Friendship is built on mutual trust and admiration.
“I’ll trade you… both your egg rolls.”
I groaned and stared longingly at the egg rolls I’d been about to dig into.
“Not the shrimp?”
“That one too.”
I grumbled and slid them over. Karen looked at me appraisingly. Then she stole a glance at Dylan, who was grabbing something from his car.
We often met out here for lunch. Dylan wasn’t in school anymore but he worked not far away doing construction. I had no idea how he managed to pick up food, get here, eat and get back, but he did. And bless him, he’d brought Chinese food today.
Karen was giving me an assessing look when I looked back at her.
“He must really be under your skin. You love egg rolls.”
“I am desperate.”
“Okay, first tip is to imagine your mind as a steel box. That’s the basic stuff. I’m sure you’ve tried that. The other stuff requires energy work and you need to white light yourself first.”
“White light?”
“Imagine you are bathed in white light. Imagine it purifying you. You can picture a large bubble of it surrounding you if that helps.”
“Like Glinda in the Wizard of Oz?”
She nodded.
“Exactly like Glinda.”
Karen took a knife and cut both egg rolls in half. Then she slid a portion of each flavor back to me.
“Thank you.”
“You looked too sad. I couldn’t take advantage of you.”
“I’ll always share my egg rolls with you, Karen.”
She snort laughed, which she always did when she thought something was really funny. It made me laugh and then we were rolling on the blanket in the sunshine like a couple of drunk monkeys.
There was nothing remotely dignified about us when we got this way.
“You guys okay?” Dylan gave us a worried look as he sat crossed legged on the blanket. “Are you guys drinking wine coolers or something?”
I tried to stop laughing. I really did. But there was no hope for it.
“Nobody drinks wine coolers, Dylan.”
“Some people do.”
“Who?”
He shrugged and muttered ‘chicks.’
We started laughing again. Eventually hunger won out. Karen started explaining some of the ways to block a telepathic bond.
“Is that was it is? Telepathic?”
“Well, that’s the type of bond Fae usually have.”
“What kind of bond is it do you think?”
“Maybe a blend of a Vamp bond and Fae bond since you both have Angelic blood. The techniques aren’t perfect.”
I bit into my half of the egg roll and almost moaned in ecstasy. It really was a sin to have such good Chinese food in this small town on the edge of nowhere. I thanked Nightfall for it every time I took a bite.
Other than my friends, and the cozy house, it was one of the main reasons I had fought to stay here instead of jumping from town to town the way we had for years. I had Chinese food at least twice a week without fail.
So far, we’d been lucky. No one except Janelle had noticed that I was a little weird. No one had noticed that strange things happened in this town. Or that every once in a while, a biker or other degenerate came into the hospital with a shocking low blood volume.
Of course, all that would change when Maxim came back.
I caught Dylan staring at me with a pained look on his face.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You knew he was coming back.”
“I did.”
“Then what?”
He just stood and brushed his hands off on his jeans.
“I need to get back to work. Have a good day.”
I watched him leave, then looked at Karen.
“I don’t understand.”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes. If I’m upsetting him… of course, I want to know.”
“It’s not your fault its just…” She repositioned herself on the blanket. “Imagine if you loved someone. Like, really loved them, but you couldn’t be with them for whatever reason.”
“Okay.”
I knew that Dylan loved me. At one point, we had been in love. I loved him too, even though it was different now.
“Now imagine that that person falls in love with someone else. Someone that everyone knows is bad for them.”
“I’m not in love with Maxim!”
“Imagine having a front row seat to that person denying their feelings, fighting against them, all that.”
“But I’m not–”
“Listen to me. You are my friend. I know it’s my fault that you aren’t with Dylan. But I’m an empath. I can tell you exactly what you felt when you mentioned that he was coming back.”
I stared as she held up her fingers, ticking them off one by one.
“You are angry with him and yourself.”
True.
“You are wistful. You want to see him but you know its treacherous.”
Again true.
“You miss him more than you could have imagined and are afraid you are in love with him, even if you won’t admit the possibility to yourself.”
I was not ready to admit how true that was.
“You feel guilty because you are torturing the other person you love, who you are still in love with, even if it’s a much less exciting kind of love.”
Another uncomfortable truth, or close to it.
I stared at her, feeling totally exposed. She was right. She was right about everything.
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. I put my egg roll down and stared at the red pattern of the blanket.
“Nightfall.”
“Yeah. Whatever that means.”
“And he can see all that?”
“He doesn’t just see it. He feels it. A never ending gut punch.”
“Why doesn’t he shut me out then? They way you taught him to keep me from feeling him?”
“Because he’s addicted to it. He gets love from you. He hangs onto it. But if Maxim is really back…”
“Not for long. Just so we can find out…”
“What?”
Nightfall, you aren’t supposed to tell her about the other powers.
“We need his contacts in the Vamp world. He has information for us.”
“Sure.”
“I’m not even going to be here when he comes! Hopefully he’ll be gone by the time I get back.”
Karen just cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head. I watched her take a big bite of her egg roll. I could smell the shrimpy goodness from here.
But my appetite was gone.
I used a wet wipe on my hands and pulled my gloves back on.
I stared out the window and sighed. I was trying not to think about what Karen had said. I would die of embarrassment if Maxim even got a whiff of that. I focused on the steel box. It seemed more thorough than a garage door or moat. But I couldn’t really tell if it was working.
I closed my eyes, trying to imagine white light surrounding me. It was working! I felt warm and safe and–
“Sophie?”
Someone was standing next to me. Clearing their throat. I opened my eyes and stared up at Mr. Penbrecker, my thoroughly evil math teacher. And if a creature of the night such as myself thought he was evil, trust me, he was.
So much for the protective bubble.
“Do you want to join us for class, young lady?”
I cringed at the patronizing tone. He was awful. He was fond of belittling the girls in the class. The man basically embodied the patriarchy.
“I could review this for you later, in detention.”
I shook my head rapidly.
Mr. Penbrecker was notorious for being overly friendly with pretty female students. He’d never crossed the line as far as I knew, but he oozed sleaze. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck here with him.
I was sorely tempted to glamour him into being less creeptastic. If not for my sake, for the students he would have in the future. It was uncomfortable to be put down and coyly flirted with for the girls, and it set a bad example for the boys.
If he wasn’t so gross, I’d be tempted to eat him.
I felt my fangs wanting to pop and exhaled in annoyance. I didn’t want to drink his blood. I just wanted to tear his throat out.
Easy, killer. The guy deserves to be fired, not gutted.
Dylan’s voice rang out in my head. I smiled sweetly and shook my head.
“No, Mr. Penbrecker.”
“Good girl. Now come up to the chalk board and show us the formula we were just discussing.”
I dug my nails into my hands. I was not a dog. I did not appreciate being told I was a ‘good girl.’
Honestly, how someone had not knocked this guys block off was hard to believe.
I’ll do more than that.
No, Maxim. I can fight my own battles.
But you said you don’t want to eat him. I do. Slowly. While making him watch Buffy.
I smirked a little. Well, apparently I’d made another Buffy convert. Sure, she was on the other side, but she was the perfect example of girl power.
Buffy pretty much rocked.
I lifted the chalk to the chalkboard before Mr. Penbrecker could comment on my gloves. He’d mentioned them before. I had gotten a note from the nurse giving me permission to wear them. I’d tearfully told her I had a persistent rash.
It was always nice when my acting made glamouring and bloodshed unnecessary. But that didn’t mean I enjoyed the odd looks I got.
Yeah, in case you were wondering, fancy leather gloves went over REAL well in High School.
I solved the problem absentmindedly and turned to return to my seat. Everyone was staring at me with their mouths slightly open. Mr. Penbrecker himself looked dumbfounded.
“I didn’t mean for you to solve all the problems, Sophie.”
Whoops. I’d answered all the problems on the board. I just hoped I had moved at human speed when I did it.