Chapter 2: Lux

When Selene relented, allowing me to see her true self, excitement ran rampant inside me.  I'd sometimes wondered if there was something special that came with being a warlock besides immortality and powers.  I'd wondered if she'd inherited something more from her demon side; horns, wings, fangs, claws, something.  Now, I know that I was right.  So, I waited eagerly for her magic shield to come down.

Her eyes closed and, in a moment, the shield peeled away, revealing leathery wings like a bat's.  Only, hers were huge.  I couldn't quite guess the wing span since they were folded close to her.  The height was all I could guess.  From the spike at the top ridges to the pointed tips, they had to be nearly five feet tall.  They might not quite reach the ground as she walked.

I looked at her now, at a loss for words.  Her eyes were still closed tightly, almost as if she were in pain.  "Open your eyes." I said quietly.

She opened them and stared intently at the space between us.  

"Look up." I said, a smile crossing my face.

She looked to the sky.

I chuckled.  "Stop playing around.  Look at me."

Heaving a deep sigh, she finally looked at me.  I could barely stop myself from jumping as I saw her eyes.  They were nearly an iridescent purple with slits instead of circles at the centers.  Purple cat eyes.  That's what they were.  

"Holy s**t." I gasped.

She closed her eyes and looked away.  "Yeah, I know." she whispered.

The shield came back up almost twice as fast as it had come down.  Veiling her marks with normality once more.

"Wait. No." I said urgently.

Apparently, she didn't catch that I was just surprised by her warlock eyes.  Not scared.  

"Can we change the subject, please?" Selene asked.  She looked back at me, her eyes blue once more.  

I wanted to protest, but seeing the tight set of her mouth, the sadness in her eyes, I decided not to.  Sighing inwardly, I grasped for a new subject.  "Wanna make use of your fake ID tonight?  Sneak into a club?" I asked sheepishly.

She laughed a little and relief flooded my veins. "Are you serious?" Selene smiled as though she hadn't been upset a few moments ago.

"Yeah, I'm serious." I chuckled.

"When?" she asked.

I shrugged. "When do you think we should do it?"

"How about tonight at ten?" she suggested. "We can meet at my place and Ray can come too."

She punctuated this with a playful wiggle of her dark eyebrows.

I shook my head.  "I've told you so many times.  I don't like Ray like that.  She's too crazy for me."

"Sure." Selene snorted, slinking by me to climb down the tree.  "See you at my house at ten."

I knocked on the door to Selene's apartment at ten p.m. exactly.  My friend Dante was with me.  As soon as I'd left the park with Selene and asked him to come with us tonight he'd said yes.  Dante was the one who got us our fake IDs and kept them for us.  He'd been my best friend since Kindergarten and Ray's best friend since birth.  Dante was the one who'd introduced me to Ray and Selene.

Dante ran his hand through his spiky black hair, his hazel eyes fixed on the door.  He was the embodiment of the word confidence. He'd dressed up good for the club.  He'd put on a red V-neck t-shirt under a brown leather jacket with black jeans and Vans. 

"You ready?" Dante asked. 

"Why're you asking?" 

"You seem nervous or something." he smiled. "You keep playing with your jacket."

I noticed then that I was playing with tugging at one side of my jacket and stopped. "Oh."

Why was I nervous?  I was just having a night out with Dante, Ray, and Selene.

Dante laughed, knocking again.  This time Rayonna's mom answered, smiling warmly.  She looked a little like Ray with her green eyes and slim face.

"Lux! Dante!" she gasped. "You two clean up nice."

I could've sworn there was a note of sarcasm there, but we both smiled and entered.  Ray's mom closed the door behind us. "They'll be out in a minute or so." she said, striding off to her room.

Dante and I stood and waited in the living room quietly.

"You're nervous about Ray, aren't you?  Or, is it Selene?" Dante smiled as he asked.

"I'm not - "

I was saved from having to answer by Ray coming out of her room, laughing at something Selene had said.  She'd dressed up in a tight strapless, bright red dress with black heels.  She had on blood red lipstick and black eyeliner that made her pale green eyes pop.  She'd also done her hair in small ringlets.  Silver bangles clinked on each wrist and silver feather earrings tinkled under her hair.  A silver infinity necklace glared at me around her neck.  

Dante clapped slowly.  "Gorgeous, Ray."

Rayonna smiled. "Wait 'til you see what I've done to Selene."

She winked.

Selene strode almost shyly down the hall from her room and my breath caught.  Selene's hair was curled nicely in loose ringlets.  Black eyeliner, flipping up in wings at the outer corners of her eyes made the blue in them brighter.  She'd also added light touches of mascara and clear lip gloss.  She wore a tight blue, sleeveless cowl-neck shirt with a tight black skirt that barely covered half of her thighs over fishnet stockings and leather boots.  She too wore silver bangles on one wrist, leather bracelets on the other and an arrow necklace.  Silver hoops big enough to be bangles as well poked through her curls.

Her eyes fell on my face and it felt like there was a weight on my chest.  My lungs wouldn't work.

"You look hot." Selene commented.  A smile curved her glossy lips.  

I swallowed hard, nearly gasping. "You look amazing."

Her smile filled out. "Ray did it all. I just chose the boots, makeup, and bracelets."

I took her in once more.  Ray knew how to turn her into a goddess.

"Shall we go?" Ray interrupted.

I looked at her, my breath coming back. "Yeah. Sure."

We took a cab to the club only to stand in line for about fifteen minutes to get in.  Inside, it was dark with lights of every color sweeping the smoky floor.  Shadows twirled and swayed, outlined by the lights.  Beats pulsed from speakers hidden by smoke.  Dante and Rayonna seemed almost at home in this place, striding in with confidence.  I hung back a little and looked around.  Dante stole Selene away from Rayonna and started swaying with her.  Ray turned and looked at me, almost as if she knew I was a little uncomfortable at a club.  She strode toward me, a small smile creeping across her red lips.

"What?" I asked.

"Loosen up.  You're at a club.  Dance." she shook my shoulders.

I smiled, rolling my eyes.

"Come on."  Ray grabbed my hand and led me into the smoke.

We danced together for what felt like hours; grinding, swaying, every kind of dance.  I regretted bringing my jacket and not thinking of a place to put it beforehand.  Sweat drenched my back and dripped down my neck.  I could barely see any sweat on Ray in the minimal lighting.  Though, I might catch the sheen of it on her face, chest, or back every once in awhile.

Breathing hard, I pulled away from Ray for a break.  I stumbled through the crowds finding Dante standing on the side wall by an exit.  I trudged over to him.   Dante smiled broadly.  "Ray's making you work, huh?" 

I nodded. "Where's Selene?" 

He nodded to his left and I looked.

Selene was perched on a stool by the bar with a drink in her hand.  Her ringlets were coming out in frizzed waves, but she still looked amazing.

"What'd you get her to drink?" I asked, looking at him.

Dante smirked.  "That's her...second or third Manhattan?" he replied.  "They make them good here.  She tried one and loved it." 

My jaw dropped. "Are you trying to get her drunk?"

"She's fine.  Come on.  Let's get some air." he said.

"No.  We need to stop her - "

Dante picked me up by the collar of my shirt and pushed me through the exit.

I stumbled in the side alley and Dante stepped out behind me.  "Dante, really?"

"Understand something, Lux.  Selene's a warlock." he said quietly.

"I know."

"It takes a lot to get warlocks drunk.  Almost triple the alcohol it takes to get humans drunk.  She's on her third drink right now, which means she's just getting slightly tipsy." he explained. "Calm down."

"How do you know all this?"

Dante stayed quiet a minute, the muscles in his jaw working. "I'm a werewolf, Lux."

My jaw dropped again. "Bullshit."

"What?" Dante narrowed his eyes at me.

"If that was true, you would've told me by now." I said.

"It only happened three years ago." he said defensively.

"How?" 

"I was taking a walk late at night 'cause I couldn't sleep and a rogue wolf attacked me.  I don't know who saved me." His face went dark.

"What do you mean?" 

"It wasn't like those scenes in movies where the victim wakes up in a strange place with their caretaker by their bed.  I woke up in my room the next morning, tired as all hell with only a few scratches and bite marks." He looked straight into my eyes as he said it and that's when I noticed the ring of gold shimmering at the centers of his eyes.  

"Almost all creatures of the Second World, the Magic World, have some kind of mark.  Faeries have a kind of tattoo like a flower or a leaf or something like that .  Vampires have their pale skin.  Werewolves have a ring of gold in their irises."  Selene had said.

Dante really was a werewolf.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"People of the Second World are forbidden to tell mortals things like this.  We're supposed to quietly coexist and leave your world untouched.  God created mortals without the ability to see our world and without the knowledge of it.  We're meant to leave you all that way." he explained. 

"But, someone broke that rule.  Some werewolf turned you into one of them." 

"It was a rogue werewolf.  Someone who was going insane with the agony full moon Changes bring or the horrifying creatures they could see.  It happens when mundanes and the Second World creatures clash."

A group of kids came pouring out of the exit we'd come out of  and started smoking.  The smell of marijuana filled the air. 

"We should move."

Dante's shoulders shook and he closed his eyes.  "Wait a sec." he mumbled.

He walked up to the group of smokers and talked to them for a minute.  He pulled out some cash and came back a moment later with a blunt of marijuana between two fingers.  I watched in shock as he put it between his lips and lit it.  He put away the lighter and exhaled smoke.  "Let's go." 

We started walking and I couldn't help but watch as he smoked, wondering when he'd started. 

"Stop staring, Lux." he grumbled.

"When did this start?" I asked.

"The Changes are painful sometimes.  Especially when you don't want to.  Ray and Selene helped me find a werewolf contact, a pack leader.  I didn't join his pack yet.  I'm not sure I want to.  He let me hang around with them a little while.  Like, a week.  When it came close to a full moon and the Changes became hard to control, some wolves got high, some drank, some did both or a little of one or the other."  Dante explained.  "Doing a little of something helped ease the pain of it.  Drinking knocked them out eventually, but got them hungover horribly because werewolves need about twice the alcohol humans need to get drunk.  Drugs, however, work best.  The Changes ebb away as you get high and leaves you hungry and...other things.  It's the absolute best choice."

"So you're saying that you were feeling the Change coming on just now?" I asked.

"Yeah." he nodded, taking a hit and exhaling smoke rings. "You saw me shaking, right?"

I nodded.

"That's a sign." he replied.  He took another hit and exhaled the smoke in my face, chuckling.

"What?" 

"I can smell your anxiety.  You reek of it."  Dante flicked away the tiny butt of his blunt. "What're you anxious about?" he asked, turning his bloodshot eyes to me. 

"I wanna see you Change, but at the same time, I'm afraid to." I admitted.

"Why?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You said that it can be painful and that some people go insane because of it.  I'd rather not risk that."

"If I allow it to happen, it hardly hurts me."

"Oh.  So, if you decide to Change, you're fine?" 

"Yeah.  You want to see me Change?" Dante smiled.

"You don't have to."

"Oh, stop.  There's nothing to be afraid of."

I watched then as he Changed.  The tail grew first, long, dark, and semi-bushy.  Then, pointy ears sprouted on top of his head.  His short, spiky hair grew longer and fur spread across his face and neck.  His clothes melted into dark fur and his arms and legs cracked as they lengthened and became corded with thicker muscle. His hands curled inward, becoming paws with long, sharp, black claws.  His face elongated into a snout.  His jaw cracked and worked as his human teeth sharpened into canines.  Lastly, his  back arched as he was forced onto all-fours.  As he looked up at me from about two feet below my face - instead of two inches above me - I saw the hazel in his eyes fade away and the gold ring expanded from the tiny centers of his eyes to cover the rest.

"Holy s**t." was all I could say.

"Lux!" 

I looked behind me.  

Selene was running toward me from the alley we'd exited from.  Ray wasn't far behind her, carrying her heels.  "Get away from him!" Rayonna yelled.

"It's okay." I said.

I was immediately proven wrong.  Dante jumped on me and tackled me to the ground.  Pain jolted up my arm and I cried out.  My ears were filled with Dante's snarling.  My heart thundered in my chest.

"Dante! Get off him!" Ray yelled.  

Dante snarled and then agony shot through me from the neck down.  I couldn't breathe.  I couldn't move.  I couldn't even scream.  My heart was the only part of me working.  Hot blood flowed freely down my neck and onto the asphalt and I was completely helpless.

I could hear both girls screaming at Dante.  Selene came into view briefly, her blue eyes full of tears.  Her cold hands pulled against Dante's jaws, trying to work his teeth out of my neck.

"Let GO, Dante!  Let him GO!" she shrieked.

"That's not going to work." a calm, deep voice warned. "You'll lose him before you manage to get him free that way.  Never mind the damage you'll do to your hands."

My vision was darkening at the edges, my arm throbbing with pain.  I could feel my life draining out of my like water from a bucket with a hole in the side.  I wanted to scream my pain, breathe again.  I wanted whoever this person was to help me and stop being so calm.  

Selene looked in the direction the voice came from, letting go of Dante's jaws. "Who're you?" 

"Step away." the voice said.

"Answer me!" she demanded.

"Not when you talk to me like that, warlock." the person snapped. "Do you want me to help your friend or let him die?  It doesn't matter to me either way."

Selene stood and stepped away.

The owner of the voice stepped into view.

It was a boy of about eighteen.  He was easily six feet tall with a lean build like Dante's.  He wore a black V-neck shirt and black jeans.  He knelt down beside me and looked at me.  His eyes were an icy blue, colder than Selene's.  They briefly flashed to something else I couldn't catch.  He smiled slightly and his hand came up.  Green sparks flew from it and darkness closed in on my sight. 

 

Reviews

[Ace St. Jean]

Liked the different perspective than the first chapter. It's interesting to see Lux's point of view and how he is being dragged into this world, which he doesn't belong in.

[Tessa Melendez]

Thank you. I probably won't have the third chapter up in a little while. But, I'll let you know when I do.

[Ace St. Jean]

Thank you.