Caspian thinks over his words carefully, “Well, he’s… intimidating, definitely. But I would not say that I’m afraid of him.”
“Then you haven’t seen the way he looks when he’s being protective of Isla,” I explain. “He would kill us both if we dared to involve her.”
My phone starts vibrating in my pocket, and I chance looking at it, fearing the worst.
Gods damn it.
“Speak of the devil,” I say upon answering.
“Whatcha doin?” Isla feigns innocence, though I know better. She’s onto us.
“Oh, ya know… just hanging out. What about you? Did you watch the latest episode? I cannot believe that man had the gall to-”
“Save it. Where are you? Bel texted me at 5:45 this morning, which in itself is suspicious as fuck. And now she’s dodging my calls.”
“We’re home,” I lie.
“Try again,” she tells me. I can hear her clenched teeth through the receiver, “Unfortunately for both of us, I could practically feel the second you guys got into town. Don’t lie to me.”
I clear my throat, “We’re just… um, okay well, here’s the thing. Bel just wanted to do some light recon. We’re only going to be here for a minute, so there wasn’t any reason to call and bug you. You’ve got work you need to do so we thought it best to just leave you to it, ya know?”
“If you don’t tell me where you are, I’m going to come find you,” she threatens.
“I can’t, Isla.”
“And why the fuck not?” her voice raises, anger growing.
“Because Eamon told me not to?” I cringe, waiting for the inevitable outburst.
Rather than start screaming at me, she laughs. Not full belly laughs, but a sinister, outright terrifying cackle that tells me in no uncertain terms that I fucked up.Why am I always the one in the middle of these two?
“Since when do you listen to Eamon?” she laughs again.
This conversation is a mistake.“Since he has apparently taken a great interest in protecting you from yourself.”
“That motherfucker,” she seethes, “If you don’t tell me where you are, when I find you, I’m going to hurt you worse than he could.”
I’d like to say that theverylarge, bloodsucking demon scares me more than this mortal girl, but that would be a lie. Isla is the most terrifying being I’ve ever met. Christ, I hope the hunters aren’t all this scary.
“You have to promise you won’t tell him,” I beg, “And then I’ll send you the location.”
All the rage leaves her voice, replaced by the bouncy tone she usually speaks with, “Oh totally. Why would I tell him? I don’t even talk to him.”
“So you don’t have the coat he gave you hung up in your closet?” I pry, and her silence gives me the answer I was looking for. I chuckle, Caspian and Bel watching me and warning me not to taunt Isla right now.
“It’s $4,000 and faux fur, of course I fucking kept it.”
Her insistence that it has nothing to do with him has me laughing harder, trying to remain quiet so we don’t draw any attention. “Alright, alright. I’m hanging up now. We are on the roof. There’s a ladder on the south side of the building, and we’ll send Caspian down to help you reach it when you get here.”
Bel snatches the phone from my hand, giving Isla one last message, “Wear all black.”
“Psh. Obviously,” Isla laughs, “Calling a car right now! See you soon. Love you!”
These two humans are going to be the death of me.
Despite her terrifying nature, I find myself actually liking Isla. She’s an incredible friend to Bel. She doesn’t take any shit from anybody, but she still manages to be a kind, empathetic person. Genuine empathy is hard to find in humans; most of them have just become very adept at faking it.
“I can’t believe she knew you two were here. That’s so funny,” Bel gushes, wiggling closer to me.
