by Chloe Adler
I shook my head. “Nope, you heard right.”
“What the hell, Sadie?” Her hand moved to my arm, comforting.
I made a low, unpleasant noise in my throat. A metallic taste mixed with juniper flooded my mouth. Gross.
“So what happened exactly? And with whom?” She blinked her upturned, oval eyes, thick with kohl eyeliner.
The music was bouncing off the walls and a few people were dancing, wearing very little. There was a sex act in progress in the corner but for the first time in my life, I wasn’t interested in watching it. Burgundy waited patiently until I refocused on her.
“Well, it gets weirder. I never saw his face and I was having some trouble focusing.”
“You?” She moved her hand up and down on my arm gently, waiting for me to finish.
“It’s not like me, I know. The scene was so hot. I kept having to bring myself back . . . to my clit, basically.”
“Huh.” My friend was almost speechless for once. It made me laugh. She continued, “Maybe you’re finally allowing yourself to feel your feelings, to acknowledge them. That’s progress.” She leaned in and kissed my shoulder.
“Maybe.” I nodded. “I don’t know, but somehow he could tell I was having trouble being in the moment and . . . his demeanor changed.”
My friend tilted her head to the side, quietly listening.
“He tried bringing me back physically and verbally. I was just getting there when I felt something drip on my face. He screamed like he was in some sort of pain.”
Burgundy leaned toward me, her eyebrows pulling together. “What?”
I nodded, wiping the phantom liquid from my face again, even though none of it remained. Now it was my turn to lean into her. “It was blood.”
“A crying vampire?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.” That made more sense than anything else. “Yeah, that’s probably what it was.” Not Ryder then.
“Oh sweetie, so much drama.”
“Yeah, well, I was guilty of adding plenty of my own. Maybe he was just reacting to my emotions? Maybe I triggered something?”
“Maybe . . .” Burgundy looked toward the stage for a minute and then back at me. “And then?”
“He practically flew off of me, quickly untied my wrists and was gone. Not a word.”
Burgundy shook her head. “Gentlemen vampires are few and far between these days.”
“I have to get some air.” I pushed away from the table and stalked toward the exit. Burgundy followed.
“I’m not letting you go outside alone.”
“Why? You afraid I’ll get jumped by a vampire? Everyone knows I’m your best friend.” Not all vampires were friendly or asked first.
“Am I allowed to worry about you?” The look in her eyes said everything. She only wanted to help and I was pushing her away. Again.
I stopped just short of the door. “Burg.” I reached my hand up to her face. “I’m still processing.”
She grabbed my hand off her face, holding it for a moment before resting it on her heart. “My heart may beat slower and longer than yours but it’s still filled to the brim, with you. When you hurt, I hurt.”
My lips stretched into a smile as I threw my arms around her.
That’s probably what saved me.
Burgundy was holding me tightly against her when the front entrance to the V Club blew off. The shards from the oak door embedded themselves into her back. She screamed as she was propelled forward, landing on top of me.
With my wind knocked out, I remained motionless under Burgundy’s bulk, trying to catch my breath. I could hear screaming and crying. People ran over my best friend, trampling her. Luckily, she was built like a truck driver, albeit a very sexy one. I couldn’t see anything and I wondered why Burgundy wasn’t moving before I realized she was staying on top of me on purpose.
“Burg,” I said in her ear, trying to push her off, but she wouldn’t budge.
“Shut the fuck up,” she whispered in my ear.
All of my bones felt crushed but they probably weren’t, I was just going to be really sore the next day. I pried one of my arms out from under her body and pushed some strands of her hair aside so I could peek out from under her. She loosened up a little bit so I could breathe when she realized I wasn’t trying to get up anymore.
The V Club looked like a war zone. The Scrim’s zombies were piling in, forming a human wall. Their eyes were completely white. It was beyond creepy. They walked forward, forcing the patrons back, even walking over Burgundy and me like we weren’t lying in their way at all.
I twisted my head to look for Jared at the table he had been occupying but before I could spot him, Burgundy was being lifted off me like a rag doll. I tried to hold onto her but I wasn’t strong enough. Her body, moving without her control, hovered above me for an instant. She was mouthing something to me, holding my gaze, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying above the screaming. Then, as if she was as light as the feathers on her G-string, which I knew firsthand she was not, her body was flung across the room. She hit the far wall with a terrible force.
I didn’t have time to see if she was okay because standing smack-dab in front of me was my dad. The look in his eyes was one of terrible anguish and pain. He was holding the same staff he’d had at Promise. The symbol atop glowed red.
“Dad,” I cried out, reaching for him.
He put up his hand in the universal stop sign and I couldn’t move at all. I was completely frozen.
The Scrim appeared then, behind my father, menacing.
“Do it,” he said, and in that moment, my dad had no choice but to obey.
Why?
And then it happened. My father, who I hadn’t seen in twelve years, brought his hands up to his forehead, still clutching the staff. He waved them around in the air, shaping a sphere. Something blue and electric held in the space before him for a moment before he threw it at me.
The moment the spell hit, I was flung backwards again. My mouth was open and my eyes wide, begging my father not to hurt me and utterly confused because my father was not a witch. He had no powers that I or anyone else in the family knew of.
My body hovered in midair as Burgundy’s had, only perpendicular, and then, slowly, I descended to the ground. Standing in front of the scene. Facing it. I couldn’t move, I tried.
The Scrim opened his mouth then. Like the first time I’d seen him, his teeth were pointed, but now they were also stained with blood. No sound emanated from the cavity of his disgusting maw. Around me, both Signum and humans were falling to the ground, holding their ears and screaming, but I just stood there in complete silence, unable to look away and completely unaffected.
He closed his mouth and said something to my father, who responded back to him. I couldn’t hear anything over the screams of the people.
My father shook his head. The Scrim looked at me again and then back at my father. That’s when Papa turned toward someone. I followed his gaze to Jared, who was trying desperately to crawl to my rescue, his hands held tightly over his ears. Dad grabbed something invisible out of the air and then made a fist before throwing it at Jared. He let out a cry and froze in place for an instant before he started to change.
I had never seen Jared transform before. Most shifters did not change in public. It was part of their code. And for Jared, it was more than a code, it was a badge. Too personal, he’d told me once, I have to save something for just me. Yet here it was for all to see because of some evil spell my father, who couldn’t cast spells, was casting. My heart broke as I watched my male BFF being torn open.
His flesh split apart as his actual bones reformed. The tearing sounds filled my head. Wet. Thick. Crunching. His body turning in on itself, betraying its true form. For several moments it looked like anything but human or animal. Red. Angry. Meat. It was worse than any horror movie and non-shifters screamed and turned away or covered their eyes. Surprisingly there was no blood but the way his face contorted, a lot of pain. Did it h
appen this way when he wasn’t forced? So gruesome. So painful. How did shifters stay sane?
“Jared.” I stifled a scream.
A zombie human stepped forward and placed a cage over Jared’s fox form.
My invisible bonds were released once Jared was caged.
Everyone had seen his shift, or at least the people not cowering in corners. If I ever found him again, he’d be so humiliated he’d want to move out of town.
“That was cool,” some guy with too many piercings said off to my right. “I would have paid to see that.”
“Shut up,” I hissed at him.
“Make me.” The guy obviously had a death wish.
I lunged at the same time someone grabbed me by my hair. My dad. He pulled me backwards and into him.
“Dad, what are you doing? Did you really leave the family that loved you to be a part of this?” I tried to wave my arm around but he was holding onto me.
“Sadie,” he whispered into my ear. “My Sadie.”
“I’m not your Sadie anymore. You lost that title when you left without a word.”
“I’m so sorry.” He sounded anguished. “When I explain, you’ll understand.”
“Explain, then.”
“No time.” He looked over his shoulder.
“Come back with me now, Dad. Right now.”
“I can’t.”
“You don’t love me? Us?”
I tried to wriggle around to face him but he was holding on too tightly.
The Scrim, who had apparently been busy for a moment elsewhere gathering more humans for his army, appeared next to us.
“You have the witch. Good.” He reached toward me, his claws hovering several inches from my face. The eyes of the beast narrowed. His lips peeled back, baring those pointed teeth.
I had to crane my neck to see, standing so close.
He flicked his wrist as though he couldn’t be bothered. “Bring your daughter,” he said to my father. “We are ready for her now.”
It was better to break free from my father’s clutches, even if it meant hurting myself, than go with him but before I could do anything, my father slammed his staff on the ground. The symbol lit up once more and every person in the room froze except for me and Dad.
“Sadie, I don’t have time to explain. Your safety depends on this. Leave now. He won’t stop until he has you.”
“But why?”
My dad cocked his head to one side. I remembered that puzzled look of his. “You still don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“What you are.”
Even in that bleak moment, I laughed. “Yeah, Dad, I’m a complete screwup with close to zero power.”
He shook his head. “Please, Sadie, go. Know that I didn’t leave because I didn’t love you, your sisters or your mom. I left because I do.”
He let go of me and slammed the staff on the ground three times.
I didn’t see what happened next.
At first I didn’t even know where I was. My entire body ached, even my head. It took me a few minutes to realize I was on my bed, covered in a cheetah-patterned blanket.
“Burgundy,” I practically screamed as I sat up. Ouch.
Burgundy ran into the room. She looked the way I felt. I’d never seen her bruised before.
“Sadie, how do you feel?”
I had to put my head in my hands for a minute. It hurt worse than after a heavy bender. I looked up and around my room. Everything looked the same.
“What happened?”
“Not sure. One minute you were there and the next . . .” She waved her hands in front of her face. “Poof.”
“Like Aurelia’s dramatic exits?”
Burgundy nodded. “Exactly.”
“But where did I go?”
“Here. You were here on your bed when I got back. But completely out of it. I tried to wake you up but couldn’t.” Burgundy sat down next to me on my bed and ran her fingers through my hair. “I slept next to you all night. I only just got up to go to the bathroom.”
“What happened at the club? After I disappeared?”
“It got ugly.”
I sighed, leaning into her. “Uglier.” My tone was flat, no affect. I was numb.
“The Scrim grabbed your father around his neck and shook him back and forth. There was blood.”
“What?” I pushed away from her and tried to get up, collapsing back down on my bed from weakness or exhaustion or both.
Burgundy put her hand on my arm. “Your dad’s eyes rolled back into his head. The Scrim touched his back and then he was like one of his other zombies.”
“This doesn’t make any sense. Who is that guy and where did he come from?”
Burgundy shook her head. “I don’t know but we need to find out.”
“What about Jared? What happened to him?”
“They put him in a cage and took him. So. Horrible.” She moved her hand down to my leg idly but the look on her face was all concern.
“We have to get him back.” My voice sounded foreign to my own ears, shrill and filled with desperation. It helped to focus on the twisting of my ring. Comfort.
Burgundy nodded at me. “First we form a plan.”
“No time.” I tried to rise, then fell back onto the bed. “Why does it hurt so much?”
“You have to ask?”
I shook my head. “Jared needs us.”
“Jared needs us to be well enough to help him. As far as we know, the Scrim hasn’t killed anyone he’s taken.”
“How do you know, Burg?”
“I don’t. Not for sure. No dead bodies.” She shrugged. “He didn’t actually kill anyone at Promise or the V Club . . .”
“Yeah, he just left a lot of people hurt or unconscious.”
Burgundy nodded. “Or he whisked them away for his zombie army. Jared will be fine. He can always shift into his griffin form and escape.”
I slumped back down into my comforter. Burgundy rubbed my hair again.
“My question is, why couldn’t the Scrim touch you, Sadie?”
I looked down at my chest. “My amulet?”
Sitting in Aurelia’s kitchen, I played with my amulet.
“So far, the constant is me, Burgundy and Jared.”
Aurelia’s mismatched eyes darkened as she jutted her chin toward me. “You were wearing your amulet?”
“I was. Is that what saved me?”
“Yes.” She glided over to the teapot. My mother doesn’t walk, she glides, literally.
“Spearmint?”
“Yes, please.” She knew it was my favorite. She must have felt bad that I’d almost been taken. I couldn’t think of any other reason for her to be nice to me.
Plucking the leaves from a drying sprig overhead, Aurelia set to making me some tea.
“Is it true?” Iphi rushed into the kitchen, wearing her furry pink pajamas.
“Which part?” I didn’t want to give up any information I didn’t have to.
“I heard Dad was with the Scrim last night and that Jared was forced to shift in public and then captured.”
“Ah yes.” I rubbed my face with my hands. “All true.”
Iphi rushed over to me and threw her arms around me. “Oh Sadie, you poor thing, are you okay?”
At least I had one empathetic family member. I returned Iphi’s hug and buried my face in her ringlets, breathing in her soothing, familiar vanilla scent.
“Can we go to your room for a second?”
“Anything you have to say to Iphi you can say to me,” Aurelia’s clipped, no-nonsense voice rang out.
“Iph?” I whispered, looking to my sister for help. Iphi or Chrys could usually placate her.
“Mom. I think it’s fair for Sadie to have a little privacy if she needs it. No?”
“Fine,” Aurelia said without turning around.
Iphi quickly grabbed my hand, practically dragging me out of the kitchen. I knew that Aurelia could cast a hearing spell. I was never really safe fr
om her, no one was. But at least I could pretend.
Iphi’s room was different from the way mine had been when I was eighteen. I still had a semblance of my childhood on the walls and in the furniture, but the only childlike thing about Iphi was her pajamas. Her bedroom looked like it belonged to a thirty-something, with actual artwork, some of it originals by Chrys, strategically placed on the walls. I fought a momentary pang of jealousy. Chrys never made anything for me.
Her furniture was so mature, not cheap particleboard like what I’d had when I was her age. She’d already saved enough of her own money from teaching private aerial lessons prior to starting group classes at circus school. She’d squirreled away enough to purchase most of the pieces from an antique store in town. Her four-poster bed alone was a masterpiece of carved mahogany. There was no doubt that Iphi had impeccable taste.
That, and the room was perfectly neat. On her antique, seventeenth-century vanity rested her athame, her book of shadows, a pentacle drawn in pink sand and her crystal ball, which was displayed on a golden stand in the center.
Aurelia had given us all crystal balls when we were born. Since I was born pretty much powerless, I’d never been able to use mine. Though I do have faint memories—probably dreams—of seeing magical things in it when I was a small child. I stared into Iphi’s for a moment. Was that a swirl—? No, must be my imagination.
“What were you looking at?” I asked her.
“I was watching what happened last night. That’s how I knew.”
I nodded and sat down at her vanity. Iphi came to stand next to me and lifted up her hairbrush to begin brushing the back of my hair. That was sisterly love and trust right there. I wouldn’t let just anyone touch my hair for fear of them frizzing it. Wavy, almost curly hair was to be respected, not tamed. Iphi understood this, since she had perfect ringlets.
She leaned in and pointed to the ball. I looked at it as she chanted an incantation and moved one hand around it in a flurry. The mist cleared to reveal me at the club, Dad holding onto me as the Scrim reached out to grab me. One instant I was there, and the next I was gone. I really had disappeared.
“Dad saved you.”
It was a statement spoken with certainty, and I could see she was correct.
