Hell Flower

||9||

"So what exactly is it you want me to do?" Alex crossed his arms as he stood in the center of the bus.

We'd just take a quick stop at the side of the road so he and Jake could trade off who was driving. Much to Veronica's dismay, there hadn't been anywhere nearby to get food, so she'd gone to the back room alone to pout.

"I want you to try to read my mind." I picked at my peeling pink nail polish. "I mean, not my mind. The mind of my wolf. Maybe if you can communicate with her, you can figure out what she wants and how I can learn to work with her and communicate with her myself."

Alex glanced at where Liz and Reggie were sitting at the table together. Liz gave an encouraging nod, and Reggie shrugged.

Alex ran his hand back through his long hair as he paced the aisle of the bus. Finally, he sat down on the bench across from me.

"All right," he said. "Fine. I'll try it."

He leaned forward, resting his elbow on his knees. His blue eyes were unblinking as he examined me. He clenched his jaw, the muscles in his neck tensing. A chill rushed down my spine, and my eyes watered as I tried not to blink.

"You can blink," he said, giving me a faint smile. "It's not a staring contest."

My eyes fluttered a few times to relieve the sting. "What do I have to do?"

"Nothing," he said. "Just try not to think too much." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, his chest rising and falling as he breathed. "You're blocking her right now."

I closed my eyes and breathed in heavily, letting a long, warm exhale out through my mouth.

Stop thinking. Stop thinking.

A bead of sweat formed at the base of my neck and trailed down my back. I resisted the urge to fan myself as a wave of heat burned at my cheeks and chest like I was sitting too close to a campfire.

"Relax, Allison." Alex's voice was calm. Soothing.

I opened my eyes to find him staring at me again. I wiped my damp palms on my legs. I tried to focus on the tattoo of Cerberus I had on my right thigh. The three heads of the vicious dog stared out in all directions, forever vigilant. Their eyes were the blank white of my skin, and their mouths were wide and snarling, all teeth and no soul.

The man who gave it to me said it was a brutal tattoo for a girl to get. I told him to make it as sick and ugly as he could.

He did not disappoint me.

The bus swerved in the road, and a dizzying sensation rolled through me. My head felt like it was floating and spinning. The room was too hot.

Relax. Relax.

I repeated the thought, but everything closed in around me. The walls of the bus grew darker as they crept in. Closer and closer. They bubbled and churned, like they were covered in the bodies of thousands of tiny insects. My skin itched and burned. I scratched at it. It felt like spiders were crawling over me.

Are they really who you think they are? Can you trust them?

I tried to shake the thoughts away, but they swarmed through my head, suffocating me. My vision tunneled and faded in and out around me. Alex's face blurred as he stared at me. He was smirking. He grinned, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth that were far too big for his skull.

"Allison."

He drew closer. Too close. Heat radiated off him as he placed his hand on my neck.

I blinked, but when I opened my eyes, everything was dark. I was submerged in ink.