Chapter 13 #3
Before I had a chance to process that mess, the other redhead smacked the first one’s head and said, “Cut it out, Baz. You’re going to scare Echo away, and I like him.
He tried to protect me earlier, and Vale likes him.
Let me repeat that second one. Vale likes him.
Have you ever seen Vale like someone? Because I haven’t, and I’ve known him for years.
” Without letting the redhead who might be Baz answer, he continued.
“No, you haven’t. No one has. I’m sorry for my asshole brother, Echo.
Baz wasn’t trying to be awful. He was just born that way.
Vale hasn’t fucked either of us in ages, and he isn’t going to, so don’t let us get in your way. ”
I blinked rapidly from the rollercoaster of emotions I’d just gone on. Angry, jealous, scared, relieved, and utterly, hopelessly confused in a matter of seconds.
“Oh yeah, seriously. Vale isn’t into us. Dude only cares about science and being irritated all the time,” possibly Baz said.
Okay, I don’t know who the fuck I was talking to, so I’m just going to give them names and run with it, okay?
Vix scrambled to his feet and tried to take my hand. What was up with these guys and hands? I tucked mine into my back pockets to keep them safe, but I gave him my attention.
“Vale isn’t here right now, Echo. He’s been gone since you left yesterday. Gareth might know where he is, but he’s been busy since the attack yesterday. The Dawn Initiative has never been so overt about coming after me, and—”
“Vix, you’re breaking protocol,” Love’s voice came from the ceiling.
“Oops! Sorry, um, those guys from yesterday… our… um, rival paintball team?” Vix threw a frantic look at Baz, who gave him an encouraging thumbs-up.
“Yeah, those guys were being serious jerkasaurs and now Gareth is going to ah… definitely not kill them or do anything illegal because we don’t do stuff like that. ”
“Nailed it,” Baz said, clapping slowly.
Annoying and adorable. Any other day, and I would have been compelled to stay and watch the show, but I had too much on my agenda, so I said, “Vale,” once more, only louder.
“I’m sorry, Echo,” Love said. “Vale refuses to wear a tracker, so we can’t help you find him.”
My shoulders sagged, but I saluted Love’s speaker in thanks. I gave the twins a wave goodbye, but they both grabbed one of my arms.
“Stay!”
“Don’t go!”
“Wait until Vale gets back.”
“We promise not to hurt you.”
“Or let anyone else hurt you.”
“Baz is great at killing bad guys,”
“And Vix is great at being awesome.”
“Bunny, have you seen Trixie?”
That last one was courtesy of the huge Viking from the day before. He was a lot less scary up close. In fact, taking in his soft, fluffy pullover and kind eyes, I was finding it difficult to reconcile him with the version of him I’d seen before.
Baz ran to the Viking and grabbed his arm, “I haven’t seen her all day, and I’m worried!” his eyes went teary.
Paris snatched his arm back and went to Vix’s side. “Nice try, Baz, but you two look nothing alike.”
My eye twitched. They looked exactly alike. How the hell did Paris tell them apart?
Baz snapped his fingers. “I’ll get you one day, Paris.”
Vix glared daggers at his twin. “You better fucking not.” His eyes flashed in alarm to Paris. “He won’t, right?”
Paris’s eyes were gentle, and he chucked Vix’s chin. “Never. How could I not know the difference between my bunny and an imposter? There’s no one else like you in the world.”
My heart wibbled, and Vix’s must have too because he melted into Paris’s arms. Like, almost literally. His knees gave out, and Paris scooped him up like it was something they did all the time.
“Don’t bother sticking around, Echo,” Baz announced. “They won’t let us watch them fuck, so you might as well hunt down Vale and see if he’s willing to give you the D. God knows he won’t give it to me anymore. I’d call him for you, but he’s not answering his phone right now.”
I remembered my stolen phone in that moment and my decision to make someone get it back for me. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. Things were already weird enough without me doing an impromptu interpretive dance about wanting my phone back.
I waved awkwardly and left the scene of Paris and Vix vanishing into the house while Baz stared wistfully after them.
After that, I wandered the town aimlessly, hoping luck would let me run into Vale, but I found no sign of him. Eventually, I resigned myself to my failure and made my way to the church to set up traps.
I removed my old traps, both triggered and untriggered, and reset them all in a different configuration.
I memorized the new layout and made my way into the bell tower.
I was acutely aware of my surroundings as I worked on a new version of the trap Vale had found me tinkering with the other day, but my man was a no-show.
I pouted my way through the rest of my traps and finished two hours before sunset.
When I got home, there was a huge box waiting for me from one of those fancy meal delivery services. I hadn’t ordered it, but it had my name on it, so I dragged it inside.
When I opened it, it was full of all my favorite foods.
I kept checking the name on the packing order and the label on the box, but they continued to display my name.
Not even my legal name, Brandon, so it couldn’t have been from a random giveaway or well-meaning acquaintance.
It had to be someone I knew well. I don’t like that name, so I don’t use it.
That means you don’t use it either, okay?
Okay.
So, anyway, a lot of my coworkers use my legal name even if I bust out my business card and point at my real name. My students use my real name, though, so at least I have that.
What’s up with my attachment to the name Echo? I don’t know, really. It came out of a misty and dark time where I rebirthed myself, and it feels good to hear. The person I was as a child is gone, and in his place is a person I choose to be. Does that make sense?
Well, it makes sense to me, and I’m the one using the name, so there we go.
Anyway, the name on the food package was mine, and the food was all stuff I loved, so why not eat it, right? It was one of those easy meal prep deals too, so it was going to make my life a hell of a lot easier over the next week.
As I put the food away, I was continually surprised by how perfectly aligned with my preferences the shipment was. So much so that I went through my emails and bank statements to make sure I hadn’t been the one who ordered it while I was asleep or something.
But nope, it wasn’t me, so either someone really wanted to do something nice for me, or they wanted to do me in. It probably wasn’t the latter.
It was never the latter.
Apparently, the power of positive thinking was a load of shit when it came to wanting to be murdered.
Not that I wanted to be murdered by a rando anymore. It was just an old thought pattern kicking around, not ready to dissipate yet.
After putting the food away, I made one of the meals, and it was freaking amazing. So amazing that it made me sleepy. I’d been crashing out in weird places a lot lately, so I indulged myself by climbing into my bed for a quick nap, making sure to set an alarm so I didn’t miss the hunt later.
When I crawled into my bed, it was glorious. It smelled so good I could have cried. It reminded me of my new sweater, and I wondered if the smell had transferred somehow when the sweater was on my bed while I was showering earlier.
An hour later, I was awake and refreshed and ready to fuck up a lot of people’s nights.
I was doing it. I was going to win.
I crept up to the churchyard using a different parking location and route than the last time. Don’t create patterns, folks. It’ll get you caught.
I was one of the first people there, probably because most hunters liked to show up at the last possible second, thinking the element of surprise would be on their side. I’d found that it was a great way to create utter chaos when everyone decided to be a surprise all at once.
My traps always fed well during the first few minutes of the hunt, and tonight was no exception.
It was hilarious watching helpless little feet kicking and flailing about as their owner wiggled and tried to free themselves from my nets.
And when a row of dart traps took out multiple people, the sound they made as they fell was like ASMR to my nervous system. Thump, thump, thump, down they went.
Beautiful.
Once I identified an exploitable path in the chaos, I made for it, staying low, slow, and silent as I went.
I was the first one to the door, and I slipped inside, stealthy as a mouse, barely opening the door, barely making a sound. Any sound I did make was buried under the sounds of fighting, so I was in the clear.
Or so I thought. When I turned to face the ground floor of the tower, I was confronted by three minmaxers, all with glowing hands and eyes.
Well, fuck.
Two of them had pained expressions on their faces, and one of them simply seemed resigned.
I couldn’t begin to fathom why, because I was me, and let me tell you, folks, I am not a threatening person to behold. In my experience, I give off disqualified from the draft on sight vibes. I’m stronger than I look, but considering how wimpy I look, I’m not sure that means much.
So, when the minmaxers in front of me all looked like they would rather be anywhere but there, I was puzzled. I didn’t let that slow me down, though.
I fired tranq darts from my homemade gauntlets and raced for the stairs. If I made it, there was a rope trap that would take out at least one of them if they followed me.
It might have been my imagination, but it seemed like one of the minmaxers didn’t try to dodge and went down immediately, while another one seemed to dive into one of my darts on purpose. The third one dodged artfully and then scowled like he’d fucked up somehow.