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After she left, I had to take a few to process. Two emotionally charged conversations back to back took a toll on a person. Even though both talks had been so different, I definitely felt like they had each resulted in the same thing.
I felt closer to Espy than I had in years, and respected her more than ever. I’d known from Beni that the night she lost her mom had been rough. Everyone knew that Espy had lost her leg, but I hadn’t known she had cut it off herself.
I tried to imagine any of the team in danger, or my dad. Espy had loved her sister’s children enough to saw her own leg off, wrap the stump in a make-shift tourniquet, and stumble after one of the rarest types of vampires in the world. Would I have been able to do what she did? Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could answer that question, and was relieved beyond words I didn’t have to.
Even when she was telling me this, she still found a way to cut through my own trauma, as well. I didn’t like talking about my mom stuff much, but sharing with Espy had lifted a weight I hadn’t fully realized was there.
Of course, without the wonder of Evan’s kiss on my lips, I don’t know if I would’ve had the strength to open up like that.
Still didn’t feel real. He kissed me. He kissed me. He kissed me. We were together, even if there wasn’t exactly a label on it. All the times we’d clashed since coming to town had all been worth it.
And now I was wearing his shirt. I wrapped my fingers in the hem of the comfy cotton. In the safety of solitude I could feel a little giddy about it.
“Knock, knock.” Beni stuck her head in the door without actually knocking. “I come bearing pants.” She gestured with a pair of jeans in her hand.
I was relieved to see her up and about, but only gave her a frosty look. “Are they my clothes, this time?”
“Uh, I think you mean thank you.” She tossed them to me as she came inside. “Those little shorts of mine, that you very rudely destroyed by bleeding all over them, got every male in a twenty-mile radius hot and bothered.”
My lips twitched. “Jee, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She winked. “Now, get your pants on so we can get this thing started. Oh, one more thing.” She yanked a hair tie out of her head and tossed it at me. “Tie up one corner of his shirt with that. You’re welcome. Again.”
With that, she breezed out, leaving me shaking my head in her wake. I suppose long emotional scenes weren’t really her style.
“Glad you didn’t die!” I called after her.
“Yup!” Floated back.
I chuckled and pulled the pants on. Turns out, tying the corner of Evan’s shirt pulled it tight enough not to hang. Plus, the ruching of the fabric brought the eye up to my hip. I tightened the tie one more time, and now there was just a hint of skin showing right beneath the knot. Perfect.
Everyone had reconvened in the living room. (The couch had been put back to rights.) I guess the kitchen was a bit of a sore subject just now. Beni was perched on the coffee table. Evan and Espy sat on opposite ends of the couch.
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I hovered there in the entrance for a moment, just watching him. But he sensed me, looked up, and smiled. Lifted one arm, an open invitation I couldn’t resist. I was gliding toward him before I consciously decided to move.
Though, I hesitated right before I was close enough to sit next to him, and sat on the middle cushion instead. A question in my face, I flicked my eyes toward the others.
“They already know.” He dropped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me up against to him. I couldn’t help but notice the way my body fit perfectly beneath the curve of his arm.
Pleased, but confused, I said, “I thought we weren’t telling anyone yet?”
“Oh, please.” Beni rolled her eyes. “More like we told him.”
He looked a little chagrined. “I guess my feelings weren’t as undercover as I thought.”
“I may have encouraged him to...be more honest with himself,” Espy said, more charitable than Beni. “The way he was holding you when you collapsed seemed more than brotherly.”
None of my training could stop the smile, or the blush when Evan dropped a kiss on the top of my head, muttering, “Don’t look so smug,” against my hair.
“We have some decisions to make.” Espy called the meeting to order. “Our safehouse has been exposed. We were planning to evacuate, but…” she gestured to the fading light. “It seems that plan may no longer be viable. I don’t think we could reach any protected locations before we lost the light.”
“Does that matter?” I asked. “Song already attacked us. Doesn’t that make her sunset deadline kind of pointless? She knew we would refuse her offer, and already had her spells up before her messenger was fully out the door.”
“The disappearances are still going to happen,” Beni pointed out. “I think the reason she wanted us gone by sunset was to stop us from interfering.”
“I should never have brought us here,” Espy said. “It’s clear we don’t have enough information to fulfil this mission successfully. I was blinded by pride for my new algorithm.”
“That’s not true at all,” Evan said. “None of us thought this case would be anything different than usual, other than the rural setting.”
“I say we stay and fight.” Beni was never much for recrimination. “Two people walking around right now will be gone, like, soon. We’ve never given up on a job before. Why start now?”
“Because we don’t want two deaths to be six deaths,” Espy said simply. “We can’t fight the second cult and Song, not when we know so little about both.”
“Maybe Song was right,” I said, and they all turned to look at me. “Maybe we shouldn’t have interfered, but we did. We’re here now. How can we call ourselves the Knights of Seth if we just abandon our mission?”
“But we have no plan,” Evan said. “Our scheme to make them think you and Beni were a couple didn’t pan out. We got the attention of the wrong cult of vampires, and we have no idea how to find the right one.”
“Actually,” I said. “I think we do. These other, secret vampires have shown themselves exactly one time.”
“The eyes in the waterfall,” Beni said. “The eyes watching you.”
Evan’s hand spasmed on my shoulder. “You want to be bait.”
“It’s not much of a plan,” I admitted. “But it’s all we got. Besides, if they come after me, then maybe they won’t take anyone else. It’s not how we wanted to stop the murders, but it will have to work.”
“How do we know those eyes can find you?” He asked. “We’re not having you act as bait for no reason.”
“It’ll work,” I said, confident in ways I couldn’t explain. “I think...I think they’ve been watching me the whole time.”
“What?” Evan’s mouth thinned.
“What makes you say that?” Espy asked.
“Okay, remember that nightmare?” I said, “The one that woke the whole house? There was more to it, more than I told you.” I had to take a deep breath to steel myself to go on. “In the dream there were...eyes...all over me. I’ve had the night terrors before, but not the eyes. Not before we came to Rossberg.”
“You dream about creepy eyes, and then see a pair of creepy eyes watching you the next day.” Beni shrugged. “I mean, in our world that’s not so far fetched.”
I could see in Evan’s eyes he thought so too, and wasn’t happy about it.
“There’s just one problem,” Espy pointed out. “How did they invade your dreams in the safehouse? The blessing was active then.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But even Ira has done things with vampire powers we didn’t think were possible. Whoever these other vampires are could be just as unpredictable.”
“We don’t have time to come up with another plan,” Evan said with a sigh. “If Seth thinks this will work, then I believe him.”
I beamed up at him, and got a soft smile in return.
“Are you guys gonna be doing that, like, all the time now?” drawled Beni.
“What?” Evan tipped a shoulder. “You told me to be more supportive, I'm doing it.”
“Yeahhhhh, I take that all back.”
“We dig in then,” Espy said. “We bolster the protections, use Seth as bait, and spring a trap.”
“I’m guessing you have a few ideas about that.” I grinned.
“I may have gone over your mother’s book again while you were out,” she said, and I thought she was going to go for that false modesty thing again. But instead, she grinned right back. “And, yes, I have an idea.”