“It's not that,” she said. She sighed and turned toward me. “Not just that. I know you, I have read all the intel the VI have on you, I've done research myself, and from the times we've spent together, and something is just... off when you are with her.”
“Celeste,”
“Look, I'm just...”
“Jealous?” I asked.
I was just trying to annoy her, but I think I really hit the mark. It was also unfair. I don't think that is what she is talking about.
“Worried.” she said.
“I know.”
She sighed and went into the kitchen. I never liked the smell of coffee, but it didn't bother me today. Today it was a welcome distraction from the fruity scent of Celeste's shampoo. Why is the world full of hot women I can't have?
“I'm going out to look for Jess.” I told her.
“I don't think that's a good idea.”
“Well she won't answer my phone, so I have to do something.”
“Just wait. It's not safe out there.”
“Which is exactly why I need to be out there finding her!”
“Brynne,”
“I'm going!”
I walked for hours, stopping every few minutes to call Jess in vain hopes that she would pick up the phone. Celeste called twice to try to get me to come home, but I just couldn't. I had to find Jess.
And then I did.
It was late, maybe near midnight, and I came across a park just down from a school. Most of the lights were out, keeping anyone who wasn't very near-- or at least any human who wasn't near-- from seeing what was going on. She had a young boy, probably around eight, held down and was gnawing into his neck.
“Jess, no,” I said, hurrying toward her.
She looked up at me and gave me a glare that I never imagined from her. It was like she bottled up centuries of hatred inside and let it all out at me in one look.
“Stop!” I shouted.
She flung the boy halfway across the park and raised to a sort of attack stance, waiting for me to near. And she growled. I swear she did.
“Bitch.” she said.
And then she was the werewolf thing from the other night.
It was only a flicker... and then she was Jessica again, but it was enough to stop me in my tracks.
“What's she doing here?” I heard. It sounded like Miranda, but I didn't dare turn to see.
The werewolf/Jess thing came toward me, smiling with Jessica's face, but I still wasn't sure this was Jess.
“The boy is already dead.” Jess said. Then a flicker and she was the monster again, then back to Jess. “Just run home and tell your vampire hunter pal that I killed another one.” she said, laughing. “Go on!”
“I'm not going anywhere.” I told her. “Not without you. Not until you explain. Come on Jess, just tell me what is going on. I feel like I'm going insane.”
“You're such a disappointment.” she said.
“Me? You're the one killing children.”
“And you don't even try to stop me. Pathetic.” she said. She got nearer to me and I reflexively backed away. “At first I thought if I just brought you along slowly you'd eventually get the instinct, but you just never would realize that we're the superior race, that we're the ones who are the top of the food chain!”
“Uh, Jess, I... I...”
“This works pretty good.” she said to some weird girl with double pigtails who just seemed to show up out of nowhere. “At least on her.” She turned to look at me again. “Though she always was weak minded.”
And then she attacked me. I tried to run away, but I couldn't. She was too fast. She pulled me down from behind and clawed at me with claws that were most definitely not Jessica's hands.
“I never should have let you live!” she shouted at me.
“Let me go!”
She flipped me over and punched at me, and bit me, and twisted my hand back so far that my fingers all broke. I writhed in pain and she laughed at me.
And then it was a male voice laughing. For only an instant, but it was. A familiar one.
I knew I had to get out of there, that I must be going nutty from the pain, and I tried to slide away from... the monster now. It was back. And then Jess. And then I saw a knife.
“Hurry up,” The girl who had appeared from nowhere told him. It? Her? “I'm losing her.”
“Just a little longer.” Jess told her, laughing. “I'm having fun.”
“I didn't get a chance to feed!” the girl insisted.
There was a flicker again when I looked over at her and I could have sworn I saw Marissa. And then it was the weird girl with the double pigtails again.
“You said you didn't want her dead yet.” she told Jess.
“She's barely hurt. She comes from a tough family, believe me.”
And then she was punching me and beating on me, slicing into me with the knife, breaking bones... and there was nothing I could do to stop it. She was way more powerful than me. Way more powerful than I ever gave her credit for.
And then she was gone.
I laid there, trying to get the strength to crawl away, trying not to pass out from the pain, and I couldn't move. I was barely able to breathe.
Was Jess the shape shifting monster thing? Was this somehow tied to the attack by Roderick? Maybe whatever he is, the striga or whatever, causes this kind of... mutation to our kind when they attack them?
“Brynne,” Jess said.
“Please...” I mumbled. “Please Jess, no more.”
“Oh my god!”
“Just kill me now, okay?” I whispered.
“Oh honey!”
She scooped me into her arms and ran to her car, placing me in the passenger side. She was behind the wheel and speeding off before I could blink.
“Who did this to you?” she asked me.
“You... did.”
“No. You're delirious. Don't try to talk now, we'll figure it out later.”
“Where are you... ta... taking... me?” I asked.
“We need help. Celeste will be able to get some blood for you, and...”
“Jess?”
“Brynne, just hang in there.”
“Are you a werewolf?”
“No, honey, I'm not.”
“Oh. Okay.”
She hurried me inside at the apartment and through the night she and Celeste fixed me up the best they could. Enough that I was able to sleep after a while.
Monday, June 9
“M... morning.” I whispered. I wiped at my eyes with hands that hurt a lot.
“How are you feeling, honey?” Jess asked. She smoothed my hair back. “You gave me quite a scare.”
“I'm okay.” I said. “Jess, um... you... you attacked me last night.”
“No, I didn't, I...”
“I saw you. I heard you. You were telling me I'm a disappointment, and...”
“It wasn't me, Brynne.” she said. “Whoever attacked you, it wasn't...”
“But I know it was you!”
“No,”
“And... but it was the monster thing too.”
“Just try to relax.” she told me.
“I'm so confused, Jess.”
“I know.”
“You killed that boy.”
“I would never do something like that,” she said, shaking her head as tears rolled down her face. “You know I wouldn't.”
“I don't know what I know anymore.”
“That's great. Ya know, I'm sick of you not believing me.”
“Jess, it's just... there's so much evidence, and...”
“Yeah, well, I didn't do it!”
I don't understand this at all. Jess wouldn't do something like that. She just wouldn't. Except everything makes it look like she did. Is she doing these horrible things without knowing it?
“Maybe you kind of black out and don't realize what you're doing?” I suggested to her.
“Framed by who?”
“The real killers. Last night I...”
“When you were attacking me?” I asked.
“I didn't attack you!” she insisted. “I thought I found something. I overheard some stuff at an apartment complex north of here, over on Quivira. I'm going to check it out. I think they are the ones who are doing all the killing around here.”
“They? H-how many?”
“I don't know. At least two.”
“Okay. Prove it, Jess. Please.”
“I'll try. I better go. I'm sure Celeste has called the VI on me by now. Or they probably have this place bugged. And since everyone seems convinced I'm a horrible killer, I'm sure the VI would like to just execute me on the spot, just to be sure.”
She gave me a kind of half hug, as best she could with me laying down, and then headed toward the door. She looks so hurt that I don't believe her. But how can I?
This is Jessica Sloan here. The best person I have ever known. How can I not trust her?
Still...
“Be careful, Jess.” I said.
“I will. And I'll prove to you that I'm not a killer.” she said, her back still to me.
“I... believe you.”
“You do?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder.
“I want to.” I whispered.
“Well, at least that's something.”
She was gone then. I stared at the spot she had been standing, wondering again if there was any way Jess could do what everyone seems convinced she did. She's going to find those vampires and prove she wasn't the killer. I know she will. And then this will all be over.
“Be safe, Jess.” I whispered again. “I love you.”
It couldn't have been two minutes later that Marissa arrived. She mumbled a hello to Celeste in the living room, then she was at my side, grabbing onto my hand.
“How are you doing this morning?” she asked.
“I'll be okay in a day or two.”
“I guess he really tore you up last night, huh?”
“Um... he?”
“It was the creature that attacked you the other night, wasn't it?” she asked.
“Um... yeah, it was.”
“Good.” She smiled and patted my hand. “You were kind of out of it when you called me this morning, but that's what you said.”
“When I called? I... I didn't, I just now woke up, I...”
“Oh.” she patted my hand and leaned close to my face. “You did call, Brynne.” She smiled wide. “You called and told me all about it.”
“No, there's no way, I couldn't...”
“You called and told me all about it.” she repeated.
“Um... oh. Yeah, of course.”
I really am out of it, I guess. I don't really remember calling, but... I mean it's kind of hazy, anyway. Weird. I mean how could I have forgotten the whole conversation like that? Weird.
“I'm just sorry Jessica was there, too.” Celeste said.
“Jess... she... oh yeah, I told you that, didn't I?”
“Yeah.”
“You just missed her.” I said. “She brought me here and she stayed to make sure I was okay.”
“She's just trying to confuse you, Brynne.” She patted my hand again. “She attacks you and then tries to take care of you.”
“She's not like that. I don't know what is going on, but I don't think Jess did any of those things.”
“No, no, she really is a killer. You know she is!”
“I... um...” Ugh! My head hurts so much! “No, Jess isn't evil like that!”
“Oh Brynne, honey, you just told me on the phone earlier that you knew she was. Now she has you convinced she isn't? No. She is an evil monster.”
“Yeah, um... I... know.” Do I? Yes.
“It's terrible she's out there killing others. I may know some people who could take care of her, Brynne. If you want.”
“Um... no, I...” Ugh. I feel dizzy. Like last night. “I mean she said... I know... I can't let her keep killing.” I squinted my eyes together and shook my head. “I... I think maybe if I call the VI and tell them where she was going... maybe they'll... if I tell them what she's planning...”
“She's planning to kill more?” Celeste asked.
“Um... no, she... just wants to prove she isn't...”
“By killing some innocent human and blaming everything on them.” Marissa accused. “That's it, isn't it?”
“No, it's...”
“Then why did you just tell me that not more than two minutes ago?”
“Oh... right. I... I better call the VI and have them get her.”
“That's a good idea.”
I can't believe I just let her escape like that. She's out killing those innocent people and I can't do anything about it because I'm laid up in bed. Argh!
I had Marissa hand me my phone, then asked her to wait in the living room while I talked to Paolo.
“She said she was headed to an apartment complex north on Quivira. That's all I know.” I told him, after explaining that I was sure she was the killer now, and I thought it was best they take her out.
“I'll tell them to make it as quick and painless as possible.” he said. “I know how hard this is for you. I'm very sorry, Miss Brynne.”
“It's so hard.” I squeaked. “Let me know when it's done?”
“I will.”
I feel like I just betrayed the only true friend I've ever had. But if she did all those things... she wouldn't do those things... she obviously killed all those people... I... No, she is a killer. I know it.
“Done?” Marissa asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Don't be so down, you probably just saved a lot of lives.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“Look, I gotta run. I gotta... um, help someone move.” she told me.
“You have to help them move when I'm laying here half dead?”
“Yeah, well, it just came up, they are... being kicked out of their apartment now.”
“Oh. Who?”
“Just some friends of mine. I better go before it's too late.”
“Oh. Yeah. Bye.”
“Bye.”
When she was gone I stared down at the phone, the tool that I used to kill my best friend. Except if she's a child murderer... No! No! Jess wouldn't do that! I know it!
Ugh!
It's done anyway. No use worrying about it. I can't save her now, even if I wanted to.
I looked through my phone, curious what time it was that I called Marissa this morning to tell her about everything. I couldn't find any dialed calls from my phone. Did I use someone else's phone? Weird.
It may have been two hours later, or it may have been two centuries. All I know is Celeste was sitting by my side on the bed, stroking my hair, talking softly as she tried to get me to stop crying.
“You didn't have a choice.” she told me.
“There's always a choice!”
“If she was a killer...”
“She wasn't!” I shouted.
“You were so adamant before, Brynne, and now...”
“Well I was wrong! I don't know what I was thinking... Jess... she'd never do that, and...”
“Brynne,”
“She would never!”
“Well then I'm sorry.” Celeste said. “I'm sorry about this whole situation. I should have never kept you here. It was my idea to step in, I thought I could handle this assignment and it just hasn't worked.”
“Without Jess here there is nothing keeping me.” I told her. “I... may go as soon as I'm better.”
“What about Marissa?”
“Is she here? If she cared about me she'd be here, wouldn't she? Instead of helping someone move.”
“What about me?” she asked.
“
Celeste... I... what about you?”
“I thought we had something.”
“It's not like we're dating.” I reminded her.
“Well we're something.” she said, kind of defensively. “At least.”
“Celeste, I don't understand why you'd...”
The phone rang. I grabbed at it, angry that I hadn't broken the thing yet. If I hadn't had that thing then Jess would still be alive.
Except it was Jessica's number on the screen.
“Jess!” I shouted into the phone.
“I can't believe what just happened.” she said. She sounded out of breath. “A bunch of VI guys showed up and...”
“I'm so sorry, Jess!” I sobbed.
Betrayal: Book 2 of the Non-Vampire Series Page 13
