I held my hand out, pleased when it didn’t shake. The man’s hands were cool, like a crisp ocean breeze.
“A pleasure, I’m Dallan. I own this shabby little shop. Are you familiar with monster kind?” The man who had come in hot tempered was now as docile as a lamb.
I shook my head. “I had lessons like everyone else in elementary school and met some during college, but not many.”
There was a snort from the group behind Dallan and it was quickly followed by someone whispering at whoever it was to shut the fuck up.
“That’s all right, I’m a Cthulhu and we’re not very common anyway, only about thirty of us left in the world,” Dallan explained as he shifted so that I could see past his bulk at the group standing behind him. “All right lads, line up and we’ll do introductions.”
I watched with awe as they spread out so that I could see all of them.
“Starting left to right we’ve got our apprentice Heath. He may look like the most normal of the bunch, but the kid’s a lycanthrope, so he gets a little furry sometimes,” Dallan began, pointing at the curly-headed young man who waved. He looked like the quintessential high school jock. Handsome in an all-American kind of way.
“Next to him is Fiero, he does most of our general tattooing and watercolor pieces. He’s a satyr and too horny for his own good,” Dallan continued, gesturing to the man who had his long brown hair pulled into a messy bun. Two little horns peeked out from either side of his head.
The man’s beard twitched with a half-grin as he rolled his eyes at Dallan.
“Is that supposed to be a horn joke? Do better, man,” he grumbled, though it was clear he didn’t mind the joke at all.
I peered over the top of the counter and caught a flash of brown fur covering the man’s legs. A female satyr had lived on my floor during college, but she’d mostly kept to herself so I’d never been able to get a close look before.
Dallan ignored Fiero’s words and moved on. “Next is Ambrose, a dark elf. He’s got a bad attitude so I’d ignore most of what he says, lass, because he will usually say shit just to be mean.”
The elf in question was busy glaring at me with a pair of ink-dark eyes. He was beautiful in a sharp kind of way. His skin was brown, but it was as if someone had sucked all of the saturation out of it leaving it closer to gray. His face was all high cheeks and elegant features which included a pair of long, pointed ears that jutted out from underneath his impossibly black hair.
He didn’t say anything, but it was clear that I wasn’t welcome in his mind.
Dallan didn’t linger on him for long. “And last, but not least, is Cash. He’s been with me the longest, going on seventy-five years now, right?”
It was the man who I’d seen yesterday. The one who’d glared at me, though he wasn’t glaring now.
“Give or take a couple of years.” His voice was gravelly as he spoke and it sent a curious shiver down my spine.
Dallan nodded, clearly pleased by the man’s words. “Cash is our expert on tattooing stone skin seeing as he’s a—”
“Gargoyle, right?” I chimed in before I could stop myself. My face flushed hot as all eyes in the room locked in on my face.
There was a beat of silence before Cash nodded. “Yes, I am.”
“Okay!” Effie, who had been hovering behind my shoulder throughout the introductions, clapped her hands together loudly. “As much as I’d like for us all to gather around a fire and sing kumbaya until we’re comfortable, you’ve all got shit to do.”
Dallan, seeming to take her cue, nodded. “And be patient and nice to our new receptionist or else I fear Farrow will never sell us coffee again.”
Farrow must be the name of the lizardman who owned the coffee shop.
It didn’t take much more than that to spur the rest of them into action.
Ambrose stomped past the desk, ducking under the door frame and muttering under his breath.
“Well, he’s going to be fun,” Fiero said with a little shake of his head as he followed the elf, his hooves making a loud clicking noise on the tile floor of the waiting room.
I was a little taken aback by the entire conversation. It was a monster tattoo parlor, but I hadn’t expected to be thrown into the gauntlet of introductions all at once.
“You all right there?” A pair of friendly blue eyes were suddenly level with my own as Heath rested his chin on the counter.
I didn’t get a chance to answer before Fiero’s voice came from the long hallway behind the beaded curtain. “Heath, stop wagging your fucking tail at the new receptionist and get your ass back here.”
Heath didn’t seem angry by the tone of Fiero’s voice. Instead he just straightened with a grin. “Oops, master calls. See ya later, Daphne, good luck!”
