Reid scrambled to his feet and raced down the road, running as fast as he could away from the scene of the crime, and before any of the residents of the stirring houses would notice that he was the one who had done this.
Even he was confused as to what at happened... as he explained to the Tyler and Caleb back at the Danvers Estate.
"I was completely fine, I swear," he assured Caleb. "One minutes I was using fine and then- well, you heard me!"
"That's exactly how Pogue described what happened to him," Tyler explained.
"We'll tell you what we told him," Caleb said very seriously. "No more Using. At all. I mean, straight up, cold turkey. This has become entirely too risky."
"Yeah, no shit," Reid mumbled. Caleb looked at him with that one look he loved to give him, one that said he was wondering whether he dared to ask or not, because he feared the answer, but he knew he must, especially when it came to Reid. He sighed quite loudly, and then asked the dreaded question.
"Did anyone see you when you lost it, Reid?"
"Oh, what does it matter?" Reid challenged lamely. "Aaron and his boys were way too drunk to remember anything."
"Why were you Using on Aaron and his lackies?" Tyler asked.
"Besides the obvious, that is," Caleb added on.
"No reason besides they deserved it," Reid lied naturally in his usual illusory way. He thought it better to keep the fact that he had been protecting Elle to himself for now, in case he made Tyler freak about it.
"Are you sure about that?" Caleb pressed, notably not convinced.
Reid looked at Caleb like he couldn't believe he was asking him the same question twice. Just like Caleb had that time when all along it had really been Chase Using, not him.
"Yes, I'm sure," Reid said, making sure Caleb knew this was not something to push any further.
Truthfully, if it had been just Caleb standing over him asking the question, or even Pogue, he would have told the truth. But the fact that his competition was standing right there next to him made him reluctant to do so.
Caleb's cell phone rang then, and he turned away from them to answer it.
"Hey, Sarah. What's u-" he stopped in mid-sentence, as if she had cut him off. He listened intently for a moment, then his gaze fell on Reid.
"What?" Reid asked innocently.
"Thanks for the heads-up," Caleb said to his phone, then ended the call and went to the nearby television. Reid's heart began to thumb nervously as Caleb flipped the channels. He had a feeling Caleb wasn't looking for his favorite late night show right about now.
He stopped on the news, which confirmed to Reid that this was not good for him. The screen showed the street he had been on last night, complete with the gaping hole and overthrown trees and cars. A newswoman was reporting it with intensity, talking quickly and clearly.
"—large rounded hole, as you can see here. This mysterious bomb appears to be the cause of a severe nearby accident involving drunken teenagers, who were the explosion's sole witnesses. They were found thrown from their cars just near where the explosion occurred. Their recollection of the events were hazy, but none hazier than the seemingly drugged girl who was found among them."
Elle next appeared on the screen, her eyes droopy and she was holding her head as if fully bewildered. A doctor was nearby, checking her over for her well-being.
"God!" Tyler exclaimed. "That's Elle!"
"I can see that, Tyler," Caleb told him coldly, distress evident in his voice, but his eyes glued to the TV.
"Police claim the girl was given an unidentified 'date rape' drug, and have taken the three boys into custody. As for the explosion, state law enforcement assures us that it is not in any way a terrorist attack or of a related nature."
Next the screen showed a slim cop, who took them over to Aaron's thrashed white Tundra, and pointed to several odd dents.
"I've never seen an explosion that punches baseball sized dents into only one side of the vehicle," the cop explained. "Or that tore off the side door to the backseat, and not the front or any others that would seem more plausible. As soon as those boys get sober, we hope to get to the bottom of this."
The newswoman appeared again.
"The police promise worried local residents that they will surely give us more information soon, but as for now, the Old Fir Road has been currently blocked off until further notice."
Caleb's fists were clenched by now, his shoulders raised with extreme tension. He turned to Reid as if holding back from exploding himself. Tyler didn't appear much different, but he had much less guts to confront Reid himself, but rather stood near to Caleb in support of whatever he was about to say.
"So they got their shorts in a bunch, big deal," Reid defended before Caleb even spoke. "They don't know where it actually came from, and they never will. Like I said, Aaron's boys were too drunk-"
"AND WHAT IF THEY AREN'T, REID?" Caleb shouted. "WHAT THEN, HUH?"
"She was in trouble, you moron! I couldn't just-"
Caleb's voice lowered darkly and he went on like he didn't even hear Reid.
"I'll tell you what then," he said. "The Covenant will be over. Three hundred years of silence will be undone and you did it ALL FOR A GIRL?"
"What, you think I planned this?" Reid said, getting in Caleb's face.
"I do," Tyler spoke up for the first time in that conversation. "I never thought you would stoop this low, Reid."
"What the hell are you blabbering about, Tyler?" Reid insisted. Where Tyler would normally recoil when Reid used that tone of voice with him, today Tyler would not.
"You went off with Abbott's boys, got blazing drunk, used your powers to drug Elle, then booked it to find a place to gang bang her."
"That's an awful lot of assumptions there, Tyler," Reid said, going in Tyler's face next. "You prepared to back that up, baby boy?"
"I believe him, Tyler," Caleb said reluctantly to the youngest of the Sons.
Both Reid and Tyler turned to Caleb with surprise.
"What?" they said in unison.
"There wouldn't be dents in the truck like that if he wasn't fighting with Abbott," Caleb admitted wisely. "I think he really was trying to help Elle."
"Believe me," Reid said to Tyler. "I wouldn't need the almighty Power to get in Elle's pants, Sims."
"That's bullshit," Tyler said with a violent shove, pushing Reid away from him with disgust. Caleb was immediately between them, facing Reid before he shoved Tyler back.
"Hey," he warned to calm him down. "Cut it out, you guys."
Caleb had not seen so much courage or passion in Tyler before; especially against the Covenant brother he feared and respected the most. Caleb understood then, that this girl must mean a great deal to him. As for Reid, he wasn't entirely convinced that his intentions with Elle were pure, since usually when it came to girls he would screw them, and screw them over. It was why he had developed such a bad reputation with the girls around the dorms, so Reid hadn't gotten a girl from Spenser since Junior year. They had this inclination that anyone who slept with Reid would get the rep of a common slut.
"Guys, we all need to get some sleep," Caleb said with a sigh of frustration. "We have classes in the morning. We'll finish this when Pogue gets out tomorrow."
Elle watched as the doctor looked her over in the actual office, as the police had ordered to identify the date drug. The doctor sighed after each test he ran, then he would ask more questions, and go away and then come back again and do the same thing over again.
"I'm sorry," he said at last to her. "I've done everything I possibly could, but you have no signs of any drug in you, my dear. You are completely clean."
"What?" Elle said with surprise. "How can that be?"
"I agree, it's extremely odd, my dear," he replied. "I'll let you know as soon as I get the other test results in."
She nodded and hopped of the pleather examination bed still feeling slightly woozy from the night's events. How could she not have been drugged? She felt like she had just gone to La La Land and back, and awakened solely by a voice...
As Elle exited the hospital building to seek out her car in the parking complex, she began to remember that voice... she had recognized the voice...
Then she remembered a glowing figure with golden hair, eyes as dark as night staring over her like a guardian angel with the eyes of a demon.
She stopped in the middle of the dark parking complex, keys in one hand, the other to her forehead.
"Reid?" she wondered aloud.