Xoe: or Vampires, and Werewolves, and Demons, oh my! (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series)

by Sara C. Roethle

  I went back into the waiting room, fresh plaster cast on my arm, to find Allison and her mom waiting. Her mom peered at me with honey brown eyes disdainfully. My mom was still absent.

  “What’s your prognosis?” I asked Allison, trying to ignore the less than happy look her mom was directing at me.

  “Some pretty major bruises, got a few stitches, other than that I got off pretty easy. The Doctor gave me some pain meds.” Allison was

  acting like nothing was wrong, but the way she avoided direct eye contact with me gave her away.

  With that Allison’s mom stood and whipped her blonde hair in a perfect imitation of Allison, or maybe Allison’s was an imitation of her mother, and they left me alone in the waiting room.

  The hospital had decided that they weren’t going to release me until my mom came to pick me up. Gre-at. I sat down in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs and prepared to wait.

  Several hours later, my mom gently woke me up. A word of advice, never sleep in plastic chairs. I hurt everywhere, of course, that was probably mostly from the beating I had taken. She hustled me out to her car where I instantly fell back asleep. The next thing I knew I was in my bed. I didn’t remember getting home. A dark form was seated in a chair next to my bed. Noticing that I was awake, the form stood to hover over me. Jason’s face came into focus.

  “Lucy?” I mumbled.

  “We got her home safe. Her parents never even woke up, apparently our luck held.”

  I tried to nod, but stopped because it hurt. “It’s over?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he said, sitting on the bed beside me. “I can leave town now, and let you get back to your life. Max will be here to help Lucy. But . . . if you want me to stay, I can, at least for the time being.”

  “Stay,” I mumbled before slipping back into darkness.

  Chapter Twenty

  Sunlight streaming in through my window woke me. Jason was still sitting in his chair. I felt miraculously better. Maybe being a half-demon wouldn’t be so bad. The extra healing power sure didn’t suck.

  “Morning,” I said, turning my head towards Jason.

  “Morning.”

  I looked at the dirt on my visible skin. I scrunched my nose. “I’m gonna shower.”

  Jason smiled. “I was going to recommend that.”

  I gave Jason a dirty look, then went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. My mom had left a wad of plastic shopping bags and a roll of masking tape next to my sink for putting over my cast while I showered. I turned on the water to let it get hot while I bagged up my arm. When I was sealed up and ready to go, I slipped off last night’s clothes and stepped under the stream of steamy water.

  The water that sped toward the drain was tinted with dirt. Ick. I would need to wash my sheets today. I started to one-handedly lather shampoo in my hair and could no longer avoid my thoughts. Lucy was a were-wolf. There was a vampire waiting in my bedroom. I was part demon. I had killed someone.

  I let the water stream over my face to wash away my silent tears. I didn’t know why I was crying. I felt numb. We were all safe now. We had all gotten out alive. That was what mattered. I clung to that thought in order to drown out everything else.

  I finished cleaning all of the dirt off of me then turned off the water. I wrapped my fluffy purple towel around me and stepped out of the shower. I cleared a circle in the condensation on my mirror. I expected to look pale and fragile, like I had many mornings recently. Though I did have some serious circles under my eyes, I didn’t look fragile. I looked, and felt, strong. We had won.

  As I finished my reverie in the mirror I turned to survey the bathroom, realizing that I had forgotten to grab a change of clothes. I re-wrapped my towel tightly around me and opened the door to my bedroom. Jason very carefully avoided looking at me while I shuffled through my closet looking for something to wear. I didn’t really care if he saw me in a towel, but I appreciated the sentiment nonetheless. I grabbed the deep red, long-sleeved shirt that Allison had picked out for me and one of the few pairs of non-holey jeans from my closet, went to my dresser to get underwear, then went back into my bathroom to change. I had some difficulty pulling my casted arm through my shirtsleeve, but finally managed. I left the sleeve scrunched up to my elbow above the cast. Jason was standing by the window, looking outside, when I came back out.

  “I better go talk to my mom,” I said.

  “Do you want me to leave?” He asked, without taking his gaze from the window.

  “No, I’ll be back up in a sec.” I left my room and gently shut the door, then trudged downstairs to face the music.

  I expected my mom to be mad at having to cut her trip short to bail me out of the hospital, but she was all sympathy. She had actually baked blueberry muffins while waiting for me to wake up. She ran up and hugged me as soon as I came down the stairs, then hustled me to the table. There was already a coffee mug waiting for me and she went into the kitchen to grab the muffins and the coffee pot. She set the pot beside my cup and set a blue ceramic plate with three gargantuan muffins on it in front of me.

  “Umm, am I expected to eat all of those?” I asked sarcastically while filling up my mug with coffee.

  Ignoring my question, my mom sat down across from me. “So, I’ve been thinking, maybe I shouldn’t go out of town so often anymore?”

  “Why?” I asked, mouth full of muffin.

  “You broke your arm and I wasn’t here!” she shouted, then covered her mouth in surprise at her reaction.

  “Wooaah,” I said, waving my good arm in a calming gesture. “It’s not that big a deal.” I held up my casted arm. “It’ll be good as new in no time.”

  “And how did it happen that Jason was around at two in the morning to take you and Allison to the hospital?”

  “Um, we called him? Duh.”

  “Yeah, likely story,” my mom said, smiling. “If boys are gonna be hanging around, we need to lay down some rules.”

  I groaned at the mention of rules.

  “First,” she began, “I will be informed whenever you will be spending time outside of school with a boy. Second, when said boy is involved there will be a 9:00 curfew.”

  This elicited another groan from me.

  “And finally,” she went on, “know that you can always talk to me about anything pertaining to boys or otherwise. Now eat your muffins.”

  Unable to help my smile I obliged, and took another enormous bite. Mmm, muffins. Nice, normal, non-portentous muffins.

  I went back up to my room to talk to Jason. As I walked into my room I saw that Jason had returned to sitting in my desk chair. He looked up from my copy of On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. I walked over to my bed and plunked down. Jason looked at me expectantly.

  “Sooo,” I began, “we haven’t heard anything from Lucy or Al since last night?”

  “I have not,” he answered. “Perhaps you should try calling them?”

  “No. I dunno, I guess I’m afraid they won’t answer.”

  Jason’s face scrunched up in confusion.

  I elaborated, “Allison wouldn’t meet my eyes the whole time we were at the hospital, and Lucy never even spoke to me after what happened with Dan. It felt like . . . like they were afraid of me.” I could feel cursed tears welling up yet again. I kept my eyes very wide, trying to prevent them from falling. I didn’t want to cry anymore. You would think I would have run out of tears by now.

  Jason sat on the bed and wrapped his arms around me. My last thread of restraint dissolved and tears fell in hot streams down my face. Jason held me while I spilled what were hopefully the last of my tears for the situation. We ended up laying on my bed, dirty sheets and all, facing each other. Jason’s greater height put his head a little above mine. My tears had finally run dry. He gently stroked my still-damp hair while I regained my composure. He smelled clean; he had showered at some point, but I wasn’t sure when. I thought about all that Jason had done for my friends and me. He had risked his life for us. Somewhere alo
ng the road I had gotten over the fact that he was a vampire and had killed people in the past. After all, I was a killer now too.

  So I decided vampire-schmampire. I looked into his dark blue eyes, leaned in, and kissed him for all I was worth. The kiss started out soft, he hesitated slightly. I wrapped the fingers of my good hand in his hair and pulled him closer, making him give in to the moment. He put his arms around my waist and pulled me against him and kissed me like he meant it. When he gently pulled away I was left flustered and without breath. He smiled a small smile and stroked the side of my face.

  “You have visitors,” he said. He gently kissed my forehead, and then, just like that, he was up and out the window. A heartbeat later there was a knock at my bedroom door.

  “Come in,” I called.

  The door swung open and there stood Lucy and Allison.

  Allison came hobbling into my room and gently climbed onto my bed beside me, obviously still in pain from last night. “Good morning sunshine,” she said to me smiling. “Glad to see you’re looking better; non-human healing is so unfair.”

  Lucy walked over to my bed with lowered eyes, and sat down beside me. When she finally met my gaze there were tears in her almond eyes. I waited for her judgment, waited to be called a murderer, a monster.

  “Thank you,” She said.

  I looked a question at her.

  “You saved me Xoe, you all saved me, but you most of all. None of us would be here if it weren’t for you.”

  I closed my gaping jaw and grabbed Lucy in a hug. I let her go reluctantly. Allison scooted closer to the wall and I scooted to the middle of the bed, giving Lucy room to lie on my other side. We all lay there looking at the ceiling.

  “So,” Allison began, “now that you’re a full-fledged half-demon and all, are you finally going to get over your hang-up about Jason’s past?”

  I turned my nose up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said with a haughty air. I knew I’d eventually have to tell them about Jason and me, but for now, I could do without them making girly noises and kissy-faces at the mention of his name.

  “Oh come on Xoe, he is so in love with you.”

  “You know what Al?” I replied, ignoring her statement. “I think maybe you’re the demon.”

  With that we all burst into laughter, and for just a moment were able to forget that our lives as we knew them had been turned completely upside-down.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jason had to leave town for a few days to report back to Dan’s pack and get whatever they were supposed to pay him, and to fill out some forms of all things. I didn’t ask how much he was getting; however much they gave him, it wasn’t enough. He has since returned to Shelby and he’s staying, at least for now. He got himself a nifty apartment and everything. I’m pretty ecstatic about it, though I’ll never admit it out loud. The whole dating thing is kinda new territory to me, but I seem to be doing okay. I finally had to tell Lucy and Allison. They would have found out eventually. The teasing has been ceaseless.

  Brian’s still not talking to me. I’m afraid that he never will. I can’t really blame him for not wanting to get involved. I’m sad about Brian, but at least I still have Lucy and Al . . . and Jason. Max still hangs around. He follows Al around like a lost little puppy, no pun intended. She pretends not to notice.

  I’m still learning to control my powers. I’ve accidentally lit a few things on fire, but luckily nothing living. Hopefully my luck continues, not just with my powers, but with everything else. Fingers crossed.