Diary of a Runaway (BOOK #3)

The Edge of Never

LIV'S POV

           "Is this everything you could've hoped and dreamed it would be?"

            I turned to glare at Hanson where he downed a glass of something that clearly hadn't come from a keg. He'd disappeared after a while but I guess he always had a knack for popping up at the most inopportune times.

            "Are you here to get all sappy on me again?" I asked him. "Go on, remind me that if I choose to die--which by the way isn't much a choice anyway--you're going to be so lost and so willing to go back to ruthlessly killing people again."

            He sighed, leaning against the wall. "I just wanted to tell you that you throw a good party. And you look good tonight."

            I narrowed my eyes at him, searching for more. No, that wasn't all. He was keeping something from me--no surprise there. Hanson whatever-the-hell-his-last-name-was had always been a good liar. But right now, I saw right through it.

            "Alright then," I told him. "Thank you. Now, if you don't mind, I have hundreds of guests to convince that I'm not verifiably insane."

            He caught my arm before I could walk away. "And you're worried about that? Since when did Liv Richardson care about what other people thought of her?"

            "Since my life was cut in half," I said through my teeth. "Excuse me, Hanson."

            I pushed past him, hearing my joints crack at the movement. I needed a drink. Pronto. This had to be the first party ever where I hadn't had a drink within in the first twenty minutes. Now it was going on nearly an hour since the party had officially started.

            I took a cup some sleazy freshman had just filled and downed it within seconds. No amount of rush followed, but the girl looked at me with daring eyes. I just rolled my own and refilled the cup.

            Angelina sidled up beside me, bouncing with the music. Her hair had already come down from its coil and now sat like a mane around her lit face. "This party is sick, Liv. I swear, I haven't danced this much since the seventies, and truthfully I wasn't all there then--"

            "Yeah, thanks," I said, guzzling down the beer.

            "Whoa, take it easy," Angelina said, pressing a light hand to my shoulder. "You may not be human anymore, but you're not a vampire either. There's a sure chance of alcohol affecting you in this state."

            "That's what I'm counting on," I sang, before turning from her and back to the party. A gentle buzz went throughout my system. I closed my eyes and breathed it in, soaking it up.

            Now I wanted to dance. I wanted to dance and forget about Hanson and the cure and the Hunters and the fact that I was dying. But someone called my name and I opened my eyes to find Angelina standing there, her face no longer lit up with appraisal but now shadowed with concern.

            "Hey, Liv," she whispered. "What's going on with you? First you tell me not to throw the party and then you agree and now you're acting like this...Is there something you're not telling us? Is it the cure?"

            I swallowed. "You mean the cure that is probably going to kill me? No, that's not it, Angelina. That is so not why I've been acting so weird lately. It's not why I feel weaker and weaker with every step I take--why I said yes to this party because it might as well be my last hurrah."