Page 93 of Cruel Destinies

She turned and looked at me with terror seeping from her eyes, only magnified by her glasses. She took my hand unsteadily, and I helped her to her feet.

“They tried to shoot me,” she mumbled distantly, staring at me while the event replayed through her mind.

I nodded. “They wanted to kill both of us.”

“Who were they, and why were they after us?” Tears streamed from her eyes, and I pulled her into my chest with one arm.

“Hey, it’s okay now,” I said, hardly believing I was providing comfort to her. It felt foreign to me but also instinctual. “But we need to get off the street and to safety. We’ll take the L and get away from the city for a while.”

She sniffed and looked across the street, not toward where the shooter had been, but where the Dracul boy had been last seen.

“W—what about our mission?” she asked. “What will Hadrian say when he finds out we failed?”

I shook my head, shocked that she could even be thinking about that after such a traumatic event.

“Unfortunately, we can’t camp out by the station anymore,” I said as I walked with Piper back toward the subway station,still holding her closely. “Hunters have been watching us. Coming back will be a deathtrap. We’ll have to inform Hadrian that we need a different plan.”

Piper nodded against my chest.

But the hunter attack had been the perfect distraction, giving us a good reason as to why we couldn’t catch Tobias Dracul. And while it had been dangerous, I was grateful it happened.

Chapter 30

Shea

It took a lot of begging to get Gram to let me come to Chicago Christmas Eve. She’d been suspicious of me ever since Caesar’s impromptu visit a few days ago, and even though she hadn’t caught on to what happened under her roof yet, she knew somethingdid. But when I showed her the gifts I had so prettily wrapped and ready to deliver, that finally broke her.

With full permission and a strict curfew, I carried my shoulder bag out the door, this time filled with presents. Okay, so there were only four, but I was feeling jolly enough to imagine it was my own personal Santa pack.

I hummed along to Christmas tunes as I made my way through the city to the shifter school entrance. I wasn’t going in, exactly. There was no way I was trying that again until Caesar gave me the go-ahead.

I took my stop at the end of the green line, letting the passengers dissipate before whispering my magic word and slipping onto the secret platform. The train was waiting, just as I’d hoped. I slid three of my gifts onto the seat—wrapped in cellophane so as not to get blown up on arrival out of suspicion—and made sure the name tags were visible beneath the bows and curls of ribbon.

For Arya, along with the mermaid hair clip, I’d included the rose I’d resurrected, an unspoken promise that I’d do everything in my power to figure out how to bring Arya’s mom back. If I could do it for Julian—which I was an evil, evil person for hoping I couldn’t—I’d do it for my best friend in a heartbeat.

For Caesar, I’d gotten something innocuous so as not to trigger anyone’s suspicion if he happened to open it in company, but something only he would understand the meaning of—a tie with a bunch of white kitty faces all over it. I was almost sad that I wouldn’t get to watch him open it, but just imagining his hearty chuckle when he pulled it out gave me a kick.

The final gift was for Ashlyn. It wasn’t easy coming up with something for the phoenix, but I knew she pretty much lived with her headphones on, so I got her a spotify gift card so she could choose whatever music she wanted.

I stepped off the train and headed back toward the exit. Looking around the platform for cameras, I waved and smiled. I hoped that if they didn’t recognize me, they’d at least understand my little break-in bore no ill intent.

I grabbed my phone out of my bag and sent Arya a quick text. If Arya got it in time, maybe she could be at the other end to intercept the presents. It would ruin the Christmas surprise a bit, but it was better than getting nothing at all.

Back on the public platform, the next outbound train was just arriving, and I boarded it along with a handful of other people. This one headed directly by Julian’s place if I rode it far enough, and it just happened to be my next destination.

It was probably stupid, getting the vampire anything, but I couldn’t help myself when I spotted the little vampire pet capes. Rainbow and his little lady friend would look adorable in them—assuming Julian could get the capes on the creatures. But that wasn’t my problem.

I might have also gotten him a book of sheet music. It was all current stuff—I figured he probably had all the classics—but the thought of him banging out Bad Romance on his piano put a smile on my face.

Of course, the radio silence Julian had put on our communication since our little motel rendezvous was driving me nuts. I wanted to contact him, but though I hadn’t actually agreed to his terms, his warning still rang fresh in my memory. So, I was letting Julian call the shots. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t make a tiny little pit-stop just to deliver his gift.

Concrete walls turned into tracks above the city as the L neared Julian’s apartment, and I pushed all my troubles out of my mind, determined to just enjoy the Christmas spirit that was finally kicking in.

When I came to my stop, I shuffled off the relative comfort of the L and into the cold wind. It whipped at my clothes, finding every chink in my armor against the winter chill. But I smiled as the seasonal weather completed the yuletide feeling.

I headed toward Julian’s building, casting wary glances at everyone I passed. I wasn’t stupid enough to go right to his apartment door, but I figured I could at least leave my gift somewhere for him to pick up.

And if no one could help me, the bag I’d packed his gifts in would hang nicely from the handle—so basically, I was saving my stupidity for plan B. But I’d be careful. As preparation, I’d signed the tag as S, and swept my scent away with magic so I couldn’t be traced.

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