Ben Esra telefonda seni boşaltmamı ister misin?
Telefon Numaram: 00237 8000 92 32
Lyla Simon was breaking a sweat, skin glistening like wet obsidian while the band drove her hard through fatback anthems of desperation and betrayal. She was an avenging angel of lust in every song, full of anguish and the perfume of human strain. She moved around the mic stand like the bass line was coming from the center of her body, her voice slicing the humid air like a whip above the heads of a packed crowd.In a black, sequined minidress – not loose, not tight, glittering half as much as her voice – dreadlocks flowed around her shoulders. Her arms and legs were hard and slender to the point of looking stingy, yet she stalked the stage like an animal born to rule the bars of its own cage – vital and strong, yet something haunted and emaciated inside. She almost looked out of sync with the power of the songs, singing to the ether as if she were sculpting air inside her throat. Standing little more than five feet, her style was too eclectic for the mass market. She was too rocky for the soul lovers and too soulful for the rockers. Her concerts were always in small venues crowded with fans who followed her with cultish loyalty. She was the Haitian born Medusa, turning them all to stone with the wrong voice in the wrong body.Case Rawlins was listening from the balcony, standing rock still with his hands on the metal rail. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off Lyla since the beginning of the first set. The sight of her gleaming thighs and throat flexing as she sang made it feel as if the music were coming from somewhere else in the universe and pouring into the world out of her body. So he closed his eyes to listen and lose himself in the raw purity of a wailing angel. He was dancing on the inside, beautiful and weightless. When the explosion ripped through the air he wasn’t sure it wasn’t part of the music until everything gave way to chaos and screams.When he opened his eyes, Lyla was staring straight up at him from her place onstage. There was a look of dazed shock in her eyes, and she was singling out Rawlins’ face as if she were looking to him for confirmation of what had just happened.Flames were eating up a chunk of wall behind the bar. The room was just beginning to fill with smoke, and people were clamoring to get out. The bouncers near the entrance were screaming at everyone to stay calm. The crowd was rushing toward the sound of their voices, passing under the balcony toward the doorway out to the street, out of Rawlins’ sight. But there were too many bodies and not enough room to handle the bottleneck.The band were looking around for the best way offstage, and while the balcony emptied out fast, worsening the glut toward the only exit, Rawlins felt a sense of calm drop over him. He gave Lyla a calm, slow nod to reassure her nothing was going to happen to her. It didn’t change the look of abject fear on her face, but there was a feeling of absolute certainty so deep in his bones he didn’t think to doubt it. He gave her subtle smile.Bottles full of high proof liquor heated up and burst, the liquid igniting and pouring flame down on top of flame. There was no one left behind the bar, and Rawlins assumed the bartenders must have bolted out a back way no one else knew about. There had to be another exit or the club would never have gotten a license.There was a stairway going down on each side of the balcony, but they were still choked with people trying to get down them without causing a stampede. The flames were spreading fast and the air was beginning to fill with fumes. A fresh wave of yelling and screams underneath made it sound like someone fell down.Rawlins ran his fingers through the fine strands of dark brown hair he could never keep from dangling in his face. He wanted to take a deep breath to brace himself, but the smoke was building and rising.Yet that surreal calm he felt inside stayed with him as he took the next few seconds to survey the room. The air was quickly growing thick with fumes. Only Lyla remained onstage now, gazing off at the crowd choking the only exit with a look of hopelessness, as if she’d already decided she wasn’t going to make it out. Her band was down on the floor surveying the massive crush toward the exit.A woman in high heels on the stairway to Rawlins’ left had twisted her ankle Ankara escort and the man she was with was half carrying her down. The people behind them were pushing dangerously close.Case realized the greatest crisis he’d ever faced was being too many runs behind in the late innings of the farm team baseball he once played. He’d been adequate for the B league and never made it any further. He’d graduated college as a B minus student, and now drove for a rideshare service at night despite owning property. They used to say he could’ve gone to the big league, but in the end, his heart had never been in it. It was never more than just something he knew how to do, nothing he loved enough to sweat for.Then there’d been the ugly, public catastrophe with his ex-fiancé, but his life was simple now and he didn’t have the slightest desire for a change. He didn’t have to wonder if he was handsome, but he had the kind of good looks people had to look at for a while to decide were there.As he watched the fire begin to cover the entire wall behind the bar, a strange knowledge came over him this would not be his night to burn. Nor anyone else’s. He felt it with a clarity he would never question or understand.He grabbed the balcony rail with both hands and vaulted over it, taking the ten-foot drop and landing on his feet. He quickly oriented himself and surveyed the room, now seeing where the fire had already spread to form a barrier between the exit and the main room. At least fifteen people were stuck inside a nightclub in violation of even the most basic fire codes.He went to the woman with the twisted ankle first, helping the man she was with get her off the stairs so the people behind them could get down more quickly. Then he turned and spotted Lyla, still onstage, looking off at the burning exit while her drummer was searching for a way out behind the stage.Case felt bad when he saw the mortal fear in her eyes. Nothing would happen to her tonight, but she wasn’t in a position to realize it now.He walked toward the bar and around the far end where the flames hadn’t reached. He went through the passageway behind and into the storage area he knew had to be there. There was a small alcove with pocked wallboard and a heavy metal door onto the alley. When he tried to open it, it wouldn’t budge. It had to be blocked somehow, or else bolted. The latter idea was unthinkable – criminally negligent at best, or just plain evil.But despite the implications, Case found himself hoping it was only bolted. It would be easier to break through that way. He actually felt himself smile when he spotted the ax and the extinguisher. The possibility of evil and hatred did nothing to change that feeling in his bones. It was too late for a fire extinguisher, so he picked up the ax and started to swing the blunt side at the door.The smile finally broke across his face as he remembered watching fastballs shooting across home plate. He swung the ax in swift, graceful arcs, losing count of how many, until he made a solid strike against the part of the door where the bolt on the outside gave way.The door swung open and tepid, summer night air hit him in the face, but the idea of walking through it never occurred to him. He just dropped the ax on the floor and walked back out into the main room.The fire was rapidly spreading down the wall along the corridor toward the main entrance where people were still trying to get out without trampling each other. Two people were already on the floor looking dazed and probably injured somehow in the crush. There was a woman passed out at the foot of the balcony stairway on the bar side. The room was thick with hot, acrid smoke by now, and Rawlins went immediately to the unconscious woman.Lyla was down off the stage on the main floor standing with her bandmates. They were watching the flames spread into the main room. The look on her face wasn’t much different from the way she looked in the middle of a song.“Over here!” Rawlins shouted to the people remaining inside. “There’s a back way!”Anyone who was still on their feet rushed toward the passageway where Rawlins was standing. He noticed Lyla holding the spikes she’d been wearing onstage. Then she was shoved off balance by bigger people rushing Ankara escort bayan past her, oblivious to everything but flight. He could see her ankle twist as she went down with a yelp.Then he realized he was the last one still on his feet left inside the room. A man and two women were lying unconscious on the floor, and then there was Lyla, sprawled on the floor, gripping her ankle in pain but at least still conscious.Rawlins quickly went to the singer and squatted beside her.“Can you walk?”“I…don’t know.”She sounded perfectly aware of everything that was going on around her, but she was looking at him like something she wasn’t sure was real. It felt strange having her look at him at all. He’d seen her perform half a dozen times and could barely blink as long as she was onstage. It was almost as if everything was out of place, except Rawlins was just as calm as he’d felt when he first heard the explosion. Lyla’s eyes didn’t belong on him. His belonged on her from some dark, obscure corner. That’s just the way things were meant to fall down.Then he scooped her up in both arms and carried her outside. He set her back down in the alley, leaning back against the building on the other side. Just as quickly, he turned and went back in. He picked up one of the unconscious women and carried her out the same way. She hadn’t felt light and she hadn’t felt heavy. Rawlins got the other woman out the same way and went back for the man. The man was a lot heavier than the women, but Case found himself lifting the unwieldy body just like the others. He could feel the extra weight in the strain of his leg muscles, cortisol juicing his brain, but he stopped long enough to look around the burning club and make sure there was no one left inside. Then he carried the man outside.By the time he got the man out into the alley, Lyla was gone. The other two women had regained consciousness, but they were still lying where he’d put them down. He carried the man out toward the street. The fire trucks were just arriving, and he laid the man’s body down close to the curb where the rescue teams would find him. Then he went back down the alley and helped one of the women onto her feet and walked her to the street.“Sit here,” he told her, guiding her to the curb near the unconscious man. “There ought to be medics along anytime.”He went back for the other woman and followed through the same motions. The firefighters already had hoses hooked up and were blasting water into the fire. The flames were out of control by now, and the street was crowded with people who’d just been inside.No one paid Rawlins any attention once he faded away from the people he’d carried out. He stood in the middle of the chaotic throng, still feeling placid despite the pounding of his heart. His blood was rushing. He was alive and unscathed.The most that would be lost now was a rundown old building. Rawlins stood where he was, but he drifted away. For him, it was already over and all he wanted to do was throw his arms around a beautiful woman let her remind him he was alive. He smiled, feeling foolish but strangely content. Then he zig-zagged his way out through the crowd and started to walk away.On his way past the growing crowd of onlookers, he passed Lyla sitting on the curb with her knees up to her chest. The gusset of her skimpy white panties was puffed out between her dark, glistening thighs. She was this rumpled, fallen piece of elegance. She looked lost and yet keenly aware of everything. “Hey! Hey, you,” she called.Rawlins brought his eyes up to her face and smiled.“You’re ok,” he said, not asking.“Where are you going?”The question made him stop. The whole of idea of where to go after what they were going through didn’t seem to matter. At the moment, it felt like there were only two places in the world: where they were right now, and everywhere else. “I don’t know,” he said. “Anywhere that isn’t here.”He looked around as if he might be able to see the right place to go from where he was standing.“Take me with you,” she said. II Her voice brought him back to that dainty, snow-white puff of panty gusset between her raised thighs. It seemed oddly comforting anything so fresh and pristine could survive the inferno the firemen Escort Ankara couldn’t keep up with now. Her complexion was so dark her skin might have had a charred look if it weren’t for the way she was glowing. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was sweating from the unrelenting heat encompassing everything around them, or if it was something that just came with being born to cry for angels too timid to fall.He raised his eyes to her face and felt the silent animal that lived inside him shift in its seat.She reached up at the same time he reached down and their hands locked. She floated to her feet and then faltered on the injured ankle. Rawlins had to catch her body as she fell against him with a tiny grunt.“Don’t think I can walk so good right now,” she said.“S’okay,” he said. “What happened to your shoes?”“Lost ‘em, I guess. Can’t walk in ‘em now anyway.”“S’pose not. Just grab me around the middle and put your weight on me instead of your foot. Maybe that’ll work.”“Yeah. Maybe that’ll work.”He put his arm around her waist at the same time and they took a few strides before they were limping in tandem. She was heavier and stronger than she looked.“You gotta car?” she asked when they reached the first corner.“Mhm, yup, sure.”The car was still three blocks away. Rawlins kept a slow pace while Lyla limped against him. Half way down the next block, they heard another explosion and a collective cry of surprise from the crowd on the street watching the firefighters at work. Lyla winced and briefly tightened her hold around his middle.He stopped and they turned to look back. Nothing had changed except the strange glow of the fire.“Can we keep on?” Lyla said after a moment.They turned back in the direction to the car, making labored progress down the middle of the street. There was a blood red 1960 Invicta parked on the far corner of the next block. Rawlins led Lyla straight to the passenger’s door. It was covered in a film of desert dust, but was otherwise well preserved and cared for. Lyla leaned against him while he unlocked the door and held it open for her. Once she was seated, he shut her in and circled around to the driver’s side.He fished the key out of his pocket and got in. After he slid it into the ignition, he paused and they sat quietly as people who’ve known each other a long time do, comfortable in the silence, momentarily lost in thoughts about whatever was going on beyond the silence. Case watched her look at the dashboard a while. The streetlight laid a bluish silhouette over the lines of her face. After all the times he’d heard her sing, it was strange to look at her mouth set in place the way it was. He looked down at her legs. She was holding her hands clasped between her thighs like she was trying to keep them warm.The image of a blackbird flying out the far side of a thunderstorm suddenly flashed through the back of his mind. A powerful urge descended on him to lay his face down against her thighs and feel the smooth warmth of her skin on his cheek. It didn’t matter who she was anymore, only that she was something very much alive. After the blurry swirl of everything that had happened in the last thirty minutes, it was the only thing that made sense. Touching her. Letting the lightest press of him and her together remind them they were still there.“You saved my life,” she said in a tone soft and easy as ordering scrambled eggs. Her eyes were still trained on the dashboard. “Not really.”“And those others. You saved them, too. Everybody who was left inside.”He turned his head and looked out his window into the street.“Feels like I owe you something,” she said.“What would you say if it was the other way around? Would you say I owed you?”“Don’t know. Maybe I would.”“Yeah. Well.” He shrugged one shoulder. The other was crammed against the door.“Anyway.”He realized his heart was beating hard. Back inside the club he hadn’t noticed. Hadn’t stopped to think about anything but the motions his body was going through. His pulse wasn’t racing, but beating strong and steady, and as he turned back to look at her again, she angled her head and met his eyes only briefly. She looked back at the dashboard, then out toward the street.His gaze carefully followed the lines of her face. Nothing was supposed to be perfect, but he couldn’t think of a reason her face was anything but. It was perfect because it was hers. Because it fit the shape it was in. It fit her neck and shoulders. It sent her voice and words out into the air, and it made something smolder in the tributaries of his veins.
Ben Esra telefonda seni boşaltmamı ister misin?
Telefon Numaram: 00237 8000 92 32