I STAYED AT IVY AND Sam’s house willingly for most of the time, but there was one night, that first night I was there, when I thought I might try my chances at getting out. I didn’t know what to say to Jared or my mom, but I had decided to call Evie, to hear a familiar voice more than anything. I felt like I was losing my identity, and I needed something from home to remind me again who I was.
I was also acutely aware that all of my fellow housemates had exceptional hearing, and I felt claustrophobic enough as it was without sharing my phone call, as well. So, after the house had gone dark and quiet, I grabbed my phone, slid on some sneakers and let myself out through the French doors in the kitchen. The night was humid, little beads of moisture clinging to the blades of grass underneath my feet. I jogged across the huge property, past beautiful old fruit trees, rows of grapevines, and a random old building that looked very much like a steepled church. Even in the darkness, I could see better than ever before, and I briefly wondered why Sam referred to vampirism with words like ‘virus’ and ‘infection’ when it seemed more like a bonus than a sickness, at least physically.
I ran for a bit longer, forgetting my phone call for the moment. I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts, to think about where I was and what I was going to do. For the first time in weeks, I felt the breeze on my face, air in my lungs, and a tiny glimmer of hope started to appear. Being surrounded by death had made me realize how much I loved my old life and everyone in it. I was in love. I missed Jared so much it hurt.
Just then, my iPhone beeped, and a text message from a number I didn’t recognize flashed onto the screen. I unlocked the phone and started to read.
Bonnie and Clyde, it read. Hope you’re having a great adventure. Caleb sends his regards and says he’ll see you both very soon. I like your friends Jared and Evie. They are a real hoot. I bet the blonde would taste great mixed with vodka. And your mom, I’ll save her for an early start. The woman has caffeine for blood. Love from Ford. xx
A second message came through, and appeared to be addressed only to me.
Hey spunky, it read. Caleb wants to give you another chance. Agree to come back and we’ll forget about killing everyone you love. Starting with your boyfriend. xox
I read the text messages over and over until the strings of words made no sense. I started to shake. I shoved the phone in my pocket and began running again, only this time I was headed for the driveway that led to the street.
I was almost to the end of the driveway when I ran face–first into a wall that I couldn’t see. I cried out, flying backwards and landing awkwardly on my tailbone. Pain shot up my spine and I groaned, clutching my back.
“What the hell?” I muttered. I got up, brushed myself off and tried to approach the gates again. But I just couldn’t get to them. There was an invisible wall keeping me from getting out.
Just then, I felt someone watching me. I turned around to see Ryan, dressed only in black silk boxer shorts and clutching his phone, making his way down the front stairs.
“What the HELL is going on?!” I screamed. “Why is there an invisible –”
“Stop yelling at me!” Ryan demanded. He looked tired, and I realized he mustn’t have slept at all in the days since saving me. Oh well. I hardly cared about his comfort.
“I’m trapped, aren’t I?” Pissed didn’t even come close to describing how I felt.
He looked away, clearly embarrassed at being caught out. “Technically, yes. But it’s not to stop you from getting out –”
“—It’s to stop other people from getting in,” Ivy finished his sentence as she walked down the stairs from the front door. She was wearing a red lace negligee that skimmed her knees and left very little to the imagination. The woman looked amazing. And kind of evil.
“I don’t trust either of you,” I said. “I want to talk to Sam. Sam!” I yelled across the yard.
“He’s in the basement,” Ivy said, looking bored. “Steel walls, nice and thick. He won’t hear you.”
“Can’t you just do that mind–communication thing with him?” I demanded.
“No, I can’t,” she replied haughtily. “I’m a defective model.”
“Let me out,” I demanded.
A defective model? That must be why Caleb can’t find us here. The psychic mind stuff doesn’t work on her.
“So you can get yourself killed, and us too for helping you? No way. Get over yourself and go to bed.” She turned and walked back into the house.
I sank to the ground, tears blurring my vision.
“Mia, come inside,” Ryan pleaded with me. He stepped closer, squeezing my shoulders with his cold hands.
“I trusted you!” I said, pushing him away. “Even after you did all those things to me, I trusted you. And you lied to me! All that crap about protecting my family from myself? I am a prisoner. You’re taking up where Caleb left off. You’re keeping me here.”
Just then, I felt warm hands on my shoulders. I jumped, turning to see a sympathetic looking Sam. So she had told him to come out after all.
I backed away from Ryan so that I was standing next to Sam. He left one warm hand resting on my shoulder, and unlike Ryan’s unwanted embraces, I liked the simple comfort of his touch.
“What is going on?” I asked them both impatiently. “Why can’t I get out?”
Ryan’s eyes lingered on the gates and he approached the invisible wall I had run face–first into only moments before. He pushed his palm through the air, and it stopped, the invisible wall coming into focus for just a second. It shimmered translucent silver like a mirage in the desert, and by the time I blinked, it had disappeared again.
“Magic. It keeps us all safe,” he explained. “Vampires sleep like the dead. We could all take guarding shifts, make sure nobody gets in—but this is easier, and I haven’t slept in a week.”
“Well, you all come and go as you please,” I said. “How?”
“There’s a key,” Sam said. “I’m sorry someone forgot to give you one. But you are definitely not a prisoner here.” He glared at Ryan.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out two small packages, each about the size of a box of matches, wrapped in calico and secured with brown string. They smelled like herbs and reminded me of the hex bag Ryan had made me carry around.
Sam pressed one of the packages into my palm and gestured to the invisible wall. I reached out hesitantly, expecting my palm to bounce right off again, but this time it didn’t. I could still feel a slight resistance, but as I stepped forward, the wall shimmered again and rippled, allowing me to step out of the yard to the other side. Sam followed, and together we stood freely at the end of the driveway.
“You want to go for a walk?” Sam asked, holding his arm out for me to grab a hold of. I smiled, relieved.
“Definitely,” I replied, looping my arm around his. I didn’t wave goodbye to Ryan, who stood silently watching us. Screw him.
There were no other houses in the immediate vicinity—Ivy’s property must have spanned several acres. When we got to the end of the deserted street, Sam gestured to a park complete with a playground and bright red slide. We crossed the road, and made our way over to the swings. I sat in one, he in the other. I looked around, realizing there must have been a fire recently. All of the trees were charred black, devoid of any greenery save for a few precious shoots of regrowth that dared to peek out from some of the heavy trunks.
“We should have told you,” Sam said immediately. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t you,” I said. “It was the other two. I don’t trust them.”
“Something else is bothering you,” Sam said, frowning as he studied my face.
“Where do I start?” I said sarcastically.
“No, really,” Sam persisted. I swallowed thickly and handed my iPhone over to him.
He read the messages silently, his pupils growing bigger and his expression more alarmed.
“Did you tell the others?” he asked, handing back my phone.
“No,” I said. “I was too busy trying to climb over the magical prison wall.”
He smiled then, and it made me feel a little less alone. He really was one of the kindest people I had ever met, human or vampire. Especially vampire. I think he was the only nice vampire I had met at that point.
“Are you considering going back to Mexico?” Sam asked seriously.
“Yes,” I replied honestly. “Of course. If everyone I love is going to be hurt, of course I’ll go back.”
Sam shook his head. “They’re bluffing,” he said. “Trying to push your buttons. They’re in Mexico.”
“What if Caleb does send Ford back to New Jersey?” I asked, as the gruesome notion popped into my head. “Ryan said I was watched for a whole year. They know everything about me My friends, my family. The text message mentioned Evie. What if they take her, too?”
“She’s your best friend?”
I stiffened. “How do you know?” I demanded.
“Ryan told us about her,” Sam replied. “Said she was with you before he took you. Trust me, she’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself.”
“How?” I said in disbelief. “What is she, a secret ninja or something?”
“She’s a witch,” Sam replied. “Ryan thinks she knows something is up. And right now, she’s casting so many protection spells, all of your family and friends will be safer than ever before.”
I arched my eyebrows. “Witch?” I spluttered. “Like Ivy?”
Sam nodded. “Like Ivy.”
My best friend is a goddamned witch?!
“You’re a doctor,” I said. “How can you even believe in witchcraft?”
Sam was thoughtful for a moment. “I never used to, before. But the things I’ve seen—you can’t explain them away with logic. What I’ve learnt over the years is to never assume you know how things work, because just as soon as you figure the world out, everything changes again.”
“Is that what happened to you?” I asked quietly. “Did everything change for you the way it’s changing for me?”
Sam chuckled, but it was a dry laugh, devoid of anything good. “I was so young when I met Ivy,” he said. “Twenty years old, I was. I was doing so well in college. About to graduate early, with honours, and then go to med school.”
“Did you go? To med school?”
“Eventually,” he replied, his voice as dry and dead as the burnt trees that surrounded us. “I had to … wait a few years, until it was safe.”
“Why’d you have to wait?” I asked. I needed to know everything.
“The blood,” he said, his cheeks flushing pink. “I couldn’t handle being around all that blood.” He was embarrassed, I realized with a start. Ashamed that he was driven by a desire I was yet to fully understand.
“I don’t think about blood,” I confessed. “At all. I don’t even like it much. Do you think there’s something wrong with me, Sam?”
He smiled, little creases curling up at the corners of his toffee–coloured eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Mia. It’s the rest of us who aren’t right.”
I stared at my palms. There were no scars from where I had dragged myself over broken glass in that courtyard in Mexico, when I had died. I thought about my death and all the secrets I had yet to learn.
“Did you die, Sam? When you were Turned?”
His face fell then, and it was his turn to stare at the ground. “We all die. We are alive, and then we die, and when we wake up again, we are something else entirely.”
“Have you ever killed someone?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer me.