We knocked on Laura Bells door as the ambulance pulled away, followed closely by the second wrecker pulling Dougs car. Laura led us through a large, tiled foyer and into a sunken living room full of dark colors and expensive woods.
Emma sat in a stiff wingback chair, looking lost and half-asleep. When I reached to help her up, Tod popped into view a foot away and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Would I never get used to that?
Shes fine, Tod said as I knelt to look into Emmas heavy-lidded eyes, and I knew by the lack of a reaction from anyone elseincluding Nashthat no one else could see him. She just needs to sleep it off. And to get away from these squawking harpies you call friends.
In fact, I did not call Sophie and Laura friends, but I couldnt explain that without looking crazy to everyone who didnt see the invisible dead boy. So I scowled at the reaper as I helped Emma up, and Nash wrapped her other arm around his neck.
Hey, Sophie, do you want a ride? I asked as we passed my cousin, standing with her hand propped on one denim-clad hip.
She sneered at me with shiny pink lips. Didnt Doug just wrap your rolling scrap pile around a mailbox?
In Emmas car, I said through gritted teeth.
Sophie sank onto the couch and crossed one skinny leg over the other. Im staying with Laura.
Fine. They deserved each other. Thanks for watching her, I said to Tod.
Someone had to. But before I could answer, the reaper popped out of existence again, presumably gone back to the hospital, where he was no doubt overdue.
Just get her out of here before my parents get home, Laura said, assuming I was talking to her. They dont like me hanging out with drunk sluts. I bit back a dozen replies about the irony of her friendship with Sophie and settled for slamming the door on our way out.
I called my dad on the drive home, but he was working overtime again, and I got his voice mail. I hung up without leaving a message, because somehow my car got rammed by a linebacker high on Demons Breath just seemed like the kind of thing hed want to hear in person.
It was almost midnightmy official curfewwhen I pulled into my driveway, and Emma had fallen asleep in her own backseat. Nash carried her inside and put her on my bed. I took off her shoes, then curled up next to Nash on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a sci-fi channel broadcast of the original Night of the Living Deada holiday classic if Id ever seen one.
My front door opened just as the first zombie ripped its way into the farmhouse on-screen, and I jumped, dumping popcorn everywhere.
My father trudged through the door in faded jeans and a flannel shirt, an entirely different kind of zombie thanks to shift after shift on an assembly line, trying to keep us both clothed and fed. Then he stopped and backed onto the porch again, and I knew exactly what he was looking for.
Wheres your car? Dread warred with the exhaustion in his voice as he tossed his jacket over the back of a living room chair.
I stood while Nash began dropping stray kernels into the bowl. Um, there was a little accident, and
Are you okay? My dad frowned, eyeing me from head to toe for injuries.
Yeah, I wasnt even in the car. I stuffed my hands into my back pockets because I didnt know what else to do with them.
What? Where were you?
At a party. When Doug Fuller left, he accidentallyhit my car.
My dads dark brows furrowed until they almost met. Were you drinking?
No. Thank goodness. I wouldnt put it past him to whip out a plastic cup and demand a urine sample. I swear, he would have been a great parole officer.
My father studied me, and I could see the exact moment he decided he believed me. And with that settled, his gaze fixed behind me, where Nash now stood with the bowl of spilled popcorn. Nash, go home. The most common words in his verbal arsenal.
Nash handed me the bowl. You want me to take Emma home?
Emma? My dad sighed and ran one hand through his thick brown hair. Where is she?
In my bed.
Drunk?
I thought about lying. I had no idea how he would react, even if I wasnt the one drinking. But Em smelled like beer; my lie would never float.
Yeah. What was I supposed to do, toss her the keys and wish her luck?
My dad sighed. Then to my complete shock, he shook his head. No, you did the right thing.
So she can stay? I couldnt believe it. He didnt even sound mad.
This time. But next time, Im calling her mother. Nash, Im sure well see you tomorrow.
Yes, sir. Nash squeezed my hand, then headed for the door. He would walk to his house, two streets away, like hed done every time hed come over since Id been grounded. Including several times when my fatherd had no idea he was there.
What happened? My dad locked the door behind Nash, then sank into his favorite armchair as I settled onto the couch, trying to decide whether or not to tell him the whole truth. About the Demons Breath. He was being pretty cool so far, but the Netherworld element was guaranteed to push him over the edge.
I told you. Doug Fuller hit my car.
How bad is it?
I sighed, mentally steeling myself for an explosion. He wrapped it around a neighbors brick mailbox.
Air whistled as he inhaled sharply, and I flinched.
He was drinking, wasnt he? my father demanded, and I almost smiled in relief. Part of me had been sure hed know about the Demons Breath from my posture, or my expression, or some kind of weird bean sidhe parenting telepathy I didnt know about. But he thought it was just regular teenage drama, and if I wasnt mistaken, he looked a little relieved, too.
I was not going to burst his bubble. I dont know. Maybe. But he is about as smart as a tractor.
Whered they take the car?
To the body shop on Third.
My dad stood and actually smiled at me, and I could almost taste his relief. He was thrilled to finally be faced with a normal parents problem. Ill go look at it in the morning. I assume this Fuller kid is insured?
Yeah. The cops gave me this. I held out the form with Dougs contact information and his insurance companys number. And he said his dad would pay for it.
Yes, he will. My father took the form into the kitchen, where the light was better. Go get some sleep. You and Em are working in the morning, arent you?
Yeah. From noon to four, wed be selling tickets and serving popcorn at the Cinemark in the never-ending quest for gas money. Which we spent going to and from work. It was a vicious cycle.
Dismissed, and feeling like Id just been pardoned from death row, I changed into my pjs, brushed my teeth, and lay down next to Emma in the bed. And as I listened to her breathe, I couldnt help thinking about how badly everything might have turned out if shed actually gotten into that car.
Id already lost Emma once and had no intention of losing her again anytime soon. Which meant Id have to find out how her boyfriend got his human hands on Demons Breaththen make sure that never happened again.
3
KAYLEE, COME ON IN! Harmony Hudson brushed blond curls back from her face and held the door for me as I stepped into her small, neat living room, stuffing my freezing hands into my jacket pockets. Do we have a lesson this morning?
No, I just came to see Nash.
Oh! She smiled and closed the door, cutting off the frigid draft. Then you must have served out your sentence.
As of yesterday.
Nash had been grounded, too, but he only got two weeks, to my four. I think he would have gotten more if hed still been underage, but its hard to ground an eighteen-year-old. And punishing Tod wasnt even an option, considering he was fully grown and technically dead, and had unlimited access to the Netherworld. She couldnt even keep him in one roomnot to mention corporeallong enough to yell at him.
Hes still asleep. What did you guys do last night, anyway?
I dropped my duffel on the faded couch, going for nonchalance, though I hated withholding information from her even worse than from my father. Party at Scotts house. Doug Fuller rammed my parked car with an 08 Mustang.
Oh, no! Harmony stopped in the kitchen doorway, holding the swinging door open with one palm. Youre insured, right?
Liability only. Thats all I could afford, working twelve hours a week at the Cinemark. But Dougs parents are loaded, and theres no way they can say Im at fault. I wasnt even in the car.
Well, thats good at least, right? I nodded, and she waved one hand toward the short hallway branching off from the opposite side of the living room. Go wake up van Winkle and see if you can get him to eat something. Im making apple-cinnamon muffins.
Harmony was always baking something, and always from scratch. She was really more like a grandmother than a mom, in that respect, though she looked more like Nashs older sister. She was eighty-two years old, with the face and body of a thirty-year-old.
So far, slow postpuberty aging was the only real advantage Id discovered to being a bean sidhe. My father was one hundred thirty-two and didnt look a day over forty.
Nash didnt answer when I knocked, so I slipped into his room, then closed the door and leaned against it, watching him sleep. He looked so vulnerable in his boxers, one side of his face buried in the pillow, one leg tangled near the bottom of his sheet.
I knelt by the bed and brushed thick brown hair from his forehead. The room was warm, but his skin was cool, so I started to cover him up, but before I could, his face twisted into a grimace, his eyes still squeezed shut.
He was breathing too fast. Almost panting. His teeth ground together, then he made a helpless mewling sound. His arms tensed. He clenched handfuls of the fitted sheet.
I watched Nashs nightmare from the outside, trying to decide if I should wake him up or let the dream play out. But then his eyes flew open and he gasped, his gaze still unfocused. He scuttled over the mattress, bare chest heaving, and stood against the far wall, staring across the bed at me. His irises churned in terror for several seconds before recognition settled into place and by then my own heart was racing in response to his fear.
Kaylee? He whispered my name, like he wasnt sure he could trust his own eyes.
Yeah, its me. I stood as his breathing slowed and he started to calm down. Nightmare?