Chapter 6 Damon
DAMON
The world around me dips as everything is thrown to the left, and the reflexive panic that tightens my chest yanks me out of sleep with a gasp.
My eyelids fly open, and I blink rapidly to clear my vision enough to see where I am and what the fuck is going on.
“Sorry,” a deep and familiar voice says beside me, and all the panic and disorientation melt out of me in a rush. “A damn deer was in the road,” Xave continues, his attention still fixed on the road ahead of us. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s fine,” I tell him and look out the window.
It’s twilight now, and we’re on what looks like a two-lane highway with thick woods on either side of us. There are no streetlights that I can see, and no cars or anything around us except road and trees.
“Where are we?”
“About ten miles from the city.”
“How long was I asleep?”
“About an hour.”
I rake one hand through my hair and wince when my fingers get caught on the tangled strands. “Yeah, that tracks. I don’t know what it is about cars, but they put me to sleep if I’m not driving.”
“My cousin is like that.”
“Which one?”
“Felix.” He flicks his gaze to mine. “He’s fine for the first twenty or so minutes, but anything after that and he’s down for the count unless you keep him talking and force him to stay awake.”
“Two of my sisters are like me,” I say, still a bit out of it from my nap. Unlike a lot of people, I hate napping. I always wake up feeling more tired and out of it than when I fell asleep, and it takes me a while to shake off the grogginess.
“Sisters?” Xave shoots me a curious look.
I nod and scrub one hand over my face. “I have three younger half-sisters on my dad’s side.” I glance over at him. “I was curious about something.”
“What’s that?” He flicks his gaze to mine.
“Which twin were you talking about when you said one of them made a rope out of willow branches and tied up the other with it?”
He grins. “That would be Jax. I think I still have a picture of Jace with the daisy crown on his head while he’s trying to get free somewhere. I really should dig it out and remind him of that moment.”
“Let me guess, that’s not even the craziest thing they’ve done?”
The Hawthorne twins have a reputation around campus that goes beyond just being volatile and unhinged like Xave and Killian, and after seeing what Xave is capable of, I don’t doubt that everything I’ve heard about the twins is true too.
He laughs. “Not even in the top fifty. I mean, I had to learn how to patch up knife wounds because of them.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Jace and Jax have a thing for knives,” he explains. “And they used to use each other for target practice when we were kids. There were a few mishaps along the way, so I had lots of opportunities to stitch them up over the years.”
“Wait, they threw knives at each other?” I ask, still stuck on that part of the story. “Like real knives with sharp blades?”
“Yup. It got to the point that a plastic surgeon taught me how to suture, and we had a stash of medical-grade suture kits on hand to deal with the mishaps ourselves.”
“And why did they throw knives at each other?” I ask incredulously.
“To learn how to dodge them.” He shrugs. “And because they thought it was hilarious.”
“You know that’s not normal, right?” I ask. “Not just them throwing knives at each other, but also you being so chill about the fact that they liked to throw knives at each other.”
“I know.” He tosses me a quick grin. “And like I said, we’ve never claimed to be normal.”
“Jeez, and to think the craziest thing I’ve done with my sisters is let them give me makeovers and practice their nail painting skills on me.”
“Difference between having younger siblings and ones the same age as you,” he points out. “Well, they’re cousins in my case, but they’re technically siblings.”
“What do you mean?”
He flicks his gaze to mine, and the smirk on his full lips makes my stomach flip-flop. “Want to know something not a lot of people know about our family tree?”
I nod. I might not have spared Xave or his cousins much thought over the years, other than to admire how gorgeous they all are, but after everything that’s happened, I’m ravenously curious about all of them. Especially Xave.
“Killian and the twins are technically brothers, even though they’re cousins.”
“How do you mean?” I ask, keeping my tone neutral as my brain goes to weird places.
He lets out a throaty laugh. “It’s nothing like what you’re probably thinking. All of our dads are brothers, but Killian and the twins’ moms were identical twins. So they’re genetically more than half siblings while still being cousins because they have two different sets of parents.”
“That’s…a unique situation,” I say after a few beats.
“It is,” he agrees. “And they were born less than two weeks apart, so they’ve pretty much grown up like triplets.”
“But where does that leave you?” I ask. “I don’t have any family on my mom’s side, and the only relatives I’m in contact with on my dad’s side are my half-sisters,” I explain so it doesn’t sound like I’m interrogating him.
“I never had any cousins or even close friends growing up, so this family dynamics stuff is new to me.”
“I’m the oldest, so it was my job to keep them in line and make sure they didn’t turn into serial killers.”
I don’t know what to make of that statement, but Xave’s already shared so much with me that I don’t ask him to elaborate, even though I’m dying to know more.
“Do you have a hotel room in the city?” he asks, changing the subject.
“Yeah.” I glance out the window. It’s fully dark now, so all I can see are the silhouettes of the trees as they whip by. “Thank fuck I booked my room for two nights,” I add, glancing at the clock.
With all the excitement of getting kidnapped and watching one of my classmates go all super spy and save the day, I must have been in survival mode because my stomach growls loudly, reminding me it’s been a while since I’ve eaten anything.
“Has it really been less than twenty-four hours since we were snatched?” I ask, putting one hand over my stomach like that will somehow muffle the sounds.
He nods ruefully. “I double-checked both of their phones before I turned them off. It’s only been a day.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” I rub my other hand over my face and push my curls back from my forehead. “I swear it’s been at least two or three days.”
“It definitely feels like it.” The corner of his mouth tips up in a little smirk when my stomach growls again.
“Shut up,” I grumble.
He grins. “Did I say anything? And if it makes you feel any better, mine was growling up a storm while you were resting. You’re not the only one who’s starving.”
I shrug and look back out the window, but for some weird reason, his confession does make me feel better.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been completely useless since we were abducted, and the only reason I’m even still breathing is because of him. I’ve also spent the last hour passed out while he’s been driving, so knowing he’s hungry too makes him seem a bit more human and makes me a little less pathetic.
“Do you have a room?” I ask.
He nods. “I’ve got one booked at the Chateau de Ville.”
I shoot him a surprised look.
“What?” he asks, glancing between me and the road.
“That’s where I’m staying.”
“Really?”
I nod. “I’m on the seventeenth floor.”
“I’m on the twenty-first.”
I shake my head in disbelief. It’s not like there are only a handful of hotels to choose from in the city, so us booking rooms at the same one is yet another weird coincidence that makes this whole situation even crazier.
Silence stretches between us, and I duck my head down so I can look up at the sky through the windshield. It’s a clear night, and the stars are bright and vivid thanks to the lack of light pollution around us.
“What are your plans for the rest of the break?” he asks, breaking the silence that’s fallen between us.
Another thing that makes Silvercrest different from every other college is that we only get two weeks off at Christmas—the week of, and the week after, instead of the usual longer breaks other students enjoy.
There are a few days left of the break before the weekend before classes start up again, and just like every other year, I’m heading back to campus early.
And after everything that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours, I’m looking forward to having the dorm to myself so I can do whatever I want instead of being trapped in a hotel room for the next five days.
“Nothing,” I say, my voice smaller than I mean it to be. “I’ll probably head back to school either tomorrow or the next day. Depends how I feel.”
He lets out a thoughtful hum.
“What are you getting up to for the rest of the break?”
“Well, I was supposed to be spending it in my hotel room with my date for the rave, but since she stood me up, I have no idea.” He pops one shoulder in a shrug. “But whatever. I’m sure I’ll find something to do.”
We fall silent again, and a few minutes later we pass a sign that says we’re almost at the city limits, and for reasons I can’t explain, cold dread washes over me when I see the glow of lights from the city in the distance.
“Do you want to stop and get something to eat? Or just go right to the hotel?” he asks, breaking the lengthy silence.
“Right to the hotel,” I say reflexively as more of that weird dread wraps around me.
I’m starving, and thirsty as hell, but even the thought of hitting a drive-through is too much right now.
“Okay. Bear with me while I try to find it,” Xave says as we approach the sign welcoming us to the city. “I’m pretty sure I know where it is, but I only checked in a few hours before the rave, so it might take a few tries without a map.”
“I’ve stayed there before,” I tell him. “Not sure how helpful I’ll be since the last time was almost seven years ago, but hopefully I’ll be able to help.”