Rise of the Witch Queen

A Bad Night Out

Kenna didn't seem to notice and dragged me inside to a table where a couple of other girls and guys from the dance program were seated along with others I didn't recognize. Kenna sat in the lap of this behemoth of a man who looked even larger next to her tiny frame.

"Charlie, this is my boyfriend Marcus" She smiled, making the introduction, "Honey, this is Charlotte. She's a dance major at Columbia".

I smiled at him "It's nice to meet you." He just grunted, giving me the same strange look that the bouncer had.

"So Columbia, that's impressive," He finally said, scrutinizing me. "Are you from New York?"

"Thanks," I said, flushing under his intense gaze. "And no, I'm actually from Portland, Oregon." His brow furrowed as if I'd just handed him another piece of a confusing puzzle. "Anyway, I'm gonna go grab a drink it was great to meet you" I smiled and walked to the bar eager to out of his line of sight.

I ordered a Moscow Mule relishing the refreshing crisp taste as I took in the scene. I noticed that most of the men and women here were quite tall and not just by dancer standards. The men were straight-up huge, but even the women were tall and well-muscled. I was suddenly very conscious that I was only barely five feet tall, making me the tiniest person here by far. I rejoined the group careful to sit as far away as I could from Marcus.

"I'm so glad you could come out with us," a slender redhead whose name I thought was Lena said.

"Yeah, I wasn't planning on it, but my roommate decided to throw this massive party at our apartment, so this gave me an excuse to get out of that," I shrugged. "But I'm thrilled I did," I added quickly, not wanting to offend her.

"Wait, your roommate isn't Poppy Upton, is it?" Lena asked her eyes going wide.

"Oh yeah, why?" I asked, shifting away from her uneasily.

"I would have given anything to be able to go to one of her parties," She groaned.

"Well, it might still be going on," I shrugged, not wanting to head back just yet.

"No, Kenna won't go because her boyfriend won't set foot in Manhattan, and we tend to all stick together as a group when we go out," She said sadly. "We've all been doing the summer program here for the past couple of years, so we've grown incredibly close, and it would just feel wrong to go out without Kenna."

"Why won't Marcus come out to Manhattan? That seems kind of unsupportive of him never to come up to see Kenna" I raised an eyebrow at Lena, who just shrugged.

"You're preaching to the choir," she groused. "But they do seem to love each other truly, and she's happy, so who am I to judge."

"Yeah, I guess," I agreed to let it drop despite my dubious feelings about the subject.

Lena's eyes lit up as she focused on something behind me. "Don't look now, but it looks like Jason is headed over this way."

I smiled wryly as I watched her quickly fix her hair and adjust her bra in an attempt to push her breasts up quickly, surmising that Lena had a thing for this guy.

"What brings a girl like you to a place like this?" a lyrical male voice said from next to me. Before I even saw him, I was overwhelmed with an earthy smell. For a second, I felt like if I blinked, I would find myself lying on the forest floor on a soft bed of moss with brush and flowers shielding me from the outside world. I shook my head quickly, attempting to get that image out of my head and downed the rest of my drink.

I was surprised by the nearness of the guy standing next to me, although, given the fact that I smelled him before actually seeing him, I figured I shouldn't have been. He was tall enough that I had to tilt my head up to get a good look at his face. He was ruggedly handsome but seemed slightly more polished than most of the people in the bar.