No one responded. Aislin and I both shared the same dumbfounded expression. Alex looked annoyed. Were we ready? Ready for what, exactly?

I tugged down on the hem of my skirt while Ailsin straightened up her posture. Alex casted a glance back down the hall, bumping his shoulder into mine and erupting a fire underneath my skin. I was getting good at hiding my reaction, though. I didn’t even gasp.

“Let’s hurry up and get this over with,” Alex said.

Laylen nodded, turned the doorknob, and the door creaked open.

It was a club. Like an actual full-on dancing club. And except for the gothic trend that seemed to be everywhere, everything seemed totally normal. I couldn’t see anything slimy, glowing, or dead. I had to admit part of me had expected to walk in and find the whole place packed with demons and monster of all shapes, sizes, and colors, feeding off humans or something. But nope, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Dangling from the ceiling were the same black lanterns that had lit up the hall. People were crammed on the dance floor, swaying hypnotically to the low beat of Nirvana’s “You Know You’re Right.” Scarlet lights sparkled across the midnight marble floor. Black curtains draped across the upstairs balcony. Dark clothing trended the room—nearly everyone was dressed in some form of black. Laylen, Alex, and I blended fine with the gothic ambience; Alex in his dark grey t-shirt and black jeans, Laylen all in black, and me in my black t-shirt and a dark denim skirt. Ailsin, however, was another story. In her lacy camisole top and frilly white skirt, the girl stood out like a sore thumb.

Laylen shoved his way through the crowd, heading for the dance floor. We all trailed behind him, the pokes and prods of stray elbows banging me in the back and sides. I cradled my arm protectively around my stitches to keep any stray body parts from jabbing into it.

The air smelled of incense overlapped by cigarette smoke and sweat. In the middle of everything was a bar, raising the question if we were even old enough to be in here. Why hadn’t they carded us at the door?

At the edge of the crowd, swinging from the ceiling, was a giant life-size bird cage. As I pushed my way out of the last of the sweaty bodies, I caught sight of what was inside the cage and came to a slamming halt.  A woman, twirling gracefully around a pole. Her wavy black hair hung all the way down to the bottom of her back. A leather corset dress fitted her body, and thigh high boots laced-up up her legs. A velvet choker wrapped her neck, and snaking up her arm was whip. A pair of striking black-feathered wings sprouted out of her shoulder blades.

She spun around the pole, and then locked her haunting grey eyes on me. I felt my breath catch. My body suddenly felt so warm, like I was melting. My limbs, my muscles, everything centered to her. I knew what I needed to do. I needed to go to her. Right now. It was imperative that I did…A matter of life or death.

My leg lifted up and, like a puppet bound to its strings, stepped down, inching my body closer to the cage.  A silent warning breezed my mind, screaming at me to stop, but my other leg rose up and touched back down to the floor, moving me to her. Another step…I was just about in reach of the lock that bolted the cages door shut. The feather-winged woman watched me with hungry eyes as my arm extended forward, my fingers brushing the cold metal—

Someone grabbed my arm. A zap of electricity hummed through my body.

“Don’t,” I heard Alex say as he guided me swiftly away from the cage.

I blinked dazedly at him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked crossly.

“I-I” I stuttered. What had I been doing? Trying to let the woman out. It seemed like such a good idea a few seconds ago, but now…

“If you open that up,” he pointed a finger at the cage, “then you’ll be the one trapped in there with a pair of wings growing out of your back.”

I cringed. “I didn’t mean to…I mean I don’t know why I was going to do it. I just couldn’t…think.” I glanced back at the cage. The woman’s pale blue lips curled into a snarl, and she let out a hiss. I jumped back, slamming my shoulder into Alex’s chest. Big mistake. Caught off-guard, I gasped from the electricity that shot through my body.

“Sor-ry,” I stammered, stumbling away from him.

He pressed his lips together and rolled his shoulders and neck, as if he was trying to shake off my touch.  “Please watch where you’re going.”

“I said I was sorry,” I snapped.

He sighed and turned around, heading off in the direction of a spiral staircase. Aislin and Laylen stood at the top of it, staring down at us.

“So what is she?” I asked, climbing up the stairs after Alex.

He glanced over his shoulder at me. “What?”

“The woman back there.” I gave a nod back at the cage. “She’s obviously not human. So what is she?”

He came to an unexpected halt, and I almost ran into him. Again. “She was probably human once until she did something stupid like opened up the cage for the previous Black Angel that was locked inside.”

“A Black Angel? What like a Fallen Angel or something?”

“Not quite.” He shook his head. “Look Gemma, as much as I’d love to stand here and explain everything to you, I really think we should get going.” And with that, he turned his back at me and trotted up the stairs.

I sighed and grudgingly followed after him.

“How much longer is this going to take?” Alex asked Aislin, pacing impatiently in front of the doorway of the room where the Sword of Immortality was locked inside a display case. Luckily, the room had been empty. We’d been up there for about ten minutes now, but with as anxious as Alex was acting you’d of thought ten hours had passed by.

“Not too much longer,” Aislin replied. “I don’t think.”

I was standing just outside the doorway next to Laylen. He was keeping a lookout for…well, anything basically. A hallway extended out on each side of us. The florescent lighting of the lantern lights was hitting the maroon walls and tinting everything a dark shade of red. It reminded me of blood.

And what part did I play in all of this? Absolutely nothing. I served no more purpose than the vase perched on the table in front of us. It took up space and nothing more, which was about what I was doing. Well that, and making the whole situation even more dangerous, especially if a Death Walker showed up, which Laylen informed me was a possibility. I wasn’t sure if Alex knew this or not, but I wasn’t going to be the one to break it to him.

Laylen and I had both been quiet for the most part. It wasn’t necessarily an awkward silence, though. I think we’d both spent our fair share of time being lonely, and silence wasn’t an unsettling thing.

“So…do you think he’s going to wear a hole in the carpet or what?” Laylen asked, breaking our not unsettling quiet.

I’d been watching the staircase intently, waiting for someone to unexpectedly popup into view and take us by surprise. “Huh? Who?”

“Alex.”

I glanced at Alex. He was still pacing the floor, his eyes fixed like a hawk on Aislin.

“Maybe,” I answered.

Laylen laughed. “I’m almost certain he’s going to.”

I laughed softly, the air tickling at my lungs.

Laylen leaned back against the wall and folded his arms, his muscles flexing and making his skin ripple a little.

I stared at the tattoo tracing up his forearm. The black, hieroglyphic shapes were the same as what stitched the lanterns shades.

“What does that mean?” I asked, pointing at his tattoo.

He raised his arm “What this?”

I nodded. “I noticed you put it up to the door outside so we could get in. And it’s also on the lanterns that are all over this place, so I was just wondering what it is?”

He pressed a grin back “A tattoo.”

I rolled my eyes. “I got that, but does the tattoo mean anything?”