Authors: Marissa Farrar
Riley Draiodh was half a foot shorter than Flynn, and probably weighed twenty pounds less, but he didn’t seem in the slightest bit intimidated.
His nostrils flared. “Yeah? And what exactly is my type?”
“A carny. Most of you are freaking criminals anyway!”
“Flynn!” I couldn’t help my exclamation. His view shocked me.
Riley’s head cocked to one side, and his eyes remained locked with Flynn’s. “And what about what you are, huh?”
Alarm jarred through me, thinking Riley had somehow figured out about my half-vampire genetics, but then I realized he was still speaking to Flynn. What was he talking about?
Flynn shot him a warning glare. “Takes one to know one.”
“What the hell are you two talking about?” I demanded.
“It’s nothing,” Flynn said, taking me by the upper arm to try to pull me away. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Anyway, I’m not here to fight,” Riley said to Flynn. He turned to me. “I’m not threatening you, Icy. I’m trying to protect you. I tried to tell you before. The guys I work for won’t put up with any shit. If they think you’re going to be a problem for them, they’ll make sure you won’t get to open your mouth again. If the cops come to see you again, just tell them you don’t know anything.”
I threw my hands up in exasperation. “I don’t know anything!”
Flynn stepped forward. “You heard her. Now get the hell out of here.”
His interference was starting to get to me. While I didn’t like what Riley was saying, I also didn’t like Flynn hovering over me like some kind of over protective father figure. I already had one of those, and I’d moved thousands of miles away to create a life of my own.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with you, Flynn,” I told him.
“Someone needs to watch out for you.”
I scowled, my annoyance ratcheting up a notch. “Don’t give me that bullshit, and stop acting like either of you can protect me. If anyone is going to be doing the protecting around here, it’s me. I’m stronger than the pair of you put together.”
“Don’t be crazy, Beth. You must barely weigh one hundred pounds.”
I resisted the urge to growl at them. Instead, I clamped my teeth together to prevent myself spitting out the words, ‘I’m half-vampire’ just to see the expression on their faces.
I took a deep breath and tried again. “I’m trying to say that I don’t need one baby-sitter, never mind two.”
As if to prove my point, I stepped forward, pushing between them.
“Beth!” Flynn protested, but Riley said nothing. Even so, I sensed his gaze burning into my back as I walked away.
Don’t look back, don’t look back,
I told myself, knowing so much as a glance would make me lose my cool.
W
ith
my heart pounding, I stalked across campus, planning to go back to my room. The last thing I wanted was to get into a conversation with anyone else, but Erin and Kayla stood in the middle of the path ahead of me. I ducked my head down, hoping to somehow go unnoticed, but they’d already spotted me.
“Hey, Beth, there you are,” Kayla said. “We wondered where you’d gotten to.”
Erin frowned. “Everything okay?”
I forced a smile. “Oh, fine, thanks. I just got chatting with a couple of people, that’s all.” I noticed the threesome was missing one. “Brooke not with you?”
“Nah,” Erin said. “She said she was tired, and went back to your room.”
My heart sank. The last thing I wanted to do was go and hang out with Brooke. Hopefully, she had gone to bed already. I waved goodbye to the other girls and headed back to my room.
I stopped outside the door and placed my hand on the solid wood, intending to push it open. An image flashed through my head, making me gasp.
A couple of burly guys, both wearing wife-beater shirts and cheap tattoos, entered the room.
Was this a premonition or something that had already happened? As I opened the door and stepped through, another vision hit me.
One of the men lifted Brooke around her waist, her back pressed against his chest. She kicked out at the other man, but they both laughed.
Oh, no.
Brooke wasn’t in the room. The bedcovers were tangled and half spilled on the floor. An unusual scent filled the air, a combination of stale tobacco, sweat, and alcohol. The men had been in here. What I’d seen wasn’t going to happen in the future. It must have only just occurred.
Shit.
I hesitated. What now? The men must have come from the carnival, here to warn me off personally. But why had they taken Brooke?
The worst fears ran through my head—strange men and a pretty, young college girl was never a good combination, at least not for the college girl. I remembered the card the cops had given me earlier that day. I’d flung it onto my nightstand when I’d changed earlier. It had quickly become lost among my books and other paperwork, but I rummaged through and found it. Fingering the soft cardboard, I thought hard. Should I call the police?
But what would I tell them? I hadn’t seen anything, and Brooke was old enough to be out by herself. So what if her usually immaculate bed was a mess? Slovenliness was hardly a crime. I certainly couldn’t tell them I’d had a vision of men coming into the room, and that I could still smell them on the air.
My other option was to go and find Flynn, and tell him I was worried about Brooke. After all, he’d been there when Riley told me about the carny guys being angry with me, though that still didn’t explain why they’d taken Brooke and not waited for me. Had Brooke threatened to scream, or even
had
screamed, and so they’d needed to shut her up?
I trembled. Though I didn’t have much love for the other girl, I never wanted to see her hurt, especially not because of me. Yet I remembered how Flynn had been toward Riley, a definite disdain for the carny folk. I didn’t want him going in there, all guns blazing. I’d never find out anything that way.
I groaned and sank down to the edge of my bed, my forehead in my hands. I’d basically just convinced myself it was a good idea to head to the carnival and try to find Brooke myself.
No, I’ll find Riley.
He might act like an asshole most of the time, but I was sure he’d genuinely been trying to warn as opposed to threaten me. The stupid, traitorous part of me couldn’t help but be a bit excited at the idea of seeing him again. I wanted to be in his presence, that hint of danger, or darkness about him. I recognized it because it was in me too, drawing me toward him. I couldn’t explain how everything dark, wicked, and gothic made my heart rate step up a notch, but in a good way. It was so unlike when I was in the presence of anything sweet or girlie. The darkness made me feel alive, true to myself. Real.
I pushed my thoughts away and forced myself to my feet. I took a breath, steadying my nerves. I’d do my best not to be noticed, but if I was, I needed to remember that I was stronger and faster than any of them. They might only see a slim, dark-haired, dark-eyed slip of a girl, but I could be wicked when I wanted to be.
Hoping not to be stopped by anyone, I grabbed my jacket and slunk from the room. I kept to the walls of the hallway, sneaking down into the stairwell to run the steps two at a time. I exited into the cool air, trying to spot any signs, physical or psychic, that might give me an idea about which direction Brooke had been taken.
I glanced around. Surely they couldn’t have brought Brooke this way? Groups of students still hung out, chatting and laughing. A few gave me a fleeting look as I walked out, perhaps spotting my pallid face in the moonlight. If they’d brought her here, they’d have been noticed, and the alarm would have been called. But what other options did they have? Had our bedroom window been open again? I hadn’t thought to check. The fire escape led down the back of the building, but I was sure the alarm would have gone off if someone had opened it, unless they disabled the alarm first.
With my head down, I walked at a fast pace toward the rental car I’d been loaned. I wished I had my old car back, wanting the comfort of slipping into the soft leather and ‘new car’ smell that reminded me of home.
The SUV would make me fit in better, especially around the carny guys, but that didn’t stop me longing for home.
I could always call Mom and Dad.
But no, I didn’t want to do that. My parents had taken care of me all these years. They’d spent time apart so I was never without someone in the daytime. I knew how hard it must have been for them. My mom, Serenity, had always been awake in the day to be with me, and then she’d needed to sleep when the night came and my dad, Sebastian, finally woke up. I was an adult now, and this was their time. They’d done everything for me, and I loved them dearly for it. I needed to repay the favor.
Climbing inside the truck, I turned the key in the ignition and started it up. The engine grumbled to life around me. I suppressed a smile, imagining what the rest of the L.A. crowd would have said if they’d been given this car as a replacement to their flash vehicles.
Yanking the shift stick into reverse, I slung my arm over the passenger seat and backed out of the lot. No one paid me any attention.
I drove down the road, the forest looming on one side, the buildings that made up Sage Springs on the other. Some buildings were still lit, but many now resided in darkness. My eyes were drawn back to the forest. Something about the tall pines seemed menacing, the spiky leaves reaching across the road.
Bypassing town, I took the route down toward the beach, planning on pulling over before I reached the parking lot where most of the carnival had been erected and walking the rest. It wasn’t far. Within five minutes, I pulled the SUV over and parked beneath a tree, trying to ignore the rustling branches that felt like they were whispering a warning.
Moving quickly and almost silently on my sneakered feet, I hurried down the road, toward the carnival. No cars passed by, and I was thankful not to meet anyone else on foot either. I preferred to go unseen.
I rounded the bend, and the carnival stretched out before me. The line of the beach and the sea lay beyond, moonlight glinting off the waves. The shapes of the rides rose up into the moonlit sky like sleeping dinosaurs. It felt strange to see the place in darkness, void of bright lights, music and laughter. There was something creepy about the place now, threatening, though I suspected the vibrations I picked up were mainly caused by my knowledge that the people within might be dangerous.
The trailers where the carnies slept were positioned beyond the fairway. Lights beamed from the mobile homes, so I knew people were still up. Could one of the trailers contain Brooke? And which one did Riley live in?
Did he live alone, or with his parents? Hell, he might even live with a girlfriend for all I knew, though from the way he looked and spoke to me, I’d feel damn sorry for her if he did.
I snuck toward the entrance. Though a large gate blocked the way, it was all for show. No fencing circled the rides, or the area where the carnies lived. I could easily skirt around the gates and head onto the midway. Which is exactly what I did.
Running at a slow jog, I kept close to the big rides on my left. I allowed my fingertips to trail the cool metal of the sides of the rides and stalls, the Tilt-a-Whirl, a miniature rollercoaster, the Chair-o-Planes, as I passed by. On the other side of the midway, numerous stands to test people’s skills, strength, and luck were partially covered with brightly colored awnings. Prizes of over-sized, over-stuffed teddy bears hung from almost macabre hooks. Adjacent to all the games and rides were the refreshments stands that should have been selling cotton candy, ice cream, funnel cakes and French fries. But instead, the place was dark and deserted, at a time when it should have been bustlingly busy, the carnies relieving all us marks of our money. I bet they were spitting blood at the loss of revenue.
I hoped to pick up on some kind of premonition or insight into the events that had happened around the rides, perhaps absorbing the energy of Brooke as she’d been dragged or carried past, kicking and screaming. For the first time, I realized I wanted whatever psychic screw-up my genetics had thrown at me to work. Normally, I dreaded picking anything up—it only ever seemed to get me into trouble—but if I could have made a giant glowing arrow appear above the trailer where either Riley or Brooke might be, then I would have.
Voices came, muffled and male, from somewhere in front of me. I ducked to my left to hide in the closest ride. Carousel horses were frozen at their points of gallop, legs lifted, and heads thrown back in a parody of a horse’s freedom.
I crouched between two of the horses, my breath held. Two men walked past, one I recognized as the guy who had tried to help me from the car after the electric wire had fallen down. The other man I didn’t recognize, but yet a shot of adrenaline fired through me at the sight of him. Something about the guy glowed a warning red to my psychic senses, and I was sure it wasn’t just because of the way he looked. He was massive, his head, neck, and shoulders blending into one. Though where the man walking beside him was fat, this guy was all muscle. He moved with a swagger, his arms held to either side of him, his fists bunched, as though expecting a fight at any moment.
I strained to pick up on what the men were talking about …
“One of the busiest nights of the year, and we’re sitting around with our asses in our hands.”
“What else were we supposed to do? It’s not like we could open up with the cops breathing down our necks.”
“I know, but I still think shutting us down is overkill. Why not just shut the one ride …”
Their voices faded as they moved past me and continued down the midway. When they were far enough away, I allowed myself to exhale. They’d not shown any sign of knowing I was there, so as soon as they were gone, I slipped out from behind the horses, with their wide, wild eyes, and hurried on down the midway.
My ears picked up on a sound. It started as a hum, and developed into a low roar the closer I got. I don’t know why I was drawn, but I moved toward the drone without even giving my actions a conscious thought.
The direction steered me away from both the midway and the trailers farther back where most of the carnies lived. I slipped between the sideshows—advertising kootch shows, fire eaters, and knife swallowers—and followed the sound. Set to one side was the source of the now loud roar. A huge metal mesh sphere was suspended several feet from the earth, metal poles and cables rooted into the ground. Inside the sphere, a motorbike roared around, looping vertically as well as horizontally. The bike whipped around so fast, the rider was almost a blur.
Mesmerized, I completely forget I was supposed to be hiding. The roar and whine of the bike as it zoomed around made me catch my breath and bite my knuckles. How was it even possible to ride upside down without the rider falling off?
As if my thoughts had somehow jeopardized him, the bike stuttered on its descent, and then skidded, the wheels spinning to one side. The rider just managed to catch himself before he was completely thrown. But still, he was dragged along the bottom of the sphere, one side of his body and head scraping against the metal. A scream almost burst from my throat, but I managed to clamp my mouth down around it, silencing myself. I couldn’t help but run forward, unable to turn and leave someone who might be badly hurt, even if he was a carny and part of the people who had been threatening me and possibly abducted my roommate.
As I reached the sphere, the rider groaned and began to move. I banged on the wall with the palm of my hand. “Hey,” I hissed, still mindful of where I was. “Are you okay?” I tried to see a door to the sphere, and ran around, my palms slapping against the metal until I located it. But the door was flush with the rest of the sphere, and I couldn’t see a way to get it open.
The person pushed the bike off their body and started to sit up.
My heart almost stopped. I would recognize that dark hair and leather jacket anywhere.