.

I reached my spot and took a glands to the vip aria. Our bachelors hadn't arrived yet. If they weren't here yet that mostly meant they were moroi or that they where to drunk and forgot they booked this spot. It wouldn't really matter if they where moroi. We'd seen a lot of them in the last four years and never had any of them recognized me. We where a long way from court and I've changed. My hair was longer, more curlier with blue and purple streaks in them. I also wasn't so soft anymore. I still had my curves, but in a different way. And with this amount of makeup? Impossible!

The country remix was in full swing now. I sidestepped a few grabbing hands and danced my heart out, covering as much space as I could. This was by far not the most technical or hardest routine. But it was fun and it had a classic definition of being sexy. Sometimes I wondered what Dimitri would say. This was once his ultimate fantasy's right? Oh well, his loss.

Almost four minutes later the music started to change again. and I heard the house dj shout over the speaker.

"And thank you Miss Midnight (me), Miss Sunshine (mady) and Miss Twilight(alexa)!" Yeah we all had our stage names. It became necessary at one point. They were obviously made after each other. Jason said they fitted our character. I was badass, Mady was perky and Alexa was mysterious. Our that's how she looked. IRL she was an open book.

We bowed, waved and the bartender helped me off.

"Why, thanks Marcus. How gentleman of you." I said with a wink.

"Good thing I now you longer than tonight, Rose. I don't buy those anymore."

"Fine, how about: get me my stuff?"

"You're a disaster." He said while giving me what I needed for the next routine.

"I know, I know."

I quickly shed my jeans shorts and blouse and put on an extremely short, blue dress and a black raincoat. Yes I did that behind the bar where, technically, everybody can see me. You want to know why? Because every dancer that has ever preformed know that the basics are: Black, lycra booty shorts or thong depending what costume you where wearing and in my case a black sports bra. You have if under everything. It is a lifesaver in case of costume malfunctions. Sure enough there where two bartenders kind of blocking the view, but if you really wanted you could see me. I looked to my right and saw that Mady and Alexa where ready. I looked to the camera above the bar and gave a thumbs up. Within a minute I heard the music changing slowly again and we all made our way up the bar again, umbrella in our hands, and got ready for our little umbrella routine on 'Beware of the dog' from Jamelia. (Make it happen.)

After our dramatic intro, where we couldn't see a thing because of the with spotlight on us, we walked back over the bar and hopped down to the stage. Here is where our real dancing began. When the quick turns stopped and noticed that the vip section had been filled, we where about a minute into the song. They probably entered when we were on or behind the bar. I couldn't really see how many there were because of the extensive light. For some reason heavy white lighting fits this dance making me unable to see any further than two meters of stage. But I saw waitresses pass so, they must be here.

As the song ended and light went out, I could as well have died. I was at front of the stage dropping down on my hands. My hair obscuring my shocked face from a pair of emerald green eyes who would be able to know who I was, even If I was hiding in a clowns suit.

Adrian Ivachkov

Well,well, told I'd adopted it.

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Born to Love, Protect and Die