I glanced over my shoulder at Alex and raised my eyebrows. “Really?”

“The plants help her gift,” he said defensively. “The oxygen’s good for her or something…I don’t know.” I pressed my lips together, to keep from saying anything further. Jealousy was an ugly color, and I was not going to let it shine all over me.

“I think everyone’s in the kitchen.” Alex pointed to our right.

I walked to the kitchen doorway and Alex caught my arm.

“Hey….” He seemed to be struggling for words. Finally he said, “You’re feeling okay, right?”

“Yeah, I…” All words suddenly left me because, out of the corner of my eyes, I caught sight of a blond-haired, blue-tipped banged, blue-eyed vampire sitting at the table. I just about ran over to him and gave him a big hug. I wasn’t sure where the feeling came from. I mean, I could try to figure it out, but sometimes feelings weren’t easy to solve.

He was not alone at the table. Aislin was also there, her golden-brown hair damp like she just got out of the shower.

Her eyes were swol en and tear-stained. She was wearing different clothes and the pink floral dress she had on was girly even for her.

The other person at the table was also dressed in a floral dress, just a different color. Her blonde hair reminded me of sunshine and sunflowers and her eyes were a bright blue.

Tan leather gloves covered her hands. I had seen this girl before, in a photo back at Laylen’s house; a photo in which this girl was clearly dating Alex.

I hated this girl.

I really did.

Okay, maybe I should use the word dislike.

From the dark look she shot me, I could tell she hated—

or disliked—me too.

“Everything okay?” She asked looking through me, right at Alex.

“Everything’s fine, Stasha” he answered walking past me.

Stasha gave me the death stare, so I looked away at Laylen, who was fiddling with his lip ring, which I was beginning to notice was something he did while he was in deep thought.

He caught my eye and he looked the slightest bit relieved. Then, without saying a word, he stood up and came over to me. Everyone was watching us, so I took his hand and pulled him into the living room, out of the watchful gaze of all their eyes. Particularly Alex’s, which I could feel burning into me, even through the wall.

Neither of us spoke. I wasn’t sure what to say to him. This was the second time he had run away, and I was beginning to worry one of these times I wouldn’t find him.

“Are you okay?” I finally asked.

He didn’t answer right away. “I don’t know.”

“You had me worried,” I told him truthfully.

“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I just freaked out when your mom told me this was done on purpose to me…I didn’t do anything, though…I didn’t bite anyone.”

“You could have talked to me,” I said. “Instead of running away.”

He took a shaky breath. “You have your own problems.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’ll always be there for you, just like you are for me.”

He let out a relived breath as if he had been waiting for me to say those exact words.

“You and I are in this together.” I looked him straight in the eye. “Promise me you won’t run away again.” He took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “Okay. We’re in this together.”

About ten minutes later, we were getting ready to leave. Which was a good thing, at least for me, since nine out of those ten minutes, Stasha gave me the stink eye. It made me extremely uneasy and for some reason, I kept thinking of Edgar All an Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” We were transporting back to the beach house, which I was thankful for. The last thing I wanted to do right now was get in a moving vehicle. Even though the Chevy Tahoe was a monstrous beast, it still took quite the beating when it had rammed into the Death Walker and the telephone pole.

All five of us were sitting in Stasha’s living room. Aislin had her candle lit and crystal in hand. I went to take my necklace off, to avoid repelling Aislin’s magic back on her, when I realized it was missing.

“Oh, no.” I touched my neck, panicking. “Where’s my necklace?”

“Calm down,” Alex said. “I took it off when Aislin transported us here—I left it on the nightstand in the room you were in.”

I nodded and headed off to the bedroom, but the necklace wasn’t on the night stand. I searched the bedroom floor, in the bed, under the bed. I even checked the bathroom I puked my guts out in. But nothing. No necklace.

Okay, so I really didn’t want to be the girl who cried over losing a piece of jewelry, but I was going to be if I didn’t find it.

“Crap,” I muttered with a light stomp of my foot.

“Looking for this?”

I spun around. Stasha. She was standing just inside the doorway, her glove-covered hand up in front of her, something shiny and silver dangling from her finger.

“Why do you have that?” I asked, reaching to take the necklace.

She pulled her hand back. “I wasn’t giving it back to you.” Okay, I had a feeling this was going to be fun. “Please give it back?” I asked, trying to keep my tone as polite sounding as possible.

With a sardonic grin on her face, she shook her head and I was unexpectedly reminded of Kelsey Merritt, a girl I used to go to school with who loved to torture me. Of course Stasha was a little different, seeing how she could kill me with her touch.

“I know girls like you.” She strutted into the room, swinging the necklace around on her finger. “Sad. Lonely.

Pathetic. God, I can’t believe Alex would even have the slightest bit of interest in you.”

Alright, so in the past, I had let girls like Stasha walk over me, but today was different—I was different. Honestly, I just wanted to shove her down. So I did. She looked shocked as she fell backward toward the floor and landed on her butt. I seized the opportunity to snatch the necklace away from her. Then, I ran like hell. I was not stupid enough to stick around and face the wrath of a girl who could kill me simply by touching me. But I didn’t make it very far down the hall before something wrapped around my ankle and yanked me flat on my face. I kicked my leg, thinking I would nail her in the head, but I didn’t hit anything.

I glanced behind me and realized it was not Stasha that knocked me to the floor. It was…well, it was the freaky plant vines that dangled from the ceiling. They were alive or something.

Stasha walked slowly toward me, and I opened my mouth to scream, but another vine wrapped around my mouth, silencing any noise from escaping. She knelt down in front of me and leaned into my face.

“You should know better than to mess with someone like me,” she whispered, pulling off one of her gloves.

She should know better than to mess with me, I thought, wishing I could say it out loud, but couldn’t because of the vine’s death-grip around my mouth.

She reached her deathly hand toward me, ready to touch me, ready to kill. Crazy lunatic. How could Alex have dated this nut job?

I shut my eyes, and formed a mental picture of the beach just outside the beach house, just enough of a distance away that the Praesidium wouldn’t get in my way. I could hear the ocean waves crashing onto the sandy shore. I could see the moon beaming down from the sky. I could feel the salty air kissing against my cheeks.

“What are you doing?” Stasha asked, her voice muffled.

I kept my eyes shut, focusing on the picture. “Take me there,” I whispered, and I could almost feel the sand in my toes.

But then a hand grabbed my arm and I felt nothing but fire.

Chapter 10

My face smacked against the sand. I scrambled to my feet and ran over to the ocean. My arm was burning up—it had to be on fire. But there were no flames on my skin.

I dunked my arm into the salty water, expecting relief, but instead getting more pain. I let out a jaw-clenched scream, and ran for the beach house. It hurt so much, I could barely stand it. Was I going to drop dead at any moment?