The Lycademy - Fire and Death

10. Not so fun party

Loud rumbling of the beat was heard from across the staircase even before we reached the bottom step. It was like a siren's call for a sailor, light for a moth, water for the thirsty and medicine for the sick. All the things I need right now in one place: alcohol, music and girls.

I grinned happily forgetting about my spat with Seth and caught my friend's eyes staring at me warily. But as long as he got my message we should be fine, so I clapped his back and tilted my head towards the bar. Each of us grabbed a drink and we started mingling looking for our friends. But before we even found them, the familiar girl with honey blonde sun kissed hair unexpectedly threw herself in Seth's arms.

That was new. Seth never struck me as the kind of guy who allows such forward contact. However I was even more surprised that Maya was this easy going, to be honest from the way she spoke in our classes, she sounded like one of those Alpha females who thinks too highly of themselves.

I watched them with raised eyebrows for a moment while they were hugging and Seth looked just a little bit uncomfortable. Does he know her?

"Where have you been hiding? Two weeks and I'm seeing you just now." - Maya said to my friend, sounding like a long lost relative.

"I've been around." - Seth answered with his usual smirk - "Do you know my friend Vaughn Cargarough?" - he then turned to me - "Vaughn, that's Maya Kelly, my Cousin's sister-in-law."

Maya rolled her eyes.

"Isn't it easier to call me your relative? The title you stick to is too damn long." - she scolded Seth then she eyed me up and down with a recognition in her gaze - "And yeah, we know each other. We have a few classes together. Crescent Moon's future Alpha, right?" - she asked me even though I was fairly positive she knew the answer.

I shook her hand and smiled.

"That's right." - I confirmed - "So you're Max's sister, I heard great things about him from my cousins. He got quite close with our inner circle."

"Yup, he's the best, and he brought this grump to the family too." - she said with a wide smile nudging her elbow into Seth's side.

I watched their exchange with amusement, because Seth looked like he wanted to be literally anywhere else, but Maya however looks like the girl who always gets things her way. No is apparently not in her vocabulary.

"I have to run now, boys, but I'll catch up with you later. We Alphas must stick together." - she then said with a wink and sauntered away disappearing as quickly as she showed up.

"She's…" - I started looking for the right choice of words.

"Yup, intense." - Seth finished for me.

"Have you been in her Pack?"

"Once. Never going there again. They are all just like Maya, too loud, too touchy." - Seth said wincing like it was actually painful, making this whole statement so much funnier.

"Boo huh, they didn't let you brood in peace." - I snickered, recieving a glare and a shove on the shoulder.

"Shut up, Cargarough and let's find the rest."

We found our friends at the far end separated into three groups. Kein and Buzzard talking amongst themselves, guys from my Pack laughing at some s**t Titus was saying and last but not least the Boyl twins and Kite dancing nearby. Damn, they can't even act like a one solid group for one party, and I don't think that's exactly what Cole was expecting when he asked for my help.

We passed the girls raising the bottle we grabbed on the way to call them over and that did the trick because they stopped dancing and joined us all by the table.

"Finaly! We thought you Ladies decided to ditch us and went on a date." - Ty greeted me and Seth with a cheeky grin.

"Nah, we went to feed Gini and check up on her." - I answered giving Seth a side look, but he acted like nothing ever happened and our little disagreement didn't take place.

My Beta, Gamma and Cole nodded with understanding but the rest of the people by the table looked rather confused.

"Virginia?! Why isn't she here? I haven't seen her since I got here." - Kite asked. Right, I totally forgot they met before. I remember that even though their obvious differences, because they are like night and day, they were pretty close once, when Gini was still interested in any social relationships, whixh was probably when she was twelve or so.

" That's not really her type of place. Gini, she…" - I started but what was I supposed to say to not put her in a bad light. Is antisocial? Prefers solitude? Thinks that drawing is more interesting than you guys? It all sounded bad and I didn't want to say anything she might be uncomfortable with.

"Hates crowds." - ended for me Seth and that was actually not that bad. I nodded with appreciation and we sat down.

The small table they were occupying was a bit crowded with all of us here and it wouldn't take a genius to see all the frictions this dysfunctional team shared.

I sat opposite Kein doing my best to not acknowledge him in any way, because our one word responses or forced pleasantries didn't exactly scream best friends, so we both went for avoiding eye contact.

Cole sat between Peter and Nat, listening to every word one of his Mate had to say and pretending to not see the scowl Nicky was sending him from her sister's other side.

Kite sat next to her obnoxiously quiet cousin Buzz and was openly glaring at Seth who busied himself in pouring shots for everyone. But true to her word she didn't do anything worse than that, so in my opinion that was her actually trying. Her violet eyes looked like they were two small lasers pointed at my friend's head ready to strike, but she hasn't pulled the trigger yet.

And cherry on top is my Betta, who was constantly spacing out, but he may already be drunk, so I shouldn't worry myself with him.

"Alright, so cheers!" - said Seth passing to each of us a glass of liquid courage.

Kite met his eyes and took the drink without a word and downed it without even flinching, but her eyes never left Seth like she was challenging him. f**k, if that's what she's calling trying I wonder what she would do if I didn't ask her nicely.

Buzzard who was sitting next to her put his hand on her shoulder, making her lose a focus on her target, and smiled, as if he was saying chill the f**k up.

It's not that I was grateful to him, but he was always so aloof that I honestly haven't even though he cared. But apparently he did.

They were actually a strange couple, not that me and Gini were picture perfect Cousins, but for Buzzard and Kite things went even further. She was undeniably the spitfire, the crazy and loud one, and even though she was kind of short for a werewolf, about five feet and five inches max, but it took just one look at her scowl or heavy makeup to figure it was something you didn't want to mess with. She might not be an immediate threat, but given a chance she wouldn't back down from any dirty trick in her store.

Buzzard however looked like a giant Teddy bear. The guy was absolutely massive, and I'm not referring to just his height, this actually may be inch or two above me, but he's broad like a f*****g bear and thick scruff covering most of his face only added to that. He rarely spoke and was more like a quiet advisor than flashy Alpha and I honestly couldn't c***k that guy. He was a mystery, but I didn't get any wrong vibes from him. Maybe aside from his fondness of Kein, but hey, we can't all be awesome.

Things weren't going too smoothly, to be honest we probably looked like we were here as some form of a punishment. Alright, so it's the time to unfold some charm.

"Why does all the names in your family refer to birds?" - I asked Kite and Buzz and obviously that wasn't my best question because they shared a look and shrugged.

"And why does all of yours start with V?" - Kite asked back - "Will you go for another letter when you max that one up or will you start using some that have absolutely no sense?"

Alright, that wasn't my smoothest talk and I should have expected Kite to pull something like that, because she obviously wasn't here to ease on the tension lingering heavily in the air.

"I don't know. My grandparents started it and our parents upholded that trend." - I answered simply.

"Same here." - was all Buzz said.

Great, this really is going great, mind the sarcasm. Okay, different approach.

"Have you two decided when you want to use the gym?" - I asked Seth and Kein next. They seemed to be a better crowd because they both perked up at that question.

"I don't know, I have most of my evenings free, so the question is when will Valkyrie let us. Have you asked her yet?" - Kein asked and sadly I didn't so with shaking my head I finished really promising tipic.

Damn, this shouldn't be that hard! We are a bunch of wolves who more or less have something in common with each other. But by now I believe that the wake is a better party than this one here.

I glanced at Ty for any form of help, not that he's the master of social etiquette but maybe he'll have some better ideas than I did so far. Thankfully he got the hint.

"I've got one." - Titus said proudly, giving me a barely visible nod, as if he was saying I've got this! - "What do gingers miss most about great parties?" - just when those words left his mouth I knew he won't be a help at all - "The invitation." - Ty finished laughing wholeheartedly, but obviously missed the scowls from Nicky and Seth. Surprisingly Natalie actually laughed, although that could have as well been a nervous giggle.

I sent Ty a glare that said thanks, but no thanks and just when I was about to open my mouth to say something else, probably equally pointless Maya waltzed to our table.

"Damn, you guys know that you are here to actually have some fun?" - she said looking around the table with a frown. So we're that obvious, huh? - "I'm Maya, me and my friends organized this lovely gathering." - she said looking around us all. Some of us, who didn't know her, like Kein and the twins waved at her, but some like Buzz were just point blank staring. f**k, we really are an awkward crowd. This whole party was a bad idea.

" Dance with me." - Maya said to me with a tone that left no place to argue with her.

To be honest I was a bit relieved to leave my friends to fend for themselves so I took Maya's hand and joined her on the crowded floor. That was something I was actually good at, party animal like me knew what exactly hips are for.

I swayed with Maya to the beat for three songs straight and it was actually a welcomed change from the grumps by the table.

"What's with your friends?" - she asked leaning closer to my ear.

"They are trying not to argue for once, hence the silence. But trust me it could be worse." - I answered with a grin. Maya started laughing probably picturing it.

"I like you Vaughn, we should get together sometime." - again it wasn't a question, more like information about what will happen.

That girl was definitely strong-willed, but strong-willed girls tend to be crazy, and I'm not sure if I want to get involved in something like that before I turn eighteen. But then again if I say no, she might not be too nice. So I went with simple, polite nod hoping she wouldn't take me up on that anytime soon.

"I thought you won't come back." - Ty gave me a knowing grin when I sat down back but I simply shook my head and took a sip from my drink.

"This place is too loud, we should totally hit the roof one day." - announced Pet making the uniformed part of the table ask inconvenient questions. Thanks man! Why are my friends so useless?

"Yeah, we should, but remember it's actually a place where we shouldn't be seen, so don't go bragging about it, would ya?" - I said with a pointed stare.

Suddenly Kite jumped on her feet looking strangely agitated as if she saw the ghost and she ran to the dance floor quickly disappearing from the sight thanks to her average for werewolf standards height.

She wasn't the most normal person I know and apparently the rest didn't make much of that too, so we just brushed it off and returned to another failed attempt of conversation. I'm not sure if that night could get any worse.

"What's that smell?" - asked Cole sniffing the air.

"Man, there are about a hundred sweaty wolves here, I'm not even going to guess." - I said, wrinkling my nose.

"No, it's the smoke." - Cole said looking frantically around. He, just like his father, was an extraordinary trackers so I should probably trust his judgment.

We all jumped on our feet, but before I even caught the source of the smell Cole was talking about from the other side of the basement I heard screams and people started frantically running to the staircase emptying the whole basement in a matter of minutes.

Me and my group stayed behind for a while and in the almost deserted room it wasn't hard to spot the scorched part of the wall. But surprisingly nothing else was touched by the flames. Probably some drunken i***t was playing with a lighter. Weird, but I'll take it.

This small incident at least eased on the torture this party turned out to be.