Salt & Venom (Blood, Bloom, & Water Book 2)

by Amy McNulty

  “You found her,” said someone from the stairs—Noelle.

  My heart thundered. No doubt Ember was right up there behind her.

  “Let’s have a talk,” she said, gesturing to the kitchen as she reached the bottom of the steps.

  A sharp spark of resentment fluttered across my chest. She wasn’t my mom. She was barely my step-mother. I didn’t want to talk to her about any of this.

  Be more mindful of the demon spawn you raised yourself, I thought strongly toward her. Something like it must have shown on my face because her pale golden eyebrows rose. She looked way too much like Ember.

  Clearing her throat, Noelle tossed her head back. “Ember is out with her father,” she said, perhaps mistaking my look for not wanting to have this “talk” in front of the whole family. Whoop-dee-do. One less member there to witness it.

  Though truth be told, a weight lifted off my shoulders at the news. I could feel my shoulders actually loosen. Resigned, I pounded into the kitchen.

  “Autumn, dear, would you mind playing upstairs for a bit?” came Noelle’s voice from the other room.

  “It’s fine,” I said. “She can stay.”

  Autumn peeked into the kitchen, a devilish grin tugging at the corner of her lips.

  “I insist,” said Noelle as she walked into the room. She glowered at Dad. How quick the man caved.

  “C’mon, sport,” he said, guiding her by the shoulders. She groaned and stomped away but didn’t flinch at his greasy hands like I had.

  Letting out a breath that sent a lock of my hair fluttering, I sat down at the table and waited for Dad to finish scooching Autumn up the stairs and join me. After leaving briefly to turn off the TV, Noelle lingered in the entryway, eventually taking a seat across from Dad, the two of them surrounding me on either side of the table.

  They exchanged a look and Noelle nodded.

  “We want to talk again about Saturday,” he said.

  “What about it?” I asked. “I told you everything I could.” I was getting good at this careful-phrasing-to-relieve-myself-of-the-guilt-of-lying thing.

  If I started pouring my heart out about merfolk and vampires, would this family meeting end with having me committed?

  “How did Ember get hurt?” Noelle asked, her lips curling into what could only be called a fake smile when I glanced her way. “She said what you did—that she slipped into the pool on the way out during the fire.”

  I supposed Ember had as much—if not more—to hide about that night as I did. “So why are you asking me again?” I drummed my fingers on the table.

  “I just…” Noelle licked her lips. “You would tell me if anyone hurt her, right?” She extended a hand to cover mine and I pulled away, crossing my arms.

  “If this is about Calder again…” I started.

  “Is that the naked boy?” Dad asked.

  “He honest-to-Pete just had to take his pants off because they were on fire,” I spat. So much for dancing around an outright lie. But what was I supposed to say? They ripped off whenever he grew a merman tail?

  “His underpants too?” Dad coughed then, choking on an attempt to clear his throat.

  “He goes commando apparently,” I said. Why not? Why not just go full storyteller at this point? Where was that annoying faery when you needed him?

  “Oh. Interesting,” said Dad, his face going pale.

  “Okay,” said Noelle, worrying at her lip. “Anyway, if your pants were on fire, you might rip off your underwear, too,” she said, nodding. Something was washing over her then, like it was all making sense. Then her head cocked. “How did his pants get on fire? Did that boy set the fire to begin with?”

  Uh, yes, but there’s no way I can tell you that. I shrugged. “We don’t know how it started.”

  “A pile of towels by the pool,” said Dad, his brow wrinkling. Right. Firefighters had ways to figure out where fires started. Well, that, and there was probably a gleaming pile of ash by the pool.

  I shrugged again. “Calder was with Orin and me. He ran through the flames trying to get out. You can ask Orin.”

  Wrong thing to say. I’d just been hoping for the faery shortcut to fixing this at this point.

  “Why on Earth were you bringing an older boy—your boss to Homecoming with you?” asked Dad. He pulled his fists under the table, but I saw them clenching before he did.

  “He’s like twenty,” I said. Twenty hundred? Who knew?

  “And you’re seventeen,” he said.

  “Almost eighteen.” I shrugged and before Dad could say more, I pointed out, “It wasn’t like that, Dad. We were just friends. And I quit the store anyway.”

  “Why?” asked Noelle, though this time Dad glared at her, like he didn’t want her to encourage me to go back to spending more time around this “older boy.” Ha, if he only knew.

  “I’ve just got too much going on,” I said. The truth.

  Dad wiped a greasy hand over his face and left another little smudge above his brow. Noelle flinched at the sight and got up, going to the sink to wet a dishtowel that she handed to him, pointing at his cheek and brow.

  “And now you and your mom are telling me you’re as good as transferred to Central,” he said, dabbing his face and doing a poor job of removing that grease. Noelle hadn’t been around a greasemonkey for long, that was for sure. She should have known mere water could never match the power of Goop.

  I am? I thought. Go Orin and his powers of persuasion. I just nodded.

  “I told this to your mother, but you can’t just make these kinds of decisions without consulting me,” he snapped.

  “Do you care where I go to school?”

  “No,” he said, wringing his hands around the dishtowel. Noelle’s lips curled down as she took in the sight of one of her cute, crisp towels getting all wrinkled and dirty. “As long as it’s a good school.”

  “Central’s fine,” I said. “Better than Union, people say.” I guessed.

  “Okay, but then I’d want to know why,” said Dad. “You didn’t even ask to transfer before the school year began, which would have been weird enough, but you waited until right after this disaster of a dance.”

  “It has nothing to do with that,” I snapped. Lie.

  “Then why…?” Dad leaned back in his chair.

  Noelle brushed her fingertips over his shoulders and gazed down at me. “It’s a boy,” she said.

  I stiffened but said nothing.

  “What?” said Dad. “Is that true?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Ivy, for Pete’s sake, if you’re dating some kid from Central, you can see him outside of school hours.” Spittle started flying from Dad’s lips. “Wait, you know what, you can see him after I’ve met him and approved of you two dating.”

  “This isn’t the eighteenth century,” I retorted. “I don’t need the men who court me to ask my father’s permission.”

  Dad’s breaths got louder, a sudden tightness taking over his expression. “You’re a child!”

  “Barely,” I said.

  “You know, Dean introduced himself to both me and Ember’s father—while he’s been in town.” Noelle kind of choked on that last part. “And she’s eighteen. But some young men understand what it means to be a gentleman, and that it doesn’t mean you’re setting back women’s rights just to drop by to say hello.”

  Dean. Dean and Ember. What a gentleman, that blood sucker. “You know, Mom understands that it’s not just about a boy.” I snorted. “Mom understands that maybe I just feel too crowded here in this house, with this new person to lecture me.” I offered a fake smile back to Noelle, much like the one she’d given me when she’d thought I was hiding something about Ember being assaulted. “I want to live with Mom full-time.”

  Dad exploded. “Now, listen here, young lady—”

  But Noelle wouldn’t be deterred, either. “I can’t believe you would say something like that about me. Easton!!” She gestured widely, but Dad was on his feet, walking back
and forth and going on and on about what a good dad he was, how most kids of divorced parents would beg for more time with their fathers, to look at Ember...

  Oh, please.

  I sighed again. To a point, this was unfair to him. It wasn’t that I didn’t love him or didn’t like him. It was just…

  A noise at the front door sent my blood pumping and I gripped the table, my right hand growing cold.

  Ember was home.

  The doorbell rang and Noelle, still huffing, strode out into the hallway to answer it.

  Did she forget her keys?

  “What on Earth?” shrieked Noelle from down the hall. “You would dare come here?!”

  Uh-oh. I had a feeling that was for me. I leaped to my feet and Dad followed, still lecturing me, but I ignored him, desperate to beat Noelle to the door. But she was already opening it.

  Orin stood there, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders slightly hunched. He pulled one hand out and wiggled his fingers at me. “Got impatient waiting for the right moment.” His bright white teeth lit up the smooth brown of his face as he grinned at me.

  Crap. He was right. “Come on in,” I said, nodding.

  “Now wait a minute, young lady,” started Dad.

  “This is my house,” added Noelle. All the more reason for me to feel unwelcome in it.

  “Now, now,” said Orin, slipping an arm around her shoulder. She flinched and stumbled back at first, but then he said, “We’re old pals, aren’t we, Mrs. Whatever?” He didn’t pronounce the ‘t’ in “whatever,” making the name sound even more bizarre.

  “Goodwin-Sheppard,” she said, a smile edging onto her face. Her shoulders relaxed and she visibly straightened. “But you can call me ‘Noelle,’ dear.”

  “Noelle…?” asked Dad, his expression slack.

  “Mr. Goodwin-Sheppard!” said Orin, pulling him in with his other arm for a big group hug.

  “Sheppard,” I corrected.

  “Mr. Sheppard!” said Orin. “Old friends, we are, all right?”

  “Yeah…” said Dad, his face softening. “Call me ‘Easton,’ buddy.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “So we need to have a chat about Ivy switching schools, yeah?” said Orin, looking from one parent to the other. He glanced at me. “Any other odds and sods you want me to bring up while we’re at it?”

  Dang it, I hated this. I needed this, but I hated it. I stared at Dad, the anger washed out of his face, the memories of him always being there when I needed him at war with my need to get out of this house, away from Ember.

  Clearing my throat, I opened my dry mouth. “Yes,” I said, finally deciding what I would have to do.

  Chapter Five

  Orin nodded our way as Calder and I pulled away from the curb in Calder’s truck, then he turned on his heel and trudged back across my dad’s lawn, ducking around the house, no doubt on his way to the woods back there and his isolated cabin. Just before he vanished from my line of sight, he squatted and I tensed, expecting some trickery on the faery’s part, but he was simply bringing a carnation from the scraggly bushes on the side of the house to his nose, inhaling it as if it were the sweetest wine.

  Calder’s voice startled me. “I take it that went well or you wouldn’t be going out with me tonight.”

  We turned the corner and put Dad’s house behind us. I shifted in my seat, my neck strained from the tension of watching over my shoulder. “Dad and Noelle are all smiles about my transfer to Central,” I said. “And they don’t think you’re a flasher anymore.”

  “A what?” Calder hit the brakes a little too hard at a red light.

  “Yeah, I guess I kind of forgot to tell you about that.” I adjusted the seatbelt so it didn’t dig so harshly into my neck. “They were mad about me bringing an ‘older guy’ to Homecoming, but they were also concerned that you might have done something… bad… to Ember?” I didn’t know why I stated it like a question.

  The light turned green and Calder sat there another minute, only hitting the accelerator when someone behind us honked. His jaw clenched visibly beneath his tanned skin with the slightest hint of golden stubble.

  The car behind us sped up and veered into the oncoming traffic lane to get around us, some jerkwad flipping us off as he merged back. He was lucky there were no other cars in the road.

  “Take a right up here,” I said, as much to break the silence as to make sure we didn’t miss the turn that would take us to Paisley’s. I’d also summoned Lyric and Grey and Ashton and as much of the team that would bother to come on a school night because I had something to tell them.

  A text didn’t seem the right way to deliver the news. At least, thanks to Orin, my parents didn’t have a problem with anything.

  I sighed. This didn’t seem right—relying on Orin, manipulating my parents’ minds.

  I hadn’t been able to make him tell Dad I was leaving his house permanently. He’d still have Autumn anyway. I didn’t want Orin messing with her mind to explain everything, and I had to have faith that Ember wouldn’t do anything to a little girl.

  So I’d asked Dad via Orin’s nudging to let me stay at Mom’s full-time for a “couple of weeks.” This had to be over by then. I just… didn’t know what “over” would look like and if I’d ever forgive Ember for effectively dragging me into this.

  But only if both of us were still left standing… No. I wouldn’t let myself think like that.

  “Why did they think I’d…?” Calder licked his lips, unfazed by the car that had passed us. “And why Ember specifically?”

  “No pants. Unconscious girl.” I shrugged. It had looked weird if I thought about it, but it wasn’t like there hadn’t also been a dozen other things going on at the time.

  Calder tsked. “Bet the vampires don’t have that problem,” he muttered. “Don’t need to take their pants off to suck blood.”

  I snorted, the laughter bubbling out from my mouth unintentionally. I refrained from educating Calder about the other things sexy vampires seemed to get up to in fiction. Then I sighed. I sure hoped Ember and Dean weren’t that far along already. Her devotion to the vampires could never be broken if he was her… first.

  Leaning my elbow against the window, I let my mind go blank as I watched the scenery go by.

  “Thank you,” said Calder after a moment.

  “For what?”

  “For everything.”

  Calder’s face reddened just a bit, his Adam’s apple bobbing visibly. “You gave my people a fighting chance. And you’re… you’re giving up so much for me.”

  Playing with the handles of my tote on my lap, I absentmindedly let the coarse material make temporary indents on my fingertips. Switching to another school, causing me to only see my friends after class, and taking a few weeks off from my dad’s shouldn’t have seemed like a big deal, but it kind of did. But in any case, this would all be over soon… somehow… and then things could go back to the way they were.

  A smile fluttered onto my face as I stared at Calder, the softness of his expression wearing down my defenses. “I couldn’t leave you to those bloodsuckers’ mercy.” I squeezed his hand, which hung loosely on the steering wheel. Calder took a deep breath and checked over his shoulder before making a lane switch. We were in the busier part of town now and Paisley lived just a mile or so more away.

  “Turn up there,” I said, letting go of Calder and pointing down the road.

  We didn’t say anything more for a bit, so I took my position up against the window again, taking stock of the cars, the few people ambling down the sidewalks, and the gas station attendant manually switching out the price on the sign—one of the few left in the area that hadn’t moved on to digital screens. We made the turn and my view changed to a guy raking the leaves in his yard, a couple of kids riding their bikes back and forth a few driveways over, and the “sold” realty sign in the yard of the house next door to Paisley’s, boxes stacked on the house’s porch, the front door wide open. “This is it,” I said, poin
ting to the driveway leading to Paisley’s ranch house.

  Some of the baseball team guys were already there, Paisley and Grey entwined as usual on the patio. Ashton and Charlie were taking turns tossing a baseball in the air in the yard and then rushing to be the first to catch it in their mitts, while the handful of others nearby sat in the grass laughing at something one of them had said.

  Calder parked at the end of the driveway just as Lyric pulled in and took one of the few remaining spots across the street. “So you couldn’t go more than a few minutes without me,” she said as she trotted up beside me in the driveway. “Luckily for you, Raelynn still isn’t speaking to me.” Her smile faltered, but she stuck another one on, the strain obvious. “I’m a liar, apparently. Like she needs to know every little thing I do.”

  I gave her a side-hug, moving my tote to my other hand. “You’ll make it better. You always do.”

  “You make it sound like we’re always fighting,” she said, but she chuckled before letting out a big sigh. “But so… How’d it go by you?”

  I exchanged a look with Calder before he nodded and smiled at the guys on Paisley’s lawn. “That’s what I wanted you all here to tell you.”

  “Okay...” Lyric made her way to the porch, only to flinch when she saw Charlie coming toward her, his head turned up, completely focused on the ball above him. She tossed her purse up the porch steps and shoved her shoulder into the incoming boy, reaching up and catching the ball with her long arms before he could. “Ha!” she said with a wicked grin, keeping the ball above his head in an echo of “takeaway.”

  “Give it back, you long-limbed freak,” said Ashton, jogging up beside Charlie and Lyric.

  Lyric’s eyebrows arched. “Excuse me?” She turned around and wound up the pitch, sending the ball sailing into the neighbors’ backyard. Smugly, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Too bad I can’t go out for the team, eh?”

  Charlie and Ashton both shook their heads, but there was a sliver of a smile beneath their irritated expressions.