Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(77)

Why are humans so bloody stupid? The sound of Max’s low rumble in my head only made the pain worse. You know that alcohol will make you sick so, what do you do? You guzzle an entire bottle as if it’s going to spontaneously combust if not consumed in record time!

I groaned feebly again. “Don’t give me that daddy werebeast lecture. Just make it stop! Please!” I moaned, gripping my forehead with both palms and squeezing tightly.

It could be worse, you know, Max continued, not at all sympathetic to how his special telepathic ability was torturing me at that moment. At least you threw up last night. That got most of the alcohol out of your system.

I felt my face screw up as I raked my brain. “I threw up last night?” I didn’t remember throwing up. I didn’t remember … much of anything.

Yeah, Caden and Bishop took turns carting you back here. What a train wreck! You weren’t in here thirty seconds before you stumbled for the bathroom. Of course you plowed into the wall but …

The pain in my head instantly dulled, replaced by another excruciating pain—mortification. I gasped out load and my hands flew to my mouth. “Oh my God! Max, did Caden see me puke?”

“Only enough to make sure you hit the bowl,” a male voice called out. I lifted my head to see Caden leaning against the door, jade eyes sparkling, looking as striking as ever in an untucked dark blue button-down shirt and dark jeans. It made the entire situation ten times worse.

I flopped down into my pillow and pulled the covers over my head, intent on hiding for the rest of the day, praying that the man with the drum would bash my brains in and be done with it.

“Merry Christmas!” Caden’s voice boomed from somewhere above me.

“Bah humbug.”

“Don’t be silly.” The bed sank under Caden’s weight and I felt him tugging at the covers. My fists curled around the folds, resisting, but he finally won out, yanking them clean from my grip. With my face exposed, I noticed his gaze briefly skim my jaw. I wondered what it looked like today. It didn’t hurt nearly as bad but maybe that was because it now had competition with an unruly hangover.

Did something die in here? Max murmured and noticed his black nose twitching. You can shower anytime, you know.

“Oh my God, this is getting worse by the second,” I cried, curling up like a possum, burying my face in my arms.

“What?”

“Max just told me I smell like a corpse …”

The bed began shaking, sending waves of nausea through me. Caden was laughing. “Here,” he said, “take this.”

Suspiciously, I peeked out over my arm to see Caden’s hand cradling two small blue pills. A glass of water sat on my bedside table. “They’ll help with the pain.”

“Just the words I want to hear right now.” Without thinking, I reached for the pills but then froze midair. His hand, his skin … my touch. Was today the day that I transformed? Was today the day I’d kill Caden?

Before I could pull back and ask Caden to place the pills on the counter, his hand lifted to stroke my cheek. Jerking back, I held a gasp, waiting …

Nothing.

I wouldn’t kill Caden today.

A lifetime of air released from my lungs. I greedily snatched the two pills out of his hand and threw them back. Caden sat quietly while I polished off the tall glass of water. I had never been so parched before in my life. “Why on earth does anyone do this to themselves more than once?”

Caden’s hand found its way to my knee and kneaded gently, sending electricity through my body.

“Where’s Bishop?” Can’t forget about my fake relationship! It would look bad to him if he were to walk in on this …

Caden offered a tight-lipped smile as he pulled his hand away, pulling my heart out of my chest with it. “Last-minute Christmas shopping.”

“Shopping? I thought stores were closed on Christmas Day …”

“He’ll be back soon, but he’s not here right now. Why don’t you go have a long, hot shower? You’ll feel better, I promise,” Caden said.

A shower sounded like a fantastic idea. If a giant werebeast thought I smelled bad, the hot guy sitting next to me couldn’t be overly impressed … I stumbled out of bed, on a mission to get to the en suite faster than the fastest person in the world. I may have made it too, had it not been for a still figure in my peripheral vision distracting me. A tall, dark man sitting in the corner.

Wraith.

He stopped me dead in my tracks. “What are you doing here?” I asked in a low, wary voice. How could I have forgotten about him?

“He’s been here all night,” Caden explained before Wraith could answer. “I tried getting rid of him,” he grimaced, as if remembering an unpleasant experience. “It didn’t work so well.”

I rubbed my nose, digging into my foggy memory. “Oh … that’s right …” Blurry patches of the prior night fluttered past. I tried losing Wraith several times. I don’t know if it was his stellar Evangeline tracking skills or that I was louder than a herd of buffalo in a church, but there was no getting rid of Wraith. He was like an annoying little brother. Everywhere I went, he was one step behind. Only he killed for me …

“Whatever …” I decided I was more interested in a hot shower than dealing with my grim reaper at that point. I turned back and continued toward the bathroom.