by Kasi Blake
“Does it ever stop?” Bay-Lee asked. “There’s so much to learn and the teachers keep piling it on. I’m slowly being buried under a mountain of textbooks and research papers. I thought this was supposed to be independent study. What happened to me working at my own pace?”
Sitting in the middle of Keisha’s bedroom floor, surrounded by open books, she tossed her pencil to signal she was officially giving up. Keisha smiled from the opposite side of the mess and shrugged. “Sorry.” It was her favorite word. “Your father probably has them giving you extra stuff so you’ll rank up faster.” The girl got on her knees and reached for the bottom dresser drawer. “But I do have something that might help.” She pulled a bottle out. “Wine?”
Bay-Lee was only sixteen and didn’t drink, but she was living in a dangerous situation and felt wise beyond her years. Forcing a smile, she said, “Excellent idea.”
Keisha’s hands sank into the drawer again and came back out with a glass. She handed it to Bay-Lee. Homework forgotten, Bay-Lee lifted the glass in a toast after the other girl filled it. “To passing all my classes and making Hunter.”
“I second that,” Keisha said with a throaty laugh. She drank straight from the bottle. They talked for over an hour about school, boys, and hunting until the girl abruptly said, “I heard a rumor you can cross over without even trying. Is it true? Can you?”
Bay-Lee admitted, “Van says I’m a natural.”
“Crossing over is the one thing I haven’t been able to master. It’s frustrating.” Keisha’s voice went up a few notches and molten gold eyes hardened. “I can wield a sword, kick the crap out of monsters, list every poison known to man, but I can’t cross over by myself.”
“I might be able to teach you.”
Excited, Keisha bounced on her knees. “That would be awesome! When do you want to give me my first lesson?”
“Well, we can’t do it now, not with us drinking. The first thing Van taught me was never try to cross over under the influence. The alcohol screws with your sense of perception and your reflexes. If you try to cross over with it in your system, the ghouls get you.”
“Ghouls? I’ve heard stories but... have you seen one? A real ghoul? What are they like?”
“Scary.” Bay-Lee shivered at the memories. “I’ve only heard them. Sometimes when I’m crossing over and I get caught between here and there a moment too long, I hear them coming at me. They make this weird clacking sound. Once you hear it, you can’t get it out of your head. It’ll haunt your dreams.”
“What happens if one actually gets you?” Keisha sucked down a bit more wine and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I mean, there are books written on the subject, but books don’t tell you everything. Maybe Van Helsing let you in on some stuff the rest of us don’t know. What about it? What can you tell me about the awful things?”
“Not much. If they get their hands on you, they’ll hold you between here and there and won’t let you finish crossing. After that I don’t know what they do with you. If Van knows, he isn’t saying.”
“Let’s talk about something else, something happier.”
“Good idea.” The two girls stared at each other for what seemed an eternity. An awkward silence filled the air. Bay-Lee broke it. “What do you want to talk about?”
“You pick.”
“Remember when I told you the last thing I want is to fall for some guy right now?” She waited for Keisha to nod before continuing. “Well, it’s happened. I’ve got a major crush on someone here at the school. Thing is, he doesn’t seem to like me very much. I should just let it go because this has the potential to blow my plans sky high. It isn’t worth it, right?”
“I think true love is worth anything.”
Bay-Lee almost choked on her tongue. “Who said anything about love? I’m talking a crush, just a crush.”
“You wouldn’t risk blowing up your whole world for a crush.” Keisha’s eyes sparkled. “Come off it, New-girl. You are seriously falling in love with Nick Gallos, and we both know it.”
Unable to deny it, Bay-Lee said, “Doesn’t matter if I am. He isn’t interested.”
“Wrong.” A secretive smile parted Keisha’s lips. “I’ve known Nick forever and the boy is a goner. If he wasn’t seriously falling for you, he wouldn’t be at the school anymore. He would have hit the bricks the second you became a student.”
“Why?” Exasperated, Bay-Lee said, “It’s clear no one wants the two of us together, but I don’t understand why.”
“Sorry.” The secretive smile blossomed. “Can’t tell you.”
“Could you give me a hint?”
“Some people have the wrong idea about Nick. They think he’s cold and hard with a major dark side. Not true. He isn’t unbreakable. Because of some pretty horrible things in his past, he’s a lost soul. Some people don’t think he’s capable of falling in love, but they’re wrong. He’s not only capable, he’s destined for it. Love is the only thing that can save him.”
Bay-Lee’s head swam in dizzy circles, but the alcohol was only partly to blame. Talking about Nick was messing with the logical side of her brain. She tried to concentrate on the conversation. “Save him from what?”
“A hopeless life without meaning.”
“When you say ‘horrible things,’ you mean how his parents voted to kill him, right?”
A spark of admiration hit Keisha’s eyes. “New-girl has been doing some digging. Good for you.”
“I told you not to call me New-girl anymore. Answer the question.”
“His parents were on the board for a while. A fortune teller and known psychic hit him with a dark prophecy when he was ten. His parents heard it and told the board members about it. Then there was a vote. Everyone on the board with the exception of Van Helsing wanted to terminate Nick’s life.”
Terminate? Bay-Lee couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How could anyone choose to kill a child? “What did the prophecy say?”
“Sorry. I value my place here too much to snitch. Dig somewhere else. Or better yet, don’t. Just drop it.”
Not going to happen. Somehow she was going to find someone to tell her the prophecy word for word. Returning to the original subject, she asked, “Do you think I should tell Nick how I feel about him?”
“Hell no. Not unless you want to scare him off. Play it cool, girl. Nick will make the first move. I guarantee it.”
“But you think we should be together?” After Keisha nodded, Bay-Lee asked, “Why are you all for it when everyone else is against it?”
With a big smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye Keisha said, “I like Nick and I like you, and I want my friends to be happy. Something tells me you’ll be happier together.”
Now why did Bay-Lee feel there was more to it than that?