"You know, Donegan, Gracious and Fletcher are part of the sanctuary too, we should invite them too." Ghastly said.
"Yeah, it'll certainly liven up the dance." Trip added.
"Trip, have you never been to one of Gordon Egdley's parties? They don't need livening up." Dexter laughed.
"No, Dexter, I haven't been to one. So I wouldn't have known" Trip snapped.
"Woah, what's wrong with you?" Saracen asked.
Trip quickly turned his head towards Saracen and glared. Saracen hushed up.
"I'll call Fletcher" Skulduggery said and walked away.
"So..." Ghastly said in an attempt to break the silence, "How is everyone?"
Saracen and Trip glared at each other, Dexter was clearly missing Chione and Ravel looked as if he got no sleep last night.
"Fantastic." He said.
Skulduggery came back. "They'll be here in a minute."
Just then Fletcher, Gracious and Donegan teleported into the centre of the circle.
"Or two seconds." Skulduggery added.
"Hello gents! we were wondering when we would be invited to this shindig." Fletcher said cheerfully.
He looked around at everyone else. He frowned.
"What the hell is up with you lot?"
No one answered.
"Well, I can tell this will be great fun." Fletcher moaned.
They all went outside into the limo, driven by Skulduggery as he's always the designated driver. They drove to a club they sometimes went to after work. They hardly ever went out as a group anymore. During the ride there, Donegan, Gracious and Fletcher talked about their monster hunting adventures. They got out of the limo and walked straight into the club, not having to wait in line. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at them for a moment. Then kept dancing and drinking. Skulduggery had taken off his shades and scarf and had touched his collarbone. His face was of a Blonde man with striking blue eyes. All the women stared. They took the table as close to the back of the room as possible. Fletcher stared at the ground.
“What’s wrong, Fletcher?” Donegan asked.
“This is where Valkyrie and I had our first date.”
“Ah shit,” he muttered, “sorry lad.”
“Nah it’s fine, I’ll find a way to enjoy myself somehow.”
Donegan gave him a firm pat on the back.
“Who’s going up for drinks?” Ravel asked.
“Thanks for volunteering, Grand Mage.” Dexter said as he shoved Ravel off of his seat and towards the bar. Saracen was already chatting up a group of girls that looked in their early 20s. They laughed and flirted with him. In a couple of minutes, he was up on the dance floor with them. Avicii’s “Wake me up” was booming in the background. Ravel came back with the drinks and Fletcher dived right in, Donegan giving him a look of sympathy. Fletcher noticed but didn't seem to care that much. He didn’t need Donegan to feel sorry for him. He didn't need anyone, Let alone Valkyrie. He finished his drink, slammed it down on the table and went on the prowl. He found a red head in the middle of the dance floor and shrugged. ‘Why the hell not’ He thought, ‘the night isn’t going to get much worse.’ He tapped her on the shoulder.
“Hi there. Can I just say, you are absolutely stunning.” He smiled
The girl blushed.
“Hi, I'm Annabeth. And you can say whatever you want.”
“Well then, I'm Fletcher.”
“Cool name”
“So is yours. Pretty, just like you.”
She blushed again. He was on a roll.
“Would you mind if I danced with you, Annabeth? Even though I'm kinda rubbish.”
“Well Fletcher, I’ll just have to show you, won’t I?” She smirked.
They started dancing together, the guys back at the table started.
“It comes so easy to Fletcher and Saracen…” Ghastly said.
“I suppose it’s cause they look the youngest” Dexter said, finishing off his 3rd drink.
“Shut up, Dexter. You always find a pretty one too. And now you've got Chione.” Ghastly huffed.
“And you've got Tanith” Dexter grinned.
“I do not. A woman like her would never go with a guy like me” Ghastly stammered.
"So you think" Dexter smirked. He got up and made his way onto the dance floor. A woman with long wavy brown hair approached him cautiously as if he were a bomb about to go off. She had bright green eyes, like a cats.
"Hi there" She said softly.
Dexter turned to face her. "Hello there."
"My name is Cordelia. Yours?"
"Dexter"
"Well Dexter, how about you come dance with me?"
"I would be happy to."
They disappeared into the crowd.
"That took what, 5 seconds for Dexter to be picked up by that women?" Ghastly complained.
"Ghastly how about you go try, you might be surprised. Some of these woman are so out off their heads they'll go with anyone." Ravel said.
Skulduggery sat in the corner quietly. Trip glared at Saracen and drank his beer. Donegan and Gracious had gone up to the bar to have a drinking competition. Flecther was still dancing with Annabeth., Dexter with Cordelia and with Saracen with 3 girls he had picked up as soon as he got in the club.
"Thanks for the speech. Really boosted my confidence." Ghastly grumbled.
Ravel got up after his beer. "Why the hell not?" and went onto the dancefloor. Two girls were staring over where Ghastly was. They approached the table and sat on either side of Skulduggery. Of course they did. Ghastly got into his second beer.
"Why hello there handsome, want to dance with us?" One of the girls said, grabbing onto his arm.
"Yeah come join us gorgeous" the other woman said.
"No thanks, I don't dance. But my friend here does."
Ghastly almost choked on his beer. The two woman looked at Ghastly
then at each other and shrugged. They pulled him to his feet and dragged him onto the dance floor.Skulduggery did his best not to chuckle.
"That was nice of you." Trip said, still staring at Saracen.
"I felt sorry for him. He'll either love me or hate me. Perhaps both if i'm lucky."
Trip laughed for the first time that evening and even took his death glare off of Saracen to look at Skulduggery. There was a cheer from the bar. Donegan had won the drinking competition. Gracoius was passed out on the floor. Donegan came back with Gracious hung over his shoulder and four girls following him.
"Alright, Donegan?" Skulduggery asked.
"I'm Great, man. I have all these beautiful woman, I beat Gracious for the first time, I am fantastic right now."
Donegan sat across from Trip, 2 girls on each side. Trip got up from the table.
"I'm going to the bar." And he went.
He sat down on a stool and ordered his sixth beer. A girl came over and sat beside him. He looked her over. Early 20's, Dirty Blonde, Floaty white dress. She noticed him looking.
"Hey."
"Hello"
"You certainly look as if you're enjoying yourself." She said.
"Oh yeah, i'm having a ball of a time."
She smirked. "Well I actually am."
"Good for you."
"You don't have to be rude."
"I wasn't trying to be, sorry."
The girl looked down at her glass.
"Have a girlfriend?"
"Yeah"
"Troubles?"
"Not with her"
"Another guy?"
Trip nodded.
"I see. Sorry to hear that."
"Yeah..."
"Sorry to have bothered you."
She got up to leave and Trip took her arm.
"Please stay"
The girl nodded. Saracen came over and kissed the girls cheek.
"Is he bothering you, Selena?"
"No saracen, he's not."
"Alright, come on then." He tugged on her arm and she pulled away.
"No."
"Selena, come on. He's a waste of time."
"Well I quite enjoy his company actually so if you don't mind, leave."
"See this is what happens when you hang around him, you go from being a lot of fun to being miserable and a down right party pooper. That's why Adra is how she is now. If i remember she used to be a lot more fun."
Trip got up quickly and as the stool was falling, punched Saracen in the face. Saracen clutched his jaw and smiled.
"That's it, let it all out pal."
Trip growled and charged at him. Saracen stepped to the side at the last moment and Trip fell straight into a girl. He fell ontop of her; his hands on her breasts/ He turned bright red and threw himself off of her. Saracen burst out laughing. Saracen was completely sober and Trip had drank six so he was a little Tipsy. -or should I say, Tripsy. The girl Trip ran into was blushing too, then got angry. She walked over to him and slapped him across the face, Hard. Saracen laughed even louder and the girl went over ad slapped him across the face too then walked away. Selena came over and slapped Saracen across the face as well then went over to help Trip up, They had caused a scene. The other guys were watching too, excluding Gracious as he was still back at the table passed out. Saracen smirked.
"Guess i'll have to delete Selena's number now."
Trip's eyes changed and he ran at Saracen again. The Dead men went to help but the women they met pulled them back. They all watched in horror as Trip got back his bearings. He was the fastest fighter that they knew. And they knew a lot of people. Trip raced at Saracen, aiming left but faking and goes for his right rib, just then Skulduggery walked out and caught Trip's fist.
"Let it go, Trip."
Trip glared and pulled his fist back. Skulduggery nodded then turned round and punched Saracen in the face.
"Why didn't I get to do that?" Trip muttered.
"Because you had already got a hit in. I wanted to hit him too."
Saracen stood there and rubbed his cheek.
"I think it's time we leave" Ravel said.
"Good call" Ghastly agreed.
Fletcher got Annabeth's number, Ghastly's two dates kissed either side of his face as they left. Saracen got almost every girls number in the place. They all piled back into the limo. Saracen and Skulduggery riding at the front, Everyone else in the back.
"Are you alright, Trip?" Donegan said, holding Gracious up with one arm.
"I'm fine. Pissed off but fine. I just want to see Adra now."
"Yeah, I get it. Well, not really cause i haven't had a girlfriend in a while...A few centuries actually. A proper one." Donegan shut up because he wasn't helping much.
"So Fletcher, I take it you had a good night?" Ghastly asked.
"Y-yeah, I suppose I did. Did you see? I got her number."
"I saw, good job."
Fletcher smiled, proud of himself.
"Ravel, did you get a girl?" Ghastly asked.
"Um, no. I tried but she had a boyfriend and he tried to punch me but I kinda knocked him out." he said.
Ghastly sighed. "I don't think we can go anywhere without fighting."
"We're Dead Men, Ghastly. That's almost impossible.
"Let's hope the rest of the night is different..." Fletcher said, looking out of the window.
