Evanescent - By Addison Moore Page 0,102

waist, and we sway over the supersized ball of wax while Laken tries to make peace with the fact she mourned over a decoy for the last few years.

She lets out a ragged breath and takes in the bizarre sight one last time before slamming the lid shut.

“Let’s get out of here,” she says as we climb onto the lawn.

I jump up beside her, and she takes one last glance at the tombstone of the boy she once knew.

“It’s too bad he’s really gone in the truest sense.” She lets out a breath that buries us in a thicket of fog.

“I’m sorry, Laken.” I slip my arm around her waist as we head out of the cemetery on this cool, Halloween night. I wonder how sorry I really am that Wesley Parker has morphed into the power hungry Count who takes blood from prisoners as if they were his personal possessions.

Nope. I’m not too sorry.

I plant a kiss over the top of Laken’s head.

It’s time to check into the Cider Plains Motel and hold the girl I love all night long.

Laken says I make her feel safe, like family—I plan on making her feel those exact things for the rest of our lives.

A grey-haired gentleman with a goatee and a beer to keep him company tosses me a key in exchange for thirty dollars. Laken waits outside, in the off chance he recognizes her. She says Cider Plains is the size of a thimble and didn’t see the use in killing any more of its residents. At the rate the Counts are picking them off, the entire town might be renamed the Cider Plains Cemetery.

“You know”—she skips ahead, pulling me along by the hand—“I have an ex-boyfriend I’d like to torment sometime.”

I give a little laugh as I pause at the door to our room—number 15.

“You mean, other than the one you just tried digging up?” I insert the key and freeze.

Shit. Did I just call Wes her ex-boyfriend? Way to kill a night.

“Sorry, Laken.”

“No, it’s okay.” She presses her hand against my back. “I know what you meant.”

We step inside, and I latch all three of the metal chains behind us in an effort to bolt us in for the night. Laken turns on the lights revealing a dingy room, orange carpets, a pea green bedspread with a rotary phone tucked on the nightstand.

I was sort of hoping it was a lights out, straight to business kind of night, even if the sum total of business consisted of holding her next to me. Holding Laken all night long is more than enough—for now.

“We did it.” She beams a killer smile and crosses her wrists behind my neck. “I got into the tunnels, Coop. Now, we’re just a few small steps from finding our families.”

“You did great.” I pull back my cheek. “But I have a confession.”

“What’s that?” She licks her lips as if what I were about to say were sexual in nature, and I wish it were.

“I scored a supervising spirit.”

“You did?” She grips my shoulders and gives a congratulatory shake.

“Yeah, actually it’s a long, sordid story, but I managed to get into the woods myself tonight.”

“Coop!” She pulls me to the bed in her enthusiasm and hops into my lap like a habit. “Tell me everything.”

“Here’s the thing.” I exhale hard looking down at the threadbare carpet. “I can’t get into too many details, or I’ll have my frequent flier miles revoked, but it’s nothing that will hurt you—in fact, I made a special trip to the tunnels just to make sure nothing happened to you.”

Her mouth falls open. She cups the side of my face with her tender hand, and it takes everything in me not to pull her lips down over mine.

“God, Coop,” she whispers. “You didn’t sell your soul to help me, did you?”

I press out a dull laugh and turn my face into her palm with a kiss.

“No. I promise you, no soul selling took place. Now, tell me what happened when you went inside.”

“There was this girl”—she jabs a quick glance out the window—“she’s beautiful, her name was, Skylar?” She searches her memory as if it were just out of reach.

“Skyla,” I nod. “I met her when you left.”

“Coop.” She grips my hands. “She knew me.”

“How did she know you?”

“She said she found me in the Transfer. That she tried to save me, and it didn’t work.”

“She tried to save you?” I search Laken’s face as if it might have the answers.