Evanescent (7 page)

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t Wes—wasn’t Coop
either.” I thought I’d cut him off at the pass with that last
tidbit of info, but my heart mourned for one just like it did the
other. I can’t have both, so either way I’m heading toward
heartache.

“Well, if you’re in need of something quick
and dirty.” He plucks a condom out of his pocket. “I’m always ready
to serve at the feet of a queen like you. I don’t bite unless you
want me to, and I always say please and thank you.”

“Wow, you’re a real gentlemen.”

My phone buzzes. It’s a text from Coop.

Home yet?

I text him back
. Sitting in my room with
Flynn.

Flynn is a mattress magnet. Keep a safe
distance.

I give a soft laugh.

Where are you?
Maybe he’s at work? If
he is, I might have to cure my sudden craving for Mexican food. I
can feel a serious appetite coming on, and very little of it has to
do with satiating my stomach.

He texts right back.
Austen House—three
doors down. Updating software for a friend. Almost through. We need
to talk before I leave
.

My heart drops like a stone. Grayson’s room
is three doors down. Cooper was “messing” with her last summer, and
Flynn injected himself into the situation. Maybe if he hadn’t stuck
his little head in the way they’d still be together? But he’s in
her room, touching her software, and the thought makes my blood
boil like lava just beneath my skin.

“Anything you want to share?” Flynn nods
toward my phone.

“That was Coop.” I stare down at it before
tossing it to the foot of my bed. “He’ll be over in a few
minutes.”

“
Coop
.” He makes a face before
springing up to his feet. “That’s my signal. God forbid he think
I’m trying to tap his fountain.”

Fountain? I’ll let this one slide.

“I’m thinking a nice long walk will get me
somewhere.” Flynn gazes out of the blackened window in the
direction of the forest.

“To do what? Feed a Spectator what’s left of
your brain?” I’m sure there are more than a few zombies just
waiting for a delicacy like Flynn Masterson to wander into those
woods. And, judging by his eagerness to run toward danger, I bet
that cranium of his is filled with an entire stack of stupid. His
brain might actually
harm
Spectators, not cure them. Flynn
should consider stamping an FDA warning across his forehead as a
courtesy to the coffin-challenged creatures.

He makes a face as he heads toward the door.
“There’s nothing wrong with my brain, Laken. I’ve got a sister
who’s being assaulted in God knows how many ways, and I’m not about
to sit around and wait for you to unlock the combination to
Wesley’s Levis.”

Great. Now I feel like shit.

“We’re not waiting for me to unlock the
combo to anybody’s Levis. Besides I’m heading to a new ritual this
Wednesday. I’m getting in deeper.”

“What ritual?” He opens the door an
inch.

“Wes said I’d be a Treasure.”

“Another waste of time.” He lets out a sigh.
“It’s the Counts version of the Girl Scouts. I wouldn’t rely on
that getting you anywhere.”

“Maybe it’s the next step. Maybe after, Wes
will take me to another ritual, and it’ll be the one that leads to
the neck of my mother.” It disgusts me to even think about.

Flynn shakes his head. “I would have never
guessed that about the Counts—the blood, and guts, and gore—the
kidnapping.” His eyes gloss over. “That’s the ritual you need to
get to—get us to their fucking hideout. I don’t know what’s
stopping you from shaking the shit out of Wes.” His eyes flare with
anger. “If you don’t, I will.” Flynn slams the door behind him and
it coincides with the thunder booming overhead.

Crap.

Flynn Masterson is a loose cannon. If he
does end up taking a walk in the forest, I might just root for the
Spectator.

Cooper doesn’t show. Instead, Jen barrels
into the room like a hurricane and begins tossing things into an
overnight bag.

“Did you see Cooper out there?” I’m
embarrassed to even ask. I know full well Grayson is pulling out
the double D stops to keep him from exiting her bedroom, especially
since his next destination happens to concern me.

“Yeah, and I sent him home.” She looks
indignant. “He had some lame excuse that he was installing
something in Grayson’s hard drive.” She rolls her eyes. “There’s no
way he’s knocking her up on my watch.”

Should have known Jen was responsible in
some small way. As the official Austen House cock-blocker she’s
pretty much on the scent of any testosterone carrying team
member.

“I’ll be staying downstairs tonight,” she
says without breaking her frenetic rhythm. “I checked out the old
den mother’s room, and didn’t find a leak—so I changed the sheets,
and I’m good to go. Your new roommate, Hattie, should be here in
less than ten.” She slams the drawer shut. “Be nice to her, would
you?”

“I’ll be a saint.” Just knowing Hattie
Tobias will be sawing Z’s less than six feet away is already
robbing me of a good night’s sleep. But she wouldn’t hurt me,
right? I mean we have the same goals. She wants to help her family,
and I want to help mine.

Maybe this is a good thing? But I’m betting
not.

I shoot a quick text to Coop while Jen deep
sixes everything she can into her plethora of duffle bags.

My new roomie is on her way.

There’s a soft knock at the door, and Jen
lets Hattie in with her fresh from the fifties hair style, her dark
cesspools for eyes, and that candy-coated smile that tells you she
would just as soon strangle you in your sleep as she would lend you
her best wool sweater.

My phone buzzes, but I ignore it momentarily
as Jen and I meet with the newly resurrected.

“I’ve got most of my things,” Jen announces,
saddling herself with excess baggage. “I should clear out by
tomorrow. If you have any questions, Laken will be more than happy
to help you. Don’t stay up too late, that’s my only rule.” She
hedges her way out the door and blows me a kiss. “No boys!” She
shouts as the door shuts behind her.

“No boys?” Hattie growls it out with the
undertones of a laugh. “We know better don’t we, Laken.”

There’s something concerning about the deep
octave of her voice just took. She held a tenor usually reserved
for a man, and that more than slightly creeps me out. But, then
again, she’s not exactly naturally engineered, so I can’t really
blame her.

“So how’d you do it?” I ask, hopping onto my
mattress. “How’d you score a ride on the flesh express?”

She glides over to my bed as if she were a
poltergeist. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” She narrows a hostile
gaze in my direction. “Let’s get started on finding my family,
shall we?”

“Like now? Good luck with that. Rumor has it
Flynn might be up for a stroll through the haunted forest, but I’ll
be the last one you get out in those woods without the false
security of daylight. Let’s get some sleep and recharge those
borrowed batteries of yours, first.”

She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t move.
Hattie Tobias has no clue how to act like a human. I guess sixty
years without practice will do that to a disembodied person.

“Are you just going to stand there, staring
at me all night? I gawk up at her, more than slightly freaked out
by her resurrected presence.

My phone buzzes from under my leg, and I
reach for it. It’s a text from Coop.

Your new roommate isn’t Hattie Tobias. It’s
a Fem.

I snatch my backpack off the floor and run
like hell out of Austen House.

Cooper

Laken barrels into the road just as my truck
rounds out the driveway above Austen House.

She jumps in and slams the door behind her,
manually punching down the lock.

“Drive.” She pants with enough fear
pulsating out of her chest to fuel a generator.

“Are you okay?” Obviously, she’s not okay.
Obviously, I’m an idiot for thinking it was all right to text her
vital information that had the potential to scare the living shit
out of her and send her running in my direction. And, unfortunately
for Laken, I’m an ass because deep down inside, this is exactly
what I wanted.

“Jen moved out of the room, and Hattie—that
thing—showed up. She has these soulless eyes, and she just kept
staring at me. There’s no way in hell I’m going back there.”

“Laken,” I push her name out with grief as I
pull in behind the cedars just beyond the granite
Ephemeral
Academy
sign. “I don’t think it’s going to hurt you.”

“What the hell are you talking about? You
want to send me back there?” Her chest heaves out of her uniform,
and I get lost for a moment watching her flesh quiver.

“No, I don’t want to send you back. But if I
thought you were in any danger whatsoever, I would never have
waited all day to tell you. The Tobias sisters showed up earlier
for their regularly scheduled haunting and were less than impressed
to find out someone, or something, had taken up residency here on
campus in their name. I talked to my dad, and he seems to think
it’s a Fem.”

“Why?” Moisture glistens her eyes.

“Because they’re twisted.” I feel like a
jerk for scaring the shit out of her. “What do you want to do for
tonight?” I’m half-afraid she’ll be in Wesley’s arms within the
hour. That she’ll want me to drive her to Henderson, and I’ll have
the image of her running up the steps to meet him immortalized in
my mind forever like some unwanted screensaver.

“Where are
you
going, Coop?” She cuts
me a sharp look.

A smile plays on my lips. Laken knows damn
well where I’m going.

“I’m going home,” I say it just above a
whisper.

“Well then, I guess I’m coming with
you.”

The moonlight streams in through the
skeletal branches of the cedar, the dappled light softens over her
features, illuminating her like some otherworldly goddess.

My adrenaline soars as I start up the engine
and head back onto the highway.

The road smooths beneath the tires and a
pinhole of light emerges in the distance as we speed toward the
first stoplight in Trinity County. We’re escaping the nightmare
world of Ephemeral if only for a night.

I’m heading home with Laken by my side.

It looks like Wesley’s nightmare is just
beginning.

The lights are on in the house, making the
windows glow a soft orange. Pumpkins line the porch on either end
as I step aside, letting Laken walk ahead of me.

“I love it.” She nods up at the window that
Marky attacked with construction paper. A wrought iron gate with a
frightened cat decorates the picture window out front. A full moon
with a bat slicing through the center greets us from the kitchen.
Halloween and Christmas is pretty much what Marky lives for this
time of year. Sorry to the turkey. He always seems to get the
shaft.

“Everything looks so homey.” Laken takes in
a breath as if Marky’s artwork belonged in a gallery.

The doorknob spins, and Marky’s little face
appears, murky, from the other side of the screen.

“Laken!” She does a little bunny hop before
letting us inside.

“
Marky!
” Laken matches her
enthusiasm.

“I thought I’d bring home a friend.” I give
my sister a half-hug. “How many times have I told you to look out
the window before opening the door?” I say it mostly in jest, but
I’d hate for Marky to find herself in hot water one day because she
didn’t heed my advice.

I pull off my jacket and toss it on the
couch.

Dad has taken off to Boston on another one
of his conferences, leaving behind the latchkey princess and me to
hold down the fort.

“I didn’t need to look out the window,”
Marky smarts. “I heard your voice.” She jets out her hip to
emphasize her sarcasm. Marky squeals and wraps her arms tight
around Laken’s waist. “I miss you.” It comes out sweet enough, but
there’s desperation buried beneath her words, and I’m heartbroken
for her, slightly embarrassed by the scene all together.