The Divide

by E. J. Mellow

  Dev navigates us up steps to a lounge, and I catch glimpses of dark corners with movement. I don’t need much of an imagination to know what would materialize if I looked harder.

  We pass more bodies that surround a bar where some of the drinks served are familiar, while others are very, very alien. The latter have liquid that gleams and swirls like the bands wrapped around the dancers, but have varying colors like the eye makeup on the patrons. I’m curious what they taste like, but even more curious what they do.

  Two large Nocturna block the way of an area beyond. Nodding, they exchange greetings with Dev before stepping aside, allowing us to pass. Dev turns, flashing me a dual cocky and charming smile, and I marvel at the way he can so fluidly combine two opposite personas. The bodyguards give me a fleeting glance, and I wonder how many girls Dev brings to Vex. The thought doesn’t sit well.

  The music is lower in this less-crowded section, but in a way that’s desirable.

  “Dev!” A beautiful dark-skinned girl in one of those geometrically cutout ensembles saunters over and wraps her arms around his neck. “You haven’t been here in a while.” She pouts. “Where have you been hiding? You promised me a dance, remember?”

  I stop myself from rolling my eyes at her obvious infatuation, and survey the area. Waiters in white and black outfits walk up to costumers to take orders and serve drinks, reminding me of the bottle service sections you’d find at a club.

  Dev gracefully detangles himself from the girl. “Candice, I’d like you to meet a friend. This is Molly.”

  The mention of another girl’s name snaps her out of her fawning, and she slowly rakes her eyes up my body. “And?” She sneers, unimpressed, fixing her attention back on Dev. “Will you dance with me or not?”

  Wow, who peed in her Cheerios?

  “Yes, Dev, please dance with Candice so she can stop her groveling and I can stop the sensation of wanting to vomit.” The words tumble from my mouth before I can stop them.

  Candice’s head whips around, her jaw dropping. “You little—” She reaches for me just as Dev tugs her back.

  “I think it’s time for you to leave,” he says sternly to her. His worry seems to be more for Candice’s safety than mine, and something about that makes me smug, recalling all my training today.

  “Are you serious? You’re really going to hang with this little Metus spawn over me?!” she shrills.

  He glances in my direction. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

  Candice’s jaw drops for a second time, and she glares daggers at me. “I’ll be watching you.” Her words drip with disdain before she saunters away.

  “Making friends already?” asks a voice from behind me, and I turn to a small Asian girl with chin-cropped black hair.

  “Brenna? What are you doing here?” I smile. Brenna was one of the first Nocturna I met outside of Dev’s small family of Aveline and Tim. She was manning one of the landing platforms near City Hall the first time I used the zipline by myself. She’s a friend of Aveline’s but was very nice to me despite whatever feelings Aveline might have shared with her.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” she says with a smirk. “Hey, Dev.” She looks over my shoulder as he presses a hand on the small of my back. My stomach jumps with the intimacy of the placement.

  “Hey, Brenna. Ave here with you?”

  “Yeah, she’s over there somewhere with Hector.”

  “Hmm.” He searches the semicrowded room with narrowed eyes.

  “I was just telling Molly how she’s making friends already, from the looks of our retreating Candice,” Brenna explains.

  “Yes, she was very sweet to her,” Dev teases and squeezes my side. “Were you unhappy with something she was doing?” He glances at me innocently, amused.

  “Did I or did I not encourage you to dance with her?” I ask flippantly.

  His lips twitch from suppressing a smile. “So that’s your version of encouragement?” He leans in closer to whisper in my ear. “I must go back and reevaluate all the times I thought you were dismissing me, then.”

  Despite the heat in the room, a shiver runs the length of me, starting from where his warm breath touched my exposed neck.

  Using all my strength, I step away from him. “So, what’s good to drink around here?”

  Brenna glances between the two of us. “Um, depends what you’re in the mood for.”

  “Something strong.”

  Her eyes light up, and she grabs my arm. “I know just the thing.”

  — 8 —

  AFTER A BIT of coaxing from Dev, I’m granted my wish to try one of the glowing drinks. He warns me that they’re similar to traditional absinthe liquor, and he’s unsure what kind of effect it will have on me, being human. He also tells me I can only have one and to sip it slowly. I concede to his demands but not without pointing out that he is being worse than my father.

  “Do I need to show you how much I am not like that?” he asks, his low voice like thick velvet.

  Sweet seduction, Batman! Will he not relent?

  Silently repeating Jared’s name over and over, I create space from Dev by placing Brenna between us at the bar. The patron next to me glares when I knock into her in my haste, but I’ll take a disgruntled stranger over Mr. Smooth-Move-McGee any day.

  “Is he like this with all the girls?” I ask, sipping my drink and wincing at the burn. The reaction of the concoction quickly rushes through me, turning every cell to liquid heat. Whoa.

  Brenna glances at my wryly. “Not exactly.”

  “Loookss like somehawun gave Dev a reprieff from babysitting.” Aveline walks up to Dev, throwing a hand on his shoulder. “Did you make sure she brussshed her teef before you tucked her into bed?” She giggles.

  She doesn’t take notice of me standing next to Brenna.

  “You’re drunk.” He glares down at his partner. “Who let you get like this?”

  “Whud do ya mean who?” Aveline pushes at his chest. “I can make my hown decisions. I’m not uh child.”

  “Your current state proves otherwise,” he says, clearly unamused.

  “Give it a rest, Devlin.” A tall lanky man with white hair tied low in a ponytail steps up behind Aveline, and even in black I know he’s a Vigil—something about him just doesn’t quite fit with the rest. He looks late twenties but could be well over a century old, for all I know. Again, the Vigil and Nocturna with their annoying graceful aging. His shocking-green eyes dance over me with disinterest before returning to Dev, and I take note of the scar that’s slashed across the right. He’s attractive in a snobbishly regal way, and everything about him screams villain from a ’90’s cop drama. The only thing lacking is an Eastern European accent. I have the urge to tell him he should practice one to, you know, complete the package he’s going for.

  “Hector.” Dev spits the name through his clenched teeth. “I should have known this was your doing.”

  “It might come as a shock to you”—Hector casually leans against the bar—“but Aveline has the ability to order drinks all by herself. She can even tie her own shoes. Oh, and Ave,” he says, placing a hand to her back, “why don’t you show Devlin here how you can spell your name!” His sarcasm splatters across all of us.

  Is this guy for real?

  “Enough. I know exactly how capable she is.” Dev pins Aveline with a severe stare, obviously sobering her slightly. “I saw it before she even did.”

  There’s a history they relive as they hold each other’s gaze. Aveline’s eyes soften for a second before they flicker to me, take in my presence, and harden once more.

  “You brought her here?”

  “Aveline.” He gently places a hand to her shoulder. “You’re not yourself. Let’s get you some water.”

  She shrugs out of his hold. “Not myself?” She barks out a laugh. “Look who’s calling the Metus smelly!”

  “All right, I’m taking you home.” He grabs her arm this time.

  “No.” She loosens herself from his grip once mor
e, and they stand off against one another. When Aveline speaks, her voice is softer but clear. “What are you doing, Dev?” She takes a step closer to him. “Do you really want to go through that again? Because I can promise you, with this one”—she shoots a cold glare my way—“it will end the same.”

  Dev’s body stiffens, and Brenna stands, shocked. “Aveline.”

  “She’s not worth it,” Aveline continues, and Dev grows still, too still.

  “Be very careful, my friend,” he says in a slow, contained voice. “I know these are the drinks talking, so I will let this one pass. But do not talk of things you have no understanding of.” He seems his century-old age in this moment.

  “I do understand,” she whispers, her features crumbling with hurt.

  “No. You. Do. Not.” He punctuates every word, searing them into her, before turning and disappearing into the crowd.

  I stare wide eyed, trying to make sense of their exchange. Aveline’s bottom lip wobbles like she’s holding back tears, and she takes a step closer to me, the gleam in her eyes a mixture of regret, sadness, and complete hatred. I lean away.

  “You will never be good enough for him,” she says vehemently. “You will never be her.”

  I suck in air, and my heart stops. Her? My brows pinch in, and my stomach tightens at the deep loss etched in her features.

  Hector places a reassuring hand on Aveline’s shoulder, but she abruptly steps away, shoving past me. He follows on her heels.

  I watch their departing forms get lost in the bodies of the club, the pulse of the music a distant layer. I stand, dumbstruck.

  “Well, that sucked.” Brenna picks her drink up off the bar, slamming it back.

  I open and close my mouth, at a loss for words.

  “It’s okay. None of that has anything to do with you.”

  “What happened? What was that about?”

  She plays with her empty glass. “It’s about something that happened a very long time ago.”

  “Between Dev and a girl?”

  She eyes me apologetically. “It’s not my story to tell.”

  Even though I want to shake her till she spills all her beans and then some, I nod in understanding, respecting whatever loyalty she’s holding on to in regards to Dev, Aveline, and their past. And what a past it’s turning out to be.

  What could have caused such visceral reactions? Or better yet, who?

  You will never be her.

  Aveline’s words sound in my ears like a ghostly curse, and I shiver.

  Scanning the crowd, I wonder if Dev’s still here and if I should seek him out. What would I say? Is this why she hates me so much? She thinks I’m trying to replace someone? And Dev…what was this girl to him? All I know is, she must have been someone important to them both. A hollow feeling erupts in my chest. For whom, I’m not sure.

  “I can see your mind running a mile a minute.” Brenna nudges me. “He’ll be fine, and if there’s anything I know about Dev, it’s that you’ll only find him when he wants to be found.” She points to my glass. “Drink up. There’s one thing that’s a guaranteed fix to this quickly growing melancholy night, and that’s to head into that sea of tranced individuals and dance.”

  Despite myself, I smile, Brenna’s attitude reminding me so much of Becca’s.

  Walking out of the lounge, we make our way toward the pulsating crowd in the center. I don’t feel much like dancing, but Brenna’s convinced it’s just what we need.

  After a moment, the beat picks up, and it takes no great effort to give my body over to it. With the finished drink flowing, mixed with the energy coursing through my veins, the music swarms around us like a forbidden siren moving our arms and legs to her desire. I’ve never felt so primal and, in the midst of the movement of those around me, I easily forget who I am and become one with the mass, hypnotically pushing back on the beat like it pushes on us. The anxiousness and worry that gripped me from the last exchange between Dev and Aveline melts away.

  Brenna sways in front, coupled with a girl rocking a glowing band around her arm. The song turns over and becomes hypnotic, turning me into nothing but a reactionary being. Closing my eyes, I block out the flashing lights that skip overhead as a strong hand snakes around my waist, guiding me to a body. The liquid coursing through me loosens the convictions of stopping whoever this stranger is, and I continue to move, tipping my head back against a hard chest. A familiar intoxicating scent lifts my eyelids. Scruff grazes my cheek as another hand snakes around to splay across my thigh, leaving heat trails everywhere it touches. I shift around, heart beating fast, as the bluest eyes grip me with their intensity.

  Dev pins me with his beauty, his desire, and—I take note—his anger. Every one of my cells jump with his sudden presence, and in this precarious place, with this hedonistic music spinning around us, the Molly that’s telling me I should step away and clear my head, at this point, is a shell of a woman. But the other Molly, the one who wants to push Dev into the shadows, well, she just downed a protein shake and is stronger than ever.

  By some miracle, I keep myself from giving in, the need to say something about earlier more pressing. “Dev, about what Aveline sa—” His thumb grazing my bottom lip stops me midsentence.

  Leaning in, he commands only one thing, “Dance with me.”

  And that’s the proverbial straw that breaks the stupid camel’s back. In that moment I couldn’t care less about whatever past is resurrecting between Aveline and Dev. Whatever ghost is coming back to haunt. With his hand skimming the length of me, I close my eyes and let the music in. Let what this place is meant to do take control. Because like all things that feel good in the moment, it clouds the consequences of later. So when Dev positions my back to his front and his lips graze along my neck, I sigh and let go.

  We move together as one within a larger mass of one. I imagine this is what it must be like on drugs, the dripping of ecstasy permeating the air, when humans descend to their inner animal.

  Dev’s strong arms wrap around my front, connecting us further. Mine lock around his neck, again bringing his face precariously close to my exposed skin. I want to turn around and peer into him, see whatever primal expression he wears when moving as he does, because, man, does he know how to move. With his hard torso encompassing my form, I let him explore, knowing this is breaking a thousand boundaries I set in place, yet completely helpless to stop it.

  The music shifts into another greedy beat, and I twist to face Dev. My body thrums with heat as his eyes spark in the dimness, devouring me whole. All they see is me. All they want is me. His full lips part invitingly, and his dark features flash in the shifting lights above.

  I watch in horror and lust and excitement as my hand reaches up and brushes those lips, the ones I’m trying hard not to kiss. Again. The side of Dev’s mouth inches up, and something in his sapphire gaze blazes with satisfaction and sin, like he finally has an answer to a long-standing question. Before I can do anything else, he gently encompasses my outstretched hand and brings the top of it to his mouth. With his lips branding my skin, he presses the small of my back, forcing me closer. I am locked into this man, every inch of me against every inch of him, and it feels wonderful. It feels safe.

  He leans in as if to kiss me, and my heart pops in my chest. A million thoughts zip about—the shoulds and should nots of this moment. They all stop, however, when his head moves to my ear instead, his breath caressing my skin.

  “This will not end the same.” His voice is liquid heat as his grip on me tightens.

  And then I’m let go, and Dev melts away into the masses as the space he once occupied closes over. The only memory of his presence is the tingling of my hand and the deep thumping of my heart as it replays his words over and over.

  This will not end the same.

  — 9 —

  I WAKE WITH a start to banging on a door. I look around, confused, my surroundings foreign. I’m in a strange bedroom that I slowly put together is in Dev, Aveline, and Tim’s
apartment. I’m in Terra.

  “Molly? You up? I hope you don’t sleep in the nude, because I’m coming in.” My door swings open and Rae enters. “Morning!” he says cheerfully.

  I groan and glance to the window. “It’s still night out.” I throw the covers over my head.

  “It’s always night out.” Rae pulls the sheets completely off and away from me. “Phew, you don’t sleep in the nude. Not that I really would have minded.”

  Ignoring his lewdness, I sit up, rubbing my eyes. “Would I even benefit from asking what time it is?”

  “It’s time for you to get up.” Rae walks back to the door. “We’re going for a run before you meet Elena. Come out when you’re ready, and by that I mean in fifteen minutes. We’ll eat a light snack before we get started.” He closes the door behind him.

  “Yes, sir.” I salute the spot where he stood.

  Swinging my feet over the edge of my bed, I stare at my reflection in the mirror across the room. My hair is kinked on one side, and I’m wearing one of my worn college tees with a pair of gray pajama shorts. I vaguely remember bringing to mind this exact outfit before my head hit my pillow and I passed out. I’m still perplexed that I’m able to sleep here.

  Shuffling to the connecting bathroom, I wash up, my mind going back to last night. After Dev left me hanging in the middle of Vex’s dance floor, I couldn’t find him the rest of the night, which honestly kind of irked me. Not only because he vanished after such a cryptic statement and animalistic dance routine, but also because I didn’t really know where the apartment was located. Luckily, Brenna did and walked me home.