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vi

. . .

The slamof the heavy front door jerked me awake. I pushed myself onto my elbows with a groan, dragging a hand through my sweaty, knotted hair.

Finally, I’d found a perk to eternal night. No sunlight streaming through the windows to stoke the flames of my hangover-induced headache.

Fuck all those drinks last night; it felt like my head was going to pop clean off.

Kaylee whined beside me, pulling the thick duvet over her head. “Shut up, Vi! I’m dying!”

We were so drunk when we got home that we’d stripped and just piled into bed to gossip and giggle until we fell asleep. I figured I’d move to the couch eventually, but if Kaylee felt half as shit as I did, she’d forgive me for sleeping it off on her far comfier mattress.

The clatter of keys and rustle of plastic bags came from the kitchen, followed by the tantalising smell of chicken fried rice, making my empty stomach growl.

“Vi! Kaylee!” Danny called, their heavy footfalls sounding closer as they approached. “You can’t still be in bed! I know yousent some crazy texts last night, butcome on! You can’t bethathungover—it’s almost time for the game!”

Fuck. I’d totally forgotten that the Nightwalkers were playing today.

“It’s like three o’clock, Danny! We only went to bed at seven!” Kaylee whisper-shouted, the noise enough to make me wince.

I flopped back down against the mattress with a groan to find Kaylee had firmly taken ownership of my borrowed pillow, hugging it against her as she screwed up her face against the streetlights. “So bright.”

Danny pulled the covers off us, giving my leg a shake. “Up you get!”

“I’m a corpse. I can’t get up,” I groaned.

“‘Oh, come on, Vi. What is this? Finals week?” they asked, moving onto Kaylee and tickling the underside of her foot.

“I’m up!” Kaylee gasped, jumping out of bed and throwing herself into the en suite with speed a vampire would’ve envied. She slammed the door behind her, the question dying on my tongue as the sound of her retching came from behind the wood.

Gross.

But hey, at least I had my pillow back. I dove for it, curling back up despite the lack of covers.

Maybe I could get just a few more minutes of sleep…

Danny snorted a laugh, leaning against the doorframe.

“You had fun last night?”

“I think so,” I mumbled. “Everything got fuzzy after I drank five of whatever Ren made us. Kaylee had at least six.” I rolled over to look at my sibling more clearly. “Leave me here to die.”

“Not a chance! I stopped by The Howling Dragon on the way here. Your hangover is nothing that can’t be fixed with some egg rolls.”

Kaylee, looking a little worse for wear, chose that moment to open the door. “Danny, you—” Her eyes widened, and the door slammed shut again, the retching returning with a vengeance.

I fixed a flat stare at them, my eyebrow raised to sayI told you so.

“I saidyourhangover, Vi. Let's leave Kaylee to suffer.”

“Dickhead,” she whined through the door, though her indignation was seriously undermined by the sound of her gagging.

With immense effort and bravery, I forced myself to sit up only to find my phone dead on my bedside table—right beside the charger.

Way to go, drunk Vi, you fucking asshole.

I plugged it in and pulled my hair into a messy knot on the top of my head, securing it with the yellow scrunchie I kept around my wrist.