FATED DESTINY

Chapter Two; The Party

I am sorry I could not come down to pick you up.

"Its fine."

The home was reeking of beer, cologne and something, maybe ancient. When Isabella entered, there was a sound of music through the boards.

She felt a gentler pang in her breast. It was almost as though a door had been thrown open somewhere and out of sight, with an insistent, irresistible appeal to her.

Then she spotted him.

He had hanged to the far wall, half-illuminated in a flickering bulb, and he was not even talking to anyone but just gazing. Quiet. Still. As if he didn't belong here. Isabella looked at him with an unchanging stare. One light flickered and dimmed shut its eyes, and opened again. She blinked.

Nobody else seemed to notice.

Elias refused to look away. He looked even more keenly, perhaps because he was waiting to be observed by her.

The silence that filled the room between them was heavy and charged and the party was paralyzed.

"Who is that?" She questioned Elena who was too calm a speaker to her wildly beating heart.

Elena followed her gaze. "Oh. That's Elias."

"Elias?"

"Mmhmm." Elena sipped. "He's been around. Keeps to himself. He does not talk to anybody much unless he is forced to do so. The'mysterious loner' kind."

Isabella chuckled. "Sounds about right."

Elena dropped her voice. "Just your type."

"He's not my...."

"Come on." Elena took two glasses and handed her one. "Drink first. "Stare later."

Amid the crowding of masses upon him, there was space. People also did not dare to come too close, as his vibe warned them. Elias was not seeking attention, which stuck to him.

She turned back and looked across the room. Elias was gone. She made a scan of the audience; "Looking for me?"

His voice was low, silky, and behind her. She turned.

Elias was nearer than she thought. The music of her heart was above the beat of the party.

"I'm Elias," he said.

I know, she exclaimed, and then blushed. "I mean, I've seen you. Around."

"Have you now?" There was a little smile on his lips. He handed her the cup. "Try it. "Better than jungle juice."

"Thanks."

I will get another, I will, I said, turning already. "Don't disappear." She looked as he started to walk away, and there was one more who attracted her.

Lucien was sitting on the stair rail as though he were in a painting all black, leather jacket, tailored shirt, bad-boy energy with which he need not strain to accomplish. Girls pressed forward round him, smiling, tossing their hair, and dusting off his shoulder that which was not there.

But he wasn't looking at them. They were on her.

Lucien smirked and moved steadily and confidently up to her. You not the partying kind, you do not appear so, he remarked in a voice that was velvety and deeper.

I am yet to make my mind up, Isabella said.

New, he said, as though he had gone over her. "Is it that obvious?"

"To most?" Perhaps not. To me?" He moved closer.

"Very." She ought to have remained on the back. She did not.

Lucien, he said, and reached out his hand.

"Isabella."

"Fitting. "You look like Isabella."

He threw back his head before she could question him as to its meaning. "You should smile more."

It made her giggle. "Is that your line?"

"No," he replied. "That's the truth."

Elias went back to the room and was frozen. He did not even need to hear it; Lucien was too near, Isabella was laughing, and Lucien was not human. Heat raced through his skin. The wolf within him woke up and his eyes glowed gold. He forcing his way through the crowd, set his jaw. Isabella, he said very plainly, with an ugly grin.. "Didn't I say not to disappear?"

"I was just..."

"Meeting charming strangers." Elias handed her a drink. "I see." Lucien held up mockingly both hands. It was conversation I was only making.

Then the tender and peremptory Elias seized Isabella by the arm. "Let's leave here."

Lucien wheeled himself, still smiling. "Aw. "So soon?"

A tense hush ensued.

Careful with that one; careful; be careful, Elias said to himself, though audibly enough. He is not the type you are going to want to linger around.

Isabella frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Trust me."

Two people who were behind them observed. Milo, a little roundish man with a hoodie advertising SNACK KING was standing on the opposite end of the room. He licked the sugar he had on his thumb and then narrowed his eyes on the couple.

He knew what he was looking at: both boys were not human beings. "Awwkward," he said quietly.

Kaelara had not been left out, either, but was spying upon him, in a dark corner of the room.

The witch followed the edge of her cup with her fingernails. She could not read the girl.

I could not feel anything. She sipped her drink. "You know him?" "Let's just say I know of him."

"Cryptic."

"Only slightly."

She nudged him playfully. You are always there to save girls out of mysterious bad boys?

Only wander off unto support. They jokingly laughed and the tension was relieved. The music slowed down, and a more bass-line was used. Individuals were swayed and grumbled in the backgrounds.

Isabella liked the coziness and the sound.

Elias was leaning on the wall close by her. "So... First college party in a new city.What is it like?

Like I just went through a social obstacle course.

"Not bad for your first round."

"And you? You come to these often?"

Only when I feel like I am not abnormal.

"Are you not?"

"Define normal," he instructed.

To get some air, they went out to the backyard. The patio lamps were glowing and the noise was damped out with glass. The two were sitting together in the low stone wall and observing others play with a few sparklers creating loops of light. The lake in the distance was dark and lifeless.

So," requested Isabella, emptying her glass, what was the weirdest dream you have ever had?

"That's a sudden question."

"I'm a sudden kind of girl."

"Fair enough." Elias scratched his chin. I used to have a dream, I was hunted by a squirrel with a samurai sword in his hand.

She started laughing. "No way."

"I'm being serious. Plenty of slow motion."

"You're making that up."

"Would I lie to you?"

"Yes."

"Fair."

Their laughter faded.

"I'm glad I came," she said.

"Me too."

They turned around in the house and went off to her street into the darkness.

She reached home in time before her mum would become furious.