"Well, if it isn't my favorite employee!" the barkeep said, raising his voice as I entered. A lot of the patrons who hadn't already turned to look at me when I walked in took note of me. "Back early from the search?"
"Yeah, well..." A few of the guys were getting loud, hooting and hollering as I walked in. I turned to look their way and saw what they were doing. Lewd gestures that sent very explicit mental images to the forefront of my mind. I smiled, imagining what they would do to me.
"You work here?" Mikey asked, looking around. She was still scowling, looking like she was ready to kill everyone in the place. Which, maybe she was based on what I saw out on the street. "What the hell are you-"
The barkeep came over, pushing himself between Mikey and myself. He put an arm around me. "There were a few guys looking for your services. I sent them upstairs, got them a room. In the hopes you'd be back sooner than later. There's 6 of them, just your type..." He started to add on to that when his head jerked back. He didn't stop until he landed on the floor with a heavy slam. Mikey was staring down at him, holding some of his hair in her hand. She knelt down, looking into his eyes.
"What the fuck?" he asked, sounding winded from the fall.
"It sounded an awful lot like you've been pimping my sister out," Mikey said.
"You know what pimping is?" I asked.
"You learn things fast here," she said. "And age fast, apparently. He has been?"
I could feel my face heat up, was sure I was turning red. Which was odd. I hadn't been embarrassed by anything that I had done in weeks. "I mean, it was beneficial for both of us, and-"
"Stupid," Mikey said. I could practically see her mental gears turning. "When did you get here? How changed were you?"
"Pretty soon after arriving here," I said. "And not very. Pretty much all human then." I looked down at the barkeep, expecting him to confirm what I said. He had gone still instead, eyes on Mikey.
"I've passed by some bars on my way here. Little places in the middle of the wasteland. Their drinks are catered to their clients. Same thing here?" When the barkeep didn't answer, she put her foot on his throat, claws digging in under his chin. I could see drops of blood dripping out.
Finally, he croaked out a single "yes."
Mikey looked back at me, glaring. "He helped your change along. Probably figured out what shape your change was gonna be and figured he could use you around here. How much of your money from slutting around has he been taking?"
"Hey, don't talk to me like that!" I said, hating how much I sounded like an impudent teen girl. Which, I was one of those things now, but... she had no right to talk to me that way.
She rolled her eyes and looked down at the barkeep. "How much?"
"40%." he said.
With a growl, Mikey removed her foot from his throat and kicked him in the side of his stomach, forcing a grunt out. "No more of that. You're not her pimp. If she wants to make money by fucking people then that's up to her. You have a problem with that then you can take it up with me." Her tail lifted off the ground and then thrust down, piercing the floor right next to the barkeep's head. His eyes went wide and he stayed where he was, frozen. Turning her attention to me, Mikey said "show me to your room."
I led her upstairs and into my room. There was only one bed, and she wrinkled her nose as we walked in. "Probably gonna have to go somewhere else now," I said.
"Oh no, need to leave your slut cave?" she asked. "Shit, it reeks of sex in here."
"How the hell do you even know what sex smells like, M..." I trailed off, wincing as I realized I almost said her name.
She glared at me, then pulled a chair away from the little table in the corner of the room. "Like I said, you learn things fast here," she said, sitting.
"Shit..." I said, sitting on the bed. "I was looking for you, figured this was the best place to look."
"Only just got here a couple of days ago," Mikey said. "Woke up out in the wasteland, got found pretty quick. Some asshole tricked me into telling him my name, and he was all too happy to have a wrath demon under his control. He fucked up after a few weeks, left some wiggle room in an instruction and I made sure he wouldn't be able to do the same thing to anyone else."
"How?" I asked, looking at her. She made eye contact with her, and something in her eyes communicated exactly what she had done. Her gaze was so cold, so lacking... something. "You killed him?"
"He used me for weeks," Mikey said. "Had me hurting and killing others? Would you rather I was still back there?"
"No, I'm not saying that-"
"And now?" Mikey asked, standing up with such force that she knocked her chair over in the process. She took a few steps closer to me, tail lashing behind her. It clipped the wall and left a gouge where it passed. "Now, killing and hurting is part of who I am. As natural as breathing!" she said. "I have to imagine it's like fucking for you. Can you imagine going a day without getting some dick in you, J?"
I couldn't. I shook my head, unable to make eye contact with her through the admission. I sighed. "That's... really sad, M. I'm sorry."
She stayed where she was for a moment, then turned and walked back over to her chair, righting it. She sat back down, still huffing a bit from the intensity she had been talking with. "Yeah, whatever."
We sat in silence for a few moments, then I sighed again. "We still need to find... Z, and mom."
"Was really hoping that when I stumbled on any of you that you'd all have found each other."
"No. I wasn't having any luck until I found you. No signs, no hints. Nothing," I said. "But maybe, now that we're together, we'll have more luck? Find a base of operations, cause I doubt we can stay here, and then search together. We can cover more ground and-"
"No splitting up."
"What? But it'll be harder to find them if we..."
"No, J!" Mikey said. "If we split up, we're weaker. Easier prey. There are people out there who'll take advantage. Like the slaver, or the barkeep. They'll use us, and look where that gets us. We'll end up worse off. What if we go far enough that we don't even remember we want to find mom or Z."
I looked toward her, but she averted her gaze. That was the first sign of the Mikey I knew instead of the intensely angry girl. The look on her face... she didn't want to be alone again. Which, I understood that.
"Okay, we'll stick together," I said. "I have some money saved up, we can use that. Find somewhere else to go. Hopefully the barkeep doesn't come after us or anything..."
"I'd like to see him try," Mikey said.
My mind wandered, back to what the barkeep had said before. I bit my lip, considering. It would help... "I'll be back, go... look into some things. We'll be good to go when I get back, okay? If you don't mind packing up the clothes I have here? We can run out and grab you some stuff while looking for a new place."
She squinted, looking at me, then glanced around the room. "Alright, whatever." I smiled at her, then stood and headed toward the door. "Get a good rate, at least."
I winced, but still left the room. I could smell the lust coming from one room, and knocked as I approached. A tall demon with stony skin answered, looking me over when he realized who I was. He smiled.
"I heard you guys were looking for a good time?" I asked, entering the room.
