The pic represents Mateo (for now).

Happy reading!

Chapter 2

I was still unsteady as I entered through the ballroom’s lavish glass doors.  Crystal chandeliers hung from the domed ceiling, which was a portrait of intricate murals about wolves and pale figures decorating a scene of war and bloodshed.  Other creatures adorned the ceiling’s corners, hiding from harm and death.

My lips turning down and firming, I drew my eyes away from the unpleasantly beautiful ceiling to study the painted figures’ living counterparts.  Classical music strummed from the right-hand corner of the full room, people still standing in clusters of conversing energy.  Very rare was there interspecies mingling, instead keeping to their own kin, eyeing everyone outside their tight groups warily.

I sighed, running my glance briefly over the nearest groups, studying the mutts in particular.  I didn’t know how our witness looked, but I was sure I could scent him out if I needed to.  I reminded myself that his name was Enrique, filing away his name for later use.

Mateo put his hands on my arms, running them slowly up my arms as he spoke in my ear from behind me.  “Just stay calm.  Your scent is safe.”  I heard the grin in his voice even as I shuddered.

Swallowing, I stepped forward and from his touch, putting distance between us as I said, "I'm sure every creepy crawly in here has caught a whiff of me, Mateo.  It practically hangs in the fucking air, a trail for everything to follow!"

He chuckled darkly.  "The mutts are confused with your scent, my little flame.  So you can relax; they're only curious, because you don't smell like any creature they've ever encountered - which is minuscule in occurrences."

My muscles unclenched a little.  I didn't know exactly what my scent was like; I'd lived with it all my life, so I barely smelled it.  But Mateo was right.  Mutts didn't come across scarce, exotic creatures often, since they were more absorbed in their pack and sex lives, but still... I was an exception of a sort.

"You're sure they won't recognise me?"

He smirked, clearly amused by my ignorance.  "Don't be so naïve, my flame.  If that had been the case, you would've been discovered the very first time you encountered a wolf."

I remembered that time.  I'd just been accepted into Mateo's household when I was ten, when an alpha - the king of that time - came to negotiate for one of his captured sons who had been too eager to prove his dominance - over a vampire.  In Mateo's territory.

"Also, my blood is obscuring your scent even more," he reminded me, seeing the insecure uncertainty in my gaze.

Nodding, reassured a little, I murmured, "I'm going to get a drink," before leaving him at the glass doors.  My tongue tasted awful and dead in my mouth, not at all metallic as you expected blood to taste after sucking a few drops.  I groaned;  I needed to wash it away.

My stomach turning the whole way, I strode towards the opposite wall where a pyramid made of champagne glasses perched on a circular table.  I had to stretch to reach a glass from the top, downing it in one gulp.  It burned, making me shiver, but it washed away the awful taste of Mateo’s blood.  I decided on another one, swirling a sip in my mouth before swallowing.

Despite Mateo's frustration, I’d only taken a little of his blood, too nauseas to take more.  He’d argued that I would barely keep on my feet, but that was just it.  His blood didn’t replace or create more blood in my body.  It was almost like an energy-boost.  I was still exhausted, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if I wanted to.

Could’ve just let me go to freaking bed, I thought sourly.

I sensed someone standing behind me and turned slowly, not wanting to pass out from dizziness.  I was surprised to see the man Mateo had been conversing with before.  A vampire, of course.

I appraised him with barely veiled distaste, knowing that I was walking a fine line.  If I insulted another vampire noble besides Mateo himself, it provided him with quite some problems.  When I was younger and more rebellious over his rule over me, I spurned trouble amongst his vampire guests at every turn and opportunity, causing him to lose favour in some of the higher ranking nobles.  He punished me like any parent punished a child; he grounded me for months.  Of course, with his charm, he was able to convince the spurned nobles of my foolish hormones and laughed with them over it.  I would be sitting in my room for weeks without television or even a book to read.  Court life was very important to Mateo, apparently.

“You seem distressed,” the vampire said as greeting, smiling slightly when I finished my champagne and reached for another.  He plucked the new glass from me with a tsk, shaking his head.  “If you continue, you will intoxicate your master this evening.”

I gritted my teeth.  “He is not my master.”

He drank from the glass he had stolen from me, his eyes mocking and unusually bright as he appraised me with apparent interest.  I pursed my lips, debating to go and search out Mateo’s horrid company; seemed better than to have some sucker anatomise me like some curious insect.

“Is that so?”

I shuddered under his gaze, of disgust, of course.  He didn’t hide the fact that he was checking me out - or anatomising me, whatever.  My nose wrinkled slightly and he chuckled when he saw it.

“Relax,” he said.  “I’m not here for your blood.  From what I hear, it tastes horrid.”

It shouldn’t have been offensive – in general, I was pleased with the fact that my blood was unappealing – but from his mouth, it sounded as if he was talking about sour milk instead.

“Then why are you here?”

I flinched when he reached out but held still, not wanting him to see my fear.  Not that I was scared or anything.  Very few vampires managed to scare me nowadays, except when I wasn’t under Mateo’s protection.  That would change my perspective quite a bit.

He tucked a curl behind my ear and lowered his mouth to my ear.  For a moment I thought he was going to bite me, but all he did was whisper, “I’m here to help you.”

I blinked in shock.  “Uh,” I didn’t know how else to reply when he pulled back, a pleasant smile still on his lips.  “But you’re a vampire!”

I groaned internally.  Way to state the obvious, you idiot!  But what did he expect?  A vampire didn't "help" my kind; they ate them.

He chuckled and I glared at him, even as my face grew hot.  “It appears that way, doesn’t it?”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I growled at him out of embarrassment.  “Of course you are.  I can sense it!”

He looked highly amused.  “As I can sense you, though I’m the only one here with the correct senses.”

If this guy was helping me by just irritating me, he was successful.  Very.  And if he was going to eat me, I'd show him what it felt like to be fangless. “I’m human.”

The vampire’s gaze grew grave, though he kept his expression light.  “And a human can sense vampires.”

He said it as a statement, when it was, in fact, an incorrect one.  Basically, he was mocking me, calling me stupid, because, of course, if I were human, I wouldn’t have been able to sense him for what he was.

I groaned audibly at my stupidity, itching to take off the mask and cover my face with my hands to hide my embarrassment.  The mask didn’t hide my humility.  Humility that turned into terror.

Oh, soul.  What if he could sense what I really was!  Or maybe he was just as confused with my scent as the mutts were and was just taking a guess to bait me into admission.  It wasn’t going to work.

Inspiration struck at random.  “I just had a little of Mateo’s blood,” I said with strength in my voice, hoping it left no room for doubt.

Mateo had drained me too much.  I was only awake now because of his horrific-tasting blood.  I told myself that I couldn’t blame myself for not thinking clearly at the moment, drained and most likely tipsy as well.  I made a note to not drink anything – including blood – that was not water.

The vampire shifted to look behind him and I decided to study his features.  You know, so that I could identify him after he attacked me?

He was quite gorgeous, I had to admit.  He didn’t have that beautiful quality of a vampire.  His eyes, which were the colour of thunderstorms, and his straight nose, broad forehead and cleft chin all gave him a roguish look.  Add to that a ragged, zigzagging scar that ran from the middle of his right eyebrow, trailing over his nose – narrowly missing his eye – and, changing course, dipping down in a straight line through the left side of his lips to his chin, and he looked utterly terrifying.  His unkempt, brown locks, brushing his shoulders, softened the air around him, which bordered on menacing, and made him seem almost like a small boy exposed to too much violence.

I blinked, suddenly troubled at the thought.  It felt as if I’d delved into that detail of him as if it should’ve been blatantly obvious, yet I had no idea who this man was or how his life had been.

I shook the thought away and let my gaze follow where his button-up clad broad shoulders sloped into narrow hips, from where his designer’s jeans hung low, cinched by a leather belt.

I was surprised that he was dressed so casually at a ball and that without a mask as well.

“You seem prepared for the ball,” I mused aloud, blushing when he turned to look at me while I was still judging his appearance.  I fought off the colouring of my cheeks, but his smirk told me he knew I’d been checking him out.

“Ah, well, you can say that I didn’t quite feel the need to impress anybody.”

I looked down at myself in despair.  I was beginning to wish I’d had his line of thinking before I came to attend the ball.  Of course, the servant who had dressed me didn’t give me much choice.  She was also my best friend.

She’d insisted on a navy, long gown, with a curve-clinging bodice and a slight, silky train.  It featured beautiful sheer sleeves and sexy bare back detailed with beading, ruching at the bodice detailed with a pretty brooch. The material covering some of my chest was left bare by the scooping neck of the dress, extending outwards in a V to wrap around my shoulders and down to end at my elbows.  The sleeves sparkled like midnight diamonds from the crystalline beading.  It was an absolutely gorgeous dress, clinging to my breasts and waist, wrapping securely around my hips to fall like liquid around my legs, obscuring the strappy high-heels decorated with black crystal.  A thin, silver chain hung from my neck, one single, polished pearl the size of my thumb’s nail dangling between my partly-veiled breasts.  Teardrop earrings hung loosely from similar chains, only seen through my curly, raven hair when I tilted my head at an angle.

“Yes.  You’re catching rather a lot of eyes,” he murmured, and he didn’t seem happy about it.

I admired the fact that he didn’t shower me with compliments as a way to gain favour from Mateo, but still, I frowned at him.  “Do you have a problem with me?”

He had been looking at the pearl, almost intently, but now he brought his eyes up to mine, narrowing them slightly.  “You have a problem, Phoenix.”

“Excuse me?”  Could he get anymore rude?

“I am not being offensive, merely pointing out a few cracks in your manner of glamouring.”

“It’s pretty offensive.  And what do you know about glamour?  I’m not capable of such a thing.”

He frowned at me.  “It is not you who is projecting this weak film over your true nature?”

I gave him a huh? look.  “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to… go somewhere where you are not.”

I was about to walk away when he caught my arm in soft restraint, but keeping me from leaving either way.  “You are not excused.”  His thunderstorm eyes flashed.

I sputtered.  “Excuse me?”

He chuckled darkly.  “I already told you that you’re not excused.  I’m not finished talking to you.”

The nerve!  “I can leave whenever I want!”  How childish did that sound?

“Not when it comes to me,” he said lowly.

I was about to yank at him and prove him otherwise when a hand clamped over the one holding me, a warning growl coming from behind me.  I would’ve thought it was Mateo if there wasn’t sparks flying through me from the hand touching partly my skin.  Instead of Mateo’s thin fingers, these were thick and deeply tanned, the nails squired and neat, but little white scars crisscrossing the skin.  I stared stupidly at it for a moment, not comprehending what I was seeing.  Then I recognized the scent from the garden.

I spun around and the vampire let me go.  He was staring at the mutt, looking rather curious and maybe even shocked.  The idiot wolf stared down at him, almost a head longer than the vampire’s six foot frame, his shoulders twice as broad.  I shuddered when I saw how huge he was.  In the garden I hadn’t been able to see him, and I wished I’d been able to, because then I wouldn’t have been so shocked to see him.  I would’ve run the other way, screaming my head off, instead.

I wanted to.

It looked like a pissing contest, where the two males stared each other down.  The mutt loomed over the vampire, his eyes as blue as glaciers, his scent thickening as he began to dominate the very air.  It made me shake, the smell of my own fear increasing, the need to kill everyone with my screams locked in my throat, making it impossible to talk.  If I’d known how strong this mutt was, I wouldn’t have yelled at him earlier, rather dying in Mateo’s arms than being at the receiving end of his all consuming gaze.

The vampire, though, looked to be studying him, not growling at all like the mutt.  “Well,” he said brightly.  “You sure are full of surprises, Phoenix.” He turned to look at me, discouraging the stare down as if it was a mild discussion he decided to end.  “I will be seeing you later, and then we can continue our discussion.”

I stared at him as he retreated, suddenly pleading silently for him to stay and protect me, to take me away, as long as I was safe.  But all I heard was his faint chuckle, as if he’d heard my thoughts, while he walked away.

It was silent for a moment, the vibrations in the mutt’s chest trailing off as soon as the vampire’s back disappeared.  I waited for him to attack, but all he did was turn towards me and stare.  I was snared by those eyes, prey looking at her death in the eyes of a predator.  My hands were clutching my chest desperately, my heart pounding so loud I saw a few hungry vampires turn to look me up and down.  Seeing the werewolf in front of me, they quickly lost interest.  I didn’t blame them.

Where the fuck was Mateo when I needed him?  The coward was probably hiding, leaving me to my death.

The mutt’s scent was still strong, almost choking me as he stared me down, but this time his eyes were softer, almost melting into the colour of a clear midday sky.

Then he took a step forward, and I bolted.  He was fast, I thought with horror.  In an instant he had me around the waist.  I was about to scream when his thick hand clamped down on my mouth, muting the sound.

I began to pant, adrenaline becoming my new best friend, struggling against his hold.  It was like being enveloped by steel, my barely five-foot frame dwarfed by his as he crushed my front to his chest, halfway hiding me from view as he headed for the nearest door.  I thrashed the whole way, making keening noises at the back of my throat as terror seized my throat.  Some of the nearby people turned to watch amusedly as the mutt dragged me out of the room, going through the exit opposite from the one leading to the Rose Labyrinth.

I cursed them all, hating them.  Hating Mateo.  He was supposed to protect me!  He’d sworn to it all those years ago, unless I left willingly.  I was pretty much getting dragged through another garden against my consent, but no, Mateo had to drink me almost dry and discard my exhausted body to the wolves.

He took us to the other side of the mansion, far away from the music of the ground-floor ballroom.  The night sounds stood a stark contrast to my muted struggles, the ball music faded to a sinuous   glide through the evening.  I kept screaming into his palm, a pain of a different kind clenching around my heart.

So this was how I was going to die?  Raped and killed afterwards, like my mother.  Left to be found by Lesley, my best friend and human lady-in-waiting.  The pain of that thought was unimaginable.

“Shh,” the mutt murmured as he pressed me against a wall.  “I’m not going to hurt you.”

As he lowered his head to my neck, tilting my head back, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was what my father told my mother right before he damaged her beyond repair.  Before he killed her months before my tenth birthday.

Sobbing, I closed my eyes.

Comment and vote please!  Tell me what you think!  I edited this chapter a lot, adding more details to the conversations, so I hope this was informative enough.

Okay, I also wanted to add that the first few chapters are going to circle around the whole ball scene and dwell on some major parts that spurs this story into motion.  Phoenix is very special in this story, so there will be a lot of "action" in this story, which means that there won't be a moment where something doesn't happen to Phoenix.  I hope you won't feel bombarded with everything, but everything happening in the first few chapters have a reason.  I know it's a lot of major things happening to the protagonist at one time, but as I said before, these events are major for the storyline.

It's supposed to happen together :)

Anyway, I hope you liked this chap.  I spent a lot on it, as the next one is going to be intense... any funny (in my perspective).

Love,

AuroraSwan

Sorry it took so long!  Enjoy it as much as I did writing it! :) 

 PS: this is the dress.  Not exactly what I imagined, but when I found the link I decided to base the description off this dress. http://www.jovani.com/evening-dresses/7115-9077