“You’re bleeding,” she told him matter-of-factly.
Seth looked down. Right. He’d cut his finger. Funny how he’d forgotten about that, even though his slip with the knife was exactly what had started this whole mess in the first place.
“So you’re robbing me while I’m weakened?”
Violet gave him the kind of eye roll only a true teenager was capable of. “I’m covering for you. Go in the back and make yourself a tea or something. You look kinda insane.” She cocked her head. “Unless you want to close for the day instead?”
No, Seth didn’t want that, actually. If he went home alone after what he’d just seen, with only his own thoughts to accompany him…
Yeah, then he probablywouldgo insane.
“My mom owns that woo-woo crystal shop a few blocks down,” Violet told him, tucking her black hair behind her ears. “I know how to work a register.”
It wasn’t her aptitude with a register Seth questioned so much as her ability to be civil with the general public. But then again, Seth was pretty sure his whole world had just been turned upside down in one horrifying instant, so what did it matter if some goth teen was rude to a customer or two?
He wordlessly handed Violet his apron, then made his way to the back kitchen. He untied his headband and wrapped it tightlyaround his bleeding finger, unwilling to expend the energy searching for the first aid kit right now. He slid down to the kitchen floor, his arms around his knees.
Seth added together what he’d seen this morning, again and again. He calculated and recalculated. And eventually he couldn’t stop the refrain from repeating in his head:
I think my friend Riley’s a vampire. I think his moms are too.
Seth thought again of their first meeting. He thought of what Riley had told him, crouched over Seth in the rain.
Seth amended his refrain.
I think my friend Riley’s a vampire, and I think he wants to eat me.
Seth didn’t knowhow long he sat there.
Long enough for his ass to go numb against the linoleum but not long enough for him to make any sense of what had happened this morning.
He could hear muffled voices every now and then, so customers must have been coming through the bakery. The voices were never raised in anger as far as he could tell, so theoretically Violet was handling things. Seth wasn’t sure he would have had the energy to care even if she hadn’t been.
Eventually, Violet came back into the kitchen, holding a mug of steaming coffee out to him with one hand and his phone with the other. “Here. I’ve noticed you like yours with a gross amount of cream and sugar. And you left your phone on the counter.”
Seth took the mug and the phone. Violet eyed his headband bandage with raised brows but didn’t say anything about his half-assed attempt at first aid.
“Thank you, Violet.”
Violet nodded, but she didn’t head back to the front right away. She leaned against the counter instead, one combat-booted footresting on the cabinet behind her. “Did someone die?” she asked. Not sarcastically either, but like she was genuinely wondering if Seth was bereaved.
“I don’t think so,” was all Seth could manage in response.
Violet nodded, like that was a reasonable answer. “Stay back here a little longer. You still look like hell. But I’m taking a free donut after.”
“For life,” Seth amended weakly. “Free donuts for life.”
She gave him a small smirk and turned as if to leave. Seth stopped her with an outstretched hand. “Hey. What-What made you think they were serial killers?”
“Riley and his family?” Violet shrugged. “Just a vibe, you know. They’re hot and they’re friendly enough, but when you get close, something has the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.”
It was such a perfect mirror of what Seth had been thinking that morning that he couldn’t come up with a response. Violet didn’t seem to need one anyway. She walked through the door to the front without another word.
Seth took a sip of his milky coffee, then set it down on the floor next to him when his gut roiled in protest. Jumpy nerves, he guessed. He didn’t usually have a sensitive stomach, but then he didn’t usually witness a nonmurder murder and self-healing mutilation all in one morning.
He stared down at the phone in his hand. Riley hadn’t texted.
How long did it take a supernatural creature to heal from a snapped neck?
