After Midnight

  Tiffany came to stand beside me, and for once she didn’t look angry. “Barb told me that day that you were after Aaron. She said that’s why you deliberately ruined my uniform.”

  “I didn’t.” Something Barb had said once came back to me. I know plenty of ways to get to Tiffany. “I tripped, that’s all. It was an accident.”

  “Yeah,” Tiffany said, looking down at Barb. “I think I know who tripped you.”

  Things began to make sense now. Barb, who had been my friend since the beginning of school. Who had been at my side every time Tiffany and I had clashed. Who had been at the library, using the same terminal. Who was taking art, and knew exactly where my locker was. Barb, who had such a crush on Boone that she covered the insides of her notebooks with his name.

  “It was her,” I said slowly. “All this time, it’s been her.”

  “But you never knew.” Barb struggled to her feet, her lips peeling back from her braces in a wide smirk. “I made sure of it. You were so perfectly clueless.”

  “You knew we were sitting at the cheerleaders’ table, that first day,” I said, remembering. “You picked out the table, hoping to start trouble.”

  “She called me that night,” Tiffany said. “She said you and Boone had a good laugh over me. She called me practically every day after that, always about you and the lies you were spreading about me, and how much you wanted to break up me and Boone.”

  “At lunch she’d tell me the same things about you. How you hated me and wanted revenge. She said you were dating my brother and planning to hurt him to get back at me.” I sighed and shook my head. “And I believed her.”

  “Aaron never wanted you,” Barb told Tiffany. “You’re nothing but a cheap slut.” She jutted her chin at me. “Just like her.”

  Jesse came to stand beside me. “Her mind is not right,” he murmured. He breathed in and touched the shoulder of my gown. “You’re hurt.”

  For the first time I felt the blood trickling down my skin from the gash on my shoulder. “It’s not bad,” I told him.

  Tiffany bent down to look into Barb’s eyes. “Did you steal my jacket at the zoo, Barbara? Did you put it on before you opened that gate to the cheetah enclosure?”

  “I had to.” Barb gave me a sullen look. “But that stupid cheetah didn’t do anything to her, and you hardly got into any trouble.”

  “I owe you a huge apology,” I said to Tiffany.

  She nodded. “Same here. Barbara told me one time that her mom was making her go to see a therapist. I think she was on medication, too.”

  I shook my head. “She told me she hated pills. She threatened to flush the last prescription she had.”

  Sheriff Yamah arrived a few minutes later, and after checking Boone he spoke with Jesse about what had happened.

  “An ambulance is on the way for Aaron. I’ll deal with Ms. Riley.” He bent over to help her up. “Barbara, I’m going to take you home now. Your mother is very worried about you.”

  “She said I couldn’t go to the dance, but I had to.” She gave Yamah a blank look. “I had to stop Aaron. He doesn’t love her. Look at what she did to him. You have to arrest her, Sheriff. She tried to kill him. She has to pay for this.”

  “This is just a misunderstanding,” Yamah told her. “You can talk it over with your mom.” By then half the kids from the dance had gathered on the walk above the lake, and he turned and called out to them, “We’re all done here. You youngsters go on back to—”

  Barb wrenched free of his hands and darted around him. I saw the sheriff’s gun in her trembling hands first because she was pointing it at me.

  “You hurt my Aaron,” Barb whispered, and pulled the trigger.

  Three things happened at once. Boone lunged between us, Tiffany screamed and Jesse snatched the gun from Barb.

  Boone staggered backward, and I caught him as he sagged. His dazed eyes met mine. “A guy should always pay on the first date.”

  I saw a black hole and the blood seeping down the front of his shirt in disbelief. “Aaron, no.”

  Jesse helped me lower him to the ground and then handed the gun back to the sheriff. His eyes had turned solid black, and his voice shook when he spoke. “James, where is that ambulance?”

  “You killed my Aaron.”

  Barb grabbed a piece of the broken oar from the ground and hurled herself at me, but Jesse caught her and spun her away. When the sheriff dragged her off him, Jesse looked down at the jagged wood embedded in his chest, and then at me, before he stumbled away toward the boat house.

  I knew why he was going there. His eyes had turned black, he’d been shaking, and now he was hurt. The urge to attack is strongest when we are wounded.

  “Grayson, Tiffany, come here.” When they knelt down beside Boone, I tore the veil from my hat and folded it into a layered square, which I put over Boone’s gunshot wound. “Can you keep pressure on this?”

  “I’ve got it.” Gray clamped his hand over the makeshift bandage. “Go.”

  I glanced over at the sheriff, who had handcuffed Barb, and then took off after Jesse. The door to the boathouse stood open, and when I hurried inside I found him sitting by one of the roof posts, his arm curled around it.

  “Don’t come any closer,” he whispered. “Please, Catlyn. Go back with the others.”

  “We’re being unafraid, remember?” My voice trembled as I sat down on the deck beside him, and saw that the broken oar shaft penetrated his chest between his ribs. “Tell me what to do.”

  He closed his eyes. “Push the wood in so that it pierces my heart.”

  Jesse will die. You will kill him.

  “I can’t,” I whispered.

  “I need blood, Catlyn, and there is too much in the air.” His voice shook as his fingers curled into my torn sleeve. “I can’t hold myself back much longer. You have to stop me now, before I become a monster. You’re the only one who can.”

  I knew why he was telling me this. I was a Van Helsing; killing vampires was my family’s legacy. If anyone could keep Jesse from attacking Boone and Tiffany and the others, it was me. I had a duty, not to my family, but to the innocent people outside. I had to protect them from what Jesse would become.

  But Jesse wasn’t a monster, not yet.

  “I won’t let you die.” I wrapped my hand around the wood and jerked it out of his chest. “You’re going to live.”

  I pulled aside the shoulder of my gown, exposing the bleeding gash beneath it, and cradled the back of his head. I brought his mouth to my flesh, and felt his lips against the wound, but still he kept his mouth shut.

  He was afraid, but I wasn’t. “Take my blood, Jesse.”

  He closed his eyes, wrapping his arms around me as he drank from my wound.

  His scent filled my head, and the tug of his mouth made stars explode behind my eyes. I didn’t go limp or become paralyzed; I held onto him, soothing him with my hands and my voice.

  When he lifted his head, his eyes were no longer black. “Catlyn,” he whispered. “What have I done?”

  “You didn’t take too much. You didn’t hurt me. You are not a monster.” I touched his cheek. “Neither am I.”

  His eyes shifted past me. “Your brother.”

  I turned my head to tell Gray that Jesse was all right, and then fell silent as I saw it was Trick. I held onto Jesse’s hand as we both stood up, and then I stepped in front of him.

  “I’m not going to hurt him,” Trick said.

  “I know you’re not, Patrick, because you’ll have to go through me first.” I felt Jesse’s hand tighten over mine as little shadows began slipping in through the door and padding over to me and Jesse, gathering around us like a small, silent army.

  When Trick took a step toward us, the cats crouched down, ready to spring.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” I advised him. “I don’t know how much control I have over them yet. This ability of mine is apparently still in development.”

  “They respond to your thoughts,” Trick told m
e. “All cats do.”

  “Then let’s all think happy thoughts.” I didn’t want to hurt my brother, but I wasn’t going to let him do anything to my dark boy.

  He looked at Jesse for a long moment before he said to me, “Your friend’s parents are here. I’ll wait for you outside.”

  When Trick left, the cats settled down and I turned to Jesse. “I think this unafraid idea of yours might actually work.”

  He smiled. “So do I.” He touched his ribs. “I am not completely healed, so I must return to the island with my parents. Will you come with us?”

  I wanted to. I never wanted to be apart from him again, not for a single moment. But Aaron had been shot, and my brothers were waiting for me, and I couldn’t turn my back on the rest of the world to be with my dark boy.

  Not just yet, anyway.

  “Another time.” I reached up to kiss him. “Go home. Tell them everything. Oh, and warn your Dad, I’m going to call you tomorrow night.”

  He glanced at the boathouse door. “Will your brother allow that?”

  My smile slipped. “They can’t keep us apart now, not after this. We’ve proven to them we can be together, that we can love each other.” I rested my cheek against his shoulder. “I did mention that I’m in love with you, right?”

  “Boone interrupted us before you could.” He smiled down at me. “But I thought you might be.”

  Outside the boathouse Jesse gave me one final kiss before releasing my hand and walking up to where the big Rolls was parked by the curb. I went over to where my brothers were standing and watching Aaron being lifted onto a gurney by two paramedics.

  “Is he going to be all right?” I asked Gray as I joined them.

  He nodded. He was watching Tiffany, who was standing by the gurney and holding Boone’s hand. She didn’t look back as she walked with the gurney and the paramedics up to the waiting ambulance.

  I felt sorry for my brother, but I wasn’t surprised. On some level I’d always known that Tiffany and Boone belonged together. It was just a shame that Gray hadn’t.

  The sheriff had already left with Barb, and once the ambulance and the Rolls drove off the kids began walking back to the gym. I followed my brothers up to the street, and waited with Trick by his Harley while Gray went to get his truck.

  “That thing could have killed you tonight,” my brother said.

  “That thing is a boy. His name is Jesse, and I love him.” I turned to him. “He asked me to run away with him, but I said no. I’m not Mom. I’m not afraid of you or Gray, and I’m not ashamed of how I feel about Jesse. I have the right to a normal life.”

  “Yes,” he said, sounding regretful. “You do.”

  I looked down as he wrapped his hand around mine. The same way he had taken my hand in the barn while I was saddling Sali. The same way he had when he’d found me looking through the old trunk in Chicago.

  We all had abilities, I remembered Paul Raven telling me. Gray and I were the vampire hunters, but he had never explained what Patrick was, or what ability he had.

  “I’m sorry, Catlyn.”

  Twenty-Three

  Cat.”

  I opened one eye and saw Trick standing over me, a folded newspaper under one arm and a mug of something hot in his left hand. The scent of hot chocolate warmed my cold nose. The rest of me felt heavy and sluggish, as if I’d slept too hard. “Hmmm?”

  “Time to get up.” He put the mug on my nightstand. “First day of school.”

  “Sorry. Must have hit the snooze button.” I rubbed my eyes and sat up to look out the window. “Why is it so light outside?”

  “You keep forgetting that I set all the clocks back last weekend for daylight saving time.” He ruffled my hair. “Look at it this way: you’ll get an extra hour of sleep every morning until spring. Or you could get up early and catch up on school work.”

  Naturally; thanks to the rotten timing of our move from Chicago and Gray’s truck breaking down in Georgia I was starting school two months late. “Excuse me for not cheering.” I got up and reached for my robe. That’s when I felt the bandage under the shoulder of my T-shirt, and turned my head, trying to see it.

  For an instant I didn’t remember how I’d hurt it until an image of Trick picking me up from the ground flashed through my mind. He’d explained how I’d been thrown from Sali after a snake spooked her, and landed wrong.

  “My shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore,” I told him, hoping I wouldn’t get another lecture about being careful when I rode. “Can I take this off?”

  He nodded. “How’s your head?”

  “Fine.” I rubbed the back of it. “No lumps or bumps.” I yawned. “You know, if you homeschooled me, among other things we could both sleep in.”

  “Among other things.” His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Even though you’re starting a little late, you’ll like this school. I promise.”

  “You always say that,” I called after him.

  I felt too tired to work up a new argument against going to school, and went to the bathroom to splash my face with cold water. When I straightened and looked in the mirror, my eyes looked darker than usual. I’d also bitten my lip in my sleep, and winced as I touched the raw spot. I also felt a little sore all over; I must have landed really hard when Sali bucked me off.

  Did she buck me off, or did I slip? Weird that I couldn’t remember.

  I tugged aside the collar of my T-shirt to pull off the bandage and inspect my shoulder. A big scab covered the gash I’d gotten when I’d fallen, and the oval bruise around it had faded to a light yellow-brown, but the wound still looked awful against my pale skin.

  I wrinkled my nose at my dark-eyed reflection. “No wearing tank tops for a while.”

  Gray followed me into the kitchen, where Trick had plates of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast waiting for us.

  I studied mine closely. “Who made this?”

  Trick looked up from his paper. “Why?”

  “The eggs aren’t brown, the bacon isn’t half-raw and the toast isn’t black.” I grew suspicious. “Did you sneak out to a restaurant and get take-out breakfast for us?”

  He gave me a disgruntled look. “Shut up and eat.”

  I didn’t know what girls at this new school were wearing, so I dressed in faded jeans, a white T-shirt and a red plaid flannel shirt. Normally I would wear all blue on my first day—blue being my lucky color—but this morning I liked the look of the red shirt better. I didn’t fuss with my hair, which was too long for any sort of style, but pulled it back in a ponytail.

  Gray looked in the bathroom. “Are you ready yet?”

  “Quit asking me that.” A sense of déjà vu came over me as I realized it was the first time he’d asked me. Or maybe it wasn’t. I couldn’t remember. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

  We always lived in small country towns, and on the way to school I saw this one was just as tiny and boring as all the others. This one seemed to be all antique shops, gift shops, and sandwich and coffee shops. At school I knew there would only be a couple hundred kids, and dinky classrooms, and nothing to do. Life in a small town offered about as much excitement as movie night at a nursing home.

  “Do you like it here?” I asked my brother.

  He glanced at me. “It’s okay. Probably.”

  Gray hated everything, so that was kind of a shock. “You think so? Why?”

  “I just do.” He made a turn and pulled into the student parking lot. “Give it a chance, Cat. I have a feeling it’s going to be a good place for us.”

  “If you say so.” I felt mildly astonished that my brother would be such a fan of a place stuck in the middle of the swamps. Even the town’s name, Lost Lake, sounded dismal.

  Some of the kids in the parking lot stared at us, or more precisely, at Grim, but my brother’s size always drew a lot of attention. I ignored the kids and went with him to the front office, where we picked up our schedules from the secretary. As usual all of our classes were in the same buildings, and we
even had the same lunch period.

  Before we left, the secretary smiled at me. “Nice to see you back.”

  “Thanks.” I’d never been here, but maybe she’d mistaken me for another kid.

  Gray walked me to my first class, and promised to meet me at lunch.

  “You can go and sit with the other juniors, you know,” I told him. “I’ll be fine.”

  “I know. See you.” He trudged off.

  My first class was Calculus, and after giving my transfer slip to the teacher I sat down in the empty desk behind a pretty redheaded cheerleader. She turned around at once.

  “You’re Catlyn Youngblood, right?” When I nodded, she smiled. “I’m Tiffany Beck. I’ve been assigned to be your student mentor.”

  “Sorry you got stuck with that job.” I hated being the new kid. “I’ll try not to be a big pain.”

  “Not a problem,” she assured me. “I know you’re a couple months behind on school work, but I can come in early and help you catch up. Just let me know what mornings are good for you, and we’ll meet in the media center.”

  “That would be fantastic.” I didn’t know why she was being so nice to me, but I wasn’t a gift horse mouth-checker. “Thanks a lot.”

  Between classes Tiffany walked with me and introduced me to some of her friends and her boyfriend, a tall, handsome boy named Aaron who had his arm in a sling.

  “I took a bad fall during practice,” he explained, lifting his arm. “Broke two bones and got spiked in the shoulder, so I’m benched for the season.”

  “But you’re okay, right?” Seeing his arm like that made me feel particularly anxious.

  “Don’t encourage him,” Tiffany said. “He thinks having a broken arm means everyone should wait on him hand and foot.”

  “Not everyone.” He put his good arm around her and stole a kiss. “Just you, sweetie.”

  They were such a cute couple, and so obviously crazy about each other that I felt a pang of jealousy. Someday I’m going to someone who makes me feel that way.

  The rest of the day went amazingly well. Tiffany and Aaron sat with me and Gray at lunch, and while my brother was his usually grumpy, silent self, I chatted with them and heard about the search for a new quarterback to replace Aaron. A Hispanic boy in a work uniform stopped by our table and frowned at me before he went to sit with some other kids.