Jess rested her cell phone on the sink as she outlined her eyes in thick liner. Even without utilizing the speaker function she could hear Elly, her loud voice distorted in a tinny tone through the phone.

"So you'll come with me right? Everyone else bailed and I haven't seen you in weeks!"

Jess felt a twinge of guilt in her chest. Elly was right, they hadn't hung out in weeks. Every time they had planned to go out, something came up. Honestly, some of it was Jess' doing. Elly always seemed to get herself into some sort of trouble when they were together. The thought of hanging out and interfering was stressful to Jess. She wasn't superstitious, but she always wondered if she was to blame for it.

"Yeah, I'm getting dressed right now. Where is this place?"

She could practically hear the excitement radiating from Elly towards her, "Club Nightingale! It just opened last week on the other side of town, near 14th street. Girls get in free before 11~ So let's hustle!"

Jess chuckled, "Okay okay, I'll meet you there in 20?"

"Awesome! See you soon!"

Elly hung up and left Jess to apply some plum lipstick and look over her outfit. Ripped black skinny jeans and a black mesh shirt would do. She ran her hands through her short silver bangs pushing them back and grabbed her keys before setting out.

The line outside of the club was absolutely ridiculous, it started from the two mean looking bouncers who were guarding the entrance and wrapped around the corner. Jess heaved a sigh, it looked like they would be wasting the majority of the evening by standing around just waiting to get into the damn place. As she approached closer she noticed a curvy figure standing next to one of the bouncers, frantically waving one arm in a wide arch.

Elly. Her mass of curls were tightly coiled and bouncing in a funky semi-Afro. She was decked out in a tight red dress with black lace cut outs and heeled boots that would make her tower over Jess for once, instead of the other way around. The excited look on her face as she flagged Jess down made her grin. As soon as Jess was close enough she was enveloped into a hug, "JESS! HIIIIII."

Jess shook her head, "Hey Elly, why aren't you in line?"

Elly grinned and motioned toward one of the buff bouncers who seemed to be watching them with amusement in his eyes, "Glen invited me. Told me to bring friends and we could go right in~"

Jess smiled as Elly linked arms with her and pulled her in, although something felt off. She couldn't quite pinpoint it, but her senses were more alert and there was a slight sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Mentally crossing her fingers, she hoped that tonight would go off without a hitch. Everything would be okay.

Upon walking in she knew they were screwed. They were completely and utterly screwed and NOTHING would be okay. Jess' eyes darted around in horror at the scene before her. To anyone without "the sight" the club would appear to be full of young, fashionable people. However, Jess did in fact possess "the sight".

The ability to see the supernatural that live among humans, her mind's default was to ignore the glamour that coated them. Everyone took on their true forms in her eyes and only if she made a conscious effort would she be able to see what they were glamoured to look like. At a young age Jess had learned not to speak of the creatures that only she could see. Her insistence had originally been labeled as an over active imagination and when it persisted, a mental disorder. After a few sessions with a therapist she learned to just keep everything that she saw to herself. The classmates that had sharp fangs or strikingly large wings that glimmered were ignored. Her college professor who only had one eye in the middle of his forehead and claws sharpened to a point was completely avoided outside of class hours.

Jess had lived the majority of her life completely ignoring and avoiding the supernatural. She pretended to be none the wiser when people went missing or mysterious deaths occurred. That was, until she met Elly. Elly was the daughter of the city's police chief and as such had a mark on her head. Jess wasn't sure if it was something about Elly's essence or the sole fact that her father was out there eradicating their kind every day, but the supernatural had an affinity for finding her.

Whether it was true or not, Jess felt like she was Elly's guardian whenever they went out together.  It often seemed like she was responsible for her safety and she had steered her away from danger more than once. The stress is one of the main reasons that Jess avoided hanging out with her. She felt bad thinking it, but constantly worrying about finding ways out of sticky situations was something that she would rather do without. Now here they were stuck in a situation that Jess had never fathomed being in.

She caught the electric blue eyes of a pixie watching her, when he noticed that he had caught her attention he winked. Jess held back a shudder as her eyes raked over his moss green skin and pointed teeth. They needed to get the hell out of there. She turned to look at Elly who had been standing beside her and let out a groan of annoyance. Of course she wasn't there. Of course.

She pushed through the crowd on the dance floor to make a beeline for the bar and formulate a plan. The bar would have the best view of the whole club and she needed a moment to collect the thoughts that were currently ricocheting through her mind in panic. Weaving in and out of bodies was unnerving when she had to ignore wings, cat eyes, opaque skin, claws; the humans interspersed throughout the crowd were completely unphased and that worried her more than anything. She had never witnessed a gathering of supernatural beings that big. While most humans were none the wiser of who lived among them, there was normally caution amongst the others when gathering. Large hosts of unnatural creatures all in one place would make even the most easily tricked human alert, the sheer amount of glamour triggering a sense of fear. A feeling that something was really inherently wrong.

As she neared the bar she turned thoughts over in her mind. Why open a club for the supernatural if humans are allowed in? The answer came slamming into her like a truck and she realized that she needed to find Elly as soon as possible. It would make sense to have a controlled amount of humans allowed into the club, for those who used them for sustenance that would be an easy meal. The man behind the bar was lithe and tan, his dark blue hair cut neatly just below his eyebrows. His body seemed to pulse with a white-blue glow and his eyes were the same color. He regarded her politely, "What can I get you?"

Jess muttered, "A way out of here would be nice?"

He regarded her warily, "Leaving so soon?"

"Well since I'm not trying to die tonight, yes."

At her pointed comment he laughed, it was almost delighted. "You have ‘the sight’!"

She blinked at him, "That's a good thing?"

"I mean you can see my true form and you didn't freak out or ask a stupid question so yeah, that's pretty good for a human. What did you want to drink? While you mull over whatever silly problem is going on in your mind."

"A peach Bellini and it's not silly!"

The bartender grinned, "Honey, once you're past 100 years old, most problems that youth have seem VERY silly."

Jess narrowed her eyes, "What exactly are you?"

He placed the drink in front of her with a flourish, "I'm a warlock. I thought it was obvious."

"Yeah well it's not like I often get to talk to the supernatural and ask them what the hell it is that I'm seeing. You would be the first."

He gave a noncommittal flick of the wrist, "So what's this problem?"

Jess sipped her drink as she scanned the main floor, "My friend. I lost her in the crowd...more like she disappeared really."

The warlock grimaced, "Ah, I see how that could be a bit of a problem. I'm assuming that she doesn't have ‘the sight’ and isn't prepared to fight off advances."

"Exactly. I'm just hoping that something didn't happen to her already..."

"Do you have anything of hers with you? Preferably DNA."

Jess stared at him like he was insane, "Ah yes. Let me just take out my handy vial of Elly's blood. Are you crazy??"

The warlock tutted at her, "I'm only trying to help. If you don't need it..."

She practically growled as she patted herself down hoping that Elly slipped an item into one of her pockets or something of the sort. As she rummaged, she felt a slight tug at her shirt and watched as the warlock's neatly manicured navy nails pulled a tight coil of hair from where it had twisted into the mesh. He grinned at the shiny black strand of hair, "This'll do."

Jess watched as he procured a shining silver platter to place on the countertop of the bar and closed his left fist around the strand of hair. Closing his eyes his waved the fist clockwise over the platter while alternating with his other hand counter clockwise, palm faced down. He steadily mumbled an incantation until she could see his glow brighten and pour through his palm and to the platter. Through the light shapes started to form and Jess realized that he was scrying. As the shapes solidified the warlock opened his eyes to look on.

Elly was laughing with a drink in one hand and talking to a creature who towered over her by at least a head. He had two short pointy horns protruding from his temple and as he smiled she could both sets of his canines were sharpened to wicked points. His dark red eyes crinkled as he leaned casually against the balcony. Jess hadn't seen anything like him before. She looked to the warlock for clarification, "Dazamphine demon. Not good. Well good because he's totally inexperienced, you can tell by the horns. Not good because they grow to be extremely powerful, usually reap in packs, and have a hankering for innocent souls."

Jess wanted to slam her head against the countertop and be done with everything right then and there. This was so ridiculously typical. How did she always manage to get caught up in such big messes? "Right okay. Dazamphine demon. Warlock....sir? What else can you tell me about them? Like how to evade one."

"You can call me Hakyeon. The demon is young, he's not dumb enough to put up a fight if you try to take her away. Watch out for whoever he came with. He will definitely have back up and they will be stronger than he is. The demons often use their charm as an extension of their glamour, generally demons are the most powerful breed of supernatural being. Apart from me of course."

Jess was going to kill Elly if they made it out alive. Strangle her and push her off of a cliff. This was a death wish, absolute insanity to try to save her. But if Jess didn't do anything, no one would. She couldn't have that blood on her hands. "How long do you think I have before...you know?"

"You've got time. They like to play with their food before they eat. Demons are interesting because they don't need to eat humans, they chose to for power. The way they choose to eat is entirely up to them. Drawing blood, consumption, removal of the soul; all of it has the same outcome of transferring the human’s essence. They are just different methods."

"So they're just s then?"

Hakyeon grinned, "Well that's one way to put it."

She almost pouted out of utter frustration, "Can't you help me? You've got magic, can you get her out?"

He raised his hands in surrender, "Warlock. I'm supposed to remain impartial. If I get involved, they all come after me. I'm sorry kiddo."

Jess gulped down the rest of her drink and sighed, "Okay. I'm going in."