“You don’t know that,” she argues. “I can handle whatever it is, I promise.”
Deciding to switch tactics, I say, “Van. This isn’t about me doubting you. I know what you can and can’t handle, and I don’t say that in an egotistical way. I trust you to keep any secret, and I’m going to prove that.”
She seems doubtful when I pull my phone out of my pocket. Her eyes follow my every move as I bring up the pictures of Emily and Joshua. I promised Emily and Oscar both that I would delete them, but I couldn’t let them go right away. Now I’m glad I didn’t. I need them for a few more minutes. When Emily’s tired, but happy smile and Joshua’s angelic little face fill the screen, I hand my phone over to Van. She takes the phone eagerly, but has no clue what she’s looking at.
“Who are they?” she asks.
Neither one of them gave me permission to tell Van, but I know this is the right thing to do. “Do you remember me telling you about Oscar’s friend, Emily?”
Van nods. “Yeah, she dated that Godling guy, Paolo. That’s how she knew what Oscar was.” She squints at the picture. “Is this her?”
“Yes,” I say slowly. “This is Emily… and our nephew, Joshua.”
Van’s head snaps up. She pins me with a stare filled with excitement and confusion. “Our… nephew? This is Oscar’s baby?” Looking back down at the picture, she gently touches his face. Tears well in her eyes as she stares at him. “He’s so adorable.”
“He is.”
Looking up at me, Van asks, “How long have you known?”
“I just met them tonight. Oscar took me to where she lives.”
“Oscar was here?” Van glances around as if he might still be hiding somewhere. I put a hand on her arm to steady her.
“He was, but I took him back to the hospital after I talked to Emily.” Van sinks back into the couch, looking at the phone again. Joshua seems to have captured her attention just as quickly as he did mine. I smile at her reaction.
“Can I meet them?” she whispers.
I can hear the longing in her voice, the need to connect. I can understand the desire, even see how desperately she wants to be a part of something as pure and beautiful as our little nephew, but I can’t give her what she wants just yet. “Eventually,” I say, “but not yet. If David finds out about Joshua …”
Van stares up at me, her expression tortured. “David can’t have him. We can’t let him take Joshua from us.” Tears spill down her cheeks at the very idea of it. “We can’t let David poison anyone else.”
“I know,” I say. Gently, I pull her under my arm. “We aren’t going to let David even find out they exist, but that means staying away from them for now. When the time is right, we’ll be a family again, I promise.”
Van nods slowly, taking my promise into her heart. I know she doesn’t want to shift her focus from Joshua, but the reason behind my visit to Emily finally steals her attention back. “Was Emily able to tell you anything useful?” Van asks. She doesn’t look up at me as she speaks.
Quietly, I recount my conversation with Emily. I expect Van to be as frustrated at the lack of new information as I was, but I’m curious when she finally pulls her attention away from the picture of Joshua and begins biting at her bottom lip.
“What did you say about loyalties?” Her words are spoken calmly, but her fingertips are turning white under the pressure of her grip.
“The guy Paolo fought with just before he was murdered told him he needed to decide where his loyalties were,” I say, watching her carefully. The way her breathing hitches makes me more than a little concerned. “Van, what’s wrong?”
The screen of my phone faded to black several minutes ago, but Van continues clutching it. It seems to take all of her concentration just to turn and look at me. “After we left Annabelle’s apartment, we went to Laney’s house for the party. Before we went into the backyard, Ketchup realized he forgot his phone and went back to get it. I waited by the gate for him, and I overhead… a strange conversation.” Van looks back down at her hands. “I heard Noah talking on the phone about things he shouldn’t know, like me training. He was arguing that he had enough time and he knew me better than whoever he was talking to. Then, at the end, he said he knew where my loyalties were.”
She looks back up at me then, her eyes begging me to tell her she’s wrong, that there isn’t a connection. Remembering how hurt she was when Noah turned his back on her, I want to tell her she’s right. I don’t want to break her trust in anyone else, but I can’t pretend Noah’s words mean nothing.
“Do you have any idea who he might have been talking to?” I ask.
Van shakes her head. “Noah admitted he knew I was different… really different. He saw me stop that senior from attacking Holly that day, and I thought… I hoped that was the only secret he’d been keeping from me, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t. Zander, I think he’s involved in all of this somehow.”
My first instinct is to agree with her and start planning how to best handle the situation, but this doesn’t all match up. “If Noah’s involved, his family must be as well. That would mean his sister, Kennedy, is involved. She knew Lisa. They were friends before Lisa died. Wouldn’t she have known something was wrong with us then?”
“Even if she suspected,” Van says, “there was no way to prove it. Everyone believed it was just an unfortunate ATV accident.”
She could be right, but I just don’t know. Something seems to be missing, and it takes me a moment to grasp at least part of the problem. “If they are involved, whose side are they on?”
Shrugging, Van looks over at me. “If they’re Godlings, that would be pretty hard to hide, but David could have outsiders watching us. He’s known about us for a long time.”
“But so have the Eroi.” I shake my head as I try to puzzle this out. “David wouldn’t trust a non-Godling. At least, I don’t think he would.”
“Why would the Eroi have a whole family just sitting around watching us, though?” Van asks. “If they were looking for proof that we weren’t altogether human, they had it way before now.”
I lean back into the couch and press my hands to my face in frustration. If he is part of the Eroi, it has everything to do with the fact that Isolde thinks Van is the key to bringing down the Godlings. Then again, if he’s one of David’s lackeys, it could be a ploy to lure Van into a false sense of security. Neither one is good. I groan and sink back against the couch. “We just keep ending up with more questions.”
Finally, Van sets the phone down on the coffee table. She does so reverently, as if it’s an extension of Joshua himself and she’s worried about hurting him. I find myself reaching out to Van and pulling her to me. For a long while, we’re both quiet.
“Van, I need you to back off trying to find out what was on the phone. I’m trusting you with Joshua, and I need you to trust me in return. Knowing won’t help you. It will only hurt your chances of surviving.”
She doesn’t answer right away. I can feel from the tenseness in her body that she wants to fight me but, eventually, she relaxes. “Okay,” she says, “I’ll trust you.”
“Thank you, sis.”
Several more minutes pass in silence, and I start to nod off until Van speaks again. “Ketchup has a plan to deal with Noah.”
I sigh. “Why does that not surprise me?”
“Are you going to stop us?” Van asks.
For a moment, I have to consider my answer. Annabelle knew they had been in her apartment, but that doesn’t surprise me. She’d know if a mouse moved in and nibbled on one of her magazines. I’ve come to respect Ketchup’s skills enough to know that he can pull this off. Plus, he’ll have Van there to help him and watch his back. Van knows Noah’s house, as well. They’ll have a better chance at succeeding than I will. My whole focus is on keeping Van safe, but I have to prove that I trust her to handle things on her own, too.
“No,” I finally say, “I won’t stop you. Go find out who Noah really is.”
; Chapter Seventeen: Gullible
(Vanessa)
You’d think breaking into someone’s house two nights in a row would create some kind of déjà vu, but this is a completely different experience. As Ketchup and I slink between cars and trees, we both know there will be serious consequences if we’re caught. Breaking into Annabelle’s apartment and getting caught would have gotten us chewed out by Zander, and me a whole host of unpleasant training sessions if either of them told David about our escapades.
Getting caught tonight could very well put us in the hands of someone capable of ending our lives. Eroi or Godling, we aren’t supposed to know Noah’s true reason for being here. Being found out won’t be a happy experience. Least of all for Ketchup.
I slip ahead of him as we round a corner. Every day, I feel better and better, but I’m not quite at one hundred percent. Even still, making sure I’m the first in the line of fire is easy enough. I tried to convince Ketchup to let me do this on my own. It was a fool’s errand, to be sure. As I slow to a stop and crouch before the last stretch of open space before reaching Noah’s house, Ketchup’s hand presses to my lower back. He leans forward to see past me.
“Some of the lights are still on.”
“I know,” I whisper back. With as many people as Noah has in his family, it’s nearly impossible for them to all be out of the house at the same time. “Noah’s gone for sure, because he has class tonight, and Kennedy and their mom are at a fundraiser. They’re the biggest concerns.”
“What about Noah’s dad?”
I shake my head. “He’s most likely got all the little kids parked in front of a movie so he can lock himself in his office to work.”
Taking my word for it, Ketchup motions for me to head out. We both move alongside the fence quickly and slip through the gate to the backyard without attracting any attention. I knew my way around Noah’s house and yard well enough to be able to plan this with Ketchup after school. We move together toward the deck at the back of the house. Ketchup gives me a boost so I can reach the open wood style deck roof. It’s less of a challenge to pull myself up than it would have been just last week.
What delays me a minute is trying to position myself on the beams, so I won’t fall through the gaps. By the time I’m ready, Ketchup is reaching up for me to grab him. He has to jump before I can catch his arm, but I haul him up after me. We nearly knock each other off the roof trying to turn around on the tricky slats, but eventually we make it to a window and get to work.
Where Ketchup learned all his tricks, I may never know, but this isn’t the first time I’ve been glad his questionable hobbies have proven useful. Slowly, I slide the window up and peer into a bedroom filled with dolls and ponies. I try not to step on her pretty bedspread as I climb into the room, but the first foot I get planted on the ground draws unexpected attention in the form of a little girl’s head popping out from under the bed.
“Pickle?”
“What?” Ketchup whispers from behind me.
“Amelia,” I say, trying to cover my shock, “what are you doing under the bed?”
“Playing.”
Ketchup grunts behind me at the sound of her voice, barely cutting off several choice words in time. He looks over at me for our next move. Amelia’s bright little eyes peer up at me as well… until Ketchup gets through the window. He steals all her attention then. Blushing furiously, she stares up at him until he acknowledges her.
“Hey there, Pickle.”
“What’re ya doin’?” Amelia asks, eyes still on Ketchup.
Clearly, she’s not bothered by the fact that we just climbed through the window—especially not Ketchup—but she is curious. “Uh, we just… wanted to surprise Noah,” I say.
“Like a party?”
“Kinda,” I say.
Her eyes light up, and she finally turns her attention back to me. “Can I come?”
“We’re getting our surprise ready tonight. We don’t want Noah to know about it yet. Can you keep a secret?” I ask.
Head bobbing, Amelia wriggles out from under the bed and stares up at me. “I’m super good at secrets. I keep them all the time!”
Before talking to Zander, that would have been the cutest thing I’d ever heard her say. Now, I fear she really means that. “Good,” I manage to say. “Don’t tell Noah, okay? It’ll be our special secret, and next time I come over to play, I’ll bring you a treat.”
Amelia bounces up and down while miming zipping up her lips and throwing away the key.
“Good girl,” I say. “Now stay here, okay?”
She starts nodding immediately, but grabs Ketchup’s hand when we start to walk away. Her little face is so hopeful as she asks, “Will you come back, too?”
“Uh, sure.”
Amelia’s responding grin would be enough to make me laugh in any other situation. Instead, we both hurry out of the room and down the hall to the next door, to Noah’s bedroom. We were already on edge before getting discovered by Amelia. Now, I feel like I can’t breathe. We rush over the threshold of the door, quickly closing and locking it behind us. Once inside, we both take a deep breath.
“Where do we start?” Ketchup whispers.
Shrugging, I say, “I don’t know. I don’t spend a lot of time in here.”
As secure as Ketchup is in our relationship, a little bit of tension drops away at my answer. Even before my hunger erupted, the time Noah and I spent together was studying or training in martial arts. There were always a few lingering doubts about him, but we became close friends. Ketchup struggled with that because he doubted Noah had actually given up any romantic pursuit of me. Deep down, I knew Noah still had feelings for me, but he never once tried to make a move after I made it clear Ketchup was my choice. I only wish I had been able to trust him about everything else.
Sighing, I push my thoughts back to the present. Ketchup and I both start scanning the room for something that might explain the phone conversation I overheard. The moderately messy room reveals nothing at first glance, so we decide to risk leaving evidence of our search by digging deeper.
Lifting Noah’s laptop, I’m not surprised to find a login screen when it boots up. I type in the first few things I can think of that he might use as passwords. Every try rewards me with disappointment. Biting my lip, I try to think, knowing this is the most likely place to keep the kind of secrets we’re looking for. As I think, our fight outside my house come back into my mind, reminding me of how invested Noah felt in our relationship and how furious he had been.
Slowly, I type in VANESSA, sighing when the login screen disappears. My fear creeps up to a new level, not sure what the password indicates. My internet activity was severely limited back when Grandma was in charge. I was only allowed to use my laptop in the common areas of the house where anyone who cared to could see what I was doing. I had internet filters galore to make sure I didn’t accidentally stumble upon something that could stir my hunger.
I’m sure Grandma thought she was protecting me, but like just about any other teenager, putting me under lock and key only taught me how to get around blockades. When I go to Noah’s internet history and find it empty, I minimize the screen and head for the Control Panel instead. It only takes me a few seconds to make previously hidden and protected files viewable. While the computer brings up all the index files that contain a complete browsing history since the computer was made, I download a program used to read them. It doesn’t take long before I am scrolling through a very long, very strange list of websites.
“Ketchup,” I say, “look at this! I think Noah has been spying on my emails.”
“What?” He crowds in behind me, eyes scanning the list.
Apparently, his not-so-legal hobbies don’t include computer hacking, because he doesn’t seem to know what I’m looking at. I’m showing him where my IP address comes up in the browser history and where Noah accessed my inbox. There are indications of software being downloaded that tracks my phone calls, and a website that is keep
ing a record of my text messages. I can only shake my head in disbelief. How could I have been so gullible? I’m mentally berating myself when the door handle suddenly jiggles, and we both freeze.
Chapter Eighteen: A Permanent Separation
(Vanessa)
“I thought he wasn’t supposed to be home until eight?” Ketchup hisses as he scrambles back from the desk.
“He wasn’t,” I say.
Ketchup grabs my hand and starts trying to get me up out of the chair, but I don’t move. The plan was to get in, find out the truth, and get out. All without being discovered. The plan has changed. Pulling away from Ketchup, I stand up and cross my arms over my chest angrily just as Noah pushes into the room. The surprise on his face only makes me want to hit him even more.
“What is going on?” Noah demands. “Why are you two in my room…?” His eyes flit over to his laptop, and his expression pales. “What are you doing, Van? You shouldn’t be here.”
“My email login and password shouldn’t be on your computer, either, but look at that… they are.”
Noah’s face goes from pale to ghost-white. The orangey glow from the quickly setting sun makes him look sickly and weak. “Van, please, you shouldn’t be looking through my things. You have no idea what’s going on.”
“Don’t I?” Storming over to him, I shove him against the wall. I barely even notice Ketchup slip past us to shut and relock the bedroom door. All my attention is on Noah. “I trusted you! I gave you another chance even after we fought, even after you admitted that you’ve kept things from me!”
“Van, you don’t understand!” Noah says.
Shaking my head, I push him away from me. “I knew, right from the beginning I knew, there was something off with you. I knew I shouldn’t trust you. I knew there was no way you just wanted to be my friend. I knew, but I let you in anyway. I trusted you, made you my friend, and believed what you told me. How stupid I was.”
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