Neither (The Noctalis Chronicles 3)

Brooke

Helena and I stopped so I could feed. She was so old she barely needed any blood. I was a little jealous of her control. I had pretty much none.

“Not him, how about her?” We were near a city park; I didn't remember which city. Maybe Chicago? There was a contingent of homeless people that we'd been watching for a few minutes.

“Yes, her. She's the one.”

I didn't ask what she meant. I waited until the woman, who wore a baggy coat and holey leggings, stumbled down a side street. She slumped against a building, and I could hear that her heart was slowing. I had not noticed it when she was in the large group so full of beating sounds.

“She has a heart condition. She will not last much longer. You are doing her a mercy,” Helena said, eyeing the rest of the group as if picking out a second. I didn't want to take another. I would stick with one.

I never faced them. A swift twist of the neck was all it took, and she went limp in my arms. I bit her neck and sucked as fast as I could, getting as much fresh blood. It was better when they were still alive, but I hadn't done that since I'd met Jamie. He'd made me think about the fact that I was killing people.

I laid the woman down slowly, closing her eyes and covering her face with her coat. I hoped someone would find her before the rats did.

“Shall we?” Helena said behind me.

The blood fizzed through my body, making me giddy. I wanted to jump from tall buildings, spin around in circles and kiss the stars. I wanted to do everything and nothing all at the same time.

We kept running through the night, but every now and then Helena would stop and think. This had gotten more frequent the farther we had gone. Every time I asked her where we were going, she would just say, “Closer.” If we wouldn't have stopped so much, we would have been able to travel much faster.

Helena was a chatterbox, and I learned all about her life in India, her travels and what she did with her time. I'd thought about that; the fact that I was immortal.

“It can be boring,” she said as we lay naked in the sun the next afternoon. “It's only fun if you have other noctali to share it with.”

“Who do you share it with?”

“I have twenty brothers and sisters. Well, they're not really. I guess they'd be my cousins.”

“Do you all live together?” I was unfamiliar with how noctali families worked. Ivan had never touched on that.

“No. Most of the time we only can be in small groups. Noctali, as predators, don't really get along that well. But I love them anyway.”

“And Di?”

“Yeah, I love her, too, but that's different.” I knew Helena loved Di, even after all she had done. I thought about it, and even if Jamie murdered the entire world, I would kiss him, hold him and be with him. Love made you do things you could never imagine otherwise.

On the third day she stopped for a long time. We were in the middle of the desert. New Mexico or Arizona maybe. I should have read more of the road signs.

“We're close,” she said after ten long minutes of waiting.

Ava

I meet Tex in the yard before she comes in the house equipped with a can of Lysol and a bottle of hand sanitizer.

“What the hell are you doing?” she says when I hold the can in front of my face.

“My mom's sick, so I have to disinfect you.”

“You're serious?” She glances back at the end of my driveway where Viktor lurks. He and Peter are such good lurkers. I wonder if it's something you become good at when you become immortal, like not blinking and not breathing.

“Yes, I'm serious,” I say, turning my attention back to Tex. Dr. Young gave strict orders that we keep Mom's environment as germ-free as possible. Dad and I pulled out an air purifier they had when I was a baby and we cleaned it pretty much every hour. Our house is covered in containers of disinfectant wipes. The floor is so clean, you could eat off it.

“Turn around and close your eyes.” She sighs like it's the hardest thing she's ever been asked to do. She turns and sticks her arms out, and I hear her take a deep breath. I spray her from head to toe, and of course the wind comes up and blows most of the spray in my face. I choke on it for a second.

“Serves you right,” Tex mutters.

“Now the other side.” She squishes up her face and turns it to the side as I spray her again. When I'm done, I make her sanitize her hands and hand her some tissues in case she sneezes.

“Why don't you just wrap your house in plastic?”

“Too expensive,” I say, opening the front door and letting her in. I make her take off her shoes and wipe them, too. I also spray them for good measure.

“Jesus, it's like a hospital in here.” She means by how clean it is. Well, yeah, that's the idea. “I have never seen your house this effing clean.”

“Pardon?” Dad says, sticking his head out of his office door.

“Oh, hi Mr. Sullivan. I was just saying I've never seen the house so darn clean.”

“That's what I thought,” he says, giving both of us the eye. “I'd appreciate it if you stayed in the living room or Ava's room and kept it down. Claire's sleeping.” I want to roll my eyes and make a snarky teenage response, but I don't. I have to be an adult about it.

“Okay, we will.”

“Bye, Mr. Sullivan,” Tex says, giving him her brightest smile. Oh, please. He gives her a little wave and goes back to doing whatever he's doing. “Oops,” Tex mouths at me. She glances at the office door to make sure it's closed. I hear sounds upstairs. Viktor's here.

“Upstairs?” I say.

“Duh.”

I turn toward the stairs, but Tex stops me. “We need snacks first.”

We rustle up what we can and make two trips upstairs. The boys are standing next to my bookshelf, as if they're posing for a magazine cover. They really have no idea. I wish I had one of those fancy cameras to take pictures of them. I don't have any pictures of Peter as he is now. I need to fix that. What if I lost him and had no evidence that he ever existed? Nothing but the key around my neck and a few pictures of him when he was human. No one would believe me that he was real.

“Hey, babe,” Tex says in a casual way, walking toward Viktor.

“Hey,” he says in a sexy voice. I glance at Peter and of course, he blinks.

“Any news from Helena?” I ask Viktor.

“Not yet. She has not messaged me in a couple of days, which means she has lost the phone, or she doesn't have anything to say. It could be either.”

“Brooke has a phone,” Tex says. We all look at her. “What? Jamie told me. He bought it for her, the moron.” She shakes her head.