by Chelsea Fine
Tristan looked at the stranger casually. “No, he’s not. That cluster of trees is pretty much a dead end. He’s either got a place somewhere nearby, or he lives in a tent. We’ll track him.”
“We’ll track him? With what? Our noses?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, we’ll follow his footprints.”
Gabriel, angry the stranger was getting away, shook his head. “Brilliant. We’ll throw rocks at him and then we’ll play Sherlock Holmes in the woods.”
“He’s not going to get away. I know you haven’t had to kill your food for a century now, but you’re a hunter, Gabriel. We both are. So, we can do this. Remember when we used to do this for survival?”
“You mean back before modern medicine and toilet paper? Yeah, I try not to remember that.”
Tristan rolled his eyes. “Well, then I’m a hunter. And I’m going to hunt down Scarlet’s visitor. Are you with me?”
Gabriel exhaled. “Fine.”
Tristan meant confront, not hunt…right?
He popped the trunk.
Gabriel glanced down. “Seriously, Tristan? You drive around with a trunk full of weapons?”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the family bad guy.”
Gabriel rubbed the side of his face and muttered, “How are we even related?”
“Oh, please. Don’t act like you’re pissed that I happen to have a car full of artillery right when we need it. Grab a weapon.”
“What?”
“You might want a weapon, in case Scarlet’s stalker tries to stab you. He was kinda knife-happy last time I met him.”
Gabriel and riffled through the artillery. Bows…daggers…axes. “Why do you have so many weapons?”
Tristan shrugged. “You never know when you’ll need a backup.”
“What do you do in your free time that requires a backup?”
Tristan smiled tightly. “I kill stuff. Just pick a weapon and let’s go.”
“Calm down, Braveheart.” Gabriel searched through the weapons. “I’m trying to find something not quite as fatal as…a scythe? Really?” Gabriel held the wicked half-moon blade up and looked at Tristan. “What are you, the Grim Reaper?”
“Yes. Yes, Gabriel. I’m the Grim Reaper. You caught me. I drive around in my car full of weapons collecting souls.”
Gabriel shook his head as he finally decided on one of the compound bows.
Tristan reached for the other compound bow. “What’s wrong? Afraid to use the scythe?”
“The scythe still has blood on it and I like my weapons clean.”
“You would.”
Gabriel shuffled around the trunk again, searching for faux arrows—arrows designed to injure but not kill. “All these arrows are sharp—and have blood on them.”
“Yes, well, I left my cotton candy arrows at home next to my teddy bear.”
Gabriel turned to Tristan. “We’re not going to kill that guy.”
“We might.”
“Tristan, that’s homicide.”
“It’s self defense.”
“It’s not self defense. He didn’t come after you.”
“But he came after Scarlet. And, technically, Scarlet is a piece of me. So, yeah. It’s self-defense. Are you coming with me or not?”
“I don’t want to kill him. I just want to hurt him. Or detain him.”
“Or maybe you could just give him a big hug.”Tristan started marching into the woods. “You can stay there and clean weapons or whatever, but I’m going after our intruder.”
Gabriel grabbed a few arrows and groaned as he shut the trunk. Tristan was insane.
The boys entered the wooded area and Tristan began looking for tracks.
Seriously.
Gabriel squared his jaw. “Tristan, it’s nighttime. You’re not going to find anything.” He sighed in frustration. “I knew we should have just grabbed him when he was at her front door.”
Tristan said nothing as he crouched low to the earth.
Gabriel watched his brother. Long ago, they’d hunted together for food, for survival, and for freedom.
Avalon, Georgia wasn’t lacking any of those things.
Gabriel shifted his weight, feeling like an idiot standing in the woods with a bow.
“Bingo,” Tristan said, pointing to a set of deep footprints in the mud.
Gabriel’s mouth fell open. “I cannot believe you actually did that.”
Tristan narrowed his eyes. “Maybe if you weren’t such a pretty boy you could do it, too.”
Gabriel scoffed. “Just because I don’t want to track down crazy people in the woods on a full moon doesn’t mean I’m a pretty boy. It means I’m normal.”
“Whatever,” Tristan muttered.
They snuck quietly through the tall trees, led only by the moonlight and muddy indentations of shoe tracks. They walked for a few minutes in silence until they came to a clearing and spotted a shadowed figure darting into the trees.
Tristan and Gabriel exchanged a look and Gabriel instinctively went into hunt mode. He pulled his compound bow up and slowly crept to the right, as Tristan snuck away in the opposite direction.
The sound of rustling leaves and a hooting owl broke the silence as Gabriel looked around.
A noise to his left caused Gabriel to turn with his bow raised, poised to shoot.
But only in defense. He had no intention of killing anyone.
Taking a human life was no small thing, and Gabriel wasn’t a murderer.
A sharp pain shot through his body and, with a grunt, Gabriel looked down. A long dagger stuck out from the right side of his chest and blood began seeping through his shirt.
Someone had thrown a knife into him.
What the hell?
Wincing in pain, Gabriel lowered his bow and yanked the blade from his chest, tucking it into his waistband. He scanned the shadows for his attacker, drawing the compound bow back up with new resolve.
Maybe he’d been a little hasty in his decision not to murder anyone tonight.
As his wound began to heal, Gabriel’s eyes shot through the dark shadows.
Suddenly, Scarlet’s intruder appeared just yards away from him. Coming at him. Charging, almost.
Taking careful aim, Gabriel shot two arrows, one into the figure’s thigh, the other into his side—but neither slowed his opponent down.
Gabriel wasn’t ready to kill the guy—at least not yet.
After all, Gabriel was immortal. It wasn’t exactly a fair fight.
But the stranger kept charging. And in his hand was another knife.
Awesome.
The intruder lunged and, right when Gabriel was about to release another arrow into his attacker’s body, he heard a thwack.
The stranger fell dead at Gabriel’s feet—a long and deadly arrow jutting from his back.
Gabriel looked up from the body before him and saw Tristan with his bow still raised.
“Tristan!” Horror filled Gabriel’s eyes. “You just killed him.”
Tristan lowered the bow. “I know.”
“He’s a person, Tristan! This isn’t medieval England where you have to protect your bread and your goats! You can’t just shoot people dead.”
“I can if they creep into Scarlet’s room and try to kill my brother.”
Gabriel dropped his arm, the bow hanging at his side. He shook his head. “What are we going to do now? You just committed murder and now there’s a dead body—”
The corpse at Gabriel’s feet began to crumble.
The twins watched in disbelief as the intruder’s skin and bone slowly lost their color and turned to ash.
A gust of wind blew through the dark trees and the ash swirled away into the night, leaving behind only the stranger’s clothes and the three arrows his body no longer held.
Gabriel blinked. “What just happened?”
Slowly, Tristan shook his head. “No idea.”
The brothers slowly walked in a circle. The as
h was almost completely gone. It was as if no corpse had ever been there.
“He just…he just disintegrated.”
Tristan nodded.
“Have you ever seen anything like that before?”
“No.” Tristan stopped walking and crouched to where the stranger’s clothes lay. “I told you he wasn’t human.”
Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “I guess not.”
“Well.” Tristan rose from the ground. “Problem solved. No body, no crime. So, you don’t need to worry about going to jail or anything.”
Gabriel shook his head. “He wasn’t human. What does that mean?”
Tristan slowly exhaled. “It means our crazy little world just got creepier.”
Tristan kicked at the clothes on the ground until his shoe caught on something black.
A Head Ghost.
Tristan cursed and ran a hand through his hair.
Gabriel blinked. “He had another one? Where is he getting them?”
Tristan shook his head.
“What should we do now?” Gabriel exhaled.
“I don’t know…maybe we should take the Head Ghost back to Nate, but leave the clothes just like they are. We can come back here in the morning.”
Gabriel nodded and picked up the Head Ghost before the brothers quickly made their way back to their cars.
Gabriel started his engine and began to pull away, when he noticed Tristan wasnt leaving.
“What are you doing? We should go home and talk to Nate. Now.”
“I don’t want to leave Scarlet yet.”
Gabriel furrowed his brow. “Do you think she’s still in danger, even though we killed that guy?”
“I’m not sure. But either way, I won’t be able to sleep tonight. So, you go ahead. I’ll stay here and we’ll figure stuff out in the morning.
Gabriel contemplated staying with Tristan, but he was too eager to hear what Nate had to say about the non-human that turned to ash.
66
The next morning Tristan and Gabriel led Nate to the area where the intruder had died. Tristan carried a long dagger—just in case.
He wasn’t about to get all slashed up again because some crumbling creature was handy with a butcher knife.
The forest was desolate and void of any real information, aside from the scraps of clothing left in a heap on the ground.
“What do you think he was?” Gabriel asked Nate.
“I’m not sure.” Nate squatted to examine the few remaining ashes, carefully collecting a small sample. He looked up at Tristan. “Did you check for fangs?”
Tristan blinked. “Check for fangs? No. I didn’t roll him over and stick my fingers in his mouth. He wasn’t a vampire, Nate.”
“Well, you never know.”
“Vampires don’t exist.”
“Neither do immortal beings.” Nate smiled.
Tristan rolled his eyes.
“So, he just…evaporated?”
“No, he disintegrated. Like he was made of ash.” Gabriel said.
Tristan shook his head. “That guy was not made of ash. I grappled with him the other night and he had no problem punching me and slicing me open. Definitely not made of ash.”
Nate thought for a moment. “Well, I guess he could have been like us…but more vulnerable. Maybe that’s what happens when an immortal person dies. Maybe we turn to ash. And maybe he was looking for others like him. It would certainly explain why he’d gone after Scarlet.”
“He wasn’t immortal,” Tristan said. “My arrow wouldn’t have been able to kill him—even if he was a weaker version of us. Trust me.”
Nate gave Tristan a sour look.
“Where do you think he got the Head Ghosts?” Gabriel asked.
Nate stood back up. “I have no idea, but it’s weird that he had more than one. Did you see anyone else with him last night? Any other…strangers?”
Both brothers shook their heads.
Gabriel exhaled. “Do you think there’s more than just one guy after Scarlet? Do you think she’s still in danger?”
Nate twitched his lips. “I don’t know. I’d like to think this was an isolated incident…but I don’t know. Maybe he met Scarlet in her last life and knew all about her. Maybe she told him.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
Nate shrugged. “You never know. Scarlet has secrets, just like any of us.”
No one said anything for a moment.
“For now,” Nate said, “let’s just keep a close eye on her and watch for any other…ash people.”
Ash people?
Fantastic.
67
The next few weeks went by smoothly. Fall morphed into winter and brought icy winds and silent nights with it. Angie’s Halloween party came and went without any real drama, except for Heather having to explain to everyone what her costume was.
“I’m an Egyptian zombie queen,” she’d repeated over and over.
Like people should have just guessed that.
Nobody had attempted to break into Scarlet’s house since the night Tristan and Gabriel had killed the weird ash guy. Which was good news.
The fact that crazy ash people existed and were running around in the trees behind her house? Super creepy.
Scarlet was relieved that she no longer had to worry about an intruder.
She and the boys had been working nonstop on researching the fountain and her eyes hadn’t glowed since her conversation with Nate in the kitchen.
Everything was going well.
That is, everything except for Scarlet’s inevitable death—that was still looming on the horizon.
Scarlet tried to push death from her mind as much as possible. Instead, she focused on the fountain of youth. She read books, researched online, and talked to anyone and everyone she could find about myths and legends—all in the hopes that the fountain could, and would, be found before she keeled over. Which, according to Nate, could happen in the next few weeks.
And Heather didn’t have a clue.
It was hard for Scarlet to live a double life. She wanted so badly to tell Heather everything, but something always made her hesitate. Maybe it was fear. Maybe selfishness.
Scarlet couldn’t bring herself to do it yet.
Laura had been weird about Scarlet’s obsession with the fountain of youth, so Scarlet had resigned herself to doing her research at the library. Which is where she was the morning of winter formal.
Despite her and Gabriel’s strained relationship since the symbol incident, he insisted they still attend the dance together.
Because that was a great way to spend free time when really what you should be doing is finding a way not to die.
Scarlet hadn’t wanted to go, but she also didn’t want to disappoint Gabriel. He seemed to be looking forward to the dance and she didn’t want to let him down.
Ever since Nate had told her about Gabriel’s curse, Scarlet had tried to be an extra good girlfriend. She’d tried to show him as much love as she could. But Gabriel had still seemed…distant.
As if he no longer trusted her.
So, she was going to the winter formal with a hot guy who didn’t trust her but was probably in love with her because he didn’t have any other options.
Wonderful.
Scarlet looked at the time. Laura had probably already left on her business trip—she was going to be gone for almost ten days this time. It seemed like her work trips were getting longer and longer….
Poor Laura.
With Laura out of the house, however, Scarlet would be free to pursue her fountain investigation at home.
She looked at the clock again.
She’d go home soon. Just a few more minutes at the library, and then she’d head home to finish up her reading and start getting ready for the dance.
Scarlet continued her research until she came across an online passage about the fountain of youth being in a forest of tall trees and dark shadows. Scarlet opened her notebook for the zillionth time, hoping to find so
mething she’d missed.
She started to read on, but went blind as a new memory hit her.
She had an arrow and she was running away with it, trying to save…someone.
She ran and ran…until she came to a familiar house. She rushed inside and looked around for a hiding spot. It had to be a good spot…a permanent spot.
She ran into a bedroom and headed to a familiar cabinet. A wardrobe.
She pulled out the bottom drawer, removed a false bottom, and placed the arrow against the old wood. Covering the false bottom back up, she returned the drawer to its place and stepped back, breathing heavily.
The arrow was dangerous—it was deadly.
She had to keep it safe.
She had to keep everything safe.
Scarlet blinked back to the present and found herself breathing heavily, her eyes hot.
She was afraid. Truly fearful.
As if she had hidden the arrow just seconds ago rather than years ago.
Scarlet tried to get a grip, but she was confused. What was so dangerous about the arrow?
Suddenly, she had a feeling someone was about to die.
Someone besides her.
There was only one way to find out—she had to talk to Gabriel.
Scarlet pulled out her phone and called him
No answer.
She called Nate.
No answer.
Come on, guys!
Scarlet tapped her fingers on the library desk in front of her. She needed to tell someone immediately.
Someone was in danger—she could feel it!
She pulled out her phone and texted Gabriel.
I had a flashback. I’m on my way to your house. It’s important!
She pressed send and gathered her things.
This couldn’t wait—someone was going to die.
68
After knocking on the cabin door for two minutes without an answer, Scarlet turned the doorknob and found it unlocked.
Yeah, real safe guys.
She let herself in and called out for Gabriel.
Nothing.
She ran upstairs and looked for him, but found his room empty.
She went back downstairs, frustrated she wasn’t able to get a hold of anyone and didn’t think she could wait a moment longer to tell someone.
