shadows - lashton

Chapter 2

*Luke's P.O.V*

I slowly made my way through the dark alleys, weighed down by mental exhaustion, with nothing but the soft glow of the distant moon to guide me. I somehow felt comfortable in the shadows, safe.

Within minutes, the building was visible and I swiftly made my way towards the entrance. Despite expectations, keeping a low profile in the city was critical. The most renowned meeting place for my kind was a night club, but from its exterior you would have thought it was anything but. I couldn't remember a time the place hadn't been disguised, although that wasn't overly surprising since I'd been unaware of the existence of such an inhuman species only a matter of months ago.

A tall, well-built man stood on guard by the door, strictly abiding by the guidelines on who was allowed to enter the building. As I approached, he glanced at me for a moment and scoffed. "Show me your wrist."

In response to his order, I lifted my sleeve to reveal a small black cross on my skin. All vampires can be identified by this symbol on their wrist, for when you are bitten it rises to the surface and leaves a permanent mark. This undoubtedly leads to humans attempting to forge it on a regular basis, but the only outcomes are being denied entry to the club or their certain deaths.

The man grunted in acknowledgement, eyeing me suspiciously but motioning for me to enter nonetheless. I slipped into the crowd, my thoughts drowned out by deafeningly loud music and drunken laughter as I made my way to the bar.

Without drawing too much attention to myself, I took a seat besides a girl maybe a couple of years older than me. But of course that wasn't something easy to determine, since vampires don't physically age. She had cropped brown hair and long eyelashes, tight denim shorts resting on her hips and an overly revealing shirt.

"Alright there, handsome?" She smirked, and I tried my best to pay no attention to her words.

But this seemed only to irritate her, and she grabbed my face with her fingers, forcing our eyes to lock. "Don't ignore me you stupid little kid, I didn't come here for that."

"Then leave," I said firmly, surprising myself with the words that fell fluently from my mouth. Her face dropped, and she looked frantically around in hopes someone would step in to defend her but it never happened. She violently shoved me away and huffed angrily, storming off into the crowd.

I ordered a water from the bar, receiving a few outraged stares from those nearby but shrugging them off, it wasn't like it was a rare occurrence.

That was the thing I hated about the club above all else. The reason I went so often was my desperation to find a friend, someone I knew I wouldn't leave behind when my immortality became more apparent. However all I ever found were over-eager vampires speeding around and flashing their fangs, how the hell could they be proud of who - or what - they are?

That was why people had such a hard time accepting I was one of them, the reason I was given such peculiar looks from those I encountered. I possessed very few of their traits, ordering a glass of water instead of blood being one of the many things they found impossible to understand. Most doubted I had actually undergone the change, but my mark proved it.

Then there was my story. It was rare for a vampire to remember the name of the one who bit them, but for some reason I could. When I woke up on the floor of the alley, my senses suddenly enhanced and my old life over, there were only two words on my lips. Calum Hood.

No one could doubt that, for whenever his name was mentioned the club would fall into silence. Supposedly, he is one of the deadliest vampires in the city and feared by almost everyone. At first I had a hard time believing it, if he was so tough then why would he waste his time changing a pathetic kid like me? It made no sense.

I got asked about that a lot, about why he chose me when he was so selective about who he bites. People found it ridiculous, how just the day after I returned to school instead of dropping out. I had no way I could have explained it, I wasn't having any trouble with friendships or keeping my grades up, so all it would have achieved was raising suspicion that I wasn't quite the same person anymore. But to the other vampires, that made me nothing more than a mistake.

My phone confirmed that it was almost midnight, and everyone that surrounded me was drinking and dancing. So upon deciding that there was nothing else left to accomplish that night, I left without a sound.

As I departed, I stood outside the club for a moment, allowing a light breeze to rush over me. To start with it was relaxing, soothing my slightly achy body; I closed my eyes and inhaled the mild night air. But then something changed, the hairs on my bare skin rose upwards and I took a sharp breath. Curious as to whether anyone else had experienced this I looked around, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

Something was different though, I was sure of it. It was like a warning sign that bad things were going to happen, and I didn't like it.

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A/n: Whoop whoop here's the second chapter :) P.O.V will alternate between Ashton and Luke I'm praying it will make sense x