The Lost Girl

by Lilian Carmine

  “That’s all right, Joey. I understand. I’m here to help you with this. I’m going to research more about this magic ball, and in the meantime you practice controlling these powers. We’ll make a plan to trap this creature, to reveal the hidden key we need.” She crossed her fingers again. “Try to avoid stressful situations if you can from now on. And come back with Mr. Vigil tomorrow; we can start working out a plan together.”

  “Okay. Thanks,” I said. I felt like crap for having yelled at Celeste and she was being so nice and helpful now.

  “Oh, and keep an eye on Mr. Vigil at all times. We never know when this creature may strike again, and Vigil is vulnerable at the moment in his human form. You need to be around to protect him,” she added as an afterthought.

  “B-but … I don’t know how to protect him. And didn’t he just tell me I’m not supposed to use this power? That it could get out of control?”

  “Hmm, yes. I suppose you’re right. Well, Mr. Vigil can stay here with us. Our house is well guarded with protective spells, and my sisters and I can help too, if push comes to shove,” she offered.

  “That’s really kind of you to offer, Celeste,” Tristan replied. “We’re very thankful for your help …”

  I eyed him suspiciously, wondering how much he was genuinely worried about Vigil’s security and how much he just wanted Vigil away from me.

  “O-oh, you mean you are leaving, Joey?” Vigil asked. A hint of panic laced his voice. “I mean, I need to be with you, to help you if you lose control again. I need to be close … to help you!” he repeated in distress.

  He looked so lost. And scared. Like a little kid being abandoned by his mother. Even though I was pretty sure he was going to be safe with the Harker sisters, I didn’t know that for certain. I didn’t have the heart to just leave him like that. Not now, when he needed me the most.

  “Okay, Vigil. I guess you’re right. I’ll just go home to pick up a change of clothes. I’ll get some things for you too; you’re going to need them. Then I’ll come back to stay with you. If that’s all right with Celeste, that is …”

  “Yes, that’s fine. You two can stay in the guest room,” she agreed promptly.

  “Okay. I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?” I told Vigil one last time before leaving.

  I tried not to look at Tristan as we left.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Turning Tables

  “I just don’t get why you need to go, that’s all,” Tristan said for what seemed like the thousandth time. “He will be perfectly safe and protected with the Harkers. Why do you need to stay with him?”

  “You know why, Tristan. I can’t just leave him there. He doesn’t know anyone, he’s scared and he needs me. Listen, I don’t have time to argue about this any more, I have to go. He’s waiting for me,” I said, picking up two backpacks, one holding my things and the other stuffed with a bunch of spare clothes I’d gathered from the boys for Vigil.

  “So nothing really changes: he calls, and you rush off to him,” he spat out.

  Here we go again.

  “Tristan, come on, please. Can we not do this?”

  “Why can’t you see my side of this, Joey? I mean, here you are, running to be stuck with him, in the same room and all … and this will be for what? Just tonight? The whole week? A month?”

  “I don’t know how long, Tristan. I guess until this mess is fixed.”

  “And that could take for ever! Do you plan on sleeping with him for ever?”

  “Tris, I’m not sleeping with him …”

  “No? Do you even know if there are two beds in this guest room? What if they have only one bed in there? What are you going to do then?”

  “I’m sure there are two. And even if there aren’t, I can sleep on the couch or something. Stop making this into something it’s not …”

  “What? What am I making this into, Joey?” he said, crossing his arms. “He doesn’t think of you as a friend! He still loves you. And now he is all scared like a lost puppy and you are taking his bait. I know where this is going to end, Joey. You’ll make it your mission to protect him, save him from whatever, and then you’ll end up falling for him!”

  “Are you crazy? Do you not trust me at all?” I was upset. The windows in the room started to rattle like mad.

  “I know because that’s what happened with me, with us.” He was also shouting, oblivious to the rattling windows. “I was lost too, and scared, and needed your help, remember?”

  Oh. My. God. Did he seriously just friggin’ say that?

  “Oh, so that’s all you are to me, then, is it? You’re just a charity case. Someone I took pity on, you poor lost soul. I decided to help you and like the silly brainless girl that I am, I ended up falling for you. And now, silly me, I’m bound to do it again with Vigil, because I just can’t help myself. I’m that silly! That’s what I do; I help lost causes and fall for them, one after another.”

  Tristan looked pained, as if I had just declared his inner fears out loud and made them all come true.

  “Yes, it’s the same thing, happening all over again,” he said in a quiet voice.

  “Yeah, Tristan, it’s the same damned situation, only this time there’s something really important missing from the equation,” I said.

  He looked at me, completely lost.

  “YOU! You damned idiot. You are the thing that’s missing. Vigil may be lost, and scared and helpless, just like you were a long time ago, but I won’t fall for him. You want to know why? Because he is not you!” I softened my voice. “I didn’t fall in love with you because you were lost and scared; I fell for you because of who you are!”

  “But you still choose him over me any time of any day …”

  “Are you freaking kidding me? I’m not—” I stopped and huffed, too tired to argue any more. “You can’t honestly believe all this crap, Tristan. This is beyond stupid. You are just making this up to pick a fight with me now. Is that what you want? You want me to go to Celeste’s mad at you, is that it?”

  “No, I want you to not go! I want you to stay here with me. And I’m the one supposed to be mad, not the other way around. Stop turning the tables here. You are the one leaving to be with someone else. You are the one—”

  “Stop it,” I cut in before he could say anything else. I didn’t want to know what he was going to say next. It wasn’t going to be anything good. “I’d better leave now before you say something you’ll regret. And I know you will. We can talk again when you cool down.” I left the room without waiting for his reply.

  It was best for me to leave before I started another mini earthquake. I needed to learn to control my feelings, and arguing with Tristan right now was not helping the situation. He was pissing the hell out of me.

  I knew Tristan tended to lose his mind and act all crazy whenever the subject of Vigil came up. But I couldn’t let his jealousy keep me from helping my friend. If I let him get his way, what kind of a person would I be? What kind of friend would I be?

  I’d always sworn I would never be like those girls who let their boyfriends tell them what to do, who they could see or talk to, what they should wear, how they should act. It was absurd. And I was not going to let him do that to me – not now, not ever.

  He was going to have to deal with his insecurities and learn to trust me, whether he wanted to or not.

  I stomped my way to the front door, not bothering to call out to the boys. I bumped into Becca on my way out to the garage. She greeted me and told me she had news about something important coming up in a few days, but I excused myself and told her I was in a hurry. I had more important things to worry about right now. Work and gigs could wait.

  All the way to the Harkers’ I kept going over my argument with Tristan in my head, my anger slowly melting into regret and guilt. I felt really bad for having left him that way, but I was pretty certain that walking out had been the best thing to do. There was no reasoning with Tristan when he was like that.

  The sun was se
tting when I got back to the Harkers’.

  Luna opened the door for me and ushered me inside. There was a lot of rattling, fumbling and cursing inside the kitchen. Arice poked her round, rosy face around the kitchen door, beaming like her usual jolly self.

  “Ah, hey, Joey. Welcome back! Celeste and I are making dinner here; it should be done in a few minutes … if Celeste doesn’t mess things up again.” She mumbled the last part but then brightened up again. “Well, at least she’s trying, right? She’s not the best at cooking, but she made a point today of helping me out. You know how it is, special guest of honor and all,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

  “Hey, Arice. That’s nice, you didn’t need to go to all this trouble. Where is the special guest of honor, by the way?” I asked, looking around for Vigil.

  “Oh, he’s in Celeste’s office. We had a little bathroom incident a while ago, but it’s all sorted now,” she said, giggling.

  “Bathroom incident? Oh no, don’t tell me …”

  “Yeah, you could have told us he didn’t have … bathroom experience … before you left, you know? Poor thing, was fretting all over the place not knowing what the hell was going on!” She was trying hard not to laugh. “He’s so adorable! ‘Good heavens, there is something wrong with me, what should I do?’ It took me a while to understand he only needed to go for a wee. Had to ask a lot of weird questions to find that out. Celeste didn’t know where to look; she was as red as a tomato when she discovered what was really going on.

  “But I’ve explained everything to him and showed him a ‘Human Physiology’ Wiki article,” she continued. “He was astonished at all the information, and has now discovered the wonders of the internet. Can’t seem to unglue himself from Celeste’s laptop. He’s been reading non-stop since then.”

  “Oh … my. I’m so sorry, Arice. I completely forgot to tell you guys about Vigil’s new human condition. Thank you so much for helping him out in this … difficult time,” I said, relieved that I had escaped the potty training session. I could relate to Celeste’s tomato-red face.

  “No prob, hun. I’m not one to be abashed about these things.”

  “Do you need help in the kitchen?” I asked, noticing a slight smell of smoke drifting through the doorway.

  “Nah. We’re good. Too many hands in here; you’d only get in the way. I wish Celeste could leave me alone so I can cook in peace, but she’s set on helping tonight. Cos of the special guest,” she said, with the wiggling brows again.

  “I’m going to check on Vigil, then.”

  “’kay. Tell his honor that dinner will be done in a second. If you can pry him away from the laptop. Bring him to the dinner table, will you?” Arice winked and then froze, looking alarmed, and sniffed the air. “Celeste! Aren’t ya checking the oven? Ugh! I gotta go before she sets the whole house on fire!” And she darted back inside the kitchen.

  I found Vigil hunched in an old armchair in Celeste’s office, looking unblinkingly at a laptop on his knee.

  “Hi, V. I’m back!”

  He glanced up and his face lit up so much when he saw me, I had to bite down the urge to pinch his cheeks. “Hello, Joey. I am glad you are back.”

  “How about we head to the dinner table to take care of the void in your stomach, what do you say?” I proposed with a smile.

  He stopped and concentrated, putting a hand over his stomach, before nodding in agreement. We got to the living room and the table was all set and ready.

  Celeste fretted nervously during the whole dinner. She was really trying to impress Vigil, who in turn was engrossed in his food, oblivious to his host’s efforts.

  The food looked really good, the table was nicely set; I could tell they all had put a lot of effort into this meal. I tried to acknowledge their hard work, complimenting everything, while Vigil just sat there and ate like a starving man. The best he came up with was a small comment about how he had learned that “nutrition was important to ensure essential prerequisites for human life and to enable the human body to function properly”. That earned a weak smile from Celeste, a blank stare from Luna and a puzzled glance from Arice.

  After we’d finished dinner, Celeste showed us to the guest room. It was a small, cozy room with pale-blue walls and two single beds, one on each side.

  In your face, Tristan.

  Vigil lay down on his bed and was out as soon his head hit the pillow. He didn’t even take his clothes off, leaving Seth’s PJs untouched by the side of the bed. I guess being human made him truly exhausted.

  I pulled on my old sweatpants under a large T-shirt, snuggled beneath the covers and decided to take a quick look at my phone. There were no missed calls or text messages from Tristan. I guessed he was still mad at me for leaving. I punched at the buttons, typing a quick message:

  2 beds in guest room

  I stared at the message for a while, wondering if I should send it. Would he be less upset knowing this? After a few minutes’ consideration, I sighed and hit send. Maybe that would appease his temper. There was nothing more I could do about it, so I decided to go to sleep.

  The next three days at Celeste’s house were full of activities. I passed most of the time trying to learn how to block any emotion. The teaching technique they used was basically getting Celeste to irritate the hell out of me – which was quite an easy feat, I might add – with Vigil coaching me on how to block my anger, giving me tips on how to recognize the early traces of emotion building up inside.

  The key was to cut things off right at the beginning, and not to let the emotion get too strong. The first day was quite unsuccessful, ending up with every glass surface in the house full of cracks. But by the third day, I was actually getting good at the blocking technique. Vigil was very proud of me.

  Celeste had also starting searching for Nick’s whereabouts. She had a magical ritual that helped her locate hidden things, and she was using it to track Nick down. After we got hold of him, we could interrogate his sneaky little ass and learn how to switch our powers back, and voilá, everything would go back to normal.

  That was the plan, at least.

  The most important thing we had to worry about was not letting Nick know about the power switch, so he wouldn’t try to hurt Vigil while he was vulnerable. That and trying to prevent me from blowing everything up in the process.

  During breaks, Celeste and Vigil would disappear somewhere in the house, chatting amiably, and I would go to hang out with Arice. Vigil and Celeste talked a lot about magical stuff and metaphorical things. I also noticed Celeste had stopped calling him “Mr. Vigil” and they were now on first name terms. When Vigil wasn’t talking with Celeste, I could always find him glued to her laptop, researching things, or deep in thought in her office, staring blankly at the glass ball in his hands. I had brought with me the leather pouch holding all of Nick’s other magical gizmos, which were now securely locked away in Celeste’s safe in her bedroom.

  I kept rehearsing phone calls to Tristan during the three days I was there, but never got the courage to go through with the call. He still hadn’t sent me any text messages or tried to call me, and I feared he might still be angry with me.

  But I missed talking to him, a lot. I had so much news: the switching plan we’d conceived, my advances in magic, how I’d been making progress blocking my powers … By the end of third day I decided to call the house instead of Tristan’s cell phone. I could leave a voicemail message or talk with one of the boys, see how things were going back there. Seth picked up on the second ring.

  “Y’ello?” He sounded cheerful. That was a good sign. Seth was always in a bad mood when someone else in the house was angry.

  “Hey, Fletcher boy!”

  “Hey, Joey! How things are going there at spooky manor?”

  “It’s good. Lots of work to do, but it’s good. How about you?”

  “I’m fine. Things are a bit boring without you around …”

  “Yeah. So … how is he?” I finally asked. Seth probably knew al
l about our fight by now. Better get straight to the point.

  “Who?” He faked ignorance.

  “The frigging tooth fairy, Seth. Who do you think?”

  He chuckled. “I don’t know how he is. Why don’t you ask him yourself. Wait up …”

  “Wait, no! I want to talk to you firs—” But Seth was already shouting for Tristan to pick up the phone.

  Damn you, Seth Fletcher. I needed to fish for some information first, see if Tristan was still mad or not.

  “Hello?” Tristan’s voice came on the line.

  Crap. So much for having rehearsed conversations in my head over the last three days; I was now being put on the spot without any time to think about what I was going to say. Seth had caught me completely off guard. “Hmm. Hey. It’s … me,” I mumbled, while still mentally cursing Seth. “Hmm … thank you for taking my call …”

  “When did I ever not take your calls, Joey?”

  “Yeah. I didn’t mean it like that, sorry. So … I take it you’re still mad at me?”

  Tristan could be as stubborn as me sometimes. He paused and gave a big sigh. “I’m not mad, Joey. Is that why you haven’t called until now?”

  “I was giving you time to cool down. I don’t want to fight with you any more … Did you get my text message?”

  “Yeah … I did.” There was a pause on the line and then he spoke again. “How are things going over there?”

  “It’s going good. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last couple days.” And then I told him everything that had been happening to me at the Harkers’, our plan, the lessons I’d been taking, how fast I was learning and that maybe we could have this mess all sorted out real soon. He listened to everything in silence without commenting, but I could tell he was attentive. “… so soon we can find the secret to make the glass ball work again and switch our powers back,” I finished in a hopeful voice.

  “That’s good,” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  “I miss talking to you,” he said.

  That was out of the blue.

  I smiled. “I miss you too, Tris.”