by Laura Marie
I nodded. “I would hide if the coven came over, too.”
I sat down on her bed, and Chloe came closer. I noticed that she wasn’t so anxious now. Her eyes looked normal, and she didn’t seem to be struggling with the smell of my blood or the sound of my beating heart.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
Chloe pulled up her shoulders. “I’m fine. Better.”
I nodded. “I’m glad. It’s not going to be like this forever, you know.”
“Feels like it, sometimes,” she said.
I nodded. I understood that. But it would just take time for her to adjust. But to say “hold on, keep the faith” was so much easier said than done.
“Are you going to school again tomorrow?” I asked.
Chloe sighed. “I don’t know. Probably. My mom won’t let me miss because we’re supposed to take these things in our stride, right?”
“You can take a day off, I’m sure,” I said. “The wolves get almost a week off from school during the full moon if they’re new. The school won’t mind.” I hesitated. “Unless you’re still not honest with your parents about what’s going on.”
Chloe didn’t look at me, which made me realize that I was right. What had she told her mom about why she’d gone home today?
“She thought it was just a stomach bug. You know, because I’m not used to blood. That’s why I told the nurse, too. A stomach bug.”
“Chlo, you can’t keep hiding this.”
“Yeah, I can,” she said tightly. And I knew I couldn’t argue with her. This wasn’t my life or my secret to share. I couldn’t say anything about how she was handling it.
“So,” I said, changing the topic. “What are they all doing here?”
“They’re here to talk about the murders,” Chloe said. “It’s not actually about me or my issues. Which is nice, I guess. I just worry. What if they found out?”
“About what?” I asked, even though I knew what she was saying.
“You know…” Chloe said and looked at me with guarded eyes.
“There’s nothing to find out,” I said earnestly.
Chloe sighed and nodded. She didn’t believe me.
“Why are you hiding if this isn’t about you?” I asked after we hadn’t talked for a couple of minutes.
“Because the vampires make me nervous. Especially Dmitri.”
“I hear you,” I said. Dmitri was creepy at best.
“Will you stay here with me?” Chloe asked.
I nodded. “I came here for you, after all.” I grinned, and she chuckled.
It was good to see her smile for a change. She had been so serious for a while, and I understood why.
After we spent about an hour together, I had to slip out to the bathroom. I cracked open Chloe’s door and peaked out. I heard the chatter in the living room and kitchen and slipped down the passage to the bathroom without being bothered.
When I was done, I stepped out. Dmitri walked into the kitchen as I emerged and I frowned, curious about what he was doing here. He was the Master Vampire, sure. But something about him made me think that he didn’t care so much about the clan as he cared about what he looked like to everyone.
Maybe it was just me.
I moved closer to the kitchen door and leaned against the wall like I was just hanging around.
“How are you holding up, Claudia?” Dmitri asked Chloe’s mom. They seemed to be alone.
“I’m fine,” she said. It sounded a lot like Chloe did—not convincing at all.
“How are we doing to deal with this, Dmitri?” Claudia asked. “Chloe is really buckling under the pressure. She’s already unsure about who she is, and with this new development, I don’t know how she’s going to come to accept herself.”
“Don’t you worry about that. If you want, I can sit down and talk to her, find out where she stands.”
“Would you? I think that would really help. It feels like she’s withdrawing from me. I don’t know what’s going on with her anymore.”
“I’ll talk to her, don’t worry. We’ll find out what’s going on and if there is anything we need to know.”
Two vampires came from the living room, and I didn’t want to be caught eavesdropping, so I walked back to Chloe’s room before they could see me listening in on the conversation. I had heard enough, anyway. They thought she was up to something.
And after the murder, what if they thought that was what she’d been up to? It hadn’t been said outright at all. But I didn’t want it to go there. I didn’t want Dmitri to get his hands on her at all, in fact.
When I was back in Chloe’s room, she lay on the bed with her eyes closed. When I moved closer to her, I realized she had fallen asleep. I didn’t want to wake her – she had been through a hell of a week. So, I let myself out and left.
I walked home, not taking the bus. The air was humid, brushing against my skin, charged with the magic of the witches that cloaked the preternatural community. But I liked being under the night sky. It allowed me to think.
Chloe didn’t kill anyone. I knew that for a fact. I had no proof, though. And maybe that was what the other vampires, Dmitri in particular, needed to know.
Maybe it was time I started looking into this, figure out who had really done it. If I could find the real murderer or proof that it had been someone else, then Chloe would be off the hook. And she really needed that right now.
I would start and see what I could do myself. I wasn’t going to turn to the clan. I didn’t trust Dmitri. And the witches weren’t on my side, either. In fact, they were against me in this.
But I wanted to prove that Chloe was innocent, to her and to the other vampires that seemed to think she was a problem. All she was was a confused vampire who would be forced to do something against her nature.
She was not a killer, and I was going to show everyone.
Even if I had to do it alone.
CHAPTER SIX
The rest of the week was pretty disappointing. I had left Chloe’s house determined that I would prove her innocence, and I had been fired up to get into it immediately. The vampires needed to know that there was nothing wrong with Chloe. Chloe herself needed to know that, too.
I had been prepared to rock the world with evidence.
But I was just a teenager and this wasn’t the movies. Evidence like that didn’t just pop up, and my life had gone back to normal within a few days.
When I came home after school on Thursday, my mom was home.
“Something wrong?” I asked. Aside from Wednesdays, my mom usually worked late.
“Not at all,” my mom said. “I thought it would be nice to be home and spend some time together.”
“Okay, yeah,” I said, nodding. It wasn’t every day that my mom took some time to spend with me. I had homework to do and a test to study for, but I could postpone that if she wanted to do something nice.
I walked to my room to put down my bag.
“Come to the kitchen when you’re done,” my mom called after me. “I want to talk to you about something.”
I did as she asked and walked to the kitchen after putting my bag down. My mom stood at the counter, peeling potatoes.
“What’s all this?” I asked. My mom looked like she was cooking up a storm, judging by all the ingredients that lay around the kitchen. My mom didn’t usually cook extensively. My diet had always consisted of some fruit and veggies to stay healthy and whatever else was easiest.
“That’s what I want to talk to you about,” my mom said.
I frowned, suspicious. She wanted to talk to me about food?
“You know, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Victor lately,” my mom started.
“Yeah?”
“Well, I thought it would be nice to invite him over to dinner. Then you can meet him.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So, this isn’t about spending time with me?”
My mom looked at me, her face softening in the way that it did when I figured out she was trying to
trick me.
“Of course, I’m going to be spending time with you. But I want you to meet Victor. He has become a big part of my life, and I want you to get to know him.”
I shook my head. I should have known that something was going on. My mom never cooked and she never took some time off work to spend with me.
“If you want to bring the guy over, go ahead,” I said. “But don’t lie to me and tell me that this is about me, because it’s not; it’s all about you.”
My mom sighed, dropping the potato she had been peeling on the cutting board and leaning with her palms on the edge of the counter.
“Look, I know everything revolves around you right now. You’re a teenager, and I should expect that. But I deserve to be happy, too. Victor is important to me, and I want him to become a part of your life. The least you can do is be happy for me.”
“I would be happy for you didn’t make it sound like you were doing me a favor by bringing him over.”
Great, we were fighting again. Sometimes it felt like that was all we did. When we lived in California, my mom and I had gotten stuck now and then, but it was very different now. I guess the more I developed who I was, embracing my preternatural side, the less I could relate to her.
“I’m going to my room to do homework,” I said.
“You’re not going to sit with me?”
“I’ll have plenty of chance to do that when Victor is here, won’t I?” I said sarcastically, and turned on my heel. My mom didn’t call me back, and I marched to my room.
At six o’clock on the dot the doorbell rang, and I groaned. The infamous Victor had arrived. Two seconds later, my mom called me.
I could hear my mom giggling. I had never heard her giggle, and it was weird. When I walked into the living room, my mom and Victor stepped away from each other, as if they had been doing something I couldn’t see. As if I wasn’t a teenager and didn’t understand that they would be sleeping together. But I didn’t actually want to see them sucking face, so whatever.
“Emily, this is Victor. Victor, my daughter Emily.”
Victor offered me a broad smile and stepped closer. I fought the urge to step back. It wasn’t that he was creepy or anything. He seemed nice enough if you counted salt-and-pepper gray hair, a beard, and a dad body nice.
“I’ve heard so much about you,” Victor said with a gravelly voice. Maybe if I were my mom’s age, I would see the appeal.
“Likewise,” I said stiffly.
“All good things, I hope?” Victor said.
How cliché.
I pulled up my shoulders in response.
“Well, your mother’s description of you didn’t do you justice. You’re practically a lady.”
I didn’t roll my eyes. Instead, I glanced at my mom. Was she serious with this guy? But my mom stood there was a silly grin on her face, obviously infatuated.
“So, a witch, eh?” Victor said, and my back was immediately up.
“So, a human,” I responded coldly.
“Emily!” My mom snapped.
Victor laughed before I could respond. “No, no, I asked for that.” He turned to me. “I hope you know that I don’t mind the preternatural world at all.”
Good to know. I couldn’t believe my mom had told him that I was a witch. Obviously, he knew about what was going on around here. But that didn’t mean that I liked him. In fact, I disliked him.
“Let’s sit down to eat,” my mom said. “The food is ready, and I don’t want it getting cold.”
So, this was the man that my mom had been slaving away in the kitchen for all day. I had never seen her do that. Had she cooked like that for my dad?
We all walked to the dining room and sat down around the table. My mom dished up for us, and she sat next to Victor, with me across from them.
I wished I could run and hide in my room.
“This looks great, babe,” Victor said.
Gross. My mom was hardly a babe.
“So, how is school going, Princess?” Victor asked me.
Excuse me? Princess? Who did this guy think he was? I wasn’t five, and we were not friends.
“School is going fine, thanks,” I said. I speared the potato with my fork and cut it into pieces before taking a bite. Hopefully, if I had food in my mouth the entire time, I wouldn’t have to answer questions.
“I am fascinated by the schooling system here,” Victor said. “How do the classes work if everyone is different? Do you feel like you fit in?”
What was this? Was he doing a thesis on supernatural beings?
“I’m a teenager,” I said. “Do we ever feel like we fit in?”
Victor laughed and looked at my mom. “You’re right, she’s feisty.”
I was still in the room. He talked about me like I wasn’t here. He was rude. But my mom didn’t seem to think so. She smiled and blushed and leaned toward Victor, obviously head over heels in love with the guy. It was disgusting.
“May I be excused?” I asked.
My mom frowned. “You’ve hardly touched your food.”
“I’m not hungry,” I said. “I guess I lost my appetite.” I looked pointedly at her.
My mom pressed her lips together in a thin line, her eyes showing me how angry she was. She knew what I was trying to say. I didn’t like Victor, and I wasn’t going to hide it.
“Of course, you can be excused,” Victor answered, not letting my mom say what was on her mind. Suck up.
I offered him a wan smile and stood up, taking my plate to the kitchen. When I walked through the dining room again, I stopped at the table.
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to join you again, tonight,” I said. “I have a test to study for. Goodnight.”
Again, my mom wanted to say something, but Victor said something first.
“Good night, it was great meeting you, Rabbit.”
Was he shitting me? I blinked at him, unsure how to respond. I glanced at my mom, but she didn’t seem to mind that he was calling me shitty pet names. In fact, she acted like I was the one that was wrong, the one who had been acting out instead of Victor being out of line. I was going to hear about it later, I was sure of it.
But later was not now, and I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to get away from Victor and his little pet names and his friendly smile and his obvious illusion that he could be friends with everyone. If my mom wanted to be with the guy, fine. I guess it was her life.
But I wanted nothing to do with him. I wasn’t in need of dad. I had gotten through life fine without one before. I didn’t know how far my mom wanted things to go with Victor, but I was pretty sure that whatever they were now, it was already too much for me.
I closed myself in my room and actually studied for the test, even though I hadn’t felt like it earlier. Knowing that Victor was out there, talking and laughing with my mom, was a hell of a motivator to be productive in my room.
When Victor left, I knew about it. I heard them say their goodbyes and I was aware when the front door closed and my mom was finally alone. I could hear her footsteps coming to my room. She didn’t knock on my door. Instead, she just opened it and let herself in.
“Don’t you knock?” I asked.
“I’m sorry,” my mom said. “I didn’t think I needed to be respectful, considering that you weren’t tonight.”
I groaned. “I don’t like him.”
“And you made that very clear. How do you think he feels?”
“What about me? What about how I feel?”
“Excuse me? I don’t think how you feel has anything to do with this. I am dating Victor, and I am happy. And the least you can do is be well mannered so that when I bring him home, I am not completely embarrassed by my daughter. I was hoping we could spend time tonight, that you could get to know him. I didn’t realize you would be so dead set against being decent.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t even talk to me about being decent. Did you see how he talks to me? He treated me like a child.”
; “Well, you acted like one.”
Was she suggesting that it was my fault that he had treated me that way? “I didn’t ask for those silly nicknames,” I said.
“So that’s how he talks. So what? Maybe it made you uncomfortable, but it wasn’t inappropriate. Victor is a decent man, and I deserve someone like that in my life. I have been fighting to make things happen, to make ends meet, alone, for so long. I did it all for you. Now, I’m doing something for me.”
I pulled up my shoulders. “I don’t like him,” I said again. That should have been enough reason for my mom to reconsider where she was going with this.
“And I don’t care,” my mom said. “Everything is always about you. This time, it’s about me.”
“And that’s fine,” I said. “I want you to be happy. I get that you need that. I just don’t want you to be happy with him.”
I had meant for it to come across nicely. I cared for my mom and her happiness, but I didn’t think he was the right guy for her. And not just because I didn’t like him, either. The guy was a two-face. I had no proof of that, but I felt it in my gut.
But instead of my mom taking it the way I had meant it, she became furious.
“I give you a lot of freedom. I discuss my decisions and plans with you as an equal adult. But you are my daughter, I don’t have to answer to you, and I definitely don’t have to try to please you. I am in love with Victor, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
She turned around and stormed out of my room, closing the door behind her a little too loudly.
I groaned. Great.
CHAPTER SEVEN
On Saturday morning, I woke up to the smell of bacon and coffee. I took a deep breath and sat up. My first reaction was, “hell yeah.” But it deflated really quickly.
My mom didn’t cook bacon and eggs, and she made instant coffee. The coffee machine hadn’t been used in years. If someone was using it now, it was Victor.
Which meant he had stayed over again.
I groaned and rolled out of bed.
After showering and getting dressed in shorts, a tank top, and sneakers, I walked to the kitchen.