by Lucinda Dark
Forty
Barbie
I swallowed down my nervousness as best I could while Olivia and I dressed for the Homecoming dance later that night. The game—what I’d caught of it—had ended in a win for St. Marion, 17-10. Olivia chattered away as she brushed my hair, pulling it to the side to braid it around the front, leaving a few strands hanging in my face.
“Ryan is so cute, you have no idea. And he absolutely adores me. I can’t believe I never noticed him before,” she said. “He’s in art class. Won’t show me any of his stuff, but I bet it’s good. His mom’s a big art collector.”
“He’s coming to pick you up, right?” I asked absently, trying to keep the conversation going with as minimal input as possible while I worked through what had happened in the parking lot with Torin not but a few hours ago.
“Yeah,” she answered brightly, finishing with my hair and moving onto her own as she reached for the curl taming solution on her vanity. I stood up and moved out of her way, heading for the dress bag I’d laid on her bed earlier. I opened it and pulled it out, shedding my clothes as I went, turning my back towards the wall as I discreetly removed my daggers.
I pulled the dress up and zipped it, sliding my daggers under the fabric of my skirts and securing them with special garters I’d ordered online.
“I was right,” Olivia announced as she stood up and turned towards me, her sleek curls bouncing around her face. “That dress looks hot on you.”
“Thanks,” I said, but this time instead of any sort of smartass comment, I meant it.
Olivia beamed at me as she moved to her closet and came back a few minutes later, zipping up a floor length emerald green gown. “Alright, the guys should be showing up any minute.”
As if the universe had heard her, a knock sounded on the door at the tail end of her statement. “Girls?” Olivia’s mom—a rounded woman with a short crop of the same cherry red hair—popped her head into the room. “The guys are here.”
“Thanks, Mom!” Olivia reached for my arm and pulled me towards the hallway. She stopped when she looked down. “Wait, what the hell is on your feet?” I looked down at the scuffed combat boots and shrugged. “Are you serious?” Her clear eyes glared at me. I couldn’t tell her that fighting in heels was a no go for me.
“It’s just a dance,” I said lamely.
“You’re going with Torin Priest,” she hissed.
I’d made out with Torin Priest. I’d let his vampire go down on me—sure it had been in a dream, but it wasn’t like he’d been a figment of my imagination. I swallowed as I remembered.
“It’s fine,” I said, moving past her for the stairs.
“I can’t fucking believe this,” I heard her say at my back.
“Olivia!” her mom snapped. “Language.”
I resisted the urge to smile as we descended the stairs, my black boots next to her silver heels. I stopped at the third step from the bottom as Torin turned from the front door. A flush rose to my face, but I pressed down the feelings they brought forth and kept moving.
“Ready?” he asked, looking me over.
I nodded, watching him closely. His eyes had faded from the red back to his normal green orbs.
“No, no, no, wait!” Olivia’s mom called as Olivia went to a tall, broad shouldered guy with a small diamond in his left earlobe. I frowned. Was he really an artist? “Pictures!”
I groaned lightly, bringing a grin to Torin’s lips. I glared up at him as he put his arm around my waist and pulled me close so that the older woman could snap a few shots. I shivered when he leaned down and pressed his lips close to my ear. “Smile,” he ordered.
I let my teeth show as I spoke through them. “Careful,” I hissed. “You might want me to think you enjoy this.”
“Tormenting you?” he asked, his eyes flaring wide as his own smile broadened. “I do enjoy it.”
“Alright, time to go,” I announced. “Thanks so much for letting me come over and get ready, Olivia,” I said turning to her as she looked up at her date with gooey eyes. “I’ll see you there.”
“See ya!” she said, waving me away as her date reached for her hand.
I fled outside and stopped when I didn’t see the SUV he’d been driving earlier. Torin’s smirk as he bypassed me and circled Olivia’s white Porsche should have been warning enough. I followed him and stopped when I saw what he’d brought.
“You’re fucking joking.”
“What?” He picked up a helmet and handed it to me.
“I’m wearing a fucking dress,” I hissed, gesturing down as if he couldn’t fucking see it. “I can’t ride a fucking motorcycle in this thing.”
“Yes you can, just tuck the fabric between your legs.” I growled as he swung his leg over the side of the bike and looked at me expectantly.
“You’re such a fucking asshole,” I muttered as I moved forward. I tried valiantly to clamber onto the hulking behemoth of a bike and tuck my skirts firmly under my ass all while his body shook with laughter. “I hate you.”
“You didn’t seem to hate me a few hours ago.”
My whole body went rigid at that reminder. “We don’t talk about that, Torin,” I said, serious. He looked back over his shoulder at me, an eyebrow raised. “I’m serious. It was an error in judgment. It won’t happen again. It can’t.” I kept my gaze trained straight ahead.
Quietly, almost too quiet for me to hear, he spoke. “Don’t make promises I have no intention of letting you keep, Barbie.”
Before I could ask what the fuck that meant, however, he kicked up the stand and roared out of the driveway as Olivia and her date were leaving the front steps, forcing me to snap my arms around him to keep from falling off.
Bulbs flashed. Glitter rained down over the dance floor. Music pumped a rhythmic beat through the room. High heels clicked and clacked on the hardwood floor as girls and their dates bumped and grinded to the pulse of the speakers. I stood to the side with Torin, our eyes trained on the crowd. Searching.
“I can feel them here,” he said. “But with so many people, it’s hard to get a bead on them.”
I ground my teeth together, tightening my jaw until it ached. My foot tapped repetitively as I tried to think of what to do. A dark figure emerged from the dancing crowd and made its way towards us.
“Maverick.” He stopped in front of me, looking from me to Torin.
“Anything?” he asked.
We both shook our heads. He cursed.
“I vote we split up and look for anything that might seem suspicious,” I said. Both of them frowned at me. “What?”
“I don’t like that idea,” Maverick admitted.
“Neither do I,” Torin agreed.
I frowned. “I’ll be fine,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “But if it makes you big babies feel better, if any of us see anything, we’ll call the others.”
Maverick stared me down. “You swear?” he demanded.
I lifted my hand and curled all my fingers down, leaving nothing but my pinky free. “Pinky promise,” I said.
He waited a beat and nodded. “Okay, I’ll take the back side of the room, closer to the entrances and see if I can catch anyone slipping away.” With that, he disappeared back into the crowd.
“I’ll cover the crowd,” Torin said. “Try to sniff him out.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll get”—I trailed off as Torin turned and walked away, leaving me to finish my sentence to nothing and no one—“the rest,” I grumbled.
Shoving down my irritation, I spun on my booted feet and headed for the side of the dance floor, moving through the crowd of bodies jumping and gyrating.
Half an hour passed as I searched the edges of the room, watching people as they laughed and spiked the punch and danced wildly. By all accounts, this was a normal dance—or so I assumed since I’d never been to one before. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all. Maybe we’d been wrong. Maybe the connection between victims hadn’t been the parties, but something else. I pulled
my phone out of my bra and checked for any messages from the guys. Nothing.
With a sigh, I took off for the double doors leading into the hallway and headed for the bathroom. This was as good a time as any for a break.
I was finishing up washing my hands when the door to the women’s bathroom slammed open. Stalking in on her high heels was none other than Rachel Harris. I rolled my eyes when she stopped as she saw me. Dressed in a skin tight dress that plunged deep between her plumped breasts, with an emerald amulet dangling between them, she looked like a high class hooker. I turned off the sink and reached for a hand towel.
Leaning back against the door, she crossed her arms and watched me. “You gonna stand there all night, or you got something to say?” I prompted as I turned and faced her.
She tilted her chin to the side, her eyes eerily sharp. I frowned as a light slithered through her irises. What the fuck?
“I’m hungry,” she said, her voice sounding deeper than it ever had before.
“Okay?” With forced casualness, I walked to the trashcan against the wall and dropped my used towel into the bin and faced her. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“I’m not into women,” she said.
I blinked. I hadn’t expected that. “Okay…” I waited for something more. Seconds crawled by and I grew more uneasy. I watched her with careful consideration. Her hair was pulled back, revealing her long slender neck. Her skin appeared tighter and it was practically translucent. Despite the fact that it looked like she’d tried to hide it with makeup, dark circles were visible in deep creases below her eyes.
“I can’t stop it,” she said, taking a step forward. I tensed, taking a step to the side, keeping the door in my sights. “I’m so fucking hungry and you,”—she cut herself off as she gritted her teeth and put a perfectly manicured hand to her temple, pressing down. There was something off with her hand. Her nails. I looked closer. They weren’t perfectly manicured as I originally thought. The nails were longer, sharper. Like they’d been filed into razor tipped points.
“You came in and destroyed everything with Maverick. He won’t even fucking talk to me anymore. We were going to date. We were going to get married and he was going to realize how perfect I was. But then you came here and,”—she broke off again, shaking her head—“you ruined everything.”
Her whole body trembled as she seemed to struggle with herself. I moved along the wall, keeping the exit in my peripheral vision even as I reached down, ever so discreetly and unlatched one of my daggers from under my skirt. The loose strap on my arm pulled tight and I cursed.
“Maybe if I kill you, the voice will go away,” I heard Rachel whisper to herself. “It didn’t start until you came here. That’s it, it wants you gone. I’ll kill you and it’ll be over. It can all stop.”
“Rachel.” I put my empty hand out towards her as I edged closer to the door. “I think there’s something wrong with you. You need to—”
“No!” she shrieked, the sound sharp and piercing. I winced as it lanced through the room and a crack formed across one of the mirrors. I stood there and stared at it, slowly turning my head back towards the girl before me. Her eyes were wild, glowing brightly as she opened her mouth and unleashed a demonic growl, her teeth sharpening right before my eyes.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “It’s you.”
Forty-One
Maverick
“Find anything?” Torin’s question echoed in my ear through the phone as I strode down the hallway. Other than the gymnasium, the rest of the school was a ghost town.
“Not a damn thing,” I cursed. “Maybe we fucked up. Maybe it’s not—” At that moment, my phone beeped. I looked down. Barbie. “Hold on, Tor.” I switched lines, putting the phone back to my ear. “Hey, did you—”
“Courtyard.” The sound of Barbie’s pants were loud in my ear. “Now.” The line went dead and automatically my phone switched back to Torin’s call.
“What—”
“Courtyard,” I snapped. “Barbie’s in trouble.”
I hung up and took off, my feet pounding against the floor as I headed through the hallways, cutting across the cafeteria. Through the glass wall of windows, I saw a flash of pink and then gold. Two girls. I frowned, turning and hitting the double doors leading outside. As soon as my feet slapped concrete, a loud shriek echoed up the walls of the outdoor courtyard. I watched as Barbie dodged the girl’s attack.
My mouth popped open. “Rachel?” But it wasn’t Rachel. Her face had changed. Her eyes were wild—glowing as if a golden light was pouring out of her. She slashed at Barbie with nails sharper than needles.
Panting and bleeding, Barbie jumped away and brought her dagger down, slicing across Rachel’s wrist. Blood sprayed the ground and Rachel howled in pain—the sound deeper than anything I’d ever heard from her, rumbling like an injured animal.
“Maverick!” Barbie yelled. “It’s her. She’s the demon.”
The creature that had once been Rachel whirled on me. “Maverick?” Her voice calmed, settled—sounding more human and less … something else. “Maverick, you came for me?”
“What?” I stared in shock as Barbie launched herself onto Rachel’s back and took her down to the ground, her legs kicking at the back of the other girl’s knees. Within seconds though, Rachel roared and lifted up with more strength than she should’ve had and flung her back. I watched as Barbie sailed through the air, her back slamming into one of the concrete pillars circling the small outdoor alcove. She fell, hitting the dirt with a pained grunt.
I darted off the sidewalk and down into the main part of the courtyard, withdrawing my gun as I went. Rachel’s gaze fell on me and she smiled. “Maverick you came for me,” she cried, lifting her arms. I leveled the barrel of my gun on her, stopping in my tracks.
Behind me, the glass doors to the courtyard shattered as Torin shot through them. His gaze fell on Barbie’s body and then trailed to where I stood, aiming at Rachel’s chest. With a snarl, he launched across the remainder of the space, slamming into Rachel. I lowered my gun and stared in shock. His whole face was changed. Darkened. The skin pulled tight. His eyes were filled with a raw fury I’d never seen in him before. He moved with the speed and grace of something inhuman.
“Maverick!” he yelled. “Barbie.”
I jerked, realizing that I’d been stunned into a frozen state like a fucking idiot. I cursed and dove for Barbie while Torin fought the creature.
“Barbie.” I turned her over, frowning as my hands came away wet with blood. Red dripped down the side of her forehead, over her temple and eyebrow only to curve back into her hairline. “Barbie, can you hear me?” I shook her lightly. No response. I peeled one eye open and then the other. Her pupils responded at least. I hunched over her form as something went flying over my head. When I was sure we were clear, I lifted up and gaped. It had been Torin. He hit the ground and rolled, popping back to his feet with a snarl.
I had known what he was when he’d told me, but seeing it in person was different than simply hearing about it. His eyes were red, twin points of red hot rage. His muscles were drawn taut, his entire body was bigger—lethal. I turned my head as a responding deep feminine scream sounded.
“Is she okay?” Torin barked.
“She’s out,” I called back, leveraging her into my arms.
“Get her the fuck out of here,” Torin snapped.
“Can you handle this on your own?” I asked.
“Go!”
I booked it, my feet crunching under broken glass as I hefted Barbie’s body in my grip. But nothing was as simple as all that. Rachel’s head turned, she spotted me, and let loose an unholy cry that would haunt me until my dying days. I didn’t have a second—not even a millisecond before she was on me. Her long nails ripped Barbie from my grip and tossed her to the ground. Torin’s shout was at the back of my mind. Her hand latched onto my arm as I reached back.
“You’re mine!” she screamed, spittle flying in my face a
s her golden eyes leveled on me with furious anger. “Not hers! I want your heart.”
Her other hand pulled back, nails sharpening together—elongating. Somehow, in the moments before she struck, the pieces of the puzzling murders all came together. All of the victims hearts had been ripped out and she was planning on taking mine as well.
“Not. Fucking. Likely. Bitch.” My eyes settled over Rachel’s shoulder as a familiar blonde head appeared—blood matted the golden strands to the side of her face as she withdrew one of her remaining daggers. The creature before me didn’t even seem to hear.
“Don’t—” I couldn’t stop her. Barbie wasn’t listening. She attacked, her arms threading over Rachel’s shoulders as she jerked the other girl back. One hand in her hair, the other gripping her dagger. Barbie yanked Rachel’s head back and pressed her blade to her throat.
Metal swiped across my vision. Blood spurted against my face. Rachel’s necklace crashed to the ground. A roar erupted. I couldn’t tell whose it was—Torin’s, Rachel’s, Barbie’s, or something else.
The gem that had been attached to the necklace hit the ground at my feet. Rachel’s gaze darted to it and with a mighty shriek—the sound of someone who had truly lost their fucking mind—she reared up and smashed the heel of her shoe down upon the thing.
A white light blinded me, washing the whole scene in an illuminating glow that was there and then gone. In the span of a few heartbeats, Rachel’s body crashed to the ground at my feet, and behind her, Barbie went down as well. I reached for her, trying to stop her downward descent, but it was too late.
Her hands went out to the ground, her ashen face looking up at me as she hit. I dropped to my knees. Pain dulled blue eyes met mine.
“Worst fucking Homecoming ever,” she whispered.
It was such an outrageous thing to say that I couldn’t help but laugh. I gathered her into my arms as Torin ambled closer, favoring one side of his body. “Homecoming from Hell,” I assured her, gently brushing back some of her hair. She didn’t respond. Her eyes closed. “Barbie?” No response. “Barbie!” I shook her. “Fuck. No.” Torin stopped behind me. I felt the heat of his body, but my whole world zeroed in on the woman in my arms.
