Nocte (The Nocte Trilogy 1)

“You are twenty-one, right?” he asks as Dare takes a swig of his beer. “I don’t want to contribute to the delinquency of a minor.” He says it jokingly, but he means it. Dare smiles.

“I’m twenty-one exactly.”

I knew it. He’s definitely more of a man than a boy. Even more so than the calendar says. His eyes are even older than twenty-one. He’s seen a lot. I can tell. Just how much though, is the question.

As we eat, I watch him easily maneuver the crab legs and eat without making a mess. He eats four in the time it takes me to eat two.

“Do you like lobster, too?” I ask him after a few minutes. “You seem to like crab.”

Dare smiles a blindingly white smile. “I love lobster. Pretty much any shellfish, really.”

“Me too,” I tell him.

We continue eating with the sounds of cracking and dipping and chewing.

Finally, I glance at my father. “Is Finn all right?”

My father nods slowly. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

Suddenly, the quietness of this house, which is actually a mausoleum, my father’s tension, Finn’s strange absence…all of it smothers me and I suck in a deep breath.

Dare glances at me, his eyes so freaking dark. “You ok?”

I nod. “Yeah. I just…I’m restless. You know how you didn’t believe that I know someplace creepier than here?”

He nods slowly, interested, his eyes gleaming. “Yeah.”

I smile. “Want to see it tonight?”

My dad coughs a little. “Calla, I’m not sure that tonight is the best night for that. It’s dark, you could get hurt.”

I roll my eyes. “Dad, Finn and I have been there a hundred times over the years. It’s fine.”

I look at Dare. “You up for it?”

He grins. “I never say no to an adventure.”

14

QUATUORDECIM

Finn

From my window, I watch them go and the darkness from outside seems to bleed into my room, into my heart, into my blood.

LetHerGoLetHerGoLetHerGo.

I swallow back the hateful words as I watch my sister get into our car with him. Bile rises in my throat because my sister is mine and distancing myself is the last thing I want to do, but at the same time, it’s the only thing I can do.

DoWhatIsRight.

That’s my voice. Finally. Breaking through the crazy, through the voices, through the words.

I’ve got to do what is right.

What is right.

What is right.