Prey

Chapter 61

Xander's POV:

This ball was so close to being halfway done and yet it felt like I'd been here for days at this point.

Time felt as if it was stretching just in another show to mock me, knowing how badly I wanted this night to end quickly.

It felt as if the universe was taunting me.

One out of numerous instances tonight.

Another being that out of all of the glasses of blood, the random assortment is being carried through this crowd... Every single one I picked just so happened to be AB positive.

It just so happened to be hers.

A 12.5% chance every time I grabbed one, and every single time the odds were against me.

And it just kept getting more and more ridiculous with the abundance of blood I've had tonight to attempt to keep myself calm.

Another constant reminder. Toying with the fact that all I wanted right now was to leave and return to Doe.

To pour my heart out with all of the unmistakable realizations that finally came to light tonight.

Now that the strange pull Layla had on me had been severed, and I could see things as they really were.

How everyone around me could see it, and yet I was blinded by a greed and longing that never should have been there in the first place.

Neither of which I should have handed over to her so easily.

I was stuck trying to reach an ending that I now realize was never there.

And how easily, how guiltlessly she played with that. How she strung me along as nothing but a puzzle piece in her plan.

And how Doe shouldn't have had to play into any part of it, to begin with.

Part of that played into why I wanted to return to her so badly.

To apologize from the deepest part of me about everything that's happened to her prior.

I still didn't expect her forgiveness, but I needed her to know.

She and Nico, but she took first priority in this matter.

I may have ruined Nico's relationship, but I ruined her entire life and it showed.

No matter how well she tried to hide it, it showed.

My eyes drew up to the large clock on the back wall, showing me that only a minute had passed since I last checked.

Again, time was forcing me to taste and swallow drip upon bitter drip of the guilt and sorrow, giving me plenty of itself to focus and dwell on it.

A reality check, I guess you could call it.

A wake-up call on just how much fixing I had to do.

Another second at the clock, and I realized that it was nearly time for the third dance of the night.

My gaze fell to Layla who'd been talking for... actually, pretty much the whole night.

I couldn't only force myself to pay attention to it for about twenty minutes before her voice just blended in with the background and I caught myself zoning out.

Nico looked to be in the same boat that I was in if the way he was just watching the blood swirl in his glass told me anything.

They shared the first two dances, per her request. Which I didn't find myself caring in the slightest.