“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 overEugene. “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, Ihadwandered into clubs once or twice.“My animus liked the noise,”I admit.“He was drawn to them.”
