Amadeo finally left for the club in his antique roadster, a jade green Miata.  It was a real classic, which had been left to Amadeo's great-grandfather by some eccentric friend.  Amadeo had been the only one to show any interest in the old car and his father had paid to have it properly restored and brought up to code.  They'd tried to match the custom coat of emerald paint but it had ended up a deep jade instead.  Amadeo loved it all the same.

The Limelight still had the exterior of a church, its beautiful stained glass windows recently restored, though they were constantly re-vamping the interior to make way for the latest diversions.  Amadeo didn't have to wait in line along the sidewalk, Fay Queens didn't wait on line they just passed by with attitude and a kiss either side the doorman's cheek.   They didn't have to pay either.

He'd seen Matt as soon as he got in, talking in a near blur of motion with his friend Kim, below Amadeo in the lounge.  Amadeo went right down, pressing through the crowd to reach the stairs.  Matt most always used sign language to talk because he couldn't hear himself and so his words were not always clear.  It was incredibly useful in the club because no one could hear themself speak over the music anyway.

Amadeo ran right over to them and threw his arms around Matt's neck.   He kissed him before slipping down.  He took a step back to watch Matt's hands.  But here he was called Rubio, in that way that fat men are affectionately called little, Rubio was anything but fair of skin and hair.  (Though some ingenious elves explained that calling him Rubio was like saying he was fair, which among t Fay meant not pale, but available.) All the true Fay took Fay names.  Kim was called Baby and Amadeo was The Incubus.  And with the Fay manner of making the word the in most cases simply t his name often sounded like tIncubus. . . and so he'd occasionally hear some young elf who didn't know better call him Tink.  but he didn't mind the comparison to Tinkerbell; he took it as a complement.

  Rubio was known for wearing even shorter, tighter shorts than Amadeo. He usually kept a fan about in case his member showed itself, always a good idea in Amadeo's thinking.  Rubio did wear a shirt and coat like Amadeo's.  And Rubio's best friend Baby had perfect circles of red on each cheek of her white-painted face.  She was a short woman and maybe a bit buxom, but she managed to attract an enormous amount of nymphs, that is the female Fay.  Baby was one of those few Fay that would consider only one sex and with her it was other women.

Baby continued talking in t Fay while Rubio watched her lips.  Incubus unfolded his fan and peered from behind it.  The place wasn't packed but it was close.  He looked around at the faces.  Almost every one he could say he'd had. That's what it meant to be a Fay Queen.  There was no real coronation, it was just something that had to be accepted by a lot of people.  They had to agree that you were the best.

 Some of the Fay would say Rubio was a Queen.  There could be more than one.  When Amadeo first began frequenting the Limelight there had been four.  He'd impressed them all enough to have sex with him and that had got him noticed by all the rest of the Fay.

It wasn't all sex though.  There had to be something else there.  Incubus had been given lessons in art history and astronomy, he'd been given an enormous amount of paintings and photographs.  He could do a lot of things.  He perhaps a true genius or maybe just someone who should have been born 500 years earlier, was never without a talent some girle wanted.  He could play piano, compose music, speak and write in three languages not including dialects like Fay, sketch and paint with fair accuracy, and Incubus could get inside your head.  He was a mind reader.  And it wasn't very hard for him to move small objects with just a thought.  In fact the older he got, the more his talent developed.

He liked the Rose Petal Fay, those young people who would in olden times have been called gothics or deathers or art fags. They wore delicate gauzy fabrics or else velvet but only in the colors black, purple and burgundy-wine.  They drew pictures and glyphs on their faces and bodies in black eyeliner.  They fought over who could take the names Death and Mab.

There was one of the Rose Petal Fay who called himself Amadeo.  He was a lovely young man who always wore formal black attire and a large gold cross around his neck.  It was in fact a cross just like those the barmaids wore, as he had worked in the club 'til he got fired for his habitual lateness and disappearing into the library with elves he should have been checking coats for.  He would get down on his knees for anyone.  Dracula's Daughter or usually just D.D. was sort of a Queen just among them.  Rose Petal Fay often thought of themselves as a separate sort; they had their own Court, separate from the one Amadeo led as Fay Queen, that was led by a nymph called Morgan.

But besides being a Rose Petal Faerie, Morgan considered herself part of an even more exclusive court: the Fay Witches.   Like many Fay they worshipped a mother goddess, but they practiced Wicca.  They fancied taking names like Morgan and Robin.

Incubus had known of three separate Robins.

Already the others had noticed Incubus.  He was the Queen and they all came to pay tribute.  He liked it though.  It was a pleasant thing, no pushing or noises just a gradual procession of kisses and whispers.  He let them kiss his hand.  If he liked them enough, when they took his hand, he drew them forward to kiss him on the mouth.

He saw one remarkably innocent looking little nymph and knew it was an illusion, though he also knew she was pretty new to being a Faerie.  He asked for her name.  She pressed close to whisper in his ear, Wisteria.  Incubus smiled, he might like her climbing up on him like a vine, and asked her for a kiss.  She pulled herself up to him and kissed him. She was of average height and Incubus was tall.  She slipped her tongue into his mouth.  Incubus felt a hand on his back.  There was someone there, whispering in his ear, "I thought you would like her.  She's so soft." He turned to see Amadeo beside him.  "Not like you," said the Incubus running a finger down Amadeo's chest. Incubus felt Wisteria pulling away from him.  He took hold of her hand and pulled her back to face the both of them.  "Do you know each other?"

"Amadeo got me started," said the nymph.

"Tell me are you a fair nymph?"

"I havent heard it said Im not.  Im fain to anything.  I would like it if you, since you are by far the fairest, let me show you."  Her words would have been completely understandable to any mortal.  The thing with tFay was that the ones who made a show of speaking the strange dialect were usually the young ones who only did it to impress people.  Most of the Queens spoke American to each other.  Incubus liked that Wisteria wasn't quite a wannabee.

"Dont stray.  I may just grant you an audience."  Then he turned to look at Amadeo.  They were both smiling, "First you bathe my ho-ho in the library and then you introduce me to those girles last night and now you bring Wisteria to me. What favor do you want?"

Amadeo took his hand and stepped closer.  "I want to learn from you how to be a Queen."

"Stay in my court, Amadeo and Il teach you."  Slurring words together without proper pauses was the habit of even the oldest Queens, but Incubus guessed it came more from living in New York than anything else.

And then Rubio whispered in Incubus' ear.  He could understand him though some of the syllables got run together.  "Roadrunner?" Incubus asked and looked as Rubio did out the doorway to the dance floor.  He saw the other Fay Queen, standing on the steps at the opposite side of the floor.  As usual, she had on a pale blue velvet coat and matching velvet shorts.  There was a wealth of pale blue lace at her throat and her hair was died blue and sculpted on top of her head. She had a large chest for a woman as thin as she, and it made her look like a bird.  She had a long neck and long legs.  She painted large cartoony eyes over her own.  She'd been dressing as the old Warner Brothers cartoon character for some time now.

Unlike Incubus she didn't keep a court of regular admirers.  She was as old as him and had been a Queen as long.   They'd sort of come up together, but since the old Queens and Faeries their own age had left, Roadrunner had not taken over a court as Incubus had.  Her favorite Faeries were his favorite Faeries, and so she was often considered part of his court despite the fact she was a Queen herself.  It was Incubus and Roadrunner who made velvet frock coats fashionable among the Fay.  If there was anyone who was in constant favor with her it was Incubus even though he was himself a Queen.  And since she got along with Morgan well it was a good time for the Fay as there were no opposing courts as there had been in the past.

Incubus asked Amadeo and Wisteria if they would like to be introduced to her.  Neither of them had been introduced to her before.  She was not quite so fair as Incubus.

Incubus only had to keep his eyes on her and when she scanned the room as she moved across the dance floor letting her hands be kissed she noticed his gaze.  She ran over to him.  "Beep beep," she said which was her line.

"Damn, I want in," said Incubus, which was one of his lines.

She put her hands on his hips and pulled him up against her.  "Youre all ready in, Incubus, I dream about you every night and youre not Mab."

He kissed her.  "I want you to meet my Faeries, Amadeo and Wisteria."

She gave them her hand to kiss and when they'd both kissed her hand she gave them each a peck on the cheek.  "Rose Petal Fay from the portal of ivory, or is it horn, Incubus, your little fantasies come from?"  One thing Incubus had always liked about her was that it wasn't affected when she made references to literature or myth, it was natural to her.

 "Mab only knows."

"Im going," she said rolling a shoulder in the direction she meant to go and thus making a splendid turn and walking away from them.  As she did, a hot electric pain went up and down Incubus' spine.  He knew the feeling.  The vision came to him quickly.  A flash of Roadrunner slumped on a floor.  He could hear Wisteria speaking to him, asking what was wrong.  His eyes had closed and he was holding his head.

"Shes going to die."

"Incubus, what do you mean?" Wisteria asked.

Incubus looked around the interior of the club.  He couldn't immediately see Roadrunner.  "Amadeo, is Morgan here?"

"Yes.  Upstairs I think."

"Get Rubio for me."  Incubus went to Morgan with Wisteria following him.  She was on the second floor, standing near to the bar drinking wine with Death who looked more like something from the Rocky Horror Picture Show than any incarnation of Death, thought there was an ankh drawn on her cheek just under her right eye.

"Does it look like I need tempting?" she asked as soon as she saw him at her side.

"Can you induce visions?  Can you get to that state?"

"You saw something?" she asked with genuine interest, grabbing hold of his hand.

"I saw Roadrunner die," Incubus whispered, "I wanted to know if you had sensed anything."  Amadeo and Rubio arrived.  Wisteria told them quietly what happened.  Rubio moved close to Incubus.

Morgan let loose her hold on Incubus' hand.  "I have practiced it.  I could try it," she said.

Incubus spun around and looked out into the crowded hall but he appeared to be in such a daze that he looked at nothing.  "I have to find her."  He walked through the crowd; some of the Fay tried to stop him.  He asked after Roadrunner.

t was Baby who told him she'd gone into the bathroom. The bathroom?  Amadeo had to go past the bar again, pushing his way through the crowd of Faeries who didn't understand how urgent the situation was.  "René, René," he called.  Morgan and Baby were there behind him.  The rest of the Faeries had emptied the room.  He pushed open the door of a bathroom stall.  "Baby, tell Eddie to call for an ambulance," He said frantically.

Roadrunner was slumped on the floor just as he'd seen it.  He knew she wasn't dead yet.  He heard voices beyond the door and Morgan telling them not to come in.  Next to Roadrunner there was a small white paper envelope.  It was obvious she had overdosed on some drug.  Most of the Fay had nothing against taking drugs.  But if it was true she'd been an addict, she would be ruined, especially if it was more than one of the milder hallucinogens.  He couldn't tell but he guessed she'd been snuffing heroin and a drug like that just wasn't done.

And then he saw it.  He'd been seeing things like it since he was 16 but this was new.  He saw her soul leaving.  It frightened him still.  "Get back in your body now, René!" he said.  He slapped her face and her breath was just a rasp but she was there.

 "Oh damn," said Morgan because she had just seen a woman die and come back though she hadn't seen quite as much as the Incubus.  "By the Godess herself!"

The club manager came in then to sort of officially witness what had happened in his club.  When he asked what had happened to her Incubus told him he didn't know.  He glanced up at Morgan for reassurance.  Two paramedics came in then.  They shoved Incubus away.  "Drug overdose?" asked one already listening for her heartbeat and looking at her eyes.

Incubus gave them the envelope, "I found this with her." The envelope was snatched away from him.  They said they were going to take her to the hospital.  One of them muttered something as they left.

Morgan and Incubus could hear them, it was something of a taunt that they had said it so loudly, "Goddamn fags."  It was the way they said it really.

"They don't understand," said Morgan.  "And you. . . I never knew you were a seer or anything."

"It runs in my family," sighed Incubus and then he went to leave the room.  He turned back at the last minute.  "You saw what it was.  Don't let them know.  René doesn't deserve to be ruined."

He saw her nod before he left.  He went to the bar and asked Eddie for a drink.  "Your regular bullshit, Incubus?" he asked.  Incubus had even had the bartender.

"No, I just want a glass of water."  He reached for his card to pay.

"Not even 2 dollars, we'll save it for next time."

Incubus nodded.  He took a gulp of water, not tap water, imported spring water.  Rubio came up next to him.  Incubus lay his head down on Rubio's shoulder feigning fatigue.  He wasn't really tired.  It was just that calling souls from the dead and seeing your friend overdose can drain you.  He took a sip of water and set his glass down.  He turned around and leaned back against the bar.

Amadeo came up to the bar and asked Eddie for a beer. "Is he old enough to drink?" Eddie asked Incubus.

Incubus just nodded his head.

"Im 22," Amadeo insisted, "Jesus, Eddie I used to work here."

Eddie just nodded and went to get his beer.  "You never worked behind the bar," he said in a hiss as he passed the opened bottle and empty glass to Amadeo.

Wisteria then came to Incubus' side.  "Alrhight?"

"Im alrhight."  He saw her looking up at him with big pale-green eyes shadowed by smudgy black make-up.  "Kiss me again," he whispered to her.  She did as she was told, and he loved it. Then he loved kissing in general, it was never difficult to make someone he considered bad at it good at it.  But Wisteria wasn't bad at it.  He liked the way she tilted her head, the sweetness in her mouth, her hands pressing into his back.

She let him kiss her neck. He thought someone shoved their way to the bar but was too distracted by Wisteria to read them for it.  Kissing her he had the feeling he wanted to bite her.  "Tell me what you want," he said which was his other line and barely a whisper.

 "I want you, you're everyone's dream lover, but I want to dance first.  I want you to dance with me."

Incubus nodded.  It sounded marvelous to him.  He reached back for his glass of water and drank the rest of it. He let Wisteria lead him: down the stairs and into the crowd.  Soon they were in the center of the tangle of bodies writhing and twisting in time with the beat of the music.  And Incubus was an infamously good dancer.

His head started buzzing and he wondered if he wasn't standing too close to a speaker.  In fact, he felt really strange.  After a while, all he could see were faces, strange faces.  Wisteria was creeping up on him, her hands clasped around his neck, her hips driving against him.  And the song...he was sure he recognized the voice.  Things blurred before his eyes.  He didn't remember much after that, someone kissing his face, then hands in his eyes, falling up a flight of stairs.