She fumbled with the hairbrush in her hand. “Maybe. I don’t know. I want what you have with Chase. I see the two of you together, and I know that I would give anything to have someone look at me like he looks at you. When you walk into the room, his entire face changes. I’ve never seen him like that. Truly happy.” Her eyes caught mine, and she captivated me with her words. “He has always been fiercely protective, but with you he takes that to an extreme. He loves you. Honest to God loves you. No teenage crush. You are it for him. There won’t be another girl to take your place. He might be the strongest of our kind, but you are the only person in this world and the underworld with the power to hurt him. I don’t know if I will ever find someone like you.”
I stared at my best friend and I vowed, right then and there, that I was going to find her the perfect guy—the yang to her yin. “Don’t settle, Lexi. If Hayden isn’t the one, we’ll find someone who is.”
“That’s easy for you to say; you’re shagging my cousin.”
I let out a small snort-laugh. “Not yet.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re shitting me.”
I leaned my cheek on my hand. “Wish I was. And trust me it is not without effort on my part. A lot of effort.”
She cracked a smile. “Poor Chase. You are surely going to be his downfall.”
The doorbell rang before I over thought that statement, and our night was about to begin. In strutted our designated driver, looking ready to command a fleet of soldiers. Her strawberry blonde hair was straight and silky under a military cap.
Emma.
“Hey, bitches.” Emma took one look at Lexi in her rhinestone jeans and boots. “Kickass cowgirl hat, Lex.” Then her eyes turned to me, looking at my ensemble. “I’ve got nothing.”
I shot her with daggers. “Shut up.” I’d witnessed Emma’s driving first hand, and I just hoped we all made it there in one piece, but she was the only one with a ride large enough to fit us all.
The crap I did for my friends.
Chapter 18
Luke Bryan was sexy. Luke Bryan was made for butt-hugging jeans. Luke Bryan was country through and through. So maybe there was something to country boys that I was missing out on. Geez, Spring Valley was warping me.
The music was loud and bodies were bumping. I’d never seen so many cowboy hats in my life. There was a good chance I would be deaf tomorrow morning, but the happiness in Lexi’s eyes was worth it.
It wasn’t long after we arrived at the stadium, safe and sound, that I felt the familiar tingles. They glazed along my skin, washing me with a sense of longing and security. He wasn’t far, yet he seemed too far. Knowing he was near was a temptation that was hard to ignore. I was having fun, but there was always a piece of me that missed him when we were apart. It took willpower to not sneak a quick visit to the parking lot where I knew he would be waiting.
Emma bumped me with her shoulder. “Did you use your mutated abilities on those two?” she asked, nodding to Brandy and Kailyn who were screaming their heads off with Lexi in front of us. Emma and I were much more reserved concert goers. We valued our vocal cords.
I brushed a piece of my hair behind my ear. It was making me a tad nervous taking about compulsion. “Nah, but I thought about using them to get us backstage.”
Her emerald eyes glinted off the cosmic lightshow coming from center stage. “Wow. You are capable of good ideas.”
I squinted at her.
“So when do you plan to resume the Deen school for butt kicking?”
Who would have thought that I actually missed my warped sessions with Emma the terminator? When I was training with her, I didn’t feel helpless and weak. She might be merciless and relentless, but it was what I needed—tough love. “I don’t know, but I have to find the a way.”
She nodded, eyes direct. “You need to keep your body in shape. Without the constant practice, your skills get rusty and sloppy—that means mistakes and mistakes cost lives.”
She was right. Mental sticky note: start running.
It was impossible to hold a conversation over the noise, so we stopped trying and enjoyed the show. Maybe it was all the excitement. Maybe it was something I ate, but after the show ended, we were on the scavenger hunt for Emma’s SUV and that was when I started to feel like poo. My belly started to gurgle and roll. One minute I was boiling and wiping the sweat from my brow, and the next I was teeth-chattering cold.
I gave up trying to help my friends find the car and just followed, hoping I didn’t fall in a pothole or trip on a rock. The horrible sick feeling overwhelmed the tingles, so I couldn’t sense how close or how far Chase was, but I wasn’t in a state to care. Right then I was concerned about losing my dinner. I sighed in relief when I was finally curled up in the back seat of Emma’s car. Then she started driving and my relief was cut short.
I might have made a groaning sound. I couldn’t tell if it had been in my head or if it had been out loud.
“Angel, your face looks like the color of avocados. Are you okay?” Lexi asked beside me.
I had my forehead pressed against the cool glass. Another bout of hot flashes rippled through me. “I think I might be sick.”
She pushed the hair off my forehead, pressing her palm to my clammy flesh. “You are definitely something. Crack a window. I don’t want you blowing chunks on these boots.”