by Gabby Fawkes
The flicker in his eyes betrayed him.
“I knew it,” Retta muttered.
“Nice to meet you, Kevin,” I said loud enough to drown her out. From their faces, I could tell the three Vanpari were related. The family resemblance between them was striking. “You’re brothers and sisters, aren’t you? Where are your parents?”
“They’re dead,” Sandra said.
My heart ached for them. Cal was Heidi’s age and Sandra round about mine. Kevin looked a little older, maybe nineteen, but he was clearly too young for the responsibility of caring for his teenage siblings on his own.
“Why aren’t you in foster care?” I asked.
Kevin looked furious. “Foster care? For Vanpari? You’ve got to be kidding.”
This was news to me. If there was no support system in place for the Vanpari then they really were treated like second class citizens, just like Retta had said.
“This is the best we can do,” Sandra explained. “The manager is a moon-Mage. He lets us sleep here during the day as long as we clear out by sunset.”
Kevin checked his watch. “Which is pretty soon, actually. We should get going.”
Retta held her hand up to stop them. “Not so fast,” she said accusingly. “Your name and address was among William Geiser’s paperwork. Why? You work for him? For someone who hates Vanpari? You profit by betraying your own people?”
“You don’t have the right to judge,” Kevin said, bringing his pointer finger right up to Retta’s face. “I know you. You’re a Sugar Plum. What do you know about poverty? We get money where we can. Geiser’s the least bad option.”
I tugged on Retta’s arm, trying to get her to back down. The whole good-cop, bad-cop thing was not going to work here. Luckily, she backed away.
I looked at Kevin. “How exactly do you make money from him?” I asked.
But the older boy wasn’t speaking anymore.
His sister answered instead. “All we have to do is cause a scene. It’s not that big a deal. We rob a liquor store. Rough up a Celestial. That sort of thing.”
Retta glared at Cal. “Was that whole thing with Trevor staged?”
Cal shook his head, looking terrified of her.
Again, Sandra answered on his behalf, her voice heavy with emotion. “We used to work together. Tag team. But we didn’t give Trevor his half from another job. He took it out on Cal.”
Kevin, his arms folded across his chest, glared at me. “Not that any of this is your business. I should’ve sucked your blood the second you walked in here.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Way to be a stereotype,” Retta said. “Just because everyone says the Vanpari are blood-suckers who live like bats in smelly dark caves doesn’t mean you have to prove them right.”
Kevin came up close to her again, his face barely an inch away.
“Retta…” I warned.
She turned to me, her voice vicious. “Why aren’t you mad about this?”
“I am,” I contested. In fact, I was furious. These kids were sleeping with the enemy, doing Geiser’s dirty work for short-term gain. But my fury was for Geiser, not them. They didn’t have a choice. They were in a desperate situation. Geiser had preyed on their weakness, just like he had Mom. “But I know how Geiser works. How he manipulates people. Besides, we’re here to ask for their help. Yelling at them isn’t going to get them on our side.”
“Help?” Sandra asked.
I turned to the Vanpari siblings. “Geiser might be protecting you now, but he won’t once he gets in power. He only cares about people while they’re useful to him. The second he’s got what he needs, he’ll turn his back on you. Discard you. Throw you away. And that’s if you’re lucky.” I thought of Carmella Reed, Geiser’s Celestial mistress. Her life had been snuffed out on his command. “If you’re anything like the others he’s used before, he’ll kill you to stop you speaking.”
Kevin pouted. He looked just about ready to thump someone.
“Like you care,” he spat.
“I do actually,” I said. “I care about all the people Geiser believes should become second-class citizens.” Then my voice dropped sadly. “And he wants me dead, too.”
A sudden look of recognition overcame Kevin’s features. His gaze fixed on my ears. “You’re the stepdaughter,” he stated.
“Yeah,” I said. “How’d you know about me?”
But Kevin looked suddenly shifty. It was obvious he was holding something back.
“Look, whatever you’re hiding it won’t shock me. He’s already tried to have me killed. You may as well spit it out,” I urged.
Kevin paced away, looking like he was debating with himself. Finally, he turned back and fixed his steel-gray eyes on mine. “Geiser was recruiting people recently for an attack. He’s planning some huge public event for maximum impact. And you’re supposed to die.”
My face drained of all warmth. I felt ice running up my spine.
Retta reached for my arm, squeezing it. “He tried to recruit you?”
Sandy nodded. “We said no. We do have some morals.” She flashed her an angry expression.
“We told him that we wouldn’t kill,” Kevin added. “And that he wouldn’t find a single Vanpari in Brownsville who would. There’s a big difference between robbing a liquor store and killing a living, breathing person.”
“I’m glad you agree,” I replied.
I paced away, my mind swirling. A few days ago I was just a normal girl living her normal life. Now look where I was and what I’d been embroiled in.
I looked up at the Vanpari gang. “We’re trying stop Geiser from getting in power. We need people to speak up against him, to expose all the shady shit he’s done. Will you help us?”
They all exchanged glances, Sandra and Cal looking hopeful.
But Kevin shook his head firmly. “No way. We don’t have any other protection. If we speak against Geiser, he’ll hire people to kill us instead. You don’t understand what it’s like to be Vanpari. The things we have to do to survive. Helping you isn’t worth it.”
“He’ll kill you anyway,” I replied. “Once you’re no longer useful.”
“Or maybe he’ll kill us for talking to you,” Sandra said, looking suddenly worried.
“Shit, good point,” Kevin said. “You’d better leave. All of you.”
“Wait, no,” I said. “Let’s talk this through. We can come to an agreement.”
But Kevin seemed suddenly rattled, having just realized if he was caught fraternizing with me he was as good as dead anyway.
“Get out!” he bellowed. “GO! NOW!”
He started shoving us out the door. Lucas puffed up his chest. He seemed to grow an extra foot wider, his muscles straining against his tee.
“We’re leaving,” he told the Vanpari gang. “No need to push.”
We staggered out into the drizzly evening, the door to the Chinese takeout slamming shut behind us. We were no closer to bringing down Geiser.
Cora was the first to break the silence. “Now what?”
“We’re out of leads,” Retta said, her shoulders slumping.
“Not quite,” I told them. “We’ve got one more shot. One more person we can try to convince to speak out against Geiser.”
Everyone looked at me with perplexed expressions.
“Who?” Aaron asked.
“Elliot,” I told them. “The missing one of the Vanpari Five.”
Everyone’s perplexed expression grew even stronger.
“I’m sorry, what now?” Retta asked, folding her arms. “What are you talking about?”
“He’s Nik’s friend,” I explained.
“Nik knows the Vanpari on the run?” Cora asked, stunned.
I nodded. “And I know where he is. I saw him hiding out in Bear Mountain the morning I left. If we can find him and convince him to speak out against Geiser, we might have it. The only thing is, we’ll need Nik to help us find him.”
“Why?” Aaron challenged.<
br />
“Because they’re friends. They’re connected. And Nik has a talisman of Elliot’s that he dropped. We can use it to help me track him through the forests, then Nik can try and talk him into helping us.”
“Then let’s go!” Retta cried insistently. “Let’s stop standing around in this crappy neighborhood.” She shivered against the rain. “It’s screwing up my hair.”
“That’s the thing,” I said. “We don’t know where Nik is.”
We all exchanged tense glances. Without Nik there’d be no convincing Elliot. Until we found him, we were completely stuck.
21
I woke up to sound of my cell phone ringing. I blinked, surprised to see that it was morning and I was lying on Cora’s battered leather couch. Beside me, Retta was snoring. We must’ve passed out from exhaustion the second we got back here.
Blurry-eyed, I grabbed my phone, hoping it was Nik calling.
The name Mom blinked on the screen. My chest sank. I hit the answer button.
“Theia,” Mom’s voice crackled into my ear, making me wince. “I have exciting news! Heidi’s egg is hatching.” Her tone was jovial.
I rubbed my sleepy eyes. “Huh?”
“Heidi,” Mom repeated with extra emphasis. “Her egg is hatching!”
I sat fully up as realization hit me. If Mom was this happy about Heidi’s egg hatching that could only mean one thing...
“You’ve gone back to Geiser.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. When Mom spoke again, her tone was of forced nonchalance. “I don’t know why you insist on calling him that. Geiser? It sounds far too formal! You should call him William.”
She was rambling like a guilty liar attempting to deflect. I clutched the phone even tighter as my anger increased.
As Mom monologued, Retta stirred awake on the couch beside me. I was touched she’d decided to stick with me, despite having a normal family of her own, and a warm bed to return to. There was only one other person I knew who’d be that loyal to me. Gus. I guess that meant Retta wasn’t just a new friend, she was a new bestie.
“You okay?” she mouthed, catching sight of my clenched teeth and the way I was squeezing my cell phone like it was a stress ball.
I shook my head and covered the mouthpiece. “Mom’s back with Geiser.”
Retta gave me a sympathetic look. She stretched a hand out and patted my back.
On the other end of the line, Mom finished her rambling lie.
“Just admit it,” I said, sighing with disappointment. “You went back to him.”
Mom dropped the act. Her voice went back to the cold, flat tone she always used when she was displeased with me, which was pretty much all the time. “He’s my fiancé, Theia. It was only a matter of time before we reconciled. You’re going to have to get used to it one day.”
So Conrad’s little plan had succeeded. Mom had been lured back by the family ceremony. The nasty little PR headache she’d caused by leaving Geiser had been successfully smoothed over.
I shook my head, feeling devastated. Over the last day, my attitude toward Mom had shifted a bit, seeing where she’d come from and recognizing she’d actually tried — albeit misguidedly — to help me fit in here. That Geiser had got his sociopathic little claws into her made me furious.
“What am I supposed to do now?” I asked her. “You know I was the target of that assasination attempt. You know someone’s out to get me. And yet you still moved back into that home.”
“William found out that it was that Marchosias guard after all,” Mom explained. “Just like I thought. Apparently there’d been some squabble over holiday pay, and clearly the Marchosias guard tried to get back at him by hurting you.”
I rolled my eyes. What a crock of shit Geiser had spun her. And what a gullible woman she was for believing it. I didn’t know which made me more mad.
Mom went on. “William hired new guards. And he’s put even more protection spells on the house. I don’t know what more evidence you need to know that our safety is his absolute priority. He apologized for what happened. It’s safe to come home.”
“You believe him,” I stated, my tone one of heavy defeat. My shoulders sagged back against the couch, as though I was a marionette doll and someone had loosened my strings.
“I do. And I want you here for the party.”
My throat felt thick with grief. “I can’t, Mom. I can’t just go back and start playing happy families.”
“This is important, Theia. The press will be there. It will look bad if you’re missing.”
“Bad for who?” I challenged. “For Geiser. Mom, can’t you see? Everything for him is an image thing. A PR opportunity. Even his daughter’s frickin’ egg hatching party.”
I sounded desperate now. Beside me, Retta clutched my hand tightly.
“Watch your tone, Theia,” Mom’s voice crackled. “Honestly, you can be so antagonistic. Nik agreed right away.”
I froze. “Nik?”
I looked at Retta. Her eyebrows rose with expectation.
“Yes,” Mom replied. “He said he was looking forward to it.”
Nik! I could sit through a million paparazzi photo shoots with a fake grin plastered on my face if it meant I’d get a chance to speak to Nik at last.
“I’ll be there,” I said quickly.
“Good,” Mom replied. “We’re kicking off at midday.”
The phone went dead.
I looked around. Cora, Aaron and Lucas were sitting at their dinner table sharing a pizza and drinking beer. Of course, 7 a.m. was a perfectly appropriate time for them to be eating dinner; it just looked weird to my diurnal eyes. They were all watching me expectantly.
Retta shook my hand to snap me from my trance. “Nik?” she prompted.
“He’s going to Heidi’s hatching party,” I said, still stunned.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Cora said shaking her head. “Heidi’s hatching party? The one Conrad was talking about on the recording? Could that be the public event that Kevin was telling us about? Where Geiser plans to have you killed?”
“It would fit with what they said in the recording,” Aaron added with a nod. “That it would get them support from the parent demographic. ‘It’ being your death, obviously.”
My stomach clenched at the thought of Conrad and Geiser sitting there plotting my murder in a way that would score them points with the voters. It was all so chilling. So calculated. Human life clearly meant nothing to those two and their ambitions.
“Kevin said no Vanpari would do it,” I said. “Besides, I have to chance it. We need Nik.”
“She’s right,” Lucas said.
“Well then, you shouldn’t go alone,” Aaron said. “You’ll need protection for when it all kicks off.”
“If,” I corrected.
“Theia,” Retta said firmly. “This is the event. It has to be. What else is happening between now and election day? Even if Geiser couldn’t hire Vanpari, he’ll have found some other arrangement.”
She was right. I slumped my shoulders.
“We’ll all come with you,” Cora said.
I snapped my gaze up and shook my head. “No way. You guys have done enough.”
“You need all the support you can get,” Aaron said.
“No,” I said more firmly. “This is my shit, not yours.”
But they were adamant. Retta squeezed my hand tightly.
“We’re your wingmen,” she said. “Whether you want us to be or not.”
“Yeah, Theia, we’re all in this together,” Lucas added.
Relenting, I flashed them all small, sad smiles.
But as much as I appreciated their support, I was terrified about putting them in danger. If any of them got hurt because of me, I’d never forgive myself.
“Come on,” Aaron said, heading for the door. He already had his jacket on. “Let the rescue mission commence.”
22
Music pounded from Geiser’s mansion as Lucas pulled up in the drivew
ay. His snot-colored van looked pretty conspicuous next to all the fancy convertibles.
There were a ton of photographers with long-lens cameras shivering in a huddle. A red velvet carpet ran up the staircase to the door, which was surrounded by a balloon archway.
“This is like a real sweet sixteen, isn’t it?” I said, kind of grossed out by the frivolity of it all.
“Sure. If the climax of the party is murdering one of the guests,” Retta replied.
I rolled my eyes. Of everyone, Retta had been the most vocal against this plan. She seemed to think that our chance of finding Elliot wasn’t contingent on risking my life by getting in contact with Nik. I understood why she was so worried. I’d much prefer never to set foot inside Geiser’s house again. But the fact of the matter was that Nik was inside and without him, all our leads went cold. Besides, if Geiser really had paid a bunch of henchmen to attack the party, then abandoning Nik inside was dangerous. And he was worth the risk.
“I won’t linger,” I told the gang. “I’ll just find Nik and get out.”
“You’d better,” Retta replied.
“I’ll keep the engine running,” Lucas told me.
“Get in, get Nik, get out,” Aaron reminded me.
I gave my friends grateful smiles then got out the car, my bow at my side.
As I walked up the driveway, the music grew even louder. It was horrible sugary pop music, the sort I really hoped wasn’t about to become the soundtrack to my death. What a tasteless way to go.
At the door there were two Demonborn security guards, ones I hadn’t seen before. I recognized their broad, masculine physiques straight away. They were Leshy, a type more likely to live in the countryside or forests. There was quite a big Leshy community in Harriman. I wondered whether Geiser had hired them to put Mom at extra ease. They were pretty well known for their measured temperaments, and they had a penchant for treating you in whatever manner you treated them, mirroring your behavior back at you. Try to kill a Leshy, he’ll kill you back. Offer him drink at a bar, he’ll be your best buddy.
The Leshies stopped me at the door. They had shoulders so broad they’d give Lucas a run for his money.
