My stomach plummeted to the floor as a sudden wave of fear hit me. The alcohol in it made the bile rise to my throat. Pressing a hand to my mouth, I pushed my way through the crowd of grinding bodies.
Sweat was drying on my skin, making me feel chilled to the bone.
The joy I’d felt earlier was completely gone and only fear remained which was weird because I was feeling anything but scared. It took me a few minutes to realize that what I was feeling didn’t belong to me but to Ariana.
Ariana was scared. Very, very fucking scared.
I hadn’t seen her since she stormed off. What the fuck had I been thinking?
I turned around but my friends had been lost in the crowd of moving bodies. They were the least of my worries at the moment.
Pushing my way through the people, I headed towards the stairs and climbed it until I was halfway up. It gave me the advantage I needed to see over everybody.
The music was too loud to call out.
My eyes locked on a familiar figure making his way through the crowd towards the front door. I nearly tripped as I hurried after him. People moved, blocking my way but I managed to get through them after aggressively pushing them out of the way.
“Lucas wait!” I yelled. “Lucas!”
He paused and slowly turned around to face me. The dark frown on his face made me hesitate slightly but desperation had me moving forward.
“H-have you seen Ariana?” I asked him.
“No.” His body tensed. “She came here with you?”
I nodded. “Yes, we had. . .a fight earlier and she stormed off. I can’t find her.” My hands shot out to grab the labels of his jacket. “I think she’s in trouble.”
His eyes darted over my body. “Have you searched the bedrooms upstairs?”
“N-no.” Stupid! Why hadn’t I thought of searching upstairs? It was where she headed.
But Ariana wouldn’t stay upstairs.
I turned and gasped when Lucas halted my movement with icy cold fingers around my wrist.
“I’ll search upstairs. Look in the kitchen and the backyard,” he ordered. “We’ll meet back here.”
The desperation inside me grew as time passed and there was still no sign of Ariana. I tried reaching out to her through our link, but failed. She wasn’t answering me.
I was breathless by the time I walked out of the house to the spot where Lucas had said we’d meet.
He stormed out of the house a few minutes later. “Does she have her phone? Have you tried calling her?”
Ariana didn’t have her phone because I didn’t give her time to grab it. Of course I didn’t tell him that.
“She’s not answering.”
“Would she go back to the dorm?”
I was about to shake my head but then really thought about it. My sister was pissed at me so she wouldn’t stick around.
“I-I don’t know.”
Lucas grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”
***
“Ariana!” I called as I burst into the room.
Silence greeted me.
“Her phone’s here.”
My knees weakened, making me stumble. Another wave of fear hit me again, but a lot stronger than the first.
“Oh god,” I croaked.
Lucas was suddenly in front of me, guiding me backward to take a seat on the bed. Crouching in front of me, he gave my arms a squeeze and then dropped his hands.
“Where would she go?”
I shook my head. “Ari hates being around humans. She wouldn’t go somewhere where she’d be surrounded by them”
“What about a park? The—”
I cried out and slumped forward as red hot pain shot up my body from my hip.
“Eva?”
A sob fell from my lips. “S-she’s hurt. Ari’s hurt.”
“How do you know that?” Lucas questioned.
I sucked in a breath and slowly blew it out through my nose.
“W-when we were young”—another cry fell from my lips—“Ari was kidnapped. We. . .D-Dad asked the help of a w-witch to bind Ari and I s-so we could find her.”
“You feel everything she feels,” he muttered in realization.
I nodded just as another wave hit me. My hands shot out to grab hold of his shoulders.
“W-we were taught to put up a w-wall.” I stopped to suck in a breath. “Ari, she can’t help. . .”
“Breathe.”
I sucked in another deep breath and tried to focus on a blurry Lucas a few inches in front of me.
“The last time you saw her was at the party, right?” I nodded. “Where were you when she stormed off?”
“K-kitchen.” I licked my lips. “She spilled her drink. M-my friend gave her directions to a bathroom upstairs.”
“Stay here in case she comes back. I’ll go look for her.”
“I-I can track her.”
“It won’t work,” he said softly. “The pain is numbing all your other senses.”
I blinked rapidly to clear my vision so I could see what he was doing. Lucas grabbed my phone and pressed a few buttons on it.
“Call me if she comes back here.” He handed me the phone. “Stay here, Eva.”
I nodded.
Lucas hesitated for a few seconds before he got up and walked away. Silence surrounded me once he was gone. I slid to the floor and leaned back against the side of the bed. My fingers tightened around my phone.
It was all my fault.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry, Ari.”
I just wanted her to have some fun and forget about the shit that had happened when we were younger. I wanted to show her that not all humans were bad.
Reaching up, I pressed damp fingers to the throbbing spot on my hip. The pain wasn’t as intense as before so Ari was already starting to heal. What if I was overreacting? What if she decided to go for a walk and just got spooked?
She could’ve tripped and gotten hurt.
As soon as the thought slipped into my mind, I pushed it aside. If that was the case then she wouldn’t have opened the connection between us. The only time she’d ever allowed that to happen was when she was caught in a nightmare.
Nausea filled me.
What if Lucas couldn’t find her?
There were about a million places she could be. He couldn’t search everywhere for her on his own.
I sat up a bit straighter and unlocked my phone. Swallowing, I dialled Dad’s number and pressed the phone to my ear. The moment he answered, I lost the tight hold I had on my emotions.
“D-Daddy,” I cried. “Ari. . .Ari’s in trouble.”