CHAPTER TWENTY
“Darth Duplicitous,” Brandon said, trying out the nickname. “It fits!”
Alexis ignored him.
“It’s endearing,” he said, releasing an anxious smile. “Don’t you think?”
Still unnerved, Kendall shook her head and caught my gaze in the rearview mirror. “Did you reach out to it?”
“You were right next to me the whole time. Did you see me call out to some evil force?” Although I’d normally reflect on anything mysterious that Alexis proclaimed as truth, I didn’t need to verify her claim, Intuition told me that I should trust her. After all, I sensed that Alexis was quite familiar with black magic. A list of questions fought for control in my mind to be the first one out of my throat, but fright gripped me so tightly by what I’d just learned that I didn’t know where to begin.
“I thought you had to reach out to black magic,” Kendall said. “Like Serena said, I was standing right next to her. She didn’t rattle off any charms or anything.”
“That’s only one way to make a connection with black magic,” Alexis said. “The other way is to use every inch of your magic to purposely hurt another person.”
“But he’s a vampire!” I said, unable to contain my anger. “He’s admitted to killing hundreds of people, and he’ll keep doing it.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Well, how do I get it off my back? I can do some white magic. That’ll help, right?”
“Once you channel all of your magic to harm someone, it recognizes your life-force. And it will come calling…every time you use the majority of your power.”
“What does that mean?”
“It will tempt you with more power. Kendall said you broke over one-hundred bones in Darius’s body. Now, you know that vampires are impervious to most types of bodily harm. So how could a weak witch like you bust all those bones? It’s because you grabbed hold of every inch of power you could, and by doing that, you surpassed your own limits.”
“So it’ll hunt me down…forever?”
“You just need to learn how to keep it at bay. I could help you, if you’d like.” She gave me a warm smile, free of pretense.
If Alexis knew how to prevent black magic from creeping into her power base, she had surely touched it at one point. While I appreciated the sincerity behind her offer, I didn’t know if I could trust her. I believed her at times, but she followed her own agenda, and I assumed that she only assisted me when it benefited her.
“What does it do?” Brandon said. “If it latches onto you?”
“It gradually feeds you a little bit of power, so you might not even know you’re tapping into it. Eventually, you can grow stronger, but that which doesn’t come naturally in the magical world…always comes with a price.
“And that is?” I asked.
“You shed some of your morality.”
“You become evil,” Kendall said and looked at Alexis. “I bet you’re a pro at reading bedtime stories.”
Alexis gave her a knowing smile but neither confirmed nor denied that assertion.
“So,” I said, summing things up. “When I feel a hidden power boost coming on, I should avoid taking it. Sort of like how our mother dealt with me at birth.” I nodded. “Got it.” However, based on my experience in the library, I knew it would be much more difficult than that. My mind drifted to the moment when Celestina had pinned me to the wall. When I looked into her eyes, I didn’t recognize her. Had she, too, called upon black magic?
All of us remained silent for the next thirty seconds.
Then there was a click somewhere in the backseat. It sounded like…the passenger-side door unlocked. I glanced in the rearview.
Brandon pulled on the lever, opening the door.
I pumped the break, shocked that he’d do such a crazy thing while I cruised at over 70 mph. “What are you…?”
In the mirror, Darius grinned at me, and then he shoved Brandon toward the open door and sprang in that same direction.
With incredible reflexes, Kendall snatched Brandon’s wrist and yanked him toward her, preventing him from flinging out the door.
But Darius went right through it.
Unable to help Brandon – or stop Darius – I jammed on the brake and swerved to regain control of my momentary lapse in control. Hearing honking behind me and seeing a semi-truck’s headlights blazing through the rear window, I stomped on the accelerator to avoid getting rear-ended.
A second later, the rear passenger door slammed shut.
Hearing Brandon gasping for air while a dazed expression took hold of him, I found that, I too, was heaving for air. Thankfully, Kendall had saved him from taking a header out onto the expressway and perhaps getting crushed under a semi. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He fell back against the seat cushion, drained of energy. “I’m fine.”
Kendall wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. Tears beaded in her eyes.
“Well,” Alexis said in monotone, “you guys sure know how to party!”
The nonchalant manner with which she spoke was in such sharp contrast to her words that I began to laugh. So did she. Soon enough, Brandon had joined us. Only Kendall didn’t release her stress by doing likewise. Instead, she lowered her head, pushed away from him, and curled up against the driver’s side door, fighting to stop the ragged breaths that made her back hitch.
“Hey,” Brandon said, putting a hand on her back. “It’s okay. You saved me! I’m fine.” He looked at me in the mirror. “And women complain about being a damsel in distress? Well, as a dude in distress, I can officially say I’m okay with it. I don’t feel emasculated at all.”
Alexis chuckled. “That’s because it happened years ago. You’ve just gotten used to it.”
Brandon didn’t understand that Kendall needed time to process her fear at the prospect of losing him, followed immediately by an overwhelming sense of relief when she saved him.
One thing concerned me. Kendall’s emotions often veered in so many directions, communicating was reminiscent of riding a roller coaster. During one of her more introspective conversations, I’d inquired whether she had ever gotten herself tested for bipolar disorder. She had shivered at the mere suggestion, but she didn’t respond. It told me that she’d either ranked somewhere on the Bipolar Spectrum…or she feared testing positive, so she preferred not to take the test. Kendall had always been strong-willed and stubborn. In some instances, those characteristics worked in her favor. But now I feared that she might not be able to control herself. Now that she had become a vampire, and since every aspect of her life was now amplified, I had to expect that she’d endure even greater mood swings from here on out. I’d always been there to support her, depending on what she needed; either to provide some perspective, give advice, or just listen. And that would never change.
While Brandon once more attempted to rouse Kendall from inner torment, I glanced in my side mirror, suspecting that Darius had averted the semi.
Sure enough, Darius stood on the side of the road, watching after us. Then, as though knowing that we’d locked eyes in the mirror, he dashed off in the opposite direction and disappeared.
“Great!” Alexis said. She put a hand to her right temple and used her fingers to massage that spot. “We’re so screwed.”
In the rearview, I caught sight of Kendall wiping tears from her eyes.
Brandon moved close, pressing his chest against her side, but she swatted him away, resulting in him pulling his hands out at his sides as if to say, What’s wrong?
“No way!” Alexis said, staring wide-eyed at her cell phone.
Judging by her terrified expression, I felt my insides clench. “What now?”
“It’s Celestina.” She shook her head while texting.
Upon hearing her name, my head began pounding. “What’s wrong? What did she do?”
“Nolan’s with her.” Unable to utter another word as her face twisted in anger, Alexis continued texting, but her fingers tremble
d as they touched each letter on the screen.
I’d never seen my sister so frightened. She’d always exuded the utmost confidence. So to see her visibly shaken, I couldn’t help but respond in the same manner, especially since she’d mentioned the man I had a crush on.
“Get back to my house ASAP!” Alexis said.
“Why? Tell me what’s going on!”
“Nolan is there….with Celestina.”
Under ordinary circumstances, I would have been at ease knowing that Nolan had watched over my niece. But I had no idea what orders Darius had given Nolan, and without the ability to thwart those instructions, Nolan would carry out whatever demented plans Darius had given him. A barrage of hideous torture techniques sprung to mind. I jammed my foot down on the accelerator until it hit the floor. I sped past cars left and right, going over 90 mph to return to Alexis’s home.
“Faster!” my sister shouted. “Go faster!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
As I parked beside the curb outside Alexis’s house, my sister whipped open the door, leapt out, raced across the front yard, and took her porch stairs two-at-a-time before barging through the front door.
On the way here, I’d needed to concentrate on the road while zipping past each driver, careful not to cause an accident. It had kept my mind off what Nolan might have done to my niece. But now that we’d reached our destination, my heart pumped too quickly for me to catch my breath. I jumped out of the car as well, and Kendall and Brandon joined me a second later as we hurried into the house to find Alexis standing just inside the doorway, staring at…
Nolan playing Dance Dance Revolution beside Celestina. Both of them jumped up and down on the giant pads on the carpet, while staring intently at the screen, as though losing meant eternal damnation.
“Well,” Brandon said, flabbergasted. “Evil strikes again!” He craned his neck towards Alexis. “Who do you want to take on next? The Pillsbury Doughboy?”
“Hey, Mom!” Celestina said, her voice out of pitch, since she exerted herself. “I’m totally killing it!” She glanced at Nolan, who was so wrapped up in the game that he didn’t even notice that we’d entered the room…or even that my niece had just spoken.
“What the hell’s going on?” Alexis shouted.
Her booming, vehement voice finally drew Nolan’s attention. He stopped moving and snapped up quick breaths. “Hey.” A quick smile surfaced, and he pushed a hand through his hair to put it back in place.
“Hey?” Alexis asked, stomping toward him. “Hey?!” She lifted her hands, angling them at Nolan. “Five seconds! That’s how long you’ve got to explain yourself before I send you to the Ice Age.”
Celestina stopped moving and unfurled her arms in a patronizing manner. “There’s nothing to worry about. Nolan is like…totally on our side.” She turned her gaze to me, placed a hand beside her mouth, so no one but me could see, and whispered the words: “And he’s sooo cool! Good catch, Aunt Serena!”
I exchanged an uncertain glance with Alexis, and only now realized that my body flooded with heat, which was certainly incited by concern for my niece. Suspecting that she’d go crazy on Nolan, I headed in his direction, curious to find out if he still acted on Darius’s behalf. It made sense that the master vampire ordered Nolan to spy on us under the auspice that he acted of his own accord.
“What’re you doing here?” Like my sister, I lifted my hands to throw fire at him in case he attacked.
He backed off with a face devoid of anger or confusion, which revealed that he’d expected us to be suspicious about his intentions. “Let me explain, okay?” Far from a monster that planned our demise, Nolan looked sincere and relaxed, even trustworthy.
“All right.” Maybe I wanted to believe him because I’d trusted in Grams, Darius, and Alexis, only to have them betray me in one way or another. I hoped I could rely on him to tell the truth. I turned to my sister and nodded at her. “He could have done anything while we were gone and then took off. I want to hear him out.”
Alexis split her attention between Nolan and me. “What if he asked Celestina to text me, so we’d all come here? What if he plans on having Darius stop by with another crew of vamps? What if this is a trap?”
They were all good questions. I said to Nolan, “Did you tell my niece to text Alexis?”
“Yeah,” he said, eliciting a look of hurt pride upon being accused of wrongdoing. “But it’s not like she says.”
Alexis gnashed her teeth together and raised her guard once more. “See? He’s just biding his time, so Darius could come back. He was invited inside, remember? We’re not safe here!”
“You forget,” I said, “that you invited him…against my advice. This time, take my advice: hear him out.”
My sister folded her arms. She didn’t utter a word, but her body language said, if you lie to me, I’ll send you to Siberia without the courtesy of a plane ticket.
“I knew you needed the inside scoop,” Nolan said, “so I let Darius think that he compelled me to do whatever he said. Well, that and act like an airhead, so he wouldn’t expect too much from me.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “What’s in it for you?”
“Other than to help you? Because I was feeling weak, and I realized that when we touched…” His gaze skimmed across those of Alexis, Kendall, and Brandon before returning to mine. “I drained you of energy but I grew stronger.”
“You stole time from my life. How much time did you take? A week? Two? A month?”
“I don’t know. That’s another reason I went double agent. Remember when Darius noticed me with you in Grams’s shop?”
I smiled when he used my nickname for my grandmother. Even though Nolan never met her, his intimate tone lent the impression that he felt a connection to her…through me. It made me feel closer to him. Another part of me, however, wondered if he mentioned that nickname to make me trust him, only to deceive me later. I still didn’t know what to believe, so I waited for him to continue.
“Darius attacked me,” Nolan continued. “Because he recognized me. Not because he knew me, but he knew what I am. Since I was in the dark about my abilities, I had to get as much info from him about what I am as possible.”
I gave him the benefit of the doubt on that explanation. “Okay.”
“I also wanted to get some intel about what Darius and Zephora plan on doing,” Nolan said, “so I could give you the scoop.”
“Sounds convenient!” Alexis gave him a condescending look. “Too convenient.”
I found her suspicious nature exhausting. I believed everything Nolan said. Looking to Kendall and Brandon, I saw that they, too, were reassured by his motives. Granted, I was more than a bit relieved to learn why he’d temporarily sided with Darius. My heartbeat quickened, and my breath came quick. As much as I tried not to fall for him, I found myself doing just that.
“Really, Mom?” Celestina asked, giving her a deadpan expression. “He was playing Dance Dance Revolution with me. How many psychos play Wii?”
“So where’s Zephora?” Alexis asked Nolan, disregarding her daughter. “Did you kill her? Because if you were truly on our side, that’s what you would’ve done.”
Nolan must’ve seen that he’d assuaged my fears because he no longer looked tense. He breathed easier, his shoulders dropped a little, and when he looked in my eyes, he permitted a hint of a smile. “Zephora?” he asked, seemingly only now recalling that my sister had asked a question. “I dropped her off at the place Darius wanted me to.”
“How convenient.” Alexis sniffed with distrust. “You couldn’t just leave her in the car outside the house?”
“Well, no,” Nolan said, meeting her mistrust with a glare. “Because she’s probably stronger than you, even while going through withdrawal and not up to full power. So yeah, I did what Darius wanted because I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.”
“Then where is she?” Kendall asked. “How bad off is she? Could Serena and Alexis go there now and kill her?”
“No book,” Alexis said. “No Zephora.” She stormed past Nolan and Celestina and walked into her kitchen.
“We’re all okay, though,” said Celestina, turning toward her mother, who returned to the family room, now holding a brand new bottle of Blueberry flavored vodka. She looked us over. “Anyone want a shot?”
I found myself walking over to her, and before she could press the bottleneck to her lips, I snatched the bottle out of her hand and headed for the kitchen. I resorted to rudeness to gauge my sister’s reaction. If she hated me or even spoke up, she either resented me or considered me inferior. Not hearing a response, I realized that she somewhat considered me an equal, unless she remained quiet to lull me into a false sense of security. “Kendall, you need a shot or two? Brandon? I know you want one.” I opened the cupboards and found a few shot glasses. “Nolan, you won’t say no, will you?”
I lined up the shot glasses, poured liquor into each glass, and looked up to find Alexis staring at me like a little girl who’d misplaced her favorite doll. When the group picked up their shot glasses, I said, “Here’s hoping we send Darius and Zephora to hell.” We tinkled glasses and then took a gulp. Within seconds, the alcohol hit my system and diluted some of my anxiety. After so much trepidation during the past few days, I needed something to temper my emotions.
I so enjoyed the discontent on Alexis’s face that I decided to fill the glasses for a second round. “And to my sister’s hospitality.” I clinked glasses with my friends, and we sucked down another shot. “Whew!” I said, shocked by the speed with which the liquor dulled my senses, I marveled at how Alexis could drink so much, so often. I walked over and handed her the now half-empty bottle. “Thanks, sis. That really hit the spot.”
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