CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Melissa was sitting in her usual spot on the waterfront waiting for Arnie. She was relieved when he finally arrived a half an hour later than scheduled.

"Are you okay?" She asked after giving him a kiss. "I was worried."

"I'm fine," Arnie replied, "now that I'm here with you."

"You're sweet."

"I'm honest. The Fosters are creepy, Missa. I don't trust them, and I don't like being in their house."

"What are they like?" She asked curiously.

"Mr. Foster's this perfect businessman who seems to be a 'good old dad' type. Mrs. Foster's had way too much plastic surgery, I think. She's pretty, sure, but she looks really young and she can't stop smiling."

"Maybe she's just a really happy person."

"No one is that happy."

"Do they have any kids?"

"They have three. They're all kind of freaky. The oldest girl is like a clone of her mother, the oldest boy just gives me weird vibes, and the youngest daughter doesn't speak. Ever. And at dinner, she pretty much went catatonic, and everyone basically ignored her."

"Okay, that's definitely weird."

"I can't figure out if she's autistic, being abused, or just a psychic who can't control her abilities. She seems the most real out of all of them, though."

"What do you mean?"

"There's something about the entire family that doesn't seem real. They're too perfect." He sighed. "Maybe I'm just looking for flaws because I expect them to be evil."

"You know what? Either way, you're with me right now, and they're not here. No worries, Arnie. Live in the moment."

"I love you," he replied.

"I love hearing you say that, and I love you, too."

He kissed her, a kiss so passionate it left them both breathless, and still they didn't stop. Everything had been so stressful and out of control lately, and suddenly, all Arnie wanted was to feel something other than pain. Melissa didn't mind being his chosen distraction. She'd turned to Arnie so many times when her life was falling apart, and now she could finally return the favor and comfort him.

Sometimes, being in the arms of someone you love is all that you need to make everything okay again, Melissa reminded herself.

"Feel better?" Melissa asked when they finally pulled away from each other.

"You're everything to me, Missa. Do you know that?" Arnie asked softly.

"I've known that for a while," Melissa replied. "Even if I have to share that spot with Aideen." She grinned.

"You're not jealous of Deenie, right? She's my best friend and she's like a sister to me, but we've never dated."

"Relax, Arnie. I know that. I've never been the jealous type anyway."

"Good, because you have nothing to be jealous of. Other girls stopped existing the day I met you."

"You're just buttering me up now," she said with a laugh.

"Is it working?" He asked with a smirk.

"Kind of." She kissed him again and they lost themselves in each other as they'd done so many times before.

~*~

Annabella Liggman refused to speak after the death of Augustina. Ambrosia remained detached, trying hard to focus on the Goddess's lessons instead of her grief.

Death is a new beginning, she reminded herself. All must die to be reborn. Hoof and horn, hoof and horn... Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she quickly brushed them aside.

Augustina had been discovered in the woods after Ambrosia and Annabella both suddenly had a terrible feeling that something was wrong. Luigi had been the one to locate her corpse, which was crudely posed against a tree wearing a witch's hat, a cloak, and nothing else, with a broom in her right hand.

Shooter, Tammy, Skip, and Susie studied the crime scene. Augustina's body had been drained of all blood. Not a single drop had been spilled at the scene. There was no DNA aside from Luigi's where he had checked her for a pulse. There wasn't even any energy for Shooter to analyze. This killer knew what he or she was doing.

"They're monsters," Ambrosia said. "Every single one of them."

"We can't be certain that this was a vampire," Tammy replied.

"Are you kidding? Look how she's been posed! And there's no blood. Clearly, this is their handiwork."

"There were no fang marks," Tammy pointed out gently. "Whoever drained her used a tube of some sort to extract the blood. They most likely knocked her unconscious before they exsanguinated her. You see the bump on her head, just under the hat? That most likely knocked her unconscious, ensuring that she couldn't struggle while they killed her. While it may have been the vampires, it's at least possible that someone just wants us to think that it was."

"Why on earth would anyone but a vampire kill my sister? Augustina didn't have any enemies."

"Maybe they have something to gain from the war getting worse," Susie suggested.

"This was clearly the work of vampires," Luigi insisted. "Please tell me that you're going to investigate this crime and find the creature that did this."

"Of course we are," Skip replied. "We're going to look at every possibility."

"I should hope so."

Annabella suddenly began screaming. Ambrosia quickly embraced her sister and tried to comfort her, but Annabella shrugged her off and ran from the scene. "We shouldn't have brought her here," Ambrosia said. "She can't handle this right now... Not so soon after she lost the children."

"She needed to be here," Luigi replied gently. "She'd have seen it anyway, in her nightmares. It's better that she has time to process it while she's awake."

"I should go after her. If you'll excuse me, everyone." Ambrosia ran after Annabella.

"Luigi, how did you find her?" Shooter asked.

"It was Annabella's twin telepathy, so to speak. She knew that Augustina was in the woods, and the three of us split up to try and find her quicker. I'm the one who happened to go down the right path," Luigi explained, shaking his head sadly. "This is a terrible tragedy. She was a good woman."

"We'll need your statement," Tammy said.

"Of course. Anything I can do to help... I want this to end."

"Then you might want to stop your friends from flinging spells at the vampires," Shooter said. "I mean, it's just a suggestion."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but if they did do such a thing, the vile creatures had it coming," Luigi replied.

Shooter was about to open his mouth again when Tammy shot him a Look telling him to back off. He let it go.

"I promise we'll find the person who did this," Skip said. "And when we do, he or she will be dealt with appropriately." He hoped that Luigi would take the hint that retaliation on the part of the witches would not be sanctioned by the Unit.

~*~

Aideen was getting sick and tired of dying. With things getting out of hand between the vampires and the witches, Cassandra had been forced to focus on slaying. Sure, Evan had officially stepped up to play bodyguard to Aideen, but he couldn't protect her around the clock. Even sexy hitmen needed sleep, and since he wasn't a student, she had insisted that he try to sleep while she was in school.

In under three hours, Aideen had been killed three times. She'd been grabbed and pulled into an empty classroom before she'd even made it to her homeroom. An overzealous daywalker hoping to make a name for himself had tried to drain her blood, but she'd easily overpowered him and staked him in the heart with a wooden ruler. Unfortunately, in the few seconds it had taken her to pull that off, his older brother had snuck up behind her and snapped her neck.

During second period, a witch had flung a spell at her that instantly stopped her heart. The mortal teacher had panicked and started CPR, thinking that Aideen had somehow had a heart attack, and she'd woken back up just before the school nurse, Cora Braxton, had even arrived.

To say that Aideen was annoyed to lose her head again while she was in the bathroom of the nurse's office was an understatement. She hadn't realized that the secretary was also a witch, and while Cora was out of the office, the secretary had broken into the bathroom and murdered her.

When she woke up, Aideen immediately slashed the secretary's throat. Her blood went everywhere as her body fell to the floor. Cora came back to find Aideen standing over the secretary's corpse.

"Really? All over my nice, clean floor?" Cora asked with a sigh.

Aideen hadn't realized that the school nurse wasn't a mortal. "She killed me first," Aideen replied, not sure where this conversation was going.

"I've already ensured that your teacher and classmates don't remember your unexpected cardiac arrest," Cora replied. "And what do I get for my trouble? Bloodstains on my brand new sweater."

Sure enough, some of the secretary's blood had splashed across the pink sweater that was draped over the chair behind Cora's desk.

"Um... I'm sorry," Aideen replied awkwardly.

Cora cast a smiting spell and turned the secretary's body to ash. She motioned toward a broom and said, "Well, go on! It's your mess. Sweep her up."

Too stunned by the nurse's jaded attitude to refuse, Aideen swept up the ashes and put them in the trash can.

"Are you a witch?" Aideen asked cautiously.

"How dare you?" Cora demanded in disgust. "I'm a warlock, Aideen."

Aideen was thoroughly confused. "If you're a warlock, why are you helping me?" She demanded.

"The members of the Erica Vitti Society are under strict orders not to get involved with the current war," Cora explained. "My secretary just murdered you in the name of the witches. It happened on my watch, in my office. Gabriel might perceive that as me assisting one side over the other."

"So you're saying that, while the witches and vampires are all trying to kill me, the only people I can trust are the warlocks? Yeah, I'm screwed..."

"I wouldn't go that far. We're not exactly fond of you, little miss warlock assassin... But we won't assist either side in this war, so the last thing I need is for either side to think that I sanctioned you attempted assassination or the murder of my witch secretary. So, walk away, Aideen... And the next time you feel the need to murder someone, keep it out of my office."

"I'll do my best," Aideen replied, grabbing her backpack and preparing to leave.

"Here," Cora said, handing Aideen a bottle of water and a bottle of aspirin. "Your head hurts. I can tell."

Aideen hesitated. "Are these poisoned?" She asked skeptically.

"I may be a warlock, but I'm still the school nurse. It's my job to take care of the students. You don't always go to class, but you are still enrolled here." She gave Aideen a hastily scrawled note. "Skip as many classes as you need to until your head feels better. Go get some rest."

"Thanks, Nurse Cora," Aideen replied, still confused, but fairly certain that the nurse was actually trying to help.

Aideen retreated to the auditorium, figuring that no homicidal students or faculty would think to look for her in there. It was empty, and she climbed up on the stage, relieved that she could see every potential point of entry and would notice any approaching threats.

"Today has been weird," she decided aloud. She felt like screaming, crying, laughing, and murdering everyone that crossed her path all at once. Knowing that she needed to get everything out before her head exploded, she decided to channel it into music.

"I have a dream, just one simple dream... I dream of a day where things go my way," she began to sing, opting for an overdramatic showtune-style melody because nothing else seemed appropriate for such a ridiculous morning.

"There are no spells or shots fired... No stabbing, slashing, or evisceration... A beautiful day where I'm not tired... A day without decapitation," she declared, spreading her arms wide in a musical plea to the Universe.

"How I long for just one day, twenty-four hours full of peace. Just a little break where I get to stay breathing, without my soul's release. They say I have a choice to make, but I just want to take a break from death's constant cold embrace. How much more of this must I take?" She demanded, really allowing herself to get into the song to help her find some hidden humor in her situation.

"There are no spells or shots fired... No stabbing, slashing, or evisceration... A beautiful day where I'm not tired... A day without decapitation... Whoa-oh-oh... A day without decapitation... Oh-oh-please... A day without de-cap-i-tation..." She finished grandly.

She was very startled by the sound of applause coming from behind her. Aideen spun around, ready to kill, before Dylan said, "That is definitely going on our set list!"

"How long were you standing there?" Aideen demanded.

"Pretty much the entire time," he replied with a laugh. "I hang out backstage sometimes when I'm feeling restless. You know, rhyming evisceration with decapitation was a stroke of genius," Dylan informed her. "By the way, I loved the whoa-oh-oh!"

Aideen whacked him hard in the chest. "Shut up, you jerk!" She said, but as Dylan continued to laugh, Aideen found herself joining in, and the last of her tension faded away.

If I don't laugh, I'll cry, she thought. And I'm not giving them the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

~*~

No one expected Arnie to attend school the next day, especially not Arnie, but he went anyway. He needed an excuse to escape from the Fosters for a while, and Miss Keller's class would be a welcome distraction.

Her warm smile almost made Arnie forget about everything else. "Arnie, I'm so glad that you're here today. I heard what happened. Are you alright?" She asked him gently.

He was touched by how much she cared. "I'm okay," he lied. "The smoke inhalation didn't cause much damage, and I wasn't really hurt."

"I'm relieved to hear that, but how are you doing emotionally? If you need to talk, I'm here for you."

"Thanks, Miss Keller. I appreciate that more than you know," he replied, not answering her question.

She looked deeply into his eyes and Arnie wondered what she was searching for. Apparently she found something that satisfied her, because she patted him on the back and said, "We'll talk after class, alright?"

"Sure," Arnie replied, taking his seat.

Dude, are you okay? Dylan asked.

I'm super, Arnie replied.

Did Melissa tell you the latest news?

We were a little bit busy making out... What news?

We've got a thirteenth member, man. That hitman who Deenie's been hanging out with is apparently one of us!

What the hell? Wow, the things I miss... No, Melissa didn't bring it up, but we didn't really talk about the Silver Society when I saw her. I was supposed to see Deenie last night, but she told me she was busy and would see me later.

Yeah, she was with Evan, trying to convince him not to run away. He's just like Jade! He'll come around, though. You can't fight destiny.

No, Arnie thought sadly. I guess you can't.

Dylan picked up Arnie's "back off" vibe and let the conversation go. Arnie tried to focus on the lesson. Miss Keller kept looking at him like she was worried that he was going to break. He'd never had a teacher care about him so much. It was strange, but comforting.

At the end of class, Miss Keller took him aside again. "I have a free period right now," she said. "Where are you supposed to be?"

"Nowhere that matters," Arnie replied.

"Do you need a note to miss it?"

"Do you want the truth?"

"Yes, of course I do."

"I usually modify my teachers' memories and make them think I went to class, but I've never done that to you. I like your class."

"I guess that's good to hear." She smiled. "I'd really like to talk to you."

Arnie sat next to her desk, glad to spend the extra time with a teacher he actually liked. "What do you want to talk about?" He asked.

"I'm not sure how to approach this. I feel very attached to you, Arnie, and I want to make sure that you're taken care of."

"You feel it too?" Arnie asked. "I'm so glad I'm not just going crazy. I don't know why, but I've been attached to you since the first day of class."

She smiled sadly at him. "I know why, Arnie. I've known since I saw you, and especially since I found out your name."

"What's going on?"

She sighed. "Did your parents ever tell you that there was anything... different about you?"

"Other than the fact that I'm an empath and a slayer? No." He felt comfortable outing himself to her. He knew he could trust Miss Keller.

"This is going to be hard to hear, but with what's happened, I think you need to know," she said softly.

"What is it?" He asked. "What do you know about me that I don't?"

"You were adopted, Arnie," she replied gently. "The wonderful people who raised you weren't your birth parents."

"That's impossible," Arnie replied. If anyone else had made such a claim, he might have hit them or screamed at them. His parents meant too much to him. There was no way they hadn't been his birth parents. He liked Miss Keller too much to freak out on her, but he had to set the record straight. She was obviously misinformed. She must have him mixed up with someone else.

"I know it's hard to accept," she said sadly.

"Miss Keller, you're wrong. They were my parents," Arnie replied firmly.

"They absolutely were your parents, and they loved you so much, but they didn't physically bring you into this world."

"Who told you this? They're lying," he insisted.

"No one told me, Arnie. I know because..." She hesitated, then looked deep into his eyes. "I know because I'm your birth mother."