Chapter 24: Chapter 24

Carden

Ten minutes pass by and Braeden and I stay seated on the couch. However, after another ten minutes go by worry starts to settle in the pit of my stomach. Glancing over at my brother I see that his brow is creased with concern as well. “Something’s not right, right?” I know my question sounds odd, but my twin understands me just the same.

“She should be back by now, shouldn’t she?” I can hear the worry in his voice which causes an ache to stir in my heart. “Should we go look for her?”

Getting to my feet I tell him yeah and wait for him to stand up as well. “Peruse the lounge see if you see her and ask everyone when they might have seen her last if you don’t find her first. I will start down the hallway, and we’ll meet back here whether we find her or not.” Braeden runs a hand through his short spikey brown hair and then begins to work his way through the crowd.

Walking down the hallway I start going to every open door first and looking inside. With no luck I go and begin to knock or pound, if need be, until every closed door is opened and all inside are questioned. And nothing. It’s like she has completely disappeared. I made my way back to where my brother and I had been sitting and saw him waiting anxiously for me. We look at each other hopeful until we both shake our heads no and a sense of fear washes over us.

“Somethings wrong, I can feel it!” Braeden states. “We need to go check the girl’s dorm. I ran into her roommate and even she hasn’t seen or come across her.” He says this as we get into the elevator down to the common room and over to the east elevators. Running down the hallway we stopped in front of her door.

Raising my fisted hand, I bang against the wood. As I lower my hand to wait for it to be opened, our phones chime. Thinking it was Blaise, we both pulled out our phones to see who the text had come from. What we got was an eye full. Braeden begins breathing hard as he stares at his screen. “I don’t believe it! I thought we had some sort of connection with her. I had just started to believe that she was my soul mate and then she went and fucked another dude. FUCK!” he shouted out in rage.

BANG, BANG, BANG he slams his fist against her door. “Blaise open up! We know you’re in there. We demand answers!”

“Brae she’s not going to answer. Hell, she may not even be in there. Let’s just go. We should have known we were going to get played because we let ourselves care about her, connected with her. Well lesson learned. Let’s go drown our sorrows, get shit-faced and then tomorrow we’ll put our walls back up and go back to being our old selves.” Throwing my arm over his shoulders I dragged him away from her door.

∞

Blaise

Head pounding, room spinning, I open my eyes, groan, and then twist my body until I’m leaning over the edge of my body hoping at the same time that my aim is true as I throw up into the small trash can sitting in between my nightstand and bed.

When I’m to the point of just dry heaving I clamber out of bed and go into the kitchen. Yanking the mini-fridge door open I grab a bottle of water and chug it. I only consumed two drinks and a shot. I should not be feeling the way that I am. Looking over at Clover’s bed I see she didn’t come back last night. Scrambling around the room I search until I’m clutching my phone in my hand.

The effort to locate my phone was almost too much and I flopped on my bed. Sitting cross legged I unlock the screen and pull up Clover’s contact info. Tapping on the green phone icon I listen as her phone rings. “Hello?” Her voice is raspy and tired sounding but at least she answered.

Pain tears across my stomach as I try to speak. “Ugh! Any chance I can get you to come back to our room and walk with me to the clinic? I don’t know what happened last night but something’s wrong with me. I’m more than just hungover. I’m really, really sick.” I hear her say she’ll be back at our place in five and then I crumble to the floor.

The first thing I hear is the sound of machines beeping. Following that is the glare of bright white lights and the smell of disinfectant. The scent is so strong it makes me nauseous. “Where am I?” I try to look around the room, but my body hurts too much to move.

Tears well in the corners of my eyes and I hear someone shush me as they brush away the stray drops that have already leaked out and began to roll down my cheeks. Tilting my head slightly I lean into the soft caress against my skin. “Don’t cry baby. You’re all right. Clover found you and called me. We got to you in time.” The rough voice sounds like — Nox’s. I force myself to move through the pain so that I can confirm I’m right. My heart jumps at the sight of him sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, gently rubbing his thumb along the side of my face.

Uh, wait, hospital bed? What in the world happened to me? “Nox? What’s going on? Why am I here?” I see an I.V. stuck in my arm and I look around in confusion.

“I don’t have any answers for you babe, but Clover should be back shortly. Maybe she can enlighten us.” Muttering an okay, I let my eyes drift close. My eyelids are too heavy, and I am just insanely tired.

Whispered voices cause me to stir from sleep and I couldn’t tell you if I’d only been asleep for a few minutes or if hours had passed by. “Shh, shh, I think she’s waking up,” Clover says quietly to someone. The lights in the room are dimmer now and I’m able to open my eyes without them hurting.

“Hey Clove, wanna fill me in as to what happened to me?” I try to smile but it’s halfhearted at best, so I just gaze curiously at her instead.

“So, okay,” she starts like she’s gearing herself up to tell me something crazy. “With the help of Healer B, we’ve been able to sort out that you were drugged at some point last night.”

“I know exactly who did it!” I exclaim. “That soulless bitch!”

“Well unfortunately that’s not the worst part of the whole ordeal... Pictures were sent to the entire student body of you in very compromising positions...” She scrunches up her nose as my mouth falls open in shock.

“What are you talking about? Let me see these photos. I didn’t do anything last night! I was with Braeden and Carden chilling on a couch and then I went to the bathroom. After that I-I think I passed out.” Closing my eyes for a second, I try to dredge up images of last night’s events but I’m not able to recall a single thing after using the restroom.

Sticking my hand out I growl for Clover to give me her phone. I need to see these photos. I need to know what she’s talking about! I don’t even realize I’m crying until a tear drop splatters on her screen. “I didn’t- I wouldn’t-,” I look at her as a sob catches in my throat. “Why would anyone do this? I’m naked and who in the world is that guy?”

Shock and outrage battle within me and then I realize something Clover said, “wait. Did you say the entire student body? Oh stars! Carden and Braeden! Can you find them, talk to them? And tell them where I am. Please.” She nods her head and says she’d go try to find them right now. I released a breath unaware that I had been holding it as she exited the room followed by a sexy ass Italian dude.

A few minutes later the door to my room is being opened as Nox strolls in wearing black sweatpants, a black tee shirt and I shit you not, house sleepers! “My, my, don’t you look all kinds of comfortable,” I give him a crooked grin as he sits himself on the edge of my bed and he gives a goofy one in return.

“Hey, you, how you feeling,” Nox leans towards me and stretches out his arm so he’s able to brush some stray hairs away from my face.

“I’m feeling a little better. Thank you for helping Clover to get me here.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal, but I know it is because he probably had to carry me. “Don’t brush it off, I know you probably had to carry me over here! So let me say thank you, alright?”

“Damn you’re feisty, aren’t you!” His smile is a devilish one and then he leans over me and places a kiss on my cheek. “Okay then you are welcome. Being a knight in shining armor tends to boost any male’s ego, so...” I slap my hand against his chest.

“You’re incorrigible!”

Nox takes my hand removing it from his chest but doesn’t release it. Instead, he gives it a gentle squeeze and colors me shocked, he apologizes to me. “About earlier. I am beyond sorry for scaring you like I did. Hearing you talk about rogue vampires; it pissed me off. But not at you. So, if you’re feeling up to it tomorrow, we can meet in the cafeteria, get coffee and talk.”

“Yeah? That sounds good. I’ll text you in the morning to let you know if I’m up for it.”

“Alright cool. I’m going to head back to the dorm but if you need anything or even if you get bored or scared, call me, I don’t care what time it is, I’ll be here in a heartbeat.” Hearing him say this makes my heart flutter and I tell him that I will after which he stands, leans over me once more and brushes his lips lightly across my lips. “Until tomorrow then.”

Shortly after he leaves Healer B comes walking in. “Hey dearie. All results are coming back clean now so I’m going to let you leave as long as you go straight back to your room and rest. Is that clear?’’ I nod my head vigorously that I understand. I don’t even care about being in the hospital, I just want to have the damn I.V. removed from my skin. It feels unnatural and very uncomfortable. “Okay, I’ll send the nurse in so she can extract that I.V. for you and then you may leave.

As he walked out, I scooped up my phone and shot off a quick text to Clover to let her know I’ll be back in our room in just a little bit.