Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)(98)

Veronica turned, startled to see me, and laughed.

“Oh, my gosh, this boy is too much.” She reached up to smack at his arm, but he grabbed her hand, and when they looked at each other... badda bing. Pink. A tinge of dark fuchsia swam up between their auras as they slowly pulled their hands apart. Jay and Veronica’s guardian angels regarded each other with a nod, pleased.

I wanted to cheer, but instead grabbed my water from the ledge, giving myself an excuse to look away. As I sipped, I saw Marna by a table, watching. She smiled at me, but it was more forced than usual. Then the smile fell away and she stiffened.

I couldn’t see them, but I knew they were there. Right behind me. The whisperers had arrived, bringing with them a feeling of spiders crawling up my back. I gathered my wits and strode away from my two friends and their sweet moment. I’d never felt more separate from them.

I knew what I had to do. I went straight to the bar.

As I walked through the crowd, I forced myself not to run, screaming, from the sensation that an ax murderer was stalking behind me. The urge to turn and gauge the danger was strong, but not as strong as my fear of what I’d actually see.

I got to the bar as a couple was walking away with their drinks. The bartender looked me over, pushing thick blond hair off his forehead. My heart still pounded with unhealthy force.

“What can I get you?” he asked, leaning on the bar top toward me.

I pondered the row of beer bottles on display and pointed to a light one. His eyes went to my wristband.

“You don’t look twenty-one,” he said in a friendly way, popping off the cap.

“Yeah, I know.” I accepted the cold bottle he offered. Then I fished a bill out of the small black purse flung across my body, resting against my hip.

I wondered whether the whisperers were watching.

“Thanks. No change,” I said, handing it over. He took it, but didn’t move away from me.

I felt like I should make small talk with the bartender. He also appeared to be thinking of something to say.

“He’s thinking of inviting you to his room.” A deathly chill zipped jaggedly up my spine at the sound of the scratchy voice in my head. Going with my first instinct, I tipped the bottle up and took a long drink of it. Yech. I didn’t like the taste of beer, but at least it didn’t burn like fire. The demon laughed in my ear and it seemed to echo though my skull.

“He likes the look of your lips on that drink. Do it again.”

Sick, sick, sick. I wanted to scream at it to get out of my head. I lifted my chin and drank, not stopping until the bottle was empty. The guy stared at me with a red flurry of lust surrounding him. He picked up the empty bottle and chuckled, tossing it in the wastebasket and pulling a new one from the cooler.

“That was beautiful,” he said. “Here. This one’s on me. I’m Trevor, by the way.”

I accepted it and managed not to recoil at the disgusting chatter of the demon in my ear, telling me to keep going as it sidled away from me, over to the bartender, and circled him.

Normally, two single people flirting was not a bad thing. But this demon wanted me to make Trevor stumble, to make him focus on the physical and ultimately suffer. It wanted the bartender to burn with lust. It wanted him to screw up on his job. The whisperer made something as innocent as flirting feel wrong. I knew it was time for me to say something to Trevor, but my eyes started to sting, threatening tears. Do not get emotional!

“You’ve got pretty eyes,” Trevor said. “Shiny.”

The demon chortled. “Romeo needs to work on his pickup lines. Boring.”

“Thanks, I’m Anna.” I needed to flirt. I lifted the corners of my mouth and moved some hair forward with a flip of my hand. “Are you working here all night?”

“Yep, until one. Then who knows? Should be plenty to do around town after that.”

“I’ll bet,” I said.

Now what? Should I, like, wink at him or something? Flirting with strangers might not have been my forte, but drinking definitely was, and he liked that. I took another long, cold gulp, and relaxed as the first beer hit my system and kicked things into gear. Oh, shoot, I forgot to get the time. I twisted my wrist until the silver watch was in place. Nine twenty.

A group of people came up to the bar next to me. The bartender took their orders, but he kept glancing back at me. I waved with my fingers in that coy way I’d seen girls do to Jay. I felt dumb, but he grinned and swiped his hair aside, sporting a steady stream of red in his aura.

I left the bar, wondering what the heck I was going to do now, and walked straight into the grisly shadows of two demon whisperers. Even though I couldn’t feel them, I shivered with revulsion as I rushed through the vapors.

The party was coming to life now, and the deejay was on the mic, making announcements and getting everyone riled with his electric excitement. I stopped amid the moving bodies, acutely aware of being followed. Over at the deejay booth, Jay scrambled around, organizing things for his boss. I couldn’t see Veronica anywhere.

I started to search for the other Neph, but caught myself. The last thing I wanted was to see Kaidan at work. I couldn’t afford to be distracted. The mere thought of Kai made me empty half my drink. It was too soon to finish the second one. I was already light-headed.

“Anna! There you are! Holy... What is that?” Veronica perched a hand on her hip and pointed at my beer. “And how the heck did you get a bracelet?”