I was a Teenage Wereslut

"So many memories." I said when I saw the side by side paintings of her father and older brother. They were both named Lawrence as were other men born Talbot. The first Lawrence was a landed knight that saved a king in battle and earned a title that survived through Rowena. She spoke for hours until the sun touched the horizon. We parted, showered, and dressed for the party. Only the most elite would be invited to attend. I wore a dressed set out by Rowena. It was imported black silk, with an open back and slit up the side to show off my legs. The front was dangerously scooped but still only hinted at what was beneath. I was surprised when Artemis informed me that she had made other plans. Whatever was supposed to happen at the club was for me and me alone to endure. My curiosity was shifted into overdrive as we drove to the club. Lady Talbot was wearing an equally elegant dress and even sporting six-inch heels.

There was no line outside the club tonight. The marquis read private party by invitation only. Unlike my first visit to the club we parked in the back with other selective vehicles. It beat walking blocks just to get in but lacked the build up of anticipation. The drive to the club would have to suffice. We entered in the rear. The kitchen was large and sectioned off into human and near human chefs and beyond the demarcation point the hooded figures that tended the non-human guests. The first sense of fear of the night was seeing the questionable food they were preparing. It began as a sense of unease but would progress as the night wore on. Instead of a local band to entertain the guests a twenty-piece orchestra were poised and ready to play. An unseen signal alerted them to our arrival, and they took up their instruments and began playing. The music was ethereal and unknown to me. It was enchanting and pleasant and hauntingly alien. I can't tell you why I felt that way but deep down I knew that the melody wasn't human in origin.

"Does it bother you?" Rowena asked as she led me towards the center of the dance floor.

"It is lovely, but yes there is something unusual about it." I admitted.

"You have a keen ear and an excellent instinct. It was written by a fae maestro of some renown. Never ignore your gut or you'll pay for it." She added.

The introductions began after that. We walked in a spiral pattern at the edge of the dance floor and singularly or in small groups I met Lady Talbot's serfs and allies as she thought of them. The first were men and woman of noble families from the U.K. and across Europe. The second group were the near humans that encompassed the Fae, the Nephilim, and others like me. That left only the non-humans and they were nowhere to be seen. One of the Nephilim asked me to dance and I accepted as a somber waltz played from above.

"So, you are the latest heir apparent." He said his eyes glinting a flash of red.

"Latest eh." I replied enjoying being in his arms. "I love your eyes, the way they look at me." He laughed before he replied.

"I was about to say the same thing." He said smiling revealing his needle-sharp canines. "Sorry, it is forbidden to feed in such pleasant company. I just can't seem to control myself."

"It is my fault I suspect." I offered as his skin broke out in the tell-tale perspiration as the curse ensnared him. "Forgive me."

"I don't understand. I have enjoyed the company with your kind and I've never had this sort of reaction before." He growled as he broke away. "Let me make it up to you Lady after I have mastered myself."

"Of course." I replied as he left the dance floor and vanished into the shadows just beyond.

"Lady Van Dekker," One of the female Nephilim said as she approached. "I am sorry for my cousin's behavior. I hope you won't..." She began and halted as she too felt the curse's touch. "...I am soaked."

"Is it permitted to walk outside?" I asked.

"Yes. Of course! There is a garden on the roof. Let me show you how to get there." She growled. "My name is Courtney Alsace Jardin, your humble servant."

"A pleasure Courtney, please call me Nenya." I replied as we headed for the roof.

"Nenya, a very unusual name for an unusual woman." She commented as she pushed open the door to the roof. "Better!" She said as she took a deep breath. "Please do not take offense."

"Absolutely not," I assured her. "It takes a lot to upset me, so don't worry. What is it like?"

"What is what like?" She asked smiling. "Being a Nephilim? I was born this way, so I don't know any different. I was taught from an early age to hide my differences."

"Oh, I didn't know." I said feeling my cheeks burn in shame.

"No problem, you made a logical assumption. What about you, since you brought it up, how has this changed your life?"

"I never thought I'd ever end up here, in London, I mean." I said. "My sense of smell and hearing are supercharged." I said sniffing the air. "We aren't alone." I told her as I turned towards the source of the smell.

"Ignore him." Courtney urged. "He's harmless. I picked up on him the moment we opened the door."

"That is an odd way of saying that." I noted and she grinned.

"How much do you know about sharks?" She asked and I shrugged. "Sharks hunt by using what marine biologists call their lateral line. It allows them to sense vibrations or movement in the water. Add to that their keen sense of smell they are formidable predators. Nephilim possess both and we are equally gifted hunters. Our spines possess a system identical to a shark's lateral line. When hunting we can isolate our prey and follow their path with ease. Our sense of smell is closer to a blood hound's in that we can not just pick out an individual's scent but track them and determine if they are sick or not."

"Sick? So, you can smell if someone has cancer or a fatal illness." I said as she leaned close and sniffed me.

"Healthy as a horse," she purred. "How do you track your prey?"

"I don't... well... I mean... they come to me." I said as I slipped my arms around her neck. "I suppose I am more like a Venus Fly Trap. My scent draws in my 'prey' and I do the rest."

"It is very effective." She moaned as I let my lips brush the side of her neck.

"I don't want you to do anything you don't want to." I whispered and her entire body shook.

"Oh... I want to." She whimpered until he spoke.

"Before you two copulate, may I speak with the new Lady Talbot?" The man in the shadows asked.

"Fine!" Snapped Courtney. "Don't keep her long Kane! I have plans for her."

"Yes... yes... our conversation will be brief." Kane said as he stepped out of the darkness. "Nenya? My employer wishes to meet with you."

Courtney went downstairs as I turned to face Kane. He was tall, wide shouldered, and a redhead. His hair and beard were a deep blood red in color. He was built like a pit fighter and moved like a dancer. I noticed his clothes and while they appeared to be worn and old, they were in fact hand made and the stitching was excellent work. My aunt made money on the side as a seamstress. I grew up alongside sewing machines and watched her hand stitch clothing and repair them.

"I like your outfit." I told him as he stood within a few feet of me. "Your scent is interesting as well. Freshly showered, odd herbals, and a delicate manly musk. You find me attractive, I like that."

"You are as my employer described you, clever and dangerous." Kane laughed. "Tell me what you see Nenya."

I took in his shabby continence and yet beyond the cursory glance I was mistaken about him altogether. He fingernails were neatly trimmed and clean. While his hair had a wild cast, the ends were recently cut and healthy. It was his eyes that forced me to take a step back despite my steely will. There was an unhealthy pallor in his gaze that shared things mortal folk should not perceive. What had he witnessed? Where had his feet taken him? I walked around him and fought the urge to cup his ass cheeks and give them a healthy squeeze. He had a nice ass. As I walked back around to his front, I spied it, a worn dark silk cord around his neck. He didn't speak and when I touched the cord he didn't flinch. I worked my fingers beneath it and lifted it something heavy hung from around his neck.

"What is this I wonder?" I asked as I slowly pulled it aloft from beneath his shirt. "Whoa! It is... gorgeous in its own way. I've never seen this design before."

"I'd be surprised if you have." He said but no more.

I took the solid gold amulet from around his powerful neck. It was a lens shaped disk, flat on the back, and rounded on the side carrying the geometrical design. There were overlaying pentacles and something else blending to form an odd sigil. It's meaning was unknown and likely he would never share that with me. It fit into the palm of my hand and had enough weight to make me ponder its value both for its mineral wealth as well as it mystical significance. I was so caught up I missed the passage of Kane from in front of me to the top of the steps.

"Follow me Lady Talbot-Von Dekker. My superior doesn't like being kept waiting." He said and turned to leave.

"Hey! What about... fine!" I said slipping the thing around my head and adjusting the double slipknot until the thing we hidden within my cleavage. "Damn that's cold!"

Kane led me to a hallway marked employees only. At the end of it was an elevator. He gestured and began heading back to the dance floor. I was about to argue with him but at that moment the door of the lift opened with a pleasant metallic ding. I resigned myself to meet with his boss. I had the dagger forged for me strapped to my thigh and it gave me comfort when all else abandoned me. There was only one button in the elevator. I pressed it. The door closed with a resounding clang and I felt it begin its descent. It slowly picked up speed until it was travelling at a pace, I was uncomfortable with. Surely it had reached the basement or even the subbasement. Yet onward it went relentless and impossibly deep.

"Hey! What the hell is going on?!" I cried out as the temperature began to drop.

I shivered as the damnable machine unspooled its cable to depths to deep to consider. Surely there is no cable like the one that held me suspended between perdition and the abyss. My breath came in puffs of frozen air and a sheen of ice formed on the lower portion of the elevator's floor.

"Next stop... the ninth plane of hell... devils... cacodemons... and the blasted landscape of Lucifer and his court." I said trying to push away the growing panic. "This isn't funny anymore."

I said imagining that I was no long moving but being subjected to a clever machine that made it feel as if I was plummeting into the bowels of the earth. The entire elevator shook and twisted as if we had left the shaft and now hung free in an open space. My mind painted the image of a massive domed cavern that had never seen the light of day. My arms were wrapped around my chest trying to stay warm.

"That bitch! This is Rowena's fault! She wanted to get rid of me and sent me down here to die. I'm not going to die you fucking bitch!" I snapped.

How long had I been descending? How deep was I? I must be beneath the ocean floor. Was this an ancient salt mine? How was this possible? How long had I been in this accursed elevator? I had quit shaking now and I no long felt the cold. My rage gave me strength and I refused to succumb to Rowena's trap. If I ever laid eyes on her and this was just a sick joke, I'd ball up my fist and knock her on her ass.

Crash!

I was sent tumbling to the slick ice-covered floor of the elevator. I stood as the door opened. There was only darkness beyond. If I left the elevator, I feared it would be raised and I would be stranded in this stygian blackness all alone. Surely nothing lived down here.

"Come out... come out... wherever you are!" The voice said.

The voice was neither male nor female. I was sure no human throat spoke those words. The fear had been cold forged into finest terror. I was frozen to the spot when the voice demanded it leave the elevator and I felt the warm trickle of piss as I lost control of my body. Like some hideous puppet my legs moved but it was an awkward stumbling gate into the darkness. I took over and departed the sanctuary of the elevator. The darkness swallowed me up but the surface I strode upon while uneven wasn't difficult to navigate.

The curse allowed me to perceive into spectra normal humans could only see by use of machines and polished glass lenses. There wasn't much to see down here. I had been spelunking but here even the cavern was worn plain by uncounted eons. I stumbled forward for twenty long minutes. A thin beam of light shone down and illuminated a pillar of rock protruding from a lake. Black water surrounded the tiny outcropping of rock. I couldn't tell you what portion of the spectrum that light consisted of, but it only mattered that I could perceive it. I reached the shore of the lake and walked along it seeking a strip of rock that might spare me having to swim in that dull unmoving surface of liquid. No such luck, I removed my shoes and strode into the lake and swam to the rock. Thank whatever gods there were that the lake was filled with water and to my surprise it was warm.

As I swam, I remembered an old movie mom had picked out and we had sat on her bed watching together. There was a scene where a woman in a white swimming suit swam across the top of the dark water. What she didn't know is that a fish man was swimming beneath her and mirrored her movements perfectly. The gill man lusted after her but by the end of the movie he was denied. What a horror she might have spat out nine months later if it had gotten the chance to copulate with her. Was there something beneath the water? Was it waiting for me to reach out for the stone before grabbing my ankle and dragging me down? I swam faster and in a near panic reached out for the weathered rock.

I climbed up and rolled onto my back. The light appeared to be coming from a single crystal wedged into the distant roof of the cavern. I still didn't know what sort of light it was emitting I was glad for it. As if sensing my comfort, the illumination dimmed. It didn't fade completely but it limited my vision even more than it was already diminished. The sound of a rock being displaced had me in a crouch and prepared to flee.

"Don't move." The voice ordered.

"I won't." I promised. "Are you Kane's... master?"

"I am. Be still and listen." It said. The voice came from everywhere. It was both directionless and focused, focused on me. "I am behind you. No! Don't move. Don't look! If you look you will die." It whispered and I thought I felt its breath on my neck. "I want a better look at you Lady Talbot-Von Dekker. I can smell the blood of the Titan on you." It said and my body shook as fear became terror and terror edging towards panic. "Don't move. If you move, I will slay you, like the others. So many others."

"That bitch!" I growled my anger cooling the fear a bit.

"There is strength in you." It said and this time I did feel its breath on my flesh. "Fear like light exists in a spectrum. It begins with curiosity. What was that sound?" It said as something brushed against my thigh. "There, in the shadows, I saw something move... don't look! I am close now! Very close Nenya... oh so close! I can hear your heart tripping in your chest. It feels like it will burst from your flesh and flop on the stone beneath you. Yes! Such pure distilled terror! Remember this moment! Burn the fear into your memory like an emotional alloy. One-part rage, one-part terror, and one-part arousal..."

"Arousal?!" I asked derailed by the unexpected word. "I'm not aroused." I whispered fighting off the truth.

There was a reason why people watched scary movies, rode roller-coaster, and climbed the sides of cliffs with little to no safety gear. They were in it for the adrenalin rush. As fucked up as it sounded the fear had triggered a response in me. It was something deep, dark, and only here in the bowels of the planet could I admit it. I got off on being afraid. This thing knew it. Did it sense it, had it read my thoughts, or was it more obvious than that. I groaned when something brushed between my legs.

"What do you want?" I growled fighting off the cold realization.

"Yield to me two things and I will return you unharmed to your pitiable and limited world." It whispered as something wrapped about my waist. The fear returned in full measure when it gave me a not so delicate squeeze. "Never forget you stand on a razor's edge."

"Forgive!" I begged and a moment later I surrendered.

"Good!" It roared in triumph. "First I take my pleasure from you and then I claim my true prize!"

Aftermath:

She had fled the club. Lady Rowena Talbot had practically clawed her way out of the club so that she could be there when the body was found. Her staff would be her alibi when the police came calling. Her heels struck the marble floor like gun shots. Bernadette, the live-in maid, called out to her mistress.

"Lady?" She called out from the second floor. "You are home early."

"Bored!" Rowena called out repeatedly. "Bored... bored... bored!!"

"Are you thirsty or hungry? Can I fix you something?" Bernadette asked.

"That would be lovely. I am a bit peckish." The Lady replied. "I would kill for a snack."

Rowena tripped on the steps and tore the high heels from her feet. She continued to her office barefoot. The carpet felt delicious against the soles of her feet. The musty air of the manor house was delightful to her. She was alive while poor pitiful Nenya was perished. Soon she would face the thing below London. She would end up like the others. The Lady Talbot settled into her high-backed chair. She was surrounded by all the things that brought her comfort. History! Family was all about knowing one's history and where you came from. In this case knowing where someone else came from. Bernadette arrived with a silver tray, a pot of tea atop it, and snacks.

"Shall I stay Lady, or would you prefer to be alone?"

"Stay a bit," Rowena smiled triumphantly. "Even now she descends... are you afraid of the dark Bernadette?"

"No Milady." She replied.

"I misspoke," Rowena said her eyes alight with conquest and her smile a little too wide. "When I asked you if you were afraid of the dark, I meant the primal darkness. The dark that predates creation. The mother of all shadows and patron of fear and terror. Her children are the things that cause the wood to creak, the jiggling of a doorknob at a locked door, and the hot breath on your neck when no one is there."

"Yes...! Yes Lady! Any sane person would be afraid of those things." She said her lip trembling and a single tear racing down her pale cheek. "May I go milady?"

"Yes. Sleep with the lights on." Rowena suggested. "Dead." She whispered once the maid had departed. "Dead in the middle of an empty field. Her broken body showing signs of a terrible fall without a place to fall from. It must have been a plane they will say." She rambled know as the rictus grin grew ever wider. "They will check the airports and discover no flights of private or small aircraft. So, how did this happen?"

The door opened and Rowena watched as the scarlet haired Kane entered her office. He walked in until he stood opposite of her. He bowed and waited patiently. She checked her watch. Nenya couldn't be dead yet. The elevator was still descending. There was another twenty minutes until it reached bottom. Why was he here? She waited in silence and he stood unmoving for thirty minutes. Surely, she was dead by now. The last heir of the last titan.

"Dead!" Rowena cackled her mind brittle with age and stress. "Finally!" She added feeling the stress leave her. "You took her to the elevator?"