Seth rolled his eyes and lowered the Glock. His friends eyed him while he staggered to his car and picked up another bottle of beer.
Ky peeked into the Jaguar’s back seat and snatched up a bottle for himself. “And it appears he five-fingered two six packs of beer.” He bounded forward, eyeing the gun. “Hey, man, let me have a few shots.”
Without a word, Seth held out the weapon to Ky. Ky grinned, grasping the butt of the gun with his large, clumsy fingers. Seth turned to Q while Ky lined up before the fence.
“Did you bring the weed?”
Q took out a prescription bottle from his pocket and tossed it to Seth. “Premium stuff.”
“Perfect. Just what the doctor ordered,” Seth mocked. “You can pull out a hundred or so from the stash. It’s under the driver’s seat, as always.”
“It’s on the house. By the looks of it, you need it.” Q watched Ky shoot the fourth bottle. “How many beers have you had anyway?”
Seth pulled out a joint and stuck it between his teeth. “What’s it to you?”
“How many beers, man?”
He retrieved the lighter from his car, lit the joint, and jerked his head to the bottles just as Ky shot the last one. Q glanced at the shards on the ground and nodded.
“I see. Real brain-cell-killer kick you’re on. If you’re not careful, you might blackout the entire day.”
Seth inhaled deeply before responding. “Good. I want to blackout. I want to forget today. Hell, I want to forget the entire weekend ever happened. Let me forget!”
Q sidestepped, his eyes studying Seth closely. “I’ve never seen you lose control like this, man. Ky, yes, but you . . . Look, I understand the whole Mandy thing—”
“THIS IS NOT ABOUT MANDY!”
“Then what the hell is this about?”
Seth shut his mouth, pulled the joint from his lips, and took a gulp of beer. Q kicked the ground.
“I noticed Natti wasn’t in gym today.”
“Yeah!” Ky called. “I got stuck with four eyes as a partner. What’s the deal?”
Seth scowled. Q took a few easy steps forward before continuing, “Did you do it? Did you finally seduce her?”
The question tore at his heart, a flickering flame withered a bit. Seth lowered his head and leaned on the hood of his car. He kept his focus on the silver Audi and blood red Hummer parked behind his Jaguar. He mindlessly watched a tumbleweed roll across the street, letting it distract him. The heavy beats blaring from his stereo pounded out waves that pulsed with his entire body. He was getting lost in the haze of his intoxication.
“You want to talk about it?” Q asked.
Seth swirled his beer. “No thanks. Last I checked you were failing Psychology.”
“You don’t need a psychology degree to help. Sometimes you just need a logical mind. Come on, dude. What happened?”
Seth took in another deep hit from the joint before tossing it to the ground. His lips just moved while thoughts of the day trickled into his brain. “I tried to reform Natti’s thoughts.”
“Dude!” Ky exclaimed. “Did it work?”
His anger and fury boiled out, making his skin burn. “Do you see her by my side?” Seth snapped. “Do you see her holding onto my arm as if it were her only anchor to this world? Do you see her . . . her beautiful eyes staring at me, lost and confused? Her pupils the size of two small full moons? NO, KY! IT DIDN’T WORK!”
Seth turned and kicked his car’s tire before he leaned his hands on the hood.
“So what happened?” Q pressed.
“I nearly killed her, that’s what.” Seth took in a calming breath. “I must have put too much force into my charm. One minute she’s staring into my eyes, and the next thing I know she’s collapsing into my arms, unconscious.”
“Not surprising considering you haven’t even mastered Inception yet. Where is she now?”
“Home, I guess. I took her to the nurse’s office.”
Seth noticed Q gulped beside him. “Does she remember?”
“She doesn’t remember anything about the event. Otherwise, the nurse said her memory is intact.”
Q let out a sigh of relief. “Dude, why didn’t you take her to the temple? The hem-netjer could have fixed the matter.”
“Great idea!” Seth snarled with sarcasm. “Let my father steal yet another girl that is rightfully mine! Then he can turn her into one of his concubines for him and his wab priests to play with! Or possibly marry her off to another Son of Set or trade her in the black market or sacrifice her to Set himself!”
“It would have been safer. If she had remembered—”
“But she didn’t! And I’m tired of my father taking everything away from me!”
Q nodded. “So this was all about marking your territory? To lay claim to what is rightfully yours?”
Seth stared at the sand gathering at his feet.
“If you did get through and suppressed her memory, what were you going to do with her?” Q asked. “You would have to bring her down to the temple anyway.”