CHAPTER 17
When I returned to my room, Jenna was inside, sitting on the dresser next to the window. Her forehead was resting on her knees.
“Jenna?”
She didn’t look at me. “It’s happening again,” she said in a thick voice. “Just like Holly.”
She took a deep shuddery breath and said, “When I saw them carrying Chaston out . . . it was exactly the same. The holes in her neck, the slashes on her wrists. The only difference is that Chaston was white. Holly w-was nearly . . . nearly gray when they p-pulled her out. . . .” Her voice broke.
I sat on my bed and laid a hand on her knee. “Hey,” I said softly, “that wasn’t your fault.”
She looked up, her eyes red with anger. “Yeah, but that’s not what everyone else thinks, is it? They all think I’m what, a ‘bloodsucking freak’?”
She hopped off the dresser. “Like I asked for this,” she muttered in a low voice, pulling clothes out of her closet and tossing them on her bed. “Like I wanted to come to this damn school anyway.”
“Jen,” I started to say, but she whirled around on me.
“I hate it here!” she cried. “I . . . I hate taking stupidass classes like A History of Nineteenth Century Witches. God, I j-just wanna take algebra or something stupid like that. I wanna eat lunch—real lunch—in a cafeteria, and have an after-school job, and go to the prom.”
With a sob, she sat down on her bed, like all the anger in her had evaporated. “I don’t want to be a vampire,” she whispered, and then she broke down crying, burying her face in the black T-shirt she was holding.
I looked around the room, and for the first time, all the pink didn’t seem cheerful; it just seemed sad, like Jenna was trying to hold on to whatever life she’d had before. There are times when saying nothing is definitely the best course of action, and I felt like this was one of those times. So I just crossed the room and sat on her bed, stroking her hair like my mom did for me the night I’d found out I was going to Hecate.
And after a while, Jenna leaned back against her pillows and started talking.
“She was so nice to me,” she said softly. “Amanda.”
I didn’t have to ask who Amanda was. I knew she was finally telling me the story of how she’d come to be a vampire.
“That was the biggest part. Not that she was cute, or smart, or funny. She was those things too, but it was the nice that got me. No one had ever paid so much attention to me before. When she told me what she was, that she wanted me to be with her forever, I didn’t really believe it. I didn’t believe it until I felt her teeth in my neck.”
She paused, and there was no sound in the room except the soft rustling of the breeze in the oaks outside.
“When the Change happened, it was . . . amazing. I felt stronger and just better, you know? Like the rest of my life had been a dream. Those first two nights with her were the best nights of my whole life. And then they killed her.”
“They?”
Her eyes met mine. My tiny reflection in her eyes looked very pale.
“The Eye,” she replied, and an involuntary shiver ran through me.
“There were two of them. They broke into the motel where we were hiding, and they staked her while she was sleeping. But she woke up and she started . . . she started screaming, and it took both of them to hold her down. So I got up ran out the door and I just kept running. For three days I hid in somebody’s garden shed. I only left there because I was starving. So I stole some food from a convenience store.
“As soon as I put the first Twinkie in my mouth, I felt like was I going to die. I chewed it maybe twice before I had to spit it out. The—” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “The manager of the store came out and found me on my knees in the parking lot. He saw the wrapper and started yelling about calling the cops, and I—”
She broke off and wouldn’t meet my eyes. I put my hand on her shoulder, trying to console her or let her know I didn’t care that she’d drunk someone’s blood, but I couldn’t look at her face.
“After . . . after that, I felt better. I got a bus back into the city and found Amanda’s parents. They were vamps too. Amanda’s dad had been bitten years ago and had changed all of them. So they contacted the Council and I got sent here.”
She looked at me again. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she said plaintively. “I don’t want to be like this without Amanda. I only wanted to be a vampire if we could be together forever. She promised.” Tears were glistening in her eyes.
“Wow,” I said. “Who knew girls sucked just as bad as boys?”
She sighed and tilted her head back against the headboard, eyes closed. “They’re going to kick me out.”
“Why?”
She looked incredulous. “Um . . . hello? They’re totally going to pin Chaston on me. Holly was one thing, but two girls in a six-month period?” She shook her head. “Somebody’s gonna go down for that, and you can bet it’s gonna be me.”
“Why?” I repeated. Jenna was the only person at Hecate I considered a friend. Well, maybe Archer and I were friends now, but there was still that whole possiblybeing-in-love-with-him-maybe-a-little thing, and that pushed him out of the friend zone. If Jenna left, I’d be at the mercy of Elodie and Anna.
No way.
“You don’t know that they’re gonna kick you out. Chaston may remember what happened to her. Just wait and talk to Mrs. Casnoff, okay? Maybe by tomorrow everyone will have calmed down some.”
Her derisive snort told me exactly how likely she found that scenario. After a moment she began putting her clothes back in the closet. I stood up and helped her.
“So how was cellar duty tonight?”
“Cellar-ific.”
“And your stupendously futile crush on Archer Cross?”
“Still stupendous. Still futile.”
She nodded as she hung up one of her many Hecate blazers. “Good to know.”
We worked in companionable silence.
“What did you mean about Elodie and her coven trying to raise a demon?”
“That’s what Holly told me they were working on,” she said as she closed the closet. “Mrs. Casnoff was really pimping the whole L’Occhio di Dio will kill us all thing she’s so big on, and their coven freaked out. Holly said they thought if they raised a demon, it would give them more power and they’d be safer should stuff go down.”
“Did they do it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
The lights blinked out, plunging us into darkness. I heard a few startled shrieks from down the hall, but then Mrs. Casnoff’s voice boomed, “Lights out is mandatory tonight. Go to bed, children.”
Jenna sighed. “You gotta love Hex Hall.”
Bumping into furniture and whispering bad words, we made our way to our respective beds.
I flopped down on mine with a low groan. I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until I felt my cool soft pillow under my head. So I was nearly asleep when I heard Jenna whisper, “Thank you.”
“For what?” I mumbled.
“Being my friend.”
“Wow,” I replied. “That’s like, the lamest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
She gave a cry of mock outrage, and a second later one of her many pillows landed on my face.
“I was trying to be nice,” she insisted, but I could hear the laughter in her voice.
“Well, don’t,” I retorted. “I like my friends mean and hateful.”
“Will do,” she replied, and a few minutes later we were both asleep.
I awoke to Jenna’s screaming and the smell of smoke.
Confused, I sat up. Morning sunlight was streaming into the room and onto Jenna’s bed. It took me a minute to realize that that’s where the smoke was coming from.
Jenna’s bed. Jenna.
She was frantically trying to stand up, but she was tangled in her sheets, and panic was making her clumsy.
My feet barely touched the floor as I leaped from my bed and tossed my comforter over her. As I did, I caught sight of her hand. The normally pale skin was bright red, and it was bubbling up in places.
Without thinking, I pushed her into her closet.
Once she was in, I grabbed one of her sheets and shoved it against the crack underneath the door. Jenna was crying, but she wasn’t making that high-pitched sound of pain anymore.
“What happened?” I shouted through the wood.
“My bloodstone,” she sobbed. “It’s gone!”
I ran to her bed and crouched to peer under it.
Maybe it just fell off, I told myself. Maybe the clasp broke, or it got caught on her pillow.
I wanted it to be one of those things.
I pulled everything off the bed, even shoved the mattress off the box springs, but Jenna’s bloodstone wasn’t anywhere.
Rage surged inside of me.
“Wait here,” I yelled to Jenna.
“Oh, like I’m going anywhere!” she replied when I was already halfway out the door.
There were a few girls in the hall. I recognized one, Laura Harris, from Magical Evolution. Her eyes went wide when she saw me.
I ran to Elodie’s room and pounded on the door.
She opened it, and I pushed past her into the room.
“Where is it?”
“Where’s what?” she asked. There were dark circles under her eyes.
“Jenna’s bloodstone. I know you took it, now where is it?”
Elodie’s eyes flashed. “I didn’t take her stupid bloodstone. Although if I had, it would’ve been totally justified after what she did to Chaston last night.”
“She didn’t do anything to Chaston, and you could have killed her!” I shouted.
“If she didn’t attack Chaston, then who did?” Elodie asked, raising her voice. Little threads of light were racing under her skin, and her hair was starting to crackle. I could feel my own magic pulsing like a second heartbeat.
“Maybe that demon you were trying to summon,” I fired back.
Elodie made a disgusted sound. “Like I said last night, if there were a demon, Mrs. Casnoff would know it. We all would.”
“What’s going on?”
We both whirled to see Anna standing in the doorway, her hair damp and a towel in her hand.
“Sophie thinks we took the vamp’s stupid bloodstone,” Elodie told her.
“What? That’s ridiculous,” Anna said, but her voice was tight.
I closed my eyes and tried to get control of my temper and my magic. Then, picturing Jenna’s necklace in my mind, I murmured, “Bloodstone.”
Elodie rolled her eyes, but there was a distinct squeaking sound as one of Anna’s dresser drawers slid open. The bloodstone rose up from underneath a pile of clothes, its red center glinting.
It floated into my hand, and I closed my fist around it.
Surprise flickered across Elodie’s face for a moment. Then it vanished. “You have what you came for, so get out.”
Anna was looking at the floor. I wanted to say something withering, something that would make her feel ashamed for what she’d done, but in the end I decided it wasn’t worth it.
When I got back to the room, Jenna’s sobs had dwindled to sniffling. I opened the closet door a crack and handed her the bloodstone. Once it was back on her neck, she came out of the closet and sat on her bed, cradling her burned hand.
I sat next to her. “You should get this looked at.” She nodded. Her eyes were still red and watery.
“Was it Elodie and Anna?” she asked.
“Yeah. Well, it was Anna. I don’t think Elodie knew, but it’s not like she would’ve disapproved.”
Jenna released a shuddery breath. I reached up and brushed her pink stripe out of her eyes. “You need to tell Mrs. Casnoff what they did.”
“No,” she said. “No way.”
“Jenna, they could have killed you,” I insisted.
She stood up, pulling my comforter around her. “It’ll just make it worse,” she said wearily. “Remind everyone that vamps are different from the rest of you. That I don’t belong here.”
“Jenna,” I started.
“I said drop it, Sophie!” she snapped, her back still turned.
“But you’re hurt—”
And then she whirled on me, her eyes bloodred, her face contorted with rage. Her fangs slid out, and she grabbed my shoulders with a hiss. There was nothing of my friend in her face.
Only a monster.
I made a shocked sound of hurt and fear, and she abruptly released me. My knees gave out, and I crumpled to the floor.
She was immediately beside me, Jenna again, her eyes pale blue and filled with apology. “Oh God, Soph, I’m so sorry! Are you okay? Sometimes when I get stressed . . .” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I would never hurt you,” she said, pleading.
I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I just nodded.
“Girls? Is everything all right?”
Jenna looked over her shoulder. Mrs. Casnoff stood in our doorway, her face unreadable.
“We’re fine,” I said, standing up. “I just slipped, and Jenna was, uh, helping me up.”
“I see,” Mrs. Casnoff said. She looked back and forth between me and Jenna before saying, “Jenna, if you don’t mind, I need to speak with you for a moment.”
“Sure,” Jenna replied, in a voice that was anything but certain.
I watched them leave the room, then sat down on Jenna’s bed. My shoulders were sore, and Jenna’s fingers had left a mark.
I sat there absentmindedly rubbing my arms, the smoky smell of Jenna’s burned skin still stinging my nose.
And I wondered.