Evanescent - By Addison Moore Page 0,57

settling in for the night.

“No such luck?” A disembodied voice grumbles from across the table.

“Shit!” I bounce back in my chair. “You’re going to kill me one day. You know that?” I scoot back in, pissed at the dark-haired demon slowly materializing before me.

Edinger sits with his signature haughty sneer, his deceptive smiling eyes.

“I would never kill you, Wesley. I’ll always be on your side, forever.”

Makes me wonder why.

“Okay then”—I slide the oversized coffee-table read in his direction—“tell me what you know. What Celestra helped Laken pry into my mind tonight. And if she is one herself, you’d damn well better fess up. I don’t like being left in the dark.”

If Laken has any Celestra in her, I wouldn’t need to venture into the wickedness that resides in the Tenebrous Woods. I could turn a blind eye like the rest of my kind and put my focus where it belongs—on Laken herself.

For a moment I imagine myself loving off her neck, how fucking erotic it would be filling my mouth with that salty explosion.

“Turn down the volume on the erotizing would you?” He grumbles while expertly dotting his finger just under a name. “This one. Here’s the mother of your culprit.”

I spin the book my way and pull it in.

“Michaella Duff.” It sounds foreign on my tongue. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard it before.

“Nee, Duff,” he growls. “Perhaps you’re more familiar with her married name?”

A cold chill rips through my body as Edinger takes me the long way around the proverbial block.

“What’s her married name?”

“Flanders.”

7

Sweet Little Lies

Laken

Late in the night, after the entire homecoming debacle is over, Coop drives us to his house in thick, sobering silence. A sturdy green sign reads, Welcome to Heaven as we drive the final few miles past the dimpled dogwoods with their fiery red leaves.

Cooper looks so damn handsome in his suit with his hair gelled back, his warm cologne pulling me in like fingers. I’m still wearing my red dress, my sky-high heels, but I tossed some clothes in my backpack for the morning which I don’t normally do. I could have changed, but something in me wanted to impress Coop with my formal wear, my geisha-like makeup that crosses the border between glam and transvestite. I’m craving Coop, calling out to him like a lost child in hopes for his stray attention.

We could have left earlier if it wasn’t for Jen. She was so distraught over the “duel for her affection” she couldn’t see straight, so I helped her down to her haunted suite. She conked out before her head hit the pillow and good thing because I was close to slapping her silly for letting the histrionics carry on a little too long. I don’t think I’d lose my mind like she did if two boys were fighting over me. I try to envision a scuffle between Wes and Coop. I get lost for a moment in the imagery of angry faces, tangled limbs, split lips while the room erupts in expletives. Something sensual enlivens in me at the thought of the two of them going at it on my behalf.

“So”—Coop nods in my direction as we make our way through the white picket fence—“everything go okay with Wes tonight? You looked like a beauty queen—still do.”

A warm rush filters through me as I blush head to toe. Coop knows how to make me feel like a princess.

“Thank you. And it went fine,” I say as we make our way up the porch. It feels great like this with Coop, coming home with him night after night. His bed feels more like my own than the one waiting for me at Austen House. “I saw you talking to Wes earlier. Anything you want to share?” I’m almost afraid to ask.

“He was feeling me out.” Coop opens the door and lets us in. “He was playing it cool but started asking about Grayson. He wants us to go on a ‘double date.’” Coop mouths the words with a silent laugh. He takes up my hand and electrocutes me with a jolt of excitement. Coop leads us through the dim lit house as if we were on some covert mission. So I guess it’ll be you and me, and him and Grayson, he teases. You think they’ll make out in front of us?

Ha, ha. Very funny. The thought of watching Grayson rub up against Coop all night makes me want to vomit.

Coop pulls me in and gives a remorseful smile. His cologne