Mortal Kiss (22 page)

“Pretty wild, huh?” Liz said.

Faye nodded. “Oh yeah.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to help them,” Faye told her firmly. “Mercy has to be stopped, and if there’s no one else to do it—”

Liz nodded. “You’re right. We have to help them.” She looked at Joe. “You will look after Jimmy, won’t you?”

The big biker nodded. “Of course we will. And you too, Liz.”

“Me?”

Joe glanced at Finn, who nodded. “We think your dad may have been turned by Mercy,” Joe explained quietly. “She always targets the most important people in town as soon as she arrives. I’m sorry. I think it’ll be safer if you stay here with us, at least right now.”

“But—but what about my mom?” Liz asked in a whisper. “She—she’s still there, with him.”

Joe nodded. “Don’t worry. She’s not a threat to Mercy, so she’ll be safe enough. But Mercy must know by now that you helped Finn, Liz. That makes you a target. In fact, your mom will be safer with you out of the way.”

Liz nodded, feeling a numbness in her chest, spreading out from her heart. She blinked, tears blurring her vision. “He has been acting very strange recently. And—and we’ve got this big mirror. In the living room. I found him, a week or so ago, just standing in front of it. Staring.”

Joe sighed. “Had he spent any time with Mercy before that?”

Liz felt the tears slide down her face and nodded again. “Yes. He’d been to see her earlier that day.”

She felt Jimmy’s hand move and looked down to see that his eyes were open. He was watching her with concern and offered a smile. “Don’t worry,” he said hoarsely. “They’ll help him if they can. And I’ll look after you while you’re here. Promise.”

Liz smiled back and nodded, trying to be brave. “OK,” she whispered. “OK, Jimmy. I’ll stay right here.”

#

Faye watched Liz and Jimmy. For a second, they both seemed oblivious to everything else around them, and Faye felt a pang of loneliness. She wished she had someone like that, someone who could make the rest of the world and all its troubles fade away, if only for a moment.

“You should go home, though, Faye,” said Finn’s soft voice behind her. “Pam will be worried.”

She tore her gaze away from her friends and stood up, nodding. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“I’ll take you,” said Joe, getting to his feet. “It won’t take long.”

“No, Dad, it’s fine—I’ll go.” Finn got up. He looked a little stiff but otherwise OK.

Joe shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Finn. You need to recover. That was quite a beating you took.”

“I’m fine. It’s just a few scratches.”

“Even so, I don’t think—”

“Dad,” Finn interrupted. His voice was calm and low but brooked no argument. “I am taking Faye home. I won’t be long.”

Joe narrowed his eyes and looked at Finn for a second before nodding. “All right. Just be careful. Understand?”

Faye caught a look between Finn and his father that suggested Joe was talking about more than just the journey into town, but she didn’t know what it meant.

She went to Liz, and the two girls hugged tightly. Faye still didn’t like the idea of leaving her best friend alone with these … 
werewolves
. She couldn’t even believe she was using that word!

“Are you sure you’re going to be OK, staying here?” Faye asked Liz in a low voice.

Liz nodded. “Really, Faye, I think we have to trust them. And I feel safe with Joe. Don’t you with Finn?”

Faye smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

She knelt down to give Jimmy a gentle hug while Finn got her helmet ready.

Her friend still looked weak, but less pale than a few hours earlier, though that might have had something to do with the way Liz was insisting on holding his hand.

“I’m relying on you to take care of her, you know,” Faye whispered. Jimmy grinned back, nodding.

Faye was tired, but once she was on the back of Finn’s bike with her arms wrapped around his waist, exhilaration took over. They careened through the woods, bumping onto the road in minutes. Below them, the lights of Winter Mill shone brightly, and Faye wondered how something so terrible could be happening here, in her peaceful little town.

Finn slowed as he reached the town center, careful not to wake any of the inhabitants as he turned toward McCarron’s Bookstore. Faye could see a light
burning upstairs and hoped that Aunt Pam hadn’t stayed up waiting for her and worrying.

They slid to a stop, the engine idling as Faye swung her leg over the bike and jumped off. Finn watched as she pulled off her helmet. She handed it to him with a smile, but he didn’t smile back. He was staring at her again, in that way he had—the way he had stared the very first time they’d met in the mall, and every other time they had seen each other. Her heart turned over, but it also ached. There was something heartbreakingly sad in Finn’s gaze. It didn’t ease the loneliness that Faye was feeling—it just made it worse. He hadn’t tried to kiss her again, and it didn’t look like he was going to now. He was just looking at her, as if trying to sear every detail of her face into his mind. Faye felt something inside her tugging her toward him, a tie she couldn’t cut alone.

“Don’t,” she whispered. “Please.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t look at me like that. You’re always staring at me, as if—I don’t know—as if you’re seeing more than I can. I can’t—”

Finn looked away sharply. “I’m sorry. I just … it’s difficult. Every time I look at you …” He trailed off, shaking his head. “Never mind.”

“No—I want to know. Tell me.”

He shook his head again, as if trying to find the words. “Every time I look at you, it’s like seeing the picture of someone I haven’t seen for a very, very long time,” he said, so softly that Faye had to lean forward to hear him. They were very close, and his breath danced along her cheek as he spoke. “Except you’re not just a picture. You’re real. You’re real, Faye, you’re right there, and you look so much like—”

Faye realized she’d been holding her breath as he spoke. Their lips were so close, they were almost touching, and all she needed to do was move in, just a fraction, and they would meet. “Like who?” she whispered, half wanting to know, the rest of her wanting him to shut up and kiss her.

Finn hesitated. “Someone I … someone I cared about. A lot. She—” He stopped again, leaning back suddenly and squaring his shoulders. “Sorry. I … I didn’t mean to … You should go inside, where it’s warm.”

Before Faye could say anything, he kicked the bike’s engine into gear. The noise of the bike filled the quiet air as he roared off into the night.

“Wait!” Faye called after him. “Wait, I—”

It was no good. He’d already left. Faye stared after him for a few minutes. The adrenaline of the bike ride and their half-conversation drained away suddenly, leaving her exhausted. Pulling out her keys, she moved to the shop door and unlocked it, rubbing a hand over her tired eyes as she stepped inside.

But as she went to shut the door behind her, a foot pushed into the gap, forcing it wide open.

It was Lucas. He was breathing hard, as if he’d been running, and he looked scared. Faye tried to ram the door shut, but he wouldn’t move. Faye was terrified—after everything she’d just learned about his family, about how dangerous his mother was … And now he was here.

“Go away!” she hissed, looking around frantically for something that might work as a weapon.

“I’ve got to talk to you!” Lucas begged. “Please, Faye. Please let me in.”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she told him, trying again to shut the door.

“Faye … don’t …”

They struggled, the door between them, but Lucas was far stronger. He pushed hard, forcing Faye back until the opening was big enough for him to step through. The door slammed shut after him. Faye backed away, putting distance between them.

“Get out,” she said, petrified now, wishing desperately that her dad were here to help her. “You’re not welcome here. You … whatever you are.”

A flicker of confusion, followed by a flash of anger, passed over Lucas’s face. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“I know what you are,” Faye said, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice. “You and your evil mother. I know what you do to people. What you’ve done.”

“What do you know about my mother? Or perhaps I should ask, how long have you known her, Faye?”

It was Faye’s turn to be confused. “What? What are you talking about?” She suddenly realized how pale Lucas was. He looked scared, his hands shaking slightly.

Lucas snatched something from his pocket, holding it up for her to see. It was an old photograph, lined and creased.

“This is you,” he said, his voice full of accusation. “This is you, and I want to know who you are and what this was doing in my mother’s desk drawer.”

Faye stared at the picture in Lucas’s trembling hand. She felt the color draining from her face, like liquid being poured from a bottle. It wasn’t her. It couldn’t be her. And yet … and yet it looked like her. It looked exactly like her. She shook her head in incomprehension.

“This is you,” Lucas said again, taking a step forward. “I know it is. And you’re obviously into the same kind of thing my mother is, so explain it to me. What’s going on? What—what is that mirror thing?”

The mention of the mirror snapped Faye back to the present. She looked up at Lucas, shocked. “I’ve got nothing to do with your mother! How could you think that? How could you think I would do that to people? How could you?” she spat, furious and horrified in equal measure. “How could you think I would be that
evil
?”

There was a second of silence as they stared at each other. Then something crumbled in Lucas’s eyes. He blinked, looking away, and put one hand up to his face.

“This is a nightmare,” he muttered. “I don’t know where to go. I don’t have anyone I can trust. I don’t know what’s happening. Everything … everything’s falling apart. And I don’t know why.”

Faye watched him with a frown. He wasn’t acting the way someone with an unlimited, ancient power should. He seemed lost, unsure of himself.

At her silence, Lucas shook his head again, turning back to face her but not meeting her eyes. “Look,” he said, “I thought—I thought we were getting to be
friends. Weren’t we? And … and I’ve got to find out what’s going on. My mother—she’s … doing something. I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s why we came here, and I know it’s not good. And this is the second picture of you that I’ve found in our house, Faye. That’s got to mean something, doesn’t it?”

Faye still didn’t say anything. Was this a trick? Had Mercy sent him? Or was this real, and did Lucas truly have no idea what was going on?

“I like you, Flash,” Lucas continued, quieter now. “You’re the only one who hasn’t been interested in our money, or my mother. And … and you’re cute.”

At that, Faye felt the color rush back to her cheeks with a vengeance. She looked away as Lucas kept talking, feeling her heart stutter just the way it had when their hands had touched as he’d helped pick up her scattered books. She didn’t know why he had this effect on her, but she did know that it was nice to have someone be honest about how they were feeling for a change. Unlike Finn, who made every nerve in her body buzz with excitement but always seemed to be leaving her standing on her own …

“If you know what’s going on, please tell me,” Lucas begged. “I don’t have anyone else to ask. Faye, I don’t even have anywhere else to go.”

She stared at him for another moment. Then she nodded slowly. “Yeah,” she said with a slight smile, “you wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had, either. Why don’t we make some hot chocolate? Then we can talk, OK?”

#

Lucas sat at the McCarrons’ kitchen table, trying to take in everything that Faye had just told him. He stared at the mug in his hand, watching the thick hot chocolate swirl gently inside. He wished it were hot enough to burn him—anything to take his mind off what Faye had asked him to acknowledge.

Across the table, he felt her eyes watching him. “I know it’s hard to believe,” she said softly. “And I’m sorry. But I swear it’s true, Lucas.”

After a moment he nodded and took a swallow of his drink, even though he could no longer taste it properly.

“It’s not really that it’s hard to believe,” he muttered. “I just don’t … don’t
want
to believe it. She’s my mom. She …”

He trailed off and was surprised to feel Faye’s fingers brushing over his own where they were bunched on the table between them. He looked up, finding her eyes full of sympathy, and thought again how pretty she was.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“What for?” she asked, removing her hand.

He shrugged. “For having an evil mother. For not realizing it sooner. And, I guess, for fighting Finn earlier. If he’s a good guy in all this, I mean. Despite the weird werewolf stuff.”

Faye smiled. “Well, the first two things really aren’t your fault. And the third … it’s hard to know what Finn’s thinking. He doesn’t say much. And the bikers all think you’re part of Mercy’s circle, so he was as willing to fight you as you were to fight him. So I don’t think you need to apologize for that. You were amazing, by the way.”

Lucas looked up, not understanding what she meant.

“At the Battle of the Bands, I mean,” Faye clarified. “The way you sang, and played that guitar. You’re really, really talented, Lucas.”

He smiled. “Thanks. Music means a lot to me. And I’ve had a lot of time to practice. Even though Mom’s always taken me everywhere with her, I guess I’ve always spent most of my time alone.”

Faye nodded. “I’m sorry.”

Lucas laughed, though it sounded harsher than he intended. “Don’t be. After all, if she’d been more interested in me, maybe I’d be as evil as she is by now.”

“I don’t believe that,” Faye said softly. “You’re a good person, Lucas. Will you help us?”

“Help you with what?”

“I don’t know,” Faye admitted with a sigh. “Joe’s determined to stop whatever she’s planning. And I think we—and the bikers—will need all the help we can get. Whatever that turns out to be.”

Lucas smiled, shrugging a little. “Hey. If it helps you out, Flash … anything. OK?”