The Hellhound

Ch. Seventeen

"Just a little rush, babe. To feel dizzy, to derail the mind of me... Our veins are busy, but my heart's in atrophy. Any way to distract and sedate."

- Hozier

                                                                                  ***

The crystal struck his skin three times. Three times she told him not to do it, that it wouldn't make anything better.

But he didn't really believe her.

His resistance crumbled like a sand castle in a hurricane, and he snatched the hollow crystal away from Valentia, leaning over the table. Inhaling sharply, he ignored the way the powder bit into his sinuses.

A taste like caramel apples filled the back of his throat, and when he moved his gaze to the third line he found his pupils were already blown out.

When he was done, he pinched the bridge of his nose and lay his head back on the top of the couch, waiting for the burn to stop. Valentia giggled, the sound echoing through all the holes in his skull he could now feel.

"I said three, Sirius."

He cracked one eye open and then the other, staring with delight as colors he suspected weren't there burst and pinwheeled through the room like miniature fireworks. It took a moment to remember why he'd opened his eyes in the first place.

Looking at the table, he found it was down four lines instead of just three and frowned.

"I'll pay for the fourth," he said with a shrug. He could feel the tendons slid over the bones and did it again because the sensation was interesting.

"No, no," Valentia said airily. "My treat."

"Treat," Sirius muttered. "Treat. Mm. I like tricks better."

She laughed again and stood up, smoothing a hand down her dress. He liked the shushing sound her hand made over the silky material.

"Just relax, Sirius. Enjoy the show. I'll come get you and the rest of my payment when it's here." She cast a critical eye over him. "You should be mostly sober by then."

Sirius nodded, though the movement made the sounds around him warp. He slumped back into the sofa, eyes moving rapidly as he tried to track each new pop of color that exploded around the people partying.

After a second of following the bursts of light, he found the pattern. 

It was sound.

A high-pitched laugh from a woman brought bright yellow. A deep voice was violet. Clinking glasses created green fireworks and the bass from the music was blue and deep purple.

He laughed, creating red around him, then stopped, sitting up sharply when something in the crowd caught his attention. It disappeared, and he sighed.

There it was again. A flash of deep blue.

Then a man moved to the side and he stopped breathing.

Galloway stood in the center of the room, wearing that blue dress he'd stolen for her the first time they'd been in Vegas together. Her blonde hair fell in soft curls around her face and she smiled, beckoning him forward.

Some small part of his brain currently buried in coke-induced stimulation taunted him, telling him he should have seen this coming. The rest of his brain couldn't comprehend what was really happening.

It was just content to send fire through his veins.

Without remembering how, Sirius found himself on his feet. She smiled again, and, with a start, he realized she was wearing makeup. Alabaster skin was highlighted by light silver shadows at the edges of her eyes, her lashes unnaturally dark and long. Frosted pink lips smirked at him and he moved forward.