Rachel Vincent - Before I Wake

Meredith was back, and that could only mean one thing.

“Shit,” Luca mumbled, and in my peripheral vision—I didn’t dare let Meredith out of my sight—I saw him scrub one hand over his face and through his hair. “There’s a body. In the parking lot, I think.”

I grabbed my backpack and climbed over the bench seat as Meredith disappeared around the building. I took off after her, dodging tables and kids with trays, and I ran right past Emma and Jayson, who stared after me in surprise.

“Kaylee!” Nash shouted, and footsteps pounded on the ground behind me, but I couldn’t tell how many of my friends were following me. And I could only hope the rest of the student body hadn’t decided to come watch whatever drama they imagined we were playing out.

I chased Meredith around the corner of the building and she stopped halfway to the parking lot and turned to face me. I slowed to a walk and my grip tightened around the strap of my bag as I pulled the zipper open with my free hand.

“Avari?” I said so softly I could barely hear myself.

“Who else?” the hellion said in Meredith’s voice. “I thought this ensemble most appropriate for a visit during school hours. However, I’m not sure I got the smile quite right. How does she look on me?” He spread Meredith’s arms, inviting me to inspect her. She looked exactly like she had the day she’d died. Letter jacket. Skirt that barely passed the dress code. Too-thin legs. Honey-brown ponytail. This was beyond creepy. I was being haunted by everyone I’d ever failed to save—all the ghosts of my past.

Dickens was probably rolling over in his grave.

“Who’d you kill?” I demanded as several sets of footsteps slowed to a stop behind me.

Meredith cocked her head to one side. “I didn’t ask his name. I only asked if he knew you, and when he was finished soiling himself—evidently he recognized my disguise—he managed to say that he shares a class with you.”

My backpack shook in my grip. Another death laid at my doorstep. Another classmate dead for no reason. Who would be next? One of my friends? A member of my family? I could hardly see through the horror clouding my vision. I couldn’t let this go on.

“I warned you, Ms. Cavanaugh, yet you greedily cling to your soul, when you could have spared your friends and classmates another loss.”

“Meredith?” Sophie’s voice was a shocked whisper as she slowed to a stop at my side, and I glanced back just long enough to make sure no one else—no one human—had followed us out of the quad. They hadn’t, but that couldn’t last long.

I tried to step in front of my cousin, but she shoved me away, her eyes wide and filled with tears.

“Get her out of here,” I said to Luca. He tried to lead her away, but she wouldn’t go.

“Meredith?” she said again, and I could hear the tears in her voice.

To my horror, the hellion answered, in Meredith’s voice. “Don’t let them hurt me, Sophie. Your crazy cousin wants to kill me.”

“Kaylee?” Sophie demanded, and on the edge of my vision, I saw Nash move to help Luca with her. “No! Get off me!” She shoved their hands away. “Kaylee, is that Meredith?”

“No. Meredith is dead.” I didn’t dare look away from the hellion as he watched her, a quiet smile turning up one corner of his stolen mouth, enjoying her confusion and pain.

“So are you!” Sophie hissed, pushing Nash away. If she threw a fit, people would come running. We had to keep her quiet and get her away from the hellion. “Is Meredith back? You can’t kill her! I won’t let you!”

“Sophie, get out of here and let me do my job.” I desperately didn’t want her to be there when I had to stab a monster who looked like one of her friends.

Luca stepped in front of Sophie, blocking her view of the hellion, and when she tried to step around him, he wrapped both arms around her—more hug than restrictive hold. He spoke into her ear, so softly I could hardly hear him. “I don’t know who Meredith is, but if Kaylee says that’s not her, then that’s not her. That’s not even her corpse—you have my word.”

“Then what is that? What the hell is that?” Her voice went shrill and terrified, and for the first time I thought I heard a little of her mixed-blood bean sidhe heritage leaking through. “What’s going on? What does it want?”

“I came back for you, Sophie,” the Meredith-thing said. “Come with me. You belong in hell. That’s where all snotty little bitches wind up eventually, anyway.” The hellion’s lips curled up into a creepy smile, and Sophie screamed.

Luca and Nash tried to cover her mouth, but her lungs were powerful and her voice was shrill.

I reached into my backpack and pulled the dagger from an inside pocket. I’d had to blink straight into the school building to get it past the metal detectors, and now I was glad I’d gone to the extra trouble.

The hellion was drinking up Sophie’s trauma, but Meredith’s eyes narrowed on me when she saw the blade, and she spread her arms. “This is my favorite part,” Avari said with Meredith’s voice. “Until next time…”

I drove the dagger through her stomach and up into her chest.

“SOPHIE.” I KNELT in front of my cousin and Luca on the spring grass, but she wouldn’t look at me. She wouldn’t look at anything. She just clung to Luca, staring at the letter jacket that had remained after Meredith disappeared. Her name was on the back and several dance-themed pins were attached to the green letter E. “Sophie, I need you to focus.”

Finally she blinked and started to look up. But then her gaze snagged on the bloody dagger still in my hand—I couldn’t put it in my backpack until I’d cleaned it—and she turned away from me and buried her face in Luca’s shoulder.

“Was that him?” she said, her words muffled by the material of his shirt. “Was that the hellion we saw in the Netherworld?”

I thought I’d heard her wrong until Luca answered, stroking her hair with one hand. “I couldn’t swear to it, but my guess would be yes.”

“What? When were you two in the Netherworld?” I asked, and Luca shrugged.

“The day we met. That’s kind of…how we got together. She’s stronger than you think she is, you know.”

I certainly hoped he was right. “I’m gonna want to hear that story when things calm down. But for now, Sophie, Sabine’s going to take you to Nash’s house and I want you to stay there with her. We’ll tell the school you went home sick.” Nash could make them believe it without question, at least long enough to excuse her absence, and Avari would be less likely to look for her at his house than at mine. “I’ll drive your car home later. Okay?”

Sophie shook her head sluggishly, but her eyes were clearer. “I’m not going anywhere with her.” Her gaze flicked up to where Sabine watched her over my shoulder.

“You’re not my idea of a good time, either,” Sabine snapped. Then she glared at the rest of us. “You guys need me here.”

“No, I need you to stay with Sophie in case Avari goes after her.” I needed someone who could fight, if necessary. Luca had volunteered for the job, but we needed him to take us to the corpse in the parking lot.

“If she makes one snotty comment, you won’t have to worry about the hellion killing her. I’ll save him the trouble.”

“Sabine!” I stood and turned on her, but she only shrugged and held her ground, not the least bit intimidated by the bloody dagger in my hand or the fact that I’d just killed Avari. Again.

“I’m a Nightmare, Kaylee. You want me to scare someone to death? I’m your girl. But I’m not cut out to be a babysitter.”