by E. S. Moore
Talk about creepy.
It was almost a relief when a pickup truck rumbled to a stop beside me. Levi leaned across the seat to shove open the passenger door.
“Get in.”
A flash of fear just about caused me to turn and run. Levi was an angel if Beligral was to be believed. Chances were good he’d be able to tell I wasn’t Sienna. He might take one look at me and instantly know who I was.
But this was what I was here for. Turning back now would not only be a chicken shit thing to do, but would destroy any chance I had at ending Levi’s experiments for good.
Levi sat in the truck, certain I’d do as he said. He was clearly angry, but was doing a good job at keeping it in check. His jaw moved slowly back and forth, as if he were grinding his teeth together. His hands were clenched tight on the wheel.
I climbed up into the truck beside him. I slammed the door closed and waited for the reprimand I knew would come.
Levi didn’t disappoint.
“That was a very stupid thing you did,” he said. The engine was idling, but we had yet to move forward. It wasn’t like anyone was going to care that he was blocking the lane.
“I know.”
“It’s dangerous out there. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“No.”
He heaved a sigh. “Sienna, please. You know your mother is sick. She needs you at home. You can’t go running off like this, no matter how much you think it might fun or exciting.”
Relief washed over me. He didn’t know who I was.
“I’m sorry,” I said, careful to keep my voice low. I might sound like Sienna, but I still thought like me. I really should have taken more time to study how the girl talked, how she acted, so I didn’t give myself away by saying the wrong thing.
Levi studied me a moment longer before turning to the road. “At least you’re back now.” The truck groaned as he put it into gear.
We rode in silence all the way to Levi’s house. Even in the fading daylight, the town disturbed me. Now that I knew what was happening, every little thing seemed sinister. The little old lady watering her flowers could easily have come straight from a horror film. I expected her to turn a grinning face to us as we passed, but she seemed oblivious to me now that I was safely where I belonged.
I shuddered and focused on the interior of the truck instead. There was the normal clutter you might find in anyone else’s vehicle, which was disturbing in its own way. Levi was an angel. Why did he need to live like a normal person?
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. His sleeves were pushed up, revealing thick, hairy arms. His beard looked thicker than I remembered it, as did his eyebrows. Tufts of hair stuck up from the neck of his shirt. It was as if he was slowly turning into a movie werewolf, where hair was the defining feature.
He pulled up into the driveway, but didn’t shut off the engine. My first instinct was to throw the door open and get as far away from him as possible, but it didn’t seem like something Sienna would do. She would sit there and wait to be dismissed like a good girl.
I rubbed my thumbs together while I waited for him to yell at me some more. It was hard to just sit there and take it. If I got the chance, I’d be sure to pay him back for every harsh word.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” he said after a moment. The heat was still in his voice, but it was diminishing. Could this man, this angel, actually care about Sienna in some way?
“I needed to get out,” I said, not looking at him.
Levi grunted. “I’m sure you did. But if I ever catch you leaving again . . .” He didn’t finish the thought. The threat was implied.
“I won’t.”
He rubbed at his chin and then nodded as if mollified. “Go in and tell your mother you’re safe. She was worried sick about you. I have some things I need to take care of. When I get home, we’ll have a serious talk, okay?”
“Fine.”
He nodded and reached past me to open the door. I could smell sweat on him. It was rank enough to make me sick.
He hesitated with his hand on the door. He took a deep breath and my fear of him increased. What if he could smell Jonathan on me? It had really been a dumb thing to do not to take a quick shower after we’d finished. How in the hell was I going to explain that to Levi?
But if he noticed, he didn’t say anything. He pushed the door open and leaned back into his seat. I slid out of the truck and closed the door before he could accuse me of anything.
Levi sat there a moment longer, studying me, before backing out and driving off. I had a feeling he wouldn’t go far. He would want to make sure I didn’t make another run for it.
As soon as he was out of sight, I turned toward the house. It had once been my sanctuary, the one place I could go to get away from the nightmare my life had become. The house itself had become a nightmare as well, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of calm that washed over me when I thought about entering the cozy little home once again.
I started for the door, uplifted by the fact I was about to see Eilene again. The woman had tried to warn me about Levi when I’d lived there. If I hadn’t had my head shoved so far up my ass that I couldn’t see what was right in front of me, I might have seen it too. Living under these circumstances couldn’t be easy for her. I wasn’t even sure she knew what it was she was so afraid of.
The door was unlocked. I entered, doing my best to look ashamed. While I was there to put an end to Levi, I still had to be careful around everyone else, Eilene included. The angel had a link to everyone in town. I didn’t know if he could actually hear anyone’s thoughts, or just got impressions sent to him by those who wished it, but either way, I had to be careful.
Eilene stood at the foot of the stairs, frail arms crossed over her chest. She looked a thousand times worse than when I’d last seen her and my appearance only seemed to make her sag into herself more. She closed her eyes and dropped her head, which caused her straggly hair to fall and cover her frighteningly thin face.
“Why did you come back?” she rasped. She licked her lips with a tongue that was as dry as the rest of her. It looked like it took real effort for her to swallow. “Couldn’t you just stay away?”
For a terrifying second, I thought she saw me for who I really was. I took a step forward, ready to beg her not to tell Levi, but then she looked up, stopping me cold. There were tears in her eyes. They were probably the only moist thing left in her body.
“Why, Sienna?” she asked. “Was it really so hard to stay away?”
I nodded, too stunned to speak. Eilene looked like a corpse that had somehow gotten up and started walking. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, as if she’d given up all hope. The lines in her face were sunken, and instead of giving her character, they made her look cracked and broken. I longed to save her from whatever Levi was doing to her. From the looks of things, he was draining the very life from her.
And maybe that was it. He could be using Eilene to keep Delai going somehow. Was that why he needed Sienna so badly? Was she supposed to take over that role once her mother finally died?
The thought caused my hands to ball into fists. I wanted to punch something, or better yet, put a fucking hole in it with my gun—the gun that was sitting uselessly back home.
“I don’t—” Eilene erupted into a fit of coughing. I rushed forward and held her up. She looked as if she might collapse.
The fit seemed to last forever. Blood flecked her lips and her sunken eyes seemed to flicker, as if the very light in them was going out. How this woman was still alive was beyond me. It had to be Levi’s doing. He wasn’t just killing her, but rather, was torturing her, keeping her alive so he could continue ruining the lives of others with his so-called “cure.”
“Are you okay?” I asked as the coughing fit eased.
Eilene leaned against me and nodded. “I’ll be fine.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. “I just need to sit down for a little while.”
I led her into th
e living room. With my help, she eased down into a chair. I picked up the blanket that lay on the floor and draped it across her lap.
“Do you want me to get you anything?”
She glanced up at me and frowned. She studied me a long moment before she shook her head and looked away.
“No,” she said. “Just go upstairs and get cleaned up. You smell . . .” She made a disgusted face. “You smell like a man.”
I felt my face flush and turned away. I wished more than ever I’d taken a shower back at Lei’s place, though I wasn’t sure it would have mattered. Mothers always knew what their daughters had been up to, right?
I turned to walk away, but Eilene stopped me with an ice-cold hand on my wrist.
“If ever you get the chance to leave again, stay gone.”
I glanced back at her, unsure what to say.
“Please.” She very nearly sobbed the words. “Don’t ever come back if you get away.”
I nodded and she let me go.
I walked as if in a dream toward the stairs. I couldn’t believe I was back in this house, back where I could fall once more under Levi’s control. I didn’t have Beligral’s help this time. If the angel pushed his will against mine, there was no question who would win.
The only solution was to make sure he never felt the need to control me. That meant doing everything he said without complaint.
“Sienna?”
I stopped on the first stair and turned back to face Eilene. She was doing her best to adopt the stern parent role, but she was fading fast. It was a wonder she was still awake. I had a feeling that the moment I was out of sight, she’d give up the ghost and would fall into a deep, restless slumber. A part of me hoped she would never wake up again, simply so she wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.
“Yeah, Mom?” I asked.
Eilene’s brow furrowed as she spoke. “After you shower, go to your room. You should spend some time there to think about what you’ve done.”
I attempted to look suitably abashed. “Okay.”
This time, she let me go.
I entered the bathroom and closed the door behind me. I made sure to lock it, not quite trusting Levi or anyone else in Delai not to walk in on me. I went over to the sink and leaned against it, eyes closed. I was trembling all over.
Fear. I was fucking scared out of my mind and I had no idea how I was going to get past it. In this body, I was weak, defenseless. I could pretend to be Levi’s daughter for only so long. Once he realized who I was, I was as good as dead.
Tears filled my eyes and dripped into the sink. I clenched my jaw and squeezed my hands on the edge of the counter, trying to shut them off. I would not break down—not yet. All I needed was a little time and I was sure I could put an end to all of this.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was going to fail. I was no longer the vampire who terrorized unsuspecting supes. I wasn’t even Kat Redding anymore—not really.
I was just a scared little girl with no fucking idea how I was going to survive the next couple of days.
With a quick wipe of the eyes, I turned away from the sink and started up the shower. I might be scared, but damn it, I wasn’t going to fail. No matter what else happened, whether I lived or died, Delai was going to be no more.
And that was a promise I was determined to keep.
22
In all the time I’d lived with Levi and his family, I never once saw Sienna’s room. She’d always kept the door closed, even when she wanted to give me something. She would slip in and out through an opening just barely large enough for her to pass to get what she wanted. I never questioned it, figuring it was typical of a girl who didn’t want others to see the mess of her room.
When I entered Sienna’s bedroom after my shower, I was struck dumb by how sparse and depressing it was. The walls were a faded white, the carpet pale blue and dirty. There was no TV in the room, no radio. A small shelf held a handful of well-read books, all of them as bland as you could get if the titles were any indication. The bed was small and held only a basic comforter and pillow. There were no stuffed animals, no posters, no personality at all within the tiny space.
I stood in the doorway for a good five minutes, just staring. Even a guest room held more life than Sienna’s room. Hell, I’d seen pictures of prisons where the cells had more amenities than here. How Sienna could ever have survived in this pathetic space without getting horribly depressed, I will never know.
Then again, why else would she have left if not for depression? It couldn’t have all been about Levi, a creature she’d thought of as nothing more her controlling stepfather.
Once the initial shock of seeing the room wore off, I stepped the rest of the way into the room, flipped on a light, and closed the door. It was just starting to get dark outside. My stomach grumbled, telling me it was nearly time to eat, but was unsure if I’d actually be able to keep anything down. Between being back in Delai in another woman’s body, and seeing the bleakness of Sienna’s old life firsthand, I wasn’t feeling too hot.
I crossed the room and stopped in front of Sienna’s dresser. Guilt swept over me as my hand hovered over the drawers. These were her things; not mine. Just because there was so little to the room, didn’t mean the sparse furnishings didn’t mean anything to her. There could be a diary hidden away somewhere, a favorite sweater. I had no right to go through her stuff.
But if I wanted Levi and Eilene to believe I was their stepdaughter, I had to act like her. I might have seen the face Sienna put on in front of me, but often, people acted differently when they were around family and friends than when they were alone. If Sienna had a tendency to sing in the shower, I really should know so I could do the same.
I slid open the top drawer of her dresser and found a few pairs of socks and balled-up underwear. The next drawer down held a couple pairs of jeans and below that were a handful of folded sweaters. I went through the rest of the drawers and found nothing of interest, just enough basic clothing for her to get by.
The closet was much the same. It appeared she had only two pairs of shoes, and that was counting the ones I was wearing now. A few shirts hung on hangers, but they were all just your run of the mill T’s that gave no hint at what her personality might be. The top shelf of the closet held a few blankets and a spare pillow. I rifled through them in the hopes of finding something telling hidden away, but there was nothing there.
“Now this really is depressing,” I grumbled, closing the closet door.
I went through the rest of the room, checked under the bed, beneath the mattress, but found nothing. If Sienna had kept a journal, she must have taken it with her or hidden it somewhere outside the house. I couldn’t see her leaving something like that anywhere Levi might find it.
Of course, if I lived with Levi, I wouldn’t want a record of my thoughts lying around where he might find it and read it. She might not have known exactly what he was, but I was pretty sure she realized he wasn’t the normal man he pretended to be.
Examination of the room done, I went ahead and changed my clothes. The ones I was wearing still smelled faintly of Jonathan and I really didn’t want Levi sniffing that out. I shoved the dirty clothes into the hamper by the door and then threw a couple of clean shirts on top to hide them. I doubted the angel would check, let alone do the laundry and find them, but hey, you can’t be too safe.
On went a pair of shorts and a plain blue T-shirt, and then I waited.
There was no telling when I’d be called downstairs for dinner. Both Levi and Eilene were mad at Sienna for different reasons, but I imagined both of them would want to punish her in some way. Did that mean spending the rest of the night in her room, waiting until sleep overtook me? Or would I get a firm reprimand from each of them in turn, followed by reassurance and hugs?
I really wasn’t good with this sort of thing and I sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to it.
The books on the shelves didn’t interest me, though
there really wasn’t much else to do. I picked one up, cracked the cover, and then put it down again without reading a word. I didn’t need to be wasting time like this. I needed to come up with a plan so that when the opportunity came, I could put an end to Levi and get back home so that Beligral could put my soul back in my own body.
It wasn’t easy to come up with much of anything just yet. Until I learned Levi’s routine better, I’d have to be careful at how I approached this. If I wanted to go through Levi’s room, I needed to know when he normally wasn’t around and how long he was usually gone. And with Eilene never leaving the house, I’d have to time it for when she was asleep.
The front door opened and slammed closed. I sat up straighter, heart pounding. I didn’t have to look out the window to know Levi was home.
His muffled voice came through the door. I couldn’t tell if he was angry, irritated, or if he was in a good mood now that he thought Sienna was safely back home. I could have gotten up and opened the door so I could hear better, but somehow, I knew that was something Sienna wouldn’t have done. If he caught me trying to eavesdrop on him, there was no telling what he’d do.
So, I continued to sit on the bed and wait. He spoke to Eilene for about five minutes, or at least I thought it was her. I couldn’t hear another voice, though Levi did pause every now and again as if listening to a response. As soon as he finished his conversation, he walked heavily up the stairs, almost as if giving me warning he was coming. He paused just outside the bedroom door. I could picture him standing there, hairy arms crossed over his chest as he tried to listen to see what I might be up to.
Finally, he knocked gently on the door. “Sienna?” he called. “Can I come in a moment?”
Denying him was out of the question and he knew it. Even before I could answer, he was already turning the knob. He pushed the door open, but didn’t come in right away. His entire bulk stood framed in the doorway, looking both imposing and comforting at the same time. Deep down, I knew it was all an illusion, but I felt eased nonetheless. I assumed the feelings came with the glamour.
