Max put her face into his hands and kissed her lips and then her forehead. There wasn’t anything sensual about it. It was an urgent, needy kiss, like he had to touch her to know she was real. “Jesus, you scared the shit out of me,” he said. “Don’t do that again.”
“Sorry I hit you,” she replied with a playful frown. Cora looked past Max’s shoulder and to us, and asked, “What the heck are you guys doing here?” She sounded shocked, and on the verge of a laugh.
“They came with me. To find you.”
Cora smiled, clearly touched. “Really?” Now she was happily laughing. “Daggett, Dana...hi. It’s been a while.”
She wasn’t the type of person to forget someone, but I was still flattered she remembered me.
Her eyes narrowed and said, “Priscilla, you came too?”
Priscilla was leaned against the hallway wall, her arms folded. “Okay, let’s not get all gushy over this. Your boy toy thought you croaked and I wanted to be here when he was proven wrong.”
“But you still cared that I was found.”
“I mean, whatever.”
“So this means you’re practically in love with me.” She was teasing Priscilla, but Priscilla was having none of it.
“It’s not too late for you to drop dead, you know.”
“But you don’t want that, because you love me.”
“Cora, shut up.”
Priscilla was rudely barking at her, but when she turned her head away, I swore I saw a smile struggling not to form on her lips. Their relationship started to make some sense to me.
“So what happened?” Rickey asked. “Why all the mystery?”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly planned,” Cora admitted. “I’m sorry to freak you guys out like this. I swear, if I knew this would escalate the way it did, I never would have come here alone.”
Max pulled her auburn hair away from her shoulder, his eyes lovingly gazing at her. “Why would you go alone, anyway?”
“I got a message in the middle of the night.”
“We know, we listened to it.”
Cora’s brow was wrinkled. “So then you know why I’m here.”
“What is this, charades?” Priscilla complained. “Why are you here?”
Cora took a deep breath. “I’m not sure if it would be better to tell you, or just show you.”
“Show?” Max echoed.
“It’s behind that door.” It was the only room that was locked, the one that Max was trying to get into, and the one that happened to reek of funeral flowers. Max reached his hand for the handle, but before he could try to open it again, Cora said, “Please don’t make any sudden movements, or loud noises. She’s still on edge.”
She?
Cora knocked lightly against the door and said, “It’s okay, it’s me. You can unlock the door now. We’re safe.”
A few seconds later, I heard the click of the door unlocking. They popped open the door and let it slide open very, very slowly. I was immediately hit in the face with all these senses, some so strange that I didn’t have the words to explain it. It was like being hit in the nose hard and the taste that takes over your mouth afterward.
There was a figure sitting in a chair, their back to us, their face looking toward the frost-tinted window. In the reflection of the glass, I could see piercing blue eyes hidden behind strands of wet, blond hair. She was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, which I recognized as being from my closet. Cautiously, she turned her entire body toward us in the chair and stared. She was beautiful, but her skin was like snow.
Rickey said quietly. “Is that who I think it is?”
“No fucking way,” Priscilla added.
Cora entered the room and sat on the ledge of the window beside the woman. She placed her hand on top of the woman’s hand and said, “I thought I was going crazy too. Say hello to Melanie.”
I gulped.
She was just like them. She was just like Molly.
A vampire.
Chapter Seventeen
MAX
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Cora said quietly, as she sat beside her cousin who, one minute ago, I thought had died in Lunar City. Melanie was white as a ghost and quivering in her seat. She was breathing and moving, but she didn’t look any more alive than a corpse. Just looking at her gave me the strangest taste on my tongue. It’s like I could taste the abnormality in the air.
I stroked my chin, trying to keep my cool. “At the part where this makes sense would be nice,” I replied.
“I wasn’t trying to give you guys a heart attack or anything, but I don’t know if I’d even have the right words to tell you about her. This way, there are no doubts.”
Daggett lowered his glasses and gawked at Melanie. “So it’s true. Vampires are real,” he said. Melanie was doing her best to not draw attention to herself, often looking out the window nervously or pulling up a fleece blanket to her chin, but all eyes in that room were on her. And it was gonna stay that way.
Cora jerked her head toward Daggett. “Wait, you guys know?”
“Dana had a run-in with one of them. We only just became aware.”
Now, Cora was looking at Dana. “Are you all
