Second Nature (9 page)

“I don’t care what your paperwork says,
ma’am, the invoice here was for
pink
gladiolas!” I shook my
head, leaving him to deal with the picky gardener. I waved at
Gladys who was still eyeing my brother in a creepy cougar way and
headed out the door.

I climbed into the Mustang without opening
the door and buckled my seat belt. “Did you know the killings have
started again?”

“Monica is toast, Lia. No one could put that
bad egg back together again.”

“I didn’t say it was Monica, but someone
killed a girl in Memphis. And I can’t help but wonder if it had
anything to do with the six weeks we spent there. I think we should
go to the library and look up back issues of newspapers.”

Xander nodded, but he didn’t take me to the
library. I was furious enough that the wind picked up a little. I
reined myself in—weather working wore me out worse than a
marathon—and tried not to wish ill on my brother. But by the time
we pulled into our driveway, I was livid. I got out, slamming the
door as hard as I could, and stomped my way to the front door. I
slammed it behind me too, nearly taking off his nose, and stalked
to the kitchen to put my lunch dishes in the dishwasher. Once I
took a quick shower and changed, I would drive myself to the
library. I wasn’t a little girl anymore, I had my own damn driver’s
license.

I was so lost in anger it took me a while to
pick up on Xander and Sariah’s urgent whispers.

“I don’t think she needs to know. I hate to
add more to her plate when she has enough to deal with.”

“We promised no more secrets, Sariah. It was
one thing when it was just a suspicion, but now it’s a definite
pattern. It’s time for us all to put the pieces together.”

“Seriously?” My voice was much more shrill
than I had intended in my anger. “More secrets? I thought we were
past all this.”

Sariah grimaced and looked appropriately
chastised. “I’m sorry, Lia, but I didn’t want to say anything until
I knew for certain. At first, the news of the killings was
isolated. It wasn’t until today I found out the police have linked
over a dozen deaths together, and all of them trail us across the
country.

“The first one I discovered a while ago, but
it was isolated, so I hoped it might be someone copycatting
Monica.” The image of Xander reducing Monica into a pile of ash
popped into my head; I didn’t want to go through that again. “It
was in Lincoln, a young candy striper who liked to read to coma
patients. Then a girl in Montgomery was killed the same way. I
looked into it, and there were many differences in the killings, so
I wasn’t sure. Today, I found out there have actually been twelve
young girls, all shot between the eyes. I guess the witchcraft
stuff is what made them connect everything. If someone is on our
trail, I’m afraid it’s Peter Matthews.”

I forgot how to breathe as fear turned my
stomach to lead. My eyes closed, and I shook my head as if I could
deny the truth, but my sister was right. “How close is he?”

“The most recent one we’ve found is
Jacksonville.”

I nodded. After Jacksonville we bounced to
Atlanta, then Myrtle Beach, before we settling in Greensboro. He
wasn’t on our doorstep yet, but he was getting closer. After
Jacksonville, we ditched most the stuff from our old life including
our cars, so we should be harder to track. And we didn’t change our
name to Sterling until we got to North Carolina. So I prayed we had
some time, but I had no idea how much.

“It gets worse.” Xander said.

I closed my eyes. I wasn’t sure how much
more I could take. “How could it possibly get worse?”

“The police in Jacksonville say he has an
accomplice now. They suspected it in Little Rock, but they’re
certain after Florida he has help.”

My mind locked onto one thought, Evelyn. I
ran out of the room leaving my bewildered siblings to stare after
me. I tore up the stairs as fast as I could and grabbed my laptop
off the massive vanity that had been in my family for
generations—one of the few pieces of our old life we had kept.

I quickly navigated to the social website we
used and opened a chat window. I stared at the blinking cursor for
a long time before I began to type.

“Evey? Is everything okay there?”

I stared at the empty box willing words to
appear, but none did. I tried on some other sites, but none of her
old accounts were active. Frustrated, I slammed the laptop shut and
dropped it beside me. I put my chin in my hand and debated calling
her, but Xander told me phones were easier to trace than the
internet so I refrained. I was still debating when the familiar
bing of a message sounded. I practically dove across the bed,
opening it to see Evelyn’s message.

“What’s up, chica?”

And just like that we settled into our
familiar patterns. I couldn’t hide a smile as I took a mini stroll
down memory lane, all the late night chats we used to have when she
was grounded. “Things are kind of bad, and I don’t know what to
do!” I typed. “I think your dad is killing people trying to track
us down.”

My computer binged and a yellow frowny face
popped up. I sighed and waited a moment before real words appeared.
“I know he’s filled with hate, Lia. I’ve never felt anything like
it when his mind touched mine.”

I sighed and nodded, then realized she
couldn’t see my nod, so I typed it out for her. “I’m scared. I
thought we’d put this all behind us.”

“Be careful, Lia. I’ll do a ritual of
protection on you and your family. It should conceal you from him
for a little while longer.”

“Thanks, Evey. I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

We did cheesy cyber hugs and said goodbye
several times before I closed my computer and set it aside. Evelyn
might buy us some time, but we needed a plan and sooner rather than
later.

XANDER PLANNED A day of fun to get my mind
off everything, so I let him drag me from one place to another. We
played two rounds of mini golf, driven several laps in go-carts and
bowled a frame before the synthetic shoes and socks broke my feet
out in a horrible rash. Still believing I hadn’t had enough “fun”
for one day, my brother insisted we go see a movie—some blood
drenched horror fest, no doubt. We were standing in line waiting
our turn to buy tickets when my world went into slow motion.

Despite the fact that I could feel him
coming, it didn’t lessen my shock to see Nate walk out of the
theater, one arm lazily tossed over the shoulder of a brunette who
came up to his chin. He was laughing as she gazed up at him through
her lashes, clearly smitten. He’d never been good at masking his
emotions, either out of laziness or ignorance. But his amusement
and lust rolled over me like a noxious cloud and I couldn’t
breathe. As my distress built, I could feel him become aware of me.
He looked over and met my eyes for a long moment. I had no idea
what was on my face, but my guess would be pain and shock. After
what felt like eternity, he broke eye contact and looked down at
the girl in his arms. She surged up onto her tiptoes and her lips
met his. I felt his shock and a little bit of disgust, which gave
me a sick satisfaction he had to have noticed. His eyes flicked to
my face before he placed a hand to either side of her face,
deepening the kiss until they were all but making out in front of
me. I turned away as my stomach heaved, and I had no idea which of
us the emotion came from. My feet started to move without me
consciously commanding them. Heedless of the people I slammed into
in my haste to get away, I ran as fast as I could. Xander caught my
arm before I made it far, unaware of the show Nate put on for my
benefit.

“Hey, dude, what’s going on?” he asked.

I tried to speak but words failed me. A
pained sigh escaped my lips, and I gestured toward where Nate still
attempted to suck the face off the girl in front of the theater.
Xander glanced back then turned back to me with closed eyes. When
he opened them, I could see something I didn’t like.

“Tell me you didn’t have anything to do with
this!” My voice came out a little high pitched.

“I swear, I had no idea what he planned to
pull, Lia. He was supposed to go to the movie with me originally,
but he canceled. I figured why not still go?”

“So he knew you already were coming? All he
had to do was wait until he felt me get close to put on this show?”
The words left me in a huff of breath. I was relieved my brother
hadn’t been part of this, and pissed that Nate set us up. But
something nagged at me, and it took me a minute to figure out what
it was. “Wait, you knew about the brunette, didn’t you?”

“He’s my friend, Lia. I don’t condone what
he’s doing, but I can’t hold it against him. You, yourself, told
him to get out.”

I stared at my brother as if he was a
stranger. How could he be okay with this? Nate had set him up and
put on a show for no other reason than to cause me pain. Xander was
somehow okay with that. I shook my head and made a disgusted noise
in my throat before giving him an exasperated look. I took my phone
out of my pocket and shoved it into the hand he threw up
defensively. I turned away from him and ran as fast as I could.

Xander must have stood staring after me for
a long time before he started running because I made it around the
corner before he ran up behind me. Damn his demonic speed! I tried
to evade him but it only took a moment before he had my arm locked
in a gentle, yet unbreakable, grip.

“Let me go.” My voice was cold and hard.

“No!” Xander’s was as hot as mine was
cold.

“How could you?” I asked, rounding on him.
“Can’t you at least muster up some anger over the fact that he set
me up?”

“We don’t know that.” Xander’s expression
was grim, but his jaw was set stubbornly.

“So what’s your theory of tonight’s
events?”

“Maybe Jackie asked to see a different
movie, so he canceled on me figuring I wouldn’t go at all. As set
ups go, this one would have been a long shot, Amelia.”

“So it’s okay he made out with her while
making eye contact with me to simply cause pain? That’s okay
too?”

Flames shot across Xander’s eyes. “You
didn’t mention that part.”

“I didn’t think I had to. I figured you were
Team Lia. Now I see you’re just Team Xander.”

“That’s not fair, and you damn well know
it!” Xander bit off every word in a sharp tone he never used with
me. He got in my face, flames making his eyes glow blue in the dim
light. “I think I’ve proven beyond a doubt that I’m on your side,
Lia. But what you and Nate have going on is a mess, a mess I’m
staying out of.” He backed off a bit, his expression softening ever
so slightly. “Is it killing me to see you hurt? Hell yes.
Nevertheless, there are two sides to this story, and I can see
both.” He stabbed a thumb at his chest, hard enough I wouldn’t be
shocked if it bruised. “Nate was my best friend before he was your
mate. Pardon the expression, but he’s only human. He has feelings,
Amelia, and he’s hurting.” He shrugged, taking a full step back.
“Jackie is just his way of trying to feel better.”

“How are there two sides to this story? He
kissed me. He ran out on me. And he’s the one who said he hated me.
So how did I become the bad guy in all of this?”

Xander’s eyes flash when I mentioned Nate
saying he hated me, but by the end, he was in full control of
himself. “The bond is two sided, Lia, he might have initiated it,
but you accepted it or the bond wouldn’t have formed. And you
weren’t exactly easy on him when he did come back.” He scrubbed his
face with his hand. “Saying he hated you was out of line, but I’m
not taking sides. You’re not the ‘bad guy’. You’re one of three
people I care about in this world—and Nate’s another. I
have
to stay out of this. Isn’t that what you asked me to do?”

He was right. Maybe I
was
selfish
like Nate said. I couldn’t expect my brother to go beat him up
every time he pissed me off. Nate and I would have to find a way on
our own. If it weren’t for the stupid bond, I don’t know that I’d
care.