Shattered

Chapter 10: Paranoia

Violet's POV:

"I do not mean to scare you, but there's winter in my bones. And when life becomes too heavy, you can hear my glaciers groan." – Erin Hanson

Singing was nerve-wracking but not the end of the world. What made me even more nervous was Lola inviting Kaden, Tess and Xander over to my apartment for drinks and games afterwards so we could 'continue the party'. I wanted to smack her when she invited them like it was nothing. People weren't supposed to know where my apartment was and I was pissed at Lola for inviting them without asking me. I had to drag her to the bathroom afterwards just so I could yell at her properly.

"Take them to your backup apartment," she shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal.

"I can't," I said, narrowing my eyes at her. "Kaden's already seen this one."

"Well whose fault is that?" Lola asked, throwing her arms up.

I glared at her but the truth was it was my fault. I should never have brought Kaden to my real apartment, I should never have offered the book. Now I was stuck with letting three strangers know where I lived and I was getting increasingly suspicious of Xander.

"You should tell them I'm sick or something," I said, shaking my head. "We don't know shit about them and what the hell was that?" I asked, gesturing vaguely to where they probably were outside the bathroom. "There's no fucking way he just heard Alek mention a brother over all that bar noise."

"What?" Lola sighed, her shoulders slumping. I could tell by her posture she was tired of my paranoia but this was more than paranoia.

"He was sitting on the opposite end of the table, Lola," I reminded her. "There's no fucking way he heard Alek. And then Tess just casually dropping in like 'oh yeah I heard it too'. That was an act."

"Do you actually hear yourself?" Lola asked. "Do you seriously not realize how insane you sound?"

"Lo, it's not fucking possible," I repeated. "You didn't hear Alek say anything and you were right next to me."

"I also wasn't paying attention," she said, throwing her arms up. "This is ridiculous. They are coming over, end of story. Chill out, Violet, Jesus."

"I can't have three people knowing where I live," I argued.

"You said yourself Kaden knows already," she shrugged. "What's going to stop him from telling them?"

"There is something off about them," I said, crossing my arms.

"Okay," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "No, I see what you mean," she started and I rolled my eyes. She was about to make fun of my paranoia. "Let's break it down, what do we know about them?"

"Lola," I sighed.

"No, really, let's think about this," she said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Okay, well, we know they're all ridiculously good looking, now we're guessing they may have a heightened sense of hearing..."

"This isn't funny," I said, narrowing my eyes at her.

"Wait a second," she said, grabbing my hand with feigned dramatics. "Have you had physical contact with Kaden? Was he... Cold?"

"I swear to God, don't fucking say it," I said, shaking my head.

"Vampire," she whispered, barely able to keep the smile back. "We're dealing with vampires."

"Can you take anything seriously?" I groaned.

"I don't know, Vi, can you maybe not overthink every little thing?" She countered. "Maybe he has good hearing, who knows? I spend an awful lot of time in loud clubs and you spend all day with your headphones in all loud, don't you think it's possible we've damaged our hearing a little at this point?"