“What can I do?” he said, instantly concerned. I almost rolled my eyes. Everywhere I went, I seemed to trip over protective men.
“Well, I’d actually love it if you took a little trip. To visit Mom’s cousin Rhys in Scotland. He’s lonely, and really wants to meet up with some family. For the holidays.”
“Mom didn’t have any cousins,” he said, looking confused. “Besides, I thought we were gonna get together for Christmas.”
“It might be second cousin, I’m not sure. But you can have Christmas with him,” I said, too brightly. Rhys is one of the other five nulls that I know about in the world. He lives in Scotland (there’s a theory that evolution has spread the nulls out deliberately to give us maximum effect, but that’s another story), and though we’d barely spoken in the past, when I called to explain that Jack was in danger he’d agreed to do this for me. I’d tried to talk him into taking Molly too, but he’d refused to host a vampire over the holidays. Which was kind of okay, since Jack’s last-minute international ticket cost almost every penny in my already pathetic savings account.
“Scarbo,” Jack said, glancing at Molly, who remained quiet. She was waiting for a cue from me. “I can’t just do that. I have study group, and work—”
“I already cleared it with Dashiell,” I said. That was technically a lie, but I was certain that once Dashiell woke for the night, he’d okay it. Mostly certain. Okay, I was just hoping. “He’s giving you all the time you need.”
“But what about you?” Jack protested. “You can’t be alone on Christmas!”
“I’ve been alone on Christmas before,” I reminded him gently. This was a cheap shot. The year after our parents died, Jack was still so grief stricken that he couldn’t stand to be around me. Of course, I was too guilt stricken to be around him, so it kind of worked out.
“Which is exactly why I shouldn’t leave,” he said promptly.
Backfire. “Look, he already sent you a ticket, for tonight,” I said, handing it over with a weak little flourish. “It’s nonrefundable. It would be awful if Rhys wasted all that money.”
But Jack didn’t even look at the ticket. He was looking straight at me. “Don’t use Mom guilt on me, Scarbo. What’s going on?” he said. “Why are you so anxious to get rid of me? Are you and I…not okay?”
Shit, shit, shit. I checked my watch: 5:10. It was rush hour in LA, and I had less than an hour before Jesse would come for me. If I wasn’t there, he’d probably swear out an arrest warrant. I sighed and made eye contact with Molly. “I need to use the restroom.” She nodded at me.
“Uh, okay…” Jack said, confusion still in his voice.
I got up and trudged toward the hallway. When I felt Molly leave my radius, I went a few steps farther and turned to watch them, keeping tight against the wall. Guilt folded my stomach in on itself. Molly was smiling at Jack, her face suddenly radiant, her hair brighter. Even her clothes seemed to perk up when she became vampire. She reached across the table and took Jack’s hand, forcing eye contact. I couldn’t see his face from that angle, but he didn’t pull away.
“Jack,” Molly began, still smiling. “You’re going to go to Scotland for Christmas.”
“Yes.”
Molly didn’t seem to be doing anything special, at least not from where I was, but I’d never heard Jack’s voice so empty of life. Tears spilled down my cheeks, but I couldn’t look away. I had caused this. I owed it to Jack not to hide from it.
“You’re excited to see Rhys, who is your mother’s favorite cousin.”
“Yes.”
“You’re grateful to Scarlett for setting all this up, as a Christmas present.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not at all suspicious or worried about the trip. Are you?”
“No.”
With one last smile, Molly let go of his hand and looked over to me. She nodded. I brushed tears away with my sleeves and went back to my spot near the window. Molly readjusted to mortality.
“Hey, Scarbo,” Jack said cheerfully. “Thank you, again, for setting all this up. This is the coolest Christmas present ever!”
“No problem,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.
“Oh, hey, since I’ll be gone next week, let me go grab your present,” he said, racing off toward the bedroom.
I felt Molly’s eyes on me, but I couldn’t look at her. “I just did what you asked,” she said quietly.
“I know. Thank you.” I heard her sigh. “What about you, Molls?”
“Me? I’ll be just fine.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t start with me, Scarlett.”
“This is the second time this year you’ve had to leave town because of who I am.”
“Oh, please. The self-blaming thing is boring. Besides, I’ll be having a great time. I’m going—”
“Don’t tell me where you’re going,” I said, too sharply.
“Right.” She didn’t falter. “Just do me a favor and kill that disgraceful bitch. For all of us.”
When we left Jack’s, I was wearing his present—a deep-green scarf, chosen to set off my eyes (“I just asked the saleslady to match it to mine,” Jack had said, blushing again)—and Jack was calling a cab to take him to the airport. I would have liked to march him right up to the security screening—hell, I wanted to close the door of the plane myself—but he promised to text when he had boarded, which would have to be good enough. I broke about twelve traffic regulations on the way home and made it to the house at 5:57. Molly made for the staircase, up to her room to pack. After a moment of thought, I went up after her and knocked on her doorframe.
“Hey, Molls, can you do one more thing for me?”
She looked up from an expensive-looking leather duffel bag. “What’s that?”
“Can you call Dashiell, fill him in on Olivia and the party tonight? Just so he’s updated?” Kirsten would never let vampires actually attend the party, but he’d want to know what we were doing.
A smile spread across her face. “Already done.”