Hollowed (14 page)

Something paper-y crinkles under my back. I feel around and drag out a blank envelope, sealed neatly with an inch-long strip of tape. No name, no address. I slip it open and pull out the folded paper inside.

Briar,

I bolt upright so fast it makes me dizzy. The words on the paper take my breath away.

Meet me at Crew
'
s tonight at 8.

No signature, but it doesn
'
t need one. I recognize every little letter. Half-cursive, half-print, the loopy way the last letter of each word ends, like it could go on forever. It
'
s been so long since I saw it last.

But I recognize Ruby
'
s handwriting anywhere.

I tear out of my room and down to the lobby as fast as I can
,
and slam my hands breathlessly onto the front desk. The girl behind it can
'
t be any older than me, a mousy little thing with big Bambi eyes that stare up at me like I
'
m about to maul her.

"
Uh, can I—
"

"
Someone was in my room,
"
I say, waving the letter around like it
'
s solid proof, like she has any idea what it means, how
important
it is.
"
I found this note on my bed. Who
'
s been in my room?
"

The girl squints at me then turns to her computer.
"
What room number?
"

"
Two-
oh-eight
.
"

"
Oh. Um... No, no one
'
s been in there today.
"

"
Then get your eyes checked.
"
More letter-waving.
"
Someone
was in my
room
.
Who has access to it?
"

Her face is flushed. I
'
m upsetting her and finding it hard to care.
"
All the master keys are at the front desk except for one kept with
each
the housekeeping and maintenance staff.
"

Ugh. Too easy for someone to slip inside when no one is looking. The
how
isn
'
t important, I guess. I have to see Ruby.

Bambi doesn
'
t protest when I wave her off and head back upstairs, clutching the letter tight. Eight o
'
clock...
That doesn't give me
a lot of time. I could sneak out and possibly be back before anyone notices I
'
m gone, but...

No secrets. I have to let the boys know. I can
'
t walk into something I obviously know nothing about.

Cole answers the door when I knock, expression solemn. That doesn
'
t bode well. He steps aside to let me in, and before I can ask what
'
s wrong:
"
Two more girls are dead.
"

"
It could be a trap,
"
Oliver says once I fill them in about Ruby and the letter.

"
I take offense to that.
"

"
Why?
"

"
It implies they think I
'
m stupid enough to show up alone.
"
And by the look the two of them give me, I get the impression
they
wouldn
'
t put it past me, either. Jerks.

"
I
'
ll take Algonquin,
"
I plead.
"
What if one of you comes with me and she doesn
'
t show up because of it? You can wait nearby and I
'
ll bring my phone. We
'
ll have some kind of S.O.S. text code or something.
"

Cole
says, taking
a seat beside me on the foot of his bed. I
'
m getting used to that worried expression, but now it makes me wary. I don
'
t want to have to run off against their will, but I won
'
t let him think he
'
s the boss of me, either. He takes a deep breath. Exhales.
He rests a hand on my knee.

"May
I ask you something and get a truthful answer?
"

"
Depends on the question.
"

He gives me a pointed look.
"
The boy Oli
ver fought the other night...w
ho was he?
"

Sure, salt-in-wounds. Make me think about it all over again. I look down and pick cat fur off my pants.
"
His name is Noah D
'
angelo. He is
—
was
—
my boyfriend. But he doesn
'
t have anything to do with this, so I don
'
t
—
"

"
He went after you. He knew what you were,
"
Cole says gently.
"
We need to know if he is going to be another threat
for us to worry about
.
"

"
Oliver chased him off and he hasn
'
t come back since.
"
I scowl,
searching
for a convenient subject-change
and not finding one
.
"
He
'
s just a guy. I don
'
t know why it matters.
"

They
'
re silent this time. I get the feeling there
'
s something they both want to say, but I don
'
t want to hear it. Noah has nothing to do with
now,
nothing to do with Ruby
, or vampires, or Cole and Oliver
.

I slap
the tops of my thighs and stand.
"
So. We doing this or what?
"

Oliver relaxes a little even if Cole doesn
'
t. He quirks a small smile.
"
Get
going then.
Please be safe.
"

Cole sees us to the front of the hotel and we leave him behind looking like a lost puppy. Algonquin has taken the shape of a dog
—
a regular-sized one, this time
—
and he lumbers along between us. Here
'
s hoping no one calls us on not having him on a leash.

"
Why doesn
'
t Cole ever go out?
"
I ask.

Oliver rolls his shoulders into an easy shrug.
"
I told you about how the Elders aren
'
t really supposed to get involved.
"

"
Yeah, but Cole isn
'
t an Elder.
"

"
H
e
'
s still old.
"
He pockets his hands.
"
Old enough that it
'
s frowned upon if he gets his hands dirty
with anything that isn't directly related to his assignment
.
Bu
t this...
"

"
...Doesn
'
t have anything to do with his job.
"
I have to remember that. Oliver and Cole don
'
t owe me a thing, and I feel a little guilty for acting like they do. I
'
ve been so wrapped up in Noah and Ruby and my parents that I haven
'
t put much thought into doing anything to help
them
.
That needs to change.

I lead the way because Oliver wouldn
'
t know where to find Crew
'
s. None of the buses run late so we make it with time to spare. I
'
ve only been here once, with Noah. (The Powers that Be are having a grand old time rubbing things in my face.) It
'
s nothing special and not a local hangout hot-spot, which might be why Ruby chose it. Discrete. Non-descript.

We stop two blocks away. Oliver frowns, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, constantly glancing around. Anxious, I guess. Or paranoid. Anxious
because
he
'
s paranoid.

My new
phone is smaller than my
old one
. I keep feeling inside my pocket to make sure I haven't lost it.
"
I text anything at all, you can come running. Got it?
"

Oliver checks his cell
and nods. I start to round the corner
,
and have to pause and touch a fingertip to Algonquin
'
s nose.
"
No, you need to stay here, too.
"
He gazes up at me, whining low in his throat.

"
That wasn
'
t part of the deal,
"
Oliver hisses.

"
I can
'
t take him in there like this. And we can
'
t risk someone seein
g him go all shapey-changey
if things get messy.
"
I frown.
"
Besides, if it
'
s a trap do you really
think they
'
re going to try something in the middle of a public place?
"

Oliver doesn
'
t look happy
,
but he doesn
'
t argue, either. Point for me. I slip away, not glancing back, knowing the look
I
'
ll see on their faces if I do
.
This will be okay
, I tell myself over and over. Even if things go wrong, even if it
'
s a setup, it will turn out okay.

In my head, I have this mental image of me sitting at Crew
'
s for hours, waiting. I
'
ll be that person in the corner booth with two menus whose date never shows up. I
'
ll drink my sad little coffee alone, and after checking my watch a dozen times I
'
ll finally give up, pay my tab
,
and leave with my head bowed
in shame
.

But as I step inside, I
see
there won
'
t be any waiting. Ruby is the one at the booth in the corner, her blonde pixie-cut hair shorter than I
'
ve ever seen it, wearing a black dress
,
and one of those scarves she likes so much wound fashionably around her neck. She sips her drink and reads a book, as though she does this every day in this exact spot. Like she used to do every day
at our
kitchen table.

There
'
s no anger, no resentment, nothing but a surge of warm butterflies filling my insides from head to toe. Ruby, alive. The one face I
'
ve wanted to see for years, the person I kept waiting to come home long after everyone else gave up hope.

Ruby turns her head, glossed lips pulling into a pretty smile while I stand a few feet away, stupefied into silence. She gets up, still taller than me but not by much.

"
Briar.
"

The second she says my name, the tears well up hotly in my eyes. I throw my arms around her without a care to the rest of the café, clutching at Ruby like my life depends on it. I feel like it does.
She
'
s
someone who knows me, someone who isn
'
t terrified of what I
'
ve become.