Sweet Reckoning

  “I get it, Jay. I really do. But Marna isn’t at a time of her life when she can settle down with you. I don’t want you to get your hopes up about her.”

  “You worry too much.” He slid back down into his bed and closed his eyes.

  I rubbed the top of his thick blond hair and sighed. “Go back to sleep.”

  “Nigh’-night,” he mumbled.

  And he fell asleep. How nice would it feel to be so free of worries you could slide into sleep that easily? I hoped Jay’s life would always be like that.

  Outside in the warm morning I climbed into my car and called Patti.

  “You doing okay?” I asked her.

  “Fine. You?”

  “Yeah. Just tired. I think you should stay where you are until it’s time to move.”

  She sighed. “You’re probably right. There’s plenty of stuff in walking distance. I should go over to the store and get a couple novels to keep me busy. I’ll need my car eventually.”

  “Yeah. Once I get word, I’ll come get you and we can run back to the apartment to grab our stuff and leave.”

  “All right, sweetie. Be safe.”

  A sudden chill slid up my spine. My thumb hit the End button and I heard the Legionnaire chuckling inside my head—a rattling, insidious sound. I turned and jumped at the sight of the dark whisperer behind me in the car. Its ugly face grinned in gleeful malice, and its giant wings stretched through the sides of my car. How long had it been there? The hearing of demon spirits wasn’t very good, but in this small, quiet space the whisperer would’ve had no trouble. I went over the conversation in my mind, searching for anything incriminating I might have said. Any little thing could be used against me at this point.

  “What do you want?” I asked, letting my irritation show.

  Again, it chuckled, and without answering flew away. What the heck was that about? Just a checkup? I had to be more careful—constantly on guard. This was why Marna needed to stay away from Jay. Hopefully she would do the smart thing. For once I was siding with Ginger.

  Not knowing if or when Pharzuph might come back to town, I got out of Atlanta and drove to a mall. I walked around all day, buying a few things. At four o’clock I went to see a movie by myself, which was lonely, but it passed the time.

  I never stopped looking for demon spirits.

  Veronica called to see if I wanted to hang out, but I told her I couldn’t. The incident with the whisperer in my car was too fresh on my mind. I promised her we’d see each other before she left in five days. I hoped I could keep that promise.

  My anxiety was rising. Dad hadn’t contacted me or sent his ally spirit, Azael, with any messages. I hated waiting. By the end of day three I’d bitten off all my pretty fingernails. I’d seen a whisperer every day. Each day one would find me, swoop down, circle me, and leave, as if monitoring my location. The only good thing was that after they spotted me, they left me alone.

  On day four, after my daily whisperer sighting, I went to see Veronica.

  “I can’t stay long,” I said. All of her bags were packed in her room, and stuff was lying around with the look of someone in the midst of moving. Something inside me ached at the sight.

  Close to Veronica’s chest, like a thin band around her, was a deep, blue sadness. On top of that was a fizz of orange excitement with a sprinkle of gray nervousness. Emotions were funny things.

  I reached for her hand and she took it, then looked down at my fingers.

  “What did you do to your nails?”

  “Oh . . . I’ve been kind of stressed.”

  “Sheesh, Anna! You could’ve at least cleaned them up with a file. Can I do your nails? For old times’ sake?”

  “Sure,” I said.

  Her dark, thick hair had been recently cut and blown out in a voluminous style around her jawline. I memorized the look of perfectly drawn eyeliner around her almond eyes, the slant of her regal nose.

  We sat down on the floor with her basket of polishes.

  Veronica talked to my nails. “Don’t worry, you poor things. Roni’ll take care of you.”

  She gently filed the messy nubs, and I bit back a wave of emotion.

  “How’s Jay?” she asked without looking up.

  I cleared my throat. “He’s . . . okay. How are you?”

  “I’m okay, too, I guess. It’s weird, though. I miss him. But I feel like I don’t have the right to call him anymore. It’s hard to stay friends after you’ve been together.”

  “Yeah,” I whispered. “I wonder if you’ll meet someone in Spain.”

  She grinned up at me. “We’ll see. I don’t want anything serious, but I’m counting on a lot of hotties in my near future.”

  “I’ll miss you,” I said.

  She patted my hand. “Don’t get sappy. No tears. Just think of me when you do your nails, ’kay? And for God’s sake, don’t bite them anymore.”

  My poor nails were the least of my concerns.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MARNA

  I missed Kaidan like crazy. It’d only been five days since our video chat, but it felt so much longer. We were trying to stay cautious—to chat only when we knew it was safe—but it was hard.

  I was tired of bouncing around to different hotels every day, hanging out in their gross bars sipping Cokes so that if whisperers came I could jump into action. I was only eighteen, but I had a fake ID to buy alcohol if necessary. I was bored, lonely, and impatient, waiting for Dad to give me the thumbs-up to leave for Virginia Tech.

  I was surprised to see Ginger’s number calling me that afternoon as I sat in my hotel room, reading about a swoony alien guy. Books were about the only thing that could distract my anxious mind.

  “Is she with you?” Ginger asked, sounding frantic. “She” was obviously Marna.

  “No.”

  “Shite! She snuck off when we got stateside.”

  I set down my book and sat up. “Are you here?”

  “No. I’m in Newark, the armpit of the bleedin’ world. Will you find out if she’s with your friend and call me straight away?”

  “Okay.”

  We hung up, and I called Jay. It rang so many times I thought voice mail would pick up, but then he answered.

  “What’s up?”

  “Is Marna with you?” I asked.

  “Um . . .” He got quiet.

  “That’s a yes.” I sighed. This was not good.

  I heard Marna say in the background, “Argh! Just tell my sister I’ll be back in time for our morning flight!”

  “She just wanted to know where you were,” I said.

  “Well, she’s suffocating me. I don’t have to answer to her.”

  “Dude,” Jay said. “How can you two hear each other when the phone’s at my ear?”

  We both got quiet.

  “I’ll tell her she’s okay,” I said, and then hung up.

  Ginger answered immediately and I told her, “She’s fine. She’s working here tonight, but she’ll be back in time for your flight in the morning.”

  “Ugh!” Ginger screamed into the phone, and disconnected.

  Four hours later I was sitting on a stool in a bar, playing a game on my phone and ignoring the stares from two men when Ginger called again.

  “We need to meet so you can take me to them,” she said. “This has to stop.”

  “You’re here? I don’t think this is a good—”

  “Just meet me.” She sounded desperate.

  We met in front of the superstore in Cartersville. We both stepped out of our cars into the humidity, searching the skies and crossing our arms.

  “Take me to her,” Ginger demanded.

  I hesitated.

  “I think Marna needs to get this out of her system,” I told her. “I’m worried that the more you try to stop her, the more she’ll cling to him.”

  She appeared to be barely containing her anger. “I swear, Anna. I’ll chain her up if I have to, but she is not staying another night with him. I won’t let her endang
er herself for some stupid human boy.”

  I took a deep breath. These were touchy circumstances. If whisperers caught Marna hooking up with a boy, just for fun and not for the purpose of making him cheat, her father would have her killed. Worse yet, the Dukes would probably make a spectacle of her death as a lesson to the other Neph about the importance of working.

  “If I take you to her, will you promise to try to stay calm?”

  Ginger gave me a tight smile. “I’ll be calm.”

  I so did not believe that, but while I couldn’t tell her how to deal with her sister, I could tell her how to deal with my best friend.

  “I can’t have you yelling at Jay. He doesn’t understand.”

  “Fine.”

  “All right. Let’s go.”

  She followed me to Jay’s house and I texted him from the gravel driveway to let him know we were there. I didn’t want to walk in on anything.

  Ginger came in behind me, wearing a face of stone.

  Jay opened his bedroom door as we came down the hall. He wore jeans and was pulling a shirt over his head. I opened my senses to feel the anxious confusion in his gray aura.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, looking back and forth between us.

  “It’s hard to explain, Jay,” I said.

  His guardian angel stood close, protective as ever.

  Ginger never stopped moving, so Jay stepped out of her way and we all went into his room. Marna sat on the bed with one of Jay’s pillows on her lap. Something about her seemed . . . off. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I searched the room, wondering where the strange vibe was coming from.

  Jay walked over and stood next to Marna, who gave her sister a defiant stare as Ginger’s sharp eyes went from Marna to Jay, and back to Marna.

  Oh man. She did not look happy. The twins could sense romantic bonds between people—everything from attraction to love and marriage. Was that what was happening to me? I’d never sensed bonds between people before, but I couldn’t place the awareness I was experiencing.

  “I’m sorry,” Jay said. “But I don’t see what the big deal is. We’re both adults. We’re just . . . hanging out.”

  “Just hanging out?” Ginger asked sweetly. “Not falling in love?”

  My heart kicked with surprise. Was that what she saw between them? But . . . he’d just been in a relationship with Veronica! I felt light-headed. This was so like Jay to let his heart be snatched up by another so quickly.

  I watched Jay and Marna exchange a tender glance, and sure enough a fluff of pink floated up around Jay. Then he looked at me and his eyes dropped to the floor, a wave of gray guilt covering over the pink.

  “It’s time to go,” Ginger said in her don’t-mess-with-me voice.

  Marna lifted her chin. “I’m not leaving, Gin. I’ll take the red-eye to New York and be back in time for our flight.”

  “Don’t do this,” Ginger warned.

  Jay looked at her like she was crazy. Marna flung the pillow aside and stood face-to-face with her sister. I rocked back on my heels and gasped, slapping a hand over my mouth. My body reacted—heart pounding, limbs shaking, a chill of dis­belief zipping down my spine.

  “Anna?” Jay came over and grasped my arm to steady me.

  “What?” Marna asked. “What’s wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?”

  She brushed a hand down her flat stomach, where my eyes had locked.

  God, please. Don’t let this be happening.

  The faintest recognition of buttery light pulsed from her abdomen.

  I felt like I might hyperventilate as the reality of the situation crashed over me. Marna would be gone within the year. Dead. Because she was pregnant.

  “You guys . . . had sex.”

  It was a rude comment under any circumstances, and I couldn’t believe it was the first thing to leave my mouth. But I had to know if it was Jay’s. If it wasn’t, he didn’t need to be a part of this.

  “Dude.” Jay’s cheeks reddened.

  They’d definitely had sex.

  Marna and Ginger converged on me, pushing Jay back, searching my face for answers.

  “What is it?” Ginger asked.

  “Yeah, you’re freaking me out.” Marna crossed her arms, and I forced myself to stop staring. When I looked up, I could feel the wetness of tears on my cheeks.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

  I was scared to say it. Scared to put the words out there and make it real. A sob rose up in my chest and I covered my mouth again. Sweet Marna.

  “Anna.” Jay squeezed in and whispered to me, “Don’t cry. We didn’t plan for this. I know it’s fast, and . . . I know Veronica’s going to be hurt—”

  “It’s not that.” I made a spontaneous decision. Jay needed to know what he’d gotten himself into. I gathered all the courage I had in me, trying not to cry harder.

  “Marna.” I took her hand. “You’re pregnant.”

  The three of them stared at me. Ginger was the first to react. She grabbed my shirt in both fists and shook me, screaming, “Shut up! You shut your bloody mouth!”

  Jay tried to pry her off me, and I grabbed her wrists, staring her in the eyes. “I’m sorry, Ginger.”

  She shoved me away like I’d burned her, and stumbled back into Jay’s desk, looking rabid. Marna stood still with her eyes wide.

  Jay glared at me. “This is not cool. Why would you say that?”

  “She can’t be,” Ginger whimpered. “She had the surgery. We both did.”

  Jay’s head swung toward her, a look of confusion on his face. I’d worry about him in a minute.

  Right now, my mind searched for a possible answer. “We heal fast. Maybe the surgery corrected itself before it had a chance to take? But . . . I wonder why you never got pregnant before this?”

  “Anna!” Oh, man. Jay looked appalled, and I couldn’t blame him.

  “I usually don’t . . . ,” Marna whispered. Her eyes were glazed when she looked up at me. “I do other things, if I can help it. You know . . . anything but?”

  “A half-arsed worker, just like you,” Ginger mumbled.

  “What the hell are you guys talking about?” Jay sounded frustrated now.

  Ginger ignored him and yelled, “This is stupid! You can’t possibly know she’s pregnant, Anna. She’d be less than a week!”

  “I’ve always been able to sense it,” I said. I opened my mouth to explain and became very aware of Jay’s stare. He looked at me as if I were a stranger. “Jay,” I whispered, “I have a lot to tell you.”

  “You’re being weird, Anna. You’ve always been weird, but this ain’t right.”

  My eyes watered again. His words hurt. I knew what it must sound like to him.

  Ginger stepped up to Jay. “I need you to shut up and stay out of this while we figure it out. Then we’ll all leave you alone and you won’t have to see any of us freaks again.”

  His face scrunched in bafflement.

  “Stop it, Gin!” Marna grabbed Jay’s arm, and he wrapped it around her, glancing at our faces like he’d found himself in another dimension.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Jay said. “I just want to know what’s going on.”

  “I can sense a warmth,” I said, pushing on despite the overwhelming awkward tension. “It’s like an aura, but different. I can feel the extra life force—”

  “It’s a multicellular freaking zygote!” Ginger screamed. “Not a life force! Not a soul!”

  “I didn’t say . . . I meant, I just don’t know.” It was so hard to explain. “It’s like . . . an extension of Marna, only a tiny, separate entity.”

  Ginger started pacing. “Oh, God. Oh, God. We need one of those morning-after pills.”

  Marna’s eyes widened. “I’m not taking any pill!”

  “An operation, then!”

  Marna shook her head. “It doesn’t work, Gin. You know that! Other Neph have tried it, and it kills them just the same.”

  Jay dropped his arm from Marna’s
shoulder and stepped back. I’d never seen him so freaked out. The twins kept arguing.

  “Those other Neph couldn’t have been as early on as you,” Ginger reasoned. “If there’s no soul in the thing yet, then you’re safe. When do babies get their souls?”

  Both sisters looked at me, and I shook my head. “I have no idea.”

  I knew souls were created in the heavenly realm, and the Maker knew every detail of our earthly lives and our purposes, starting from conception, but it was never specified at what part of the process the soul was embedded in the flesh.

  “I’m not having an abortion,” Marna said. “I don’t care if there’s a soul yet or not. I’m not having one.”

  “Why the hell not?” Ginger’s voice reached an all-time high. She got in Marna’s face. “Don’t be an idiot! There could still be time!”

  Marna blinked and tears streamed down her cheeks. “And I could die today! I’m not doing it!”

  Jay and I stood watching, silent.

  Ginger was shaking. Marna covered her mouth, her eyes spilling over as she sat on the bed.

  “I’m . . . I’m going to have a baby, Gin,” she whispered.

  “You will be dead, Marna. Dead! You won’t get to enjoy it. You can’t be a mother!”

  “But you can raise her and tell her about me—”

  Ginger reeled back, scowling. “I don’t want anything to do with this creature! And how will I raise your stupid baby when I’m working? Shall I ask Grandfather Astaroth to babysit?” She looked wildly around the room, then grabbed Marna’s wrist. “We’re going to a clinic. Now.”

  Ginger turned, and Marna twisted out of her grip. “I’m not going!”

  A vicious, crazed scream tore from Ginger’s lips. Marna tried to reach for her, but Ginger slapped her hand away.

  “Gin, please,” Marna sobbed.

  Ginger turned to me, and I froze. “You! Fix this. Pray.”