Page 26 of Somnium

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.

9

CHAPTER NINE

CADI

Blinding pain exploded as Cadi’s head collided with metal. The world dipped, the street in front of her shifting in and out of focus. Something hot cut a path down the side of her face and the biting tang of copper assaulted her nose, making her stomach churn. She tried to push herself up, but her arms didn’t respond.

Useless. Pinned.

She couldn’t move. Couldn’t see. Couldn’t think past the pain in her head. Her mind clawed through the haze, desperate to make sense of what was happening.

The club. Her car. Her keys. A faint sound of footsteps and then …

She cried out at the pain that shot through her arms as a heavy force pressed hard at her back, pushing her wrists into an unnatural angle beneath her. A fist twisted in her hair, yanking her head to the side. Then there was hot breath at her neck, and a voice soured by beer and malice that turned her blood to ice.

“You don’t get to say no to me.”