Chapter 2

 

Darkness everywhere. She couldn’t find Mom. Where was she? Where was Mom? She could see nothing, only feel the darkness. Feel it seeping into her mind like a fog. She ran as fast as she could, but still saw nothing. Have to find Mom, have to warn her. It’s coming! Don’t you see? Turn around! Two eyes stared into her, as dead as ice.

Aleda woke up with a start, bathed in sweat. The nightmares again, the fourth time in a week. Ever since that night. Mara had worried that she looked tired, but Aleda shrugged it off. Her parents knew. They must. But they said nothing. Mom just pressed more hot chocolate on her, knowing how it always calmed her down. They must be worried. Worried that their only daughter, once so promising, would never be able to hunt. Aleda worried too.

What time was it? Five fifty-three. Might as well get up. At least it was Friday, last day until the weekend. Mom and Papá had continued hunting every night. Aleda stayed home and locked the doors.

The shower did nothing to wake her up. She went downstairs and had a bowl of the same cereal she always ate. Mom at the kitchen table, munching happily on a bagel. Must have hunted well last night, she was practically glowing. How was that possible? How could she love it so much?

“Good morning, honey!” Mom said. Aleda mumbled incoherently.

“I talked to Talia Kavanagh yesterday, do you remember her?”

Aleda shook her head and poked at her cereal. Sounded vaguely familiar, though she couldn’t place the name.

“You met her back in Spain, when you were little. She visited us a few times. Gabe Kavanagh’s girl.”

Ah, the blonde. She remembered her a little. She remembered her being a little crazy, but fun. “What about her?” she asked.

“Well, it turns out she’s living in Elkton, barely twenty minutes away. She’s going to come visit us tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Aleda said. This cereal was getting soggy. She poked at it again. After a few minutes she realized Mom had not said anything else. Aleda looked up; Mom was looking at her with a weird expression on her face.

“Was there something else?” Aleda asked, sighing. Even early-morning grogginess couldn’t keep her from recognizing that look.

“Nothing! I just thought you two would get along!”

Now it was Aleda’s turn to stare mutely at her mother.

“She’s a very nice girl.”

“Okay.”

“I think you two should spend some time together.”

Aleda groaned inwardly. “Okay.”

“It would be good for you, to spend some time with another hunter.”

And there it was. “I have to get to school.”

“Have a nice day, honey!”

There was nothing wrong with spending time with Talia. From what little Aleda remembered of her, she was a great girl. She would have been happy to see her regardless—after all, she was only twenty minutes away. So why did Mom have to go and force this on her like some school assignment? As if she couldn’t be trusted to live her own life. A simple visit would have been plenty, and then let the girls decide if they wanted to be friends. Of course, that’s what Mom wanted her to think this was. Just a simple social call with someone she’d known as a little girl.

Well, she’d deal with that later. For now she had to concentrate on keeping her lab partner from burning a hole in the table.

“Come on, Mara. I need a good grade on this.”

The other girl brushed a short strand of frizzy brown hair behind her ear and frowned. “You worry too much, chica,” she said. “It’s cool—I’ll have this old mess o’ pottage all stirred up and ready in, like, two seconds. Max.”

“Yes, but can you manage to do it in the beaker?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mara waved at her with the stirring rod still in her hand; Aleda had to duck the splattering acid. “Tell you what, chica. I’ll pay attention in chemistry the day you ask that hottie of yours out.”

“Wh-what? What hottie?”

“Nate Burns. Duh. Are you ever going to actually talk to him, or do you just enjoy staring at him like a lost little puppy?”

“Hey, you should be grateful I pay so much attention to you.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“How many times is it now that you’ve almost set the building on fire?”

“Only four!”

Aleda gave her a look. “…In the past week.”

She had the grace to look vaguely sheepish. “Well… can you blame me?” She shrugged, the wet stirring rod still in one hand.

Aleda eyed it warily and raised an eyebrow at her friend. “Don’t tell me you were trying.”

“Come on, you hate this school as much as I do. It would have been worth it!”

“Mara, seriously, you bring new meaning to the word ‘loca’”.

Mara grinned broadly. “Aw, thanks! You’re such a sweetie.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Mara considered the concoction in front of her for a moment. “All I’m saying,” Mara said, “is that you should do something about Nate before somebody else does. He’s way too hot to stay single for very long. Especially so close to Homecoming.”

Aleda groaned. Not this again. “Oh, yeah? Why, how long has been single?”

“I don’t know. Since June, I guess.”

“That’s four months.” She noticed what was going on in front of Mara and grabbed the tongs to get the vial of dubious chemicals out of the flame as quickly as possible.

“Exactly,” Mara said. She picked one of the other containers at random and added its contents to the vial before Aleda could pull it away. “That’s already a month longer than he’s usually single.”

Aleda gave her a funny look.  “Uh… huh. Well, I do something soon, okay? I promise.”

Mara shook a stirring rod at her threateningly. “You have until next Monday. Got it?”

“Yes! Monday!” Aleda ducked away from the splattering liquid.

To her everlasting relief, the bell for class rang shortly after, sparing her from any more of Mara’s barrage of chemicals… and questions.