Rachel Vincent - Before I Wake

“I don’t know, but I hope the appeal is that he’s normal. Both human and alive. I’ve dragged her into enough weird and dangerous crap this year.”

“She would have come willingly, if you hadn’t dragged her,” Tod insisted. “She’s your best friend. Is there anything you wouldn’t do for her?”

“No…”

“Well, that’s obviously mutual.”

When I looked up, I found Emma dragging Jayson down the pier, their footsteps shaking the boards beneath us. Em dropped onto the end of the dock next to me, and Jayson sat on her other side with a nod and a “Hey” to Tod.

Tod returned the casual greeting, and I almost laughed out loud. His regular-guy act was good enough to fool anyone who didn’t know him, but I couldn’t think of him as a regular guy. Yes, I knew he’d gone to a regular high school before he died, and he’d played regular-guy football, just like Nash. And he’d probably done regular-guy stuff like watch sports, and break curfew, and kiss girls—one of my least favorite visuals ever. But I couldn’t see him like that. Tod was anything but normal to me.

“Happy birthday, Kaylee,” Jayson said, leaning around Emma to look at me. “I brought you a gift, but I didn’t see any others, so I left it in my car… .”

“Oh, you didn’t have to bring anything!” I could hear surprise in my own voice. “This is a gift-free party, except for my dad. Because he’s my dad.”

Jayson shrugged. “Well, if you don’t want it, maybe Emma will.”

“Yes. Kaylee’s rejected birthday present. That’s what I want.” She laughed, then pushed him playfully, and Tod pulled me up by one hand.

“Let’s give them some privacy,” he said.

“What about our privacy?” I asked as he tugged me down the pier.

“We can make our own privacy.” His fingers slid between mine, his hand warm in contrast to the cool breeze coming off the lake. “You weren’t serious about the no-presents rule, were you?” he asked.

“Why? Did you get me something? You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Well, it’s not a present in the traditional sense. But it’s something I’ve never given anyone else, and I want you to be the first.”

“We’re not talking about your virginity, are we? Because I happen to know that ship has sailed.” Long before I’d been seaworthy.

“Ha, ha.” We stepped off the dock and onto the sand, and Tod let go of my hand to slide his into his pocket. “Please excuse the lack of wrapping and girlie ribbons… .” He handed me a folded scrap of paper, and the nervous twists of bright blue in his eyes said this gift—whatever it was—was worth as much to him as he obviously hoped it would be to me. In spite of its modest appearance.

My hands shook as I unfolded the paper. It held an address, written in pencil, in Tod’s handwriting. “What is this?”

“This is my place. This is the local reaper headquarters. No one other than my coworkers is supposed to have this address, and I could get into a lot of trouble for giving it to you. But my room is in this building, and I want it to be your room, too, for whenever you need it, whether I’m there or not. If you need to rest, or hide, or cry, or scream, or just want to be by yourself for a little while, you can go there, day or night. No one else can get there. Not even Levi—he doesn’t know which room is mine.”

I felt dizzy, for the first time since I’d died. My stomach was twisting in knots, but they were good knots. “This is like the key to your apartment… .” Only there was no key, because there was no door.

“Yeah. Only more secure. This is a safe place. This is a place no one else can find us. Later tonight, I’ll show you how to find my room inside the building, but for now… Just know it’s your room, too. Our room.”

“You gave me privacy. For my birthday.”

“Um, yeah. Did I mess this up? You’re not really the flowers and jewelry type.”

“It’s perfect. It’s so far beyond perfect it gives all other presents a bad name.” I stood on my toes to kiss him—in public, for the first time since the kiss that had started all the trouble—but my birthday kiss was cut short when someone cursed on my left.

“Well, shit, that can’t be good,” Sabine said.

I dropped onto the balls of my feet, ready to snap at her to leave me and Tod alone. But neither she nor Nash was even looking at us. I turned to see what they were staring at and found an unfamiliar car parked next to Emma’s at the end of the row, a too-thin woman in jeans and a faded T-shirt stepping out of the driver’s seat.

“Who is that?” I asked, and Sabine scowled.

“Tina. My foster mother,” she said through gritted teeth, already stomping toward the woman, leaving me, Tod, and Nash to catch up.

We jogged after her, and were still shouting-distance away when the woman propped skinny hands on bony hips and tossed short brown hair over one shoulder. “Sabine, I specifically forbade you from coming here today,” she said, and Sabine stopped walking so suddenly I almost plowed into her.

“Kaylee, please tell me you brought that magic knife,” she whispered, throwing one arm around my waist like we were good friends.

“It’s a hellion-forged steel dagger,” I said, squinting at the woman now glaring across the grass at us. Beneath the pavilion, my dad handed his spatula to Harmony, took off his apron, and started across the grass toward the new arrival, obviously ready to make introductions.

“Whatever it’s called, go get it. Now, ” Sabine whispered fiercely.

I couldn’t remember when I’d last eaten, but my stomach seemed intent on tossing the food back up. “Why?” I asked, sliding Tod’s address into my pocket, but I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

“That’s not Tina.”

“Not again…” I groaned. We’d had too much death already. Too much vicious, personal, life-wrecking death. “Not on my birthday.”

“Are you sure?” Nash asked.

Sabine nodded. “Beyond sure. Get the damn knife.”

I let go of Tod’s hand and shrugged out from under Sabine’s arm, then headed for my car. When my father reached Tina and offered her a hand to shake, she turned to look at him and I blinked across the grass and into the driver’s seat of my car, where I pulled the dagger from its sheath on the passenger’s side floorboard. I hadn’t touched it since Alec’s apartment. I didn’t want to touch it now. But I wanted to lose another friend even less, so I blinked back into step between Tod and Sabine, the dagger at my side, hidden from sight by my leg.

We were feet from my dad and Tina when Sabine tried to take the knife from me. “No,” I said, so that only she and Tod could hear me. “We have to be sure.” What happened to Alec couldn’t happen to anyone else. I couldn’t let it.

“I am sure,” the mara hissed as we stopped feet from my dad and her foster mother.

“Sure about what?” My dad frowned with one look at our faces.

Before any of us could come up with an answer, Tina pulled something from her pocket and swung low at my dad. He backpedaled, but her fist connected with his thigh, and he screamed and collapsed to the ground.

Nash tried to tackle Tina, but she dodged him, then laughed when he hit the ground rolling. I raced for my father, still clutching the dagger, and dropped to my knees at his side, staring in shock at the pocket knife sticking out of his thigh.

Harmony screamed and her footsteps pounded toward us. My dad grabbed my hand. “Run,” he said as Sabine pulled the dagger from my other hand. When I only shook my head, he looked past me to Tod. “Get her out of here.”

But when Tod reached for me, I shot him a warning look. “Help me with him.” I wasn’t leaving my father, or the rest of our group. So we each took one of my dad’s arms and pulled him away from the demon in the foster-mom suit.