15 XIII

The moment Aries pushed the ballroom doors open, Shawn raced toward them, fuming. "Where the fuck have you two been?" he growled. "It's been almost an hour."

Samuel rolled his eyes. "Aries was asleep. It took me forever to find his room and when I did, it took even longer to wake him up. It's not like I could have just busted down the door."

Shawn nodded, looking over at Aries. "And your excuse?"

Aries shrugged. "I decided after searching half the castle for an exit that I'd just head back to my room instead. Terrorizing shop owners can wait," he added with a smirk.

Shawn nodded, considering the boys' words. "I'll let you off the hook this time, Aries. But if this happens again, I will slice open your stomach and make a necklace out of your insides," he growled, turning on his heel and stalking out of the ballroom.

When he had gone, Samuel began laughing. "He was so pissed!" he chuckled. Aries just rolled his eyes and turned away, looking for a familiar face that wasn't Samuel's stupidly smirking one.

After a few moments of scanning the ballroom, Aries saw a head of thick black hair and made his way over to where Gemma was leaning on a small table by herself, watching something intently in the distance.

"Hey," Aries greeted her, to which there was no reply. "Gem? Hey, Gem," Aries poked her cheek and Gemma whipped around, punching his square in the jaw.

Samuel burst out laughing, gripping the table for support as he watched Aries stumble backward, clutching the side of his face. "Good one, Gem!" Samuel wheezed.

Gemma's eyes widened when she saw who she'd assaulted and begun laughing alongside Samuel. "Whoops," she chuckled. "Sorry, Aries. Thought you were an angel."

Aries glared at her. "I would love to punch those pretty white teeth right out of your mouth right now," he grumbled.

Gemma just laughed, turning her attention back to her original object of interest. "What are you looking at?" Samuel asked, doing his best to figure it out himself while he awaited his friend's answer.

Gemma pointed to two girls standing at a table together, one of them being Lizbeth. "Liz has been talking to that girl for over an hour," Gemma watched the pair intently. "I'm stalking them."

Aries snorted. "Of course you are." He stood up, stretching his arms. "Well, I'm heading out. Night," he called to the two, who both ignored him. Aries, rolling his eyes, made his way to the front of the ballroom and shoved the doors open, breathing a sigh of relief when all of the noise faded as he left for his room.

"Seriously? Me too!" Lizbeth exclaimed. "Especially when they scream the entire time that you're taking everything out; it's honestly hilarious."

"Isn't it?" Ember grinned.

Lizbeth had seen Ember wandering around the ballroom throughout the Ball and had finally decided to go up and start a conversation. Come to find out, they were almost the same person. Well, personality-wise.

Ember had long, blue-black hair and sharp hazel eyes. Her skin was dark and glowed in the light of the room. She was wearing a tight black jumpsuit and tall red heels, heightening her otherwise-short stature. The tight fabric hugged her body in all the right places, and it was an effort for Lizbeth to keep her gaze on Ember's eyes. Lizbeth considered her to look very similar to her ex-girlfriend, which was positive and negative, she supposed.

"Okay, well I should probably be going," Lizbeth looked over at the large clock on the nearby wall. "It was great talking with you, though," she winked at Ember.

Ember nodded. "Totally. She began walking away but before leaving, Ember brushed her lips against Lizbeth's ear. "My room is number twenty-eight. First floor."

Lizbeth grinned as Ember walked away, but as soon as she was out of sight, Gemma rushed over to her best friend. "So, how was she?" Gemma asked eagerly.

Lizbeth chuckled. "She's actually pretty cool. And drop-dead gorgeous, of course."

Gemma grinned, clapping her hands excitedly. Lizbeth worried about her sanity at times.

Lizbeth was not necessarily into relationships and usually preferred hookups and one-night stands instead. However, about six months ago, after one of her long nights, Lizbeth began to feel slightly unwell. Asha had suggested that she take a pregnancy test, and although Lizbeth was sure that it was unnecessary, she obliged. And couldn't have been more wrong in her assumption.

Lizbeth had been a wreck the entire few weeks after that, as had the rest of the Hellguard. Lizbeth was certain that she would lose her position if Shawn found out, so the group did their best to keep it a secret.

However, after a few weeks, Lizbeth's health had seemingly returned to normal, to much confusion from the rest of the Hellguard. After a few appointments, it was determined that the test had been a false positive.

However much relief that news had brought, Lizbeth had decided to start looking for a long-term partner, with Gemma's help and enthusiasm, so that the incident would be less likely to happen again. However, Lizbeth was indeed bisexual and despite having a lean toward men, female hookups were still in the picture without question.

"Okay, I'm heading out," Samuel announced from where he had suddenly appeared beside Gemma.

Lizbeth nodded. "Yeah, I will too," she looked over at Gemma.

Gemma shrugged. "Suit yourselves!" she chirped, skipping away from the pair and toward Asha, who was sitting at a table with a few other demons, seemingly having a drinking game of sorts. Lizbeth chuckled, following Sam out of the ballroom.

Meanwhile, Shawn was standing on the rooftop balcony of the palace, watching the city below him. He had had a peculiar feeling ever since arriving in Celestia that he couldn't seem to shake. It was as if this was the calm before the storm, and it made Shawn's skin crawl. But he wasn't sure what to do, so he simply breathed in the cool night air, blocking out the rest of the world and all of the troubles that came with it.