Page 27 of Love Bites
"This wasn't made to share."
"Fine." I managed not to roll my eyes at Talon, but it was a close call. What was I doing dreaming about a man who wouldn't even share his wine with me? "I'll get my own then." I turned to the bartender, who was polishing glasses at the other end of the bar, but before I could speak, my vision went weird.
Colors exploded before my eyes.
Clouds of deep blue and screaming red and a yellow so loud I had to squeeze my eyes shut against it. Thankfully, comforting darkness greeted me behind my eyelids.
Was I losing my mind?
Had there been something in the drink? Was that why Talon hadn't wanted to share?
Figured he'd be some sort of junkie. Just my luck.
Snapping my eyes open again, I whirled around to Talon to demand an explanation, but the colors were still there and disoriented me. On closer inspection, they weren't like clouds, not really. They seemed to stick to people like halos. But why? I looked around the bar. It was the same everywhere. All the people sitting at the tables or dancing on the floorglowedin various colors. If they moved too fast, they left behind traces, like mist in the air.
"Collin?" Talon tried getting my attention. I must have looked pretty stupid, sitting there with my mouth hanging open. "Collin, are you okay?"
Was I? Probably not. It wasn't only the colors either. My upper left arm burned too. "What did you put in that drink?" I asked, focusing back on Talon—who for some weird reason, didnotglow. Maybe because he'd been drinking the same stuff? There must have beensomethingin there. All of a sudden, I felt the strong urge to throw up whatever I'd just ingested. My stomach was totally on board with that plan too. After all, my stomach was a total pro at this by now. This was what we had been training for.
I jumped from my chair and made a dash for the bathroom. Once there, I threw open the stall door, fell on my knees in front of the porcelain throne and did everything just as I'd been practicing so often over the past month.
The sounds I made weren't musical.
The evacuation of my stomach took up so much of my attention that I never even noticed when someone else entered the bathroom after me until I felt a hand on my back.
"I told you it would make you sick, Sparkles."
Leaning up from the toilet bowl, I wiped my mouth. "Really not in the mood for a lecture right now." Besides, it hadn't been the drink. Not really. I'd been sick on and off for weeks. Not that Talon needed to know.
"I can see that." Talon rubbed my back, which was kind of nice. Surprising too, considering he'd tried to ice me out at first. Guess I was just too irresistible after all. Especially in this particular pose.
"What was in that wine?" I asked again, reaching up to flush the evidence of my sickness down the drains.
"Not something you were meant to drink."
"Stop the cryptic shit." I rubbed my eyes. "It's some kind of drug, right? It made me see colors. Are you seeing colors?"
"Colors?"
"The people..." I nodded back at the main area of the club. "They glowed." Slowly, I stood up, still feeling a bit queasy. "You didn't glow though," I added, looking at Talon who was regarding me with a curious expression.
"I didn't drug you," he said, but I barely listened because I got the feeling he wasn't about to explain anything. Instead, I rolled my shirt sleeve up to inspect my arm. Luckily the burning had stopped and there was no mark. At least not aside from my birth mark. I rubbed my finger over it as if to make sure that everything was still exactly as it should be. Birth marks weren't supposed to burn, were they?
It had never troubled me before, in any case.
"What is that?" Talon's voice had turned sharp. He was studying my birth mark with narrowed eyes. My dad's words came back to me.Never show that to anyone.His warnings had always seemed so ridiculous. Who would care about a stupid birth mark?
Talon obviously cared, though. His naturally pale complexion had gone a shade lighter.
"It's just a birth mark," I said. "I've always had it."
I made to roll my sleeve back down, but Talon stopped me before I could, laying his finger on the mark as if tracing it would help him derive some sort of meaning from it. "I've seen this one before." He spoke so softly I wasn't sure I'd heard him right.
"Where did you see it?" I asked.
"Roll your sleeve back down," Talon said instead of responding to my question. "You shouldn't let anyone see that."
"You're starting to sound like my dad. It's just a stupid birth mark."
