“Or maybe you’ve watched too many horror movies,” Piper suggested. “It’s really me, Becks. I just have a whole new way at looking at the world now.” She dropped down into my dad’s favorite chair, sprawling like she owned the place. “We were being superstitious, frightened little gerbils last night. Running away from the best thing that could ever happen to us because we didn’t understand it.”
I gaped at her. “So the best thing that ever happened to Mrs. Pinter next door was to have her head sliced off?” I shuddered and tried to push the memory of last night’s horror into a back corner.
Piper snorted. “Not everyone is capable of expanding their horizons.” She looked over her shoulder at Luke. “You might want to stay inside all night, every night, sport. You’d be doomed out there.” She turned back to me and cocked her head. “You, on the other hand, have potential.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What happened to you?”
“Last night, while you were busy checking on the old lady next door, I peeked out the front window and saw our mutual friend standing outside the house, watching.”
“Our mutual friend?” I asked, but then realized who she meant before she explained. “You mean Aleric.”
“That’s the one,” she agreed.
“Who the hell is Aleric?” Luke asked. I could barely hear him over Bob’s ferocious barking.
“The guy I’m dumping you for,” Piper said, fanning her face. “He is so incredibly hot. Don’t you agree, Becks?”
The Piper I had known had dumped a lot of guys, but always gently and always in private. She knew the importance of letting them have their pride, and she’d never deliberately hurt anyone. Very much unlike the person who sat in my house right now.
Luke hid the pain he must have been feeling behind a mask of stoicism. He’d been pretty frustrated with Piper lately, but I believed he truly loved her.
“I think you’re not yourself, and we shouldn’t take anything you say too seriously,” I said.
“Ah, denial,” Piper mocked. “Gotta love it. I was in denial myself, last night. Till I saw Aleric standing out there. When he motioned for me to come out, I just knew it was the right thing to do, that it would change my life.” She closed her eyes, her cheeks flushed pink, as she drew in a deep breath through her nose, looking for all the world like she was sniffing the world’s most delicious chocolate cake, savoring the moment before she dove in.
She opened her eyes again, and with a start of surprise I realized she didn’t look exactly like the Piper I remembered after all. Instead of Piper’s storm-cloud-gray eyes, she had eyes the color of emeralds in the sunlight. Eyes just like Aleric’s. My hand tightened on the gun, and I just barely resisted raising it. Maybe my crazy-sounding theories had been right. Maybe this wasn’t really Piper after all.
“It was amazing, Becks,” Piper said, and those eyes took on a distant, dreamy expression. “It’s a different world out there. A world where you can do anything you want and there’s no one to tell you you shouldn’t or try to make you feel guilty for it. It’s like I’ve been living in some cramped little cage all my life and someone’s finally opened the door.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, unable to comprehend what she was saying. “It’s a world where potholes come alive and bite cars. Where nice little old ladies get their heads chopped off.”
“You’re getting hung up on the details,” Piper said with a dismissive wave. “The night isn’t for everyone, and people like that old bat and your dad and the Boy Wonder here aren’t welcome. But you would be. Just think how much fun we would have together if we didn’t have to follow anyone’s stupid rules! You can be free, just like me. All you have to do is let go.”
Luke’s eyes met mine across the room, and he looked as lost and confused as I felt. I didn’t know what had happened to Piper when she’d run off into the night, but it had made her almost unrecognizable. Something had changed within her, something so fundamental that Bob had sensed it long before we did.
“You’re crazy,” I said, but it was a lame-ass response, which she didn’t dignify with an answer.
“We should get you to a doctor,” Luke said. “You need help.” I could see he wanted to go to her, despite the cruel things she’d said. Thanks to Bob, that wasn’t an option.
Piper rose to her feet, and I reflexively raised the gun and took a step back. It felt completely surreal to stand there holding a gun on my best friend. If she’d been remotely herself, she would have been shocked or hurt or scared. Instead, those green eyes—eyes that didn’t belong in Piper’s face—glittered with amusement.
“Relax,” she said, smiling indulgently at me. “I’m not here to hurt anyone. Not tonight, at least. I just came to give you the pitch.”
“The pitch?” I repeated stupidly.
“Yeah. The sales pitch. Come with me. I promise you, it’ll be the most fun you’ve ever had in your life, more fun than you can even imagine having.” Her face sobered for the first time since she had set foot in the house. “Trust me, if you decide to fight it, you’re in for a shitload of misery. Come with me tonight, and you won’t have to suffer one little bit.”
“If you think I’m setting foot outside this house, you’re nuttier than a peanut butter factory,” I responded.
Piper stared at me intently, one hip cocked to the side while she rubbed her chin in what I supposed was thought. Then she glanced over at Luke and Bob. “I suppose if I tried to drag you out by force, your boys there would object.”
“Lay a hand on her, and I’ll let Bob go,” Luke warned. He sounded like he meant it. I’d never seen him look so furious before.
“Is that any way to talk to the girl you gave your cherry to?” Piper mocked.
Luke flushed red as a beet, and I winced in sympathetic embarrassment. That was so not something I wanted to know. Assuming it was even true.
He rose to his feet and took a couple of steps closer to Piper, bracing himself against Bob’s lunge. “Get out,” he told her. “I don’t care what you look like or what you sound like. You’re not Piper.”
She gave a throaty laugh while still managing to keep a respectful distance from Bob’s snapping jaws. She turned back to me.
“Enjoy him while he lasts,” she said with a wink. “I certainly don’t have any use for him anymore, and he’s tolerably good, if a little unimaginative, in bed. But I want you out there with me.” She jerked a thumb in the direction of the front door. “I used to think I had to apologize for what I wanted, or had to wait for someone to give it to me. I know better now. I can take whatever I want, and I don’t give a shit whether you or anyone else disapproves. Someday soon, you’ll be one with the night, just like me, and you’ll understand.”
I had the brief thought that maybe I should try to stop her as she sauntered to the front door. Maybe if Luke and I could restrain her, we could get her to a good psychiatrist in the morning, and she could be deprogrammed, or whatever it was she needed done.
In the end, I let her leave. It’s a decision I will regret for the rest of my life.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Luke and I never did get around to going to bed that night. We were both too upset by our encounter with the new, not-improved Piper, and we ended up sitting and talking until after midnight. After that we watched an old movie on TV, and we both fell asleep on the couch long before the movie was over. Dad came home at some point and shooed us both upstairs, but I was still half-asleep and collapsed on my bed fully clothed.
The predictable result of our late night was that we were both exhausted the next night, our eyelids getting heavy not that long after dinner. I don’t know about Luke, but I was tense and ready for Piper to make another appearance. It’s no fun being exhausted and jumpy at the same time.
I made it to ten thirty before the call of my bed became too strong to resist. As soon as I told Luke I was going to bed, he yawned hugely and said he would do the same. We climbed the stairs together and the
n said what felt like an awkward good night in the hall. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Luke slipped into the guest room.
My dad’s bedroom was on the third floor, and my sister had been gone for five years. I was used to having the second floor all to myself, and it was strangely unnerving to hear the occasional footstep or rustle from the neighboring room.
I felt incredibly conscious of Luke’s presence as I took off my clothes. Luke was just behind that wall, and he was getting undressed too. The thought made my whole body flush with heat.
“You shouldn’t be thinking about him that way,” I told myself in a stern undertone.
His relationship with Piper was in shambles, but he wasn’t any more available today than he’d ever been. It was always possible that Piper would snap out of it—at least I hoped it was possible—and even if she didn’t, she and Luke hadn’t exactly made a clean break. I should think about him exactly the way my dad did, as a neighbor and friend who was staying here so that neither of our parents had to worry about us being alone in the night. I should certainly not be imagining him taking off his shirt right next door.
Funny how telling myself not to think about something had exactly the opposite effect.
I hurried to change into my pj’s, feeling strangely vulnerable standing around in my bedroom in nothing but my panties. Maybe Luke was thinking the same kind of impure thoughts next door.
I rolled my eyes at myself as I shoved my legs into a pair of soft flannel pajama bottoms. Usually I’d wear them with a clingy sleep tank, but when I pulled it on and glanced at myself in the mirror I immediately changed my mind. The way the tank strained across my chest made me feel like an entrant in a wet T-shirt contest. Not fit for public consumption.
Not that I had any reason to think Luke would see me in it. We were going to bed, and by the time I left my room in the morning I planned to be fully dressed.
Bob started barking.
Oh no, not again!
I heard Luke’s door slam and felt the vibration of his footsteps on the floorboards. I had just enough presence of mind to grab a T-shirt and yank it on over my head as I hurried to see what was going on.
Luke was standing right outside my door when I opened it. He was wearing a thin white T-shirt and a pair of ratty gym shorts. Even with my adrenaline spiking through the roof I couldn’t stop myself from wondering if that was what he usually wore to bed or if it was something he’d cobbled together because he usually didn’t wear pajamas.
“You might want to get the gun,” Luke said, causing me to want to sink through the floor in embarrassment. My priorities were seriously screwed. I’d been more worried about Luke seeing me in that stupid tank top than about protecting us both from whatever was outside.
I grabbed the gun, which I had stashed in a drawer in my nightstand, and together Luke and I went into the study, where we hoped to catch a glimpse of whatever had set Bob off.
I can’t say I was surprised to see Piper standing out there in the street, but I was both surprised and unnerved to see that this time she had company. There were about a dozen other people out there with her, all with green eyes, and all carrying small paper bags. I didn’t want to know what that was all about, although I had the sneaking suspicion I would find out all too soon.
“Damn it,” Luke said under his breath. “I have to learn to shoot. I hate feeling so helpless. You can teach me, can’t you?”
I made a noncommittal noise. There was no way my dad would let Luke carry a gun around in the house. He’d seen far too many accidental shootings in his life to let a novice carry, and he would consider Luke a novice for a long time, even if he started hanging out at the range for six hours a day. Besides, I had a gun and knew how to shoot it, and I still felt pretty damn helpless.
Piper noticed us watching through the window and waved cheerfully. “It’s time to come out and play, Becks,” she yelled. “You know you want to.”
I answered eloquently by flipping her the bird, because I didn’t trust myself to speak. The only thing I wanted was for her and her friends to go away, but of course they didn’t.
“Suit yourself!” Piper yelled, then threw something at the window.
Luke and I both leaped backward instinctively, but whatever it was hit the window with a splat. It was quickly followed by another splat. And another. And another.
“Seriously?” Luke said with a shake of his head. “They’re egging the house?”
I hadn’t immediately recognized the sound, but of course that was what it was. Luke stepped closer to the window to take a quick peek out.
“Looks like a couple of them have spray paint,” he told me.
A hint of sulfur in the air told me the eggs they were throwing at the house were rotten. Of course. I bit my lip.
“Should I go out and try to scare them off?” I asked, brandishing the gun. But I already knew the answer to my own question.
“There are too many of them,” Luke said. “The last thing we want to do is open the door.”
Outside, Piper and her friends were having a blast, laughing and cheering at the mess they were making. Downstairs, Bob was barking his head off.
“I guess getting some sleep tonight is out of the question,” I said with a resigned sigh. I was too wired to feel sleepy anymore, but I felt the heaviness of exhaustion in my limbs. I entertained the brief thought of opening the window and firing a couple of shots, but it wasn’t worth it. I wasn’t going to shoot people to stop them from egging my house, and I was sure Piper knew that.
“Yeah,” Luke agreed. “Probably the best thing to do right now is try to ignore them. Letting Piper know she’s getting to us will only encourage her. Wanna go watch another movie?”
My first reaction was to look at him as if he was crazy. How the hell were we going to be able to watch a movie with all this noise and commotion? But then I had to acknowledge that we didn’t have a whole lot of options. Standing here in the dark in the study was already getting old, and if we watched a movie we could at least pretend we were ignoring Piper and her friends.
And so we went downstairs in our bare feet and pajamas and turned the TV to some movie we had no interest in and couldn’t hear anyway. Someone out there had a portable stereo, because when they ran out of eggs to pelt the house with, they started blasting awful heavy metal full of screeching and wailing.
I crossed my arms over my chest and shivered. I was dressed to cuddle under my sheets and blanket, and I debated running back up to my room to grab a sweatshirt. Even with all the noise and chaos outside, I was still painfully aware that I was sitting next to Luke wearing my pj’s and no bra. Maybe, instead of grabbing a sweatshirt, I should go get dressed.
But Luke was sitting pretty close to me on the couch, his arm draped casually across the back, behind me. He wasn’t touching me, but it was like his body was a magnetic field and I was made of iron. Even reminding myself how unavailable he was, I couldn’t motivate myself to get up, to lose this almost-contact.
A little while later the sound of approaching sirens pierced the noise from outside, and the heavy metal went silent.
“See you tomorrow!” Piper shouted.
She and her new friends ran away before the police cars arrived.
* * *
My dad is the most awesome police commissioner Philadelphia has ever had, and I don’t think I’m being totally biased when I say that. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the city had turned into some kind of lawless war zone, considering what was happening at night, but my dad—admittedly with a lot of help—was keeping things running. I honestly don’t know how he was managing it when our police department was so overwhelmed, but he was keeping the peace, even though the problems kept mounting.
Despite extensive testing, the CDC had yet to find any evidence of disease in their volunteer subjects, but the federal government had no intention of lifting the quarantine. Every road leading out of the city was blockaded, the train stations were all closed, and the airp
ort, too. Schools were closed indefinitely, as were many businesses. Most stores and restaurants—those that could get supplies, at least—stayed open during the daylight hours, but having to close in time for the four o’clock curfew meant they weren’t making a whole lot of money.
During the daylight hours the city was relatively peaceful, thanks in part to the significant increase in the police presence. There were protests against the quarantine, of course, but they were civilized and orderly, without the rioting and chaos the doomsayers kept predicting. People were frustrated and scared and desperate for answers—who could blame them?—but so far no one seemed to think violence was the answer.
The nights, however, were a different story altogether.
The city changed more and more every time the sun went down, those changes becoming less and less subtle until everyone in the city could see them—and yet still no one could capture anything on camera. Statues rose from their places and roamed the city streets, thirsty for blood and violence. The facades of some buildings appeared to be made up of yellowing bones or reptilian scales, chain-link fences sprouted teeth, parking meters turned into fanged heads on sticks, door knockers turned into grotesque gargoyles …
I didn’t see most of these changes with my own eyes, because I wouldn’t dream of setting foot outside once the sun went down. But I heard about them from my dad and from the news, and some of them I could even see through the windows of my nice, safe home. There was a big metal vent on the roof of the dry cleaner across the street, and I saw it change into something that resembled a sea serpent, then snatch a perching pigeon in its jaws.
The changes were always external. The insides of houses and businesses retained their mundane daytime forms even while their outsides morphed. That was the good news—it seemed that as long as you stayed inside, the magic couldn’t touch you. Its creations might scratch at your door or tap on your windows to terrify you, but they couldn’t seem to get in.