Chapter 16
chapter
sixteen
Alexander was expecting many things when that door opened.
Sadie Greer grabbing him in a hug was not one of them.
He spluttered, hands up like an idiot who had never been hugged before. He should have been cataloging every weapon he had on his body. He should have been livid, or betrayed, or any one of the late-night emotions that had been simmering inside him since his exile.
This girl—this monster—had ruined his life. For a moment, he was just as angry at her as he had been every day for the past three years.
Then Sadie pulled back, her eyes gleaming with black vampire tears. “It’s so good to see you,” she said, her voice thick. “We were worried.”
Alexander’s anger drained away like blood down a shower drain. He was sixteen years old again, knowing these girls were monsters, yet still hoping these cool older kids would like him. He once thought they did. Then they screwed him over.
“Aw,” Tobias said quietly beside him.
“Don’t,” Alexander told him. He sucked in a deep breath, willing the anger back. “Sadie, what are you doing here? Where’s Rosaline?”
“She’s in Italy with Milly,” Sadie said, as if that would make any sense to Alexander, who didn’t even know who ‘Milly’ was.
“It’s a pre-wedding thing,” Sadie continued, and gasped, pulling at her ratty band T-shirt which, if Alexander was not mistaken, wasn’t even for a genuine band.
It was for the made-up band consisting of her and her girlfriend, which briefly gained notoriety during a true crime scandal that led to the events that brought Alexander catastrophically into their lives.
“Hold on,” Sadie continued. “Let me get Honey, she’s in the garden.”
“I thought she was going to college?” Alexander said before he could stop himself.
“She is! She’s on break.” With that, Sadie blurred out of the front hall with vampire speed that made Alexander flinch.
The front porch was silent. Alexander could feel Tobias’s eyes on him, ravenously curious.
“Vampires,” Tobias said, slow and pointed.
“Don’t,” Alexander begged. He never should have told Tobias how he got kicked out of his family. He could see Tobias putting everything together as they spoke, all of Alexander’s pitiful mistakes clicking into place.
A loud shriek rang through the house. Honey Williams came sprinting into the front hall, her clothes oddly plain and covered in dirt.
Her hair was shorter than he remembered, her skin shiny and tanned and flushed with excitement.
She was also bigger, which made sense. She’d excitedly told him about all the food she would eat once she was human again.
There was a new bite scar on her neck. She didn’t even attempt to cover it with accessories or makeup, which made Alexander suspect it was a vampire girlfriend thing. Those girls always had a strange way of expressing their affection.
“It’s little Alex!” Honey yelled, and barreled into him.
Alexander grunted. Despite the lack of supernatural strength, Honey’s hug was even harder than Sadie’s. She was also transferring a significant amount of soil onto his clothes, which he would have been mad about if his clothes weren’t already ruined.
Tobias cleared his throat. “Little Alex?”
“Shut up,” Alexander hissed over Honey’s shoulder.
Honey pulled back, tweaking Alexander’s black, messy hair. “You dyed your hair! Super hot. About time you let loose. What the hell have you been getting up to?”
Alexander opened his mouth to tell her. Then he spotted a large bug sitting in her hand, which she’d presumably held right up against him during the hug.
“Oh god,” Alexander heard himself say. “That’s a bug.”
“Cool,” Tobias said over him. “Hey, big guy.”
Honey snorted, holding up the bug. “Love the beetle, little Alex.”
She toyed lightly with the beetle’s feelers while Alexander held back an embarrassing gag.
Even as he fought back his disgust, he couldn’t help but notice how good she looked.
Despite her plain garden clothes and simple haircut, she still held herself like the fashionista he knew three years ago.
She even managed to make the bite scar on her neck look hip and exciting.
“Who’s your friend?” Honey continued, walking over to the porch railing and dropping the bug gently onto a bush. “What’s with the ripped-up-and-burned look? Is this a new style for hunters?”
“Not a hunter,” Tobias said. “Werewolf.”
Honey’s tanned face lit up. “Werewolf? Holy shit. Sadie, does he smell weird?”
She ran back and slid her arm around Sadie’s thin waist, pulling her close as Sadie considered.
“He smells…like a dog,” Sadie said with an apologetic look toward Tobias. “But a clean dog!”
“No harm done,” Tobias said. “You smell dead. Not rotting, but, y’know. Dead.”
Honey lifted her chin off Sadie’s shoulder.
“God! Just after Kade and Theo moved out. They were our last roommates, Kade was staying to get a handle on his bloodlust and Theo was tagging along. You would have liked them, they were fun as hell. Kade kept saying how much he wanted to meet a werewolf! And Rosaline is eating drunk Italians with Milly—”
Tobias cleared his throat. “Not that I’m not loving this. But can someone explain how you guys know each other?”
Alexander held back a frustrated groan. He had expected that if he ever saw these girls again, it would be a dramatic showdown. He never expected to get so annoyed over Honey’s cheeky grin.
“These are the vampires I spared,” Alexander said. “Even though they lied to my face and betrayed me.”
Honey cooed, twisting Sadie’s dark hair around her finger. “Little Alex! You threatened to kill us. Of course we lied.”
Tobias sniffed and crossed his arms over his torn shirt. “You don’t smell very dead, Honey.”
Honey beamed, fluffing up her glossy hair. “I got turned back! Killed my sire. Alex helped! How have you been, Alex?”
There was the anger he’d been waiting for. Alexander let it flood over him, almost relieved at its intensity. It hurt, but at least it was the appropriate reaction at seeing these girls again.
“How do you think I’ve been?” he snapped.
“I was supposed to finish my fucking Proving and come back home and join the adults as a full hunter. Instead I spent the last three years working shitty jobs in a hundred moldy apartments! I don’t even have a GED!
My family won’t return my calls! I can only take small, pathetic hunts because I’m alone—”
He choked to a stop. He didn’t let himself consider the depths of his solitude very often. It got in the way of his work. Better to focus on the next step, instead of the endless stretch of isolation looming ahead of him.
Honey and Sadie exchanged a look that communicated volumes.
“Little Alex,” Honey started.
“I’m not little,” Alexander snapped. “I’m nineteen!”
He turned and stalked back down the porch steps, ignoring the girls calling his name behind him. Like he was still that naive sophomore who let them drag him on a road trip and convince him they were friends. They’d been using him the whole time. He wasn’t about to make that mistake again.
Their souls are dust, he reminded himself, and paused. Honey’s soul wasn’t dust. Right? If she turned human again, then she would have gotten it back. Maybe. His family had always been vague about what happened to the rare monster who clawed their humanity back.
Tobias caught up to him, wincing at the fast pace. “We’re leaving?”
“Yes,” Alexander said, reluctantly slowing down. He didn’t know the extent of Tobias’s injuries, but he obviously wasn’t in any shape to run anywhere. If anything, he was even more sweaty than when he got out of the car.
Alexander slammed the front gate closed, heading for the stolen car they would have to replace on the way out of town.
“Whoa,” Tobias said. Tobias wheeled Alexander around by the shoulder to face him, letting Alexander see that yes, Tobias was in much worse shape than he’d been a few minutes ago: his skin was pale and slick with sweat, his grip slack around Alexander’s shoulder, like he could barely muster the effort.
“We came here for help,” Tobias continued. “A vampire sounds like exactly the kind of help we need.”
“It is! But not her.”
“Who were you expecting?”
“Rosaline.” Alexander pushed Tobias’s weak hand off his shoulder, looking back at the house warily.
It looked the same as it did that fateful night three years ago, except the fence they’d broken had been repaired and there was no decapitated sire bleeding black on the grass.
And no Rosaline, calm and polite even as she held a silver crossbow with those bright pink oven mitts.
“She’s older. Sensible. More experienced. She said she could help if I ever needed it,” Alexander admitted. “She was the only person I could think of, okay?”
Tobias sighed, rubbing his sweaty forehead. “Family still not picking up the phone, huh?”
“No,” Alexander lied, averting his gaze as he thought back to the last two calls with his parents. “Not…not really. Even if they were, they couldn’t help. I have to do this on my own.”
“Probably wouldn’t be happy with a werewolf helping you,” Tobias added.
Alexander laughed humorlessly. “Unhappy is an understatement.”
Tobias hummed. He was shifting from foot to foot, frowning as he thought.
“Well,” he said. “You’re not alone. You have me.”
“We can’t take down Muzzle on our own,” Alexander said. “Not when he knows…”
He trailed off. Tobias wasn’t shifting from foot to foot, Alexander realized. He was swaying, his knees shaking under his torn jeans.
Alexander took his arm, steadying him. “Are you okay?”
“Nope,” Tobias slurred. “Think I’m gonna pass out again.”
He collapsed into Alexander’s arms.