Page 78 of Pretty Poisoned

"I'll see you after the show," Luca says.

I stand on my toes and kiss him again, then head through that second door. I almost resist looking over my shoulder when I feel Declan's eyes on me.

Almost.

There's another one of those private parties like the one in Los Angeles after the concert. I've been at the bar for fifteen minutes already by the time the band enters. And when they do, it's like a vacuum sucking all the energy out of the room. Declan leads the group through the club, greeting fans, taking photos. I catch his eye, and he shoots me an enigmatic glare, but I don't look away. Just like when he was on stage tonight, I can't stop watchinghim. I've seen the show live three times now, but he was different tonight.

He was different in the hallway earlier, too.

But when he passes me now, almost close enough to brush shoulders, he doesn't say a word.

"Teagan!" Luca shouts, gesturing for me to follow him.

I slide into a booth between River and Luca and watch Declan watch me, leaning against the bar on the other side of the room.

"Are you okay?" River asks.

"Yeah," I tell her. "I think maybe I'm just a little too sober for this."

"Well, we can fix that," she says.

Luca grabs a bottle of vodka from the center of the table. "Open up like a good girl, Teagan," he says.

I smile, thinking of the first time we met, and do what he says, tipping my head back and closing my lips around the bottle. He tilts it into my mouth and doesn't stop pouring; I swallow three times before I have to break away, and vodka runs down my chin and chest.

"Fuck," I cough.

"You'll be okay," he says. "You're sturdy, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

As I wipe my mouth with my hand, my eyes find the bar again. I watch girls take pictures of themselves with test tubes full of blood or spill them down the front of their shirts and lick it off of each other.

"Why do you guys do this?" I ask.

"Do what?" Luca asks.

"Serve drinks with blood here. They're not like you, right?"

"Some of them are, or they will be after tonight, and that's because of us. But to be honest, sharing this part of ourselves has a lot to do with aesthetics," Rhett says. "Those videos they're making are going to get millions of views. That's good for us.And it makes them feel like they're badass for a minute. People pay a lot of money to come to these parties for that reason."

"How much did it cost you, Teagan?" Brady asks.

"Um, nothing," I tell them. "Someone gifted me the ticket, actually."

I watch Declan take pictures with a girl at the bar, who then reaches down the front of his pants and starts stroking his cock. He leans in and kisses her on the mouth until her friend pulls his head back and brings his lips to her own. I watch him slide his hand up the back of her thigh and push up her dress, gripping her ass forcefully.

She isn't wearing any underwear.

Declan pulls away and reaches into his pocket. He takes out his knife, flips it open, and sets it on the table between the two girls. I wish I could tell what he's saying to them, but I can't. They look at him, then at each other, then the girl who had been stroking his dick picks up the knife and drags it across her wrist.

"What are you looking at, baby?" Luca asks.

"The same thing you're looking at, probably," I say.

Declan brings her wrist to his mouth and licks it clean, then offers it to the friend to do the same. She hesitates, and Declan reaches out and runs his thumb over her lips to part them, whispering something in her ear. Then, she lowers her mouth to her friend's wrist while Declan strokes her hair.

"Is it making you wet?" Luca whispers into my ear. "It's making me hard."

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