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Chapter 24
Lawrence had left nearly a week ago.
No word. No text. Nothing. Toni shoved the last of her clothes in her duffle bag, marveling that it was still in such good shape after so many years. Her mom had given it to her for her first trip to New Orleans with Alessandra back when Garrett was young enough to need “chaperones.”
“Ready, Freddy?”
“Kind of. Would you be upset if we stopped at the shop on the way out? I left some notes there I want to take with me.”
She stepped into the kitchen, reminded of old times when she and Alessandra had lived here together. She missed that, but it wasn’t like she wanted her friend to come back. Alessandra positively radiated happiness.
“What?”
Toni dug down deep and smiled. She would not ruin this girls’ weekend because of a boy. Even a mega sexy, thoughtful, and smart vampire who could pretty much kick ass and take names everywhere he went.
“I was just thinking you look happy. Really happy.”
Alessandra winked. “Maybe because I am. You’ve got to see this.”
Alessandra walked over to the stairs and climbed to the top. Then, grinning, she leapt from the top step to the very bottom, barely squatting when she reached the ground.
Toni simply stared.
“Seriously?”
As if she hadn’t just pulled off an incredibly impressive feat, Alessandra went to the kitchen counter and started packing the wine bottles and snacks into a cooler. The twitching of her lips gave her away.
“We’ve been working on it for a while,” she said. “Eventually I’ll be able to jump from even higher, but it’s not really a natural movement, so it’s taking longer than some of the other stuff.”
It turned out that while vampires and the Cheld had super abilities, they were firmly grounded in reality. They could do ordinary human things extraordinarily well, but they couldn’t, for example, fly. There was only one exception to that rule: each of the Cheld possessed a unique ability, something that helped them compete with vampires. For Alessandra, it was the ability to detect danger, and her brother, Garrett, could now detect lies. On second thought, perhaps their abilities were simply an enhanced version of the intuition all humans possessed.
“That’s really freakin’ cool,” she said, helping Alessandra pack. “Before long, you’ll be saving small children from certain death—”
“Or at least rescuing kittens from trees,” Alessandra interjected. Finished, she stepped toward Toni and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry about putting on a happy face for me. If you need to talk—”
“I’ll let you know,” she said. They hadn’t discussed Lawrence much in the past week, mostly because Toni had insisted on avoiding the topic. Other than Kenton cursing him out on numerous occasions, none of them had really talked about him.
Mostly because there was nothing to say.
Alessandra nodded. “Let’s go to the shop so we can get moving.” She picked up the cooler—Toni didn’t object; they both knew Alessandra was now much stronger—and after Toni checked that everything was in order, they left the house.
“I still can’t believe I got you for the entire weekend, no work,” Alessandra said.
“Well, you might be seeing more of me. I finally quit Murphy’s this week.”
Alessandra stopped and turned back around. “You what?”
She’d known that would get a reaction. Her friend had been after her to quit her second job for a while now.
“I don’t really need the money. I mean, it’s nice, of course—”
“I’ve been telling you that forever.”
They walked toward Kenton’s flashy sports car and loaded it up.
“So what made you change your mind?”
Although it was a simple question, the answer was anything but.
