“Allo mon cheri! ’ow ’ave you been?”
“Ugh.”
“That does not sound good.”
I change course and land on the roof of a five story building that offers a decent amount of privacy. After taking a seat atop a giant air conditioning box, I explain everything about Coralie while gazing into the stars overhead. “Since it could go political, I wanted to check with you before doing anything that might spill over onto you as well. What do you think?”
“Hmm. Well, Arthur has the resources and power to protect her, but then again so does Eleanor. I think this ghost might be ’appy with the Shadows despite how gloomy it seems. Of course, since she has been so isolated for so long, perhaps she would not enjoy it. Arthur will no doubt use Coralie’s abilities for his benefit, but the man is generally fair. Eleanor already dislikes you, and I do not think giving her the remains would change that too much. Arthur, on the other hand, would be inclined to think more fondly of you.”
I sigh. “I’m not trading Coralie’s body based on what I can get out of it. I want to do what’s best for her.”
“No one solely acts for the benefit of others, especially among our kind. In time, you will come to learn how to do what is best for you while appearing to also do what is best for others. However, in this case, they are one in the same.”
If my cell phone had a cord, I’d totally twist it around my finger right now. But, hey… I have long hair. That’ll work. I don’t think I could ever consider another person—even if they’re a ghost—as a resource to be exploited for my gain. Hope that doesn’t mean I’m going to fail at vampire. I may already be failing at vampire.
“That’s good,” I say. “Makes it easier. Can I ask an awkward question?”
“You can ask anything you like. Few things are awkward to me.”
I manage a nervous chuckle, thanking nothing in particular that Aurélie didn’t make any reference to what she and Ashley did together. “Nothing really that bad. I was just wondering how it is that so many other vampires I run into seem rich.”
Aurélie laughs. “Well, for me, I was born into some degree of wealth. However, I married several men who had accrued fortunes, and outlived them.”
“It’s not exactly easy to get a rich guy inter—wait. Never mind.” I wince. “I’m nowhere near as gorgeous as you, nor is the guy I’m into rich. He’s actually quite the opposite.”
She emits a cute little giggle. “Oh, cheri, you have plenty of time yet to acquire money and no real need of it. I do not think you are the sort of girl who desires to surround herself with an obvious show of wealth.”
“Nope. Not at all.”
She makes a pff noise. “Then do not worry yourself about it. When we truly need something, we can take it. You are no Fury, Beast, or Shadow.”
“True, but… okay? What does that have to do with money?”
“They are the weakest with mind tricks.” She emits a soft ‘ooh.’ “Oh, Sarah, would you do me a favor?”
“Not another haunted doll is it?” I let out a nervous giggle. Speaking of… the vampires I met in Portland were far from rich, too.
“No…” She draws the word out, and the smile in her voice is obvious. “Dolls perhaps may be related. I would like to paint a portrait of you and your sisters. They are so adorable.”
“Umm.” I hesitate. Of course she wouldn’t bite them. Probably shouldn’t even ask that since it might insult her. “You know if I ask Sierra to put on a frilly dress, she might try to stake you.”
Aurélie laughs.
“Though, you do have a ginormous television. Some time on a PlayStation hooked up to a screen the size of an entire wall might be a trade she’d accept.”
“A what?” asks Aurélie. “PlayStation?”
“Yeah. It’s a video game system.”
The next twenty or so minutes go by of me trying to explain not only what a PlayStation is, but video games in general.
“Oh. Interesting.” Aurélie emits a series of pensive hums. “I shall look into it. Do ask them for me? It would be such an adorable painting.”
“Yeah. I’ll do that. Thanks for the opinion. Sounds like Wolent is the best choice.”
“Quite so. He is a nice man when the fury does not have him.”
“Bye for now. I’ll call you again once I run the painting idea past the girls.”
“Ta.”
I whistle in my mind. Yeah. Nice men generally don’t randomly kick chairs out windows and launch them a hundred yards onto the back field. But… to be fair, the man’s a Fury, so he can’t really help it. Even women in that bloodline are prone to fits of random violence.
So… here goes nothing.
20
Supernatural Complications
Upon returning home, I run around checking on everyone.
Satisfied the littles and both parents are safely asleep, I head downstairs. Coralie’s out and about I suppose as her ghost isn’t there. Her body remains under my bed, undisturbed. She hasn’t been stolen or turned into Ronald McDonald’s stunt double. It occurs to me that I mentioned her being under my bed in front of Sophia, though since the body isn’t wearing cosmetics and Sophia’s not screaming, I’m going to assume she’d been too freaked out by the ghost thing to really grasp what I said.
I really want some quality time with a bath bomb, but I can’t shake the feeling the minute I’m in the tub and vulnerable, something messed up is going to happen. Meh. Screw it. I grab a towel, bath bomb, and my Kindle, then head upstairs by way of the kitchen to put the e-reader in a Ziploc bag.
For the next oh, hour and change, I’m good friends with Hamlet and a ‘blueberry dreams’ bath bomb. Unfortunately, my being slick by leaving the light off since I can see in the dark backfires. Sierra wanders in, feeling around at the walls to make her way to the toilet. She gets about halfway across the room before she stops and sniffs.
“Blueberries?” She looks toward the bathtub, but it’s too damn dark for her to see me. “Sarah?”
“Yeah.”
“Oops. Umm. Mind if I go?”
“That depends.”
“Just peeing.”
“Okay.”
I continue reading Hamlet while she fumbles her way over to the toilet.
“Pretty weird of you to sit in the tub at night in the dark.”
“It’s not dark to me.”
Five seconds of silence. “You can see me?”
“I could if I wasn’t looking at my Kindle.”
“You’re reading in the dark?”
“Uhh, yeah. Complete darkness is as clear as daylight used to be.”
“Well… keep reading then.”
She yawns a few times, eventually flushes, and trudges out of the room. That’s probably a good sign that it’s time for me to get out of the tub. I hop out and lock the door before toweling off and pulling on a knee-length T-shirt. No sooner do I walk out into the hall than Sam emerges from his room and goes to the bathroom.
“Ugh. Why’s it smell like blueberry yogurt in here?”
His tone doesn’t sound like he’s expecting an answer, so I just keep going downstairs. Once again, I’m glad vampires jump straight from awake to not. I’m way too nervous to sleep normally. Normal Me would’ve spent all damn night staring at the ceiling.
I hop in bed and keep reading until the sunrise knocks me out.
Tuesday night can’t come fast enough.
At least my bio class is interesting. That Professor Connolly is only slightly less boring than televised golf doesn’t help, but the material holds my interest. I have always found science interesting. Not that I need the added distraction, but it gets me wondering about maybe changing my major to something science-based. Though, it’s considerably harder to work in any sort of lab field while having a serious sun allergy.
I rush out of the building once class ends, not even caring that I took a critical hit from the homework cannon—ugh, seriously this class is going to be a shitload of work—
and rush to the parking garage. The Sentra is here since I had to drive in, but I’m in too much of a hurry at the moment to tolerate a twenty-five minute ride.
Less than a minute into the air, I have an unexpected intimate meeting with a pigeon. As in, I take one straight to the face.
At 140 miles an hour, it kinda stings.
Probably stings the bird a bit more—no wait, he didn’t feel a damn thing. I swat at the explosion of feathers, stunned from impact, and scream when I realize I’m seconds from crashing into a giant red and white radio tower. There’s three of them right next to each other. Still screaming, I twist to the right and manage to zip between two of them, then wave my arms to level off.
Damn bird.
Aww. And crap. There’s a smear of pigeon poop down my front. Sigh.
My broken nose knits in seconds, the pain disappears a minute after that. Grumbling to myself, I zoom home as fast as I can, focused on carrying Coralie to Wolent’s place. If those mystics want to mess with him, they’re more than welcome to. Something tells me he’s far less conflict-averse than me.
I arrive home in about four minutes and hurry inside.
Dad looks up from the couch and laughs as I trudge by. “What happened to you?”
“Hit a pigeon. Why, am I a bloody mess?”
“There’s a little blood on your face, but you’re covered in feathers.”
“Great…”
He gets up and walks over. “I’d ask if you’re okay but…”
“Right.”
“How’s the bird?”
“Detonation.”
He cringes.
“What? He came in from the left too fast for me to see. I was going kinda fast.”
“Wait, didn’t you drive in? Is the Sentra still at the school?”
“Yeah.” I scoot past him. “I need to change. I’m covered in bird shit and feathers. Gonna go back for the car as soon as I deal with the Coralie exchange.”
Dad nods.
Mom, sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop, looks up at me as I walk in. She blinks, but doesn’t say anything as I go by and head down to the basement. A shower is tempting, but I’m in a hurry. I rush changing my shirt and jeans, then pull Coralie out from under the bed. Once again carrying her like an ironing board, I go back upstairs.
She coalesces beside me in the kitchen and follows. “Where are we going?”
“Wolent’s place.”
“Oh. Yes. I think I will miss it here. Your family is cute.”
I smile at her. “Thanks. But you’re not going to be trapped at this guy’s house. You can roam around wherever you want.”
Coralie blinks. “You’re right. It has been so long, I didn’t even think of that.”
“What’s that?” asks Sierra… sitting in front of the TV.
Crap. I really should’ve driven home.
“This is Coralie.”
“Oh cool. Is that a dead body?”
“No, it’s a giant Barbie.” I sigh. “Of course it’s a magically preserved 200-year-old mummy.”
“I’m only 189.” Coralie playfully tosses her nose in the air.
Sierra runs over, wide-eyed. “Can I touch her?”
Okay, that I was not expecting. I glance at Coralie. “Up to her.”
“If she is gentle, I don’t mind.”
I nod to Sierra. “Be careful. She’s very old.”
Sierra brushes her fingertips down Coralie’s arm. “I bet that dress used to be pretty. She’s pretty, too. Sad she died so young.”
“Thank you,” says Coralie.
“Speaking of pretty dresses…”
Sierra narrows her eyes like a gunslinger about to kill someone.
“How would you feel about wearing one for a couple hours to satisfy the whims of an elder vampiress with a craving for cute?”
“I am not cute,” says Sierra.
“On that we shall have to disagree.” Dad leans on the corner where living room becomes hallway to the kitchen.
“Grr. I’ll think about it.” Sierra stomps around the sofa and resumes playing her game.
“Be back in a little bit.”
Dad nods at me.
I head over to the door and try to leave, but Coralie bounces off nothingness in the doorway. The third time I ram her into what I can only describe as a force field, she yells at me to stop.
“What the heck is going on?” I ask.
“I dunno,” mutters Sierra.
Coralie’s ghost hurries over to stand beside me. “I think the mystics did something.”
I blink at her.
“Well, obviously they did something. That was silly of me to say. I believe they’ve warded your house to trap me inside.”
I slouch, staring at the floor. “Why the hell would they do that instead of oh, stealing you?”
“They are only mortals, no more apt to break into someone’s house than anyone else. And, they are perhaps afraid of you.”
“Do you think this is Anderson’s people or some other lodge?”
“Hmm.” She walks over to the door. Her spirit appears to also be stuck behind an invisible wall. “Most likely, this is the work of the lodge you rescued me from. Another one would not seek to trap me inside but take me.”
I shake my head at the ceiling. “Why…”
“To make sure you will do whatever favor it is they ask of you.”
“That was a rhetorical why.”
“Oh.” Coralie clasps her hands in front of herself. “Sorry.”
“You better hide her again before Soph sees her or she’ll lose her sh—mind,” says Sierra.
“Close call there.” Dad chuckles.
Sierra pauses the game and twists around to look at him. “There’s a dead person in the house. We’re talking about killing people, kidnapping people, and oh yeah, Sarah’s a vampire. Am I really still going to get in trouble for swearing?”
“Yep.” Dad smiles.
“Ugh. So not fair.” She sighs, and resumes playing.
I carry her back down to my room. Again, Mom sits there in stunned silence watching us go by. After sliding Coralie’s body under the bed again, I prop her head up on a small pillow.
“Thank you, but it doesn’t make much difference.” She smiles. “However, I appreciate the thought.”
“Right. So, what now?”
“You should talk to Anderson. I don’t feel it will go badly for us. My ability to give them information was not what they hoped it would be.”
I sit on the edge of the bed, head in my hands. “What do you mean?”
“I cannot make it happen every time they ask. They originally thought I would be like some sort of crystal ball. Ask a question, receive an answer about the future. Sometimes, I receive information via whispers from the spirit world or see visions of things that will come to be. There is no control over it. The universe decides.”
“The universe has a sick sense of humor.”
Coralie lets out a wistful breath. “That it does.”
“Crap. I gotta go get the car.”
The ride home—again—is not too stressful and mercifully pigeon free.
I while away an hour or so texting with everyone, then stare at my biology textbook. That makes me think of Hunter and how badly I want to work on another kind of bio project. But… that has to wait for the weekend. Ugh. My schedule sucks. Debate rages in my head for a little bit between goofing off with video games or starting on homework.
Time to take a bit of Dad’s wisdom here. When in doubt: do both.
The more schoolwork I do now, the less I’ll have to do later in the week. I budget some time to unwinding with a game first so I have the ability to concentrate on work. I’m in the midst of running around in Skyrim when Sophia creeps in. I spin, ready to pounce on her in case she’s been hijacked, but she makes eye contact.
“Who was that woman who said sorry?” Sophia yawns and rubs her eyes.
“Huh? Where?”
“In my room. I wo
ke up and she was standing next to me. She said I’m sorry they scared you, and walked into the wall.” Sophia looks up at me and scrunches up her nose. “Why are you glowing?”
“What?” I look down at myself.
“It’s pretty. There’s like this light around you.”
I examine my arms, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. “Umm. Did you eat something weird?”
“No. Why would eating something weird make me see white light?”
“Umm. Never mind. Forget I said that.” I peek into her head and… sure enough she sees a thin aura of white light around me shimmering above an even thinner layer of black. A little further back in her memory, I find Coralie standing her room. “Wow. You saw Coralie.”
“Who’s that?”
“It’s way past your bedtime. C’mon. I’ll tell you on the way.”
I take her hand and walk with her upstairs. “Coralie is the ghost I’ve been helping and, I guess, she decided to appear to apologize for the man who kicked you out of your body.”
Sophia yawns again. “Okay.”
She crawls into bed and is pretty much out cold before I can even tuck her in.
While it’s quite possible Coralie appeared to her, that doesn’t explain why she saw light on me. Oh, no way. I sneak back into Sophia’s room and gently peel her eyelids open so I can root around in her head a little more.
My sister didn’t see any strange light on Sam or Sierra, nor the parents.
“Oh, shit,” I whisper. “What if she can see vampires? Dammit. I’m endangering my entire family with supernatural bullshit.”
Sophia reaches up and hugs me. “Don’t even think about leaving. Please stay here.”
“Why are you seeing auras? That’s kinda not normal. What if something else happens to you, or Sierra, or Sam… or our parents?”
“I’m not scared.” She sticks her tongue out. “You have an aura, but it could be better.”
“Better?”
“It’s not pink. White is pretty but it’s kinda plain.”
I furrow my brows. I’m an Innocent. What other color could that possibly be but white? Grr. Now I’ll need to try and convince Glim to—wait. Aurélie wants to see them. If my sister sees an aura on her but no one else, that’ll prove she can spot vampires.
The Phantom Oracle (Vampire Innocent Book 5) Page 18