“Yeah? Like what?” I was skeptical. As a vampire, I’d done some stupid stuff in my afterlife, but I was always fully aware of my inebriation. I felt fine.
“Like rape your girlfriend,” the human snickered.
I blinked.
“What did you just say?” I leaned forward,and he flinched away, his eyes wide with terror.
“I— I— I’ve had the stuff. The blood and the candy. Both do different things. You’re not yourself. Surely you wouldn’t have done that sober?”
I blinked and tried to comprehend what he was saying. It didn’t make sense. Do what?
“D, are you okay? Look, it was just a game. We thought it’d be funny to get you a little high. No big deal.” Tully tried explaining things to me,but my brain just couldn’t compute. I was high? I felt fine.
“I’m not high,” I said, and everyone stared at me. Tully smirked.
“Not anymore. It’s been an hour since your girl left. You ran out of the candy I gave you before that.”
“I haven’t been high all night,” I insisted, but when I tried to remember anything from after I woke up, I couldn’t. It was all a fog.
“No, you are. And if you’re not, then you and your little girlfriend are freakier than I thought.”Tully laughed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Are you not— do you know what you just did?” Dante’s brows furrowed.
“When?”I demanded, slapping my hands on the table.
“Jesus Christ, Tully,”Dante whined. “He took too much. You shouldn’t have given him an entire bag of his favorite flavor.”
“Oh, come on, it was just fun. A little brotherly hazing. I haven’t seen the fucker in a decade or so. He’ll get over it.” Tully snickered and tapped his cards on the table. “Let’s keep playing. Finish this round, and then you can go sort shit out upstairs. D- I’ll even let you take what you and Scout want from the shop. She really seemed to like the vibrator. Maybe you can grab a few of those before you leave.”
I continued to blink. I was struggling to hold it together. What had I done?
“Was she here? Scout?”
The room grew deadly silent again, and I stood. I squinted, and I realized I could remember bits and pieces. She had been here.
I remembered her crying, her taking off the necklace.
Then, it all hit at once.
My fingers—covered in blood—shoving myself into her unwilling body. Her cries as Tully held her down—the room laughing as I—
When it was all finally clear, I was horrified. I leaned over and gagged, which turned into vomit in an instant.
“There it is. He remembers. Siân, can you get someone in here to clean this up?” Tully sighed and snapped his fingers at the dealer.
I closed my eyes as the smell of blood, cinnamon, and bile filled the room.
What had I done to her?Scout, my— my soulmate.
I wiped my mouth and ran from the room and through the gamblers. As I ran, I saw the candy bowls on all the tables. This was his scam the entire time. He had everyone giving away their lives just by offering them some fucking sugar.
I sprinted up the stairs to the house, where I had just tossed Scout aside. I had barely acknowledged her after I— I couldn’t even say it. I was going to get sick again. I paused to get control of myself again before continuing through the house to her.
I reached the suite where she had slept last night and turned the handle. It was locked. I pounded on the door with my open palm.
“Scout! We need to talk! That wasn’t what you thought it was!” I pounded again but was met with icy silence. Her ignoring me was frustrating. If I could see her face to face, I could explain everything.
