Page 3 of Outbreak (Revolution X #1)
CHAPTER 2
Rue
T he music is so loud when we step inside the house; the old wooden floor vibrates beneath my boots. Someone set up some serious speakers—I can’t even think straight over the blaring beats of Paint The Town Red by Doja.
“I’m going to find Josh,” I yell, pulling Noah’s arm and spinning him to face me as the crowd swallows Mallory.
He nods at me, motioning with his free arm to lead the way. I’ll never find him in this shoulder to shoulder mess down here, so I pull Noah behind me and head for the stairs. Maybe I’ll be able to scan the people and spot him from the second floor. I remember Josh taking me upstairs the last time we were here, so I know there are bedrooms up there I can check, too.
The atmosphere is weird tonight. There’s too many people, and the energy doesn’t feel like a normal drunken party. Chaos and something unknown smothers my senses, leaving me stumbling through the crowd as my breath punches in my lungs and my heart beats wildly against my ribs.
Something is fucking off .
I’ve always been an empath, able to feel emotions and energies inside my body that don’t belong to me. It drove me crazy when I was a kid, not understanding how to process the emotions I was feeling or why. It made the foster homes real fun. The second I stepped foot in my last foster house, a black aura swallowed me up. I didn’t have trouble naming the feeling drowning me.
It was Death.
Putrid and decaying flesh imprinted into my nostrils, as if they’d filled the house with a thousand dead bodies. But there were none. Just the overwhelming presence of death in the air as they closed the door after the social worker left and led me downstairs to the basement. It was weeks before I was allowed out of the basement and into the common spaces in the house. They claimed it was for safety, and maybe I would have believed them if I couldn’t feel the energy seeping out of their pores in waves. I’m not psychic or telepathic. I just know things sometimes. Call it empathy—intuition—but it’s saved my life more times than I can count.
This feels a whole lot like that. My pulse pounds erratically in my ears, my blood whooshing through my veins with electricity that sets me on edge. Writhing bodies shove us back and forth as we push forward to the staircase. It takes everything I have to hold onto Noah’s hand so we don’t get separated. Something deep in my gut screams at me: Don’t let go!
“Hold on!” I yell back at him, gripping his hand tighter and pulling us through the masses. The tip of my boot catches on the bottom step as someone shoves past us, my face nearly smashing into the stairs, but I catch myself. “What the fuck, dude! Watch where you’re going!”
The dark hooded figure doesn’t even slow down as they race up the stairs two at a time, not letting me get a look at the asshole's face!
“Fuck sake! Are you okay?” Noah shouts, pulling me back to my feet and steadying me.
“I’m fine,” I huff, pushing my black hair out of my face and tucking the pink peek-a-boo streaks behind my ear. “What the fuck is wrong with everyone tonight?”
“Bitch, I don’t even know. It feels 50 shades of fucked up in here, though.”
Noah follows behind me as we climb to the next floor. There’s a small landing with a balcony overlooking the downstairs area. “Just help me find Josh, and then you can go hunt down your prey for the evening. If we don’t have any luck in 30 minutes, we head back to the dorms, binge-watch Vampire Diaries, and steal Mallory’s wine.”
“Deal,” he says, his shit eating grin nearly splitting his face in two.
Rolling my eyes at his fuckboy antics and shoving down the impending doom I feel in the air, we scan the crowd below for my douchey ‘boyfriend’ who couldn’t be bothered to return a fucking text message today.
“Maybe he stayed in the dorms like a good little boy?” Noah asks.
“I went by his dorm earlier, and he wasn’t there. You know if there's a party, his ass ain’t missing it.” I spot Mallory with a drink in her hand talking to some of her cheer girls, but no Josh. “I don’t see him down there. I’m going to check the rooms up here.”
Pushing off the balcony, I spin and head down the hall. I know I’ll probably see more than I bargained for up here, but trust me, I’ve seen worse in my life. Most of the doors are opened at least half way, making it easy to scan them and ignore the various stages of fucking going on inside them. The first door we pass, a redhead is riding some guy's face while another girl sucks his cock like her life depends on it. The next has two guys fucking like rabbits against the window.
“Well, if I didn’t need dick before coming up here, I sure as fuck do now,” Noah says, adjusting himself not so discreetly.
“Well, that’s because your voyeuristic ass likes to watch, bitch,” I laugh, moving past the next door after checking for Josh and not finding him. The last door left to check is shut. If he’s not here, I’m leaving. I could be in my comfy bed right now.
Trepidation fills my gut as I twist the handle and push the door open. I’m not ready for what I find.
“Oh, hell no!” Noah pushes me behind him, trying and failing to spare me the view of Josh’s very naked ass as he thrusts his dick into the knock-off Barbie bimbo spread out beneath him. He doesn’t even notice the audience he has, and it takes my brain about ten seconds to register what the fuck is going on before I let my calm rage wash over me, settling into my bones, and the familiar numb blocks out any emotions I might try to feel. This motherfucker!
“Well, ain’t this cozy?” I say, sauntering past Noah and approaching the bed. As soon as the blonde bitch’s face comes into view, I know something is well and truly wrong. “What the fuck, Josh. Stop–” My words are cut off when my eyes move to his face.
It’s like ice water rushes through my veins, and I can’t comprehend exactly what I’m seeing. Blood streams from his eyes, dripping from his chin and onto the very limp, very blue girl beneath him. “Josh! Stop!” I try to shove him aside, but the big fucker doesn’t budge or slow his thrusts into the dead girl as he growls at me like a rabid animal, spittle spraying from his mouth.
Noah rushes to my side, his hands flying into the air as he skids to a stop when he sees the blood. “What in the fuck balls is happening right now?! Is she—she’s dead?”
“Noah! Help me get him off her,” I snap.
I don’t know what’s going on, but this is just sick. Before I can touch him again to shove him off, a figure steps out of the shadows in the corner. He’s tall—like really tall, with shoulders wide enough to sit on. I can’t tell much else about him, but his aura feels dangerous—in a protective and slightly familiar way. Don’t get me wrong, the red flags are flying high, but my traitorous pussy chooses to ignore them. His hood is pulled low, and the only portion of his face that’s visible reveals the bottom half of a black and white skull mask protruding from his mouth.
“Back. Up,” a low growl vibrates from the big fucker, making my thighs clench together. I’m a seriously fucked up bitch because now is definitely not the fucking time for this. My body responds to his command on its own, and I nearly trip over Noah as I step back from my piece of shit trifling boyfriend and the dead bitch beneath him.
“I don’t know who the fuck this ‘daddy’ is, but yes, please,” Noah whispers, grabbing my shoulders and backing us up to the doorway, one slow step at a time.
“Go. Get back to the dorms… Now!” His commanding tone slithers deep into my veins, igniting a sense of familiarity that I can’t place.
Do I know him?
Noah doesn’t give me a chance to figure it out before he snatches me outside the door and practically shoves me down the stairs and into the chaos happening down here. For a moment, I wonder if I’m drunk or high, because the crowded space seems to move in slow motion and sound is distorted as I try to take in what’s happening.
The screams—the panic—all of it swirls around me, wrapping me in its frigid embrace like a cloak of icy darkness. Noah's grip on my arm never waivers, pulling me through the throngs of people, letting their faces blur as we dart outside and into the night.