[b][u][center]Sarina’s Hectic Shift Chapter 3 By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b] “Nnngh…nnngh…mmph!” Sarina arched her back against the locker wall, gasping as her orgasm finally escaped her. Her toes curled as she ground her heels against the tiled floor, and she huffed and puffed under her breath as she ground her fingertips against her prostate. Nudging it over and over again, she forced one little spray out of her cock after another, soaking her thighs and stomach with more than she really needed to get out. And as she came, as she watched the show on the phone across from her, she could feel the spell fading from her. The Perception-magic was already slipping away, leaving her – well, not clear-headed, because she was [i]never[/i] clear-headed on the job, but clearer than she had been. Less of a danger, at the very least. Slowly, the pleasure faded. The black-and-red dragoness slowly pulled her fingers from her hole, feeling the way that it clenched around the three digits, and she hissed as they finally came free. [i]Note to self, use lube next time…[/i] Just because she was eager didn’t mean that she was the super-slut that her horny brain was ever so eager to convince her that she was. She could still take damage from that, and a lot of damage, at that. The last time that she got too horny to think and just let someone go to town – Sarina decided not to think about that. The Body-magic healing had done its job, and there was nothing left of that. [i]Get up…get up…[/i] The clock on the phone told her that she’d been ‘taking care of herself’ for five minutes. As far as getting out from under a compulsion went, that was relatively quick. As far as being a liability in a dangerous situation, it was a lifetime. [i]Get up.[/i] Forcing herself to her feet, the naked dragoness slowly hobbled down the aisle back to the locker room door. Oleksiy and some of the employees had shifted some of the lockers over the doorframe, but even that wouldn’t last forever. Not against armored mech-gangsters. “Nnngh…” Sarina looked down at Notah. The great horned owl had been leaned against the wall, and he huffed as he held one hand over his middle. She knelt down beside him. “You okay?” “Mmmph…nothing broken,” the owl huffed. “Pity he didn’t…aim higher, hmm? Speed up the transition a little bit…” “Bad joke,” Oleksiy muttered, the rabbit shifting another locker over pile. “Unless you have a good healer, that would be horrific internal bleeding.” “Fair – fair point,” Notah said between coughs. Sarina nudged her boss to lean back a bit. Much as she was glad that Oleksiy had saved him, that first hit had clearly done a number on the owl. He’d need time to recover, and she really didn’t want to think about what a punch any higher up would have done. Shaking her head, she started to look around the room – THUMP! The door and all the lockers shoved against it bounced. Everyone jumped back, save the brown-furred rabbit at the door, and even he stiffened up. [i]They know we’re in here,[/i] Sarina thought. [i]Dammit…[/i] Maybe a club in the richer part of Docetri would have had more exits, but [i]Pleasurable Times[/i] was right up against another building. There was no second exit from this level. There was only one way in and out of the locker room, and that meant that they were trapped. “Well, that complicates things,” Oleksiy muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “I was hoping that we’d have time –” “Time for what?” Sarina said, a nervous chuckle coloring her words. “Time to get a fuck in before we all got caught?” “More whether we’d have time to hold out until the rest of the Saints got here,” he said, either ignoring her panic or completely unaware of it as he walked around the barricade they’d set up. “My boss is coming in with the rest later tonight, but if we can’t hold the door, that’s a problem.” “Understatement – mmmph – of the century,” Notah muttered. “Mmm, suppose it is.” Oleksiy nodded. “Right then. Looks like we’ve got one choice. Hey!” Sarina jumped as the rabbit’s calm, conversational tones suddenly jumped to a barking shout. Everyone else – no matter how panicked – quieted down, staring at him as he turned around and faced them. “What kind of magic are we working with here?” he asked, leaning against the line of upturned lockers. “You?” “Uh – Body-magic. Enhanced, uh, size,” a mouse near Sarina said. “You?” Oleksiy asked, looking just past her at a polar bear. “Presence-magic. Arousal,” the bear grunted. So it went around the room. The rabbit would gesture at an employee, and they’d rattle off what their magical talent was. It took four of them before Sarina realized what he was looking for: a distraction. If they could get him to one of the phones – and the nearest one was down the hall at the front desk – then they could get some reinforcements in the building. The rest of the Sinning Saints could come in, Andreu’s Night-Shriekers would have to turn around and fight against them, and… Well, best-case scenario, the whole place got trashed and the Sinning Saints won. They’d owe the gang their safety and their liberty, but it was better than being caught by the psychotic squirrel and turned into his live-in whores. After three more ‘failures,’ Sarina slowly raised her hand. Oleksiy turned her way. “What can you do?” he asked. “The same thing they did to me,” Sarina said. “Wait, you have Perception-magic?” Kaulana asked from the nearby bench. “Remembrance.” It was her little ‘talent.’ Not a good one, in her opinion, but it worked. Her teachers called it ‘Absorption.’ Whatever was shot her way hit her with twice the force that the caster meant it to have, but once she recovered, she more or less ‘knew’ their spell for the next forty-eight hours. It was not the way that she would have liked to learn magic, and more than once, she’d been put through hell to test that particular ‘talent’ out, but it worked. She could feel the other spell rippling through her body, and she knew that she could hit the armored gangsters just as hard as they’d hit her. Oleksiy tapped his chin. “Do you think you could turn them on their friends?” Sarina nodded. “Well, that gives us an opening. Okay. That’s a start. Does anyone have Lightning-magic?” “Sami, Toby, and Rachel,” Sarina said without hesitation. The other dancers blinked, and she almost did the same. Even she hadn’t realized that she’d been paying quite that much attention, nor had she known that she was on autopilot quite as much as she was. It was…strange. It was like being in the back of her head instead of the front, two or three steps behind everything else emotionally while still keeping up with things physically. She still hadn’t recovered completely from what the spell almost made her do. The idea of walking right off the stage and trying to suck a dick through metal plate still sent a shiver down her spine, but the reality of it still hadn’t quite caught up to her. She was still functional, still standing, still thinking – “How did you know we could do that?” Toby asked, the wolf grabbing her by the shoulder. “We don’t even know what you can do.” “I pay attention,” she muttered, her voice feeling hollow even to herself. “You – girl –” “Mind saving the questions for later? I get the feeling the door’s not going to last for long,” Oleksiy said. “Yeah…yeah, sure.” “Lovely.” The rabbit clapped his hands. “Alright, here’s the plan. You – Sarina?” The dragoness nodded. “Lovely to call you something that isn’t ‘girl.’ We’re going to clear the door. The minute it opens, Sami, Toby, and Rachel are going to loose one volley. Just one. Save the rest for later. After that, Sarina is going to blast whoever’s still standing with what she got from them. Then, we’re going to run. I need someone to show me where the phone is –” “I’ll do it,” Sarina said. “Do you have a death wish or something, hon?” Kaulana said. “You barely got away from them the first time.” “I know where it is and I can cast this spell more than once. It’ll be safer for Oleksiy if he has someone to watch his back.” And besides, the slut was more expendable. If she screwed up, it wasn’t someone that had themselves put together that had to pay the price. It would just be the one that had to be rescued already, the person that had almost wanted to get caught. [i]The person nobody really wants, anyway.[/i] “Hon –” “I’ll go,” Sarina said. “That works for me,” the rabbit said. “Alright…let’s do this before they can break the door down completely.” Giles, Oleksiy, and some of the bigger dancers grabbed the lockers and hoisted them out of the way. The dragoness took a step back as Toby, Sami, and Rachel stepped forward, the wolf, falcon, and orca woman holding out their hands in similar positions. Lightning started to ripple between their fingers, arcing from digit to digit as they held it ready. Holding up three fingers, Oleksiy counted them down. At zero, he yanked the door open, and Sarina covered her ears. The thunderous explosion of sound and lightning blasted three of the armored thugs back. They rolled on the ground, one of them managing to discharge some of the lightning away from him, while the other two bucked and spasmed in their armor. Four more were right behind the first three, already in the process of raising their weapons in response, but it was too late for them. It was her turn, after all. Her glasses slid down her snout as she stepped forward, but she could already feel that Perception-magic spell heating up as she pulled on her own power. She remembered how it had blasted her mind, how it had almost stolen her away. It forced her to remember how she’d been split right down the middle, begging them to make her simple, begging them to take away the complexities of her life. One or the other. The other or one. As she lifted her hands, the same glittering ball bounced between her palms, splitting. She understood the spell. The part that they wanted to kill – the student, the girl that studied, the one that worked at the academy for hours every day – knew the spell inside and out, now. She split it, warped it, changed it, duplicated it. [i]Kill me?[/i] Sarina the Student thought. [i]Kill you,[/i] Sarina the Slut confirmed. [i]Keep me, save you. More variety? Get caught, can’t get more. Stay free, more people see. Complicated. We are. Not theirs. Not theirs.[/i] It was the first thing that both sides could agree on, and her spell was all the more powerful for it as she threw her arms out. The metal-bound thugs stumbled back, but when they caught their balance, she could [i]feel[/i] the devotion, want, and need in their stare. She didn’t have to see their faces to know that they were carbon copies of the same adoration that she saw on stage every night. No, more, stronger than that, stronger and more intense and more obedient than any needy man or eager woman that she had ever seen in the crowd. “Fight,” she whispered. And that was what they did. As the crash of limbs and thunder echoed through the halls, Oleksiy looked her way with a raised eyebrow. So did most of the other performers. The feeling of those eyes – shocked, judging, wondering – told her that things were going to change. She couldn’t stay; they’d ask questions. Wonder. Think of her differently. Couldn’t stay. Wanted to. Couldn’t. “Well, let’s keep moving, shall we?” Oleksiy said. “What’s your magic?” Sarina asked. “What can you do?” “Call it a little emerald perception, hmm?” [i]He’s a Green-user…[/i] The possibilities raced through her mind as she followed Oleksiy out the door. Green-users were people that tapped into the Green, or ‘nature,’ as some put it. She knew a few that kept their skills hidden at her school, and a few others that had special contracts that allowed them to practice it in the city, but most remained outside the city walls. Their reputation as crazed terrorists tended to chase them off. But here? She’d take that. She watched him as he ran ahead, always a half-step faster than Andreu’s gangsters as he ducked, punched, and slid around those in their way. The ensorcelled thugs that she’d sent ahead were doing their job, splitting the other gang’s forces, but it was only a distraction. She could already feel the spell starting to weaken, despite her best efforts. They had perhaps three minutes before the Night-Shriekers were working together again. “What is-is happening?! Fix it! Fix it! Get rid of them-them!” Andreu shouted from the main room. “Not hard, not hard!” Leaving the chaos of the hallway behind, Oleksiy and Sarina threw themselves into a diving slide and landed behind the bar. The dragoness pointed a little further down, and the rabbit spotted the phone. They crawled to it, keeping their backs to the bar as he pulled the phone down. [i]We’re dead if he saw us. We’re dead if he saw us.[/i] But they were still alive. Ergo, Andreu hadn’t seen them leap out. “Better hurry,” Sarina muttered as Oleksiy tapped out a series of numbers. “That spell won’t last long.” “I know.” “Sure that your boss is going to pick up?” “She will.” “Never did when Notah called before.” “She will – coming over the left side of the bar.” He was so calm with the warning that she almost couldn’t take it seriously. Yet, she had her arm up just in time as one of the untouched Night-Shriekers poked their armored head over the side. Sarina had half a second before they saw her, but it was enough. [i]Not you. Not again. Not dying. Might be too small.[/i] The level of stupidity between the agreement should never have worked, but it did. Sarina slapped the new attacker back with another wave of colored light, whispering a command for him to go and fight. She lowered her head behind the bar – Crack! Crack! The thump of the gangster hitting the other side and slumping over told her that she’d just sent someone to their death. She hunched over, fighting back a wave of vomit and barely succeeding. All the while, Oleksiy had dialed whatever number he needed to call, and it must have connected. “Yes, that’s the size of it. We could use some help.” Pause. “At least twenty, but everyone if you can swing it.” Pause. “Yeah, they’re going after your favorite, too – see you soon, boss.” Click. “What…was that about?” Sarina grunted, feeling the after-effects of the double-cast. “Favorite what?” “You’ll see when she gets here,” the rabbit muttered, closing his eyes. He traced a finger over the ground, muttering to himself under his breath as he dragged it this way and that. His eyes seemed to follow something that only he could see, and Sarina didn’t dare say anything. If this was Green-magic at work, she didn’t want to get involved if she didn’t have to – “Now.” Oleksiy leaped to his feet and dragged her by the shoulder. Sarina yelped as she was pulled out from behind the bar just as something else, something much bigger, slammed into the wooden siding and collapsed it. She was still screaming as she caught her footing and kept running, looking over her shoulder as the armored squirrel dragged himself back to his feet. “Back! Get back-back!” However much metal was mounted on top of that squirrel, he was still moving fast. It was like getting chased down the hall by a freight train as he ran after them, and – Sarina felt the power of his magic in the walls around them. Her eyes went wide as she realized that he was reaching out with Machine-magic, and she whipped her head back over her shoulder, staring at him with eyes wide. [i]How does he have enough energy to keep the armor going and do more?[/i] No wonder he was as skinny as he was. He was over-casting, using more of his energy than he should. That explained the armor sticking to him, too; he was probably half-metal already with how much he was putting out. “Head down,” Oleksiy said. She threw herself forward with her head bowed – Clang! A swinging chunk of metal caught her by the top of her horns. If she’d had the male-pattern ones – the kind that swung up and forward – it would have either yanked her off her feet or taken her head clean off. As it was, it just gave her a massive headache, and she whimpered as she kept on running. More metal flew out of the plastered walls. Bars, wires, and more kept lashing out for them, barely missing them with Oleksiy calling out where she had to move and the brown-furred rabbit barely keeping up. His puffy jacket had rips everywhere where he couldn’t move quite fast enough, and the pair of them were only just keeping ahead of the mad squirrel as he chased them back to the – “Now!” Notah’s chirping voice was just barely loud enough to hear over everything else. Sarina turned around and saw her coworkers standing with lightning in hand, and she yelped as Oleksiy yanked her off her feet. The blast hit Andreu hard enough to stop him in his tracks, and for a few blessed seconds, the attacks of the club machinery stopped. Dragoness and rabbit ran as fast as their legs could carry them for the locker room and threw themselves through the door, and it slammed shut behind them. As Giles and the others started shoving as many lockers in the way as possible, Sarina slumped to the floor. She coughed, fighting back the residual vomit from seeing someone die in the lobby. Kaulana was there, resting a hand on her shoulder and patting her back. “Glad to see you didn’t get yourself killed,” the otter said. “Didn’t…plan to.” “But you could have. And you wouldn’t have fought that hard, would you?” “…” “That’s what I thought.” BANG! The door and the wall it was attached to sagged from the impact. Sarina groaned as she looked over her shoulder, staring at the cracks. Oleksiy shook his head. “Well, that won’t last long. Ten minutes, tops.” “…How the hell are [i]you[/i] so calm?” Kaulana asked, hands on her hips. “Because I have faith.” Sarina wished she did. # The wall lasted a total of eight minutes. No matter how much they braced it, Andreu and his gang had too much power to bring to bear. The door, the wall, and a good chunk of everything attached to both came down in a rain of rubble, and Notah, Sarina, and all the other employees pulled back. Oleksiy stood between them and Andreu and his men, but that was scant comfort. The massive armored squirrel stepped inside. Sarina finally had the chance to get a good look at him without the purple lighting in the main room throwing things off. Up close, he looked…jury-rigged, for lack of a better word. A car’s hood had been wrapped around him like a rusty cape, and metal door frames formed strips up and down his arms and chest. Various bits and pieces that had clearly been gathered from all across the slums ‘decorated’ the squirrel’s body, leaving him more ramshackle than a Frankenstein’s monster. He wheezed as he loomed over them, a string of drool hanging out of one corner of his mouth. He had to be exhausted, Sarina thought; all the casting, keeping that armor up, and whatever else he had done was draining him. She almost thought she could take him, if he was alone. But he wasn’t. The surviving members of his gang, almost as tall and broad as he was, stepped forward. Of the ten that he’d brought with him, he still had six. At least one of them had to have died – she saw that happen – and the other three were nowhere to be seen. One had probably gotten electrocuted, at the very least, and the others – No, no, no point thinking about it. Andreu and his gang might have been outnumbered at least eight to one, but with that armor, they couldn’t be brought down. Not by a bunch of dancers. “Well-well. Looks like…looks like the end of the road…for you,” Andreu said. [i]Working harder. Trying to keep his voice smooth,[/i] she thought. [i]Trying to put on a show, or –[/i] The squirrel gestured at them, and she knew that was the whole point. Showing off what he had gotten for all the survivors. Showing off what he was willing to give them. Making it clear how strong he was. “Told you, guys. This is ours, now. [i]They[/i] are ours. Andreu delivers, yes-yes…Andreu delivers better than anyone else…” Again, she could feel their eyes on her, on Kaulana, on everyone else. This time, it was only a matter of time before they got their Perception-magic up again, and this time, she didn’t think that there’d be any stopping it. They’d all end up slaves for the gang. Slaves, toys, anything that Andreu wanted before he got bored with them and threw them out on the streets. She felt him turn to her. The squirrel hissed through his teeth and took a step forward – “I wouldn’t do that,” Oleksiy said, the rabbit stepping between them. “I really wouldn’t.” “Think you can stop me-me…stop me from taking what’s mine, rabbit?” Andreu said. “Probably not for long, true. But I figure you deserve a warning. This [i]is[/i] Sinning Saint turf. You know that, right?” “What’s your point-point?” “Well, see, there’s several points. First one is, you’re probably used to the weak gangs out there. The ones that say that they own something, but can’t keep it. All that armor probably scares ‘em off. Lets you take what you want. Second one is, you’ve probably never had to [i]really[/i] fight for – if you throw that punch, you’re going to miss.” “What-what – you – I didn’t –” “And the third point – ah, finally.” The six still-standing gangsters behind Andreu collapsed, lightning arcing across their armor. They screamed, flailing as they went down, and Sarina’s eyes went wide as she stared at the ranks behind the Night-Shriekers. No fewer than twenty men and women in the reds and grays of the Sinning Saints stood behind them, with six of them grinding thick metal rods arcing with electricity into the Night-Shrieker armor. They kept the points pushed right into the backs of the armored thugs’ necks, zapping them over and over again, keeping them from dissipating it or getting out of the armor in the process. There were all kinds of species arranged in line, but the one that held her attention was the little woman in the front. She’d seen the pit bull before, though she didn’t know the older woman’s name. The familiar loose raps of red and gray made her look like one of the fortune tellers in the old story, with piercings of gold through one ear and a pair of silver piercings in the opposite nostril. Silver tufts of fur stood out along the steel gray of her muzzle, and she chuckled as she stepped forward from the ranks of her gang. “Now, look what we have here,” the pit bull said with a shake of her head. “A squirrel out of his tree.” “You – let them up! They’re mine! All this is mine!” Andreu said, and the building shook around them. “No take, no take! This mine! This is –” Snikt. The pit bull was in the hallway, and then she wasn’t. Andreu twitched, flailing around until a knife poked out from under his chin. He froze, and the pit bull poked her head around the back of his armor. She chuckled, the sound almost a cackle as the building stopped shaking around them. “That’s a good boy. Now, stop being so stupid. Let everyone go, and maybe, just maybe, they won’t have to cut you out of your armor by the time I’m done with you.” “You…how…” “Cosmina has her secrets. Now, do as she says…or I’ll have to show you how my little family deal with people like you…” # Sarina was surprised to see the Sinning Saints as involved as they were with the repairs. Once the Night-Shriekers were tossed out on their asses – most of them marked with electric brands to show that they’d lost, and Andreu himself stripped of his armor and left out for the Rainbow Guard – they set to work in short order. Six of them were tasked with fixing the walls leading to the locker room, others helped Giles with fixing up those that had been injured, and the others patrolled outside, looking for anyone that might cause trouble. Sarina was just getting her things from her locker, mechanically and clinically getting dressed, when Oleksiy found her. He grabbed her by the shoulder and nodded back to the runways. “Cosmina wants to talk to you.” “I’m off-shift.” “I wouldn’t keep her waiting, girl – Sarina. Sorry.” “I’m [i]off-shift.[/i]” She wasn’t the Slut anymore. They would want the Slut, she wasn’t the Slut, she shouldn’t be here. Maybe never be here again. If they came back – what if they came back? What if they took her? What if the comfort and the pleasure turned to never-ending nightmare? What if – “I need to go,” Sarina repeated. She tried to push past, but Oleksiy had her in a grip that was impossible for her to escape. If it wasn’t for the fact that Sarina the Slut was already fading massively, it would have found that appealing, would have imagined it to be a very titillating scenario, but that side had had its fun. They’d had to escape pain, had to run, had to flee, and the bravery that it lent her to do it was exhausting. They had to go. This wasn’t their place. It might never be their place again. [i]Everyone knows what I am now, everyone knows I’m not like them. I pay too much attention, I want too much, I’m not like them. I have to go before they…before everything…[/i] Oleksiy turned her around. Before she could say anything, he pulled a bundle of bills from his pocket, and she stared as he held them right in front of her nose. He bobbed them up and down, looking up at her. “Ten minutes. Ten minutes for five-hundred.” “…” “Cosmina wants to talk to you. Come on.” She was speechless as she was led through the hallways back to the runways and the main room. All eyes were on her as she walked along with her clothes in her hands, barely dressed in her thong and nothing else. She hadn’t even had the chance to take off her toe rings yet. They clicked and clacked as she walked, trying to find any words that might get her out of this. Then it was too late. She was out of the hallway and in front of the pit bull. The older woman was reclined back at one of the front tables, sipping at something that Sarina couldn’t identify. Her knife was on the table, and the wrap-like clothing around her looked looser, spread out along her limbs and down her shoulders. Notah was with her, too. He was just wrapping up, it seemed, because he got to his feet as soon as Sarina saw him. The great horned owl bobbed his head to the pit bull. “Thank you for your help, ma’am. I will – I’ll see to it that we – I don’t know how but –” “A month off,” Cosmina said, waving her hand. “Put things back together, make a new plan, and then we will see what you owe me.” “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” The owl bowed his head, turning away. His feather-fluffy had finally gotten out of hand, forcing him to discard his shirt, and he adjusted his chest-binding as he walked away. Sarina looked at him, got a slightly reassuring glance in return – “Ms. Inklaw.” Her breath caught in her throat as she heard her last name. Nobody in the club knew that name. Notah didn’t know it, the other performers didn’t, [i]nobody[/i] knew it. The black-and-red dragoness turned her eyes to the pit bull again, her heart hammering against her ribs as she stared at the older woman. “Sit down,” Cosmina said. “I…I…I’m off-shift,” she said, the phrase coming to her again. “I’m off-shift, I should –” “Should go back?” The older female chuckled. “Go back to the rich leash-holder? Back to the books? Or back to that little hole in the wall you carved out three weeks ago for time alone?” “…” “Sit down before you faint, Sarina, that’s a good girl.” There was no other choice. She knew too much. She knew everything. The dragoness sat down, feeling like she managed it just before her legs could collapse. Cosmina adjusted herself in her chair, sipping her drink one more time. The pit bull sighed as she set the glass down on the table once more. “Oleksiy says that you helped keep him alive. No less than expected from a lady of your talents,” the gang-boss said, shaking her head as she leaned back. “Certainly no less than I expected from my favorite.” “Favorite – me? You – that’s what he meant?” “Heh, you were listening? Good, good.” The pit bull nodded. “Yes, you.” “But…but I never –” “Oh, you’ve seen me. Or at least, I’ve seen you. I come in most nights when you’re performing, young lady. I enjoy seeing someone that begs the world to take a shot, and then gets right back up again when the world’s done. I haven’t seen someone so strong in a very, very long time. “Of course, it’s not just strong, is it? There’s plenty of strong girls here, plenty of muscle. But you, heh, you are different, yes?” Sarina said nothing. The dragoness lowered her head, looking down at the table. “I had Oleksiy follow you. He’s a good boy, and the Green helps him. He told me your home, and he told me your name. And when I have questions, I have my way of getting…answers. So I took a few days asking around, finding out who this little dragoness was who could pound the stage and demand the world of her audience. Who had the arrogance to say ‘You need me, but you cannot keep me’? “So, Sarina Inklaw.” Cosmina chuckled. “A student with honors. A whore with many clients. A girl that cannot settle. Two…in one.” So, she knew everything. Everything, from Sarina’s rich roommate that ‘forced’ her into many intimate situations at home, to the school she went to, to her work, to her little hiding place, [i]everything.[/i] She clenched her hands tighter around her thighs, staring down, her breath coming faster as she felt like the walls were closing in around her. “What do you want?” she whispered. “Want?” Cosmina chuckled. “I want to know what [i]you[/i] want.” “…What?” “Look at me, little girl.” Sarina’s fingers clenched against her thighs, but bit by bit, she was slowly able to bring her head up. She looked over the rim of her glasses at the pit bull, trying not to stare at the short older woman. Cosmina was barely taller than Kaulana, just barely five feet tall, but despite the way that she reclined and shrunk into her chair, she had a presence that dominated the table. “Do you know what I see when I look at you, hm?” Cosmina asked. “No.” “Of course not. Nobody looks at themselves. Not really. Even those mirror-girls that spend all morning in front of one, heh. They don’t see themselves; they just wait until they look like the thing, the person, they want. But I see you, and what I see? I see a girl too big for one person. I see someone too grand for her skin. And someone so grand, so different, so complicated…it is hard, yes?” “…Yes…” “You want, you hunger, but you have no words for this want, this wish,” the pit bull said, waving her hand. “It is nothing but need. Gnawing, hungry, [i]angry.[/i] Like a hole in you that hurts you with all the half-meals you throw into it.” It was the strangest comparison she’d ever heard, but she nonetheless nodded. It wasn’t…wrong. Everything she did never satiated more than half of her. The books worked for the Student; the club worked – or had worked – for the Slut. Nothing worked for both. Nothing could – “You need more. You need [i]better.[/i]” “How?” Sarina whispered. “There’s nothing…nobody wants both.” “Heh, nobody yet.” Cosmina snapped her fingers, and the sheer volume of that click made the dragoness jump. One of the other Sinning Saints – a well-muscled snake with a bow-tie around his neck – stepped over, pulling a package from behind his back. He offered it to the dragoness, who took it with a shaky hand. The serpent departed wordlessly, leaving her with a wrapped gift in her lap and no explanation. “What –” “Heh, you need someone that knows both sides of you, girl? Then I will be that someone. Maybe it lasts, maybe it doesn’t, but I want to [i]see[/i] this.” “But…why?” “You think this world is so full of wonders that I’d ignore this one?” Cosmina laughed. “I’ve seen many things, Ms. Inklaw. I’ve seen the world outside the walls, without magic. I have seen it inside, with it. I’ve seen the great plant towers, and the Remembered Dead. I have seen demons, and angels, and monsters with no names. The world is filled with many wonderful, terrifying things…but nothing more interesting than people. And people like you – so strong, so smart, and yet, so [i]stupid[/i] – they are the most interesting of all.” “I’m not stupid…” “Heh, you call trying to break yourself when the world is not strong enough smart? You think you’re so smart, dear, when you ask the world to make you disappear because it can’t satisfy you?” “…I didn’t say I made good decisions.” “Heh, clearly.” Cosmina gestured at the package, and Sarina dragged her claw down the front. As the paper fell off, she blinked, staring at the collection of books inside. “These…these are –” “Remembrance-magic, yes.” “But –” “Expensive, forbidden, yes, yes,” Cosmina said, dismissing her protests with a wave of her hand. “Does not matter. They are a gift. You are grand, Sarina, so I will treat you grand. Learn from them, and show me a trick some other night, or I will see you punished.” “…Why?” she asked, putting the books on the table. “Why are you doing this?” “Because now, girl, I know the answer to the puzzle. With someone too big for their skin, too grand for themselves, how do you make it better? The answer: by giving them something big enough for them. Bigger books. Bigger challenges.” “But –” “And bigger…expectations.” Cosmina crossed one leg over another. “You are not off-shift yet. Dance.” “…” “Dance, girl,” the pit bull repeated. “Your books, they will keep. My attention will not. [i]Dance.[/i]” Sarina looked back at the stage. There was nobody else, now. Everyone else was busy. Nobody else was watching. There wasn’t even any music. But when she turned back to the pit bull, there was something in that stare. She had seen a hundred customers come and go, seen the need and desire in the eyes of just as many private clients. In all that time, she had never seen someone with the focus that this older woman had, nor the absolute command of herself that Cosmina had. So, after one more shaky breath, she got to her feet and turned to the stage. She mounted the runway and grabbed the pole, holding it tight. [i]Does she…really want…[/i] It seemed impossible. Nobody who figured her out had ever wanted to see the other sides. They wanted to forget the one that they met first, or wanted to ignore the one that they met second. All that mattered was what [i]they[/i] wanted. It always had, and she thought it always would. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the pit bull nod at her, gesturing for her to start. Sarina closed her eyes again, leaning her head against the pole. [i]What do I want?[/i] She didn’t know…but at least she could ask the question for once. She lifted her leg, hooked her knee around the pole, and started to dance. [b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b] Summary: The attack continues, and the rest of the group has to figure out how they are going to get out of this. Sarina, with a bit of a death wish, helps out. Tags: I/solo, Dancing, Fighting, Magic, Lightning, Mind Control, Dragoness, Sarina, Docetri, Rabbit, Nudity, Exhibitionism, Interview, Pit Bull, Squirrel, Femdom, Gangs, Danger, Violence, Fear, Miniseries,