Part 6

The vermin party was every bit as bad as Darcy thought it would be. Snotty, pretty rich vermin, and leather clad Night People. The mixture was nuts. It was taking every ounce of her self control not to reach out and just grab one of these human fools and drain them cause she felt like it.

Then again, she had the feeling that was what these vermin were probably there for. Shaine needed to keep up her reputation with the humans as well as the Night People. Darcy just didn't understand the fascination with high school popularity contests.

She couldn't see Aidan anywhere, or anyone she even remotely liked. She wasn't all that surprised. She hadn't seen that vermin bitch Sydney either. Then again, there were so many people there.

This was a really stupid idea she thought moodily, grabbing a bottle of beer from the fridge after she had found her way into the kitchen. Now she had to search for a bottle opener.

"And how exactly, did trash like you manage to get in here?"

Darcy's eyes rolled as she turned to find herself facing Harmony Windsong. She shrugged blandly. "Same way everyone else did," she answered, finding one and pulling the lid off her beer. "Did you want something?"

Harmony scowled at her. "I could ask you the same thing."

An insult match and tacky banter with a wimpy witch was not something Darcy was in the mood for. She was regretting ever stepping foot inside this place. Her eyes rolled as she swigged her beer. "I'm just here," she said.

Harmony's head tilted to one side, her raven hair brushing her shoulders. "You hate our people. Why bother just being here?"

Darcy supposed, as much as she hated to admit it, Harmony did actually have a good point. "I'm looking for Aidan. He's supposed to be here somewhere."

Harmony made a face. "Why?"

Darcy ignored her and left the kitchen, wondering if Aidan was really here after al;. Maybe she had misunderstood seeing him with Shaine. Frost had been the one to tell her to try the party, but it looked like that was a bust.

"You're gonna love this."

Darcy turned in surprise as Frost leaned into her, leering insanely. She sneered in disgust. You're drunk."

Frost giggled. "Very. Adila is dead."

Darcy tried to remember why that should mean something to her. Frost was wasted, and could easily be exaggerating. Then she got it. "The Daybreak witch? How?"

"Went upstairs to get laid, there was a corpse on the floor." Frost seemed to think this was very funny. Then she belched loudly. "Someone deserves an award for that one."

"I'm taking you home," Darcy said with a heavy sigh. What a waste of fucking time, she thought angrily, dragging Frost to the front door of the mansion. Frost was trying to do ballet steps and singing a very dirty song. Darcy felt like strangling her.

"What are you doing here?"

Darcy turned to see Aidan coming in from a side room she had missed, He seemed surprised to see her. She didn't blame him, really. She shrugged, nodding at Frost. "She's wasted."

Aidan frowned at her, shoving his hands inside his jeans pockets. "Really."

Now she had actually /found/ him, she couldn't actually of anything to say. It was kind of funny, in a twisted way. She'd had plenty to drag out of him before she was actually face to face with him. Now all her words seemed to have evaporated. Which was annoying cause this had never happened to her before.

So why now?

Oh God Darcy thought, disgusted with herself.

"There's been a problem," Shaine appeared beside Aidan, touching his arm gently, trying to pull him away.

Aidan turned to look at her. "Is Sydney okay?" He seemed to have forgotten Darcy was there.

"Sydney doesn't appear to actually be here. Zaire got peckish."

Zaire? So he had actually shown up then. Darcy smiled a little, guessing that Zaire had killed the Daybreak witch, either by accident or on purpose, she wasn't really sure. She didn't know enough. She tried to follow, pushing Frost to one side. Frost just fell on the floor.

If Shaine was stupid enough to let a killer vampire like Zaire inside, of course, someone was going to end up dead. She pushed her way through the crowd, not caring who she knocked over. If it came to a confrontation between Zaire and Aidan, then Aidan wouldn't last a second.

"You need to leave. Now." Darcy scowled. She was not going to be ordered around by Shaine or any of her stupid bitchy friends.

"What are you going to do?" she sneered. "Make me?" She was more than happy to fight her way out of this, she was more than happy to kick Shaine's ass in front of all her crowd. If she was going to make things difficult, then bring it on.

Aidan had come back. He was taking Darcy's arm in a firm grip and was leading away from Shaine. As much as she wanted to smash Shaine's face in, she couldn't bring herself to hit Aidan.
"Go," Aidan said tiredly. "Darcy, please just go. This isn't any of your business."

Darcy stared after him, somewhere between anger, confusion and disbelief. She turned and stalked away. She had a pretty good idea why she felt the way she did, but at the moment, she didn't want to explore the reason.

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