Chapter 65 Lyle
Lyle
Idon’t think any of us were prepared for a summons from Aurelia. Delivered via Minnie, no less. I video call the tigress immediately, of course, and she picks up with a sheepish smile.
“Sorry, Mr Pardalia.” She shrugs. “Aurelia told me to text you where to meet her tonight, and that was it.”
“She didn’t disclose anything else?” I try not to sound disbelieving.
“Nope.”
Marduk inserts his head into the call. “I am under the impression she is initiating covert manoeuvres tonight, lion-friend. I would be on my guard.”
“Always are,” Xander mutters from next to me.
“Especially,” Marduk says pointedly, “since your own manoeuvres on a certain basilisk a few nights ago. Retaliation is expected, no?”
Scythe exhales through his nose on my other side, but I say quickly, “Club Venom is a serpent’s den, right? What do we know about it?”
Marduk strokes his dark beard. “It’s a place of generalised debauchery, however, the higher-up members of Mace Naga’s court are known to meet there together.
We think they use the club as a cover for exchanges and business meetings with other serpents.
” Marduk hesitates then. “It’s the only known place other than the Jewel of the Jungle that Mace Naga visits. ”
“He’s having orgies there?” Savage says excitedly. “I thought he was celli-bat.”
“Celibate,” I correct.
“Not orgies,” Marduk says seriously. “But he petitions members of his court there. Does announcements and such.”
“I’m seeing something interesting.” Xander points to a light-up map on his phone. “They have their own methods of communication, but there’s increased internet traffic in that area. They’re getting ready for something. That has to mean there’s an announcement tonight.”
Scythe and I glance at each other in dark awareness. “Why wouldn’t she tell us beforehand?” I mutter after saying goodbye to the Devi pack. “Why does she want to surprise us?”
“We can only guess,” Scythe says. “But I’m sure she has her reasons. Xander, let’s go.”
“Whatever would you do without me?” the dragon says, pulling off his jacket.
“Lyle would fly us through the air,” Savage says, nudging me affectionately with his shoulder. “Wouldn’t you, Ly?”
Xander makes a face. “You could hold on to his mane, I suppose. How far do you think you can go?”
“Luckily, we don’t have to find out,” I reply tersely. “Savage, you’ll need shoes, this is a club.”
“Snakes don’t even have feet!” he protests, but excitedly jogs towards the stairs all the same.
It’s 9 p.m. by the time we land in Xander’s favourite patch of grass on the outskirts of the city.
Rufus and some of Scythe’s wolves have brought two cars, and we take one while they take the other.
We’re not about to walk into a serpent’s den without reinforcements ready on the outside.
Scythe has always taken care of his own business without extra muscle, but in this case, the sheer numbers Club Venom is attracting makes us wary of traps.
Before we get in the car, Rufus hands Scythe something I can’t see, but my shark brother slides into the back seat before I ask. I take the driver’s seat, and Savage leaps into the passenger side, strapping himself and Eugene in place before Xander can get there.
The drive is quiet and tense. We’re all in a state of disquiet.
When our regina is hiding things, it puts my rabid lion on edge, and even though the shackles that bind him are long gone, sometimes I get the phantom impression of chains rattling.
This has increased since our time at The Collector’s property, likely because my memories of our captivity there are reduced to murky darkness.
It was the only way the spell could work.
Xander has been forthcoming about what happened, forming our memories for us, but I don’t like not remembering things. It reminds me too much of another time.
I feel my lion’s paws squeezing the steering wheel over my own hands, and by the time we get into the big lights of the city, the tension coming off all of us is like treacle in the air.
Xander directs me to a private carpark, and Rufus comes out to meet us, his body tense.
Savage slaps him on the back, handing over Eugene.
“I’ll shout out if there’s any snakey business,” he says. “Don’t worry about it otherwise.”
“We should all be on alert.” I give the wolf a disapproving look. “They had plenty of time to make more venom bullets.”
Rufus nods. “We’ll be stationed exactly where we discussed, and Beak is already in the air with his owls. We’ll be ready to extract if necessary.” Savage scoffs and reaches into his backpack, pulling out a length of multicoloured sequinned material.
“And what the fuck is that?” Xander chokes.
“My pants!” Savage says, shaking it out. “See? We’re going to a rave, Xander.”
“Oh sorry,” Xander rolls his head in a way that suggests he’s rolling his missing eyeballs. “I don’t know why I didn’t bring mine.”
Savage frowns. “We could’ve been matching!”
“This matches,” Scythe says, holding out a full-face mask. It’s black with an opalescent sheen. Savage immediately grabs it and puts it in place with a cackle.
“Where’s mine?” Xander mutters.
“We’re too noticeable.” Scythe hands another mask out to Xander, and this time, it’s a light-up one with red X’s over the eyes. “You’ll need to take your shirt off, Xander. Most people don’t know you don’t have your family tattoos anymore, and maybe hunch a little.”
“We should split up as well,” I note, tugging at my ponytail. “What?” I gape at the awful lime green wig Scythe is holding out to me. “I hope you’re joking.”
“I have to leave my shirt on because my tattoos are too noticeable,” Scythe replies. “And your hair is equally noticeable. You need to cover it, and I assumed hair dye was not an option.”
Savage is side-eyeing me as I take the green wig and clown mask. “I’ll help you,” he says excitedly, reaching for my hair tie. I allow it, thinking of my regina. “For Aurelia,” I mutter to myself.
After my wolf-brother wrestles my wig into place, we assess each other.
Scythe wears a dramatic black robe with the hood up and a scream mask, the long white face and open mouth actually making me shiver.
Xander is now only in black pants and the light-up mask.
I tie the green hair into a long braid because I don’t want to deal with it any more than I have to, and I take off my suit jacket so I’m in my white shirt and suspenders.
It leaves me with the scary clown mask, which suits me just fine.
Savage stops us to take a photo before we say goodbye to Rufus and head down the street and go our separate ways in pairs.
Xander pulls out a joint as he follows me to approach the club from the southern end of the street.
By the time we line up to get into Club Venom, the line is down the road, and we can hear the music pumping from inside.
We’re surrounded by serpents, all dressed in utterly insane rave outfits and all with various morbid masks.
Savage chatters an excited monologue into our heads so we know what to expect when we get inside by the time Xander and I reach the fanged archway entrance.
“There’s a man in a thong!” Savage says gleefully. “And oh, look, Scythe, there’s glitter on that anaconda slithering around on the bar!”
The music only gets louder. “Someone call reptile rescue,” Xander mutters in my head. “Have you ever been in a club before, Lyle?”
There was a period in my life after Ulmans’ Sanctuary where I roamed freely on the streets, most of the time homeless and confused about my animus. In those times, before my incarceration, I had wandered into clubs once or twice. “My animus liked the noise,” I admit. “He was drawn to them.”
Xander snorts in my head. “I should have known.”
The bass vibrates through my shoes as Xander pays the ten-dollar fee to get us into the darkened space beyond.
I clock Savage and Scythe immediately in the corner, mostly because Savage is already dancing like a madman near the front where a large stage is set, heavy black curtains setting the scene for something interesting.
The bar is busy on the left-hand side, teeming with writhing bodies.
A girl in only a black thong and Catwoman mask slides past me.
Revulsion whips through my body, and I turn away from her to Xander.
The dragon notices this, and I just know he’s smirking under that mask, but I jerk my thumb towards the bar and make my way over there.
The alcohol is just a pretence, of course, but Xander knocks his whiskey back like he needs it.
It’s serpent strength, and will be the equivalent of water in his big body, but to my surprise, he joins the crowd jumping up and down to the beat.
“Gotta look the part,” he shouts in my head. “Does the headmaster dance?”
Suddenly, Savage appears out of nowhere and grabs my hand, pulling me into the throng. It’s a trance version of Paint It Black, and under the anonymity of the mask, I give in. My lion purrs under the beat, the electricity in the air, and a scent that sits on the edge of chaos.
Moments later, at exactly 10 p.m., the beat changes.
The fast pace melts into something slower.
The crowd is in tune with the change, almost as if expecting it.
There are more people jammed in here now, and they move in a lilting, twisting motion more akin to a mosh pit.
It’s easy for Xander and me to adjust our movements, and ahead of me, Savage is moving along too, a fine sheen of sweat on his muscled back catching the strobe lights above.
Scythe’s voice slides into the group chat though I can’t see him.
“I’m counting six serpent generals on tiers behind you. ”
Adrenaline spikes in my blood once again, and I subtly glance around as the music morphs into Angel by Massive Attack, turning the scene even slower. “And where is the seventh?” I muse.
Everyone turns towards the stage just as Savage makes a choked noise.
Serpents are heading towards a designated pit I can now see in front of the stage.
They discard their scant clothing and costumes before shifting and entering the mass of serpentine bodies.
We’re swept forward by the space created as they shift and more people enter the club behind us.
The pit quickly becomes filled with nothing but serpents, and I see more than a few attempting to copulate.
“Serpent orgy,” says Xander with resignation.
But then the black curtain behind the stage ripples, and I grab Xander’s arm—
Just before a fully grown basilisk slithers out from between the curtains.
More than a few people cheer and whoop with excitement as Ghoul shakes out the spines of his head that almost reach the ceiling.
There’s a black band of shadow around his eyes, protecting the crowd from the death of his gaze, and he towers over us, the black scales of his body gleaming under golden lights directed at him.
His serpentine body seems to go on forever, the hard muscle joining the rest of him on the stage.
He’s as big as a dragon. And even without the wings and limbs, you get the distinct feeling of colossal, mythic power.
We all see it at the same time. The naked woman on his back, her bare legs astride him, breasts and stomach pressed against the black scales.
The crowd’s noise lulls to a hush as they see Aurelia.
Her face and back are covered by a glittering, sheer black veil.
The veil is fit into something that could only be described as a tall black diadem and falls to cover her eyes and nose, leaving only red painted lips and white pointed fangs for us to see.
The veil is long enough that it drapes around her shoulders, seductively trailing down to her lower back.
I feel like I’m in a dream, because this cannot be my reality.
Aurelia is a known figure amongst the wider community.
They have seen videos and newspaper articles time and again, and the entirety of Animus Academy knows exactly what she looks like.
Her body is distinct. All creatures of the mythic orders are.
And if she turns only a little, the unique scars on her stomach will show.
Her face is barely obscured under the material.
Aurelia looks like a basilisk’s dark bride, and my entire body stands to attention as I register the message that’s being sent.
My regina bares her teeth at us, a clear hissing sound filling the air before she’s joined by the hissing of the serpents roiling beneath us.
She presses a cheek affectionately to Ghoul’s serpent body, reared up and baring his own fangs at us.
His long tail circles protectively around her before he lets out a hissing, growling sound that ripples over my own skin.
This is a declaration.
This was a trap after all. Just not the type we’d expected.