by Tara Fuller
“So you’re just here to torture me some more then?”
“I’m waiting you out.” Maeve stared though glittery hazel eyes at Emma’s window with an unsettling amount of hate and want. “I figure you’ll get called out eventually.”
“Don’t count on it.”
Maeve stood in front of me to get my attention and placed a hand on her hip. “Hey, shouldn’t you be writhing in pain somewhere right now?” She smiled. “Did you think Balthazar wouldn’t see your little stunt today at the school? That was clever going corporeal like that to save her. Clever, but stupid.”
“I wouldn’t have had to it if it weren’t for you.”
“Why not do it again?” she asked. “Go on. Go talk to her. Make her fall in love with you all over again. Think of how happy you could be!”
“Maeve…”
“To hell with that, think of how happy I’ll be when Balthazar turns you to dust for it.” She laughed.
“Or even better, how much she’ll despise you when she finds out what you did.”
I would have given anything in that moment to have the ability to annihilate a lost soul. To haul her off to Hell myself. But I didn’t. Unless it was a soul exiting a body, it was out of Balthazar’s jurisdiction, which meant I couldn’t do a damn thing about Maeve. To Balthazar, one lost soul wasn’t a good enough reason to bring down the Almighty’s wrath. All I could do was watch her try and try again, and hope to God I—or Easton and Anaya, if I was desperate—got there in time to stop her. And she knew it.
The porch light flickered on, signaling the approaching darkness. I closed my eyes and remembered the look in Emma’s wide eyes as she stared back at me, seeing me for the first time in two years. The rush of heat, that hopeful desire inside me bursting into flames as I realized the impossible was possible.
Behind us, laughter bounced through Cash’s little studio, and the walls pulsed with music, drowning out the ping of raindrops on the metal roof. He had a girl in there. He usually did.
Maeve stared at the building. “Don’t you miss it? Being alive? Having a body?”
“Go away.”
Maeve paused, examining me like a lion about to devour its prey. After all these years, she was still painfully good at finding my weaknesses. “I do. I miss being touched.” She grinned. “I miss boys.”
My fingers moved down to my waist. My wrist brushed the scythe there.
“Have you seen the kid next door?”
I didn’t answer.
Maeve touched her lips and sighed. “I’ll bet he’s a good kisser. But I’m sure Emma knows all about that, right? Can you imagine it? His mouth on her lips?” She giggled. “If she hasn’t gone there yet, I’d bet money she thinks about it. Hell, she probably dreams about it. I know I would.”
“Please leave,” I said, exhausted. “I can’t do this right now.”
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll make you a deal.”
“I don’t make deals with…” I gave her a sidelong glance. “With whatever it is you are now.”
“Don’t give me that crap, Finn. You and I are the same, and you know it.”
“No. We’re not. I came here to protect her; you came here to hurt her. Trust me—we’re not even in the vicinity of being the same.”
That seemed to strike a chord. I could feel the heat of her anger scorching me. “It was my turn! That body…” She pointed a shaky finger toward the house. “That life belonged to me. And you stole it! She stole it!”
“She didn’t do anything. I did. You want to hurt someone?” I turned to face her. “Hurt me.”
She smoothed out her hair, a ripple of flaming silk under her milk-white fingers. “I intend to. But since you can’t feel physical pain, emotional will have to do.”
She smiled, but it wasn’t pleasant. It was like a snake shedding its skin. Her brows furrowed, the dark wheels in her head grinding into motion, and then she darted away so quickly she faded into a blur of green and red. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Maeve’s pale hand reaching out, ready to dissolve through burgundy brick. Emma’s slender silhouette behind the window. Everything went red. Common sense fled my mind. I didn’t even realize I’d moved until I looked down and Maeve’s wide eyes were staring up at me. The only thing separating the blade of my scythe and her pale neck was a thread of fresh air.
She giggled like I’d told a joke. “It won’t do anything to me and you know it.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Well, we could always try it and see what happens.” I moved the blade at her collarbone. Raindrops fell through us both, undeterred.
“Go ahead.” Maeve smiled and inched her neck up closer. “It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? All those empty threats. You really are hilarious, Finn.” She pushed off the wall and swirled through me like vapor.
I holstered my scythe. “You can’t keep this up forever.”
“Sure I can. I’ve got loads of time thanks to you.”
It was a lie and she knew it. It’s why she was so desperate to hurt Emma while she could. The darkness was ready to swallow her whole. She didn’t have long before the shadows took her completely.
I ran my hands through my hair and gripped the back of my head. My fingers twitched, aching to grab my scythe again. “When are you going to get it? I won’t let my guard down. Ever.”
She stared at me for a long moment, no doubt seeing the anger harden my face from the inside out.
“Tell you what, Romeo. You give up now and I won’t make it painful for her. Then you two could float off into the sunset together. What do you think?”
What did I think? I didn’t know what I thought anymore. I knew I’d do anything for her. I knew I’d give anything for this barrier between us to disappear so we could be together again. But giving into Maeve, giving up my position and letting Emma die, then whisking her away before another reaper could take her… It wasn’t going to happen. What kind of afterlife would that be? Sure, we’d be together, but we’d also be lost. Wandering the earth, just waiting for the shadows to descend. I wouldn’t do that to her. I wouldn’t do that to us. “I think you’re completely insane if you think I would help you kill my reason for existing.”
“God, I don’t get you! What’s even more annoying is that I don’t get her! She’s wasting it away!
She sits in that hole of a room with her stupid journal, or takes pictures of things she refuses to actually experience. Riveting stuff there.” She stopped to roll her eyes. “I swear it’s the saddest, most boring waste of life I’ve ever seen.” She finished with a sigh, plopping down into the wet grass.
A spike of cold lashed at my hip. A call. Of course I’d get one now. I blinked up at the sky. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I couldn’t leave like this. Not with Maeve a few feet away and a whole night of high school partying on the horizon. “What would you say to a truce? Just for the night.”
She laughed. “Why in God’s name would I do that?”
I spotted Cash jogging across the lawn, his jacket pulled up over his head to protect him from the rain, and the tightness in my chest eased. He stomped onto the lit-up porch and beat on Emma’s door.
At least she wouldn’t be alone. Cold seared my insides and I knew I couldn’t ignore the call any longer.
“You know what?” I smiled at her, and then watched Cash’s disappear into the house. “I think she’ll be fine. I’ll see you later.”
Maeve’s face hardened into a cold expression. “Fine?” She glanced at the house and darkness pulsed beneath her pale skin. “Don’t count on it.”
I opened my mouth but the words didn’t come. The cold inside was too much. Pulling. Clawing. I shut my eyes against the pain and when I opened them again, I was gone.
Chapter 7
Emma I slid my camera strap over my head as I followed Cash up the winding hiking trail toward the party.
The crackling hiss of a bonfire and the tawny glow that suffused the trees led the way. I glanced around at the melting shadows t
hat dripped from the dying hemlocks and sturdy pines. Under the safe blanket of daylight, the mountains here were beautiful. But here in the dark, all I saw was a thousand ways to die.
I needed to get my head checked. Again. I wasn’t the girl who went traipsing through the forest at night without a care in the world. I was the girl who barely escaped falling signs, loose power lines, and bottles of pesticide that just happen to fall into pots of stew. It made my head hurt and my pulse pound just thinking of all the near misses.
A soft rumble of thunder rolled across the sky on the other side of the mountain, blotting out the echoes of music and laughter from the party. I jumped and looked up at the dark smudge of clouds wandering over the moon.
“Are you sure this is safe?” I jogged to catch up. “If it rains, there could be mudslides, or flooding, or—” Cash wrapped his arm around my shoulder and laughed. “Will you stop worrying? Nothing’s going to happen. Besides, I checked the weather before I left the house. It’s all headed west of here. We’re good.”
I nodded, still not feeling safe, and dug through my pocket for my tube of peppermint ChapStick.
Cash led me into the clearing before I had a chance to finish sliding it across my lips, waved at somebody, and nudged me to do the same. I lifted my hand, not really sure who I was supposed to be greeting, but mostly surprised that they’d gotten the bonfire lit in the first place. Everything was still slick and shiny from the rain.
I tucked the ChapStick back into my pocket, brushed off the wet leaves sticking to my jeans, and glanced at Cash. He looked ethereal bathed in the glow of the bonfire. The few piercings he had reflected the flames, his skin bronzed like a fine caramel glaze. Royal-blue paint shimmered from his left cheek when it lifted with a smile. He laughed at something someone shouted at him and grabbed a beer bottle out of the dirty blue-and-white cooler.
“I guess that means I’m driving us home.” I scanned the crowd for something to photograph that I could actually put in the yearbook. So far my material was pretty limited.
Cash popped the top. “Guess so.”
“I thought you didn’t wear those for anybody else.” I pointed to his T-shirt that said, F.B.I. (female body inspector).
He flashed me a lopsided grin. “Trust me. This shirt is absolutely for me.”
I laughed, wondering if there could possibly be someone else like Cash out there. I doubted it. Cash was sarcasm and seduction wrapped up with a gooey artistic center. He didn’t need a T-shirt to get any girl he wanted. All he had to do was look at them. The bad part was that he knew it.
“All right, you’ve got me here.” I poked Cash in the chest. “Don’t even think about ditching me.”
“I told you I wouldn’t. Now come on.” Cash grabbed me by the elbow and steered me into a crowd.
He took a swig of his beer and motioned to a couple making out near the tree line.
“There. Get a shot of that.”
I snapped a photo. “Why?”
“Because when he finds out that she has an overprotective big brother who’s an offensive lineman for Cal, it’s going to be pretty friggin’ hilarious,” he said.
“Oh yeah?” I raised a brow as I checked the flash on my camera. “How do you know?”
Cash frowned and rubbed his jaw. “Don’t ask.”
I spent the next half hour snapping shots of people, begging them to at least pretend to be sober.
Around shot twenty-two, I looked up and realized Cash was missing. I shouldn’t have been surprised.
This always happened. He’d come stumbling back eventually, smelling like strawberry lip gloss and beer, and apologize for ditching me. I sighed and went back to taking pictures. If I had to be there, I was going to load my camera up with enough images to get Mr. Hall off my back. Seventy-three shots later, I had practically nothing that would be suitable for school publication. At least Cash would have his blackmail.
I searched for Cash and came up empty. I finally grabbed Ronnie Simmons by the arm before he could whiz by toward the cooler.
“Hey! Emily, right?” he slurred.
I sighed. “It’s Emma. Have you seen Cash?” I took one last look around the clearing. “I’m ready to leave and we rode together.”
Ronnie chuckled and put his hand on my back. “Out here.”
I let him guide me into the trees, refusing to let fear get the best of me. Other than the fact that he never remembered my name, Ronnie was a decent guy. I was more afraid of what Cash was doing out here in the woods. He could be so stupid when he was drunk.
Once the sounds of the party were just an echo behind us, Ronnie stopped and nodded behind us to a heavily twisted batch of trees that surrounded what looked like an old, well-used fire pit. “Good luck getting his attention.”
I could barely make out the swaying shadow in the distance, so I pulled my camera up to my eye and zoomed in on where he was pointing. For the millionth time that night, I heard the words, “Get a shot of that!”
Cash and Tinley Rhineheart were a tangle of limbs and lips. He pressed her against the tree, only breaking away long enough to whisper something in her ear. She giggled and they were kissing again.
Without understanding why the stupid thing was even there, I swallowed the lump in my throat and snapped the picture. Part of me wondered if I’d ever get to a point in my life where I’d allow a guy to lead me off like that and kiss me until I couldn’t breathe. The other part of me said it was ridiculous to want to give those breaths away when something out there was so intent on stealing them. I forced the thoughts out of my head. Who needed to live when you had a best friend who did enough of it for the both of you?
I turned around and headed the direction Ronnie had gone, feeling so out of place in the world around me that I couldn’t catch my breath. I swiped the back of my hand across my cheek, finding warm wetness there, and scowled at the tears on the back of my wrist. Stupid. Why was I crying? I didn’t want that life. I didn’t. I couldn’t.
“Ronnie?” I felt suffocated by the darkness around me. “Ronnie!”
He was gone. He’d left me in the dark alone. In the woods. Fear made my throat close up, but I swallowed through it. This didn’t have to be a big deal. I just needed to get back on the trail we were on. I pulled my cell phone out to use the screen as a flashlight. Wait…were we even on a trail? Why hadn’t I paid attention? God, this was going to suck.
I spun around, trying to ignore the panic in my chest. It was okay. I could find my way back. I could just follow the sounds of the party. We hadn’t gone that far out. I heard the sound of water rushing through the dark. The bonfire had been set up next to a stream. I headed in the direction of voices and water, trying to fit the two sounds together to pinpoint one location. I was going to kill Cash for this.
If he was just going to ditch me every time we came to one of these things why drag me along? It not like I wanted to-Something cold swept over the back of my neck. I whirled around and stared into the thick, consuming dark. Whatever it was slithered over my skin again, and a twig snapped somewhere off in the dark distance.
“Is somebody out there? Cash?”
No one answered. A set of fingers brushed over the back of my shoulder and fear exploded in my chest. I spun around, eyes wide.
“Cash!” I held my camera so tight my knuckles turned white. “Ronnie! This isn’t funny, you guys.”
Someone tugged on my ponytail and I yelped. Cold exploded across my skin, under my skin, and everywhere inside. I tripped and caught myself on a tree trunk, scraping my palms. My pulse pounded so hard I could feel it in my neck. I couldn’t seem to form a thought, let alone an escape.
Think, Emma! I balled my hands into fists and spun around, ready to scream.
I squeezed my eyes shut and held the sound in my throat. I couldn’t scream. What would I say?
Someone I couldn’t see pulled my hair? I had a bad feeling? Every person at this party already thought I was crazy.
I couldn’t go back to
Brookhaven. I couldn’t.
I opened my eyes, determined to find the party. Someone laughed in the distance, so I started forward. I was so close to the water I could smell it. I’d just follow the stream back. Yellow eyes glinted at me from the trees. Nighttime creatures hummed and slithered and chirped from places that only belonged to the murky palette of midnight. I’d almost convinced myself that no one had been there when something iridescent moved through the trees. It flickered like a flame for only a second before being snuffed out by the dark.
I took a step back, ready to bolt, but stopped. Something moved through the underbrush, along the trail. Footsteps. Something bigger than an animal. Footsteps with so much purpose they could only be human.
Oh, thank God. “Hey!” I called out, rushing toward the sound. “I’m kind of lost. Can you show me how to get back to the party?”
The footsteps stopped, but no one answered. The cold returned, crackling along my skin like frost, and I shivered. Something was about to happen. Oh my God it was already happening…
I took a second step back. A third. I didn’t let myself blink. My heel felt the earth crumble beneath my shoe, and I stopped to glance over my shoulder. It was pitch black, a seemingly endless crevice. I could hear water trickling, rushing, splashing through the maze of riverbanks below. How far down was it? I didn’t want to find out.
A wave of cool breath whispered across my face. My skin prickled. My eyes widened, staring at… nothing. No one. Yet that breath-Something hard knocked me off-balance and I fell backward, off the edge. My hands flew out in front of me, grabbing for something, anything, and one closed around an exposed root three feet from the ledge. My back slammed into the mud wall behind me, and I swung like a pendulum above the water below while I tried to find something else to grab onto.
Rain sprinkled from the sky and spattered my face. So much for that storm moving west. The root I had a hold of was secured in the mud wall, but the rain was making it slick and my fingers were already starting to slip. One, two, three fingers came loose. My hand started to cramp. No, no, no, no, no! Please no! Not yet. Please not yet. Darkness started to swallow my vision. A fresh batch of panic tightened my chest.