Chapter 18
Jade
Sleep didn’t come to me as I waited for Tracey to get back that night. I had danced my feet off on that dance floor with Mav and Archer. Gabriel and Rafe looked like they were merely playing the role of bodyguards. It was extremely annoying and I hoped with every song that came on that Rafe would get up to dance with me. He stayed rooted in the booth. Knox had simply drowned himself in the dumpster nachos and frozen margaritas for the rest of the night. On the way home I heard him mutter something about needing wolfsbane to get through an aching in his chest. Mav smacked him on the back and they both scowled at each other.
I left the lamp on beside the couch as I thumbed through one of the books I had packed. I had once loved reading but between school and getting kidnapped, I couldn’t find much to enjoy these days. The book was good but my mind was somewhere else. It was with Tracey wherever she was getting her booty call. We were in the middle of a war brewing. Why had I been so accepting of her getting laid? I should have been more careful. I should have thought it all through some more. But here I was waiting up till two in the morning, worried sick about her.
Rafe was still awake, though I couldn’t see him through the windows, I knew he could still see me. I didn’t know how I knew but I did. I wondered if it was a part of our mate bond. This hyperawareness to each other. I scrunched my body down lower on the couch and sighed as my eyes fought to stay open.
A noise made me jerk awake. I sat up straight on the couch and blinked in the darkness. The lamp had been turned off at some point. I wondered if Rafe had done it. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and focused on Tracey in the doorway. The sun hadn’t come up yet but it was starting too. The first thing I zeroed in on was the hickey on her neck.
I rubbed my eyes again. It definitely wasn’t a hickey. There were two puncture wounds on her neck still weeping blood. Her cheeks stained red. “Hi.”
“Glad to see you’re still alive,” I got up from the couch and stumbled to the bedroom. I didn’t bother with saying anything else or even looking at her again as I heard her stumble behind me. I was too tired to care about anything else. The only thing that mattered was that she was safe.
I should have mentally prepared myself when Tracey came through the door that previous night. I should have known better than to expect everything to go back to normal. I was eating a piece of toast the next morning when I heard the glass shatter next door.
Even though they ached, I jumped to my feet and ran to the balcony to see what was happening. I couldn’t hear what was being said, even with Nalia’s help but I could see Rafe and Knox going head to head. His face was beet red as Rafe held his hands up. I could see the words on his lips.I am not your enemy here.
Knox’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he shook his head. His hair was down around his shoulders and his face looked pained. I had never seen him this way. I had never seen him so shaken up or frazzled before. What had broken?
Rafe shook his head and put his hands on his friend’s shoulders. I couldn’t read his lips this time. Knox nodded his head and his shoulders slumped forward. Rafe’s eyes met mine and he shook his head. I retreated back into the house. Tracey was still sleeping soundly in the other room and I doubted she would be getting up anytime soon. She hadn’t slept a wink before she had stumbled through the doors. I had seen it on her face before I turned away from her.
The sand was hotter under my feet than it had been any other day. I dragged a fold-up chair with me to the water and set it down where I would get some water on me but not be submerged. It took Rafe a total of five minutes before he was sitting down next to me in the surf.
I peered at him through my big sunglasses. “What happened?”
“It’s not my place to talk about,” he muttered.
“Is Knox okay?”
“He waited up for Tracey last night to make sure she made it back safely. He smelled her blood on the air.” He leaned back and let the sun hit his face. There was too much tension in his body. This trip was supposed to relax us, not make everything worse.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Maybe she bled after they… ya know?” The lie slipped from my lips and I could even smell it in the air. His eyes flicked to mine as he shook his head. At least there would never be lies between us. I closed my eyes and leaned back. A sigh escaped my lips. What could I do?
“You saw her last night when she came in, you tell me what blood you smelled. There is a distinct smell difference. One is mingled with sex and the other is mingled with the scent of venom.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m trying to help all of this along the best I can,” I shrugged. “Knox is hot then he’s cold. Tracey is always angry at him and all he does is annoy her and continue to push him away. I don’t know how the hell to navigate this. I just want them to get along.”
“Then maybe the only way for that to happen is for me to leave,” Tracey’s voice shook behind us. I whipped around and stood from the chair on trembling legs. The blisters on my feet had healed overnight but they were still aching.
“Why would you say such a thing?” I frowned.
“I don’t know what I’m doing either,” Her voice broke. The wound on her neck didn’t look good and her golden skin was ashen. Dark circles were stark under her light eyes. “Last night was a mistake.” She hiccuped before a sob tore through her.
She tipped forward then fell to the sand on her knees. I caught her before the rest of her body could tumble forward. Rafe looked down at her with shock. I tilted her head up. She hadn’t changed out of her clothes from the night before. Now in the light of day, I could see the bright spots of blood on her clothes. She didn’t smell like sex. She didn’t smell like pleasure at all. She smelled like death.
