“Did you drag me all the way to the mall to insult my taste in drinks or did you have a real reason for meeting here?”
She plopped down next to me, maneuvering her drink, plate and the monster-size tote bag at her side.
“Bag lady,” I muttered under my breath.
“I heard that, and for your information, I have a present for you in this bag,” Piper said, not bothering to look up from her task of finding a portion of floor that was not too sticky to deposit her tote.
“A present? For me?”
“Yep. Cyrus made a bunch of wooden stakes for you. Thought you should keep them around the House and stuff. I just saw him.”
“You went to training?” I was incredulous. Getting Piper to go to self-defense practice was like pulling teeth. I insisted the House attend training with Cyrus but Piper always had other things to do.
She ignored my comment and reiterated, “So, we’re at the mall, why?”
“Do I need a reason to hang at the mall with my best friend?” I said brightly.
Piper was instantly suspicious. I guess I said it a little too brightly.
“What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean ‘What’s wrong?’ Can’t we get together outside the House for a little girl time at the mall without something being wrong?”
Piper just stared at me.
“Yeah, okay. Well, I was wondering if you’d made any progress on deciphering that stupid Prophesy yet.” I hated to sound needy but I was kind of getting tired of being jumped every time I strolled around the park looking for a little midnight snack.
“Were you attacked again?” Piper asked, concern replacing her normal sarcastic tone.
“Aw, shucks, Piper. Are you worried about me?” I fluttered my eyelashes at her. Piper snorted.
“If you’d quit dressing like a streetwalker, the attacks would stop.”
I blinked once. Twice. Not sure if I heard her correctly. She laughed at my expression, no longer able to hold a straight face.
“Oh hardy, har, har.” My voice dripped acid.
“Don’t you think if I found the true meaning of the Prophesy, I would have called you right away?” she questioned after her laughter died down.
“Yeah, I’m just getting tired of playing dodge the stake and last night, well”—I shook my head in remembrance—“I was dodging a sword. A freakin’
sword
, Piper. I mean, who walks around campus waving a sword without getting busted by campus security?”
Piper sat up straighter and demanded, “Did you tell Thomas?”
I nibbled on my lower lip wondering how to answer that one. “I would have told Thomas,” I ventured slowly, “but he has a lot going on right now with all the rogue vampires attacking people and stuff.”
Thomas was my Vampire Investigator boyfriend and a full-blood. He’d helped me when I was first changed and we’d grown pretty close in the last year. Yet lately, well … I didn’t want to burden Piper about Thomas’s weird loner behavior. I mean, he was working his cute butt off nightly trying to keep the public safe from vampires who were freaking out about the stupid Prophesy that had everyone thinking I was going to destroy their existence—Puh-lease, like I would if I could—but I was a big girl now. I was the half-blood Protector, for goodness’ sake.
“It’s Thomas’s job to protect the people and get the bad vampires. He can handle it. He would want to know, Colby.”
She was right, of course. He
would
want to know, but I felt bad adding to his workload. He was having nightmares when he slept and they were really unnerving. I didn’t even like to cuddle next to him anymore because they bothered me so much; and once, well, once he’d swung out as though he were fighting some unknown foe and knocked me right out of the bed. When I woke him he didn’t remember a thing. He claimed he wasn’t having them anymore but the dark circles under his eyes told me another story. He wanted to protect me as much as I wanted to protect him. Boy, did we have control issues or what?
“Yeah, I know. I plan to tell him. I just hoped I could add good news with the bad like, I was attacked with a sword last night but Piper figured out the Prophesy so hey, there won’t be any more pin-the-sword-through-the-Colby night games.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Piper said, rolling her corndog around in the mustard, trying to gob on more—if that was even possible.
“You’re gonna get a stomachache,” I warned as she took a bite.
“You’re just jealous because I can eat real food,” she gloated.
“You know, a true friend wouldn’t rub that in and probably wouldn’t even eat in front of me.” I pouted prettily.
She took another bite and chewed with her mouth open, showing me everything I was missing.
“Ew, gross!”
She smacked her lips after swallowing and smiled smugly.
“Fine, next time I’m hungry, I’ll feed in front of you.” It was an empty threat. I wasn’t about to let Piper watch me suck down a pint of O negative from some unsuspecting victim. Piper had a very weak stomach.
Ignoring me, she asked, “How is Aunt Chloe doing?”
I rolled my eyes in answer. Aunt Chloe was actually my great-great-aunt but everyone just called her “Aunt Chloe.” She used to be a nurse during World War II and the Korean War. She was feisty and opinionated and was currently acting as the Psi Phi House’s sorority mother.
“It’s only temporary. A big façade, actually. I can’t believe the administration threatened to revoke our sorority status because we didn’t have a live-in housemother. Sheesh. I’m glad Aunt Chloe is helping us out, but I think she misses her friends at Providence Point, and frankly, she’s getting downright bossy.”
Aunt Chloe normally lived in an upscale retirement community on the Eastside, but when I needed a housemother ASAP, she packed her bags and moved in. All without my consent, might I add. In theory, it was a good fit. She knew I was Undead and knew that all the girls at Psi Phi House were half-bloods as well. She wasn’t even squeamish about sleeping in the same room where we found a murdered half-blood hidden in a trunk last year.
“Pish posh,” she’d said when I objected to her sleeping there. “There isn’t a day gone by I don’t see an ambulance picking up a body somewhere in Providence Point. People die, Colby. That’s part of the cycle. Nothing to be scared of.” And that was basically Aunt Chloe in a nutshell. She was one tough ol’ bird.
“Bossy? How?” Piper wanted to know.
“Well, first of all she gave us all household chores and harps on us constantly to get them done. She even made us a chart! She decided it was much too important to trust us to make our own study times, so she instituted set Quiet Time sessions—and attendance is mandatory. She claims the girls lack discipline and need to understand the importance of passing their Undead courses. Seems to me everyone understands if they don’t pass the course, they don’t get a vampire license; without that, they’ll be relieved of their Undead status. You know.” I made a swift cutting motion across my neck to emphasize my point. “They all get how important the classes are to their existence.”
“Sounds like she’s just trying to help,” Piper noted.
“Tell that to Sage. Aunt Chloe put her on a diet.”
Piper looked shocked, “How do you put a vampire on a diet? And for that matter, why put her on a diet? You guys stay the same after you die, right?”
“Only full-bloods apparently. Sage, for some weird reason, is able to consume milk products. And she loves shakes. Has them all the time. She is forever walking to the Starbucks and getting a Frappuccino after her nightly feeding. Anyway, we all noticed she had to go out and buy new clothes, ’cause her other ones were too tight. Her face was getting rounder and finally Aunt Chloe told her she was getting fat. I mean right to her face she said, ‘Sage, you’re getting fat. I’m putting you on a diet.’”
Piper made a noise somewhere between a gasp of dismay and a chortle of laughter.
“I know,” I agreed with the sentiment behind the sound, “I couldn’t believe it either. Sage got all flustered and embarrassed but Aunt Chloe didn’t relent. She made Sage a chart as well, to keep count of her daily feeding and shake intake.”
“That’s awful.”
I shrugged. “I’d rather be on the diet chart than the boy chart.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask what the boy chart is,” Piper said.
I smirked at her. “Remember last fall how our football team was being affected by a strange illness that was making them all weak and light-headed?”
Piper shook her head. “Vaguely.”
“It seemed the basketball team was struck with the same mysterious illness. The guys were passing out in practice and no one, not even the coaches or the team doctors, could figure out why. But Aunt Chloe did.”
“How?”
“She’s always listening to us. One day the girls were talking about their nightly feedings and who was dating who and before I know it, she announced the boy chart. She told us each time we feed from an athlete, we put their name under our column and no one can feed on the same athlete for at least two weeks. Several of the gals have a thing for jocks and they were hooking up and feeding on the same guys. These guys were literally being sucked dry by Psi Phi House.”
Piper let out a bark of laughter, then clamped a hand over her mouth when everyone in the food court turned to stare. She shook with the effort to hold it in, but couldn’t seem to stop giggling.
“Sure, laugh it up. It was pretty shocking for the girls to see their favorite flavor on another girl’s column. I thought Angie was going to stake one of the new girls, Manda, after seeing three of her favorite treats under her name.”
“Are you on the ’ho chart?” Piper asked suddenly.
“It’s called the
boy
chart,” I corrected primly. “And no, I am not. I have Thomas and I never feed on the same person twice.”
I didn’t elaborate on the fact that Thomas had such rich blood that I could feed on him and not need to eat for the rest of the day, and vice versa. Anyway, feeding with Thomas was not like feeding on a stranger. It had an entirely different effect on me—one I wasn’t about to share with Piper.
“Yeah, I bet.” She smirked at me but I didn’t rise to the bait.
“So, back to the Prophesy. How’s progress?” I felt it was prudent to change the subject or Piper would figure out feeding was a passionate pastime between Thomas and myself. I was relieved when she let it go.
“Actually, I have a couple of ideas on that front. How do we know that the Prophesy was translated properly? I want to double-check the scripts we have with the original and then find a professional who can translate them again. So much can get lost in a translation, nuances can be misinterpreted. Maybe it’s not as bad as we think.”
“That’s it? All you’ve got is wishful thinking?” I tried not to sound annoyed, but hoping the Prophesy was somehow mistranslated seemed like a long shot at best.
Piper remained stubborn. “I need to know the information we have is accurate. I don’t know the history, the context or the myths surrounding this stupid thing, so I think it’s prudent to make sure what we have is solid.”
I threw my hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. You win. I’m sorry. I’m a little on edge, ya know? Thomas mentioned something about scripts being transported to the vampire library. Maybe I can get a peek at them. I can get you a copy of the text in its original language, if that helps.”
“Why can’t I go with you?”
“They are never going to let you in the library, much less nose around in the private collections,” I told her.
“Is it because of the whole ‘I breathe, therefore I live’ thing?” Piper quipped
“Something like that. Tell me what to look for and I’ll try to get a look at them.”
“Try? You mean you don’t know if you can see the private stuff either?”
“The librarian and I don’t really see eye to eye.” I reluctantly admitted, “I don’t think she likes me.”
“Imagine that,” Piper said dryly. “A full-blood who doesn’t like the half-blood Protector. Shocker.”
I nodded. “Hard to believe that I’m not loved and adored by the entire full-blood population, but there you go. I’ll see if Mr. Holloway can get me access.”
Mr. Holloway was a member of the Vampire Tribunal. He was one of the three head honcho Undead. I kind of kept a dark secret of his so he’s willing to do stuff for me.
“Failing that, I guess I pay a little visit during the day.”
“You mean break in?” Piper clarified.
“Jeez, when you put it like that it sounds so sordid, Piper,” I complained. She laughed at me.
“Fine, but I get to be Bonnie. You’re Clyde,” she teased.
“You don’t get to go. Too dangerous.”
“What do you mean, ‘too dangerous’? We go during the day when all the vampires can’t go out. How dangerous is that?” She was peeved.
“Listen, Piper, it’s way too risky for you to go. Not gonna happen.”
My declaration was met with silence, which was so unlike Piper. I noticed her looking over my shoulder, mouth forming a small O of surprise. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out my stalker had stepped out of the shadows. And I was so right, he was definitely Piper’s type, if the look on her face was any indication.