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Crimson Claws

14.

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Songs for accompaniment: 1) Bulletproof - La Roux, 2) Celebration - Madonna, Benny Benassi remix edit, 3) Poker Face - Lady Gaga

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Wing It, located on the top three floors of a skyscraper in the Meat Packing District, was currently one of the hottest dance clubs in town. Reservations were mandatory and the bouncer decided if you were hot or hip or influential enough to have a few overpriced drinks or rub up against bodies that could be Robert Pattinson or Rihanna. It was the right location for the illegitimate, non-blood-bonded princes and princesses of the Dracon Empire. Michael Panucchi settled down next to his brother Fabio, a year older, who grinned at him and grabbed his beer from the tray that Michael had brought before it was even on the table, because even rising criminals couldn't expect waiter service here. Paola and Gia followed.

"This is your first of two, got it? " Michael said sternly.

The girls, both 19, rolled their eyes, their lips mouthed over the first beats of La Roux Bulletproof, "Yes, Mom."

You couldn't say Michael enjoyed dance clubs too much. He liked the music, especially pop songs - which he didn't advertise. And he liked the feeling of moving to the rhythm of the music, feeling the thrill of heated bodies against him. It was like a wave that could sweep you away at any time, even if he didn't throw in a mollie. But after an hour it got too loud for him, the crowds were too much. His brothers were different - they could party until seven the next morning and then it was up to Michael to get their dead weight home. It was mostly up to him because he was the one who drank the least or took the fewest drugs and always slipped in a coke or water simply because he wasn't a stupid idiot. He also liked to be at home reading a book. Which he couldn't do too often because otherwise Alessio would make fun of him as unrestrainedly and sadistically as he could.

Paola stretched her neck, her eyes looking out for her BFF. Lakisha could never hold back from dancing for long when they went out. And it was her birthday. The last of them to turn eighteen. No one would refuse her anything today. They sat in a lounge area made free for them, slightly elevated, with dark soft leather seating. The peaks, to be known as Dracon brood. No one wanted to mess with them, not because they were already doing much business, but because they were assumed to be the next generation. Michael knew from a young age that there would be no other way for him and his brothers. But as mentioned, he was more on the thoughtful side. He went to a private business school, learning the financial, economic side simply to stay out of the dirtier areas of the gangster business, where Fabio was already collecting protection money and Alessio was doing everything he could to become Tony Dracon's protégé, which their dad liked extremely well.

Paola patted Gia's shoulder without taking her eyes off the dance floor. "Oh, Lakisha landed the big one. Birthday girl is lucky."

Now both girls and both boys stretched their necks to check on their youngest. The black girl had spent hours at the hairdresser's this lunchtime until her frizzy hair was perfectly straightened and filled in with golden strands that matched her golden sequin dress that seemed to be glued to her body to hug her curves. And they really were glued on, Paola and Gia had taped Lakisha for an hour with extra-strong double-sided duct tape to prevent her tits from slipping out of the outfit or her skirt from riding up as she moved. Nevertheless - as she rubbed herself against this big guy with the solero blond hair on the dance floor - vulgar like everyone else, uninhibited like everyone else - to the rhythm of the music, it was only thanks to the decently restrained hands of this giant that you couldn't already see her thong. He danced close to her - but kept his hands on her hands or shoulders. If they touched at all, because the song didn't really need that. Michael liked it.

Gia puckered her mouth, thickly smeared with red lipstick (she always overdid it! Michael wanted to tell her and explain that less was more, but he would make a fool of himself if he gave a girl make-up tips), made an appreciative noise as if she had just eaten something delicious. "That one would be something for me too ... if I could take him to the hairdresser first. And he looks pretty serious."

"What are you looking at his face for?" asked Paola, her broad grin not dimmed by her braces with the colorful gummies in them, which she wore as a fashion statement rather than because she needed them. She was the only one who looked as young as she was, despite or perhaps because of her abundance of colorful make-up. Nothing that would prevent her from getting alcohol in the clubs where they were known as Dracon offspring, even if her fake IDs weren't really perfect. Their parents knew that at least Michael would make sure that the girls didn't drink themselves senseless and that they got home safely. And they knew that they couldn't stop the bunch from going out anyway, they weren't so strict with rules or simply disinterested as long as nothing was done that would earn them a criminal record.

"I want to know what he's got in his pants. Such a big guy ... if he goes to the movies, the employees will probably think he's smuggling a can of Pringles inside."

Michael gulped as the girls giggled and thanked the rapidly changing light that no one could see how red he was getting. His brother Fabio, a year older, made a disgusted noise.

"God, you chicks are so kinky!" he shouted over the beats of the music and Michael automatically agreed and laughed. That was easy.

It was less easy to mask his open mouth and wide eyes when Lakisha plopped down next to them with her 9-pointer hunting trophy. In fact, she pushed the big guy with the solero orange cornrow braids into the seating area and plopped down on his muscular thighs, wrapping her arms around his bull neck in a possessive embrace.

"Birthday girl!" the others roared, letting Lakisha enjoy the spotlight. Michael didn't know if Fabio immediately had his hand on Paola's thigh to let HER know she was his girlfriend or the new guy, who looked strangely solemn and composed for being in a hot nightclub with even hotter company. He looked like he was in the most boring lecture at community college, rather offended by Lakisha's nimble hands as she tapped him on the chest- unaware or charmed by his i dont give a fuck face. Which, Michael realized, was really good looking. He liked serious guys you couldn't easily see through, who were so different from his brothers. But... he couldn't get caught up in these thoughts. He didn't want to end up like Glasses son - disappeared to the other side of the world over a decade ago and never seen since. What was his name again?

"Guys, this is Ronny," Lakisha said chipper and still heated from dancing, whereas the guy she was perched on didn't look particularly strained.

He said something - almost certainly a correction to the name, which Lakisha probably hadn't heard correctly over the music - but just at that moment the tune swelled again in a cresendo to change into a new dance track. Celebration by Madonna, the Benny Benassi remix edit, and after a few seconds all but the big guy were rocking to this catchy beat. Michael wanted to ask Gia (as a cover) if she wanted to dance. But she pointed past him with a new gleam in her eye.

"Look at Alessio! He's got the top prize!" she shouted over the music and once again all eyes searched the dancefloor where almost a hundred bodies were bouncing and swaying. And almost in the middle - but easy to recognize because others made room for them - aware of the visual superiority of this dancing couple was Alessio with a girl. And they didn't jump or sway or twitch like the others.

Enveloped by music and bass and flashing colored lights, they curled around each other like snakes. Snakes, who didn't quite know whether they would mate or strangle each other in the fight for the club's territory after this appraising ritual. Both were alphas - you could see that at a glance. There was something predatory about both of them and at that moment Michael couldn't believe that this very confident man running his hands over the woman's flat stomach from behind was supposed to be his twin brother. It was hard to confuse them because Alessio had a hairstyle like Mr. Dracon and he had short hair, but he had never seen his brother like he did now. It was as if for the first time he no longer saw the mean, stiff-necked brat who had always goaded them into some bullshit. For the first time, he saw the man he wanted to become and perhaps even could become. A ruler. And Michael didn't know if he would be comfortable living in a world where Alessio was the ruler of anything, because he was still brutal and vicious when he felt like it.

He and the woman looked like they could conquer the city, if not the world, together. They were both sexy and ahead of others, visually and in self-esteem. The woman looked stunning with her low-key smokey eye makeup, in a burgundy dress that came to her knees and swung mesmerizing with every turn. It looked expensive and precisely because it showed less skin than the clothes of most of the other women and men here, it gave her something of a higher quality where the others suddenly seemed desperate and cheap. She also wore shoes with short heels, which still pushed her hips forward but were better for longer periods on the legs than the stiletto heels of other girls, who could only stumble around as the time and the alcohol level advanced and still complained about blisters days later.

Her long, tightly curled dark hair was a lion's mane flowing to the beat. The style was rounded off by a wide belt made of numerous finger-length vertically links, sharp like daggers on both sides, which lay snugly around her waist held together by chains and other links and gave her something sharp and defensive as if it were part of an armor and not just a unique fashion it-piece. And this combination - Dracon red and silver matched Alessio with his silver pants and the burgundy shirt, which was tucked into his pants but open to show off his abs.

"God, puta is hot," Fabio sighed and Paola, snuggled up to him, nodded enthusiastically, almost drooling. "Yeah, I'm seriously reconsidering my heterosexuality," she mussed.

Man, not just you, thought Michael, smirking into his glass to cover the fact that he was looking rather intently at "probably-not-Ronny", who also had his grim gaze fixed on the dancing people.

"Is Alessio more lucky than good again, or did he play the Dracon heir card to snag her?" asked Lakisha happily.

"He looks less like a complete prick on the floor with the right accessory. Good thing he's wearing his skinny jeans today. The way he's rubbing against that chick, his boner would be poking her in the side," Paola said and Lakisha nodded with a chuckle after taking a big gulp of the beer provided for her.

The big guy grumbled and narrowed his eyes at the couple. Lakisha turned to him, patted his cheek and pressed her dress-squeezed rack against his chest.

"Oh, babe, don't worry, I only have eyes for you today. No need to be grouchy."

The guy rolled his eyes, grabbed her by the upper arms and pushed her slightly away from him, fixing her with a serious look.

"I don't presume to have the right to tell you how to behave - what with the beer and all. But your mom wouldn't approve of you throwing yourself at boys you don't know. Birthday or not. That's dangerous."

Lakisha grinned wider instead of shrinking back from the man who hadn't really grabbed her tenderly or demanding help from her male companions with a look. Michael and Fabio exchanged a gaze but his older brother had already had a line of nose candy and in a confrontation it would depend more on Michael.

"Awww sweetypie - you're hot if you don't presume stuff! My mom's got her Merlot bottles more in view than me. But you being so aggressively protective is mega sexy. Do you have a birthday present for me?" She giggled just like Gia and Paola and made a kissy face that the big guy avoided as if she had the plague. Which she didn't even notice negatively. Without Michael having any influence, the girls had already been preloaded. Lakisha was already drunk and thought his hard-to-get manner and the fact that he literally kept her at a physical distance was flirting.

However, Michael saw that it wasn't flirting on the part of the big guy. On the contrary. Michael didn't know what he was up to here, but he didn't like the fact that one of the girls he felt responsible for was being grabbed like that. What's more, the guy spoke as if there wasn't at least one man here to protect her. He wouldn't feel much better if they licked each other's faces and went straight to last base in the toilet, but this guy was weird. But if he made a fuss here, he could goad his much more impulsive brothers into a fight. A proper beating with lots of broken glass and screaming girls and probably a few hours in hospital stitching up wounds would be the result. And that would blow up Lakisha's birthday. So he did what seemed the most mature thing - and inconspicuously kicked the guy in the shin under the table, causing him to flinch and glare at him. Michael knew that the guy could probably ram him into the floor without being sharpened. He loved jogging in Central Park, but this guy's legs alone looked like he could bench press a Jeep. Which was pretty ... sexy. No! No, Michael pushed those unproductive self-destructive thoughts away and glowered back meaningfully.

The music changed again. And it was hard to tell whether Alessio was leading the woman or the woman was leading Alessio to their seating area. They both seemed to have the same destination. Everyone lifted their heads as their pack leader was about to present his catch of the day and had already opened his mouth when the woman's (more like the girl's, since she was probably barely older than Paola or Gia) wide wolf-like grin and her fingernails dancing over not-Ronny's head cut him off.

"Hey, you found her before I did," the woman said cheerfully, sitting down gracefully on the armrest of the seating area next to not-Ronny.

Then she grinned into the circle. "Hy! Nice to see you," she said as if she had not only known everyone for a long time, but as if she was the Head Honcho and needed no introduction.

"Oh, you know each other?" Michael asked after a few seconds of strange silence, which of course wasn't quiet in a place like this. The lulling first lines of Lady Gaga's Poker Face boomed around them, but even almost screaming over the noise, the woman had all eyes on her while Alessio sat down on the other side of the seating area like an awkward schoolboy, somewhat baffled by the self-assurance of his supposed prey.

The woman casually crossed her long legs, waving one hand as if it wasn't worth mentioning. "Of course we know each other. He's my brother."

"More like the devil's left and right hand," the big guy said for the first time with a hint of a warm smirk now turned to the woman, who returned the smirk in a slimy way. A way that immediately reminded Michael of Boss Dracon. He felt the blood drain from his face as his gaze wandered back and forth between the woman and not-Ronny. This couldn't be!

Lakisha made a disparaging noise and an annoyed face that this "emotional outburst" from her own victim was not directed at her and tightened her grip on his bull neck. Everyone knew the "brother" thing wasn't serious, because he was black as night and the woman was at best southern, but Lakisha had in common with Alessio that when they wanted something, they could get quite belligerent if not obsessive. And Alessio looked one hundred percent pissed off and probably didn't even know which of them was raining on his parade and spoiling the fuck he thought was certain. The guy or the woman.

"Jeah, babe, what was your name again?" Alessio asked somewhat stupidly but with a distrustful narrow-eyed expression that spoke of rare lucidity because old memories also ran through his head and made him doubt his sense of reality, depending on the answer of the new players on the field. Playful was exactly what this woman was aiming for. That was obvious as she put a hand to her chest in feigned dismay.

"Alessio, how can you forget the first person who tried to drown you! I am Graziella Dracon." Over the general gasps of those present, she continued to speak with a face that visibly loved the indignation she managed to elicit. "You know, Tony's biological daughter. Your boss, head of the Loony Bin that is New York. I get why no one recognizes me- I mean- you were just ogling my tits the whole dance- thanks for that, they're great, I know. Someone should get you out of the habit of groping ass while dancing before you lose a finger or two, but that's not an issue for tonight. But Sonny can't have changed THAT much." She looked to her presumably very platonic companion (SONNY!) with pursed lips. "Although if his own sister doesn't recognize him. Whatev. Jeah, we're back and wanted to introduce ourselves - officially this time - and wish Lakisha a happy birthday. We were in Hoboken earlier visiting your mom, but Barbara slammed the door in our faces. Probably more because of me than Sonny but meh, I rubbed her the wrong way back then, I forgive her behavior towards the true Dracon heiress." Her predatory smile was directed at Alessio and seemed SO sweet and venomous at the same time. "My dad was already thrilled to have me back. I know we had issues back then, guys. But we don't want to judge each other for things we did or didn't do as kids. By the way, Alessio, you can hardly tell that I broke your nose back then. Good for you, ha!" laughed Graziella. And sipped the beer that Lakisha had owned earlier. Then she grimaced and even that didn't make her any less attractive.

"Jesus, American beer really tastes like warm horse piss," she said and Sonny's sonorous deep laugh gave Michael goose bumps despite the heated surroundings and, at least on the part of his crew, charged atmosphere.

"Ewww!" Lakisha suddenly shrieked and she jumped up as if stung by a tarantula because a light had probably just lit up in her somewhat beer-fogged brain that she had been trying to hook up with her biological brother. Frantic, she brushed her hands along her skirt to literally brush off the image.

Sonny huffed at the admittedly droll jitterbug dance with the accompanying squawking noises that seemed to amuse no one but him and "his boss".

"Wow," Fabio said, summing up all the other unspoken comments nicely. Alessio's face was as red as a tomato and Michael didn't like the fire that was threatening to ignite in his eyes. His twin had always been a little asshole, full of himself and cruel when something irked him. And Grazialla Dracon ... even as a child had been one pint sized angelfaced irk! Back then, a little streak in Michael had thought it was awesome that his arrogant and even to his brothers mean sibling had been kicked in the ass by a girl (several times, in fact). But his misogynistic tendencies (even more obvious than was usual among teenagers from their circles anyway) had made Michael resent this strong-willed girl in retrospect. He had often thought, when he had seen Michael's ex-girlfriends crying over verbal cruelty or their bruises showing through under thick make-up, that Graziella Dracon had exacerbated something that would prevent Alessio from ever having a healthy relationship. As healthy as a relationship could be in an environment where women were either carried on their hands or pushed to the sidelines for a mistress when they no longer fit the ideal. That wasn't really respect - Michael knew that - but it was better than a daily beating.

She had shaken up the lives and social structure of the Dracon pups for the few weeks she had lived in New York and really, no one had missed her. Now she was back. And smiled as if everyone had been waiting for her. Threatened Alessio's position as pack leader again, and this time openly, because no one believed her when she said there would be no bad blood over past actions. It was a challenge and a casual effort to remind him and everyone that Alessio was not the heir by blood. Graziella was a girl, but honestly... had that stopped Antoinette then? Dracon women could be fierce and disconcertingly tenacious. And it was really down to her intelligence that Graziella Dracon now, after her lustful rambling and after leaving everyone shaken up and giving everyone plenty to gossip about, stood up with that sweet yet dangerous smile.

"We won't keep you any longer. Me and my crew already have something going on and we don't want to step on your toes on such a happy day, so we're getting out of here. Bye, I'll see you around, the city and our circles aren't that big." With that, she turned around. The throng in the club parted like the Red Sea for Moses and all eyes followed her before she was swallowed up by the crowd as if she had never been there. Sonny stayed behind, reaching into his pants pocket, and Michael's finger was not the only one to twitch as a reflex. But Sonny didn't pull out a gun.

"To your present, Sis," Sonny said seriously, as was probably his default mode. As it had always been in the past, Michael remembered. Lakisha had sunk back into the cushions and, pale and stunned, allowed him to gently close her fingers around a business card. Her brother, who had left New York and America when she could barely spell. Her brother, who she probably hadn't thought about in a decade and had been perfectly happy with that. He had fucked off to follow a kid (or so the rumors had claimed at the time) that he apparently then and now considered more of a sister than his own sister. Or did he think of her as a boss? What had the two of them been up to abroad for 12 years?

"Not one for grand gestures, I'm afraid," Sonny said, shrugging his remarkably broad shoulders. "And had no idea what to buy you. Graziella said an expensive fancy necklace but that wouldn't be ... mhmmm brotherly. But if you think of something you'd like. Or if you want to talk - yeah, you can call me if you want to connect." He leaned down towards her and his sister was so frozen in shock that she didn't even seem to notice the breathy kiss on her forehead.

Then he was gone too. Michael's gaze lingered as long as possible on his towering figure and the prominent mop of orange hair. Sonny moved around among the people as if he were not from this world. Someone with his mass should be stomping or trampling. The ground should shake under his every step. But the only thing that made the surroundings shake was the music and the bass that seeped into them all again.

Michael reached for his beer and took a few sips before he even tasted anything. Horse piss? The beer tasted the same as always. Stale and too warm and meaningless. Like everything had to taste after meeting Graziella Dracon and Sonny Wilson. When the most expensive bottle of champagne was brought to their table less than two minutes later (since Graziella Dracon's word already now clearly carried more weight than anything else), no one was thrilled.

"What did she mean by ... we already have something up and running?" Paola asked dumbly in the short break between the next songs.

"And where did she get that wicked belt?" asked Gia.

Alessio remained quiet. Michael was more the silent one. Fabio was the chatterbox when he was nervous. Alessio spewed nastiness and biting comments like a volcano when he was angry. But that was his way of letting off steam. This time Alessio kept quiet. No steam to take the pressure out of the system. It was not good when his brother fell silent.

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Are these songs really from 2009?! They were just in the charts! God, I'm old! You are old! We are all OLD!

Thanks for reading, Q.T.