Surrender [H.S]

Chapter Thirty-Two

Layla.

For miles, it seemed like all I could see were flashing lights and crowds of people. All I could hear were voices muffled by loud ringing noises and metal hitting metal; coins spewing from machines. I smelled cigarettes and liquor more than I did blood, which made me feel sick. I knew there was a name for a place like this, but I couldn't think of it.

"Layla, Nick doesn't really strike me as a type to hit the casino, so can we please look elsewhere?" Eleanor asked me, having to speak a little louder than a whisper so that I could hear her over the machines and voices. Even my vampire hearing seemed off in a crowd like this.

I wrinkled my nose as someone walked past me with a lit cigar, their eye dropping in a wink before they stumbled off somewhere. I felt more than a couple of eyes on me and Eleanor, but I ignored them. I could take care of myself easily.

"Where do you suppose we look then?" I responded, not looking directly at her. My eyes were too busy scanning the crowds as my nose tried to pick up the werewolves musky scent.

"I'm thinking the bar," she told me, and grabbed my arm before tugging me toward a hallway to our right. "I smelled a lot of beer on him, and I have a feeling alcohol doesn't affect him the same way it does humans."

"Why does that matter?" I asked, following my ears to the sound of clanking glasses and my nose to the scent of intoxicated blood. I began to wonder how blood might taste when a human drank an alcoholic beverage; would I be able to get a buzz from it? I've only ever tasted blood and alcohol together when Harry mixed wine in it on a special occasion, but I've never tasted it laced from the source.

"He probably either works it off fast or just doesn't feel it without a large amount," Eleanor answered, with a shrug. "It's a guy thing. They drink a lot."

"Harry doesn't," I pointed out.

"He doesn't around you. And you wouldn't know if he did anyway. Vampires don't feel the effects of alcohol unless they feed from a human that just drank it."

"You sound like Niall," I commented, half smiling.

She laughed quietly, and shook her head. "Louis tells me a lot of things. Sometimes he doesn't realize that he's going on and on about random facts."

"He must know a lot, being as old as he is," I said, softly. I wondered how Eleanor felt after he told her that he was the oldest made vampire. Did she expect it after spending so much time with him, and falling in love with him? Or was it a complete shock?

"He's picked up on a few things here and there. Sometimes I don't know why he bothers to remember little things like that," Eleanor told me, then she paused her steps as her expression went from lighthearted to confused, then from confused to guarded. "Layla, I don't think we should be doing this."

I let out a long breath. "Eleanor-,"

"No! Don't you smell that?" she hissed, tugging me closer as if she thought it would make a difference with our hearing. "I don't know the scent, but if my instincts are correct, I bet that's a shapeshifter. And I don't want to mess with one of those. We know even less about them than we do werewolves."

I looked at her and couldn't help but roll my eyes. "El, Sophie told me that the only shapeshifter that she's ever met turns into a painting, and he likes to morph into a person to scare people. Call me crazy, but unless you're afraid they'll fall on you, I don't think we have much to worry about."

She growled at me, and her eyes turned red. "Just because one shapeshifter turns into something as harmless as a painting doesn't mean that they all do! Most of them are known to turn into animals, Layla. Ones that could potentially kill us." Her hand smacked against my shoulder hard enough to nearly knock it out of the socket, and I ignored the stabbing pain I received from it. "I'm getting really tired of your nonchalant attitude with creatures that we don't know anything about. I don't understand why you're so loose with your life!"