When we first entered the park everyone stayed together and we kind of walked around, stopping for a few minutes to get something to drink. It was cloudy, as Willa predicted, but the sun sometimes would shine out, and that made me nervous. I pointed it out to Jess, just so she'd remember that she also couldn't handle long exposure to the sun.
Willa and most of her friends took off to ride the coasters, but I really wasn't up for that yet. I'm kind of a chicken, I guess. Jess slipped away with Roderick at some point without me noticing. That left me, a girl named Amanda, Mikey, and Marissa, all standing in a group outside one of the buildings. I think there were video games inside, or something.
“We should go grab a burger.” Mikey said, scanning each of our faces before lowering his eyes again.
“I'm not really hungry.” I told him.
“I'll go.” Amanda said eagerly.
“Are you coming, Marissa?” Mikey asked.
“Uh,” she glanced at me and smiled. “No, you guys go ahead.”
There is a carousel in the center of the park, and we wandered over toward it. I couldn't think of anything to talk about with her, which was bad because I wanted to. I wanted to talk, but my mind wasn't working. We said little things, like, when she told me to go first as we got on the ride, but we didn't talk a lot. She did smile the whole time, though.
“Would you like some ice-cream?” she asked after the carousel.
“Um, sure.” I said. “So Jessica works with your sister, right?”
“Yeah, Miranda. She's actually my stepsister.”
“Do you two get along okay?”
“We get along pretty well.” she said, and she laughed a little. “We were actually friends since probably second grade. My mom and her dad met at one of our soccer games. Next thing ya know, I have a new sister and two new brothers.”
“Do you like the new dad?”
“Yeah, he's great.”
“And the stepbrothers?”
“I barely know them, really. They're both older. Simon is a senior in college in Arizona and Matthew is married and lives in Nebraska.”
I envy them all. Nice, normal lives, no weird vampires or striga, no living for centuries on end while all the people you know die. But at least I have Jessica with me now. So I have a friend with me for thousands of years, but I get to feel guilty that whole time. Yay.
“I used to come here a lot.” Marissa said. She handed me my ice-cream that the waitress gave to her instead of me. “My ex and I came once a week last year. Up until the end of July, when we broke up.”
“Why did you break up with her?” I asked. “Sorry, that's really personal, I shouldn't...”
“I kinda cheated on him.” she admitted. I could tell it upset her a lot.
“Oh, I thought... I mean I figured...”
I took a big bite of ice-cream and tried not to think about how stupid I must look. I just assumed she was gay, I assumed this was a setup by Jess, but she's straight. And a cheater, apparently.
“I just...” she shook her head and sighed. “We weren't right for each other, and I knew it. And then I went with a group of friends, and we were all having fun, and the next thing I know I'm kissing one of the girls and she's pulling me back to her bedroom.”
“A girl?”
“I'm not proud of it.” she said. “It was the biggest mistake of my life, and I would never ever do something that stupid again.” She wiped a tear away. “I hadn't ever been with a girl before that.”
“Oh.” I bit into the ice-cream again, swallowing a huge chunk and feeling the cold slide down my throat.
“Just so you know,” she said. Her face turned red and she looked down. “I would never cheat on you.”
“Um,”
“I mean if we ever, like, dated I mean.”
“Oh.” I swallowed and took that in for a second. “So you are a lesbian?” I asked.
“Bi.” she responded.
“So I was right, this was all Jess setting me up again?” I asked. I laughed. “She does that a lot.”
“Oh yeah,” she laughed along. “Total set up. Miranda does the same thing to me.”
“I don't know why they don't just give up.” I said.
“I know, right. It never works.”
“Never.” I said, smiling. “Well, I mean Jess did set me up with my ex, and that kind of worked for a while.”
“Miranda set me up with Clay, too. That lasted for almost a year.”
“So maybe it does work.” I told her.
“Sometimes.” she agreed, smiling up at me.
Good then. We've agreed that it sometimes works. I'm glad we've come to that conclusion. I guess this means we're both open to the idea. I mean... well I like what I know about Marissa so far. Other than the prior cheating incident.
“Let's go try something more extreme.” she suggested.
“What did you have in mind?”
“I actually love all the roller coasters here.”
“I don't know about the heights.”
“Come on. Give it a try. Please.”
I looked out and saw that it wasn't too sunny, so I agreed. We walked to one of the rides and waited in line for almost an hour before getting to ride. I was so nervous! I don't even know why, I just was.
“It's going to be okay.” Marissa told me. She reached over and grabbed my hand as we started up the chain lift. “Breathe, Brynne.”
“I'm okay.” I said. “I'm okay.” I repeated, trying to convince myself.
“Here we go.”
She held her hands up and screamed as we plunged down the first drop. It was terrifying! And so much fun! We went up and down, zipped around the curve, hit more humps, and we slowed as we rolled into the station again.
We rode all the big rides in the park, and I loved every second of it. Marissa was so much fun to just talk and laugh with. We had a blast, and we spent a lot of time getting to know each other.
“I think our sisters need to start a matchmaking service.” Marissa said.
“Jess is not my sister.” I reminded her.
“Same as.” she said, tugging my hand to pull me closer. “You live with her, you take care of each other, and you're basically family. Right?”
“We are family, sort of.” I agreed.
“Anyway, I think they've done a good job this time.” she said, staring into my eyes. “Don't you?”
“Definitely.” I told her. I want to kiss her so much, but it's way too soon. “Speaking of Jess,” I said. “I haven't seen her all day.”
“I think I saw them heading over that way.” Marissa said, pointing. “Let's do one more ride and then we'll go find her.”
We didn't have a long wait this time, and we were on the coaster and heading up the lift when I glanced out across the park. I know nobody except Jess and I get quite this view from up here. I can see details nobody else can see.
But right now I see Jess. Roderick is pulling her along by the hand, and there's a look of pain on her face. Her mouth is open, like she wants to scream out, but she can't.
“Jess!” I shouted.
“What are they doing over there?” Marissa asked.
Not quite sure how she knows where they are, but she's right, they are in behind some of the buildings, in an area guests can't get to.
We got to the top of the lift and plunged down the other side. When we got to the top of the next hill, I spun and looked for her. She was tugging, struggling against, him, and he had an evil glare on his face.
Down another hill.
“He's killing her!”
“What?” Marissa asked.
Oh Jess. Oh my gosh, she found the striga! He's killing her, and I can't get off this ride to go help her.
Top of another small hill and I could barely see over everything enough to see her, crumpled on the ground, Roderick standing over her. Is she dead?
When the ride came in to the station, I had
tears streaming. I had undone my seatbelt and wiggled free of the lap bar before they even released it. The ride operator shouted something at me as I ran past, but I ignored him and hurried as fast as I could toward where I saw Jessica. I ran past the Fury of The Nile, hearing people remark to each other about the girl who just flew past them. I didn't care if they saw me, they'd probably all forget or just not realize how incredibly fast I was really moving anyway.
I have to get there in time!
I have to!
Hang on Jess!
I finally made it to the Scandinavia section of the park, back by where I last saw Jessica. There she is!
“Jess!” I said, slapping her face lightly. “Wake up.”
“I'll go get help.” Marissa said. How did she get here so fast? She turned and ran off.
“Jess.” I shook her a little. “Come on, Jessica,”
I could feel her heart beating, and it was very slow. I wasn't sure what happened, but she was still alive at least.
“Rod...” she mumbled.
“Jess!” I hugged her against me. “Thank God! You're going to be okay.”
“He's the one, Brynne.”
“I know. He's not here now.”
“He did this.”
“Are you up to standing?” I asked.
“I think so. If you help.”
I helped her up, and we started toward the exit. Part of me wanted to run after Roderick, but I knew he would already be gone. He's the striga we've been looking for. How in the world did Jess have the bad luck to find him and actually go out with him? Amazing.
I could have picked Jess up and carried her, but it would have drawn attention, That didn't keep me from basically carrying her as we walked along. So it took us a while.
When Marissa and some medical person from the park found us we were almost to the exit. He tried to examine her, kept asking questions, but she refused any treatment, refused to be checked out. He couldn't exactly force her. She just told him she passed out from low blood sugar, that she'd be fine once I got her home.
“What really happened?” Marissa asked. We were nearly to the car, and the lot was almost empty at this point.
“She passed out.” I told her.
“Right.” she said, suspicious. “Well, I better get going, Miranda and her friends look like they are waiting for me.”
“Wait.” Jess said to her. “Do you have a license?”
“Huh? Uh, yeah.”
“I'm not really up to driving, and this one is too young still, so can you drive us home? I'm sure Celeste will give you a ride home once we get there.”
“Yeah, okay. Let me tell Miranda I'm going with you guys.”
She hurried over to their car. She was talking with her hands, rather animatedly, and all five of them turned and looked at us at the same time. Then I heard Marissa tell her sister she'd be careful, so it must have been said rather loudly.
“Anything you want to tell me before she gets back here?” I asked.
“Yeah. If you see him, run the other way, honey. Promise me.”
“Jess,”
“You can't fight him. He's strong and he just... he sucks all the energy from you. I think I only survived because there were too many people around and he got spooked.”
“We have to tell Celeste about this right away.”
“Yeah.” she said. “So how do you like Marissa?”
“Don't change the subject.” I told her. “She's nice.” I whispered.
I put Jess in the back seat, and I got in the front next to Marissa. She pulled away from the lot and drove out. We were back out on I-435, heading toward the apartment, in a matter of only a few minutes.
“Doing okay back there?” Marissa asked Jessica.
“I'm okay.”
“Good. So, Brynne,” she said, glancing sideways at me. “You don't have a license?”
“Nope.” I answered.
“You're too young?”
“Yeah, sort of.”
“O-kay. Well, that sucks.” She sighed. “Do you mind if I ask exactly how old you are?”
“Um,” I looked into the back seat at Jess and she shrugged. “I'm fifteen.”
“That might be a problem for me.” she said. “Look, I like you and all, but we just met. You're only fifteen, I'm eighteen, that's three years difference.”
“Yeah.” I said. I felt tears in my eyes. “But I'm a really mature fifteen.”
“Oh right.” Jess said. She laughed. “Whatever you say, honey.”
“I am!”
“I don't know about dating someone so young.” Marissa said. She seemed kind of upset, too. “I'm sorry.”
That sucks. I finally go out on a date with someone, finally start to get over Teresa a little bit, finally start to feel like it has been long enough that I can start to move on, and I'm dumped because I look like a child. I'm over a hundred and fifty years old and she thinks I'm too young.
“I'm not fifteen.” I said. I felt tears rolling out now. “I was born in eighteen...”
“Brynne!” Jess snapped at me.
“Well it's true!” I shouted back. “Marissa, I'm not... I'm a... a...” It's no use, she'll never believe me.
“A what?” she asked. She had an amused look on her face.
“Never mind.”
“What were you going to say.”
“You wouldn't believe me anyway.”
“We're vampires.” Jess said. “Only not quite.” she added.
I couldn't believe Jessica said that. We're supposed to be hiding it from people. I know I told Teresa, but I was in love with her at the time and thought she deserved to know. And that didn't end well.
There was a long silence.
“That makes a bizarre kind of sense.” Marissa said.
“You believe her?” I asked.
“I always have had this weird ability to sense when people are lying to me.” she explained. “It's like my own built in lie detector. I can't really explain it. I don't think she's lying.”
“Wait, so you believe in vampires?” I asked.
“Why not?” she replied.
“Uh, okay.” What a freak. She just believes like that? So easily.
“I read a lot on the internet, and there are some very convincing articles about vampires and all the other monsters in the world. Some of them make too much sense to not be at least partially true. So yeah, okay, you're a vampire.”
“I'm not.” I said. “I just... kinda am like one.”
“You'll have to explain that some time.” she said. She gave me a smile. “Maybe on our next date.”
“Um, uh, sure.”
“Is this Celeste like a coven leader, or something?” she asked.
“No, she... she's... um...”
“A friend of my mother.” Jess said.
“That's BS.” Marissa said. “What's the real truth?”
“We can't tell you.” I said.
“Okay.” she nodded. “You don't kill people, do you?”
“No.”
“Good.” she said. She looked up into the mirror, back at Jess. “So what really happened today? Is it related to the dead body at your work?”
“No.” Jess told her.
“That was a vampire.” I explained. “Not us.”
“Weird that you start there just as that happens.” Marissa said to Jess.
“It was quite a coincidence.” Jess told her. “Roderick is a striga.”
“Jess, you shouldn't...” I began.
“A what?” Marissa asked.
“Um,” I guess if Jess wants to tell her all this she may as well know what is really going on. “There have been kids dying around here.” I said. “The V... we think it's something called a striga. It literally just sucks the life out of them, leaving no sign that anything happened, other than the dead body. No marks, nothing.”
“Why hasn't this been in the news?”
> “I don't think anyone has realized all the deaths are related. They're just unexplained deaths, no other link.”
“And you just happen to hear of this? And then Jessica, you just happen to go out with this thing? I don't believe that.”
“We were searching for it.” I said. “To stop it.”
“Well, I guess you've found it.”
It always makes me suspicious when people are so calm and accepting of things that that should scare them. So now I'm suspicious of Marissa. That isn't the best way to start a relationship. I mean how do I know she isn't a striga, too? I don't. I'm not even sure how I would know, unless she tried that life sucking thing on me.
When we got back to the apartment, I did the whole thing where I hold Jess up as we walked again. Until we got to the apartment where nobody would see, then I hoisted her up and carried her into the bedroom.
“What's going on?” Celeste asked. She looked at Marissa squarely for a few seconds, then back at me. “What's wrong with Jessica?” she asked.
Betrayal: Book 2 of the Non-Vampire Series Page 6
