Jennifer Armentrout: Obsession

I sat back on the bar stool, still having no idea what to say. Mel was obviously worked up, so something had to have happened. Probably not what she thought, but something, and I felt for her.

“I’m too afraid to go home. Phillip knows where I live.” Mel finished off her drink.

“When did this happen? This morning?” I asked, frowning.

Mel nodded.

Then it hit me. “Have you gone to work?”

“What? No! How could I go to work after that?” Mel shuddered. “And besides, Phillip knows to find me there, too.”

My chest tightened. Dear God, what if something was really wrong with Mel? Not just an overactive imagination, but something more serious? My training kicked in, spewing out possible aliments like I was doing a mental grocery list: psychotic break with reality, schizophrenia, anxiety attack with hallucinations, or a brain tumor? The possibilities were endless. “Mel…”

“Don’t ‘Mel’ me.” Her voice wobbled. “I know I sound crazy, and if I were in your shoes, I’d be thinking the same thing, but I know what I saw. Phillip isn’t human.

Neither is his brother. I don’t know what he is—maybe a government experiment or, hell, an alien. I don’t know.”

An alien. Okay. It was time to definitely get out of the bar. “How about you come home with me?”

Hope sparked in her eyes. “Really? You’re cool with that? I know you probably think I’m bat-shit crazy and all.”

I waved her off. “Honey, what are best friends for? This is a crisis situation and I know how to help. I have ice cream and leftover lasagna. We can stuff our faces and try to figure this out.”

“I haven’t eaten all day. I’ve been too nervous.” Mel smiled, but it was weak.

“You’re the best, Serena. I really mean it.”

“I know.” I gave her a cheeky grin. “Stay here and I’ll take care of the tab.”

When Mel nodded and started digging around in her purse, I grabbed my own and hopped off the stool. Squeezing between the tables, I ignored the WTF looks I was getting from those around us.

I quickly took care of the balance—a thing I was accustomed to. Mel had expensive tastes and rarely stayed at one job long enough to make a decent salary. Made no sense to me, because Mel was smart and had the education, but she just didn’t apply herself. Mel was only twenty-three, the same age as me, so I figured there was more than enough time for Mel to settle down a little, stay away from crazy rich guys, and use the degree in education she’d worked so hard for.

I reclaimed Mel by threading my arm through hers. “You ready?”

Mel nodded but didn’t say anything as we headed out into the dry evening air of early May. We passed a group of men coming in, their jackets off, ties loosened. One of them, a tall blond, whistled under his breath, doing a “Hey girl, hey” that fell on deaf ears. And if everything else wasn’t an indication of how wigged out Mel was, her ignoring a man looking in her direction sure was.

Concerned about her, I steered her toward the parking garage. If Mel didn’t change her tune by the time she was stuffed with lasagna and ice cream, I was going to have to convince her to talk to someone—anyone other than me. Our friendship wouldn’t allow for an unbiased diagnosis and I had never really diagnosed anyone before.

Being the high school guidance counselor sort of limited the kinds of disorders I was exposed to on a daily basis.

It was cooler and darker in the parking garage. Most of the entire back row, where I had to park, was completely in the shadows. Luckily Mel was parked in the first row, near the exit.

We stopped by Mel’s red Audi. As she dug out her car keys, she turned to me. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“No! Of course not,” I answered immediately.

Doubt crossed Mel’s face. “Really, because you have that look—like you’re compiling a list of mental disorders I’m suffering from.”

“I am so not doing that.” I flashed a quick grin. “I did that earlier.”

Mel laughed and then quickly hugged me. “Thank you. I mean it. I really don’t want to be alone right now.”

I squeezed her back. “It’s all right. Like I’ve said, we’ll figure this out together.”

Letting go, Mel opened her car door. “I’ll wait for you.”

Sending her a reassuring smile, I hurried through the maze of cars as fast as my noisy heels allowed me, anxious to be out of there. I always hated parking garages.

There was nothing creepier.

Well, talk of glowing senator’s sons was pretty creepy, too.

My chest tightened. Mel had never looked more…vulnerable than she did this evening. I didn’t know how I could truly help, but no matter what was going on in Mel’s head, I was going to be there for her. Just like Mel had been there for me when my mom had been killed in a botched robbery attempt my freshman year of college.

Without Mel, I would’ve had no one, having never been close to my absentee father.

We’d supported each other countless times over, from the small stuff to the major crises.

This time would be no different.

Stopping at the front of my gently used Honda, I fished out my keys. The strap of my purse slipped, jerking my arm, and the keys hit the dirty pavement.

“Great,” I muttered, dipping down as far as my pencil skirt would allow. Snatching my keys off the ground, I stood. Movement out of the corner of my eyes drew my attention. My head swiveled toward it. The parking garage wasn’t huge, so I could make out the form of Mel’s head through the back window of her car.

Thinking that’s what had caught my attention, I started to turn back, but then a tall male walked out from behind one of the beams near the wide doors lining the opening of the garage. His purposeful strides carried him into a beam of light.

Holy hot guy…

I was struck by how good-looking the man was: tall and with sandy-blond hair, he looked like he stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine. The jeans appeared tailored, cut to fit his long legs. Where I stood in shadows, I wasn’t worried about being caught checking out the fine specimen of a man. There was no way he could see me, so I looked…and I may’ve drooled a little.

Or a lot.

I was admiring how the jeans framed his perfect ass when he passed the overhead light and—what in the hell?—vanished. He just vanished! Like he just blinked out of the space or was sucked up into a black hole. He was there one second and gone the next.

Alarmed, I took a step forward. A chill snaked down my spine. Was this a dream?

Or was Mel’s hallucination contagious, because this was really like what she had said in the bar, but—

But then I saw him behind Mel’s car, off to the right. There was absolutely no way he could’ve gotten there without me seeing him. Impossible, but there he was, head cocked to the side.

A certain, bone-deep dread settled like stones in my stomach, weighting me to the cement beneath my feet. The keys dangled useless in my hands. Suddenly, I was back in the bar and Mel’s words were replaying over and over in my head.

He’s not human. He’s not human.

Shocked and absolutely stupefied, I watched the man raise his arm. At the same time, the driver’s door opened and Mel’s head popped out, as if the man had called out to her, but I hadn’t heard him over the pounding of my heart. I opened my mouth to yell out to Mel, but the air filled with electricity, raising the tiny hairs all over my body. Overhead lights flickered and then in a rapid succession, they blew one after another, showering sparks like raindrops. Each mini explosion was like a gunshot, silencing my shriek as I jumped back, knocking into the hood of my car.

Darkness descended, but it only lasted a second. An unnatural, intense whitish-blue light lit up the front part of the parking garage and— oh God —it was coming from the man. Like lightning, it came from within him, radiating from his shoulder and spreading down his arm, twisting and crackling until it reached his palm.