Chapter 1: Selene

First chapter in the perspective of one of the main characters: Selene.

    The muffled sound of my phone ringing interrupted my sleep.  I groaned my annoyance.  I'd only gotten to sleep at two a.m. because of my nightmares.

At first, I tried to ignore it, but whoever was calling me was insistent.  Groaning once more, I rolled over and forced my eyes open.  The blurred numbers on my clock glared at me.  Blinking a few times, the clock still glared at me, telling me it was a quarter after ten in the morning.  My phone continued to on my bedside table.  Moaning, I grabbed it and answered.  

"Whoever the hell this is, I hate you." I growled into the phone.

"Aww, I love you too." Lux replied in a sweet voice.

"I don't think you heard me well enough." I grumbled. "I hate you."

"I heard you perfectly well." Lux chuckled on the other end of the phone. "That's why I said I love you too."

"What do you want, Lux?" I snapped.

"Somebody's grumpy this morning." he commented.

"You noticed."

"The tone of your voice is difficult to ignore."

"Is it now?"

"It is."

"Maybe, it's because somebody kept calling me while I was sleeping." I rolled my eyes.

"Aww.  So, I did wake you." 

"Yes, you did.  What do you want?" I grumbled.

"I was hoping to take advantage of this nice day and hang out with you." he replied in a sad voice.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes.

"The rain's slowing down." he continued. "It should be over in a half hour or so."

"In other words, 'Please say yes, Selene.'" I grumbled.

I could almost see him smiling hopefully on the other end.  I wanted to strangle him, but Lux is my best friend.  He's been with me through a lot over the years.  If I lost him...I'm not sure what I'd do.  I mean - he's not as close to me as Dante and Ray are, but I'd still feel a bit devastated over his loss.

I sighed again and sat up. "Fine.  I'll meet you outside the apartment building."

"I'm already out here." he laughed.

Annoyance bubbled inside me.  He'd known that he could easily get me to say yes to him.  I cursed into the phone, his laughter the last thing I heard before I hung up.

I took my time showering and getting dressed to annoy him; taking forty-five minutes to meet him.

He sat on the stoop in front of the building.  Actually, he lounged on it more than he sat.

The rain had stopped, as he'd predicted, though the skies were making it clear that the rain wasn't done yet.  It'd been raining for three days.

I looked down at Lux.  His short brown hair was darkened and glistening from the rain.  Naturally, he hadn't brought an umbrella.  His blue tank was wet too, sticking to him.  "You almost look like a drowned rat." I said.  

Lux looked over his shoulder at me and smiled.  "So, you did it on purpose."

"Did what on purpose?" I asked innocently. 

"Took a long time." he replied, raising an eyebrow.

"What makes you think that?" 

"I know you, Selene. You were trying to get back at me by taking your time." He stood up, dusting himself off.  "But, I don't mind a little rain."  Lux took my hand and led me down the steps and across the busy street as a drizzle started up again.

After we stopped to eat, the rain had stopped and the skies began to slowly clear.  Lux and I walked out of the cafe, once again looking to the sky.  The gray clouds were rolling away, the bright yellow sun shining through the cracks.  I looked at Lux who, following his gentlemanly ways, was walking by my side, near the street.  His gray-green eyes distant.

"Thinking about Ray?" I asked him, smiling.

"What?" he asked, shaken out of his thoughts.

"I asked if you were thinking about Rayonna." I replied.

Rayonna was my best friend and sister.  I've lived with her parents since I was a baby.  My parents had abandoned me because they were too horrified by what I was.  Rayonna's parents had told me that I'd been left on the front steps of the building they lived in in the rain and they'd found me when they heard me crying in the middle of the night.  When I was eight, Rayonna explained to me what I was: the child of a demon and a human. My father had been possessed by a demon, the demon had violated my mother, creating me; a warlock.  When my mother saw me the day I was born, she'd seen my warlock marks, things that I inherited from my demonic father that mark me as a warlock.  I have two of them: wings like a bat and eyes like a cat.  Rayonna helped me learn to mask them from mortals and other creatures.  I taught myself how to make them invisible to even me.

"You're still on that?" Lux asked me.

"Stop denying it, Lux." I rolled my eyes. "Everyone knows you like her." 

"Why? Because we're friends?  Because we talk to each other a lot?" Lux shook his head.

"Oh, shut up." he snapped. "You don't know anything about love or relationships."

My arms were starting to feel sticky with humidity.  "Why? Because I'm a warlock?" I said quietly.  Anger began to boil my blood and I tried to keep calm as I looked at him, narrowing my eyes.

Lux pressed his lips together.

"You think that because I'm half-demon and I'm immortal and I have powers that I don't feel?  That I don't know the same things a normal sixteen-year-old girl does?" I snapped.

"No. I never thought that, Selene.  That wasn't what I meant at all.  he said, his voice shaking slightly.

We'd entered a park that was near to my apartment building.  Few people were hanging around.  Most were young kids who were climbing all over play sets.  A few were couples walking around, talking and kissing, enjoying the sunshine.

To avoid unwanted attention, I climbed a nearby tree.  My damp hair clung to my neck as I climbed to the highest branch possible.  The bark scraped my hands as I grabbed onto the tree and pulled myself up.

"What are you doing?" Lux called up to me.

"Get up here, Cassells." I called back.

I heard him start climbing, the soles of his shoes scratching and scraping against the bark.  I pulled myself up onto the last strong branch and sat down.  I quickly scraped my long hair up into a sloppy bun, the kind where the ends stick up all over the back of your head like a crown.

A moment later, Lux hauled himself up onto the branch beside mine and sat facing me.  "I've never thought of you as that much different from any other girl...on general terms.  You're smart in your own ways, wise and understanding to an extent, pretty." Lux said.  "Sure, you were born different.  Everyone is.  So what, if you have...demon blood in you?  You're immortal, you have powers.  Everyone wants that and you do."  

"Then, what did you mean when you said I have no understanding about love?" I asked.

"You've never been there, Selene.  You've never been with anyone, yet you're trying to prove that I like Ray."

I sighed.  "Nice way of putting it."

I'd almost forgotten that Lux had had a couple of girlfriends before and he wasn't a virgin either.  He'd done it with his second girlfriend at least twice.  She'd been a beautiful girl with a full figure and everything else.  They'd been together for six months when they'd done it, and the next day, I came by Lux's place to hang out.  He was lying in bed with only his boxers on, staring at the ceiling, a far off look in his eyes.  I asked him if he was okay and he continued to stare.  Then, he said, "I don't know how it happened, Selene.  We were just talking about...everything and anything that came to mind.  And then,...we were kissing and kissing.  And then..." he trailed off, swallowing.  Then, he'd looked at me, his gray-green eyes meeting mine.  "She...she was my first."  He'd run his hands over his face and stated to laugh.  "And, God it was amazing!"

Lux's first time had been at fourteen.  I'm sixteen and still as much of a virgin as a sixteen-year-old girl can be.  He was looking at me now, pity in his eyes. I ground my teeth.

"Selene - "

"I forget sometimes that I'm surrounded by people with experience." I snapped.

"Selene, you have an eternity to date and have sex, get married, have kids." Lux told me. "I don't. Dante doesn't, Ray doesn't." 

Ray has five hundred years, give or take." I snapped.  "And most warlocks are barren.  Even if I wanted kids, I might not have any."

"I - "

"You forgot.  I know." I grumbled.

"I'm sorry." he replied, his voice quiet.

"For what?  For my lack of a relationship life?  For me being born the way I am?  What?"

"For bringing this up."

I looked at him.  His eyes were downcast, his brown hair spiky from running his hands through it after the rain.  Some parts were becoming wavy as they dried. 

"Change the subject." I said, my anger cooling.

Lux looked up at me, his gray-green eyes lighting up a little.  I noticed that he still wore the rope necklace I'd given him during the first year we'd been friends.  He'd put a star charm on it recently.  "Selene," 

I blinked, coming back from my thoughts.

"Do you ever use them?"

"What?"

"You're powers?"

"You know I don't." I replied. "You know that using them isn't exactly the best thing."

"You can't keep them locked up forever.  You'll need them someday."

I rolled my eyes.  "Millions of people go their entire lives with no powers to help them.  I don't think I need them."

"Those millions of people have wished for powers like yours at least five times in their whole lives.  Trust me, I should know."  Lux chuckled, leaning toward me.

I shook my head.  "I was born like this.  I was born with these demonic powers and these warlock marks.  Being born with this made my parents abandon me at Ray's house.  No human should want that."

"Wait - what?" Lux leaned farther forward on the branch, nearly falling off.  He grabbed my knee to steady himself and shifted his weight back a little. "What do you mean 'warlock marks'?"

I sighed, leaning against the trunk of the tree. "People who see me as I am see my warlock marks.  My wings and my eyes.  Almost all of the creatures of the Second World, the Magic World have some kind of Mark.  Faeries have a kind of tattoo of like a flower or a leaf or something like that.  Vampires have their pale skin.  Werewolves have a ring of gold in their irises.  Warlocks can have many things as Marks.  Some have odd skin colors like blue, green, red, or purple.  Some have wings.  Some have hooves or webbed feet or claws.  Some have strange eyes or horns.  Almost any imaginable combination of strange things can be a warlock mark."

"I want to see yours." Lux said eagerly.  

"Not happening." I said quickly, shaking my head.

"Why?  I'm your best friend.  You trust me with your deepest secret.  Why don't I get to see you as you truly are?" He tilted his head to one side, one of his diamond studs catching a shaft of sunlight that came through the leaves of the tree, glittering brightly.

"I don't want you to see me as I really am.  I can't even handle the sight." I replied.  "You weren't born with the ability to see me and others like me.  Be thankful for it.  Be thankful I'm nice enough not to scar you."

"How could a pair of wings and weird eyes scar you?" he asked.

"I don't know.  It just did.  I can't even look myself in a mirror anymore without seeing my true self flash before my eyes."

"Wow" he said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes.

"I still wanna see you. I'm not gonna stop asking until I do." he raised his eyebrows.

"Ugh."

And this is why I hate him.

I looked at him then. He was trying to give me the Face.  The Face was something Lux always does when he wants something you're unwilling to give him.  It's his puppy face, if you will.  At the same time, it's not the puppy face.  He raises his eyebrows, which are nicely arched and done at least once a month by Ray, and squints his eyes at the outer corners just slightly as he focuses on you.  Then, he leans in just enough, so that you're forced to look into his eyes and melt.  You don'y just melt with the Face though.  You melt because Lux is practically the embodiment of the word charm.  He's got the looks, the gentlemanly ways, and the sweet words for it.  If someone doesn't melt when he does the Face, that person is an alien.

So, as he locks eyes with me, I struggle to fight against him.  I try to look away, but he blocks my view of anything else.  Closing my eyes is useless as well.  I see the Face on the dark screens of my eyelids.  His sickly sweet smile curves his lips.  "You know you can't fight it, Selene." he whispers.

"Oh, I hate you." I grumbled, melting.

Lux laughed and pulled away.

"Stay back, okay." I warned.

Lux nodded and I closed my eyes.

 

  I allowed a little of my magic to go through me, unveiling my true appearance to the human eye.  The magic warmed my veins as it flowed freely once again.  I felt the weight of my wings press into my shoulders.  They popped free of the layer of human skin I'd painted over them years ago, as I'd locked up my magic.

The release was painful at first, sending searing pain through my back.  The pain soon faded and was replaced with with blissful relief as my wings stretched and relaxed.

Closing off my magic with a single thought, I awaited Lux's reaction to the sight of me.  Would he gasp? Faint? Laugh? Or would he simply remain silent?  Would he quietly climb down the tree and walk away without looking back?  Or, would he embrace this side of me as he had embraced the knowledge of its existence?  As I waited, I kept my eyes, the scariest part, closed tightly.

 

Reviews

[Ace St. Jean]

Interesting story, love the concept.

[Tessa Melendez]

Thank you, I'm working on finishing chapter 2. It's a few pages away from the finish line, I just have been writing another story and reading stuff lately.

[Ace St. Jean]

Cool! Can't wait to read it!

[Tessa Melendez]

Working on it now. I'll let you know when it's done. I'm surprised you chose this story to read and review. I have one book out that's 12 chapters in.