43. Party

Saturday, October 31st
Waning Gibbous Moon (Twenty-Two Nights to Full Moon)

I heard a laugh behind me as I was getting ready to leave the dorm. “You’re wearing that?” Lilith asked, nearly doubling over in laughter.

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked, turning around, my nearly see-through cape swirling around me. Lilith was wearing a bright green, long and flowing dress. There were huge blue and green iridescent wings attached to the back and she was wearing a long blonde wig with matching blue and green stripes throughout. Her ears ended in pointy tips and her makeup was blue and glittery, which made her eyes seem like they were nearly glowing. Of course, she looked beautiful. She probably made the costume herself. Next to the fairy, mine looked cheap and uncreative.

“It’s just ironic,” She smiled. Our conversation was cut short by Kelsie and Stephanie trouncing through the living room, bedecked in their Halloween costumes. I recognized Stephanie’s from my reject pile. She had gone for the slutty nurse theme, her long, blonde hair in waves around her face and over her shoulders, her ample breasts stretching the thin, white material of the outfit even thinner. She had a stethoscope around her neck and a skirt so short I could see glimpses of her red thong and what looked like a tattoo on her inner thigh.

Kelsie’s costume was toned down a little from Stephanie’s, but still no better. She was dressed up as an angel, with a low-cut white dress only slightly longer than Stephanie’s. It looked more like lingerie than real clothing. Large, feathery wings, a puffy halo, and 5-inch white stilettos completed the outfit.

The two eyed us as they went out the door, giggling and whispering something to each other as they exited.

“I assume you’re going to the same party I’m going to,” I said to Lilith.

“I don’t know, who invited you?”

“Randall, who invited you?”

“A young wolf named Kate. For some reason she really seems to like me.”

“Yeah, because you’re my opposite, you have no interest in Randall, and Quinn and all the Elders dote on you. Of course she likes you,” I said, trying to hide the bitterness in my voice.

“Well, she wanted to go to the party but she didn’t want to go alone, so she asked me if I wanted to come with her. She’s a nice girl. I might make her one of my top people once I take the Pack over.”

I ignored Lilith’s comment as my phone rang. I picked it up and Randall spoke, “I’m here.”

“Okay, I’ll be right down!” I hung up the phone and grabbed a jacket. Fall was setting in and it was getting cool in the evenings. Since I wasn’t wearing much, I would need the extra layer.

‘I’ll see you later, I guess,” I said to Lilith as I left. I didn’t know why the vampire was going to the party, but I would definitely be keeping an eye on her once she arrived.

* * * * *

Randall picked me up wearing a red hat over a hair that had been temporarily colored black, blue overalls with big, yellow buttons with a red shirt, white gloves, and a thick, black mustache. “It’sa me!” He exclaimed in a fake Italian accent when I got in the car, giggling. I was jealous of his Mario costume because, as a guy, he got to do something completely random and simplistic, but it still turned out really well.

“You look really hot in that outfit, Selene, I won’t lie,” He said, eyeing my costume.

“Thanks,” I said as I slid the fake teeth over my real ones to complete the outfit. I hadn’t felt very comfortable putting them on in front of Lilith for some reason.


“I love the irony in it,” He laughed as he pulled out of the parking lot. “But seriously, you should wear stuff like that more often.”

I looked at him curiously, my eyes narrowing. If he thought I was going to dress like this all the time, he was mistaken. I would leave stuff like that to Stephanie.

“Well, you know, just when we’re alone together,” He winked.

We were heading to the convention center. Whoever was throwing this party had money to blow. They’d rented out the whole convention center and hired a band. There would be tons of food and candy, as well as games for the younger kids. When we pulled up, the parking lot was already pretty full, cars ranging from the rust buckets that belonged to us poor college students to vehicles that I would never be able to afford, gleaming in the bright outdoor lights of the convention center.

Randall parked the truck and got out quickly, opening my door for me and helping me out. I left my jacket in the truck, though I knew I’d be regretting it later when we were leaving the party. The early evenings were still fairly warm, but the fall winds were blowing in and it would be considerably colder later on. I didn’t feel like carrying it around all night though, so I just left it.

We walked inside, holding hands. Randall nodded to a man at the door that was holding a clipboard. The man was one of Quinn’s bodyguards, who checked off our names quickly as we walked by. I wondered if Quinn had volunteered the man to his friend for help or if he was getting paid for the job. He didn’t look too unhappy doing the job, though. He’d even dressed up for the evening, wearing a bright orange jumpsuit and a fake ball and chain strapped loosely to his ankle.

As we went into the main room, the band was already going at it, playing loud rock music, the drums rattling my ears. I scanned the crowd, looking for familiar faces, but there were too many people. Everyone was in costume, most of the girls dressed up in costumes like the ones I had seen at the costume store. Short skirts, revealing tops, and very little material.

It wasn’t long before Pete found us, dressed as a pirate. “What’s up, yarr guys?” I laughed while Randall greeted him. “Have you seen Lucille’s costume? She just got here a few minutes ago with Kate and the both of them are just mouthwatering. I can’t believe you turned both of those two down, Randall.”

I glared at him and he apologized. “You have to go see it, though.”

Randall and I followed Pete over to where Lilith and Kate were. I already knew what Lilith’s costume looked like, but I hadn’t expected Kate’s. Kate was wearing a short green skirt that looked like it was made of some sort of plant material. Her top was shimmery and low-cut, showing cleavage, in the same color as her skirt. She was wearing green stilettos and fake pointed ears. “They match,” Pete said, ogling the pair. Indeed, they did match to a certain degree, though Kate’s costume was more elf-like while Lilith’s was a fairy.

Pete walked up to Lilith and complemented her costume, lightly touching the wings. As he offered his words of flattery and she responded politely, I noticed Kate’s expression turn to jealousy. At first, I thought she was jealous because he was only complimenting Lilith, but it soon dawned on me.

I turned to Randall and said, “It looks like Kate has found a new obsession.” He followed my gaze and stared intently at Kate. Indeed, the look on her face was a mirror of the expression she had shown to me when Randall and I first joined the Pack.

He laughed, “I never knew that about Kate, but you’re right. I guess Lucille has replaced me.”

Pete followed Kate and Lilith around for the rest of the evening, bringing the two drinks whenever they wanted them. Lilith always refused any food or snacks, but Kate accepted them.

I even saw Kelsie and Stephanie at the same party, which surprised me at first, but it really shouldn’t have. This was probably the biggest Halloween party in the area. It was only fitting that my two party animal roommates would show up. If they saw me, though, they pretended not to notice. I didn’t even get a hello as they passed by Randall and me.

Throughout the night, I saw many Pack members mixed in with the humans. Whenever we passed by someone that knew us from the Pack, I heard whispers behind us. I guess they were wondering my fate, especially since Lilith and I were both present at the party. They had all expected me gone after the last full moon.

Randall and I kept to ourselves for most of the party. We paid our respects to Quinn, Sylvea and a few of the elders that came to the party, as well as Quinn’s friend, Robert, who was hosting the party. He looked to be in his forties, with salt-and-pepper gray hair and dressed in a tux. If he was in costume, it was more of a James Bond look than anything else. Randall told me later that he was a self-made millionaire, and he threw a big party every year, inviting all his friends and encouraging them to invite more. He was really good friends with Quinn, one of the Pack leader’s many connections around town.

At the end of the evening, they announced the top three best costumes of the night. Randall and I found a table as we watched. Third place was Kate, the elf. They called her up to the stage where the band had been playing and gave her a giant bucket of candy. She thanked them and smiled, showing off her costume (as well as a bit of her green underwear) with a twirl as she exited the stage.

Second place was a nerdy-looking guy wearing a renaissance-themed costume, dressed as a knight minus the plate armor, with a real chain mail shirt and hood, a red tunic and a gold cape. “I think he just reused his renaissance festival costume,” I said to Randall as the winner took a bucket of candy slightly larger than Kate’s and shyly exited the stage. Randall nodded in agreement as we waited to see who won first place.

I wasn’t surprised at all when they announced the name, “Lucille.” Looking surprised, she climbed the stairs to the stage and stood under the bright lights so everyone could see her beautiful costume. It really was the best costume of the evening, and it was only fitting for her to win, but I still didn’t like it. I didn’t want Lilith to win anything, especially not the flat-screen TV that was the grand prize. She probably hadn’t even known there was a costume contest. Kate cheered for her from the side of the stage, waiting for her to climb back down. Randall clapped along with the rest of the crowd and I followed suit, not wanting to seem rude. Everyone already had a bad enough opinion of me as it was.

Lilith thanked everyone and Robert presented the television to her as he complimented her outfit. I watched as she went down the stairs and Kate hugged her, maybe a little overzealously for just a friend, but Lilith didn’t seem to be bothered. The two of them left together a little bit later, and the crowd seemed to thin out after that. Randall and I went to his truck as I continued to ponder Lilith’s actions.

“You okay, Selene?” He asked me as he took off his fake mustache, and hat, his hair still black. He had assured me that it would wash out when he took a shower later that evening.

“Yeah, I’m just tired, I think. It was a busy night. I’m not accustomed to partying,” I smiled weakly as I pulled on my jacket and waited for the cab of the truck to warm up. It had rapidly cooled off, but it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry you didn’t win anything. I think your costume is really great.”

I began to giggle. He thought that I was upset because I didn’t win the costume contest. It was hard to remember that Randall’s version of the story was a lot simpler than mine. He didn’t know everything that was going on behind the scenes, so it was only natural for him to think about things a little differently.

His kiss stopped my giggling as we sat in the cab of the truck and made out. I pulled off my wig but he made me keep the fake vampire teeth in as I nibbled at his ears and neck. “I don’t care about that stuff,” I told him as we kissed.

Randall drove me home and I showered off, washing away the night. Lilith hadn’t really done anything at all, and I was still waiting for her to make her move. All I could see from her actions was that she was slowly gathering followers, people who favored her. Whether or not they would favor her more than Quinn was to be seen, but I had a feeling Kate would agree with anything she said or did, as long as she showed her even the smallest bit of attention. I cursed myself for not attempting to make more friends in the Pack. I had just stuck close to Randall, and he was now my only real ally.

I got out of the shower and dried off, combing through my wet hair. It was after one in the morning, but I was the only person in the apartment. Kelsie and Stephanie had probably gone to some after party, and Lilith was probably off with Kate. I just hoped that Kate was safe. Even though I didn’t like the girl, I didn’t want her to be taken advantage of by Lilith, which was exactly what I knew she would be doing.

With nothing else to do, I put on my pajamas and hung my costume, planning to save it for another time. Randall had said he wanted to see me in more stuff like that, maybe I would save it for the next time we fooled around. I smiled to myself as I climbed into bed. Even though he was my only ally, I would rather have just him than anyone else.

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A/N: I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I've been pretty busy this week and I'm down to zero prewritten material for Bitten. I may go back later on and add more filler during the two months in between the last full moon and the end of the semester, or space things out a little differently, but for now I'm going to skip ahead a little bit. For the next chapter, I plan to add a new character, Stephanie's new boyfriend. This chapter is going to be more based on an event in my life when one of my roommates had a boyfriend that lived in the dorm with us for several weeks. We got in trouble for it because of how they acted, and we all covered for her, because we were nice people. I haven't written out the chapter, so I don't know how it will go for sure, but it's basically just going to be a bit of filler, but it should be fairly entertaining. After that, we will go on to Thanksgiving, and then final exams.

As for this chapter, it was very difficult for me to write. Nothing all that awesome really happens, but I wanted to show Kate's shift to Lilith (I don't know if she's actually a lesbian or not, but I don't think Lilith would care either way.) Lilith really is gathering followers, and later on we will see what she does. This chapter is much longer than usual (2,500 words), so I hope that makes up for the lateness.