by Rob Cornell
Kelly’s shoulders slumped, but her expression remained defiant. “It still doesn’t matter. Our mothers…your mother, won’t give it back.”
“We can try to convince them.”
“Why? So these people can make a zombie out of Sly?” She shook her head. “No. You want to nag your mother about it? Fine. Leave the rest of us out of it.”
Kelly threw one last nasty glance at me, Mom, and Odi, then marched up the stairs, her bare feet slapping the tiles with each step.
Angelica looked at me. “All I can do is try,” she said. “But if the other sisters won’t back me up, I doubt our mothers will agree to hand the soul shard over.”
“Okay,” I said. “That’s all we can ask. Just try.”
And if that doesn’t work, I’ll figure out a way to take the damn soul from them.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The muscles in my neck had tensed so much, I had a full blown headache by the time we reached the house. A faint whiff of tomato soup welcomed me as I stepped into my house. Mom must have made herself some before we had to abandon the place for the Ann Arbor house. All the lights were out, but enough came through the front window for me to see. I started to reach for the light switch.
Mom came up behind me and grabbed my elbow. When I turned to her, she pressed a finger to her lips, warning in her eyes.
I froze. A spike of adrenaline slipped loose into my system. I felt my magical energy purr in response.
Odi must have caught on. He closed the door so quietly, I couldn’t hear the click when the latch engaged. Vampires are stealthy like that.
All three of us exchanged glances. The only one who looked certain of anything was Mom.
I mouthed, What?
She shook her head, pointed toward the back of the house. Then she signaled me to stay put and crept forward and into the hall feeding into the kitchen.
I didn’t like the idea of letting her go ahead while I hung back, but she knew more than I did about whatever threat she had sensed.
Odi tapped my shoulder and held out his hands in question.
I gave him a Beats me shrug. I looked around the room. Plenty of shadows. I hooked a thumb in the direction Mom had headed, then made a walking gesture with my fingers.
He got the idea. A second later he evaporated from sight, one with the shadows.
This left me alone, standing in the dark, without a damn clue.
I heard something clatter to the kitchen tiles. An instant later, a green blast of light illuminated the dark hall. I caught a glimpse of Odi’s silhouette as the flash momentarily stole the darkness from around him. The light lasted only as long as a camera flash. Odi quickly disappeared into the shadows again.
I recognized the light as Mom’s primary style of magic—pure energy that could blow holes through concrete if she wanted it to. That was cue enough for me to charge in, igniting my fist with fire, using the orange light it cast to see my way through the dark.
When I came into the kitchen, Mom stood by the kitchen counter, arms at her sides, expression totally calm. Odi had left the shadows and stood beside her. Both of them looked down at something on the kitchen floor I couldn’t see from my angle. I skirted around the counter to join them. I saw the shape of a person at their feet, but the dark hid any details.
I drew my flaming fist around like a torch and leaned forward to illuminate the person’s face.
A cold chill ran down my spine, while hot lead dropped into my gut.
I hadn’t seen her in months, but I would never forget her face.
Fiona.
She lay flat on her back, limp, with her eyes closed, but still breathing. She wore all black—boots, jeans, leather jacket, and even a stocking cap with her blond hair tucked up inside it. In other words, she looked like a burglar. But I had no idea what she would want to steal from me. I didn’t even know how she knew where I lived now. Had she been stalking me this whole time? Was this the first time she had snuck into my home? Or only one of many secret intrusions into my life?
Then I remembered that Honda parked down the street. The driver had been watching me. It had been Fiona.
What the hell?
The urge to shake her awake and assault her with questions was nearly impossible to fight.
I stormed to the nearest light switch and slapped it. A dome light on the kitchen ceiling turned on, its light harsh against my dark-adjusted eyes. I let my flame go out.
Squinting, I pointed at Mom. “Did you knock her out?”
“I did.”
I felt a sadistic little smile tweak my mouth.
“Dude,” Odi said. “What’s your ex-girlfriend doing breaking into your house?”
I knelt down at Fiona’s side and gave her a quick pat down, trying not to think of all the places I had touched her when we were together. Like the soft skin of her inner thigh, or the small swell of her breast, or the delicate curve of her neck. I felt something hard in her jeans pocket. I started to reach for her pocket, but hesitated.
Probably seeing my reluctance, Mom asked, “Do you want me to get it?”
“No. I’m good.” Then I wrenched the item out as quickly as possible.
What I found puzzled me. A small stone statue about the size of a chess piece, the carving blocky and generic. I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be a man or woman, but it looked relatively human.
“Drop that right now,” Mom shouted.
I flipped my hand, and the statuette dropped to the floor beside Fiona’s arm. “Jeez, Mom. You nearly gave me a heart attack. What is it?”
“A totem.”
I stood. “Can you be more specific?”
“No. It could be harmless, nothing more than a luck charm. Thieves are known to use them. Luck goes a long way in avoiding discovery or finding valuables.”
“Then why did you want me to drop it so fast?”
“Because it could be cursed, too. She might have come to plant it in the house. Who knows what harm it could bring? Best to suspect the worst.”
I snorted and looked down at Fiona’s still body. “Especially coming from her.”
“So what’re you gonna do with her?” Odi asked.
Tie her up? Beat answers out of her? I could picture myself doing such things, and it made me queasy. But I couldn’t blame myself for those thoughts either. She’d earned them after betraying me to the vamps. And since those vamps had worked for the Ministry conspirators, maybe Fiona was still working with whoever was left from that group.
I had to admit, that would surprise me. In the end, she had saved my friends’ lives. The reason she had crossed me in the first place was because the vamps had taken her mother to force Fiona to do their bidding. It had burned me, though, that she hadn’t trusted me enough to tell me the truth so we could work together to free her mom.
Talk about mixed feelings. Sheesh.
So beating her was out of the question. But tying her up and demanding some answers seemed perfectly fair.
“Mom, there’s one of those orange power cords in the hall closet. Can you grab it for me?”
She nodded and left the kitchen.
“Odi, help me lift her up and sit her on one of the dining room chairs.”
Odi quirked up an eyebrow. “Interrogation time?”
“Interrogation time.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Our dining room didn’t amount to much. The space was small, but with just me and Mom, we could tuck in a plain square table and a couple of chairs, and that suited us fine. We still didn’t have much else to clutter our home anyway. I think, after our last house burned down with all our most precious things inside, Mom and I both felt a little gun shy about gathering more things. Best not to have too much to get attached to.
With Odi’s help, I had wrapped the orange extension cord around Fiona’s arms and torso and tied it up tight. I had also wrapped her ankles with duct tape. Then wrapped her legs to the chair legs with more tape. These things might hold her temporarily, b
ut she was a shifter, could turn herself into a tiger, and if desperate enough, she might try to shift despite the bonds. In the process she could hurt herself as easily as escape. So the more ways we pinned her body, the less likely she would try shifting.
I stood back and looked her over as if surveying a clay pot I’d just thrown. The cords held her arms at her sides. The tape looked firm enough around her legs. It was go time.
I had a glass of water on the dining table. I picked it up and dumped it over her head. I had removed her stocking cap, so the water matted down her blond hair, turning it a slightly darker shade.
Fiona’s eyes snapped open, and she shook her head like a dog climbing out of a bath. Droplets of water flung everywhere. Some of it had poured over her mouth, and she sputtered, throwing a fine spray off her lips. She blinked a few times, then looked up at me.
Her eyes widened. “Oh, shit.”
“Oh shit is right, girly,” Mom said. She stood on my right, arms crossed, all but tapping her foot like an impatient parent. “You want to tell us what you’re doing breaking into our home?”
“Or how you even know where we live now?” I added.
She looked back and forth between us, mouth open, some water dribbling off her bottom lip. “I…”
I gritted my teeth. My magic rumbled inside of me. “I told you I never wanted to see you again.”
“You weren’t supposed to see me.” She hung her head, sighed.
I didn’t know what to say. Mom and I had already asked the most important questions. I decided to let her squirm in the silence.
A round, plastic clock hung on the dining room wall. Its second hand ticked away. The steady sigh of the heater accompanied the ticks. The slow patter of water dripping onto the floorboards added a counter rhythm. The music of silence.
The Fiona I had been with had a strong will. This post-betrayal Fiona still had it. She didn’t say a word, and my impatience reached its limit.
“Hey,” I shouted. “Answer me. What are you doing here? And what’s with that?” I pointed toward the totem I had carefully set on the table, holding it through a napkin.
She lifted her chin, looked me straight in the eye. “I’m trying to help you.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Breaking into my house? Stalking me?”
“I’m not stalking you.”
I held my hands out at my sides. “What do you call it when you track down a person’s home, apparently follow them around, watch them, wait until they’re gone, then break into their house with a cursed totem?”
“It isn’t cursed. It’s blessed.”
A bad taste filled my mouth. I turned away. I couldn’t stand looking at her anymore. My collar itched around my neck. I tugged at it, but nothing eased the discomfort. With my back to Fiona, I said, “You expect me to believe anything you say?”
“You’ll believe whatever you want about me,” she said. “Even if it isn’t true.”
Up until this point, Odi had remained quiet as he leaned against the wall with his hands stuck in his pockets. He snorted. “That is so lame.”
Fiona didn’t bother responded to his judgment. “Sebastian, what are you going to do to me? Keep me tied up in your basement? This is pointless.”
I spun back to face her. “I want you to answer my questions.”
“Or what?”
“Or…” I made a fist.
Her gaze slipped to it. “Do you want to hurt me, Sebastian?”
“Yes,” I growled. “But I’m not going to.”
“Then you should let me go.”
Odi pushed off from the wall and came over. He bent at the waist to bring his eyes to her level.
She drew her head back, but she couldn’t put more than an inch more between them, and Odi pressed in on her to close the distance. Their noses only had about three finger-widths between them.
Odi’s face wavered, blurring like a reflection in a disturbed pond. His skin paled. The ridge above his eyes pushed forward. The eyes themselves flared red. Then he brought out the fangs.
Whenever I saw Odi drop his glamour I got a cold tingle over my scalp. He didn’t do it often, which was another reason why I found it so easy to forget (deny) his true nature. He was a vampire, through and through.
“Do you want me to enthrall her?” Odi asked.
“Um…” I wrinkled my brow. “Do you even know how to do that?”
He shrugged. “I’m a vampire, right?”
“Did Toft ever show you how?”
“Nope.” He moved his face even closer to Fiona’s.
Her lips peeled back and she sucked a quick breath through her teeth, her look of disgust priceless. “Get your corpse breath out of my face.”
Odi smirked. I’d not seen him revel in his vampireness. He looked ready to nosh on her throat at any second.
“Maybe you should back off,” I said.
“It won’t hurt to try.”
Fiona’s eyes rolled in my direction. “No. Don’t.”
I crossed my arms. “Why not? You afraid what you might tell me?”
“I’m afraid he’ll scramble my brains.”
“Hmm. I didn’t even know that was a risk.”
“Me neither,” Odi said.
“Boys,” Mom said. “Shit or get off the pot.”
I stepped back, let my arms relax at my sides. “Go for it, Odi. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Fiona squirmed against her bonds and squeezed her eyes shut. “Get him out of my face.”
“Not a chance,” I said.
Odi frowned. “Hey, open your eyes. You gotta look at me.” Then, under his breath, “I think.”
“This is pointless, Sebastian. Your pet vampire doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.”
“First off,” I said, “he isn’t a pet. He’s my friend. Secondly, I believe in supporting my friends in their professional development.” I slapped Odi on the back. “Go to it, my friend.”
He threw me a smile that looked positively hideous with his fangs out and his eyes glowing red. I also caught a whiff of his breath. I had to admit, Fiona was right about that. It did smell a little corpse-like.
After a firm nod, Odi returned his attention to Fiona. He placed his hands on either side of her head to hold her still. She fought against him, but he had vampire strength on his side.
“Fiona,” he whispered. “Open your eyes.”
“Get bent, jerk.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s a new phrase for you.”
“Please,” she said, “get him off of me.”
“Are you going to tell me what you want? Why you were parked outside my house, watching me? Why you broke into my house with this totem?”
“Anything I say, you won’t believe.”
“Then I guess I’ll let Odi enthrall it out of you.”
She puckered her lips as if she’d bit something sour.
“Fiona,” Odi repeated softly. “Open your eyes for me.”
Fiona continued to resist, but after a few seconds, her eyes opened.
Odi’s lips peeled away from his fangs in a shark-like grin. “There you go. Hi, there.”
“Hi,” Fiona said in a tiny voice.
“How are you feeling?”
Her eyelids fluttered. “Sleepy.”
Odi lowered his hands from her head, and she titled her head slightly to one side as if ready to fall asleep.
“Stay with me,” Odi said. I could hear the excitement in his voice even as he fought to keep it even and coaxing. “Tell me why you broke into Sebastian’s house.”
Her brow furrowed. Her gaze drifted into a spacy figure eight over Odi’s head. “I don’t…I don’t think I should say.”
“Of course you should. You can tell me. I’m your friend.”
“My friend?”
“Yeah.”
“No.” She shook her head. Then again, more vigorously. “You aren’t my friend.”
Odi gently took he
r chin in one hand and directed her gaze back to him. “I am your friend. You are my thrall.”
I raised my eyebrows. Had to say, the kid seemed to know what he was doing. I supposed vamps had to have some instincts for what they could do. But I was surprised at how easily he seemed to pick it up, especially as such a young vampire. I would have thought the best he could do was thrall a rabbit or something.
“I am your thrall,” Fiona said.
Odi laughed and looked over his shoulder at me. “Dude, it’s like a Jedi mind trick.”
He no sooner said it when Fiona jerked as if waking up from an accidental nap. A new, hard focus formed in her eyes. Odi had looked away and dropped his thrall faster than he’d started it.
I didn’t have a chance to say anything before he turned back to her.
She spit in his face.
Odi staggered backward, wiping his face with his flannel sleeve. “Oh, gross. What the hell?”
Fiona looked at me. “I can’t believe, after all you’ve been through with vamps, you’d stand there and let him do that to me.”
I speared a finger in her direction. “Don’t you even. I wouldn’t have had half the trouble with those vamps if you hadn’t been working with them the whole time.”
Odi was still sputtering and dabbing his face with his sleeve. The noise was kind of annoying. “Odi. Quit it already.”
His glamour reformed, leaving him looking like an average teen again. He wrinkled his noise and pointed at Fiona. “She spit on me. That’s so disgusting.”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “This coming from a blood drinker.”
Odi puffed out his chest. “Hey. I’ll enthrall you again and make you—”
“Odi Crossman, you hush,” Mom shouted. I’d forgotten she was standing there. “We’re wasting energy here. Just let her give us her explanation.”
“Thank you, Judith,” Fiona said.
“You hush, too. Or I’ll knock you out again.”
Fiona sighed and hung her head.
“You think we can trust a damn thing she says?” I asked.
