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Yeah. Whatever.
I couldn’t figure out exactly what had just happened. But I was glad the dark stranger had shown up, for more than one reason.
There was something very wrong with Sandy-hair. Maybe he was on drugs. Molly—MDMA—could make people very touchy-feely, or so I was told. The way he glared at me, the sheer menace in those strange-colored eyes—disturbing, to say the least. He could’ve been on a bad trip.
I waved the bartender over and downed another drink the moment it was in my hands, trying to chill out. Glancing back at the dance floor, I saw David practically carrying Mindy toward the bar with a rip in her jeans at the knee.
“Mindy! What happened?”
“Fell and twisted it.” She winced with each step. I pulled up a stool.
“Let me go get the car,” said David. “I’ll pull it around.”
“No,” Mindy whined in her lilting drunk voice. “Stay withme.” She hooked her arm tighter around his neck. One too many appletinis.
“I’ll go.” I set my glass on the bar. “Wait here.”
Mindy grabbed my arm. “Sorry.” She pouted with glazed eyes. “Didn’t mean to ruin your birthday.”
“You didn’t.” I smiled, eager to get home and end this shitshow of a night. “Be right back.”
“I’ll come with you.” Steven took David’s keys and followed me. We pushed through the crowd toward the entrance, passing by big-and-beefy at the door.
“Later, Sunshine,” I called with a wave.
He nodded with a thin smile. Not a soul walked the street. I found it sort of strange to have a bar located in the more industrial end of town. But it was an eccentric place. Maybe that’s what they were going for. Exclusivity, to make it more appealing.
A gust of wind whooshed by, lifting my hair. I wrapped my arms around myself as we angled down the side street toward the car.
“You cold?” asked Steven behind me.
“No.” But something made me shiver. “You have the keys?”
“Yeah, right—”
I heard the keys jingle and fall to the pavement, then a thump. I spun to find Steven slumped against the wall. Unconscious. Before I could register what happened, my body was slammed up against the brick wall behind me. Pinned in place by none other than Sandy-hair, his hand grasping and squeezing my throat.
“Keep still.” Voice low and gravelly. “Don’t scream.”
How could I, of all people, get myself into a vulnerable position? I knew how to fend off an attack in a hundred different ways, but he already had me in such a tight grip.
He crushed me against the wall, choking the life out of me. Staring up at him, I hoped to memorize his face for a police report later.Ifthere was a later. Spots hazed my vision, though I definitely recognized those hate-filled eyes, blazing blood-red down at me.What the hell?
“Such a pretty one.” A guttural murmur. “Such a shame to have to kill you.”
Kill me?What!
I squirmed, trying to pull free, raking my nails on his arms then gouging at his wrists. Useless. He didn’t budge, didn’t even flinch.
A sinister hissing laugh in my ear. Lightheaded. Dark spots at the corner of my vision. I couldn’t see anything anymore as my limbs felt light. I drifted. I thought how sad my father would be that I died in such a violent way as I slipped further into oblivion. I thought of my mother.
Suddenly, I gulped air back into my lungs. I was free of him, sliding down the wall, feeling my way along the cold brick behind me. A dark shape loomed, grappling with my attacker.
Finally catching my breath, chest still heaving, I shifted my focus to see a shadowed figure lifting my would-be killer by the throat off the ground, holding him mid-air. His words confused me even more.
“Stop human-hopping and come out to play.”
I knew that deep voice from the dance floor. The dark stranger. Sandy-hair held on to my would-be hero’s arms. He laughed that wicked laugh again.
