NINETEEN

ADEN DIDN’T HAVE MUCH practice behind the wheel of a car, so he wasn’t as smooth a driver as he would have liked. He hit the brakes a little too hard and took the turns a little too quickly. At least he didn’t have to worry about being pulled over. Not with Victoria in the car. She could talk them out of a ticket. Literally.

They had the music turned low in the background. His fingers tapped against the wheel, keeping the wild beat despite the pain in his knuckles. Just as they’d been during his driving test, the souls were nearly giddy.

When’s the last time we were this free? Caleb asked with a laugh.

No doctors, no teachers. Just us and the horses. Julian sighed with contentment.

“This your car?” he asked to break the silence between them and drown out his companions so that he didn’t accidentally start talking to them. “’Cause I’ve never seen you even approach one before.”

She shrugged, sheepish. “Let’s just say I borrowed it. But don’t worry. I’ll return it and no one will ever know it was gone.”

Borrowed. AKA stolen. Most likely she’d used that commanding voice and the owner had simply handed her the keys. He couldn’t help but grin—until his lip split and he winced.

Oh, Aden. Eve tsked under her tongue. Riding around in a stolen car? Whether you’ll get in trouble or not, that’s not the right thing to do. I’m not sure this girl is the best influence on you. Mary Ann is—

No, no, no. Elijah banged his head against Aden’s skull, rattling his brain. Mary Ann is a friend only, so don’t try to push him on her. And I’m not just saying that because she knocks us into oblivion. Riley would eat us alive.

Eve huffed. All I’m saying is she’s a better influence.

Once again, Aden did his best to tune them out. “So…do you know where Riley and Mary Ann are? Were you with them earlier?”

“Yes. They’re in Tri City, which is where we’re headed.”

Tri City. He’d been a few times and knew there were restaurants, lots of clothing stores and a theater. “Why are they there?”

“I—they—” She blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s too difficult to explain. It will be easier to show you.”

Well, she wasn’t the only one dealing with frustration. They had another ten minutes before they reached Tri City, and the wait would not be easy. “Have you guys been there all day?”

“Yes.”

Yet they’d willingly left him behind. Ouch. “Why not pick me up earlier?”

“You hum with so much power, we wanted to first make sure we could protect you in case something went wrong.”

That, he understood. With him, something always went wrong.

A minute passed. Two. He merged off the highway and onto a side road, slowing the car to an acceptable speed. He’d wanted to talk to Victoria all day. And now here she was. He could ask the question he really wanted answered. Just say it. Put it out there.

“So who was that guy? The one who was at my window yesterday? The one who heard you tell me to leave you alone.” The words left his mouth through clenched teeth, each one scraped raw.

She twisted in her seat, facing him, and rested her head against the seat cushion. Her hair was down today, those blue streaks gleaming. “I hated telling you to leave me alone almost as much as I hate that man, but I had to say it. I couldn’t let him know how much I…like being with you. He would have challenged you, I would have taken your side, and my father would have punished us all.”

Both a comfort—she would have chosen him—and a fright—her father’s retribution. Aden would do anything, even stay away from her, to protect her from such a fate. She’d done the right thing; his anger drained.

“Next time, give me a little warning and I’ll play along. So who is he?”

“A vampire,” she hedged. “Because of him, I have now been forbidden to leave home at night.”

Her sudden bitterness matched his own. “Is he another of your bodyguards?”

“You could say that, yes.”

He could say that, but she wouldn’t? “What’s his name? Did he hurt you?”

“His name is Dmitri, and no, he did not hurt me physically.”

Emotionally, then? He was beginning to learn her nuances, Aden realized. She didn’t want to lie to him, therefore she skirted the edge of the truth with omission. Smart. He did the same with Dan.

Aden wanted her to trust him completely, utterly, no secrets between them. That would take time, though, because he wasn’t going to push her the way his doctors had often tried to push him, using promises and assurances. Actions were the true test of a man’s integrity. One day she would realize that no matter what she told him, no matter what she did, he would love her.

Love?

His heart skipped a beat, his ears suddenly ringing as blood pumped through his veins. He’d never thought to feel such an emotion himself. He’d always tried to guard himself against it, really. As quickly as he was sometimes taken from foster homes, he’d learned that goodbyes were less painful if he didn’t care about the people he was leaving.

This entire experience in Crossroads had been different, though, right from the start. Imagining Dan as his father, befriending Mary Ann and Shannon, then Victoria (and maybe kinda sorta Riley). Wanting more from Victoria than he’d ever wanted from another, halfway in love with her before he’d ever even met her.

“Are you all right?” she asked, clearly concerned. Could she hear the rush of blood in his veins? Feel the way his heart skidded out of control?

“Yes,” he managed to croak out. “Fine.” He did. He loved her.

Eve would object. A few of the others, too. But he couldn’t help his feelings. They were there, and they were strong. He wanted Victoria safe, he wanted her with him, at night, during the day. He wanted to know everything about her.

She was smart, beautiful, warm. She’d fought for him when no one else ever had. She’d never looked at him as if he were weird or different. No, she’d always looked at him as if he were perfect, even lovable in his own right.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

He couldn’t tell her. Not yet. How deeply did her feelings for him run?

“About your death?”

He tensed at the reminder.

“It’s all I’ve been able to think about since you told me.” Her chin trembled as if she were fighting tears.

Those tears both delighted and sobered him. To cry for him, she must feel deeply for him. But they didn’t have much time together. Maybe there was a way to save himself, he thought, though he knew better. He just wasn’t ready to give her up yet. “Can I be changed to vampire?”

“Oh, I wish. But unlike what your books and movies portray, it has never been done successfully. Our blood is different than yours, and humans simply cannot tolerate the amount needed to make the transformation. They go insane.”

Then there was no better candidate to give the blood to than Aden. According to his doctors, he was halfway there already.

Victoria sighed, and it was a wistful sound. “The first were created in my father’s time. When he realized what he was, what had become of him, he forced his elite soldiers and the females of their choosing to drink as he had done, as his pets had done. Some of them changed, some did not. Over the following years, many others tried to change additional humans, but all died.”

“Seriously? Not a single survivor?”

“Correct. The only new vampires are those that are born from a vampire mother.”

“But it stands to reason that if vampires were created once, they could be created again.”

“True. But no one knows what recent attempts are lacking. Either the tainted blood my father and his men consumed is no more, or human bodies have evolved, becoming resistant. Sometimes, for reasons we haven’t yet figured out, the vampire involved even dies with the human.”

So that was out. He wouldn’t risk Victoria. He sighed. What was he going to do, then?

“Turn left here,” she said.

He did, and soon found himself meandering along a dirt road on the outskirts of the town square, the backs of buildings facing another strip of forested land. Gravel crunched under the tires, and the car bounced. No one was in sight. Only a red corvette.

“Park here.”

He eased to a stop and turned off the car. They unbuckled simultaneously, and he peered over at her. She wore a black T-shirt, as usual, and was clutching the hem. Seeing her fingernails reminded him of the polish in his backpack.

Aden reached to the back of the car, unzipped his pack and dug inside. When his fingers curled around the small, cool glass, he tugged it free, praying it was as pink and glittery as John had promised. It was. Thank God.

“Before you show me whatever it is you plan to show me, I wanted you to have this.” Gulping, suddenly nervous, he held it out to her. “For you. Well, your toes.”

She looked down at it, up at him, then down again, her mouth opening and snapping closed several times. “Me?”

Did that mean she liked it? “You mentioned the colors inside Mary Ann’s house and well, I thought maybe you—”

“I love it!” she said, throwing herself into his arms and raining little kisses over his face. When one of those kisses landed on his mouth, she stilled. Her smile fell away. She pressed another kiss to his lips, this one soft and slow, her tongue slipping inside.

He was cut and bruised, and the kiss hurt, but he wouldn’t have stopped her for anything. He just wrapped himself around her and held on, savoring the contact. He inhaled deeply, drinking in the floral scent of her hair, enjoying the heady flavor of her. All that heat…

There was a tap at the window.

They jumped apart as if burned. Aden was reaching for his daggers when he spotted Riley’s harsh, intense face. Mary Ann stood behind him, paler than he’d ever seen her.

Frowning, he opened the door and emerged. The cool interior of the car gave way to the heat of the day. One thing he hated about Oklahoma was how one day could be bone-chilling and the next a sauna.

He hadn’t heard Victoria move, but suddenly she was beside him. “Well?” she asked.

“It’s only getting worse,” Riley said.

Victoria stiffened, and Aden wrapped an arm around her waist.

“What is?” he asked. He was finally here. Someone needed to tell him what the hell was going on.

“Come. I’ll show you.”

Aden ran his tongue over his teeth. Would no one give him a straight-up answer?

Riley turned, took Mary Ann’s hand and stalked through the alley between two of the buildings, remaining in the shadows. “We shouldn’t have brought you here at all, but we needed you to see what’s out there and be able to identify the different species at a glance.”

Confused, Aden followed, never releasing Victoria. He remained on guard, ready to attack anything that moved. To his surprise, nothing leapt out at them. Also to his surprise, he saw only crowds of people walking in every direction when he reached the front of the buildings. More people than he’d assumed lived in this small tri-city area, sure. But where was the harm in that?

“See that woman?” Victoria pointed to an average-size female with plain brown hair, plain features, a brown top and faded jeans. She would have blended into any crowd, unnoticed, completely forgettable.

“Yes.”

“She’s a witch and she’s cloaked herself in magic. What you see is not what she truly looks like.”

His attention sharpened on her, and he noticed the alertness of her gaze as she scanned those around her. There was even a glow that enveloped her, slight though it was, as if the sun was drawn to her more than any other. She studied everyone she neared, even reached out and touched a few, as if expecting to be jolted. When nothing happened, she would frown with disappointment and move on.

“How do you know what she is?” he asked. “How can you tell?”

“You have to train your eyes to look past the surface,” Mary Ann said, as if she were quoting something she’d already been told. She probably was.

“Witches can bless with one hand and curse with the other,” Victoria explained. “Some wield more magic than others, but all are dangerous.”

“I’ve been listening to a few conversations,” Riley said. “The witches want to capture you, Aden, though they don’t yet know who you are, to use you to increase their powers. They think whoever summoned them is a mighty wizard. My advice is to avoid capture.”

“Oh, really? ’Cause I never would have thought of that on my own,” he said dryly.

Riley continued on as if he hadn’t spoken. “If you’re captured, when they finish with you, you will be a shell of your former self. They will drain you.”

“So noted.”

“The man behind her is fairy,” said Victoria. The disgust in her voice was palpable.

Aden quickly shifted his focus. The man—or teenager, probably eighteen—was tall and muscled, his skin boasting just a hint of glitter. He had golden hair and golden eyes. Everyone who passed him, male and female alike, stared at him, craning their necks to watch him as long as possible. Except for the witch, Aden noticed. She ran in the opposite direction.

“Like vampires, fairies are drainers,” Victoria continued. “Only instead of blood, they live off of energy. Vampire, witch, it doesn’t matter. Well, that’s not true. They do not drain humans. They consider themselves protectors of humankind, gods among men.”

“You mentioned goblins were here, as well.” Flesh-eaters. He shuddered, feeling phantom corpses biting at him. “Where are they?” If he could learn to identify them, he could evade them.

“And demons,” Mary Ann said with a shudder of her own. “Don’t forget those.”

“The goblins only emerge at night, their eyesight too sensitive to the sun,” Riley said. “Tell your friends to stop going out after dusk. The missing persons count is about to skyrocket. The death toll, as well.”

Because of me, Aden thought. Because he’d seen Mary Ann. Because he’d remained in this town.

“Oh, God.” Mary Ann covered her mouth with her hand as if she’d just realized the extent of the danger they were in, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “People are going to die?”

Riley kissed the top of her head. “Don’t worry. We’ll do what we can. As for the demons, they are harder to spot. Some have learned to mask their auras.”

“How did they get here?” Aden asked. “On earth, I mean. And how long have they been here?”

“They’ve been here for thousands of years. Before the walls of hell were reinforced, a few escaped their fiery prison. They could not pass themselves off as humans—the scales, horns and forked tongues gave them away—so they passed themselves off as gods. They mated with humans and half demon, half human babies were born. These children still could not pass as humans, nor could their children or their children’s children. Eventually, though, the offspring were able to insert themselves into society. Thieves, murderers, those who are purely evil can often trace their lineage back to the first demons.”

Purely evil. Like Tucker.

“Tucker,” Mary Ann said, clearly mirroring his thoughts.

Riley nodded. “In some way, yes, though we don’t know what…”

“What else is out there?” Aden asked. What else wanted to use him?

“Anything, everything, though the others have not yet arrived in Crossroads.” Victoria rested her head on Aden’s shoulder. “Dragons, angels, valkryies, shape-shifters of every kind. Most live in harmony with the other creatures, but several of the races are at war. Perhaps that is why they’re late to this party. Or, if we’re lucky, they won’t come at all.”

Mary Ann swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. “What should we do?”

Aden raised his chin, realizing what had to be done. Mary Ann worried for her father. Victoria worried for her people. Riley, well, he probably worried for Mary Ann. The look the werewolf had given her reminded Aden of how he must surely regard the vampire princess.

“I’ll pack up and leave,” he said. “The creatures will follow me, and everyone here will be safe.”

“No!” Victoria straightened with a jolt. “They’ll follow you wherever you go, yes, but that will place more and more people in danger. You and Mary Ann are both safest here because the only time your signal is muted is when you’re with her.”

“But when she’s with Riley, all of my powers remain. Even now, I can hear my companions in the back of my mind. He has some kind of effect on her ability to neutralize.”

Riley’s head tilted to the side. “Maybe I don’t affect her at all. Maybe I affect you. I wonder if deep down you sense that I am a predator, so your defenses and adrenaline work overtime while I’m around, seeping through whatever block Mary Ann places on you.”

They had so much to learn. Too much, it seemed. Where was he supposed to find the answers?

“Come, we must go,” Victoria suddenly said, tugging him deeper into the shadows.

Why? Aden returned his focus to the town square. The fairy had switched directions and was now headed toward their building. Not good. That fairy had the power to drain Victoria, to hurt her. And staying with her would only place her in more danger.

Aden released her and latched onto Mary Ann. “Riley, get Victoria out of here. We’ll meet you at Mary Ann’s.”

“No, I—” Riley began.

“I’ll keep Mary Ann safe,” Aden assured him. “But this way, with Mary Ann and me together on our own, there will be no signal for the creatures to follow. So go!” The fairy was closer…closer still.

Riley nodded reluctantly and dragged Victoria away. Or tried to. She managed to wrench free. As she raced to him, she opened her ring and dipped a finger inside. Before he could stop her, she rubbed that finger against her wrist. Immediately the flesh sizzled apart and a gaping wound appeared.

The moment she reached him, she pressed that wound against his mouth. Her grip was so strong, there was no pushing away from her. All he could do was open his mouth to protest—then gulp down the blood flowing through his lips. It was warm and sweet, fizzing like soda, practically alive as it washed over his tongue.

“This tiny amount won’t kill you,” she said. “Dan can’t see you cut up and bruised again. This way, he won’t. You’ll heal before you reach the house.”

Heat spread through him. Heat that intensified with every second that passed, burning, blistering, scorching everything it touched. He felt like he’d caught a fever, or like he was on fire, his entire body erupting before crumbling into ash.

“The aftereffect…” she said. “I’m sorry.”

Once more, Riley dragged her away. She held Aden’s gaze as long as possible. He tried not to think about what she’d meant by “aftereffect.” When they were out of sight, the souls moaned, tossed back into the dark realm they so hated.

The fairy, he noticed, stopped, gazed around with confusion and frowned. Good thing. Aden had to hunch over as he gasped in breath after breath. Finally, his body cooled down.

Mary Ann was patting his back to comfort him, he realized as he straightened.

Deciding to check out the alleyway anyway, the fairy kicked back into motion.

Aden ushered Mary Ann in the opposite direction of their friends. He couldn’t worry about the aftereffects of drinking vampire blood right now. No way it would be any worse than corpse venom. And Mary Ann’s safety came first.

He increased his pace. If the fairy got a glimpse of him, he didn’t know it. He kept moving, never looking backward, until he found an unlocked door. Inside the building—a clothing shop—he ran into an employee who told him no one was supposed to be in the back. He apologized and made his way outside, where he slowed his step. Mary Ann stayed close to him, silent, perhaps too afraid to talk.

There were so many people. Watching them from a distance hadn’t done justice to their numbers. They were everywhere. At first glance, they looked as normal as he’d originally assumed, even at this new, close range. But as he stealthily watched them, he began to see past their masks. Most were so beautiful he wanted to gape. Some were so ugly he wanted to vomit. Gaping and vomiting, however, would have given him away.

I’m nothing, he wanted to tell them. A no one. Don’t waste your time tracking me. They wouldn’t have listened. They wanted to use him. Kill him, perhaps. Would kill innocents, if he didn’t find a way to stop them. Most likely, they were not all evil. Like Victoria and Riley, some of them might be honorable and trustworthy. But he couldn’t take a chance. Not now.

“Anyone following us?” Mary Ann asked in a fierce whisper.

Oh, yes. She was afraid. It was there in her voice, layered in every word. He dared a peek behind him. “No. Not that I can tell.”

Together, they were like any other kids. Keeping their pace unhurried and normal proved difficult, but they managed it. But if his expression was anything like Mary Ann’s, frozen and fearful, they were in trouble.

“Smile as if I just said something funny,” he commanded her.

She managed an unconvincing laugh. “Maybe you should say something funny.”

“I’ve got nothing.” He had to get her mind off their surroundings. If not funny, he’d go with factual. “You ordered our birth certificates, right?”

“Right.”

“When will they arrive?”

“Today, I think. I paid for expedited delivery. Actually, they might already be waiting on my front porch.”

“That’s good.” If the certificates were there, they’d have his parents’ address. They might be able to head out tomorrow—Saturday—to see of the couple was even still living there. And if not, they might still have time to drive to the hospital where he was born and try to get into their files, find out a little more information about him and his “family.”

“So you’ll never guess what I did. Because I don’t want a conversation lag, I’ll just tell you. I snuck into my dad’s office and read some of his notes about you,” she said as they walked. Blessedly, she sounded calmer, in control. “He remembers you, and really liked you, but what you said about my mother really freaked him out.”

She’d done it. She’d truly done it. For him. “First, thank you. Second, I didn’t say anything about your mom.”

“Yes, you did. The time travel thing.”

He’d only mentioned his own time travel. Dr. Gray had been the one to mention another’s, a woman’s. Could it be? “Did your mom disappear at times?”

“No, never. And I would have known. Most of my childhood I was glued to her side.”

“Then I don’t understand.”

“Me, either. He mentioned both a wife and a current wife, made me think that the woman I thought was my mom wasn’t. But I don’t see how that’s possible.”

He led her back to the car Victoria had stolen—the corvette was gone—and they slid inside. He locked the doors. They sat there for several minutes, panting, waiting to see if anyone—or thing—would turn a corner. Nothing did. He heaved a sigh of relief and started the engine.

“Thank you,” he told her again. “For everything.”

“I plan to talk to him. I just have to do it sometime when he can’t avoid me or order me to my room. Otherwise, we’ll never get answers. Besides, I need a break from this, you know?”

Hopefully, that time would come before Halloween and the ball he was supposed to attend. Knowledge was power and Aden had a feeling he would need all the power he could get to face Victoria’s dad. He loved her, planned to be a part of her life for as long as he had left, and her father’s permission would help. As it was, he wasn’t likely to gain it. He was a troublemaker, a “schizo.”

“We’ll learn about you, don’t worry,” Mary Ann said, probably sensing the direction of his thoughts.

They drove to her house, and this time Aden obeyed the speed laws. He couldn’t risk being pulled over. To his disappointment, no package was waiting on Mary Ann’s porch, and Riley and Victoria were not there, either. Where were they?

“Your dad’s still at work, right?” he asked before stepping foot in the house.

“Yeah. He won’t be home for hours yet.”

“Then I’ll stay. For a little while, at least.”

“Just…promise me you won’t talk about what’s happening, the past, the future. I just can’t handle it right now.”

She was pale. “I promise,” he said.

They climbed the stairs and turned on the TV, as if this were a normal day and they themselves were normal. For the first time in his life, he was able to enjoy a show without any distractions.

The package never arrived. Neither did Riley nor Victoria. He couldn’t wait it, or them, out. If he didn’t return to school and walk home with Shannon as if he’d been there all day, he’d ruin all of Victoria’s hard work.

He glanced out Mary Ann’s bedroom window. Victoria’s car was still parked there. He’d use it one more time, he decided, but he wouldn’t leave it at Crossroads High. He’d park a block away and hide it in the woods until the vampire could retrieve it.

“Lock your doors when I leave,” he said. “If you hear from Riley or Victoria, call the D and M. I don’t care if it gets me in trouble. I’d rather be punished than worry.”

She nodded, hugged him. “Be careful.”

“You, too.”