“Here,” I say, putting myself between them. Without further ado, I wheel Tex's chair to one side of the room. I put myself in the other chair in the middle of the room. Peter gets the idea and stands on the other side, with me between him and Tex.
“Better?”
“The super fast thing isn't a myth, is it?”
“No, but I will not hurt anyone who matters to Ava.” I fight the urge to grin like an idiot. Tex isn't impressed.
“I wish that was more comforting.”
“So do I,” he says.
Twenty-Six
“Shut the front door!” she says for the sixth time this evening. I'd ask her to stop saying it if it wasn't so funny. Peter takes her on a crash course on noctali, including the wings, which she makes him show her. Her eyes are so wide I'm afraid her eyeballs are going to fall out. She's taking it pretty well, especially after he shows her the wings.
“Do you all have wings? Cuz that's totally freaking awesome.”
“No, we do not.” Tex tries her best for an elaboration, but gets nowhere.
Then we get to the Claiming part. She's not so cool with that.
“How am I supposed to be fine with the fact that he gets to snack on you whenever he wants? I don't care if she likes you and thinks you're hot. I swear if you drain her or,” she sputters, trying to think of what else he might do, “I don't know, do anything weird to her I'll kill you.” He hasn't told her that she can't, but that doesn't seem to bother her in the slightest. The show of friendship is kind of endearing.
“Is there anything else I should know?” I look at Peter.
“Nope, that's pretty much it,” I say.
“Then I have one more question," she says with a sly smile. I don't like the look of that smile. “Do you have any brothers?”
***
Her friend took it well. Much better than many people would have. She was loyal to Ava. I liked that in her. Texas had a sharp wit that I also found amusing. I would not mind spending time with her.
I didn't know what made me take her hand. Whether it was to comfort her or myself. I liked having something to hold onto, like a boat with an anchor in a storm. I felt as if I was about to be in the middle of a storm. I gripped her hand tighter, but released it again so I wouldn't crush her fingers. She was delicate, no matter what she said. Her spirit was the strong part of her. The human body was a fragile thing. I would protect hers. I was going to need help.
***
“There's another reason I came here. I wanted to ask you about Jamie. How's he doing? He doesn't seem to want to talk to me anymore,” I say. We're all sitting closer than we were. Tex is still leery of Peter, but you can only be freaked out of your mind for so long.
“Yeah, he doesn't want to talk to me, but I just chase after him and won't leave him alone,” Tex says.
“I tried chasing him too. He was gone by the time I got to the parking lot. It was very dramatic.” I twist in my chair. It makes me uncomfortable that Peter's still standing. I know he doesn't get tired, but it bugs me he's standing while we're sitting. I'm not going to tell him what to do, but then he comes over and sits next to my chair. Just like that.
“How's Cassie?” I say.
“She's good. She had a fight with their dad, but instead of taking off, she went back. I think that's the first time she's done that. He didn't hit her either.”
“He probably doesn't want to hurt her since she's pregnant.” He's even more distracting when he's sitting next to me. Is this ever going to change?
“Ugh, I hate to think that's his reasoning.”
“I know. I hate that Jamie has to stay at that house.” When Jamie and I had first become friends, some of the teachers at school had been suspicious of the marks on his arms, and why he was absent so often. Social Services was called, but nothing ever came of it. I guessed that if you only hit your kid a few times that wasn't enough to do anything. There was probably some reprimand involved, but we never heard any more from it, and Jamie got better at hiding his bruises. Once he'd gotten older and bigger, his dad had stopped hitting him, but clearly that had changed. I hate to think who he'll turned his anger on when he does't have Jamie around.
“It would be great if they could get his dad out of the house. If it was just his mom and Cassie and Jamie, I think they'd be okay.”
“Do you think his dad would go to rehab?”
“Hell, no. Then people would know, and the whole town would know what they know already, but he doesn't think they know.”
“It's so stupid.”
“It is.” All of a sudden I'm exhausted, completely wiped. I just want to go to bed and have Peter on the roof watching out for me. It's not the typical vision of nighttime bliss, but it's as close as I can get.
“It's really late. I was supposed to be home a while ago,” Tex says. She must be reading my mind. I give her a grateful smile and we share a best friend look. It was stupid to think that something as small as me being involved with a noctalis would damage our friendship. This is the girl who saved me from the embarrassment of peeing my pants. We can get through anything.
“It was, um, very nice to meet you Peter. I know there was that other time at the party, but I feel like this was really the first time.” She smooths her skirt down, like she's not sure if she should shake his hand or something.
“It was a pleasure meeting you both times. I am glad Ava has such a loyal friend.”
“So am I,” I say, getting up. “I hope I didn't give you anything to think about that's going to keep you up all night.”
“You know I'm an insomniac. At least tonight I have something to think about other than the glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling or what I'm going to have for lunch tomorrow.”
“So I've done you a service?”
“Absolutely.” There's a grin on her face that I don't like. Peter shrugged off the question about brothers, or rather he blinked it off and I deflected. We'll tackle that later. He sort of got into the reasons for the Claiming, but didn't mention his other brother.
He'd told me Viktor was more of a brother than Ivan, but I don't know what that means and I don't have anything to go on. He still hasn't mentioned his mother. Maybe he has mommy issues, which must be way worse when you're a noctalis.
I wave to Tex as we drive away.
“That went well,” I say. His only reply is to take my hand. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For whatever vibes you're sending me,” I say.
“Vibes?” He's confused. It's about time he was the one in the dark.