Free Phoenyx: Flesh & Fire by Morgana Blackrose Page A

they can take her all the way to heaven and back.” She blew a long, thin cloud past me and I felt my throat tighten up. “She does look utterly mouth-watering in the nude, don’t you, darling?” She batted her eyelashes at me and squeezed my bottom. “Also very cool in velvet hot pants. It’s almost a shame to have to peel them off to get to what’s underneath.”
    Alfreda smiled, a big dreamy smile which gave me the impression that she wasn’t entirely on this planet. “Far out. I must come along and see you in action sometime. Wanna come downstairs just now? Got a bit of a thing going on. Daisy’s come over with a couple of the cats from the River Quarter. They’re just out of sight. You should meet them all.”
    “Sounds like a gas,” Olivia said. “Phoenyx, you interested?”
    I nodded, unsure what I was committing myself to. Alfreda seemed even more laid-back than Olivia so I didn’t imagine there would be anything too unpleasant or scary going on, but all the same, I couldn’t untie the knot of apprehension which sat tight in the middle of my guts. It would have helped if I could understand half of what Alfreda was talking about, but perhaps I would learn more once I had spent a little longer in her company, and been introduced to the ‘cats’ downstairs, although at that moment I still wondered how many legs they might have had, and whether they might prove more sociable than Boris.
    We all went down to Alfreda’s place, and when she opened the door, the sound of strange, exotic music hit me out in the hall. Inside, the place was dark, dimly-lit by red and orange lights and the air was so thick with smoke that I thought I would suffocate. Not a great start.
    “Hey, everyone,” Alfreda said to the room, “I found Olivia upstairs. And her totally hip new friend from the Klub. She’s called Phoenyx. Like, the bird that’s born of fire. How amazing is that?”
    The men and women who sat or lay around the soft cushions and low sofas waved and smiled at me as I stepped inside, my poor eyes straining as I tried to focus on them. Alfreda closed the door and indicated a spare settee in the corner, where Olivia and I sat down.
    “So, do you want anything?” Alfreda asked us. “Drink, smoke, bong?”
    “I’m just chilling, darling,” Olivia said, “Maybe I’ll grab something later.”
    “Or maybe someone,” Alfreda said, provoking gentle laughter from around the room.
    “Oh, why wait ‘til later for that?” a voice said from the other side of the room, beyond the haze of smoke, “Grab someone now, and tell them that you love them.”
    Olivia did just that, wrapping her arms around my waist and pulling me tight.
    “This one’s quite the starlet,” she said to the others as she pressed her head against me. “I think she’ll go far.”
    “Ah, but will she go all the way?” someone else asked, to more laughter.
    I could feel my eyelids starting to droop as a veil of tiredness crept over me. I should have felt more intimidated and nervous, being in a room full of strangers who I didn’t really understand and could barely even see, or distinguish male from female as everyone seemed to have the same kind of long hairstyle – some seemed to be lying on top of each other on the floor, or sat huddled together with cigarettes and other strange pipe-like equipment. But I couldn’t remember feeling more at peace or at ease in all my life. My anxious experiences at the Klub had now melted away into a hazy, multi-colored spiral of peace. It was cool, definitely cool.
    In short, I liked this atmosphere, and wanted more.
    “I think she would,” Olivia said as she ran a hand through my hair. “I took her in the changing rooms of WOW’s ladies’ department earlier this morning, and she came all over me like a real hottie. Didn’t you dear?”
    “Hm,” I murmured, inhaling Olivia’s perfume, which mingled with the spicy ambience of the room. My eyes slithered shut under her gentle stroking,