JESSIE
I follow Raina to go meet her friends, her pack. The people I saw the other day while I was with Sebby, the veyraths who wanted to beat Sebby up, or kill him. If I hadn't brought up Taylor Swift, then I wonder what they would have done to each other.
The Queen's impact. I wonder if Taylor Swift is a nytheri, she seems to love cats a lot. It would be cool and understandable if she were.
So yeah, I'm right next to Raina, walking past a lot of people who are dancing to their hearts' content. I still have my glass of gilk and I think I have found my new addiction. It's so fucking delicious, better than any alcoholic drink I've ever drunk.
I can't get drunk, but the drink makes me feel so alive, I want to dance all night and lose myself, but not in a trashy white girl wasted way. My mind is still intact, and I'm fully aware of my surroundings.
Wow, it's strange to know that I will never get drunk ever again. I love this, actually, I really do.
"How do veyraths and nytheris handle being in the same room?" I yell, my voice cutting through the loud music.
"We try our best to avoid each other. There's no fighting at the club. The rule was made for Nytheris and Veyraths most especially. If we're caught fighting, we're banned from the club. The only thing we do is shoot harsh, venomous stares at each other."
"Wow."
"You're so different." She says. "Like, I don't feel like biting you or attacking you. And I'm pretty sure the others are going to feel the same way," she says, and we head out back, to the VIP section for veyraths. As soon as she lifts the curtain, I see the pack sitting next to each other. They're seated in a cool way, like they're getting ready for a photo shoot for a teen TV show poster.
One has her head on the other's lap, another has their head on another person's shoulders.
"Raina, what took you so long?" Daniel, their leader, asks. He has two people lying on him. He's wearing a tank top that shows his biceps, and he's wearing dark pants. His arms are stretched out on the couch, and he looks so comfortable.
"Sorry, look who I found," Raina says happily, and she sits on the couch with her other pack members, and she play-fights with a guy, the guy who smells like muffins.
"Hi," I say to Daniel.
Daniel just stares deep into my soul. He's trying to intimidate me, but I'm not easily intimidated. If we met when I was a teenager, then yes, he would be able to make me think that there was going to be a snowstorm in the summertime, but right now, I don't give a fuck how he looks at me.
"You brought a nytheri over here," Daniel says to Raina, Oh, he's pissed.
"Oh my God, Daniel, you know that he's not like other nytheris, he's different."
"He is different," the muffin-smelling guy says.
"Yes, he is," the others agree, and I look straight at Daniel. He's still not convinced, so he gets up from the couch, not caring about the people who were lying on top of him. He walks over to me, smelling like alcohol, mint and aftershave. He's a tough guy; no wonder he's the alpha.
The thing with veyraths is that just like their God, Anubis, they represent death. But not in a way Anubis does, where he leads people to the afterlife, but in a very chaotic way.
Nytheris don't like them because of that. Nytheris represent Bastet perfectly, we're protectors, we don't go about causing chaos,
From what I learned about one of the books Pilar gave to me, Veyraths are wild and chaotic creatures. And their destructive nature is why they're cursed in the first place.
Every full moon, they turn into beasts, their bones crack and break, and their bodies mould into those of wolves in a very brutal way. They're slaves to the full moon.
Nytheris do shapeshift, but they're not controlled by any kind of moon, and when they do it, they do it with ease, there's no bone breaking or anything like that…thank God.
"What is your deal? What are you planning?" Daniel asks me. He looks straight at me, but my eyes don't fall. I stare back, but not in the way he's staring. I still keep my smile intact while Daniel furrows his brow, trying to be more intimidating.
"Uh… I have no deal." I say. "I'm just here to have fun. I didn't even know this place existed until now."
"So now that you know, what are you planning on doing?" Daniel asks, folding his arms.
"I don't know, have fun? Look, tough guy, I didn't come here to start trouble."
"Oh my God!" someone behind Daniel exclaims. We all look to see what is going on and why they screamed like that.
"Now I know why he's different," she points at me. "You're Jessie Humphrey, you're a nytherkin," she says, and everyone begins to murmur amongst each other. Okay, now I feel unease. What do veyraths do to nytherins?
"Yes, word on the street is that a human was turned into a nytheri. He's the human, he just buried his father, and he was killed by that monster thing that's been killing Nytheris, and Sebastian brought him back to life." She says exposing me as if I killed someone, and I've been keeping it a secret.
Daniel looks at me.
"Sebastian De La Rosa, you crazy, love-sick kitten." he shakes his head, and his eyes go up and down, but then he looks back at the town crier.
"That still doesn't explain anything, Nytherkins hate veyraths the same way those pretentious felines do."
"Oh… yeah," the girl says with her head bowed. Ha, I bet she felt smart for a second there.
Why am I even angry at her? She's not my problem; I didn't even plan on keeping this a secret.
"No, there is still something different about him. He's not like other Nytherkins." Raina says Getting up. "Remember, Nytherkins go insane, and they start killing people. But he's not doing any of that; he looks completely normal." She smiles at me, and I smile back.
I look at Daniel, and he's looking at me as if trying to fight himself from saying something he's going to regret.
"Ugh, fine. I don't feel hatred toward him. I don't feel anything."
"Yeah, same." Everyone else agrees. A smile creeps up on my face because I am happy that I don't make people angry for just existing. I guess the reason why I'm so happy that they don't hate me is because of my dad. The PTSD that I have left has gotten me vigilant about the fact that people would hate me and beat me up for no reason.
Never again. My father is gone, and I should be moving forward with my life.
"But the thing is, what makes you so different?" Daniel asks, looking into my eyes as if he looks deep enough, he's going to receive all the answers.
"Ugh, who cares? Let's go dance." Raina grabs my hand and pulls me out of the room to the dance floor; her fellow pack members follow us. We're on the dance floor dancing to our hearts' content.
People stare at us in shock, wondering how a nytheri and a veryrath are dancing together. They're confused as to how Veyraths are dancing with me right now.
The veyraths who aren't in Daniel's pack are just as confused as everyone else right now.
But then they get over it, and they join us to dance. This is much better than trying to fight with each other. We should be standing with each other, not against. There are forces right now who want us dead.
I should save that speech for when the next Nytheris and Veyraths want to kill each other.
We're dancing seriously, moving our bodies outrageously. I laugh at my goofy dancing and Raina's dancing as well.
The veryrath who smells of muffins' name is Alex, and he has curly hair and rosy cheeks. He looks so cute. Turns out the reason why he smells like muffins is because he bakes, and his mom is a baker, so he's been surrounded by flour, dough, butter, sugar and an oven that's always on.
I dance with him and with Daniel. Daniel is so hot, but I have a boyfriend, and he's straight. Whatever. It's not like I was going to make a move on him or anything.
The Nerai who smiled at me tries to flirt with me.
"Sorry, I have a boyfriend," I say to him.
"Oh come on, what does he have that I don't? I can give you the entire ocean," he says.
Raina and I exchange looks. "How about we focus on land first?" I laugh, Raina joins in, and so does the Nerai, and his name is Antonio.
He's a cool and handsome guy; handsome is an understatement; he's gorgeous. Sparkly blue eyes and long golden blond hair. He's like a character from a Disney movie, a Disney prince.
He's pretty, but I am not interested.
The night is still young, and the veyraths and I leave the club and we're in the woods running like we're being chased by monster hunters. We're not being chased, we're just taking charge and making the best of the night and following the wind.
We scream and shout. Living wild and free like the youngsters we are.
"Not to brag, Jessie." Daniel says while running, "But Veyraths are faster than Nytheris."
"YEAH!" Alex agrees with me, and they all run; they seem to be right because they're faster than I am. I don't like it.
So what do I do? Something in me just makes me jump. I climb the trees, and I jump from tree to tree like a monkey. It turns out I'm way faster when I'm on the trees because I'm beginning to catch up to them. When I find that I'm overtaking them, I go down, landing on my feet, standing in front of the pack.
They stop abruptly, and they look at me in shock, but they're not really shocked because I think they know Nytheris are good at climbing trees.
"Oh, come on, that's not fair," Alex whines. I shrug, folding my arms, grinning like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.
But then, the next thing I receive is a heavy weight on my body. My whole self is on the floor, I spit dirt out of my mouth, and I open my eyes to see a monster. The monster.