by Jen Pretty
sponge and it could wring me dry. I clamped down on my
136
magic, and the beast reared back to strike again. It's teeth
flashed in the moonlight.
I screamed with the last puff of air in my lungs, and my
magic responded. It didn't just slug along the ground. My
magic became sharp like a blade. It spun out from me
towards the serpent's head, nicking it and removing half of
its mouth. Its coils loosened suddenly. A deep gasping
breath filled my lungs, and the magic inside me poured into
a longer blade that swung like heavy steel and finally
decapitated the monster.
In a panic, I struggled. My magic continued to hack at
the beast, though I knew it was dead. When I was free of
its coils, I crab-crawled backwards away from the mess,
panting, my head spinning.
Kai and Nick were pulling an unconscious Peran from
the shed.
“You guys were supposed to protect me!” I yelled, still
panting hard and blood cooling on my skin. I checked the
place where the monster had bitten me, but the skin was
already whole.
“You wanted me to stab at you while you wrestled with
a giant ass snake?” Nick asked.
“I wanted you to kill that gross thing!”
“Selena,” Kai said, his voice calm and reasonable.
137
“Don’t talk to me,” I said, getting up and striding down
the path. Crow calling from the sky accompanied the
crunch of my boots on the gravel. He flew above me, his
wings making a soft whistle sound as he flapped.
“Selena, wait,” Nick said, his jogging steps echoing
behind me.
I considered running, but what was the point? I was in
a graveyard in Canada. If I wanted to go home, I couldn't
really run away.
“Selena.” Nick grabbed my sleeve and pulled me to a
stop.
I dropped my head to hide the tears that had sprung to
my eyes.
Nick paused for a moment and then wrapped me up in
his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into my hair as I buried
my face in his warm chest.
Sobs I tried to fight back, won the war and wracked my
body. Nick rubbed my back and held me in the cool night
for several minutes.
Kai’s voice broke the silence that fell. “Come on guys,
time to go.”
Nick's arm slipped over my shoulder and kept me in
tight beside him as we walked back towards Kai. He
appeared right in front of us, and sifted us back into the
hotel room so suddenly, I felt nauseated.
138
Laying on the bed in the room was a bloody but
breathing Peran. He had open wounds that oozed to soak
his clothes and the sheets beneath him. Crow appeared like
he had sifted. He sailed across the room to perch on the
bedpost.
I perched on the edge of the bed and watched Peran’s
chest rise and fall. He was alive at least.
“Peran will be fine, Selena,” Kai said, obviously
noticing my worried expression. “He needs to rest.”
I nodded. A couple of Peran's wounds had already
closed. They left behind a bright red scar, but it wouldn't
be long before the scars faded. Peran was a necromancer.
Blood was our thing.
Crow ruffled his feathers and then hunkered down on
his post and closed his black eyes. It was nearly morning,
and I still hadn’t slept. My legs strained to rise and
staggered me into the adjoining room. I had to change
before I went to sleep, but I was filthy and had blood on
my arm. I stopped at my suitcase and stared down at it.
“You ok?” Nick's voice was soft behind me.
“I don’t have any clean clothes left,” I said, still staring
at my bag.
“Here. You can borrow one of mine,” I looked behind
me. Nick was holding out a folded t-shirt.
139
“Thank you,” I said, taking it from his hand and
moving to the bathroom. I had a quick shower with a lot
of soap and then slid into the oversized shirt. It said
Metallica in faded letters and had the picture of a demon
type thing. Fitting. It smelled cool and fresh like Nick
despite the fact it was clean. The cotton was soft on my
skin, and when I stepped out of the bathroom, it was just
him and me in the room. He was sitting in the chair by the
window with his glass of not-tomato juice, his shirt
unbuttoned and chest on full display.
I stepped out and crossed the darkened room
confidently. A dim lamp was on in the corner, giving the
room had a warm glow. The shirt barely came to my thighs,
and Nick's eyes followed me as I moved to the bed. I slid
under the crisp sheets and adjusted the pillows, then turned
on my side to look at him.
Our eyes met, and I held his gaze. He downed the last
of his drink breaking our eye contact. Then, setting the
glass down on the table with a light clink, he stood and
kicked off his shoes and let his shirt fall to the floor. The
mattress dipped as he sat down and swung his legs up onto
it, then rested his head back on the pillow beside me.
The moment stretched out. We were in our own little
world. The silence of the room brought peace and every
breath I took relaxed my tired muscles further.
140
His hand crept out and slid a piece of my stark white
hair behind my ear, then trailed back across my cheek,
making me shiver.
His face was too intense. I couldn’t hold the silence.
My heart was jumping in my chest, and I needed to cut the
tension. “Do you never sleep?” I whispered.
He smiled like he knew he made me nervous and found
it adorable. “No, vampires don’t sleep.” His hand trailed
down my jaw and then danced along the length of my neck,
raising goosebumps on my skin. His eyes followed his
fingers, abandoning my gaze to stare at my neck.
“Do you drink blood from people?” I asked.
His eyes shot back up to mine, and his breath caught.
His throat bobbed. “No.”
I slid a few inches closer to him. I always assumed
vampires were cold, but Nick was warm, and my magic
pressed to be near him. The feeling of it flipping around
inside me was like being on a roller coaster. It was exciting.
I reached up and took his hand, twining my fingers in his.
I didn’t have much magic, but I let it flow out through
my fingers into his. He sighed and closed his eyes, a look
of relaxation smoothed out his face. He was so beautiful in
the low light. Like he was the first night I had seen him in
the club. I knew nothing about vampires that night when I
hid from him.
141
“Thank you,” I whispered as my eyes closed. Losing
the last of my magic made me feel a little drunk as magic
rushed back in to fill the void I had created. It was much
quicker now. It wouldn’t be a week between raising the
dead if I tried to go back to my old life now.
&nb
sp; But I realized I didn’t want to go back. I wanted to be
here, with Nick. I had slain a monster and raised a murder
victim, held hands with a vampire and saved a warlock.
Perhaps I didn’t need to hide. I fell asleep with that thought
on my mind.
142
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I woke alone in the bed, stretched and groaned at the
tension in my muscles. Something dropped onto the pillow
beside me, and I moved my head back to get a look at it. It
was a stark black feather. I looked up, and Crow bobbed
his head, shifting from one leg to another.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He flew across the room and landed on the handle of
a cart. His beak tapped the tin cover like a woodpecker,
then he cawed again.
I laughed and slid off the bed, then took the cover from
the plate on the cart. There was some fruit and toast on the
plate as well as coffee.
“I call dibs on the coffee,” I said picking up the piping
hot beverage.
A chuckle from behind me made me turn and realize I
wasn't wearing much clothes at the same time. I
143
straightened the shirt with one hand, making sure it wasn’t
riding up and carefully held my coffee in the other as I
walked back across the room to climb into the bed again.
“What's so funny?” I asked the vampire in the corner.
“You and your bird. He has been trying to wake you
for about twenty minutes. He jumped on you a few times,
and you didn’t wake up.”
“I grew up in a foster home. It would take an act of
God to wake me before I am ready,” I replied.
Nick chuckled and shook his head.
The door that joined our room to the one beside
opened and Peran stumbled in. His clothes looked like he
had just rolled out of bed and his hair was flat on one side
and spiked on the other. He raised his hand in greeting and
flung himself down on the chair opposite Nick.
“How are you feeling, buddy?” Nick asked.
Peran groaned, resting his elbow on the table to prop
up his chin as if his head was too heavy. His eyes lit on me,
taking in my face, the cup of coffee, the Metallica shirt that
belonged to Nick. His face remained passive, but he looked
away before he spoke.
“I’m all right. Could I talk to you privately for a minute,
Nick?”
Nick’s crooked grin returned. I was pretty sure I knew
what Peran wanted to talk to him about, give my current
144
state of undress. It looked bad. I wanted no part of that
conversation, so I was happy to leave them to it.
I pulled the shirt down to make sure it covered me
before I slid off the bed.
“We can just go—”
“Nope, I’m having a shower,” I interrupted Peran.
When I glanced back, Nick still had the crooked smile. This
was awkward. I hustled to the bathroom as Crow hopped
from the cart to take up my place in the bed, half a croissant
clutched in his beak. At least he waited till I was out of the
bed before leaving it full of crumbs.
I dragged my suitcase into the bathroom with me and
flicked on the shower. My white hair caught my eye in the
mirror, and I did a double take. It was so white it made my
skin look dark. I ran my fingers through it until I hit a few
stubborn knots and gave up. Rummaging in my bag, I
selected the cleanest pants and shirt. Walking around all
day in Nick’s huge shirt didnt seem like a good plan, but
this was ridiculous.
I stepped under the hot spray of the shower and let it
melt me. The tension in my shoulders relaxed, and the heat
soothed the stiffness out of my spine. Serpent wrestling
was not my forte.
My mind spun away from that thought and back to
home. I wanted to go home and see Georgia which
145
reminded me I had never heard back from her. With
everything going on, I wondered if she had sent a message
and Nick hadn’t told me.
I finished my shower and pulled on some clothes. I
rooted around one last time, and my hands found a clean
pair of socks, still balled together and smelling of laundry.
They were fuzzy inside. At least my feet were clean.
I stepped out to find the room empty, but voices were
coming from the adjoining room.
“Look, you don’t get to make the decisions here. You
aren’t Niri. In fact, we are probably leaving. Since she killed
the monster you came for, we should just part ways,” Nick
said, his voice a low growl.
“You think this is the best plan? What happens when
she figures out the truth? Do you think she will just let it
slide? You think she will forgive you?” Kai asked, anger
creasing his face.
“Who will forgive what?” I asked from the doorway.
Three sets of eyes locked on to me and I almost took a step
back.
Kai raised one hand towards me and gave a pointed
look to Nick as if he was inviting the vampire to answer
my question.
Nick rubbed his hands over his face then drew in a
deep breath. “It’s about your friend Georgia,” he said.
146
I stepped into the room. “What about her?” My heart
raced. Nick's face was grim, and he wouldn’t look me in
the eye. I took a few more steps forward. Dread clutched
at my lungs, preventing me from taking a full breath.
“Someone killed her,” he said, and my world snapped
like a twig under my foot.
The blood rushed out of my head, and my heart seized
in my chest. Magic whipped into a frenzy under my skin. It
tried to pour out, and I let it along with the tears that
burned my eyes. Georgia. Then a terrible thought occurred
to me.
“When?” I asked.
“Selena, let me explain.”
“When?” I shouted.
I called her days ago.
His eyes pleaded with me, but I turned and walked out,
slamming the door that linked the two rooms behind me.
The tears burned lines down my face as I sat on the
bed and tried to process the information. Georgia was
gone. I picked up the phone beside the bed and dialled
Dorothy.
“Hello?” Her voice through the other end of the phone
pulled a wretched sob from me.
“Dorothy,” I cried.
“Selena? What’s happened? Where are you?”
147
I explained to her what happened. Then went on to tell
her about everything when I finally calmed down. When I
hung up the phone with her, I didn’t feel better.
I opened the door between the rooms. The guys were
all sitting around. Kai flicked off the TV when I stepped
in.
“I want to go home,” I said.
“I already booked a flight,” Peran said.
Nick kept his eyes on the carpet.
I left the door open, returning to the bathroom to
gather my suitcase and dirty clothes. Tears gathered in the
corne
rs of my eyes again, but I took a deep breath and
pushed them back. I was not about to be the crier on the
plane. I grabbed my book from the table and tucked it in
my bag too.
The guys wandered in, their bags with them and I
followed Peran out the door. In the lobby, Kai returned
the key cards, and we filed into the cab waiting at the door.
At the airport, Nick tried to talk to me, but I shot him
a dirty look, and he moved away. The flight was long. Kai
sat with me and slept the whole way. I tried to nap, but my
mind was still numb. Magic was filling up my empty spaces
and pushing at my skin. I clamped down on it, but it was
impossible to hold it all in.
148
“Good evening ladies and gentleman,” a voice came
over the speaker. “We’ll be making an unscheduled fuel
stop in Denver. This is nothing to worry about, but please
fasten your seat belts as we will be landing in ten minutes.”
Groans filled the plane as people dutifully clicked their
seat belts on.
I shook Kai’s shoulder, and he woke enough to put his
on too.
As the plane touched down, I could feel Nick's eyes
locked on me. My magic was pressing in his direction from
under my skin and making me feel lopsided. Too bad for
my magic, it could just hang on until we got home. I
wouldn’t be giving that vampire anything.
“We will be underway in about thirty minutes, folks.
We’re going to have you all stay on the plane, but the
hostess will be around with the refreshment cart. Thank
you.”
Kai took out his phone and held it up. He held it
higher. “I’m gonna see if I can get Wi-Fi closer to the front
of the plane.” He unbuckled his seat belt and left me with
no buffer from Nick.
Nick took the opportunity and slid across the aisle to
sit beside me.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I said, moving as close to
the window as I could get, so his elbow didn’t touch mine.
149
It was hard to trust my magic when I was holding so much
of it.
“I just want to apologize. It was stupid not to tell you.”
“Yes, you should have told me,” I said, scowling.
His eyes turned away. “I just knew there wasn’t
anything you could do about it and Nick was in the middle
