Page 127 of The Devil We Crave
But now Adrik is standing, and the look on his face islethal. I shiver, but then I realize he’s not looking at us anymore butpastus. I turn, frowning when I see Jude standing in the doorway to the massive space, grinning sadistically with his arms folded over his chest.
“Your cousin creeps me out!” Arianna yells over the pounding loud music, also looking at Jude. “Sorry, but I always feel like he’s trying to orchestrate some elaborate plan to make me disappear whenever I’m in the same room as him.”
“I think everyone feels that way with Jude,” I giggle. “He’s harmless, he just?—”
Before I can finish my sentence, Jude’s arms suddenly drop from across his chest. He raises his fists in a fighting stance as a big, tattooed, bare-chested guy smashes into him, sending them both crashing to the ground.
Kirill.
I gasp, feeling the shift in the air buzzing over my skin as Kirill and my cousin start to punch the shit out of each other. A bunch of people swarm them, yanking them apart. Jude’s grinning like a psycho with blood dripping from his mouth.
I turn to Ari. “I should go help him.”
She nods. “I’ll come, too.”
I shake my head. “No, stay with them!” I nod my chin at the rest of our friends, lost in their own trance-like dancing. Lucia is guzzling a bottle of water, and Wren is grinning from ear to ear as she runs her hands over her own tits.
Arianna frowns. “Yeah, that…might be a good idea.”
Still feeling like the air is caressing my skin and that my dress is the most erotic thing I’ve ever felt, I rush over to my cousin.
“Juuuuude,” I frown, kneeling next to where he’s sitting on the floor.
“Cousin,” he grunts.
“Yourfaaaace,” I pout. I gingerly touch the red swelling near his eye. But then, without even thinking about it, I start to, well,pethim.
Jude winces a little, then his eyes narrow. “Fuck,” he growls.
“Whaaaat?” I giggle.
“Have you been drinking?”
I shrug. “Aliiittle?”
His jaw tightens. “The absinthe?”
I grin enthusiastically. “Jude, it’ssogood?—”
“Shit,” he hisses. “Yelena, you need to get home, now.”
I snort, shaking my head. “No freaking way! I’m having too muchfuuuuun?—”
“Yeah, because you’re on fucking molly.”
My face scrunches up. “Who?”
“Molly,” he grunts. “As in MDMA.” He rolls his eyes at my confused expression. “Lena, you’re on ecstasy. Like, a lot of it.”
I blink, shaking my head. “Oh, I don't think so.”
He winces as he pinches the bridge of his bleeding nose. “Trust me, you are.”
“Stay here!” I yell over the music, springing to my feet. “I’m gonna get you tissues for your nose!”
“Lena—”
But I feel like I’m on amission, so I don’t even hear most of what he yells about the absinthe as I rush off to the bathroom.
