4 Waxing & Waning (11 page)

The rest of the semester flew by. Finals were a pain – but they were easier than they had been in the past. Now that I was taking classes that actually piqued my interest – Oceanography and the never-ending study of tidal patterns notwithstanding – things were simplifying themselves.

Well, at least on the academic front.

My personal life was still a mess. We’re not dwelling on that, though. Yeah, sure, a vampire thinks watching me sleep is fine – and the werewolf I used to date has a total wench as a girlfriend – but these are not the things I’m focusing on.
What? I’m not. Oh, shut up.

Professor Blake was still acting cagey. He promised he would have more information when I returned from Christmas break, but I wasn’t holding my breath. I was lying to him; he was lying to me. It was like a carousel that never stopped. He was just one of the creepy ducks on the carousel that gave me nightmares. And, no, I’m not bitter.

“I can’t believe we’re
finally
having a party.”

I was sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels, when Tally descended from the second floor. She looked like she was going to a disco bar instead of a house party.

“We’ve had several parties,” I said. “And I can’t tell you how excited I am for this one.”

“Has the keg arrived?”

None of us were twenty-one yet, so we’d had to cajole the new fixture in our lives, Scott, into paying for the keg. He was out with Paris right now securing it. “Nope.”

“What are you doing?”

“Debating the meaning of life.”

Tally pursed her lips. She was wearing a cropped top, her toned midriff on display for the masses to enjoy, and her hair was perfect. I still couldn’t figure out how one person could wear so much makeup. “Is that a joke?”

“I’m watching
Duck Dynasty
,” I replied. “What do you think?”

“Is that a joke?”

She’s so slow sometimes. “Do you need something?”

“Where is Kristy?”

I had no idea. The only time I spent with the girl involved sitting on the floor in front of the television playing euchre. She was surprisingly adept when it came to card games. “In her room?”

“Is that what you’re wearing?”

I glanced down at my simple V-neck and jeans and shrugged. “I wasn’t aware it was a fashion show.”

“I didn’t say it was a fashion show,” she said.

“We should probably have told everyone else,” I said. “What if someone wears polyester?”

“You’re so difficult,” Tally said, shuddering at the thought of polyester. “I don’t understand why you have to be so harsh.”

I sighed. “I’m not harsh. I’m sarcastic.”

“Is there a difference?”

“I’m probably not the person to ask.”
Why was she still talking to me?

Thankfully, the front door opened and Paris and Scott made their way into the house – each holding the handle of a keg.

“Yay,” Tally said, clapping her hands. “I was so worried you wouldn’t make it.”

“Where would they have gone?” I asked.

Tally ignored me. “Let’s put the keg in the basement.”

Scott winked at me. He was still cute. “Lead the way.”

“SPADES ALONE.”

Scott smiled, laying his hand face down on the floor. Apparently I’m the freaky girl who plays euchre at parties now. I’m fine with it.
No, really.

Once I claimed all five tricks and won the game, I got to my feet. “I need another beer.”

Scott nodded. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

I liked him. Not in the way he wanted – at least I didn’t think so – but he was calming. When did playing euchre at a party instead of actually partying become my favorite way of celebrating? That was a sobering question.

There were too many people in the house. I’m not claustrophobic, but I’m not a fan of crowds either. After filling my beer, I decided to make a quick stop in the bathroom before rejoining the euchre circle. Scott had promised to keep my spot safe – so I wasn’t worried.

There were two bathrooms in the house. The one upstairs was a full bathroom, the one downstairs only had a toilet and sink. Since no one was waiting outside, I opted for the half bath on the main floor.

The handle wouldn’t turn – which meant someone was inside. After waiting three minutes – and not hearing a sound on the other side – I knocked.

There was no answer.

I waited a little while longer and then knocked again. This time, I heard a noise. “I’m busy.”

Those aren’t the words you want to hear in a bathroom at a party. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m busy.”

“You already said that.”

“Well, things haven’t changed.”

I frowned. “I have to pee.”

“So?”

“So, you’re in the bathroom.”

“Oh, that would explain the sink.”

Sometimes, there are no words. “Can I come in?”

I waited, finally relaxing my shoulders when I heard the lock disengage on the other side of the door. I pushed it open, sucking in a breath when I took in the scene inside.

The girl standing in the small room was tall – like ridiculously tall. What is it with tall college girls these days? They should be outlawed.

Her long, blonde hair fell to her waist – and clearly came from a bottle. Her eyes were blue, her top barely covering her breasts it was cropped so high. Her arms were stretched to the sides – her palms resting against both walls – and her legs were spread over the toilet.

Thankfully, she was wearing jeans and didn’t seem to be doing anything untoward.

“Um, what’s going on?”

“I’m doing yoga,” she replied.

“In the bathroom?”

“Where would you suggest I do it?”

“At your home,” I said. “The bathroom is not the place for yoga.”

“Says you.”

I rolled my eyes. She appeared drunk – but I had a feeling something else was going on. “I have to pee.”

“So? Go.”

“I prefer to do that alone.”

“Then maybe you should have picked another bathroom,” the girl challenged.

“This is my house,” I said. “Get out.”

“No.”

Part of me hated her. Part of me admired her moxie. I raised my eyebrows. “Fine.”

I pushed into the room, nudging her to the side with my hip as I closed the door behind me. I engaged the lock and pulled down my pants.

“What are you doing?”

“This is a bathroom,” I said. “I’m doing what comes naturally.”

When I was done, I pushed the girl out of my way again so I could wash my hands. She pressed herself against the wall and watched me. “You’re funny,” she said as I dried my hands on the towel hanging from the rack on the wall.

“I do standup on Thursdays.”

“I can see that.”

I turned, focusing my eyes on her finally. “What are you on?”

“I’m not on anything.”

“The pupils of your eyes are dilated,” I said. “That’s not a beer high.”

“I may have dropped some acid,” the girl conceded.

Acid? Was someone selling acid at this party? I didn’t often draw lines – but that was one I would consider drawing.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Danielle.”

“What are you doing in here?”

“I was doing yoga,” she said. “Now I’m swimming.”

I glanced around again. “There’s no water.”

“Yes, there is.”

“No, there’s not.”

“Your mind is limited,” Danielle said. “You just can’t see it.”

“And you can?”

“I’m a dolphin. Of course I can.”

Oh, good. “You’re a dolphin?”

The girl pointed to the ring in her bellybutton. “See.”

I hunkered down and took a better look. The silver ring in her stomach did have a dolphin charm. “Okay, you’re a dolphin.”

“I’m swimming.”

“You are,” I agreed, reaching for the door handle.

“Do you want to swim with me?”

“I’m a shark,” I said. “Sharks eat dolphins.”

Danielle scowled. “You’re evil.”

“You have no idea.” I pushed open the door and stepped out into the living room, sucking in a deep breath when the stagnant air I’d been breathing dissipated. I paused. “Are you okay?”

“I’m a dolphin. I’m part of nature’s magic.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m swimming.”

“I see.” I rolled my eyes as I met Scott’s curious gaze. He was standing a few feet away watching me.

“Is everything okay?”

“She thinks she’s a dolphin.”

Scott peered around me. “Okay.”

“She dropped acid.”

“Ah, that would explain it. Are you ready to play some more?”

I was about to agree, but something stopped me. “I’m not sure.”

“Do you want to deal with her?” Scott asked sagely.

“Do I want to? No. Do I feel the need to? Yeah.”

Scott smirked. “Come find me when you’re done.”

“You got it.”

I turned back to Danielle, who was contorting her body into a position that shouldn’t have been possible given the nature of the human body. “Hey, dolphin, do you want to go swimming?”

“Yeah.”

“Where does your pod live?”

“Out in the ocean,” Danielle replied.

“Do you want to swim there?”

Danielle cocked her head to the side, considering. “Yes.”

“Well, let’s go,” I said. “I’m going to follow you in the boat to make sure you get there safely.”

“Cool.”

I followed Danielle out of the house, fighting the urge to keep up a running commentary as she swam down the sidewalk. Her moves were jerky. I swallowed the urge to laugh every time she “surfaced for air.”

I had no idea if Danielle knew where she was going – but I was hopeful. At a certain point, I realized I’d lost track of where we were.

“Crap,” I muttered. “Hey, dolphin, where are we?”

“The Pacific.”

“Oh, good. Do you live in the Pacific?”

“Yes.”

Well, that was encouraging. “How close are we to your home?”

Danielle pointed to the house on the corner. “So close.”

Thank the ocean mammal. “Let’s reunite you with your pod.”

“Oh, yes.” Danielle climbed the stairs to the house.

“Please tell me you have a key.”

“I … .”

I swung around, sensing the presence of invaders before seeing them. I found myself flying through the air before I could focus on the people behind me, landing in the adjacent yard.

It took me a second to regain my bearings. There were two figures descending on Danielle, and I wasn’t close enough to stop them. They were vampires, I knew that. I didn’t recognize either of them.

“Hey!”

Danielle screamed when a pair of fangs descended into her neck. A second pair joined the first.

“Hey!”

The vampires ignored me.

“Sonofabitch.” I raced toward them, my hands catching fire as I moved. I paused when I saw the green light emanating from them, my mind struggling to grasp what was happening. “What the hell?”

The light arced out, hitting the two vampires in the chest. The force was enough to cast me back, tossing me to the ground. My mind was swimming, but the one thing I grasped was that the light wasn’t dissipating – and the vampires were disintegrating in front of me.

Holy crap!

The police arrived quickly, the neighbors calling 911 when Danielle wouldn’t stop screeching. I tried to shut her up, but she screamed like I was stabbing her to death every time I took a step in her direction. Right now she was standing on the front porch flapping her arms like she was trying to fly as a police detective tried to question her.

The detective’s partner was standing in front of me with a notebook – and a frown. “Do you want to tell me what happened here?”

I shrugged. “She was at our house,” I said, committing to the lie as I told it. “She was in the bathroom freaking out and doing yoga. She thinks she’s a dolphin, which was my first clue she was doing more than yoga in the bathroom. She said she dropped acid, by the way, so you might want to get that checked out.

“I decided to walk her home because I was worried she would get lost as she was swimming away,” I said. “She seemed fine. She said this was her house. I was walking away when she absolutely started freaking out.”

“Define freaking out,” the cop said.

“I don’t know, she was jerking around like she was being electrocuted or something,” I said. “She was acting like someone was attacking her, and then she was pointing at me like I was a killer. I have no idea what she’s talking about.”

Danielle’s acid problem was definitely going to work in my favor here. I was sitting on the bottom step of the porch, trying to pretend I was bored instead of internally panicking, and hoping against hope the cops didn’t decide to investigate this further. The only thing I had going for me was that Danielle – who still currently thought she was a dolphin – was the only witness.

“And she seemed fine before then?”

I raised an eyebrow. “She thinks she’s a dolphin.”

“I understand that.”

“So, I can’t really say she seemed fine before that,” I said.

The cop nodded, rubbing the back of his neck thoughtfully. “And you didn’t see anything like she described?”

I plastered an annoyed expression on my face. “Did I see people try to bite her and then light come out of my hands to stop them? Um, no.” Part of me felt bad for lying. The other part of me was just grateful Danielle was such an unreliable witness.

The cop nodded. “Okay. Just sit tight for a second. I should be able to cut you loose in a few minutes. We’re probably going to have to take the dolphin in for observation.”

“I think that would be best,” I agreed.

The arrival of the cops had drawn a crowd. Most of the people loitering around watching seemed to think Danielle’s freakout was funny. Since I was trying really hard not to have a freakout of my own, their intense stares and giggles – even from across the street – were starting to grate.

Then a familiar face joined the interested onlookers and I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. Aric paused on the sidewalk, glancing up and down the street worriedly as he focused his attention on me. He wasn’t alone. Caitlyn was a few steps behind him. I was just relieved they weren’t holding hands or anything. I probably would have lost my collective sanity if they were touching each other.

Aric stepped up to one of the police officers standing at the edge of the lawn. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but whatever the officer said to Aric – he didn’t like it. He left Caitlyn on the sidewalk – not even bothering to look back – and strode over to me.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m great,” I said with faux brightness. “I’ve never been better.”

“She’s a witch!” Danielle was still hysterical on the front porch. Both of the detectives were trying to calm her down.

“Why does she think you’re a witch?” Aric asked, keeping his voice low.

“It must be my personality,” I replied, my tone dry.

Aric opened his mouth to say something, but another outburst from Danielle cut him off.

“I am not making it up,” she said. “Two monsters attacked me. They had these huge, horrible teeth,” Danielle said, crunching her fingers up and gesturing wildly for emphasis. “That girl yelled at them to stop, and then huge bolts of light jumped out of her hands and then the monsters just … they just turned into big piles of ash. Like poof.”

I furrowed my brow, turning my head so I couldn’t meet Aric’s probing gaze. He wasn’t going to be deterred. He knelt down in front of me, capturing both of my hands between his and pressing them together. “Was it vampires?” Aric’s voice was so low only I could hear him.

I nodded mutely.

Aric rubbed his thumbs over the back of my hands, the touch of his skin against mine making me feel weak and light-headed. “Do the police believe her?”

“She’s on acid,” I replied. “She thinks she’s a dolphin.”

“Well, at least that’s something,” he said. “What did you tell them?”

“What do you think I told them?” Sarcasm was dripping from my tongue. “I told them that I walked her home and she freaked out.”

Aric rolled his eyes. “I’m trying to help you here. Why are you mad at me?”

“Why don’t you ask your girlfriend,” I shot back, hating myself for how petty I sounded.

Aric sighed. “She is not my girlfriend.”

“Whatever.”

“She’s not … just, don’t think about that right now, Zoe,” Aric said. “We need to get you out of this.”

“I can get myself out of this.”

Aric ignored me. “Where is Rafael?”

“How should I know?” I countered. “It’s not my day to watch him.”

“He’s supposed to be watching you,” Aric said. “He promised he would.”

I stilled. “What?”

“Huh?” Aric looked like he wished he could travel back in time and say something else.

I narrowed my eyes. “Are you two in contact with each other?”

Aric shook his head, glancing over his shoulder and frowning when he saw Caitlyn standing on the corner watching us. Her hands were on her hips, and her face was filled with rage. “We can’t talk about this now.”

“Because your girlfriend wouldn’t like it?”

“Because we can’t,” Aric said. “I’m not trying to be difficult.”

“You’re always trying to be difficult,” I said. “It’s what you do.”

“Look who’s talking,” he said, smiling slightly. “Your picture should be under the word difficult on Wikipedia.”

I rolled my eyes and tried to pull my hands from Aric’s, but he was too strong. He didn’t let them go. “You’re sure you’re all right?”

I lowered my eyes wearily. “I shredded two vampires in seconds with green light,” I whispered. “I have no idea how I did it – or how I stopped it. Of course I’m not all right.”

Aric sighed, leaning forward so he could rest his forehead against mine for a second. “It’s going to be okay.”

“It doesn’t feel like it’s going to be okay,” I argued. “It feels like it’s going to get worse and worse until one day I’m just going to get in over my head and burn myself up.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Aric growled. “Just … listen to me for a second. I know you like to be all cool and in control, but I need you to let Rafael help you.”

“Since when?”

“Since … now.”

“You know he’s been helping me by kissing me, right?” I have no idea why I said it. I just wanted to see his reaction.

The muscle in Aric’s jaw tightened. “I figured.”

“You still want him to help me?”

“No,” Aric said. “I need him to help you.”

“I don’t understand you,” I complained. “You’re just one big conundrum.”

“Nice word,” Aric said, smiling. “I’m doing the best I can right now. I need you to … do the same.”

“Whatever.”

“Don’t whatever me, Zoe,” Aric said. “Things are starting to happen on this campus.”

“You sound like Blake.”

Aric arched an eyebrow. “What did Blake say?”

“Just that big things were going to happen,” I said. “He won’t tell me what, though. He doesn’t trust me – and that was before I wiped snot on his shirt. Twice.”

Aric pressed his lips together. “I really want to know what that means,” he said. “I don’t think here is the place to talk about it.”

I glanced over his shoulder. “Especially with your model waiting over there,” I said. “She looks pissed.”

“She always looks that way,” Aric said.

“She must be good in bed,” I said. “Because her personality has all of the appeal of road kill.”

Aric shook his head, his eyes somber. “I wouldn’t know how she is in bed.”

“Oh, don’t try and play me.”

“I’m not,” Aric said. “I can’t explain this to you – and I know you don’t trust me – but things are going to work out. I have faith.”

“Aric,” Caitlyn said, tapping her foot on the sidewalk irritably. “Are you done checking up on your ex-girlfriend?” She stressed the word “ex,” just so everyone watching the scene wouldn’t be confused about who was on top in this scenario.

Aric shook his head, not bothering to make eye contact with her. “No. Why don’t you head home? I’ll call you tomorrow or something.”

“Excuse me?”

Aric’s temper was short. “Did I stutter?”

“No, but … .”

“But nothing,” Aric said. “I’m busy. Go home. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

I watched the interaction curiously. Something was off there. Caitlyn was clearly trying to let the world think she was with Aric – but he seemed ambivalent to all of her wants and needs. Of course, I could also be imagining it because it’s what I wanted to believe.

“And what are you going to do?” Caitlyn asked, her voice shrill.

“I’m going to make sure Zoe gets home,” Aric said. “Then I’m going to go home.”

“Why don’t I wait for you?”

“Because I don’t want you to,” Aric announced, making sure his voice carried. “I have other things I need to do, and you’re not really a priority for me right now.” I realized he was purposely trying to embarrass her. That was interesting.

“I’m not a priority for you right now?”

“Nope.”

“But she is?”

“Yup.”

“I … this is just disrespectful,” Caitlyn said. “I can’t believe you’re treating me this way.”

“Well, believe it,” Aric said.

“I don’t have a ride home,” Caitlyn tried again. “My car is at the Alpha Chi house.”

Aric shrugged. “That’s only two blocks in that direction,” he said.

“You want me to walk alone?”

“I don’t care who you walk with,” he said.

“But you’re worried about her walking home alone?” Caitlyn was incensed.

“I’m not having this argument with you,” Aric said. “I’m busy. You can either walk to your car or stand there looking like an idiot. I don’t really care which.” Aric straightened and glanced up at the police officers on the porch. They were still trying to calm Danielle down. “Can I walk Ms. Lake back to her home?”

One of the detectives glanced down at him. “Yeah. There’s obviously nothing to the story. This one is going to have to be locked up and detoxed for a couple of days.”

Aric nodded, shifting his gaze down to me. “Let’s go.”

“You’re really walking me home?”

“I’m really walking you home.”

“You don’t think that’s a bad idea?”

“I think it’s a terrible idea,” Aric said. “I’m still doing it.”

I climbed to my feet, stilling when I got closer to him. “Why?”

Aric’s eyes were soft as he regarded me. “Because I can’t not do it.”

He really was a conundrum.