by Jen Pretty
Kai’s face paled. “He could be an endless source of magic for it.”
“That's probably bad,” I said.
Crow hopped from the place he had taken upon the bedpost and pecked the door like a woodpecker.
“I can probably find him,” I offered. I didn't want to go out there, but Peran was a good man, and I couldn’t just abandon him.
“Yes!” Kai said, jumping to his feet. He took a step towards me, and I raised my hand to stop him.
“I can’t fight this guy. I’m not some warrior.”
“Your boy can fight. I can too,” Kai said, bumping shoulders with Nick.
Nick smiled at me and hopped on his toes like a boxer.
I nodded and took a deep breath. Kai took the final step forward, his hand reached out for me at the same time it reached for Nick, and suddenly we were in a pitch-black graveyard.
A light flicked on from Nick's phone, illuminating the grassy hill we were standing on.
“Is this where you were when he disappeared?” I asked.
Kai nodded, and I let go of my magic. It poured from me, glittering across the grass to light up the ground like the moon off the water. I felt the magic pulse, and the wraiths of the dead stirred but didn’t rise.
I felt a gentle tug and followed it forward. The graveyard was large, not even the sound of faraway traffic reached my ears as we passed tombstones. Nick’s flashlight bounced off the occasional grave, giving a flash of the name etched into the stone. My magic crept along with me, covering every surface and then moving forward.
A soft breeze rustled the bushes, making my skin prickle. I felt exposed.
Crow cawed, circling above us. I could just make out his shape against the clouds, his feathers darker than the sky.
“This is creepy,” I whispered.
“Aren’t you in graveyards all the time?” Kai asked, his voice too loud.
“Not skulking around looking for bad guys,” I said.
Nick chuckled, and I shot him a glare.
My magic was narrowing in on a particular place. There seemed to be a small building, its shape barely visible in the distance. I squinted to see better.
“It's a maintenance shed,” Nick said.
We approached silently. Nick took a switchblade out of his pocket, flicking it open. Kai disappeared and reappeared a moment later holding a knife as long as my forearm. It shone in the moonlight, and he swung it in a circle loosening his wrist.
My magic recoiled back into my body, but it didn’t settle. It spun and twisted in my stomach like a living thing. Crow landed lightly on the roof of the building and bobbed his head.
We circled wide to approach from the front of the building. A small security light pointed straight down from above the door.
Crow walked across the roof, his talons clicking over the tin, to the edge, where he peered down at the door below.
I wanted to turn and run, but my feet carried me forward. The night was still and silent like it was holding its breath and I realized I was holding mine too.
The front of the building had two doors. Together they were wide enough to drive a car through. Kai reached out towards the door handle, but just as his fingers touched the door, they both flew open smashing back against the sides of the building. Crow screamed into the night, and something dark slithered out past me.
I yelled as its cold flesh rubbed up against my pant leg, the cold seeping through to my skin. I jumped to the side, but the thing spun and wrapped around me like a whip. It circled me several times from my feet to my neck.
I struggled as I fell to the ground, hitting my head off the gravel path hard enough I saw stars.
Crow’s calls rang in my ears, and I fought against the restraint. Ice filled my veins as the monster constricted further and I could no longer draw breath.
My magic drained out when the serpent rent the skin of my arm and pulled, squeezing ever tighter as if I was a sponge and it could wring me dry. I clamped down on my magic, and the beast reared back to strike again. Its teeth flashed in the moonlight.
I screamed with the last puff of air in my lungs, and my magic responded. It didn't just slug along the ground. My magic became sharp like a blade. It spun out from me towards the serpent's head, nicking it and removing half of its mouth. Its coils loosened suddenly. A deep gasping breath filled my lungs, and the magic inside me poured into a longer blade that swung like heavy steel and finally decapitated the monster.
In a panic, I struggled. My magic continued to hack at the beast, though I knew it was dead. When I was free of its coils, I crab-crawled backward away from the mess, panting, my head spinning.
Kai and Nick were pulling an unconscious Peran from the shed.
“You guys were supposed to protect me!” I yelled, still panting hard and blood cooling on my skin. I checked the place where the monster had bitten me, but the skin was already whole.
“You wanted me to stab at you while you wrestled with a giant-ass snake?” Nick asked.
“I wanted you to kill that gross thing!”
“Selena,” Kai said, his voice calm and reasonable.
“Don’t talk to me,” I said, getting up and striding down the path. Crow calling from the sky accompanied the crunch of my boots on the gravel. He flew above me, his wings making a soft whistle sound as he flapped.
“Selena, wait,” Nick said, his jogging steps echoing behind me.
I considered running, but what was the point? I was in a graveyard in Canada. If I wanted to go home, I couldn't really run away.
“Selena.” Nick grabbed my sleeve and pulled me to a stop.
I dropped my head to hide the tears that had sprung to my eyes.
Nick paused for a moment and then wrapped me up in his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into my hair as I buried my face in his warm chest.
Sobs I tried to fight, finally won the war and wracked my body. Nick rubbed my back and held me in the cool night for several minutes.
Kai’s voice broke the silence. “Come on guys, time to go.”
Nick's arm slipped over my shoulder and kept me tight beside him as we walked back towards Kai. He appeared right in front of us and shifted us back into the hotel room so suddenly, I felt nauseated.
Laying on the bed in the room was a bloody but breathing Peran. He had open wounds that oozed to soak his clothes and the sheets beneath him. Crow appeared as he had shifted. He sailed across the room to perch on the bedpost.
I sat on the edge of the bed and watched Peran’s chest rise and fall. He was alive at least.
“Peran will be fine, Selena,” Kai said, obviously noticing my worried expression. “He needs to rest.”
I nodded. A couple of Peran's wounds had already closed. They left behind a bright red scar, but it wouldn't be long before the scars faded. Peran was a necromancer. Blood was our thing.
Crow ruffled his feathers and then hunkered down on his post and closed his black eyes. It was nearly morning, and I still hadn’t slept. My legs strained to rise and propel me into the adjoining room. I had to change before I went to sleep, but I was filthy and had blood on my arm. I stopped at my suitcase and stared down at it.
“You ok?” Nick's voice was soft behind me.
“I don’t have any clean clothes left,” I said, still staring at my bag.
“Here. You can borrow one of mine,” I looked behind me. Nick was holding out a folded t-shirt.
“Thank you,” I said, taking it from his hand and moving to the bathroom. I had a quick shower with a lot of soap and then slid into the oversized shirt. It said Metallica in faded letters and had the picture of a demon type thing. Fitting. It smelled cool and fresh like Nick, despite the fact it was clean. The cotton was soft on my skin, and when I stepped out of the bathroom, it was just him and me in the room. He was sitting in the chair by the window with his glass of not-tomato juice, his shirt unbuttoned and chest on full display.
I stepped out and crossed the darkened room confidently. A dim lamp
was on in the corner, giving the room a warm glow. The t-shirt barely came to my thighs, and Nick's eyes followed me as I moved to the bed. I slid under the crisp sheets and adjusted the pillows, then turned on my side to look at him.
Our eyes met, and I held his gaze. He downed the last of his drink, breaking our eye contact. Then, setting the glass down on the table with a light clink, he stood and kicked off his shoes and let his shirt fall to the floor. The mattress dipped as he sat down and swung his legs up onto it, then rested his head back on the pillow beside me.
The moment stretched out. We were in our own little world. The silence of the room brought peace, and every breath I took relaxed my tired muscles further.
His hand crept out and slid a strand of my stark white hair behind my ear, then trailed back across my cheek, making me shiver.
His face was too intense. I couldn’t hold the silence. My heart was jumping in my chest, and I needed to cut the tension. “Do you never sleep?” I whispered.
He smiled like he knew he made me nervous and found it adorable. “No, vampires don’t sleep.” His hand trailed down my jaw and then danced along the length of my neck, raising goosebumps on my skin. His eyes followed his fingers, abandoning my gaze to stare at my neck.
“Do you drink blood from people?” I asked.
His eyes shot back up to mine, and his breath caught. His throat bobbed. “No.”
I slid a few inches closer to him. I always assumed vampires were cold, but Nick was warm, and my magic pressed to be near him. The feeling of it flipping around inside me was like being on a roller coaster. It was exciting. I reached up and took his hand, twining my fingers in his.
I didn’t have much magic, but I let it flow out through my fingers into his. He sighed and closed his eyes, a look of relaxation smoothing out his face. He was so beautiful in the low light. Like he was the first night I saw him in the club. I knew nothing about vampires that night when I hid from him.
“Thank you,” I whispered as my eyes closed. Losing the last of my magic made me feel a little drunk, as magic rushed back in to fill the void I had created. It was much quicker now. It wouldn’t be a week between raising the dead if I tried to go back to my old life now.
But I realized I didn’t want to go back. I wanted to be here, with Nick. I had slain a monster and raised a murder victim, held hands with a vampire and saved a warlock. Perhaps I didn’t need to hide. I fell asleep with that thought on my mind.
chapter thirteen
I woke alone in the bed; stretched and groaned at the tension in my muscles. Something dropped onto the pillow beside me, and I moved my head back to get a look at it. It was a stark black feather. I looked up, and Crow bobbed his head, shifting from one leg to another.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He flew across the room and landed on the handle of a cart. His beak tapped the tin cover like a woodpecker, then he cawed again.
I laughed and slid off the bed, then took the cover from the plate on the cart. There was some fruit and toast on the plate, as well as coffee.
“I call dibs on the coffee,” I said picking up the piping hot beverage.
A chuckle from behind me made me turn, just as I realized I wasn't wearing much in the way of clothing. I straightened my shirt with one hand, making sure it wasn’t riding up, and carefully held my coffee in the other as I walked back across the room to climb into bed again.
“What's so funny?” I asked the vampire in the corner.
“You and your bird. He has been trying to wake you for about twenty minutes. He jumped on you a few times, and you didn’t wake up.”
“I grew up in a foster home. It would take an act of God to wake me before I am ready,” I replied.
Nick chuckled and shook his head.
The door that joined our room to the one beside it opened and Peran stumbled in. His clothes looked like he had just rolled out of bed; his hair was flat on one side and spiked on the other. He raised his hand in greeting and flung himself down on the chair opposite Nick.
“How are you feeling, buddy?” Nick asked.
Peran groaned, resting his elbow on the table to prop up his chin as if his head was too heavy. His eyes lit on me, taking in my face, the cup of coffee, the Metallica shirt that belonged to Nick. His face remained passive, but he looked away before he spoke.
“I’m all right. Could I talk to you privately for a minute, Nick?”
Nick’s crooked grin returned. I was pretty sure I knew what Peran wanted to talk to him about, give my current state of undress. It looked bad. I wanted no part of that conversation, so I was happy to leave them to it.
I pulled the shirt down to make sure it covered me before I slid off the bed.
“We can just go—”
“Nope, I’m having a shower,” I interrupted Peran. When I glanced back, Nick still had that crooked smile. This was awkward. I hustled to the bathroom as Crow hopped from the cart to take up my place in the bed, half a croissant clutched in his beak. At least he waited till I was out of the bed before filling it full of crumbs.
I dragged my suitcase into the bathroom with me and flicked on the shower. My white hair caught my eye in the mirror, and I did a double-take. It was so white it made my skin look dark. I ran my fingers through it until I hit a few stubborn knots and gave up. Rummaging in my bag, I selected my cleanest pair of pants and shirt. Walking around all day in Nick’s huge shirt didn’t seem like a good plan, but this was ridiculous.
I stepped under the hot spray of the shower and let it melt me. The tension in my shoulders relaxed, and the heat soothed the stiffness out of my spine. Serpent wrestling was not my forte.
My mind spun away from that thought and back to home. I wanted to go home and see Georgia, which reminded me I hadn’t heard back from her. With everything going on, I wondered if she had sent a message and Nick had forgotten to tell me.
I finished my shower and pulled on some clothes. I rooted around one last time, and my hands found a clean pair of socks, still balled together and smelling of laundry. They were fuzzy inside. At least my feet were clean.
I stepped out to find the room empty, but voices were coming from the adjoining room.
“Look, you don’t get to make the decisions here. You aren’t Niri. In fact, we are probably leaving. Since she killed the monster you came for, we should just part ways,” Nick said, his voice a low growl.
“You think this is the best plan? What happens when she figures out the truth? Do you think she will just let it slide? You think she will forgive you?” Kai asked, anger creasing his face.
“Who will forgive what?” I asked from the doorway. Three sets of eyes locked on to me and I almost took a step back.
Kai raised one hand towards me and gave a pointed look to Nick as if he was inviting the vampire to answer my question.
Nick rubbed his hands over his face then drew in a deep breath. “It’s about your friend Georgia,” he said.
I stepped into the room. “What about her?” My heart raced. Nick's face was grim, and he wouldn’t look me in the eye. I took a few more steps forward. Dread clutched at my lungs, preventing me from taking a full breath.
“Someone killed her,” he said, and my world snapped like a twig under my foot.
The blood rushed out of my head, and my heart seized in my chest. Magic whipped into a frenzy under my skin. It tried to pour out, and I let it, along with the tears that burned my eyes. Georgia. Then a terrible thought occurred to me.
“When?” I asked.
“Selena, let me explain.”
“When?” I shouted.
I called her days ago.
His eyes pleaded with me, but I turned and walked out, slamming the door that linked the two rooms behind me.
Tears burned lines down my face as I sat on the bed and tried to process the information. Georgia was gone. I picked up the phone beside the bed and dialed Dorothy.
“Hello?” Her voice through the other end of the phone pulled a
wretched sob from me.
“Dorothy,” I cried.
“Selena? What’s happened? Where are you?”
I explained to her what happened, then went on to tell her about everything else, once I finally calmed down. When I hung up the phone with her, I didn’t feel any better.
I opened the door between the rooms. The guys were all sitting around. Kai flicked off the TV when I stepped in.
“I want to go home,” I said.
“I already booked a flight,” Peran said.
Nick kept his eyes on the carpet.
I left the door open, returning to the bathroom to gather my suitcase and dirty clothes. Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes again, but I took a deep breath and pushed them back. I was not about to be the crier on the plane. I grabbed my book from the table and tucked it in my bag, too.
The guys wandered in, their bags with them and I followed Peran out the door. In the lobby, Kai returned the key cards, and we filed into the cab waiting at the door.
At the airport, Nick tried to talk to me, but I shot him a dirty look, and he moved away. The flight was long. Kai sat with me and slept the whole way. I tried to nap, but my mind was still numb. Magic was filling up my empty spaces and pushing at my skin. I clamped down on it, but it was impossible to hold it all in.
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen,” a voice came over the speaker. “We’ll be making an unscheduled fuel stop in Denver. This is nothing to worry about, but please fasten your seat belts as we will be landing in ten minutes.”
Groans filled the plane as people dutifully clicked their seat belts on.
I shook Kai’s shoulder, and he woke enough to put his on, too.
As the plane touched down, I could feel Nick's eyes locked on me. My magic was pressing in his direction from under my skin and making me feel lopsided. Too bad for my magic; it could just hang on until we got home. I wouldn’t be giving that vampire anything.
