Toxic

by Jus Accardo

  I grabbed her hand, resolving to make her crush feel like a rock star if at all possible, and started back toward the table. “Of course. Start talkin’. What’s his name? What’s he like?”

  Her cheeks flushed, and she beamed. Pointing to the door, she said, “Look. There he is.”

  I followed her gaze, and all the air left the room.

  She tugged me past our table and maneuvered us through the thickening crowd, eager to get across the room to her date. With each step, my legs threatened to give out.

  When we got to him, he was all smiles. A six-foot bundle of charm and hotness.

  A total illusion.

  “Dez, this is Able.”

  22

  “Able,” I repeated. There was a possibility everyone in the room could hear my pulse pounding. The temperature plummeted, but I was positive I was starting to sweat.

  His previously wild, longish hair was slicked back, and the black, chipping polish on his fingernails was gone. Erased without so much as a speck. There were no dark smudges under his eyes, and tonight, both irises were an unremarkable brown color. Contacts. The bastard had gone as far as getting contacts to lure her in. Kiernan was a sucker for guys with sweet brown eyes.

  “Nice to meet you, Dez.”

  His grin widened like he intended to swallow me whole as he reached for my hand. The memory of our encounter on the roof, and of the dream that followed, his cold lips skimming across my shoulder, sent a chill down my spine. I jerked away before he had a chance to touch me.

  He chuckled and winked at Kiernan. “Don’t worry. I’m not contagious—unless I wanna be, yeah?”

  I opened my mouth, but the words just wouldn’t come. He was watching, eyes daring me to say something.

  “Hey,” I managed, throat dry. This was beyond bold. How was he going to explain himself to Kiernan when Kale recognized—and attacked him? He couldn’t possibly think he’d get away with being here.

  I did a quick scan of the room. There was no sign of Able’s creepy other half. Dad couldn’t have sent him here to bring me in. He’d know better than that. Maybe this was just a scare tactic. A mind fuck. Definitely something Dad would do to keep us hopping.

  “Shall we?” Kiernan hooked her arm through Able’s and flashed me a brilliant smile. “We’re going to step out and get some…” She winked. “Fresh air.”

  What could I do? Stop her? That would cause a scene—and something told me that was what Able wanted. “Sounds like a plan.”

  They turned and wove through the crowd. She’d be safe. He wasn’t here for her. It was me they were after. And Kale. When I got back to the table, Kale and Jade were having an animated conversation about the importance of salad forks. She was smiling and nodding, but I knew for sure that she wasn’t paying attention. The giveaway? When I got close, she leaned in and put her arm around his shoulder with a smirk. She knew I was watching.

  “This song is perfect. Want to dance, Kale?” Jade asked, standing. She made a show of adjusting her gown, rearranging the slit so most of her leg showed, and tugging down the bodice so there was enough cleavage visible to block out the moon.

  He smiled at her, and my heart cracked just a little. To see him light up for someone other than me was almost more than I could take.

  But instead of swinging Jade around the dance floor, he turned to me, gloved hand extended and fingers wiggling several times. “We’ll stay close to the table.”

  Close to Jade, he meant.

  He didn’t wait for me to respond. Lacing his fingers with mine, he pulled me to the edge of the dance floor just as the band began the slow, sugary beats of the Rolling Stones’s “Wild Horses.” Wrapping one arm around my waist, he pulled me close.

  “You look beautiful.”

  I smiled. Possibly even blushed. Standing here with him was almost enough to forget about Able being outside with Kiernan. “You said that already.”

  He shrugged. “It was worth repeating.” Brushing a stray hair from my eyes, he said, “You changed your hair.”

  Standing so close to him, swaying on my uncomfortably high heels, was the perfect time. He’d just given me a golden opening to tell him about my gift and its wonkiness with the hair comment, but something stopped me. “Yeah. I know you said you liked the brown, but—”

  “I like it.” He smiled. Leaning in, he placed the softest of kisses across my forehead. In my ear, he whispered, “I miss you.”

  When he pulled back, all I could focus on were his eyes. Icy blue beams of intense zapping my heart into oblivion. “I’m right here,” I said.

  With his other hand, he tilted my face up. “Are you?”

  “Of course.” I almost added, And so is Jade, but didn’t. I could feel her eyes on me. If looks could kill, I’d be twelve feet under with a condo over my grave.

  A few feet away, an elderly couple danced, the man spinning his wife out, then dipping her dramatically. It reminded me of the first time Kale and I danced.

  He started to lean close again but hesitated. “I feel like…”

  I held my breath, hoping for—something. I didn’t know what. Maybe I wanted Able to walk in. It could have been that I wanted Kale to flat out call my bluff. Really, the short of it was, I wanted to be forced into telling him the truth. Deep in my gut, I knew that was the only way I’d get it out. “Feel like what?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. Something is off. You’re distracted.”

  I sighed. Of course I was. My new BFF was currently in the parking lot, possibly sucking serious face with a killer, I was months away from losing my shit and going bonzo, oh, and there was that pesky little poison working its way through my system—all while keeping it to myself to protect the ones I loved.

  Distracted? It was a miracle I hadn’t had a coronary yet. If I did somehow manage to survive, I’d be gray by the time I was twenty. The song faded, then melded seamlessly into the next, this one a smidge faster.

  I tightened my grip on Kale and took a deep breath. “Things are kinda screwed up right now.”

  “There’s something you aren’t telling me.”

  Yes!

  No.

  Crap. “No, there isn’t.”

  “There is,” he insisted, leading us to the right a bit. We’d gotten too far from the table and drifted onto the dance floor. “You’re so far away from me all the time. Evasive. I feel like I can’t find you.”

  “Maybe if Jade would get out of the way, you could.” I regretted my words immediately. Way to sound like a five-year-old.

  “She’s trying to help.”

  “Herself, maybe,” I said under my breath.

  “You should give her a chance. She’s nice. I like her. She’s my—friend.”

  My mouth dropped open, and I had to consciously force myself not to let go and step away. I couldn’t help it. “Your friend? Kale, she doesn’t want to be your friend. She wants more than that.”

  “You still think I’ll want her because I can touch her.”

  “She can be something I can’t right now—a lifeline to a normal life—and you’re only human.” I glanced out over the dance floor. It was full of couples, embraced and entranced by each other, uninhibited, and it made me jealous.

  His expression hardened. “Only human? Is that what you think? That my feelings for you can be overturned by something as simple as physical contact?”

  There was really no way for me to answer without sounding like a complete bitch. In some ways that was exactly what I thought. I hadn’t had much luck in the love department. Alex, my dad—I’d always gotten shafted.

  And then I’d met Kale. I fell—hard. But in the deepest recesses of my mind, I waited for the inevitable. For that point where he realized I wasn’t what he wanted or wasn’t good enough. I would go from being Ms. Right Always to Ms. Right at the Time.

  He pulled me just a bit closer, eyes on mine, as we swayed to the music. “You are my lifeline. My normal life.”

  “So you’re saying you�
�re not crushing hard on the fact you can paw people without killing them while she’s around?”

  His eyebrows went up.

  I sighed. “You like being able to touch people, right?”

  He tore his gaze from mine and surveyed the room full of people with a look of wonder. This was really his first time out in a crowd when he didn’t have to worry about accidentally hurting someone. “Oh. Yes, I do.” When he turned back, he was smiling. “But I won’t need her for that. I’m going to learn to control it.”

  “Have you considered the possibility that you won’t?”

  “Of course not.” He stopped swaying as the song faded, the DJ announcing an anniversary, and pulled me to the side. “You don’t believe I can do it?”

  It wasn’t so much the look on his face—a you just ran over my puppy, then stole all my candy expression—as the tone of his voice. Hurt. Rejected. I was making it sound like I had no faith in him, and that wasn’t it. I had more faith in Kale than I did any other person on earth. What I lacked faith in was nature. The universe. Maybe there just wasn’t a way to fix this. Deep down, I kept wondering even if he did learn control, would the universe let me back in? I’d gambled for his life and won, but there had to be a price to pay. There was always a price.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “If anyone can do this, it’s you. This whole thing just has me tied in knots.”

  He took my hand and spun me around slowly as the music started again. “Knots?”

  “It’s an expression. Confused. I’m just confused.” I made a decision. This thing with Able was starting to really scare me. I’d been convinced it was nothing more than a ruse to force me in the direction Dad wanted, but after talking to Daun, I wasn’t as confident. I needed Kale on my side. By my side. “Look, this has gotten really compli—”

  “My turn,” a voice said from behind us. Jade was standing there looking gorgeous in her barely there emerald dress. “It’s impolite to let a girl sit alone at a table. I believe you owe me a dance.”

  Kale looked from Jade to me. I could have said no. Kept him all to myself and pushed forward with the damn confession. That would have been the intelligent thing to do. But it would also make it seem like I felt threatened by her. And I didn’t.

  Not really.

  Plus I still had Able to deal with. The longer he stayed out there with Kiernan, the more nervous I got. “It’s fine,” I said with a forced smile. “I need a drink, anyway.”

  Kale nodded and took her hand, and my stomach turned just a little. A part of me was hoping he’d refuse and stay with me on his own, but that wasn’t fair. I told him I didn’t mind. I’d lied. That wasn’t something Kale really understood, so how could I blame him?

  I watched them float onto the dance floor, weaving farther out than we’d dared go. Why should they stick to the edge? With Jade wrapped around him like a boa constrictor, everyone was fairly safe.

  Beyond them, I saw several familiar faces. Barge was dancing close to a girl his own age, a slight brunette in a purple cocktail dress and kitten heels. They looked cozy. Every once in a while she’d giggle, and he’d light up like the sun. A few feet away, Panda was there with Sira, who seemed uncomfortable with the whole situation. I’d bet Ginger had tapped her to chaperone. Panda, being the gentleman, must have asked her to dance. All in all, the whole scene screamed of blah. I was about to turn to the door—I needed to check on Kiernan—but someone tapped me on the shoulder.

  “I can cut in now, yeah?”

  I sucked in a deep breath and looked around, frantic. Kale was with Jade, swaying to the music on the farthest edge of the dance floor. I could barely make them out through the crowd. “Where’s Kiernan?”

  Able flashed me a wicked grin. “She ran to the bathroom, then was heading out to show Aubrey a really good time in the backseat of my car.”

  “You’re a sick shit.”

  He took my hand and dragged me onto the dance floor. “Aww. You’re too sweet.”

  His skin was cold and clammy. How the hell had Kiernan not noticed its wrongness? I fell in step with the music, determined to keep it together. Able wanted me to make a scene and attract attention. I refused to give him that.

  “So who’s that with your boy?”

  I didn’t answer, following his gaze to where Kale and Jade were dancing dangerously close. Kale kept glancing over his shoulder, searching for me, I assumed, while she tried to keep his undivided attention.

  “They seem pretty cozy.”

  Poking. Able was just poking me to get a reaction. Two could play that game. “Cut the crap. I know about Jade—I’m not an idiot. She’s keeping him on that end so he can’t see you.”

  He chuckled. “You do have it all figured out, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I snapped. “Wanna know what else I know? You’re gonna leave Kiernan alone after tonight.”

  “Demanding little thing, yeah?” He chuckled and spun me around. “How ’bout you leave with me, and I’ll never talk to Kiernan again? Then you can shield your friend from my obvious bad influence, and I can let my brother heal you so you don’t die an agonizing, wasteful death. Everybody wins, yeah?”

  “What about Kale?”

  “Not worried about him. Soon as you’re tucked away, Cross knows he’ll come running.” He paused, tilting his head to the right. With a grin, he nodded across the room.

  The crowd parted slightly. Jade was pressed up against Kale with both arms wrapped around his neck. Their faces were so close that if you saw them from a certain angle, it might have looked like they were kissing.

  “Then again, maybe you’re not the beginning and end of his universe anymore, yeah?”

  Suddenly I changed my mind about wanting Kale to see him. Look. Turn this way. But the song came to an end, and Jade led him off the dance floor and back to the table. The waitress was just setting down our drinks. He followed her without so much as a glance backward. Apparently I’d been forgotten. With a sick lump in my throat, I watched as they each took a glass, weaving back through the crowd and to the door.

  “I’m not going with you,” I told Able.

  “Your dad explained it, yeah? I was standing right there. You know what’s going to happen?” He trailed his finger down my neck and nudged aside the shoulder of my dress. “Wow. Hit you hard, didn’t I? You don’t have much time, girly. Starting to feel it, yeah? Random chills. Flashes of heat. Dull, aching pain that increases until your eyes won’t stop watering? He left out a few things. Have the hallucinations started yet?”

  “If you don’t remove your hand, I’d going to rip it off.” I kept my voice even, but the truth was, his fingers on my bare skin turned my stomach. And his words? Even worse. He was scaring the crap out of me. Hallucinations?

  “I’ll take it from here,” a voice said.

  Able released my hand and stepped away. “No-number-Alex. How ya doin’, man?”

  Alex might not be my first choice for a white knight, but at that moment, I didn’t give a damn. I would have taken Sal, the piss-soaked homeless dude on the corner of Fifth and Mesher.

  “I’ve overstayed my welcome, yeah? No problem.” Able turned to Alex and winked. “Ask her if the pain’s set in yet.” Giving me a long once-over, he sighed. Before I could move away, he clasped a hand down on my left shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze. Involuntary tears stung the corners of my eyes. “See you real soon, girly.”

  Once Able was out of sight, I turned back to Alex. The room erupted in applause as a live band began setting up in the corner. “What are you doing here? You don’t live at the hotel.”

  “What am I doing here? What was he doing here?” He narrowed his eyes. “Ya know, this is becoming an annoying trend, Dez. I save your ass, and you act like a bitch.”

  “Did I look like I was in mortal danger? We were just talking.”

  “He was at your house waiting for you, and he works for Denazen. Oh, yeah, and he was driving the van from hell—or did you forget? He wasn’t here hoping for a hookup.�
�

  “He’s actually Kiernan’s date.”

  “Her—”

  “She doesn’t have a clue who he is.”

  The singer, a willowy girl in a stunning black cocktail dress, announced they’d be taking requests for the next hour, then stepped back onto the stage as the guitarist struck the first chords of a new song.

  “You have to tell her!” Alex snapped over the music. “You’re putting her in danger by not saying anything.” He glanced around the room, eyes falling on the table. “And what does Freak Boy say? How come he hasn’t—”

  “Kale hasn’t seen him. Someone is keeping him conveniently busy.”

  Fred the labret bead wobbled on Alex’s chin. “Kiernan is your friend! Since when do you bail on your friends, Dez?”

  “Dad’s not interested in her at the moment,” I snapped back. Honestly, though, Alex was one hundred and fifty percent right. Not letting Kiernan know about Able was dangerous. Dad might be focusing on me, but if an opportunity to snag a useful Six came up, he wouldn’t pass it by. I’d need to either come clean or think of a way to tell her to stay away from him.

  “Just tell her the damn truth,” Alex growled.

  He moved a step back, never taking his eyes off me. I looked away—probably the worst thing I could have done. Unfortunately, Alex knew me too well. He’d been able to lie to me, but I’d never been able to slip much past him.

  “You’re hiding something,” he said. “What is the—” His eyes went wide.

  I should have moved. Backed out of his reach. Turned and ran like hell through the crowd and for the door. But I couldn’t. His expression kept me rooted. I followed his gaze to my shoulder. The sleeve of my dress was just slightly out of place from where Able’s fingers had been.

  Before I could move my slow ass out of the way, Alex reached out and brushed the fabric further to the side. It shouldn’t have been an issue. When I’d left the hotel, the angry red blotch and spiderweb black veins only came to the tip of my collarbone. But the poison was spreading.