“Avet was wrong. Vampires aren’t monsters. Of course, they attack on occasion. They’re starving to death! They’re not immortal. Not really. They need blood to survive just like we need food. If I give it consensually, then what’s the problem? Andranik doesn’t turn rabid, and I get to enjoy a little fun with him. Each time Andranik feeds, he lotions my feet and puts fuzzy socks on me so he isn’t tempted to drink more than he should. He only drinks from me. It’s so intimate.
“I had a plan. I remember the plan. I’m doing the plan. But every time he bites me, I want him that much more.”
I feel lightheaded, grateful I cleared enough space so I can sit down on the chilled floor.
What plan? What plan of hers could possibly involve letting a vampire suck on your toes?
It’s the perfect moment for Avet to come back, but I don’t have the words to tell him what’s wrong.
“Whoa! You have a gift, Keran. Some say neurosis, I say gift. I got the stuff you needed. Ten totes is enough, right?”
When I don’t reply, Avet tilts his head, taking in my stunned demeanor as I gape up at him from the floor. “Did you know about this?”
Avet frowns, taking in the sight of the book in my hand. “What?”
“Her diary, Avet! Did you read her diary?”
Avet grimaces. “I’m pretty sure Cher would gut me for committing a high crime like that. Is that it? I thought all that stuff was school-related. Above my pay grade.”
Laziness. That’s what that is. I bite my tongue to keep from lecturing Avet. He doesn’t hesitate to go off half-cocked into a battle, but ask him to do a little research and he whines like a baby.
I hand him the journal, open to the page that is still blowing my mind. “Cher wasn’t taken,” I tell Avet.
Avet drops the stack of totes and grips the book, his nose mere inches from his sister’s bubbly handwriting. He visibly pales while he reads, no doubt experiencing the same horror in which I am still mired.
Cher was supposed to graduate at the top of her class and become a world-renown surgeon. That was the plan set out by her grandparents and agreed upon by her. She wasn’t supposed to take up with a vampire, of all people, and disappear without a trace.
Yet unless the next few pages in her diary tell a tale of this all being a sick joke, Cher might be in a whole lot more trouble than either of us could have anticipated.
Hope and dread fight for first place in my chest. She might be alive, but it’s a slim margin of possibility.
We have to find Cher before it’s too late.
8
CHER BEAR
If there’s one thing I did not miss about trapping, it’s the bad motel rooms. I can practically feel the germs on me, yet I haven’t done more than set down my backpack.
Avet hasn’t spoken, not even to order a meal through the clown’s mouth at the drive-thru. He is stunned just as I am, but Avet isn’t ready to talk about it. I plow through my burger and salad, noting the anemic, pale lettuce that looks like it contains exactly zero nutritional value. My stomach protests the greasy meal, but I’ve got to eat something.
Avet ignores his food and stares at the same page he has been looking at since I handed him the diary. Finding out your sister might not have been murdered by a vampire is good news. Well, it should be, anyway. That is until you find out your sister has been seduced by a member of the undead and she fell for it without pause.
I know Avet doesn’t want to talk yet, but I can’t hold myself back anymore. “I don’t get it. Cher knows how evil those things are. How did he even get close enough to trick her into letting her guard down? How did he feed on her and keep up the seduction for weeks without killing her? Why seduce her? Why not just capture and keep? I’ve never met a vampire who cared about consent.”
I’m not sure Avet hears me. He doesn’t look up from the page, still taking in the shock. I can’t blame him for that; Cher has gone completely off the map—by force or by choice, I cannot tell.
“Is there any premise for this? Have you ever heard of a vampire keeping a human alive for more than a week? Have you ever heard of a vampire dating a human? Being alone with her without feeding to excess? I can’t wrap my mind around it.”
Again, Avet says nothing. Instead, he gets out his phone and stands, leaving the diary on the table, thank goodness. I’ve been wanting to read past the page that blew my mind, but taking the thing from Avet mid-breakdown hardly seemed appropriate, given his fragile state.
Avet mumbles something about making a phone call and exits the room, leaving me with half my burger and the diary. I suck in a deep breath and read over the next few pages, which state in graphic detail how very attached Cher became to Andranik. Their time together increased from twice-a-week meetups to him sneaking into her dorm room via the second-floor window, where he would sleep beside her every night.
One pattern I notice is that she mentions being tired all the time. One day, she even fell asleep in class. Her grades dropped further, but she didn’t seem panicked about it. Even when she had a meeting with her Chemistry professor (usually a cakewalk class for a witch), she didn’t seem more than slightly irritated that her grade in the class had slipped to a D.
I cannot fathom the aneurism that would occur if Cher received a D. One time, she scored second in the class on a test in middle school, and she nearly made herself crazy, staying up studying for days in a row, demanding the teacher give her a retake until she got a perfect score.
I remember that week because she made me quiz her over and over.