Dead Awakenings (28 page)

“I couldn’t. I needed to pay some bills, so I had to try and find some money, quick.”

“I remember you saying that. So did I.” There was surprise in his voice.

“Where did you go?” She felt a sudden spike of urgency.

“I don’t remember. All I remember is needing money, talking to someone, and then feeling like everything was going to work out.”

“That’s how it was for Curtis and me too,” Cami said. “I needed some money and was going somewhere and Curtis followed me.”

“Was it to do a drug trial?” Tristan spoke from the doorway.

“What?” Evaine asked, astonished.

Tristan, freshly cleaned, walked farther into the room, opened his messenger bag, and rummaged around inside. Then he took out a folded-up piece of bright green paper and passed it to Evaine.

Her eyes widened. “I’ve seen this paper.” She passed it to Cami, who nodded and then they passed it down the table to Jeff. He looked at it for a moment and then nodded as well.

“Where did you get this?” Evaine asked.

“Out of your stuff. But I saw one exactly like this in Mac Peters’s office. I was in the process of tracking the company down when you came to visit me.”

Jeff straightened in his seat. “Mac! Yes, I went and told him I couldn’t afford to take as many classes and asked him for his advice and he said he had heard about this and that I might be able to get some extra money. So I called the number.”

“Can you describe Mac?” Luca asked.

Evaine paused. “He’s, well, he’s kind of normal-looking, I guess. He has shaggy brown hair and a scruffy beard.”

“He wears glasses, but I don’t think he really needs them,” Jeff added.

“And he wears stage makeup,” finished Tristan.

“Why?” Evaine asked, glancing from Nate to Luca.

Karen broke the silence. “Who are you?” she asked Tristan.

He gave her a brilliant smile. “Sorry, I’m Tristan Atwater, Evaine’s fiancé.” Tristan’s eyes drifted over to Luca. “And as you can see, I think I can be of some help.”

Luca’s body tensed, he craned his neck to look at her, and his eyes turned to slits. There were murmurs around the table.

“Are you the one who shot her?” Karen asked, now very interested.

“It was an accident. I followed the group last night and, well, let’s say I wasn’t thinking too clearly.”

“But I thought Evaine was with Luca,” MJ said.

“It’s a bit complicated at the moment,” Abbey interjected, smiling nervously. “Let’s keep to the topic at hand, please.”

“Here, Tristan, you come sit by me.” Karen leered at him and patted the seat next to her. It was the only seat open so he took it. Karen was halfway in Tristan’s lap within a minute.

“Do you know Mac?” Evaine asked Luca, trying to distract him.

“Yes,” he managed through clenched teeth. “I think we might.”

“About seven years ago, we had some reports of a newborn feeding in Hartford, Connecticut.” Nate closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them. “We went to check it out and found a college student named Macarthur Peterson. He’d rebirthed and been let go apparently. He had no clue what was going on, so we brought him here. All he wanted was to go back to being human. We heard that he’d gone over to the Feeders for a while and then he fell off the map. We thought he’d either gone into a feeding frenzy and died of the effects or was still with the Feeders. I had no idea he’d started living human again.”

“So it is possible to live human.” Tristan tried to scoot away from Karen’s fingers running through his hair. Evaine thought she might puke at the sight.

“Yes,” Nate said. “It’s possible, but it’s very difficult. You have to do exactly what Mac apparently does. Hair color, at least weekly, makeup to hide the skin, contacts. You have to have a stash of Isis. And if anything happens to you, you would need to go to one of the Haven Houses to get treated.”

“Believe me, it’s more hassle than it’s worth,” Trey said. “MJ and I went to California and only had to do half of those things, and only for a couple of days, but it was a pain. I can’t imagine having to live like that day in and day out.”

“So what do we do now?” Jeff asked.

“Karen, can you locate Mac for us?” Nate asked.

“Why, of course I can.” She gave a radiant smile. Karen extracted herself from Tristan, stood, and walked out. Tristan sighed and gave a shaky smile after she left.

Evaine gave Tristan a weak smile. He returned it. Luca watched her. She tried the same weak smile with him. It didn’t work. This was getting complicated. How in the world was she going to deal with two guys? In the same house, nonetheless.

She knew that Luca was even more anxious now for her to say yes to him. She wanted to say yes; she had never wanted to say yes to something so much, but she couldn’t right now. Not with Tristan here and thinking that they were still engaged. What a mess.

Luca’s hand moved a fraction as if to touch her, but then he stopped and crossed his arms instead.

“Are we waiting for something?” Simone asked irritably.

“I almost forgot about you, Simone.” Nate looked as irritated as Simone seemed to be. “Everyone, this is Simone. She’s the other newborn brought to the house yesterday, and as you can see she has come back relatively unharmed.”

“Relatively unharmed? Is that suppose to be a freakin’ joke or something? I’m a freakin’ zombie! What about that says that I am relatively unharmed?” Simone poised herself to jump on Nate. Evaine saw Abbey move a fraction closer to him.

“Simone, please calm down.” Nate held up a hand. “We are only here to help you.”

“Calm down? How can I calm down? I’m stuck in a house with you idiots! All I want to do is eat people and all you keep telling me is that I can’t! Like him!” She pointed at Tristan. “That jerk conned me into getting into that car so you guys could bring me here, and now all I want to do is rip his face off and eat his eyeballs.”

Simone’s eyes had gone to slits. Evaine sat upright, her senses on high alert. Tristan had been her best friend, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let him become zombie chow. Simone stayed silent for a fraction of a second before she suddenly jumped. Halfway across the room, Evaine mentally shoved her. Simone stuck in mid-leap. Evaine held her there, suspended in the air. Writhing, screaming, anger coursing through her.

“Let me go! You stupid witch. Let me down!”

Evaine rotated Simone slowly toward her. “That is not very nice. You need to learn to control yourself.”

“Let me down and I’ll show you how I can control myself while I rip you to shreds!”

“Evaine, please turn her toward me.” Nate slowly rose to his feet.

Evaine rotated Simone to face Nate. He stared at her, eyes blazing. Evaine had never seen him like that before; it was scary. “Simone, you will sit down quietly in the chair and wait until we have decided what to do with you. You will not speak, you will not move, and you will not attempt to hurt anyone else.”

Evaine could hear it in his voice. He was not asking. She had once been on the other side of that ability. Evaine released her, and Simone quietly sat in her seat. Her leg bounces began again, but she stared at the table silently.

Evaine felt her legs begin to shake. Luca appraised her with a mixture of concern and anger. She couldn’t win. Her vision blurred. The headache crashed against her brain in a rush, the pain immediate and blinding. She tried to hang on to consciousness. Reaching for Luca’s arm, she let her feeling wash through him. He turned in alarm.

“Tristan, go to the kitchen, open the fridge, and get a me a drink, fast.” The rest of the family looked on concerned. Aron was at her side in an instant. “She’s going to seize. Lie her on the floor.”

She was determined to stay conscious; she didn’t want to do this in front of everyone.

Tristan returned. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s used her ability too soon. That combined with the shooting—it’s too much for her body to handle,” Aron said.

“Drink this.” Tristan bent down and opened the drink. Luca stepped away and let Tristan hold her. The cool liquid flowed down her throat. She grasped for Luca, his anger seething. She sent him a plea for help, she needed him near her. Tristan kissed her. A tear leaked from the corner of her eye. Everything started to go dark. She called for Luca in her mind and then everything burst into light. She wasn’t there anymore; she was gone. Colors and flashes of light bombarded her mind. Fireworks burst from beneath her eyelids.

As she opened her eyes the haze was still there, but she felt warm and secure. Her head pulsed with pain, and she couldn’t see straight.

She glanced around. She was in bed. Aron and Abbey stood in the corner watching her.

“Where’s Luca?” she asked.

“He’s in his room, cooling down,” Aron said. He moved closer to Evaine and checked her over.

“Where’s Tristan?”

“He’s in the upper house waiting,” Abbey said. “I’ve offered him a room for now.”

Evaine wondered what had happened while she was out. She had a feeling it wasn’t anything good.

“You need to rest,” Aron said and walked to the door.

“I won’t be long.” Abbey covered Evaine with a blanket and then sat down beside her.

The mood in the room was somber. Abbey stared at her hands for a long time before she finally spoke.

“When Nate and I were in college we had a best friend named Kyle. We all met our first year at college in an English class. We quickly found we had a lot in common. Three peas in a pod. We did everything together. Kyle was a great athlete and super funny. Nate was sweet and kind and brainy. They were two opposites halves of a person. After about a year Nate asked me out one day, just the two of us. Soon we found ourselves going out together without Kyle more and more. When Nate and I finally told Kyle we were dating, things were different, and I didn’t want them to be different. I did everything I could to keep us all together.”

Abbey grew quiet. “One night Kyle came to my house. I’d never seen him look so bad. He said that he was happy for us, but that he loved me and he couldn’t bear to be around us anymore. My heart was broken. I was stunned. I’d had no clue that Kyle had any feelings for me at all. I didn’t tell Nate, I just stopped trying to make us all do things together.” Abbey took a long pause. When she spoke again her voice was filled with pain. “About three months later was when Nate disappeared, Kyle came to me and comforted me. He helped me look for Nate.”

“I realized after Nate had disappeared that I had loved Kyle too. When Nate came and found me about six months later, I was living with Kyle. I had no idea what to do and at first I tried to help Nate without Kyle knowing. But in the end Kyle could tell something was up. I loved them both, but I loved Nate more, so I left Kyle and came here.” She looked at Evaine with tears in her eyes. “I love Luca like a brother. He’s been a member of my family for ten years now. I’ve never seen him love anyone before and to be honest the way he loves you scares me. But you have to decide. You can’t keep things the way they are. It’s a lot to decide in such a short amount of time. Unfortunately, this isn’t normal circumstances. You have to pick one, because neither is going to move on unless you do. They’ll just keep fighting over you and trying to kill each other. Which is exactly what happened when you seized. Luca went into a rage and almost killed Tristan. Nate had to use his influence on Luca, with Victor holding him back. Tristan’s a great guy. He loves you and he means well, but Luca’s rage is almost unmatched, only he is better at controlling it than most. In the end though, I don’t know what he wouldn’t do to have you for himself.”

“He asked me to marry him.” Evaine spoke almost in a whisper.

Abbey shook her head. “That explains why he went so crazy when Tristan said you were his fiancé. I saw what happened with him and Mya. He loved her. But he loved her the way Tristan loves you. He was so devastated from the rebirth that he just wanted something to hold on to. When he finally realized there was no way for him to go back, he gave up loving anyone altogether. He swore he would never get involved with someone again, but you’ve changed that in him.”

“I didn’t say yes.”

“But you didn’t say no either, which means there’s a part of you that feels the same way for him.”

“Of course there is. It’s just so complicated. I love Tristan, but I love him in a secure, warm, comfortable kind of way. And I love Luca, but Luca is like a burning in my veins. When I’m with him I can’t control myself, I need him too much. When he was away on the last recon mission I felt a part of me slipping away. That scares me.”

“I can’t tell you what to do.” Abbey sighed. “I can tell you that Tristan can’t stay here forever. This isn’t the place for him. It isn’t like me and Nate. He has a life outside of you that he has to live. If you choose him, you’ll have to go. If that’s your choice we’ll support you in it. Heavens knows none of us know how to live this newfound life we have. But you need to decide which one you want more, and you need to let the other one go. Otherwise you’ll end up with nothing.”

“Are you sure you made the right decision? By choosing Nate? Think of all that you wouldn’t have had to deal with if you had chosen Kyle.”

“I knew what I was getting into when Nate came back and told me what he had become. I knew it would mean never having kids, never going out to the beach, no parties, no human friends. Living half the day underground. But I love him, and I would give all that up and more to be with him. Like you, when he was gone I felt a hole inside me, something missing, that not even Kyle could replace. When I found him again, nothing else mattered.”

Abbey patted Evaine on the leg and stood up. “You rest. I’m going to go check on Tristan and see if he needs anything.” She walked to the door and then stopped. “You need to decide soon. The longer you wait, the worse it will be.”

Evaine nodded but said nothing. Abbey closed the door, and Evaine threw herself into her pillow and cried. Tears poured from her eyes. She cried for Tristan and all she had put him through, for Luca and all he was going through. She cried for the anger of this new existence she had, but hadn’t asked for and for the things it meant for her future. No kids, no grandkids, no family outside of Haven House. All those human experiences that she had so taken for granted that she could no longer have. And now she had to choose. The man she had loved for more than six years or the man she had loved for no more than six weeks. She didn’t want to choose. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, but she knew not choosing was tearing them all apart.