Intertwined

Axel's Morning After

"I'm hungry."

I resist the urge to bang my head against the window. "Noa, I thought we agreed that you were going to sleep."

She hits my headrest as a response.

In any other situation, seeing Will and Noa high out of their minds would be hilarious considering how serious they usually are. Right now, I'm worried—who knows what happened while Landon and I were gone?

Landon takes one hand off the steering wheel to grab mine. "Hey, it's okay. Once we get them home to Will's parents, we can figure out what happened."

"Wait a second," Will slurs. "If I'm not driving, who is?"

Noa coughs. "If you're driving, pull into that McDonald's drive through."

"I'm not! Landon, I swear to god, quit driving my car or I'm gonna get angry."

"Oh my fucking— We can never let them touch a drop of alcohol or any kind of drugs, ever," Landon swears. "They are the most annoying people I've ever met while intoxicated."

"Quit being a little bitch, Landon," Will and Noa snap at the same time.

Insane. All it took to get them to get along was a spiked drink.

Finally, Landon pulls into the driveway.

"I'll get Will, you get Noa."

I nod and get out of the car. When I open the back door and try to pull Noa out, she starts yelling.

"No, I'll die if I lose Will!"

I hate her. I hate her and whoever decided to ruin my night by drugging her.

Landon has even less luck than I do. He spends only a minute wrestling with Will before he throws his hands up.

"Go get his parents," he asks, exasperated.

I run inside to where Will's parents are sitting in the living room.

"You're back early," Jocelyn comments. "Is everything okay?"

"Someone slipped something into Will and Noa's drink." I pause to catch my breath. "We drove here as soon as possible and they won't get out of the car."

They both jump up and rush out. Will and Noa are both asleep in the backseat.

"Do you have any idea of who did it?" Mr. Augustus questions as he pulls Will out of the car.

I shake my head. "We just found them like this on Quinn's front porch."

"Vampires don't go down that easily," he says. "Whoever it was must have been going after Will and Noa got struck in the crossfire."

Jocelyn sighs and pushes her hair back with her hand. "We can't figure anything out right now. Let's just let them sleep it off and figure everything out in the morning, okay?"

We all follow Jocelyn's suggestion—Mr. Augustus and Landon drop them off in Will's room. After I finish my night routine, I go to Landon's room instead of my own.

"Hey," Landon says as I walk in, "You good?"

I sigh. "Yeah. I'm not the one who got drugged, so. How about you?"

Landon swallows and looks down. "Mr. Augustus was right. Born vampires like Will process things much faster than Noa—there aren't many things that could've gotten him like that."

I join Landon under the covers and curl up next to him. "So what are you saying?"

"Did you ever see Noa get a cup from the punch bowl? The only person other than us that Noa would trust to take a drink from is Will."