Charlie
After the degradation of a bikini wax performed by a pet groomer, I said a temporary goodbye to Alyssa and arranged to come and fetch her at half past ten to go to the club. Then I made my way back home.
It was just after five and my father met me at the door. He smelled around me. “Good, you don’t smell like that sea urchin.”
“Theo!” My mum came out into the hallway. “Go and make yourself useful by getting us three bottles of O-neg. Charlie and I could do with being at full strength before we start the process.”
“And my strength shall also be full in case I need to assist either of you, yes?”
“No, drinking yours will ensure your mouth is otherwise occupied, as I’m currently fed up of hearing your voice.”
“Well, wife, that is quite harsh, but I shall do as I’m bid.” My dad put his best sulking face on and stalked out of the room.
My mum threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly.
After we’d had our drinks, Mum explained she would turn into a wyvern and then would place a hand on my arm which was how my grandad had transferred the powers to her.
“Are you ready? Let’s sit on the sofa to do this.”
I nodded and made my way to our brand new sofa.
Mum changed. Her legs grew a lizard skin and wings sprouted from her back. She’d not taken the wings into account when she said sit on the new sofa, and this one wasn’t as deep, so she sprang forward. As she did, she clasped my arm and an icy sensation surged through my body. My mum fell on the floor with a thud.
“Ow.”
I felt my skin change and jumped up off the sofa. Reptilian skin emerged all over my body. Wings sprouted from my upper back and fins from my lower. My head felt weird and as I felt at it, the shape of it had changed.
My mum looked at me, her eyes wide. “Oh my god.”
“What is it?” I tried to say, but it came out as, “wmoatts hyegret dyat”.
“Theooooooo,” My mum yelled. Bearing in mind my dad has strong hearing, it wasn’t necessary. All it did was send me into a panic. I went to pat my mum and calm her down, but my hands were claws. I screamed and ice cold water flew out of them freezing my mother in place.
Dad burst in. “What on earth? What have you done to your mother?”
“Dhawwit umbagi jawa.”
Dad raised his hand. “Stay very still. I’m ringing your grandfather.”
Mary, my other grandma-the ghost one-wafted into the room. “What’s happening, Son? Oh look, you’ve made an ice sculpture of Shelley. How romantic.”
“That is Shelley, Mother. Stay with Charlie will you, while I quickly whizz and get Dylan and Margret?”
“Yes, of course. Do you know where Charlie is?” she said to me. “Sorry, we’ve not met. I’m Mary, Theo’s dead mother.”
“What have I told you about introducing yourself as someone deceased?” My dad said. “And that is Charlie. Something’s gone wrong with her wyvern transfer. I’ll be back post-haste. No one move.”
“Well, Shelley doesn’t seem to have much choice, does she?” Mary quipped. “Oh, Charlie, maybe we should have called you Elsa.” She started singing 'Let it Go'.
Luckily, within a few minutes my Grandma Margret and Grandad Dylan were here, brought by my dad.
“I told Shelley I would supervise. Just can’t get kids to listen these days can you?” Dylan humphed.
Margret said a spell which thawed out my mother. She stood shivering. “Oh my god, I can’t get warm.” She complained.
“Come on, love, let’s run you a nice hot bath while your dad sorts Charlie out.”
“What’s gone wrong?” My mum asked, looking at me with worry etched on her features. I noticed she didn’t come any closer though or ask if I was okay.
“It’s just teething problems.” Grandad said.
“They are rather large and sharp.” Dad replied.
Grandad guffawed. “No, not an actual problem with her teeth. She’s speaking the old language of the sea, which is seldom used any more. Hopefully, within a few hours, all of this will pass through her system and she’ll return to normal.
A few hours?!!
“My guess is that as she had already used so much energy changing from a teenager to a young woman, it has made this second change take longer than usual.”
“So she’s not going to stay like this then?”
“Oh no, Theo, don’t worry. She’ll be back to normal before long.”
“Shame. She looks really unattractive like this. It would have served to deter the male.”
My dad just did not know when to quit.
“Now, Theo.” My grandad patted Theo on the back. “If I had the same attitude regarding my daughter, you wouldn’t be married to her, and there wouldn’t be Charlie, would there? You’re going to have to accept your daughter will kiss a few frogs to find her prince.”
“If she stays like that she might have to marry one of the frogs.” My dad burst out laughing.
I growled and held up a hand ready to freeze him.
“Now, now, Charlie.” My grandad said. “Your father is only messing with you. No need to freeze anyone else.”
God, I was so uncomfortable. I couldn’t sit because of the fins and wings. I decided to plod over to the mirror to see what my head looked like. Sure enough I had the head of a dragon.
“Actually most females turn into those, wyvern or not.” Grandad said to my dad and they burst out laughing again.
Finally, after another hour or so, I felt my body starting to shift. My head returned to its normal shape. My wings and fins disappeared. My claws retracted, and my lizard skin disappeared. I excused myself to go to the bathroom and checked myself over. Yep, I was completely back to normal, thank fuck.
What a day! I was so ready for my bed.
Then I remembered I had to go clubbing yet.
I didn’t feel like going clubbing in the slightest, but I had promised Alyssa and it would take her mind off Bartholomew. Looking through my new clothes, I settled on a plain black dress that covered my knees. I didn’t feel like drawing attention to myself tonight. I hoped that as usual, Lys would be made up to the nines and would outshine me and grab all the attention. We had snuck into clubs a couple of times when we were fifteen, but had only stayed for half an hour before we’d had to be home. This was the first night I was attending properly as an adult, and Lys was sixteen now, so as far as I was concerned it was near enough to eighteen. It wasn’t like she had school the next morning or anything. The woman had saved her pack and killed two rogue weres, so it would have been a little churlish to tell her she wasn’t old enough to go to a club.
I whizzed over to find her wearing a red PVC dress, with matching ankle boots that laced up her legs. Her door was blocked by one angry werewolf brother who currently had tufts of hair sprouting out from around his neck showing that at any given point he was about to go full on were.
“You are not setting one foot outside this house dressed like that, little sister.” He snarled, jumping as I appeared.
“Bloody hell, Charlie. I’ll never get used to you vamps just whizzing in. Tell her about her outfit, will you?”
Great. Piggy in the middle. How to play it? Well there was one thing. It was good for practicing diplomacy in getting ready for war.
“Lys, Chica. We don’t match. Have you got your glitter gold dress and matching wedges? I thought I could borrow your gold glitter belt to go with this dress and then we’d co-ordinate.” I wafted myself. “You look hot though, babe. No one would give me a second look if you wore that. We’d be beating them off with a stick. In fact you’d look too hot, we wouldn’t get to chat.”
I watched my friend’s face change expressions as she debated all this with herself. She got up in her brother’s face. “I’m getting changed, but only because I want to co-ord with my bestie. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“Actually I do because I’m the Alpha-”
I broke into a fake coughing fit loud enough to interrupt him as I cried, “Water”.
Darius rushed out of the room, presumably to get me a drink.
“Hurry up and get changed and let’s get out of here before he gets back.” I told her. Two minutes later we were gone. Darius would return to an empty room.
The nightclub was all brick walls and wooden floors. It stretched over four storeys. I’d booked us a booth right near the dance floor so we had somewhere to chill and chat. I could have whizzed us straight inside but had to do things the proper way to get directed to our booth, so we waited outside in a queue for fifteen minutes first. It gave us a chance to chat normally before we would end up shouting to be heard over the top of the music.
“I’m really excited about tonight.” I told my friend. “After all the stress of late, I’m ready to let my hair down metaphorically speaking. Let’s go for it and get crazy drunk.”
“Oh my god, who is this Charlie and what have you done with my friend? Hell yeah! I agree.” She told me.
Looking further back in the queue I spotted Bartholomew. I stared at Alyssa. “Did you tell Sir Loins we were coming?”
“Yeah, he asked me if I wanted to meet him at McDonalds. Fucking McDonalds! So I told him I was coming here with you. Stupid twat. He really needs an education in the fact I’m a woman and not a bloody kid.”
“Well, don’t look around but he’s in the queue.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re joking?”
“No, I’m not. And with the way he’s undressing you with his eyes right now, I think he can see you for exactly who you are.”
“Well, I’m here tonight with you. Ho’s before bro’s, so he can sod off.”
“I don’t mind if in a bit you want to go off with him. I can whizz home as long as I know he’s going to make sure you get home safely.”
“No. No one asked him to come here tonight. This evening is about me, you, and alcohol.” At that point we entered the building, found our booth, and bought the first of what would be a large amount of gin.
“This purple is such a beaauuuutiful colour. Who knew you could have pretty purple gin?” Alyssa slurred. We’d been dancing the night away. Bartholomew had come straight over when he got inside and had got short shrift from Alyssa who told him she was out with me. He’d apparently told her how hot she looked. He was currently on the dance floor with a redhead, no doubt trying to make Lys jealous, but we were too drunk to care.
“It’s pathetic. Men are pathetic, aren’t they? I don’t think I rate Bart any more.”
“Bart Simpson. What a name. Bahahahahaha. Come on, let’s go and dance at the side of them and completely ignore him.”
We moved onto the floor where we orchestrated a series of sexy dance moves. At one point Bart was so entranced in Alyssa’s moves that he stopped dancing and just stared.
Two men moved closer to us on the dance floor and one started dancing in front of me, standing in between me and my bestie. It was annoying, but I figured what the hell, I may as well enjoy myself, so I raised my arms above my head and swung my body to the music. The guy moved in closer. I didn’t want him to hit on me, I only wanted Kai, but I was here with Alyssa and nothing had started with Kai yet, so I figured a dance didn’t hurt. I turned around so my back was to him and did a sultry up and down kind of wiggle like I’d seen on TV. When I looked back around, the guy wasn’t there anymore. I searched around, a crease between my brows and then noticed Alyssa’s finger pointing to a wall at the other side of the club where the man was slumped against it while his friend pushed his way through the crowd in a panic to get to him.
“How the hell did he get-”
“Your dad.” Alyssa said. “Seriously, it’s like I imagined it because it was so fast. One minute the guy was there, the next he was hitting that wall.”
“Oh my god. And where is my dad now?” My eyes scanned the room before returning to Alyssa.
She shrugged her shoulders. “He disappeared as fast as he appeared.”
“I’m going to kill him. He must be following me.”
“Babes, you didn’t want that guy anyway, and he was about to hit on you at any minute. Your dad did you a favour. Let’s get another drink and go back to the booth.”
I was too drunk to protest. My bloody father though! I’d be having words with him tomorrow. When I could think more clearly and speak without slurring. My mum would have to sort him out. The guy was out of control.
“Don’t look, Lys. Bart is standing at the top of our booth with that girl. She’s all laughing and twirling her hair, and she keeps looking daggers over here. It’s ridiculous. Hasn’t she any self-respect? He’s basically eye-fucking you every five seconds. I’d ditch his arse.”
“And he acts like I’m the child.” Lys knocked back another vodka. “Fuck this. I’m going to sort this out.” She stood up, wobbling slightly to one side and then made her way over to them both. Because I’d inherited great hearing from my vamp father, I could hear everything without having to move.
“Bartholomew, baby. Why are you standing at the edge of the booth when you know you can come sit alongside me?” Lys pouted, completely ignoring the woman at the side of him.
Bart looked wrongfooted. “I- erm… sorry… Li-, erm, Rihanna.”
“My name’s Lianne.” The woman shouted, and with that she stomped off back over to her friends. I didn’t need to hear her conversation, given the mutinous look on her face as she spoke to her mates, to guess what she was saying.
“Shucks. I just remembered. It’s girls night, so you can’t come into the booth after all. Sorry, Bart.” She told him.
“It’s Bartholomew.” Bart went on the defensive over his name.
“I can’t say that when I’m drunk.” Alyssa swayed. “Bye, Bart. I don’t like men who play games. You want to date me? Impress me, don’t try to make me jealous. It doesn’t work, it just makes me see you as a sad tosser.”
She came back to sit next to me. “I’ve had enough now, Char. Can we go? I’ve had a great time but these people are spoiling it. Anyway, I’m starving. Can we have chips?”
We left the bar, unaware of where Bart had gone to, or my father’s current whereabouts. We followed the smell of food which took us down an alleyway near the club.
“Hey, bitch. You don’t move in on my man like that. You get me?”
We turned around. It was the girl from the club and her mates. She had a glass in her hand full of drink. Oh shit. Her and her three friends moved closer. I heard a growl in Alyssa’s throat. There was currently no one else around so if she changed we were okay, but I tried to calm her.
“We’re going for chips, Lys. Don’t change. She’s not worth it.”
I held up a hand at the women. “The guy’s her ex. He doesn’t know when to go away.”
“So why did she come over then? If she’d stayed in her seat I’d have still been with him right now.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked her. “Because from where I was looking he spent half the night with his eyes on my best mate. Maybe you should rate yourself better than to hang around with a guy who clearly wants someone else.”
The contents of the drink coated me as it got flung in my face. I felt the water against my skin and an icy sensation hit my system. “Oh shit.”
In a flash, scales crept up my skin, my wings sprouted, and my dragon head appeared. Being drunk I just thought ‘fuck it’, and I roared in the direction of the women, who screamed for dear life and ran away from the alley.
I burst into peals of laughter and then the next thing I knew, I was whizzed away. I vaguely remembered dropping Alyssa off to an angry Darius and then seeing my own bed.
I woke with a pounding headache. God, it had been an awesome night. But how had I got home? Leaving the club was a complete blur.
At the side of my bed I found a glass of water and two painkillers, along with a note.
Figured you’d need these
Love, Dad xo
I remembered then about him flinging my dance partner across the bar and him appearing in the alleyway. Oh dear God. I’d turned into a wyvern in the middle of Hull! How could I be mad at him when he’d saved me from exposing myself as a supernatural to people who didn’t know we existed?
I sighed and slumped back against my pillow as it hit me that as Queen, my life was not my own. In order to keep the residents of Withernsea safe, I would have to watch my behaviour and restrict my boundaries. Because I couldn’t do what I did last night-get so drunk, I wasn’t in control of myself where I could put people in danger.
It was at that point I began to realise just what a burden and responsibility being Queen was going to be.