by Kat Cotton
Angela returned within seconds. The dress she held was a bit too floral for my tastes but it had long sleeves and a neckline that didn’t flash anything.
“Perfect.”
“You can keep it. I never wear it anyway. It’s too big in the waist for me.”
Wow, the idea of having clothes you never wear had never occurred to me. I tried to shut the door. I needed to get changed and get out of the school. Fast.
“What’s the rush?” Angela asked.
“I...umm... want to show it to Britney...”
As soon as I shut the door, I threw the dress on and brushed my hair. I only had my old boots to wear with it but this wasn’t a date. It was a business meeting.
Before I left, I scheduled an email to send to Britney in the morning. That way, she’d get it if I didn’t return. Otherwise, I’d delete it when I got back.
Even without the ring on my person, I could tell Mr. Quiller I had it and I’d supply it later. That had to do. Right now, I had to get to the school gates without anyone seeing me.
Chapter 9
LUCKILY, I HAD A SPECIAL ability that’d help me. I could slip through the shadows, blending with them in a way that made myself invisible to everyone except for the other paranormals. That’s how I’d survived nasty foster homes and a bunch of horrible situations. It was the one thing I’d had all my life, unlike my other powers that only activated after I met Ren.
Hopefully, none of the other scholarship students would be around. I didn’t want to get into a big conversation about what I was doing right now.
I had no idea how long Mr. Quiller would wait so I rushed out the front door of the school then across the grounds. I got to the school gates without being spotted, reminding myself I had to be strong and in control for this meeting. I’d kicked Mr. Quiller’s butt before. I had nothing to be afraid of. If anything, he should be afraid of me.
The shiny black limousine waiting for me crumbled all my resolve.
The driver got out and opened the door. If I got in, I’d be trapped in the back of that car with an elder vampire. I hadn’t thought through that part of my plan. Sure, he couldn’t bite me because I had vampire-repelling blood, but he could do a lot of other nasty stuff. I could be buried in a shallow grave before anyone even noticed I was missing.
But I needed Mr. Quiller’s help. Hopefully, he’d give me an address and I could pop over to visit Ren’s mother during semester break and sort everything out. Before next semester began, life would be back to normal.
I gulped and got in the car.
Mr. Quiller studied me, his eyes black and unreadable. He wore a similar white suit to the one he’d worn the night I’d fought him. His legs seemed to stretch forever. The scariest thing though was the sense of evil masked in infinite calmness. It crackled around him, letting me know that he might not kill me but, if he did, it’d be a very slow, very painful death.
“Thanks for meeting me. I need to ask you —”
Mr. Quiller raised his hand to stop me. “We’ll discuss business after dinner.”
I nodded. That suited me fine. My stomach growled in agreement.
I settled back and tried to relax. I’d never been in a limo before. There was enough room to stretch out my legs fully and these seats were almost as comfortable as my bed. The driver seemed so far away I’d have to shout to talk to him.
But my breathing sounded way too loud in the luxurious silence like I was too poor to breathe this rich air. And my belly rumbled so loud. But then the interior of this car didn’t smell so good and that stench of death and decay wasn’t coming from me. When you were a vampire, you could dress as sophisticated as heck but there were some things money couldn’t cover.
We didn’t head to the nearest village but to a town further away. I guess Edgewater Village wasn’t exactly welcoming of vampires, with all its wards and protections.
“How are your studies going?” Mr. Quiller’s voice had that edge of awkwardness that adults got when they weren’t sure what to say.
“Good, yeah.” I gazed out the window, not wanting to make small talk. Small talk scared me, especially with someone like Mr. Quiller. Anything I said could be the wrong thing. And the wrong thing would make him angry.
“What are you planning on doing after graduation? Have you decided on a college? A major?”
I shrugged. “College, probably. Not sure what I’ll major in.”
“We’re always looking for smart people to join our organization.” Mr. Quiller handed me a business card. “Give me a call some time.”
I put the card away, wondering exactly what kind of work he did. I knew that Mr. Worthington had been his connection to the human world, the one who took care of things and covered up that vampires were somewhat immortal. And I knew that Mr. Quiller was exceedingly rich but I had no idea how he got that money. I could ask Ren. Ren would know.
“Who looks after things for you now?” It seemed rude to blurt that out but curiosity burned inside me. Would they expect Ren to do it? But Ren couldn’t do a thing for the next seven years or so.
“At the moment, nobody. We’re hoping to get this messy business sorted out. But if not, we have other options.”
Yeah, I bet people lined up to be the bitches for these vampires. Judging by Mr. Worthington’s fortune, the job paid really well. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing you could advertise for, though.
The limo purred to a stop. We’d arrived at the restaurant.
Chapter 10
WHEN I WALKED IN THE restaurant, I silently thanked Angela for the dress. I’d have felt so stupid and out of place in my jeans and old hoodie. Even this late at night, the restaurant buzzed. Did people really have dinner this late or were they vampires?
I took a big sniff. Nope, no odor of vampires here, except for Mr. Quiller.
Walking past a massive arrangement of flowers on the table in the foyer, their scent hit me, rich and lingering. I didn’t know much about flowers but those lilies must’ve been imported from somewhere much warmer than this. There was something intoxicating but almost overbearing about them.
I followed Mr. Quiller through to the dining room. White tablecloths covered the tables and the fancy silverware sparkled and gleamed in the candlelight. Violin music mixed with the sound of glasses clinking and quiet conversation.
This was definitely a fancy kind of place.
The waiter led us to a table in the far corner, away from the other diners. Then he tried to take my jacket but I waved him away. Despite all the fanciness, this room wasn’t well-heated.
“Do you need me to order for you?” Mr. Quiller asked.
“I think I can manage.” I picked up the menu, hoping it wasn’t in French or some other language I didn’t understand. Nope. All English, even if I didn’t understand a lot of the words. Steak sure sounded good. You couldn’t go wrong with steak. Steak would take forever to be served though, so I ordered soup and a seafood starter to stay my hunger until it arrived. I sure hoped Mr. Quiller was picking up the tab for this.
He’d picked up a wine list bigger than some phone directories and browsed through it.
“Wine?” he asked.
“You wouldn’t be thinking about giving alcohol to a minor, would you?”
He put down the wine list and smiled. “Of course not. I forget how humans age sometimes. I’m used to being around much older people.”
Well, I’d have called them vampires, not people but I got his point.
“I’ll be happy with orange juice.”
I picked at the tablecloth while I waited for our food. With all the smells around me, I grew so hungry that I almost wanted to gnaw my own arm off. Finally, my soup arrived.
Mr. Quiller stayed quiet while I ate my soup. He stayed quiet when they bought out the fancy little seafood nibblies too. Not only did he stay quiet, he moved the entire plate of those delicious morsels over to my side of the table. I polished them off in no time, not worrying about fancy manners. I’d had a long
, hard day full of emotional turmoil, so comfort eating became medicinal.
When my steak arrived, I almost squealed. Never once in my life as a pathetic orphan did I imagine I’d get to eat a steak so big and tasty. The meat almost melted in my mouth. I remembered nights when getting a single meatball in my pasta slop was winning life’s lottery. I’d never be able to eat that whole steak but I’d make a darn good effort.
Mr. Quiller hadn’t ordered much, just a small salad, and I think that’d only been so I didn’t feel uncomfortable eating alone. Vampires didn’t need to eat but you’d think they’d prefer a nice rare steak over a salad.
“You wanted to talk to me about something?”
The main thing on my mind had been if they had a dessert menu here but I nodded.
“I need to find Mrs. Worthington, Ren’s mother. I was told you’d be able to help me.”
Mr. Quiller steepled his fingers and stared at me until I began to feel uncomfortable. He barely blinked. Someone should tell him that not blinking made humans feel really awkward. So awkward they almost couldn’t eat their juicy steak.
“That’s all?” he finally said.
“That’s all. Nothing too burdensome.” I reached across for some more bread. That was some amazingly tasty bread they had here. “And really, you’d be helping yourself, since it’d mean Mr. Worthington’s business matters wouldn’t be all tied up in red tape. Really, it’s a perfect solution all round.”
His eyes flickered. Yeah, Mr. Quiller, take that bait.
Until recently, the Quillers had joined forces with the Worthington family. Since you couldn’t do normal human things as a centuries-old vampire without drawing attention to your immortality, the Worthingtons acted as go-between and amassed a huge fortune in the meantime. That agreement had fallen apart when Mr. Quiller’s son, and my schoolmate, Farran, had been killed. I hadn’t worked out yet if Farran’s death had caused the falling out or if it was just one in a chain of events. Mr. Quiller had tried to get revenge by killing Ren. Which had been stupid and unnecessary since Ren had no involvement in Farran’s death beyond finding the ring that protected Farran from daylight.
The real culprit had been Angela Blackstone, and even she claimed she had no idea removing the ring would cause Farran’s death.
He took a sip of his wine, drawing out the moment until he answered. While I appreciated the drama, the anticipation made me twitch. I picked up my glass of juice and twirled it in my hand, trying to look equally as calm.
“Grace Worthington may not want to be found.” He set his wine glass down. “She’s been hiding for a long time.”
“But Mr. Worthington’s dead now. She no longer needs to hide. This would be helping her, too.”
“Dead?”
Oops. I’d said too much. Of course Mr. Quiller didn’t know. And he shouldn’t know that I knew it. Had he trapped me into saying that?
“Well, assumed dead. He’s an important man with a business to run. It’s not like he’s run off to find himself at some commune in the Himalayas. And he wouldn’t disappear without contacting his own son.”
I talked too much, garbling to cover my discomfort.
“Still, if the woman has stayed hidden for this long, she might not want to be found. There is the possibility that the man might return.”
I screwed up my face. I couldn’t tell Mr. Quiller that Mr. Worthington was most definitely dead. That somehow, I’d mind-controlled spirit vampires to destroy him.
Then Mr. Quiller gave one of those fake laughs that businessmen do. That laugh with no amusement at all behind it. The kind of laugh that made me want to throat punch them, except that would be mighty ungrateful when he’d just bought me an expensive steak dinner.
“Child, I know exactly what happened to Worthington. I’m not a fool and I’m well connected in the vampire world.”
I didn’t have anything. I kind of wanted to ask him about what happened myself. Those spirit vampires had been scary and had even attacked Ren and me a few times but, when I needed them, they’d appeared and had carried out my commands. Maybe they hadn’t actually tried to attack me. Maybe they’d just wanted to hang out, be buddies. And to be honest, spirit vampires weren’t on the bottom of my list of people I wanted to hang out with.
I leaned forward. “Well, we can cut this charade then.” I grinned to myself. That sounded totally cool and sophisticated.
“I’m not giving away information for free.” Mr. Quiller took another sip of wine then his mouth stretched into a thin smile. “There’s a girl at your school. The Blackstone girl.”
“Angela?”
He nodded. “I’d like to talk to her but that’s proving difficult.”
His price seemed much cheaper than I’d expected.
“I can pass on a message. No problem. Angela and I are like best buds now. She loaned me this dress. Don’t you think that was mighty swell of her, considering how much she hates me.” I was blabbering again. I needed to put more steak in my mouth to stop from talking.
“I don’t want to pass a message like I’m her schoolgirl pal. I want to speak to her face-to-face. All you need to do is make sure she’s in a certain location in the woods so I can meet with her.”
“Sure thing.” I took another bite of steak but my fork clattered on the plate when the implications of that request hit me.
Mr. Quiller wanted to meet Angela alone, in the place where she’d killed his son. I didn’t like Angela Blackstone. I didn’t trust Angela Blackstone. But I sure didn’t want Angela Blackstone dead.
Even if she was only sucking up to me because she thought I was rich now, I really appreciated her giving me this dress and she hadn’t been completely awful for the past week or so. She’d been sucked almost dry of her vitality this semester by Nova, the over-enthusiastic incubus, plus she’d been suspended for sneaking into Ren’s room at night. Angela wasn’t having a great semester. And being killed by a vengeful vampire would only make that worse.
If I was truly evil and had turned to the dark side, I’d happily throw Angela under the bus to get what I wanted. But I couldn’t do that. And that meant I was a good and unevil person. A person who maybe crossed the line a teeny tiny bit but had gone back to the side of right almost instantly.
“Wait, sorry, I can’t do that.” My hand shook as I picked up my fork but even if Mr. Quiller was a bloodthirsty ancient vampire wanting to use me to strike vengeance on a schoolmate, I couldn’t let good steak go to waste. Anyway, I still had the ring to offer.
“I have—"
His pale boney hand shot out to stop me. “I know what you have, child. But the only thing that interests me at the moment is the girl. If you can’t promise me that, then we have no deal. Mr. Quiller arched a brow. “You just need to take her into the woods.”
“Where you’ll kill her. You can’t deny that.”
“What I do with her is my own business. You can have a clear conscience.”
I shook my head, slowly. “No, I can’t. Because I’m not evil. I’m a good person. I’m the new, improved Cherry, shining bright with non-evil.”
Even if I couldn’t tell Ren about this meeting, the goodness would shine from me. Everyone would know that I wasn’t a killer. This just meant I had to find another way to get that information.
As the waiter walked past our table with a crystal glass filled with chocolate mousse, I had a tinge of regret. I wouldn’t be getting dessert now.
Chapter 11
WHEN MR. QUILLER’S driver dropped me back at school, I tiptoed through the hallways, avoiding people. Not that there were any students around this late at night. I just felt guilty about sneaking out. I wasn’t a sneaking out kind of person. I’d never had a reason to sneak out of anywhere before. Still, there could be a teacher lurking around and I’d end up with a black mark. I definitely didn’t want that.
I inhaled when I got to my room. Safe.
Then I jumped as my phone beeped. Definite guilt complex happening here.
Britney.
Where have you been? Did you meet with Mr. Quiller? Is that why you were sneaking out?
So much for no one seeing me. At least it’d only been Britney, not Ren or Lucas. She never missed a thing.
Talk tomorrow, I messaged back.
Then I deleted the email I had scheduled. I’d made it back safe and sound.
I took off Angela’s dress and hung it in my wardrobe. That elegant dress kind of gave me the hives. There was only so long you could pretend to be an elegant dress-wearing person before it backfired on you. I checked for food spots, sure I must’ve slopped something on it.
Nope. Not even a dribble. One hundred points to me for my careful eating.
I showered and headed to bed, totally defeated.
I didn’t see Britney until the scholarship meeting the next day. I arrived late so we couldn’t talk. Britney kept giving me urgent looks but no way would I mention it here, especially not with big mouth Seth in hearing distance. And, since he’d tried to destroy most of the student body, Mr Quiller wasn’t exactly popular with the other scholarship kids.
“Later,” I hissed.
We practiced our telepathy in our training session. Great. I could send her a secret message. Well, I could’ve, if I wasn’t a total dud at that kind of thing.
“Why are we practicing this stuff again?” Mark asked. “We should be fight training. Serious training at that. The demon attacks aren’t just at the school. Don’t you read the papers? Vampire attacks are on the rise. It’s only a matter of time before humans realize. I mean, normal humans not just conspiracy theorists with their YouTube channels. Soon, we’ll need to fight. And we need to be ready.”
Mr. Norton grimaced. “That’s outside our jurisdiction. There are operatives trained to deal with those problems. We only need concern ourselves with the school.”
Mark huffed but sat down to do the training exercise like the rest of us.
