Aradia had been many things in her life. She had been an outcast, a bully victim, a leader, a politician, and a girlfriend. One thing that she had once tried but never succeeded at was being a bad girl. She had tried once in Arizona but Jona Lee had quickly put a stop to it. It wasn't just the fact that Aradia had almost killed her. It was also the fact that Jona had bossed her around and treated her like a rash that discouraged her from choosing that life. However, after moving to Salem and becoming the Witch Queen Aradia had seemed to graduate from the role of follower to leader. She knew how to command respect through action and attitude. This was good because ever since she had moved in with Saul he had started taking her to places where commanding respect was definitely a must.
These places were mostly holes in the wall night clubs full of vampires located in very shady parts of town. There would be live rock-bands and people who dressed up in black. Most of all, there would be drugs and booze. Every night they would go out and party, but once the sun started to come up they would go back to Saul's loft and sleep the whole day away. When the sun went down was when the partying would begin again. Aradia felt more free then she had ever felt in her life. She would drink hard liquor, smoke a joint, and dance the night away with Saul. Her studies about her people had taken a back seat and now all Aradia seemed to care about was having a good time.
"Jesus," Eventide cried out as Aradia swigged back another beer. "When Saul introduced you to us, I never thought you would be much of a party girl!"
"Yeah well," Aradia said after wiping the froth from her mouth with the back of her hand. "You think too much!"
The rest of the crowd laughed while Saul threw his arm around Aradia and said, "Too right!"
Aradia also laughed as she gazed around at her new circle of friends. They weren't Rhonda, Everett, Calvin, and Felix but they were still people she could party with. Vampires yes, but people nevertheless. Saul had introduced them to her a few months ago at one of the other clubs and ever since then they had partied together. The group consisted of two women and two men. One of them was a dark skinned curvaceous Bengali woman with a rounded chin and nose. Her hair was long and black and her face was very well defined. She had apple cheeks and long thin arching eye brows. In spite of her exquisite looks, she had a shy smile that seemed to be disguising her insecurities. Her insecurities didn't stop her from being the one who called all the shots though. Whatever club they went, whatever party they crashed, it was Shayde who made the decision.
Whisper was also a voluptuous and dramatic looking woman who followed Shayde everywhere. Apparently she had good reason for that because she was, according to Saul, Shayde's vampire bride. She had pale moon skin and long chocolate brown hair that was always pulled back in a ponytail. In spite of being a vampire, she still had bad eyesight hence why she wore square black glasses everywhere she went. She was much taller than Shayde except her smile was more like a clever smirk.
Thorne was a tall, clean-shaven, African American male who wore his hair in cornrows. His skin was light brown and seemed to glow whenever he stood in the light. His chin was pointed, along with his nose, and his eyes were almond shaped. His cheekbones were high and made his face seem narrow. His heads were as meaty as his arms and he never seemed to go anywhere without a smile on his face. Which Aradia thought was very ironic. Finally, there was Eventide who was a Korean vampire with long black hair with dark skin and a sardonic smile.
Whether it was because of their gender or no, their wardrobes differed dramatically. Shayde wore sleeveless cropped tops or halters and mini skirts pulled down low to reveal her setting sun tattoo. She always wore high heels, no matter what the weather was like. Whisper dressed a bit more conservative but she too wore cropped tops or low cut shirts. She also wore low rise jeans or shorts. Sometimes when the group went out, she would take a hoodie with her. Just so she could have an excuse to pull the hood up and look intimidating or so she told Aradia. Thorne wore sleeveless muscle shirts and jeans in addition to combat boots. Eventide wore loose fitting t-shirts, long leather jackets, and pants made out of different material. His footwear were always sneakers not necessarily the same brand but sneakers nevertheless. There was one thing, however, about the group's wardrobe that made it almost obvious that they were all friends. The color of their clothing was always a deep smoldering black.
Can't say I disagree with such a fashion rule, Aradia thought to herself, after all belonging to a clan called NightShadow...well they can't exactly wear light blue now can they?
This particular night Shayde, Whisper, Thorne, and Eventide were hanging with Aradia and Saul at a club called Despair and loud music blared from the speakers. A small plate of shot glasses sat in the center of the table. Aradia picked up the bottle again and tried to pour more of it into the glasses. Of course, by now she was so drunk she kept missing the glasses and spilling all over the table.
"Whoa there!" Saul said while laughing. "Take it easy princess!"
"Oh but I am not a princess," Aradia shrilled, "I am the Witch Queen!"
Saul smirked. "Well in that case your majesty, how about trying something a bit harder?"
"What do you mean?"
His smirk grew wider and Saul reached into his pocket. He then slowly pulled out a small packet and dangled it in the air for all to see.
Thorne gasped. "Dude! Is that..."
"Uh huh!" Saul said with a deep nod.
The group now looked like a bunch of hungry children being offered free candy.
Aradia, however, was confused. "What's that?"
They all turned to look at her in shock.
"Dude!" Eventide remarked, "don't you know what this is?"
He then snatched the packet out of Saul's hand and held it inches in front of her face.
"No," Aradia stated sarcastically, "that is kind of why I am asking!"
Eventide laughed as he opened the packet and the pills spilled out onto the table. "This stuff," he explained, "is the newest thing to hit the streets. It's called Rage."
"It's cheap, it's good, and you can have it any way you want." Thorne then reached out and snatched two of the pills.
"Meaning?" asked Aradia.
"Meaning," Shayde interrupted as she watched Eventide whip out a few dollar bills and lie them flat on the table. "You can smoke it, snort it, and inject it anytime and anywhere. It will make you so high you would think you were flying."
As if to reenforce how versatile it is, Thorne pressed his thumb down on to the pills and started crushing them. Eventide was already rolling up a dollar bill and sticking it up his nose. Whisper bopped Eventide on the head almost making him snort the whole dollar down.
"Hey," Whisper snapped, "don't you forget about me!"
Eventide grumbled and handed over one of the pills. Thorne laughed and started singing under his breath, Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds.
Aradia, however, was now stiff as a board. "Are we talking about drugs here?"
"No, we are talking about bath soaps," Whisper remarked sarcastically as she powdered the pill with the back of a spoon. She then mixed it with water in the spoon, and heated it with a lighter. She then pulled out a long rubber band and wrapped it around her arm.
"I thought you were taking the pill," Shayde said.
"I am," said Whisper as she reached into her coat and pulled out a syringe. "It's just I like to inject and to swallow at the same time. It makes the high stronger and last longer."
Shayde grabbed the remaining pills left on the table and popped them in to her mouth. She had grabbed a beer on a nearby table and swigged it down. After Whisper injected, Shayde wobbled over to her with the beer in her hand. Soon the look of euphoria came over Whisper's expression and it was some difficulty that she was able to find her own pill and pop it into her mouth. Wrapping her arm around Whisper's neck and letting her lean her head against her shoulders, Shayde raised the beer to Whisper's lips. Whisper wasn't even surprised, she just tipped her head and gulped down the pill. Thorne had already wrapped the crushed pills into a wad of paper and pulled out a lighter. White smoke then began to curl from his nose and mouth. Eventide eagerly looked at his own selection of crushed pills and smiled. The rolled up bill still in his nose, he bent down and inhaled.
Saul was sitting in between Eventide and Aradia. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed how awkward Aradia looked. "Don't worry Aradia," he assured her as he pulled out another packet, "I haven't forgotten about you."
"Oh no really that's not..."
"Aw c'mon," Saul whined as he opened the packet. He took out one pill and grabbed a full shot glass. His hands full, he sauntered behind Aradia, and pressed against her. Drunk as she may have been, Aradia knew exactly what Saul was asking her to do. Although she appeared to have severed ties to her family, she was still the D.A.'s daughter so if she was caught with drugs the consequences would be cataclysmic. However, the way the others looked so elated and euphoric made Aradia curious.
Saul pressed his lips to her ear and whispered, "all you have to do is take one. Since we are technically dead, we need to take more to get high. Since you are alive though all you need is a little boost."
He then overturned the plastic bag and let the pills spill out on to the table. Aradia then took one glance at the shot glass. In a moment of instant bravado, she grabbed one of the pills and popped it into her mouth. She then grabbed the shot glass and gulped it down.
Aradia's reaction to the drugs was instant. She felt higher than a kit soaring into the air, but she also felt another reaction. She felt like she was she falling into a deep meditative state. Her eyes began to drift close and her body began to sway back and forth on the stool. Saul smirked as he saw her fall. He then scooped her up and made his way to the door.
When they got back to the loft, he laid her down on one of the couches. Staring down at her, he realized how easy it would be to have his way with her. He could do what he wanted to her and she wouldn't even remember. Judging by the way her body was lying so limply, she was probably losing all the sense in her body. He could touch her anyway he wanted, and she wouldn't even remember that. He proved his theory by reaching out and running his finger down her cheek. She didn't even twitch. She lay there as if she were in a coma. Saul was encouraged as his eyes dropped to the buttons on her blouse. He slowly undid one and not even that stirred Aradia from her slumber. He was so tempted to lower his lips and claim hers. It was hard, but he used great restraint to pull his lust back. It taken half a year to get Aradia to trust him; he wasn't going to blow it now.
Aradia was indeed lying limply and her eyes were shut but her powers were not impaired. Quite the contrary, the drug made her powers so enhanced that she felt as if she could sense things all over the world. She could sense things like emotion, violence, and more. The sensation was similar to her visions were she could project herself into the past except there was no haziness. Everything was clear as she felt herself floating across the globe.
She felt no pain nor any emotional anguish not even when she saw vampires ganging up on a group of school children and eating them alive in a dark alley in Paris. She felt nothing as she saw a pack of werewolves ripping a shape-shifter apart just because he had trespassed into one of their territories. She saw several fae glamorizing hikers in Canada, luring them off cliffs, and laughing as they plunged to their deaths. She felt no repulsion at the leaders of these hidden races who seemed to be bribing the human authorities to stay quiet. Leaders who didn't seem to care that they were killing innocent people and getting away with it. She felt no revulsion when she saw a shape-shifter Paramount brutally execute another shape-shifter in front of his wife and daughters. She felt nothing as she saw all the injustice being done in the hidden world and how the people just seemed to accept it.
These images were still haunting her even when she awoke two days later. She felt so groggy that it was a struggle just to open her eyes but her stomach was grumbling so she continued in her efforts to wake up. She slowly stumbled and made her way to the fridge. She snatched the first thing that she saw, orange juice, and began to chug it down.
"Ewww," came a voice from behind her, "right from the carton?"
Saul then wrapped his arms around her from behind. He didn't hesitate when giving her a kiss on the side of her cheek.
Aradia wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Don't judge me," she snapped, "the effects of the drugs..." she trailed away.
"What?" Saul inquired.
Aradia considered telling him what she saw, but thought better of it. She chugged more of the orange juice down.
Saul stayed silent for a few moments before he leaned in and whispered in her ear, "do you have any idea how beautiful you look when you are asleep?"
Aradia stopped and lowered the orange juice from her lips slowly.
"You look as exquisite as a pagan goddess whom people used to make human sacrifices for," Saul went on, "you always do. Whenever you walk in to a club people stop and stare at you. Not just because of the way you smell, but because of the way you are. You are so beautiful, so strong, and so full of life."
"It's not surprising that I would be noticed for that," Aradia remarked sarcastically, "seeing as all the clubs we go to are full of vampires."
"What's wrong with that?" asked Saul.
Aradia just shrugged. She didn't really mind it, but what bothered her was the way the vampires stared at her as if they were wondering what flavor she would taste. At least among other hiddens, she didn't have to worry about them always being tempted to eat her. What really bothered her though was how arrogant the vampires were. They threw their weight around wherever they went, and weren't above picking fights with other races. They made fun of other hiddens by calling them mutts, posers, and so on.
Aradia knew what was it like to be judged harshly and cruelly. When she had been dating Dax, she hadn't understood why people seemed to hate the vampires so much. Now she was beginning to understand why and she wasn't happy about it.