Never to Sleep

by Rachel Vincent

  “I don’t know,” I said at last.

  “I do. You’re amazing.”

  My chest ached, and my head swam. I’d never been called amazing before. I’d been called hot, and bitchy, and talented, and spoiled, and entitled, and stuck-up, and pretty, and a princess. But I’d never been called amazing.

  Luca squeezed my hand. Then he let go and turned to the door. “Let’s get out of here.” It took him three tries to kick the door open, and what eventually gave way wasn’t the padlock, but the bolts that had held the lock in place. He’d ripped them right out of the wood.

  “Uh-oh.” The first thing I noticed was the sun, warm, and half-blinding. I dug my cell phone from my pocket to look at the time—7:34 a.m. School started in less than an hour, and I had eight missed calls, probably all from my father. “How…? I don’t…” I frowned, and words deserted me. “It’s supposed to be the middle of the night!”

  Luca flinched. “Time moves differently there. It’s inconsistent. I meant to tell you that.”

  “My dad’s going to kill me!” I took off toward the parking lot, where I could see my car, sitting all alone.

  “Sophie, wait!” Luca called, and when I didn’t stop, he ran after me. “You can’t tell anyone about…any of that.”

  I stopped, stunned by what should have been an obvious conclusion. He was right. People would think I was crazy. Like Kaylee. Only I wasn’t crazy. What I’d seen and done was real. And I hadn’t once gone into hysterics or uncontrollable shrieking. Kaylee couldn’t even go through her normal, boring life without bouts of uncontrollable shrieking.

  We had nothing in common. Sometimes I wondered how we could possibly be related.

  “I can tell my dad. He’ll believe me.” Normally my father wasn’t top on my list of confidants. But I couldn’t tell any of my friends. Most of them were stressed-out by broken nails and crash diets. Seeing the Netherworld would scar them for life. I would never be the same after barely surviving it—that was for sure.

  “No, Sophie,” Luca insisted, and my temper flared, but he spoke before I could tell him how much I hated being told what to do. “No one’s supposed to know. People would freak out. The less the general public knows about the Netherworld, the better off we’ll all be.”

  “But it’s just my dad.” And I had to tell him something. How else was I going to explain being out all night, and coming back covered in grass stains and my own blood?

  “It’s not that simple. There’s more to this than what you saw last night. A lot more. It’s not just the Netherworld. There are things here—in our world—that you don’t know about yet. Things like me. Like you. I don’t know what you are yet, but you’re more than you think you are. And what you’ve seen is just a fraction of what’s out there. Don’t tell your dad yet. At least wait until I’ve had a chance to tell you what I know, and a chance to figure out what you are.”

  I nodded slowly. Luca couldn’t give me the answers I’d wanted twelve hours ago—he couldn’t tell me what happened to my mom—but at least he wanted to tell me something. Something about me. Something he thought was amazing and extraordinary. I wanted to know what he knew, and suddenly I wanted to keep it to myself, just for a little while, so it could be our secret. Something no one else knew. Something special.

  People called Kaylee special, but what they really meant was “special.” In that straitjackets and padded walls kind of way. She wasn’t special like Luca thought I was special. She could never handle what I’d just seen and done. She wasn’t stable enough.

  “Okay,” I said finally, and his smile burned a hole right through me.

  “Tonight? Dinner and Netherworld talk? You can ask anything you want.” He lifted both brows, trying to tempt me. But he’d had me before he even opened his mouth.

  “Yeah. But I have this stupid family dinner with my uncle and cousin tonight. After that?”

  “Sure…” But before he could ask for my phone number, someone called my name.

  “Sophie?” I turned to see Peyton getting out of her car. Which was when I remembered that we had an early team practice, because of the competition. And that I’d left the box of new uniforms in the middle of the science hall.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Peyton demanded, stomping toward us with her duffel strap over one shoulder. “Your dad called my mom, and neither of them believed I didn’t know where you were, and Mrs. Foley’s pissed that you just disappeared yesterday. You are in so much trouble, and there’s no way you’ll be voted team captain now. People want a captain they can depend on, not someone who ditches her team to roll around on the ground all night with some strange guy.” Peyton glanced pointedly at my dirty clothes and tangled hair, and I knew what she was seeing, and what she was thinking.

  And I didn’t give a damn.

  I’d just survived monsters, and bloodthirsty plants, and an entire world full of bizarre and terrifying. Peyton didn’t even register as a threat anymore.

  “Okay, let’s keep this in perspective,” I said, as she gloated, secure in her imaginary victory. “We’re talking about dance team captain, not Captain America. Even if you win, all you get is a little gold pin on your letter jacket. It’s not like you saved the world. It’s not even like you saved the day. It’s a pin, and a footnote in the yearbook. Beyond forgettable, in the grand scheme.”

  Peyton squinted at me, like she always did when she was pissed, and I considered reminding her that frown lines start forming in adolescence. She opened her mouth to yell, but I spoke over her.

  “But none of that matters, because you’re not going to win. You’re not even going to run, because if you do, I’ll tell the whole damn school about you and Beth’s boyfriend, and you’ll be too busy trying to scrape the world ‘slut’ off your windshield to run a decent campaign.”

  Peyton stammered for a second, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. “You backstabbing little bitch!” she spit finally, and I laughed. I couldn’t help it.

  “Yeah, I guess I am. You should keep that in mind the next time you ask me to turn on my best friend. Also, you might want to sleep with one eye open.”

  “Or what, you’ll talk me to death?”

  “No, I’ll come into your room in the middle of the night with an electric razor and a grudge. Or maybe I’ll put bleach in your shampoo. Or bronzer in your foundation. Or hair removal cream in your eyebrow gel. I know your habits and your routine, and I’m feeling pretty damn creative.” And…victorious. “There’s no telling what I might do.”

  “Right. You’re going to sneak into my house and give me a malicious makeover while I sleep.” Her tone was sarcastic, but her words lacked bite.

  I shrugged. “I cut Laura’s hair off at the scalp, and I actually like her.” True, I hadn’t known what I was doing and had no plans to ever do it again. But Peyton didn’t need to know that.

  She stammered incoherently, and I took a second to enjoy her shock. Then I turned back to Luca and tugged him toward my car, leaving Peyton to stare after us.

  “What was that all about?” Luca asked as I opened my driver’s side door. “Dancer drama?”

  I shrugged. “Just establishing the new pecking order. I figure if I can snatch us from the jaws of certain death in the Netherworld, I can handle just about anything this world has to throw at me.”

  Luca’s brows rose. “This world has some Netherworldly things to throw too,” he reminded me.

  “Then maybe you should stick around and help me swing a bat.” I grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him closer, and for the first time in my life I didn’t care what I looked like or who saw me. At least for the next few minutes, none of that mattered. What mattered was that I now understood things I’d never imagined possible before—not just about the Netherworld, but about myself. I was truly awake, for the first time in my life, and if asleep was what I’d been before, I never wanted to sleep again.

  “That sounds like fun. In a terrifying kind of way,” Luca said, with half
a smile.

  He was right. I probably should have been scared. Later, I probably would be. But in that moment, with the sun shining, the monsters vanquished, and Peyton stunned speechless at my back, I kind of felt like a new kind of princess. A warrior princess, ready to swing her battle-ax through hordes of the fashion-challenged and the socially unfortunate.

  I felt like I could do anything. I could lead the dance team. I could stand up for Laura. I could even let my cousin’s crazy drama slide right off my back. And if no one else would tell me what I needed to know, I could damn well find my own answers.

  But as Luca slid into my passenger seat to accept my offer of a ride home, the most pressing question was already weighing heavy on my mind.

  What does a warrior princess wear for her first day on the throne?

  Don’t miss BEFORE I WAKE

  to find out what Luca is really up to!

  Don’t miss these other books in Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamers series, on sale now wherever books and ebooks are sold from Harlequin Teen!

  My Soul to Take

  My Soul to Save

  My Soul to Keep

  My Soul to Steal

  If I Die

  Soul Screamers Volume One

  (contains My Soul to Lose, My Soul to Take and My Soul to Save)

  Plus these ebook novellas available in ebook format:

  My Soul to Lose

  Reaper

  For more information on Rachel Vincent and her books, visit:

  Her website:

  http://rachelvincent.com

  Her blog:

  http://urbanfantasy.blogspot.com/

  Her Facebook:

  http://www.facebook.com/rachelkvincent

  Her Twitter:

  http://twitter.com/rachelkvincent

  Her MySpace page:

  www.myspace.com/rachelkvincent

  Join the conversation about Rachel Vincent’s titles and paranormal books at www.paranormalromanceblog.com and in our community discussions at eHarlequin.com (http://community.eharlequin.com).

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  A native of the dust bowl, Rachel Vincent is the oldest of five siblings, and arguably the most outspoken of the bunch. She loves cats, devours chocolate and lives on flavored coffee. Rachel’s older than she looks—seriously—and younger than she feels, but remains convinced that for every day she spends writing, one more day will be added to her lifespan.

  She maintains a website at rachelvincent.net and an active blog at urbanfantasy.blogspot.com.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3414-1

  Never to Sleep

  Copyright © 2012 by Rachel Vincent

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  www.Harlequin.com