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My mother used to joke that I emerged from the womb contrary, independent, and with no time for snuggling.
I don’t even hug my sisters very often. It takes a near death experience or serious emotional trauma to get me in a “ready to embrace and be embraced” state of mind. I prefer to shake hands or nudge a friend’s shoulder for comfort or stomp around and yell if I’m upset.
The fact that I not only allowed Darcy to hug me, but that I enjoyed it so damned much, is troubling. And I can’t even explain it away as part of our performance. There was no one around to see us.
It was just him and me and his arms that felt like the shelter from the shit storm I’ve always secretly longed for.
“It’s definitely a shit storm, not a normal storm,” I mutter as I watch the citizens of Nightfall stream up the hill to the open front gate from the window of my new guest room.
“What’s that?” Annie asks from behind me at the vanity, where Elsbeth, the maid assigned to make us comfortable in our new digs, is coiling my sister’s hair into an elaborate arrangement atop her head.
“Our life,” I say with a sigh as I spin back around. “It’s a shit storm. Not a normal, rainy storm. Not even one with hail and gale force winds.”
Annie shoots me a look from the corners of her eyes. “We’re safe and warm and getting ready to go to a party. I think we’re doing okay.”
“There’s a killer octopus in our shower,” I counter. “And it tried to eat me.”
“But it didn’t eat you, and the plumber said the new pipes should be installed by this time next week,” she parries back. “That has to be a minor miracle. Usually, you can’t get a plumber to show up for a consultation for weeks, let alone promise to have the work completed in just seven days.”
I cross my arms over my chest, then remember I’m wearing my only other boob outfit—a red wrap sweater with a deep V in the front, paired with black jeans—and uncross them, not wanting to risk a tata escape in front of Elsbeth.
Elsbeth…who is so quiet and non-responsive, I’m beginning to think she doesn’t speak English.
“Have you ever encountered a house kraken, Elsbeth?” I ask, testing my theory.
She glances my way at the sound of her name, blinking in confusion before she shrugs, offers me an uncertain smile, and turns back to Annie’s hair.
I catch my sister’s gaze in the mirror, but she widens her eyes in her signature, “don’t be rude or embarrassing” expression, the one she perfected when we were five and I kept getting caught stealing snacks at kindergarten. They were for our sisters back at home, who rarely had the chance to enjoy such delicacies as fruit leather or non-stale animal crackers, but she was still mortified and warned me never to do it again.
Imagine my surprise when she opened her backpack the next day after school to reveal her own stash of individually wrapped animal crackers that she’d deftly swiped without getting caught. “It’s okay to take them because we need them and they have plenty to spare,” she’d explained as she handed out the snacks to our delighted siblings. “But we don’t want to get caught or for them know how much we need them. That would be bad.”
Even at a young age, both Annie and I understood that our home life wasn’t anything like the rest of the kids at school. Even those who were poor and didn’t always know where their next meal was coming from, like us, had televisions and video games and a computer to use for homework. We didn’t have electricity until Mom finally sprang for electrical and plumbing updates the summer Annie and I turned twelve. Until then, we did our homework by candlelight and ran through the snow to the outhouse.
The memory reminds me that Annie isn’t always as innocent or law-abiding as she seems. She used to steal tampons for us, too, when we were still too young to get a job and Mom refused to buy anything but pads so massive that we waddled around like saddle sore cowboys when we stuck them to our panties.
She might be down for helping me find another way to shore up the shield protecting the town—even if it was a little sketchy—but I don’t know how to enlist her help without making her suspicious about the feelings I’m allegedly starting to have for Darcy.
Alleged…
That’s all they are. I don’t really like him. I like his tongue and his smell and his dry sense of humor and that hug was really fucking nice, but he’s still a stuffy, cranky old vampire who had his hand wrapped around my throat just a few days ago.
Ignoring the soft voice in my head whispering that it kind of liked that part, too, and that hands wrapped around throats can be fun in the right context, I grab my cell from the dressing table and stuff it into my back pocket. “I think I’ll head to the party and see if there are any snacks out yet. Text me when you’re on your way down?”
“Will do,” Annie says, calling after me as I start for the door, “but don’t eat too much candy corn. You know it always makes you sick, and I want to win the three-legged race. It’s the only race I ever win.”
“Oh, we’ll win,” I say, turning back to her with a grin. “It’s our twin superpower, baby.”
“It is,” she says with a laugh that brings color to her cheeks.
She looks…happy, and for a moment I wonder if breaking her and Colin up is the right thing to do. But then I remind myself that once Darcy and I convince them that we’re in love, it will be their choice whether to break-up or stay together and push the guilt aside.
I’m not raining on Annie’s parade, I’m simply offering her the chance to choose Colin, if she wants him, instead of feeling forced into a marriage for the good of her family.
Heading down the hall toward the sound of conversation and laughter on the patio, I start to catch the pre-party buzz. With all the other engagement festivities, I’ve been too worried about my sister or annoyed by vampires to just relax and enjoy myself.
But as I step out onto the patio to see the back lawn transformed into a carnival complete with popcorn and cotton candy stands, a carousel for the kids, and tons of silly games to be played under the multi-colored lights strung above the scene, I can’t fight the grin that stretches across my face.
Maybe it’s that this event is more laid back and kid-friendly than the others, or maybe it’s the fact that Darcy and I are a team with a plan of attack this time around, but I find myself looking forward to the next few hours.
