Cassandra was not amused. Not only did she remember at the last moment that the theme for the nightclub they were all going to tonight was ‘hooker wear’, but she was apparently going to be the most conservatively dressed person in their group. Cassandra wore a pair of knee-high kitten-heeled boots, and an off-the-shoulder black dress. The neckline was low, and the dress barely came down to her mid-thigh. Her frizzy blonde hair was wild around her face, and Sylas helped her touch up her eyeliner and lipstick earlier. At the time, Cassandra had to fight hard not to bare her fangs at Sylas for the state of her outfit. Only, she didn’t want him to feel those ‘instinctive behaviours’ and chase her up against the wall again with his fangs in her face. She also didn’t want to ruin her chances at learning how to feed safely as a vampire. I think if I let on that I’m really nervous and uncomfortable with this whole outing, Sylas will take me home. Who knows when I’ll get this chance again. If she ever wanted to be free of her sire, she was going to have to learn how to be a vampire who can go under the radar. Without her sire feeling the need to baby her all the time. 

A flash back of straddling Sylas’s lap and gorging on her blood crept up on her, and she blushed to one side. She was still shocked how soon after the first taste of her sire’s blood, she became ravenous for his blood and his body. The memory of grinding herself against his thickening erection, and moaning around his throat still startled her. It’s why she didn’t demand to change her clothes, and why she did her best to act like she wasn’t phased by what the rest of the group were wearing too. Nest. We’re not a group, we’re a nest. Man, this is going to take some getting used to. Oh God. She tensed and averted her eyes for the hundredth time since arriving at Oscar’s Place. 

Electra was wearing silver go-go boots, fishnet tights, hot pants and a boob-tube. A very different vibe from the boss-bitch persona she wore at work. Her platinum hair was swept up into a high ponytail, and her body seemed to shimmer with silver glitter. Angelika swooned all over her sire, wearing a red corset top and skinny jeans that barely covered her ass, and showed off a butterfly tattoo at the base of her spine. Davon was wearing one of those stereotypical furry red and white pimp coats with a bejewelled cane, and Nessa wore fishnet tights, a denim skirt, and a white halterneck top. She snuggled under her sire’s coat and they shared hushed whispers, when they weren’t dancing. Zaff and James were wearing what looked like many black leather belts around their limbs, with a waist corset and feather boas. James wore a collar and Zaff made a show of tugging on the leash to bring him to heel. Cassandra saw far more of those two than she ever wanted to see. Leora stayed true to her Lolita style, and her dress was purple, ruffles galore, with a square neckline, a short skirt at the front and longer one at the back. The sleeves billowed down from her elbows and her tights were amongst shear, with a dotted purple love heart pattern. Her pigtails were explosive, and her makeup included cat whiskers and love hearts on her cheeks. Joshua wore black jeans and fingerless gloves. Nothing else. He also followed his sire like her personal shadow. 

Yet, despite all of this, Sylas was the one that made Cassandra the most uncomfortable to look at. Black boots, low-rise jeans, a large leather belt with a flying raven buckle, a black mesh long sleeved shirt, and a trench coat he wore open. He even straightened his hair so the feathered bangs flicked out in a way that looked windswept. His guyliner was smudged in just the right way around his eyes, and none of the vampires hid their red eyes tonight. Sylas may not be the most indecently dressed one of the nest, but he was the one that affected her the most. Especially as looking at him dressed like that seemed to do something to her vampire spawn mind. 

Her hunger, for one, ramped up. She had to ask Sylas for a blood bag to drain before she could even leave the house. He smirked, knowing why, and pretended to fuss over her hair as she drank it, so he could stay nice and close to her. Then he held her hand and walked her out of his home, the portal attached to his front door, and to DataNet Inc., where a large limo waited to take them all to Oscar’s Place. In the limo, he sat her right next to him, and held her hand on his lap. She’d never been so aware of how still she needed to keep her hand in her whole life. Cassandra also stared at the ceiling or the floor for the journey, since everyone else were practically rutting one another. It was a relief to get out of the limo and away from the frisky vampires. Zaff and James especially looked like they might ‘pop out’ and have a sword fight at any moment, with the way they writhed together on the back seat. 

Finally, inside the club and away from the rest of her nest, Cassandra stood by a side wall near the fire exit. Oddly, the same as her usual position when she used to sneak into nightclubs to escape her shitty life. Usually having snuck in after someone who used the fire exit for a sneaky smoke break. She wasn’t standing there alone, of course. Sylas leaned back against the wall with his hands in his trench coat pockets and watched the heaving bodies dancing, drinking, and tonguing one another to the erotic sounds of the Seven Sirens. Sylas watched her as she scanned the club and the band on the stage at the back of the dance floor. Even now, her natural predatory instincts were kicking in. She was evaluating the herd of humans around her, and looking for a potential target. He waited for her to gather herself and relax, before leaning closer to speak to her left ear. 

“So? Are you ready for your first hunting lesson?”