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might be venturing outdoors, but she still wanted to feel as though she was lounging in her pjs.

Five minutes later, Kira heard a beep outside and cursed Luke for of course being early. She peered out of her window while quickly buttoning her jeans and saw Emma kick Dave out of the front seat of her small convertible. He sheepishly jumped into the back with the boys, and Kira decided to hurry up before he tried to steel shotgun again.

"Hey!" Emma waved from the driver’s seat as Kira walked outside. Kira smiled back.

"So, what’s the mystery event today? Luke didn’t give me any information over the phone."

"Well, it was my idea," Emma began while fiddling with the radio and shushing the boys’ complaints when Taylor Swift came on.

"Shopping?" Kira guessed from the glimmer in the other girl’s eyes.

"Costume shopping!" Emma seemed positively giddy as she pulled away from the curb and eased onto the empty street. She stepped on the gas, and the car sped down the road. Kira liked feeling the wind in her hair and the roar of the other cars when they turned onto a busier street. It drowned out her thoughts, and part of her felt like a normal girl about to spend a crazy afternoon with her friends.

"Halloween is in two weeks, and we have nothing to wear! It’s a travesty!" Emma infused feigned sadness into her voice—well, at least Kira thought it was feigned. "We need to get costumes now before all of the good ones are taken. And I figured we could all plan some sort of theme together."

"Not this again." In the back seat, Miles scrunched up his face, making his glasses slant sideways.

"Oh please, it’ll be fun!" Excited, Emma released both hands from the wheel to make her point. Kira jumped forward and grabbed it before the car could swerve out of control. Emma flashed her a sheepish smile.

"I’m with Miles. I refuse to dress up as a Ken doll," Dave added, almost under his breath, but loud enough for Emma to notice.

"It was only an idea…" Emma let her sentence trail off. Kira laughed picturing the boys as Disco Ken with sequined blazers on.

"I’ve got it!" Luke chimed in from the back seat. Everyone but Emma, now making the effort to concentrate on driving, turned to look at him. "Power Rangers."

Kira groaned. "I refuse to wear a yellow jumpsuit. Never happening. No way."

"You could wear the pink one…" Luke trailed off, anticipating a slap. Instead, Kira turned around in her seat and simply rolled her eyes at him. He laughed it off but held her eyes for an extra second. She nodded subtly, trying to let him know this was exactly what she had needed and that she was finally feeling a little better. The bickering that constantly seemed to befall their little gang was making her forget all about the other thoughts churning in her head.

"I’m with Kira. No way. Even I can’t look sexy as a Power Ranger."

"I beg to differ," Dave chimed in from the back. Kira saw Emma flash him a smile through the rearview mirror.

"What about the Scooby gang?" Kira tried to contribute to the debate.

"There are only four of them," Miles said from the back.

"I know. Luke can be Scooby-doo!"

Everyone laughed, except for Luke who just claimed he was too tall to pretend to be a dog.

They pulled up in front of the mall, and Emma slid her car into a parking spot. As they jumped from their seats and headed toward the front doors, a peace treaty was figured out. Everyone would come up with a theme later, and after fifteen minutes of walking around, they would choose the best one—the end.

The mall was crowded, and Kira immediately tensed up. She couldn’t help but imagine how many of those people held deathly secrets or how many might try to kill her.

Children laughed as they played on the jungle gym set up where Santa’s workshop would be constructed in two short months. Their parents gazed on from the sideline. A group of preteen girls gossiped in the corner, and opposite them were a group of Goths Kira recognized from school. Everyone was harmless, she reassured herself. She had to believe it.

The sun seeped through the skylight and for once, Kira was truly grateful for the lack of artificial lights at this mall. She instantly felt warm all over and calmer.

Luke came up to put an arm around her shoulder. She realized the rest of the group had left them behind to walk toward the costume shop at the other end of the mall.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked, pushing her down the walk a little. Her feet fell in step with his, and she started to break from the trance.

"Yeah." She nodded. "What’d you tell them? No one commented on my slight mood."

"Nothing really, just that you were going through some family stuff right now. Emma really wanted to call you yesterday to check in, but I told her to leave it alone and that you didn’t want to talk about it."

"Thanks." Kira nestled into his arm a little further. "I still just don’t know what to do. I spoke with my mom and she told me the whole story, all about my parents. And she gave me this." Kira pulled the locket and ring out from underneath her sweater. She opened it and showed Luke the picture. He squeezed her shoulder, comforting her before she even realized she was holding her breath to keep the pain from seeping out.

"Come on," he said, picking up the pace. "No more sad thoughts. It’s time to let Emma dress you up like her very own life-sized Barbie doll." He smiled cheerfully as Kira whimpered and involuntarily walked into the Halloween shop.

The first things she noticed were the life-sized animated skeletons and ghouls that were speaking and had electric light-up eyes. Spider webs were knotted all over the ceiling and gruesome bloodied hands and heads lined the floor. A mechanical spider dropped from the ceiling, landing on top of her head, and Kira let out a loud yelp before realizing it was fake. A five-year-old little boy laughed at her from the other side of the store. Annoying little kid, she thought while looking for her friends who all seemed to have disappeared.

"Kira!" Emma waved her over to the back wall, which was lined with costumes and thankfully lacked the gore of the entrance. On the way to the female costumes, Kira spotted the boys huddled in a corner all holding different swords and speaking in hushed tones. She didn’t like the look of it.

"Which one?" Emma asked holding up a pirate costume and a princess costume. Each one was short with barely any fabric, and Kira knew it would leave little to the imagination.

"Um…" Kira said, not knowing how to answer. She wouldn't be caught dead wearing either one out in public.

"Okay, Okay." Luke came up behind them. "The boys have come to a decision—superheroes, super villains, or pirates. Girls, take your pick." Kira noticed he still had a saber looped through his belt hole, making him look more like a little boy than ever.

"Ooh!" Emma ran off without answering. She looked like she was in the middle of a eureka moment. Luke just glanced at Kira with a raised eyebrow and she shrugged. Dave and Miles sauntered over, looking out of breath.

"Swordfight," Dave exhaled.

"It was awesome! We need to be pirates," Miles added and Luke looked crushed that they dared do something so amazing without him. But Emma came rushing back at that exact moment and thrust something that looked vaguely like black pleather into Kira’s hand.

"Put it on!" she squealed and ran into the dressing room behind her. Kira rolled her eyes, afraid that she had already guessed what it was, and followed suit.

When she closed the curtain behind her, Kira unfolded the costume, looked in the mirror and sighed. A Catwoman outfit. Of course.

Kira didn’t want to be caught dead in the thing but knew she had to appease her friend. With a loud exhale, she stripped off her clothes and tried to squeeze into the skintight suit.

When she was ready, Kira took a quick peek into the mirror, and she had to admit, she looked good. She had never worn skintight leather before, but it definitely looked hot. Kira held the whip in her hand, put the mask on over her eyes, and smiled. She looked nothing like herself, but she kind of liked it. The faux cat scratches up the side of her leg definitely looked really sexy, and she tried to push aside the part of her head that started to wonder what Tristan would think. She couldn’t let herself go there.

"Kira, come out! I bet you look awesome," Emma called from the other side.

Kira peeked around the curtain and saw that a few feet to the side Emma was dressed in a Poison Ivy costume. The boys looked appreciative and were at the moment fighting over who got to be Batman if the theme stuck. Kira slid open the curtain, and the boys dropped their jaws, halting the fight mid-argument.

Kira smiled. It felt good.

"Wow," was all Miles said, scrambling to right his glasses, which had tilted during the argument. The other two boys remained silent, still slack jawed.

"Perfect!" Emma walked in front of her and beamed with joy. "These are the perfect costumes. We are going to look amazing at the party."

"Party?" Kira's heart immediately sank. It was one thing to dress like this in front of her friends but another thing entirely to dress like this in front of the whole school.

"Yes, the party. The Halloween party? I thought you knew about the school dance. I’ve only mentioned it a hundred times."

Oh, that party, Kira thought, but tried to recover by murmuring, "Right, right." She could never let Emma know she didn’t pay attention to half the things she said during lunch. The girl spoke at a rate of about one hundred miles per hour.

"You do like the costume, right?" Kira saw the hopeful look in Emma’s eyes, saw how excited the boys were, and sighed.

"Yeah, I love it."

"Excellent!" Emma practically skipped back into her dressing room.

Kira pushed the curtain aside, stepped back into her room, and would have screamed, except a hand closed over her mouth, and Tristan pushed her up against the mirror, holding her so tightly she couldn’t move. He closed the curtain with his other hand.

Kira's body began to heat immediately. She wasn’t sure if it was his proximity or her powers, but she couldn’t stop the flush that rose to her cheeks or the slight fear that crept into her eyes.

"Please, please calm down. I’m not here to hurt you. Please, don’t be afraid." She saw the pleading glint to his eyes and knew he would have already hurt her if he wanted to. She tried to swallow her fear and felt her body relax into his. Tristan freed her mouth and dropped his arms down to his sides.

"Hey," he said, smiling so that slight dimples formed on his cheeks. He shrugged. Kira started to smile in return, but stopped it, mentally shaking herself. She couldn’t just forgive him. She forced herself to walk around Tristan’s body and slide down the wall to sit on the floor. The image of him licking his lips clean of her blood rose to the forefront of her thoughts, and Kira remembered the desire and repulsion that ran across his features. She looked away from him, unsure of how to act, what to say, and mostly what to feel. There was anger of course, but there was also sadness. She had missed him. She had tried not to, but Kira couldn’t hide the bit of joy she felt at seeing him again.

"Please, say something." Tristan knelt down to sit next to her, keeping his voice barely above a whisper.

She looked at him, at his pale skin, shaggy black hair and somehow warm blue eyes. He was evil beneath it all. She had to remember that or else she would keep falling deeper under his spell. She didn’t understand, looking at him now, why she couldn’t have fallen for Luke instead. It would have been so much easier. But here she was, wishing he would sit a little closer and explain to her that none of it was true. "Why you?"

The two words escaped her lips before she even realized she had spoken. Hurt filled his eyes. And like a receding tide, the morning’s joy quickly seeped from her.

"I’m sorry," Tristan murmured and started stand, shaking