31. Thirty-One
Thirty-One
Presley
All I had to do was get to the pub across town without Kim and Aaron knowing. It would be a bit of a challenge, but the love birds were easy to distract, Luke wasn’t there to pick up on my lying, and Zach wasn’t there to be overly protective and want to follow me everywhere. It sucked, actually.
It was snowing again. I still didn’t understand why Luke couldn’t have picked a place in the Bahamas or something. At least a place that wasn’t constantly overcast.
My thrifted shoes weren’t made for the snow, and every step packed more snow into the treads.
“What did you want to do first?” Aaron asked, pulling Kimberly between us so we were all shoulder to shoulder. We were overdressed for the cold.
“I was thinking we’d grab a beer or two and hit the museum.”
“It’s 10 a.m.,” Aaron said, like it mattered.
“Yeah, but we’re vampires, so it doesn’t matter. Come on, the plan is to get day drunk and have a good time, you know, since everything sucks and the world is ending.”
“I get it. Yes, okay. Pub it is.”
“Whatever you want. We’re doing it.” Kimberly smiled.
“Oh, Kim’s getting drunk, then?”
“If it pleases you,” she said.
She did need to relax. She was always journaling and reading. I’d snooped once. It was all these old books about the moon cycles and their meanings, along with constellations and Irish history. That wasn’t even the weird part. She’d make lists filled with pros and cons, different scenarios. There were notebooks full of her scratched-out thoughts. Even as we walked, her hands were smudged with ink as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. She was trying to fix our problems again.
After I met up with my stalker, I would help too. Hopefully then, I’d have some information that would get us to my brothers. I could give it over to Kilian, and everyone would be better off for it. Lying and sneaking around could be a good thing.
I convinced a hot guy with hazel eyes to buy us drinks at a random bar. Two scotches deep, I was finally warm. He’d gone back to sit with a friend, but his attention lingered on me.
Focus, Presley.
Hot guys could wait. I checked my phone. One missed call.
“I’m going to go outside to get some air. Maybe you can take Kim to the museum over there.”
The bar was part restaurant and part shopping mall. Groups of people—mostly older couples—funneled in next door. It was probably something boring like historic stuff.
“Yes!” Kim’s eyes lit up, then she frowned. “Do you want someone to come with you?”
“No, I’m going to smoke. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.” She was still frowning.
“Don’t worry. Enjoy the time with your lover.”
I liked the way Kimberly looked at my brother. Like he hung the sun in the sky for her every day. Which she needed because the sun set at 3:00 p.m.
Aaron wasn’t holding his liquor as well as I was, so he slurred a bit. “You’re sure? Because I’ll come out there right now and protect you from whatever. I’ve been training.”
“I got it, ace. Chill here with your girl.”
He gave me a thumbs-up.
Once I was finally outside, I lit that cigarette and pulled my hood over my head. I didn’t like the taste of cigarettes, but I liked that they made me feel a little closer to my brother, wherever he was. I liked to imagine every time I lit one, Zach did too.
I called the number back. Blinking a few times, I fought to steady myself. I was buzzed and going to meet a mad man . Perfect.
“Hi,” I said while passing a street sign. I didn’t know where I was going, but I just walked toward the sounds of more people and cars. He’d given an address, but no smartphone meant no GPS and I had to find it myself. The city was barren the farther you walked from the more popular stores.
“You’re late.”
“I know, but I can’t just disappear without anyone noticing.”
I said it in hopes it would be a warning because I wasn’t entirely sure I wouldn’t get kidnapped. I tried to take a turn down an alley toward the sounds.
“No. Keep walking straight.”
“Wait . . . how do you see me right now?” I stopped, suddenly feeling sick from too much scotch.
“I’m just up ahead. You’ll run right into me.”
I looked ahead and saw much of nothing but a busy street and a crowd of people.
“How do you know what I look like?”
“You dyed your hair. It’s not that hard to spot you. I was given a picture as proof. Couple videos.”
My heart stayed in my throat as I walked, and I really wanted my brothers to come busting through that alley. Luke would wrap an arm around me, and Zach would take the lead and kill anything that breathed wrong. I missed that sense of safety. It was bad to sneak off and follow secret notes all while being tipsy and useless, but my feet kept moving.
Once I was across the street, I spotted a man with tattoos lining his neck and arms while dressed in an all-black suit.
He might as well of had a sign pointing to a dark alley saying Cult This Way .
I could practically hear Luke lecturing me in my head. Getting back to them was the only thing that mattered, and I would finally have some answers.
I stopped in front of him, and he held out his hand for me. Not in that regal way, but more like bros in the frat house did.
“Ready to grab that drink?” He seemed nice enough, with dark hair and broody eyes. Also, very hot.
“Totally.”
We descended a set of stairs into a dimly lit room that reeked of cigarette smoke. The smoke poured out into the frosty air, leaving a dim haze. It was mostly empty except for two others at the bar paying us no mind. Something told me it wasn’t the type of place to check IDs.
The guy led me to a booth at the back where we had a good view of the door. So far so good.
“Name’s Reg.”
“You already know my name,” I said.
Normally, I’d give pleasantries, but the guy had been practically stalking me. I didn’t think I needed to go that far.
“I do. Mind?” He pulled out a cigarette and offered me one, and I declined.
“So, how long were you instructed to look for me?”
“As long as it took.”
“And you’re . . . part of them? The Family.”
He looked at me for a long second before tapping the ash in his tray. “No. Not really. I do work for them. But I’m not like you.”
“Like me?”
“Special.”
“I’m not part of them either.”
“Well, you must mean a great deal to them either way. I was given your name, description, and a phone. He told me to wait until you called. In the meantime, I gathered up what he asked.”
“You didn’t ask why?”
“Above my pay grade.”
The only thing I was still unsure of was why me? Akira didn’t seem all that interested in me back at that farm when he shoved Kim and me into a freezer.
“You’re getting paid for this?” I asked.
“A great deal.”
“To sit and have a drink with me.”
“No, to give you this.” He reached into his breast pocket and laid out a pocketbook. I didn’t wait for permission to grab it. It was three passports and new driver’s licenses for Aaron, me, and even Kimberly. I guessed it made sense they’d want her there. Not for a good reason. The pictures looked real, and I grabbed one of the licenses and moved it in the light to check. All of it was legit. So much for trying to find fake IDs online.
“But I don’t know where they are. I can’t use any of this. I don’t have any money.”
Mr. Mysterious was pissing me off a little. Taking all this time to arrange this meeting and fly out here to give me new documents I couldn’t use was so annoying. Does everything this cult do have to be so secretive and perplexing?
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with all this.”
“Looks like he’s testing you.”
“Yeah, well, he’s dead so . . .”
Reg’s eyes widened at my words.
“Yeah, yeah. I killed him.” I tried to make that information as convincing as I could. “Does that change your mind about helping me?”
It was technically true.
He shook his head. “It helps prove my theory. If they haven’t killed you for that, they must really want you for something. I told you everything I have, though. They did leave one other thing. Look in the back.”
I flicked through the passport books again and found another envelope.
“You have another clue.” Reg smirked.
I read it aloud. “Go to the place where the sky meets the see.”
Riddles were the worst thing ever invented. Mostly because they could have a thousand meanings, and I would have to find the exact right one. It was cruel and unusual punishment.
I sighed. “How is a dead guy leaving me clues?”
“Listen, kid, I’ve worked for these guys for years. Now that they’ve moved overseas, everything here is running slim. But if they sent someone to leave you these clues and you killed the guy I talked to, my guess is they’re testing your loyalty.”
“Test? What kind of test? I just want to find my brothers.”
“Chances are, they had their own loyalty tests. This is yours.”
“Well, thanks for that drink.” I slammed the rest of my drink back. “Love to stay, but I have people who will have a panic attack in about two minutes when they can’t find me.”
He nodded. “Good luck finding your brothers. May fate guide you.”
I stumbled through the snow back toward the museum. For the first time in my life, my head was empty. I stared at my feet crunching in the snow.
Kimberly and Aaron were still at the bar. I spotted them through the foggy window with large letters painted on the glass. They giggled and laughed like they had no other care in the world, and maybe they didn’t. It was hard not to be a little resentful, but I think I just wanted someone to share my pain with like they had. They were there for me, and I knew that, but it wasn’t the same. I wanted to be the one with the partner to lay my head on at night. I didn’t even have Mr. Bear to hold anymore, or someone to make me laugh and reassure me that even if the worst happened and they never came back, I wouldn’t be alone.
At the same time, maybe I didn’t.
My brothers didn’t need to know everything. I only told them stuff when it needed to be said. Like Kimberly being taken by a vampire and possibly being dead seemed like the right time to reveal that little secret I promised to keep.
They didn’t need to know I almost told Ellis, my date to the fraternity formal, I was a vampire.
I didn’t say it, but I wanted to and almost did.
It was that night after the formal. Ellis met me back at the frat house to make sure I was okay. He wanted me to go to the hospital, and I’d refused.
“Let me see.” He shut the door to my room.
“I’m okay. Really.”
“Fine. Then you won’t mind me checking.”
I hesitated as his hands grazed my waist as he lifted my shirt. There was nothing. No bruised ribs. No broken skin.
I watched his hands. His beautiful, strong hands with the veins that led to his forearms.
His thick brows knit together. “That’s strange. It doesn’t hurt?”
I winced. “Ah. Cold hands.”
“Sorry.” I genuinely missed that cute subtle smile on his face.
“You’re looking at me like I’m the one who beat the shit out of someone.”
“No. I . . . There’s no way you don’t have at least a bruise.”
“Well, I’m lucky, then.”
“No. Not lucky. Luck doesn’t exist.”
Ellis thought through everything. He liked to know the why of everything that had ever been invented.
“It does in my world.”
“This isn’t funny. I tried to come in and help you, and I couldn’t. They pushed me to the ground, and I have a scrape on my elbow. They were hitting you so hard, and I don’t see a scratch on you.”
“What do you want from me here?”
“To tell me the truth.”
“And what if I told you something crazy, like I’m superhuman?”
“I’d tell you to get your head checked.”
“Seriously? You wouldn’t take my word for it. This could be the start to a beautiful love story, and you’re killing the vibe.”
“You’re concussed.”
“Guess I’ll need you to watch over me then.”
My joking usually made him laugh, but he was still searching for signs of a scratch.
“Are you done?” I asked, pulling at the edges of my shirt to get him to stop.
“Yeah. Now get your ass in bed.” He smiled.
He stopped answering my texts after that, only asking for a few days if I was okay. Things were cool, but it was never the same.
Had things miraculously worked out with Ellis and he was as cool as Kim, he wouldn’t be safe.
What would it cost to get my brothers back, and what was I willing to give up? A foreign concept. Everything was a foreign concept, like someone had given me a final test with no prep. Luke and Zach paved the way through every experience in my life, but I was on my own path now, and I was sure I wasn’t making good decisions. Maybe I had to make the bad ones, all the hard decisions the others couldn’t.
Aaron and Kimberly had more to lose.
So maybe that’s why I stared at the note in my hand a few seconds longer before shoving it into my pocket, resolving not to tell them a thing. Or maybe it was because I was getting used to doing things on my own. I couldn’t tell anymore.
I was surprisingly sober enough to feel the ache in my chest again. As soon as I did, Aaron’s head shot up like he’d felt it too. His eyes darted to the door, then the window, and he smiled when he saw me.