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Myths and legends had never done my kind justice. No one understood the peace you could get from simply kneeling in the moonlight staring up at the stars as you felt the Goddess's presence around you. She gifted you with serenity, even if only for those few moments alone with her, and offered you advice to get anything you could possibly dream of.
Her power was limited but she didn't need anything more than the influence she held over her creations. That was enough for me.
I didn't have anything to ask her tonight, I just wanted to bask in her glory for as long as she would have me. She felt stronger than usual, almost agitated, but that didn't deter my fascination.
As I sat there taking in everything she had to offer, I heard her voice. Nothing more than a gentle whisper in my ear that added a mixture of joy and comfort to the never-ending loyalty I laid at her feet. I listened carefully to what she said, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stunned by the command that left her divine lips.
"There is a group of people you are yet to meet. Your people. Follow my guidance and I will lead you to them tonight."
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She was leading me to a party. A party. Of all the places I expected to meet 'my people', a party certainly wasn't one of them, but I followed her lead as she shone a light on a large house I'd never seen before. Revelling in the attention I rarely received from her, I couldn't help myself from blindly walking through the streets of LA until I found the exact location she wished for me to go.
I didn't know what 'my people' meant, if I was being honest. There was a time when 'my people' was supposed to be a pack, a pack that dictated your every move and forced you to abide by their personal set of rules. But perhaps the Goddess had known the pack I was born into was not truly my own, because she'd never punished me for leaving. Nor had she ever left my side every step of the way. That was how I'd known back then that it was the right thing to do, however, I had my doubts about this new plan of hers.
As if I'd known where she was guiding me before I left the house, I was coincidentally dressed for a party, in a long-sleeved black crop top with a cut-out at the chest, belt-like buckles holding either side of the top together; a zip-up skirt with a thick waist and silver rings hanging down from each hole along the waistline; a pair of thick boots that removed my ability to be stealthy in any way.
For a moment, I hesitated outside the house's thick gates, looking up at the sky for any sign that I needed to turn back. The Goddess was gone now, though, awaiting my arrival at this address and no longer willing to tell me what to do next. So I slid through the open gates, walked across the drive, up some steps, then pushed open one of the thick double doors leading me into a hallway. The party inside could be heard from the street, dozens of people I'd never seen before scattered everywhere chatting and drinking, some even dancing to the music that blasted throughout the house. I tried not to get noticed by anyone as I navigated my way through the room. Who, among this huge group of people, could possibly be those I was looking for? How was I supposed to find them here?
As I reached the other side of the masses into a slightly quieter part of the hallway, I noticed a room blocked off by a large-looking man with his arms crossed as he leaned against the archway. He was assessing everyone around him with almost a glare on his face, daring anyone to try to go through to the private area. I couldn't see much, since at my angle all I could tell was that there were a few people in there, but something drew me a little closer.
Before I could even think to get into a confrontation with the bouncer, I felt something touch my shoulder as a man I didn't know circled around me so we were facing one another. Looking up, I took in his blonde hair and blue eyes, his skinny limbs but ultimately fairly cute face. He looked apprehensive as he stared back at me, and it was then that I happened to catch a whiff of what he was.
Vampires. There were vampires here. Was the Goddess trying to lead me to my death? Was it my time? Did she really mean 'the people who are going to end you' when she said it was time for me to meet 'my people'?
By the shift in his features, he knew what I was, too. His nostrils flared for a moment, then he crossed his arms over his chest and furrowed his brows. I stood my ground, waiting for the accusation.
"Are you friends with someone here?" he asked, his tone surprisingly somewhat polite. I glanced around but there was no one whose face I'd even seen before, let alone was friends with.
"Um, no," I admitted. I wasn't going to lie to him. He'd be able to tell.
"Then why are you here? We don't have any trouble with... your kind. In fact, I specifically remember avoiding all of you unless we don't have a choice."
I didn't know how to tell him that I was here because of divine guidance. Vampires didn't really believe or respect that werewolves had a goddess, and they certainly would never buy the fact that she was able to actually speak to us and tell us where we could start our next journey.
So, like a mature adult, I circled around him. "I just heard the party and wanted to check it out," I said, backing away slowly. I was acutely aware that the bouncer was somewhere behind me, but I hoped this man wouldn't press me too hard about my presence here. If this was his or his clan's house, then surely most of these people were here to become feeds, right? One more person shouldn't matter. They didn't know everyone who'd showed up.
"You're not telling me the truth," he snapped as he took a couple of steps forward to close the gap. I stopped moving knowing there was no point and I'd only end up tripping over or walking into that bouncer.
"Well, you probably wouldn't believe the truth. We don't exactly get on or share the same beliefs," I reminded him, hoping he'd put two and two together that I was talking about the Goddess.
He just frowned harder. "Look, I don't want to start anything by sending you away and causing bad blood between us and your pack, or whatever, but I'm really not comfortable with you being here. Could we mutually agree you should leave?"
My brows shot up in surprise that he was being so diplomatic about this whole thing. I'd technically crashed this party, technically broken into this house... What kind of vampire was this guy? Was he, like, emotionally mature or something? Strange.
He motioned at the archway, which was now only a metre away. "My clan and I just don't feel like starting trouble, Miss."
I glanced through to the private room with no doubt that every single one of them were able to hear what was going on. The room was set up with a couple of couches and two comfortable-looking armed chairs, and there were about ten people inside, maybe even more. As I quickly scanned over the faces looking back at me, I happened to catch one particular guy's gaze. His eyes were blue for the first split second I saw them, before they flashed red and a sudden urge to sprint across the room and tackle him overtook me. I dead-weighted my feet into the floor as we stared at each other for a long moment, the heads of every person in that room spinning to look at me. I heard a gasp from the blonde man who'd been interrogating me up until now.
My trance came crashing down with the realisation that this was what the Goddess meant. 'My people' was not necessarily referring to a group - or maybe it was, what did I know? - but a man who was destined to be with me. A vampire.
I scrunched up my nose as I looked away back to the blonde, whose eyes were wide staring at me. Deciding this was not what I wanted at all, I waved a hand in the air and huffed out, "You know what, yeah, you're right. You guys don't want me here and I don't want to be here. Sorry to bother you."
Too stunned to reply, I was able to storm passed the blonde back into the crowd that I knew would lead me to the front door. The Goddess was already arguing with me over this, already pushing her presence down on me, but I was ignoring it. Until I was in direct moonlight, I wouldn't be able to speak to her, anyway. She could chastise me all she wanted. Nothing would convince me that being with a vampire was a good idea.
Before I could leave, however, a figure zipped into my way and I stopped dead in my tracks. He had black and red hair randomly dyed across his head, and a pair of soft brown eyes and dimples in his smile. His head was tilted to the side as he gently pressed his fist to my shoulder. "Hey, where are you going?"
"Home," I answered sharply.
"But you just got here. Ignore Sam, he's a party-pooper. You're welcome to stay." He winked at me and motioned for me to go back, but I just took a step to the side intending to continue on my way out. Of course, he blocked me off again.
"Do you mind?" I growled, the noise rising up from the depths of my chest. A couple of the humans around us started looking for the dog it had come from, which didn't help my self-esteem whatsoever.
"You can't go now," he pushed, clapping his hands like an excited child. "Come on, there's plenty of people for you to meet."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Not interested."
"I think you should stay." The voice that spoke behind me was deep but feminine, and I looked over my shoulder to see a tiny woman with black-dyed hair and purple stripes at the front looking at me with hazel eyes. She was smiling widely, despite knowing exactly what she was doing. The two of them had me surrounded.
"I don't want to be here any more than you guys want - what do you call us? Right, a mongrel here. So just leave me alone. I shouldn't have come in the first place."
They both zipped into my way now, refusing to let me through.
"What is wrong with you guys?"
"They're a part of the clan." Another voice spoke to me now, only this one sounded just as annoyed as I was. I turned to see a woman with bright pink hair next to me, glaring at my two adversaries like she herself was being forced to stay. When she met my gaze, she added, "You're not stupid, you know what you felt when you saw... him. They're back-handedly looking out for him by trying to get you to stay."
"Looking out for him?" I repeated, frowning.
She sighed. "Yes. He's not even looked at a woman besides to feed since his change, so now that you're here..." She trailed off knowing I'd fill in the gaps. These two saw the opportunity to make that guy less lonely... and for fuck's sake, telling me all this was her way to do the exact same thing they were, and it was goddamn working.
I groaned. "Your trick isn't working on me."
She smiled. "It was a plan, but honestly, I'd advise you to scram anyway. The guy's an asshole and you've just proved you're not, so leave while you have the chance."
"I was trying," I pointed out, motioning at the two who'd yet to move a muscle out of my way.
The woman beside me looked at them for a moment, then shrugged one shoulder. "You have another option. If you stay, you can stick with me. He's not gonna come near you anyway, he doesn't want you, either."
"I don't want to be here," I complained.
"They won't let you leave," she countered.
Between getting into a fight with two vampires just to leave, and staying at this decent party with decent music and a woman who clearly understood I didn't want to be here, I figured the latter was the better option. We didn't need to cause a scene. So, reluctantly, I nodded at her and she motioned me back through the crowd.
I kept my gaze where we were going rather than daring to even glance toward the private room. I didn't want to see him.
"My name's Cassie," the woman said as she led me into a kitchen, which was equally blocked off and completely empty. "I don't really enjoy these parties myself. They're obnoxious and the feeds who come here are so trashed their blood is always disgusting." She shrugged. "But they don't happen often, only when we're celebrating something."
"What are you celebrating?" I found myself asking, sitting at one of the stools by the island. Cassie had grabbed a drink from the fridge and joined me in a blur by the time I was able to blink.
"We defeated one of our long-standing enemies," she explained. "Someone who's caused a lot of trouble and bothered us more than I care to admit."
I nodded. "Run into a lot of trouble?"
"I guess." She examined me for a moment. "Are we the first vampires you've ever met? You seemed to catch onto what we are quite quickly, based on your heart rate when Sam stopped you."
"I'm guessing this Sam guy is blondie?" I questioned, to which she nodded. "No, you're not the first vampires I've met. Every other one has been vile and cruel, but you seem cool."
She laughed. "Yeah, you get a lot of shitty vamps. If - and take that if with a pound of salt - you do happen to stick with us, you'll see we're not so bad. It's unlucky who you've been paired with, though."
"Right, you said he's an asshole."
"He is, especially to those he doesn't know. Spend five minutes with us and you'll see he's not that much better with his so-called friends, either. I don't think I've ever had a proper conversation with him."
"Sounds lovely," I muttered. I glanced to the side as a couple of humans tried to get into the kitchen but were aggressively turned away by the bouncer, and asked, "Why aren't you letting people come to kitchen? Aren't they supposed to get drinks?"
"There are humans here who don't know about vampires, so we can't have them snooping around and finding the blood bags." She pointed to one of the cupboards near the sink. "There's a mini-fridge in there filled with them. It'd be pretty awkward."
"Couldn't you just compel them to forget?"
"We could but some humans are good at hiding their fright. Speaking from experience, people have come here, seen the blood bags, left seemingly without knowing anything, and then we've had cops show up at our door thinking we're, like, organ traffickers or something."
"Makes sense." I admired the kitchen from my seat, noting how extravagant it was despite belonging to vampires. I doubted they used anything in this entire room besides that one cupboard, which made it seem like quite a waste. From what I understood, most vampires didn't even bother having a kitchen, they'd just redecorate the room to be another space to hang out or turn it into a torture chamber. Ironic to have their version of food screaming in what used to be a kitchen.
Cassie shrugged one shoulder and sipped her drink without another word. I didn't mind her company, even if all I could smell around her was the stench of vampires. The smell wasn't particularly nasty, it was just potent and elicited my natural fight or flight response. I was constantly on edge.
In an attempt to keep it from getting awkward, I asked, "Who were the two stopping me from leaving?"
"That's Jake and Tara. They're Ones, in case you couldn't tell. Technically, Jake's my brother-in-law, because my One is his biological brother from when they were humans." Cassie rolled her eyes. "Could not have ended up with a worse vampire. Jake's a handful on a good day, an absolute nightmare on a bad day."
"He seems annoying," I commented, and she laughed.
"You have no idea."
"I'm quite offended, ladies."
The voice I now knew to be Jake's spoke up from behind me before he and the small girl, Tara, zipped into the room. They simultaneously hopped onto a counter together, their hands intertwined as Jake smirked at us. I felt the need to move away from them, so I dropped from the stool and walked round to the opposite side of the island, leaning back against the counter there.
Cassie rolled her eyes. "It's not polite to eavesdrop, Jake."
"Says you," he shot back. "You interrupted our grand plan to get this lovely werewolf to stick around."
"It's not like it was working," she sang at him, drawing out the last word. He glared at her for a moment, then gave me a bright smile. The dimples in his cheeks were quite cute, I had to admit, but everything I'd seen about him so far was utterly insufferable.
Tara cocked her head to one side looking at me. "Was it working?"
"No," I replied sharply.
"But you literally couldn't leave."
"I was debating attacking you," I admitted as I curled my top lip into a snarl. She squealed in delight - for some godforsaken reason - and Jake laughed beside her. Cassie was just shaking her head in disappointment.
"Why are you guys even here?" she grumbled at them, nodding to the hallway. "Go back to the living room with everyone else."
Jake sighed. "Bullying was getting boring."
"Bullying?" she repeated.
He grinned suddenly. "Well, his One is a werewolf and clearly hates him, too. What else would we do?"
I realised what they meant. They were bullying the guy whose name I didn't even know yet because I was supposed to be his One. I didn't know whether that was offensive or not, but what I did know was that I would have been right there with them. If he truly was an asshole like Cassie said, then a part of me wanted to make his life as hard as possible before I could leave this place.
Which reminded me. "When are you two morons going to stop blocking my path out of here?"
"Once you've met everyone," Tara replied swiftly with a smile.
"Everyone?"
"All..." Jake trailed off, frowning, and glanced at Tara who giggled back at him.
"All eleven of us," she finished.
I looked at Cassie for help but she only shrugged. There was nothing she could do to stop Jake and Tara from forcing me to stay, and while all these humans were here, there was nothing I could do to fight back against them, either. I settled for grumbling to myself, which sounded more like a growl, before dramatically crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at the floor.
It was going to be a long night.
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