Chapter 20
chapter
twenty
“No,” Alexander said flatly.
The others stared at him with such exaggerated sadness that Alexander was tempted to turn around and walk out. But Tobias had their motel room key, and he didn’t feel like looking for something to pick the lock.
The karaoke house loomed behind them, lit by flickering neon.
It was wedged between a laundromat and an Italian restaurant that, according to the sign plastered over the doors, had been closed down due to health code violations.
The karaoke house was called Drinkz And Singz, and offered group rooms for a very reasonable price.
Probably because it was based in a dying town several hours away from any cities.
“Come on,” Honey whined, grabbing his hands. “It’s our last night before the city!”
Alexander tugged out of her grip. “It doesn’t have to be.”
“We’re not driving through the night again,” Tobias drawled, leaning against a lamppost with such casual grace Alexander wanted to yell at him for it.
“Sadie doesn’t need to sleep! It was a sensible use of our time. We shouldn’t even stop tonight. We could be back in the city by tomorrow morning.”
“I’m not sleeping in the passenger’s seat again,” Honey said. “Honestly, you owe me for making me do that. Come and do karaoke and all is forgiven!”
Alexander seriously considered wrestling the motel room key from Tobias.
Or stealing a bobby pin from Honey so he could pick the lock.
Or he could sleep in Steve-van’s backseat.
He’d never done karaoke before, and the idea filled him with deep dread.
Karaoke was like dancing: fun in movies, devastating in real life.
Whenever Alexander tried something to feel like those movie characters felt, it usually backfired.
He was not the sort of person those things happened to.
Fun didn’t come easily. He was too uptight and rigid and suspicious to give himself over to having fun with people.
With the brief and utterly baffling exception of the three people in front of him.
The girls had dragged him into fun, once upon a time. They’d only done it to eventually betray him, but it still counted. On the rare occasion he let himself think about it, that night in a motel screaming ‘Spring break!’ had been his best night since Samson died.
And Tobias. Beautiful, messy, irritating Tobias who dragged things out of Alexander he didn’t know existed. Who constantly made Alexander fight a blush and bite back a smile. Who was changing Alexander in ways he didn’t dare think about, in case he found that he could never go back to normal.
Alexander sighed, crossing his arms tightly over the cleanest sweater they had found in a thrift store the day before.
“Fine,” he said. “But just an hour.”
Honey whooped. Tobias whooped with her. Then, because they were both that kind of person, they high-fived. It quickly morphed into a complicated handshake that involved hand gestures from animes they both enjoyed in their youth.
Alexander turned his gaze to the most sensible person in the group besides him. Sadie Greer was standing awkwardly, looking tired and only vaguely amused by her girlfriend’s antics. She didn’t always join in on said antics. Alexander appreciated that about her.
Sadie still looked tired when they sat down on a battered couch in the karaoke room.
Alexander watched her warily, his hands tight around the beer Tobias had paid for.
Honey and Tobias were on the other side of the room figuring out how to cue up songs on the touchscreen TV. They were excited and bickering, only pausing to sip their cheap beers. Unlike Sadie, who was beerless and looked like she wanted to dissolve into the couch.
“If I go to the bathroom,” Alexander said, “will you lock me in and run away to eat someone?”
Sadie’s face twisted. She often looked regretful when Alexander brought up their last ‘road trip,’ unlike Honey, who always looked like she was stopping herself from rolling her eyes.
“I can control myself better now,” she said. “I promise.”
“Oh, you promise. In that case, I should have left my knife in the motel room.” Alexander put his beer on the table in front of them and took out his jawbone knife. He flipped it quickly and precisely.
“That’s cool,” Sadie said mildly.
Alexander narrowed his eyes. “You don’t think it’s cool.”
“I think it’s…vibey,” Sadie said, scrunching her face on the last word. She did not seem the type to say it. “Honey will think it’s cool. She loves weird shit.”
“I know. She spent forty-five minutes showing me moths.” Alexander paused, catching his knife. “Wait, are you calling my knife weird? It’s not weird. This is a proud hunter heirloom.”
“Oh,” Sadie said. She paused for a long time, as if waiting for him to realize something. Then, when he didn’t, she said a very curt: “Cool.”
A sharp squeal came from the other side of the room. Honey rushed over, hands clasped under her chin. “Knife,” she crowed. “It’s got teeth! Can I see?”
Alexander hesitated. He had drunk about a third of the beer while they waited for Honey to transfer money from her bank accounts via a phone app, and he was feeling it. But he wasn’t drunk enough to hand his knife over. It was the most important weapon he owned.
“You can touch it,” he said.
He held it out. Honey ran her fingers over the curved bone, the sanded-down teeth, the silver bolt that made up the hinge.
She was still smiling, but in a different way than she did with the moth.
There was fascination, but no delight. Her face made him think of himself, age seven, dusting his parents’ monster skull collection.
He’d picked up a vampire skull and had been momentarily struck by how identical it was to the human skull his cousin Elijah showed him when he came over at Christmas.
It made him feel guilty and strange. Something he’d never felt about his jawbone knife until right now.
“That’s enough,” he said, pulling it away.
Honey pouted. “That was like five seconds! Come on, give me another feel.”
An upbeat pop song beat burst over the speakers.
Tobias draped a microphone hanging from a thick wire over his shoulder. “I got it working! Who wants to go first?”
All eyes turned to Alexander.
“No,” he said.
Honey booed. She even got Sadie to join in, who promptly gave him a double thumbs-down.
“Nobody’s going to judge you, Alex,” Honey said. “Get that arrow quiver out of your ass and let yourself have fun for five seconds, alright?”
“You can do whatever you want,” Sadie added.
Alexander glared at her. What was with everybody and this ‘want’ business? People didn’t go around agonizing over what they wanted. They just…got on with their lives.
He opened his mouth to refuse a second time. Then his gaze caught on Tobias, who was holding out the microphone hopefully.
Alexander sighed. “One song.”
Everybody cheered. It was oddly uplifting. Alexander had to stop himself from smiling.
“Beer,” Honey reminded him as he stood.
“Right.” He took from the table, giving it a wary glance. It was probably best to stay clear-headed tonight. He was consorting with monsters, after all.
Tobias slung an arm around his shoulder and shook him gently as the beat led up to the first lyrics. “You ready? They score this shit. Let’s show the girls how it’s done.”
He drank the last of his beer in two long swallows. Then he grabbed Alexander’s and drank the rest of that, resurfacing with a belch that for some ridiculous reason charmed Alexander rather than disgusted him.
Tobias held out the empty bottles. “Want another one after this?”
Alexander tore his gaze away from Tobias’s wet mouth and nodded.
What could another beer hurt?
Forty minutes and many songs later, Alexander and Tobias were still in the lead. It was intoxicating. Almost as much as the beer, which was making Alexander forget why he avoided alcohol.
“I should’ve known you were competitive,” Tobias said, laughing as Alexander celebrated their most recent win. They were sitting together on the couch, Tobias’s arm over Alexander’s shoulder.
“Shit,” Tobias continued, his mouth distractingly close. “I really should’ve known Honey was competitive.”
Alexander didn’t bother looking at Honey, who was bent over the TV arguing with Sadie about which song would suit their combined vocals and whether the karaoke establishment would have anime openings. It was the most serious he’d ever seen Honey look.
Tobias stroked Alexander’s neck with his thumb. It was heavenly. Alexander already missed it, thinking of all the Tobias-less years stretching ahead of him after they parted ways. But it was a distant sadness, easily ignored with the alcohol thrumming through him.
Tobias leaned in, skimming Alexander’s ear with his scarred lips. “I’m really proud of you, man.”
Alexander tried to scoff. It came out embarrassing and breathy, but Tobias seemed to understand the intent.
“I am,” he insisted, tugging Alexander’s hair. “You washed the dye out, but you still tried it. Now look at you, drunkenly karaokeing in some dive bar. Who knows what you’re gonna do next week?”
“Kill an alpha,” Alexander replied, automatic.
Tobias’s grin faltered. Alexander felt it in his stomach, souring the beer. Never mind the weak voice reminding him that he should have never wanted to make Tobias smile in the first place. Sitting in that dark room with Tobias’s thumb on his neck, he wanted a hundred impossible things and more.
Tobias stood, dropping his arm from Alexander’s shoulders. “I think I’m due for another beer. Want one?”
Alexander checked the table. His beer was half empty, dangerously close to falling off the ledge.
“No thank you,” he said.
Tobias left the karaoke room. Alexander picked up his beer, frowning at himself for being careless enough to risk a spill.
Honey flopped down in the space Tobias had left.
“You’re running out of time to stop our winning streak,” Alexander reminded her. “We only have the room for another ten minutes.”