Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty

Retta and I agreed to meet at Cora’s once she was done with school. It was the only place I could think of that we both knew and that seemed safe—our coffee shop hadn’t opened its doors since the Vanpari Trials.

While I was waiting out the clock, Mom went home to get me a change of clothes. She returned a few hours later.

“Any sign of Nik?” I asked, taking the satchel stuffed with clothes from her.

She shook her head. “The pool house was dark.”

I pouted, worry swirling inside of me. Where had he gone?

“What about Geiser?” I asked, pulling clothes out of the bag, searching for something a little sexy to wear just in case the crazy-hot Siren boy was at Cora’s again. “Did you speak to him?”

Mom looked downcast as she shook her head.

I couldn’t help it. I was relieved. If the two of them broke up that would be a huge weight off my mind.

“Well, thanks for these,” I said, holding up a bundle of clothes. “I’m gonna change then head out.”

“Out?” Mom said in an incredulous voice. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I need to see my friends… I mean study group,” I corrected, trying to make it sound like an innocent slipup. “We’re working on a diorama. Joint project. Ya know how it is.”

Mom crossed her arms. “Theia. After everything that’s happened, I really think you should stay off the streets tonight.”

But I was adamant. “I’ll be fine. Stop worrying. Besides, I have my bow.”

I patted my trusty weapon.

It took at least five more minutes of cajoling to get Mom to agree to let me leave, and only then on the proviso I got a cab there. Fine by me. The last thing I needed tonight was to run into any more creepy Incubus. Incubi. Incubuses? Hell, I don’t know.

The sky was showing the first hints of dusk when I reached Cora’s warehouse and knocked on the door. I was wearing a tight black top with a waist-length leather jacket, dark ripped jeans, and boots with enough of a heel to make me look taller and slimmer than I actually was.

Lucas opened the door, his Herculean chest on full display. My mouth went dry at the sight of him.

He frowned, looking me up and down. “Yeah?”

I swallowed and tried to pull myself together. “I’m Theia. From yesterday.”

He stared at me blankly. I got the impression that Lucas was one of those all-brawn, no-brain kind of guys. Not that it mattered. Some people were put on the earth to be gazed upon, rather than for their sparkling intellect, and Lucas was definitely one of them.

“The demon-hare?” I prompted. “The séance? The swirly green smoke?”

“Oh yeahhhh,” he said eventually. He looked at me for a few more beats, then shoved his wavy golden hair back off his tanned face. “Why are you here?”

“I’m meeting Retta.”

At the mention of her name, Lucas’s eyes widened. “Retta’s coming here?”

I smirked at his sudden fluster. “Uh-huh. What’s the deal with you two anyway?”

He shrugged his impossibly wide-set shoulders. “Ask her. She’s the one who ended it.”

He moved away from the door and let me into the gloomy warehouse.

I stepped inside, wondering why—or more importantly how—Retta had dumped such a gorgeous specimen of masculinity.

My eyes adjusted to the dimness. Cora was at one of her easels painting away, her tongue poking out the side of her mouth. She turned to me, purple oil paint smudged across her forehead.

“Theia!” she cried, putting down her brush and hurrying over. “Retta messaged me about what happened. Are you okay?”

She hugged me. She gave off really friendly, caring vibes, which was pretty incongruous with her punk appearance.

I nodded. “I’m fine. There was a blocking spell on my door so they couldn’t get in.”

“Still,” Cora said, leading me to the couch. “You must’ve been terrified.”

From a swivel chair beside a computer in the corner of the room, Aaron spun around. His hair was tousled, like he’d recently gotten out of bed. “What happened?” he asked me.

“Someone broke into my house last night,” I explained, lowering myself onto the battered couch. “With a knife.”

“They were trying to kill you?” Aaron asked, his eyes widening.

“Uh-huh.”

“Duuuude,” I heard Lucas mutter from the kitchen.

Aaron leaned forward on his elbows, evidently intrigued. “Do you think it was something to do with Geiser?”

“I don’t think,” I replied. “I know.” My mind went back to the events of last night. “After we chased the attacker away and Geiser saw me standing there very much alive, he didn’t even try to hide his fury.” I shuddered at the memory. “He just stared at me. Of course, he put on an act for everyone else, but Mom still dragged me out the house. So there is an upshot. If it splits her and Geiser up then that’s one last thing to stress about.”

Lucas came over with the coffeepot and poured me a cup. I had to remind myself that, since they were nocturnal moon-class, this was their breakfast pot of coffee. But I was enough of a caffeine addict to drink at any hour of the day with next to no ill effect, so I took it gratefully.

“Theia, this is so awful,” Cora said. “I’m really sorry. I know how it feels to have your family against you. If you need to stay here, any time, you can.”

“Thanks,” I said, genuinely touched by her generosity. “My grandparents are putting me up at the moment. They don’t seem to want me dead, as far as I can tell.” My jokey attempt to lighten the mood fell flat. Even I barely cracked a wan smile.

“Nik, on the other hand…” I continued, tapping my fingers nervously against the warm mug. “I don’t know how safe he is. If Geiser’s noticed us hanging out he might put two and two together. And no one’s seen Nik today.”

I chewed my lip, realizing just how worried I was, now that I’d said it aloud.

At that moment, an urgent rapping came from the door.

Lucas stood. “I’ll get it.”

As he went over to the door, I saw that even his back was muscular. Man, did Sirens have good genes.

He opened the door. From the stilted way he moved, it was obvious that Retta was standing on the other side. I really wanted to know what the deal was between the two of them, but with my evil stepdad trying to murder me, such ordinary teenage preoccupations seemed a bit trivial.

Retta emerged into the room. She spotted me on the couch and hurried over, flinging herself at me so hard I spilled my coffee.

“Theia!” she cried. “I hate this!”

I drew out of her tight embrace and wiped the spilled coffee from my tee. “I’m okay. I’m still alive. Although my boobs are scalded now. Thanks for that.”

Retta gave me a look. “Someone tried to kill you in your sleep and you expect me to believe you’re okay?”

“Yes,” I said insistently. “It’s Nik I’m worried about. Any sign of him?”

Retta shook her head. “He didn’t show at school.” She gave me a pained look. “Do you think something happened to him? Like the attacker got to him?”

I felt a worming in my stomach. My suspicion was that Nik had fled because I’d seen his Vanpari teeth. But it didn’t feel like my place to reveal his secret, since he’d chosen to hide it from us all. At the same time, my friends deserved to know why he’d gone AWOL.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “You see, when I chased the attacker into the garden, Nik came out the pool house to help me.” I rubbed my neck, feeling it prickle with heat. “While they were tussling he sort of… flashed me his Vanpari teeth.”

“So it was a Vanpari that attacked you,” Retta said.

I shook my head. “No. The teeth weren’t the attackers. They were Nik’s.”

A silence descended.

Retta’s eyebrows began to creep upwards. “Nik’s Vanpari?”

I nodded slowly. “Well, part Mage, part Vanpari.”

“He lied to us,” Retta said, coldly.

“Kinda,” I murmured.

“Not kinda,” she snapped. “Totally.”

Hearing the anger in Retta’s voice made me feel like I should be madder at him for lying too.

Aaron leaned forward on his elbows. “You guys don’t read the moon papers, do you? There are always rumors that the moon mayor is Vanpari, that she only got to be mayor because she used illegal Vanpari manipulation techniques.”

Retta interjected with a scoff. “Because of course a woman can’t get into a position of authority on her own merit!”

Aaron finished his thought. “So you can’t really blame Nik for hiding his Vanpari lineage. He probably had to, to protect his mom.”

“That and the fact the whole city’s anti-Vanpari at the moment,” Cora added.

I appreciated their more measured response. But they had less to be hurt about. They didn’t really know Nik. Retta and I were the ones he’d deceived. And while I knew I should be mad that he’d lied to me, the truth was, I felt only empathy toward Nik.

Retta sank back into the leather couch, looking fraught. She ran a hand through her tight black curls. “This is such a mess, Theia. Geiser won’t stop until you’re dead. And then he’ll get in power and turn the whole city into a hellhole. What are we going to do?”

“We could start by not getting hysterical,” Lucas said.

Retta shot him angry eyes.

“What we do is keep looking for evidence,” I said. “We need actual solid proof to nail him.”

“But what?” Retta said. “It’s not like he’ll have left a paper trail. There won’t be a dossier lying around about killing his Celestial mistress, or a how-to manual on assassinating his Elkie stepdaughter.”

From his swivel chair, Aaron spoke up. “Maybe not. But maybe he’s got some incriminating electronic communications. Emails written in code. That sort of thing.” He gestured to his computer.

I raised my eyebrows. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those super-genius cyber hacker types.”

Aaron tipped his head back and laughed loudly. “Um, no. I’m a biology major. I study moss. Sorry to disappoint you. What I meant was that I could sneak into his office and snoop around.”

“Ohhh,” I said, finally figuring out what he was getting at. “You mean you could use your Shapeshifter abilities and spy?”

Aaron nodded.

I couldn’t help but wonder why he’d want to help me. Why he’d put himself out like that and do something so potentially dangerous.

“That sounds kinda reckless,” Cora said with a cautious tone.

A devilish smile played at Aaron’s lips. “Not really. I just have to put up a glimmer. Hide in his office. Once he leaves, I can get on the computer and print out his emails or something.”

“But what if you get trapped inside?” I said. “Geiser works really long hours.”

Aaron just shrugged. “It’s either that or spend all day working on my thesis.” He gestured to the computer beside him with a resentful expression. “And honestly, If I have to read one more study about lichen, I will shoot myself in the face.”

I smiled despite myself. I was touched by Cora’s offer to let me stay and Aaron’s even more generous offer to spy. I even appreciated eye-candy Lucas and his cup of coffee. I was really starting to like these guys.

“I didn’t mean to drag you all into this,” I told them, feeling guilty.

“We all hate Geiser,” Cora assured me. “He’s a jerk. Anything to stop him getting into power and making things even more segregated.”

“Besides,” Aaron said, standing up from the couch and cracking his knuckles. “This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me for years.”

Then, right before my eyes, he transformed into a mouse.

I gasped. I’d never seen a Shapeshifter transform before. It was really baffling to think Aaron was still there behind the glimmer, that it was all a trick he was playing on my brain. It did feel pretty intrusive to know that I couldn’t trust my own eyes when in the presence of a shifter.

“How’s this?” Aaron asked, his voice sounding incongruously huge in comparison to the tiny little brown mouse he now appeared to be.

“I guess that will work,” I replied.

“Cool. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I watched as he scurried out of the warehouse. Then I slumped back against the couch, exhausted. Retta studied me with a worried expression.

“What do we do about Nik?” I asked. My chest hurt just thinking about him. I really wanted him here with me. “What if he decided to go to Bear Mountain to find Elliot?”

“Then he’s even more of an idiot than I thought,” Retta replied.

If she’d meant it as a joke, a bit of gallows humor to lessen the tension, it didn’t work. I couldn’t even rouse a wry smile.

She reached forward and patted my hand. “I just hope he’s worrying about you as much as you are about him,” she said with a sigh.

“Was that an air of disapproval I heard there?” I asked.

Retta flashed me her intense eyes. “Theia, you’re pining after a guy that abandoned you when things got messy. You’re too good for that kind of shit. As your friend, it’s my duty to point that out.”

I frowned. Abandoned was a pretty loaded word. I didn’t count what Nik had done as a form of abandonment. Cowardice maybe. Shame. But abandonment?

“You’re being too hard on him,” I said.

Retta shrugged. “I don’t know. You were almost murdered. The people who care about you stuck around to keep you safe.” She gestured toward Cora and Lucas. “But what did Nik do? Ran at the first sign of trouble.”

I shook my head. Retta was playing psychologist and getting it all wrong. “He ran because I found out he was a Vanpari.”

“Well, don’t even get me started on that,” Retta replied. “First off, he lied. Big no-no. Second, he’s Vanpari. That alone should be enough to put you off.”

Now I was starting to get a bit irritated. “Why? I don’t have a problem with the Vanpari.”

“Neither do I,” Retta replied. “But that doesn’t stop the fact that they’re at the bottom of the social hierarchy.”

“So what? I’m Elkie. That puts me pretty low in the pecking order, too, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Elkie versus Vanpari is hardly comparative,” she contested. “The Vanpari have been treated like scum for centuries. They’re the most marginalized minority in the country. They had the worst terms of the peace treaty, out of everyone.”

“Actually,” Lucas interrupted, “the Sirens got the worst deal.”

“True,” Retta said, allowing herself to be corrected. “But they just noped right out of the whole thing. They saw the deal, saw how shit it was, and jumped into the ocean never to be seen again.”

Lucas folded his arms. “It wasn’t quite like that.”

I wasn’t in the mood to witness them descend into an ex-lovers’ tiff. Retta clearly wasn’t about to argue the nuances either.

“Point is,” she continued, “Nik being Vanpari has consequences. For your safety. Your economic prospects. For your future kids.”

Kids?

“Retta!” I cried. “I’m not about to marry the guy!”

She held her hands up into a truce. “I’m just saying he comes with baggage. My advice? Don’t fall in love with him.”

I shook my head, my cheeks burning. If Nik didn’t turn up soon, there’d be no kids in our future anyway. There might not even be a future at all.