Chapter 2 She's Mine

Chapter 2: She's mine

Lena’s POV

The woman across his lap whispers against his throat. His fingers tap once against the side of his glass which I'll take as the only sign he heard her.

Movement snags my attention back. A blond man cuts through the dense space with a flawless beauty that causes nearby conversations to falter and people move aside without seeming to decide to. His white shirt hangs open at the throat, a dark smear staining the collar, and when his eyes catch the light, crimson flashes back.

My breath hitches. I've never seen contact lenses reflect light like that. He turns directly toward me with a smile dragging across his face, spreading too far back and revealing a row of teeth.

Super Strange person number 2. My brain is already waving warning signs.

Suddenly the bass cuts out.

The entire club jerks in confusion. Then the screams echoes around, high pitched as dark red sprays across the dance floor.

For one frozen second my brain refuses to process what I'm seeing. Blood splatters across my face, my eyes slamming shut on instinct as warm droplets rain over my skin. My hair sticks wet against my cheek, carrying the metallic scent I couldn't place earlier. Here it is, unmistakable now.

The crowd erupts.

Bodies press and crash into each other. A woman slams against the wall, laughing wildly with blood covering her teeth, while a man tackles someone straight to the floor near the DJ booth. Screams echo from every corner of the room.

"Mara!" My eyes snap open. I shove back the bile rushing up my throat. I've lost sight of her instantly.

People are literally hunting each other like some hunger game. Or is this some type of game?

My eyes go back to the curtained corridor, a shape moves against the panic rather than with it. The hooded figure again, weaving through the stampede with purpose, navigating the chaos as if he already knows exactly where the current runs.

Before I can blink, my back slams into the solid wall. The impact knocks me sideways, and a pair of cold hands grab my wrists, pinning me. The blond man looms over me. Up close, he looks unreal, skin too pale beneath the flashing lights, his crimson eyes fixed on my throat. His fingers twist into my hair, pulling back until pain sparks across my scalp and a wince escapes my lips.

"You barely have a scent." His teeth lengthen while he smiles and he takes another whiff of me. "That's what makes you interesting, dear."

My heart pounds against my chest. Nothing about him reads normal. I force the fear down, focus on my fingers scraping the table nearby, closing around a piece of broken glass. The jagged edge slices into my palm, pain biting behind the cut. He notices too late. I swing up toward his throat.

The air explodes between us.

A fist slams into the blond man, throwing him backward into the crowd. The impact shudders through the floor beneath my feet. Another body fills the space in front of me, so close I have to tilt my head back to find his face.

Mercury eyes.

The air changes around him, an aura that makes the surrounding people recoil without understanding why.

He looks down at me. "Don't move."

I freeze, my heart rate shooting through the roof. Everything is happening so fast.

The blond wipes blood from his mouth, the grin returning. "You hit harder than I remember."

Mercury eyes doesn't bother looking at him. His gaze stays on me, his next words drifts out calm and absolute. "She's mine.”

Mine? My brain latches onto the word for half a second before rejecting it.

I don't belong to anyone.

The smile drops from the blond's face. He lunges again, arm raised for a strike. Mercury eyes catches him by the throat with one hand, drives him down through a glass table. Glass shatters, raining down in pieces. Blood pools beneath the man on the floor.

Metal rock music shrieks back to life overhead just as the main lights die, swallowing the club in total darkness. Silver white lines blaze through the room, forming glowing symbols that burn across the walls and ceiling. They follow the exact curves and crossings I've drawn my entire life.

How… I don't have time to linger. Bodies caught beneath the light dissolve mid scream, there and then not, leaving the smell of burning flesh and ash.

The bile rushes back in, but I swallow it back. Somebody yells one word through the panic. "Hunters!"

The crowd scatters, people trampling each other to reach the exits. Another silver line cuts through the dark, flying straight toward me. Mercury eyes spins me around, putting his back to it. A heavy impact sounds, followed by a low, bitten off groan tearing from his throat.

His fingers wrap around my wrist.

The club disappears. One blink. That's all.

Cold rain hits my face, biting through the lingering warmth of the club. I stay motionless, my body refusing to believe anything can exist after what just happened. My lungs burn, forcing a ragged breath out of me.

I'm standing in an alley behind the building. Brick walls with dumpsters at the side and water running along the curb. Normal city noise echoes somewhere beyond the alley. The ground tilts beneath my boots, and I hold myself against the wet wall before my knees give out. My chest heaves as I look down at my clothes.

The blood is gone. My dress is clean. My skin too.

I lift my palm. The cut from the glass should be there, deep enough to keep stinging, but nothing is left, not even a faint scar. I stagger toward a broken window pane propped against the dumpster. My face is spotless.

But there was blood. I felt it, warm on my skin, running down my neck. Now there's only rain dripping over my body.

I look down and realize I'm holding the glass from the bar, the liquid inside still half full. I know I left it on the tray. Didn't I?

The hairs on the back of my neck rise, signaling that same intense stare. My heart lurches before I realize I'm seeing the reflection in the broken glass.

Mercury eyes watching me from the edge of the rooftop above

I whip around to look directly.

Empty sky.

City noise fills the silence. A siren wails three blocks away, people laughing across the street without glancing toward the alley.

I lift the glass to eye level. The symbol isn't sitting on the surface. It's fused into the glass itself, as though it had always been there.

How? Am I losing my mind from what I drank?

It feels like I'm being controlled by an instruction I've never heard. I raise the glass and swallow the remaining liquid. The sweet strange taste moves down my throat and sits there.

I pull my phone from my purse. Rain falls over the screen. Mara answers on the second ring. "Lena? Where the hell did you go?"

"Mara." My voice comes out thin. "What happened in the club?"

Music blasts through her speaker, the same band that played on the radio during the ride here. Traffic hums underneath it. "We left an hour ago when they shut the place down." She laughs, soft under the noise. "Did you seriously ditch us for some hot guy?”

I stop outside the alley, not because of what she said. A trail of sticky warmth drags down the back of my neck. My fingers find it without thinking, the tips coming back dark.

Blood.

The phone nearly slips from my hand. A car tears through a puddle, spraying water over me. I blink.

My fingers are wet. Nothing but rain.

“Lena, are you there?" Mara's voice crackles.