Because like Jacquelyn said... It was my fault.
If Draven knew who I was…did that mean I was going to be running forever now? I had a target painted on my back by the most powerful vampire in Tampa, and it was totally my fault.
But I couldn’t think about that right now. Life needed to become manageable steps, and the next one in front of me was getting everyone to safety.
“Okay, well, make sure to text Laura, because, you know…” I pointed at the house behind me. “That’s where my phone is. Hopefully it’s good and crisped and not sitting up there, streaming episodes of Pretty Little Liars and burning through my data plan, uh... literally.” Because Dad had been through enough this week.
“This is just too much…” Dad said, holding his head. “Everything that I’ve seen tonight…”
I put a hand on his arm. “I know, Dad. It’s okay.” I looked up at Mill. “Hey…if they know you and I hang out…do they know about Iona?”
Mill’s eyes got wide.
Yeah…I was afraid of that.
“We need to get to her…like, right now,” Mill said.
“Can you call her?” I asked.
His eyes darted. “I don’t have her number.”
I groaned and pointed at the house. “My phone.”
My mind drifted to Xandra and how all of this danger might affect her as well. She wasn’t involved in this situation, and Jacquelyn wouldn’t know about her…right? She was probably fine. At least for now.
I made a mental note to reach out to her later.
Mill was looking around. “How are we going to get there?”
“My keys are in the house,” Dad said. “Also, my car.” The garage looked just as burned as the rest of the house, and the door wasn’t going up anytime soon, not under its own power.
Mom didn’t reply. She was still staring into the distance.
“I can drive,” Laura said. “I’ll go get my keys. Meet me at the curb in five.”
“Okay, just hurry,” I said, already feeling like time was starting to speed up. Jacquelyn was somewhere out there, with her new vampire friends, looking to do me harm and fully aware that Iona was part of my crew…
We had to get to her before they did.
Chapter 6
The Prius that Laura drove was the perfect example of a teenage girl.
She had pink, tropical air fresheners crammed into the vents on the dashboard. A small garland of flowers hung from her rearview mirror. There was a coiled clamp for her phone that hooked up to her stereo system so she could play her jams. And the back seat was littered with empty sparkling water and kombucha bottles.
I had somehow ended up crammed in the back seat between my father and Mill, holding my own elbows because of the lack of room. The fake flowery smell was giving me a headache, and Dad constantly leaning around me to give Mill the stink eye was doing anything but make me feel at ease.
“Okay, so where are we going?” Laura asked, turning onto one of the main roads leading toward Tampa.
“Head for the interstate. We’re going to turn just before it. She lives on the Hillsborough River.” Mill replied.
“Wait, that close?” I asked.
Mill nodded. “How do you think she was always able to get here as quickly as she did?”
“Well, you don’t exactly live close,” I said.
I got a death glare from Dad. Yeah…probably shouldn’t have mentioned going to my boyfriend’s house unsupervised.
I sighed and leaned back against the headrest. Which I quickly realized didn’t exist in the middle seat. My neck snapped back, which caused me to wince and rub the already stiff muscles.
“Ugh…” I groaned. “I am sooo tired.”
“It’s been a crazy day,” Mill said. “First the accident, then the fire.”
I snorted. “Wow, I totally forgot that all happened today.”
“Even for me, it feels like a long day,” he said.
“No,” I said, lifting my head. “I mean that it actually was like a week ago for me.”
“What?” Mill said, arching a brow.
“I just got back from Faerie with Lockwood right before I came downstairs and found you standing there in the kitchen. Way to warn me about your visit, by the way.”
“Wait…what?” Mill said, blinking.
“Faerie?” Laura asked, her eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror.
“Yeah, there’s a world of fae,” I said.
I got mixed reactions. Dad just shook his head, like he couldn’t handle any more. Laura seemed to be in awe, her eyes wide and twinkling with wonder in the rearview mirror. Mill was glaring at me, stiff and stern as I’d ever seen him, like he was jealous or something.
And Mom. She found her voice at last, much to my chagrin.
“More lies?” she said, shaking her head. “This is a psychosis level of crazy, Cassandra. Faeries? Vampires? I’m really starting to worry about you, young lady.” She craned her neck around to glare at me from the front seat.
“Yeah, you really don’t have any room to talk, Mom,” I said. “You are fully swimming in a river in Egypt here. Come out, Mom.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Denial, dear,” Dad said under his breath. “De-Nile, see? The Ni—”
“I got it, thanks,” she said, cold glare fixed on him now. Which was sort of a relief, because it was off me, at least for the moment.
“You went to Faerie, and you didn’t take me with you?” Mill asked, because I didn’t need a chance to take a breath and simmer down before someone else started volleying questions at me. Nah, I was good. Keep firing, people.
“It wasn’t like I had a chance to tell you,” I said. “Lockwood showed up in my room asking for help. Remember the pixies? They were coming after Lockwood to kill him so he didn’t go back and expose the truth about—You know what? Never mind. We can talk about it some time when we’re not being chased and having Molotov cocktails thrown at us and whatnot.” Which, if Draven had his way, would be never.
“Wait, I want to hear more about this Faerie place,” Laura said, pouting her lip.
“Later,” I said.
Mill rattled off a few more directions, but his attitude toward me had cooled, which annoyed me. It wasn’t like I would have been able to talk to him about any of this, since the first time I had seen him since getting back was when he had sprung the truth about us on my parents, and I had to deal with all of that drama.
“Our house…” Mom’s voice cracked in the newly settled silence. “And Jacquelyn…she used to be such a nice girl… when did she become a compulsive liar, too?”
“Mom,” I said. “She’s. A. Vampire. How many times do I have to say this before you believe it?”
“How many times are you going to lie before you tell the truth?” Mom asked, her voice rising.
“Katherine…” Dad said. “Please.”
Mom looked at Dad, her cheeks flushed. She turned back around in a huff.
“So, Lockwood really took you to Faerie?” Mill asked again.
I glared at him, wondering why - why - why? Was I dealing with everyone being snotty at once? “I thought I said we’d talk about this later.”
“Yeah, but…why did he take you?” Mill’s brow was furrowed like he was puzzling through something particularly heavy. “Isn’t taking humans to Faerie a no-no?”
I frowned. “He needed me to lie for him.”
Dad perked up. As did Mom. Go figure they would want to hear about me lying to give themselves more ammunition. This was just peachy. “Which I did not, okay? And let me tell you, Faeries lie way more than I do. That whole idea that they can’t is just a load of bull.”
“Yes, I know, I’ve caught Lockwood being a little deceptive a time or two,” Mill said.
“Where exactly are we going?” Mom asked, staring out of her window in the front seat. Her arms were firmly crossed in front of her.
“Iona’s house,” I said. “Come on, Mom, we’ve said
it at least three times.”
“Who is this Iona?” Dad asked. “Another of these friends that we didn’t know about?”
“Yes, Dad, another of my secret, special Super-friends,” I said. “A.K.A vampires.”
“I should have come with you,” Mill said. “Lockwood should have known how dangerous it was for you to go.”
“Yeah, you have no idea,” I said. “But I think he said he couldn’t bring a vampire to Faerie for some reason.”
Mill’s face darkened with concern. “That’s what he said about humans, too, but he brought you.”
“Well, he needed the right tool for the job,” I said.
“And what job was that?” he asked more firmly.
“I told you, lying,” I said, blowing air impatiently between my lips.
“Do I take a right, here?” Laura asked from the front, having stopped at a stop sign.
“Yes,” Mill said and then turned back to me.
“Do Jacquelyn’s parents even know that she’s here?” Mom asked.
“Mom, Jacquelyn is a vampire. Didn’t you hear her say that her parents had kicked her out? Swore that she was dead to them? Didn’t you hear her blaming me for all of that, plus her hamster dying in third grade?” I asked, my heart beating uncomfortably in my chest. I hated knowing that she was right to be angry with me.
“Wait, you killed the girl’s hamster?” Laura asked, looking at me in the rearview with wide eyes.
“No,” I said, “I loved Mr. Giggles, but I figure since she’s blaming me for everything else crappy in her life, she’s probably throwing in a few unrelated disasters to further stir the pot.”
Laura was pulling down a narrow road, and I could see the reflection of her headlights off to the left on glimmering water. The river. The sky was as dark as ink, but the light pollution from Tampa ensured that only the brightest of stars could be seen. This far off the main roads, it was quiet and there were very few street lights.
“It’s right here,” Mill said, pointing out of his window.
We had reached the end of the road.
There was a small house just off the street to the right. It was a small, aged bungalow. The front porch light was on, revealing the chipping, peeling yellow paint on the exterior. A brand-new, bright red, Volkswagen Beetle was sitting in the dirt driveway. Planter boxes were scattered all over the slightly overgrown yard, and there was a swing strung up in one of the large, old, oak trees.
All of the lights were on inside, spilling light out onto the grass and circular stone path leading up to the door.
“Oh no…” I said, my stomach plummeting, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up straight.
The bright blue front door stood ajar.
Someone had beaten us here.
Chapter 7
“Laura, stop the car,” I said, my hand already reaching for the door handle, my palms sweating. My eyes were fixed on the open door. How had they had found her already?
She hit the brakes and I narrowly missed mashing my face against the seats in front of me. I shoved Mill to get out, desperate to reach the inside to find Iona.
“How did they get here before us?” I asked as I crawled out after him.
Mill made it to the front porch in the blink of an eye, staying outside of the pool of light flooding the lawn in a narrow beam. Without stopping to wait for Mom and Dad, I ran to catch up with him. I still had the stake that he had given me, and he had pulled another one out from... somewhere? I had started to wonder if he had a utility belt or something. Maybe I was dating the vampire Batman.
He was hovering near the doorway, peering around the frame into the house like a secret agent, ready and waiting to throw himself into the thick of it.
A putrid smell wafted out the door, like spoiled meat or rotten produce. I plugged my nose. “Holy…what is that?” I whispered.
“I have my suspicions, but I’d rather be certain,” Mill said. “Are you ready?”
“Ready.” I said.
“Okay, on three. One…two…”
We both dashed inside, Laura’s running footsteps rustling on the grass behind us. She must have parked the car.
We stumbled into the small living room, and I blinked against the sudden bright light. The television was on, too, playing Mean Girls, at some point halfway through the movie. There were bookshelves packed beyond capacity on either side, with others spilling out onto the carpeted floor, or stacked in leaning towers on top.
The sofa looked like something straight from Ikea, grey with slightly squished and worn cushions, and some throw pillows with encouraging sayings like Adventure Awaits and Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing.
Everything looked…normal. Undisturbed. And that’s what made it so eerie.
There was a desk beneath the window with a laptop at least ten years old on top, and poster hanging above it. Was it…Hanson? That boy band from the nineties? A trio of long-haired blond dudes stared back at me.
There was a clink of something metal in the kitchen. My heart leapt into my throat, and Mill crouched down. He gestured to me to be quiet.
I nodded. Like I was going to make any sudden, stupid moves after that.
Laura appeared a moment later and stared between the two of us. I nodded silently toward the kitchen, and she nodded in response. I was glad that she understood it wasn’t time to play twenty questions.
There was definitely someone in there. Something ceramic rattled on the counter as we crept across the small living room. Each sound made my heart jump, and my chest burned with anxiety.
Mill glanced over at me and waited. Why was he waiting for me to give the signal? I was the rookie here, wasn’t I?
Mill leapt into the kitchen, and I followed quickly behind, wielding my stake out in front of me like a dagger, expecting a fight as soon as my feet hit the floor—
And there was Iona, standing at the stove, wearing a frilly pink apron with a wooden spoon in her hand.
“What the—” Mill started, getting to his feet, his thick eyebrows knitting together in one, angry line.
Iona blinked at us, way less surprised than I would have thought she’d be at the fact that three people had just appeared in her kitchen. “Um…” she said, staring between us, her eyes narrowing. “What are you doing in my kitchen, Forehead?”
Mill and I both exhaled heavily as I stood up straight. The relief was great, but annoyance quickly took its place. My knees began to ache as the adrenaline left my body for the umpteenth time in the last few hours. Was it possible to completely exhaust your adrenal glands? Because between the fae war and my house being attacked by vampires, if such a thing was possible, I had to be close.
“We thought you were kidnapped, or dead, or something,” I said, glaring at her. I knew it wasn’t her fault, but I had to blame someone for making me get so worked up over her door being opened. “We thought Draven’s minions had gotten you.”
“What?” Iona asked. “What are you even talking about?” She glanced at Laura as if just noticing her.
“Hey, Iona,” Laura said awkwardly.
“Hi…strange girl? I can’t remember your name,” Iona said.
“Laura,” she said with a smile. “The Miami fiasco? Remember?”
“Yeah, I don’t actually care,” Iona said, turning to glare at me instead. “You know, it’s a little rude to show up at someone’s house unannounced. Why didn’t you call first? Or at least text me?”
“I lost my phone—” I said.
Iona rolled her eyes. “Likely story.” And she turned back to the stove.
The acrid stench was lingering, and as I got another strong whiff of it when a breeze passed through the back door, also wide open, I nearly gagged. I realized that the smell was emanating from the metal pot on the stove.
“Iona, what are you cooking?” I pinched my nose. Laura covered her mouth, too, her eyes watering.
Iona looked at the pot and then back at me, her face passive.
“I’m boiling blood.”
Laura made a gagging sound beside me.
“What?” I asked. The bile was definitely climbing up into my mouth.
Iona’s eyes widened as my parents walked into the kitchen, and she shifted a glare to me. “What is this? A family outing?”
Mom was clearly ready to scold me, but as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, she covered her face with her hands, face turning green. “What is that?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Iona said, and she turned the stove off.
“That smell,” Mom said. “It's terrible. What are you making?”
“Stew?” Iona said. She lifted the pot and started pouring it into a series of mason jars. The dark red liquid, moving with the viscosity of maple syrup, was steaming.
“It’s blood,” Mill said. If he was trying to get on my parents’ good side by telling them the truth about everything, he better start multiplying the compliments and hope they would outweigh the negatives he was starting with.
I had to look away from the filled jars. It was too gross.
It was clear that my parents were horrified, too. Mom was cowering behind Dad, and Dad’s face was the color of Mill’s skin; papery white.
“So why do you boil it?” Mill said.
Mill, why did you have to ask?
“It changes the flavor profile,” Iona said as she drained the rest of the pot into the last mason jar.
“Really?” Mill asked, folding his arms. “That’s interesting. How so?”
“I like it, reminds me of a hot cup of tea when I was still human,” Iona said.
I probably would have been even more disgusted by the image if I hadn’t caught the slight remorse in Iona’s tone. Which was rare, for Iona.
“I’d rather have mine ice cold. Especially AB,” Mill said.
“I prefer O, myself. It has a better shelf life,” Iona said, capping the jars with metal lids.
“I think that’s a myth,” he said. “But that reminds me of the vegetarian that I got stuck with not long ago. Ugh. Talk about low iron count—”
“You guys,” I said. “This is disgusting. Stop. Like, now. We’re not here to swap cooking tips. You can exchange recipes when we aren’t around.”
Her Lying Days Are Done Page 4