Toxic (Denazen #2)(78)

Everything turned red. I fell forward and struck out, putting all my weight behind the blow. Jade toppled back, losing her balance and hitting the dew-wet grass with a muffled thud. I knew she hadn’t felt anything, but it gave me some small amount of satisfaction. I watched her for a moment, our eyes meeting in rage-filled challenge.

And then I was running. Somewhere behind me, Kiernan called out, but I ignored her. Space. Distance. Miles. I needed a huge gap between me and Kale. Cities. Planets. Hell, nothing would be enough.

I got about a mile from the house and stopped to catch my breath. No stupid moves this time. Last time I’d run off, I’d ended up running into Aubrey and Able. Not that things could reach a whole new level of oh, shit, but why take chances?

So I found a dark corner and cried my eyes out. Five months ago my life hadn’t been perfect by anyone’s definition, but in my opinion, it’d been pretty awesome. I was getting ready for senior year, made a hobby out of driving Dad’s blood pressure to new heights, and partied till dawn. I had friends, flings, and freedom.

Then I met Kale.

I’d never had so much faith in anyone before. In anything. Fierce. Loyal. Pure. That was Kale. He made me feel special. Whole.

Now I was sitting on the other side of the fence. Lost and alone. The poison was getting worse. It was getting harder to concentrate through the constant pain in my shoulder. Random waves of gravity-defying dizziness came and went in increasing increments. And the idea of food? Pass.

My time was up. I was going to have to come clean—if for no reason other than by morning, it’d be impossible to hide. From the time I’d seen Kale and Jade, to the time I’d arrived in the alley, the poison had almost reached my elbow. I was pretty sure it’d made it to the base of my neck. Kale might have noticed back at the house if the yard hadn’t been so dark.

And you know, he hadn’t been busy sucking Jade’s face off.

Icy fear started wiggling in my stomach. Before, I’d had something to focus on to keep my mind busy. Proving Jade was working for Dad. Now that I had that proof—I hadn’t seen her talking on the phone, but we’d heard the conversation just the same—all I could think about was the poison and how badly I wanted to run to Kale.

But that couldn’t happen. He was holding on to Jade now, and the poison seemed to be spreading faster. There was one bright spot in all of this. The Supremacy crazies weren’t going to get me.

I’d never make it that long.

But there was another option. One I’d originally thought was out of the question. Giving Dad what he wanted. Me for the cure. It was feasible now, wasn’t it? On one hand, by no definition did I want to fork myself over to Denazen—I knew what they did to people like me—but on the other, one of my main roadblocks was gone. If Kale was falling for Jade, then maybe he wouldn’t come after me.

A small whisper in the back of my mind tried to tell me again that something about this wasn’t right, but I was able to push it aside. The kiss was fresh in my mind. The image had been permanently embedded into my brain. The sounds. The smells. The look in Kale’s eyes. Pity. It had been pity in his voice. Everything was starting to make sense now. Kale had started falling out of love with me the moment Jade arrived. Ginger was right. We weren’t meant to be together because he and Jade were.

The whisper tried again—wrongwrongwrongwrong—but the facts were too strong. Couldn’t be denied.

I’d call Dad. Right after the party. Tell him I was ready to deal. Wasn’t ideal, but it might be my best shot at seeing eighteen.

Might be my only shot at seeing eighteen.

I left a message on both Mom’s and Ginger’s voice mail telling them I’d split from Kiernan, and I’d meet them all at the party. After that, I headed for town.

Three blocks away, I slipped into the McDonald’s on Fourth Street. Standing in front of the cracked mirror, I washed my face. My eyes were red and swollen, and my cheeks were flushed. Definitely not party perfect. Taking a deep breath, I held out my hand and wiggled my fingers. I had to be party perfect. This was my last hurrah. “Time to see what this baby can really do.”

Touching the skin below my right eye, I focused on the magazine balanced on the edge of the sink. A Cover Girl ad with Drew Barrymore’s bright eyes and wide smile. Her flawless skin. Creamy, even, and just a bit too pale. As I watched, the puffiness faded, and the redness seemed to sink away, replaced by a normal, healthy glow. Next, I tried something a little more experimental. Makeup.

Not as simple as I’d thought.

I flipped through the magazine, searching for something dramatic. Sure, I could mimic the same old routine I’d gone with a thousand times, but this was a special occasion. A going-away party—even if the others didn’t know it yet. I had to be perfect.

I found an ad I really liked. The model had thick, black-rimmed eyes with dramatic, smoky lids and a dainty, lattice-like swirl at the corner of each eye. Slightly goth but seriously cool. Definitely something I could rock.

The experiment started with disastrous results. The first try, instead of eyeliner, I ended up turning my entire eyelid solid black. While it would have gone over pretty well with the hard-core goth crowd, it wasn’t quite what I was looking for.

The next attempt was a little cooler but not quite right. The iris of my right eye. That would have been perfect for Halloween, but not tonight.