Free Fury by Elizabeth Miles Page B

kind of cult situation. He didn’t even care. It was like being around Ty, but multiplied by ten. It was the coolest experience he’d ever had.
    “You want a drink?” Ty leaned in close to his ear so that he could hear her above the music. Chase nodded, and she was off, instantly gobbled up by the crowd. Chase stepped forward to follow her into the red haze.
I
would follow her anywhere,
he thought as the club’s smoke enveloped him.
    Knock-knock-knock.
    “Chase, are you in there?”
    He raised his head groggily from his pillow.
    His mom’s voice came from the other side of his locked door. “Chase? Good morning, sleepyhead. Come out and open presents. I made pancakes.”
    Chase looked left, right, down, and up. He was in his own bedroom. His head was pounding. He felt like he was emerging from the deepest dream of all time.
    “Chase?” She knocked again.
    “Yeah, Mom, I’m up. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
    “Hurry if you don’t want a cold breakfast.”
    Chase rolled over and stared at the ceiling. What had happened last night? He remembered entering the bar through the hidden door; slowly, more memories came floating back to him. He remembered looking around while Ty got his drink.He’d seen golden snakes inscribed on the vaulted ceilings; in the bathrooms, the faucets had been snake heads. He remembered dancing so close to Ty that her sweet-rain smell seemed implanted in his nostrils; he remembered getting totally turned on as he watched Ty and her cousins twisting and undulating together on the dance floor, shimmying in their little dresses. Or was that the snakes on the wall, which had been slithering and intertwining? The images got confused in his head.
    He didn’t remember driving home. He must have been wasted. Chase felt a shot of panic—how would he find Ty again? He swung his feet to the floor and walked to his dresser, hoping to find a scrap of paper with a phone number on it.
    Then he saw himself the mirror: a ten-digit number was scrawled in red lipstick on his face. He felt heat creeping up his neck. He was thrilled he had Ty’s number, but really, did she have to make him look like such a freak?
    And then another memory went tumbling through his mind. How he had tried to kiss her in the smoky light. How Ty had touched his face and smiled, sending a chill down his spine as she whispered, “You’ll just have to wait. I have plans for you, you know.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Em wandered through the aisles at Victoria’s Secret, touching the lacy underwear and satin bras that hung around her in lilac, turquoise, and hot pink.
    It was two days after Christmas, and her car was in the shop with a broken fender, so JD had driven her to the old mall. She was supposed to meet him for a movie in about an hour, but for now they had parted ways to redeem gift cards and shop on their own. She’d been sort of avoiding her other friends, like Fiona and Lauren. It was just too complicated after kissing Zach, and she didn’t know how to act normal anymore.
    She stopped and stared at a deep purple balconette bra covered in a fine layer of shimmery lace, with a matching thong. She’d never really owned anything like this—cheap cotton stuff from Target had done the job the few times that it hadmattered. When she dated Alex Parson freshman year, he’d taken off her shirt, and the turquoise T-shirt bra she’d been wearing underneath hadn’t really seemed to faze him one way or the other. Although last year, in a relatively steamy hookup session with Steve Sawyer, she’d stopped him from taking off her pants, less out of chastity than because she was embarrassed by her plain white bikini briefs.
    And it’s not like she was planning to do anything more with Zach. . . . It was just that she was ready to finally own some real lingerie.
    “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” a female voice said.
    Em whirled around to face a saleswoman who was looking at her intently—as though she knew Em’s