I scanned the room. Sam was on the other side flashing a flirty smile to a couple of college boys. It was still early, but the club was full of life and the bar crowded. There was no sign of Sutton. What was I supposed to do with the demon if he showed up? Wrestle him out to the car and lock him in the trunk? Someone would call the cops, and with my reputation, I wouldn’t be given a chance to explain—not that I could come up with a reasonable explanation for stuffing someone in a trunk. Not reasonable to the rest of the world, anyway.
Song after song, the dance floor hummed with electricity as bodies thrashed to the music. I watched the crowd, searching for anyone resembling Sutton, but there was no one. I pinched the bridge of my nose. There was too much crap in the air and it was giving me a headache. Perfume, alcohol, and emotion—thanks to Azirak, everything spun in a sickly swirl. Giving up on the balcony, I made my way to the stairs and across the room to the bar.
“Hey stranger. What’ll it be?” Sam said with a grin. She leaned forward, bending low enough to give me an unintentional view down her shirt. My pulse quickened and I had to force myself to stay in place instead of moving forward to meet her. “Chase called a little while ago. Says he thinks the demon’s name is Hank Sutton. Sound familiar?”
“Oh my God. Seriously? He was the TA at Huntington. Is he positive? Hank seemed so…normal.”
“He’s pretty sure. Is there anything you can tell me about him? Anything that might help pick him out in a crowd? Chase sent a picture but…” But Sam wasn’t listening anymore. She was staring over my shoulder, at the bar. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s him. Hank. He’s here.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sam
Jax flew across the room before I could stop him. Hank, who was chatting up a leggy brunette in a red leather miniskirt by the door, must have caught wind of him. The demon froze mid-sentence, looked up, and bolted into the crowd just as Jax hit the dance floor.
“Shit,” I spat. The bottle of gin slipped from my hand and rattled to the bar. I ducked out from behind the counter and sprinted after them. By the time I reached the other side of the room, both men had been swallowed by the crowd.
I started across the dance floor, knocking into people with each step. Angry shouts and colorful words came from every direction as I plowed through the center, but as I reached the edge of the crowd, it all started to blur. Like I’d just stepped off a merry-go-round set on superspeed, colors swirled together, people on the dance floor becoming a single, shapeless blob. I reached out and caught hold of something—someone—as a vicious wave of vertigo washed through the room.
“He’ll never catch me,” the same voice I’d heard at Sadie’s cooed inside my head, followed by a dark laugh.
“No,” I whispered, continuing forward. I hadn’t had anything to drink. I hadn’t been to sleep.
“Come to me,” the demon demanded. “Walk right out the front door.”
Turn around and walk back to the bar. That’s what I needed to do. What I wanted to do. But my limbs had other ideas. The command was like an industrial-size rubber band snapping against my will. One foot in front of the other, I wove through the rest of the crowd and approached the door, every step a war between my mind and body.
The cold night air stung my skin and the sounds of the club faded as I stepped onto the sidewalk. After a few moments, the only thing that was left was the sound my shoes made as they pounded the walkway. Clop. Clop. Clop.
“Sam?”
Thank God. Jax. Jax was here. He could stop me. Footsteps sped up behind, my pace never slowing. No. Not Jax. Way too noisy.
“Sam! It’s me.”
“Chase! Hurry,” I called over my shoulder. “I can’t stop.”
He caught up and jumped into my path. I simply stepped around and kept walking. “What’s wrong? Where are you going? And where’s Jax?”
“He took off after Hank, but I think something’s wrong. He’s in my head. Forcing me to—”
“He’s controlling you?” he asked, surprised. He tried stepping into my path again, but I pushed him away and continued, undeterred. Chase cursed. “Okay. Forget the logistics. We need to stop this.”
“Not sure what you have in mind. Other than throwing me over your shoulder, I don’t see how you can stop this.”
He chuckled. “Excellent idea.”
One minute I was walking, casual but determined, the next my feet were off the ground and the world tilted sideways.
“How’s that?”
I held my breath. The desire to keep walking was still there, but I didn’t feel the need to kick and scream to get down. Score! But it only solved one problem. “We need to find Jax.”
“Agreed, but let’s get you someplace safe first. I don’t think my brother would be thrilled to know you walked off to meet a demon. Dude might get jealous. Any ideas?”
I thought about it for a minute. How long would this last? And would it get worse? Chase couldn’t hold on to me all night. Then I had an idea. “Kelly’s house. There’s a pair of handcuffs we can use.”
Chase whistled, and I felt his shoulders shake with a laugh. “You in handcuffs? Oh, I’m definitely game for that,” he said, and swiveled toward the parking lot.
“Are you okay?” he asked. The expression on his face was apologetic, and I thought about making a bondage joke, but decided against it. Chase had a habit of taking things a little too literally and that was the last thing I needed right now. Him grabby and me in chains. The only thing that would top that would be Jax walking in on another kiss. Kelly had been talking about repainting the walls, but somehow I didn’t think bloodred was really her thing. “Are these too tight?”
I twisted my wrist in the cuff. He’d secured my right hand with one side, and clipped the other end to the radiator. “As long as it keeps me here where I’m safe, then I’m good.”
“Should try Jax again. Maybe we should use your cell?” We’d tried three times to reach him on the way over. There’d been no answer. If Hank was in my head, that meant that either Jax had been hurt, or he hadn’t caught up to the demon. Either way, it equaled trouble.
“Can’t. Mine’s gone.”
“You don’t have it on you?”
“I don’t have it, period. It ended up at the bottom of the river. Don’t ask…”
He shrugged and pulled out his own cell, turning toward the door to make the call. The sound the phone made as he pushed the buttons echoed through the room. After a minute, Chase shook his head and snapped it closed. No luck. He looked as worried as I felt. They bickered and clashed, but underneath it, the Flynn brothers loved each other. “Maybe I should go look for him.”
“Yeah,” I said with a roll of my eyes. That would complete my craptastic week. Jax and Chase ripping each other to shreds while I sat chained in my aunt’s house. “Great plan. Go in search of the guy who wants to rip your heart out. Lemme know how that turns out for ya.”
He frowned again and set down his cell. “Good point. After all this time, you’re still crazy about him, aren’t you? All this crap that’s happened is technically his fault, and you really do still want him to stay.”
I didn’t want to talk about this. Not with him and definitely not now, but avoiding it wasn’t going to change things. Nothing would. “Doesn’t really matter. He doesn’t want me enough to stay.”