The Burn

Chapter 4- Lucky Girl

Vi

The sound of voices flowed around me, sounding vaguely familiar but someone had replaced my brain with scrambled eggs so I couldn't focus enough to figure out who they belonged to and why they were familiar. They were loud and angry sounding and I didn't like it. I had a headache and felt hungover and all I wanted to do was sleep it off. I couldn't remember drinking so that meant I drank too much. I don't usually drink enough to black out but it's happened a time or two. I do work in a bar with unrestricted access to alcohol and will occasionally overindulge if the mood strikes and apparently it had struck with a vengeance.

"What was a bloody Hunter doing here, in my bloody pub?" a man snapped in a posh English accent. "We don't have Hunters on this island. It's why I chose it."

"We'll never know now since Ry bit his head off!" a female cried in a shrill voice. Gods, she could be so dramatic sometimes.

"You were trying to dig your way to his heart through his back, Sunny. I don't think you have a right to throw stones right now," a man said back, voice rough and tight. I'd never heard him sound so angry before. He was usually so easy going and laid back. Even as a kid, he never got upset about anything but he was upset now.

"He was trying to eat my sister!" she screeched. "What was I supposed to do? Let him?!"

More arguing, everyone talking over each other until their voices were nothing but overly loud word soup that was quickly getting on my frayed nerves and making me feel worse. Gods, they were always arguing! And so damned loud! All the time! It was like they had no off switch.

"Will you people shut up," I snapped, rolling to my side away from them and pulling the blankets tighter around me. "You assholes are being too loud. Go bother someone else and let me sleep. Gods. You are all so annoying! Why do you think I moved out of this nut house and pay way too much for my shithole apartment?"

"Violet?" My father's voice came from behind me.

"Go away." I pulled the blankets over my head and ignored him.

"Violet!" he shouted, more forceful this time, using what the twins and I call his Dad Means Business Voice.

"What?" I snapped as I ripped the blankets off of my head and rolled back toward him, waving a hand around my head and face. "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep? My eyes are closed. I'm in bed. That means I'm trying to sleep. Have you gone daft in your old age?" A rumbling chuckle came from my other side that sounded vaguely familiar and made me feel warm in a really inappropriate place considering my dad and siblings were in the room.

"You've been asleep for eighteen hours!" Sunny screeched from somewhere near my feet.

Eighteen hours? I never sleep that long. I blinked my eyes open, vision blurry as I tried to sit up. "Fuck," I groaned as the bed started spinning. I gave up on opening my eyes and let them stay closed so the spinning would stop. My entire body hurt. My skin felt like I had a full body sunburn. Even my eyelashes hurt which was crazy because I'd never felt them before but hoo boy, was I feeling them now and they were not happy with me. My mouth tasted like someone had taken a dump in it and my left wrist throbbed with pain when I tried to put my weight on it to push myself up. I cradled it in my other hand. "Ow, ow, ow."

"Easy, lass," that sexy voice rumbled right next to me as warm hands eased me back down to the bed. A voice that I recognized. A voice that brought all of the memories of the past whatever hours back to the forefront of my scrambled egg brain.