Chapter 5
-V. K.
Its been 2 weeks since I was bit. A very uneventful 2 weeks. We've gone on a few missions but they were mostly just scavenging missions.
We just got back from another scavenging mission. Jared runs up beside me and stops me. "There's a party tonight on the 5th floor. you in?"
"Sure." I smile at him before heading to my room to clean off.
After my shower, I dig through my droors to find a decent party outfit. I find a nice black, short cocktail dress and get dressed. I remember finding the dress on a scavenger mission when I was at the sanctuary in Los Angelos. I had to hide it from my parents, they wouldn't approve of it.
The party's already started by the time I'm ready so I head straight there.
When the elevator doors open, music floods down the hall. Well that was easy to find.
There's flashing lights that light the dark room but its easy to see how large the crowd is. The room is very large and has a dance floor in the middle. There's a DJ booth on the opposite side of the room from where I am, and a bar on the side wall. Many of the women from the sanctuary have joined, and most of the soldiers are here as well.
"Hey, you made it!" Jared smiles and hands me a cup full of beer.
"Jared, who are you talk--" Carter freezes when he recognizes me. Okay I know I actually look like a girl for once, but come on man its obviously still me. I roll my eyes and his eyes graze over me. "Wow.." He shakes his head, recognition coming back to him. "Who would have thought you could look like a girl?"
I laugh and eye him up and down. He's wearing a tight, black button up and dark jeans. "And who would of thought you owned anything with buttons on it?"
"And hey, Jared's here too!" Jared waves his hand in front of us. I laugh and drink the beer he gave me.
"You look nice too Jared haha."
"Well duh." He smiles and adds, "have fun kids. I'm gonna go get laid." He walks off and my nose scrunches in disgust.
Carter laughs, "Yeah, no he's not."
Shouting from across the room catches my attention as men have beer chugging competitions. I turn to Carter and smile. "I'm so going to beat you!" I've been drinking on the DL for years and I've come to master the art, in my professional opinion.
"Someone's cocky." Well maybe a little.. "You're on." He leads the way over to the table where the contest is. There's 2 teams, 4 people on each side of the table and one cup of beer placed in fromt of them. Whichever person at the end finishes first, after all the other members have gone their turn, that team wins.
Me and Carter end up on the end of course, so we're going head to head.
"Ready... Set... Go!"
The first 2 guys in the line go up against each other and as soon as the one on my side finishes, the next in our line goes. So far we're in the lead and the first guy finished before the one across from him on Carter's team. When the person beside me takes his turn, he's slower and Carter's team catches up. Both finish at the same time and me and Carter yank our cups up.
I chug it down smoothly, taking large gulps and I don't come up for air not once.
I slam the cup down and Carter does as well. I at the judge beside me and he takes my arm, raising it up. "We have the winners!"
I jump up and laugh. "Ha! Told you so!"
"Bet you can't match me shot for shot!" I can tell he's very competitive, but so am I so there is no way I'm not accepting this challenge.
"You're on!" I make my way over to the bar. "A round of Jack Daniels for me and this sore loser." I point at Carter as he walks up and he glares. "Aww don't be a baby. I'm just very good at what I do."
"And where'd you learn to drink like that?"
"Dude. Its the apocalypse. There's nothing else to do, you might as well drink." I pick up my shot and hand him his. "Cheers, loser." I laugh and clink my glass into his. The liquid burns the back of my throat as I gulp it down in a single go.
When our 7th shot comes around, it turns into a neither-win situation. "I think I'd better stick to beer." I gulp down the last shot and go get a cup of beer from the keg.
The room sways and the music buzzes in my ears as the alcohol takes its toll. Carter grabs a cup of beer and sips on it, watching the people dance on the floor. Their bodies grinding and closing all space between one another.
Setting my beer down at the bar, I walk straight out to the floor.
"Wanna dance?" I turn around to see an unfamiliar face. "I'm Derek."
"I'm Katrina. Sure, I'll dance." I smile and he leads me further into the crowd. My body sways along to the music and his body moves behind mine. His hips move in sync with mine but every once in awhile he's a little off.
"So where are you from?" He leans down into my ear so that I can hear him.
"Italy." I don't like small talk, especially when I'm lying about who I am here. But the boy continues asking things like how long have you been here? Why'd you leave? What's it like in Italy? Its beginning to get on my nerves.
The song plays out and I turn to face him. "Can you do me a favor and get me my drink from the bar over there?"
"Anything for you, cutie." He walks off through the crowd. Finally. I look around to try and get out but there's people everywhere in the way. I almost find and opening when a tap on my shoulder causes me to turn around. Derek smiles and holds up my drink. "Bottoms up." I'm gonna need it if I have to keep dancing with you. I smile but its fake, as I take the drink and chug the rest.
"Mind if I cut in?" Adam, a boy from my team, intercepts me. Thank God. Derek backs off and I start dancing with Adam. "You seemed a bit annoyed."
"очень."
"Uh, what?"
I laugh and cover my mouth with my hand. I didn't even know I was talking in Russian, its almost an instinct especially when I'm irritated. "Sorry, I didn't even know I wasn't speaking in english. It happens sometimes. I said, very."
He laughs and we finish out the dance. And then I start to feel a little uncomfortable. With every guy I dance with. Its like I don't even wan't to dance with them.
But then something shocking happens. And he was the only one that made it feel right.
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-Carter
When I saw her in that dress my heart stopped and froze me in my place. My throat felt tight and I could hardly speak. I've never seen something so beautiful. But I quickly had to snap out of it.
The bite marks on her neck have healed to 2 small scars. The claw marks haven't yet tho, but her stitches don't look bad and its still small. Only about 2 inches per claw and it wasn't deep, thank God.
And then I can't believe she beat me at chugging beer. Can I not just win with this woman??
We both had to call a quits from the shots as it started to hit us both real quickly.
I watched as she was tossed from guy to guy to dance with. My blood starts to boil but I shake my head at the feeling.
And then I just can't fight it. I walk to the dance floor with determination. I stop right as I get up to Katrina. "My turn." I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her to me.
"quello era cattivo."
"English?"
"Shit! Sorry, I did it again! Except it wasn't Russian this time." She giggles and places her hand over her mouth.
"Italian?" I think that's what it was. "Wait what'd you say? How many languages do you speak?"
"I said, that was mean. And I speak 4. Italian, German, Russian, and French. My family was from all over the place." She shrugs and I smile. She continues to amaze me.
I start to move to the beat of the song and she does the same. She turns around so her backs against my chest and she closes the distance between us. She's very good. Very, very, good..
I shove the dirty thoughts out of my mind and focus on her. My hands move down to her hips as they sway to the beat and mine do the same. She looks so beautiful in that dress, I couldn't resist myself from at least touching her once tonight. I gave into temptation instead of distancing myself like I had planned to.
She turns to face me and closes all distance between us until her chest is against mine. Our hips meet perfectly, although I practically tower over her, she just has long legs. Very nice ones too..
The alcohol must be getting to me as the thoughts keep creeping in my mind.
She smiles up at me and I lean my forehead on hers.
And just as I was about to lean in further, the song ends.
"You're really good." She smiles and pulls back.
"You're even better."
She freezes and looks around like she's lost. "I um.. I.. I feel weird.." She turns around and the first boy she danced with approaches with concern.
"Katrina, you don't look so good. You should lie down, I think you might have had too much to drink." He gives a sympathetic smile. "Here, I'll take you to your room." He reaches for her hand but I pull her up against my chest.
"I'll take care of her." I stare daggers into the boys eyes. His expression changes from concern to fear.
"Sure dude." He backs away and leaves the dance floor.
Katrina turns to look at me. "My.. my cup.."
"You don't need anymore alcohol. Come on, I'll take you back." I gently tug her but she doesn't move.
"No.. I left my cup on the bar.. I.. I think it was drugged.." She stumbles, very wabbly as she tries to move around. My blood runs cold and I step into action. Just in time as her legs buckle beneath her and I'm the only thing holding her up.
It looks like I have her dipped, in some dance move. For a moment, we lock eyes and its like the world stops all around us. No more loud music or people. Just us. As things catch up to me, I slowly pull her back up to stand. But our eyes never break contact.
"Carter.." Just as she's about to say something, her body buckles again and her head falls back as she passes out.
Great.
Sighing, I scoop her up bridal style and carry her away from the party. Her head falls back, letting her hair all flow down below. Its so long it almost reaches my knees.
I step into the elevator and mash the button for our floor. As it moves, I adjust her head on my shoulder so she's more comfortable. "You're going to be okay. I promise."
Her room is locked when I get there and I sigh. Balancing her, I pull out the keys to my room and unlock the door. Hopefully she doesn't get any wrong ideas..
She makes a mumbling sound and I turn my attention to her after closing the door. "Kat?"
Her eyes blink slightly and her voice is quiet, barely above a whisper as she speaks. "Ne me quittez pas, s'il vous plaît." Her eyes close again, leaving me clueless. French this time.
"Where's google translate when you need it?" Sighing, I carry her to my room. I lay her on the bed and pull her shoes off for her. Then I place the blanket over her before taking my place in the chair in the bedroom.
The night had been a rollercoaster. Seeing her in that dress was a great start, and although I lost in the competition I still had fun. Seeing her dance with those boys was miserable, but dancing with her myself was amazing. And for a second, I thought I was going to kiss her.
But she got drugged. Way to ruin a moment.
The dance plays over and over again in my mind until I slowly begin to drift off to sleep.