by P. S. Newman
"Can't you all just stay here?" she asked. "David stays here almost every night, anyway."
"He doesn't want to put you and Cecelia in unnecessary danger."
"We will be if you're not here," Bella cried, her voice full of accusation. She let go of me. "That's the whole point. One of my dreams will manifest in Cecelia's bed and kill her and then come after me and—"
"Bella, stop.” I raised my voice to be heard over her rant. "Getting yourself worked up won't help." She knew this. I got the feeling she was trying to make me feel guilty. Mission accomplished. But if I wanted to keep her safe, I had to take care of this doppelgänger. He was a bigger threat than most of Bella's possible nightmares.
Her chin lifted in defiance. "I could make you stay."
I'd been waiting for this argument. I had to nip it in the bud.
Aunt Vy beat me to the punch. “I’ll stay with you.”
Say what now?
Bella’s eyes widened, but she got over her shock faster than I did. “Deal!”
“Wait a second,” I interjected, with the sinking feeling that I was already overruled. I held my sword up between Bella and me, glaring at Aunt Vy. “This isn’t the answer.”
“Why not, child? You and I aren’t seeing eye to eye at the moment. It might do us good to take a time out from each other. Meanwhile, I stay with Bella and give her some ease while she sleeps.”
“You’re going to let me go up against Sean 2.0 alone?” I asked, trying to turn the train before it ran me over.
“You don’t need me,” she said. “You fight just as well with any other sword. This way, I’ll be where I’m needed. And wanted.”
Bella’s eyes glanced from me to Aunt Vy and back. “What are you two fighting about?”
“The fact that Eden threatened to lock me up in her basement if I didn’t comply with her wishes,” Aunt Vy said.
Bam. The train rolled right over me.
“You what?” Bella’s eyes shot daggers at me.
I looked imploringly at my sword. “I’m sorry for saying that. You know I would never go through with it.”
“Maybe a time out will make you appreciate me again,” Aunt Vy spat. “I’m staying with Bella. And it’s not to defy you. That’s just a fringe benefit. But you know yourself that my proposition makes sense in our current situation.”
It did. That was the problem. My two reservations were that I didn’t want to face Sean 2.0 without my trusty sword by my side and that the two of them had ganged up on me like this. Discussing it would have been nice. They’d steamrolled me.
The way I’d steamrolled Aunt Vy by not discussing the Greyson situation with her and making the decisions on my own without any regard for her opinion. They say what goes around comes around. Maybe I did have it coming. Either way, there was nothing I could do about it. Bella would simply order me to leave Aunt Vy with her and my sword wouldn’t try to talk her out of it. Checkmate.
“Okay.” I held Aunt Vy out to Bella. “But the sheath stays on. No sword practice unless Lia or I are present.”
Bella took Aunt Vy and just gave me The Look. The one that was part exasperation, part disappointment, with a hearty chunk of you can’t tell me what to do mixed in. But I wouldn’t back down, on this at least. She knew the basics of sword fighting, as most teenagers did, but she hadn’t graduated beyond blunt practice swords. She didn’t take her martial arts practice seriously enough.
“Promise me, Vy,” I said.
“Like I could stop her if she wanted to use me,” she said, her voice sweet as syrup. Driving home her point.
“Enough already,” I begged. “Just promise me.”
“You must have a low opinion of me if I need to promise you this.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t if you stopped acting like a petulant child,” I shot back. I wished Cecelia were here to back me up. She had to be around somewhere; I was surprised she hadn’t come to check what the hold-up was. I could have called into the house, have her join us and defuse the situation. But stubborn pride kept me silent.
God damn it. I was supposed to be the fudging superhero, but once again I needed my best friend to ride to the rescue. And my quasi-ward was looking at me like I’d made her eat skunk dung. I suddenly felt very tired.
“Look,” I sighed, trying not to let the dejection I felt slip into my voice and failing miserably. “Promise me this and, in return, I promise that when this whole doppelgänger thing is over and we’ve all calmed down, we’ll sit down and have a proper talk. Figure out how to avoid this animosity in the future. I want to fix this.”
“I appreciate that,” Aunt Vy said. “And I hope we can figure this out, too. You go handle the doppelgänger and I’ll watch over Bella. Unless a monster invades the house, my sheath stays on. I promise.”
I could tell that she meant it, which made me feel better. “Thank you.”
I looked at Bella, who had only heard Aunt Vy’s half of the conversation. The Look had turned into concern. She’d realized something was really wrong between me and my sword. “We’ll be okay,” I said, trying to reassure her. I doubted it would do much good. The seed was planted; the idea that something might break between Vy and me, the shades she’d manifested into this world as an unbreakable team. It would change things and I could tell Bella’s anxious mind was already spinning through the possibilities. It wouldn’t help her sleep better. Dream better. How had I fudged things up so fast?
I stepped up to her and hugged both Bella and Aunt Vy in her hands. “We’ll figure this out,” I promised them both, making a solemn oath to myself that we would. Bella didn’t hug me back, but she didn’t pull away, either. I counted it as a win. “I’ll call tonight, before your bedtime. We can talk until you fall asleep if necessary. And don’t forget to meditate.”
“I’ll guide her through a twenty-minute meditation before bedtime,” Aunt Vy suggested. “Who better to be still with than an inanimate object.” She said it without rancor this time. Maybe there was hope for us, after all.
Bella nodded with a wobbly smile. “Okay."
"Thank you.” I pulled her into another hug. This time she hugged me back, hard. Remembering that I’d be gone tonight.
"Where are our lovebirds?" I asked, releasing Bella.
"They were sitting on the couch when you rang the bell,” she said, “Lia isn't a fan of this plan, either."
"Let's go find them.”
Cecelia and David were indeed cuddling on the couch. Cecelia was snuggled up against David's side and he had his arms locked tight around her, his cheek resting on the top of her head. A blind man would have seen that they dreaded this separation. As if David were being led to the executioner.
I cleared my throat to announce our presence. Cecelia sat up, her impenetrable cop face in place. The air of separation anxiety surrounding the couple imploded just as Bella came to stand next to me. Cecelia patted David's arm. "It's time, caro.”
David looked like he'd rather get bitten by a radioactive shade, but he let her go and got to his feet. "I sure hope this works," he said to me, "and soon."
I nodded "Me, too."
"I'll go talk to my bodyguards, have them stay here."
"We don't need them," Cecelia said.
"You mean you don't want them. I don't particularly want Eden and some Order hunter staying with me, either. No offense, Eden."
I waved it off. "None taken."
"But I'd feel better if the guards stayed," David continued, taking Cecelia's hand. “Please don't fight me on this. They might be able to make themselves useful.”
Cecelia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Fine. They can take out the trash."
David pulled her in for a kiss. "That's my girl." He looked at me. "Ready?"
Cecelia shook her head. "I need to talk to Eden for a sec."
"I'll meet you outside.” David would be with his bodyguards. They'd stop him from being killed, should the doppelgänger show up. I hoped.
"Let's go into the kitc
hen," Cecelia said. "I need to get dinner ready. Bellita, it’s time for bed. Have you brushed your teeth?"
Bella's silence was all the answer we needed.
"Go go get," Cecelia told her, pointing towards the stairs. "We'll call you before they leave."
"Yeah, right, send me away just when things are about to get interesting," Bella grumbled.
"We're going to be talking lovey-dovey smoochy stuff, so I don't think it's all that interesting for you," Cecelia said.
Bella pulled a face. "This is about Greyson, isn't it?" She said the name with at least as much apprehension as Sean had, which was strange. I'd expected her to be excited about the fact that her hero, Greyson Deynar, now existed, too. But she turned on her heels and limped out of the living room. "Say goodbye before you leave."
Oh yeah. Excitement galore.
"What was that about?" I asked as soon as we heard Bella tromping up the stairs. "I thought she'd be over the moon about meeting Greyson in the flesh. She seemed excited about him the last time we talked."
Cecelia was looking at the door her sister had disappeared through with a frown on her face. She hadn’t missed Bella carrying Aunt Vy with her. But before I could address what had happened, Cecelia returned her attention to me. "If he were her shade, she might be happy. But he's yours and I think it took her a while to realize the difference,” she said, as she grabbed a pot out of a drawer, poured water into it, and put it on the stove.
"The difference?" I was drawing a blank.
"She's afraid you'll leave with him. She knows you're in love with him." Because she created me that way. Because she'd had a teen-girl crush on him, too.
"I'm not leaving."
"But you are in love with him?"
"I don’t… Yes. Which is silly, I know, but..." I couldn’t find the words to explain.
Cecelia shrugged. "It's the way things are. I just want to make sure you'll be okay." And that I would stay.
"I'll be fine," I told her. “I'm not going anywhere."
"Promise?"
"Promise.”
“Good. Now tell me why my little sister is dragging your sword upstairs with her.”
I sank onto a chair with a sigh and told her what had happened out in the hall.
To my surprise, she only shrugged. “Maybe it’s for the best. I’ll make sure they don’t get up to any unsupervised mischief. As long as you don’t need Aunt Vy to catch this doppelgänger.”
I shook my head. “Need, no. Prefer, yes. But I can handle the doppelgänger without her. I just wish I knew how exactly I fucked things up between Vy and me so badly. She’s never asked to be separated from me.”
“You’ve also never treated her like an inanimate object before.”
“Ouch.” But of course, she was right.
Cecelia’s lip twitched. “It had to happen at some point. You and Aunt Vy may have manifested the way Bella envisioned you, but that doesn’t mean you won’t change over time. And grow, hopefully.” She winked. “Who knows, maybe someday you’ll grow out of Bella being able to boss you around.”
My smile felt leaden. “Not likely. You might as well wait for Aunt Vy to morph into a person.”
Cecelia poked me in the arm. “Well, it’s not going to happen with that attitude.”
That did make me laugh.
“By the way, Aunt Vy and I made a deal with Bella,” I remembered. “Aunt Vy will guide her through a twenty-minute meditation before bedtime and I’ll talk to her on the phone until she falls asleep, if necessary.”
Cecelia was impressed. "You got her to agree to twenty minutes?"
I nodded. "But I'm afraid you're the one who'll have to enforce them. I won't know if they did the twenty minutes from way over at David's place."
“Dios mío,” Cecelia muttered. "Please catch this maniac soon so things can go back to normal."
"I'm trying," I promised. "I really think this is our best bet."
"Just..." Cecelia paused, fighting with words or maybe emotions. "... keep him safe, okay." Her grave manner scared me. I'd never witnessed Cecelia ask for anything, but now she was close to begging.
"You have it bad for him, don't you?" I teased.
"He's The One for me, Dita,” she said. "I'm not sure it's mutual from his end, but I don't care. I just want him safe."
A potato salad could have seen it was mutual. "I promise I'll do everything in my power to keep him safe," I said.
She smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I know. Thank you." She looked about as convinced as I felt. The doppelgänger was cunning, unlike any shade I'd ever gone up against.
Don't thank me, yet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I called Taylor as we turned into the street to David's driveway. “Have you scouted the area?”
“All clear,” he said, coming through for both David and me to hear over the speakers. “But how the two of us are supposed to keep these grounds covered is beyond me. Especially against a shade that knows the place. This house is… insane.” His voice fluctuated between awe and envy.
“We’ll have to concentrate our forces in one wing or floor, or maybe even room,” I agreed. “The living room would be a possibility. We have a view in almost every direction, kitchen and a bathroom are close, and there’s a way into the basement, in case we need an escape route.”
Next to me, David didn’t look happy. “You mean I have to stay contained in that area?”
“It would make things easier for us if you did, yes,” I said to him. “Especially during the night when spotting anyone approaching will be harder. As Taylor pointed out, the doppelgänger knows the place and—“
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Taylor’s curse interrupted me mid-sentence.
“What’s going on?” I asked, on full alert. “Is he there?”
“Tell me this plaque for SHAID Member Of The Year is a joke,” Taylor hissed.
Fudge. I’d been hoping the two men would get to know each other before they found out about their contrary views on shades. I’d forgotten about the plaque David had been handed after his first year as SHAID chairman. It stood on the bookshelf in his living room.
“I take it you’re not a fan,” David said.
“Who would ever be a fan of an organization that promotes equality of things that kill people? Might as well grant human rights to nuclear bombs. Jesus.”
The connection died; Taylor had hung up. David glanced at me, brows raised. “That’s wicked hate.”
“Tell me about it.”
“If he ever finds out about you…”
“He’ll try to kill me on the spot.”
I pulled up in front of the EnerShield gate and let down the window to punch in the code. David opened his mouth to speak, but I held a finger up to my lips. It was unlikely that Taylor was at the house’s intercom system, listening in on us while we stood at the gate, but I couldn’t take the chance of him overhearing this conversation. David understood and waited to speak until we were through and the gate buzzed to life behind us again. “He won’t find out through me.”
“I know that. But the doppelgänger…”
“Fudge! He knows because Sean knows.”
I nodded. “Yep. He threatened to let Taylor in on my secret if I didn’t stop hunting him.”
“So you decided to stop hunting him and are letting him find you.”
“That’s a nice fringe benefit of this plan, but I gave Taylor an alternate one…” I petered out, remembering this was David and I’d used his brother as an excuse in a very unflattering way. But I trusted David to understand. “I told him the doppelgänger said he would turn himself in if I had sex with Sean. I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to say.”
To my relief, it wasn’t indignation on his brother’s behalf that sparked in David's eyes but humor. “He bought that?”
“He did and he was outraged at the suggestion. Which, to be honest, is the only redeeming quality I’ve discovered in Mr. Mad so far.”
>
David scrutinized me, the corners of his mouth twitching. “You’re giving him nicknames.”
“So?”
“Do you know what I called Cecelia before we got together?”
“Detective Firecracker,” I said. “She told me.”
He waggled his brows at me.
I blinked at him. “You think I’m interested in Vaughn Taylor romantically?”
“Aren’t you?”
I stopped the car in the middle of the driveway, twenty feet away from the front yard, and burst out laughing. I laughed until my gut hurt and tears streamed down my face.
David watched me with a knowing smile on his face. “The lady doth protest too much,” he said.
“You,” I spluttered, “are hilarious.”
“It’s not that far-fetched,” David insisted. “He’s a hunter of the Order. That makes him fit by definition. And opposites attract, right?”
I couldn’t help it; that got me started again. “If a barn and a tornado are opposites, then yes, absolutely.”
He raised his brows. “A barn, huh? So that’s a no?”
“He’s nobody’s boyfriend material. You’ll see when you meet him.”
“Shame.”
The way he said that finally swept away my mirth. “How so?”
“It might have given you something to focus on other than…”
“Greyson?”
“I know you’re hoping that someday you two can make it work and I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make that happen. But it would be better for all involved if you dropped that specific… dream.” David's voice was gentle but firm, the way it sounded when he spoke to Bella about something serious.
“Believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve just never felt about anyone else the same way. I suspect he’s the only man I’ll ever love.” My love for Greyson was embedded in my shade-DNA. I’d manifested loving him and right now it felt like I always would.
