The Sharpest Kiss by Elizabeth Myles (the false prince .txt) 📕

the window, she pressed until the glass began to fissure, cracks radiating like spiderwebs across its surface…

Chapter Sixteen

“Why does Aaron seem telepathically connected to Celia, but Jason doesn’t?” Lucy asked Nathan. Aaron was awake again, and seemed to have recovered from his latest psychic attack. He was sitting at a table with Jason, Dara, and the others, drinking another bottle of water. His ears seemed to perk up when he heard Lucy’s question, even though he was sitting several yards away from her.

“I’d like to know the answer to that, too,” he said, smiling faintly at her and Nathan.

“I do not know the answer,” Nathan admitted. “As I mentioned before, the vampire’s bite affects different people in different ways. There is no way for us to anticipate everything that might happen to any given victim.”

Lucy looked at Nathan and then at Kiefer. It frustrated her to know that these two men, who were supposed to be experts on the subject, seemed to actually know precious little about vampires. Certainly not much more than she or her friends did, just from having read Professor Nosferus and running a bunch of Google searches over the past few days. But she knew it wasn’t their fault, and that it was no use complaining about their collective ignorance. These two guys still represented their group’s best hope for curing Jason and Aaron. She was just glad Aaron’s weird vision had passed, and left him seemingly unscathed for the time being.

“So, what did you see, Aaron?” Jessica had been sitting on her hands, politely waiting for him to recover, but now her impatience bled through, and she wriggled in her chair like a fidgety schoolchild. “Where’s Celia?”

“I’m not sure,” he answered. “It was like I was looking through a window. I saw a big cardboard picture of a vampire and a woman standing under a full moon. I know I’ve seen it somewhere before, but—”

Jessica and Dara both gasped, and Lucy rushed over to join them. “The bookstore!” they chorused.

“Bookstore?” Aaron said. “What bookstore?”

Jessica laid her hand against her chest. “My bookstore. It’s called Book of Love. We sell romance novels.”

“Oh, right.” Aaron tipped his water bottle toward her. “That’s where I’ve seen that picture before, on the postcard Lucy gave me for your release party.”

“Why would a vampire go there?” Jessica, bewildered, asked no one in particular.

“To read about that dude in the picture?” Aaron suggested. Amusement quirked up the corners of his mouth. “She’s probably lonely. It’s been nine long years alone in a coffin, after all, and he did look pretty shredded…”

“More likely, she was looking for you,” Nathan told him grimly.

Aaron’s smile faded as he looked up. “Me?”

“And/or Jason,” Kiefer said. “She was probably following your scents.”

“Scents?” Jessica inclined her head. “But neither of the guys has been to my store before.”

Nathan said, “I assume Lucy has.”

“Yeah, and I was there, too,” Dara said. “Why? Do you think we had the guys’ scents on us when we went there, and that’s what Celia’s picking up on?”

“It is possible. Celia may be confused right now, and unable to distinguish the difference.”

Jessica looked at Aaron. “What was she doing there? Celia, I mean. At my store. Could you see?”

Hesitancy contorted Aaron’s face, making his brow furrow and his gaze cut away. “She was, uh…She was breaking the window.”

“What?!”

“And knocking things over. Ripping up some of the books and breaking the furniture…”

Jessica shot to standing, her chair scraping the floor tiles. She whipped her head around to look at Nathan. “We have to go there! Now. She’s going to trash my store!”

Nathan held up his hands in a calming gesture. “Of course. Kiefer and I will go there straight away.”

“You and Kiefer? What about the rest of us? I thought we’d already decided we were all going to stick together? To fight Celia as a group?”

“That was before we’d heard what Theo had to say. We do not know who this Dorian is, or what he is capable of. This endeavor could prove even more dangerous than we’d initially anticipated.”

“Which means you could use all the help you can get, right?” Aaron said. “I think we should go with you.”

“I agree,” Jessica said, shooting Aaron a grateful look. “Especially since it’s my store, Nathan. My responsibility. I have to come.”

Nathan’s expression hardly changed. It was as if he’d already realized from the beginning that the others wouldn’t consent to stay behind. But he’d had to try. “Very well,” he said, “but you will stay behind Kiefer and myself. You will follow our instructions.”

“Jessica, does your store have an alarm system?” Kiefer wanted to know. When Jessica nodded, he asked, “Does it automatically call the police if it’s tripped?”

“No, the security company sends out its own people first to investigate, then they decide whether or not to call the police. You know, just in case it turns out to be a false alarm.”

“That’s good,” Kiefer said. “This will be easier if the cops aren’t involved. Alright, everybody, let’s grab our gear and get going.”

“What do we do with Theo?” Jason wondered, eyeing the thug still duct-taped to his chair with distaste.

“Tie him up, throw him in the trunk, and bring him with us,” Kiefer said, as though it should be obvious—and as though this was something he did every day. “We can decide what to do with him later.” He pulled a folding knife from his pocket, sliced through Theo’s restraints and started to haul the still-sleeping man onto his shoulder.

“Hang on a second.” Jason stepped over to him. “Can I try carrying him?”

Kiefer glanced at him with curiosity, but stepped aside. Jason snatched Theo by the back of his collar, hoisting him so that his feet dangled off the floor. He did this with one hand, and without straining, despite the fact that Theo was easily six feet tall and must’ve weighed two hundred pounds. “Okay, where do you want him?” Jason asked, a triumphant smile creasing his