In my Nekropolis, the House of Dark Delights is flanked by two businesses, a soul-modification parlor called Spiritus Mutatio and a casino called You Bet Your Life (a name which patrons often learn to their dismay should be taken literally). In this world, it had a Flensecrafters on one side, and a talent agency called Pickman's Models on the other. Otherwise, it looked much the same: a simple three-story white building with green shingles and matching shutters, no fence around the property, no bars on the windows, no obvious signs of any security precautions at all. But I knew the House was almost as well protected a Darklord's stronghold. Testament to this was the fact that despite the wild, savage nature of the creatures that had taken over this Nekropolis, not one of the Hydes had set foot upon the property. The yard was intact, and the House 's facade unmarred. We needed to get into the House, but attempting a break-in would be a fast, unpleasant, and extremely messy way of committing suicide.
Good thing I had a key.
We hurried up the front walk and stepped onto the porch. Nothing happened: no wardspells activated, no alarm sounded, and the front door didn't fly open to disgorge someone intent on killing us. So far, so good. We were out of gas grenades by this point, so we'd drawn our gas guns. Devona and Darius watched our backs while I shifted my gas gun to my left hand and removed a key from my shirt pocket. There was nothing special about it – it looked like any ordinary house key – but when I inserted it into the front lock and turned, I was rewarded with a rapid series of clicking sounds. And while we could hear the physical locks deactivating, we couldn't hear the door's wardspells powering down, but I knew they were. Or at least, I hoped they were. When the clicking noises ended, I waited for a count of five, as I'd been instructed, then I withdrew the key from the lock and tucked it back into my shirt pocket. I returned my gas gun to my right hand, and then – even though I didn't need to breathe – I took a deep breath before gripping the door knob and turning it.
The key had been given to us by Bennie, the owner of the House of Dark Delights in our world. And though according to Darius this dimension had its own version of Bennie who owned this House, that didn't mean our Bennie's key would successfully open this Bennie's lock, if you know what I mean. So as I pushed the door open, I steeled myself for any number of nasty physical and mystical surprises to go off in our faces, but the door swung open easily and quietly, without blasting us into nonexistence.
I turned to tell Devona and Darius that everything was all right, only to see a mass of Hydes running across the lawn toward us. Evidently their fear of Bennie had been overridden by their desire to get their claws on some fresh meat. Devona saw the look on my face, and without turning to glance over her shoulder, she grabbed hold of Darius and me by the arm, shoved us inside, and then leaped in after us. I scrambled to slam the door shut, and flipped the deadbolt switch just as the first Hyde slammed into the door. The one switch activated all the locks, both physical and mystical, and despite the furious pounding on the other side of the door, there was no way the creatures could get inside now. We were safe, in an out-of-the-frying-pan, into-the-fire kind of way.
I looked around, but aside from the three of us, the foyer was empty. Bennie usually has at least one bouncer working the door, more when business is especially good, but we were alone. I wasn't sure if this was a good sign or not, but since it meant no one was currently trying to kill us, I decided to take it as a positive development.
The House of Dark Delights is the premier bordello in Nekropolis. Whatever your sexual proclivities, capabilities, desires, fantasies, or fetishes, the House of Dark Delights can provide what you're looking for – if you have the darkgems to pay for it, that is. The hallways and rooms are perfumed with a variety of exotic-smelling aphrodisiacs – not that I can smell any of them or that they'd have any effect on my dead flesh if I could. And it's noisy: conversation from customers waiting for their "appointments" to begin, background music playing, laughter, sighs, moans, and cries of ecstasy or pain – often both at the same time – from behind closed doors. It was noisy, all right, but all the sound seemed to be coming from a single direction: the lounge. And instead of the usual good-natured buzz of conversation and laughter, the air was filled with guttural animalistic noises more suited to a zoo.
I turned to Devona. "Remind me how much we're getting paid for this job."
"Nothing," she said.
I sighed. "Right."
We headed slowly down the foyer and toward the lounge, gas guns held at the ready. Devona and me in front, Darius behind us, covering our rear. We did our best to move silently, though given how much noise was coming from the lounge, we really didn't need to bother. We could've skipped down the hallway singing "We're Off to See the Wizard," at the top of our lungs, and I doubt anyone would've heard us. When we reached the end of the hallway, we flattened our backs against the wall and peered into the lounge.
This lounge – just like its counterpart back in my Nekropolis – was decorated like a tasteful upscale Earth tavern with black lacquer tables and chairs, and Mind's Eye sets mounted on the walls. The centerpiece of the lounge was a large circular bar in the middle of the room where the bartenders on duty – witches and warlocks who specialize in potion-making – mix any aphrodisiac or performance-enhancing drink you desire. Normally the lounge is pretty lively, but in the wake of the plague that had swept through this Nekropolis, it had become a scene of absolute and utter depravity that would've made Caligula himself blush like the most cloistered of nuns. The lounge was packed wall-towall with the same savage creatures that infested the street outside, and the Hydes were doing their best to cause just as much havoc: fighting and screwing – often at the same time – and roaring with dark laughter whenever one of them received an especially nasty injury. The Hydes were so numerous and they shared so many common physical traits that it was almost impossible to tell them apart, but I recognized a few. Two of the creatures had holo implants where their eyes should've been, and I guessed they were the vampires Halima and Resham, a brother and sister who often came to the lounge merely to find a place where they could sit and play holoshards for hours on end without being interrupted. They were playing games of an entirely different sort now, but not with each other, at least. One of the creatures possessed somewhat feline features, and I guessed she was Lourdes, a werecat waitress employed by Bennie, and the particularly monstrous creature who was, ah, servicing her appeared to be Lyra, a woman's spirit who'd taken up residence in the body of the genetically altered mixblood lyke who'd killed her. A male lyke. I thought I recognized some others, but I forced myself to ignore them. We hadn't come here to help them, at least not directly. We'd come to help the Hyde sitting atop the bar and surveying the bacchanalia taking placing place with the self-satisfied air of a proud ruler.
This Hyde was larger and more massive than the others, nearly twice their size, and the chair that had been placed on the bar barely supported its weight. It was wearing the torn remnants of a black tuxedo, and while its profusion of body hair was just as wild and shaggy as that of the other creatures, where theirs was brown, this Hyde's was a bright reddish-orange. Given the creature's bestial features, it was difficult to tell its gender, but after a moment its facial features softened a bit and its chest swelled, and I knew that, while it had been male when we first got here, it had now become female. No doubt about it, then. It was Bennie. Sometimes Master Benedict, sometimes Madame Bendetta, but always owner and operator of the House of Dark Delights.