by Temple West
“Thanks,” I said, smiling politely. I was about to open my mouth to say more when right behind me, I heard someone exclaim, “Caitlin! Is that you?”
I turned, and there in all her petite, chic glory, was Mariana.
“It is you!” she exclaimed, taking my arm and leading me away from the shopper man. Her smile was tight, her words were rehearsed. She looked so gargantuanly out of place, stuck in among the humans. As soon as we were out of earshot of the man—who was staring after me strangely—Mariana whispered, “We discussed your trip and decided I should come along just in case.”
I stared at her. “Was that him?”
Mariana shrugged, eyes constantly scanning the crowd around us. “I cannot tell. The number of people makes it impossible to determine if anyone is a void.”
Another new term. Yay. “What’s a void?”
“A being who does not emit emotional energy. Vampires cannot sense one another, or demons, just as demons cannot sense us. Crowds muddle our perception, which is why we did not want you coming to a place as populated as a … mall.”
My apologies, oh great Vampire Lady, for wanting to get some Christmas shopping done, at Christmastime. What an absurd thing for me to do.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “If it was him, do I need to be worried?”
Mariana shrugged, which was not comforting. “I doubt he would try anything here, and I will be watching you for the remainder of your time. Just try not to draw attention to yourself.”
I suppressed a smart reply. Draw attention to myself? Right, I would definitely do that, because I’m a moron.
Mariana melted back into the crowd just as Trish finally wandered back to me, craning her neck at Mariana’s retreating figure. “Was that Adrian’s aunt back there?”
Unable to think of a quick lie, I said, “Yeah—just ran into her. Crazy.”
“A lot of people from all over Warren County come here. Though it would have been really funny if she’d seen you in Victoria’s Secret.”
She grinned at me while I shook my head—and then realized Mariana probably had seen me go into Victoria’s Secret. We caught up with the rest of the girls and Laura kept us moving with her notebook of tasks, getting us to the food court by one thirty. Just as I was about to take my first bite of pizza, I thought I saw a man looking at me. I peered closer and realized that he was actually waving at someone behind our table who was walking over with a tray of food. But I soon found three other guys I swore were eyeing me creepily. Swallowing, I looked over at Trish’s shopping bags.
“So what’d you get?” I asked to distract myself from my hyperawareness of men, men, everywhere men!
She wrapped her tongue around a string of cheese hanging from her pizza. “I got my parents a record player because our old one broke, like, ten years ago, and my dad’s got a ton of stuff on vinyl. I got Paul a new case for his rifle, I got Mark a new dartboard, and I got Jimmy a flask with his name etched on it. They’re all in college,” Trish said when I looked at her quizzically. “Paul’s the oldest, he’s about to graduate, and Mark’s a junior. Jimmy’s a freshman and he’s getting married this summer. I told him he’s crazy, and he just smiles and says he is in love. Speaking of love, well, let’s just say I got Ben’s present at our first stop.”
Meghan and Stephanie made an “oooh” sound. I was confused.
“Wait, Ben? As in, our class Ben?”
“Yep. Finally got the guts to ask me out at the Halloween party.” Trish smiled happily.
I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. “The big guy that never talks in class?”
“That’s the one.”
I couldn’t believe she’d been dating somebody for close to a month and I hadn’t known. She’d never said a thing about it. I made a silent vow to get my head out of my butt and start paying better attention to the one person who’d gone out of her way to befriend me.
“Geez, well, congratulations! Sorry I’m a horrible person for not knowing that.”
She laughed and shrugged. “We’re not exactly licking each other’s faces off in public or anything. Anyway, what did you get?”
I shrugged unhappily. “I got Norah this old hardcover of Black Beauty because she’s into horses, I got my aunt a new iron because our old one is about to bite the dust, and I got my uncle a bunch of wool socks.” For some reason, no one thought that was a crazy gift idea.
“Yeah, my dad’s always running out of them.”
“When you’re outside working most of the day, they get worn out pretty quick,” Meghan agreed.
“They’re nice. Like, Scottish wool or something,” I mumbled. I still felt bad for getting him socks, but he said he needed them.
“What did you get Adrian?” Meghan asked.
I looked up sharply. “Shit,” I said, realizing that I’d completely forgotten him. “I totally didn’t get him anything.”
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Meghan flinch, like she’d just been kicked under the table.
Trish smiled at me innocently. “I’m sure he’ll just be happy to see you on Christmas. He seems like the selfless type.”
“Yeah,” I agreed warily. She was up to something.
“Is there anywhere else anyone wants to go?” Stephanie asked.
Laura shook her head. “I’m finished.”
I felt bad not getting something for Adrian, but I couldn’t think of anything last minute, and it seemed like everyone wanted to leave. Maybe I could scrounge something up in Stony Creek later.
We stood up and gathered our things before heading out to the Suburban. The sun had disappeared behind low clouds and it looked like it might start snowing again. We all crammed in, throwing our purchases wherever they fit.
“I can’t believe I forgot to get Adrian something,” I muttered to myself a few miles down the road. I thought I’d spoken quietly, but apparently Trish heard me.
“Well, Mystic, we thought that since you’re so poor and all this year, and Adrian’s so … Adrian, we’d buy his Christmas present for you.”
All the blood drained out of my face. “You didn’t.”
Trish grinned. “We did.” She looked incredibly proud of herself.
“We?” I asked in disbelief.
“Yep, all of us.”
I turned to Jenny. “Even you?”
She smiled a very small smile.
Meghan turned around from the front seat looking smug. “And we’re too far away to go back and return it, and it was clearance, so you can’t return it.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing.
“You okay, Mystic?”
When I was sure I wouldn’t kill anybody, I opened my eyes. “Thank you, guys. I appreciate your … efforts … on my behalf.” Either they missed the sarcasm or they chose to ignore it.
“Don’t forget to tell Adrian we said ‘Merry Christmas.’”
I smiled tightly. “I’ll pass that along.” Over my dead body.
“Look, guys, it’s snowing again!” Stephanie exclaimed from the driver’s seat. They all turned to stare out the windows at the falling flakes, and I took the opportunity to sink into the cushions red-faced.
“Do you really not like it that much?” Jenny asked. We’d ended up sitting next to each other in the back.
“It’s not that,” I said, letting out a breath. “It’s just … we’re not…” I waved my hands in the air as if that could explain the thing that we weren’t.
Jenny nodded. “That’s okay.”
I smiled at her tiredly. “Thanks.”
My thoughts were drowned out by the sudden blast from the speakers and everyone besides me and Jenny burst into song as “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” played over the radio.
When we pulled up to Stephanie’s house, a familiar black truck was parked in the driveway.
Trish grinned. “Don’t forget to tell him to have a Merry Christmas.”
I flipped her a mostly friendly bird in reply, which she laughed at.
>
We piled out and Trish stuck the Victoria’s Secret bag in my hand. Everyone overeagerly said good-bye and watched me climb into the passenger seat of Adrian’s truck. I set my packages on the floor, the bright pink Victoria’s Secret logo screaming for attention. Adrian started the engine and backed out of the driveway, but glanced down occasionally at my feet.
“What’d you buy?” he said with the hint of a smile on his face.
I blushed. “Just some socks and an iron and a book.”
“I didn’t know Victoria’s Secret sold irons.”
I crossed my arms over my chest in a classic five-year-old move. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
To his credit, I think he tried his best to suppress a smile, but he didn’t quite succeed and it was enough to throw me over the edge.
“You wanna know what I got at Victoria’s Secret?” I asked, ripping at the bag. I pulled out the Green Thing and held it in his face. “This! I got this. No, I didn’t get this, they went behind my back and bought it for me! No!” I corrected myself again. “They bought it for you!”
“Caitlin,” Adrian said calmly, “I can’t see the road.”
I took the Green Thing out of his face and slumped in my seat, shell-shocked.
“I take it shopping was a bit stressful?”
I kept staring in horror at the road. “They wouldn’t stop talking about it. How am I supposed to answer those types of questions? You’re the hottest guy in Warren County and now they know I’m not sleeping with you. They’ve taken it upon themselves to get us laid.”
I heard something from my left and looked over. Adrian had one hand covering his mouth, trying not to laugh.
“You think this is funny?” I asked him in a low, dangerous voice.
He glanced over at me. “Cait, you gotta admit—”
“I had to try this on,” I said in the same low tone. “Do you know how hard it is to hook those tiny little infuriating hooks?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. “Really hard. And now they expect me to actually wear it. For. You.” He turned the corner into the ranch’s long driveway. “How am I going to get it into the house?” I whispered in horror.
“Look, I don’t care what you tell them. If it makes it easier, tell them that you wore it. Tell them that I liked it. Tell them whatever you want. In the meantime, you can put it in here.”
He parked and handed me a brown paper grocery bag. I stuffed the Green Thing in it and scrunched down the top so there was no chance of anyone looking inside.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, and opened the door.
“Oh, and Caitlin?”
I turned back to look at him. He grinned at me.
“Tell the girls I said ‘thank you.’”
11
’TWAS THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Someone was playing the drums. The slow, constant rhythm echoed in my head, beating along to the blood rushing through my veins. My brain felt sluggish, I couldn’t figure out where I was, and my limbs were like magnets weighted to the ground.
No—to the bed.
I was in a bed. The drums were in my head, behind my eyes. But it wasn’t a beat, it was a …
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
It was my pulse.
I wasn’t groggy anymore, I was wide-awake and somehow completely paralyzed.
The beep accelerated, sharp and high. I finally wrenched my eyes open.
“Ah, there’s our patient,” a familiar voice called from far away. But the voice was wrong, distorted. The darkness peeled back just enough for me to make out two figures coming toward me, one with burning white eyes.
It was Adrian—and my mother.
She wore a starched white nurse’s uniform from another era, and hung limply from Adrian’s arms, her eyes milky and dead.
“You wanted your mother back,” he explained. But it wasn’t Adrian’s voice. It was deeper, and echoed as if it were coming from far away. “Here she is.”
“I love you, Caitlin,” my mom whispered as the Adrian-thing laid her on my hospital bed, tucking her face gently against my neck.
I lay completely immobile, but the screams inside my head echoed the screams of my heart monitor.
“I want to come home, sweet pea.” I could feel her cold, slimy lips against my cheek. “Don’t you want me to come home?”
The shriek of the heart monitor abruptly stopped.
“I just need to build my strength, Caitlin. I need a way to come back. A little … snack.”
My lungs unlocked and I screamed just as her inhuman teeth ripped into my neck. She tore into my windpipe until I was breathing my own blood, drowning in it, watching her filmy eyes roll like marbles in her head.
Adrian observed, passive.
It felt like hours later when I finally opened my eyes. I didn’t just snap awake out of the nightmare, it was like I had to drag myself up through layers of heavy, damp curtains. When I could, I sat up quickly and ripped the covers off, feeling my neck.
It was whole, just like it should be.
I reached over to my nightstand and snatched my phone, searching through the contacts with shaking hands until I found the number I was looking for, actually dropping the phone once before getting it successfully to my ear. It picked up on the third ring.
“Hello?” Adrian answered, sounding groggy.
“Adrian?” I was shaking too badly to get anything else out.
“What’s wrong?” he asked immediately. “Are you all right?”
I tried to collect myself. “I’m sorry,” I said, voice trembling. “I had to make sure.”
“Make sure of what? Caitlin, did something happen? Are you okay?”
“No,” I managed to get out. “I just … I had a nightmare.”
“A nightmare?”
“Yeah,” I said, already feeling stupid for calling. “But I’ve never had one like that before.”
I heard him let out a breath on the other end of the line. “You sure that’s all? You’re not hurt?”
I let out a breath of my own and tried to suck the next one in slowly. “No, I’m not hurt. I thought I was. I had to call you to make sure it wasn’t real.”
“Okay. Tell me what you saw.” His voice had settled back down to its usual low rumble.
I drew the covers up again, suddenly cold, afraid to be exposed to the darkness.
“You were there,” I said, my voice breaking as the first wave of tears hit. “And you were carrying my m-mom in your arms.”
I pressed my eyes into the back of my hand and clenched my teeth. Finally, I put the phone back up to my ear, trying to breathe. “She said she wanted to come back.”
I couldn’t go on. Adrian let a couple seconds pass in silence.
“Where did she want to come back to?”
My whole body trembled. “Here. She wanted to be alive again. And then she bit me.”
“She—what?”
“I had to make sure it was a dream.”
“Damn it,” I heard Adrian say, but he wasn’t talking into the phone. “Okay. Caitlin?”
“Yeah?” I whispered, trembling uncontrollably as I turned my face into my pillow to hide my eyes from the dark room.
“I want you to turn on your light.”
“No,” I whispered, horrified, curling into a tighter ball underneath my covers. There was no way I was moving.
“Caitlin,” he said in his reasonable voice, “nobody is in your room. I’m not in your room. Your mother is not in your room. Your mother loved you, and she would never, ever hurt you. Now, I need you to turn your light on.”
“Please don’t make me do this,” I whispered into the phone, clutching it so hard my hand hurt.
“I need you to turn on your light,” he repeated.
My heart was beating so fast I thought it might explode.
“I can feel your fear all the way from my house, but I can’t take it away over the phone. I can’t come over there. You have to do it. Turn on your lig
ht.”
I stopped breathing. Just held the air inside my lungs until it hurt. And then I let it out slowly. “Keep talking.”
“All right. Did you study for your history midterm?”
I took another breath and let some of my muscles relax. “Not really.”
“You going to wear my Christmas present to the exam?”
“What?”
“My Christmas present. The Green Thing?”
“Why would I wear that to an exam?”
“Well,” he replied in a smug tone, “it looked pretty effective.”
I sat up. “Just what is that supposed to mean?”
“All I’m saying is if you want to pass, you might want to wear it to the exam. Are you sitting up yet?”
“Yes, but—” Then I got it.
“Turn on the light before you lose your nerve.”
I reached out and switched on the bedside lamp before I could think about it too hard. The room flooded with a soft, gold glow.
“Anybody there?” Adrian asked.
I looked around, even peeking over the sides of my bed before I admitted, “No.”
“Good,” he said brightly. “Oh, and by the way, I don’t actually think you should wear it to school. People might think you were trying to make me jealous.”
I smiled wearily. “Yeah, well, they also might think I’m a hooker.”
“Nah. Stripper, maybe.”
I smiled. “What time is it, anyway?”
“About four thirty.”
“Wow, well, my bad for calling at the buttcrack of dawn.”
“Don’t be. I was about to wake up anyway.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“I usually wake up at five and do a few laps in the pool.”
There was no way. No one in Stony Creek had a pool, not this high up in the mountains. But it was Adrian. Adrian defied most of the laws of physics. He could certainly have a pool in the mountains. He could have a pool in space, for all I knew.
“Right. And where, exactly, do you store this pool?”
“The east wing.”
“Your house is absurd.”
He laughed. “I’ll pick you up in a couple hours. Call me if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
