As the elevator drew nearer to the fourth floor, I realized I was holding my breath. I knew exactly what my mom was going to say already, and I would’ve just as soon skipped that conversation. But Lucy really wanted to go hang out, so I was hopeful my mom would be a little more lenient, at least for her.
“You ready for this?” Brandon asked through my IAC, squeezing my hand as the others laughed and carried on a normal conversation like they weren’t approaching a guillotine.
“Nope.”
“Figured. Just see if she’ll at least let Lucy go.” I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, and he clarified. “She’s had a rough week. It would do her some good. I’ll miss you, of course, but it’s not like I can’t talk to you the whole time anyway.”
I continued to stare at him for a moment until the elevator stopped, and I let out that breath I&rsqu
Lucy was still grumbling, but she came inside. I could hear Elliott in his bedroom, which is in the back of the apartment. He’d bought a big screen TV and a new recliner a few weeks ago and put them back there. He said he hadn’t realized his house would be the place all the cool kids hung out, and he didn’t want to cramp our style. We did spend a lot of time here, and I felt a little bad that he couldn’t even sit in his own living room alone anymore. He had lived here by himself for a long time. Before he died.“Is that my favorite blonde-haired teenager?” he called as he came down the hallway. “What’s the matter, Lucy Goosey? You not enjoyin’ our glamorous lifestyle?”She was already giggling before he got close enough to tweak her chin. I was slightly jealous, even though I knew that was stupid. He was my Elliott—not hers. “It’s great,” Lucy said, smiling up at him. “It’s
Two weeks. That’s all it took before Lucy was packing her stuff, again. She had her phone in one hand, talking to her mom, crying, while I helped her get her clothes out of my dresser drawer and closet and back into her few measly suitcases. I could hear Annie telling her to calm down, that everything was going to be all right, and she could come back home if she wanted to. Lucy didn’t want to. But she did want to get as far away from my mother as possible.When Brandon and Dax showed up to grab her stuff and move her over to Tara’s apartment, my mom just stood in the living room by the kitchen entryway with her arms folded. I’ve never seen her look so defeated. I could see both sides, if I’m honest. The one time Lucy missed her new curfew, my mom lost it and tried to keep her from going back over to Tara’s the next day, and Lucy screamed, “You’re not my mom!” and slammed my bedroom door. My mom felt like she was supposed
I knew who was speaking to me before I even turned around because, even though Alex isn’t the only Revolutionary War soldier on campus, he’s the only one who addresses me that way. I tried to control the crimson in my face. “Thanks,” I said, not meeting his eyes. “I’ve had a lot of practice.”“Oh? Have you been battling the creatures of the night since you were quite young?” he asked, his expression showing true interest.“Actually, no. I didn’t even know about them until I was fifteen. But I’ve been on quite a few hunts. I’ll be done with my training after one more observation.” I didn’t mention that my sister had been dragging out that “one more observation” for over a month now.“Splendid!” he said with a genuine smile. “Ah, I remember when I was first released into the wild. Such a glorious feeling. Although, my first encounter with a Vampi
“Cass?”I had no idea how long my sister had been standing next to me. I hadn’t heard her walk up, and I hadn’t even noticed her until she said my name. Maybe it wasn’t the first time she’d said it either. I felt my cheeks turn red. This was the first time I realized Tara might be a little right—maybe I did have a bit of a crush on Alex. I didn’t think it was anything to worry about because I loved Brandon—I love Brandon. But I hated that she was right.My head swiveled to look at my sister, and she asked. “Can I speak to you for a moment?” Then, she turned to Alex and added, “Pardon me for interrupting.”“Ah, if it isn’t the elder Miss Findley. How are you this fine day?” Alex did his little bow, and my sister looked bewildered.“Good, thank you... kind sir,” Cadence stammered. I couldn’t help but giggle. Just because Alex spoke so formally d
With a sigh at my own ridiculousness, I continued to the shower. I saw my sister talking to Tara outside and realized I had even more time than I thought since Tara loved to chat. I thought I should let her know I would have a little freedom before homework. Maybe she would want to meet me at Brandon’s. I didn’t want to interrupt her conversation with Cadence, though, so I decided to do it later and pushed into the locker room, relieved to see that Addy and the rest of the girls were already gone.After a quick shower, I let Tara know I was going to Brandon’s. She was at the pizza place with Dax and Lucy waiting on their order and decided to make it to-go and said she’d meet us over there. I wasn’t hungry, but I knew Brandon would be—he always is—so she said she’d bring an extra pie.“Hey, I’m on my way to your place.” It was a nice spring day and it was hard to rush, even though I wanted to tak
Cadence didn’t want to seem rude to my friends, I guess, but they weren’t giving her much of a chance to talk. “Cass, Mom wants you home soon, so can I interrupt?”“Sorry,” I mumbled as Dax said something about trying to navigate a canoe with a blindfold on. “What is it?”Cadence took a seat on the armrest, Brandon between us. I scooted up a little bit so I could see her. My sister looked around to see exactly who would be privy to this information and seemed to decide she could carry on without telling anyone to get out. “You remember I told you Elliott and I encountered some sort of crocapire?”“Yeah?” I wondered where she was going with this. It wasn’t what I was expecting her to want to talk to me about.“We want you to see if you can figure out what that was all about. Can they shift into whatever they want to now, or was that just a one-time deal? Also, can you check
Cadence turned to Lucy and asked how she was doing, and Lucy told her she was doing okay. I thought Lucy had acclimated very well to her new life, especially since she’d moved in with Tara. She was also taking online classes now and was enjoying them. “Do you think it would be okay if I started watching the training sessions?” Lucy was asking. My ears perked up. I couldn’t imagine Lucy wanting to get up early to go watch people work out. It sounded odd. But then, I guess she was just excited to get on with this as soon as possible.My sister didn’t answer right away, so Lucy continued. “I know I can’t participate yet, but if I could watch that would be cool.”It did not sound cool to me, but I would be happy to have Lucy there, so I said nothing. Cadence slowly nodded. “Yeah, sure. I’ll ask Aurora.”“Thanks,” Lucy said, looking relieved. I wondered if she’d been thinking about as
Knowing that Brandon was standing on the other side of the door waiting for me was always a comfort, but as soon as I settled into my trance, I had the feeling this was going to be different, more intense.The stars reached out to me like they always did as I felt myself fade away. It seemed like I should save the most hazardous task for last, so I pushed Holland off and honed in on the situation in Houston. All of the Vampires that had been present during the hunt were dead now, obviously, but I hoped I could get some sort of a read on what had taken place from other Vampires in the area. The chatter was mostly about how violated the Compliant Vampires were feeling, that they didn’t understand why they were being targeted when they hadn’t done anything wrong, and I had to agree with them to an extent. But some who were claiming innocence held secrets in their minds, ones no one had been able to access until I walked in. So when my sister and Aaron had declared to