The Blood Witch

13

Dinner was...interesting.

As Stella had said the hall was wall-to-wall packed. People and supernatural beings littered around the hall. Coming and going, perched and flying. Some lazied around as if they were royalty, surrounded by large entourages. Others stuck to the shadows and observed with glowing eyes. 

The dining room had been transformed into a banquet hall. The single table that could seat twenty now lined the room in four rows of ten. Kitchen staff ran along the outer edges trying to deliver food to everyone. It was rowdy and overcrowded, yet Scarlet could feel her eyes boring into her neck. Arow over and to tables down a woman with jet black hair and matching eyes stared unblinking. 

Many people had been curious about her presents and wanted to meet the granddaughter of the great Charlotte Smith. People had been coming up and introducing themselves and the girl watching had stared at her through it all. Scarlet was about tired of it if she were honest. Carl sat to her right and Theodora sat to her left. They were watchful but didn't seem to be paying attention to the woman mean mugging her. 

Nudging Carl she got his attention away from whoever he was talking to and looked towards the woman again. "Who is that?" 

Carl looked in the direction that she indicated and squinted at the woman. He sniffed the air deeply, before shaking his head. He sneezed and averted his gaze. "I don't know her, but she smells like pepper. She smells like a mystic."

"What's a mystic?"

"There are different kinds," He explained. "Some are shapeshifters, others are witches. They are usually loners, not belonging to a clan and they smell like pepper. They are called mystics because they have other powers as well like divination, and finding things and some can even tell the future. They are almost always cryptid though. Their visions are usually choppy. I'll be right back, I see a friend of mine I haven't seen in forever.."

Scarlet watched him walk away to a group of young men before she looked back at the woman and was surprised to see her gone. She was going to ask more questions when the door at the entrance of the hall was thrown open. A hush fell over the room as the largest man she had ever seen marched into the room. He was at the head of a group of equally large, imposing people. 

He was handsome, almost too handsome in a rugged, Viking biker way. His hair was thick and hung in thick dreadlocks around his face. He was possibly seven feet tall, with all legs and muscles. It was as if he controlled even the air in the room as he moved through with purpose. Once his party was in the room, and the door closed the motion and conversation in the room resumed. Still Scarlet watched him. 

Everything about this man was hard and intense. His presence brushed against her senses and greeted her. It was heady and she didn't even know his name. The onslaught of emotions that hit her was so strong that she momentarily closed her eyes as she tried to compose herself. Eyes closed visions of him in action on a battlefield came to her mind. Visions of them together, intertwined, panting. 

Scarlet's eyes popped open to collide with his light brown ones. He stood a little over three feet away. He was frozen in place and Scarlet had to wonder if he felt it too. If he felt this need. It consumed her and it took everything in her not to go to him. Dear God, but it was a delicious tingle that traveled her body as he slowly scanned her from head to toe. 

"He's hot isn't he?" A voice asked to her left. 

Scarlet turned to see the dark-haired girl who she had been having a staring contest with earlier. Scarlet jolted and pulled in a breath and dared to look away from the dark-eyed beauty to search out the man who had her body buzzing just from being in the same vicinity. Her heart sank when she saw that he was gone.

"Had I spoken two seconds later you two would have thrown the entire dining room into an orgy with the fire you were trying to light."

"Excuse me?" Scarlet asked turning back to the girl.

Her eyes twinkled as she leaned forward and said, "You were damned near drooling over him. It was hot as fuck. Then for him to eye you like you were on the menu tonight. It was hot."

Scarlet stared at this weird woman with renewed interest. She seemed very approachable and dare she say it, nice. "Who are you?"

"Orso at your service."

"Why were you watching me?" 

The girl smirked revealing small sharp teeth. Her eyes went from black to an eerie green in seconds. "Wanna know a secret?"

Against her better judgment, Scarlet nodded. 

"That guy over there in the red jacket only has nine days to live before the guy next to him kills him. That woman over there is pregnant with her first child and has no idea yet. Your current guardian will not be your guardian much longer. You and Mr. Super Hot will end up in the sack. It will probably be the best sex of your life. He is your other half."

"How do you know all that?" Scarlet asked breathlessly. 

"I only know the little piece about you because of Nolan. I can tell you the past present and future of every person in this room. It is effortless for me. Like watching a movie, I can rewind and fast forward at will. When I saw your soon-to-be lover I saw you in his future. I didn't see him in yours, because you, my dear, are blank to me."

"So I have no future?" Scarlet asked skeptically. 

"No you do," Orso said as she cleaned her nails. "I just can't see it. You may be the only person in the room that I can't read and I'd like to know why."

Scarlet watched the woman's face scrunch up in confusion as she studied her. "I dont know why you can't read me, but I have always been a private person. So I dont see a problem."

"I sense that you are a witch." Orso continued. "What kind of witch are you?"

"A blood witch," Scarlet supplied easily, "and what might you be?"

"Some would call me a mystic," Orso said, green eyes trained on Scarlet. "My true form is a panther."