Born of Fire

I pull the ladder out of the catwalk storage and place it on the small walk way. I throw the string of red paper lanterns in my arms over the railing of the catwalk to hang down into the club like icicle style lights. I curse as I go back down for more lanterns and get my blouse dusty. I rip it off and screw it up in a ball and stuff it into my hand bag behind the bar.

I adjust the straps of my thin spaghetti strap singlet over my short denim skirt. I whip my hair up into a spiky pony tail so it stays out of my eyes while I work. I grab up another string of lanterns to carry them back up to the rafters to complete that section of decorating. I also change a few colors of the spot lights while I’m up here.

I can see a few tangles of the lantern strings and I groan as I go back up to try and release them, no luck. I pick up the ladder and carry it awkwardly back down the crawlspace hallway. I open up the ladder underneath one of the tangles and I kick my shoes off before climbing the ladder for better balance.

I make it through three tangles successfully and set up underneath the fourth. I climb to the top step of the ladder and I reach up trying to untangle the large knot throwing off the entire line of lanterns. As I reach up I get that feeling of being watched as the hairs stand on the back of my neck again. I whip my head around suddenly searching for an intruder and the action causes me to lose my balance.

I’m about to fall until I feel a pair of strong hands against my thighs securing my legs back against the ladder. The sudden touch makes me scream out loud then I look down and take a deep breath of relief. I grip onto the top step of the ladder for dear life as my body starts to shake.

“Fuck!” I curse out loud as I hold on to the ladder tightly trying to get my breathing under control. “You scared the shit out of me.” I choke out through ragged breaths. I look down to see him breathing just as heavily, like he was the one who just had a scare. I look at him slightly confused but his eyes close and his forehead leans against my calf muscles.

His hands are still reached up securely around my thighs holding me to the ladder as he stands below. I hear his breathing start to slow and it helps mine get back to a regular rhythm as I try not the think about his hands on my bare thighs. I have an errant thought as I try to remember what underwear I put on underneath my short denim skirt this morning, but for the life of me I can’t remember.

I hear a noise that sounds like a chuckle and I look down at Maximus horrified. His eyes look up and at me as he smiles a full smile at me. The force of its brilliance nearly knocks me right off the ladder. In fact, I’m convinced if his hands weren’t pinning me so securely that smile of his would’ve knocked me on my ass. “I’m sorry.” He says softly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

My mouth hangs open after the double shock of not only a smile, but the longest stretch of words I’ve heard out of him to date. I shake my head to shake off the shock. “No I’m sorry I scared you.” I tell him honestly. He looks up at me and crooks a single eyebrow at me and the effect is speech rendering. My God he is gorgeous up close in the light. His eyes are so much more expressive that the darkness of the club reveals.

“You didn’t scare me.” He declares indignantly. I shoot an incredulous glare at him.

“Then why were you breathing so hard?” He looks thoughtful then he sees his hands are still on my thighs and he looks back up at me.

“I ran over to stop you falling.” He explains evenly. I can almost hear the outright lie in his voice. I fell so suddenly he couldn’t have made it to me so quickly unless he was standing right behind me. Suddenly I start to wonder if he caused the feeling I had that I was being watched. I watch him carefully as his eyes shut down blocking all emotion from his expression.

“Why are you here?” I ask him cautiously. He looks at his hands on my thighs and back up to my eyes.

“Come down from there.” He orders me and I raise my eyebrows at his gall. “Please.” He adds as an afterthought. I swat his hands away from my legs and he backs up a step to let me down but I turn away from him and take another step up the ladder to reach the tangle I originally started on. I hear him curse in a language I don’t recognize and I smile proudly at myself.

I finally untangle the light and clap with joy causing the ladder to quake until it’s secured by a cursing gladiator beneath me. “Whoa.” I laugh as I steady myself. I make a move to climb back down but Maximus didn’t back up at all from his secure hold on the ladder and I feel his chest against my back as I step down the last few steps. I feel my ass graze against the denim of his jeans stretched over his crotch.

I hear him take a sharp intake of breath as I reach the last step placing my ass directly in front of his crotch. His muscled arms have me encaged as he grips the ladder around me. I hear him breathe in again as I take the last step down to the floor. Even without my shoes I’m tall enough to feel his crotch at my lower back.

Then a sense of cold comes over me as dark thoughts invade my mind and I realize I’m trapped here between a steal frame and a hulk of a man I don’t know at all. Despite my body’s positive reaction to him this is dangerous. We’re alone in this club. No one would hear me scream. I take a deep breath as I try to hide the fear flooding my senses. I turn to face him sharply.

My chest is rising and falling hard as I try to control the fear flooding my system. His eyes lock on mine and I can see the look of lust pouring out of them as his eyes lock onto mine. His lips part slightly and I bite my bottom lip so hard trying to focus on the physical pain instead of the mental terror. His eyes suddenly focus and become hard as he jumps back away from me like he was electrocuted.

My chest is still heaving as he studies me. I’m trying to keep the fear from my face but when I catch a glimpse of sympathy form him I’m sure he saw it. He shakes his head as he sinks into a crouching position. He lets his head fall into his hands.

“Why are you here?” I ask trying to keep the tremor out of my voice and failing. His eyes look up to find mine and he looks completely destroyed. He holds his hands up in a submissive posture as he lets his knees fall to the ground.

“Vladik asked me to come and help you. I mean you no harm McKenna.” His deep voice pleads earnestly. I look down at him and study him curiously as his eyes plead with mine. “I beg your forgiveness.”

“For what?” I question taking a tentative step towards him. He points back to the ladder.

“For making you feel like that.” He says cryptically. I cock my head to the side trying to understand the strange compassion coming from a man I hardly know. Especially in a place where only those souls damned work. He looks completely shattered like he hurt me. But I can see it in his eyes, he would never hurt a woman like that. He doesn’t have it in his heart. After a few long moments of silent breathing and him remaining on his knees I finally speak.

“I forgive you Maximus.” I breathe out. He exhales deeply as he bows his head slightly at me before returning to his feet. He walks around me giving me a wide berth as he folds up the ladder and tucks it under one arm. I look at him incredulous as I wonder where the hell his helpful self was while I was trying to bring that thing down here in the first place.

“Where does this live?” He asks curiously confused by the smirk I’m unable to hide. I just point up. He follows my gaze and looks back at me. I nod.

“There’s a storage cupboard at the end of the cat walk.” I explain evenly. He rolls his eyes as I point him towards the crawlspace behind the bar. Strangely he can compact his large form to get through the tiny space. Even with the ladder. I can’t help but watch as his shoulders graze either side of the crawl space squeezing him like a vice until he decides to turn side on. Not much better.

I cover my smile with my hand as he starts to ascend the stairs trying to move his hulking for and the ladder upwards. I can’t suppress the chuckle that breaks through my lips as the ladder cracks him in the back of the knees and he curses again in that strange language.

“Are you and Karma in this together?” He asks me in an almost playful tone. I hold my hands up in surrender.

“I have nothing to do with that bitch.” I protest graciously. “But I did see her and the ladder talking earlier.”

His deep laughter fills the tiny crawl space and I smile as that strange warm feeling comes back to my stomach. When we reach the top of the stairs the ladder doesn’t quite make it around the corner causing Maximus to run his hip into it. He curses again and I try to stop my laughing but fail miserably. He drops the ladder and kicks it against the wall and I laugh harder.

His display of anger and power doesn’t scare me as much as it would have before he begged for my forgiveness for frightening me. I let my head tip to the side and offer him a mock sympathetic look. He turns his angry gaze towards me and it drops instantly into a half smile.

“Don’t mock me.” He scolds and I laugh at the request. “How did you get that evil contraption downstairs without hurting yourself?” He demands. I hold my elbow up towards him and he sees the graze of skin that evil contraption took off on the way down. He kicks it again with his booted foot. I laugh at the dark gladiator warrior defending my delicate self against an inanimate object.

He seems to have the same thought as well and laughs again. It’s a strange sound, raw and hoarse like it’s been centuries since he last laughed. But it still causes that warm sensation in my belly. He bends down to pick up the ladder again and he manages to get it to the cupboard without further incident. I look down at my watch and I’m annoyed at how much time I spent laughing at the Gladiator versus ladder situation when I should’ve been setting up.

Maximus catches me glancing at my watch. “Would you like some help setting?” He offers politely. I’m still intrigued at his easy conversation today with me. I nod and smile at him as we remerge back down on the bar level.

“Can you please grab the life size Satan statues and place them on the pillars around the club.” I instruct lightly. He nods and moves towards the boxes as I set up the lighting on the individual tables and booths and along the bar. I watch as Maximus plants one statue after the other around the club, suddenly the devil’s face is everywhere. I shake it off and continue decorating.

I turn on the wall of flames behind the bar as I check the stock levels as well. It looks okay but I’ll get one of guys to double check it when they arrive later. I look around the room and it looks almost as gaudy as I imagined it would. The lights on the black stage of the curtain announce that everyone is going to hell for Eddie’s fortieth birthday. I set up the table with the gift bags by the exit.

The bags all have a t-shirt boasting about surviving a night of hell at Diablo’s Dungeon. We have those shirts for sale and the fly off the racks. We’ve personalized these to include a tribute about Eddie’s fortieth birthday being the reason they’re all going to hell for the sins committed that night. There’s a zippo with a little devil on it and a few other tacky items. I hear a crashing sound from the other side of the room and turn to see what happened.

I watch on confused as Maximus picks up the fallen devil statue and punches it hard, smashing the evil smiling face in. I walk over slowly as he takes deep breaths.

“I’m sorry.” He apologizes.

“Hey, if anyone had it coming it’s this guy.” I tease him trying to lighten the mood. He turns to look at me again looking guilty as all sin for some reason. I reach out and pat his arm gently. “It’s okay really. It’s just a statue, we’ve got enough of those gaudy things.” I tell him kindly and he just looks at me. I smile as a suddenly brilliant idea comes to me.

“Come with me.” I instruct him. “And bring your friend.” I add pointing back to the statue with the crushed face. He picks up the statue and tucks it under his arm as we ascend the stairs towards Vladik’s office. I open the office door and point to the spot against the wall behind it.

“Stand him there.” I tell him trying not to laugh. He looks at me curiously as he does what I tell him. I open the door back up hiding the statue. “When Vladik walks in and slams the door.” I trail off as I flick the door back demonstrating the action. Then I clutch my heart with fright dramatically and squeal like a school girl. Maximus tries to suppress a smile.

“How do you know he’ll scream like that?” Maximus asks curiously. I shrug.

“That’s how he screamed when I put the giant snake on his chair last month.” I explain coyly. We leave the office and walk back towards the stairs. I see his glance go to the V.I.P room and he looks thoughtful for a moment. “Something wrong?” I ask concerned. He just shakes his head at me silently.

“Oh don’t go all strong and silent on me again Max, I like your voice.” I tease him playfully. He raises an eyebrow in that affecting way at me and my body stops walking as I stand transfixed by his gaze.

“Max?” He asks curiously. Seeming to try it out for size.

“I’m sorry. I shortened it. Maximus is just such a mouthful.” I tell him then blush at the dirty connotations that speech has. I roll my eyes at my own stupidity. I see him smirk slightly and I scold myself internally. That was such a Nina thing to say. I shake my head at myself.

“You can call me Max.” He offers cordially. “It is like when people call you Kenna instead of McKenna.” He says questioningly.

“Yeah, like a nick name.” I explain. “Has no one ever called you Max before?” He shakes his head slowly. I look at him sadly for a moment and wonder what kind of childhood he had to never have had anyone give him a nickname. “Well I’m honored that you let me bastardize your name.”

“May I call you Kenna?” He asks seemingly unsure. I smile and nod at him. “May I also ask why you intentionally provoked Kane in that room the other night?” I look at him shocked.

“I have a problem with authority.” I tell him playfully. He just studies me thoughtfully for a moment before I walk ahead of him and start down the stairs.

“I apologize if I over stepped.” His voice says suddenly at my back. I shake my head as I jump up over the bar.

“You didn’t.” I tell him certainly. “May I ask you why you never really spoke before today? At first I thought your English might not have been that great but that’s not it, are you just shy?”

He looks very uncomfortable for a long moment. I start to wave him off as I flick the lights off to test out the effect. “You don’t have to explain it to me, I’m just curious is all.”

I start to wander around in the dark checking everything is perfect and I can feel him close to me then he speaks. “I don’t interact with people easily. Crowds make me uncomfortable as well. I find I respond better in a one on one situation.”

“And knowing all that you thought crowd controlling would be a good career choice?” I ask incredulous and he snorts as he laughs.

“This job is a punishment for my disobedience.” He says then seems to think better about the outburst. “I dishonored my family so they sent me here.”

“Where are you from?” I ask out of curiosity determined to figure out his accent. He shuts down and turns away from me. I catch a glimpse of a sad longing in his eyes that I used to see in my grandmother’s eyes when I was younger. She always hated being torn from her home. “I’m sorry.” I tell him honestly feeling his pain. His eyes look back at mine and he seems to breathe with relief at act of empathy.