I tried to ignore her, but a slighted expression of shock befell my face.
“I could hurt someone, badly, if they’re not immune to Changelings, and we aren’t supposed to be practicing any aspect of our elements right now.”
“Screw that, we’ve snuck out! Everyone here is supernatural anyway, and not all people have Changeling allergies these days. A lot has happened in two decades. The Hive Changelings have inoculated half of the city.”
The Hive Changelings always dressed in purple to match their eyes, and they were as insidious as they were charismatic. As much as everyone tried to deny it, The Hive was a cult. They were the only ones dressed in purple tonight. No matter the type of the underground social gathering, there was usually a group of five of them together at all times.
“You know I’m not interested in Changelings. It’s not a challenge.”
“I double dare you to prowl,” Helaine said. “There’s your challenge.”
“Anyone I choose?”
“Just make sure you meet me by the doors at thirty minutes to one.” She smiled mischievously. “And also that you tell me everything. How about that one over there?” she asked.
He was decidedly older than us, but not by much, and had a dimpled chin and lightish hair. Intrigued, I knew I might as well take her suggestion.
“He could be my type.”
“Go get him,” Helaine said. “Oh my goddess, he’s here.”
“Who’s here? Oh.” I smirked. “Jared.”
“I have to try,” Helaine said. “This is the only time I’ll see him without my dad around.”
“See you at the exit in a few,” I said.
I sauntered over to my masked mark, checking to see if he was taken. After a moment I realized he was looking for a stranger, and that was who I was tonight. Here went trying to seduce a stranger into helping me harness the powers of my element. I raised the level of his attention as I passed, and immediately, he stopped me with a breath-taking smile. There was something there, and I liked it.
“Hi,” he said. He was British.
“’ello,” I said, mimicking his accent.
“What is your name?”
“I don’t have one tonight,” I said honestly. “I’m just here to dance. You look like you want to dance.”
“With you,” he said.
I had increased his attention but not his desire. Everything the sandy and handsome stranger was doing now was of his own accord. He kept a courteous distance between us as we moved to the edge of the dance floor, but his curiosity was building.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Central London,” I yelled over the music. “I have a flat with a few friends and I’m looking into university. Missed the deadline this year,” I lied.
“A student?” he asked. He was older than me, as I thought.
“There’s no problem with that is there?”
“No,” he said. “I thought we were just dancing, after all.”
As we moved on the dance floor, I felt desire roll off of him, and I could easily fulfill Helaine’s dare, and then meet her at the door at twelve thirty. A thirty-second kiss wouldn’t kill me—or him.
“Can I buy you a drink?” He asked, noticing I was done with mine.
“If I go with you to the bar,” I answered.
“Beautiful and aware.”
“I usually don’t take chances,” I handed back.
“Usually?” he asked. “This way,” he said, gently taking my hand to lead me to the bar. I liked how he felt about me.
Tonight you couldn’t tell what subculture someone was from. In dressing our best and masking our faces, the only certainty was that we were all animals tonight. The rumor was that some spirits could be out too, but I hadn’t yet seen one. I mean, as far as I knew.
Sandy man handed me my drink straight from the barkeep, and I took it down to the ice. I felt great, and keeping my equilibrium was a huge joke, a secret only I knew about. I was well inebriated, but I trusted this stranger to some extent. I set my empty glass down on a high top table and led him to the edge of the dance floor. I couldn’t have another drink.
Once we were bathed in the darkness at the edge of the dance floor, he pushed me lightly against the wall, his mouth making contact with mine, parting, and pulling back to look me in the eyes. I felt my chest heave, breathing sharply, shocked at the way he pressed his body to mine. Barely anyone could see us now.
It might have been just a stupid dare, but I found myself assessing who this made me. I didn’t find myself here with him in a dark corner because I needed to feel better about myself. I liked who Rose was on her own, and I wasn’t trying to fill a void or feel wanted, though that was a delicious bonus. This was me getting in touch with my passion and my element, a simple training exercise that wouldn’t hurt a guy with enough confidence to spend a moment of time with me.
I didn’t want to stop and refused to. I grabbed his face in between my hands and pulled his body against mine. He took every cue I gave him. I felt his tongue slip into my mouth and nearly opened my eyes, but instead, I paused a moment to mirror his actions, and couldn’t help but let out a satisfied sigh. The energy between us was smoldering and turned a thirty-second goodnight kiss into five minutes. I let our emotions mix, kindling a reaction that was twice as strong. He would have been feeling the poison by now if he wasn’t immune. All I knew from his light eyes was that he wasn’t a Changeling or a vampire. Few other subcultures had such blatant tells.
I felt his hand reach down to my leg and slowly start lifting up the folds of my dress. He gathered the fabric in his hand, sliding his fingertips across the bare flesh of my leg. A warm shiver coursed through me, starting at the touch of his fingers and ending somewhere deep in my chest. I could pick up on strong sensations, but it was different when they actually originated in my body, and I was turning into a helpless puddle of lusty emotions. His eyes only opened when the song changed, and a light momentarily skimmed over our bodies like blue moon glow.
He was far more experienced than I, and he expected more than the thirty-second make out session I was counting on. He wanted to take someone home tonight. Like a fool, I had known that from the beginning, and my body was beyond excited thinking about it. I let his fantasy play out a little longer. His hand reached further up my dress, completely lost in the red ruffles, smooth fingertips rubbing over the surface of my thigh. I was pleased that he liked me, and then when his hand got past my thigh and skimmed the fabric of my underwear, finger resting between my legs, it was then that I remembered that I didn’t know his name.
This wasn’t the way things were going to happen. I pulled back, but not far enough to convey that he had done something wrong. He didn’t. This was all on me for stringing him along, for aiming my fiery bow at a vulnerable stranger and not looking past my target.
Separating our bodies, I felt another emotion grasp onto me, and it wasn’t from him.
Despite the wig hanging down over my neck, the colorless vellus hair on the back of it stood on end, pricking my spine. Was someone watching? Was it someone who knew me?
I glanced past the masked stranger, but no one was there. I looked for attention, intrigue, but I only felt a frosty, numbing sensation between my solar plexus and lungs. It meant danger, and I could bet it meant Helaine was knee deep in it. The emotion that caught me had nothing to do with me at all. It was attached solely to Helaine.
“I- I have to go,” I muttered, my fake accent slipping.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized. I looked back at his lips, the dimple in his chin, and wondered if we’d meet again. Would he remember me? “I didn’t mean to get carried away. Thank you for telling me that you wanted to stop. I’d never object. Can I see you again?”
“I don’t think so,” I said, turning around. I wiped at my face, knowing that my choice of cherry red lipstick had me looking like I had stepped out of Blink 182’s music video for I Miss You.
I darted off to find my
best friend, knowing what would have happened had I stayed with the stranger five minutes longer. He wanted me, and had I not sensed danger as strongly as it was wrapping around me, he would have been twisted around me instead.
It would be impossible to find Helaine in the crowd, but the trouble was attached to her, so I hunted down the signature of energy. I didn’t even know my powers could do that, but I was thankful for their heightened range. Once I spotted her I slipped past the only man in the room with dreads—Gregory—and ran the rest of the way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
All Butterflies
Helaine
I sauntered through the crowd at Dia de Los Muertos, counting on my drinks and inner dialogue to give me a confidence boost. I had a career now and saved myself from having to attend needless years of school. I was new to being an adult, and I was trying to act the part. Other adults should like me—including and especially Jared Sheffield.
Who was I trying to kid though? I acted like a total fangirl around him, and Rose wasn’t next to me to help me sort it all out.
When I walked past Jared the first time he didn’t notice me.
It was dark though. Or maybe it wasn’t him. Oh no, it was him.
I could spot him in any room, even with dim lights, booming music, and a mask on. He was incredibly tall and I was petite, so it didn’t surprise me that I still wasn’t in his field of vision, even with my spike heels on. It looked like he was waiting for someone, and he was dressed in all black. He wore a satin mask over his eyes, but I’d know that haircut anywhere. He went to the barber every two weeks like clockwork.
I walked by again, not finding any words to say, and his gaze didn’t meet mine.
What was I doing, really?
I tried to open my mouth to speak when I got closer to him and nothing came out. I bottled it again.
Just then, a blonde woman walked over and linked her arm in his. It had to have been his girlfriend. I was blonde tonight. I had an opening, but I was too weak to take it.
I sighed out and suddenly the music didn’t seem as loud and the lights weren’t as bright. I was utterly alone in a sea full of people who lived to come out and dance the night away on Dia de Los Muertos every year. My three neon blue drinks might as well have been water, as their effects wore off at once. I was regrettably the soberest one in the entire nightclub apart from Stan (wherever he was).
At least I didn’t feel as stupid as usual. As Jared nearly bumped past me to get to the dance floor, I watched him go as if I were a ghost, knowing there can’t have been any other outcome. My fat chance of seeing him without my parents around was completely wasted.
A plummeting decoration from the giant tree nearly hit his girlfriend on the head as she passed, crashing to her feet and shattering like ice. I walked closer and saw that the decoration’s pieces were ice. A man walked over them, crushing them down further without noticing.
Fuck, I thought. It had to have been me, and I needed to be more careful. All I needed was to make the Dia tree an actual Yule tree iced over with the powers of winter and spoil my disguise. No one knew the punishment for sneaking out because no one had been daft enough to do it before.
I had spotted Gregory, and possibly Maddi and Stan when I left Rose, on my way over to Jared. I looked back in their direction and saw what I thought was Stan and Gregory dancing. And by dancing, I meant all out.
They were uninhibited with more rhythm than anyone else, standing the proper distance away from each other for two guys who were straight. They commanded the attention of everyone around them, drawing others in to dance alongside them.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The two most introverted guys I knew had mad hidden talent. I had to find Rose and tell her, even though we wouldn’t be able to acknowledge this until next year.
I turned from them to go find Rose, but a woman in a butterfly mask stopped me in my path, her hand on my arm. I moved to trap her hand with my free one—it was muscle memory from years of practice—and as I made contact, a surge of energy shot through my body.
“You’re in danger,” she said chillingly. I felt the air around me grow colder.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re in danger, and the closer you get, the more they will speed the hunt. Every step forward is a footprint they can more easily track you with.”
Sure, I had chills, numbing ones, but bloody hell if I’d let the dark-haired woman in the butterfly mask see them.
“And you are?”
“Too late, I’m afraid. They’re here.”
She whirled around, losing me in the elbow to elbow crowd.
I instinctively looked around, wondering who “they” were, but in an ocean full of masks, it didn’t matter if I found them or not.
“H—Hey!” I heard Rose scream. We should have picked code names.
“I’m fine,” I told her. “But we need to catch that woman.”
She took off mid-nod, and I didn’t have the time to tell her the woman was warning me and not trying to murder me (or so I thought). Me and Rose couldn’t do pumpkin time any other way, we had to be chasing down danger.
“Did anyone from the Coven see you?” I asked her.
“No, this brown hair worked. Just ahead, I saw her.”
We ran through the smog of a fog machine and bolted towards the door. Coven witches wouldn’t take any threat lightly, and she was packing energy to begin with. Her electricity was an element witches tended to stay away from.
Rose and I ran down the alley, and she was gone as if she jumped into thin air to escape. As far as I knew, it could very well be done.
“Okay, well…” Rose put her hands to her sides, pursing her lips together.
“Yeah, I’m stuck too.”
“Helaine, what did you remember about her?”
“Um… not much, considering how much I gossip. You have to be attentive for that. She took me by surprise. When she touched my arm I felt electricity—which isn’t a witch power—but and the placement was rehearsed, as if she could have practiced with me at the dojo before.”
“Well holy shit,” Rose said with a smile. “I can’t explain it, but I know who that was. Helaine, Moon Halloran is alive, and that was her.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Renegades
Rose
My door was open when everyone arrived home, and Gregory silently waved goodnight as he passed on his way up to his attic room. Maddi was tucked into her room on the second floor—with Tomas of course—I couldn’t miss those emotions if I tried, especially after my little escapade in the shadowy corner of the club. I would have barely noticed Stan was home and if it wasn't for strong emotions coming my way from next door. I could scarcely sense him at any other time, so this was odd.
I put down the book I was studying and peeked into the hall.
You're not so quiet for a martial artist, he thought to me, and I could see that his door was open.
I could sneak up on anyone by just walking into a room. If only my mentor knew me better.
“I'm loud when I want to be,” I explained. “I didn't want to intrude.”
“You're not intruding. You can come in a moment.”
“Thanks.”
I stepped into his fully lit room, glancing at his Dia de Los Muertos altar. There were three pictures on it. I had known him two months, and though I hadn’t been inside his room before, it wasn’t too weird, considering we were roommates. Green was no doubt his favorite color, and the room was dark and serene. It reminded me of the ceiling at Dia, but I kept that thought to myself. If anything, I was feeling more level this evening, in control of not only my thoughts but also my powers. He kept things picked up, and unlike other times I passed his room, his bed was made.
“How was the party?”
“It was brilliant, and next year you can go.”
I nodded. “That's not why I came out here,” I said.
“I figured. I rarely get carried away with strong emo
tions of any kind, but tonight is always a little more difficult.”
“I thought you could use a friend,” I said simply, knowing I would live eight more years here with Stan. It didn't mean I had to avoid being a shoulder to lean on. “I’m sorry that they have to be on your altar.”
“Me too,” he said. “And I just wish that maybe one year... they'd come so I could talk.”
I took a closer look at his altar, and there was a summoning spell on it.
“They've never stopped by?”
“No.”
“Perhaps they've moved on and they're at rest, together.”
“I would like to think so. Some souls run into each other over and over again, in every life, and they can't be without each other. Have you ever heard of Twin Flames?”
“No.”
“They’re souls who find each other in every life, and sometimes the relationship can be volatile, but mostly, they need each other. Sometimes unexplainable, magical things happen to them. I’d like to think that my parents were Twin Flames, and I'd like to think they're together now.”
“Hold to that,” I said. “That sounds so peaceful. And you know, they'll always be remembered. Hundreds of years from now, they'll still be King and Queen, and people will know their names. Not all of us can say that, and not all of us will end up in history textbooks.”
He smiled in agreement and looked back to their pictures. They both had dark hair, and Stan’s mother was breathtakingly beautiful despite her blue skin. A hand went to my hair.
“Who else is on your altar?”
“Scotty and Charlie,” he said of the third worn picture, one of two black dogs. “They were my pets, up until I was fifteen.”
I didn't know if it was possible to see or summon the spirits of pets, but it was peaceful, thinking that our family members of the four-legged kind would be waiting for us on the other side.
“Do you ever see them?”
Stan chuckled. I had succeeded at lifting the saddened fog off of him, and not by using my powers.
Death's Primordial Kiss (The Silvered Moon Diaries Book 1) Page 18