I nodded. “Alright, I’ll leave them a note.”
Erica and I stood there on the playground for a minute in an uncomfortable silence. Finally, she sighed. “I’m sorry if I ever hurt you with anything I said. I was just trying to fit in. School is hard if you’re not popular.”
“I know. I wasn’t popular.”
She nodded sadly. “Bye, Ronnie. Thanks for doing this for me.”
“It’s my job,” I said as she faded from view.
Chapter Thirteen
Finn walked over with his hands in his pockets, managing to look both bored and uncomfortable at the same time. For some reason, that really annoyed me. “That’s all of them,” I said shortly, too tired to pretend otherwise. “Two car accidents, one suicide, four murder victims, one very cranky old miser who died of a heart attack, and a girl I went to school with.”
His eyes softened, tugging at my heart. “Someone you knew? What happened?”
I sighed and met his eyes, feeling myself begin to relax, if only for a moment. “She was trying to relieve stress put on her by her parents and friends and society, and she took it too far. She wanted me to make sure her parents knew she hadn’t meant to kill herself. I don’t know when I’ll be able to–”
“Tabitha’s still here,” he said suddenly, frowning. He shoved me behind him and crouched down in a protective manner, eyeing the side of the school. There, hidden in shadow, I could see a figure leaning against the wall. I couldn’t make out her face, but I trusted Finn’s heightened senses. If he said it was Tabitha, then it was Tabitha, and I was sure I knew what she wanted. “Don’t even think about it,” Finn warned.
“What do you mean?” I asked, playing innocence.
“You heard what Annie said. I’m not supposed to let you talk to her alone. She’s dangerous, Ronnie.”
“Finn, please,” I said, putting my hand on his arm. He tensed under my touch, but didn’t pull away, even when I forced him to meet my eyes. “I need to talk to her. If there’s even a chance that I can talk her out of her plans, I need to take it. She’s the only family I have left; if I can save her, I’m going to.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “God dammit, Ronnie. That’s not fair! You can’t refuse to give us a chance and then look at me like that just to get what you want. You can’t do that to me.”
I looked away guiltily. “I’m sorry, Finn. I’m sorry that you think this is about us. It’s not. It’s about potentially saving my little sister’s life. Now, I’m going over there to talk to her while Annie finishes up with her ghosts, and you’re not going to stop me.”
I only made it one step before his hand clamped down on my shoulder. I looked over my shoulder at him and our eyes connected. I saw so many different conflicting emotions in his eyes, but one of them won out, and his grip on my shoulder loosened. “I’ll be keeping watch, so let her know that if she does anything to hurt you, I won’t hesitate to protect you. And be careful.”
I nodded. “Thank you.” He grunted once but didn’t say anything else as I walked over to where she stood waiting for me. Tabitha didn’t walk away as I approached, and she didn’t narrow her eyes at me, which I took as a good sign. If she was willing to talk to me, she might be willing to listen to reason. This could be my last chance to save her, and I was planning to make the most of it.
Tabitha smirked when I stopped in front of her. “That didn’t take as long as I thought it would.”
“Those ghosts didn’t slow me down as much as you thought they would, did they?” I asked, smiling back coolly at her. “Once I got them to stop talking, it wasn’t too hard to free those poor souls you had trapped to do your bidding. Don’t you feel bad for them? You’re trapping them in a rotting corpse. They know they’re stuck in there. They’re scared and they don’t know how to get free.”
Tabitha shrugged her thin shoulders like she couldn’t care. “It doesn’t really bother me. They’re ghosts. I control ghosts. They’re here to serve us.”
“Is that what Andrew taught you?” I challenged. Her eyes narrowed at the use of our father’s name, but she didn’t say anything, and I knew that I was right. “Did you pick Erica just for me? Because you know, seeing her ghost just now, it was pretty upsetting. But that’s probably what you were planning on, right? Well, you didn’t plan that out very well. She and I were not friends. She was just some popular girl that made my life miserable while at school.”
Tabitha’s eyes lit up. “So you were happy to see her dead?”
“No!” I gasped, horrified she could think so. “Erica and I didn’t like one another, but I would never wish her harm. Tabitha, I know that you’re in a dark place right now, but the thought of seeing someone you know dead can’t be a good one. Look. Come back to the compound with me, and we’ll get this all straightened out. You haven’t hurt anyone, Tabitha. Don’t change that.”
“The Council would never show me leniency. You can thank our father for that. What do you think they’re gonna do with you when this is all over with? Do you think they’ll just overlook the fact that half of your family is evil? You’re powerful, Ronnie. You have more power than any of the people that sits on that Council. And you have a dark heritage that you can’t escape. Do you think they’ll just let you go off and live your life with your werewolf boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said flatly. “And the Council isn’t going to harm me.”
“You’re too powerful for them to let you go. With you on their side, they could potentially rise up through the ranks. With you against them, they could be in danger of losing their positions on the Council. You have the power to sway people to your way of thinking. All you would have to do is give them one reason to think you’re planning a coup, and they’d lock you away and force you to work for them for the rest of eternity. Sound like fun to you?”
I shook my head sadly as I realized what she was attempting to do. “I know what you’re doing, Tabitha. You’re trying to get me to see things the same was as you do, but it won’t work. I know which side I’m on. I know who and what I’m fighting for, and nothing you can say will change that.”
“So why do you think your words can change my mind?” she asked, raising one eyebrow while she watched me. “If I can’t change your mind, why do you think you can change mine? We both know which side we’re on, Ronnie, and we’re both loyal to that side. Nothing will change my mind, or yours.”
“Tabitha, my mother’s spirit is gone,” I said quietly. “She’s moved on to the afterlife, leaving me all alone, except for you. You’re all I have left in the world, and I’d like to have you in my life. It isn’t too late to change, Tabitha. I can help you. All you have to do is let me in.”
Something changed in her eyes. They became softer, more open, and I saw the young girl that I’d started to develop a friendship with. “I’m sorry about your mother, Ronnie. I know what it feels like to lose a parent. I can’t imagine having to go through that twice.” When she looked up at me again, I noticed she’d gone back to the disturbed girl she’d been for the last few days. “You say you want me in your life…well, prove it. Help me with my plans. Once I get my revenge on that Council, you and I can start our lives together.”
As she’d been talking, I realized quickly that nothing I could say would get through to her. She was too far gone, and my mother had been right when she said I might not have any other choices than to take care of her. “Okay. Tell me where you’re staying, and we can get together to implement your plans,” I said smoothly.
She threw back her head and laughed; the sound was like fingernails sliding down a chalkboard. “Nice try, Ronnie. For a second I almost believed you.” She sighed, managing to look both sad and annoyed at the same time. “I think you and I are too different to ever truly see eye to eye. You know, I always knew that I was different, and I don’t mean just communicating with ghosts. I was always more mature. The way I talked, the way I carried myself, the way I looked at the world around me…it was like I w
as never really a child. The moment we met, I knew you were the same way.”
“I’ve always been like that,” I said gently, taking a small step closer to her. “I never related to my peers. The people I was closest to tended to be my teachers, not that I was every really close to anyone before I got involved with the Council. The first real friends I’ve had were Tanya, Holly, Ezra, and…Finn.”
“Ah, yes. The werewolf.” Her eyes shifted until she was looking just over my shoulder. “He looks awfully protective of you. And yet you’re not dating. Guess I can’t blame you; I did see him flirting with that girl at the book store. The look on your face while that beast practically drooled all over her…you were absolutely crushed. Shame he doesn’t seem to care if he hurts your feelings or not.”
“Leave Finn out of this,” I said tightly. “He has nothing to do with our relationship. Tabitha, I’m trying to save you, and you’re laughing off my attempts. Do you know what the Council will do to you if you continue down this path?”
“Of course I do,” she said simply. “They’ll hang me by the neck until I’m dead, and then they’ll have either you or that other necromancer banish my soul so I can’t come back.” She looked over at Annie and frowned. “She sure is taking a while to get rid of those ghosts. She must not be very good at what she does. I can’t believe that she’s your teacher. You’d do better with someone more powerful.”
“Someone like Andrew.”
She nodded. “Our father was a great teacher. He knew all about power, and he knew how to manipulate and control people. You should really try the darker side of our gifts. For some reason, it tends to come easier than the normal stuff. But, perhaps that’s just because there’s so much darkness inside the two of us. What do you think?”
“I think this conversation is done,” I said tightly. “Clearly you’re not going to change your mind, and I’d be a fool to keep trying. Tabitha, I hope you come to your senses, because I’d hate to have to hurt you.”
“You really think you could hurt me?” she asked with a smile on her face. “I’m your baby sister. I’m the only family you have left.”
“No, you’re a monster that can’t be saved. I wish I’d seen that sooner.” Her eyes hardened, and I shook my head. “Don’t act all upset. You and I both knew how this would turn out. You’ve chosen your path, and I’ve chosen mine. I just hope they don’t cross.”
“They will,” Tabitha said quietly. “I’ll make sure of it.” She turned and walked away, and I didn’t try to stop her. I knew I probably should have, and I knew the Council would be furious with me for letting her go, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. A small part of me was hoping that she would magically come to her senses and run away, but I knew that was foolish. Tabitha was dead set on her choice, and I would eventually have to stop her.
Tabitha paused when she reached the sidewalk and I hoped that she was miraculously going to change her mind. She looked over her shoulder and our eyes briefly connected. Then she closed her eyes, raised her wrist, and I could feel her gathering power for something. When she opened her eyes, she snapped her fingers, and six bodies near me reanimated again.
With one final sneer, Tabitha turned and walked away, leaving me surrounded by six ravenous, flesh-eating zombies. Before I could even react, one of them dug his chipped nails into the flesh of my right arm, drawing blood and ripping away a chunk of flesh. Screaming, I stumbled backwards and tripped, landing hard on my back. The air was knocked from my lungs and I gasped for air like a fish out of water. Six hungry zombies with orders to attack shuffled forward, intent on tearing me to pieces.
Before the first zombie could attack, a loud snarl caught my attention. A massive black wolf slammed into the nearest zombie, knocking it to the ground. The wolf was a head and shoulders larger than a normal wolf and its fangs were long and sharp as he snarled; bloody saliva dripped to the ground, but he didn’t seem to notice that he had zombie blood in his mouth.
He moved until he was standing directly over me, and I finally realized that it was Finn in his wolf form. In the months I’d known him, I’d never seen him shift, and I’d almost forgotten that he could. I felt my face heat up and I looked away from his back, not wanting to stare. He was obviously a he, and I was pretty sure Finn wouldn’t like it if I stared at his private parts, even if they were covered in fur at the moment. Strangely, the thought of that almost made me giggle, despite the situation I currently found myself in.
Finn growled deep in his chest, causing the zombies to pause in their assault. Then he lunged forward, tearing into the nearest zombie. He kept himself between me and the zombies, putting my safety above his own. Finn was large and powerful and deadly, but there were six of them, and they didn’t stay down, even after he ripped off one of their limbs. They wouldn’t rest until Annie or I released the souls present, and I was too shocked to keep a grasp on my power.
But my fear didn’t keep me from trying. I tried several times to latch onto my power and use it to help Finn, but I couldn’t concentrate. My right arm throbbed painfully and the feeling of blood dripping down my arm was an annoying distraction that wouldn’t lessen up. My hands were trembling so badly I was afraid I might rip the amethyst pendant off the chain around my neck if I tried to grab it.
Finn yelped as a zombie bit deep into his left hind leg, and he turned and sunk his fangs into the back of the zombie’s neck. He bit down until there was a loud crunch, and then he pulled away sharply, tearing the zombie’s head clean off. It fell to the ground with a dull thump, and he swiped at another corpse. It stepped to one side and fell across Finn’s back, sinking its teeth into the back of his neck. He yelped in pain and bucked his shoulders, trying to shake the zombie from his back.
Suddenly, the zombie went limp, and Finn shook him off. The other zombies dropped to the ground and didn’t move again. When I looked up, I saw Annie with her eyes closed and her hand clenched around her pendant. She opened her eyes and frowned. “What happened?” she asked, kneeling down beside me. She examined the gouges on my arm and nodded to Tanya. “Can you take care of this and help calm her down?”
Tanya crouched down beside me and gripped my arm carefully. Her fingers wrapped around the gouges and her fingertips began to glow with a pale blue light. The pain in my arm flared up almost as bad as when the flesh had been stripped from my arm by cracked nails. After intense seconds of pain, the ache in my arm began to slowly fade. When I looked down at my right arm, I noticed that the gouges had stopped bleeding and were shrinking in size and deepness.
When Tanya removed her hand from my arm, there was nothing left of the marks other than four little pink lines that would probably disappear in a day or two. “Do you feel better?” Tanya asked, her turquoise eyes meeting mine.
I forced myself to nod, even though I was feeling far from anything resembling better. “I’ll be alright, Tanya. Thanks for patching me up.”
“She wouldn’t have had to patch you up if you’d just listened to my orders,” Annie said tightly. When I met her eyes, I saw disappointment and fury in them, and I cringed. “I expressly forbade you from speaking with Tabitha alone, and you did it anyway. And you let her be alone with a dangerous, powerful, crazy necromancer!” she snapped at Finn.
He was back in his human form and sitting in the grass. He had his legs closed and his arms wrapped around himself, and I realized with a shock that he was completely naked aside from the blood that smeared his neck, back, and leg. There were three distinct bite marks and each of them looked painful, but he didn’t seem to notice anything other than the blood on my arm. “Are you alright?” he asked quietly, completely ignoring Annie’s hostility.
“Are you?” I asked, scooting closer to him. When I reached out for him, he tried to pull away, but I clamped down on his arm. “Finn, you’re injured and it’s all my fault. Just let me look at you, okay? I wanna make sure you’ll make a full recovery.”
“You just want an excuse to see me naked,” he teased gently.
When I brushed aside his shaggy hair to look at the bite on the back of his neck, he hissed in pain. When I saw the gaping wound in the back of his neck, I grimaced. There was a chunk of flesh missing, ripped away by a pair of broken, rotted teeth, and it was bleeding profusely. His entire back was coated in blood.
“Tanya, can you heal Finn like you did for me?”
“There’d be no point,” Finn said. “I heal faster than normal people, remember? I’ll be fine in a little bit. Worry about yourself first.”
I knew Finn would never admit that he was seriously hurt, so it wouldn’t do me any good to press him on the issue. Instead, I turned my attention to Holly and Ezra. “Are you guys alright? What happened?” I asked them. “Where were you guys? Finn could have used the help.”
Ezra ran his hand through his short red hair, looking ashamed and upset. “I’m sorry, Ronnie. Holly and I were busy herding the remaining kids to safety. I thought Finn would be able to handle himself. We should have been more focused on Finn–those kids would have made it to safety by themselves. I made a rash decision and it ended up being the wrong one.”
“No, Ezra, it wasn’t.” Annie frowned at all of us. “Those kids were the important ones. We need to remember that. Our job right now is to help convince people in this town that not all supernatural beings are as crazy and evil as Tabitha. We need to be seen doing things for the good of others–like with those kids.” She looked at Ezra and put her hand on his shoulder. “You made the right call. Don’t let your friendship cloud your judgment.” She looked at both me and Finn and shook her head sadly. “We can’t afford to be making mistakes right now. Especially when those mistakes are brought on by personal feelings for one another. Get your head in the game, you two. Sort out your feelings for one another later.”
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