I COULDN’T WAIT ANY LONGER. I had to call Evie, tell her what was going on. If she thought I was a weirdo, so be it. I couldn’t carry the weight of my secret alone for another minute. And if she really was what Sam said—a witch—then maybe she could protect my family when I couldn’t.
I must have dialled and hung up at least ten times before I got up enough nerve to let the call go through. She answered on the first ring, the sound of her voice taking the breath out of my lungs.
“Hello?” She answered, and I could hear the suspicion in her tone.
Right. She thinks I’m not me. She thinks it’s a shapeshifter calling her from my number.
“Evie,” I choked. I burst into tears.
“Holy shit, it’s you.” Her voice changed completely to one of worry and concern. “Where are you? Are you okay? Tell me, I can come get you. I can help you, Mia. Mia?”
Where to start? What to say? Would she even believe me? I wouldn’t believe me.
“I was—taken,” I said falteringly. “I, um, I’ve been in Mexico. But I’m okay now.” No I’m not. “Someone helped me get out of there. I’m in a safe place now.”
Why was I so reluctant to tell her where I was?
“Are you in Mexico now?” She asked. “I don’t think so. You’re near the beach, aren’t you?”
“How do you know that?” I asked quickly. Was she a part of this?
She sighed. “Mia, there are lots of things about me that you don’t know. There are things I can do that other people can’t do. I’ve been trying to find you ever since you disappeared.”
The witch thing. Right. “Have I—have I tried to call you before now?“
She snorted. “No, but some bitch pretending to be you called me up. She hung up really fast once she realized I wasn’t as stupid as your average blonde.”
“Oh. Good.” I didn’t know what to say.
“Mia, I’m so sorry. Are you—are you one of them now?” She didn’t say the word vampire, but we both knew what she meant.
I guess she took my silence as a yes.
“I should have known they were fucking vampires hanging around school. I should have been more careful.” There. She had said the word so I didn’t have to.
“It’s not your fault, Evie.”
“Give me the address. I’m on the first flight out there.”
“Whoa,” I said quickly. “You can’t leave. I need you to protect Jared and my mom. Does Jared know anything?”
She breathed out heavily. “No. Although he’s pissed that you left without telling him. What if something happens to you and I’m not there to help you, Mia? I left you alone in a goddamn parking lot in New York the day after I saw a vampire in our history class. What was I thinking?”
I pressed my forehead to the cool bedroom wall and closed my eyes. “You were thinking everything would be okay. Just like me.”
“At first I thought they’d killed you,” Evie confessed. “Only I couldn’t find your ghost anywhere.”
“My ghost?” My ghost?!
“Yeah. I kept waiting for your ghost—your soul—to show up, and it never did.”
But I had died. According to Ryan, for a couple of hours, I had been dead.
“I thought I felt you die,” Evie said miserably, as if reading my mind. “And when that feeling went away, I realized the vampires must have Turned you, and that it was too late.”
My vision blurred as I blinked back something hot. It overflowed, and a single tear escaped, running down my cheek.
“Oh shit,” Evie said. “That’s not what I meant. You need to come home, Mia. Now.”
Another hot tear, then another. “I can’t. If I come back he’s going to kill everyone I care about.”
Evie didn’t say anything.
“Hello?” I asked the empty phone line.
“I’m here,” Evie replied quickly. “I just –”
“Don’t know what to do?” I supplied helpfully. “That makes two of us.”
“Why didn’t you call me sooner, tell me what was happening?”
I shrugged even though I knew she couldn’t see me. “And tell you what? That I’m a vampire? Do you know how stupid that sounds to me?”
“It’s not your fault,” Evie said softly, soothing my jagged nerves. “You didn’t know about all this. Most people never do.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a witch?” I asked her. “You’ve known me for my whole life, Evie, and you never said a word!”
“Would you have believed me?” she asked tiredly. “Or would you have thought that I was crazy?”
She was right. “I just wish I had been prepared, you know? You think for your whole life that the world is one way, and it’s nothing like you thought it was. It sucks.”
“It does suck. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I should have told you something, at least.”
“Is my m–mom okay?”
“She’s good. She’s safe.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose as another wave of headache crashed into my forehead. “She thinks I’m at school?”
“Yeah.” Evie’s voice was apologetic. “She’s been getting emails from someone who says they’re you. And calls, I think.”
“I heard. Ryan showed me—it’s hard to explain. But I heard one of the calls the shapeshifter made to my mom. She had no idea.”
“Ryan. He’s the one who helped you escape in Mexico?”
“Yeah,” I replied. I omitted the part about him taking me in the first place. I don’t know why I was protective of him after what he had done, but there it was.
“And where are you now?” She insisted.
“Los Angeles,” I replied, hoping my vagueness would satisfy her.
“Address, Mia. Come on. I need to see that you’re alright.”
Panic swirled through me. “Please don’t come,” I begged. “I don’t want you to see me like this. I need you to stay with Jared!”
“Okay. Here’s the deal. I’m going to promise to stay with Jared, and make sure your mom is protected, and you’re going to tell me the address.”
My shoulders sagged in defeat. I rattled off the address and confirmed it as she repeated it three times.
“I’m sorry, I have to go,” I said. “I’m so tired, I haven’t slept.”
“Go,” Evie said gently. “Sleep. You’ll be home soon, I swear.”
As I ended the call, I had to wonder if what she was saying was even possible. Surely if Caleb was looking for me, I would have to stay away until he wasn’t a threat anymore.
How could I make sure he was out of the picture? How did an eighteen–year–old girl turned vampire kill such an old and powerful creature?