Hunters

Chapter 5

Rachel squeezed the empty shot-glass as she watched Daniel's head loll off his hand and fall on the wooden bar. He was completely wasted. Again.

He grumbled and reached for her. She placed the glass in his palm and he knocked it back, without even realizing he was drinking air.

"This shit gets weaker by the refill," he mumbled and his forehead thumped down on the bar again.

"Had enough?" Rachel asked, her tone dripping acid. "Can we do something else now?"

Daniel perched his chin in his hand, leaning one elbow on the mate wooden surface of the bar. 

"Oh, no. Night's still young. Not 'alf as drunk as I should be."

Gritting her teeth, Rachel turned on the moth-eaten stool, and signaled to the bartender. The bulky, bald French man came over and gave her another empty glass.

"Better fill this one up with water," she mumbled.

"Still no luck, cherie?"

"Tell me about it." Rachel heaved a sigh, trying to calm down.

"Hey, buddy, piss off." Daniel pointed at the man. "She's with me."

The barman shrugged and walked away to serve another drunk-out-of-his-mind customer.

Rachel spun to face him. "I've had it with this, Daniel. I'm not with you."

"You're here," he said.

"Only because I don't want to find you lying in your own sick in a gutter!" She jumped off the stool so fast, it fell to the floor. "I'm fed up with you always being drunk. Okay, I get it, you're hurting. It wasn't easy on me either. But it's been eight months! When will you stop drinking your brains out and face the world?"

Daniel gawked at her , looking like a kid being told off by his mother. Even with all the drinking, his eyes weren't bloodshot. Rachel relaxed and reached out to touch his shoulder.

He jerked away. "Don't touch me!"

Oh, hell no! He'd never let her touch him since Cheryl died. Rachel understood. What he'd had to do was cruel, harsh and had obviously torn him up. But it was getting out of hand. She had turned into his babysitter. She'd spent the entire time after Vlad's attack trying to get him back on his feet. Instead of snapping him out of it, she ended up keeping him from throwing himself off tall buildings, from getting into fights and making sure he fed before he turned into an insane killing machine.

"Snap out of it, already." She slammed her fist on the bar in front of him, making him jump.. "I'm sick of cleaning up after you, of making sure you don't kill yourself or others."

Daniel scoffed and returned to his water glass. "No one's forcing you to stay. I want to die. You're doing me no favor by stopping me."

"The only reason I'm not already gone is because I'm your friend. I want to help you." She flexed her fingers, fighting the urge to punch him. Suffering she could get, but not wallowing in self-pity. "I can't believe you're so incredibly selfish."

He watched her through narrowed eyes. "I'm not selfish. If this bothers you, just go. You obviously can't appreciate that I'm trying to protect you."

"Protect me?" That was the last straw. "From what? From getting over all we've been through?"

"From me, okay?" he yelled and stood. He had to grab on to the bar to avoid falling over. 

Rachel squinted at him. He was the one person she wasn't being protected from. And it was her own damn fault. She shouldn't be standing here, taking it like an idiot. "You know what? I think it's time we parted ways. If this is how you want the rest of your life to be, fine. I want to move on."