Where Monsters Lie (The Monster Within 2)

“That’s not—”

He cuts me off. “I don’t need you to lie to me. I’m stupid. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just thought, for a second …” he finally glances at me, and then looks quickly away. “You know my dad. It was stupid to think he’d be proud of me for anything.”

Sure, it’s true … but can I really do this to him? Can I really go back to the school and take this moment away? He did as much tracking as I did—or at least, almost as much. It’s not his fault I peeled away from him to kill the thing by myself. On purpose, no less.

“I’m sure he will be,” I say, trying not to acknowledge the guilt rising in my stomach. I know what I’m saying is just more lies. If I go back to school and tell the truth, his father will only see him as a failure. Just like he always has.

“I doubt that. I didn’t even hit the thing. Not one shot.” His eyes linger on the red blood on the snow, and on the agropelter’s corpse. It’s four feet tall with a body somewhat like a chimpanzee. His gaze drops to his feet. His boots are still untied, but he doesn’t make a move to fix them. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t think anything I do is good enough for him, anyway.”

I watch as he brushes some snow off his pants. What’s it like, I wonder, to have your parents, but for them to not love you like they should? My parents are dead and gone. I’ve never known their love. Mason Dagher is alive, but Piers has never known his parents’ love, either.

We’re similar, he and I. We both miss the parents we think we should have, but were cruelly withheld from us.

There’s an ache in my chest as we quietly pack up the campsite. I can’t bring myself to celebrate my victory. We’re both solemn as we trek back to the little office and load our gear back into the rental car. Sure, Piers was awful to me last year, but does that warrant the full-on emotional torture I’ve been planning? Am I taking this too far? Can I really go through with this?

I’m not so sure anymore.

Chapter Sixteen

Erin’s skin is the color of tanned leather.

It’s the first thing I notice when I walk into our dorm room and find her there with Luiza. They both spring up from where they were sitting on Erin’s bed, and I just stand there for a moment with my suitcase, looking back at them. They’re both blushing.

“Did I interrupt something?” I ask, feeling a grin form on my face.

Erin looks down at her feet, but Luiza laughs.

“Don’t be embarrassed, mi cantante,” she says, her accent much thicker than usual. “We weren’t doing anything bad.”

“Erin?” I say.

Erin glances at me, then at Luiza, who nods encouragingly. “Um, while we were on our hunt, Luiza and I …” She trails off.

“Finally made it official?” I finish her sentence for her.

Erin glances at me in surprise. “Wh—how did you know?”

“Oh, please.” I open my suitcase and start unpacking. “I’ve been wondering when you two were finally going to start dating.” It’s not hard for me to pretend to be happy as Erin and Luiza exchange gooey, loving glances. I just can’t stop the pang of jealousy. How easy it was for them. How simple.

Luiza has to go check in with Professor Davies, so she says her goodbyes to Erin and skips out of our dorm. I continue unpacking. Erin, already unpacked, sits dreamily down on her bed and starts flipping through the pages of a textbook.

“How’d your hunt go?” I ask her.

She glances up. “Great! We tracked down our monster within a week, and we spent the rest of the time at a little beach cottage.”

“Explains your tan.”

She laughs. “Yeah … I was really sunburned at first, though.” A solemn look comes over her face. “How was your hunt?”

I purse my lips. “It was fine. Cold.”

“How was Piers?” she asks, a little coldly.

“Also fine.” I don’t tell her what almost happened in the tent that night we caught the agropelter.

“Did you manage to sneak off and kill it yourself, like you wanted?”

I don’t answer for a while. I keep packing, my movements slow and heavy. “Yes,” I admit finally.