Toxic (Denazen #2)(62)

“Think about what?” Kiernan came up behind us.

“Where’s Able?” I asked before Alex could answer.

She frowned. “He got a call and hadda bolt. Seemed funky, though. Like guy-code, ya know? Call me at such and such a time, and if things blow, I have an excuse to bail?”

“Might not be such a bad thing. Dez said the dude was freaky.” Alex turned to me. “Right?”

Kiernan frowned. “You didn’t like him?”

Great. Nice of Alex to put me on the spot. His way of forcing me to tell Kiernan, I guessed. Yeah? Well, no one was forcing my hand. I did things my way. On my own time. “It’s not that,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “He was just—he was all over some chick at the bar when you ran to the bathroom.”

Kiernan’s eyes went wide. “Are you serious?”

I nodded, avoiding Alex’s heated stare. “I know, right? She left a little while ago. Bet that phone call was an excuse to bail because of her.”

“That bitch,” she cursed.

I felt horrible for breaking her heart like that, but better safe than sorry. I needed to be sure she wouldn’t try contacting him.

She threaded her arm around Alex’s waist. “You came alone, right? Be my date for the rest of the night?”

He looked like he wanted to say no. But with a smile I knew was totally fake, he said, “Looks like it’s my lucky night.”

“Wow. That’s a statement, Dez.” Jade came up behind us. The grin on her face made me want to shove her in front of a moving truck. Of course they’d come back now. Able was gone. The coast was clear. It was safe. Kale was beside her, and I couldn’t help noticing how his hand rested against the small of her back.

“Um,” Alex said, looking around. He took my hand and started dragging me toward the door. “I think we should leave. Now.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Kale. His expression was a mix of confusion and surprise. “When did you do that?”

“Do what?” I asked as Alex shoved me out the main door and into the hall. Dragging me to the end, we burst onto the outside steps and didn’t stop till we’d made it around the corner of the building.

Kiernan and the guys stared at me like I had three heads, and Jade was grinning like the mean girl in school when the class nerd trips in the middle of the hallway.

“Feel free to tell me what just happened.” I scanned their faces. Nothing. “Anyone?”

Kale reached for a strand of my hair, his head tilting to the left. “You dyed it?”

“Idiot,” Alex snapped before I could respond. “When do you think she had time to dye it? Between when you left to go suck face with the super slut here and the last song?”

Kale turned away from me and stepped to Alex. “I know exactly what that means, and if you say it again, I’ll touch you.”

“Sorry, dude,” Alex said, waving his hands. He flashed Kale a mock frown. “I don’t swing that—”

“Focus here, people!” I yelled.

“Dez,” Kiernan said, frowning. She reached up and pulled the clip in my hair free before I could stop her. “Your hair is, um, green.”

“Matches my dress perfectly,” Jade said with an evil grin. “I know I said it before, but really, you look good in green, Dez.”

I knotted my fingers through the ends of my hair and pulled them forward so I could see. Sure enough, the strands poking out were a really cool shade of emerald.

Alex looked smug. He didn’t know about my newly improved gift, so I was betting he thought this had something to do with Able’s poison. Because that made so much sense, right? Poison that turned your hair green? Moron… “So, any ideas how your hair changed color?”

I shot Kiernan a help me! expression, but she only shrugged, indicating I was on my own. “I—”

Alex folded his arms. “I’ve got a theory. Maybe—” A squeaky, chipped voice suddenly split the air, screaming for people everywhere to follow the sound of his voice and kill whoever was holding the phone.

Saved by Kiernan’s cell.

As she dug it out of her purse, Alex glared at me. He was seconds away from spilling. I could see it in his eyes. This was the kind of situation where I wished my gift was something more useful than mimicking.

Mind control would have been awesome.

“We gotta book,” Kiernan said, snapping her phone closed. She dropped it back in her purse and pointed toward the parking lot. “That was Rosie. Something’s wrong at the hotel.”





24


Thankfully Alex had come in his rental car—and alone. I’d suggested heading back inside to grab some of the others, but Kiernan insisted we didn’t have time. She was freaked by whatever Rosie had said on the phone. The entire way to the hotel, her eyes darted back and forth as she fiddled with the straps on her shoe. When we pulled up in front of the main doors and he killed the engine, everything was dark.

And wrong.

From the car, we couldn’t see much. The only thing visible inside were the red emergency lights above the door.

“The hotel lost power!” Kiernan whined as she climbed from the backseat. She slammed the door closed and stomped her foot. “That was Rosie’s big drama?”