Movement No. 1
Yasmeena
This place might be called The Cathedral, but there are no saints here.
With the promise of access to magical drugs and a drunken good time, The Cathedral is the most popular bar on Haeresis.
My brother Khalid, our friends, and I make our way up the walkway to the old, castle-like structure.
Gray stones stretch tall and sharp like fangs.
There’s no security at the door, so we just walk in, and it’s bigger than I expected.
Moonlight pours in through the stained-glass doorway, illuminating a path straight for the bar.
“Let’s get the birthday bitch a drink,” I say, smiling back at Roxanne. Khalid is holding Reina’s hand, Roxanne and Kayoda’s arms are intertwined, and even Sofie and Ivan are giving each other the fuck-me eyes; I try not to fixate on how alone I feel in this moment.
I love these people dearly, but it’s hard to be the only single one in the group, not that I have time for dating, anyway. King Luc and Draven keep me busy. I’m constantly listening and gathering information, keeping track of all the comings and goings of the important players on Hel.
Sofie nods in agreement. “I’m so glad your shift actually ended on time today. You two are late to everything.”
Roxanne’s face turns a pale pink. “Sorry, but I don’t like to leave messes for the night shift guys to have to deal with.”
We all take our seats at the bar, waiting for a bartender to become available.
“I might’ve bribed the charge nurse to let us leave early tonight.” Kayoda winks.
One of the bartenders catches my eye. She has long, silvery-white hair that cascades down her back.
Strong, tattooed arms flex as she pours a drink and hands it to a customer a few seats down from us.
When she comes back, she cleans the segment of the bar top right in front of me, and I try to memorize the details of her face.
The upturned nose, the strong jaw. She’s gorgeous.
But nothing could have prepared me for the moment she looks up. Her eyes are like twin glaciers, bright but haunting. She stares back at me, like a siren beckoning me to come closer, and I all but lean over the fucking bar to get her attention.
“Hi,” I say, blushing and a little breathless.
The fur on her forearms is the same shade as her ears. A lupion. “Bold of you to come here after last week’s attack,” she says, crossing her arms, and every hair on my body stands at attention.
I heard about the attack—the murder, because that’s what it was—but I don’t know those involved in any personal capacity.
I’ve met Robert once or twice, but we didn’t run in the same circles.
According to the reports I’d heard, the killing was pretty brutal.
He stabbed Gwyn, the lupion, in an alleyway after she got off work.
I had never met Gwyn, hadn’t even heard of her before now.
She didn’t seem to be involved in any political schemes, or even any pack drug or magic deals.
Just a normal, everyday lupion who worked as a dental assistant.
Things are starting to get tense between the felion and the lupion, but I wouldn’t have wished death on anyone, especially not an innocent bystander.
“I’m really sorry, but I can assure you, we don’t condone that felion’s behavior,” I say, my heart racing, and I can’t tell if it’s from how beautiful she is, or how anxious I feel regarding her statement.
“If he weren’t already dead, I’d kill him myself,” Ivan says, and every head turns to him.
“He’s dead?” Khalid asks, and Reina and I sink in our seats a little.
Luc gave Draven the order to execute him, but the public isn’t supposed to know that just yet. I told Ivan as a courtesy, so he could be the first person to run the story, and here he goes, running his big mouth.
“An… informant of mine implied he might be,” Ivan says, scratching the back of his neck. “Nothing has been confirmed yet.”
“Well, I hope it’s true,” the bartender says and shrugs. “What’re you all drinking?”
We rattle off our orders one by one, and she and another bartender get to work, passing our drinks over.
I hate to admit it, but it’s sexy to watch the lupion work.
She’s fast and determined, and her body isn’t bad looking either.
I wonder what she does to get those muscles of hers.
One of her thick biceps is covered in tattooed swirls, the other an enchanting scene with trees and a single glowing moon.
It’s always stricken me as odd that lupion use one, singular moon in all of their symbolism, given that we have two moons, but I let go of the thought, trying to have fun with my friends.
“Let’s talk about literally anything other than the news,” Roxanne says, mouth pinching to the side. “Sorry Ivan.”
“It’s fine,” he says and shrugs. “It’s especially depressing this week, so I get it.”
It’s easier to shut it off when it doesn’t affect you directly. This, unfortunately, will affect all of us in the long run, but I don’t mention it further.
“Tell us about your day,” Sofie says to Roxanne, who shakes her head.
“No, no. Not my day. Anything but my day.” Roxanne’s sage eyes go wide.
“That bad?” I ask.
Kayoda smiles and pinches his nose. “Manual disimpaction.”
“One of my kindergarteners had an accident, so I totally get you,” Sofie says empathetically, but Roxanne and Kayoda just glare back at her.
They continue laughing and sharing stories that range from hilarious to downright disgusting, but I’m too distracted to truly listen in.
There’s a couple making out on the dance floor, and a half-demon snorting a line of some mysterious powder a few stools down, but not even that can stop my laser focus on this bartender.
When she finally places the lemon drop I ordered in front of me, I stare up at her as I lick the sugar off the rim. At this angle, I’ve got a perfect view of her perky breasts, and I cannot seem to stop my mind from wandering to what they’d look like with her tank top off.
“My eyes are up here, nuisance,” she says, tone light and flirtatious.
“Nuisance?” I say, and take a sip of my drink.
She leans in close. “Your presence is pretty inconvenient,” she whispers, and I feel my heart rate spike even faster.
The implied goes unsaid. This bar is owned by lupion, and felion aren’t exactly welcome right now.
Still, I play into it, wanting her to look past the current hostility between our species and just see me for me.
Sitting up, I lean in close, my friends’ conversation acting as background noise. “So you think I’m pretty?”
“That’s not what I said,” she says as one eyebrow ticks up. A faint, rose-colored flush spreads across her cheeks, and it’s obvious the wicked thoughts running through my head are mutual.
I bite my lower lip. “Am I distracting you from your work?”
“Yes, but it’s a welcome distraction,” she confesses, and one corner of her mouth curves. She picks up a cloth and begins drying off clean dishes as we continue talking.
“So what do you do other than bartend, are you a bodybuilder or something?” I ask, staring at her biceps.
She flexes and I can’t help but giggle. “A little bit of weight lifting, a little bit of aerial silks. I also do martial arts and boxing.”
“That’s really cool. I do lyra, it’s the hoop—”
“I know what lyra is,” she interrupts, and it surprises me. Most people I speak with have zero clue.
“Have you ever been to The Sinner’s Circus?” I feel giddy at the thought of her seeing me perform.
She shakes her head. “No, but the circus arts intrigue me. I’ve read a lot about them, even had my own rig built so I could practice silks.” She sets down a glass and picks up another, my eyes tracking her clawed fingers as they flex and move.
“That’s really cool.”
The bartender’s face shifts into a full-out smirk. “You must be pretty flexible.”
A hand grabs the back of my arm, and I turn to see Roxanne, Sofie, and Reina standing behind me and I sigh.
“The birthday girl wants to dance,” Sofie says, gesturing to Roxanne. “We took shots while you were busy flirting with the cute bartender.”
Man, I might be a bad friend. I didn’t even notice. “Let’s dance, then.” Getting up from the barstool, I wink as I follow my friends onto the dance floor.
The music isn’t my favorite, some sort of electronic rhythm, but I let my body sway to the beat, trying to be a supportive friend.
“Try to relax, Yas. You deserve a little partying too,” Roxanne says, her golden hair tied up in a high-pontytail that bounces as she walks.
“Thanks,” I say, and try to exit the floor once the music changes.
I’m quickly stopped by the bartender, who puts one tattooed arm around my waist, the other in my hand, and leads me onto the dance floor alongside my friends.
It surprises me that she’d leave the bar.
Honestly, it surprises me that she’d be interested in me at all, given how much tensions are growing between our species, but it’s not an unwelcome surprise.
She doesn’t tower over me, but she’s tall enough to make the butterflies in my stomach flutter.
Kayoda comes up behind Roxanne and places his arms around her, his deep brown skin contrasting beautifully against the pastel yellow of her birthday dress.
Ivan and Khalid get up from the bar and head towards the dance floor, and I turn back to the lupion I’m chest-to-chest with, grinning.
“You alright?” she asks. She smells like citrus and sage, the scent just as encapsulating as she is.
“Yeah,” I say and nod. “Just happy to not be alone for a change.”
She brings my hand up to her lips and gently kisses my knuckles. “The feeling is mutual.”
Khalid reaches Reina and Sofie, staring as the drinks still in their hands slosh onto the floor as they move.
Taking both glasses, he tries walking back to the barstools but bumps into a taller lupion, spilling some of the liquid onto him.
The atmosphere in the room changes immediately.
Everything feels warmer and more tense, and my breath hitches, unable to keep my eyes off them.
“Do you have a problem?” the lupion asks, shoving Khalid’s chest, and Kayoda shakes his head, trying to get between them.
“Nope. No problem here. Actually, we were just leaving,” he says, desperate to intervene and fix the situation before anything more serious can occur.
My brother isn’t as diplomatic.
“You should not have done that,” Khalid growls.
In one quick motion he drops the drinks, glass shattering to the floor as his fire magic crackles at his fingertips. The older lupion swings his fist, but Khalid ducks, and the punch lands on some half-demon bystander.
Everything escalates quicker than my head can wrap itself around. More punches are thrown, and the stench of blood and alcohol permeates the air.
Khalid knocks the older lupion down and I look over to see Ivan getting absolutely pummeled by a half-demon with pink skin and sharp, spiky horns. A felion I don’t recognize is getting tail-whipped by another lupion, and there’s someone’s tooth on the floor next to my feet.
What should’ve been a fun birthday celebration has turned into an all-out brawl. It’s madness and melee as the Cathedral’s employees attempt to break up the fight. Maybe if a felion hadn’t killed a lupion this week, this wouldn’t be happening. Or maybe it would. It’s hard to tell anymore.
The bartender and I try to wade through the wildness and hide behind the bartop.
“Afraid of a fight?” she whispers and I shake my head.
“No, but I really like this dress and I’m not trying to get blood on it,” I jest, and she laughs. “You?”
“If I get hurt, my father would have the culprits' heads, so it’s better I don’t get involved.”
I nod, wondering who her father must be. “Noted.”
“Grab your friends, and I can help you get the Hel out of here,” she says. “Meet me back here in two minutes.”
We head in opposite directions, and I find Khalid and Reina in the thick of the fight. Blood is splattered across my brother’s face and both sets of ears, but Reina appears unharmed.
“We have to get out of here,” I whisper-shout, and they both nod, pushing past a half-demon and following me back to the bar.
I don’t see any of the others, but when we meet back up with the bartender, Roxanne and Kayoda are by her side.
“Follow me,” she says, and we do.
She takes us through a narrow hallway and back into the kitchen. There are lupion everywhere, but they don’t pay us any mind as she waves them off, until finally we reach a door.
“What about Ivan and Sofie?” Roxanne asks, concern lacing her features.
“You’re on your own, but I’ll try to get your friends out of here safely next,” the bartender says, and I nod.
“Thank you.”
She opens the door, revealing a night sky covered in stars, and my friends and brother all exit. I stop in my tracks.
“What’s your name?” I ask, wishing the night had gone differently.
“Tempest,” she says. It’s familiar, but I can’t place my finger on it. Footsteps come from down the hall, and her eyes widen. “Go.”
The door slams behind me, and anxiety seems to move through my body in waves, before settling into the pit of my stomach.
I hope I get to see her again.