Page 15 of Killer of the Bells
“I’m glad that’s over,” Baz said. “Whateverthatwas, I mean. Hey, Echo, you’ve also got blood on your neck. Vale is a great fuck, right? How did you survive? He’s never been willing to bite me, so?—”
“Okay, Baz, time for you to go.” Vale yanked Baz off the bench by the collar and force-marched him into the trees, leaving me, Apple, and Gareth to watch as Haruka’s entourage of soldiers slowly faded away.
“That was fun,” Apple said without an ounce of sarcasm.
Gareth snorted in response.
I accidentally glanced at him and immediately regretted it. My stomach churned with fear, and I ripped my gaze away tostare at the ground in an attempt to keep the cheesecake inside me.
“Not fun,” I choked out.
“I can see that,” Apple said, still cheerful, but not unsympathetic. “You don’t need a translator. You need something else entirely, don’t you? You’re a curious critter, Echo. I like you.”
I tried to throw Apple a look that said,I regret all my life choices leading up to this point in time. I would have succeeded if he hadn’t been standing so close to Gareth. You’d think it would get easier to look at Gareth as time went on, but it only got worse.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more terrifying than Gareth in my life, and that’s fucking saying something.
Whatwashe? If he was Vale’s boss, then he couldn’t be a normal human, right? And then there was Apple, who clearly had something going on. Haruka had said something about charm and luck, which would totally explain the rumors about Apple floating around town.
And then there was Eli glowing up a storm in the dead of night. And don’t even get me started on how everyone in the park had been focused entirely on Haruka and how he’d felt about the situation.
I’d stepped from a world of seeing the occasional tiny flying horse-bird and dodging pixie shit to something entirely above my pay grade.
“So, how do I communicate with you, Echo?” Apple asked, tapping his chin. “Or maybe I should ask how I can help you communicate with us?”
“You should ask,” I said.
Ask a lot.I thought, trying to will him to understand me.Say a lot. The more you say, the more I have to work with.
Apple examined me carefully as he mulled over my statement. He didn’t seem to find what he was looking for, but instead of getting irritated, like so many people often did, his eyes shined with excitement and he said, “You’re a challenge, Echo, and I love that about you. We’re going to be besties from now on.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Besties?”
“The best of besties,” he assured me. “Adam is going to love you.”
I didn’t have a bestie—or a friend, really—and had no idea what to do with one, but if being Apple’s bestie meant I didn’t have to talk to Gareth, I would take the deal and call it a bargain.
“Besties,” I said again in cautious agreement.
“He’s mine now, Gareth. Be nice,” Apple announced.
“If you want a new pet, he can live under the porch stairs for all I care, just find out what he knows so I can go back to bed,” Gareth said with an edge to his voice.
For someone who looked scarier than Satan himself, Gareth sounded a lot more like an exhausted parent than you’d expect.
“Not a pet,” I bravely stated, but still keeping my eyes averted.
“No, he’s not a pet,” Vale announced as he strode out of the forest without Baz. There were no bloodstains, so I assumed Baz survived whatever Vale did to him. “And he’s not yours, Apple. We don’t need new people coming around the house. I’m irritated enough as it is. Please don’t add to it.”
If Vale’s mean little speech earlier hadn’t done it, that definitely put the nail in the coffin of my quiet little hope that Vale the Vampire was going to suck me to death.
Yeah, you heard what I said. Either meaning would have suited me.
And no. I wasn’t currently actively seeking death, but a boy can lie down and let it happen, right?
“Can everyone please stop getting attached to Echo so we can get on with this?” Gareth snapped. I was startled into looking at him once more, and I broke out into a cold sweat.
Attached? The only person I saw getting attached was Apple. Vale obviously couldn’t give two shits about me.
