Chapter 12: Beyond Battle

"A nightclub at a place of worship, you say?" Raul asked suspiciously. "What kind of worship place is this?"

"A temple, where they used to worship idols long ago," Gemima said casually, as she twirled her hair around her fingers.

"Don't worry, Raul, it's super cool," Percival said persuasively. "You can even ask Melinda and Garett to join us and we can talk further there, while we dance."

Raul thought that it was a weird place for a nightclub. He had never heard of it before.

"Is it here in Tesla?" he asked speculatively.

"No, it is in Uzzah and I can promise you that it will be worth your while at this particular time in your life," Percival responded with an earnest expression on his face. "We will be back home in no time."

Perhaps I will find some answers to more of my questions in this way? Raul asked himself. It did sound better than going straight home.

"Okay then," Raul responded. "Let me phone Garett and find out what he thinks about this."

"Hello, Raul, what's up?" Garett answered.

"Can you and Melinda meet me in Uzzah tonight?" Raul asked without delay.

"Why, what do you want to go and do there?" Garett asked in a concerned tone of voice.

"I am going out with Percival and a friend, so he suggested that you and Melinda come along as well," Raul responded.

"I would like to accompany you, Raul," Garett said in a serious tone. "But something does not feel right. Where exactly in Uzzah are you going to?"

"We're going to a nightclub," Raul said, trying to sound optimistic.

"Alright, then," Garett responded. "Just send us the address and we will find you there."

"Send them the address, Percival," Raul said when he rang off.

"So, you will follow us in your car?" Percival asked as he got into Gemima's vehicle.

As he drove behind them, Raul wondered whether this nightclub could be so much fun. He just wanted Percival to tell them about Patrice's whereabouts. "If he acts suspicious, we will know that something is wrong with regards to Patrice," Raul said to his image in the mirror.

Just before he focussed back on the lonely road, Melinda called him on his cell phone.

"Hi there, did you hear about our plans for tonight?" Raul asked.

"I understand that you have met up with Percival and a friend of his?" Melinda asked.

"Yes, I was at the movies with Percival and when we came out, we ran into this girl," Raul said, as he tried to figure out what exactly had happened back there. "I wonder if they had perhaps planned on inviting me to this club after all," Raul said to Melinda.

"Do you think they planned this in advance?" she asked.

"You mean if Percival and that girl have something planned to trick us?" Raul responded, as he slowed down the car. "I will suspect him of something devious, for sure."

"Okay then, focus on the road," Melinda replied. "We will be ahead of them if they do have such plans, because Garett and I have stronger instincts than theirs."

"Alright," Raul responded. "I will contact you when I arrive there."

After a further twenty minutes of driving, taking numerous byways, Gemima pulled into the driveway of what looked like an old temple.

Raul got out of his vehicle and walked over to Percival and Gemima.

"This is a temple, Dude," Raul said to Percival, with raised eyebrows.

"Exactly! Just as we said!" Gemima responded with a shout of glee. "It's Thursday night, so we don't have to feel bad about not dressing up."

"Follow us and phone our friends to let them know that we are inside," Percival said, as he placed an arm around Raul's shoulder.

"Wait," Raul protested. "We have to wait for them."

"Trust me," Percival insisted. "They know their way here."

"What do you mean?" Raul asked, confused.

"I'm only saying that there is no way that Melinda and Garett can get lost, after the directions we sent them," Percival said reassuringly.

Raul felt silly about insisting so he accompanied them as they walked to the rear of the temple. Once there, they punched a code into a metal box at the side of a wooden door. The door then swung open and then closed again, as they began to go down a flight of steps.

"Do Melinda and Garett know the code as well?" Raul asked suspiciously. He had truly believed that they were going into the temple for some kind of worship.

"They do," Percival replied. "Phone them to make sure."

Raul dialled Garrett's number.

"Percival says you know the code for entering?" Raul asked.

"Yes, don't worry," Garett replied. "We will find you and I'm sure we will have a few moments of fun."

Raul then decided to stop worrying and so he followed Percival and Gemima downstairs, from where he could hear pulsating music.

At the bottom of two flights of stairs, the music was really loud and there was a glass door with waitresses dressed as Egyptian princesses waiting to welcome guests. Inside the club, pink and blue lights were flashing. The music sounded exciting and so the three of them entered without any further worries.

Raul suddenly felt very alive as he saw people dancing under the flashing lights, so he also began to dance to the rhythm of the music. There was a live band way at the end of the dance floor on a stage. The stage area was smoky, so that the band members were wrapped in a haze of purple and green smoke.

A waitress approached them from a concealed entrance and took their orders for drinks.

"Are we going to drink on a school night?" Raul asked Percival.

"Not much," Percival responded. "The drinks will be on me."

Melinda and Garett arrived and joined them soon afterwards.

Raul was relieved to see them and truly set out to enjoy himself. Some of the young people there wore heavy jewellery and Raul wondered whether it was genuine. Others wore long, dangling earrings, which jingled, as they danced. The club itself seemed rather upmarket, regardless of its strange location.

Gemima danced rather wildly, shaking her red hair around and Raul wondered whether she was perhaps a werewolf lady.

They all danced with each other as well as some other young people. The friends really enjoyed themselves for quite a long time, before Raul decided that it was time to sit down and chat.

"Come, Percival," he coaxed. "You said we could talk further here."

"Wait, let me dance just a little longer," Percival said as he twirled around on the dance floor with a girl who had long, curly blonde hair and wore stark, black eye makeup.

Raul sat down anyway and not before long he was joined by Melinda and Garett, who sat down on either side of him.

"So, welcome to your first night in a werewolf, cross eagle clan nightclub," Garett announced, with his hand on Raul's shoulder.