Hope stared at her hands as they rested on the controls. We could both see Stark’s blood beneath her nails. I wondered if she was going to be OK. Finding out that her father had given her a name – a real one – might do something to help, but it seemed like a very small thing in the face of everything she’d been through.
I said, ‘You did what you had to do. She was going to kill Jace. And you! She was never going to listen to reason. You know that, right?’
‘Dr Stark lost her husband in a vampire attack,’ she said, surprising me with the unsolicited information. ‘It was a long time ago, but that is what caused her to make the vampire virus her life’s work. She couldn’t save him, but she decided that perhaps she could save others.’
Jace had joined us. ‘She didn’t sound like a woman who wanted to save people to me. She just sounded angry.’
I nodded my agreement. ‘If that was her original motivation, well . . . I guess I feel more sorry for her. But she’d clearly become bitter. Twisted.’
Jace circled his index finger around his temple.
‘Don’t do that,’ I snapped. I couldn’t bring myself to laugh, because there was always another side to things. Now that Stark was dead, I could see that. Maybe she really had gone off the deep end, but it wasn’t like she didn’t have her reasons.
He suddenly looked angry. ‘That woman had me beaten, sliced, and dumped in a dungeon. And then, just to top everything, she held a gun to my head. I can’t say I’m sorry for what happened to her.’
‘I didn’t say you had to be sorry,’ I said. ‘Just . . . show a little respect.’
‘For
Stark
?’
I frowned, nodding in his sister’s direction. ‘No, you moron.’
Hope inserted herself in between us. ‘Arguing is a waste of energy.’ A thoughtful expression crossed her face. ‘You both seem to do a lot of it.’
‘Arguing is a very important skill,’ I told her. ‘Especially when it comes to how I deal with your brother.’
She glanced at Jace. ‘My . . . brother.’
He looked away. This family reunion wasn’t exactly going how I’d hoped, but I couldn’t blame either one of them. She’d been trying to kill Jace, after all. That was going to take some getting over. Maybe they could go to family therapy. I almost smiled at the thought.
Hope lifted her chin, taking us both in with her silver gaze. ‘I know that Dr Stark was a monster, but was she any more monstrous than I?’
I put my arm around her, and although she flinched she didn’t move away. ‘Sometimes it takes a monster to kill a monster,’ I said.
Jace watched us both, but this time he didn’t say anything. He must have known we were having a moment – bright boy. He headed to the rear of the boat.
I swallowed, trying to compose myself as I followed him. There was plenty I could angst about later. For now, we had to get out of here – the three of us. Together.
The journey wasn’t long but I took the opportunity to rest my aching bones, all the same. I curled up on a bench with a blanket wrapped around me, and tried to process everything that had happened. We had all escaped and were more or less in one piece. Subject Ten was free and the Nemesis Project, if not over entirely, had been dealt a serious blow with the unfortunate passing of Dr Helena Stark. A young girl called Hope Murdoch had even been reunited with the family she’d grown up believing had abandoned her.
I wondered how I was going to explain all of this to Theo. Part of me didn’t even
want
to tell him. I was tired of constantly checking in, of never being able to live my own life. Maybe I was still in shock . . .
Jace interrupted my morose train of thought, taking a seat opposite me and looking as exhausted as I felt. His sister was still at the controls up front, and quite honestly she seemed happier by herself. She must have spent a lot of her time alone.
Jace stretched and groaned. If he wanted sympathy, he needed to get in line. We were all bloodstained, bruised and half-dead with exhaustion. I couldn’t even raise a smile at ‘half-dead’ – partly because I was so tired, but mostly because I was more confused than ever about what it meant to be a vampire. I had learned things that threw the few certainties in my new life into doubt, and I wasn’t sure whether Stark had been toying with me – manipulating me with false hope in an effort to gain my cooperation – or whether she was simply misguided in her zeal. She had certainly
sounded
sincere. No doubt the operatives behind Project Nemesis believed in their cause, but that just made them seem more scary.
Was vampirism something that could, one day, be cured?
I sighed and watched the sea race past, feeling the salt spray on my face and enjoying the sensation of flying across the water. Basking in the early-morning sun, and in the knowledge that I might never have seen it again. With the kind of future I had in store for me, I needed to grab every possible chance to enjoy the sunlight.
‘So,’ I said, glancing at my companion, wondering whether Hope would be able to hear us back here over the sound of the engine, ‘what do you think of her?’
Jace snorted. ‘She’s a real peach. Just the little sister I was hoping to find.’
‘I think she needs family,’ I replied, my voice low as I thought of my father in the hospital.
‘You mean me? The brother she’d kill as soon as hug?’
I shrugged and attempted a smile. ‘Hey, my sisters are always trying to kill me – especially one of them. Hasn’t done me any real harm.’
His expression was skeptical. ‘Moth, this is different. This is . . .’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know what it is, but
entirely twisted
doesn’t even begin to do it justice.’
‘That’s what family is all about,’ I said.
We sat in companionable silence for a while. I didn’t want to be the one to speak first, but somebody had to. There was plenty of other stuff to talk about. A lot had happened between us. The kiss outside Stark’s talk, for one thing. The blood-sharing that had come later.
‘Jace,’ I said.
‘Moth,’ he said at exactly the same time.
I burst out laughing. Don’t you hate it when that happens? ‘You go first.’
He smiled his increasingly familiar lopsided smile. ‘There’s something I have to ask you. Something important.’
‘Sure.’ I tried to pretend that my stomach wasn’t churning. Or, at least, that my sudden nausea had more to do with the boat’s movement than what Jace might be about to ask. I was being ridiculous and just . . .
ugh
. ‘Go for it.’
‘Marie O’Neal,’ he said, fixing me with an impossibly serious expression.
My eyes opened wider.
‘Will you go on a date with me,’ he continued, ‘once I’m maybe not so broken and bruised? A real date.’
A real date for a real girl? I bit my lip and wondered what Caitlín would say to that. Or Holly, for that matter. Or . . . Theo?
I pressed my palms against my legs, holding them steady. ‘You don’t have to feel obliged or anything,’ I said.
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Obliged? Hell, no!
You
owe
me
. It’s thanks to you I ended up in that place at all.’
Hmm . . . that was at least partly true.
‘So yeah, me and you. Date. I get to choose where. When all this shit is over with.’
‘Sure,’ I said again.
Squeaked
, more like.
He cupped his ear with his hand. ‘I’m sorry, what was that? Should I start calling you
Mouse
now?’
I grinned and glared at the same time. Glinned?
The sun was still rising, and that meant that I wouldn’t be able to speak to Theo until tonight. But I was safe, and so was Jace. His sister was another matter, especially considering how it had been her who had killed Nicole, but I suspected that we would be able to work something out before I spoke to Theo.
I had a very strong feeling that Dr Stark and Philip Quinn would
mysteriously
end up being ‘responsible’ for all kinds of things, by the time I reported back to my Maker. Hopefully it would be enough to keep what remained of the Murdoch family safe. I didn’t exactly relish the thought of telling Theo more lies, but I would do what was necessary.
Painful and necessary
.
Jace shielded his eyes and watched the shore approaching.
I nudged him with my toe. ‘How far away are we?’
‘Not far,’ he said.
I smiled. If only life had such easy answers.
There was still a very long way to go, but for the first time since I’d been Made I was beginning to believe that I might actually get there. Wherever ‘there’ ended up being. But in order to get from here to there, I had something very important to do. Something that would take a lot of negotiation – and a lot of courage. True freedom never came without a price, I knew that now. I was prepared for it.
The problem was, life with Theo was like being tied to a watertight contract. An
eternal
contract.
I just had to figure out the escape clause.
The sun was high in the midday sky as I dragged myself up the stairs of my apartment building. Even if Holly was home, she’d be sleeping the sleep of the undead (if ‘undead’ was even the right word now). She wouldn’t wake until tonight, and I was glad.
For one thing, I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to answer any questions until I’d recovered enough to lie convincingly. I’d left Jace with Ten . . . No, with
Hope
. Thinking of it that way made me smile. He had Hope.
My throat tightened. At least someone did.
And then I saw her, sitting there outside my apartment. Déjà vu. My little sister, waiting for me to come home, with her knees drawn up to her chin, using her bright emerald coat as a cushion.
‘Cait!’ I ran to her and helped her up off the floor.
She staggered and I grabbed her tightly. ‘I’m OK,’ she said, waving me away. ‘Just tired and stiff. Been sitting there for ages and kept nodding off.’
I stroked the uncombed red curls away from her face, making sure that she was telling me the truth and that she wasn’t hurt. There were dark circles beneath her eyes, but other than that she was all in one piece.
‘What are you doing out here?’ I shook her gently. ‘You idiot. I might not have been home for ages.’
Like, ever.
‘I’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday,’ she said.
‘I’m really sorry. I . . . lost my phone.’
‘You only just got a new one!’
‘I know. Honestly, Cait. A lot has happened. I really am sorry.’
I didn’t know how much I could tell her. She’d be worried no matter what, but I figured I owed it to her to share
some
of it.
Her eyes filled with tears. ‘A lot’s been happening here too.’
‘Oh my God, what—?’
She flung her arms around me and began to sob.
‘Marie . . .’ Her voice was muffled against my shoulder. ‘It’s Dad.’
And, right then, I knew what she had come all the way out here to tell me.
The ordeal I’d just been through faded into the background. In the face of our family’s loss, none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was how grateful I was that I could actually
be
here for my little sister.
Five days later I stood in the middle of the North End bedroom that used to be mine, checking one last time that I had everything I needed. I was leaving a lot of stuff behind, wanting a fresh start, and Holly and I had finally dumped the remains of my black-painted mirror. We’d made a little ceremony of it, then gone out for a few beers to celebrate her official appointment as Theo’s Enforcer – the youngest Enforcer in all of the Massachusetts Families. When I first heard the news, I’d surprised myself by being genuinely happy for her.
I ran my fingers over the cool wood of Mom’s dressing table, deciding that it would be fine right where it was in the apartment. It wasn’t like I really needed it, and maybe one day Holly would have another roommate who was in need of her watchful eye. Whoever it was would probably be glad to have some nice furniture.
Dad’s funeral was scheduled for tomorrow and I was moving back home with my sisters. It had taken less time for Caitlín to convince me to give it a try than she would ever have imagined. I think I had surprised both of us when I agreed. University probably had something to do with my decision, but it also had a lot to do with family. My original family, rather than the blood-drinking kind.
I didn’t want to think about that too much, but . . . well. There you have it. As I’ve said before, on more than one occasion: things change.
Caitlín came up behind me and rested her hand on my shoulder. It was so weird, her being taller than me. I stopped myself from thinking that soon, technically, she would actually be older than me. No matter what, she’d always be my little sister; I wouldn’t allow myself to think of her in any other way.
Holly clomped through the door, not bothering to knock as usual. I certainly wouldn’t miss that annoying character trait, though I grudgingly figured that there might be one or two things about her that I
would
miss. Maybe.
‘You ready, soon-to-be ex-roomie?’ She nodded briefly at Caitlín.
‘Just about.’ I smiled. ‘Thanks for the ride.’
Holly shrugged. Today her blue hair was almost as curly as mine. ‘It’s right on my way. What about your sister? I didn’t know she’d be here, and you know I only have room for one passenger.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘She’s getting a ride with our other sister. Right, Caitlín?’
She nodded in reply, but I could tell she was nervous around my roommate.
Ex-roommate
, I reminded myself again.
‘Cool,’ Holly said.
Once outside, she handed me a helmet (pink with black bats) so that, in her own words, ‘I didn’t get my stupid head crushed if I fell off.’
‘You’re all heart,’ I said.
‘That’s what I keep telling Alanya,’ she replied. ‘Not sure she believes me.’
I swallowed the inconvenient lump from my throat. ‘I hope you’ll be happy.’
‘Oh, don’t get all maudlin on me, squirt.’
‘You’ll look after Theo for me, won’t you.’