Nightside

by Holly Hook

  At last, I finish.

  We stare at each other and Lily's eyes stay wide.

  “Olivia. I'm shocked.”

  “I know. It sounds crazy.” My mouth's dry. “I just told you vampires are real--”

  Lily seizes my arms, dead serious. “Look, I know they're real. I just didn't think you could be one, is all.”

  “What?”

  “Okay. All my bizarre conspiracy theories might be a cover for what I really know,” she says. Then Lily smiles. “Why don't you come over to my house after school and we can hang out? We'll make some popcorn. Talk. The senior benches aren't the best place.”

  * * * * *

  Answers might exist. There's a Lily under that crazy cover that she's been hiding all this time, and as she leads me to her house on the other side of Moon's Peak as the Beaumont mansion, I wonder if she's got my problem or if she's something else entirely. Lily walks like a normal person, lacking the grace that Riley always carries. But so do I.

  Lily checks behind her a lot as we walk, echoing how I feel. At last, she leads me to the door of a big, yellow house with new paint and unlocks it. “My parents are gone for the week on vacation to Florida. Lucky them. She rams the door open with her shoulder.

  The house inside is very clean and I smell faint leather. The carpets have vacuum tracks like Lily's spent every afternoon cleaning. Loads of books line the shelves. Doesn't Lily have a life outside of here?

  “I know. I'm a weirdo, keeping this place up,” she says. “It's hard to find stuff to do when you aren't allowed to have friends. The only reason I got to go the fair the other night is that--”

  “Your parents are on vacation,” we finish at the same time. I can't help but feel sad for Lily. “Why aren't you allowed to have friends?”

  Lily doesn't answer, but instead heads into the kitchen, which is also clean and immaculate. “Popcorn first. Then we can play some music and hang out. How does that sound?”

  “Good.” She's offering me popcorn after my confession? Either she doesn't really believe me or she knows that I'm still eating normal food for the most part. I ate Mom's tuna casserole last night without throwing it up, even if it didn't quell the itch.

  Lily gets out one of those jiffy pop pans and I watch as the metal bubble grows. Once it done, we retreat up to the second story. Lily's room is just as clean as the rest of the house, with lots of books on the shelves. She likes contemporary romance. Shocker.

  “Hey. Now I'm shocked,” I say, pointing at the shelves. “I thought you'd be reading, well, paranormal stuff.”

  “Come on. I need a break from that,” she says, flopping down on her bed. “Real life sucks.”

  This is a different Lily, one I haven't met yet. “What are you saying?”

  “Real life sucks. Everybody needs some fantasy once in a while. Don't tell me you don't like these hunky, shirtless guys.” Lily plucks a book off her shelf and tosses it at me. As she promised, it has a hunky, shirtless guy on the cover with a stethoscope wrapped around his neck. A doctor romance.

  “Okay, Lily. I agree with the hunk part. I was just wondering why you seem so normal at home and so different at school. You should have friends.”

  Lily gets back off the bed and hands me the bowl of popcorn. I trade her the hot doctor. “Still not allowed. Emotional connections are supposed to be dangerous for vampire hunters.” She holds me in her narrowing gaze. “So is looking threatening.”

  My heart drops into my shoes.

  Oh, shit.

  It's a trap.

  I move to the side to reach her bedroom door, but Lily backs up and spreads her arms over it, blocking my escape. I search her for a weapon, but she's just in a sweater and jeans that most people would pass over. Lily's right. She doesn't look threatening, and that's scary.

  “Please don't leave,” she says. “We have a truce and my family's not even fighting right now. If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't have bothered to make you popcorn. And who am I going to call to help me bury a body? My parents are in Florida.”

  “Um, what?” I ask. “You could call Morton?” Maybe I'm not about to die.

  Lily laughs. “He has no idea what I am. I'm only telling you because I think I can trust you. You're the first friend I've had. You keep my secret, and I keep yours. That's it.”

  “Oh. Um, yeah. I'll keep your secret,” I blurt. "Are you manipulating me to be your friend?" That beat death.

  "Great. And no, I'm not," Lily says. "You're the first person to put up with my ruse. By the way, I don't really believe Nibiru is going to destroy the world or that aliens are leaving crop circles around Moon's Peak. But it keeps most people away from me." She finishes with an air of sadness.

  "Wait. You have a truce? How does all this work? I mean, Moon's Peak seems like a very normal town on the surface."

  "Seems," Lily says, holding up a finger and letting down her guard. She hands me the popcorn bowl again, as if she's trying to make sure I'm not hungry enough to attack her. She sits on the bed and invites me to do the same, so I do. "My family, the Riveras, have fought the Beaumonts for centuries, making sure they don't kill too many people. Or any people. But in the last decade or so, we've kept a truce. My family got tired of fighting. So long as the Truebloods don't make their activity obvious, then we don't attack them and they don't attack us. Another part of the deal is that they don't create any Nightsides to shake things up." Lily looks right at me as she says the last part.

  "Wait." I drop the popcorn bowl to the floor. "They've shaken things up, haven't they? Does that put me in the middle of a war?"

  "Not if I stay quiet." Lily grins. "And if the Beaumonts come after you, I've got your back. I've trained to use the weapons to kill vampires. And I'll keep your secret from my family. They won't feel the same about this, but you deserve to know the truth about this town."

  "So, how many people know?"

  "A few hundred. I've got extended family around the area and some people we work with know about the Beaumonts, too. But mostly it's kept quiet and we stay away from everyone else."

  I eye the fallen popcorn bowl on the floor. A budding friendship, already ruined. "I'm sorry, Lily. Guess I've made things difficult. The last thing I want to do is start a war." I think of Riley, killing those other Truebloods with the twist of his hands. "How much do you know about Nightsides, anyway?" She's brought me here to tell me about them for sure.

  "Not much. We don't see them often. Olivia, I'll keep your secret. I know you didn't ask for this. That even a lot of the Truebloods didn't ask to be turned. That's why my family was open to a truce and I want to keep it." Lily nods. "You know how that is. I'll keep your secret as long as I can, but I can't guarantee it'll be forever."

  Chapter Eight

  Tapping on my window wakes me from sleep.

  I rise from my bed, holding my sheets to my chest. The horrible itch--the craving--spreads over my body as I blink myself to wakefulness. It's almost as bad as the morning I downed the super raw steak.

  But Riley's at my window, waiting for me. My eyes adjust and his dark hair spills over one eye in that cute way of his. He grins as I catch my breath. That's not a bad sign at all.

  I open the window and quietly pop out the screen. I'm getting good at this. Riley climbs inside and straightens up without a problem.

  "So now you ask permission to enter my room," I say, adjusting my long pajamas. Thankfully, they're blood-free, but the hunger grows to borderline pain and I fear that won't last too long. But I hold back asking for another vial. Riley, it sounds like, needs his emergency stash more than I do.

  "I'm sorry I pulled such a creepy move, but I had no other non-obvious way to leave you a note. And I'm sorry I didn't talk to you at school today. My coven--"

  "Has been suspecting me." I don't mention Lily, remembering my promise.

  "Yes. But I managed to convince my father that a rogue Nightside passing though must have killed the sheep, since it hasn't happened again." He looks at me with
wide-eyed concern. "It took all day and we even went out to where my coven found them, but it worked. That's why I wasn't at school. Come on. Let's go talk."

  He sounds inviting and sure. Riley waits outside for me to dress in something non-creepy to wear in the middle of the night. I put on jeans and a fluffy sweater I haven't worn in two years, since I don't want to ruin anything I actually like.

  And I have the horrible sense I might ruin this sweater sooner rather than later.

  "Here I am," I say, jumping out of the window to join Riley.

  "Sexy," he jokes. And that makes me feel better. If he can keep a sense of humor in all this, that's a good sign.

  I replace the screen and follow Riley to the gravel trail, and then we veer off into the woods. "Where are we going?" I ask, trying to see something, anything. Aren't I supposed to have better night vision or something?

  "The best way for you to stay hidden," he says, "is to only hunt when you absolutely have to and only to use your powers when necessary. The coven's suspicious of you, but they're not convinced you're a Nightside."

  My heart leaps into my throat. "Why are they suspicious? Have they seen you around me? Oh. Your father. At the fair."

  "Yes." Regret fills that one word.

  "If they kill me, won't people notice?" I blurt, walking beside Riley. So far, I'm keeping pace with him.

  "The coven usually just feeds on out-of-towners and people passing through. Vagrants. People who hitch rides on the logging trains."

  I stop right there and grip a rough tree trunk. "You said you use blood banks."

  Riley gulps. "I do, but that's not enough for the coven."

  "Have you killed anyone?" There. I've asked. I wonder if the Riveras know about this. And if they don't, what they'll do if they find out. I shake, waiting for his answer.

  "Not me," Riley snaps. "The coven has hunters assigned to that task. I'm lucky I don't have to do that. But if you start dropping bodies, people are going to notice. Most of all, the coven."

  "I'm not going to start dropping bodies." Part of me's relieved Riley's told the whole truth--I think--but a new terror pushes the anger aside.

  "You're jittery. I can tell you're hungry," Riley says with a half-grin.

  "Don't remind me."

  Then he gets serious, taking a couple of steps towards me. Pine needles crunch as he grips another tree. "You need to learn how to hunt and when to hunt. That time is now. If you let your bloodlust go too far, you can end up hunting in your sleep, and the next time that happens, you could kill a person instead of an animal. I'll teach you. Right now."

  "Um..." I think of the scene in the restaurant and my stomach growls so loud that Riley has to hear it.

  "You have to learn. The last thing you want to do is wake up one day and hear on the news that you've killed someone."

  No. I don't want to do that. I let go of the tree. "How will I know when I have to--"

  "You'll probably be able to get away with not feeding for a few days at a time. So far, you've done that. I've been watching your house, making sure you don't sneak out at night."

  "You've been all stalkerish outside my house?"

  He frowns. "Well, yes. But I didn't have a choice. I think if I hadn't come here tonight, you would have sneaked out again. Look. You're shaking."

  I hold up my arm. Riley's right. I'm quivering ever so slightly. "So I have to, like, catch an animal?"

  "Blood is blood. It'll work for me, too." Riley turns away and waves me deeper into the woods. "Stick with wild animals. They're a lot less likely to be noticed when they go missing."

  Yikes. That's all I can think as I follow Riley up another trail, probably a game trail, until we come to an opening to a small field. We emerge from the trees and stand on the edge. A dead tree, half-fallen, rises from the middle, and around it lie several dark shapes. My eyes adjust as a sweet, yet spicy smell hits me and everything snaps into better focus. They're a herd of sleeping deer. And I'm smelling their blood. Now that I'm about to kill, my senses are heightening. I gasp at the change.

  "Feel different?" Riley asks.

  "How did you know?" I whisper. None of the deer move. I've never even gotten close to one, except for a petting zoo Dad too me to when I was five. The deer were cute and they lapped up the corn you got to feed them.

  Now I'm about to--

  "Your mouth's hanging open. I get the same sensory boost when I'm about to get in confrontation," Riley says. "That's how our powers work. Looks like it's the same for Nightsides."

  I've entered a new world, one tucked away from everyday life. The stars take on different colors. The galaxy spreads overhead, milky and amazing. Every blade of grass in the field takes shape. The world is both dark and bright. A work of art.

  "Now what?" I ask. I hadn't expected this to be beautiful.

  "Watch me." Riley pulls off his leather coat, letting it slither off his body and into the grass. He playfully crouches and sneaks across the field, skin shining under the starlight. His jeans hug his butt with perfection and his dark shirt leaves nothing of his torso to the imagination. Riley's hypnotic as he crosses the field, closing in on the herd of deer. He chooses a buck on the edge of the herd, a creature he circles behind slowly.

  The deer lifts its head, pricking its ears, and snorts.

  Then the creature rises and bolts around the tree just as Riley leaps, getting a face full of tall grass. He crashes into the field as the other deer, all alerted to the danger, rise and flee into the trees.

  I suck in a breath as Riley remains down, as if too ashamed to show his face, and the deer's hooves fade into the night.

  "Riley." I march across the field as my stomach growls again. My senses once again dull. I reach him as he turns his face up to me. "What was that?"

  "I'm not used to hunting," he admits with a frown.

  I extend my hand and he takes it, rising in a single motion. "You've never done this before?"

  "Well, I've heard that you're always supposed to attack prey from behind, human or animal, so they can't defend themselves. Stealth is the key. As I said, we have designated hunters in the coven and I'm not one of them."

  I hold back a laugh. Maybe I'm just relieved that Riley must be telling the truth about never killing anyone. He couldn't even take down a sleeping deer. "But you took down those other Truebloods the other day."

  We stand there, facing each other. "An instinct just swept over me. I was angry."

  A tingle rushes over my scalp. But another rumble of hunger follows, chasing it away. The deer are gone. "What now?"

  "Okay. This is what we should do, in theory," Riley says, facing the woods. "You always want to ambush prey from behind. Staying quiet is the key to taking it down. Drawing attention to yourself is the last thing you want to do, as you can see.”

  My palms tingle with anticipation. Am I looking forward to this?

  “But we have to catch up to the deer,” I say. “My senses just went down the gutter again.”

  “You have to tune in,” Riley says. “Get behind your prey...like this. Listen. Open up.” He does as he says, stepping behind me and gripping my shoulders. His touch isn't just tingly. It's downright electric, sending good shivers along my arms. I don't want him to let go. “Take a breath. The night will speak to you.”

  I do as he says, letting his voice lull me into a different state. The night bursts to life again, popping with incredible detail, and I smell the deer, like sweet dessert, in the trees ahead. They've stopped, maybe thinking they've escaped, and one deer, probably the buck, gives off the strongest scent. My stomach rumbles and my body twitches.

  “There,” Riley says. “Just like that.” He slowly lets go, and my hunger wins. I creep forward across the small field, like a cat might, and Riley fans out to the left of me, also closing in on the herd. My feet make little noise. I'm almost floating, I'm moving so quietly. Riley gives me a thumbs-up and we continue into the trees, and though it's darker here, I can still see every trunk and pine nee
dle. The deer look at each other a few hundred feet ahead, confused, but the leader, the large buck, turns lazily and snorts at the others like he's giving the all-clear.

  I advance closer...closer.

  The buck slowly lowers himself to the ground, flicking an ear, while the other deer wander off and do the same. We're undetected. I hold my breath, but my body doesn't protest. My teeth feel larger in my mouth, but I push the sensation aside. Creeping behind the buck as Riley said, I feel my legs tense and I leap onto the deer, wrapping my arms around its neck.

  The same way Riley did with the other Truebloods.

  With a single motion, I twist.

  Snap.

  The deer tenses, and then goes limp in my grasp, still warm and smelling of sweet spiciness. My gut growls in victory as I let go, allowing the buck's head to fall to the ground. Its blank, black eyes look up at the rest of the herd as they catch wind of us and scatter into the trees, white tails bobbing into the night.

  But I ignore them. And I don't even feel bad. At least I've given it a quick, painless, clean death.

  Riley crouches beside me, eyes wide. “I can't believe it. You're more talented than me. You're shaping it to be incredible. Wow, Olivia. You've impressed me and we're going to have a good meal.”

  Tingles sweep over me. Riley's looking at me with nothing but admiration. I'm a natural hunter and predator. Just yesterday, I was just a scared, confused girl in a new town.

  “You think so?” A big part of me hopes we can do this again, that Riley and I can meet every night.

  “I don't think so. I know,” Riley says. “I doubt the coven hunters could have done better themselves. Now, let's dine before the deer goes cold.”

  Chapter Nine

  Wishful thinking sucks.

  Of course Riley doesn't come back through the next week. I get up, go to school, sit with Lily at lunch, and go home again to an empty house, since Mom now works at the vet's office across town. It's boring and Lily can't even hang out now that her parents are back from Florida. I stay up every night until midnight, waiting for Riley to knock at my window, but he doesn't do that, either. So twice that week I have to go out and terrorize the deer on my own.