"Consider me freaked out," I pant. It takes me a second to realize...he still has my towel. Which means it isn't around me.
Oh. Oh, that's cute.
Heat floods into my face. I point with the gun to the towel in his hand. "Give me that!"
Fred opens his mouth and closes it. His cheeks turn a brilliant shade of red as he throws the towel in my direction. It lands on the bed. I have to lean over to grab it and yank it up around myself. "So you're a pervert on top of being a really shitty henchman."
"I wasn't trying to look," he protests, averting his eyes while I try to get myself covered. "Not like you have anything worth looking at anyway."
"You really wanna insult the girl who has a gun aimed at your head? And for the record, no one else has ever complained about it before."
He levels a long look at me, smirking lazily. "Do you keep a running tally of the number of people who've seen you naked?"
The blush spreads all the way to the tips of my toes. "How did you get in?"
He holds up a card key that reads housekeeping. Oh for the love of... Can't these cleaning ladies keep their hands on their important stuff??
"Okay, fine. What are you doing here? Not very bright, walking right into enemy territory."
"Enemy territory?" Sighing, he runs a hand over his face and straightens up. "I came to clear some things up, actually. Though I'd rather do it without a gun in my face."
I squint. Trust him, don't trust him? Fred doesn't strike me as someone smart enough to lie about his reasons for being here. After a moment's consideration, I gesture to the chair by the window and inch around the bed. Fred takes a seat obediently, hands in his lap. I make quick work of grabbing the complimentary robe from inside the bathroom door and tying it around myself, freeing up my other hand.
"Start talking." I sink onto the edge of the bed. No longer aiming at him, but keeping the gun in my hand.
I could swear his expression turns sympathetic. "First off...I'm sorry about your house."
My chest tightens, making it difficult to swallow the lump in my throat. "Uh huh. What do you know about that?"
"I know that it wasn't me." He holds up his hands. "And I know Maverick is willing to hand over Joel, with a few conditions attached."
Hand over? I narrow my eyes. "What conditions?"
"I'm supposed to talk to your boss about it." He shifts uncomfortably.
Cole? I crack a smile. "Cole isn't my boss. He's a friend. And if it's him you want, why are you in my room?"
This time, he looks caught between embarrassed and...shy? I can't tell. "Because I don't know anything about your friends, so I thought...it would be easiest to approach you."
"Yuh huh." No point in telling him Cole likely wouldn't have drawn a weapon on him, but whatever. "Why didn't Maverick come himself?"
Shrug. "Not how things work. I'm the messenger. He's not going to put himself in potentially hostile territory when he knows his name is on the wanted list."
"You could've come forward a lot sooner," I mutter, sliding off the bed. "Saved everyone a lot of trouble."
Fred's gaze drops guiltily but he doesn't argue me on that. I can't get beyond the feeling that he's telling the truth, and that he's as harmless as they come. At least, for now. Sighing, I push the tangle of wet hair from my face. "You'd better be here when I get back. I mean it." When he nods, I shove the gun into my robe pocket, grab my card-key, and slip into the hall to the door next to my own.
Cole answers to my knock, dark hair slightly mussed from sleep, although he doesn't complain that I've woken him up. Instead he tips his head, giving my robe and my sour look a quizzical raise of an eyebrow. "Is everything all right?"
"Fred's here," I say. His puzzlement morphs to a frown.
"Maverick's...?"
"Yep. My room. He said he needs to talk to you."
Cole's gaze travels to my room. I can tell he's bothered that someone managed to sneak by him and Oliver without them noticing. As he follows me back, he raps lightly on Oliver's door as we pass. Daniel answers, watches us heading off with a purpose and a second later, he and Oliver are trailing after.
Inside my room, Fred stands abruptly to see the group I've brought with me. "I said Cole, not everyone else."
"Whatever you have to say to me can be said in front of all of us." Cole gives him a patient smile, arms folding across his chest.
I feel a little bad, watching Fred shrink back into his chair, staring all of us like he's waiting to be fed to the wolves. Without thinking too much about it, I sit on the foot of the bed, closer to him. If he's telling the truth, I don't want him to regret showing up here.
Fred glances at me, wetting his lips. "Maverick's been having problems ever since Joel came around."
"You think?" Oliver mutters. Cole holds up a hand to silence him, nodding for Fred to continue.
"...I mean, I wasn't around at the time. Alex and I came last... Mav said he was reluctant to turn Joel, but wanted to give him a chance." He pauses, choosing his words carefully. "But Joel just kind of...stopped listening. It got worse ‘cause Artie and Alex, like, hung on his every word, so all three of them started doing their own thing. Killing without it being necessary."
What about Ruby? I bite my tongue to keep from asking. "So why not hand him over?" I say instead.
Fred swivels his stormy eyes toward me. "Would you turn over your own family?"
"Turning someone into a vampire, in a sense, makes them a part of yourself," Cole says softly. "Almost like a sibling, or a child."
"Maverick wanted to protect us all, even if it meant taking the punishment for our actions." Fred drops his gaze to his lap. "Then the whole thing by the river happened. Briar got turned ‘cause of it, and that other girl died. Mav wasn't happy, but Joel and Artie kept going out and more dead people were turning up."
"Unruly children." The ghost of a smile touches Cole's mouth, but it doesn't reach his eyes. Has he dealt with something similar before, I wonder? "Continue."
Fred shakes his head helplessly. "They got into a big argument the other night. Mav said it was the last straw."
"What was?" Oliver asks.
My jaw tenses. I can feel a headache creeping up the back of my neck into my skull. "My parents."
"Yeah." Fred pushes his hands through his messy black hair, frustrated. "You gotta believe me when I say Mav didn't want any of this to happen. He's willing to take whatever punishment is passed down, but first he wants Joel dealt with. I would say Artie, too, but..."
Oliver meets my eyes from across my room knowingly. "The witch already took care of that one."
Fred nods solemnly. "Alex is a follower. If Joel's out of the picture, she might fall back in line and do what Maverick tells her."
"And you're just a good little boy who has had nothing to do with any of this, huh?" Oliver folds his arms. "You came after Briar multiple times."
"For Ruby," he says quickly. "I didn't want to hurt her, I swear. When Maverick told us to stop, I stopped."
An opening. I can ask now without it diverting the subject too much. "Why does he want Ruby?"
A frown touches his face. "Everything I know is only what the others have told me. I've only been with Mav a little over a year. Ruby was gone by the time I joined up."
"Answer the question."
"I was told she didn't want to be under someone's control." He sighs, stands, drifts restlessly to the window. "She didn't like taking orders, and she left. Maverick's brother caught her sneaking out, they fought, and she somehow managed to kill him."
"A newly infected vampire overpowering someone that old?" Cole asks incredulously.
Fred shrugs. "Like I said, I wasn't there. We've been searching for her ever since, until Maverick told us to stop."
Obviously not an order Joel listened to, given what happened yesterday. I purse my lips. "Why call off the hunt? Isn't he supposed to keep track of his own infected, or whatever?"
Fred's eyes are on me again, bewildered. "
What're you talking about?" he says. "Maverick didn't turn Ruby. Joel did."
28. Saturday – 8:36pm
Fred's words render everything I thought I'd learned in the last few weeks utterly useless. Ruby doesn't belong to Maverick, she belongs to Joel. It makes no sense, and yet it makes perfect sense at the same time.
"You didn't know?" Fred asks, and I shake my head. "Mav said Joel brought her home one night. Didn't offer any kind of an explanation. He wasn't supposed to be infecting anyone so Maverick played it off like Ruby was his in case any of the elders came asking. But Joel was really possessive over her."
"So when she left, he probably wasn't too happy," Oliver says.
Dread courses through my stomach and up into my lungs until it threatens to suffocate me. Why would Ruby lie to me? For a second, everything Noah has told me about her reverberates in my head and I have to force it aside. If what Fred is saying is true, then Joel really is after Ruby, and he's proven he'll stop at nothing to get her back. On one hand, having him as an enemy is better than going up against Maverick, but Joel's proven pretty damned good at being elusive.
Fred is watching me intently, looking like he wants to say something, but afraid to. Cole says his name, drawing his attention back to the others. "I would like to speak with Maverick on all of this," he says. "Perhaps we can come to some arrangement. I would not like seeing him be punished for trying to protect his brood, so long as he isn't going to let it come to his again."
Dark expression brightening, Fred lets out a sigh of relief. "That'd be great. He said to give you this." He pulls a slip of paper from his pocket and hands it over. I catch a glimpse of a phone number on it.
Cole nods. "I will contact him to arrange a one-on-one meeting."
Oliver's spine stiffens. "You can't just—"
"This is something for the adults to deal with, Oliver," he says, tone sharper than I'm used to hearing. "In the meantime, the rest of you can focus on finding Ruby and Joel and restrain them for questioning."
"I can help," Fred says, stepping away from the window like he might be ready to leave.
Throwing myself at him to make him stay so I can grill him on Ruby seems like a bad idea. I'm not even sure what I would ask when it's obvious everything he knows is hearsay anyway. Maverick would be the one to ask.
Still, I have to try. He has to know something.
I give my biggest, saddest eyes to Daniel when I catch him looking my way. He smiles and spreads his arms wide. "Well, we all have much to accomplish in a short period of time, non?" Cole and Oliver glance at me, seeming to get the hint, and Daniel ushers them out of the room.
The tension in Fred's shoulders is so visible that I can see it slide right out of him when we're alone again. He exhales, pocketing his hands. "Well...thanks. I guess I should get back."
"You looked like you wanted to say something earlier," I say before I can lose my nerve. "What was it?"
Fred ducks his head with a sigh, studying his feet. "It's not important."
"Tell me anyway."
"It's just...I mean, I shouldn't say anything." A crease forms where his brows draw together. "Everything that happened with Ruby was before I came along, so there's no telling how accurate my info is..."
I swallow hard. Even if it isn't accurate, it's still something and I feel like I'm back at square one in knowing what happened to my sister. "I'm taking everything I hear with a grain of salt right now until I get all this sorted out, but whatever you've heard would help."
Another sigh. Fred sinks down onto the bed beside me. Funny, I'm not even worried about keeping my hand near the gun anymore. The more I watch him, the look in his eyes, the more I think Fred is...a lot like me. A lonely kid trying to figure out their place in this crazy life we've fallen into. I wonder if he chose to be turned. If he regrets it now.
"Maverick said Ruby really hated the rules," he tells me. "She pushed limits a lot. But Joel? He never had a problem with her. In fact, they were...pretty close."
I frown. "Close, like..."
"Like, an item. I think. That was the impression I got." He shrugs. "Joel was pretty torn up when she left. Explains why he was so mad. Not only did she ditch the group, but she ditched without him."
Joel and Ruby. I didn't get the impression she was with the group for that long. Long enough to get over Noah and hook up with another guy? She didn't mention anything about it. Neither did Noah, which tells me he probably doesn't know. Anything to make Ruby look bad he's more than happy to bring up.
I turn my attention to the window, exhaling. Every fact brought to light leaves me more and more in the dark.
"Something bothering you?" he asks.
Plenty of things. Anything I'm going to tell him? Pfft. "Don't worry about it. I thought you had to get back."
"Guess so." Fred purses his lips, scratching at his jaw. "Just...you know. This all seems like a lot. So if you wanna talk or...whatever."
I twist around and stare at him. Really stare at him. Trying to figure out what he's playing at. All I see looking back at me is a sad guy not much older than me. Somehow, I know without even asking that this isn't a life he chose for himself. He looks as lost and out of place as I did.
The words spill out before I can try to filter them. "I killed someone."
Holy God, am I really going to talk to him about this? Then again, maybe he's the most logical choice. Not because I feel like I know him, but maybe because he's a complete stranger to me. I don't give a damn what Fred thinks of me, so there's no reason to be afraid.
And there's no judgment in Fred's eyes. Just quiet understanding as he nods slowly and waits for me to elaborate. After a second, I do.
"When Joel tossed me off the roof. There was this guy and he tried to save me and I just..." Waving my hands, gesturing, as though I could possibly gesture how I tore into his throat the way I did.
"So it was an accident?"
"Yes. No. I don't know... Saying it was an accident feels like I'm making excuses." I rub at my eyes. "I was so out of it. All I could think of was needing to feed so I could heal. When I was finally thinking clear again, he was already dead."
He considers that. "Sounds like an accident to me."
"But it's—"
"Briar. Saying it was an accident doesn't cheapen how badly you feel about it. That point is that you do feel guilty." His fingers touch to his chest, over his heart. "So long as you weren't out to intentionally hurt the guy and you're sorry for it, then forgive yourself and let it go." A grin spreads over his face. "If it helps any, I'll forgive you for it first. If I can do it, so can everyone else."
I'm utterly torn between thinking he's a moron and being...relieved. Thinking maybe he's right. I'm not too bad off if I'm capable of feeling remorse for what I did.
Even if I wouldn't have cared if Fred thought I was a monster for my mistake, I'm still glad he's here, smiling at me that way. Knowing my secret but not hating me for it. I take a deep breath, forcing out some of the tension in my shoulders on exhale. "Thanks, Fred."
Shrug. "Don't mention it." He nudges me with an elbow. "Now, I've been meaning to ask you about one of the guys that was in here."
"Uh?"
"The tall one." A lazy smirk plays across his face. "Your ‘date.'"
My...oh. Oh. Well, lost that one, huh? I fold my arms stiffly across my chest. "His name is Daniel."
"Is he human?"
"Maybe." None of his business, honestly.
He hmm's. "And you weren't really on a date."
"Well, not—I mean. You know. Technically?"
"Technically."
"I guess...not." My cheeks burn. "But that's only because I don't think Daniel's really into girls."
Fred pauses. "Oh."
"Yeah. He said you were cute, though." I take great joy in watching how uncomfortable this statement makes him. He stands, holding up his hands.
"On that note, I'm getting out of here."
I tip my head and smile. "Keep in touch, I'm
sure Daniel will appreciate it."
Fred gives me an unimpressed glare, waves, and heads out of my room without looking back.
29. Saturday – 9:29pm
After getting dressed, I join the boys in Cole's room. Oliver is still arguing the cons of Cole meeting up with Maverick alone. "We don't know if anything he told us is true," he's saying when I come in.
Cole takes all this in with a lot more patience than I would. Probably comes from years and years of dealing with Oliver. "I can take care of myself. You seem to forget that."
"Joel could be with him. Or that Alex girl. All it takes is one of them to catch you unaware..." Oliver twists around, looking imploringly at Daniel and me for help. Help I can't really offer him, so I shrug instead. Daniel settles an arm around my shoulders when I sit next to him on the bed.
"Is there a reason you can't do it over the phone?" I ask.
"How can I prove the man I am speaking with is actually Maverick?" Cole shakes his head. "Besides that, there's a certain...code to doing things like this. I have to see him face to face. He has to be willing to meet with me in order to persuade me I have a reason to give him the benefit of the doubt."
Guess that makes sense. Not like police would be cool clearing a murder suspect with a simple phone call, either. "I don't think Fred was lying, at any rate," I say. Oliver shoots me a dark look. Obviously not the response he was hoping for. I turn my attention to Cole. "You talked to Maverick already?"
He gives a vague smile. "I did. We've arranged to meet tomorrow evening at a place of my choosing. I also spoke to my elders and I've been given permission to...take off the kid gloves, so to speak."
I'm taking that to mean Cole is officially Involved. Whatever lives might be lost in all of this won't come down on his head later. Oliver crosses his arms, face drawn into a scowl. "And what are we supposed to do in the meantime?"
"If we're able to locate the others, then you would not have any reason to worry about Cole," Daniel points out.