“We need to get him somewhere without sun.”
“His room.” Viktor picks him up and I follow as he carries Coby’s body upstairs and lays him on bed. I make sure the blackout curtains are secure as Viktor realigns Coby’s bones so they normal again.
“What happened?” I say as he folds Coby’s hands over his chest, like he’s dead. I shudder.
“He had a knife and sliced his wrist open on purpose. I should have seen this coming. He knew about us, about what I am and likely what Ava and Peter and Brooke are.”
Since when? I hadn’t told him. “How?”
“I told him. I had hoped that it would scare him, but he seemed excited about it instead. I wasn’t fast enough to stop him in time. I was thinking about something else and he surprised me. I do not surprise easily.” Viktor almost frowns at Coby.
I look down at my little brother, my main irritation in life. He’s so pale, and he looks like he’s dead already.
“I can’t believe this is happening. What am I going to tell my parents?”
“Tell them he is sick and you will take care of him. Make sure they don’t let any sunlight in the room for the next three days, or else he will die. When he has completed the change, have him write a note that he’s running away. We can take him to Ava’s new house and deal with everything there.”
“And then what? He’s going to be thirteen forever. He’s going to be like this forever. I mean, can I lie to my parents about him for the rest of my life?”
I’m already lying to them about so many other things, but this is just one thing too many. The room starts to spin around me and black spots pop in front of my eyes. Before I hit the floor, Viktor catches me and carries me to bed.
I’m still crying, but also fainting at the same time, which is an odd experience. Finally, my brain overloads and I pass out.
Viktor
It is a turn of events that I expected at some point. This is why long-term interaction with humans does not happen very often. This is one of the reasons we don’t get attached. Humans are too breakable.
If Tex hadn’t passed out, I was going to give her some sleeping pills to knock her out. Her emotions were too much for both of us. I needed some peace so I could think.
I go back to Coby’s room to check on him, but he’s still and pale and motionless. He seems fine to be alone for now, so I go downstairs and out to the backyard where Jamie and Brooke are waiting. Jamie is panting, his hands resting on his knees. Brooke stands a safe distance from him, not touching or looking at him.
“What . . . happened?” Jamie says, rubbing his side. I know he is an athlete, but he is no match for Brooke’s speed.
“He was too far gone, so I’m changing him. Tex passed out and Coby is in his room. We’ll have to keep watch over him and we might have to move him to another location if his parents become problematic. They are unlikely to believe that he’s going to sleep for three days.”
“You can bring him to our place, if you need to.”
“What about Cassie? And you?” Brooke finally says. “When he comes out of it, he’s going to want blood right away. A lot of it.”
Jamie thinks about that.
“Okay, that’s not going to work. What about the place Peter took Ava? Or Ava’s new house?” Jamie is pacing very much like Tex and I’m beginning to think it’s just a human thing to do when in times of crisis. He is still talking as Brooke watches him.
“Jamie,” she says. He stops and looks up. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t stop. I’ve been trying not to eat as much around you, but it’s . . . it’s hard.”
“Why would you do that, Brooke? I told you that you don’t have to do that. I don’t want you starving yourself to make things more confortable for me, baby.” He touches her arm and pulls her close.
This seems like a private conversation, so I tell them that I’m going to find Peter and Ava. I sense that they are not far away, so I take off running, changing into my noctalis form so I can move faster.
I find them several miles away. They both turn to face me.
“How— how is he?” Ava says. “I killed him, didn’t I?”
“No, not quite, but he would have died. I gave him my blood. Now he is at the house transitioning.” I turn to Peter. “I think we need to move him soon. It would be best to do it tonight, before he risks exposure to sunlight, and so his parents think he ran away.”
“I am sorry. We cannot help you. I am taking Ava away. We’re leaving now.” I knew what he would say before he said it, because he is my brother and I know most of what he’s going to say before he says it.
“Where?”
Peter looks at Ava who won’t look at me.
“We are not sure yet. But we need to go. Ava wants to go.”
I gaze at her and she finally meets my eyes.
“I can’t do it anymore. It was inevitable that I would hurt someone, and I just . . . I can’t do it anymore. Please understand.”
I do understand.
“Could you say goodbye to Tex for me? And that I’m sorry?”
“I will,” I say.
She laughs a little sadly.
“You’re not going to try to talk me out of it?” She takes Peter’s hand.
“Why would I?” I am beginning to feel like she wants someone to talk her out of it. She knows she needs to go, but doesn’t want to, and needs a reason to stay.
“Because I’m being a coward and I should stay, and I’m hurting my family and my friends and I made a mess and am leaving other people behind to clean it up. Because I don’t think I’m strong enough to go or to stay. I just want someone to tell me what to do because I don’t know.”
“You should do whatever you want, regardless of what anyone thinks,” Peter says, but that’s not what she wants to hear. She doesn’t want control of this situation. She wants someone else to take it from her.
“I’ve been making a list in my head of reasons to stay and reasons to go and so far I have more reasons to go.”
“Then go,” I say.
“But my Dad. I can’t leave him alone.”
“Then stay.”
She screams and turns in a circle.
“You are completely not helpful, Viktor Belikov.”
“I am not trying to be helpful. But I should get back to Tex.” I test the link I have with her, but she is still out although I am sure will be coming around soon, and I should be there when she does. I also have to prepare myself for some more emotional overload, because it will be a large part of my life for the next few days.
“Oh Tex,” Ava says. “Can we just go back and say goodbye to Tex and Jamie? And I need to leave a note for my D-dad.” Her voice stumbles on the last word. “How am I going to leave him? Peter, I . . .” She puts her face into his chest.
“I’m going to have to. I can’t do this anymore.”
“Where you go, I go,” Peter says.
“Then let’s go,” I say.
Twenty-Two
Ava
All the lists of reasons to stay and reasons to go in the world aren’t going to help me. I know what is best. It is best for me to leave. Safest for the people I care about, but how can I break Dad’s heart like that? Losing his wife and then his daughter. He’s just started doing well and now I’m going to destroy him.
At least he’ll be alive.
That’s what I have to keep telling myself. Alive and depressed is always better than dead. Anything is better than dead.
It doesn’t take as long to get back to Tex’s house as I want it to. I can still smell the blood where I attacked Coby. Jamie and Brooke are still outside, talking with their heads close together, her head on his shoulder. They’re in their own little world, so we leave them alone.
Peter takes my hand again as I follow Viktor up the stairs to Tex’s room. Viktor goes in first, and I hear her talking and crying, and I try not to listen to what she’s saying, but he mentions my name and asks if she wants to see me. I don’t hear her answer,
but I hear her hair swish on her shoulders and the bed moves just a fraction.
She’d nodded. Viktor comes out and motions for me to go in. I let go of Peter’s hand and go in by myself. Tex is a wreck, curled up on her bed. I hesitate in the doorway, not wanting to go all the way in. I wish I could read her mind, but I can’t.
“Tex—“ I start to say, but she shakes her head.
“Don’t. Just don’t.” I wait for her to say something else, but he just keeps crying, hot tears falling on her shirt and leaving wet patches. She just wipes her eyes with both hands and sniffs, grabbing a tissue and blowing her nose.
“I can’t believe this is happening. And that he planned it this way. He used you. If he wasn’t dying, I would kill him for doing this to us.” She is talking about Coby.
“He definitely planned it?” Doing drugs, or dyeing your hair or being anti-social is one thing, but forcing someone to turn you into an immortal being is something else altogether.
“When he wakes up, I am going to strangle him. Which, of course, will just break both of my hands, but I don’t really care.”
She hasn’t mentioned anything about me.
“I’m so sorry, Tex.”
She finally looks up at me and the tears have stopped for a moment.
“You can’t blame yourself for this. It could have happened to anyone. It almost happened to Brooke, and I’m sure the guys were having a hard time, too. My stupid little brother.”
I come all the way into the room and inch closer to her bed. I wait for her to flinch away from me, or scream at me to get out, but she doesn’t.
“I wish I could hug you right now,” she says, starting to cry again. Very carefully, I sit on the bed and cover my shoulder with one of her blankets and then pat it. She lays her head on my shoulder.
“I thought you hated me,” I say as she sighs and sniffs again.
“I can hate what happened without hating you. This was a risk when you changed. It was a risk when I brought Viktor into my life, into my house. You may have been the one that started everything by getting to know Peter, but I’m just as much a part of it as you are. I let this into my life and now there are consequences. It’s a wonder we’ve all lasted this long. When you play with fire, you’re bound to get burned, eventually.”
Every now and then, Tex has moments where everything she says is profound and makes sense. And then there are times when all she talks about is glitter and makes no sense at all.
“I’m leaving,” I say, because that’s really what I came up here to say. She gasps and lifts her head and then the door bangs open and Jamie walks in.
“You’re leaving? Peter just said you’re leaving,” he says, his voice panicky.
They both stare at me, and I get up and go to stand on the other side of the room so I don’t feel ganged up on, but I still feel ganged up on, even though they’re human and I’m not.
“I have to. I’m dangerous, and this just as easily could have happened at my house, to my Dad and I never would have been able to live with myself. This is bound to happen again, and we can’t just change everyone.”
Jamie and Tex stare at me with shocked faces as if I’d casually mentioned I was joining a nudist colony and moving to Istanbul.
“Everyone is looking at me like I’ve lost my mind,” I say, waiting for someone to say something.
“You can’t leave,” Tex says finally. Really?
“You can’t,” Jamie adds.
“Wow, that’s the best you’ve got?” I almost start laughing. “I nearly killed Coby. I could do the same to you, Jamie, or my Dad. Or anyone else for that matter. I hate to play the ‘I’m dangerous’ card, but it’s true. I can’t be around people. It’s just too hard.”
“But you’re doing fine. And how many times are people going to walk up to you and cut their wrists open,” Tex says.
“Um, have you heard of paper cuts? Or making a mistake in the kitchen? Or a million other things? There is blood everywhere, and it’s all I can see, all I can think about. All. The. Time.”
Admitting that I’m a bloodaholic out loud makes this feel a bit like an intervention, only instead of them sending me to rehab, they want me to stay.
“But it’s getting better, right? Why don’t you just . . . practice more?” Tex says.
“You could practice on me,” Jamie adds and Tex nods as if that’s a valid suggestion.
“You’re crazy. Both of you. Completely nuts. Your brother is laying in the next room, and when he wakes up, he’s not going to be human anymore and here you are, trying to convince me not to feel guilty about it, and to stay. I knew I should have just gone without saying goodbye. I should have just left.” I thought that when I came back Tex would be so mad at me that it would make it easier to leave.
Not harder.
“You were going to leave without saying goodbye?” Tex says, getting off the bed and coming to stand in front of me, as if I’m going to run from the room any moment and she’s going to try to stop me.
“I figured that would be easier, and I should have listened to my first instinct, but I thought that you were going to hate me and yell at me to get out of your house, and that’s what I was going to do.”
Once again, she looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind.
“You thought I was going to hate you?”
I don’t even answer her, just give her a look. Then Jamie started in on me.
“Ave, that wasn’t your fault, and you don’t have to leave because of it. We can work this out. This is doable. I mean, I’ve got Brooke living with me and Cassie and we’re fine.” I hear Brooke make a noise downstairs. I wish I could talk to her about it, but I need to get out of here as soon as I can.
I don’t bother reminding him that Brooke also went for Coby, and if it weren’t for Viktor, she might be the one standing in my place. Well, maybe not. She probably would have run, taking Jamie with her. Those two are a unit now.
“I can’t talk with you about this now. I need to . . . I need to go somewhere else.” I don’t know where that is. I can’t go home, I can’t stay here and I have nowhere else.
“Oh no. You’re not leaving this room right now. If you do, you’re going to leave and I’m not going to let that happen. I will zap you with my special powers,” Tex says, holding her hands up like claws.
“Ave, please. Just think about this before you decide anything. Sleep on it. Or think on it overnight. Can you just wait until we’ve dealt with everything with Coby before you go?” I should say no. I should leave, right now, because they’re going to use that time to convince me to stay. I can read the two of them like books. Their schemes are never very stealthy, this one included.
“Okay. Three days.”
“Good.” Tex smiles and Jamie sighs in relief. If I was ever in doubt that they are my best friends, that has been put to rest.
“Speaking of that, I think we need to move him tonight. There’s no way Mom and Dad are going to buy that he’s just sleeping. They’re not that dumb. So we were wondering if we could use your house? I figure it’s out of the way enough. I’ll just tell them that he went to a friend’s house. They won’t believe me, but it will work well enough and by the time he’s changed, we can have him write a note that he ran away. That’s going to be pain in the ass to deal with, but I don’t see another way around it. And then, when he’s, you know, good enough around people, he will appear again and everything will be fine.”
It sounds like a good plan, although I see a lot of things going wrong with it, but I’m pretty sure Tex is smart enough to be aware of them.
“Yeah, sure you can use my house. It’s the least I can do after . . . everything.”
“Great.” How is any of this great?
The three of us just kind of stand there not knowing what to say.
“So this has been an interesting day,” Tex says.
Understatement.
Peter
We wait until it’s completely dark outside before takin
g Coby, who is still unconscious, with us up to the other house. Tex’s parents aren’t home, so she calls them and says she is spending the next few days with Ava and that Coby had gone to a friend’s. Ava calls her Dad and tells him that she’s going to be home late and apologizes profusely for it, but he just tells her to have fun. Her new three-day rule means she has three more days to talk with him before severing all ties.
I do not have anyone to call.
“Bought it hook, line and sinker,” Texas says as she ends the phone call. “What does that even mean?” She looks at Ava as we wrap Coby up and gather a few of his clothes to bring with us. I also bring some of his personal things, like I did with Ava. Anything to help make his transition easier.
“Something to do with fishing,” Ava says, standing as far from Coby as she can while still being in the same room with him. She cannot hurt him anymore, but she is still afraid. I try to reassure her, but she is lost in her own head. Sometimes even I can’t seem to find her there.
I wrap Coby up in a blanket and pick him up. He’s skinny, even for his age.
“So you guys will go on ahead and Viktor and I will come after you,” Tex says, as if she is organizing a picnic.
“What about us?” Jamie says, his arm around Brooke.
“You’re not part of the plan,” Tex says, going back to Coby’s bed and re-making it.
“Since when? I think we should be part of the plan. We got left out when Ava changed, but you’re not leaving us out of this.” I have never seen Jamie angry, but I can feel him start to get agitated.
“You’re always leaving us out, and it feels shitty, Tex.”
“Jamie,” Brooke says, warning him. “We don’t have to go.”
“No, you’re not leaving us out. You can’t stop us from coming.”
“Fine, come.” Tex says, snapping as she smacks one of the pillows to fluff it. “Do whatever you want. Oh!” She snaps her fingers in his face. “Food. You can bring food. I finished most everything that was already up there. If you wanna take your truck and drive up so you can stop and get groceries, that would be great. There should be a 24-hour store somewhere along the highway.”