“I have more right to be here than you,” she hissed.
Scarlett cackled, and her giant, golden hoop earrings bounced. “Nice post by the way, great way to get attention. Although you’ll be looking like the fool after I’m done with you.”
“This is between me and you. Why did you involve Evie?”
“Evie? Is this what it’s about?”
“What gives you the right to touch another person?” Luxor spewed the words before she had time to think about them. In a way she was like Scarlett, she hurt others, but only to protect, but did it make it any less right?
“OH MY GOD! You think I hurt that freak. I wouldn’t waste my time or manicure.” Scarlett blazed. “And on the subject, did you forget what you did to me? Burning me wrists.”
“You’re delusional, where was the proof. Evie has gashes all down her neck, arms and back, and nobody has it out for her but you. Don’t you ever try to touch me, Ayla, or Evie.” She looked her straight in the eye trying to keep her voice.
“I told you I didn’t touch that freak.” Scarlett poked a nail in her shoulder. “You on the other hand, I’d love to cause more than gashes.”
Luxor grabbed her finger and bent it backwards. Scarlett howled, and the more she did, the more she upped the intensity. Scarlett would say or do anything to get away with her horrible actions.
Luxor released her finger. “Did you hear me? If you do anything, you’ll regret it.” She clenched her fist and raised her arm. She wanted to disfigure her face, to scar her in a way where her power of beauty would be gone. Just as she had done to Verity.
Hunter jumped over the railing of the balcony, and jogged over with a limp to the commotion, the crowds widening for him. He held Luxor’s waist, and pulled her back. “Time to put your guns away before this gets out of hand.”
She wriggled back against him to be released, but his grip remained firm. “Let go Hunter, this is none of your business!”
“Oh looky here, you brought your handbag along.” She gave him a lascivious leer. “You only look good when he’s around.”
“You’re jealous!”
Scarlett snorted. “Is that a joke? I’m royalty.” She let her hand travel the down her body. “And you, well you look homeless,” she said in disdain. Not giving Luxor a chance to respond she threw the contents of the alcohol in her face.
Luxor yelled out, and flung her hands to her face. Her eyes stung as the alcohol seeped through her fingers, and coated her eyelashes. All that was needed was a flicker of a light, and she was given that. Tremors invaded her body, and her veins burned with a ferocity like they never burned before. She wiped her eyes, and a contact lens came onto her finger.
The whole club became muted, as all eyes stared at her, and the crowds talked in hushed voices, and began to point fingers. Rage was her only emotion as she zeroed in on Scarlett. It consumed her and was a burden to carry. She doubled backed trying to gain her bearings and she had help from the crowd who prevented her from falling. They pushed her forward, urging her to slaughter Scarlett with her gift.
Kill her my darling, you are the only royal that exists.
Cane’s voice pierced her mind. Luxor trembled letting her go. Controlling him was the only way to control herself.
“Take me home.” She turned to Hunter, and folded in his embrace.
“Is this your game? If it is you lose.” Scarlett teased.
The fuse had been lit, the string sizzling and quickly reached the end.
Don’t be weak and pathetic!
“No this is.”
Luxor thrust Hunter back, and seized Scarlett’s shoulders, the rage urging her to do something drastic. With shaking hands, she suspended her fifteen centimetres off the ground. “Do I scare you?” she asked through blurred vision. Scarlett yelled, frantically kicking her legs to and fro. “I warned you not to mess with me.” She dropped her who stumbled backwards, and landed on the ground.
A horde of Nephilims smiled wickedly dastardly at Luxor, and put their palms out. The wind whooshed from her lungs, as her veins stretched to their limit, and her power was extracted. A fever pitched, rivulets of sweat trickling down her temples. The anger bubbled inside the pit of her core. Screaming wouldn’t help. She needed a greater outlet for her fury.
Scarlett rose, and her knees wobbled. “You wait until everybody hears about this, or better still...” She took out her phone, and held it up. A flash went off blinding her.
“Oh Scarlett.” Luxor’s eyes continued to blur, but she could make her out her silhouette. She swiped the phone out of her hand, and without giving her a chance to react, she yanked Scarlett’s stiletto off and began to smash the screen against the ground with the heel. Metal crunched and a wave of satisfaction overcome her until all was left were shards of metal and glass crumbling between her fingers and slicing her palms. “This one is especially for you,” she said maliciously.
With one last lift Luxor grabbed Scarlett’s neck again, and held her up. She felt rather than saw bodies around her, the heat and electric current too much. There was no hesitation. Luxor threw her backwards until she was out of her sight, her legs were the only things visible until the glass and dangling fixtures tumbled down. The walls shook, and cracks appeared on the ground, and hordes of party goers either fled or crowded.
Through a haze, either it was her vision, or a fire she couldn’t discern, Luxor frantically sped across the room, and people ducked out of her way. She needed to check if she won. If Scarlett had died.
A body lay in the middle of the room.
A brunette in a gold dress.
Good girl my darling daughter, Father is proud.
Luxor screamed out, dropping to her knees and covering her ears. Her father continued to taunt her, to be the one to break her. She gathered a handful of glass and squeezed it in her fist. Transferring the pain, was the only way.
Navy blood oozed from hand, Luxor’s vision a blur as she drowned and submerged in her hate. A jacket was placed around her shoulders and she sighed. The familiar smell and electric current of Hunter, his soothing voice murmuring in her ear. Cradled in his arms, he was her life raft urging her to breathe, to relax, to clear her mind. He was the last thing she felt before losing consciousness.
Crusted blood had trailed down Luxor’s cheeks like tears, from her ears and nostrils. She wriggled around on the mattress, and pulled the blanket higher upon her shoulders, to stave away the chill. It was then she noticed she was barefoot and bruised, scratches covering every part of her body. The most disconcerting part was her clothing; she was covered but no longer in her dress...well fully.
"Whose clothes are these?" Her dress had been converted into a skirt that ended above her knees, and the top half she had on a loose black, long sleeved top.
"The top half of your dress was torn to shreds, I covered you up with one of my tops."
It made sense why she smelt the forest, it was the allure of Hunter. His own personal scent. "Did everyone see me near-naked?" she whispered even though they were alone.
"No. Besides I'd punch anybody who checked out my girl," he said giving her a small smile.
Luxor reached out to touch his face his bicep, his eye was puffy and blue. "I'm so sorry," she reached up and kissed his eye wanting to erase his pain. "I'm such a horrible person."
"Not you. Him."
Luxor couldn’t keep blaming Cane. She hated that she was unwittingly being given a free pass to exert her anger and have the luxury of not having the deal with her moral conscience. She had trained with Valencia to become mentally stronger, and it had worked, obviously not enough.
Luxor padded down the stairs and searched the loungeroom. It wasn't a big space but all the lights were out with the only light coming from a small battery-operated lamp. A lone green couch lay in the middle of the room and beyond it alongside the window, Evie paced around in circles, mumbling to herself. Her dress was scrunched and stained.
"Evie," her voice came out scratchy and hoars
e.
Evie tilted her head for a moment; her face held no emotion. Her make-up was smeared; lipstick spread across her mouth, and the smudged eyeliner gave her the look of a panda.
There was no way of telling what she saw at Sanctum. Luxor couldn't get any vibe off her. It was only in her eyes she could see the only emotion: real fear. Evie stayed motionless and as far away as if she was diseased. Someway she'd have to find out just how much she witnessed.
Luxor's heart constricted in her chest, the strain so severe she was on the verge of blubbering like a child. "Thanks for staying."
"It's not like I had a choice. Where are we?" Her voice was robotic.
"Hunter's house."
Evie screwed up her nose. "Charming. Where's Hunter?"
"I'm here," he said.
She flinched when he outstretched his arm to give her a bottle of water. Hesitantly she accepted it, and nodded her head as a thanks.
He positioned himself on the arm of couch. It was a clear tactical move, a way to ease Evie so she didn't feel attacked and ganged up on.
Luxor needed to find out what happened from Evie's point of view. Hopefully she was passed out in the VIP room, but from her demeanour it told her that wasn’t the case.
"What happened?" Luxor asked them both.
"What do you remember?" Hunter said.
She mentally retraced the moments from the moment she received the text message at The Blazin' Bakery. "We went to Sanctum to pick Evie up. Scarlett and I got into an argument because she'd hurt her. I don't know I felt weird around those people, pain similar to the Habiti where it physically hurt. Things got out of hand, and oh my god." A flash of an image entered her mind, a body lain in front of her. She slapped a hand over her mouth. "I hurt Scarlett," she whispered.
His head snapped up immediately. "You remember that?"
Luxor scratched her head. "Vaguely, it's sketchy and a blur, like I was seeing through fog. Maybe it was the smoke machine."
"They didn't have a smoke machine." Evie walked in slow motion as if any sudden movement might startle her. "You picked her up, like a feather, like she weighed nothing. I might have been drunk but not to the point of imaging things. I know what I saw. Worse thing was you threw her across the room. If Hunter wasn't there who knows what you would have done. So, I'm going to say this once. Remember, no secrets. What the fuck are you?"
Luxor looked over at Hunter to see if he was going to help, but he only raised his eyebrow. She was sick of keeping secrets and no matter the way she told her there was no sugar coating it. "I'm a Nephilim."
"Yep, okay you're the child of a story book myth."
"It's not a myth. It's my reality."
Evie sucked on her bottom lip, with a faraway expression as if she was digesting the information. "This is not possible. You can't have demon blood in you, that's absurd."
"How else do you explain it?" Luxor pleaded, wanting nothing else than for Evie to reason with her. "Look what I did tonight." She pointed to both of their destroyed clothes. "You once asked me what am I hiding. It's this."
"I could accept you being from another planet, being able to fly or a being bitten by a spider, heck maybe a vampire bite." Her voice raised hysterically with each mythical creature.
"You'd rather me be a vampire than this!" she shrieked.
"You're a child of a demon," she spat. “Filthy vermin like my father told me about. I should kill you where you stand.”
Luxor gasped, the truth cut deep like a bucket of ice poured over her. Her mother slept with an angel, one that was supposed to protect the humans, who sacrificed his place in Heaven to experience the joys and tribulations of being humanlike. In return, her mother sacrificed herself to give her life. No matter how it was looked at, everybody gave something up.
What would I need to sacrifice?
“I’m still the same person.”
“No, you’re not.”
Evie was beyond reasoning, the walls had been constructed hardened her insides. She narrowed her eyes similar to when they first met, except back then it was replaced with a joking laugh afterwards, now it was sardonic, a world of difference from the jovial girl she had come to love.
"Are you going to tell anyone?" Luxor said.
"Do you really think anyone would believe me? Anyway when—not if—Scarlett wakes up, they can get first hand evidence. And as you know she won't sugar coat things."
Luxor let a sigh of relief. Scarlett had survived. "How bad is she?"
The true question was “how disfigured did she leave her?” She feared it was worse than what she did to Verity.
"She's all taken care of," Hunter said.
"Why did you hesitate?" Luxor had a firm idea of what that meant.
"Do you really want to be talking about this right now?" he said low.
Luxor groaned. "I can't believe this in happening again."
"Again?" Evie's voice jumped a few octaves, her eyes widening in disbelief. "This just keeps getting better and better."
"It's why I moved here, I told you I hurt my friend."
"I can't take much more of this." Evie gripped the roots of her hair, pacing the length of the room. "You truly are evil, I've been blind not to have seen it."
"Evie," her voice cracked, tears accumulating. She sniffled and desperately held back.
"Shut up you freak. Stay away from me." She staggered back, turning around quickly bolting out of the door.
Luxor followed her fearing she'd get lost. They were on a secluded piece on land in the middle of nowhere.
Hunter halted before she could get too far. "Let her be, she won't get far." He motioned his head upstairs where the Castor and Melita were.
"They won't—" she said not trusting them.
"No, they won't hurt her, I'll make sure of it," he assured her.
"I need to fix this. Let me just see if she's okay."
Through the window Luxor witnessed Evie having a mini meltdown. She was screaming out into the darkness, throwing stones, followed by whacking trees with wide sticks. When she was out of energy she slumped down on the gravel, burying her face in her hands and sobbed.
It ached to watch her being broken and know it was her fault.
Hunter tucked her hair behind her ears, thumbing her tears away. "I don't think that's such a good idea. You're still weak. Using your powers will do that. You have to relax, and try to get rest." He kissed her forehead.
Rest is the last thing I need.
Luxor followed Evie outside against his advice, who continued with her assault on nature. Evie spun around quickly, and picked up a thick stick, her hand quivering. “Stay away, or I’ll hurt you.”
“No, you won’t,” she said, but decided not to push her luck. “You’ve had so many opportunities to hurt me, were you waiting for the pinnacle moment, to make a show of it?”
“You think I did this on purpose?” Evie said incredulously. “I begged you not to go into Sanctum, but you, it’s like you were possessed with rage. You wanted to cause harm on Scarlett. And you did. You’re a murderer.”
“She’s not dead,” she said. “How about what you did to me?”
“Being your friend is my biggest sin,” Evie spat, and she threw the stick.
Luxor swallowed the hurt, and told herself Evie was merely in shock and she would come around. “You set up a Facebook page,” she said for more of a confirmation than question.
“So what?”
“Not only did you broadcast all the horrible things I’ve done, which you egged on, but you led Verity and Aiden to me.” Luxor held back on the finer details of their assault which lead to her ultimate demise.
“Brighton Falls was my fresh start.”
“Poor thing, did your past finally catch up with you? I hope you got what you deserved.”
“Why, why would you do it?”
“For fun,” Evie said, without an iota of remorse. She grabbed another stick, and swung them about, in an x motion. “I told you from the start a pag
e was being set up.”
“I didn’t think it would be you. I trusted you wholly.” She eyed her movements for any sudden moves.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have.”
“I can’t talk to you when you’re like this. Expose me if it’ll make you feel better.”
“No, ripping out your filthy heart would bring me joy.” Evie flung the stick, a crunch bouncing off Luxor’s ribs. She dropped to her knees and held her side, her lightning quick reflexes unable to be dodge quick enough. She scuttled back. Evie came in closer and gathered sharp stones and another stick. A stone was thrown, and scratched her neck. “Do you know in biblical times they would stone somebody to death? I’m anti-religious but I might change my mind.”
Luxor needed to get the situation under control. But how? Three options. One: She could continue to allow Evie to beat her until she had expelled her frustrations. Two: She could attempt to reason with her. Or three: Fight back.
Evie threw a rock, and Luxor was caught unaware as it hit her neck. She gasped and as much as it pained her, scratched out option three. She refused to use her anger, especially on Evie, although Luxor had done enough damage, and felt she was ripe for a punishment.
Evie juggled the largest stone. “One for the mind.” Before she had the opportunity to throw another one, she let out a screech, dropping to her knees, and clutching her shoulder. From the front door Melita held a slingshot. She came forward, and clasped her by the elbow. “Let go, you psycho,” she choked out, jutting out her uninjured elbow.
Melita held on firmer and turned to Luxor. “Can’t you follow instructions?”
Luxor shakily got to her feet, and allowed Melita to drag Evie away and hoped the boys could glamour her as soon as possible. She tiptoed up the stairs down the long hallway and back into Hunter's room. She stared out into the inky sky, wanting a vortex to open up and suck her in. She was weak, not only physically, but mentally. She'd wished she could be a stronger willed person, be more assertive, and learn to control her anger. Maybe Hunter was right, she needed to relax. But it was impossible, the buzzing in her head refused to let her. Luxor had to jiggle around with the window to open it. After a few tries it swung outwards and leaned over the ledge inhaling the crisp, cool air.
Betrayed: The Chronicles of Luxor Everstone Book Two Page 36
