Rise of Midnight

by SARA FREITES

  “I hope no one listens to her,” I worried.

  “The people closest to you won’t. Who cares what everyone else thinks,” she replied. “Most people just ignore Marilee, anyway. They know how she is.”

  I tried to listen to her words of wisdom, hoping by morning I’d forget all about it.

  “Wait a minute. You got in a fight with her?” I realized.

  “I walked by her in the hallway, heard what she was saying, told her what I thought about her and punched her. I kept walking, but a teacher saw it. Now, I’m suspended for five days. Mom wants to have another long talk with me when I get home,” she moaned.

  “Well, thanks for standing up for me,” I said after letting it all sink in. “The sad part is, she’ll probably be right back at it tomorrow.”

  “She might talk about somebody tomorrow, but she won’t be talking about you. I can guarantee it. I just want you to know how happy I am to have you back.”

  I felt a little awkward at first. Jericho never showed sincere concern for me, and I wasn’t sure how to react.

  My phone rang. I put it to my ear.

  “Watch the curb!” Jericho snapped as I made a turn into our neighborhood.

  “I’m not the one who hits curbs!” I hissed. “Hello?” I answered the phone.

  “Hey, girl! Guess what?" It was Gemma. “Josh and I have enough money to get a limo for prom Saturday! And I was wondering if you wanted to go with us—”

  “I don’t have a date,” I cut her off.

  “And? You can still come!” Gemma chirped in my ear.

  “No, it’s okay,” I laughed weakly, but it wasn’t a real laugh by a long shot. “You’ll have to send me your prom pictures. I’m sure Jericho will go with you guys. She and Marcus are going together as friends.”

  “Autumn, I’m serious. You can go with us whether you have a date or not. You know that, right? You don’t need a date. Just think about it,” she urged.

  I wasn’t normally into dances, but I’d hoped to at least go to my Junior/Senior prom with someone, especially since it would be one of my last experiences as a human. While I wasn’t sure the vampires would allow it, I knew I’d consider it. After all, I didn’t need a date to have fun.

  “I will,” I promised Gemma.

  We said goodbye after a little more small talk.

  “Do you want to visit Jacoby’s grave before we go home? You haven’t been since we buried him,” Jericho suggested.

  She didn’t have to ask twice. I turned the car around and drove us straight to the cemetery. There, she and I stood at his grave. Even while looking down on his marble gravestone, his death still wasn’t real to me. I teared up as I touched the fresh bundle of lilies by his headstone. Jericho and I waited there a long while, listening to the breeze and the chirping birds. My mind raced with hundreds of things to say, but at first, all I could get out was a weak “I miss you”, nearly choking on my words. I waited for the urge to cry to subside before asking Jericho to wait in the car for a few minutes.

  “I’ve got something to tell you, Jacoby,” I said to his gravestone after Jericho disappeared.

  I checked to be sure I was alone, but I knew I’d never be completely alone. Thade’s men would follow my every move outside of my house. But I didn’t care if they overheard me.

  “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but hear me out,” I began.

  I shared everything with his headstone—from being kidnapped by the vampire clan to Arlos.

  “Can you believe that crap? Me,” I ridiculed myself while holding back tears. “Fight a demon. Right. I’m about to lose everyone, and I don’t know what to do. But it makes me feel better to talk about it, makes me feel better that you know about it.”

  I watched the clouds roll through overhead, wishing I could launch into the sky and float away, escaping everything—the pain of his death, the thoughts of losing my family and friends, all of it. I told Jacoby how much I loved him and promised to visit again soon. Although, I couldn’t promise that next time I’d be human.

  A flash of lightning trailed by a tremendous roll of thunder woke me from a dead sleep that night. Within minutes, a rain shower blew in like a hurricane. I ended up lying awake for an hour and a half as the rain and wind pounded against my window. And then, through the dissonance of the storm, I thought I heard someone knock on the front door downstairs. I tried to close my eyes and go to sleep, but curiosity wouldn’t let me lay there any longer. I sat up in bed when I swore I heard it again.

  Chapter 12

  Dance of the Undead

  Warily, I crawled out of bed, wondering who could be at my house at this hour. When I made it to the living room, I worried the knocking had disturbed my parents as they slept behind their closed door at the back of the house. But I knew better. If my dad had heard anything at this time of night, he’d already be patrolling the house, a gun in hand. More than likely, the knocking had gotten lost not only in the sounds of the storm but also the noisy fan my parents kept running in their room at night.

  Balancing on the balls of my feet in my fuzzy house slippers, I peered through the peephole. A shadowed man stood at my porch, his eyes glowing wildly from the hood of his jacket. Those eyes were unmistakable. Agitated, I propped the door open just wide enough to make eye contact with him. I barely pushed the storm door open. A gust of wind brought with it a few chilled sprinkles and wet leaves.

  “Blake! What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed quietly.

  “I came to talk to you. Is everyone asleep?” he asked casually.

  “Shhh! Probably not anymore!” I whispered through my teeth. “Blake, you can’t just knock on my door in the middle of the night! Or ever for that matter. Don’t ever do this again! If my parents or sister were to see you—”

  “Okay, okay. Sorry,” he shrugged with a lowered voice.

  I checked back to be sure no one had woken up and wandered into the living room behind me. I whirled back around to Blake. I hoped my dad had finally gotten around to fixing the windows so I could open mine.

  “Meet me at my window. It’s the only one on the far side of the house above the garage,” I ordered and nodded over my left shoulder.

  Blake rolled his eyes and vaulted into the air, leaving me astounded by his agility, but only for a moment.

  “You’re so annoying,” I muttered before heading upstairs to meet him.

  My mind wandered. What other reason would Blake be there other than to take me back to the vampires? Had they found Arlos? Was this the last night I’d spend at home? A number of questions ran through my head as I went up the staircase as quietly as possible. Lightning flickered against the walls. I silently shut my bedroom door and raced to my window to pull back the sheer curtains. There, Blake knelt on the flattened roof at my windowsill. Looking at the window, I could tell my dad had cut and sanded the crevices of the frame. I pried the window open halfway. The sound of scraping wood made me shutter.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked Blake.

  He removed his hood, and his eyes shifted like two vibrant fall leaves in the wind. He shrugged and smiled out of one corner of his lips, blatantly ignoring my question. I checked the overhang of the roof above to be sure he was under it just enough to avoid the rain.

  “How was your day?” he asked.

  “It was...okay. Are you here to take me back?” I questioned, worried.

  “Just okay?” he asked. “Care to elaborate?”

  “Not really.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at me.

  “Okay. My sister heard someone making fun of me at my school today. It kind of put me in a bad mood. Why are you—”

  The motion of his left hand drew my attention.

  “Hey, don’t play with that. You’ll break it,” I scolded him.

  He set the delicate angel figurine Jacoby had given me back on the windowsill. “Sorry,” he said and glanced at it as if he’d been playing with the figurine subconsciously. “Why was someone making fun of y
ou?”

  “You’re not here to tell me that they’ve found Arlos, right?” I shrank back, afraid of the answer.

  “No,” he replied.

  “You’re just doing your duties and checking in on me, then?” I probed to be sure.

  “Yep,” he confirmed flatly with a shrug.

  “Well, that’s a relief.”

  “Why did someone make fun of you?”

  “Why do you care about it?” I asked.

  “Why do you?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Yes, you do. I can tell.”

  “Fine. There’s some girl at school who doesn’t like me,” I explained, uninterested in talking about it. “Well, she doesn’t really like anyone. She said some mean things about why I missed so much school last month. It’s not the first time she’s said something mean about me.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry,” he possibly sympathized. “Don’t let that ruin your day. You shouldn’t give the people low enough to talk bad about you that power.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. It’s fine. I’ll get over it,” I quickly cut him off. “Okay. Off-topic, but how old are you?” I’d been curious for days.

  “How old do I look?” he asked playfully.

  “Um...twenty-five...twenty-six? Am I close?” I attempted.

  “Not even.”

  “You’re two hundred years old like everyone else at the Sanctum, aren’t you?” I concluded.

  His grin widened as I spoke. “Nope.”

  “Oh my God. You’re even older?” I realized. “Never mind, I don’t even want to know.”

  “What, you don’t like old people?” he baited.

  “I didn’t say that,” I murmured with narrowed eyes.

  “You didn’t have to,” he said with a smile.

  “I like old people. My grandma’s old. I love her. I just don’t like you,” I joked.

  “I’ll tell you how old I am…eventually,” he said as if it amused him to keep this secret from me.

  “You know, you aren’t as mean as you used to be. You used to kind of scare me a little,” I admitted.

  “What do you mean?” his brows moved in close together.

  “I don’t know. You just seem different. Less mean.”

  “I’m not mean. I’m only mean when I have to be.”

  We sat quietly until he spoke up again.

  “Look, I know I was a jerk to you at first, but it wasn’t you. It was…the situation. But that doesn’t excuse the way I talked to you. I’m sorry about that.”

  Shocked to hear an apology, I stared up at him, then down at my hands. “It’s fine,” I brought myself to reply when I looked back to him.

  “Whoa, that’s weird. I never noticed your eyes. They’re two different colors,” he pointed out while leaning in.

  “Yeah, I’m still trying to get used to it myself,” I said, amazed he’d even noticed. “They weren’t always like that. I woke up one morning and one had turned blue overnight.”

  It happened so fast I had to look twice to be sure it actually happened. Blake’s left arm rested in the windowsill, and as I spoke, he began sitting back. His elbow faintly landed on top of the little angel figurine. That was all it took. The figure crumbled under the minuscule amount of pressure. Blake drew away from the broken porcelain. My eyes instantly welled with tears.

  “Blake!” I gasped.

  “I’m sorry,” he apologized.

  But he couldn’t understand what he’d done. He’d broken the last birthday gift my brother ever gave me.

  “Dammit, Blake! You just broke my—just go.” Frustrated, I started closing the window on him. “Goodnight.”

  “Autumn—”

  “Blake, go away!” I snapped, embarrassed for him to see me cry.

  I pushed the window shut. Blake leapt into the air out of sight. I gawked at the unsalvageable figurine. The only recognizable piece left was her face, still peaceful and serene as she stared back up at me from the rubble that was her body. I scooped the remains into my hands as if they were the most precious jewels in all the world. I cried in my hands over the porcelain mess.

  *

  Jericho’s suspension was exactly what I needed—extra time for her and me to spend together along with the rest of my family. Even so, those few days weren’t quite long enough. I tried in my own way to say goodbye to each of them. Going to the mall with Jericho for a little shopping and lunch was a good way for us to bond. Since my dad was off duty for a few days, I talked the whole family into cooking dinners together. Later in the evenings, my grandma came over and we all watched my parents’ regular TV shows. My dad’s favorite thing to do after dinner was put on an old B movie and laugh at it, so we did that pretty often, too.

  Throughout the days, Blake didn’t come back. I was afraid he’d left for good. I didn’t blame him. Half of me missed the guy and hoped that he hadn’t abandoned his mission to watch over me. But the other half of me knew it was my fault if he had.

  A few nights passed. Nothing. No calls from Eden, no visits from Blake. It was as if none of them existed. I began to wonder if it had all been a nightmare. Wednesday night, I was helping Jericho study up for her Intro to French class. I took a break after an hour to find my French book. I figured scanning through the “Brushing Up” section of my college-grade book might help her some.

  When I came around the corner of my room looking for it, I caught sight of a shadow crouching just outside my window. Caught off guard, I did an about-face in my doorway as Jericho attempted to follow me.

  “Hey, I think I’m going to take a quick power nap,” I lied. “Can I help you finish studying after dinner?”

  “Fine. You’re such a flake,” Jericho muttered.

  She went right back downstairs. I closed my door, hastily locked it and went to the window. Pulling back the curtains, I found the roof outside my window vacant. I opened the window to look around, a part of me disappointed to find no one.

  Friday morning, Gemma sent me a text.

  You’re coming. I’ve already bought your ticket.

  Along with it, she sent a picture of the big blue and white banner hanging from the wall just outside the lunchroom at school. It read…

  PROM this Saturday, April 22nd

  9:00 PM to 12:00 AM

  Tickets: $45 a pair

  Sold @ the Door: $60 a pair

  I texted her back.

  Fine! I’ll be there. No date, no problem. Thank you! <3

  Saturday night rushed up way too fast for me. The limo would be there in an hour. I sat sketching a picture of Bandit while I waited with annoyance for Jericho to finish getting ready in the bathroom. I could hear her rock music blaring from her old cordless radio. I couldn’t figure out why she still used that old thing. My cell phone rang. Another strange number flashed across its screen. Unsure, I answered and set my sketch pad down.

  “Hey, it’s Eden,” she said on the other line. “Listen, I called to….well, I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but—”

  Bad news? There was no doubt in my mind what this call was about.

  “I thought I would at least warn you,” Eden said in a weird tone.

  “Warn me about what?” I asked.

  “Things are a little intense right now,” she explained. “A small team from our clan has been tracking two haviden men in England since late last night. These two men are thought to be working closely with Arlos. We’re also positive they’re carrying one of the two daggers we’ve been searching for.”

  “Daggers? I keep hearing Thade talk about them. What are they?” I asked.

  “We need them in our fight with Arlos. I’ll explain more about them soon. We’re keeping in touch with our brother clan in the London area who are helping us track the two haviden men. My father was hoping they would lead us to Arlos’ hideout only we’ve lost sight of them as of this morning. Also, the attacks on the Sanctum have stopped. I just wanted to let you know what’s been going on while you’ve been home. We want you prep
ared to come back with us as soon as anything happens. On a more personal note, I just want you to spend these last few days like a normal human. I know my father wants you to stay inside mostly—but go tanning on your back porch if it gets warm enough during the day, gorge yourself on your favorite foods, watch a sunrise, go on a date, or hell, go get a tattoo or something. After you’ve become a vampire—”

  It was hard hearing and comprehending her words at the same time.

  “I know,” I choked on my reply. “I’m going to my school’s prom tonight.”

  “Oh, good,” she sang. “I can’t tell Thade or his men about it. He’d lose it,” she laughed quietly. “I’ll have to find a way to keep the men on your watch-team busy, and I’ll make sure Blake keeps a closer eye on you while you’re out. Just don’t be gone too long. I don’t want my father to catch on.”

  “Okay, Mom. How long do you think there is before I have to come back to the Sanctum?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. It could be a few more weeks or a few more days.”

  “Damn.” I struggled to hold my voice steady.

  “Don’t be upset. Living with the clan won’t be so awful after a while, especially once you’ve turned. They’ll be accepting. I promise. And there won’t be near as many restrictions. You’ll be allowed to come and go from the Sanctum as you please, as long as the sun is down, of course. Homesickness will set in from time to time, but after some months, you’ll feel more like we’re family.”

  I wasn’t sure by her tone if she genuinely believed what she was saying or if she only said it to put me at ease.

  “I hope knowing that everyone you know will be safe once Arlos is gone will make you feel better about all of this,” she finished.

  “At some point,” I mumbled.

  “Everything else okay?”

  My mind wandered. I thought about school, my friends, Jericho, about Marilee. Then, I remembered Raquel. I wasn’t sure what made me think of her, what reminded me that she wasn’t human. I wondered if she had any ties to Arlos or if she was just a rogue haviden trying to fit in with the humans. Either way, she’d already seen my aura.