CHAPTER EIGHT #3
From her new hiding spot, she peeked her head out to look for any sign of Zoe, and quickly spotted her shimmering pink dress in a row of booths that bracketed the brightly lit dance floor.
Her nerves tangled together when she saw that Celine and Damon were also with her, the three of them tossing back shots of a glowing blue liquor, adding the empty glasses to the growing stack covering the table between them.
Cadi crooked an eyebrow when Damon swayed and brushed a finger against the scales running up the side of Zoe’s neck.
Zoe let out a surprised squeak that carried across the dance floor as she slapped Damon’s hand away, only for him to chuckle in response.
Cadi quickly decided that she was wildly uninterested in any part of that, opting instead to sip her drink and resume her self-imposed role of observer for the rest of the night.
The minutes slipped past, and by the time her bottle of cider was only dregs, Cadi had witnessed at least one breakup, a few sloppy make outs, and what she suspected might have been a Dust deal, though she couldn’t be sure and had no intention of finding out.
She sighed, swirling the last bits of liquid before downing the final swig.
With her drink now gone, she realized her options were to either brave the table with her now very drunk friends, or risk running into Elias back at one of the bars.
Neither option sounded particularly appealing, but at least at the table, there was a chance she could guilt someone else into getting her another.
Pushing off from the pillar, she kept one eye on the bar as she made her way to the other side of the dance floor and toward the booth where she had seen Zoe and the others.
With her focus elsewhere, she barely made it five steps into the crowd before slamming into someone.
A pair of hands quickly gripped her arms to steady her.
Cadi looked up, an apology poised on her lips, but the words died the instant she spotted a familiar gold chain peeking out from beneath the buttons of a white dress shirt.
“Newbie! Did you know … you’re really good at hiding.” Damon’s words bled together, a clear result of the alcohol saturating his breath. Cadi winced at the fumes that radiated off him as he leaned in close, his eyes bleary and bloodshot.
“Not hiding, just wandering,” she explained, twisting her arms to release his grip. His fingers tightened, sending pain shooting into her shoulders.
“Why you wanna wander when all the fun is right here?” He tugged her closer, pressing his body against hers as his hands moved to her hips. Disgust roiled in Cadi’s gut, and her heart began hammering.
“Damon, you’re drunk. Knock it off.”
She reached down and ripped his hands from her body. But he just put them right back, this time slipping lower to cup the curve of her ass, yanking her against him again.
“Drunk or not, I could still make your night.”
The stench of beer and liquor overwhelmed her, forcing her to swallow hard to keep from gagging. She pushed against his arms, trying to break his grip.
“Damon, stop. Seriously.”
“C’mon, don’t be such a tease, Newbie.”
Ignoring her plea, he took a step forward. Then another, forcing her to move until she felt the wall at her back and his body at her front.
Something compounded inside her, fueled either by adrenaline or the fact that she was just thoroughly over his shit, she couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that she didn’t want him touching her and he wasn’t listening. So she would make him listen. Bracing a forearm against his chest, she shoved.
He stumbled back, tripping over his own feet and falling against a metal chair.
Conversations went quiet as heads swiveled toward the sound of metal scraping against the polished floor.
Damon struggled to right himself against the table, his eyes shooting up to lock with hers.
Cold crept through Cadi’s body as she watched the shift.
Where before she had seen hunger and lust in his gaze, now there was only rage.
Her muscles locked when he moved toward her, but he stopped mid-step when he realized that the crowd around them was now very interested in their confrontation.
Cadi pressed her back hard against the wall, not trusting her trembling legs to hold her just yet but refusing to take her eyes off Damon as he stared her down.
His shoulders rose and fell in violent movements, his breaths heavy with anger until he finally turned away, shoving the chair hard against the table as he passed, before he disappeared into the crowd.
Letting out a shaking breath, Cadi tipped her head back against the wall and shook out her hands to wring the last bits of tension from her fingertips. The lively chatter around her resumed, the events of the last few seconds barely a blip in the pulse of life inside the club.
Suddenly the air around her was suffocating, and the thumping bass that had flooded her veins only an hour ago now seems to grate against her like sandpaper.
This night was over. She needed to leave.
Clenching her fists, she shoved off the wall and stepped into the crowd with her eyes fixed on the glowing green exit sign above the stairwell.
A twinge of guilt tried to plant itself in her chest at the way she was leaving without saying goodbye to Zoe, but she drove it down.
She couldn’t risk running into Damon again after what just happened. A text from her car would have to do.
She emerged from the dance floor and made a beeline straight to the exit when a shimmering minidress stepped in front of her, blocking her path.
With her nervous system still on high alert, every muscle in Cadi’s body tensed at the sudden obstruction until she realized that the person in front of her wasn’t Damon.
It was a very drunk, and very pissed, Celine.
“What the fuck did you do?” The woman slurred, jamming a pink nail hard against Cadi’s chest. Cadi’s jaw fell open as her disbelief and anger boiled together.
“Excuse me?”
Celine swayed slightly, then stumbled to catch herself. “Damon is gone. You string him along and then embarrass him like that in front of everyone? What is wrong with you?”
Cadi couldn't believe what she was hearing. Celine was blaming … her?
“Celine, I—”
“Save it,” Celine spat, “you just think you’re so much better than everyone, don’t you?”
Cadi flinched back at Celine’s cruel assessment, heat beginning to burn behind her eyes. She couldn’t be there anymore; this had been one massive mistake. The club, the Order. All of it. She shoved past Celine, nearly knocking the inebriated woman to the ground in her haste to get the hell out.
A light breeze danced on the air as Cadi stepped from the chaos of the club into the quiet of the nearly empty street.
The line was gone, all the eager patrons either mingling inside or resigned to try again another evening.
She wrapped her arms tightly around her body and told herself it was to brace against the light wind, but knew that the firm pressure was the only thing keeping her from completely falling apart.
Her heels tapped softly against the sidewalk, narrating the slow, solitary trek to her car, and when she rounded the corner, she finally let the first tear fall.
She didn’t understand how everything had gone so wrong so fast. In an instant, the newfound sense of belonging she had only recently discovered had crumbled to dust, and somehow everyone was blaming her.
Now she was repeating the same tired cycle that seemed to show up right when she let herself believe it was safe to let people back in.
Reaching into her clutch, she pulled out her keys, and choked on a sob when she found her car key completely twisted in the chaos of her keyring.
Of fucking course.
Standing at the door to her car, she fumbled with the tiny metal object, stomping her foot in frustration when it refused to budge from its entanglement.
In that moment, every emotion from the evening crashed into her like a wave. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks, clouding her vision. With her mind singularly trained on her damn keys, thinking only of how badly she wanted to be home, Cadi almost didn’t hear the rhythmic pounding drawing closer.
Until something hard slammed into her.