Creature Discomforts (Descendants)

by Peterson, Jenny

  And yet, the final week of the semester rolled on. Rachel packed up from her last regular class of the semester mid-morning on a Friday, her mind jumbled with color-coded study timetables and the nighttime patrol schedules she and Sid had been sharing. The sun was an oozy red memory smeared across the sky by the time Rachel looked up from her statistics reviewnotes. She stretched her aching neck with a low groan and flexed her fingers. Her skin felt grimy after hours bent over her desk with nothing but crap food and diet soda to keep her going.

  She peeled off her clothes for her bathrobe and had just grabbed a towel and her toiletries when Kendra trudged through the door, her face drawn and dull. “If I look at one more dichotomous key for marine invertebrates, I’m going to lose my mind,” she announced.

  “I’m starting on Pre-Christian Myth review after I shower. Want to study with me?”

  Kendra collapsed face-first onto her bed, but Rachel could still plainly hear the expletive she shouted into her pillow.

  Rachel shrugged and pulled the door open just as Kendra rolled over. “Oh, and Sid is right—”

  “Here,” Sid finished.

  Rachel jumped and clutched her bathrobe closed.

  Sid eyed her. “That’s not what you’re wearing, is it?”

  “What are you talking about? I’m going to shower.”

  Sid held up a six-pack. “No, we’re going to kegger.”

  “Number one: no, we’re not; and number two: you don’t ‘kegger,’ you go to a kegger.”

  From the bed, Kendra snorted. “Well, you don’t, Rach.”

  Rachel threw Kendra a dirty look, but her friend just grinned. “C’mon, it could be fun. We’ve been doing nothing but studying and trying to track down Suckula forever. We deserve a night off.”

  Sid grabbed the toiletries from Rachel’s hand and put them back on the vanity with an evil grin to match Kendra’s. “This is compulsory.”

  Rachel gave him the compulsory finger. But an hour later, she was picking her way down a nearly black trail past the clock tower and through the narrow gap in the mountains outside Saint Etienne’s campus. The police presence over the last week made it substantially more difficult to hold an underage party, so the end-of-semester bash had relocated to a hollow at the end of a trail.

  They followed the river for almost a mile as it snaked through the trees. The moon was blotted out by the surrounding peaks, but through the screen of branches and leaves overhead, Rachel spied a wash of spangled stars. It was quiet in the woods, but a comfortable sort, nothing like the strained, fearful silence she remembered when tracking the wendigo.

  And then, it suddenly wasn’t silent. There were shouts and laughter and bad music being forced through worse speakers. They rounded a bend and were quite suddenly in the middle of the party. A massive bonfire licked at the sky, and Rachel tried not to be horrified to spy people skinny dipping in the river.

  The music and orange firelight and crush of bodies swirled around her and pulled her in—and this was one current she let herself get lost in. Maybe Kendra had been right: They deserved a break. The vampire problem could be put on hold for one night. It helped that the university’s intramural rugby team had apparently volunteered to act as security.

  Rachel accepted a frothy-topped, too-warm beer from Sid and tried to relax. She bobbed her head to the music—it wasn’t too obnoxious if she concentrated on the beat—stared at the dancing flames, and sipped the beer. But then a shriek burst in her eardrums, and she spilled half the drink down her shirt.

  Unfortunately, the shriek wasn’t the sound of her least-favorite person being eaten by a vampire.

  “Siddy! You made it!”

  Beth Ann wiggled through the crowd and leapt at Sid. At least he had the decency to heave a resigned sigh as his girlfriend threw herself at him.

  “Hey, Beth Ann,” Sid managed. Rachel bit back a grin at the annoyance lacing his words.

  Beth Ann kept one arm latched around Sid’s hip and turned to Rachel. “And you came too, Rachel.” She blinked in wide-eyed innocence—though how she managed with the glorified tarantula legs glued to her lashes, Rachel had no idea—and flashed a smile that showed every gleaming tooth. Apparently winning the Great Boyfriend Debacle of 2013 had made Beth Ann less angry at Rachel. “And you even dressed up! Did Kendra lend you that cute skirt?”

  Rachel looked down at the borrowed seersucker skirt and navy tank. She’d left her favorite necklace—a locket stuffed with protective herbs given to her by her mother last year—in favor of a dangly pendant of raw wood, but had insisted on wearing her scuffed brown boots so she’d at least have her dagger on hand. She wiped a hand down the wet spot thanks to Beth Ann’s exuberant hello and tugged at the skirt waist a bit self-consciously.

  “Er, yeah,” she said. “Thanks?”

  Beth Ann nodded. “Kendra’s a bit smaller than you,” she said with an eye on Rachel’s waist, “but don’t you look darling!”

  And to prove how much more darling she looked, Beth Ann twirled away from Sid and placed a hand at her tiny waist and cocked a hip. “I’ve missed you, Siddy,” she pouted. Then she shimmied and grabbed his hand. “Come dance with me.”

  Sid pushed his forgotten drink into Rachel’s hand and let Beth Ann pull him into the pulsing bodies. It was seriously annoying how Sid fell for Beth Ann’s lame tricks. Rachel looked away from the duo before catching a glimpse of where Sid’s hands were going. Her stomach twisted and heat crawled up her neck that had nothing to do with the roaring fire. It was seriously annoying how much she cared that Sid fell for Beth Ann’s lame tricks.

  Rachel turned away so she wouldn’t be tempted to search for Sid and instead looked for Kendra, but she’d been pulled away by her medical illustration friends. Rachel backed up until she bumped into a tree and clutched both beers, suddenly not quite so relaxed. She slammed both drinks and scowled to herself.

  “Hey.”

  Rachel cranked her head around to come face to face with Jake. His blond hair was cropped shorter than the last time she’d seen her ex, and his face was already tan from working his uncle’s tourist boat. It made his straight, white teeth seem to shine when he grinned at her in hello.

  “What are you doing here?” The accusation in her tone rippled across Jake’s easy features, but he recovered with another quick smile and handed her a drink. It was something red and fruity this time, yet with a sharp aftertaste that burned down her throat.

  “Met up with some of my old soccer buddies. I have to say, I didn’t think I’d see you at a party. Isn’t it the weekend before finals?”

  Rachel answered with a glare and a big gulp from the plastic cup. Jake had no business teasing her about being a good student. He wouldn’t have even graduated high school without her writing up study guides. More than that, Jake had no business even being at her college party. She took another big gulp to stop herself from saying as much.

  “Right, well. It was good to see you,” she said. She pushed away from the tree in search of another drink.

  *

  Her legs tingled just the tiniest bit as she finished the next drink, and her cheeks were a little numb after the next one. But then she found herself dancing with some girls who she thought were in the education department, and they were fun. The dancing was fun. It was all just so much … fun. Fun was a funny word. Rachel yelled it out and heard her new friends repeat it back to her as they jumped up and down with the music. Why had she never gone to parties before? She did a shot of something amber with the education girls—they were the best, weren’t they?—and twirled around. Then she was giggling, though she didn’t quite know why, and the ground was getting kind of soggy so her steps wobbled. Rachel pretended to be a model and cat-walked through the crowd.

  Rachel leaned against something tall and strong and wrapped her arm around it. She just had to rest for a second then she’d dance again. Dancing was the best.

  “Um, are you hugging a tree?”

  Rachel blinked and tried to
focus on Jake. Jake was cute. She told him so. Then she dragged her arm from around the tree—he’d been right! Jake was smart too—and wrapped it around him instead.

  “Do you think I’m a good kisser?”

  Jake laughed. “Let’s get you some water.”

  Rachel pouted. It seemed to work so well with Beth Ann, why not try it? “Aren’t you going to kiss me, Jakey?”

  Jake wrinkled up his nose at her, so she kissed it. Then she moved down to his lips and kissed those too. He tasted sweet, and his breath was hot. He kissed her back and wrapped her up in his arms, and Rachel remembered how much fun she’d always had with Jake. But then he pulled back with a strange look in his eyes.

  “Rach, you broke up with me.”

  Rachel didn’t know what to say, so she tried kissing him again. He stepped out of reach, and Rachel wobbled on her feet.

  “No, Rachel. I like you, but you can’t just keep doing this when you’re lonely. We broke up.” Jake tucked a strand of hair back behind Rachel’s ear and laid both hands on her shoulders. “Stay here. I’m going to get you water.”

  But she didn’t stay there. She looked up and noticed a guy staring at her from across the bonfire. He nodded at her, and she smiled. She pushed through the people and came to a stop in front of the guy. He was the complete opposite of Jake—long, dark hair, dark eyes fringed with dark lashes.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said in a low voice that seemed so silky she was convinced she could almost feel it. She stared at the guy’s lips as he spoke, full and nearly red against his skin. “What’s your name?”

  “Rachel.” Rachel fiddled with the waist of her skirt and straightened out her tank. Did he really say she was beautiful? “What’s yours?”

  “Willem.”

  Willem was a great name. It was better than Jake, that was for sure. She was about to tell him that when Willem pulled her close. She could feel muscles move under the black tee and slim black pants, and she let herself relax into him. The world fell away until it was just the two of them. She looked up into Willem’s eyes and felt somehow safe. Besides, she always had her necklace there full of her mom’s herbs to warn her of any danger. So when Willem dipped his head and kissed her, she let him.

  Rachel didn’t know how long she’d stayed like that when she felt a tug on her arm. She was jerked away from Willem, and all the colors and sounds of the party came rushing back, an explosion of shouts and flames framed Sid. She stared up into his face and blinked in confusion. His eyes were hard and his mouth a thin line.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Sid hissed. His voice was so much harsher than Willem’s.

  Rachel glared. “None of your business,” she hissed back.

  “You don’t even know this guy, Rach,” Sid tried again, his voice softening and his hand going gentle and warm around her wrist. He turned her wrist over and pressed a bottle of water into her hand. “Why don’t you come back to hang out with me and Kendra?”

  Rachel dropped the water. “And Beth Ann, right? Just go back to your perfect, all-American girl and leave me alone, Sid.”

  Something like pain flashed across Sid’s face, and he reached for her arm again, but Rachel stepped back away from him and felt Willem’s hands steady her. Sid opened his mouth, then closed it again and turned on a heel. Rachel watched until he was swallowed up by the party and ignored the tightening in her chest that made her want to run after him. Instead, she whirled back to Willem, grabbed a handful of his shirt in her fist, and pulled him close.

  CHAPTER 10

  Rachel rolled over, trying to find a comfortable spot, but everything around her swayed. She swallowed back a wave of nausea and clamped her eyes and mouth shut. With a groan, she remembered making out with Jake. And with an even more pitiful groan, she remembered coming on to some guyliner-wearing weirdo.

  Dimly, she heard some sort of rasping whisper—shrill and broken at the same time—and wondered what Kendra could be doing. Rachel rolled over again. But under her hands was something rough and hard, not her familiar bed. Slowly, slowly, she cracked open her eyes just the tiniest bit. They were swollen and raw under her eyelids, and it felt kind of like a fork was jammed into the back of each one. Drinking, maybe not her favorite thing in the world.

  “Rachel?” The rasping whisper was back. “Oh, thank the lord, Rachel!”

  Rachel pushed herself up but fumbled past strange spaces, almost like bars, and something stringy came loose in her hands. She rubbed at her eyes and blinked into dank light. A clump of long, dark hair that was definitely not her own was gathered between her fingers. She grimaced and shook the hair free then started rubbing her eyes decidedly harder.

  Son of a—

  “Rachel, help! You have to help me!”

  She finally saw clearly, though what she saw just made her want to pass out again. She was in a cage, a rusty, person-sized cage hanging from what looked like the ceiling of a cave. Another wave of nausea hit that had little to do with the hangover. Rachel scrambled to the other corner of her cage—only about three feet across—and heaved as the whole thing swayed again, the chain holding her aloft shrieking against its mooring. A few yards away in another cage, Beth Ann sat curled up in a ball, mascara streaked down her face and snot under her nose. One of her false lashes still clung to a wet cheek.

  “Finally!” Beth Ann cried. Her voice found every corner of the cave and bounced off the dripping rocks. “Rachel, what should we do? They said they’d be back for us, and you wouldn’t wake up, and I think … I think they’re going to hurt us!”

  Okay, think. Think, Rachel told her brain. Her brain wasn’t listening. Rachel pressed her face to the bars and squinted in the gloom. The cave wasn’t all that big, really. It was taller that it was wide, and the area they were held in a sort of room complete with a ratty, puke green couch and shelves spilling over with knickknacks. Another shallow chamber behind the couch looked like a bedroom, and there were tunnels leading off each end of the central room. Hazy light filtered into the cave from one of the tunnels, but the other disappeared into total darkness. Above, a plate-sized hole pierced all the way to the outside so that a shaft of pure light struck the cave floor between them.

  Them. They. “Wait,” Rachel said. “Did you say ‘they’? How many were there?”

  Beth Ann was rocking back and forth now and quietly sobbing. “Um, five? I think. I was…” She clenched her eyes shut and counted on her fingers. “No, there were five, all guys, though they said something about a master. And ohmygod, Rachel, do you think they took Ali?” Beth Ann’s voice tumbled out of her in a building whine. “Do you think they killed Ali? And if they killed her then what are they going to do with us? And—”

  Rachel tuned her out. So only six vampires including the leader. That was … good? Rachel had read nests could grow to twenty, so only six was definitely a good thing. A moaning laugh crept through her. Yeah. She’d never even faced one vampire, let alone six. Rachel shook away the thoughts and concentrated on what she could learn. Below, their two cages hung maybe four feet off the rocky ground, and in the dim corners of the room opposite the couch she spied a pile of what looked like women’s clothing. Something silver caught the meager light from amid the clothes, and Rachel recognized a laptop, dented at the corners and smeared with long-dried blood. She wrenched her eyes away. It was no good thinking of how all those poor girls must have died. Or worse, were turned. She wasn’t going to let that happen to her or Beth Ann.

  “Beth Ann,” Rachel said, trying to keep her voice steady and smooth. “Beth Ann, look at me.” The girl obliged. “The guys who took you, they’re very, uh, persuasive. Kind of like a cult, okay? So don’t look into their eyes or you’ll be, you know, persuaded.”

  “Like being hypnotized? My mom said that’s evil.”

  Rachel waved her hand and nodded. “Yes, just like being hypnotized. And yes, these guys are evil. I mean, obviously.” She took a breath to calm the exasperation leaking into her voice and smiled at Beth
Ann. Then she saw the girl was still clutching her ever-present LV bag. “Your purse! What do you have in it?”

  Beth Ann shrugged. “I already checked my cell. No signal. Not even a single bar.” She rubbed her bare feet against the bars of her cage. “The losers even took my shoes. At least you still have your ugly boots.”

  “My boots?” Rachel looked down to see her scuffed brown boots still on her feet. “My boots!” She dug her fingers into the hidden sheath inside the right boot and drew out her silver dagger with a cry of relief. Her other hand went for her locket before she remembered she’d taken it off to wear a navel-grazing pendant. Her hand inched down her stomach to the pendant … a piece of raw wood wrapped partially in gold wire. The vampires had left a Descendant in a cage with her dagger and what could easily become a stake.

  Rachel scooted back toward the side of the cage and ignored Beth Ann’s wide eyes. “Other than the cell, what else do you have in there?”

  “Why are you holding a sword?” Beth Ann asked, her voice climbing an octave.

  “Never mind that. Your purse.”

  Beth Ann didn’t move for a moment then she lifted the diminutive bag and rooted through it. “Rachel, I know I’ve never told you this,” she said, head still down, “but you’re, like, really weird, and I don’t like you.”

  Rachel rolled her eyes. “Well, I don’t like you, either. What’s in that ridiculous purse?” Nothing like a crisis to bring two people together.

  “I’ve got blotting sheets, bobby pins, lip gloss…”

  “We’re not giving them a makeover!”

  Beth Ann glared. “Do you want to know what’s in here or not?”

  Rachel waved a hand so she could continue.

  “My cell, breath mints, and a compact.”

  “The compact! Give me the compact!”

  Rachel shoved her arm through the bars, straining to reach Beth Ann’s outstretched hand, but it was no use. They were still a good six inches apart. Still, the sun coming through the shaft in the ceiling was warm on her skin and gave her a smidgen of hope. If she could just get that compact.