Free Save Me by Natasha Preston Page A

run. Sophie and Adam only knew of them, but they thought it was strange that Mum and Ava wanted to spend time with them, too.
    I took a deep breath and looked up. They were all there, speaking to Ava. Lucas was doing a bad job of pretending he hadn’t seen me already. Why him? Why did I have to like him?
    Finally, when he must have felt it was long enough, he looked over and o ur eyes met. He gave me a small, almost sad smile and I felt guilty. I hated that. I didn’t want to feel anything. I wanted to stay in the zombie state indefinitely.
    “I’m gonna go say hi,” I said to Adam and Sophie. They nodded, watching the Daniels with interest.
    Me and Lucas had agreed to be friends so I should treat him like one, that involved actually talking to him face to face. With that in mind, I poured two glasses of the punch and walked over, handing him a cup.
    “Much better than beer,” I said, smiling.
    He gave me a breathtaking smile and his blue eyes warmed. “Yeah? What’s in it?” he asked, looking into the cup and frowning. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the most appealing colour. It was red when Mum made it but when I’d added more alcohol and then a bit more still it kinda went a light orange-pink colour.
    “I’ll tell you after you’ve tried it.”
    He narrowed his eyes at me. “Poison?”
    Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the cup out of his hand, took a sip and gave it back. My God, there was a lot of alcohol in there, burning as it slid down my throat. I managed not to pull a face, though. “There. Satisfied?”
    “Fine,” he said and brought the cup up to his lips. “Shit, Tegan, what the hell is in it?” he asked, turning his nose up.
    “Just a little vodka,” I replied.
    “A little!”
    Alright, this was going well. We could do the friend thing.
    I introduced Lucas, Grace and Jake to Adam and Sophie but before long Jake had gone off to sit with his dad in the living room and Grace was integrated into Ava’s group of friends. That was fine by me, I got the impression that Lucas’ s brother and sister weren’t my biggest fans.
    I felt myself relaxing around Lucas even more. He could be a little intense and wasn’t at all subtle but that wasn’t exactly a bad quality. It just wasn’t what I needed right now.
    Sophie’s eyebrow raised when Kai walked into the kitchen. The little cow was definitely loving the tension so I had a feeling Kai turning up was like Christmas to her.
    “Hey,” Kai said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and smiling at me. He so had that cheeky, almost bad boy, image about him.
    “Hey back. Want a drink?”
    “Boring one, please, I’m driving.”
    I grabbed Kai a coke and he joined us around the kitchen island.
    “Lucas, this is Kai. Kai, Lucas.”
    “Hey,” Kai said.
    Lucas’ s hi was no more than a grunt. Things had finally settled down so I really didn’t want the evening to get awkward. I felt like I should explain to Kai who Lucas was but I hadn’t told him about my dad yet and I didn’t want to have that conversation right now. Or ever, actually.
    “I like the addition,” I said, pointing to the healing birds on Kai’s arm.
    “Thanks,” he replied.
    I downed the last of my drink and got a refill. Maybe I should have thought through inviting Kai. He was the one person that didn’t know what had happened. He was the only person I had in my life that I didn’t see sympathy from. That was so valuable to me and if someone said something or if he overheard that could be gone.
    I drank some more.
    After the third cold look from Lucas to Kai I was ready to leave. I was friends with both of them so there shouldn’t be any hostility. Lucas bloody agreed when we spoke by text that we’d give friendship a try, despite the unusual circumstances. I was not getting involved in any cheesy love triangle.
    Grace and Ava came back into the room for more wine and stopped beside me and Kai. “So how do you two know each other?” Grace asked, pointing to Kai. What the hell