“Sasha, focus.” I gently shake her shoulders. “The guys seem… worried.”
“Doesn’t mean they don’t follow orders like the good little lapdogs they are, though.”
“Think, Sasha… think… Has Cade said anything that might help me figure out what he’s done to them?”
“He’s obsessed with the old ways.”
“The old ways?”
“Yeah… things used to get pretty crazy back then. Blood rites and all these weird initiations with hallucinogens. I heard my dad and Gregory talking once.”
Fear snakes through me. “I have a bad feeling about this,” I say, chewing my thumbnail.
I lead Sasha back to the party, but Brook spots us and saunters over.
“Oh look, it’s the Electi’s pet.”
“Fuck off, Brooklyn, we don’t have time for your bullshit.” Sasha barges past her, but Brook grabs her arm.
“Why do you always have to be such a bitch?”
“Me? Me!” she shrieks, and everyone stops to take notice. “You’re the queen bitch around here, acting like you’re something just because your mom got with my dad. My mom’s bed wasn’t even cold and she just—"
Brook lunges for her, and the two of them start going at it, hands swinging and nails scratching. I don’t know what to do, so I stand there, hoping someone will intervene. It takes Brandon and Channing to finally tear them apart, but neither of the girls go down without a fight, bucking and broncing.
I try to move around Brandon to get to Sasha, but someone’s fist catches the corner of my face and I stumble, losing my footing.
‘Mia,” someone yells right as my head collides with the ground…
And everything goes black.
Muffled voices fill my head, but I’m too confused to latch onto them.
“Maybe we should take her to the ER.”
“No fucking way. Not tonight. The last thing we need is the local PD sniffing around.”
“We should go get them. It was a bad fucking idea to leave them out there on DOM.”
DOM? Who’s DOM?
I try to move, but pain explodes in my head. God, it hurts.
“They’ll be fine. Quit being a pussy.”
“DOM fucks you up. They could do some serious damage,” someone says. His voice is softer than the other guy’s. Kinder.
Slowly, I blink, forcing my eyes open. I’m in a bedroom, lying on a huge bed cloaked in black sheets. My eyes find Cade and Channing over by the window.
“W-what happened?” I try to sit up, but the pain rattles my teeth.
“Mia, babe, thank fuck.” Cade rushes to my side.
“What happened?”
“Brook—"
“She hit me.”
“It was an accident,” Channing says. “She was trying to get to Sasha.”
“They were fighting.” I remember now. Sasha was drunk and high and Brook accosted us in Cade’s huge yard.
“You had quite the fall by all accounts.” Cade glances up at Channing.
“Where’s Sasha?” I ask.
“Sleeping off all the pills and vodka.”
“I am—"
“This is my room.” Cade’s eyes darken. “You look good in my bed.” He runs his knuckles over my cheek. “Just a shame it isn’t under different circumstances.”
I’m too weak and confused to fight him. I already want to close my eyes and drift off into a deep sleep.
“Whoa, Mia. You need to try and stay awake, in case you have a concussion.” Channing moves closer, concern shining in his eyes.
“Stay with her,” Cade orders. “I have shit take care of. Do what he says, okay?” He leans in and kisses my forehead. “I’ll be up later.”
Cade leaves and Channing takes his place in the chair beside the bed.
“You like to make life difficult for yourself, don’t you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means stop ruffling feathers, Mia.” His brows crinkle.
“I’m not supposed to be his prosapia, Channing. You know that, right?”
“I’ll admit, it’s a little suspect your name got picked. But the decision is final.”
“Ugh. Everyone keeps saying that, like I’m supposed to just accept it.”
He studies me carefully. “You’re not what I expected.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I wince as pain shoots through my head.
“Here, take these.” He hands me some pain pills and a glass of water.
“You promise it’s just Advil?”
“I might be Electi, Mia, but it doesn’t make me a monster.”
“What will you do,” I ask, “when Alex is inducted in?”
“You should rest. Just don’t fall to sleep, okay?”
“Easier said than done,” I grumble. “My brain feels like mush.”
“We could watch TV.”
“Or we could talk, and you could tell me where Bexley and Alex are.”
“Nice try.” He chuckles darkly. “But not gonna happen.”
“But why? You helped me clean up Bexley that night after the pit.” He’d snuck me down to the basement and then left the door open for them to escape.
Channing is a good guy. He’s just in a bad situation.
“Shh,” he hisses. “You can’t be saying stuff like that in here.”
“Is it bugged?” I glance around.
“No, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t spies everywhere. Just watch the TV and don’t make this any harder than it has to be, okay?”
“Fine,” I huff. “But tell me just one thing?”
“Go on…”
“Will Bexley and Alex be okay?”
He looks at me with a grim expression.
“I really fucking hope so.”
33
Bexley
“Do you have any fucking clue where we are?” I ask Alex as we finally emerge through a door that has daylight on the other side of it.
The bright sun burns my eyes, making them run and my head to once again spin as I come down from whatever fucking trip that was.
Whatever it was, I know for a fact that I don’t want a repeat.
I glance over to see Alex looking around as he shields his eyes from the sun.
He looks like hell. His pupils are blown and there are dark shadows circling his eyes. I have no fucking clue how long we were down there, but from how exhausted I am and how high the sun is, it’s got to be damn near twenty-four hours.
“If I had to guess, I’d say the forest behind the Electi house. The graveyard is over there.” He points. “But really, it could be anywhere.”
“How the fuck are we meant to get back? We’re fucking naked.”
“Ever hot-wired a car?”
I stare at him
