Three

Ipractically floated out of Mrs. Frost’s office. As I looked around the bookstore, everything seemed new all over again. I was going to work here. I had the job.

“Cat.” A petite redhead waved at me from a table by the window where she was sitting with two other girls.

I grinned and walked over. “Hey, Tiffany.” I nodded to her friends Amber and Gwen, who were also on the cheerleading squad at our high school. “Are you doing some shopping?”

“We’re hiding from my mom. She’s on a Christmas ornament bender for her ladies club swap. I’m about to overdose on red, green and adorably cute.” She pushed out the empty chair and patted the seat, inviting me to sit down. “What are you doing in town?”

I sat down, trying not to beam like an idiot and failing. “I just got a job, working here. I’m going to be inventorying the shop while Mrs. Frost is up north for the holidays.”

“Then you deserve a cookie.” Tiffany handed me a little decorated gingerbread man. “If you ever need someone to come over and harass you, give me a call.”

“Great.” I bit into the cookie to hide my dismay. Just like everyone else in town, Tiffany didn’t remember me, or that when I first moved here she had harassed me almost daily at school. It hadn’t been her fault, but she didn’t remember that, either.

“So did you hear about Sunny Johnson?” Amber asked. At my blank look, she pointed at the shop across the street. “Her parents own the Junktique.”

“No.” I glanced through the window but only saw a closed sign. “I don’t think I know her.”

“She mostly hangs out with the 4-H’ers,” Tiffany said, referring to the tight group of kids at Tanglewood whose parents were all working farmers. “Her boyfriend is Nick Starple. You wouldn’t know him; he dropped out last year.”

“Anyway,” Amber said, “Nick always picks Sunny up at school and takes her home. Only last Friday his car broke down so he couldn’t make it, and when Sunny’s parents got home that night, she was gone.”

I frowned. “Gone where?”

“They say she ran away from home again.” Amber looked around and lowered her voice. “She’s done it a couple times before, you know, because her dad is so strict and her mom just goes along with it to keep the peace. Lately Sunny has been saying how she and Nick might take off and go up north, like to Maryland or something, where they could get married without their parents’ permission.”

“It’s all Sunny talks about,” Gwen assured me. “She hates her parents and she’s crazy about Nick.”

“Then why would she leave without him?” I asked.

“She wouldn’t,” Gwen said.

Amber nodded. “Exactly. No one can figure out why she’d take off alone, least of all Nick. She didn’t have any money or a car. No one saw her at the bus station, and she hasn’t phoned anyone. Not even Nick, and she would definitely call him just to let him know she was okay.”

Gwen lowered her voice to a whisper. “What if Nick did something to her and is just trying to cover it up?”

“No way.” Tiffany sounded adamant. “I’ve known Nicky since kindergarten. He acts tough, but he’s not a bad guy. The only reason he dropped out of school was to take care of the farm after his dad got sick.”

Amber nodded. “Nick’s been talking to everyone, trying to find out if anyone has heard from Sunny. One of the shopkeepers thought he saw her talking to an old man near her folks’ shop that night after they closed, but he couldn’t be sure. Nick swears she would have walked to the shop when he didn’t show up, but no one can find this old man. He thinks something bad must have happened to her. Like maybe someone jumped her.”

“Or grabbed her,” Gwen added. “It’s happened a couple times before. That’s why we have the curfew.”

Just before the Halloween dance I’d seriously thought about running away from home, but in the end I’d decided against it. A girl by herself in a strange place, who had no money, no transportation and no friends, was a walking target.

“I wish I could help, but I’ve never met Sunny,” I said. “I don’t even know what she looks like.”

“She’s pretty average,” Tiffany said. “Brown eyes, long brown hair, kinda skinny. She always wears this jacket Nick gave her for her sixteenth birthday. It’s pink satin with a white rabbit on the back. Really beyond tasteless, but she didn’t care. She loved it.”

“That’s ’cause Nick always calls her his Sunny Bunny,” Amber added wistfully. “I bet she was wearing it that day.”

After no one said anything for a few minutes, I decided to change the subject. “So what are you guys doing over winter break?”

“Avoiding our mothers,” Gwen said, making a pained face. “They always try to volunteer us for Sparklefest slave duty.”

I frowned. “Sparklefest?”

“A very dull and boring annual downtown tradition that starts a couple of days before Christmas,” Tiffany said. “The shopkeepers and the mayor like drape the entire town in lights, and then they have a parade on Christmas Day and a bunch of old guys make speeches about the history of Lost Lake. At midnight they turn on all the lights in the park at once, which is the really big thing. They usually have some oldies band play down by the lake, too. It’s mostly for the tourists, but we always have to go.”

“The food is pretty good,” Amber put in. “All the local restaurants and cafés set up booths, and it’s become kind of a competition to see who sells out first.”

“I’m sure Mrs. Frost will give you that night off,” Tiffany added. “That way you can enter the big relay race.”

“Sorry, I don’t run,” I told her. “Unless I’m being chased.”

She giggled. “It’s not that kind of race. It’s the final big thing they have the day after Christmas. They use horses and riders for the relay, out on the old track by the east side of the lake. It’s supposed to date back to something that happened like a hundred years ago, when the founding fathers first settled here. Someone set fire to the town, and they had to send messengers on horseback to get help from the farmers before it burned down.”

“Really.” I felt a little shocked. “I guess it worked.”

“Yeah, they saved the day and everyone’s lives, so of course we have to reenact it every year.” Tiffany faked a yawn and patted her mouth. “Ancient history, if you ask me. I’d much rather go to a dance.”

“Yeah, like a winter formal. My older sister goes to one every year at her college,” Amber said, and began describing the event.

I recalled the last dance I had gone to, the school Halloween dance that had changed everything. Tiffany and the other girls didn’t remember that night, but I did. And I could never think about it at home, so all the details came rushing back into my mind.

Wearing a red dress and dancing with my dark boy. You look like a grand duchess.

Looking at the beautiful old ring in my hand, the ring that had brought us together. You’re always with me.

Listening to someone I thought had been a friend scream at me. You hurt my Aaron.

Kneeling beside my dark boy, both of us bleeding. You have to stop me now, before I become a monster.

Telling him how I felt, how I had always felt from the night we met. I did mention that I’m in love with you, didn’t I?

Standing up to my brother, Patrick, when it was over. When he found us together. I have the right to a normal life.

Seeing the anger, sadness and regret on Trick’s face just before he wiped away my memories. I’m sorry, Catlyn.

Tiffany touched my arm. “You okay, Cat?”

“Yeah, just zoning out a little.” I wasn’t okay, and I wouldn’t be until much later tonight when Tiffany, her friends, my brothers and the rest of the world were asleep. When I stopped being sister and friend and got to live my other life, my secret life, the one I could only live a few hours at a time, always in darkness. “I’ve got to go meet my brother. See you guys later.”

I expected my brothers didn’t think I could get the job working in town, but neither Trick nor Gray seemed surprised by the news. That night at dinner we talked about juggling chores and schedules, and I promised to keep up with my part of the housework.

Gray didn’t cook, but unfortunately Trick tried to, which was why I usually made dinner for us. Since I would be at work now, I had been making up ahead of time big batches of pasta sauce, chili and other things that froze well. I’d put out whatever they wanted to defrost before I went to catch my bus, and by dinner time all they’d have to do would be warm it up.

“One thing I do need is a house key,” I said as I passed the chef’s salad I’d made to Gray.

Trick looked up. “What for?”

“I’m taking the bus home,” I reminded him. “I won’t get back from work until after eleven. You guys will be asleep.”

“I’ll wait at the bus stop for you,” Gray volunteered.

“You have to get up early to take care of the horses.” I saw the way Trick was frowning. “The bus stop is only a two minute walk from the house. One minute if I run.”

“I don’t like the idea of you walking—or running—home alone that late at night.” Trick turned to Gray. “I’ll go to meet her at the bus stop tonight, and then we’ll switch for her next shift. Whoever stays home gets up with the horses.”

Gray nodded.

“Nothing is going to happen to me.” When neither of them reacted, I blew out a breath. “All right. Keep treating me like a helpless baby who can’t even cross the street by herself.”

“If we were doing that,” Trick countered, “you wouldn’t have this job at all.”

He was right, and I hated him a little for it. “Fine. Whatever.” I got up and took my plate over to the sink.

As far as my brothers knew, I had no memory of the first five months we’d lived in Lost Lake, or anything I had learned during that time. Because of this, and a bargain Trick had made to keep things that way, they thought they had nothing to worry about at all.

I didn’t tell them I remembered everything because I needed them to go on believing that I was good old oblivious Catlyn. They trusted me now, and believed everything I told them. Especially when I said good-night to them at ten o’clock and went upstairs to go to bed.

Trick still checked on me occasionally without warning, so I did change into my pajamas, brushed my teeth and got under the covers. Sometimes I would read for a few minutes as I listened to the sound of Gray’s footsteps as he went to the old garage that we’d converted into bedroom for him, or Trick pouring water into the coffee maker and the faint beeps as he set the automatic timer. Other nights I would just turn out the lights, roll onto my side, close my eyes and begin silently counting the seconds as they crawled by.

Tonight I heard the creak of the stairs under a heavy foot, but when my bedroom door opened a few inches I smelled sunlight, Gray’s scent, not coffee, Trick’s scent. He didn’t come inside, but he did stand there watching me for a minute before he closed the door and went back downstairs.

Gray never checked on me, so this wasn’t a good sign. Telling him the whole fake-crush thing about Sheriff Yamah had been a stupid stunt. I’d wanted him to be afraid, at least for a few minutes, but I’d only managed to make him suspicious.

Because of this, I waited an extra half-hour before I got up and changed into my riding clothes. I also didn’t bother tip-toeing down the stairs but went to my window and opened it, taking a deep breath before I climbed over the sill and jumped to the ground.

If I’d been a normal girl, I’d have broken my legs. Instead I landed as silently as my four-legged namesake, straightening and holding still as I listened before I headed for the barn.

As always, Rika was the first one to look over the edge of her stall as I came in, but for once she seemed a little less hostile, and only snorted. Sali whickered to me, her big eyes shining, and tried to walk out of the stall before I’d gotten a bridle on her.

“I know,” I said, stroking the warm arch of her neck. “I’m impatient, too.” I kept my voice low so as not to alarm the other horses, although the rest of our new stock weren’t much interested in me. Flash ignored everyone but Gray, so only Trick’s big white stallion Jupiter stuck his head out to give me a you-bad-girl glare.

Over the last couple of weeks I’d trained Sali to carry me on our midnight rides without a saddle or a bareback pad. It took some getting used to for both of us, but I found I actually preferred it. With nothing between us, she responded even faster to my body signals, and riding that way felt more natural to me. Sometimes I even felt like I became part of her, as if when we rode we somehow merged together.

Once we were clear of the barn and the stockyard, I leaned forward to whisper in her ear, “Take me to him, girl.”

Sali probably didn’t understand the words, but she knew what I wanted her to do whenever I said them, and took off. We both preferred to ride at a running walk, as hers was faster and smoother than any other breed’s, but my own impatience got the better of me, and I urged her into a lope as we crossed the road and followed the winding trail into the dense, dark woods across from our farm.

The glow of a few candles lit the windows of the old manor house, and a big black stallion stood tethered outside. Prince turned his head and then shuffled around, his ears perking at the sight of Sali. She came up alongside him, touching his nose with hers before she stood still so I could dismount. Once I tied her beside him I gave both horses a pat and then walked over to the wide stone steps leading up to the front door, and the dark boy waiting there for me.

At five-foot-ten I loomed over most boys my age, but Jesse Raven stood a head taller. People would have called him lanky, at least until they saw him move; he had the slim, tough build of someone who had been riding horseback almost since he could walk. The paleness of his skin made his long, straight hair looked like polished black silk, and when he looked at me the moon threaded amethyst light through the dark strands. He had dark gray eyes that even in the shadows glittered like marcasite, and a face so beautiful sometimes it hurt me just to look at him.

“Catlyn.”

He had grown up speaking Romanian and Russian and a bunch of other languages I didn’t know, and while he spoke perfect English, his accent added an extra syllable to my name, changing it into something strange and exotic. Despite everything we had been through, seeing him still occasionally made me feel as if I were dreaming. That at any moment I would open my eyes and find myself in my bedroom, and he would be gone.

“Jesse.”

“You’re late.” He held out his hand.

“Better that than never.” I curled my fingers around his, shivering a little with how good it felt to touch him. “I’ve missed you.”

“How long have you missed me?” he asked as he drew me inside.

“Nine days, three hours, ten minutes and I made myself stop counting the seconds.” It didn’t matter how long we were apart; I could feel him every night, almost from the moment he woke. “I got the job in town.”

Jesse picked me up like I weighed no more than a kitten and whirled around, laughing with me.

“I never doubted you would,” he said as he set me back down on my feet. “But I am glad it is decided.”

Getting the job at the bookstore had been the simplest solution to our problem, namely of trying to see each other without my brothers or Jesse’s parents finding out about it. Our families regarded each other as natural enemies, and because of that felt they had the right to keep us apart. My brothers and Jesse’s parents had taken extreme measures to do just that, too. They hadn’t just erased my memories of moving to Lost Lake, meeting Jesse and falling in love with him; they’d made everyone in town forget me, Jesse, and almost everything that had happened since my brothers and I had moved to Lost Lake.

They didn’t understand who we were, or why we were together. It didn’t matter to Jesse that I was a Van Helsing, the granddaughter of a family of vampire hunters. It didn’t matter to me that Jesse was only one step away from becoming a vampire himself. We both knew, almost from the moment we first met, that we were meant to be together. The world might have wanted us to be monsters, but when we were together we were just a girl and a boy who were crazy about each other.

“There is one thing,” I said to Jesse. “Either Trick or Gray will be waiting for me at the bus stop every night I work. So you won’t be able to drive me home.” Which had been part of our original plan when Jesse told me about the job at Mrs. Frost’s.

“We will still have thirty hours every week for ourselves.” He smiled and touched my cheek. “I think by the new year you will be completely bored with me.”

“Oh, sure, that’s going to happen.” I rolled my eyes. “I have to recite Shakespeare’s twenty-ninth sonnet about a hundred times a day just so I don’t think about you when Trick is around me.”

We knew my oldest brother had the power to make me forget things; what I still didn’t know for sure was if he could also read my thoughts whenever he wanted. I suspected he couldn’t, because he would have known about me meeting Jesse from the beginning, but I wasn’t a hundred percent positive yet. And it wasn’t like I could ask my brother about his weird Van Helsing ability, so to be safe I never let myself think about Jesse around him but instead thought of the sonnet.

“I found out something else today that might help us,” I told Jesse. “Mrs. Frost told me that she just bought a huge collection of rare books from the estate of a guy who was into the occult. I think we should look through them and see if we can find out anything else about vampires and the Van Helsings.” Something occurred to me. “Did you or your parents know Julian Hargraves?”

“We knew the family, of course, but after they came to Lost Lake they kept very much to themselves,” Jesse admitted. “Julian never married or had children, and after his parents passed away he inherited their home. Toward the end of his life he became quite reclusive. What are you hoping to learn from his books?”

“I want to know if there’s a cure for this. Not just for you,” I added. “For me, too.”

My ability, which I still didn’t quite understand, somehow gave me the power to attract and control cats. Not just the pet-type of cat, I had discovered, but any feline. Before erasing my memory, Trick had told me that all cats responded to my thoughts, but that was the sum total of what I knew.

Paul Raven, Jesse’s father, had told me that all the Van Helsing children were born with special abilities that helped them hunt and destroy vampires. He thought I would use mine on Jesse, but we’d already passed that test. Wounded, desperate for blood and nearly out of control, Jesse had begged me in the boathouse on Halloween night to kill him. Instead, I’d given him my blood. At the time I hadn’t cared about the consequences—drinking human blood was supposed to be the final step that would transform Jesse into a vampire—but then we’d learned that my blood wasn’t altogether human.

My father had been infected with vampire blood, just like Jesse and his parents. And because vampire blood also ran through my veins, drinking it hadn’t pushed Jesse the rest of the way into becoming a full-fledged monster.

My heritage meant nothing to me. I didn’t want to be a vampire, a vampire hunter, or anything else besides a normal human girl. Jesse wanted to be human again, too. So if there was some way for us to be normal again, I was going to find it.

Do you have to find it tonight?

No, I thought back to him. Since Halloween night, Jesse and I could read each other’s minds. Part of a bond that formed between two vampires, it was just one more thing we were not supposed to be able to do.

It also still scared me, so I said out loud, “Let’s take a ride over to the lake cabin.”