by Jaime Reed
“I know. Just a little longer,” I promised, though I wasn’t sure it was one I could keep. Dad was set in his ways and I was terrified of how he would react.
“But we finally got the insurance issue settled,” she continued. “We can try to get a used car on Tuesday. It may not be the one you want, but it’s transportation for school.” Mom offered a weak smile.
Of all the things to worry about, she fretted over if I liked a car. Granted, I was still butt-hurt over losing my whip, but in the grand scheme of things, it was just a car. A few months ago, this would’ve meant the end of the world as I knew it. I couldn’t believe how self-absorbed I had been, yet I still grieved in a way, for the innocence of that time had died with the leaves. Childhood was truly over.
I took the mug from her trembling hands and helped her lie down. “Come on, you should go to bed.”
Mom didn’t put up much of a fight and allowed me to tuck her in. She curled into the fetal position, clutching the pillow tight to her chest. I watched her toss and turn under the covers for a good twenty minutes until her body stilled. There was no way she was sleeping alone tonight, but I had to lock up the house.
Trotting downstairs, I realized Ruiz was still here—I had completely forgotten. It was kinda sweet how he stuck around, but it didn’t excuse all the secrecy.
He hovered by the entryway and appeared dignified in light of the circumstances. He tilted against the wall, watching my descent with a furrowed brow. “How’s your mother?”
“How do you think?” I snapped, then dragged my free hand through my hair and gripped the root. I wanted to cuss this dude out so bad, I could taste its poison on my tongue, but it wouldn’t change anything.
Ruiz waited patiently as I tried to keep my temper in check.
I opened the door for him, hoping he would take the hint. “Tell me something—was Mom and this dating thing just a means to an end? It’s not cool to get played like that.”
“No. Everything I told her was true, but she’s forever asking questions. It’s not easy to lie to her,” he murmured to himself.
What did that mean? I stared at him for a moment before it finally hit me. Disgusted, I held the door frame for balance. “That’s the real reason she’s upset. She knows why you’re here, doesn’t she?”
“She knows Mrs. Petrovsky sent me for protection. Your mother is a cautious woman, one who wouldn’t allow just anyone to bring her daughter home. But I couldn’t tell her about my mission with the Ross brothers. Outsiders can’t know about Cambion politics.”
“She’s my mom, not some accident or a pawn to be used in your little spy game.”
He rounded on me with cold eyes and that no-nonsense persona that was all too familiar. “I have an obligation to not just one but two Cambion families, and I can’t jeopardize my position for anyone, and that includes personal affiliations. Just know that this wasn’t my intention.” He stepped outside, then stopped and looked at me with a pensive expression.
“So what now?” I asked. “I’m under the impression that you care about her a lot. If so, you need to make this right and tell her everything. Secrets will ruin any relationship. Trust me.”
“I know.” The cold air fogged his breath as he sighed in frustration. “At some point, I’ll tell her, but right now it’s just ... it’s complicated.”
“Welcome to my world. Enjoy your stay.” I closed the door, leaving him standing on the porch.
25
Of all of my twelve years of school, including kindergarten, no day had comprised as much fail as this one.
But that’s what I got for believing things could go back to normal on Monday. What had I really expected? To go to class and pretend that the holiday from Hell had never happened? Luck didn’t work that way, not for me anyway.
Mom drove me to school extra early and recited the list of safety precautions I’d already memorized. Aside from that, she didn’t say a word, not about her relationship with Ruiz, her take on the weekend, or her two-hour conversation with Haden this morning. She looked severely to the road ahead, making the proper turns and stops and dropping her speed to twenty-five once we reached the school zone, but all this was done as some mechanical response brought on by habit.
She seemed distracted, troubled—proof that she was never meant for a life of crime. Somehow the Ross boys had dragged her into some covert scheme that was not only implausible but probably illegal. But she kept firm in the decision of me returning to school, insisting that we go on with our normal routine. I agreed, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling of being used as live bait.
Sharing classes with the enemy didn’t settle my nerves, and I counted the minutes before Tobias kick-started another round of harassment. But he didn’t. He didn’t show up for first period, he didn’t lurk around the halls, and his presence was nowhere on campus. Relieved as I was, I stayed on guard. He was prone to materialize when I least expected it, and it would take more than a Cambion beat-down to throw off his rhythm.
Between classes, I tried to call Caleb, but got nothing but voice mail again. He was taking this separation thing seriously, determined to keep me out of his plan, out of his life. That was one bruise my ego wouldn’t allow to heal. At least Angie had taken the time to leave a message—though a short and ominous one.
“I’m in New York on business. I’m sure you know what manner of business by now. I was hoping to explain this to you when I came to visit, but there’s an emergency that requires my immediate attention. I’ll explain everything when I arrive.”
Yeah, very vague, and her tone gave me a chill of foreboding. It was the prologue of imminent doom, similar to whenever Mom said, “Wait until your father hears about this.” Translation: I was so screwed.
On my way to the cafeteria, I took a moment to observe the chaotic scope of my academic environment. The color scheme of the main common area had gone from orange and brown to red and green overnight. Cutout pumpkin and pilgrims were replaced by paper snowflakes and cotton balls on the bulletin board.
Dougie leaned by his locker, chugging down a protein shake and flexing his biceps to a squealing freshman. More girls walked around wearing those hideous Specter T-shirts. That annoying couple still made out in the middle of the hallway, and Jason Lao chatted in my ear about the latest news.
“Yo, there must be something in the water—people are wiggin’ out. I can’t post it fast enough,” he said, his thumbs clicking away at his BlackBerry. “You know Alicia Holloway, right? Well, rumor has it she’s got some dirty pictures of the Courtneys, but she’s mad that I won’t post them because they look Photoshopped. I’m a journalist and all about integrity.” He popped the collar of his white shirt.
“Since when?” I asked while watching Mia hurry to her next class. She continued to ignore me, sitting in the far row in class and not returning any of my calls. I thought it best to wait her out for a few days, plus now I had to wait for my new ride to conduct a proper stakeout in front of her house. The complete turnaround of my life was still hard to process. I’d managed to push away every single person I knew. But I would get them all back. I had to.
Jason still chatted away, unfazed that I was only half listening. “Then there’s a kid in my French class who said he saw a tornado or something on Thanksgiving night and it wrecked up all these cars on the freeway. Oh, and word’s going around that Malik Davis ran away from home.”
I turned to him, completely thrown off by the last statement. “What?”
“Yeah, he had a run-in with the law or something during the break and no one’s seen him since.” Jason tucked his phone behind his back as the rent-a-cop walked by. “Listen, I gotta go. I need to update my blog before lunch is over.”
I sat with my rogue lunchmates and let Jason’s words digest. Was Malik really missing? Why hadn’t Tobias returned to the Davises’ house? Maybe some fisherman found the real Malik’s body and blown his cover. I would give anything to know what was going on, but no one, not even my mother
, would give me a single crumb of information.
Students ambled through the back entrance from the parking lot, shaking the light rain off their coats and umbrellas. An icy breeze rushed into the toasty cafeteria whenever the double doors opened, forcing me to look up. As if on cue, as if a single thought had conjured him there, he stood just beyond the doors with his head bowed and his eyes fixed on me. Not Malik, or any other pretense, but Tobias in all his devastation.
The doors closed again, but as more students entered, he stayed locked in place. This continued for another five minutes, him playing peekaboo with the door, willing me to come to him. I obeyed, with no true conscious effort on my part, only the sole objective to reach my target.
I pushed open the door and stepped outside to find him gone. I turned to go back inside, then spotted him tucked into a small alcove off the side of the building. His back pressed against the brick wall and he watched me with what I could recognize as restrained anger.
“It’s disconcerting the connection we share,” he said. “I can feel him, you know. I could always feel him—his hunger, the burning in his chest whenever he looks at you, the tingle up his spine when he touches you. Makes me sick to my stomach.”
“Tobias—”
“I thought I could trust you,” he interrupted. “I thought you could keep a secret. Why did you give them Malik’s address?”
I shrank back. “What? I don’t even know where you live—I mean Malik—I mean, whoever,” I stammered.
“Then why am I being blocked?”
“Blocked?” I looked to the cafeteria doors then back to him. “You mean you can’t get in the school?”
“The school, the bookstore, my fucking house!” he hissed.
Now was not the time to point out that it was actually Malik Davis’s house and that Tobias was getting too caught up in his method acting, so I kept quiet. The guy was outraged, and rightfully so. I wouldn’t want someone changing the locks on me, and who had that kind of spare time? Who else knew about Malik and incubi repellant? The answer arrived before I could complete the question.
Caleb.
I wondered how he’d managed to pull this off, and why I hadn’t come up with the idea first. This would’ve saved me weeks of torment.
“You ran away?” I asked, returning to the discussion.
“Didn’t have a choice, did I? You look surprised. You said so yourself, this had to end eventually. I won’t forget this slight, Samara.”
I cowered away from his critical stare. “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t grease down Malik’s house or the school. You brought this on yourself. You don’t know the meaning of ‘No,’ and you managed to piss off a whole family of Cambions.”
“I couldn’t care less about those demon mutts, and these stupid frat-boy pranks are hurting a lot of innocent people,” he said. “You don’t think I expected this? You think I didn’t have a plan B, or C? Samara, there aren’t enough letters in the alphabet for what I have planned. I came too close to losing what matters most and I won’t do it again. No matter what they do, the outcome will be the same. If you bond with me, Caleb will die. If you bond with him, he will still die. I told you, I always get what I want.”
“And I told you—” I drew closer, my courage building with each step. “You don’t know me. I hold grudges for years and will risk self-destruction for payback. If that means taking a knife and carving Lilith out, it will be worth it to get rid of you. You might morph into whatever women want you to be, but the only thing I want you to be is gone.”
The bell rang in that instant, and I stormed away before he could catch me. I felt his advance, but I tangled in the crowd, shoving my way to the entrance.
“Samara, wait,” he commanded. When I ignored him, his voice broke, edged with desperation, “Lilith!”
I stopped. Slowly, I turned around to face him standing in the entryway. Raindrops spilled down his cheeks, creating tears he would never make on his own. I took one step and then another until I stood with only the door frame and the cold air separating us. Still not satisfied, he crooked his finger and willed me to come closer.
I had become a paraplegic learning to walk again. Basic mobile skills failed me at the moment and every step required effort. Something pulled against me in resistance, my shoes weighed down by lead, my legs bracketed by rusty hinges in need of oil. By the time I stood in front of him, sweat and rain dotted my forehead.
Tobias appraised my unsteady approach. “You’re stronger than last time. I underestimated you, Flower. I won’t make that mistake again.” He reached behind my head and pulled me forward, allowing our mouths to meet in a rush of violence.
He traced the seam between my lips, coaxing them apart. Unable to resist the warmth, I gave in and enjoyed his tongue working its evil spell. It swirled against the soft palate of my mouth, causing my pulse to race and tiny hairs on my neck to stand straight. A bolt of lightning pierced my heart, recharging nerves and reviving dead cells.
This was the kiss of life that I knew all too well, but this wasn’t like any life I’d ever tasted. Gold and green fireworks exploded behind my eyelids and my center of gravity melted away. Power. Unbridled power coursed through me in silken ribbons, weaving around the fibers in my muscles and fusing to the pulsing tissue.
“Do you love me?” he asked against my lips.
“Yes.” It was my voice, the breath pushed from my mouth to form the word, but it seemed foreign.
“Then prove it. Things didn’t go as planned last time, but we can go forward. I’ve been wronged and it’s up to you to make it right. Now, I’ve wasted too much time here and it’s no longer safe. I’m leaving and I want you to come with me. It will be just us. No family, no friends, no rules. We can feed as often as we like without guilt. We still can have our chance. Come with me now, and I can give you forever.”
“Okay.” Again, the voice was still mine, but I didn’t remember uttering the word. What was going on?
“Good.” He leaned in and whispered something in my ear. The low rumble of his voice made me drowsy, but I had to focus on what he was saying. I could barely follow it, but every syllable made me greedy for more, a drop of rain after a long drought.
He took me by the hand and led me to the parking lot, and I followed in a drunken daze. My head felt ten times larger than its normal size and my ability to walk still remained a mystery. Everything in the outside world was set on fast-forward. Cars, trees, and orange Driver’s Ed cones rushed by me in a blur while the dead weight of my brain lagged behind.
Wasn’t I supposed to be in class? I had a report on Chaucer to turn in. I’d worked hard on that thing and it was worth a quarter of my semester grade. My class was on the other side of the school. Where was I going anyway?
It didn’t take me long to find out as we stopped beside Malik’s silver Toyota in the very last row. Tobias reached over the back of the cab and pulled out a rusty toolbox with chipped red paint. Setting it down, he began rummaging through the compartments until he found a pair of cutting pliers. He stood and gently took my hand in his again. His thick fingers felt warm against my wrist, which looked small and dainty by comparison. He seemed fascinated by my hand and I half expected him to slip a ring on my finger at any minute.
“One more thing before we go. Hold still, I don’t wanna cut you.” He slid the thin chain of my bracelet between the pliers’ dull blades.
One quick snip was all it took to give me freedom. My shackle fell to the wet concrete with a strange note of finality that relieved and frightened me at once. I didn’t have to worry about the all-seeing eye of my mother. I could go wherever I wanted. I could visit Caleb anytime I pleased. But I wasn’t sure why I would want to see him right now. The faded image of his face drifted behind my eyes, losing focus until there was nothing more than a mirage—better still, an empty black shape cut out of the scenery.
Something was missing, yet I had never felt so free, so empowered. It was a yummy feeling, a long languor
ous stretch that reached all the way to my toes. It felt good to let go, to just sit back and say “screw it.” And I would enjoy this high for as long as it lasted.
With a warm smile on his face, Tobias helped me into the truck, then climbed into the driver’s side. He took his time, adjusting the seat and mirrors, even changed the radio station with the ease of a man on a daytrip. He backed out of the parking space, changed gears, then drove off of school property in the middle of the day with one distinct destination in mind. I just wished I knew what it was.
What about my clothes? Shouldn’t I have packed first? I thought of what Mom would think about me skipping school again. Technically, I was still in school, according to the bracelet lying in the parking lot. But she would worry if I wasn’t waiting for her when she picked me up this afternoon. I considered calling her, but I realized I’d left my phone in my book bag, which was trapped inside my locker. Talk about bad timing.
I looked out the window to survey the town I knew and loved with an appreciative eye. I doubted whatever city we traveled to would hold the same charm. True, I complained about its simplicity, and the colonial weirdoes roaming around, but this was my birth home. Drinking in the landscape, I recalled how it had been nothing but woods and cornfields when I was a kid, and now strip malls and fast-food joints obstructed the skyline.
Was I supposed to go to work today? I forgot to check my schedule. I was sure Alicia could cover for me, but how would I call her? I didn’t have my cell phone. This was very inconvenient, no notice whatsoever. It wasn’t as though we were running from the law; he could’ve at least allowed me to grab my bag.
God, were there enough hotels in this town or did they need to build more? I wondered where what’s-his-name was staying. Wait, what was his name? That’s odd; I’d just had it a second ago. Caleb! Yes, I wondered which hotel he was staying at. Knowing him, he’d probably booked the one with the biggest room service menu. I was going to miss my Cake Boy, though I wasn’t sure why. He was coming with us, right?