Georgina's voice sent a shudder through Rosalie that vibrated like a chord being struck. "Get in the car," she ordered.

Rosalie shook her head.

Georgina took a step around Arden Dodge. Rosalie wouldn't have moved even if Georgina grabbed her. Instead, Drew put a hand out to stop Georgina. Georgina flung a hand back as if to slap them. Arden stopped her, though.

"Drew," Arden said in a sugary-sweet voice. She smiled up at Drew, sharp canines showing. "What pronouns do you prefer?"

"Them," they answered.

Arden turned to Georgina and said, "They have potential. Don't be cross with them. Drew, bring Rosalie to the car and we can head out."

With that, Arden stepped away. Her heels clicked against the pavement on her way back to the driver's side of the vehicle, which left them alone in the streetlamp light with Georgina.

Drew was still staring Georgina down. Georgina put her hands to her sides and stepped aside, a silent gesture to get them moving along. Drew looked back at Rosalie, whose fingers were cramped around the fabric at Drew's elbow.

Rosalie stared at Georgina. If she ran, Georgina would come after her and would plow through Drew to do it. Arden was in the car now—it would take a minute to do a U-turn, but Rosalie certainly wouldn't be able to make it to the hotel in the time it would take for Arden to get onto the main street.

It won't be pretty.

Rosalie ground her teeth together and turned away from Georgina. She relaxed the fist she had bundled up in Drew's jacket and nodded to them.

Drew reached an arm back and, with it, pulled Rosalie forward. Rosalie walked at Drew's side to the back door of Arden's rental car. She could feel each beat of her heart like a fist sounding against the inside of her ribcage as Drew opened the door and stepped inside. They slid over to make room for Rosalie, who dropped into the seat behind the driver, eyes lingering on the rearview mirror where she could see Arden watching her. Rosalie looked away as Georgina slammed the door shut.

"Give your cellphones to Georgina, please," Arden said as the passenger door opened.

Drew sighed a little as they relinquished their phone. Rosalie held hers out and Georgina grabbed it and tossed it into the glovebox with Drew's.

"Where are we going?" Drew asked.

"Not your problem," Georgina said.

Drew put their hands out and said, "Fuck you, I'm just curious."

Arden cleared her throat as she put the vehicle in drive and peeled away from the curb. "The location doesn't matter. We'll bring you two back before midnight." The time on the dash read ten in the evening.

Arden glanced back at Drew with a smile. It looked genuine to Rosalie, but then again, she couldn't see the scar from this angle. "I'm thrilled to have a new Sister. You have my number now, so don't hesitate to text me, all right? We're teammates now, so this certainly won't be the last you'll see of me."

"Teammates," Drew repeated, leaning over their knees with narrowed eyes. "You're a Husky?"

"Always have been," Arden hummed with a firm nod, eyes shining through the rearview mirror. Rosalie was starting to understand Joanna's annoyance with Arden's peppy tendencies. "My Auntie is an alum from USW. The plan was always for me to have a place on the team. The plan has changed, though."

"To what?" Rosalie asked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Drew turn to look at her. Georgina turned away to look out the window as Arden pulled to a stop at an intersection and met Rosalie's gaze through the mirror.

Her eyes were ghostly now in the dark, glinting from the headlights. "I'd like to attend USW if Joey's there, too."

Rosalie's heart stopped. She could feel Drew watching her, and she could hear their voice in her head inquiring about her relationship status. She could hear Drew calling her Joanna's girlfriend. If she looked at Drew now, she knew she'd be desperate for Drew to just keep their mouth shut.

Drew cleared their throat, and they might as well have just hammered the nail on Rosalie's coffin. "Joey... as in Joanna? This is about Joanna, then?" Drew asked.

"Oh, lovely, so you know her," Arden said.

"Know her?" Drew laughed.

Shut up, Rosalie thought, closing her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah I know her," they said, leaning back in their seat. "Why not just ask me to bring Joanna?"

It was a good question and one that Rosalie didn't think to ask. She opened her eyes to look at Drew, but Drew had their attention on Arden's profile where Arden's long, white hair framed her jawline. Arden stared ahead at the road as she slowed near the north side of Seattle, where the warehouse district lined the streets with old brick buildings just before the shipyards. Rosalie could see the blinking lights on top of the cranes as Arden said:

"I just need to leave her with a message. It's not something I can send through text since she destroyed her phone," Arden said.

With that, she pushed open the door and stepped out. Her thick-wedged heels carried her several inches taller than usual. She grasped the handle on Rosalie's door.

Georgina stepped out so that when Drew went to open their door, Georgina slammed it shut again. Drew looked over at Rosalie, who shook her head as if to say, Don't even try with her.

When Rosalie turned back to Arden, she flinched at the grazing touch of Arden's palm against her cheek. She sucked in a deep breath as Arden leant over, grasping her other hand to the back of the driver's seat as her breath fanned across Rosalie's face—minty, fresh, and altogether unnerving so close to her own straining lungs.

Arden dragged her eyes up from where they had been focused on Rosalie's lips. "So you're the one who has my dear Joey on a leash," she whispered.

All noise beyond the car vanished. Rosalie certain that if Drew was breathing, she'd be able to hear it. Instead, all she could hear was the rustle in Arden's windbreaker jacket as her fingers trailed past Rosalie's jaw to her throat. She ran her long fingernail along the skin where Georgina had once held her by the throat.

None of it felt real. Rosalie distinctly felt as though she was viewing her body from afar rather than up close and personal with Arden Dodge. Moving didn't seem possible, and when Rosalie recalled Joanna's expression when she spoke about Nora Jacobs, there was absolutely nothing Rosalie could think to do in that situation. Even if Arden promised to bring them back, they couldn't be certain that they'd be in one piece.

"Joanna doesn't need a leash," Rosalie said, voice shaking.

"But you put her on one anyway. Do you really think I'd tolerate Joey taking orders from some privileged straight bitch?" Arden said. She let out a soft, amused laugh and looked away, running her tongue along her front teeth. When she turned back, her voice was sharp and cutting along the trail her nail took along Rosalie's collarbone. "Well, I've dealt with one before and learned from it. I could just tell you to back off. Look in her direction again and we know what happens." She shrugged indifferently, lips pursed into a cute pout as her eyes scanned Rosalie's stoic expression.

It was all Rosalie could do to keep from shaking like a leaf. She thought of the crucial allusion to the fact that Arden had put a girl in the hospital before. She could do it again.

"But then I thought: Last time... Joey put herself in the psych ward. It is absolute hell to get Sisters in the ward—we would have had better luck in the U.S., you know. I'd like to avoid having Joey throw a tantrum like that again, if you're following."

She leant in close, and Rosalie could smell the mint on her breath again as she smiled, her cheeks rounding out against the wave of her long hair. Her hand was back to Rosalie's jaw, her nails crawling along the soft skin of Rosalie's cheek.

"If you are following, listen closely. Jacobs had it easy—I won't make that mistake again. Cutting you two off isn't the ticket because if you have Joey on a leash... I'll just have to do the same to you."

Arden hooked her sharp, black thumbnail at the corner of Rosalie's cheek. At first, it was just a tug, pulling at the flesh of Rosalie's cheek. When Rosalie tried to turn away, Arden gripped her head still with her other hand and shoved her back against the headrest.

"What're you—" Rosalie started, heart beating so fast her head spun, dizzying her against the sharp sting in her cheek where Arden's nail broke skin. She let out a pained cry and felt a hand on the back of her jacket.

"What the fuck are you doing—" Drew's voice sounded behind her before being muffled and muted.

Rosalie clutched at Arden's arms, trying to pull them off, but she had an iron-like grip on Rosalie's head. Heat swelled at Rosalie's cheek, dripping red down her chin like the tears bubbling over Rosalie's eyelashes. With one final slash, Arden scraped her thumbnail down over the bone of Rosalie's jaw just beneath her earlobe. She left a trail of searing, raw skin in her path and flicked blood from her nail against the seat of the car.

The instant Arden let her go, Rosalie crumpled forward over her knees, clutching at the side of her face. Her eyes were wild and wide, her breath panting hard past the saliva and blood pooling on her tongue. She could barely hear Drew thrashing in Georgina's arms beyond her own hysterical breathing.

When Arden got into the driver's seat, Georgina dropped Drew, who all but fell out of the car, completely off balance. Rosalie shut her eyes, squeezing tightly. She could feel hot blood oozing between her fingers as Drew dove across the seat, grabbing at her shoulders. Georgina slammed the door shut behind them and got into the passenger's seat.

"Holy shit—Holy shit—" Drew said.

"I'm—fine—" Rosalie said, but she felt saliva dripping from her lips the color of ketchup. Moving her mouth caused her lips to tremble and the torn skin on her jaw to crack.

Her hand felt sticky on her cheeks. The car was on the move as Drew turned her head around to see the damage. "Tell me that when you aren't drooling blood, Christ," Drew said.

In the painful quiet of the car, Rosalie's blood pounded mercilessly in her ears despite the fact that she couldn't feel much of anything in her face after the initial sting and the residual burn. Her fingers felt numb, trembling against her sticky, raw cheek. She wanted to hold Drew's gaze but knew that if she did, she'd burst into hysterical sobs and feel the pain like the impact of a punch to the face, but so much more than that.

By the time Arden pulled the car in front of the hotel, Rosalie determined that the wound was swelling and not clotting.

Georgina snapped open the glovebox and tossed them their phones. Drew gathered them up before reaching across Rosalie to open the door. Rosalie's head was spinning, swirling with pressure. No one spoke as Rosalie put one foot on the pavement and stepped out with the other, staggering onto the sidewalk. The jolt caused a drop of blood to leak from her elbow onto the concrete as Drew hurried out after her and slammed the door shut.

"G-Get the license plate," Rosalie stammered.

"For Chrissake," Drew cursed, unlocking their phone as Arden pulled away from the curb. "You know she probably rented it under a fake name."

Rosalie wanted to say she didn't care, but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was a sob. Drew startled at the sudden rupture of tears. The agony from her cheek doubled, tripled, until all Rosalie could do was gag on her own bile from the nausea in her stomach. Drew rushed to say something that Rosalie couldn't process before holding up Rosalie's phone for the passcode. She lifted a shaky hand to unlock it, leaving behind red fingerprints on the screen.

As Drew made a phone call, Rosalie walked to the concrete ledge outside of the entrance. She sat on the edge of that flowerbed, feeling like her organs were swishing in her gut and swirling in her skull. She leant a hand on the concrete bricks to hold herself up as she waited and watched Drew pace the empty side walk in front of her. Their shadow drifted two and fro from the awning lights before at last coming to settle in front of Rosalie, crouching down in front of her.

Drew started to take off their jacket, cussing the entire time.

"N-No—that's a good j-jacket, I don't wanna ruin it," Rosalie said when Drew tried to hold it over her cheek.

Drew lowered it with an annoyed look. Their face was washed out and if it weren't for that detail, they didn't look all that phased. "I don't give a shit. Buy me a new one," they said. They reached up to help Rosalie—who was entirely too frozen to move—peel her hand off of her cheek to replace it with the jacket.

And then, the automatic doors beside them opened.

Rosalie turned to look. For some reason, she hadn't expected the Lieutenant to be standing there, staring at them. She barely processed the fact that Lennie and Joanna were behind her until the Lieutenant put a hand out to Joanna and said, "You two—stay there."

"What happened?" Joanna said.

The Lieutenant pointed a finger to Joanna's chest as if to say, Don't move or else. Joanna clamped her mouth shut.

The Lieutenant walked up to Rosalie. She didn't miss the fact that the Lieutenant completely blocked Joanna and Lennie's view of her as she bent down and reached for the jacket that Drew held up. Rosalie's hands felt more like doll hands now—immovable and rubbery.

"Did you see who did this," the Lieutenant ask.

"Someone named Arden," Drew said.

The Lieutenant's hand paused for a half second, the jacket hovering several inches from the burning wound. The Lieutenant's eyes focused on Rosalie's then, but Rosalie could only stare at the ground.

"Did they say Arden?" Joanna said from the door. Rosalie shut her eyes at the hitch in Joanna's voice.

The Lieutenant stood, taking the jacket with her. She turned to face Joanna and said, "Go back to the room and don't leave it unless I call."

"A-Arden's here—"

"Joanna, that's an order," the Lieutenant said so aggressively Rosalie flinched. "Lennie, make sure she doesn't leave the room. Lock the door and don't open for anyone unless you hear specifically from me."

Lennie agreed without question or hesitation. He all but pushed Joanna back through the door and, as the automatic doors finally shut, Rosalie caught a glimpse of Joanna's wide eyes staring at her through the glass. Joanna turned away with a hand over her mouth.

"Drew, you're coming with us. I'll bring the car around and then we're going to the hospital," the Lieutenant ordered.

"Yes, sir."

"Don't be smart with me."

When the Lieutenant marched off to the parking garage, she left the jacket with Drew to hold on Rosalie's wound. Drew stuck it back on Rosalie's face and said, "Guessing this wasn't part of the itinerary, huh."

Rosalie glowered at them. Drew cracked a wary grin before pursing their lips and looking off to the road. Rosalie continued to stare at them as they worried their lip between their teeth. Eventually, she looked down and picked at the dried blood on her thumbnail.

She drew in a sharp breath no matter how much it stung the open wound at the far bottom edge of her gums. She was too nervous to check it with her tongue, mostly from the fear of realizing that she could stick her tongue through the hole and out through the other side of her cheek. She shuddered at the visual.

"This isn't your fault," she said, sounding like she had a mouth full of cotton.

Drew turned to look at her. She stared Drew down, shaking, as she added, "This isn't your fault, Drew. It isn't Joanna's fault, either."

"I know," Drew said, leaning back from where they had been hunched over their knees. They sighed and said, "But I just wasn't sure if you thought I was responsible."

"Does that matter to you?" she asked.

"If it didn't matter, I wouldn't have given you my jacket," they said with a roll of their eyes.

Rosalie smiled and regretted it. She cursed, tears pricking at her eyes. Drew swore and told her not to smile, but she couldn't help it. She sniffed, lips trembling as Drew added pressure to the cut. Her saliva ran thickly down her throat as she swallowed blood with it.

No matter how terrified Joanna was of Arden, Rosalie refused to give Arden Dodge the satisfaction of breaking either of them. If she was going to keep her shit together, she had to play this game better than Arden.

Thinking about it fueled enough anger to banish the pain from her mind. She clutched the edge of the concrete ledge, nails scraping against the grit.

"I'm going to ruin her."