But before I leave that woman behind, she tells me that although the girl may be gone, her protector is still close by. And she offers to take me to him.
So I choose to keep that woman close. And I choose to stay.
For now.
CHAPTER TEN
Someplace Safe?
I’m still not asleep when I hear a voice. “Not again,” I whisper to myself. The last time I heard a strange voice on my first night in a new place, it was the beginning of the test that turned my entire life upside down.
I get out of bed. My every step results in creaks and groans, as though my small-person footfalls are shaking the house to its foundation. I tiptoe across the room and open the door the tiniest crack.
I breathe a sigh of relief because the voice is one I recognize. It’s not a spirit or a demon; it’s just the sound of Aidan’s deep baritone.
What has my life been reduced to that hearing my supernaturally empowered, long-lost birth father’s voice has become the most normal explanation available to me?
But then another voice enters the conversation—duh, Sunshine, obviously Aidan was talking to someone—a voice I don’t recognize, though it’s almost as deep as Aidan’s, so I can tell it belongs to a male. At first the words sound like nothing but gibberish. The last time I heard a strange voice speaking words I couldn’t understand it was coming from my mother’s mouth when the demon possessed her. What kind of creature is downstairs with Aidan now?
As the voices grow louder, I realize the second voice isn’t speaking some mystical dead language but rather Spanish. I’m able to pick up a very few random words I’ve heard before: dos, ma?ana, nunca.
Nice one, Sunshine, you’re mistaking Spanish for mystical dead languages. Such a worldly girl you are. I sigh at just how much my life has changed since turning sixteen.
I guess someone else is sleeping in one of the bedrooms downstairs. Someone who didn’t abandon Aidan when the others left, someone he hasn’t told me about yet. And apparently this someone is very upset about something because his voice is growing louder with each syllable.
“Keep your voice down,” Aidan growls in English. “The girl is asleep upstairs.”
I’m not asleep. Be as loud as you like.
“I’m sorry,” the other voice answers, “but it’s hard to keep quiet when one of our spirits escaped days ago and I still can’t find it.”
One of our spirits?
“You’ll find it.”
“And if I don’t in time?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Unlike whoever he’s talking to, Aidan doesn’t raise his voice. Which makes me want to run downstairs and shout, How can you be calm at a time like this? Because I know what happens to spirits who don’t move on in time. They turn dark, like the demon who nearly killed my mother.
“A spirit shouldn’t be behaving like this,” the other voice argues. Aidan and his companion lapse back into Spanish, more words I don’t understand until finally I hear one of them say buenas noches, which even I know means good night.
I listen to their footsteps creak across the hardwood on the first floor as they move across the room. Two doors click softly shut. Aidan and his friend, whoever he is, have gone to bed.
I close my door. It’s so humid and hot in this room that I’ve long since flung the covers back. This old mattress isn’t nearly as soft as my mattress back in Ridgemont. I swear I could literally feel each individual spring digging into my back. The idea of lying back down isn’t exactly appealing.
But I know I should at least try to get some sleep. I don’t know what Aidan has planned for me tomorrow, but I don’t think he’s the kind of teacher who’ll excuse you from class just for being tired. Especially on the first day.
But first I drop to the ground and feel around in the dark until my hands hit the jeans I’d been wearing earlier. I dig the knife out of my back pocket and slide it beneath my pillow.
Suddenly this supposed “someplace safe” doesn’t feel so safe after all.
The sheets twist around my sweaty legs, the lingering dust now wet and sticking to my skin. I squeeze my eyes shut. Pretending to sleep is almost as good as the real thing, right? Much to my surprise, within a few minutes my eyelids grow heavy and my breaths grow deeper. Within seconds I’m asleep. I’m dreaming.
The nightmare starts out innocently enough. There’s a beautiful woman standing over me, curly brown hair framing her lovely face, her tanned skin the color of honey. She smiles at me, and I smile back automatically. She coos in response, reaching her arms out to hold me.
But then something in her face shifts. There’s something desperate in her eyes. She looks like the evil queen from a fairy tale, beautiful but dangerous. Her hands turn into fists, her eyes narrow, and it looks like she’s biting her tongue to keep from screaming out loud.