Little Red (Twisted Dark, #4)

Chapter One: Chaos

The bar was dark and the music screeched through the nearly blown out speakers and I took a shot of tequila before I turned around to the crowd. I grabbed several beer bottles from the ice bin and set them on the cracked bar top. "Belly up before they drop!" I shouted it out over the music and the bottles were snatched up quickly before they started to slide off. I grabbed several more and tossed them onto the bar top, they were gone nearly instantly as well.

My regulars knew the rules. If anything fell off the bar top, they got an up charge of a hundred percent on their tab. It had been easier for me to do that then attempt to get the large crack fixed or the bar top replaced after it started to cause things to slide off due to the wicked curve it had. It was a nearly thirty foot long solid oak top that had come with the bar, to replace it was just more time and effort than I wanted to put forth. It had been easier to simply train my regulars not to let anything hit the floor or to put anything on it.

The training had been fairly effective and now it was rare anything hit the floor, which I did not mind at all. Cleaning up stale, sticky beer from the floor in the morning with a nasty hangover was not my favourite past time. In fact it was fucking disgusting.

"Give me another beer, dollface." At the gruff command I rolled my eyes as the werewolf thumped his empty beer bottle on the cracked counter.

"Fuck off, were." I moved away from the demanding male. Things didn't work like that in my bar, you didn't call me pet names and you didn't demand shit from me. I was the one who told people what to do, that was how it worked.

"Yo! Can I get a bottle of tequila, Red?" At the familiar voice I grabbed one from underneath the bar and tossed it in the direction of the voice. A green tinged hand snagged it out of the air as one of my waitresses, Eve, headed to a table further in the back. She was going to make some fantastic tips as I caught sight of a shot tube entering her cleavage.

The energy of the bar was chaotic and I revelled in it. There was a reason I had left the covens and this was part of it. There was no real chaos there. Sure BamBam had created her own chaos but she was fighting against a systematic world filled with rules, she couldn't change the system. She had raged against it and look at where that had gotten her. I turned around and grabbed one of the bottles of vodka and poured myself a shot, slamming it back.

It had gotten her fucking banished.

I had warned her that if she didn't tone down shit would go sideways. And it had, spectacularly. Not that BamBam ever cared. I had given her a truck and told her hang out on the edges. Sure it had been a junk heap but it had been a bet I had won in a game of poker and I hadn't found a use for it, it was better suited to her anyway. I took another shot of vodka and winced before setting the bottle back down.

I loved chaos but Bam was just plain old destructive, she showed me just how bad banishment could be and that was why I left. My eyes landed on the braided leather strap that never left my wrist, Tiannia had made it for me after Bam had been banished. She had twitched as she tied it around my wrist, telling me not to go down Bam's path, that chaos got me no where but hurt.

I could never say no to my twin, especially when she looked damn near tears as she begged me to think things through and to stop using my magick so wildly. I had taken her pleas and promised to never remove the bracelet. For being so against chaos that Tia was, she certainly broke a fair few rules to make me it. A magickal honing device, an item used to channel chaotic magick into something orderly. Only certain, registered people were supposed to make them and her making me one would get her burned. I wasn't about to rat her out though. No one touched my twin with intent to harm and lived to tell anyone about it, with the exception of one warlock who would wish he was dead once I got my hands on him. However ratting Tia out for breaking the rules was just wanton chaos and I had promised her to stop.

Although I believed that the rules would be more lenient to our bloodline, at least now. We were technically princesses or whatever the fuck they called royalty. I never kept up with the politics but my sister, Lacey, brutally killing the former ruler Mercutio Anadori was something that had caught my notice. There was no doubt transgressions would start to slide if we were ever to get into trouble. One didn't just murder the royal family for a few broken rules. I liked that little back door out of trouble and I made a mental note to send Lacey a thank you card for it.

I turned around right as the were slammed his bottle down against the bar top, the wood creaked and my face twitched. "Beer, dollface!" His eyes gleamed and I walked over slowly. The music changed tempo to a heavier rock song, that threatened to blow out the speakers entirely.

"You don't order me around, dog." I waved my hand at him, my magick shoving him backwards away from the bar. No one told me what to do in my own damn bar. I was the one who made the rules.

I moved down to the ice bin at the end and yanked out several beer and tossed them onto the bar top. "Belly up!" The beers were snapped up and a few regulars saluted me as they cracked open the bottles, tossing the caps into my metal cap buckets. I was collecting them, wasn't sure what for but it was a non-chaotic hobby that I knew Tia would be proud of.

"I said give me a beer, bitch!" The were slammed against the bar and grabbed my arm. I froze, my eyes narrowing at the feeling of those large, brutish fingers gripping me. He wasn't a regular and occasionally we had some bar hoppers that thought they could bring their Were Territory, or city, attitude into my bar. That never flew very long.

I blinked rapidly as I slowly turned my head, the regulars next to him pushing away from him. They knew the drill. "A beer?" I asked it lightly and the were squeezed my arm tighter before nodding and letting me go.

"That's what I thought." He turned to a regular whose eyes went wide and he lifted his beer bottle above his head, pushing backwards away from him. "Finally some fucking serv-" I launched at him, grabbing a handful of his greasy hair and slamming his face against the bar top with a hard crack. I lifted it up and then slammed it down again and again until he howled in pain.

"A beer?" I climbed up onto the bar, swiping a beer bottle from the ice bin. "You want a beer?" I let him go before planting my boot on the side of his throat. I cracked the bottle open and took a swig from it. "Let's give the male what he wants!" I crouched down and poured it over his face as he gasped and sputtered. I grinned as I slowly upended the entire bottle over his face, soaking him through as I put more pressure on his neck. "You come into my bar and order me around? Oh honey." I tsked him lightly before I jumped down, grabbing him by his hair and dragging him through the crowd.

All eyes had landed on me as I pulled the sputtering, blubbering, and bleeding werewolf towards the front door. No one disrespected me or put their hands on me in my own goddamned bar. One of my Fae regulars opened the door for me, giving me a sweeping bow and a wink as I moved past him. I tossed the male out into the dirty parking lot, kicking him over when he scrambled to his feet. Blood, beer, and dirt mixed together underneath his nose and across his mouth. I liked seeing it, it was a very good reminder not to fuck with me.

"See that you don't come back, dog." I wiped my hands off on my pants as I watched him stumble into dark. Fucking assholes could never listen but I knew he wouldn't return. His bruised ego wouldn't allow him. Too many people had seen him get his ass handed to him by a female. Then again he could very well return and well..

"Might come back with his pack." My Fae regular stated what I was just thinking before he took a drink of his beer.

I moved over to him, tucking my fingers into his belt and pulling him close. "Well then, Marquis, that would just be fun." I grinned up at the blue coloured Far and he swallowed hard. "Don't threaten me with a good time." He knew how riled I got up at the thought of that much chaos.

A full out bar brawl?

Didn't that just make me want to fucking revel in the chaos?