Her Lying Days Are Done

by Robert J. Crane

  “If only you had Netflix, this could have been avoided,” I said as he burned, jerking and spasming, dropping to his knees. Around us, every vampire in the room was on fire, a sea of flaming people adding their voice to a chorus of screams, a hideous counterpoint to their earlier laughter.

  There was a good minute or so of quiet. Of little or no motion. Of me counting each heartbeat, reminding myself that they weren’t my last.

  I lifted my head from where it lay on Mill’s body and looked around.

  Iona stood across the room, a figure in black surrounded by piles of the tarry goo the same color. Beneath the stairs were eyes staring back at me, human ones—

  My parents. Laura. Xandra. Her parents.

  They were all fine.

  I forced myself to breathe through my nose. Ash hung in the air, suspended in the beams of sunlight.

  I heard furious clicking as someone pounded their finger against the button in the elevator. I whipped around, ready to call out to Iona for help—

  Jacquelyn was standing inside, shrouded from the sun by the elevator box. She was glaring at me from its shadow, but there was fear in her eyes, too.

  I half thought about stopping her, but I didn’t. It was run after her or stay with Mill.

  The elevator dinged, and the doors slowly swept closed.

  My decision was long made.

  I was going to choose Mill every time.

  Chapter 39

  “Are you all right?” Lockwood fluttered to the ground beside me, his wings catching the sunlight that was streaming through the window.

  “Are those wings?” Xandra had crawled out from under the stairs and was struggling to her feet. She was covered in dust and ash, and her blue hair was askew, hanging in her eyes. “Wow.” She was full-on gawking.

  Lockwood was breathing heavily, and I saw streaks of bright, shining silver flowing down his arms from where he'd crashed through the glass. He smiled tightly at her.

  “He really is a faerie,” came Laura’s voice from the shadows beneath the stairs.

  Lockwood moved toward the stairs as I watched and pulled out a thin knife with a blade that was as clear as glass, but green like an emerald. He sliced through the bindings on everyone’s wrists, one by one. Mom didn’t even say anything, just offered her hands to the man with glittering wings and stared at them with dull eyes as he cut her free. As soon as she was loose, Mom ran over to me, practically tackling me over onto Mill's prostrated form, still covered by the thick blanket.

  “I was so worried,” she choked out. Dad joined her a moment later, a little slower, enfolding us both in a gentle hug.

  “I'm fine.” I said, pulling free. “Really.” I would say you could color them skeptical, but they were more sunlight-colored at this point, orange dawn shining in through the whole place. “It's okay. We made it.”

  “Barely,” came Iona’s voice, muffled by her black helmet. She was standing in the shadows near the elevator, blackened stakes on the ground at her feet.

  A fresh dribble of Lockwood’s silvery blood drew my eye as it dripped down his arm. “We need to get you patched up,” I said.

  “I’ll be fine,” he said.

  “You crashed through hurricane-rated glass,” I said. “That’s no small feat. I’m surprised that you didn’t get shredded like lettuce on a taco.”

  The corner of Lockwood’s mouth turned up in a smile. “There might have been magic involved in that.”

  “Thank you,” I said, hoping he could see the gratitude in my face. “Seriously. I know that my plan was crazy—”

  “Insane, actually,” Iona called, still lingering by the elevator.

  I glared at her. “Yes, okay, it was insane. Nevertheless, thank you for helping me.”

  “Wait, this was your plan?” Xandra asked. “Rip down the curtains? This wasn’t you trying to die nobly and these two coming in to save you at the last minute?”

  “Uh, yeah, this was the plan,” I said. “Why do you think I waited as long as I did to show up? Can’t burn vamps without sunlight.”

  “Wow, Cassie,” Mom said, blinking away surprise. “This was surprisingly well thought out.”

  I almost fell over. “Thanks, Mom. Is everyone okay, though?” I peered at Xandra's mom and dad, still hanging back by the stairs. They didn't answer, but they seemed fine.

  Laura stepped, ash streaking her pretty face. “No, they didn’t hurt us. They made sure to keep us healthy so that when you got here, they could...well, you know.”

  I shuddered, thinking how close we'd come to actual disaster. “Well, he didn't get the chance,” I said, ignoring that squirming feeling in my stomach at what might have been if I'd failed.

  “This was incredibly risky, Cassie,” Dad said, voice soft, a little shell-shocked.

  “I know,” I said, “but what else could I have done?”

  He pulled me into another tight hug. “I’m just glad you're all right.” He looked around. “That everyone is.”

  There was a moan of pain, and movement from underneath the blanket beside Lockwood. I'd gotten so used to Mill being still that it spooked me, and my heart jumped.

  “Whoa, whoa!” I said, dashing across the room and pinning the blanket on him as he moved beneath it. “There’s sunlight out here.”

  “Yes, please keep your massive forehead covered given all we just went through to save it,” Iona said.

  “What…what happened?” Mill asked, halting his motion, voice muffled beneath the thick cloth.

  I lay flat against the blanket and felt his shape beneath it, my eyes welling with tears. The relief that I felt at hearing his voice was so strong that it nearly made me giddy. “You’re alive. Or as alive as you are normally.”

  He shifted under the blanket. “Cassie? Are you…lying on me?”

  “Of course I am, you idiot,” I said, clutching him like my life depended on it. “How else am I supposed to show you how happy I am that you’re all right?”

  “Oh.” I heard a low chuckle, and then a deep, barking cough. “Ugh, I feel like hell. Where am I?”

  “Draven’s penthouse,” I said.

  “What?” he asked, his body stiffening.

  “It’s fine, he’s dead,” I said, and then I froze.

  Draven…was dead?

  Mill froze, too. “Beg pardon?”

  “He is, indeed, dead,” Lockwood said, dabbing at one of the cuts on his arm with a handkerchief.

  “Draven had those witches cast a blood magic spell on you that would only break if he died,” I said. “So...I kinda made sure he did so.”

  “I'm sure there's a long, involved story about how that all came about,” he said, sounding pretty tired, “but can we just get out of Draven's penthouse? Dead or not, I don't really want to be sitting here blind, under a blanket.”

  “Yeah, the vibe in here is really grim,” Xandra said. “Let's bounce.”

  “Yes, it'd be a real shame to survive all that and then get charged with breaking and entering,” Mom said.

  “Well,” I said, “you're not wrong.” And I watched Lockwood help Mill, still covered by the blanket, to his feet with care.

  Iona clicked the elevator door button in the exact same way Jacquelyn had, repeatedly pressing it.

  “I knew you were going to show up,” Xandra said, falling in beside me as we made our way over to the elevator.

  “You did?” My brow furrowed. “How did you know I'd be able to do anything?”

  “Because it’s you, Cassie,” Xandra said with a shrug. “You’re like the wonder slayer or something. These vamps were like…legit afraid of you. All of them. Even Draven, regardless of what he acted like.”

  “I don’t know about that…” I said. “I was probably more afraid of him than he was of me.”

  “He was wrong, though, wasn’t he? In the end, you got the better of him,” Xandra said with a smile as the elevator dinged open.

  She was right.

  I filed in with the rest of them, huddli
ng tighter, bumping against Mill in his blanket as Lockwood led him in beside me. “How do you feel?” I asked.

  “Like I'm in a crowded elevator with a bunch of human space heaters,” Mill said, and I could see the outline of his head through the blanket. “You?”

  “A little dinged up, but otherwise okay,” I said, repressing a fierce desire to hug him. Oh, screw it. I threw my arms around him and hugged him anyway.

  Mill didn’t say anything. I felt him wrap his arm as best as he could around me. It was an awkward hug, but I couldn’t stand to wait anymore.

  He was safe. He wasn’t dead. And Draven was gone. I could have tackled a hundred thousand vampires then and taken them all alone, that’s how good I was feeling.

  When we broke off, Iona cleared her throat, then smacked me in the back of the head.

  “Hey, ow,” I said.

  “Idiot,” she muttered under her breath as she pulled off the helmet. “You go through all this for him and settle for a hug?” She shook her head at me, then pulled the helmet back down as the elevator dinged and the doors opened on the lobby. I looked around for Jacquelyn, but the place was quiet, not a single person in sight.

  We strolled out through the main doors under the portico and into the streets of Tampa, which were starting to come to life. Mill walked at my side, Lockwood leading him along like a gothic ghost.

  “Mill needs to get back to his house as soon as possible,” Iona said. “He's going to need rest and darkness. And blood.” She smacked her lips together beneath the helmet. “Actually, so do I. I swear, hanging out with you is exhausting, even worse than spending time with normal people. I'm always hungry and tired and haven't slept for days after one of our little adventures.”

  “I brought the limo,” Lockwood said, letting go of Mill once he saw I had taken him by the arm, “wait here just a moment.”

  “I'm going to get my motorcycle,” Iona said, pointing over her shoulder by the portico. I could see it parked over there. “You're just lucky they weren't actually watching my house so I could go get this bad boy. No way was I mounting a daylight rescue wearing all this motorcycle gear without actually having a bike to ride. I'd look like an idiot.” She glanced at Xandra. “Like her. Blue haired and not even a grandmother yet.”

  Xandra just rolled her eyes. “Learn a trend, biker chick.”

  Lockwood pulled up and Xandra opened the door. I pushed Mill into the dark interior, the tinted windows almost black, and climbed in after him. The others were getting in now, too, but I hustled him up to the front and sat him down on the bench.

  “Can I come out from under the blanket now?” Mill asked.

  “For a second, yeah,” I said, my heart racing. “Lockwood, don't open the divider. Mill is exposed.”

  I caught my mother’s flinch at that. And I didn't care.

  Mill pulled at the fabric and shortly after, his dirty blond head appeared, and I found his dark blue eyes blinking at me.

  “It’s good to see you,” I said, almost breathless as someone slammed the limo door. For a minute, it felt like we were the only two in there, sitting on the backward-facing bench together.

  He leveled a half smile at me. It was obvious he was not feeling his best, still. Dark veins stood out on his cheeks and forehead, and his skin still looked near transparent, a little Draven-y for my taste, but...

  But I didn’t care. I threw my arms around his neck, unable to stop myself, and kissed him. I'd thought that I’d never get the chance to do that again, to show him how much I cared about him. I squeezed him tightly, throwing everything I had at the kiss.

  He almost fell off the seat under the force of my embrace, but eventually, and easily, he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off my seat.

  I didn’t think that I would ever be able to tell him how scared I had been. How much I had missed him. How guilty I had been. How important he was to me.

  So I just tried to make it clear with my kiss.

  “Oh, for…” I heard Xandra say. “Could you like…not? At least not here?”

  I broke from him with a laugh. “Yes. Yes, I can...'not'.” I caught Mill smiling at me, weary but mischievous. “For now.” And I settled back against the seat, his fingers interlaced in mine, and just enjoyed the ride.

  We'd made it.

  Chapter 40

  “It doesn’t look all that bad,” Xandra said, standing beside me on the walkway up to my house. “Not really.”

  It was early afternoon the day after everything went down. The air was warm. Duh. It was Florida. The air still smelled of charred wood, but there was also a sort of musty odor. Like ozone before a rainstorm.

  Xandra wasn’t wrong. The roof seemed to still be intact, and the whole left side of the house, where the bedrooms were on the second floor, seemed undamaged. The living room and kitchen, however, had giant holes where the windows had been, scorch marks that stained the grey stucco walls on the outside.

  “I guess not,” I said, “the fire inspector says it's not a total loss, that they can rebuild.” That made me smile, because it was kinda...sorta...maybe a little bit...

  Starting to feel like home.

  Xandra snorted. I noticed that she still had a butterfly bandage under her eye. She was wearing it proudly, though, like a badge of honor. “You know, Cass, I noticed something different in you through this whole mess,” she said, folding her arms, squinting against the bright sunlight through the trees.

  “Oh, yeah?” I said. “What’s that?”

  “You were honest. About everything. And to everyone.”

  I gave her a sidelong glance.

  “I mean, you were the serial liar, right?” she asked, not tiptoeing around my feelings. “So why not lie your ass off to Draven? To Jacquelyn? Hell, even throwing some little white ones your parents' way during this process would have made your life easier.”

  I sighed, staring into the dining room window. I could just barely make out the dining room table where I had been sitting with Mom, Dad, and Mill the night I had come back from Faerie. Mill had sort of started the process, but I was the one who wanted to see it through.

  “No, it wasn’t because I had no other choice.” I said. “I’ll tell you about it later, but the short version is that in Faerie, I think I finally got the point about just how detrimental my lying could be. What it could really affect.”

  Xandra nodded, brushing a few stray blue hairs from her eyes. “I get it. I hope you don't mind if I don't join you in total honesty town, though. Because while my parents are okay, they're not exactly eager to hear about vampires and faeries and whatnot. So last night's dinner was super quiet.” She looked over at me. “Probably like how it was for your parents the first time they were kidnapped.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, they aren’t exactly sanguine about that happening again. Mom’s even wearing garlic, even though I told her that it wouldn’t work.” We shared a smile. “You know, I think if Draven would have asked me what I was planning, I would have told him exactly what I was going to do. He would have thought I was crazy, sure. But I would have told him.”

  “I mean…maybe lying, just that once, would have been okay,” Xandra said. “He was too cocky anyways, though, wasn’t he? He really thought we were just cows for him to eat, didn't he?”

  “Strongest argument I've heard yet for vegetarianism,” I said. “Making me feel for the cows.”

  “Eat a burger, you'll forget about empathy for tasty creatures,” Xandra said. “How's Iona doing?”

  “She’s good, I guess? Keeping her distance, probably waiting for my trauma to wear off.” I reached up into my hair, and remembered that Draven had taken my last stake, snapping it in half. I was still trying to get used to not sleeping with it underneath my pillow. “I think secretly she was happy to have had the chance to slay those vamps. She didn’t like them very much.” I thought for a second. “I feel like she's a Viking in disguise.”

  “She does give off that vibe, yeah,” Xandra said. “Like she would
bathe in the blood of her enemies.”

  I snickered.

  “So, um…shifting to the uncomfortable,” Xandra said, kicking at a stone on the walkway. “How’s Mill?”

  My cheeks burned, but I smiled. “He’s fine. Better, definitely. As good as you can be without a heartbeat.”

  She smirked.

  “Lockwood helped get him the blood he needed, and he's resting. We haven’t had a lot of time to talk since Mom and Dad and I moved into that hotel. But he’s okay. That message has gotten through clearly.”

  Xandra gave me an appreciative smile. “So…you kinda killed every vampire in Tampa, didn’t you? Or, all the bad ones, at least?”

  “I don’t know, really,” I said. “I can’t imagine that they all were there that night. But yeah…probably a lot of them are dead. At the very least, the Lord of the region is, which Iona said could lead to some problems in the future, but I'm having a hard time giving a care.” I shoved my hands deeper in my pockets. “He and Byron were the bane of my existence.”

  “And he was the top of the food chain, right? Like, there won’t be anyone who will step into his shoes and come after you for vengeance on his behalf?” Xandra asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Iona doesn’t think so, and Mill seems to agree, so that’s good news.” But the knot in my chest wouldn’t ease, no matter how much I wanted to believe it was true.

  Maybe it was still the shock of it all. In time, that would probably fade. My body was still too eager to jump into fight or flight mode.

  “You know what I want, though?” I asked. “I want to go to the beach. You know, do some normal Floridian lifestyle things. What do you guys do down here? Because if we're going by my experience it's all fighting vampires and riding around with fae and running with Amish werewolves.”

  “That's a definitely a side of Florida that most don't experience.” Xandra shrugged. “I mean, I don't know what other people do, but me...eat noodles? Watch anime?”

  I sighed with happiness. “That sounds like heaven to me right now.”