Christine knocked on a door and opened it, where a cross-looking girl sat on the bed, writing furiously in a notebook. She jumped up when they entered. Her eyes found Alina and looked shocked for a moment, then narrowed.
“Nicole,” Christine said, “Alina has offered to share Jade’s room so you may keep yours.”
Nicole fumed. “I suppose you think I’m very rude, then,” she blurted.
Alina tried to sound friendly. “No, of course not. I understand why you don’t want to give up your room for someone you don’t know. I don’t want to make you do that for me.”
“You aren’t making me. In fact, have it. I’ve changed my mind.” She stormed out of the room.
Christine sighed, closing her eyes. “I’m sorry, Alina. You may not receive a warm welcome from her. But the rest of us are glad you’re here. There are your things in the corner.”
Jade grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. “Let’s go see Rex and Baylor. I want to hear everything that happened to you, and we’ve got a great story too.”
Alina followed her downstairs, past the dining room and kitchen to the back of the house. She caught a glimpse of Nicole in the yard, talking with a girl outside the fence. They frowned with their arms crossed. Alina bit her lip.
Jade led her to the back parlor where Rex and Baylor were recovering, and when she opened the door, Alina covered her mouth and screamed. Jade put her arm around her.
“I’m sorry, Alina, I should have prepared you. Don’t worry. The doctor says they’ll recover fine.”
“Hi, Alina,” Rex growled from his recliner. Baylor sat next to him in an identical chair, sipping a drink through a straw. A movie blared on the monitor in front of them.
The slashes on their faces made them almost unrecognizable. Thick bandages wrapped their arms and legs, covered with red and yellow splotches. A pale discharge oozed from a cut on Baylor’s forehead, just above a patch on his eye. Rex’s left leg was in a cast.
“What happened?” Alina exclaimed.
“The nightstalks found us,” Rex replied.
“I know that part—how did you get away?”
“It wasn’t easy. We escaped because there were only two of them. We don’t know where the others were.”
“They came after me,” Alina answered.
“Hmm,” Baylor said, shifting his weight in his chair. “They must have traced you as the killer of the first one.”
Rex continued, “Well, that’s a good thing, or we never would’ve survived. It was bad enough facing two! We were frozen stiff with fear.” He winced and groaned, then leaned his head back and shut his eyes.
“Let me tell the story,” Jade said. She lowered her voice. “I think it hurts him to talk. He’s still in a lot of pain.”
“How is he handling the pain so well?” Alina whispered. “I mean this is Rex we’re talking about.”
“They’re on some pretty strong medication. Rex says it numbs the pain but makes them sleepy.”
Alina sat down on a blue couch with frilly cushions. “So, you were all frozen stiff. What happened next?”
Jade cleared her throat. “The nightstalks went for Rex and Baylor first. The attack was awful to watch. Night had come, but I could see in the moonlight—claws scraping their skin and blood dripping down their bodies. Their screams horrified me, but the pain roused them from the terror, and they started to fight back. Baylor recovered first and after a lengthy struggle, finally killed one of them.”
Jade took a deep breath. “But during all this, the other nightstalk saw me a few feet away, still frozen. I was an easy target it couldn’t resist. It started toward me and then—” She broke off.
“What?” Alina asked.
Jade shook her head, too overcome with emotion to speak.
Rex’s eyes flew open and he sat up. “Something snapped in me the moment it started for her, and my fear vanished. Let me tell you something else, though, that Jade doesn’t know. Right before the nightstalk went for her, it turned and looked at me. It stood in the moonlight, and its body became a window—and I saw the nightstalk slicing out her heart. I even heard her screaming. Then it smirked at me, like I’d never be able to save her. I think it was trying to kill any courage I had. This almost worked, but as it turned toward her, the panic in her eyes did it for me.
“I jumped on that devil, and seconds later it was dead. I don’t know how, but I killed it without a gun.” Rex flaunted his bandaged hands. “With my bare hands.”
Then he looked at Jade with hot, feverish eyes, and she held his gaze for a long time, through her tears. They stared so fiercely that Alina cleared her throat and looked away. The moment was too intimate for any eyes but their own.
She didn’t know what their gaze meant but couldn’t help thinking if J’koby were there to see it, he wouldn’t have a hope left.
Alina’s time in Millflower passed more unpleasantly than she expected. Maxwell’s home felt welcoming as long as she avoided Nicole, but if they found themselves in the same room, a sudden chill filled the air. Nicole dismissed Alina’s friendly efforts, which hurt deeply coming from someone she hoped would be a friend. Max and Christine, appalled by their daughter’s behavior, attempted to reason with her, but this resulted in shouting matches and slammed doors.
Nicole worked hard to look beautiful, but her genes seemed set against her. Instead of her mother’s fair skin and hair, she got her father’s short eyelashes, freckled skin, and strawberry blonde hair, which was too frizzy to manage. Tall for her age, she appeared bony and lank. The heavy makeup she used did little to minimize or enhance her features but caked her face
