Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (28 page)

It had taken a lot of work, but the
club was finally ready by Friday night. The only thing that had
been an issue was what to name the club, but Aradia had said that
she already taken care of it.

Dax rolled his eyes. "And what dare
I ask will it be called?"

Aradia grinned, and turned away
from him. She raised her hands, and with a bit of dramatic flourish
and flair she managed to create a dazzling sign above the stage
that said two words: Club Melio

"Melio?" Dax repeated, "what does
'melio' mean?"

"It's a truncation of the word
amelioration," Aradia explained, "more commonly known as the
improvement of the hidden race which is basically the main idea
right?"

Dax said nothing.

After three hours vampires, fae's,
werewolves, shape-shifters, and even humans had packed themselves
into the club. Some fights did break out, but thanks to Aradia's
psychic power, she was able to spot the trouble beforehand. Thanks
to Roy and Dax who stayed by her side through most of the night she
was able to put a stop to it. Aradia was amazed, but satisfied
especially with how everyone was getting along. Some animosity
still existed between the hiddens though, so much so that even a
few of the humans noticed. Luckily, with Aradia's determination to
keep the peace everything stayed cool.

"Jesus Aradia," Jayce shouted in
her ear. "And I thought I knew how to throw great
parties!"

"Well," Aradia shouted back. "I
guess you were a great teacher then huh?"

Jayce paused in his dancing only to
laugh aloud. Aradia then grinned as she turned her head and
surveyed the crowd. Everyone was mingling freely, both the hiddens
and the humans, and seemed to be having a good time. No vampires
were in the corner draining people or anything else. However, there
was one vampire she could not take her eyes off who was currently
dancing with his sister. As if he could sense her watching, Dax
twirled Ginevra in such a way that it was possible for him to flash
a smile, and wink directly at Aradia. She giggled in
response.

"Hey do you want to dance?" Jayce
suddenly shouted in her ear.

Aradia opened her mouth but she was
interrupted by Lamont who said, "Sorry Jayce, but this dance is
mine!"

He then grabbed Aradia's hand, and
dragged her towards the dance floor. He gave a secret signal to
Everrett who just winked in reply. Lamont then swept Aradia into
his arms, and to the song of Evacuate the Dance Floor by Cascade
they began to dance. Once again, Aradia was impressed by Lamont's
dancing skill. Thanks to her psychic powers, she could sense his
every move, and everything he wanted to do. Therefore, the two of
them moved flawlessly around the floor like professional partners
in a Latin dance championships. Just like the times before, once
Aradia started dancing everyone turned to stare at her. This time,
however, instead of animosity everyone looked at her with
admiration in their eyes.

Tristan hung in the background with
Titania at his side, nuzzling his neck.

"It's amazing really," he finally
said.

"What is?" Titania asked
him.

"The things she can do and pull
off," Tristan observed tapping his chin and looking deep in
thought.

"Are you talking about Aradia?”
Titania asked, but already knowing the answer.

Tristan merely nodded. Following
his gaze, Titania saw him focusing on Aradia. She had her long red
hair up in a ponytail, a diamond choker around her neck, and
diamonds sparkling from her ears. She was dressed in black leather
leggings, and a pink off the shoulder top with flower decorations
on it. Her cheeks were flushed, her smile was wide, and kept
throwing her head back laughing. Aradia looked beautiful tonight
even Titania had to admit it.

It didn't stop her, however, from
grousing. "You know she was asking a lot of questions
today."

"Yeah?" Tristan asked still staring
at Aradia, "About what?"

"You and me," Titania responded
without missing a beat.

Tristan whipped around to look at
her intensely and Titania started trembling.

"What did you tell her?" Tristan
asked, his voice dangerously soft.

Titania gulped, not knowing how to
respond.

Tristan snapped again, "Well? What
did you tell her?"

Titania gulped and said,
"Everything."

She braced herself for his
explosive temper, but this time Tristan just sighed and turned back
to look at Aradia.

"Oh," he said with a
sigh.

"You're not angry?" Titania asked
cautiously.

"A little." Tristan muttered, "But
it does not matter she would have found out the truth about us
eventually. It does make things more complicated though because now
I will have to put in extra effort to win her over. Seeing as she
now has the impression that I am insensitive jerk."

Titania giggled as she said,
"Tristan honey, if you don't mind me saying so..."

"I do!" he snapped.

Chapter
Nineteen

If there was one thing that the
McAlester brothers were good at, it was hiding in the shadows. In
the rafters of the building, they looking down upon the dancing
crowd being undetected by Aradia, and everyone.

"Never thought I would live to see
the day," Dunc muttered, "When vampires would be dancing in close
proximity with werewolves, faes, and, others. Acting like they are
buddies, and what not."

Korrigan chuckled softly. "Told she
was special."

"Mmm," Tavis muttered
nodding.

The three of them just stared in
silence until finally Dunc said, "So what's the plan?"

"I have been giving it some
thought," Tavis said, "And I think I got something that will work
perfectly."

Korrigan merely grunted before
arguing "I say we snatch her now and be done with it."

Tavis shrugged. "True, but there's
over a thousand things that can go wrong, and besides she does not
strike me as the 'coming quietly' type."

"So what do we do?" Dunc
asked.

Tavis inhaled deeply. "First, we
throw 'em off balance and then while everyone is distracted we
snatch her."

Korrigan looked eager as he asked,
"So who is going snatch her?"

Tavis smiled wolfishly as he turned
to Korrigan. "I figured all three of us should have that honor
little brother."

"But don't worry," he added, "We
will do it quickly so you won't have to wait for long. You will see
her soon enough."

Korrigan smiled as he caught sight
of Aradia and watched her as she danced with Lamont; his eyes
growing wide with hunger and slowly licking his lips.

Saul and Keon were at the club that
night as well. Saul was clearly having a good time while Keon was
clearly brooding darkly as he sat at a table with his foot propped
against a spare chair.

"What's your problem?" Saul finally
asked him.

Keon grunted. "I am just in a hurry
to for this to be done with!"

"What done with?" Saul
asked.

Keon said nothing. Instead, he just
looked up towards to where the McAlester’s were hiding, and
secretly implored them to hurry up and kill the last witch so that
he could go home! He slowly inhaled a frustrated breath, but then
wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"What?" Saul asked him.

"That smell" Keon said as he looked
toward the dancing, mingling, and laughing crowd. "It's the smell
of werewolves, fae, shape-shifters, and humans all mixed with the
smell of vampires!"

Saul shrugged in a "yeah so?"
gesture.

Keon grunted angrily. "It’s a
disgusting smell! Vampires are not meant to mix with
these...."

He waved his hand to the crowd as
if what he thought was too sick to say aloud. Saul did not even
have a chance to respond before Keon continued his rant.

"I hate that this mere witch thinks
she can just waltz right in here and try to change everything!
There is a reason why vampires do not associate with other hiddens.
We are superior to them. We are the ones with wealth, privilege,
and more history than any of them! Therefore, we are more entitled
to rule above all! It's not right for us to try to put our
differences aside when it is our differences that make us their
betters!"

"And what's worse!" Keon continued
and now standing up in a fit of a rage.

He was finally releasing his pent
up rage, and it was flowing hard and fast like water from a burst
dam.

"The thought of her acting so high
mighty that she thinks she can shack up with a vampire, a werewolf,
a shape-shifter, human, and fae at the same damn time! God it is
sickening! It is grotesque! But most of all, it is revolting to
think that she thinks that she can do this without any
consequences!"

He slammed his fist on the table
and cracking it completely in two.

People looked over to see what was
going on, but once they recognized Keon and Saul they all hurriedly
turned away. Unfortunately, by the time Aradia had made her way to
where the two pieces of the shattered table lay, Keon and Saul had
already left. Saul staring at Keon in trepidation, and Keon looking
more furious and angry than Saul had ever seen him.

Chapter
Twenty

The club's first night was a
success, but Aradia knew more nights had to be involved. However,
after what had happened with the beach trips she had to make sure
that Club Amelioration stayed a secret so Aradia recruited several
spies from all of the races to keep up with what the hidden leaders
knew. Ironically, the spies included all of her suitors Dax, Roy,
Lamont, Tristan, even Jayce who in addition to recently flirting
with Aradia unwittingly reported to her about everything that was
going on in the human world.

Aradia was also amazed at the
celebrity status she had now achieved. The fact that she was the
last witch was enough to make every hidden stare at her, but now
being known as the high school sophomore who had managed to open a
great secret nightclub that only the high school students knew
about and had access to. It was enough to part crowds wherever she
went from the school hallways to even the mall.

"Wow," said Rhonda to Aradia as
they walked through the mall with their purchases hanging from
their arms. "If opening an illegal secret night club is what it
takes to be popular I would have done it years ago."

She nodded her head in the
direction of the several eyes that seemed to be glued to their
person.

"It's not illegal Ron," Aradia
argued.

"Oh?" Rhonda raised an eyebrow."
But you break into a place that you don't own to hold the
parties..."

"It’s not breaking in if nobody
lives or works there,” Aradia pointed out.

"You never let the authorities know
that you are using the place for the club,” Rhonda continued to
which Aradia defended softly, "Only because if the authorities knew
they would never let us do it.”

"And you pay absolutely no money
for rent, cleaning, food, equipment, or anything," Rhonda went
on.

"Hey," Aradia stated for the last
time. "We only use spaces if no one has expressed interest in
renting them. If they did, you can bet we would be out of there in
a heartbeat. We clean up after ourselves every time we use it as to
keep up with the health codes. Most of all, the food is a donation
from the SilverMoon diner, and the equipment is just beat up stuff
that we fix up so we are not stealing or anything. We are basically
just taking and doing stuff that we think nobody will
notice."

"How is that not illegal again?"
Rhonda asked her.

Aradia pulled a face at her best
gal pal, which Rhonda ignored as they went into another
store.

"So," Rhonda persisted, "How are
things on the romantic front?"

"Not quiet," Aradia
muttered.

"Explain," Rhonda demanded
simply.

Aradia sighed heavily. "Things are
very unsettled right now. On top of the club and school, I have
been super busy and stressed and Roy has been giving me hell about
it. Tristan is well...Tristan sucks enough said. Lamont is super
dreamy and a great dancer and knows exactly how to treat a
girl."

Aradia sighed again. "Jayce's been
hanging around me a lot lately as well. I don't know if he's
sincere about it but..." She trailed off shrugging.

"And Dax?" Rhonda asked.

Aradia now smiled dreamily as she
said, "Dax is sweet, kind, considerate, loving, cute, handsome,
funny, clever, charming, witty..."

"In other words," Rhonda stated,
"You want Dax to be your man."

Aradia chuckled, and
blushed.

This latest piece of information
prompted Rhonda to ask, "But if you know you like Dax then
why..."