Cassie and Zeke came back after their date and decided to join the fun of watching lame but entertaining movies. I got over my fit of laziness long enough to make food. My actions cued the end of the sloth fest and everyone started to untangle themselves from blankets and pillows. It was time for costumes to get assembled and donned; my costume was the easiest: gauzy pants with modesty shorts, a complicated lace up bra top and lots of bangles, dangles and jingling pieces. Even Edward’s costume took longer to get into due to the layers, so I helped Cassie get ready because her costume took FOREVER. Apparently making a cute woman look like Frankenstein’s monster is not a quick hop in and go style. But once she had everything in place, the overall costume was seriously kick ass. And she looked nothing like she normally did. Ok, redundant statement; cover anyone in makeup and bolts and they’re bound to look different. But it was more than the clothes, the costume gave Cassie an anonymity she didn’t usually get a chance to show the world. I liked it so I grabbed my cell phone and started to take pictures with it.
“Let’s go see how the boys are doing.” I suggested. I was waiting until the very last to put my costume on because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. I could easily be pictured in my outfit because I really am cute but it just wasn't my usual style. The only thing I lacked was the superbly long hair, which I could have used a wig to get the effect of but instead a friend of mine had supplied me with a little spell brush. It would actually make my hair grow to the length I wanted. A little frivolous magic, but I wouldn’t have to worry about losing a wig this way.
Zeke had squirmed his way into actual tight period pants for his costume. I laughed but he didn’t look bad. It was just the idea of a vampire in what were basically tights that tickled my funny bone; it was also weird seeing him with the slicked back coif of the traditional Dracula image. Again he didn’t look bad, just not quite right. Edward made a strangely convincing pirate. Quite impressive actually as his costume was spot on and now I knew why he’d grown his hair a little longer than usual. At last it was my turn to get ready while they were getting the finishing touches of their costumes in place. I wiggled into my pants, strapped myself into the lace up bra and snapped on the accessories; around my hips were dozens of softly tingling coins in a skirt. Then I combed the spell brush through my hair, it was really eerie seeing it go from shoulder to hip length but the effect was striking against my dusky skin. Lastly I slipped the soft slippers on. I looked freaking hot! Apparently the others thought so too because I got stared at when I stepped out of my room.
“You were right Callie that is a good surprise.” Cassie said, smiling at me. Zeke gave me goofy looking thumbs up and Edward just stared a little bit more. That reminded me that I still had to play a role in this which killed some of my happy mood but I hid it well enough.
“I’m guessing you like it?” I asked, arching an eyebrow and doing a twirl for the room so no one could watch my facial expressions too closely.
“I think you should keep the length it is sexy on you Cal.” Cassie complimented. I bowed at her words.
“Thank you. Now let’s blow this pop stand.” I suggested. We stood close to Edward and he snapped us over to Faerie Tales. It was now 9 pm and the lineup was record breaking. The costumes were stellar too, even the crappy ones, people had taken the occasion to heart and pulled out their personal favourites. I saw Mario, a battalion of storm troopers, princesses and a whole hoard of other characters I couldn’t identify. The stellar turnout was because a costume meant no cover charge, and the best costume winner won free drinks tonight. So people raided their memories and imaginations to try and win 1st prize; I got free drinks no matter what, so I wore the costume because I love Halloween. It’s my favourite holiday of the year and not just because it’s my birthday; people get right into the crazy spirit of having fun and playing dress up.
I burst out laughing when I saw Amanda and Dominic. He had on a long silver haired wig, and a mighty set of angel’s wings and she was playing the role of devil dressed seductress; opposing opposites whereas these two couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. It was amusing to a geek like me. Amanda exclaimed over our costumes, she loved all of our ideas and seemed really impressed by the effort Cassie had put into hers. Then she started to give our instructions, she even put Edward to use since he was here anyways. He had to give each person entering a number to wear so that they could be judged on their costumes. I was put on the stage to be entertaining eye candy with Cassie and Zeke while the judging went on. We were to judge the costumes on whatever criteria we chose. I would let the two love birds play judge and I would the tie breaker if needed, so mostly I jplanned to ust danc around the stage. It felt so weird to have long hair moving around me while I danced. It was heavier and twirled like my skirt of coins did, kinda neat. Since there would be costume judging, Amanda opened the doors as soon as we were all in place. Only about a third of the guests wanted to take place in the actual costume contest, but it was still a lot of people. We had a line up start and people trotted across the stage for us to judge until there were no more contestants lined up and we picked a winning pair. It was by far the most creative costume duo and we all agreed that they deserved to share first place. The talented young man came as a big daddy from Bioshock and his girlfriend was a Rosey from the same game; they looked amazing together.
One we’d announced the winner, I was free to slide into the crowd for some fun. On a night like tonight, everyone was having fun and I danced with them all. One particular hottie grabbed my attention. I shamelessly gave him an all over from the muscles his vest exposed to the way the satin pants fit against his backside in a wonderful way. He was dressed as the genie from Aladdin and the metallic blue looked good on his naturally darker skin tone; I couldn’t tell about the face because he had his back to me. So I started to slowly dance closer, trying to check him out properly. Somehow I lost sight of him in the crowd but I did run across Barry. He was a rather hairy version of Jax. Dancing with him was Melvin. He was just wearing street clothes, no costume which was no fun.
“Hello Callie.” Barry wolf whistled at me so I gave him a full turn so he could see the entire outfit. Then he obliged by doing the same; at least Melvin didn’t misinterpret our joking flirtation. “Melvin came in to say hi to all of us but he’s not saying long.”
I looked at the frizzy haired man, eyebrows raised in question since he wouldn’t likely hear me over the noise of the music. “I have a ‘ride along’ tomorrow with one of the journalists from the Ottawa Sun.” he explained, having to yell so I nodded my understanding. I remember what University is like, school comes first, second and third. I grabbed a drink from the bar as Melvin kissed Barry goodnight and waved goodbye. It was fun to lean against the bar facing the dancing crowd. I caught a glimpse of the genie hottie and it looked like there were chicks surrounding him, each trying to get his attention which was no surprise at all.
“So where’s Alex? I thought he had this great costume that was going to impress me. So far, not impressed.” I asked Barry.
“Oh, he’s out there somewhere. I’m sure you’ll run into him and figure out his costume.” Barry said, laughing a little. I stuck my tongue out at him and danced my way into the crowd again.
Eventually the current of movement on the dance floor pulled me closer to the genie character. I’m sure anyone who spotted our costumes had assumed we were together, especially with our natural colouration being similar even if I was lighter. After a few minutes I found myself face to face with him and it took me a second to realize why Barry had laughed at me. I froze, staring at Alex as I finally recognized the person in the costume.
He eyed my costume brazenly and gave me a cocky smile. “Not bad Callahan. Impressed by mine?” he asked, spreading his arms to display his full costume.
Yes, yes I was and that made me curl my lip. “Great just what I need, people thinking I’m here with you, and for the record no, I’m not impressed.” I retorted, moving past him. I had been shamelessly admiring the body of a man I wanted to hit with a frying pan for most of a week, not my most glorious of moments. My goal now was just to get away from the idiot but I didn’t make it far before I found another unwanted male in my way.
“Sebastian what the hell are you doing here?” I asked the Demon Lord, he was dressed in black leather everything. Since I’d already checked out one man I had no interest in, my eyeballs decided to give this one a look over too; not bad at all on the eyes, too bad he was such a dick. “And what the hell are you dressed as?”
He smiled at me condescendingly. “Hello kitten. I heard about this wonderful party tonight; I don’t know much about costumes but I figured no one would complain if I showed up like this. Do you like?” he mimicked Alex’s earlier movements perfectly and I frowned. Then I looked over and spotted Alex standing close to the side of me. Oh good, the unshakeable ego meets the unstoppable idiot, this was either going to be phenomenally entertaining or hard on the linoleum.
“Who’s the loser?” Alex asked rudely. He stepped up to place himself a little bit in front of me. The man helped rescued me once and he seems to think I can’t handle myself, idiot.
“Leather boy would be Sebastian the Demon Lord. Sebastian, this ego in blue would be Alex, the shape changer Leader of Ottawa. Just remember this boys; if you start a fight take it outside before the wards launch you out.” I advised, and then I turned and walked away. They both had slightly surprised looks on their faces; apparently a pissing match wasn’t as much fun if there was no one there to be a spectator. I spotted Edward and danced my way over to him; even if things were nowhere near comfortable between him and I, it was a far sight better than staying near the other two. “How goes your night?” I asked, practically having to shout in his ear to be heard.
“Not bad at all. Apparently I look good because everyone seems to appreciate my costume.” He beamed at me. I felt a bit confused at that, apparently whatever he wanted between us still left lots of room for him to run after other women. Not the best seduction tactic I’ve ever heard of but I was glad to not have to dodge awkward kisses for the next while.
“Well enjoy the attention because you definitely deserve it.” I smiled at him and danced on past him. Finally I had a chance to be in the middle of the crowd and lost in the music; it’s a great way to end my birthday.
Barry managed to find me; people sort of moved out of his way so he had no problem getting to me but the hard part was finding me as I didn’t stay in one spot for long. I danced with my best friend for a while, enjoying the lack of stress involved in that so I should have expected something to come along and ruin my time. Alex arrived first; since he didn’t say anything, just started dancing I largely ignored him. I even started to have fun dancing with him. He wasn’t bad, but he really had no clue on how to dance with a girl like me. I couldn’t resist teasing him. “Impressed?” I asked laughing. He smiled at my teasing and carefully put his hands on my hips.
“Not yet.” He retorted, dancing in behind me. The music was pumping and we were dancing a little bit madly. Barry was smiling at me and laughing under his breath, more than used to this kind of dancing from me.
Then Sebastian found his way over to us, he had an unreadable look on his face as he watched us dance; it was more than a little creepy. So I ignored him; I was hell-bent and determined to enjoy my birthday. I would not let anyone ruin it for me. Finally I spotted Cassie and Zeke making their way towards us, Zeke looked a little worried and Cassie looked determined. I wondered what had happened. A new song started and suddenly the crowd cleared in a circle around this tiny girl dressed as a nun, she was dancing in a way that was definitely NOT nun like. I’ve got moves but this little siren didn’t seem to have any bones with how she was gyrating. Suddenly her solo was a dancing pair as she pulled a guy in and danced with him, I’m not a prude but it looked like sex on hardwood. After she was done dancing, I slid into the center of the circle and went full tilt, knowing I would have to dial it up to follow and act like that.
I was dressed as an eye catcher and I decided to play to the role. It was all frantic energy, and dominant strutting; a complete challenge to everyone around me. I should have known who’d respond to that kind of provocation. Alex stalked into the circle, making us look like a matched set thanks to the costumes and tried to take control. I might hate the man and try to piss him off routinely in a sadistic form of fun but it was fun to dance with him. I’d dominate the dance and he was forced to follow my moves, only to have him steal it from me and I’d have to fight to take the lead back. I felt reckless and wild and loved it; so did the crowd as they were cheering madly at us as our power dynamic kept shifting. I was dance drunk which is a state that needs no alcohol to lower inhibitions so when the song we were dancing to ended, Alex dipped me and I laughed as he pulled me upright, and I licked a quick line from his jaw, up his cheek to his temple. Boy did he look surprised at that. I laughed again and spun away, twisting my body and holding out my hand so that my next dancing partner could step in.
I should have known it would end up being Sebastian. Like before, simply touching him caused an uncomfortable buzzing sensation along my skin but I had to act like everything was normal with all these eyes watching us. Our dance was less feral, more classical but the power struggle was still there. Somehow it didn’t surprise me that he is a fabulous dancer; he practically glided across the dance floor and never one to stand being out done I glided gracefully as well. I think he was surprised that I knew classic dance styles, but we weren’t doing the typical waltz; it was more like the tango with rock and roll. As the song ended, Sebastian dipped me in a parody of Alex’s but instead of pulling me up in the end, he pulled me into a deep kiss. The crowd let out some serious catcalls at that. I pulled back from the kiss and he let me go reluctantly. I could almost feel the angry tension and challenge in the air; I was pissed off and resisting the urge to fry his ass with molten lava hot fire. None of this had anything to do with me; I wasn’t delusional enough to believe that. Alex and Sebastian are both very dominant, Alpha male types; put them in a room together and they’ll fight to prove who’s more assertive. I guess because I introduced them that made me the pawn in their little chess game. I don’t like being treated that way, but at least I understood how little I actually mattered to those two idiots. If they had pulled a stunt like this with some clueless girl, she’s get her heart broken. Assholes.
I gratefully gave the center of the circle over to another young lady in a cat suit. I slid through the crowd and made my way to where I saw Barry sitting. He didn’t look too good, his face had a gray tint to it, and he was panting and sweating too much. “You idiot, you over did it, didn’t you?” I asked, recognizing the signs of extreme fatigue. He smiled a guilty little smile. I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Moron. Fine, I’ll get Edward to hop us to your place. Go grab your stuff and meet me back here.” I ordered him. He agreed and moved stiffly to his feet. I told Amanda what I was doing and made my way over to where she indicated Edward was.
I spotted my guardian surrounded by a gaggle of hopeful ladies and had to grin at their disappointment as he ignored them to come talk with me, all while ignoring my peripheral vision of Alex looking over at me with Sebastian on the other side. Edward spotted the Demon Lord as well and gave him a jaunty little wave. Then Edward surprised the hell out of me by pulling me into a French kiss, right there, in front of everyone. I wasn’t prepared for that kind of display and I didn’t even react with fire, I was flat out too shocked to do anything except have a slightly astonished expression and try to move past the second unwanted kiss of the night. “I need you to drop Barry and me at his place. Bozo the Bear exhausted himself. I’m about partied out myself, so I don’t mind taking him.” He nodded his agreement and took my hand to follow me over to where a very surprised looking Barry was waiting with my coat.
Edward snapped us to Barry’s living room and the sudden silence was a little startling. “Have fun Edward.” I said as farewell as he snapped out. Barry was looking where he had been and then looked at me, a look of shock on his face.
“Never saw THAT one coming, that’s for sure.” He finally said.
“Neither did I, and I’m not a fan of it.” I was honest with my best friend in a way I hadn’t been to myself, but now was not the time and place to get into it so I ushered him into his room and left him alone to change. I’d brought all my own clothes back home with me that morning so I was stuck in my costume. Barry opened the door when he was changed and I sauntered in and flopped down onto the bed on my belly.
“So how come you got so tuckered out that quickly?” I was a little concerned; usually Barry has a better judge of his own limits than this.
He grunted at me. “It’s a full moon tomorrow and half my concentration is going towards keeping the beast in check, which wasn’t made any easier with all the testosterone flying around tonight.”
“Ah.” I understood. A shape changer could use their beast and keep control 90% of the time, but during the full moon most changers surrounded themselves with fellow community members because they would understand the weird behaviours. As the beast gained control, the changer started acting more animal like and eventually all changers succumbed during a full moon, going entirely animal. Generally they weren’t too dangerous because the Community had an unknown facility where they had a controlled safe zone. The really dangerous Changers were the ones who never tried to control their beast, they tended towards violence but the Community did their part to eliminate those exceptions fiercely.
“Well just don’t hump my leg in the middle of the night ok?” I stifled a yawn.
“That can’t happen.” He replied sleepily.
“Oh, and why not?”
“Because the middle of the night was about two hours ago.” He replied. I let him sleep after that. With nothing keeping me awake, I soon fell asleep also.
It was only an hour or so later when I was woken up. I was grumbling in my sleep because someone was rubbing my shoulders and neck gently, I arched my back up to meet the fingers to guide them to the itchy spot on my shoulder. Waking up more completely to realize how wrong this was, I rolled over onto my back to see Alex standing over me. It wasn’t like him to be touching me, there was something else going on but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I carefully got out of the bed and walked past Alex to go into the kitchen, the light was on over the stove and I could see Alex’s face better. His eyes were almost all pupil, there was only a thin ring of orange around the outside. I leaned against the wall lightly and frowned at him.
“What’s up Alex? You seem… odd.” I asked, watching the strange way he was acting.
He stepped in closer to me and took my scent in through his nose, then growled in his throat. “You smell like Bear.”
“No shit, I was just lying in his bed.” I retorted, finally my brain caught up with the clues. Although Alex is more dominant and had better control than Barry, he’d been challenged all night long by the egotistical Sebastian; he was on edge a little. Alex stepped back from me and took off his jacket. Now I was standing in a kitchen, alone, with a shirtless, agitated Changer, the night before the full moon. I honestly don’t know how I get into these situations and for some reason I couldn’t help but notice a bruise on Alex’s neck. “Is that a hickey?” In disbelief I stepped forward to look at it, there were four long bruises on the left side of his neck and one shorter one on the right. I put my hand on his throat to check the dimensions. Yep, someone had grabbed Alex by the throat hard enough to leave bruises. Two guesses who that was likely to have been.
Apparently touching him was a bad idea thought, because Alex growled in this throat again. Before I could move, he pushed me back against the wall and pressed in close to me. Shit, bad, bad, bad, bad. If I moved I could set him off, but I concentrated and a bubble of water started to coagulate in the air above his head, just in case I needed to get his attention. Alex just took my scent in, trailing his nose around my jaw and collarbone; I let him, hoping he’d recognize my scent as non-threatening. He was over my neck right where it joins the shoulder when he suddenly clutched me to him and bit down. That unexpected action got a shocked moan out of me, and my magic dropped down onto both of us in an unpleasantly cold downpour. At least it made him jump back from me.
“Son of a bitch.” I cursed softly, still not wanting to wake Barry up. I clamped a hand on my neck and found it bleeding; he hadn’t taken a chunk out or anything, but I was betting that I had his damn teeth marks on my neck. The magic water I’d dumped on us was apparently a good thing as his pupils started to shrink and I could see a more human awareness in them. The timing couldn’t have been better because I was livid. “What the hell Alex? You come here, wake me up and then go and take a bite out of me. Smooth move tiger, I appreciate it.” I said sarcastically. Suddenly his orange eyes snapped from looking at my hand covering the bite mark on my neck to look me in the eyes.
“Why did you call me tiger?” he asked intensely.
“Because that’s what you are.” I was still too angry to really contemplate the revelation.
“Yes, but how did you know that?” he prodded. I opened my mouth to make a smart ass reply and shut it quickly with a snap; I hadn’t known it until a few moments ago.
“When you bit me, your energy flared weirdly. I could suddenly tell what your change form was.” I replied. He gave me an unreadable look and then stared at my hand again.
He moved my hand away from the bite mark so he could examine it. “Sorry about that Callahan, let’s go clean it up.” His voice was perfectly normal as if he had never lost control, which just made me fume as he pulled me to the bathroom and sat me on the toilet lid. It wasn’t dignified; this put me at a slightly awkward height as I was level with his navel. I ignored his bare chest and only instinctively checked out his ass as he searched the medicine cabinet, then hissed when he cleaned the wound with rubbing alcohol. Sweet Goddess that sucked more than a little. “Sorry, did that hurt?” he asked me.
“No, it felt like unicorns giving me rainbow farts.” The sarcasm was instinctive and made him chuckle. I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against his belly as he continued to clean it, not caring if it looked really bad or made him uncomfortable. He then tilted my head to the side so he could put a covering and tape it in place while I stared at his blue clad hip, waiting until he was done. As soon as I could, I stood up; putting us face-to-face. “Are you in control now?” I asked, watching his eyes to see if the pupils were blown out again. At least I understood the weird colour now; he literally had tiger’s eyes.
“Yes.” He replied shortly. Apparently the control freak didn’t like to be reminded that he had lost it. I could have made a snarky comment but suddenly I was just too damn tired to care. I walked into the bedroom but Barry was tossing a bit in his sleep, growling at something.
“You know what, fuck this. I’m sleeping on the damn couch.” I said to myself, tired and grumpy. Small problem was that I had drenched myself at the same time I had doused Alex and my costume was not so much fun when soaking wet, so I stalked back into the bathroom. Alex looked at me, surprised. He had the blue pants untied and looked to be about to pull them off. I grabbed his pajama top, then turned my back on him. “Untie me.” I ordered. It was his fault this had happened anyways so he might as well be useful. Alex loosened the ties of my bra enough that I could easily pull it off over my head. Keeping my back to him, I took off the top and put on his shirt. Then I walked back into the living room and collapsed on the couch. This time when I woke up it was because it was morning.
I peeked into the bedroom to see how Barry was doing. He was curled up on the bed, blankets tangled around him. Alex was lying on the little piece of floor with a pillow and a bed sheet. I couldn’t blame him, from the looks of things; Barry had been thrashing all night long. I closed the door and locked myself in the bathroom. I took off Alex’s pajama top and managed to get myself back into the now dry bra. My neck hurt this morning but when I took off the bandage, it looked uninfected; there was just a nearly perfect imprint of Alex’s teeth on my neck. It had bruised up, but stopped bleeding so I left it without a bandage and it looked like a really wicked hickey, especially with my belly dancers top. “Oh man.” I tried covering it up with Alex’s pajama top looked ridiculous but it covered my neck.
I rooted around in the kitchen and poured myself a bowl of fruit loops, crunching them in sullen silence. I was rinsing out my bowl when I heard Barry stumble into the kitchen; he looked a little rough, as if he hadn’t slept at all last night. His eyes were a slightly more amber colour than usual and he frowned when he saw me and tugged on the pajama top I was wearing. “Yeah, I know I look like a tool.” I admitted. I pulled the pajama top off and Barry zeroed in on the bite mark. He looked at me very surprised, almost alarmed. “An enthusiastic partier last night.” I explained. It wasn’t really a lie and Barry looked relieved by the information, so I didn’t elaborate. We both heard Alex tromp down the hallway to the kitchen, he also looked rough but he went a step farther by growling at Barry.
Barry looked startled but his pupils flooded out as he responded; even though he was taller he hunched down and broke eye contact. It was the most submissive I’ve ever seen him. Alex’s own pupils were already blown out and when Barry tried to back away from Alex, it brought him closer to me and that just made Alex angrier. Oh boy, here we go again. “I think its Sebastian’s fault. He’s a Demon Lord and last night Alex and Sebastian had a pissing contest all night. I’m guessing that used up Alex’s control.” I theorized, keeping my voice calm. Alex shifted his eyes off of Barry to me as I spoke.
“Mine.” He growled the word. I blinked in confusion and then shrugged, tossing him his pajama top. If he wanted it that badly, then by all means he could have it back. Barry was doing his best to project a submissive nature, I think to sooth Alex’s dominant nature. Hell, if it would keep the angry tiger from eating me, I could fake submissive. I broke eye contact and looked down, slumping my shoulders and pulled my personality it. I had to bite my lip to keep the laughter inside, trust me to start giggling hysterically when there’s a pissed off shape shifter three feet away. I don’t know if my act helped, but Alex was able to get a hold of himself; he turned away and went into the bathroom. After a tense moment, we heard the shower start. I started to giggle I couldn’t help myself.
“I’ve never seen Alex that close to losing it before.” Barry admitted, more than a little worried. He shot me a searching look as I finally got control of my laughter. “Did you have anything to do with the issue he had with this Sebastian?” he demanded.
I opened my mouth to deny all involvement but instead said, “I was the pawn piece they tried to use.” Barry shook his head with a groan.
“That would explain his focus on you. Normally, you put two dominant males in a room on the day of a full moon and we’ll ignore everything around us until we’ve established who exactly is the stronger. He barely even realized I was here, you however were the center of his attention.”
“He noticed you. It was only after you went all limp noodles that he even looked at me.” I protested. “Either way I’m getting the hell out of here before the big scary cat comes back and eats me. Have fun tonight Barry.” I bid him farewell. He laughed as I gave him a kiss on the cheek.