“Where else?” I said. “With Lover Boy.”
“We may as well get comfortable,” Vaughn said. “Want anything to drink?”
I shook my head.
We found an unoccupied sofa in the corner of the living room and sat next to each other silently for a few seconds.
His eyes locked on me. “You look beautiful tonight.”
“Thank you,” I said. The way he looked at me made fireworks light up my insides.
“That’s a nice dress. I like the way you look in pink,” Vaughn said. “You don’t wear that color very often.”
I smoothed down the fabric of my soft pink dress. “Clashes with my hair,” I said. “And the dress is one of Gertie’s hand-me-downs.” Gertie was Skyler’s stepmother and a former Vegas showgirl. Nothing Skyler owned would ever fit me. Skyler was delicate lines, and I was all curves, but inside, where it counted, we fit.
I changed the subject. “Do you have to work this weekend?”
A guy threw himself on the empty spot next to me and proceeded to pass out.
Vaughn put an arm around my shoulder. “Scoot in closer,” he said.
We talked about the latest gossip at his dad’s catering company where we both worked, about bands we liked, and about how we didn’t want summer to end. We talked about everything under the sun, except for one thing: why he and Ashley had broken up.
As much as I was enjoying Vaughn’s undivided attention, I wondered what was keeping Skyler.
“I’m going to send Skyler a text,” I finally said. “You have to work tomorrow.”
We waited, but she didn’t respond. “It’s getting late,” I told Vaughn. “We should look for her.”
“Will you be okay if we split up?” he asked. “We can cover more territory that way.” The house was huge with at least ten bedrooms and a casita out by the pool.
“I’ll take the upstairs,” I said with a nod. It wouldn’t surprise me if Travis and Skyler were holed up in one of the bedrooms.
There was still a line for the bathroom, but Skyler wasn’t in it, so I moved on. I searched every bedroom until I found a locked door. I knocked. “Sky, are you in there? It’s Tansy. We need to go.” Nobody answered, but I thought I heard male laughter followed by Skyler’s softer voice.
“Let me in!” I pounded on the door.
I was still pounding ferociously when it opened, and I stumbled into the room. Travis stood just inside the doorway. He’d lost the leather vest; now he wore his leather pants and not much else. Skyler was behind him, her dark-brown hair tousled.
As she’d promised Travis, she’d changed into a white sundress. She must have been carrying it in her bag.
One of the straps had fallen. A trail of something dark and sticky-looking ran down her front, and my stomach rolled as I realized what she’d probably been letting him do. There were three other guys in the dank-smelling room with them. Everything about this screamed get out.
My heart pounded in my chest.
“C’mon, Skyler, let’s go,” I begged. But she just stood there.
“I can’t find my necklace,” she said. She got down on her hands and knees.
“Sky, it’s okay,” I said. “I’ll let you wear mine, all right?”
She stopped crawling around. I helped her stand up before I removed mine and draped it around her neck. “See? All better.”
Travis frowned. “I thought I threw that out.”
“You threw it out? You had no right,” I said.
He ignored my confrontational words and leered at me instead. “Pretty pink pinup,” Travis said. “What can I do for you?”
It wasn’t the first time someone had compared me to something pink and white. I was as pale as moonlight, and my hair was strawberry blond. And tonight, I wore Gertie’s cast-off-but-glorious pink dress. But it still got on my nerves: my best friend’s boyfriend should not be handing me a line.
“Not a thing,” I said. “Just taking my friend home.”
He ignored me and kept talking. “I drank one of those in the fifties. She tasted like a strawberry milkshake. You look like a strawberry milkshake.”
“I’m cold like one, too,” I said, a note of warning in my voice. Travis was too close to me. He smelled wrong—they all did. I needed to help Skyler get the hell out of here.
“You smell like strawberries, too,” he said, inhaling deeply. “And vanilla.”
I moved past him, toward Skyler, and noticed her eyes were dilated. She didn’t even seem to recognize me.
“What did you give her?” I asked.
Nobody answered, but a couple of the other guys snickered.
“Sit down,” Travis said. Immediately, Skyler sat on the white leather sofa.
Even in the dim light, I could see brown stains on the furniture. I grimaced. “I don’t think so.”
He blinked his red-rimmed eyes, and his brow furrowed like I was the toughest answer to a crossword puzzle. Five-letter word for mouthy girl. Tansy.
“You…don’t think so?” he asked.
“Nope. I know what you’ve been doing,” I said. A million alarms went off in my head, all of them screaming at me to run.
“C’mon, Skyler. Let’s get out of here.”
“I said sit down.” Travis was louder this time. Something slithered in his eyes, cold and reptilian. “Sit down and shut up.”
I sensed it then—some sort of dark hypnosis, twisting tighter and tighter with every word he spoke. It was easier for me to resist than the music had been, but I’d been taken by surprise then, not expecting compulsion via emo music.
There were four of them and two of us. One and a half, really, since Skyler was barely conscious. I could try carrying her out, but I wasn’t sure she’d cooperate in the state she was in. So I sat and hoped she would sober up quickly, because I was starting to realize we were in a room with supernatural predators.
And we were outnumbered.
Chapter Two
The silence was oppressive. I was sitting in a dimly lit room with my out-of-it best friend and her latest bad decision. The other guys in the band didn’t say a word; they seemed to be waiting for something. It was clear that Travis was the leader of the group. He sat between Skyler and me, which meant I couldn’t see her expression.
Travis had one arm resting on the couch, his long fingers draped over Skyler’s shoulder. He tried to drape his other arm over me, but I shifted away.