Tremble (Denazen #3)(2)
Denazen had taken a group of regular Sixes and given them a drug to enhance their abilities. It’d been a failure. All they’d gotten, instead of the powerful army they wanted, was a handful of crazy and death spanning across several decades. Word on the street was that there was a cure, but we’d yet to dig anything up. Finding something at Kiernan’s place would have made sense, since she was, after all, the only one who’d been given it.
All I found was jack crap.
Alex and Jade—with her stupid promise to Kale to watch out for me—had made it their mission to shove me back into my old life whether I liked it or not. This was the third Nix—people without a Six ability—rave they’d dragged me to in a month, and I wasn’t feeling the love.
“Jade was over by the bar last time I saw her.” Alex’s lips lifted with a truly evil smile. His mission in life had become making hers miserable. The two were like oil and water. “She was actually looking for you,” he added.
Curd’s eyes grew wide and he swaggered off, chest puffed, without another word.
“That’s not gonna earn you a good-night kiss,” I said, leaning back against the wall. While I had no desire to be out and about, the one thing that made it even remotely bearable was watching Jade and Alex take verbal swings at each other. I had a bet going with Mom’s boyfriend, Dax, on who would take down who first. My money—surprisingly enough—was on Jade. She was kind of ruthless. If I didn’t hate her so much, I could have totally seen us hanging. “Are you pretty much ready to go? This whole scene is lame.”
Alex frowned. “Already? We just got here.”
I shrugged but didn’t answer. Technically we’d gotten here more than two hours ago, but there was no point arguing with him. He’d dubbed himself the designated driver and conveniently had the car keys stashed out of reach.
Resigned to my fate, I skimmed the crowd for something to focus on. It was nothing but the same scene I’d lived a thousand times before. It felt almost shallow to be here. Knowing there was something like Denazen out there made everything about my old life seem really small. It made the things I used to love feel insignificant and pointless.
I angled myself toward the door, about to tell Alex I needed some air with the intention of sneaking back to the cabin—I’d start walking if I had to—but a girl across the room caught my eye. She reminded me of the way I’d looked at the beginning of summer. Tight low-riders, a red bustier, and killer black boots. Her hair was even similar to mine—blond with the ends dyed black. She moved to the music, grinding suggestively against the guy she danced with. At least I thought he was a guy. There were too many people in the way. One of her arms was slung across his shoulder, the other wrapped possessively around his waist.
A few months ago that had been me—only I was a better dancer.
As the ending beats of one song seamlessly melded into the opening of the next, her date disengaged himself to head toward the bar, and the girl turned in the direction of the stairs. I couldn’t see her face at first, but something about her kept me riveted, overshadowing my escape plans. There was something vaguely familiar about the way she moved… Her determined stride and the almost stiff set of her shoulders.
She waded through the crowd, swallowed by the sea of people for several moments before emerging on the other end of the room. Yeah. Definitely something familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, and it was driving me nuts. She obviously knew people, laughing and chatting as she went, but I couldn’t place her. Then, just before she rounded the corner of the stairs, her head tilted sideways and I saw her face. “Sonofa—”
Even over the loud music, I heard Alex’s surprised cry when I shoved him aside and bolted across the room without warning. A couple drifted into my path. They were focused so intently on each other and never saw me coming. I elbowed them apart and cut through the middle without apology, determined to keep up.
There was a flash of blond as I rounded the corner. Someone behind me called out, but I ignored it and kept going because losing her wasn’t an option.
Casually, she ducked into a room at the end of the hall as I made it to the top of the steps. The door was just about to click shut when I reached it, wedging the toe of my shoe between it and the frame. Kicking out, I sent it flying into a bathroom. It bounced twice before hitting the tile wall with a noise that reverberated, sending an annoying rattle echoing through the small room.
The girl whirled around, surprised, and stumbled sideways as I burst in. “What the—”
Fist balled tight, my hand shot out and cracked her in the side of the head before she could finish. There was only one thing I wanted to hear coming from her mouth. Answers. “Where is he?”
She let out a howl and clutched her head. Tripping backward, she caught the edge of the sink and toppled over, yanking the role of paper towels and a small container of hand soap down with her. They clattered to the floor, the plastic top on the soap cracking in half and spilling soft pink liquid across the tacky blue tile.
Brown eyes rose defiantly to meet mine and, knowing what I knew now, I couldn’t figure out how I’d missed it before. They were the same color as the ones I saw in the mirror each day. The same shape. They even held that same mischievous spark. She had a slightly narrower, heart-shaped face, with a chin that came to more of a dramatic point like Dad’s. I remembered her once joking that she could cut glass with it. The resemblance was there, though. We even had a similar personality. Overly confident, sarcastic, and just a little bit crazy.