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My heart rended in half. Fuck. How the hell had this happened? And how would this all end? I felt as though I had just boarded a runaway train barreling toward the edge of a cliff. Sure, I could fly off the careening train and save myself, but would that mean sacrificing others in the process?
“Wait, if my death breaks the curse, then why are the vampires trying to kill me?” Robby asked.
“I’m not entirely sure they are,” I answered, doubting he would like what I was about to say. “If they wanted to kill you, chances are they could have done it already. It seemed as if they wanted to capture you instead.”
“And do what with me? Lock me up until I die of old age?”
Ben chuckled, the sound coming out of his mouth like a thick shadow. “Close. But what if you never die?”
Robby blinked a couple of times. I watched him process the question in real time, the math adding up in his head to a frightening result.
“They want to turn me?” he asked.
Ben licked his lips and looked out one of the arching windows draped in thick velvet blue curtains.
“I need to go,” Robby said, surprising us all.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dawn pointed out. “Not when you’re on every vamp’s radar.”
“I don’t care. I have to talk to my parents. I have to find out if they knew.” He looked more and more anxious, more frightened. He wrung his hands together, squeezing them tight. “I have to.”
“Fine,” I said, realizing tonight was nowhere near over. “I’ll fly you there. Let’s go.”
He looked at me, relief flooding his features. He managed to crack the flimsiest of smiles. “Thank you,” he said.
It was quite literally the least I could do. I walked with Robby out of the living room, through the hall, out the foyer, to the front courtyard. The ocean breeze kicked up around us, laying salt down on my tongue. I grabbed Robby’s hand in mine, felt the raw fear manifest in how tightly he gripped me.
“Before I shift, I want you to know that I vow to never let anyone hurt you, Robby. We’re going to figure this out. I swear it.”
He gave me a slightly reassured nod before he stepped back. Red mist rose up and enveloped me like a warm touch, my body painlessly shifting into my dragon form.
I lowered myself down to the ground to make it easier for Robby to climb on, my sharp talons clicking against the brick of the courtyard. He jumped onto me, a little less awkwardly than the first time he had, and in three flaps of my wings, we were airborne, flying toward more unknowns. I could hear Robby’s quick heartbeat over the rushing wind. It was a rapid lub-dub sound that reflected the racing and uncontrollable thoughts that must be crashing around his skull.
He must have realized I didn’t know where I was going because he leaned forward and began directing me, speaking loudly over the wind. Even though he was scared, he felt more confident riding me than earlier. When he had first gotten on, I could feel the tension coursing through every inch of muscle. He had held me tight, with both his arms and his legs.
He still wasn’t completely comfortable, but the grip wasn’t as ‘death-grippy’. And as we fly over the twinkling streets and rooftops and billboards, I could feel him relax even more. It was the same thing that happened to me whenever I flew alone: a serene peace overcame me, a calmness that soaked into my bones, buoyed by the wind and clouds.
I soared ahead, finding an air current and floating, finding myself hoping that what came next would be as easy as flying.
And knowing, deep down, it wouldn’t.
Chapter 13
Tears Over LA
Robby
My mom gasped when she opened the door. She looked fragile tonight. More so than usual. More than even when she was sick. Her cheek bones were prominent and heavy bags shifted under her eyes when she looked at me with a mix of shock and surprise. I knew I must have looked like I’d been tossed into a whirlwind and spit back out. My eyes felt puffy and my hair was a total mess.
And now, seeing my mom… a torrential rush of different emotions flooded through me. Confusion, sadness, anger, hopelessness, none of it good, and she must have sensed it.
Of course she did; she was my mother. She wrapped me up into a tight hug, the smell of her freshly washed hair filling my nose with strawberry and honey.
“We should get inside,” Damien said from behind me as politely as he could.
“What? What’s going on? Robby, is everything okay?”
I looked down the hilly street where me and my parents lived. It wasn’t Beverly Hills by any means; our cracked and pothole-marked streets were much narrower, and the homes were only a fraction of the sizes of those mansions, but it was more than I ever wanted. We had a good community too. Our neighbors were a Marvel and lion shifter pair who watched the house whenever we were out of town, and across the street from us was a woman whom I called Abuela since she’d practically raised me alongside my mom. It was a quiet night. The thick leaves rustling on the palm trees was the only sound you could hear. Such a weird contrast to the storm raging inside me.
