I move forward and come to a stop by one of the vehicles with flashing lights. It isn’t an official police car, I realize as I read the seal on the driver’s side door. OLYMPUS HILLS SECURITY. A man in a blue uniform steps out of the car and I roll down the window. A terrible scent stings my nose, but there are so many new scents in this world that I can’t quite place it.
“You’ll need to go around,” the security guard says. “No rubbernecking.”
I don’t know what that means, but I give the guard my most earnest look. “What’s going on? We live around here. Is there anything we should be worried about?”
“Couple of kids found a girl in the lake. Near the grove.” He sighs, realizing he probably shouldn’t have said so much. “Now move along.” He pats the roof of the Tesla.
As he moves away from the window, I finally get a view of what I came to see. I’d been right when I recognized the curve of her body, even from a distance. Daphne Raines is standing in front of another set of security guards. She’s talking with her hands, giving emphasis to her words. I can tell she’s upset. There’s a boy with her. He’s shorter than she is, but he has his arm stretched up around her shoulder. It’s a familiar gesture that makes my hands feel hot. A thin stream of blue electricity crackles around the steering wheel.
“Haden, are you all right?” Dax asks.
I’m not sure what causes her to do it, but Daphne looks over toward our car. I hit the accelerator and drive away before she has a chance to see me.
I take us back to the house and pull the Tesla into the garage. Dax waits until Garrick has gone inside the house before he grabs me by the arm at the doorway.
“Did anyone see you when you went to the grove? Can anyone put you near there?”
“No,” I lie. “I went there and came straight back,” I say as we enter the house.
“Tsk, tsk,” someone says from the living room, but it isn’t Garrick. “Didn’t your mother teach you that lying is bad manners?”
As we round the corner into the living room, Simon stands up from the armchair. He holds a short, fat glass filled with bright red liquid. His voice sounds as cheery as ever, but the look in his eyes says that he’s not the least bit happy.
“Simon?” Dax says. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were going out for the night.”
“So did I.” Simon takes a deep swig from his glass and sets it neatly on a coaster on the coffee table. He smiles at me, the red liquid staining his teeth. “I’m here because of what Haden did in the grove.”
chapter eighteen
DAPHNE
“So let me get this straight,” the man in the blue uniform says. “You think Miss Perkins was attacked by a pirate with heat radiating off his skin and green eyes with fire in them? Would you like me to add fangs and wings to that description also? Maybe throw in some sparkles for a little flare?”
The security guard laughs, and his partner pats him on the back like he’s oh so funny.
“No, because then you would have a vam-pirate angel and not the person I’d described.”
The two laugh harder, and I feel like I’m about to kick someone in the shins. “Vam-pirate angels! You kids read too much, you know that? Your imaginations get the better of you.”
“I’m not imagining things,” I say. “And I’m not sure why I’m even talking to you right now. Shouldn’t the real police be here?”
Luckily, Tobin had a cell phone, since mine had gone who knows where with my tote bag. I’d sat next to Pear while he climbed to higher ground to call for help. I’d assumed he’d called 911 until about ten minutes later, when four Olympus Hills security guards came down the island slope to meet us, flashlights in hand. The only ways off the island are the two footbridges that lead to the lake’s jogging trails, so the guards had to carry Pear out, rather than bring a car in. Tobin and I had followed with my bike and guitar in tow as one of the guards cradled her body in his arms. She seemed as limp and heavy as the giant bags of topsoil I always had to help my mom heft back to the greenhouse.
We were met out on the road by the flashing lights of the security guards’ cars and an Olympus Hills Medical Response vehicle. A small group of bystanders had gathered on the side of the road.
Two of the guards loaded Pear into the medical van, while the other two pulled Tobin and me aside to get our statements about what happened. Tobin told them how we’d found Pear, but when the guards asked why we’d been in the grove in the first place, I confessed what happened in my encounter with the weird boy in the woods earlier today. They’d been following my story until I got to the guy’s description. Now they are acting like I am making it all up.