“That’s terrible,” I say, looking around the tree at him. He meets my eyes, a crooked smile coming to his lips.
“It was,” he continues. He hangs a little reindeer toward the top of the tree, right next to a squirrel wearing a scarf.
He picked everything out. And I’m pretty sure we got the most random, eclectic assortment of tree decorations ever. It certainly isn’t cohesive or pretty.
But it’s quirky. Just like Lexington.
“The nightlife was the only option for me,” he says. “I ended up in Philadelphia for about three years. Plenty of people to feed on. Lots of clubs. And so, so many new drugs to try to distract myself from the dead feeling inside.”
I curse internally. It just keeps getting worse and worse, but he’s saying it so casually and unaffectedly.
“Heroin was the best one,” he says as he reaches up, setting the star at the top of the tree. “But man I had to shoot a lot of it to feel anything. I spent a fortune on the stuff.”
“K,” I say with a snap. “I get you did lots of drugs. How about moving on to something else.”
He chuckles. “Sorry,” he says. “It’s so far in the past now I kind of forget the reality of it all was kind of a big deal. Let’s see… Oh, the music. Rock and roll.” A smile pulls back on his lips. “How do you like Jimi Hendrix?”
“Um,” I say, pursing my lips together. “I mean, I know he’s a legend, but…”
“I sometimes forget how young you still are,” he laughs, his eyes twinkling as he looks back at me.
“Hey,” I say, feeling irritation bristle in my chest. “I’m twenty-three now. My birthday was just last week. You dragged me out for cake, remember?”
He winks at me, something that says you’re still a baby, but considering all else that’s going on between us, he’s not going to voice it out loud.
“I saw him live four times in two years,” Lexington says as he begins setting up the random decorations throughout the room. On the coffee table, the bookshelf. In the window ledge. “Even went and bought myself a guitar because I was inspired by the man.”
“You play?” I ask. My task finished, I sink onto the couch as he flips the lights off, casting us in the colorful glow of the tree.
“Yeah,” he chuckles as he stands there, his hands in his pockets while he studies the tree. “Been forever though. Since I never got to go back to the House of Allaway for my stuff, my guitar and everything is probably still sitting in my old room. Man, I miss that thing.”
I keep looking at him, standing there, staring at the tree. “How are you always so…easy, Lexington?” I ask quietly. “You’ve…you’ve lived through so much. Seen some terrible things. Been betrayed. Lost your family. How do you do it?”
He lets out a big breath, his shoulders sagging down. But he doesn’t look away from the tree. “You can let your past define your life, let it constantly remind you every day of your failures and losses. But that’s not how I want to be. I want a fresh start every day. A new beginning, over and over.”
He looks over at me, the lights dancing in his eyes. “But I’m not always like this,” he says. “I think you remember that.”
I do. The Lexington I remember from five years ago was sarcastic and bitter and snarky.
“I’m not always like this,” he says quietly, staring at me with intensity.
I sit there, in the twinkle of the tree, the night quiet, the air warm from the fireplace.
There are so many things I want to do in this moment. But they’re all abstract concepts, floating just out of my reach.
But here, in the quiet night, this is enough.
Right now, it’s just perfect.
“You know that I know your name isn’t Penny Jones, right?” Aleah says with annoyance as we head further downtown on the subway.
“I figured you did,” I say, watching the lights flash by outside the windows. “I know you’re a smart girl.”
She doesn’t say anything for a long moment. I’ve just complimented her and she didn’t expect that. “Just saying.”
Kai sits next to me, ear buds in, ignoring the rest of us. He’s trying really hard to make this just friends thing work, but it’s going to take some time.
I look up to where Duncan sits across from me. His eyes are fixed on the book he holds in front of his face, his eyes racing over the words faster than my human brain could actually process.
“Do you like to read?” I ask of Aleah as the subway makes a stop, letting more passengers off and even more of them on.
“Do I look like the type that likes to read?” she asks with a scoff.
“Sometimes people surprise you,” I say. Duncan’s eyes rise from the book for a moment, giving me a little knowing smile. He and his cousin couldn’t be more different.
“Sometimes,” Aleah says with a smug smile. “Like how Lexington is obviously super into you, yet somehow you two are managing to keep your hands off of each other?”
Anxiety jumps into my throat, and I sort of glance over at Kai. He doesn’t react, and I hope and pray that he can’t hear what was just said, but he is indeed a Bitten, whose hearing is better than mine.
I look over at Aleah, and she’s giving me this look; very pleased with herself that she’s gotten under my skin and is making me uncomfortable. As Duncan said, it’s kind of her thing.
“I don’t think it’s really any of your business,” I say, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear and looking away from her.
“You don’t need to defend yourself,” Duncan says, turning the page. Yet he never looks away from the book. “She just wants to rattle you, sticking up for yourself will just aggravate the game.”
“Of course the girl should stick up for herself,” Aleah says, staring at me through those kohl-lined eyes, a little smile pulling on her lips. “Who needs a knight in shining armor? This is the twenty-first century, is it not?”
“I—”
“Really, don’t,” Duncan says, looking up and glaring at his cousin. “She’s just bitter. She’s chased away every guy who’s shown slight interest in the past decade with that attitude she wears as armor. Don’t let her goad you into sparring for fun.”
“Buzz kill,” Aleah says, standing and walking to the other end of the subway car. She stares out the windows, watching the tunnels flash by.
“Her bark is worse than her bite,” Duncan says, tucking a finger between the pages and closing the book. “And I have a feeling she’s carried a little…thing, for Lexington for a few years now.”
“Oh,” I say, even as something sharp bites into my stomach.
“No,” Duncan says, closing his eyes for a second and shaking his head. “Nothing like that. She just…she’s never been one to not eye someone semi-decent looking. But she’s the type to get bored quickly unless there’s a challenge to it. She sees you looking at him and it just brings out the competitive nature in her.”
“I don’t think that makes me feel any better,” I confess.
“Really, don’t worry about it,” Duncan says. “I think she’s got her eye on this other guy anyway.”
That brings a hint of relief to my chest, but not enough.
“Really, though,” Duncan says, standing as the subway begins to slow, our stop approaching. “What’s holding you and Lexington back? The chemistry there is pretty obvious.”
The doors slide open and he and I step off, Aleah and Kai falling behind a little ways.
I so don’t want to talk about this, not with Kai possibly hearing every word. And yet I do. I really need to talk to someone about this. And the situation with Kai may be awkward, but isn’t honesty what I’ve been striving for with him in the last few months?
I shrug. “I’m scared, I guess. I’ve never done this before. And I’m worried we’ll screw something up, and then we’ll be stuck with each other, hating one another.”
“But right now aren’t you just miserable?” Duncan asks as we walk up the stairs and out to the street. “Being so
close to what you want, but not ever getting quite close enough?”
The pain in his voice pulls my gaze to his face. There’s real life experience there that brings out the truth to his words. “What about you, Duncan? Is there anyone special in your life?”
He shrugs, pushing his hands down into his pockets, pulling his sunglasses over his eyes in the dim evening light, even though he was given his first set of contacts a week ago. Everyone in the House of Martials has earned them. “It’s complicated.”
I’m not one to pry and he doesn’t seem eager to share any more information.
The four of us make our way down the crowded road and head into the first store. We take our time, everyone fighting the crowds to get our Christmas shopping done. Kai gets some things for his mom and his sisters. Duncan grabs something for Aleah when she’s across the store. I get both of them small gifts and agonize over what to get Kai. Something that can strike the balance of our new relationship.
Finally, after we’ve gotten dinner and the hour rolls toward seven, I pull out my phone, double-checking the address of our last stop on the store’s website. I nod my chin toward the shop on the corner.
We step in, the smell of wood and steel and paper thick in the air. I instantly feel out of place, not knowing a thing about guitars other than the research I did on the computer last night.
“Are you Ingrid?” I ask, stepping up to the counter and getting the attention of the woman.
“You must be Penny,” she says with a smile. “Give me just a minute and I’ll go get it from the back.”
Aleah wanders around the shop, plucking random guitar strings. Duncan stands beside me, his nose still glued in the book. A couple talks to another salesman on the other side of the store.
I glance over at Kai, but he won’t meet my eyes. He just nods his head to his music.
A minute later, Ingrid walks back out, a guitar case in hand. She sets it on the counter, opening the lid.
“She’s a classic,” Ingrid says, nodding with a smile. “Someone sure is getting spoiled for Christmas.”
She rings me up and I hand the cash over, waiting for my change.
“See, you don’t fork out that kind of money, and put that kind of thought into a present for someone you don’t really, really want to be with,” Duncan says without looking up.
I blush, not looking at him. But from the back of the store, I hear Aleah breathe, “Whipped.”
We make a two more stops, and I grab a few more items. Aleah picks up some things, Duncan buys three more books and a cup of coffee. Just after ten, we head back for the subway when Aleah’s phone rings.
“Yeah, Robert?” she says as she answers it. The four of us stop, turning to watch her expression as she listens.
“What?” Aleah snaps into her phone. Her eyes dart around, listening to the voice on the other end. “How long does it take to get to Providence from here?” she asks me.
“About an hour,” I say. “As long as there isn’t traffic. We should be okay this time of night.”
She glances toward the subway entrance, a block from where we’ve stopped on the sidewalk. “I don’t have time to wait. Yeah, I know,” she growls into the phone. She sets off down the road at a quick pace, in the opposite direction of the subway station. “Meet us there in an hour.”
She hangs up, sliding the phone into her back pocket. She stops beside an older SUV.
“What are you doing?” I ask as I watch her walk around to the driver’s door. She fiddles with it, and a second later, she pulls the door open.
“She’s stealing this car,” Duncan says, pulling open the passenger door when Aleah leans across the consul and pushes it open. “Get in.”
“Are you kidding me?” Kai says, the first word he’s spoken since we set out on what was supposed to be an innocent shopping trip.
“What?” I breathe, taking one step back. “We’re stealing it?” I look side to side, but no one is around.
“Robert has been patrolling Rhode Island the past two days,” Aleah says impatiently. “He just got a hit, followed them, and found a whole mess of Bitten. We’re making a pit stop at your shop.”
My heart jumps into my throat, and suddenly taking this car that doesn’t belong to us doesn’t feel like such a big deal.
I throw the guitar and my other purchases into the trunk and duck into the back seat with Kai.
Fifteen minutes later, we stop in front of Oleander Apothecary. With Duncan and Kai at my side, we dart inside.
First, I head straight to the basement. “How many doses?” I ask as I unlock the hidden door, digging through vials.
“Bring it all just in case,” Duncan says, grabbing the other supplies I point at. Kai grabs a cooler from upstairs, and helps me carefully load everything in.
“You want me to just grab all the toxins?” Kai asks as he takes the cooler and we dart back upstairs.
“Let’s get it all,” I say as we slip into the lab and I unlock the cabinet that holds everything deadly and important.
“You know how to use all this stuff?” Duncan asks as he holds a bag open for me. The look on his face is more than just a little shocked.
“I’m the one who invented it all, so yes,” I say, watching as Kai slips the last of the acid orbs into the bag. I snatch the UV flashlight off the shelf for good measure. I grab the cooler, taking one last look around to be sure I have everything. Shutting off the lights, the three of us head back outside, and I lock the door behind us.
“Supplies like that,” Aleah says, shaking her head as we pull away from the curb back onto the road. “You come from hunter blood. I’m going to have to start watching my back.”
“Maybe just watch what you say from now on,” I say breathlessly as I’m thrown back in my seat as she hits the gas.
“Lexington’s not picking up,” Duncan says, hanging up. “It’s going straight to voicemail. His phone must be dead.”
He’s out Christmas shopping as well, somewhere in this massive city.
“You can’t go with us, El…uh, Penny,” Kai says as I’m thrown against his side when Aleah takes a sharp turn. “If there are a lot of them—”
“We don’t have time to drop her off and find a babysitter,” Aleah says with a growl. “And we need as many bodies as we can get, and with everything she just brought out of that shop, I’m inclined to think she’s somewhat capable.”
I grab my phone, pulling up my text feed with Lexington. Where are you? I send.
But it doesn’t say delivered.
I look out the window as we fly through the night. Racing into an unknown, dangerous situation. But as my heart pounds, the smile grows on my face.
How much my life has changed in the past few years. When I lived in the South I was constantly shuffled to the side, out of the line of action. Someone to lock away when things got dangerous.
Now here I am, in the center of the action.
I’m proud of those scars that line my arms.
I’m still alive when everyone thinks I shouldn’t be.
I love my brother. But he’s been holding me back.
Darkness blankets the world as we race from Boston to Providence. Out to the outskirts where Robert directs us. Out through fields. And finally, into a tiny town with only a few dozen houses.
“That must be it there,” Aleah says, nodding her chin toward a seemingly abandoned warehouse. She pulls the car off the road behind some bushes. She turns in her seat, addressing Duncan and I. “Okay, here’s the plan. Kai and I are going to find Robert, we’re going to scope out the full span of this thing. You two wait here, watch for my signal. If it’s a no go, I want you both to get out of here. If it looks like there’s something we can do, you both better be ready to get your hands dirty.”
Duncan and I nod, and Aleah climbs out, Kai on her tail, quietly shutting the doors behind them. We both watch as they dart across the road, nothing more than a blur. From behind an outbuilding, steps Robert.
His sha
ved head gleams in the moonlight, his beard masking much of his face. His dark skin, the leather jacket, and black pants make him nearly invisible in the night.
“You getting a weird vibe from this place?” Duncan asks as he opens his door.
“I think weird is the only vibe I’m used to these days,” I say quietly as I pull my supplies into the seat and start going through them.
“How does all this stuff work?” he asks as I start handing him things.
“The toxins immobilize a vampire, Born or Bitten, instantly,” I say, handing him two vials and fishing around for another dart. “These will burn the skin, slowing them down significantly.” I climb out of the car and place two orbs in his hand, which he slips into his pocket. “And if worse comes to worst, good old fashioned stakes.”
I’ve just slapped one down in his hand, when Duncan suddenly looks over his shoulder. He whips around, eyes instantly red, fangs bared, but three figures rush at us, too late to react.
A man slams into me, knocking me hard against my back into the car. My head snaps back, the wind expelling from my lungs. Yellow eyes burn into mine as he howls in my face, yanking the stakes in my hand out of my grasp, launching them into the night.
He whips me around, throwing me to the ground, shoving my cheek into the dirt.
Duncan roars in fury as he fights off two others, and suddenly two more run out from the trees surrounding us.
“Behind you!” I scream.
Duncan grabs the woman by the throat, his fingers disappearing into her flesh and a trail of blood leaking down her neck. He spins, launching her toward the other two, pieces of her esophagus still in his hand.
He whips around, stake in hand to put down the other, but the man kicks his foot out, knocking Duncan flat to his back.
“Go find the other two!” the man on top of me yells, distracted for just a moment long enough.
I twist beneath him, bringing my necklace up to my lips, and puff. A needle launches up into his throat.
Instantly, he drops to the ground with a hiss, his body convulsing.
“Duncan!” I yell, just as the two he’d previously knocked to the ground launch through the air at him.