Claws (Rewritten)

Nineteen

Chloe

The rest of the night was hell. Except Daniel, we all spent our time bent over toilets and throwing up. As though we'd been drinking all night and not had just one shot. Well, some of us had more than one.

"I'm sorry for making you take two," Adelyn whined sorrowfully. We were sat on the floor in one bathroom whilst Caleb and Markus were in another down the hall.

Daniel had disappeared, and I had a feeling he was singlehandedly tracking down the hunters in that club and making them pay for ruining our night.

"That's okay. You didn't know," Markus called back to us. I could distantly hear Caleb throwing up and wished there was something I could do to help him, but I already had a pounding headache and if I tried to stand up I'd just drop.

Lyn bent over the toilet again and I leant forward to hold her hair back.

Yeah, it wasn't a fun evening.

I woke up late the next morning feeling like death. At some point Daniel had returned - wearing new clothes - and fetched us pillows and blankets, and we'd crashed on the bathroom floor.

It took everything in me to sit up, and I forced myself to take a shower, brush my teeth and wash my face with ice cold water. Every slight movement made pain shoot across my head, and the thought of catching a flight in a few hours was almost enough to make me sick again.

Wrapping a towel around me and feeling only marginally better, I left Lyn asleep on the floor and headed into the room Caleb and I shared.

There were fresh clothes on the bed for each of us, and our suitcases were packed up and set by the door.

Thank God for Daniel, the mum of the group. We wouldn't have managed without him.

I got changed into the leggings and hoodie (which was actually Caleb's but I'd stolen it with no intention of giving it back anytime soon) set out for me and went into the lounge.

Daniel was stood on the balcony, looking out at the street below with a coffee cup in his hands. He glanced back at me as I collapsed onto the sofa. "You okay?" He asked.

"Better than last night," I told him. "Thank you for packing. And for getting us out of there."

"You're very welcome."

Markus was the next person to join us, surprisingly showered, fully dressed and ready to leave. He sat down next to me and pretended to cry. "I'm in pain."

"I told Kaden about last night," Daniel said a little sheepishly.

Markus whipped around to face him and winced. "You did what?!" He exclaimed, the volume making me grimace. "Sorry," He apologised.

"Markus, you were all half-dead, I wasn't going to keep it from him. He had to know."

"Did you tell my mum?" He asked hesitantly. "Am I grounded for life?"

Daniel let out a deep breath and came over to sit next to us. "Can you believe she was actually more concerned with you being alright?"

"No."

"Well, she's not mad. Honestly it took everything in me to convince her not to take the next flight out here, but be prepared to see the whole pack at the airport when we land."

Markus covered his face with his hands and whined. "Ohh, I can't wait for that lecture."

"My dad thinks it's the new tactic for hunters to find us. They increase the alcohol content and infuse it with vervain and aconite and God knows what else. One's enough to put anyone supernatural out of action long enough for the hunters to come in and finish them off, and they scout for new recruits, there, too. They use the shots to distract the humans from what's going on so they can take and train them."