Toxic (Denazen #2)(39)

The thumping beat pounded as people bounced and shimmied in the center of the room. It made the headache a little worse, but I didn’t care. It was a nice distraction from the anger bubbling in my gut. Beyond the dance floor, the hallway was packed with neon-wrapped bodies. Squinting against the dark, I spied a couple kissing in the far corner. Even though a party raged all around them, their only focus was each other. Jealous, I turned away. Across the room, a large white cooler and a table full of pink drinks sat in the corner. Score.

I downed one, then swiped another and headed to the dance floor. A drink in each hand, I made my way to the edge to wait for Kale. No way he’d let me just walk off.

Only he did.

Ten minutes and two drinks later, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned, expecting to see Kale, but found Curd, bright pink drink extended in greeting. “Dez, baby! Glad you got my message. Where ya been?” He threw his arms around me, drops of his drink splashing down the back of my shirt. It might have irritated me if I wasn’t so happy to see him.

“Spent the summer with my aunt.” As far as everyone in my old life knew, my mom had died when I was born. Telling people I spent the summer with her might raise a few eyebrows. We’d agreed that if anyone asked, for now at least, Mom was my Aunt Sue.

A couple walked by, each holding a drink. Curd reached out and snatched the one out of the guy’s hand. “Don’t look at me like that. You’re headed upstairs. You won’t need it.” Turning back to me, he said, “Some chick started a rumor you were doing homeschooling. Say it ain’t so.”

“’Fraid it is.”

“Serious suck. You still with that guy? The weird one?”

I hesitated for a second before tipping the cup up and downing the entire thing. “Curd! You gave me an empty cup.”

He winked and held out his arm. “We can remedy that.”

When Kiernan finally found me, Curd and I were sitting at the bottom of the stairs in the middle of an off-key duet of the Pine Man—a local tree-cutting service—jingle.

“Been looking for ya,” she said, nudging herself between Curd and me.

“We’ve been right here.” I poked Curd in the shoulder. “Kiernan, this is Curd. Curd and I go way back.”

“Hey, baby.” Curd said. He was plastered. In the time we’d been sitting there, he’d collected quite a pile of plastic cups. He kept trying to wear them on his head, but they always fell off. “Love the hair. How wicked would it be if the carpet matched the drapes? We could go upstairs, and you could show me.”

Kiernan stood and rolled her eyes. She was used to dealing with overzealous guys. Morgan, a Six that had briefly stayed at the hotel during the summer after she arrived, had insisted she was his soul mate. That was, until he met Lisa, a Six with the ability to mimic other people’s voices.

“Or I could take Dez and leave.” She grabbed both my hands and pulled hard. Unsteady at first, I struggled to my feet as the room spun just a bit.

He waggled his eyebrows and made another attempt at his cup-hat. It failed. “Gonna show her?”

Kiernan winked and slipped her arm around my shoulder. “Of course.”

“I think I’m in love!” Curd exclaimed, thumping a hand against his chest, over his heart.

She grabbed my shoulders and pushed me up the stairs, giving Curd a final, dismissive glance. “Jesus, Dez. How many have you had?”

A little wobbly, I missed the top step and almost went backward. Kiernan caught me in time. “Not that many, but I didn’t eat tonight.”

She pushed open the first door we came to and shoved me inside. It was early, so no one had claimed the room yet. In a few hours, there’d be people going at it like rabbits in here despite the icky smell and army of dust soldiers gathering in the corners.

“Why?”

The muted beats of a new song started, and someone downstairs screamed. “I forgot?”

“Forgot? Girl, you need to stop obsessing.”

“What am I gonna do?” I leaned against the door and slid down to the dusty wood floor. There was a few pieces of furniture left in the room—a broken dresser and an old mattress on the floor on the other side of the room. It was dark, but it looked stained in several places and had springs poking through the side.

“About what?” Kiernan joined me. “Jade? Or Kale?”

I blew at a stray hair. My bangs had grown out over the summer. They were at that annoying in-between stage. Too long to leave alone and too short to do anything with. “Have you seen them? Is she sticking her tongue down his throat yet? Has she tried to hand him over to Denazen?”

She sighed. “Of course not. She’s busy playing social butterfly. The worst thing she’s doing is dragging Kale around like a piece of meat.”

“But he’s my piece of meat,” I whined as something loud crashed downstairs.

Kiernan’s eyebrows rose.

“You know what I mean.”

“It’s fine, Dez. He’s totally not into it. If it’ll make you feel better, he started to come after you when you stormed off, but she wouldn’t let him.”

“Wouldn’t let him?”

“She sold him something about it being proper procedure to let the girl storm off. He totally bought it.”

Proper procedure? Oh. She was good—using Kale’s lack of in-the-know against him—against me! “I hate her.” The pounding in my head surged, and a moment later, so did the throbbing in my shoulder. I made a decision. “And I have a confession to make.”