Lexi, the sexy Grecian goddess, walked on the other side of me. Her hair tumbled in perfect pale ringlets down her neck. Her costume was a maxi-mini in glittering aquamarine, the same color of her eyes. She looked more Hollywood than horror.
“How the hell did you get Travis to let you leave the house wearing that?” Chase rumbled, getting his first real glance at his cousin. Travis and Chase more than often thought of Lexi as twelve-year-old girl. They could be domineering and fiercely protective to the point of suffocation. Sometimes the only course of action was blackmail.
Lexi’s smile was anything but sweet. “I threatened to snap one of his games in half.”
I gasped.
Chase looked like he was about make some form of overbearing and controlling suggestion. I butted in. “Give her some slack. It’s Halloween.”
“The day of the damned…I think I have a right to worry,” he retorted.
“Look, we don’t need a babysitter all the time. You’re stifling me. Us,” I corrected. He had me on edge. I don’t know why I said it, but I regretted it the second the words flew from my mouth. Everything between us was so intense now. I didn’t know how to deal with all these emotions I was having, and I knew taking it out on him wasn’t the answer.
I was going to have to apologize. Later.
“Yeah,” Lexi punctuated. “We are here to have fun, dance and drink. Not necessarily in that order,” she said, plucking a fruity wine drink from one of the coolers.
Chase scowled. He barely spared me another glance before he took off. I lost sight of him in the crowd and sighed heavily. The look on his face stuck in my mind. I tried to convince myself that I imagined the quick streak of hurt.
“Come on,” Lexi grinned, grabbing my arm. “Let’s mingle.”
I do not mingle. I don’t drink due to daddy issues that have completely sworn me off alcohol. And I most certainly do not dance. But it was kind of hard to say no to the strength of a half-demon pulling you along.
Kailyn and Brandy spotted us and waved wildly.
“What took you guys so long to get here?” Kailyn asked at our approach. She was dressed as Pocahontas. With her dark hair in braids and her olive complexion she fit the part perfectly.
“I promised my mom I would pass out candy while she was at work,” I informed her.
Brandy looked like she belonged in a harem. Her midriff was bared, and the material covering her legs couldn’t have gotten any sheerer. She looked like a genie in a bottle, but with a lot less class. “Well, you haven’t missed much, that’s for sure.”
Shocker. In a town this small, we would have already heard about it if something had happened. Everything moved slower than snot here, except for gossip. That spread faster than the flu. “The night is still young and in Spring Valley, you are more likely to see a UFO than something of real importance happening,” I said, unable to help myself. Poking fun of this town had become like second nature to me. Sort of like my love-hate relationship with Chase, though lately it seemed like we had come to some kind of truce, tonight excluded.
The world must have frozen over.
Brandy and Kailyn giggled.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Lexi agreed. “And trust me, alien sightings are a common occurrence here.”
No doubt, with the high demon activity they have running amuck. We chatted, but I sort of checked out of the conversation. Since I’d lost sight of him, Chase had been on my mind even though I tried to forget him. Scanning the crowd again, I looked for those silver eyes. Nothing. My heart sunk a little.
It’s your own fault, I reminded myself. You wanted space. Well, suddenly I felt like I had too much space.
Lexi took a long swig of her bottle. When she turned her bright eyes on me, I knew I wasn’t going to like what she had in mind. She grabbed a hold of my hand. “I love this song,” she declared in a voice much louder than necessary. Someone was feeling a little buzzed.
Before I had a chance to protest, I found myself in the middle of what felt like a mosh pit. Bodies were bumpin’ and grinding, in what I guess what was called dancing. Someone elbowed me in the ribs, my toes got trampled, and I hadn’t even started moving yet. Not that there was much room to really move. I was so out of my element.
If I survived tonight, I was going to strangle Lexi.
I lost track of how long we swayed our hips to the bass. Somewhere between Tim McGraw and Miranda Lambert, Lexi brought me back to earth. She was also the reason I was wedged like a pickle.
“He’s watching you,” Lexi sung, twirling in a circle, the crystals on her dress catching in the firelight.
I was pretty sure that wine cooler had gone straight to her head. She wasn’t making much sense. What a lightweight. “Who?” I asked, trying to concentrate on the movement of my feet.
She rolled her turquoise eyes. “Chase, dummy. Who else?”
My heart sped up in triple time. “Oh. Whatever. He is probably waiting for me to trip over my feet and fall on my ass.”
She looked over my shoulder. “Hmm. I don’t think so. He is looking right this way.”
“Lexi, stop,” I growled.