If I Die

“Good idea,” my dad said, and Uncle Brendon piped up with something I couldn’t quite hear.

“What’d he say?”

“He said you should try to get the rest of Emma’s family out of the house tonight, too, just in case.”

Especially considering that Beck had a track record of feeding from his victims’ mothers, and Em’s mom had been alone with Em and her older sisters for as long as I’d known them. The Marshall house was practically an incubus buffet.

“Okay, we’ll come up with something,” I said as Styx laid her head on my lap and closed her eyes. “What time will you be home?”

“We’re still almost six hours away, but hoping to be home a little after midnight. I don’t want to miss any of your last day.”

“I’ll wait up for you.” My heart ached, and I couldn’t quite separate sadness for his loss from my own fear. “I gotta go.”

“Okay, see you tonight.”

I flipped my phone closed, then leaned back in the recliner to slide it into my pocket.

“What are we coming up with?” Em asked, before I could organize everything I needed to tell them into anything resembling coherence. “And what was he saying about babies and souls?”

“It sounds like Beck’s incubus children need a nonhuman soul to survive,” Tod said.

“Yeah.” I was impressed with how much he’d put together based on what little he’d heard. “If the mother’s not human, the incubus will kill her to provide the baby with her soul. But if the mother’s human, he has to find an alternate source.”

Tod nodded grimly. “And you think Beck had something to do with Farrah and Lydia rooming together?”

“I think it’s too much of a coincidence to have happened on its own,” I said. Em still looked confused, but I’d have to explain in the car. It was almost six-thirty. Beck would come calling at eight, if not before. “We need to go get your over night stuff and talk your mom and sisters into leaving for the night. Right now.”

“Hey, Kaylee!” Ms. Marshall stuck her head out of the bathroom when I followed Emma down the hall toward her room. “What are you girls up to tonight?”

“Sleepover at Kaylee’s,” Em said, pulling her sleeping bag from the top of the hall closet.

“On a school night?” Ms. Marshall frowned, her lips out lined, but not yet filled in with lipstick. “I don’t think so….”

“We’re cramming for a big math test,” I said, leaning against the door frame, where I could see them both. “And I swear we’ll get plenty of sleep.” Lies, all lies… When had my life become a series of disasters barely strung together with lies?

“Mr. Cavanaugh’s fine with it, Mom.” Em crossed her room and started pulling clothes from her dresser, as if her mother had already agreed. “And he’ll be there the whole time. This is totally legit.”

Yeah. Legitimately guaranteed to save Emma’s life and keep her uterus unoccupied. Her mother should have been thanking us.

“Besides, you’re going out with Sean tonight, right?” Em zipped her duffel. “This way you could stay the night.”

“Emma!” Ms. Marshall stuck her head into the hall again, curling iron wrapped around a strand of hair all the way up to her skull.

“Oh, come on, Mom. I’m seventeen. I know what happens when the lights go out, and this way you won’t have to drive home in the middle of the night and try to sneak in without waking anyone up.”

Em’s mom released her curl and set the iron down, seeming to consider. “Fine, go stay with Kaylee. But whether or not I spend the night with Sean is none of your business.”

Em grinned. “Duly noted. Cara’s staying at the sorority house tonight, right?”

Ms. Marshall gave her a puzzled look. “Yeaaah. Just like she has every night for the past two years. Why?”

“No reason.” We just had to make sure. “What about Traci?”

“New guy!” Em’s nineteen-year-old sister called from down the hall. “He’s picking me up in fifteen minutes. But that does not mean you can raid my closet.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it…” Em lied, reaching around her mother to grab her makeup bag from the bathroom counter. How the three of them shared one bathroom was beyond me.

Five minutes later, we climbed into Emma’s car and headed back to my house for what would surely be my last sleepover. Ever.

20

With our incubus-busting plans rightfully canceled and my father still on the road, we decided to spend what would probably be my last evening on earth finishing the Alien marathon and eating junk food. Em and I hit the grocery store for brownies and enough ice cream to overload our small freezer while Tod left to procure pizza.

I’d just finished popping the first bag of popcorn when the doorbell rang twice in rapid succession, then again before I could get to the door.

I looked through the peephole to see my cousin standing on the front porch, hands on her narrow hips, scowling at my front door. Her new car was parked in the driveway behind mine, shining in the streetlight, a fresh reminder that Sophie had been unleashed on the world as a new driver—a frightening prospect for all of humankind.

Swallowing a growl of frustration, I pulled open the door and frowned at her. “What are you doing here?”

“Dinner, remember?” Sophie brushed past me into the living room, where she scowled at Emma, then at the spread of junk food laid out on the coffee table. “I don’t eat carbs or processed sugar, so I hope you have something better than that.”

“Sophie, dinner was canceled. And it was supposed to be two hours ago.”

She shrugged. “I want to be here even less than you want me here.” Though I had good reason to doubt that. “My dad said if I didn’t come hang out with you for the rest of the night, then give him a ride home when he gets here, I’d regret it for the rest of my life. I said he’d never been more wrong. Then he said he’d donate my car to some charity I’ve never heard of and make me take the bus to school for the rest of my life if I wasn’t at your house in ten minutes. So what is this?” She tossed her purse onto a chair and glanced at Emma, then back at me. “Fashion intervention or suicide watch?”

“It’s gonna be the scene of a homicide if you don’t put bitchy on the back burner,” Emma snapped, and I laughed out loud.

“Seriously, Sophie, you don’t have to stay.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Em and I are just studying for a test.”

“You have enough junk food to feed the girls wrestling team and not a book in sight. Besides, my dad wouldn’t send me over here just to crash a study session. I don’t give a damn what you’re really doing, but I’m not gonna risk my car just so you can do it in privacy. You’re stuck with me till your dad brings my dad back.” She dropped onto the couch and grabbed the remote control. “I hope you don’t mind the TV, ’cause I’m not gonna suffer in silence.”

I knew what my uncle was doing, and it was sweet of him to try to get Sophie to spend some time with me before I died. But even if she felt guilty after I was gone, I couldn’t imagine her actually missing me, and I really didn’t want to spend my last night on earth with my spoiled, bitchy cousin.

Unfortunately, she liked her new car more than she disliked me. Sophie wasn’t going anywhere.

“Fine. But we’re watching Aliens.” I plucked the remote from her fist. “And if you want something more substantial than popcorn, there may be some carrot sticks in the fridge. But they’re about a month old, so they may be more green than orange by now.”

Sophie made a face. “It’s a wonder you’re still alive, the way you eat.”

“Give it one more day,” I mumbled under my breath, and Emma frowned.