“Okay. Food. Well, we should get going. See you up there.” Jamie and Brooke leave and Tex continues to whirl around the room, fixing things and arranging them.
“We should probably go, too,” Ava says. “I’ll text you when we get there.”
“Mhm. Fine.” Tex won’t look at her.
“Okay, we’re going now,” Ava says, giving me a look. I take Coby toward the door.
“Wait,” Tex says, and I turn. She gives her brother a kiss on the forehead and brushes his hair out of his eyes before whispering, “I love you,” in his ear.
“Little punk,” she says, watching his face before turning her back on us and going back to cleaning. Ava gives me a look and blinks deliberately and I take it as a shrug.
We run into Viktor on the stairs. He meets my eyes for a moment and then we’re on our way.
~^*^~
“This is not how I expected to spend tonight. I mean, I thought we were going to do that triple date thing,” Ava says as we land at her house up North.
“One night I went to a cemetery to end my life and I ended up with you. The universe has other plans for us sometimes.” She smiles at me.
“Yeah, sure. This was the universe’s plan all along. It all makes sense now!”
We land and Ava puts her shirt back on.
“Hello, Noctalis Inn. We should call it that. Get a plaque or something for the door. That’s what this place is turning into.” She does have a point.
Coby had not made a sound the entire time we were flying, nor moved.
“It’s a good thing you got all this furniture,” Ava continues as we take him into one of the guest rooms. Ava pulls the blankets off the bed and starts tacking them up over the windows.
“Do you think this will work?” I lay Coby down, and he makes a small whimper, but doesn’t move. I set his head on the pillow and go to help Ava with the windows.
“As long as it’s tight. We might want to put another one on the edges, just in case.”
By the time we are done with the windows, Viktor and Texas arrive. She runs up the stairs and kneels beside the bed.
“How’s he doing?”
“Pretty much the same as when we left,” Ava says.
“Is this how you were? I just want to make sure this is . . . normal. Or whatever.”
She touches his face and he whimpers again.
“You might not want to touch him with your bare skin. It might not hurt him now, but it will when he’s fully changed.” She pulls her hand back as if she’s been bitten.
“Oh, right.”
“And yes, this is normal.”
Tex stares at his still face.
“Is there anything I can do? Will he be in pain?”
“No,” Ava and I say together. She answers for both of us.
“It’s like dreaming. That’s the best way I can describe it. You’re not aware of anything, and then it starts getting clearer and clearer and you open your eyes and it’s a whole new world, Disney reference notwithstanding. It’s not scary if you have someone with you to remind you who you are.” Ava and I have never talked of the exact details of how she felt when she changed. She didn’t seem to want to discuss it and I did not want to push her.
“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Viktor comes up the stairs, bringing a suitcase with him.
“What’s that?” Ava says, pointing to the suitcase.
“I brought some of his stuff. To make it feel more like home, you know?” I had done the same thing with Ava, but not to the degree Texas has.
Texas opens the suitcase and starts pulling things out, describing what they are. We all listen, because there is a level of hysteria to her voice, and I sense through Viktor that she is on the edge of losing herself again, and he cannot handle that level of emotion from her, so he will do anything he can to avoid it.
Ava joins Texas’ reminiscences, talking about the pictures Coby has drawn, the stuffed animals he had when he was a child and when he started being so dark. She pulls out pictures of a round-faced and smiling baby that barely resembles the pale and thin boy in the bed.
“I don’t know when or why he got so screwed up. I guess I wasn’t paying attention. I was too wrapped up in my own stupid shit. I guess I lose the Sister of the Year award.” She arranges several pictures in silver frames on the dresser and then starts to fall, but Viktor catches her.
“You should eat something,” he says, but she shakes her head.
“I’m fine. I need to stay with him.”
“We’ve got this,” Ava says, going to stand next to the bed. “I’ll come get you if anything changes, okay?” Texas has no choice but to go when Viktor picks her up and carries her downstairs.
Ava sits down on the bed at Coby’s feet.
“He’s going to need something when he wakes up.” She means someone, and not just one person. Several.
“I will go find some. We can keep them in the basement until they’re needed.”
“Bad people only, okay?”
“Yes, Ava.” I will do what I can, but I cannot make any promises. I will get what is available.
“Are you hungry?” She shakes her head, staring at Coby. His body had started to bruise and color from his broken bones, but that will fade as he changes.
“No, I’m good, I think. I got enough from this guy,” she says with a little smile that isn’t humorous. “Stupid boy. It’s a wonder more kids don’t try this.”
“It is one of the reasons we do not show ourselves. One of the many reasons.”
“Complications,” she says in a quiet voice.
“Yes. Many complications.”
Twenty-Three
Tex
My parents are idiots. They know that Coby doesn’t have any friends, but they are so distracted by the fact that some famous author is coming to do a signing at their store and they’re busy planning the shit out of that.
I wish I could blame them for making Coby into the kind of person who would want to try to kill himself to become an immortal being, but it’s not all their fault. It’s not all mine, either, but that doesn’t mean I can’t share in the blame.
I’ve been a shitty sister. Like, terrible, and the horrible thing is that I knew I was being a shitty sister, and I did nothing to change it. Coby and I started growing apart years ago, and I was all “good riddance” because he was my annoying little brother and I just wanted him out of my room and out of my life.
Viktor sits me down at the counter and makes me eat whatever is left in the house, which turns out to be some chips, dried apples, a lone Pop Tart and a can of soup that he heats on the stove. We also find some suspicious things left in the fridge, but it’s hard to know what they are now, and I don’t fancy finding out.
“Would you like to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s?” Viktor says, and that actually makes me smile.
“No, I think this is one time when that movie isn’t going to help me. This is the ultimate of mean reds. The lowest of the low.” I lean my head on the counter. Even though I passed out earlier, I’m absolutely exhausted.
“Would you like to sit on the couch and fall asleep on my chest as I sing to you in Russian?” This is an option?
“Um, yes? The answer to that question will always be yes.” He’s never sung to me before. I didn’t know he could, but it doesn’t surprise me. He’s good at everything.
“Thanks for being here. I know I’m a mess, and I’m hard to deal with,” I say as I lay my head on his chest. It’s kind of nice not hearing his stomach gurgling or anything weird like that.
“You made my life exciting again,” he says, running his fingers through my hair before he starts singing me old Russian folk songs. His voice is so beautiful and sweet, and I want to know what the songs are about, but I don’t want to stop him and ask.
His voice lulls me into a state of relaxation I haven’t been in for a while. Not since before Ava changed, I realize as sleep finally takes me under.
Viktor
As soon as I know she will not wake if I move, I get up and take her to the room that she stayed in last time. It is right next to the room with Coby in it, so that is good.
After making sure Tex is comfortable and sleeping without me I move, to check on Coby’s progress. Ava is talking to Jamie on the phone and Peter is watching Coby when I walk in.
“Okay great,” Ava says and then ends the call. “He’s almost here. That was really sweet with Tex, by the way. I didn’t know you could sing.” She gives me a smile and then a hug. “Thanks for being so good with her. I know she’s a lot to handle, especially right now, but you’re tall, so there you go.”
I hug her back.
“So now what?” she says.
“We wait,” Peter and I say.
“Okie dokie,” Ava says and we all look at Coby. And wait.
~^*^~
Jamie gets to the house around two in the morning, the bed of his truck full of food.
“Um, did you buy out Hannaford’s?” Ava says as we unload it all and shove it in the cupboards.
“I didn’t know how long we’d need to be here, and I wanted to contribute and there was a sale, so there you go. I got a lot of non-perishables that should keep for a while. Where’s Tex?”
“Sleeping, finally,” Ava says as she pulls a pot down from the rack I’d had installed. If she were still human, she wouldn’t have been able to reach it, but now that she is immortal, she can jump and get what she wants.
“Good. That was probably good,” he says with a yawn.
“What about you? Tired?”
He shakes his head, but Brooke just picks him up and puts him over her shoulder, much to his protests.
“We’re going to bed. Or at least this one is,” she says, smacking him lightly on his bottom. I’ve never seen Brooke this playful before.
“Shh, there are people sleeping.”
“Put me down,” Jamie says, but she just walks with him up the stairs. He is so tall compared to her that his feet drag on the steps.
“That was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen,” Ava says, watching as they disappear at the top of the steps.
She shakes her head and then a sound makes us all very still.
Ava
Brooke beats me to Coby’s room because she’s the closest. His eyes are open and he’s moaning, not saying any words but just making sounds of pain.
“Coby?” Brooke touches his shoulder as he curls and uncurls his body on the bed. He doesn’t answer. She looks up at me and the boys.
“He’s not supposed to be in pain, is he? I know I wasn’t,” she says as Jamie stumbles in a few seconds later.
“Jamie, go back to bed,” Brooke says.
“What’s going on?” I grab his shoulders and push him back to his room.
“Too many cooks in the kitchen,” I say, using a phrase of my mother’s. He protests, but I lock the door on him. He bangs on it, but I tell him that I’m not letting him out, so he gives up. Good thing he’s exhausted, and not nearly as strong as I am now, or else I would be in trouble. I check on Tex, but she’s out still. Good. She doesn’t need to see this.
It’s a little less chaotic when I get back to Coby’s room. He’s back to looking like he’s half-dead, as if nothing happened.
“Everything okay?” I say as Brooke re-arranges Coby into a sleeping position.
“It is now, but I think someone should stay with him at all times,” Peter says and I duck under his arm. I need body contact with him.
“I’ll do it,” Brooke says, fixing Coby’s hair.
“Okay. I think I’m going to stay with Tex and wait for her to wake up,” I say. “Peter, could you maybe finish the chili downstairs? I thought it would be good to have something we could just grab whenever someone was hungry.” He blinks and is down in the kitchen in a flash.
Viktor comes with me to watch Tex sleep and that’s what we do until the sun comes up.
Twenty-Four
Peter
The next two days are not as eventful as the first. Coby stays still and doesn’t wake again until the third day.
When she is awake, Texas never leaves his side, keeping wet cloths on his head, as if he is just suffering from a fever. She barely eats, and only when Ava forces her to. The rest of us have barely left the house (except to eat), and I had only left to find a few people for him to have when he wakes up. They are in the basement, all drugged so they do not cause any trouble or trauma.
“Shouldn’t he have woken up by now?” Texas says as the sun dips below the horizon, gone for another day.
“It is not an exact science,” I say, and Ava tries to comfort her.
“What if he doesn’t wake up?” Texas whispers, and, as if to prove her wrong, Coby opens his eyes.
His left one is now a deep blue, and the right is a dark brown. He stares at the ceiling, and I am reminded of how Ava was when she changed.
“Coby? Coby?” Texas says his name over and over, and at last he turns his head. “How are you feeling? Do you need blood? We have some, you know.” She babbles on and on and Coby just stares without saying a word. Viktor puts his hand on Texas’ shoulder to slow her verbal assault.
“Where am I?” Texas bursts into tears at the sound of his voice and Ava tugs on my arm and we leave the room to give them some privacy.
“So far, so good,” she says. Now that he is changed, it will be harder to have a private conversation.
“Take a walk with me,” I say, taking her hand and leading her downstairs.
“Now? You want to take a walk now?”
“Yes.” I have not had much time alone with her, and I would like to be just the two of us. We need to talk about some things.
Tex
His eyes are different, and his voice is different, but he still seems like my little brother. For the most part.
I remind him who he is, and he seems to listen, but he has even less expression on his face than usual. At least his hair is out of his face. We’d sort of combed it back into a new style. I wonder if we can cut it, or if it, too, is like, immortal.
“Are you hungry?” I say when he’s ready to sit up for the first time.
“Hungry?” he says the word as if he’s never heard of it before.
“We’ve got some, um, really nice blood here for you. If you want it. All you have to do is ask.”
He looks at Viktor and then at Brooke. We thought it would be best if Jamie wasn’t in the room when Coby woke up. We actually have a tent set up for him in the yard, just in case, but Brooke calls him and puts him on speakerphone. I can hear him asking her what’s going on and she shushes him.
“Am I dead?” Coby says, as if he’s asking for another helping of macaroni and cheese at dinner.
“Yeah, you are. And I’m really, really pissed about it, but since you just woke up, I’m going to keep calm and be rational about this. Even though I want to strangle you right now. What were you thinking, Coby?”
It’s strange, first of all, that I can see his eyes, and second, it’s strange not seeing his eyes blink. It’s even more disturbing than it had been with Ava.
“I thought it would be different. I would feel different. Anything was better,” he says before taking his hand and putting it on his chest. Then he tries to take a deep breath, but makes a face.
“I keep thinking I should breathe, but then I try to and it doesn’t feel right. Which is so totally weird. My heart doesn’t beat. How fucking cool is that?” Coby looks at me as if I should be over the moon about it.
“It’s going to be really fucking cool when Mom and Dad find out. Which they won’t, because we’re not going to tell them.”
“Why not?” I nearly slap him upside the head, and it’s a miracle that I stay calm enough not to.
“Because, they would immediately take you to some doctor, and they would hook you up to a monitor and then what would happen? You’d turn into a science experiment, just like in the movies.”
“Movies aren’t rea
l, Texi.” I have to get up from the bed and go stand somewhere else. Viktor has both hands on my shoulders now. I hear Brooke leave, probably to go see Jamie, and Peter and Ava have left the house as well.
“Why, Coby? Why would you do this?” My back is to him, and I nearly jump when his voice sounds right behind me.
“Because I couldn’t keep living the way I was. I tried to kill myself a bunch of times. I screwed it up though, but you didn’t notice. Mom and Dad didn’t notice. No one did.” What was he talking about?
“You were busy with your stuff and everything and I was alone. It sounded cool, living forever. Plus, I’ll never get sick, and I can do this now,” he says, punching a hole in the wall.
“Coby!” I yell, but he just stares at his fist.
“No blood. Pretty fucking cool.” And then he turns at me with a grin I haven’t seen in I don’t remember how long, and that’s it.
I smack him across the face.
Viktor
Coby drops to the floor, hissing as Tex reels back to hit him again. He should have been able to duck, but I don’t think he saw it coming. I grab her hand before she can do it again, and Coby springs to his feet and lunges at her.
This was not how I thought this was going to go. I have one hand on Coby’s chest and the other on Tex’s wrist and they’re both trying to get free. Tex is easier to hold back, but she’s making more noise about it.
“Enough!” I yell, and they both stop. Tex takes her arm back and stalks to the other end of the room while I have to hold onto Coby so he doesn’t go after her. I hold his head and force him to look at me.
“Calm. Down.” I make him meet my eyes. “Let it go. Let the rage go. It doesn’t own you, you own it. Make it your bitch.” I don’t know where the last part comes from, but it’s almost like the words aren’t mine. They belong to Tex. Coby’s arms snap to his sides and he stops fighting me.
“Can I let go of you now?” I ask him.
“Yes. I . . . I’m good. I think. I don’t know what that was.” His eyes are wide and he looks scared. Young.
“That was your immortal side making its presence known. You have two parts of you now. You will hold onto your human side, but your noctalis side is stronger. Every moment will be spent fighting those two things that do not want to coexist in the same space.”