Chapter 9

In the past, Jaelyn and Ruby meet for the first time.

In the Hobble City Cemetery, a young girl, no more than eleven, stood before her parents’ graves. Behind her were her godparents, an older couple with matching sad expressions on their faces. But they were old; they’d seen many friends come and go. The sadness in their faces was accepting, hard.

The girl’s was raw and bitter. Tears flooded down her face from her puffy red eyes. It had been weeks since the car accident that had killed them, but it was the first time she’d been able to visit their grave; as injured as she was in the accident, she’d been in critical condition during the time of their funeral. Mr. and Mrs. Samson, friends of her parents, had asked her if she was sure she wanted to go to the cemetery today. Because she was only a girl, and hadn’t experienced loss before now.

To which she’d responded that yes, she had.

She laid a small bouquet on each grave and wiped the tears from her eyes, sniffling loudly. Mr. Samson handed her a tissue, which she blew her nose on and crumpled up to throw away later.

“What are you hungry for tonight, sweetie?” he asked kindly, a hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at him, then at his wife. “Not hungry,” she said, before looking down.

The couple looked at each other. The wife sighed. The husband started to lead the girl back to the gate. She had been terrified of getting into a car since the accident, but luckily they lived close enough to the cemetery that they hadn’t had to walk.

“Listen, Jaelyn, your parents loved you very much,” the woman said. “They’d want you to move on. You don’t have to forget them, but you’re still young. You can’t let this ruin your future.”

“I’m not going to,” she answered. “I’m letting myself be sad today, and maybe a little bit tomorrow. I was sad all the time before now. That’s enough time to be sad.”

They exchanged another glance. “That’s awfully smart for a girl your age,” the man said.

“Well, if I’m going to find James, I have to be strong. This won’t be the last sad thing that happens.”

“Sweetie, James is--” the woman began.

“Missing,” Jaelyn finished. “He’s missing. He’s still alive somewhere, I think. And even if he’s not, I want to find out what happened to him.” She glanced up at the woman. “All the rest of my family is dead, Phyllis. If my brother isn’t, I want him back.”

She went to class a little more than a week later, interrupting a history lecture from Mr. Hundy. He would usually be irritated and direct the tardy student to their seat with a frustrated wave, but today, he gave her a pitying look and nodded toward the empty seat.

Jaelyn found that a little bit irritating. She understood why he looked like that, but seeing that look in everyone’s eyes over the past couple of months had started to get really annoying.

The boy sitting in the seat next to her had black eyes with red irises. She’d never seen him before, and decided he must have moved here while she’d been absent. She must have been staring at him, because he turned to look at her, giving her a crooked smile.

It was so different from the look everyone else was giving her, the “poor girl, she lost her parents” look, that she almost missed part of the teacher’s lecture.

“Can anyone tell me, who was the leader of the vampire insurgency in the eighteen-hundreds?” Mr. Hundy was saying.

Jaelyn raised her hand. “Malachi Cornelius,” she said once the teacher had--reluctantly--called on her. “He’s still alive in New York today, and has the largest coven currently known.”

“Very good, Miss Aurelius,” Mr. Hundy said. “And can you tell me why the vampires decided to make themselves known?”

“It was a threat,” she answered. “They were tired of making mortals take the fall for them in the witch and demon hunts of the early nineteenth century. Cornelius wanted people to fear vampires, not the other way around.”

Mr. Hundy nodded, then turned to the demon boy. “Mr. Merren, can you tell me what happened next?”

Merren? So he was related to her friend, Opal, right? Unless “Merren” was a common name. Opal had never mentioned a brother, after all.

The boy turned his smile to the teacher. “Well, that was basically the cue for the other demon races to show ‘emselves,” he said in a thick Southern drawl. “Heartseekers like me, sanguivore that ain’t vampires, incubi an’ succubi, imps, lycans, guys like that. They followed the example and started livin’ among mortals, tryin’ t’prove we didn’t aim t’be destructive an’ the like. It were a rocky start, but we wouldn’t be livin’ the way we are if somethin’ didn’t turn around.

“Very good,” Mr. Hundy said. “Now, here’s a projected map of where most covens lived before the reveal, and here’s a map of where they lived afterward. According to this, most vampires lived underground before, and moved to more respectable homes afterward. Families of higher standing would live in nicer homes. Malachi Cornelius went so far as to begin construction on a small castle.”

Jaelyn diligently took notes throughout the remainder of the lecture, but once in a while she’d glance Merren’s way, wondering what his deal was, and she’d be met with his bright red irises looking back at her.

“Hey, is anyone sittin’ here?”

Jaelyn looked up from her book, blinking. With his head backlit by the sun, it was a little difficult to tell who it was, but for that distinctive Southern accent.

“Mr. Merren,” she greeted him in her best Hundy impression. She didn’t much feel like joking, but this was the only kid in school that--potentially--didn’t know about her parents, the only one who gave her a smile that wasn’t sad and awkward. It seemed a little odd that he’d come to sit her for lunch, but she didn’t mind. “I’m pretty sure you’re not blind. There’s no one at this table but me.”

There was that little crooked smile again. “Name’s Ruby,” he said, setting his tray down and starting to stuff fries into his mouth. “You gonna eat that, Miss Aurelius?”

“I’m Jaelyn,” she said, starting to slide her tray over. Then she paused. “Wait. I thought you were a Heartseeker.”

He grinned. “What, so that means I can’t find crappy school lunches delicious?”

“Nobody finds these lunches delicious, least of all people whose main diet is hearts.”

“You got me, Jae,” he chuckled. “It’s still sustenance. Like, snacks. I left my lunch at home. Beef heart, afore you ask,” he added, taking a bite of his floppy burger.

He chewed in silence for a moment, and Jaelyn actually thought he was savoring it before he opened his mouth to speak again.

“Y’don’t have t’fake it, you know,” he said. “Bein’ cheerful. Everyone in school knows what happened, darlin’. Just ‘cause I’m the new kid, don’t mean people don’t talk.”

She frowned at him, and looked down.

“Fine,” she sighed. “I don’t have to fake it. Go ahead and look at me like everyone else does, I guess.”

“Whoa, now, darlin’,” Ruby said, holding up a hand--the other was still full of burger’s distant cousin. “I ain’t gonna look at you any different. Besides, the thing you’ve been absent for isn’t the thing I came t’talk to you about.”

She looked up cautiously. He was still smiling the same way, at least. “It isn’t?”

“Nope,” he said with a grin. “Naw, I came over t’ask you what your long-term plans are in careers ‘n’ stuff.”

“Careers ‘’n’ stuff’,” she repeated, raising a brow.

“Hey, don’t give me no guff, that’s actually a term I got from you Yankees,” he snickered. “I’m just askin’.”

She frowned. “Well, you might not like my choice of ‘careers ‘n’ stuff’,” she said.

“Try me.”

“I’m going to join the task force. The anti-demon one.”

He blinked, and for a moment Jaelyn thought those eyes were going to harden, and she’d lose what she knew as the beginning of a fast friendship. But the smile-lines didn’t smooth out around them just yet.

“Why, darlin’, guessin’ I’d be offended by that would be like me guessin’ you’d get offended by my aspirations of joinin’ your police force--the anti-human one.”

“You are?” She raised a brow.

“Wh--no, that there was an example,” he huffed, ears going red. “I ain’t all about that. Besides, they don’t let demons on the police force.”

“Do they let humans on the demon police force?”

“Only the real strong ones,” Ruby  said with a smirk. “Truth be told, I thought you were gonna say that. ‘Swhy I came over in the first place.”

Finished with his burger now, he started on his green gelatin.

Jaelyn blinked. “Huh?”

“You look the part,” he explained. “I seen humans that joined the PITF, and they got the same look you do. Usually lost everything but one thing they’re willin’ t’sacrifice for. Usually ended up stronger ‘cause of it. ‘Course, y’ain’t gonna get into the force if you don’t got someone, preferably a demon like the ones y’wanna put away, t’help you along.”

“So that’s why,” she said. “You came over here because you need a partner.”

“‘S right,” he agreed. “Man, you’re brighter ‘n a golden spittoon.”

“Ew.”

He grinned.

“So, whaddaya say? Partners?” He put out a hand, then the lunch bell rang. She could swear the lunch period was getting shorter and shorter every day.

“We’re gonna have to hold on that,” she said. “I got Geometry now.”

“English for me,” Ruby said. “Wonder how long it’ll take ‘em to give up on me an’ kick me outta class.”

Jaelyn snorted, a little surprised she’d found that funny. “How about we meet after school, the yard by the bus stop, and I’ll give you a real answer then?”

“Works for me, darlin’,” he said, pocketing the fries from her tray. “See ya then.”