Rachel Vincent - If I Die

And suddenly I was very, very grateful for the dissimulatus bracelets Harmony had given us, which had protected me, Nash and Sabine from notice.

Except that Sabine had read Beck’s fears and creeped him out. Had he figured out she wasn’t human? Had we painted a target on Sabine by sending her in to investigate? Would Beck be reluctant to leave Eastlake, if he knew there was at least one supernatural soul up for grabs there?

“Kaylee?” my father said into my ear, but I was too lost in my own thoughts—still pacing frantically—to answer.

What about Farrah? Her pregnancy had progressed the furthest, thanks to Lydia, and in two short months, he’d have to…

“Oh, hell, ” I whispered, as another little bit of understanding clicked into place in my head.

“What?” my dad asked, as Tod and Emma watched me expectantly.

“Lydia…” I dropped into the recliner, and hardly noticed Styx’s squeal when I landed on her tail. “It’s no coincidence they were rooming together.”

“What?” my dad repeated over the phone, while Tod echoed the same question from the couch. But Dad didn’t know about Lydia, and Tod and Em didn’t know incubi babies were born in need of a nonhuman soul. I was the only one with all the pieces of that particular puzzle.

“I just…I think I figured out where Beck was planning to get a supernatural soul,” I said into the phone.

“It’s not…?” my dad started, obviously unable to actually say what I knew he was thinking.

“No, it’s not me. He still thinks I’m human, thanks to the dissimulatus .” I held my arm up to study the braided fiber that had kept me off Beck’s radar—until I’d offered him a three-way with me and Em. “But I think he knows something’s off about Sabine, and one of his earlier victims had a syphon for a roommate.” And suddenly any doubt I’d had about the wisdom of breaking Lydia out of Lakeside was gone. Tod and I had saved not just her life, but her soul.

I wondered if Beck knew yet that his backup soul had flown the coop….

“In case it isn’t obvious,” my dad said. “I do not want you and Emma to go through with this idiotic plan to get your teacher alone tonight.”

“It is obvious. And don’t worry, we’ve already called that off. In fact, I think Emma should stay the night here, just in case.”

“Good idea,” my dad said, and Uncle Brendon piped up with something I couldn’t quite hear.

“What’d he say?”

“He said you should try to get the rest of Emma’s family out of the house tonight, too, just in case.”

Especially considering that Beck had a track record of feeding from his victims’ mothers, and Em’s mom had been alone with Em and her older sisters for as long as I’d known them. The Marshall house was practically an incubus buffet.

“Okay, we’ll come up with something,” I said as Styx laid her head on my lap and closed her eyes. “What time will you be home?”

“We’re still almost six hours away, but hoping to be home a little after midnight. I don’t want to miss any of your last day.”

“I’ll wait up for you.” My heart ached, and I couldn’t quite separate sadness for his loss from my own fear. “I gotta go.”

“Okay, see you tonight.”

I flipped my phone closed, then leaned back in the recliner to slide it into my pocket.

“What are we coming up with?” Em asked, before I could organize everything I needed to tell them into anything resembling coherence. “And what was he saying about babies and souls?”

“It sounds like Beck’s incubus children need a nonhuman soul to survive,” Tod said.

“Yeah.” I was impressed with how much he’d put together based on what little he’d heard. “If the mother’s not human, the incubus will kill her to provide the baby with her soul. But if the mother’s human, he has to find an alternate source.”

Tod nodded grimly. “And you think Beck had something to do with Farrah and Lydia rooming together?”

“I think it’s too much of a coincidence to have happened on its own,” I said. Em still looked confused, but I’d have to explain in the car. It was almost six-thirty. Beck would come calling at eight, if not before. “We need to go get your over night stuff and talk your mom and sisters into leaving for the night. Right now.”

“Hey, Kaylee!” Ms. Marshall stuck her head out of the bathroom when I followed Emma down the hall toward her room. “What are you girls up to tonight?”

“Sleepover at Kaylee’s,” Em said, pulling her sleeping bag from the top of the hall closet.

“On a school night?” Ms. Marshall frowned, her lips out lined, but not yet filled in with lipstick. “I don’t think so….”

“We’re cramming for a big math test,” I said, leaning against the door frame, where I could see them both. “And I swear we’ll get plenty of sleep.” Lies, all lies … When had my life become a series of disasters barely strung together with lies?

“Mr. Cavanaugh’s fine with it, Mom.” Em crossed her room and started pulling clothes from her dresser, as if her mother had already agreed. “And he’ll be there the whole time. This is totally legit.”

Yeah. Legitimately guaranteed to save Emma’s life and keep her uterus unoccupied. Her mother should have been thanking us.

“Besides, you’re going out with Sean tonight, right?” Em zipped her duffel. “This way you could stay the night.”

“Emma!” Ms. Marshall stuck her head into the hall again, curling iron wrapped around a strand of hair all the way up to her skull.

“Oh, come on, Mom. I’m seventeen. I know what happens when the lights go out, and this way you won’t have to drive home in the middle of the night and try to sneak in without waking anyone up.”

Em’s mom released her curl and set the iron down, seeming to consider. “Fine, go stay with Kaylee. But whether or not I spend the night with Sean is none of your business.”

Em grinned. “Duly noted. Cara’s staying at the sorority house tonight, right?”

Ms. Marshall gave her a puzzled look. “Yeaaah. Just like she has every night for the past two years. Why?”

“No reason.” We just had to make sure. “What about Traci?”

“New guy!” Em’s nineteen-year-old sister called from down the hall. “He’s picking me up in fifteen minutes. But that does not mean you can raid my closet.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it…” Em lied, reaching around her mother to grab her makeup bag from the bathroom counter. How the three of them shared one bathroom was beyond me.

Five minutes later, we climbed into Emma’s car and headed back to my house for what would surely be my last sleepover. Ever.

With our incubus-busting plans rightfully canceled and my father still on the road, we decided to spend what would probably be my last evening on earth finishing the Alien marathon and eating junk food. Em and I hit the grocery store for brownies and enough ice cream to overload our small freezer while Tod left to procure pizza.

I’d just finished popping the first bag of popcorn when the doorbell rang twice in rapid succession, then again before I could get to the door.

I looked through the peephole to see my cousin standing on the front porch, hands on her narrow hips, scowling at my front door. Her new car was parked in the driveway behind mine, shining in the streetlight, a fresh reminder that Sophie had been unleashed on the world as a new driver—a frightening prospect for all of humankind.

Swallowing a growl of frustration, I pulled open the door and frowned at her. “What are you doing here?”

“Dinner, remember?” Sophie brushed past me into the living room, where she scowled at Emma, then at the spread of junk food laid out on the coffee table. “I don’t eat carbs or processed sugar, so I hope you have something better than that.”