The two girls were hiding out in a corner of the club, one was dancing to the music on her ipod – since the club tunes sucked – and the other seemed to be standing guard. The dancer was a well-rounded Latino with amazing moves, a keen mind and a huge heart. The other was about the same height as the Latino, but she was obviously non-Hispanic and though she was tanned from the sun, she was all too white; she exuded an air of dominance that scared most people away even as her beauty reeled them in. Few who saw them talking, dancing and/or laughing together could believe their eyes. The two seemed so different from each other that many believed that the skinny terror was blackmailing the cute Latino for friendship. That wasn’t the case, but unless the rest of the world was going to have the guts to ask, the ‘terror’ wasn’t going to correct their perceptions of her.

​

Unfortunately some guys – kids really, at least compared to the two of them – who were at the club “lookin’ for hotties” had decided that the two women were too fine to pass up – no matter how sinister or off-planet they seemed.

​

The boys were smart and decided to simply talk to both of them, “Haven’t seen you here before.”

​

An old line, but in this case probably true. “Probably not, we don’t generally come here.” The pixie-like beauty of terror answered.

​

“Why not?”

​

“Because this place sucks.” She said offhandedly.

​

“The music here really isn’t our style,” The Latino interjected, “And she’s allergic to cigarette smoke, so.” She shrugged.

​

“Oh, well, that makes sense I guess. So why are you here then?”

​

The Latino looked sideways at the pixie creature warily. The pixie sighed heavily and a truly disgusted look crossed her beautiful face as a hard look entered her striking hazel eyes. “Because we’ve been being followed around to every club we’ve gone to for the last couple of weeks. I’m sick of the stupid losers and figured that they wouldn’t think we would come here. Boogie’s is a place with crap for music and a bunch of kids. Why would we come here?” It was obvious that she was really angry about it. She didn’t seem the least bit afraid of the stalkers, though the Latino was.

​

“What guys’ve been following you around?”

​

“Not really sure, but it’s always the same three guys. Go around actin’ like their badass’s and God’s gift to women. It’s disgusting!” There was a pause after that venomous response where the pixie was fuming, the Latino was both hiding behind her and trying to calm her down while the guys were trying to think of whom it could be that was stalking the two beauties.

​

The bouncer at the front door broke the stillness when he came over and announced that they had a problem (the ‘terror’ had asked him to keep a lookout for the three goons). “There’s a trio of that new gang out front and they’ve got tons of people with ‘em, looks like they’ve been lookin’ for someone and the ‘followers’ are simply curious about it.”

​

The pixie girl stood up straighter and it seemed as if white light flashed out of her eyes as her anger and indignation flared higher. “Are you serious?” She looked at the bouncer just as the three amigos came around the corner and into view.

​

“Ahh, so this is where you’ve been hiding? Such beautiful women shouldn’t dirty themselves in such an unclean environment.” The spokesman for the group, a tall, well built, blue-eyed blonde, smiled mockingly at the two girls.

​

The Latino had backed herself into the corner and the pixie seemed to get taller as they watched, coming away from the wall she’d been leaning against and turning to face them fully.

 

“Funny, the environment was perfectly clean until you dumb-asses showed up.” She shot out in response.

​

The blonde raised an eloquent brow and cocked an ear toward the nearest speaker, closed his eyes as if listening closely, then looked back at her and shook his head, “I’m pretty sure that you’d rather dance to Rob Zombie than T-Pain.”

 

Apple Bottom Jeans was currently playing in the background; the pixie rolled her eyes, it was true, but she wasn’t going to let him know that. She looked around the place and saw everyone trying to get as far away from the five of them as possible, the same thing had happened everywhere else as well – she was heartily sick of it.

​

“You know, we checked every club and bar in Boise, Nampa and Caldwell lookin’ for you girls.”

​

“We even looked for you at your school.” The skinny, greasy skater, nerd-looking emo guy piped up: his voice was extremely sexy - if you couldn’t see him. The last was a nondescript fatso who was only slightly taller than he was wide. The pixie woman had learned through her covert way of eavesdropping - where she stands or sits and seems to be lost in space with her eyes glued to something at a distance only she can see - that the three were the newest members of a gang that had started up only the year before, but grew very, very quickly. This knowledge is why she knew the goon squad had found them when the bouncer said it was three guys from the new gang.

​

“You WHAT!?” The pixie exploded, she couldn’t believe that they’d had the gall to contaminate her school and she feared for the girls who were out and about on campus when the losers stopped in. “Come on Skye, we’re leaving. This shit ain’t worth it.” The Latino came up behind her and they simply walked out of the building. The crush of people who were curious as to what the gang members wanted with a couple of girls, were right outside the door, choking the street and filling the parking lot across the way.

​

The Latino stopped the determined-to-get-away pixie with a hand on her arm. “These people don’t know it’s us, if we can get lost in the crowd we won’t have to go back home yet. The whole point of coming out here, to Boogies even, was to get out of Caldwell for a while. We need to break from the school feel and the pall of depression the workloads have been giving us. Let’s just find somewhere to dance it off.” She whispered.

​

The pixie smiled at her. “You’re right. Let’s flow.” The two moved off back toward the Balcony and China Blue answering the questions of who the gang was after with ‘don’t knows’. They had just cleared the cluster-fuck when the three retards came out (who knows what took them so long), since they were clear of everyone else (that might’ve been why they took so long…) they were easily spotted and the creeps gave chase at a leisurely pace, walking for all the world as if they owned it. If the two girls had been paying attention to anything behind them the pixie probably would’ve blown a gasket, thankfully they weren’t.

​

They headed to the Balcony first, unfortunately their music selection for the night wasn’t any better than Boogies and when they were asked to leave by the bouncer that usually looked out for them ‘because they didn’t want any gang trouble at their club’ the two girls went to China Blue, their favorite spot. The music was always good, the atmosphere was generally pretty upbeat, they were smoke free and had a huge dance floor. Plus the bouncers actually did their job, anyone who looked like they were making someone else uncomfortable was asked to leave or desist – if they did neither they were thrown out. The two girls and their friends had been ‘protected’ by them on several occasions and they got along with the owner pretty well. Whenever the two of them specifically showed up their business was always better and there weren’t as many people being thrown out for derogatory behavior. The two could dance, and everyone enjoyed watching them, so – even though every Friday women got in free – they got in free every day. They made up for it sometimes and bought a soda instead of just having water. They were, of course, followed by the freaks this time, but the three of them couldn’t get near the girls the same way as they had the first time.

​

The whole “being stalked” thing had started here three weeks before. The pixie had been injured, her right ankle and both knees tightly bound in ACE bandages – when they’d walked in it was obvious that they’d just been attacked (which is why they all [even the guys in the group] got in free on a Wednesday, the bouncer out front wanted them inside and safe). They’d just come from the Balcony with their group of friends and run into a bit of trouble when they stumbled across a burglary in progress; the pixie took the brunt of the fallout from that in the form of bruised knuckles, and shallow gashes on her right thigh and her left upper arm. Since her ankle and knees had already been hurt beforehand and she was simply the driver (not dancing or drinking) she was mostly there just to protect her friends, she felt she could take the risks when the thieves tried to escape through them. The formidable pixie ended up – with some help from the guys in her group – incapacitating all of the thieves. The police arrived at the end of the scuffle and took to bandaging all of the serious wounds, such as the knife slashes to the pixie. But this ordeal didn’t stop any of the group from having fun when they got to China Blue. The battered pixie had sat down at a table and watched her friends; most of them had left by the time the gang members who now plagued them had shown up. The pixie was talking to another lady across the table when she heard the snide remarks start; tuning an ear to it she got rather angry rather quickly.

​

The fat jackass and the skinny nerd were discussing how stupid the Latino’s dancing was. The blonde popped off loud enough for their victim to hear him, “Her dancing is bullshit. If she could really dance she’d have a guy rockin’ her body right now on that floor.” The implications of that – thankfully – flew right over the Latino’s head, but the pixie understood just fine.

​

She’d sat up from leaning on the table and turned to them angrily, “If you don’t like the way she dances, then don’t watch her dipshit.”

​

The lady she’d been talking to had looked at her aghast, “How do you know they’re talking about your friend?”

​

The pixie girl had moved her gaze back to her from the dance floor where everyone but her Latino friend had a partner and were “dancing” in a way that neither the Latino nor the pixie thought of as dancing at all. “I just know – it’s what I’m good at.”

​

“Hey Bitch! Why don’t you mind your own business and stay out of other peoples conversations?”

​

“Well maybe I would if the assholes having the conversation would keep it to themselves.” This remark got the Latino girl’s attention and she’d stopped dancing and looked at the pixie girl.

​

“Let’s go.” Mouthed the pixie, the Latino nodded and came over to the table to grab her purse, “Yeah, sure. The music’s starting to suck anyway.” And they’d left.

​

Now, other than her ankle (which she was ignoring), the pixie was fed up with the dicks – it was just her and the Latino so far, but they knew that in another half hour the rest of their friends would show up at China Blue. It was Friday and they’d all planned to meet here at nine-o’clock. They didn’t have the option of escaping to the square in the downtown center and dancing there like they had last time the buggers found them. Thinking about that made the pixie girl smile mysteriously. They’d found a cop in the square – since the pixie wasn’t from the area and the Latino didn’t know for sure – and asked him if it was okay if they “loitered” in the square and dance around for a while or if that would be a problem. He’d said it would be fine and they’d stayed there well past bar-closing having undisturbed fun.

​

Finally the thugs got past the defenses of the bouncers and other dancers to harsh their mellow and the pixie lost it. She marched outside to the street with all of its drunks, smokers and food vendors and turned around to face the three men following her who thought it was okay to stalk and attempt to kiss an obviously taken woman. (The pixie wore a ring and everything and had been telling them from day one of their stalk-fest that she wasn’t interested and she was taken.) And right there in front of everyone she beat the shit out of them, the fatso was unconscious and the other two were unable to get up. They weren’t broken or anything, just too bruised and sore to have the energy for it.

​

“Arr’d we doone yet?” The pixie asked with a thick accent her arms akimbo. The blonde simply glared up at her from the street where he lay.

​

Suddenly there was a commotion behind her as the leader of their gang himself shoved through the crowd. The pixie had been afraid of the three twits just as the Latino was – she just hadn’t shown her fear, she knew better, she’d grown up around jerks just like them. But when she heard the voice of the asshole behind her she froze in fear as obvious as daylight before she could conquer the feeling and replace it with repugnance. The voice itself wasn’t frightening, she was scared because she KNEW who it belonged to – the one person in the world she truly hated, the one she would never forgive.

​

“What the hell’s goin’ on here?!” The Asshole bellowed. She cringed and the blonde grinned up at her, the lesson she’d been beating into him about respect and courage all but forgotten in his own fear of his leader.

​

She looked down at him all fear and anger gone, pity in their place. “You wanna know what makes people strong?” She said in a low voice resolve shining in her now deep green eyes, “Facing their nightmares.” And she turned her gaze away from him, turning smartly on her heels to face her fears. “Well, well. The Asshole makes his presence known. It figures that these little shits’d be your responsibility.”

​

“Feli-.” He stopped halfway through her mother’s name, “Well, if it isn’t little Kimberly.” The blond boys face drained of all color and the emo flinched, they knew about the family that had a restraining order out against their boss. “Fancy meetin’ you here.” The Asshole moved forward as he spoke.

​

“You’re not allowed near me, go away.” There was a collective gasp from the crowd because this was the gang leader who controlled almost everything in Boise, he was a big deal.

​

“Ahh, kid you don’t change do ya?” He chuckled.

​

“Why should I? I’m perfect just the way I am.” The pixie retorted haughtily.

​

The Latino simply stood on the sidelines in shock – first from her friend actually beating people up and then from the realization that this huge red-headed, flush faced, fat wall of a man was the asshole that had beat her friend’s family every day for almost a year when she was a small child.

​

“Oh come now, I’m nothing to be afraid of.” The pixie rolled her eyes. “I’ve changed, came out here to start over.”

​

“Yeah, you’ve done a GREAT job.” She claimed sarcastically. “You’ve started a gang that terrifies people instead of using your daddy’s money to bribe your way out of prison sentences and jail time. Yes, you’ve come such a long way. The distance of crossing a river into a whole new state, to be exact. Bet no one here knows that you’re one of Oregon’s most wanted, do they?” The asshole turned purple and started charging at her. “Prob’ly got yerself a new family to abuse to eh?” She had an accent again – though a different one – making the question nothing more than a snide remark of fact.

​

“You little bitch; you won’t get away this time.”

​

“Now, see. There’s where you’re wrong. If I was a bitch we’d get along just fine, but seein’s how I’m not...” The pixie suddenly leaped eight feet in the air and came down lightly with one foot on his head, “I hate your guts.” And she pushed off hard landing lightly ten feet away while he stumbled in his forward charge. “You see, I’m better than you in every way.” She touched him only the one time, she couldn’t stand him and didn’t want to be near him. She already had a few cuts and scrapes from fighting down the first three, so all she did was dodge around for over an hour before he bellowed for back up.

​

No one came rushing out to physically help, the ring of the crowd kept its shape but bullets and knives flew in her direction from wherever her back was turned – none landed. They seemed to stick in thin air and move with her. When it became apparent that they couldn’t get to her they changed tactics and went after the Latino and the rest of the pixie’s friends who had shown up to the spectacle a bit late, but were ranged with everyone else around the gang and their fuming friend. However they couldn’t touch them, it was like there was a wall of glass between the attackers and their intended victims. The pixie’s friends could still reach out and touch things, but nothing could touch them, except each other.

​

Unbeknownst to the pixie child there were two men in the crowd who were rather worried about her. One was a ‘cop’ who’d been on Asshole’s case for a while; every time he got close the asshole would disappear again. The other was an old friend and teammate of hers – one of the few people who knew she’d been dumped the day before and that was the real reason she needed to be out of Caldwell and why she'd needed to dance. And as unaware as she was of that, the Latino and her two brothers were unaware that she was suddenly protecting them. She knew all of them were in the area and in trouble, or about to be.

​

The cop was busy staring at the pixie because she looked so much like her mother and that meant that she was Gelfling, his own daughter, though exempting the eight foot jump and the air block at the girls back there was no real proof of that - since he didn’t know about the barrier around her friends.

​

The barrier changed to one where the Latino family couldn’t touch or be touched when the pixie covered the boys as well. Smoke was in a petty fight and Ice was about to sex his girlfriend when he was drunk – which he’d promised her would never happen.

​

When his girlfriend suddenly couldn’t touch him anymore she asked him if his sister could do that, since everyone in their family had some kind of “power”, and he said no. “Does she know someone who could?” She was anxious now.

​

Ice paused on the verge of saying 'no' again, “Kim might be able to.”

​

“Well let’s go find them then.” And they took off in the direction of the clubs, coming across the large gathering that blocked a main street and its cross-street they wandered over and saw the pixie in the center. Ice pointed and they walked around in the crowd looking for his sister.

​

Smoke and his gang of friends marched over to the commotion as it was louder than their own and was drawing attention away from them. Luckily the shielding didn’t prohibit moving around. By the time all were present the pixie was well and truly upset because of the assholes taunts.

​

“Come on Asshole, you can do better than that. A strong child abuser like you.” Her voice was deceptively calm and had an “I’m evil and this is fun” feel to it.

​

“Kid, you know you’re afraid of me.” The man chuckled, “That’s why you won’t even hit me.”

​

“Why would I be afraid of you now? I’m not four years old anymore prick.” Taking the bait because she knew she’d come out on top she jumped through the air to land in front of him and kicked him solidly in the solar plexus – the force sent him flying ten feet back as the air sliced around him.

​

That was more than enough proof for the secret ops cop to know that this girl was really his daughter and not the child of the man her mother thought she was.

​

The pixie went over and smashed the asshole’s face with her boot heel making his head bounce on the sidewalk where he landed. Her only solace through all of this had been the music in her ears from her MP3 player, to calm herself down a bit she would stop and sing along with whatever song was playing at the time – her voice as beautiful as the outcome of her attacks were ugly. But it didn’t seem to be working anymore; the only calm she exuded now was one of eminent death for the other party.

​

Then her former teammate yelled out when it seemed she was going to continue pummeling a man who was already down, her foot on his face, “Stop it! Kim you’re better than that!”

​

The pixie looked away from the sprawled form in disgust, then lifted her foot and walked away. She didn’t get far before the asshole was up and charging her again. She turned on him then, white light flashing from her eyes which seemed to glow silver in the night and the wind knifed past her at him and blew him into a building twenty feet away hard enough to leave an imprint when he crumpled to the ground. Everyone was shocked into silence; the only person not amazed her own father, who could also do such things. He knew that thanks to his own daughter, that this time the asshole he’d been after for years, was finally going to be properly dealt with.

​

The pixie girl turned, sore and tired back to her friend – who was terrified of her. The pixie hung her head in dejection and went to turn away when Ice yelled at her.

​

“Why’d you put this barrier up!?”

​

“Because you were about to break your promise to your girlfriend – you are totally drunk.”

​

“Am not!”, “No, he’s not!” They said in unison.

​

“Wanna make a bet?”

​

His girlfriend looked up at him, “Are you?”

​

He paused, sighed, “Yes.”

​

“Then what about me!?!” Smoke shouted indignant.

​

“You were about to get into a fight that would get you killed. Did you want to die?”

​

“Well, no. But-.”

​

“No buts.” The pixie pushed through the crowd, headed back to her truck, she was tired and hurt in more ways than one, plus doing stuff like that always gave her a headache - which is why she didn’t really do it, ever.

​

“Hey, wait up.”

​

She’d closed her eyes when she left the crowd effectively erasing the memory of what she’d done from everyone’s mind who was there except for those who could block such things and those who she felt she had nothing to hide from them.

​

“What?” The pixie was wary, she’d forgotten that he’d been there and he was someone she didn’t feel she had to hide from.

​

“Are you okay?” His blue eyes held nothing but worry for her.

​

“Yeah, I’m in pain, but that will pass.” She paused, “Thank-you, by the way.”

​

He smiled at her, “You goin’ home?”

​

“Yeah, well back to school at any rate. I was Skye’s ride but...” She looked so sad he wanted to hold her and let her know he’d always be there for her, but figured that would be a bit weird coming from him at the moment. “She can probably get a ride from her brothers though, if she wants to. I’ll wait a while, but, yeah.”

​

“I didn’t know you could do stuff like that. Do you have to be so angry first?” His expression said he hoped not.

​

She gave a small smile, “It’s not something I generally talk about or do, and no I don’t. I actually try not to resort to it ever, especially when I’m angry. But,” she sighed, “I guess there really isn’t any excuse for doing it now either.” The pixie rubbed her forehead as though it pained her (it did of course, but...). “I gotta go, I’m sorry.”

​

“No problem, talk to you later.” She walked the remaining six blocks back to her truck on shaky legs. The cowboy watched her go, when she was a block ahead of him he followed after her. When she got to her truck she got in, locked it up and leaned her head on the steering wheel fighting tears. She just sat there in her truck, in the driver’s seat after the battle, completely worn-out and sore everywhere – so immensely tired, for about half an hour. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the seat corner of the window on the door and fell asleep.

​

He came up, knowing what she was instinctively because of what she could do. He stared down at her, a soft smile playing at his sexy mouth. He’d known her for a couple of years and yet hadn’t known her at all it seemed. She was locked in the truck, behind the metal and the glass, but he couldn’t leave without touching her. He’d followed her after their conversation at the conclusion of the battle unbeknownst to her; because he wanted to make sure she was alright. So now, he reached his left hand through the glass as if through water and caressed the right side of her face. Then he could no longer resist and he reached in and held her face with both hands, turning her lips up and leaning in to meet them with his own. A brief powerful meeting; he left in the full knowledge that she was his – though she didn’t know it yet – he would find her again and claim her heart as she had taken his.

​

The pixie woke up a few minutes later and licked her dry lips as she situated herself for the drive home. The taste of him lingered there and she was shocked by the potent flavor when there shouldn’t have been one. She sat back and licked her lips again testing- instantly she knew that it was Cowboy that had kissed her. She looked around, but everything was closed and locked-up – undisturbed. There were no missed calls or texts on her phone either and no Skye waiting to get in, checking the time on her phone the pixie ascertained that she’d only been asleep for half an hour. Deciding that an hour was enough time to wait in the cold of early morning in a parking lot across from a piece of crap club, she started up the truck and drove the thirty minutes back to school and went to bed. She cried herself to sleep over the memory of what she’d done, who she’d fought and who she’d lost because of it. But there was a hope there that her friend would understand and forgive her and the pleasant sleepy memory of soft lips on her own.