Skin is a novella published in the collection Life in Shadows in 2015. Alex and Lorelei visit a demon strip club.
Warning[]
Skin contains explicit violence, profanity, assault, reckless endangerment, attempted kidnapping, attempted ritual demonic possession, punching, kicking, cutting, stabbing, shooting, hair-pulling, name-calling, strippers, arson, destruction of private property, lingerie, immolation, false identification, ruthless exploitation of personal beauty unsafe crowd control, destruction of evidence, municipal safety code violations, demons, toxic masculinity, lust, wrath, party fouls, attempted murder, grappling, theft, defenestration, portrayals of divine and demonic matters bearing little or no resemblance to religious canon, discharge of firearms within city limits, illegal immigration, and blatant violation of state regulations of adult entertainment.
Synopsis[]
Lorelei wanted to help Rachel by finding out more about demons and their activities in Seattle. She sought out Lester, owner of the strip club Vixens, in ordet to get information out of him. She also enlisted the help of Alex, in order to lure out and distract the temptress who she knew Lester had in his employ. They entered the club individually, Alex first.
Lorelei confronted Lester, who provided her with information about demons in Seattle, but stalled on any information on fitting rooms.
Alex was invited to a VIP room by Destiny and Chance, and from there brought to a secret room in the cellars—a fitting room. A fight broke out, where Alex destroyed the fitting room’s soul mirror by defenestrating Chance through it, after which he escaped back to the main showroom. This caused a fight between Lorelei and Lester as well, where Lester was killed.
Alex set the bar on fire in order to facilitate his own escape, but was badly wounded by Chance. The death of Lester however meant the wards of the building failed, and Alex and Lorelei were rescued by Rachel, who made sure the building burned to the ground.
Characters[]
- Alex Carlisle
- Lorelei
- Rachel
- Crystal, a stripper
- Lester, a demon with a history with Lorelei
- An imp
- Destiny, a temptress
- Chance, a temptress
- Karma, a temptress
- Jake and Donny, bouncers
- Robert Gorge (mentioned only)
- Molly Murray (mentioned only)
- Onyx (mentioned only)
- Sammael (mentioned only)
- Hope, a demon dealing in bail bonds (mentioned only)
- Abaddon (mentioned only), her master
- Mammon (mentioned only)
- Belial (mentioned only)
- Baal (mentioned only)
Locations & organizations[]
Theories[]
The bouncers seemed to be at least somewhat aware of the illicit aspects of the club. It is unknown how involved other employees were. However, Crystal seemed to have been chastised for taking an interest in Alex.
Trivia[]
In-story, Abaddon is spelled “Abbadon”. This article follows the spelling in Personal Demons.
When Destiny ask Alex what is wrong with him, he says that he needs to write a novel (Good Intentions) and a sequel (Natural Consequences) to answer that question.
Continuity[]
The story is set two weeks after Natural Consequences.[1] Per the timeline that Elliott Kay posted on Patreon[2] it also falls before “Date Night” and the other stories set in November. One possibility is that “Skin” happens on a weekday (e.g. Tuesday or Wednesday) the week after the Battle of Magnuson Park, i.e. the two weeks are counted from the start of the book, not the end.
Publishing history[]
“Skin” was first published in Life in Shadows on December 2, 2015.
References[]
- ↑ Life in Shadows, Chronology
- ↑ Timelines and Links: Good Intentions (Elliott Kay’s Patreon, July 4, 2022)