58. Summer #2
I curl up against him, allowing the warm safety of his arms to soothe me.
It might surprise those who don’t know him well, but Rafe has a grounding and comforting presence.
I’ve always felt it, and so did Connor. It’s why Rafe’s always been the Morningstar I related to most. Our darkness calls to each other, and I think we both find solace in recognizing that it exists in the other.
Maybe Rafe was always supposed to be my brother, just like Alice was always meant to be my sister.
“Bad party?” Rafe asks.
“I’m pretty sure we were drugged,” I say, exhaling heavily and bracing myself for his reaction .
Rafe’s whole body goes rigid against me. “What?” he asks, his voice tightening. “Who?”
“Don’t know.” I curl closer against him, savoring his warmth.
Rafe growls.
“It’s fine, Rafe. The headmaster knows.”
Rafe growls again. Oh yeah, he’s definitely relaxing into his demon.
I sigh. “Can you stop growling? It’s so loud, and my head hurts.” He growls again, but it’s softer this time. “Thank you.”
Low rumbles continue to vibrate his chest, and I must be a little messed up because while the sound is nearly feral, it is just another source of comfort to me. It takes a few moments for him to regain enough control to speak. “I don’t like you guys going without me and this shit happening.”
“Rafe, we’re fine.”
“Summer.”
“I promise. We’re okay.”
Some of his tension relaxes. “Thank you for promising.”
I frown and pull back enough to look up at him. “Whoa, I promise we’ll be fine. Not that we won’t go out without you.”
“Why can’t you allow me peace of mind?”
“I can promise we’ll be more careful?” I offer, but I suspect his transformation has only enhanced his instincts as a protective big brother.
He huffs, tensing when a small burst of hellfire ignites between his lips. “Sorry, new thing,” he mumbles, looking a little embarrassed as he tries to speak without opening his mouth.
My lips twitch, and I snicker when he pulls me against his chest, holding me there where I can’t see his face. I let myself relax against him, dozing quietly until my phone pings.
“Can you pass me that?” I ask with my eyes still closed, blindly reaching for my phone where it rests on the nightstand.
Rafe hands me my phone, and I notice that I have hundreds of notifications, but that’s not what makes my heart stop. It seems that during the course of my drug-filled night, I sent numerous messages to the stranger and Max.
“Fuck.”
“Who is it?” Rafe asks .
“No one.”
“No one is texting you?” Rafe asks, giving me a skeptical look.
“Right.”
I open my messages with the stranger, and without looking at what I sent while in my inebriated state, I start typing.
Summer
I’m fine, leave me alone.
His reply comes almost immediately.
Unknown
You were drugged.
“Let me guess. It’s your friend ?”
I glare at Rafe.
Summer
If you know the answer to the question, why ask?
Just as I hit send, another message pops up on the screen.
Do Not Fuck
How’s the hangover?
“ Fuck ,” I curse under my breath. I need to start making better decisions. With a sigh, I open the messages with Max, again refusing to look at the mess I probably created for myself last night.
Summer
This number has been disconnected.
Do Not Fuck
You’re hilarious.
I smirk, but then my eyes catch on one of the previous messages from last night, and my stomach sinks.
Once I start, I can’t help but continue delving deeper into them.
Each one is worse than the last. If I thought I wanted to die this morning, it’s nothing compared to how I’m feeling now, and this is just the messages to Max.
I have no doubt that the messages to the stranger are even more unhinged.
“Drunk text review?” Rafe asks, and I groan.
“I need Alice.”
“Want me to get her? I might be able to peel her off the floor.”
“No, that’s okay, I’ll go to her. Maybe we can die together.”
I roll out of bed, and the room spins a little. Rafe catches me and helps me through to Alice’s room, where she is, in fact, splayed face down on the floor. It reminds me of last year when I found her with a dagger in her back. This time, she’s not dead, just broken by her own bad decisions.
“I thought that potion would be a hangover cure.” Alice’s face is smushed against the floor, slurring her words a little.
“I think it just speeds up the process,” I say, falling to my knees and stretching out beside her. “I sent a lot of drunk texts.”
Alice slowly turns her head to face me. She looks rough, her hair a messy halo around her face, and her eyes puffy and bloodshot. “How bad?”
“I’ve not faced them all, but from what I’ve seen, I’d say a solid nine out of ten.”
Alice holds out her hand, and I place my phone into it. She shifts to lean up on her elbows and starts scrolling through the text messages.
“Wait, who’s ‘Unknown’?” she asks. I’m wary about giving her more information about the stranger, but to be completely honest, I couldn’t give less of a fuck at the moment.
“The stranger.”
She nods and turns her attention back to my phone, tapping a couple of times as she navigates through my messages. “Whoa, these stranger ones?.?.?.”
I groan. “I’ve not looked at them yet.”
“So the ones from Max, he can definitely tell you’re trashed.”
“Okay?.?.?.” I say, not liking the direction this is going in.
“But the stranger . . . ”
“What?” I ask, my anxiety flaring.
“Well, he was in your bed?.?.?.” she says. Wait, how did he get around the oath? “Also, you asked him to destroy your pussy. ”
“I did not!” I gasp, grab my phone, and scroll through the messages myself.
Fuck.
“I mean, you also talked about grapes a lot. So?.?.?.” Alice snorts. “Pinch of salt, you know.”
“Death, take me,” I groan, tossing my phone away.
“You told your stalker to tear you in half. Gods, you’re so fucking iconic. I want to be you when I grow up.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“But also he was in your bed.”
Right, I should probably have a reaction to that.
Alice doesn’t know how bad it’s been, but how did he get into my room without breaking the oath?
There must be a loophole in the wording of the blood oath that I missed, or?.
.?. Fuck, what if when I told him to destroy my pussy he took it as an invitation, meaning he could enter my bedroom.
Fuck drunk Summer. Fuck her. She’s a stupid slut.
“Right, weird,” I finally say. “I’m going back to bed. The floor is unbelievably uncomfortable. I don’t know how you can lie here.”
“I spent like twenty years sleeping in a coffin. This is luxurious compared to that,” she says. “Plus, I can’t move. My legs don’t work. They feel like they are made of jelly.”
Not sure I can make it back to my room without help, I just crawl into her bed and pull her blanket around me.
I hear Alice shifting around on the floor, and then the scrape of claws and a faint, gentle growl.
When I glance over the edge, Alice is curled up on the area rug with the monitor lizard.
I sigh heavily and turn to my other side.
“The lizard has to go,” I grumble.
“Shhh, she doesn’t mean it, Steve. She’s just cranky that she was drugged and slutty with an alpha, a berserker, and her stalker. It’s okay.”
I grumble again about how Steve will be rehomed or released, but I don’t think Alice hears me because she doesn’t respond.
“My fangs feel tainted. I can still taste that shifter’s blood. ”
“My body feels tainted.” The worst part is that I don’t actually remember if it was. Though I’m pretty sure.
Alice snorts. “You just banged an alpha. We’ve all been there.” She pauses for a moment. “I mean, not me, but others probably. But hey, at least he didn’t pee on you! Small victories.”
Alice and I drift off again, and when I wake up a few hours later, Alice is in bed with me. My phone pings, and I flinch, the sound having become my least favorite.
Unknown
How are you feeling, princess?
I groan but type out a reply.
Summer
Just leave me to die in peace.
Unknown
So you don’t want a cure?
I frown. Surely if there were a cure, the headmaster would have sent it.
Summer
I’ve already had one.
Unknown
Yet you’re still suffering.
I narrow my eyes, wondering if this is some sort of trick.
Summer
Leave it on the porch.
A small bottle appears on the bedside table next to me, and I am more than frustrated with myself for not making the rules stricter.
I pick up the vial and pull the black cork from it, cautiously sniffing the clear liquid.
It smells like roses and grapefruit. I take one careful swallow, partly to see if he’s drugging me and partly to save some for Alice if he isn’t.
Unknown
The whole thing.
I narrow my eyes and look around. Didn’t I make a rule that he couldn’t watch me? Wait, did I? And does this mean he watches Alice too? I don’t like feeling angry at the thought, and I like it even less when I identify a sliver of jealousy at the root of the emotion.
Summer
You can see inside Alice’s room?
Do you watch her too?
He starts typing immediately.
Unknown
No. I am well acquainted with your stubborn nature. So I runed the vial to tell me how much has been consumed.
I don’t drink the rest, and I draft a few messages before I have the courage to press send.
Summer
About my texts from last night.
Unknown
They were most intriguing.
But tragically, the promise of me was not tempting enough to get you home expeditiously. We’ll definitely need to work on that, little fae.
Summer
They didn’t mean anything. I was under the influence.
Unknown
Which means you would have been more truthful with your desires. How interesting.
I bristle at his message, practically able to hear his smirk through the phone.
Summer
I was just drugged and out of my right mind.
Unknown
It seems someone is embarrassed about how they asked me to “murder my pussy with your massive cock.”
I cringe. He’s not lying. It’s a direct quote, and it’s within complete context.
Summer
I was drugged, my dude.