“Yeah, I see it,” he replied grimly, his lips thinned, his eyes narrowing. They watched as the man stopped a waiter, took a handful of crackers from him and pushed him away. “What a real paragon of social etiquette we have here.”
Amber walked up behind her, a room key concealed in her hand. “I didn’t think you’d really have the guts to talk with him. I was just kidding, you know,” Amber hissed in her ear.
“Are you two together?” Ethan asked, clearly suspicious. His dark eyes turned toward Amber. It seemed that he was prepared to protect Brianna, even from another woman.
“Yes, we’re together. Ethan, this is Amber.” She turned to her friend. “Amber, meet Ethan.” She turned back to him. “I really hate to ask this of you, Ethan, but do you think you guys could distract that guy enough to keep him from noticing when we leave?”
Ethan grinned, completely disarming Amber, who fanned the napkin she carried in front of her flushed face. “We can keep him busy, can’t we?” He turned to his friends who were already nodding their heads. “For a price. How about your e-mail address?”
The brief flash of white in his tanned face reminded Brianna that he’d been tanned all over last year. She flushed with renewed embarrassment and wondered if he still looked the same. Smiling shyly, she stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. “Thanks! I don’t know how I could ever repay you.”
He grinned boyishly. “Your e-mail addresses would be payment enough. I don’t get to meet two beautiful witches every day, you know,” he said, apparently unable to keep his gaze off Amber.
Amber smiled and looked him up and down with undisguised admiration. She grinned mischievously and winked. “Right back at ya, stud.”
After they exchanged e-mail addresses, they turned toward the bathrooms.
“I’m starting to feel funny, Amber,” Brianna’s words had begun to slur and she dropped her empty cup onto the floor. It fell near her feet and rolled into the crowd. Brianna began to sway as if she could no longer stand on her own. She looked over at Ethan and waved drunkenly.
“Bye-bye, honey buns.” She turned to Amber, who struggled to keep her from lying down on the dance floor. “You know, his buns do look like honey. I remember. He’s tan aaaaall over,” she whispered loudly in Amber’s ear.
“What in the world did you drink, Bri?” Amber glanced at Ethan and blushed, then turned her attention to Brianna and shook her head in disbelief. “Boy, are you gonna feel this tomorrow.” She put her arm around Brianna’s waist and helped her through the crowd. They walked slowly, trying not to draw attention to themselves, while Ethan and his friends herded the strange man into a corner, keeping him occupied until they could make their escape.
“Hey look, Amber,” Brianna pointed, trying to pull her in the opposite direction. “There’s the guy who peed in the potted plant during the limbo contest.” She waved. “Hey, sweetie, you need to drink more water! Urine shouldn’t be that yell— Ow!”
Amber pinched her. Hard. She rolled her eyes. “I swear, Bri, if we get out of this alive, I’m gonna kill you for embarrassing me like this.” She grunted as Brianna stumbled and she caught the brunt of her weight, then steered her toward the ladies bathroom. “We have to go now, Bri. Do you think you can move a little faster? I don’t know how much time those guys are going to be able to buy us.” Amber shot a worried glance over her shoulder. “This might be the only chance we have of ditching this guy.”
Chapter Five
They rushed through the crowded bathroom exiting through the other side. Even if the man had gotten away from their new friends, he wouldn’t have had the time to rush around the long way. They made it into the elevator too quickly to have been followed. Even then, Amber pushed the button for every level hoping to confuse any pursuers. When the elevator doors finally reached the eighth floor, Amber half dragged, half-carried Brianna into their room. She sighed with relief when the door closed, locking them safely inside. Amber leaned against the door, panting as Brianna stumbled toward the bed.
“That man was scary! The energy surrounding him wasn’t good.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “His aura was a mixture of teeming grays and blacks, with no vibrant colors to give relief. He looked like evil personified.” Amber rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms. “We forgot our capes. I’ll call downstairs and have them held for us. We’ll get them from the coat check tomorrow.” She chewed her lip for a moment. “I don’t want to take the chance that he’ll be able to follow me up here if I go get them tonight.”
Brianna nodded and leaned over the side of the bed. “I shink I’m gonna be shick.” Brianna’s words slurred together drunkenly, then she lost consciousness.
Waking with a killer hangover, Brianna sat on the edge of her bed, holding her head in her hands. How many drinks did she have? She stood up gingerly, staggered to the bathroom and eyed the toilet, trying to suppress the queasy feeling in her stomach.
The hot shower helped. It made her feel a little better, but her head still felt stuffed with cotton balls instead of brains. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of the incessant buzzing. The strange noise almost sounded like someone whispering. Glancing up at her reflection in the mirror, she grimaced. She looked like hell! What in the world had come over her? She never had more than one or two drinks at a time. She ran a hand over her face and attempted to pry her eyes open, but they didn’t want to cooperate and stayed closed.
Squinting at the counter, she picked up her pentacle and hung it around her neck. The pendant had an unnatural glow and felt strange against her skin. Instead of wearing it, she wrapped it in toilet paper and crammed it into her purse. It had plainly picked up some sort of weird energy last night. She was going to have to cleanse it when she got home.
Brianna left the bathroom and shuffled to her overnight bag. Pulling her clean clothes from the bag, she dressed awkwardly. She blinked down at herself, then tried to focus her gaze on the other side of the dim room. Amber was sprawled diagonally across the other bed. It was a good thing they always got a double. She wouldn’t want to share a bed with that tireless body on the other side kicking and pushing all night.
Brianna threw a pillow at her. “Wake up, sleepyhead. It’s time to go home.”
Amber sat up and groaned, pushing the hair from her eyes. “It can’t be morning already, give me a few more hours.” She flopped back down on the bed, her pillow over her face to block the sliver of bright light that peeked through the closed drapes.
Brianna looked over her shoulder, checked the clock by the phone and sighed, exasperated. “It’s ten thirty now. We have to be out of the room by noon or we pay for another day.” She waited for a sign that Amber heard her. When her friend just laid there snoring, she walked to the bed, yanked the blankets off and threw them to the floor in a heap.
Amber shot out of the bed like a rocket, crossing her arms in an effort to keep warm. “It’s friggin’ cold in here, Bri. What’s the air set on? Sub zero?”
Brianna put her hands on her hips and gave Amber her sternest look. “I’ll turn it off if you’ll get in the shower, then get dressed. Or you could just get dressed for that matter. You can shower at home.” Her lips twitched, and she did her best not to smile. She absolutely refused to do perky before coffee.
Amber threw her a sleepy grin. “And miss being able to use all of the hot water I want? You’re kidding, right?” She stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the water.
Brianna turned off the air conditioner as she promised and made a quick trip down to the small restaurant next to the lobby, looking for something to eat while Amber showered. She passed a few people she’d met the night before, leaving their rooms. Nearly all of them looked hung over.
“It must have been one hell of a party. Too bad I can’t remember it.” She sighed, disappointed and pushed the down button for the elevator. Brianna leaned against the wall and wondered if she was even capable of making it down to the restaurant alone. The ding of the el
evator made her jump and she straightened.
She stepped through the doors and gave a wan smile to the elderly couple standing inside. A little old woman with silvery blue hair held her teacup poodle to her chest talking baby talk. The older man just looked at her and smiled. Brianna closed her eyes and inhaled the unmistakable scent of Paul Sabastian, the fragrance that would always remind her of her father.
Brianna swallowed the nausea that rose when the elevator started its downward trek. Leaning her head back, she rested it against the wall, gripped the handrail and squashed the absent thought that perhaps she’d left her stomach on the eighth floor.
When she entered the brightly-lit breakfast room, her first instinct was to run from the light. She cupped her hand over her eyes. “What? Am I some sort of vampire now?” She shook her head and wished for a pair of sunglasses. She slowly walked to the to-go counter and requested a menu.
“Might I suggest our double chocolate mocha latte?”
“Um…yes, I’ll take two of those. I would also like some doughnuts, hmmm…let me think. Two jelly filled, two custard filled and two eclairs.”
He rang-up her purchases. “Twenty-one ninety-six, please.”
Brianna swallowed thickly and paid the man. When what she really wanted to do was shout, Nearly twenty two dollars for a half dozen doughnuts and two coffees? She bit her tongue. The last thing she needed to do was draw attention.
Amber was just emerging from the steam-filled bathroom when she returned to their room. Apparently, as usual, her friend had felt guilty about even thinking of using all of the hot water she wanted. She always said she could never bring herself to stay in the shower more than fifteen minutes because it was a waste of water, and if she even thought about wasting any natural resource, she felt guilty.
“Ten more minutes, and I’ll be ready to go.” Amber said around the doughnut she’d just crammed into her mouth. She ran back into the bathroom, her hands full of clean clothes.
Brianna glanced down into the box. That donut was already Amber’s second, and she hadn’t even taken the time to dry off yet. She shook her head in disbelief. She’d never understand it. The woman was a tiny little thing, but she ate like a horse.
Sitting down with her breakfast, Brianna sipped her coffee and nibbled a doughnut. Looking around, she wondered who decorated hotel rooms. The green carpet was okay, she supposed, if you liked the olive drab puke look. The beds were standard for hotels, with the headboards screwed into the walls. The big flowered pattern on the bedspread was too much. It almost made her want to barf, which probably wouldn’t be a problem if she aimed it at the floor. She shook her head, that wouldn’t work. She didn’t remember eating an abundance of greens yesterday. Looking up, she sighed as Amber breezed out of the bathroom looking refreshed. How did she do that anyway? She scowled. “You make me sick! How do you do that?”
Amber grinned. “Do what?”
“How do you look so stinking perky when you stayed out half of the night?” Brianna’s head was still filled with cotton and the taste on her tongue made her wonder exactly what she’d eaten the night before. Wanting to get the horrible taste out of her mouth, she took a big bite of her doughnut and tried not to gag. She looked down at the box. One doughnut left. Amber had eaten four already? “How much did I drink last night?”
Amber sat at the desk, slipping her shoes on. She straightened in her chair, looking puzzled. “You only had one that I know of. Then you had something to eat and a few more cokes. I was going to ask you what you’d been drinking. Boy, were you drunk,” she said as she bent to fix her sock inside of her shoe. She eyed the box Brianna still held. “Are you gonna eat that?”
Brianna stood, passed her the box and gave the doughnut another ten seconds to exist.
Amber crammed the last doughnut into her mouth. It lasted about five seconds. She chased it down with the last of her coffee. “Do you remember the guy that kept following you around all night?”
“I remember he gave me the willies.” Brianna shuddered.
”I don’t think either one of us could enjoy ourselves because of him.” She pressed her lips together, clearly upset. “He gave me the creeps. The man was evil, I could feel it. It emanated from him.”
“Me, too.” Brianna frowned. “I wonder why he was even there. It was obvious he didn’t care about having a good time. He was too busy following us around.” She took a small sip from her cup.
“He followed you around, Bri. His kind won’t usually attend happy go lucky parties like the ball. They can’t stand all of the positive energy or something.” Amber was on her knees, looking under the bed.
Brianna’s brow wrinkled slightly with worry and fear filled her eyes. “You’re going to think this is weird, but I can’t remember last night. I remember the kooky Limbo contest. Now I know why everyone was staggering around last year when we got there.” She grinned. “It makes me glad I didn’t make the finalists. I don’t know if I could have slammed down a shot of liquor every time it was my turn.”
Amber fanned her face. “Yeah, I remember,” she giggled.
Grinning, Brianna was glad for that memory at least. “I remember the vampire with the oversized codpiece got it hung up on the limbo pole and staggered around with it, making suggestive remarks.” She squinted up at the ceiling and thought for a moment. “And I remember the guy dressed as Pan won. I think the skin-tone tights were a good move,” she chuckled, “a bit disappointing maybe, but still, a good move.”
Amber raised a brow, a teasing glint in her eyes. “You don’t remember talking with him? His name is Ethan by the way.”
“Talking with who, the weirdo?” Brianna shuddered at the thought. His whole manner had made her skin crawl. “I can’t imagine talking with someone like that. Did you slap me?”
“No, silly. You actually talked with Pan.”
“Get outta here! I did not.” Brianna was stunned, her mouth dropping open with shock.
Amber nodded, looking like she was enjoying this just a little too much. “Yes, you did. I went to get the room and told you to stay away from the creepy guy. When I came back, you were talking with him and his buddies. They even ran interference for us so we could slip out through the bathroom. They didn’t seem to like the way the other guy was following you around, either.” Her full lips thinned with anger. Her sparkling green eyes filled with contempt. “You know, that man could have slipped something into one of your drinks.” She looked thoughtful. “Though, I have no idea why he’d want to do such a thing. Or how he could have done it, for that matter.”
Brianna shot Amber a nervous glance. They both knew that sometimes the ball attracted people with strange ideas of what it was to be a witch. It was said those people had chosen the left-handed path. They didn’t follow the Wiccan Rede, which was to harm none. That there was a chance she could have fallen into the clutches of someone that perverted the craft in such a way was terrifying.
They gathered their things together in silence, left a generous tip for the maid, and closed the door behind them. Brianna was glad that she’d had the forethought to leave a change of clothes with Amber. She’d forgotten to pack some in her rush to get to the ball last year. She’d had to travel home wearing her costume. What looked great on Halloween always looked goofy the day after, especially if you were still wearing it in broad daylight.
She wondered briefly about her new neighbor, with his sun-bronzed face. He was classically handsome, as if some unknown Goddess had created him, chiseled his perfect features from smooth bronzed marble with her own divine hands. He was a perfect specimen to be a consort for a goddess or a member of the court of divine blood.
Brianna really hated the way she’d run off the night before. Her new neighbor had been nothing but kind, and she’d all but snubbed him. Maybe if she invited him over for dinner or something… She shook her head slightly. No, it was too soon for that. She didn’t want to seem pushy. Or worse yet, desperate.
Niklas’s handsome face f
lashed in her memory, the vivid recollection of him came unbidden. He left a burning impression on her mind. She frowned. It was strange how she could recall everything of the night before she arrived at the ball.
Brianna wondered if she had been drugged. The thought frightened her. She knew people could do things when stoned that they ordinarily wouldn’t do sober. Once, years ago, her best friend had disappeared at a party. Someone slipped a drug into her friend Karen’s drink, then bragged, laughing about how they’d easily dropped the drug in her soda. They thought it was hilarious.
Her eyes misted and she shuddered. A single tear trembled from her lash and fell to her cheek. She found Karen lying naked on her back. In a stupor, so stoned, she didn’t even recognize her best friend. When Brianna helped her dress, she found bruises and bite-marks all over her body. When they went to school the following Monday, everyone was whispering about Karen. How she’d serviced several different boys at the party. It didn’t matter that they gave her such a high dose of drugs she hadn’t known what she was doing. She hadn’t even known her own name. After that, no one wanted to talk with her, and she was branded the school slut. The thought that something similar could have happened to her nearly made Brianna ill. With her thoughts spinning, the ride back home was a short one.
Amber dropped Brianna at her door, so she wouldn’t have far to carry the costume and the few things she’d picked up the night before from vendors. She waved as Amber backed out of the driveway and left, tires squealing against the pavement as her car raced down the street.
Brianna wrinkled her nose at the acrid smell of burning rubber and unlocked her door. She greeted Killer warmly and let him out into the backyard. He started yapping almost immediately. What in the world had upset him now? She shrugged. No matter, the yard was fenced, and he couldn’t get out. She wasn’t going to worry about him until she made some coffee. She needed more of the strong drink than the one small cup she had gotten from the hotel—about a gallon more. She set a pot to brew and checked her mail. There was nothing but bills and junk. If they weren’t trying to sell her something, they were demanding payment.
Briannas Prophecy Page 7