Chapter Twenty-Four

Meena

I waved at Sage in the driveway, signaling that Jake was here and he could go. I figured there was less of a chance that Jake would send me away if I didn’t have a car. Sneaky, I know but at this point I wasn’t above stacking the deck. I wanted to show him that things between us hadn’t changed that much.

“Where’s he going?” Jake asked.

“He’s running some errands,” I lied. “Why don’t we go talk in the television room upstairs.”

“Okay.”

As we walked up the stairs, I hoped the good memories of us kissing on the couch would remind him of how he felt about me. I sat in the middle of the couch so he couldn’t scoot too far away.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Jake said.

I reached for his hand. He didn’t pull away from me which was a good sign. “I’m thinking that it’s nice to see you at Zelda’s, acting like your normal self.”

“But I’m not my normal self anymore.”

“I’d say you’re a hybrid version of yourself. Still the same person with a few tweaks here and there.”

He laughed and his fangs appeared. “Do these look like minor adjustments?”

“Did it take you a while to get used to them?” I tried not to appear freaked out.

He nodded.

“Why not give other people, people like me, the same option…time to adjust.”

“Do you want me to glamour my teeth for the rest of this conversation so you can adjust?”

“No. I want you to wrap your arms around me. Fangs or not. I don’t care.”

He looked away like he was thinking about something. “I had a blood bag before I came over, so I think you’re safe.”

“Does that mean I can have a hug?” My voice broke on the last word. Dang it. I do not want to cry again today.

Jake opened his arms. “Come here.”

I moved closer and he wrapped his arms around me. I inhaled, and he smelled different, like a different kind of soap. Didn’t matter, he was still my Jake. His arms felt warm and right around me.

“God, I’ve missed you,” I said.

“Missed you too,” he whispered into my hair.

I wanted to stay wrapped in his arms for the rest of the night but that might be a little too much for right now. I pulled away from him just enough to look into his eyes. His expression wasn’t what I thought it would be. “What’s wrong?”

“All this stuff with Bane,” he said. “I think I need to talk to Sybil.”

“Now? You need to talk to her now?”

He pulled out his cell. “Give me a minute.” He stood and exited the room, leaving me sitting alone on the couch. What the hell? How did talking to Sybil rank above reuniting with me? Was I being selfish? I didn’t think so. Then again my brain felt scrambled from sadness that had saturated my life. Maybe I was being a little clutchy. It’s not like he was running away from me. I could wait.

I waited for Jake to come back. Five minutes passed and then ten. This was ridiculous. After fifteen minutes I went looking for him. “Jake?” I walked into the hall hoping to hurry his conversation along. He wasn’t out there.

I heard voices downstairs so I went to investigate and did not like what I discovered. Jake and Sybil were deep in conversation on the back porch with their heads close together.

I cleared my throat to gain their attention. Jake glanced over and frowned. “I told you I’d be back after I spoke to Sybil.”

“No. You said you’d call her and then you never came back.”

“This is important,” Jake said. “We might be able to fight Bane.”

So that was important and getting back together with me wasn’t. It felt like he’d slapped me. “Do you have any idea how much I cried when I thought I lost you?”

“You didn’t lose him,” Sybil said, “I saved him and graciously gave him back to you, so stop whining,”

I waited for Jake to say something…maybe come to my defense or tell Sybil to go away, but he just looked irritated with my presence.

I didn’t need this crap. “Fine. Take all the time you need.” I walked back through the house and out the front door. I paced the front porch hoping to hear Jake coming after me.

Fifteen steps, stop, pivot…fifteen steps, stop, pivot…fifteen steps stop, pivot and…nothing. No Jake. Not even Sybil coming to taunt me. Just silence.

After a while the silence pressed in on me, like it was crushing my lungs, making it hard to breathe. I couldn’t go back into the house, not after I’d stalked out. The whole point of stalking out was so that Jake would follow me. It worked in all the books I read. Apparently, in real life it wasn’t a sound strategy. So now what? I had no car, no guy coming after me. I could ask Zelda to give me a ride home, but pride kept me from entering the house again, so with no other option I called Sage.

“Can you come pick me up?”

“Things not going well?” Sage asked.

“You could say that.”

I did not want to continue standing on the front porch like an idiot, so I started walking. I kept an eye out for cars as I headed down the side of the road. Ten minutes later Jake called. Too bad. Let him wonder if I was okay for a change. I’d spent enough time worrying about him.

I saw my Volkswagen coming toward me. Sage slowed down and pulled off on the side of the road. I climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door.

“What happened?” He made a U-turn and drove toward home.

I explained Jake’s strange behavior and then said, “Any thoughts?”

“Human relationships are hard for me to understand. Still, I think Jake’s behavior warrants an apology.”

Good. It’s not just me.

When I walked into the house, my dad was still awake watching his movie. “You’re home earlier than I thought you’d be.”

“Jake was being weird.”

“Love is a trap that will break your heart.” My dad toasted me with his beer. “Run while you still have your sanity.”

“Solid parenting advice. Thanks, Dad.”

“Just doing my job, kiddo.”

At least he was a happy drunk.

I warmed up some Chinese food, grabbed a book, and did my best not to glance at my phone…which meant I checked it every thirty seconds and totally couldn’t get into my story. After re-reading the same page three times, I gave up.

Nothing in my life made sense anymore. Jake loved me. He’d told me…using those exact words. Then he’d become a vampire. Did that change his feelings about me? Had he fallen for Sybil? Was that the problem? And why in the hell wasn’t he calling me?

…

Jake

“Jake, where’s Meena?” Aunt Zelda asked as she came into the kitchen where I was waiting for a pizza to come out of the oven.

“She left.”

“How?” Zelda asked.

“What do you mean?”

“She didn’t have a car. Did you forget that?”

Shit. I had forgotten. She always had her car when she visited. “She must’ve called Sage to come get her.”

“Did you two have a fight?”

“No…sort of.”

Zelda sat at the kitchen table. “Did you at least call to make sure she made it home okay?”

“I tried. She didn’t pick up.”

“Did that demon blood addle your brain?” Zelda leaned forward and touched my arm. “This is Meena we’re talking about.”

The timer on the oven beeped, so I took the pizza out, cut it into slices, and brought the whole thing to the table. Zelda joined me. We used napkins as plates. The pizza smelled good, but my stomach still felt squirmy, so I took a small bite.

Aunt Zelda blew on her pizza before taking a bite. “I’m not going to lecture you, but Meena deserves to be treated better. If you’re no longer interested in her then break things off, but be kind about it.”

I ate my pizza while I tried to figure out what was going on. Had the demon blood messed with my head? I grabbed my cell to dial Meena.

I was about to hang up when she finally answered. “Hello, Jake.”

She said my name like it was a synonym for jerk. Great. This conversation should go well. “Hey…about earlier…I didn’t mean to blow you off.”

“Really? Because you did, right after my mom’s memorial which was fabulous timing…made me feel really loved…so thanks for that.”

“Listen…Bane makes me crazy. I hate what he’s done to you and my aunt. I’m just trying to find a way to help you.”

“It doesn’t feel like that’s what you’re doing,” Meena said.

“What do you mean?” Of course I was trying to help.

“Wanting to hurt him and wanting to cancel my demon contract are not the same thing.”

“He thinks he has a shot with you. Doesn’t that make you angry?”

“The list of things that make me angry is so long right now he doesn’t even make the top five.”

Huh. “I thought you’d be more concerned.”

“Sorry. I’m too busy grieving my mom and wondering why the guy who said he loved me is acting like a stranger.”

I had said I loved her. I’d meant it at the time. But now I didn’t know. “Maybe I’m not the same person I was.”

“When you figure out who you are, give me a call. If you’re lucky, I might be interested in talking to you.” And then she hung up.

Damn it.

Aunt Zelda cleared her throat. Crap. I’d forgotten she was there.

“That didn’t go so well,” she said.

“No. It did not.” I ate two more pieces of pizza and then headed up to my room.

…

Meena

The next morning, I drove over to Carol’s house. When I knocked she answered the door in her robe. “I’m so sorry about your mom, Meena.”

“Thank you.”

“What would you like to work on today?”

“Let’s try finding more information about the contracts.” Now that my mom was gone I’d concentrate on cancelling this connection with Carol. Her library was huge. I’d scanned through dozens of books so far without much success. There were hundreds more to investigate.

Carol pointed to a box on the coffee table. “I gathered up some books that might be helpful.”

“Thank you.” I sat, grabbed a book, and scanned for spells about contracts, partnerships, any kind of business connection.

Whenever I came across something that might work it was always the same. A contract only ended if someone died.

“Any luck?” Goblin asked when he hopped up on the coffee table in cat form and started taking a bath.

“Not unless Carol is ready to go to the light.”

“That’s not funny.” Goblin licked his paw and then shoved it in his ear.

“I realize that.” I grabbed another book. “Why don’t you shower as a human?”

“Sometimes I do.” Goblin sounded defensive. “It depends on the day.”

“Familiars are interesting creatures,” I muttered.

“We make more sense than humans.”

“You’re probably right.” I flipped the thick cream-colored pages of a book that was missing its front cover.

I found a chapter on contracts. Ending a contract permanently requires ending a life if only briefly. I reread the sentence. Did that mean what I thought it meant. “Carol?”

She came in wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Find something?”

“Maybe.” I showed her the page. “How would you feel about dying for a few seconds?”

“No,” Goblin said. “Absolutely not.”

Carol sat on the couch and read the passage while she stroked Goblin’s head. “This is interesting.”

“You can’t do it,” Goblin said. “I forbid it.”

“I’m not doing anything yet,” Carol said. “But we need to come up with a plan.”

“Why can’t Meena die?” Goblin asked. “That would void her contract with you.”

I hadn’t thought of that. “Would it void the contract if I died for thirty seconds?”

“Probably,” Carol said. “But how would you do it?”

“Astral projection, maybe? What if I slipped away from my body…let the tether go completely for a few seconds before coming back?”

“That might work,” Carol said. “But maybe I should be the one slipping my leash.”

“No.” Goblin’s fur puffed up until he was twice his normal size. “You’re not thinking logically. You didn’t sign a contract with Bane. He offered. You refused. Your employment is a punishment he assigned to you. You dying might end Meena’s contract but when you came back you’d still be tied to Bane. It’s not worth the risk.”

“You’re right,” Carol said. “There’s no way out for me, but Meena, you can end the contract between us by dying.”

“Then that’s what I’ll have to do.” I only wished there was a way to help Zelda and Carol.

“Have you lost your mind?” My father and Sage yelled at the same time from opposite ends of the kitchen table when I told them about my plan.

“No. I’ve come up with a solution,” I said. “The only one I can find. My contract with Carol ends if I die. No one said the death had to be permanent.”

“There has to be another way,” my dad said.

“Not that I can find.”

“This is just a summer job, right?” My dad sat back in his chair. “You can handle this for another month. When you go back to school, the problem goes away.”

“So I should just suck it up and deal with my demon boss for a month. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes. It’s a much healthier option than stopping your heart and hoping you can restart it or whatever you planned to do,” my dad argued.

He had a point. “I guess.”

A jolt of cold ran up my arm, and three envelopes appeared on the kitchen table. “Speak of the demon.” I picked them up and checked the location. “Oh, joy. I’m going to the casino again today.”

“I’ll go with you,” Sage said.

My collections went smoothly. Ever since Sage had gone all protective tiger on Frank, my collectees had been calm and courteous. Once I had the required syringes full of souls, I headed for the library to meet Bane. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Just one more month and then my life might get back to normal.

I headed down the stairs to the library cafe to meet Bane with a sense of optimism. The black velvet jewelry box which sat on the table next to Bane’s coffee jarred my heart into overdrive. What was in the box? Just because he had it didn’t mean it was for me. It’s not like I’d agreed to anything. It could be a total coincidence.

Rather than joining him at the table, I stood across from him and set the envelopes on the table. “Here you go. If you’ll excuse me I have human errands to run.”

“Sit,” Bane said like he was issuing an order.

I wasn’t sure if this was the hill I wanted to die on, but I wasn’t going to let him order me around like a servant. I had free will and I was going to use it.

“No. Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sit, or someone you care about dies,” Bane said.

My mouth fell open. Then I shut it, ground my teeth together, and sat in the stupid chair. I didn’t trust myself to speak because if I opened my mouth again I was going to tell him to go to hell.

“Vampires are causing trouble. Offering to heal people. Taking souls that are rightfully mine.”

Son of a… Both of those problems led straight back to Jake. How much did Bane know? I tried to play it cool. “No disrespect and please don’t kill anyone, but why are you telling me this?”

“I want to know who started it,” Bane said. “And I want to make it crystal clear that it needs to end.”

Crap. Crap. Crap. “Well…Sybil told Jake how she was turned after she almost died in a car crash. I asked if vampirism cured mental illness, like my mom’s. Sybil had no idea. Her sister Violet was in the final stages of dementia and had no quality of life, so she decided to test out the theory. Violet is now a happy eighty-year-old vampire. It was all a family thing. Sybil never offered deals to random people.”

Bane tapped his nails on the table. “She only cured her own family. No one else? What about Jake?”

“After the wreck I wanted to call you…make a deal to save his life. He insisted I call Sybil because he didn’t want to be responsible for me dying at twenty-seven.”

“So she didn’t sell him on the idea?”

“No. I called her. She came and he asked her to turn him.” I couldn’t say it any simpler than that.

“If I find out Jake is encouraging vampires to take souls, or if he’s told anyone about biting me, I will hang him using his own intestines as a noose.”

I cringed at the mental picture he’d painted. “Is that it? Are we done? Can I go?”

“No.” He popped the lid open on the jewelry box which I’d been trying to ignore. A thin silver bracelet nestled on the black silk lining. Tiny diamonds sparkled along the middle of the bracelet. “Put this on.”

I put both hands behind my back. “Why?”

“It signifies that you’re my employee and you’re looking after my interests.”

Nope. Not doing it. “That is not what you said a bracelet meant before.”

“Everyone knows she works for you,” Sage added from the sidelines. “They think I’m her bodyguard, so collections have been going smoothly.”

“I need to know you’re on my side,” Bane said. “Everyone needs to know that. Think of it as a non-competition clause.”

“I swear I’m a loyal employee, but school starts in less than a month, so there’s no reason for me to put that on.”

Bane appeared confused. “What does school have to do with your job?”

“I signed on with Carol for a summer job. Once school starts, the job is over, which means I no longer work for you.”

Bane produced the contract I’d signed with Carol and laid it on the table. “Do you see a specified end date anywhere on this document?”

My mouth went dry and a cold feeling of dread filtered through my body. “What are you saying?”

He ran his finger down the page. “Nowhere in this contract does it state that your job is for a limited amount of time.”

No. No. No. “It was understood,” I argued. “Carol understood that. We talked about it.”

“Then you should have put it in writing,” Bane said. “Your job continues until I no longer require your services.”

“Or until Carol dies,” Sage spoke up again. “Right? When Carol dies the contract is terminated so Meena doesn’t need to put that bracelet on which signifies lifetime employment.”

Bane turned on Sage. “Another word from you, and someone Meena loves will die.”

“That’s not fair,” I shouted. “You can’t keep threatening my family. I didn’t sign a contract with you. You might hold my summer job contract from Carol, but that’s it.”

“There you go again with that whole summer idea.” Bane tapped the contract. “Should I read it to you?”

Angry tears blurred my vision. My stomach rolled like I was going to puke. This could not be happening. I was supposed to get my life back after summer. There had to be a way out of this…besides waiting for Carol to die.

And then it came to me. “I’m under eighteen. My father doesn’t allow me to work during the school year. He wants me to study and make good grades so I can get into college. You can’t make me work during the school year.”

“Let’s see about that.” Bane disappeared and reappeared holding on to my father, who looked like he was about to vomit.

“Put me down,” my father yelled. He spotted me. “Meena, are you okay? What’s going on?”

I tried to get an explanation out before Bane twisted things around. “I only work during the summer, right? My job with Carol was for the summer. I don’t work during the school year so I can concentrate on my grades.”

“Yes,” my dad said. “She only works during the summer, which means she isn’t working for you once school starts. And she never signed a contract with you to begin with, so this whole thing has been kind of sketchy, especially since she’s not legally an adult.”

“If Meena continues to work for me year round, I’ll pay off your house.”

“No deal,” my dad said.

We’d never had a ton of money, but we were okay. Bane wouldn’t be able to work the greed angle.

“How about a Ferrari and a new house?” Bane asked.

“No.” My father stood firm.

“Fine.” Bane leaned forward and sniffed my dad and then he smiled. “Is that cirrhosis of the liver I smell?”

“What?” I grabbed my dad’s arm. “Is he serious?”

My dad shrugged. “I drink. He’s guessing. Come on, honey. Let’s go home.”

Bane didn’t stop us when we walked toward the stairs, up into the library and out the front door. Once we were in my car, I sped away, blowing through a stop sign.

“Slow down, kiddo,” my dad said. “Everything is going to be okay.”

I pulled into a parking lot and turned off the car. “No it’s not. Nothing is okay. Jake is being an asshat and Bane has no intention of letting me out of that contract.”

Sage opened his door and climbed out. He opened the driver’s door and said, “Why don’t we trade spots.”

“Good idea.” I moved to the back seat while my brain spun. I couldn’t help feeling that we were running out of time.