by Jami Klein
“I’ve been right here.”
“You need to get up in front,” Betty said. “So the coach can see you better.”
Betty and Priscilla dragged me to the front and introduced me to the two cheer coaches. They nodded and started the routine up. Betty stayed by my side and helped me learn more of the moves. Priscilla went to sit on the bleachers.
Abigail and Maya broke off from the group to watch War and his pack more closely on the football field. Maybe if I was lucky, Maya would decide to date a shifter after all, and I’d be off the hook for going to the movies with Grantaire.
“What?”
Stefan’s voice in my head again shook me out of my thoughts. “It’s not polite to listen in when I’m thinking.”
“Stop thinking so loudly. What’s this about you and the Enforcer?”
“I’m going to the movies with him Sunday.”
“I can’t go with you.”
“To be honest, you weren’t invited.”
There was a simmering, crackling of energy that made me miss a few steps.
“You’re putting your life in danger for a movie. How can you be so stupid?”
I bristled. “You’re being dramatic. I’m putting my life in danger for information.”
“And you say you don’t need a bodyguard.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t need a bodyguard. And I didn’t say I didn’t want one. And I didn’t say I didn’t want you.”
There was an expectant pause, but I wasn’t sure how to go on.
“Stefan, I want to be your friend.”
“Just friends?”
My heart hammering loudly had nothing to do with the kicking drills I was doing. “Stefan are you saying you want more?”
No answer. Ugh. He drove me crazy sometimes. First, he stopped speaking to me mind-to-mind and at all for several weeks. I thought he was regretting helping me and was feeling taken advantage.
“Don’t be an idiot.”
There he goes again, picking up on my thoughts. “Stop doing that.”
If I tried, though, I could sense his thoughts too. I flitted over the surface. His pride had been hurt when he thought I didn’t need him anymore.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“I see that now. And that you were trying to protect me from the little Enforcer. That’s cute.”
“Cute? What could you do to an Enforcer in full gear? Let me guess, you’d rip his legs off too.” There wasn’t an answer in my head, but I got the feeling I had been on the right track. “He has a pistol with silver bullets in it.”
“Can’t shoot without arms,” came the laconic answer back.
“Ripping limbs off doesn’t solve problems.”
“Worked so far for me.”
“Enforcers won’t grow them back like shifters can.”
“You sure about that?”
I wasn’t actually. And that bothered me. “I need to learn more about Enforcers. Going to the movies lets me do that and get out of this place for a little while.”
“You’re going to get out of here tomorrow anyway with the bus going to the football game.”
“Not if the coaches have anything to say about it. You should see the looks they’re giving me.”
I heard a soft grumbling in my head that took me a while to figure out it was Stefan’s way of laughing. Easy for him to be so athletic. Some of us can’t jump six feet in the air from a standing position. Still, I was glad he wasn’t mad at me anymore.
We practiced until dusk turned into night and the lights came on and the vampires came out. I gave Andrei a wave, but he didn’t even look over at us. I guess vampires were too cool for cheerleaders.
Coach Kramer came over to the cheer coaches after he sent the football team to the showers. “Take ‘em all. We’re going to need all the help we can get if we’re going to beat Old Saybrook tomorrow.”
The cheer coaches didn’t look happy, but they turned to us. “Looks like you’re all in. Pick up your uniforms in the main office and be on the bus by eleven a.m. sharp or we’ll leave without you.”
Chapter Five
Priscilla and the coven had me up most of the night practicing drills, and then up at nine for a protein filled breakfast, then more routines. It was like I was their pet project. I wanted to go back to being invisible if I would get me another hour of sleep.
When they weren’t looking, I snuck away and went to find Stefan. He was just finishing up breakfast when I came up to him.
“Can we talk?”
He brushed by me to bus his tray.
“Okay, then. I’ll talk and you can listen.”
I got the mental image of him lifting me up with one hand and dumping me into the large trash can. It was spaghetti night too.
“I probably deserve that. I want to say that I’m sorry again for making you feel like I didn’t need you.”
He walked away.
I hurried to keep up after him.
“But you don’t make it easy. You could talk to me more. Acknowledge that you need me as much as I need you.”
That stopped him in his tracks. He whirled fast and a few people who had been walking towards us found a different path right away.
“You have your Enforcer now. You don’t need me.” He spoke in my mind, quiet and vicious.
I answered the same way, not wanting to have this argument in public. “I don’t trust him. I trust you.” I put a hand on his arm.
“You shouldn’t,” he said. “I’m not right in the head. Just ask anyone.”
“I’m not right in the head either.”
He smirked and I was happy to see that much of a reaction out of him.
“I want to help you in the forest. If you don’t want me there at night with you alone, let’s take Andrei.”
He rolled his eyes and walked away from me again.
“You’ve got to admit, we make a pretty good team.”
Stefan shook his head. “Vamps only want one thing.”
“Yeah, I hear you. But Andrei is getting that from me, so that means he can be trusted.”
“You shouldn’t have gone into that bargain.”
“I needed to know about my dad.
“Ever ask yourself why? What do you plan to do with that information?”
“Get revenge,” I said aloud.
“You know what happens when you get obsessed with revenge?”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.” I crossed my arms and glared at him.
“You become just like me.”
This time I let him walk away from me because I wasn’t sure I could say or do anything that would make this any better.
***
My legs were so sore, I barely was able to get up the stairs of the bus. I surprised everyone by sliding into the seat next to Stefan. They had been giving him a wide berth. He nodded to acknowledge me and then promptly fell asleep against the window.
I hadn’t quite believed we were actually going to leave the school grounds, but when the doors opened and allowed the big orange school bus to leave, I bounced on the seat.
Stefan gave out a low growl, but I ignored him. I was so excited to see my mother. I bet she was going to go to the game. She’d get a chance to see me on the cheerleading squad. I’d better stay in the back, so she didn’t see how awful I was.
I pictured how the meeting would go in my mind. After the game, she’d come over and we’d hug. I’d tell her I missed her, and she would convince the coaches to let me go out to dinner with her and that she’d drive me back to the school. We’d go out for pizza and then she’d take me home so I could pick up some of my stuff that in my rush to pack last month, I’d forgotten. My face hurt from grinning. This was going to be the best day ever.
It took almost an hour and a half to get to the Old Saybrook school for Warlocks and Wolves and nearly that long to get everyone off the bus and settled in the locker rooms and on the field.
“Good luck!” I thought at Stefan and he grumbled a th
anks in my head as they headed out to warm up as the cheer team came back in from entertaining the crowd. I had done all right, but I had a terrible stitch in my side and had twisted my ankle a bit while jumping around.
I limped into the girl’s locker room to see if Kim would tape my ankle up for me. Tracy’s coven worked the first aid squad, which probably been a better place for me than being a cheerleader. They were on the field already, though. As I was rummaging around looking for a spare Ace bandage, I was surprised to see Janine sitting on a bench by the lockers.
“How did you get here?” I asked. I was positive she hadn’t been on the bus.
Standing up, she placed something in my hand. “Blue Subaru Forester in section A.”
I looked down and saw she had pressed a car key in my hand. Did my mom get a new car? Not sure what was going on, I darted out of the locker room and into the parking lot, the pain in my ankle forgotten. No one seemed to pay me any mind, but I concentrated on being invisible anyway. I didn’t think it worked because I could still see my hand and my nerves were too jittery to concentrate on the spell.
Sure enough, there was a Blue Subaru Forester in section A. But that wasn’t my mother’s car and she didn’t appear to be in it. The doors were locked, so I opened the driver’s side with the key and peered into the car.
“Hello?” I called. No one answered because the car was empty.
I sat down behind the wheel and pulled the car door closed behind me. My heart was hammering in my chest. Looking around, there didn’t seem to be anyone staring at me. The coaches had been too busy with the start of the game to worry about one lone cheerleader that wasn’t very good anyway.
No one would miss me for a couple of hours.
In fact, I had a cover story if anyone asked where I was. I had limped off the field and decided to rest my ankle.
It wasn’t stealing a car if someone gave you the key, right?
Taking a deep breath, I put the key in the ignition and started it up. I had misunderstood Janine. My mother wasn’t coming to the game. I was going to my mother’s house. My fingers shook as I held on to the wheel for support. I was going to be in big trouble if I didn’t time this right.
I decided I didn’t care and drove out of the school’s parking lot and headed towards New Haven—and home.
***
I drove the exact speed limit the entire way to my house. I didn’t want to be caught again by a speed trap and be busted back to the FBMI driving another stolen car—although technically neither car had been stolen. Although that was a grey area that I was pretty sure the FBMI would consider black. And since I was a grey witch, I didn’t want to push my luck.
But there wasn’t anyone in my rear-view mirror and when I pulled into my driveway, I had to wipe away tears. My mother’s car wasn’t here. Disappointment flooded me. It wasn’t as if I could drive around town looking for her. I would just have to hang around for a bit and hope she went to the grocery store and would be back any minute. Luckily, the spare key to the house was where it always was, under the third plant on the porch. Opening the door, I walked into the house.
I was home.
It had only been a month, but it seemed like an eternity.
“Mom?” I called, just in case.
No answer.
Wandering room through room, I touched everything, seeing every little change and how some things were the same. Except now, I looked a little closer at the pictures of me and my parents. All this time, my dad had been keeping so many secrets.
So many secrets.
Could he had hidden what he had stolen from the demon in this house?
I sucked in a shocked breath. It was possible. I wouldn’t get a better chance to look. I hurried up the stairs and paused at my room. I should take a few more of my things since I was going to be at the Jewel Academy much longer than I had originally thought. But that could wait. Right now, I was going to go snooping through my parent’s bedroom.
Stuffing down the guilt and a heady tremble of excitement, I crept down the hall. I don’t know why I was sneaking around. We didn’t have any security cameras and there wasn’t any one around to see me. Pushing open the bedroom door, I stared into the room. I could picture my dad getting ready to go to work while my mother was still in bed sleeping. I went to his bureau and ran my fingers over the top of it. My mother had gotten rid of some of his things and it looked bare to me. I pulled one of the drawers completely out and set it on the bed.
Nothing in the drawer, but underwear, socks and a thin metal flask that had something etched on it, but time had worn it away. Fitting that drawer back, I pulled out another. This one had belts, wallets, and a few watches. Nothing even remotely magical. The other two drawers held clothes, but as I was placing the bottom one back in, it wouldn’t quite fit back the way it had been. On my hands and knees, I peered to see what was in the way and saw it was a thick envelope. Reaching in, I pulled out a long white envelope that was stuffed with cash.
I stared at it, turning it over and over in disbelief. This wasn’t where my father kept his spare cash. He usually tucked it in his sock drawer or the safe. This was a lot of money. More money than I’d ever seen in my life. The envelope was stuffed full of hundreds. Thumbing through the bills, there was easily ten thousand dollars here. Who stored this much dough behind a bedroom door?
Someone who didn’t want to claim it on their taxes. Maybe someone who sold a demon’s possession and didn’t want it tracked back to him? Digging around, I didn’t see any other clues as to what the money was for or where it came from. I taped it back up to where it was and settled the drawer back in place.
I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to take any more surprises, but I kept getting more questions and no answers. My parent’s closet was next. I opened it up and did a double take. All my father’s clothes were gone. Every last Dad T-shirt down to his tie collection had been removed. Sinking down to the floor, I clutched my knees to my chest. I should have expected it. They were only things, but I had hoped to find a shirt that still smelled of his aftershave.
Where the heck was my mom?
I left their room and went into my room. My suitcases were already at the Jewel Academy, but they would have stood out if I tried to get on the bus with them. Rummaging around my closet I found a couple of old backpacks and a large duffle bag. No one would look twice at these. If I got asked about them, I’d say they were Stefan’s or the cheer squad’s equipment.
I wrapped up my sugar skull collection and the things I’d need for my Samhain alter in pillowcases and throw blankets. That filled up the duffle bag. Then all the little things that made my room my own went into the backpacks, my dragon figurine collections, my pretty journals that I’ve never written in and a few stuffed animals. I smiled down at the stuffed lion my dad had won for me at the Italian Festival one year. I had named him Chester, but I wondered if I should rename him Stefan. Dragging my gear down to the kitchen, I decided to raid the fridge, but it was pretty much empty except for yogurt and cottage cheese and skim milk.
Gross.
The pantry yielded better booty and I stuffed a box of Cheez-its and a box of Corn Pops into one of the backpacks. I thought about leaving my mom a note, but it would probably just freak her out and leave evidence that I was here and get me into trouble.
Trouble seemed to follow our family.
“Dad, what did you get yourself into?”
As expected, he didn’t answer. But as I looked around the kitchen my gazed snagged on a pile of unopened mail. I flipped through the envelopes quickly and most of them looked like junk mail and bills. But there was one addressed in bold calligraphy and it practically reeked of magic. It was addressed to my mother.
It was none of my business.
I opened it anyway.
Dear Melinda,
I was so sorry to hear of Mark’s passing and Lola’s incarceration.
Bristling at the phrasing, I glanced at the end of the letter. It was signed An
gela. The return address was Peabody, Massachusetts. Never heard of them. I continued to read.
I would like your permission to visit Lola. Headmistress Magee said you just need to call her and put me on Lola’s visitor list.
I had a visitor’s list? Could have fooled me.
I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but Mark was wrong to keep her from us. She is going to need a mentor now that he is gone and you shouldn’t trust anyone with her training, but me.
Who was this person?
Now, more than ever you have to resist the lure of turning her over the FBMI for reconditioning. Under the guise of rehabilitation, they will brainwash her into working for them or into not using her powers at all. Mark would have wanted her to be trained by her family.
I dropped the letter in shock. Family? We didn’t have any family. Unless, this was Delia’s mother or another branch from my dad’s tree that he never bothered to tell us about. They apparently knew about me, though.
With Lola’s skills, you know they’re going to want her for espionage. Whether a government agent or a corporate drone. And if that’s what she wants, so be it. But she should be able to make that decision herself. In order to avoid being geased, a certified Cypher needs to sign off on her ethos. You’re not going to get a stranger to do that without a lot of money.
I thought about the wad of cash upstairs. Was that bribe money for a Cypher to get the FBMI off my case. Couldn’t be. I hadn’t been in trouble when my dad was alive.
More questions and no answers.
You know how to reach me, if you need me. Don’t delay. The sooner I can see Lola, the safer she will be. I know you’re concerned about her in that place, and I don’t blame you. For someone as sheltered as she is, things could happen before either of us could stop it.
Yeah, like bartering blood to a vampire for information and using mind magic to keep up an illusion of wearing bracelets every minute of the day. I carefully put the letter back in the envelope and with a little bit of mending magic, sealed it up again so it looked untouched. I took a picture of the return address so I could investigate a little more once I was back to school. Checking my phone, I cursed. I was going to have to push the speed limit to get back before the football game ended.
