Chapter 10 ~ Magic Sucks
To say that Iris is surprised at this very moment would be the understatement of the century. Where did this suddenly come from? He's never said a word about him even liking her before.
"Kanan, you're drunk," she states, pulling her hands away from his. The look of sadness and rejection consumes his features, making him look like a child who's been denied candy. It pulls at Iris' heart.
"We'll talk about this when you're sober. I promise," she tries her best to smooth it over but Kanan still looks heartbroken. She looks past him at Noah, silently asking for his help.
"Come on, man. Let me take you home," Noah steps in and takes Kanan by the arm. This time round, he doesn't resist and goes with his friend. Noah looks back over his shoulder and throws Iris the keys to his motorcycle. "Take my bike. I'll drive him in his truck. Tell the bartender to charge the drinks to my account."
Iris nods silently, her mind a mess. She turns back to the bartender and pays her and Noah's small bill. It's the least she could do, she decides. He's been a good friend to her thus far and she can't let him pay for her, too.
"What's with the long face?" Zander asks as he slides in next to her. She sighs heavily.
"Kanan told me he's in love with me," she blurts out before she can stop herself. Her eyes widen in realisation. She'd just spilled a personal matter to someone who has nothing to do with the situation. She also realises she sounds like a whining fifth grader when she talks.
Zander frowns at her. "You didn't know that?"
"No!" She exclaims, exasperated. Why would she know such a thing when no one has told her, or even hinted at it.
"Oh, I thought everyone knew," Zander shrugs nonchalantly, looking at the people on the dance floor. Iris' eyes nearly bulge out of her head.
"Everyone knows?!" She yells.
"Quiet down, you're making a scene. And yeah, it was pretty obvious."
"Well it couldn't have been that obvious because I didn't know," she's irritated beyond belief at this point. She feels like everyone has been keeping this a huge secret from her and she'd just found out in the worst way possible.
"Or maybe," Zander turns slightly to smirk at her, "You're just clueless."
Iris can't believe her ears.
"Are you calling me stupid?"
Zander laughs, shaking his head. When she glares at him, it just sends him into another fit of giggles.
"You know that's not what I meant," he manages to say between fits of laughter. Iris impatiently drums her fingers on the counter. Zander really isn't helping her right now.
"Oh, come on. Lighten up. Why don't we go dance?" He holds his hand out to her, now standing up, as soon as he stops his laughing. Iris shakes her head, refusing to go with him after he laughed at her. Her pride won't allow it.
"It wasn't a question, Iris. Get your butt off that bar stool and come dance with me," Zander says, his tone serious despite his smile. Begrudgingly, she stands and walks with Zander towards the dance floor.
***
Iris laughs as she steps out of the club to catch some fresh air. She'd danced until her feet ached and drunk enough for an entire football team, or so Zander said. She sways slightly as she walks down the steps.
The bouncer gives her a dirty look when she passes him but she pays him little attention. Instead, she focuses on not falling flat on her face before she can even reach the alleyway.
In all honesty, she isn't even that drunk. It's just that with the little amount of drunkenness that does posses combined with unreasonably high heels would make anyone a little unbalanced.
"I never pegged you as the tipe to get drunk," an oddly familiar voice says from the shadows. The voice is gravelly and sounds odd to her ears. She rakes her fuzzy mind to match the voice to a person but fails miserably.
"But, I never pegged you as the tipe to play around with the wolves, either. Don't you know they'll eat you up as soon as you find out about them?" The man who's voice Iris had been trying so hard to identify steps out of the shadows. He doesn't look familiar at all.
Iris subconsciously takes note of the knife he's trying to keep behind his back. She immediately sobers up and goes into full alert. Her years of military training kick in.
"Who are you and what do you want?" She asks, backing up against the wall. She'd fight if necessary, but realy hopes it won't have to come to that. She hasn't fought in quite some time.
"I want to kill you, Iris," the man smiles, his perfectly straight white teeth a very big contrast to his other features. He's dirty, like he's been rolling around in filth for the past few hours, and his hair is a mess.
Iris is suddenly able to place the man. He's one of her attackers from last night. He was the man who injected her. Her eyes widen in fear.
Before either of them could do a thing, a searing heat in Iris' chest, followed by a bright flash of light, blinds them momentarily. In a second, Duarte is in front of her and growls at the strange man.
"Do not come any further," his deep voice is threatening and the man looks taken aback. Fear contorts his face as he realises what's standing before him. He watched this very beast tear his friend to shreds the previous night.
In a sudden action that seems to surprise all three of them, the man throws the knife at the crimson coloured beast. The blade buries itself in his shoulder. Duarte doesn't even make a sound. Iris flinches for him when she sees the trickle of blood running down his shoulder. Despite the colour of his fur, the blood is very prominent, a lot darker than it naturally would be.
Duarte growls menacingly, a sound that has even Iris cowering away slightly. In a blur of red, he leaps at the man. His long fangs sink into the man's arm and, like he was merely a dream, the man disintegrates into dust.
"What the actual f*ck was that?!" Iris yelps. Her breathing is very ragged and she tries her best to calm down. Duarte turns around to look at her. He gives her a thorough once over, making sure she's okay.
"Are you alright?" He asks finally after finding no visible wounds on her. Iris just eyes him like he grew an extra head. He was just thrown with a knife and made a guy disappear into thin air and he's wondering if she's alright? Eventually, she nods.
"Good. Do you mind pulling this knife out of my shoulder? It is starting to get quite uncomfortable," Duart offers his injured shoulder to Iris. She just gapes at him.
"No! I will not pull that out of your shoulder!" She exclaims. Clearly, the big red wolf-beast isn't just scary, but he's also completely insane. Or maybe she was insane? Either way, she was freaking out.
"Iris, I can not reach it myself. If you do not pull it out, the wound can not close and I will not heal," he says, as calm as ever. He eyes her expectantly.
Finally coming to her senses, Iris nods numbly. She reaches over and takes the weapon in her hand. With one swift movement, she pulls the knife out of the beast's shoulder. He doesn't even flinch.
"Thank you very much," he says before disappearing very suddenly. Iris looks down at the necklace, which glows a bright red before turning black again. Absent-mindedly, the blade slips from her hand and clatters to the ground.
She's confused and her body feels drained of all power. The drunkenness was now completely gone and she could feel the beginning of a hangover forming.
She doesn't understand what's happening to her. Her life was threatened twice in the last two days, her boss did... whatever he did, and she was now being protected by some kind of ancient wolf-beast.
She slides down to the floor and hugs her knees to her chest. She needs to take a moment to think all of this through. She doesn't think realisation has hit her yet, or else she would be this calm.
She replays the scene that took place a few moments ago. She's come to the conclusion that the man with the knife wasn't human. He couldn't be, anyway. Humans don't turn to dust when bitten by gigantic wolf-beasts.
She wonders if she'll ever get answers to her questions. She had a lot, that was for sure.
Her life truly is a mess, she realises. Even more so now, when her sole priority should be to get her and her horse away from Mr Kingsley and his yard.
*ð*
"The day I canged was the day I stopped trying to fit into a world that never really fit me."
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~ Danielle