Chapter 19
Haven
It’s three days later, and I’m trapped in a sensory nightmare.
“It’s too hot!” I scream the words, but the bass drowns me out. It thumps right through my chest, beating my heart at a pace I’m not vibing with.
Kai definitely heard me, even though he pretends he didn’t. His hand tightens on my hip, fingers digging into the apron of my torn and bloodied Alice in Wonderland costume.
Sanctuary, Agony Hollow’s abandoned church turned party venue, is packed so tight with bodies I feel like I can’t breathe.
Neon lasers cut through the fog and light up the stained glass windows.
Up on the altar where priests used to give sermons, a DJ in a blood-stained hockey mask is dropping a beat so filthy, listening to it feels like it’ll put me on the government’s watch list.
Kai pulls me flush against him. His chest is hot and slick with sweat under the tatty thrift store coat. But he’s staring over the top of my head, scanning the room like he expects an ambush.
He’s been like this all night. I liked it…in the beginning. But I haven’t been able to go anywhere by myself.
I go to tiptoes so I can yell in his ear. “It’s boiling in here. I’m gonna get a drink.”
The shadow of Kai’s top hat hides his eyes, but I can feel the tension radiating off him.
“I’ll come with,” he says.
“I’m fine!” I yell back. “The bar is right over there.”
“I’m coming,” he says.
I jerk out of his grip. “Seriously, enough! I’ll be fine!”
Spinning on my heel, I shove my way through the dance mob toward the bar set up near the entrance of the church. The crucifix-shaped building was gutted of pews and its altar. It’s a big space, but there are a lot of college kids in here, and no air conditioning.
Kai reaches me as I clear the crowd, grabbing my arm and turning me roughly back to him. “Don’t run off like that!”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I try to pull free, but he’s holding on too tightly. “I’m just getting a fucking drink.”
He looks around, his gaze snapping to someone in the crowd. He raises his free hand to his mouth and yells, “Kruger!”
A guy dressed in a fraying pink bathrobe with an obviously fake beard and wig stumbles over. He looks utterly wasted, and that’s before he pushes up his retro sunglasses.
“Yo, my man!” Kruger tries to fist bump Kai, but misses by a mile. “Love the—” he stalls, staring at Kai’s chest for a moment before squinting up at him. “Sparkles.”
Kai tries to pull the two halves of his coat closed. I’ll admit, I went a bit overboard with the body glitter. But, hell, it’s been ages since I’ve dressed up for Halloween, and Kai kept looking at me funny. So I kinda attacked him with the stuff.
Is that why he’s being so weird? Did the excess glitter threaten his masculinity, triggering some kind of alpha mode?
“Watch her,” Kai orders, grabbing my wrist and shoving my hand into Kruger’s warm, clammy one.
Why are his fingers sticky?
“Ew!” I yank my hand back. “What the fuck, Kai? I don’t need a fucking babysitter!”
“Tonight you do,” Kai snaps. He glares at Kruger. “If she moves a muscle, I break your legs. Got it?”
Kruger salutes, swaying slightly. “Gotcha!”
Kai gives me one last dark look and disappears into the crowd, headed for the bar.
I scowl after him, fuming. “Fucking psycho,” I mutter.
“Very method of him,” Kruger slurs, leaning against a pillar. He waves a hand toward his head when I turn my scowl to him. “Mad Hatter and all?”
I scoff, crossing my arms. My costume isn’t even all that revealing, but you’d swear I was just in my underwear how Kruger’s staring at my tits.
“Haven!”
I turn to the voice.
Teagan is shoving her way through a group of Silent Hill nurses. She’s wearing an eye patch, and there’s a plastic parrot taped to her shoulder. Must be some crap off one of those fast fashion sites, but she’s rocking it.
“Teagan!” I grin as I grab her in a tight hug. God, it’s good to see someone from my old life.
Hilarious, how I thought I had it all figured out back then.
“What are you doing here?” I shriek over the music.
“Duh! Free booze!” she yells, holding up a red Solo cup that’s splashing everywhere.
She looks me up and down and whistles. “Damn, girl. You look hot. Where’s that beast who was dragging you around earlier?”
“Getting drinks,” I say, trying to sound casual.
“He your boy-friend?” she teases, dragging out the last word.
“Yeah, kinda.” I hear my own words, and notice Kai’s friend standing a few feet away. The way he’s swaying, though, I doubt he’ll remember anything I say long enough to repeat it to Kai.
Although, kinda? Really?
“Kinda?” Teagan laughs. “He looks like he’ll rip out someone’s throat just for looking at you.”
“No, he’s just—“
She cuts me off with a swipe of her hand, taking a glug of her drink before shoving it into my chest until I take it. “It’s so fucking hot in here.”
I snort, take a sip of her drink, and nearly choke to death. “Jesus, Teagan, there any mix in this?”
“Know what makes a good mix? Stomach acid.” She snatches the cup away from me like I insulted her. “Gimme.”
“Good God,” I mutter, clearing my throat. Felt like I just gargled acetone.
She’s not the only one taking full advantage of the free booze.
I’m not sure who sponsored this event, but I’m getting the feeling they hold stock in a rehab clinic…
or they traffic organs and didn’t want to go to the hassle of using roofies to drug their victims. I saw several blackout drunk students on my last trip to the bathroom.
It’s not just college kids who’ve been lured here. I spotted a few guys in their early thirties, and a female coach from AHC.
Thank God Bastian didn’t decide to show.
Sanctuary is the perfect hunting ground for him.
“So where’d you two meet?” Teagan asks.
“What?” My attention snaps back to Teagan, my cheeks warm. “Who?”
“You and—” she gestures vaguely “—Beast Boy.”
“Oh, we, uh…” I take a sip from her cup as I try to compose myself, grimacing when the alcohol hits the back of my throat. “It’s Kai. I told you about Kai, didn’t I?”
Teagan squints at me. She’s wearing a lot less glitter than I am. I run a palm over my chest, trying to wipe some of it off, but that just makes Kruger pay even more attention to my tits, so I stop.
“Kai,” she says slowly. “Kai…”
“Friend of mine? From way back? Like way, waaay back.”
“Oh, Kai!” She snaps her fingers—poorly—and takes back her cup. “Wait, that’s Kai? Kai from the trailer park, Kai?” She giggles into her cup, swigs at it, hands it back to me. “Good thing you and Milo never hooked up. Kai would have murdered him.”
My stomach drops.
Milo.
I’d forgotten all about him. About the job. About the fact that he’d literally disappeared the day before me and Kai went on vacation.
“You heard from him lately?”
“Who? Milo?” She nods. “Yeah. We texted like two days ago.”
I let out a breath. After the way Bastian had treated Milo at his food truck the other day, I was convinced he’d done something to the guy.
“Lee!”
Teagan looks past me and smiles drunkenly into her cup. I turn and see Blake standing nearby. He’s dressed all in black, a Scream mask pushed to the top of his head.
“Oh, hey,” I greet him.
When I feel a tug on the apron of my Alice costume, I wave a hand toward my friend. She’s always so fucking thirsty—in more ways than one.
“Blake, this is Teagan. Teagan, Blake. He’s one of Kai’s frat—“ I clear my throat. “Ex-frat brothers.”
Blake dismisses Teagan with a glance.
“This thing with Melissa is fucking wild, right?” he shouts over the music. Then he just stares at me.
“Yeah, wild.” I shrug uncomfortably. “You looking for Kai? He’s gone—“
“Is it true?”
My fingers go numb. “Is what—”
“About Kai? Melissa told everyone he fucking kidnapped her and shit.”
“Is Melissa the one I met at the football game?” Teagan asks, slipping her arm through mine.
I want to shake her off.
I want to fucking run away.
But that will just make matters worse.
“I can’t talk about it,” I say. “And even if I could, I wouldn’t want to.”
I try to turn away from him, but with Teagan latched onto my arm, she’d have to turn with me, and she’s locked on to Blake like a fucking homing missile.
“Teagan,” I mutter, tugging on my arm.
“Whole lot of rumors doing the rounds,” Blake says, stepping closer. “She missed midterms, you know that? Apparently she’s gone to rehab, but that’s a load of bullshit because from what I heard she’s been clean for a while. Want to tell me what really happened, Lee?”
“None of your fucking business happened!” I rip my arm out of Teagan’s and lunge toward Blake. “And instead of gossiping, why don’t you tell all these people spreading rumors that Kai was innocent! You’d think you’d defend your frat brother rather than throwing him under the bus like—“
A hand clamps onto my arm.
I don’t even have to look.
The heat. The force of the grip.
They could only belong to one person.
“We’re leaving,” Kai grates into my ear.
I dig my heels in, but he’s already moving. “I’m not done—“
“Oh, you’re done,” Kai snarls. He shoots Blake a look so full of malice, the guy actually takes a step back. “And so are you.”
“Haven!” Teagan shouts, but she doesn’t come after me, and I can’t blame her. When I look up at Kai, a chill rushes through me at the rage on his face.
He shoulders past a guy in a toga and nearly knocks over the lovesick couple slow dancing to a one-fifty BPM hardstyle track.
We burst out of the side doors and the chilly night air hits me in the face.
The doors swing shut behind us, cutting the noise to a dull thud of bass through the stone walls, and the sound of my ragged breathing.
I wrench my arm out of Kai’s grip.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I scream. “I was defending you!”
“You’re just feeding the trolls,” Kai snaps. He runs a hand through his hair, knocking his top hat crooked. He looks uneasy. Pale.
I lay a hand on his bare chest. He’s clammy and shivering. “Kai, it’s okay. They don’t have anything on you. That’s why they let you out.”
His lips flash into a bitter smile. “Not yet,” he mutters.
“What?”
He pulls his phone out of the pocket of his tattered jeans. I spent an hour sewing patches onto the fabric to match it with the coat. Sewing is an essential skill when you’re trying not to look like a homeless person.
“Look…” I run a hand over my hair, nearly dislodging the big bow clipped to the top of my head. “Let’s go back inside and talk to him. Right now, it’s Melissa’s word against yours, but no one’s even heard your side of the story—“
“My side?” He steps closer. I try to move back, but I’m too slow—he grabs the top of my arm and holds me in place as he leans in, forcing me to arch my back.
His voice drops to a dangerously low whisper. “You mean the part where you gave your professor fucking permission to frame me for kidnapping and assault?”
“I said I was sorry—”
“Sorry won’t fix anything, Haven. Only way you can fix this is if you had a time machine.” He releases me with a shove that nearly sends me sprawling.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I yell as soon as I’ve found my balance.
“Me? Nothing. I’m fine. You’re fine. Everyone’s just fucking fine.” He looks at his phone again. “We gotta go.”
“Go?” I yank at my costume. “Fuck that. I’m not leaving.”
I storm past him, but he grabs my arm—again—and spins me to face him. “You want to fix this so bad?” he says, glaring down at me. “Then come with me.”
He’s shaking, his green eyes glinting…and it has nothing to do with the lasers piercing through the church’s stained glass windows.
“Hey? What’s going on?”
His lips seal, his jaw bunching.
“Please, Kai. Tell me. I can help.”
He scoffs, shaking his head, his grip on my arm tightening and loosening like he can’t decide whether to hold on or let me go.
“Kai.” I put a hand on his chest. His skin has cooled. That raging heartbeat I’d felt earlier is slower now. “Please.”
“He called last night,” Kai chokes out, staring off into the distance with a disgusted twist to his mouth. “You were asleep.”
My face goes cold. “He called?” I whisper. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“Tonight was supposed to be just us, Haven!” Kai yells, his voice cracking. “All I wanted was one fucking night where we could just chill, and have fun, and not—” He drops his gaze to his feet. “One night when we weren’t his fucking puppets.”
I stare up at him, slack jawed.
There’s so much I want to say—scream—but I think those gulps I took from Teagan’s drink just kicked in.
Why? Why does it always lead back to Bastian?
He’s poisoned everything in my fucking life, and everything that I think might be an antidote just turns out to be more poison.
Kai turns his phone screen to show me.
It’s a map showing a location a short distance away. I don’t know this area, so I have no idea where it leads.
From the look on Kai’s face, it’s a fucking hellmouth.
“We have like five minutes to get there,” Kai says, pausing to swallow. “Or I’m going back to jail.”
My stomach does a triple backflip. I don’t even question how Kai can be so sure—it’s fucking Bastian.
“Fuck, Kai, we—”
“We’ll make it,” Kai says. He grabs my hand again. His palm is warm, but surprisingly dry for someone who’s going to prison if he doesn’t hustle. “Come on.”
He pulls me toward a path leading down the hill where the abandoned church was built. I look back at Sanctuary as we descend.
The lights. The music. The normal fucking world I’m always being led away from.
Then I look down the hill, at the darkness waiting for us.
Well…down the rabbit hole we go.