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“I don’t care what you want,” I retort, flitting a gaze at Ryleigh. “Stealing my sister to get me here … You’re so evil.”
He stops just short of us. “I’m a demon,” he says like duh. “What do you expect?”
“I don’t know, but you’re going to let my sister go.” I let go of Hunter and reach for Ryleigh. “Come on; let’s go home.”
Ryleigh doesn’t budge, cowering against the wall while looking undecidedly at Max.
Max grins, rubbing his jawline. “Well, it appears that perhaps she’s gotten a bit attached to the evil demon.”
“What did you do to her?” I seethe. “Poison her? Put a curse on her?”
Pity fills his eyes. “My sweet, naive, little rainbow trout, if only that were true.” He reaches for me to do who knows what, and I just about let him.
At the last second, I snap out of my trance and trip back into Hunter’s arms.
Peyton shuffles forward as if ready to fight, which I’m grateful for. However, the last thing I want is to start a fight, so I motion for her to hang on a second. She frowns begrudgingly, but obeys, staying put.
“Why did you want me to come here?” I bite out to Max. “Just to rub it in my face that you can steal my sister if you want to? My sister who you probably killed, by the way.”
“I didn’t kill her, you idiot. Why would I? There’s no reason I’d want her dead.” His pierced brow curves upward. “Do you really think I’d bring you here just to rub something in your face?”
I shake my head. “No. But I want to know why.”
“You’re smarter than I thought, then.” His gaze lazily scrolls up and down my body. “You did overdress a bit for where we’re going, though.”
“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Hunter warns, his arms circling my waist.
“And who’s going to stop me?” Max challenges, tapping his finger against his bottom lip. “You? The vampire over there?” He flicks a gaze at Peyton, who rolls her eyes. Then his gaze zeroes in on me. “Or this one right here?”
I raise my chin. “I’m stronger than the last time you saw me.”
He searches my eyes, and then breathes in deeply. “You’re right … But how …?” Another sniff, and then he frowns. “You drank vampire blood.”
I shrug. “Perhaps.”
His eyes sparkle with a bit of pride and a drop of hate. “Wow, I’m impressed. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Yeah, well, I did. And so did Hunter.” I position my hands on my hips. “So, what do you think? Are you stronger than two almost vampires and one full vampire?”
His gaze stays on mine as a contemplative look masks his expression. “You know, I didn’t come here to fight. I came here to show you this.” He reaches inside his pocket, causing Hunter to inch toward him. “Oh, will you relax? I’m just getting my phone out.” Surprisingly, that’s exactly what he does.
Moments later, a recording starts playing of what sounds like Opal confessing that she took Ryleigh’s body and handed it over to the demons. Her reason? Because the society told her to.
My heart soars in my chest as I trade a look with Peyton. She raises her brows and mouths, “I told you so.”
Then I tip my head back to look up at Hunter, wondering if he knew. Judging by the stunned anger in his expression, I’m guessing not. But before I can find out for certain, the town clock lets out a loud, single chime. At the same time, the flap of the back exit of the tent opens up, giving me a clear view of the massive clock in the center of the town.
“Why are the hands spinning backward?” I mutter, a memory tugging at my brain.
Beware when the clock spins backward, the clown had warned.
I thought she was crazy, but now I’m wondering—
A figure suddenly blurs by me as the wind kicks up. I hear Peyton and Hunter shout something, but the sound is smothered out by a loud crack. Then the world starts spinning as I tumble toward the ground.
Or wait …
Maybe the world isn’t spinning.
Nope, I think my head’s on backward, which means the cracking noise I heard was my neck breaking. Which means I died. Which means I’m a …
Oh no, I’m a vampire.
As soon as my body collapses to the ground, though, I rise back up, like a floating ghost.
Oh, crap.
Yep, turns out, on top of being different with everything else, I also react differently to vampire blood. And by different, I mean, I don’t react at all. Because I’m dead. And not just dead.
Oh, my God, I’m a ghost!
15
Hunter
“No! No, no, no …” I cradle Eva’s lifeless body in my arms. “This can’t be happening. Wake up, baby.”
She doesn’t budge. She doesn’t breathe. She doesn’t sprout fangs.
“Why isn’t she changing?” Peyton whispers, crouching down beside me.
I shake my head, fighting back the tears, knowing that breaking down isn’t going to help the situation. It isn’t going to help me fix this. Because I am going to fix it.
“I have no idea …” I brush her hair from her face and note how cold her skin is already. “Maybe because of what she is.” Swallowing hard, I look up to find Max, wondering if he may know something about this.
Sure, I hate the idea of asking a demon for anything, but if it means saving Eva …
I’d do anything.
The damn asshole has abandoned the tent and took Ryleigh with him. Figures he’d run when all shit hit the fan. And it makes me suspicious that perhaps he had something to do with this. Although, with how he looks at Eva, I’m not sure he would kill her.
But is she really dead? What even happened?
“Did you see what did this to her?” I ask Peyton, looking at Eva in my arms.
There’s so much I wanted to say to her, and now I might never have the chance.
“There was a blur,” Peyton says. “But that’s all I saw … I don’t know what it was.”
“Me, either. I doubt it was a demon, though. They want her alive, not dead.” I just wish I knew why they wanted to feed off her. Why are they trying to get more power?
That’s not really important right now. What’s important is saving Eva.
I frantically rack my brain for a way to fix this. Eva had been working on a spell to bring Ryleigh back from the dead, and I think she had most of the ingredients. Perhaps I could do the spell on her. But I don’t have a clue what spell she was planning on using or where she put all the ingredients she gathered. And some of those ingredients were really hard to find, almost nearly impossible. Like a demon scale. And the only way Eva got that was by accident.
If only I had Eva’s gift of talking to the dead, then I could just ask her …
An idea smacks me across the face. “We need a Ghost Breather.”
“They’re really rare.”
“I know that.” Fuck! This can’t be happening! I can’t lose her!
“You think Eva’s still hanging around?” Peyton’s worried gaze scans the area.
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because of this.” I carefully turn Eva’s head and show Peyton the curving lines printed on her neck. “When we were younger, she accidentally cast a spirit connection spell on herself, which means when she died, there’s a good chance her spirit is going to hang around for a while. And if we can find a way to communicate with her, then I might be able to get all those supplies Eva was saving up for the spell she wanted to use on Ryleigh to bring her back.”
Peyton wavers. “Well, I may know a Ghost Breather, but getting her to help us is going to be a bit complicated.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because she hates her gift and tries to ignore it as much as possible.”
“Well, we’re going to have to make her like it again,” I say, vowing to myself to save Eva no matter what it takes.
And then, I’m going to track down whoever hurt her and make them
suffer.
