“It was still light out when I left, but if…if I’d stayed…if I made sure she got in her car before I left, she would still be alive, wouldn’t she?”
No one says anything, and another tear rolls down my cheek. Leslie should be okay right now. Those fucking demons were after me, and it should have been me they attacked.
Squeezing my eyes shut tighter, I welcome the rage that’s filling my heart. The vase sitting on the center of the coffee table starts to vibrate. Mom gasps and Hunter barks, jumping onto the couch and wedging himself in between myself and Ethan. The vase tips over and Ethan catches it the second before it falls.
“Trains.” Ethan uprights the vase and forces a small smile. “They vibrate everything in our house too.”
Mom tips her head. “I didn’t hear a whistle.”
“I’m really sorry, sis,” Harrison says, sitting on the couch next to me. Blinking, I look up and see his face, blurry through my tears. He knows it wasn’t a wild animal attack, and he looks fucking terrified, as he should be. I promised both him and Laney the demons were after me and they were in no danger.
Now they know I’m wrong—and I’m wrong to be here now.
“I need to go,” I say, confusing everyone.
“Where do you need to go?” Mom asks, keeping a level tone.
“Home.” Though my home isn’t far enough. I need to leave town. Go somewhere far away and get a house in the middle of nowhere, away from everyone, where I can keep my demon-magnet ass isolated until the bounty hunters are called off…or until I die. I can’t risk anyone else, and if I had a place like that to escape to, I would.
I close my eyes and get a flash of the old Victorian in Thorne Hill. I do have a place to escape to.
“I’ll take her home.” He gives me a reassuring squeeze.
“I think she should stay here,” Dad insists. “We don’t have dangerous wildlife in this area.”
“It wasn’t a vampire,” Harrison says sharply before Dad has a chance to suggest it.
“It wouldn’t be the first time a vampire was—”
“Let’s not get into it, Jake,” Mom insists.
I lean into Ethan, taking comfort in his strong arms. “I just want to go home.”
“I’ll take you,” Ethan says again. “And I’ll stay to make sure she’s okay,” he tells my mom, who’s probably worried I’ll invite a vampire in just to prove they weren’t the ones to rip Leslie to shreds.
Mom packs up leftovers for us and gives Ethan the entire pie to take to my house.
“We need to go after it,” I tell Ethan as soon as we’re in his car. I dry my tears with the back of my hand.
“I agree.” He starts the engine and puts a hand on my thigh. “And we will.”
“Let’s go now. They could attack again. Kill again like they killed Leslie.”
“Anora,” he says gently, looking at me before he backs out of the driveway. “You have a lot to process. Let’s just…let’s just get to your house and then come up with a plan.”
He’s right. I’m not thinking straight, haven’t allowed myself to fully process things. It’s easier to be pissed the fuck off and go looking for a fight than it is to accept what really happened. Ethan’s phone beeps with text messages the whole way to my place, and he checks them at a stoplight.
“The Wildlife Department did a sweep of the woods,” he tells me. “And the hiking trail off the neighborhood is closed.”
“I want to check on Mystery.”
“The barn is safe,” he says, showing me the text. “The doors were already closed, and someone named Penny said she’s keeping it that way.”
“Penny owns the barn.”
“Authorities are saying it could be a mountain lion attack. There hasn’t been one in years, but they’ve been spotted before so it’s not totally impossible, and it would fit in with the cattle being mutilated and eaten.”
I nod, not sure what to make of that. It’s good the authorities are following a lead that won’t amount to anything. I twist my hair around my fingers, unable to get one of the last things Leslie said to me out of my mind.
Why the hell did I leave? I should have known better.
But she wasn’t alone. There were a few other people at the barn.
She was wearing my jacket.
It’s all my fault. The Pricolici are after me. They’re here because of me.
They killed Leslie because of me.
Both Ethan and Julia spoke about how hard it is to have any sort of normal life or relationships giving their line of work. It’s more than not being able to tell people the truth about what they do. What they do is dangerous, and sometimes work can follow you home. I didn’t see the writing on the wall before.