AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Rematch, bitch!” she roars, fake scratching at my legs, covered in sleek blue pantyhose the costume department thought looked futuristic.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” I hiss my trademark line, though I’m positive no one’s paying attention.
I bend down and stick a finger in her face while the ref ducks out of the ring and into the throng of exiters. Wow. Where’s everyone’s professionalism?
I look over my shoulder to see my demon trainer, Mac, halfway across the factory-turned-nightclub and leaning against the bar. Leaning against the bar with another familiar face. Joseph O’Malley, a wrestling legend and a constant reminder of my shortcomings, since I can’t manage to get out from under his glorious shadow.
“Oh, I didn’t know your dad was going to be here!” Kelly says, getting up to follow her orc manager out of the ring. She nudges my arm. “I’ve got some autos to sign, but tell him hey!” she continues as the remaining fans around the ring flock to her.
I stomp over to the bar, rather than focus on the beaming faces stuck in Kelly’s glow. I remember the days when fans wanted my autograph, even after a loss. What do I have to do to get those back?
I gesture to the ring as Mac shrugs and sips his drink. “Where’s my trainer? You should be showing off out there,” I say, glaring at the gray-scaled demon like he isn’t a brick house with horns.
“Where’s my performer?”
“Some show,” Dad says at the same time as Mac.
“Define some,” I quip to the balding owner of Fool’s Gold Entertainment, part of the league and Raucous Entertainment’s newest competitor.
“Not a lot.”
Dad’s tone isn’t rude, but I frown anyway. “Correct.”
“I’d call it something, too,” Mac observes, hopping off the barstool and adjusting his brown leather jacket. “A bad way to end a good run.”
We both have to speed walk to catch up with him. So much for utilizing my dressing room. This is why I shouldn’t take the company car with Mac. There’s a forty percent chance I’ll be leaving in my costume. I fight the urge to remove my glittery blue boots and head out barefoot.
“Love you, Jo’Mal!” one fan calls from behind us.
Dad turns and gives a big wave, flexing his left arm. He hasn’t been Quicksilver for a decade and yet people still love his reaper character. Raucous owns it much to his annoyance.
“End? What do you mean ‘end?’”
Mac stops and turns as I adjust my ocean blue corset, cursing the day I decided to start fighting with fake satin gloves. Sure, they look cool and sell well, or at least used to, but everything’s ten times harder wearing them. I jump and tug as Mac winces, holding up an arm like I just flashed him.
“Ah! Warn a demon,” he barks, waving for Dad to hurry up and stop taking selfies. “I sent the car off ‘cause I knew it’d take two of us to say this,” Mac begins once we’re cruising out of the parking lot in Dad’s loaded Escalade.
So that’s why Mac invited him. He thinks I need my daddy to help me see my character needs work. “Way ahead of you. Something has to change. I know.”
“What do you have in mind?” Dad asks.
“A revamp. Archimedes needs–”
“If the next words out of your mouth aren’t ‘a good sending off,’ we’re in more trouble than you think,” Mac says, his marbled red and black eyes narrow as he leans against the console to look back at me.
“Wow, so this is definitely an intervention.” I cross my arms and stare out the window. It’s dark, but I pretend to focus on the mountains in the distance anyway.
“A mercy killing,” Mac’s gravelly voice replies.
I scoff. “That’s not your decision to make.”
“I know. It’s yours until it’s not. That what you want?”
I know he’s talking about Raucous Entertainment dropping me if things keep up the way they are. Lena and Fritz aren’t exactly nagas known for their charity. They work hard for the clients they represent, both with a direct line to fans and the best bookers around. But only if we’re marketable.
“It’s not my fault if Tom’s writing garbage scripts for me. I have no new moves, no rival, no plotline –”
“Can’t blame Tom,” Dad says as he soars through a yellow light, waving to a motorcycle cop parked at the corner.
