Axel Read online

  When he walked in, Foster was leaning over a customer. He looked up, waved, and motioned for Axel to head to the back. “I’ll be done in a minute.”

  Axel nodded and noted the perk, bare butt Foster worked on. He couldn’t tell what the design would be, but the girl squealed as the needle touched her skin again while her friend giggled and snapped pictures with her phone.

  Before making his way down the short hallway, he stopped to check out the fish tank. It sat in a darkened corner, but a neon light brought the whole structure to life. Vivid greens, pinks, and blues of the fish moved throughout the water, which made him wonder again what Eden saw when she looked at him. He hoped she was doing okay being out on her own, but again, he wouldn’t take on her problems.

  As he continued his short trek to the back office, his boots sounded like cannons against the old, wooden floor. Opening the door leading to the office, he noted the sawed-off shotgun sitting on the top of the paper-strewn desk, as did a bottle of Fireball.

  Sitting down behind the desk, he opened a couple of drawers, then finally found a paper cup. He poured a few fingers of the dark gold liquid, then leaned back in the chair.

  Eden had taken his advice—doing what she wanted, when she wanted to do it. He couldn’t help but grin, but at the same time, he’d never in a million years thought she’d involve him in her clandestine plans, and he didn’t know how he felt about that. He certainly didn’t want any trouble with anyone, but at the same time, Eden obviously trusted him a bit to become a stowaway in his SUV.

  If the Saviors found out he’d helped her out, he supposed a hurricane of crap would rain down on him, especially from Hudson. He didn’t want or need the drama, and he was big on self-preservation. He knew he needed the protection and financial assistance the Saviors offered. He’d be screwed if they kicked him out, so he pretty much minded his manners.

  But, if she’d acted on her own without his knowledge, they couldn’t say much about that. That’s why he’d told her he’d deny seeing her if it came down to it.

  He took a sip of the cinnamon liquid and waited patiently for Foster.

  Fifteen minutes later, the male came in. “What’s up, Axel?”

  He stood and they clamped hands, then thumped each other’s back. “Not a lot. Just stopping in to say hello.”

  Foster poured himself a bit of Fireball and they both sat down. “You thinking about getting another tat?”

  Axel shrugged and stared at the black skull on the male’s forearm. “Not sure. I’m considering it.”

  “You let me know when you’re ready.”

  “You’re my go-to guy.”

  They sat in silence for a moment, each sipping their drinks.

  Every now and then when he looked at Foster, he often thought he saw bits of Blake, the half-Colonist, half-human back at the silo, in Foster’s face and mannerisms, but the resemblance left faster than it came. While Blake tended to talk too much, Foster sided on the quiet side.

  Axel nodded toward the gun lying between them on the desk. “So, what’s the deal with the hardware?”

  Foster shook his head. “There’s a fucking gang that’s been giving me some trouble. I’ve never seen them around before, but they came in here and tried to shake me down a couple of days ago.”

  “I have a feeling that didn’t go so well for them.”

  Foster grinned and petted the shotgun. “Nope. But I took old Betsy here out of storage just in case they decided to come back.”

  “What did they want?”

  “Money.”

  Axel cracked a smile. “I wish I could have seen that altercation.”

  “Yeah, that’s why there’s a new carpet out front. I couldn’t get the blood out of the old one.”

  “I hadn’t noticed.”

  “Didn’t figure you did.”

  “Mexican gang?”

  With them located in the southwest, the Hispanic population was high, and he’d heard on the news a few weeks back that there had been some scuffles with the Mexican gangs at a biker bar just outside of Phoenix.

  “No. That was the strange part about them. They had whites, blacks, Mexicans. They definitely practiced diversity and equal opportunity.”

  Axel’s skin began to tingle, a small shiver traveling down his spine. From his limited experience, human gangs tended to stay with their own ethnicity. Something didn’t seem quite right, but he supposed it wouldn’t be anything to bring up with the Saviors. They certainly wouldn’t have any interest in a stupid gang of humans that practiced diversity.

  They talked a bit more, then Axel checked the clock on the wall. He’d come downtown to say hello to Foster, but he also had a few other things he needed to do.

  “I need to take off, man. It was good to see you.”

  Foster stood. “You, too, my friend. Come back soon.”

  Axel left and walked down the street, then entered the Black Cuff, a popular bar downtown. He had about an hour and a half to kill before the time he’d told Eden to meet him, and his visit here wouldn’t take long.

  In the afternoon, the bar tended to be pretty much empty, mainly just the staff setting up and the DJ getting his equipment ready. Liquor deliveries lined up at the back door, and a cleaning crew blasted the place with chemicals to rid the tabletops, booths, and every other surface of bodily fluids and drugs.

  Yes, the bar definitely landed on the side of debauchery, but it didn’t hold a flicker of a flame to where he headed.

  As he walked through the place, he nodded at a few bartenders. Going beyond the restrooms, he knocked on a locked door to his left. A moment later, it opened, and he glanced at the doorman, who smiled at him.

  Frankly, coming here, he didn’t see it as anything that deserved a grin. This had become all about him meeting his baser needs without having to interact with others on a meaningful level.

  After he strolled down the blackened hallway, he stopped at a table with a large sign above it:

  Welcome to the BC Sex Club. Choose your flavor, the topping, and abide by the rules.

  He’d discovered that getting in here wasn’t something that happened for everyone—people arrived by invitation only.

  His invite had come through one of the bartenders at the Black Cuff.

  As he gazed up at the sign, he didn’t know why he bothered to look. He already knew his flavor, and the topping.

  His choices for the flavor: men, women, both.

  His choices for the topping: dominate or submissive.

  Peeling off a hundred dollar bill, he then handed it to the cashier, a male in his fifties dressed in leather pants with a blue feather boa around his neck.

  “Both, dominate.”

  “I know, Axel. It’s nice to see you.”

  He grunted in response as the male put the corresponding dots to his preferences on a nametag.

  After placing the sticker on his T-shirt, he passed the cashier and walked the rest of the way down the dark hallway. He figured for most, it could be the foyer to Heaven, or Hell, depending on your beliefs and preferences.

  He opened the onyx door and stepped inside.

  The whole room had been painted black, with a dark wooden bar situated in the middle of it. Dim lighting made it almost difficult to see, and he waited a moment for his eyes to adjust. Once they did, he made his way to a stool and glanced to his left.

  Three archways greeted him, along with the low groans of people having sex. Each space was like looking into a dark abyss, except for the low, neon black-lighting at the rear of the rooms. In fact, it kind of reminded him of the fish tank in Foster’s tattoo shop.

  He palmed the beer placed in front of him before he sat down, then took a look around.

  At night, this place held wall-to-wall people, hundreds. During the day, he figured about twenty to fifty people were in here at any time.

  The numbers during the daytime suited him just fine. He didn’t like being around large groups of people for long lengths of time—it made him uneas
y, like the walls would close in and he would drown.

  He slammed down his beer, then got off the stool and walked through the first arch.

  Everyone knew what the other person’s preferences were based on the nametag. Once a match up had been made, they got down to business. He didn’t care who he screwed—they just needed to be submissive. He didn’t get down on his knees for anyone, and he wouldn’t have sex while on the bottom. For him, the act had become all about having control. The orgasms didn’t rock his world, but instead, met a base desire he had as a male.

  His cock thickened at the sights and sounds around him. Men having sex with women, men having sex with men … women on women … any combination one could imagine of sex and numbers, he found.

  He saw her standing in the corner. Judy. A small little female with short blonde hair and curves on top of her curves. She loved being submissive, to have others dominate her. He hadn’t seen her in a couple of months, and wondered where she’d been.

  As he walked over, she caught his gaze and smiled. She’d dressed in a short skirt and tank top, and he glanced at the tag on her shirt—still liked men and women, and still wanted to be dominated.

  “Judy.”

  “Hey, Axel.”

  “How’ve you been?”

  “I’m well.”

  “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

  She nodded and sighed. “I found what I thought was a perfect dom, but it didn’t work out. I thought we were headed for the altar and everything.”

  He really didn’t care, but knew what the proper response should be. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  She looked him over from head to toe, licking her lips. “What are you in the mood for this afternoon?”

  He shrugged. “What are you offering?”

  And just like that, she fell to her knees and unzipped his jeans.

  Closing his eyes as she wrapped her lips around him, he tried to enjoy the sensations, but even as the need for release built up within him, he didn’t consider it pleasurable.

  As he threaded his fingers through her hair, she glanced up at him, the neon lights turning her face a pale red, almost making her seem satanic. No, that’s not what he wanted to see.

  Shutting his eyes again, he tried to find another image that would bring him to completion.

  Eden’s face shone under his lids, her questioning stare boring into him.

  Her long, black hair fell straight over her shoulders, shining as if it had been kissed by the sun. While she looked at him, she pulled her bottom lip between her straight white teeth. She climbed on top of him, straddling his hips. As he allowed his gaze to lower to her shoulders and breasts, the tips of her hair caressed her pink, hardened nipples. Her chest heaved, and how he longed to take one breast in each hand. He knew they would overfill his palms, but he wanted to feel the weight of them as he peppered her neck with slow kisses and traced his tongue along her areolas.

  He came with force imagining Eden trapping him beneath her, her hair brushing across his chest, her hands caressing every inch of his skin.

  Opening his eyes, he stepped away from Judy as white-hot pain washed through him. His hands shook as he tucked his dick back into his pants, and sweat formed on his brow as his eyes darted around. He tried to take deep breaths through a constricted chest. Even just the thought of being in a submissive position brought him panic, and he didn’t understand how he could get off on a fantasy of it, especially one involving Eden—the one person he should stay as far away from as possible.

  Judy stood, her brow creased. “You okay, Axel?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, Judy.”

  As he raced from the club, he realized he probably should have offered to bring Judy to completion, but he couldn’t even think about that. It felt as if his brain had somehow short-circuited with that little fantasy, and it had him rattled.

  Right now, he just needed some alone time so he could get his shit back together.

  He quickly walked back toward Foster’s, stopping about a block away. As he went down a set of stairs leading to a basement studio apartment, he pulled his keys from his pocket with shaky hands. After three attempts, he finally opened the door.

  Glancing around the apartment, he shut the door and leaned against it. The square footage of the room couldn’t be anymore than five hundred. A double bed sat against the white wall, its grey and white sheets still jumbled from the last time he’d stayed here. A small kitchenette stood to his left, the closed door leading to the bathroom.

  Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes.

  Sex had never been about a certain person, or even fantasies of someone. It had been about sating an urge that railed through him every now and then. His mind conjuring Eden had totally thrown him for a loop.

  Stretching out on the bed, he closed his eyes. Again, all he saw was Eden, and he stared at the ceiling for a few moments.

  Shutting his lids again, he knew he had about a half hour to get himself together, then he’d have to go back to the car. However, he almost wished he could stay the night in the apartment and try to scrub the female from his thoughts.

  He hoped Eden waited for him, because although he didn’t give a shit what she did, he really didn’t want to leave her downtown alone.

  Chapter 6

  Eden strolled back to the vehicle, humming. The fall setting sun had gone behind the tall buildings but hadn’t totally disappeared, and a chill in the air gave her goose bumps. Yet, she couldn’t stop smiling.

  She’d enjoyed her time at the museum so much! The exhibits had been interesting, and it had been fun watching the kids play in the pretend grocery store and make balls run through the mazes. What she’d really loved? Just being among the people. Although she wasn’t completely like them, she still felt as if she belonged, as if she shouldn’t be shunned.

  After so many decades of being hidden away for her own safety and being told humans would want to harm her because she was different, today, after her initial nervousness, she had almost cried at the feelings coursing through her. She had moved through humans for about three hours today, and no one had tried to hurt her as her brother had told her would happen so many times. She’d also swelled with pride during her excursion because she’d gone by herself, like an adult, instead of like the child everyone treated her as. She proven to herself that she’d been right and she didn’t need protection from the world as Benedict and Hudson seemed to think she did.

  Glancing up, she saw Axel in the driver’s seat of the car, waiting for her. She grinned at him as she approached, and his gaze met hers.

  She opened the back door and slid in. “Hello, Axel.”

  He glared at her in the rearview mirror. “You’re ten minutes late.”

  She furrowed her brow. “I’m sorry about that. I must have lost track of time.”

  He shoved the key in the ignition and pulled away from the curb. She couldn’t find it within herself to be the least bit sorry. Her day had been amazing.

  They rode in silence for a few minutes, then he spoke. “You don’t have to sit back there if you don’t want to, at least not until we get closer to the silo.”

  At the next stoplight, she crawled over the seat and sat next to him. As he drove, she watched his feet tap the pedals and his fingertips caress the steering wheel. It didn’t seem too hard, and she decided she would have to learn to drive very soon.

  “How was your day?”

  She smiled. “It was amazing. The Science Center is really a fun place.”

  He glanced over at her. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  Suddenly, a small shimmer appeared around him. She squinted to make sure she wasn’t seeing some type of reflection off the window, but upon further scrutiny, she felt certain in her perception.

  Axel had what she assumed would be the beginnings of an aura.

  It glistened around him, as if she stared at a light in the darkness too long. It seemed faint and very light with no color, but she’d never seen anythi
ng before when looking at him. She had to assume he very well could be beginning to feel emotions.

  “You stare at me a lot.”

  His quiet voice seemed to reverberate around the car, as if he’d screamed at her. She tore her gaze away and looked out the front window.

  “I don’t mean to.”

  “Then why do you do it?”

  She sighed. If he’d brought her into downtown and treated her like an adult, didn’t he deserve an answer?

  “I never see any colors around you, Axel, and it confuses me as I see so many colors around others.”

  He kept his gaze on the road ahead of him, his face completely unreadable. “I guess I’m not the rainbow type.”

  She couldn’t help but grin. “I supposed not. However, a moment ago, I saw a brief glimmer around you.”

  Clearing his throat, he glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye. Just as she thought he would say something, she noticed the car in front of them had come to a stop. She yelped and closed her eyes, bracing for impact.

  Axel’s reflexes were fast and thankfully, they screeched to a halt inches before he crashed into the bumper.

  She sighed in relief, and decided that in order to work a vehicle, one needed to be paying attention at all times.

  They sat in silence for a few moments, then he spoke. “You don’t see anything around me?”

  “No. Nothing. Like I said, usually, I see many colors around people, but not you. I find it intriguing.”

  He stared out the window. “And it doesn’t scare you?”

  “No. Why would it?”

  He shrugged. “Most people are scared of me.”

  She thought about that a moment before answering, and wondered if he liked people being in fear of him, or if it was some type of self-protection to keep people from getting too close.

  “I suppose I can understand that. However, I see people differently than most. I can see a man smiling and laughing, but see nothing but anger and evil around him. A woman may be telling her significant other she loves them, but then I see lies and deceit surrounding her. Both of those circumstances would frighten me because of the inconsistencies, because they weren’t being truthful to those around them. But with you, I have nothing to fear because I don’t see anything.”