Avoiding Alpha (Alpha Girl #2)

I had a second to be upset before Meredith fell on her side, convulsing.

Chris and Adrian were kneeling beside her. Max reached out to restrain her. “No,” Dr. Gonzales said as she searched for something in her bag. “Don’t! You could hurt her.”

It felt like an eternity passed as she shook.

Dr. Gonzales jabbed a shot into Meredith’s arm. She waited a second, but when the convulsions didn’t stop, Dr. Gonzales reached back into her bag. Another shot of meds slowed the convulsions, but they didn’t stop. One more shot and Dr. Gonzales waited as Meredith’s movements slowed.

Two more shots and Meredith was finally sedated again. It seemed to take forever for her twitching to stop completely as the drug worked its way through her body.

When she was finally still, the doctor picked up the discarded pile of shots with shaking hands. “I need to get more meds. I’m not sure how long this will hold her. Let’s get her back to the infirmary.”

Max gathered Meredith up in his arms again. No one said anything as they left.

I met Adrian’s gaze. “I did something wrong. I messed up.”

“No, I don’t think you did.”

No matter what the guys said, I had to have done something wrong. “I fucked it up. That’s the only answer.” I hugged myself as I shivered.

“Maybe we had it wrong from the beginning.” Adrian cursed.

“How? What did we miss?” I felt lightheaded, and swayed on my feet.

Dastien’s scent hit me before he wrapped his arms around my waist. I leaned into him as I looked out over the edge of the building. The whole roof smelled like burnt candles, potion, and Meredith’s blood and puke, but I didn’t care. I stared out into the night, and wondered how I’d messed up so badly. I’d followed the spell exactly like it was written, but something had gone wrong.

The hardest part to swallow was that I’d hurt Meredith, and that made me ill. I shivered in the night.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Dastien said.

“Yes, it was. I meddled in something I know nothing about, and now Meredith is paying the price.” It wasn’t fair. “I should’ve taken the deal. I should’ve agreed to what Luciana wanted.”

“You really trust that she’d follow through with her end of the bargain?”

If I was being honest with myself, no, but Meredith’s life was on the line. Wasn’t it worth the gamble?

“It’s not yours to fix this problem. It never was,” Dastien said. “This happened before you got here and it had nothing to do with you. You tried to help, and Meredith’s still hanging on. We might think of something else…”

We were quiet for a second.

“It might not have been my problem to solve before, but it is now.” My mother didn’t call me stubborn for nothing. I didn’t care what I had to do. This curse wasn’t killing my friend. I’d never let that happen.

Chapter Twelve

Meredith’s breath rattled in and out as I sat in the leather chair. I watched her sleep, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong. My eyes felt heavy after doing the witchcraft, but I didn’t care. Even with the lights off, I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to stay awake in case something happened with Meredith.

I hugged my knees into my chest as I thought back on the past twenty-four hours. This day had sucked. Right up there with the day that I woke up in this same room seven weeks ago.

The newly replaced door opened, letting in just enough light to blind me, before it closed again. I couldn’t see him, but I could smell Dastien’s scent as he soundlessly made his way to my side.

He crouched in front of me, grabbing my ankle and rubbing his thumb up and down it. “Where’s Max?”

“Their parents called for an update. He was upset, so he went for a walk.”

He’d been really nice about everything, saying I hadn’t made it any worse, but I wasn’t so sure that was true. I couldn’t get the image of Meredith convulsing on the roof out of my head.

“How about I take you back to your room?”

That sounded like a terrible idea. Being alone in my room when Meredith’s side was empty? “No. I want to stay here. Just in case she wakes up or something.”

“Cherie. She’s not going to wake up tonight.”

A tear rolled down my cheek. Would she ever wake up again?

My heart was breaking, making it hard to breathe. “I need to go back to my cousin’s first thing in the morning.”

“No.”

“It’s all we’ve got now. I tried…I really tried. Maybe I didn’t believe in the spell enough to make it work. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough.” It didn’t matter. I’d failed and that was all that I could think about. God. If I couldn’t fix this with spells and potions, then I had to try bargaining.