Echoes (9 page)

“Ethan!”

He wasn’t walking fast, so I caught up to him easily enough, but he didn’t stop and he didn’t turn to look at me. Downtown was behind us now and we had to go past the warehouse area again in order to take the short way back to our neighborhood.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” I shouted at his back.

His shoulders tensed, but he still didn’t slow down. “So talk.”

I grabbed his arm, finally bringing him to a halt.

“I’m sorry,” I said. It seemed fitting.

That earned me a glance. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry you’re being ridiculous and totally overreacting.”

He hissed out a breath. “Why am I doing this to myself? Look, Olivia, forget what happened back there. Believe it or not, I understand. I might not like it, but I do understand.”

“You understand what?”

“That I’m making everything more complicated by being a dick right now. So here’s how it’s going to go. Tomorrow I’ll talk to Bree. I’ll get my hands on her ancestor’s journal and see if it can tell us anything we don’t already know about the Upyri and what they might be planning. I’ll go talk to Frank later tonight on my own and hopefully he’s sobered up a bit. I’ll get to the bottom of the real reason the Upyri are after you. No sign of them today. Maybe they’ve already left Ravenridge and won’t be back.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

He hesitated. “No. But I’ll figure something out and I’ll let you know what it is. I don’t want to get in your way any more than I have to.”

I was quiet for so long, staring at him, that he eyed me warily.

“What?” he asked.

“I think you’re driving me crazy, Ethan.”

“Excuse me?”

“Crazy. Completely and utterly crazy.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I had no idea what to say to make this not be weird between us and get us both working together again as smoothly as before. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

“You’re making it seem like I don’t want to be around you at all. That I’m just using you to find out more about the Upyri. But that’s not true.”

“Let’s just forget about it.”

“No. Let’s not.”

He hissed out a breath. “I don’t need this, Olivia, any of it.”

“Any of what?”

He shook his head, raking his hand through his black hair. “Anything I say now will make me seem even more pathetic than I am to begin with.”

“You’re not pathetic.”

“You could have fooled me. Every memory I have about you has me being pathetic in it. I guess I can’t help what I am. Not everything changes.”

What the hell was he talking about? “For the record, I do like that diner. I have a lot of very fond memories about going there with my dad. But yeah, I’ll admit I did pick it because I thought it would give us some privacy, which has nothing to do with not wanting to be seen with you in public.”

“If you say so.”

Ethan seemed to be as fixated on social restrictions as Helen was. “I honestly couldn’t care less what anyone else thinks, if that’s what’s bothering you.”

“Great. I don’t care either.” His expression hadn’t brightened in the slightest which made me think he wasn’t getting any meaning from my diatribe other than apathy.

“What I
do
care about is what happened between us the other night. I can’t stop thinking about it, actually.”

When he tried to walk past me I blocked his path.

His jaw was tight. “What do you want from me, Olivia?”

“I want you to kiss me again.”

His eyes snapped to mine. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“You have a boyfriend, remember?”

I swallowed hard. “I’m going to break up with him tomorrow. It’s been coming on for awhile, so it shouldn’t be a huge shock to anyone, including him. Trust me, he’ll find someone else fast. I’m not breaking anybody’s heart.”

He didn’t speak for a moment. “I shouldn’t kiss you again, Liv. You have no idea how much I shouldn’t. We need to focus on what’s really important here.”

“I know, but I—”

Ethan slid his hand to the small of my back, pulled me closer to him, and kissed me. I made a little squeaky noise in the back of my throat, a gasp of surprise, since, well, I was surprised. I was positive he’d turn away from me and keep walking.

But he didn’t.

And just like the other night in his room, the kiss was both sweet and hungry, and he pulled me tight against him.

He drew back a little from me and held his warm hands up against my flushed cheeks.

“This is trouble,” he whispered. “So much trouble.”

“Excuse me,” someone said. “Do you have the time?”

I glanced over, shocked to see a man standing nearby. I hadn’t noticed anyone approach. He was large, muscled, with broad shoulders. Looked like a biker guy who might be found in Frank’s bar.

Asking for the time was not an unusual request, but it immediately made me uneasy. For one thing, there was a big clock clearly visible from here, on the top of one of the taller buildings downtown. All he’d have to do is turn to his left to see it.

“It’s almost five,” I said.

The man smiled. “Thank you, Olivia. I appreciate it.”

Ethan was in front of me in an instant.

“Ethan, right?” The man’s smile grew. “Still determined to protect the girl from us, huh?”

Panic shot through me as I realized who he was—and
what
he was.

“Just turn around and walk away,” Ethan growled.

“Where’s your silver knife today?” The Upyr scanned Ethan in one quick glance. “Leave it at home with mommy?”

“I’m warning you, leave
now
.”

He drew another blade out of a sheath on his belt and twisted it so it caught the sunlight. “I’m sick of waiting around and twiddling my thumbs. It’s time to get down to business. There’s less to distract me in this shell. No ties, no family. He liked violence, the more the merrier, so let’s get this party started.”

“Where’s your friend?” My voice was shaky, but I had to find some sort of a diversion. “Haven’t found her yet?”

The barest edge of pain skittered across his expression. “Not sure. But she’s around, I know it.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe she doesn’t want to give you the signal. Doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore.”

The Upyr’s gaze snapped to him. “You know a lot about us, don’t you?”

“Enough.”

The Upyr’s lip curved up to the right in an unpleasant smirk. “What if I said to you that the shadows are growing long on the ground? And the days are turning to night. Endless night.”

Ethan glared at him. “Go to hell.”

The Upyr grinned. “How about I meet you there?”

He arched the blade through the air and the edge caught Ethan’s forearm as he attempted to block it. Blood seeped through his sleeve. He hissed in pain, but managed to grab the Upyr’s arm. I already knew that Ethan was strong and tall, but this guy was a wall of muscle.

He broke Ethan’s hold on him easily, punching him hard in the jaw. As Ethan’s head snapped to the side, the man took the hilt of the knife and struck Ethan hard in the back of his head. Ethan fell to his knees and then collapsed to the ground.

“Ethan!” But before I could get to him, the Upyr grabbed my arm hard enough to bruise and I shrieked.

“You’re coming with me. I’ll hang onto you till the time’s right. Best to have all the pieces in place. Makes things nice and simple.”

Struggling was an exercise in futility. I wasn’t even worried about myself, I was worried about Ethan. Not only was his arm bleeding badly from where he’d been sliced with that knife, but there was now blood trickling down his temple.

“Is he alive?” I snarled. “Did you kill him, you bastard?”

“His shell hasn’t burned up yet, so I guess he’s still breathing.” He snorted at my gasp of shock. “What? Didn’t you know?”

I gaped at him as I continued to struggle. “What are you talking about?”

“Your little boyfriend’s one of us. No idea what he was planning, but I couldn’t just sit back and wait and let him get all the credit for delivering you up on a silver platter.”

My stomach lurched. “You’re sick. You hear me? You’re a lying, disgusting, sick, bloodsucking
freak
.”

He cocked his head to the side. “You don’t believe me.”

“Why would I believe anything you say?”

His wide form lurched forward a little and he let go of me. His forehead furrowed and he craned his neck to look over his shoulder.

Frank was standing there, shotgun at his side, and he lowered his boot-clad foot to the ground after kicking the Upyr squarely in the back.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” he growled.

The Upyr snorted. “Like you?”

“That works for me.”

Frank raised the gun and shot the Upyr in the chest. The Upyr staggered backward, then frowned and looked down at the welling patch of dark blood on his shirt.

“Silver bullets,” Frank said. “Never tried this brand before but I’m thinking—”

The Upyr roared in pain and fury and disappeared in a violent flash of fire.

“—they might just do the trick. Oh...well, good. Fast acting too. Total bonus.”

I gaped at him and the scorch mark on the ground for a long moment before I ran to Ethan’s side, dropping to my knees next to him. Frank drunkenly staggered a little as he stepped forward, then crouched on the other side and felt at Ethan’s throat.

He grunted with approval. “Don’t worry, he’s alive.”

I struggled to breathe, my brain a jumble of information. “The—the Upyr said that Ethan was…”

“What?”

I opened my mouth to tell him what the Upyr said about Ethan, but the words stuck thickly in my throat, tasting like the poisonous lies they were.

“He was just trying to scare me. Mess me up. And it worked.”

“I’m sure this was terrifying for you.” His bushy brows drew together. “But it proves one thing. The Upyri
do
want you.”

“They want me to be a shell for one of them. Me, specifically.”

“Lucky you.” He pulled a clean handkerchief out of the pocket of his jeans and used it to wipe at the wound on Ethan’s head.

“Is he really going to be okay?” I asked.

“Kid’s got a hard melon. Don’t worry.”

“You followed us.”

He flicked me a glance. “That a problem for you?”

Gratitude mixed with the distaste I already felt for this guy. Gratitude won. “I didn’t think you wanted to help us.”

“It depends on the hour of the day. You caught me on a bad hour. I decided to venture out and find Ethan and apologize for my rude behavior earlier. I brought this with me just in case I ran across any problems on the way.” He indicated the shotgun. “Lucky I did.”

I eyed it warily. “You walk around town with that a lot?”

“Sometimes.”

I glanced around nervously. “You think somebody heard that shot?”

“This is a safe town. Not too much gunplay normally. They’d probably think it’s just a car backfiring.”

“Thank you for what you did,” I said and swallowed past the lump in my throat, still in shock.

“Forget it.”

Finally Ethan began to rouse. He touched his head and winced. “What happened?”

“Upyr whooped your ass,” Frank told him. “What happened? Were you...oh, I don’t know...” He glanced at me. “Distracted?”

“You could say that.” Ethan pushed himself up into a sitting position. “Damn, my head.”

“And your arm.” I pushed back his sleeve, grimacing at the blood. A wound like that would need stitches.

He looked at it and grimaced. “Nice.”

“How many were there?” Frank asked. “Only the one?”

“Yeah, the same one we’ve met twice before. This was his third body that I’m aware of. He must be tired of changing shells.”

Frank glanced at Ethan’s arm. “You need to take care of that.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but bleeding all over the place isn’t helping anyone. Might attract some unwanted attention.”

“I need to get Olivia home.”

“I can take her.”

“No.” Ethan’s jaw was stiff. “I want to.”

“Fine,” Frank growled. He didn’t sound happy about any of this. He sounded like a man who’d much rather be bellied up to the bar with a few shots of whiskey lined up in front of him.

I helped Ethan up to his feet. “Wait. You want me to go home? What else can I do? How can we stop them?”

Frank regarded me for a moment. “Leave it to me, kid. I’m going to look into a few things around town and I’ll be in touch, okay?”

“So, what? You want me to watch TV, do my homework, and pretend none of this is happening?”

“It’ll be way easier for me to do my thing if you focus on staying out of harm’s way. Don’t take it personally.”

Arguments rose in my throat, but I swallowed them back down. I had the overwhelming need to help, to do something, to learn more, but I didn’t want to mess things up. This was all new to me. But Frank, for his many faults, seemed to be a veteran of the bizarre.

“Fine,” I finally replied. “We’ll play by your rules.”

“Good.”

“I’ll talk to you later, Frank,” Ethan said.

“You better.”

We began walking away. I looked over my shoulder at Frank. “Thanks. Really, I mean it.”

I didn’t know what his real story was, what his motivation was, and how much he knew about everything and was keeping from us, but I was still grateful to him.

And that gratitude helped me forgive a whole lot.

After all, if the Upyri wanted me dead so they could steal my body, then I’d rather the crazy guy with the shotgun full of silver bullets was on my side than theirs.

I walked next to Ethan, my arms crossed tightly over my chest.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” I asked. “He hit you really hard.”

“It’s not the first time I’ve taken a beating.”

I wanted to say something to that—clarify if he was talking about the Upyri or real people: his father, his mom’s ex, or bullies at school over the years—but I decided to keep my mouth shut. About that, anyway.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

He glanced at me. “For what?”

“For...I don’t know. It wasn’t a good day.”

“Parts of it sucked. Other parts...well, it was starting to improve before the Upyr showed up and ruined everything.”

Our second kiss. I was about to agree with him when he spoke again.

“We can talk more tomorrow,” he said. “Figure everything out then. But Frank’s right. I need to take care of this wound.”

He walked me all the way to my front door this time. I gently took hold of his sleeve before he moved away from me. “Get some stitches.”

“Won’t need stitches, it’s not as deep as it looks. It’s already stopped bleeding. It’ll heal.”

“But your head—”

“It’ll be fine too.” He smiled a little. “Don’t worry about me, Liv.”

I nodded. I wanted to tell him what the Upyr said, but I couldn’t force the words out. It was as if shining the spotlight on it would be acknowledging that it could be the truth.

Ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.

He hesitated a moment. I thought he might kiss me again, but he didn’t. He finally nodded firmly and then turned to walk away. I watched him head down my driveway and out to the sidewalk. I watched him till he disappeared around the hedge at the bend of the street.

I didn’t stay on the front step long. I turned and jammed my key in the lock and let myself in, closing and locking the door behind me.

“You’re home.” My mother’s voice greeted me. I kept thinking that home was my refuge, my safe place to hide. Wrong.

But I also had to remember I’d promised to give her a chance and not shy away from any opportunity to talk to her.

With this in mind, I fastened a calm, serene, “I’m totally in control of my life” expression on my face before I turned to face her. She stood by the window.

“Yup. Here I am.”

“That boy you were with. Isn’t that the Cole boy from down the street?”

“Ethan,” I confirmed with a nod. I didn’t want to tell her anything, but it seemed like there was no out at the moment. Of course my mother would know everyone in the neighborhood even if I didn’t. She’d been a social butterfly before but since she’d returned she’d kept mostly to herself. I wasn’t sure if half her old friends even knew she was back. Maybe she wasn’t just wary of my reaction to her unexpected return. Her friends might not understand why they’d been abandoned either.

“Are you seeing Ethan now instead of Peter?”

I notice she had a glass of red wine in her hand and a quick glance at the counter through the archway into the kitchen showed a half empty bottle. My mother always drank too much, but rarely before six o’clock. Nice to see that the thought of talking with me, now that I’d agreed to stop constantly avoiding her, had driven her straight to the bottle earlier than usual. Maybe I should introduce her to Frank. I couldn’t really picture her seated next to him at a stool in that bar, though.

Definitely not her type. Never met the guy she’d ran away with, but I heard he was really good looking. Some muscle-headed personal trainer who’d worked at the Ravenridge Gym.

I chewed my bottom lip a bit as I tried to come up with a good reply. I decided to go with the truth. “Yes. Ethan and me…we’re seeing each other.”

She smiled and shook her head. “So strange.”

“What?”

“I remember him growing up. Carolyn, his mother, and I chatted from time to time. We had coffee once, even. I have a very clear memory of Ethan riding past here on his bike, back and forth, as if he was looking for you. It was always obvious to me he had a big crush on you.”

I stared at her blankly. “A crush on me?”

She shrugged and took a sip of wine. “Is that so hard to believe?”

“I never really...I mean, we haven’t exactly talked much over the years.”

“Not surprised about that. Carolyn mentioned how painfully shy he was. The boy I remember never would have spoken directly to you, no matter what the motivation. I guess he’s changed over the years—finally come out of his shell.”

Her word choice made a shiver run down my spine. His
shell.

It was ridiculous that I was giving anything that stupid Upyr said a second thought. It was utterly, completely, totally impossible. I’d rejected the notion one hundred percent.

And yet, here I was still thinking about it.

Ethan was
not
an Upyr.

So he was shy when he was a kid and didn’t talk much. Now he talked. He talked to me. He saved me from monsters who wanted to kill me. He protected me.

That didn’t sound like a monster in hiding getting ready to drink my blood.

“I have homework to do,” I announced, feeling a sudden and desperate need to escape.

“I ordered a pizza,” my mother said, her tone now cautious. “It should be here shortly.”

“I’ll come back down when I hear the doorbell.” I moved toward the stairs.

“Olivia—”

I glanced over my shoulder. “Yes?”

The front door creaked open and my father entered the house. He glanced at us each in turn. “Sorry, am I interrupting anything?”

“Not at all, darling.” My mother moved toward him and gave him a kiss passionate enough that it turned my stomach. “Liv and I were just talking about pizza and boys.”

Pizza and boys.

That sounded nice and simple, didn’t it?

I really wished it was.

o0o

School. Now
that
was simple.

At least, it was simple in theory. In practice—not so much.

I texted Peter to say I didn’t need a ride this morning. I got one from my father instead. I honestly didn’t want deal with the Peter situation right now, but I knew I had to. There were plenty of other girls who’d love to go out with him. He wouldn’t be alone very long, I could guarantee that.

He
wasn’t the shy one.

Ethan hadn’t thought I wanted to be seen with him, to be with him at all.

He was so wrong about that.

However, any thoughts of potential romance with the boy I couldn’t stop thinking about would have to wait. I’d deal with it all after I dealt with the hidden monsters who’d taken up residence in town.

Monsters that
didn’t
include Ethan. That Upyr had been lying, saying the one thing that would eat away at me. The one thing that he probably knew would instill doubt in the one person who had helped me. The one person I trusted more than anyone else right now.

Helen was waiting at our lockers for my arrival. Normally she greeted me with a big smile as she quickly shared the news of the day before we took off for first class.

There was no smile this morning.

I didn’t need additional high school drama today, but it was impossible to avoid her. I’d already been avoiding her texts. Then again, my phone wasn’t working properly. She didn’t have to know I’d even received them.

Thank God it was Friday.

“Hey Helen,” I said casually. “How’s it going?”

“Ethan Cole,” she said.

I grimaced. “What about him?”

“Julia said she saw you downtown with him yesterday.”

“I, uh, yeah. We hung out after school together.”

She didn’t look angry at the confirmation, exactly. Instead, she looked hurt.

Four years we’d been best friends ever since she moved to town halfway through seventh grade. Four years we’d told each other every secret, every experience, the good and the bad. She was my best friend for a reason. Sure she was petty sometimes and a bit too focused on being popular and perfect and having control over her life at all times, but she’d been there for me unfailingly when I’d been in the depths of despair about my mother leaving. She’d been patient as I got myself together again. She’d been there for me every step of the way and I’d have done the same if it had happened to her.

But it hadn’t. Helen’s life was virtually perfect in every way. Always had been. If her mother was planning to take off to Hawaii with her personal trainer, she’d probably schedule this event a year in advance and send out regular reminder notices to everyone.

I guessed that she saw Ethan as a symptom of me drifting away from her. He was a part of my life I wasn’t willing to share with her or anyone else. Not yet.

“I don’t understand you lately, Liv,” she said softly. “Why would you keep this from me? Have I done something wrong?”

I took a deep breath to compose myself. “No, of course not.”

“Why Ethan? There are tons of other guys in this school. Why would you choose
him
and not somebody else?”

My back immediately came up. I didn’t understand why she was so hard on Ethan. If she’d open her eyes she’d see he was just as good as anyone else. Better even, in my opinion. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“What about Peter? What about prom tomorrow night?”

I tensed. “Have you told him anything about this?”

“No, but you should tell him soon.” Her attention moved past me and at the crowded hall around us. “After all, we wouldn’t want him to hear any rumors.”

Her word choice made me think of Bree’s insistence that it was Helen who’d spread the nasty rumors about me and everyone else around school. I hated to think it might be true.

Then again, spreading rumors about her friends and blaming it on someone outside of our circle would be a great way to keep everyone close to her. A way of controlling the group and keeping things perfect. Perfect according to Helen, anyway.

“Honestly, Helen, you’d think this was the end of the world or something the way you’re looking at me. I’m going to break up with Peter today. Besides, me being friends with Ethan is not a bad thing and it has nothing to do with you.”

“It has
everything
to do with me.”

My patience was wearing thin. “I know this is a major shocker for you, but just because he’s not part of our usual crowd, not wildly popular or anything, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t exist. Or that we should ignore him.”

She wiped at her eyes. She was actually crying now and I found that unbelievably confusing. “I know that. I’m not stupid, you know. It’s just that Ethan is
supposed
to be alone. He’s not supposed to be interested in anyone else...” She trailed off. “Forget it. Let’s just forget it, okay?”

I couldn’t figure her out today. “Maybe I don’t want to forget this.”

“Whatever.” Wiping at her tears, she stormed off and I was left wondering what exactly was going on. She’d acted as if I’d stolen her boyfriend.

Unless...

She couldn’t be interested in Ethan, could she? That made no sense at all.

Or did it?

The truth suddenly came to me with such clarity I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before today. Of course I hadn’t seen it. I mean, up until this week even
I
hadn’t noticed Ethan that much.

Helen must have had a secret crush on him all this time. She liked a boy outside of her social circle and if she’d acknowledged this her perfectly constructed life would have taken a bashing.

She’d never acted on this crush, but in her mind, Ethan still wasn’t allowed to date anyone else.

I couldn’t believe it. Until this moment, I hadn’t had a clue.

I had to talk to Ethan before class. Not about this, though. This—this could definitely wait. No, we had to discuss our plans when it came to Bree and that journal that might have a ton of answers we desperately needed.

I grabbed my books out of my locker before quickly making my way through the halls toward his locker. Through the crowd of kids heading to first class, I saw him and my heart did an immediate flip-flop. His back was to me and today he wore a blue shirt, black jeans, and black lace-up shoes. My gaze moved over his dark hair, the edge of his jaw. And his hands...

I frowned.

His hands were pressed against Bree Margolis’s cheeks as he leaned closer to where he had her backed up against the wall. He stroked some of her pink-streaked hair back from her forehead and tucked it behind her ear. Her gaze was fixed on his eyes and he was saying something softly to her that she looked completely and utterly mesmerized by.

My gut twisted at seeing them in such an intimate position, practically making out in the middle of the hall and I felt a sharp pain, like someone had just sliced a knife through my chest.

I waited, not able to tear my attention away from the two of them. Finally he released her. She nodded and brushed past him, blinking as if she’d suddenly come out of a dark theater into bright sunshine.

“Hey,” she said when she spotted me standing there. Nothing to indicate she felt the least bit awkward about my standing there gawking at the two of them.

“Hi.” I forced myself to sound casual. “I see Ethan got a chance to talk to you about that journal of yours.”

“Journal?” she asked, frowning. “What journal?”

I snorted. “Funny. The journal? The one you told me about yesterday?”

“Uh, what? Sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Maybe I’d stuttered. “The one your ancestor wrote in about the”—I lowered my voice—”Upyri?”

“I know there’s a family rumor that an ancestor of mine had something to do with fighting them off ages ago, but...” Her frown deepened. “I don’t know anything about any journal.”

My eyes narrowed with confusion. “Then what were you talking to Ethan about?”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t talking to Ethan. I haven’t even seen him this morning.”

I opened my mouth to tell her off for trying to lie to me after a very rough week, but then I stopped. The look on her face—she was being dead serious. She didn’t remember anything about that journal at all. Ditto her conversation with Ethan only a few minutes ago.